Author Artemis
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Chapter 084 - Windy Plains
🕑 Added 2025-06-30 18:00:07 +0000 UTCThe wind grew stronger and fiercer the further down the stairs James proceeded, until at the bottom it was a worse wind storm than James had
The wind grew stronger and fiercer the further down the stairs James proceeded, until at the bottom it was a worse wind storm than James had ever experienced in his life.
If it weren’t for his heavy armor weighing him down, he felt as though it would have blown him right over.
He walked a few more yards through the tunnel until he reached the exit. He gazed out at the new floor of the dungeon as the wind whipped around, pushing him back and forth, forcing him to crouch to better keep on his feet. He put his round shield into his magic bag as he found it hard to keep his grasp on it.
The floor was big. Very big. He could see hundreds of yards distant, all the way to the far distance, he knew not how far away, where dark clouds and darkness beneath them obscured the horizon. A rainstorm. Between the storm and James was a broad, open grassy plain with rolling terrain of shallow hills and valleys, and here and there were outcroppings of rock scoured clean of any soil by the intense wind. Here and there in the grassy areas were small bushes, and only in the lee of the rocky outcroppings could small trees be seen.
Unlike the previous floor, there was no cliff or cavern wall marking the outer extent of the floor. The grassy plain simply continued until it didn’t, and beyond was… nothing.
Right away James committed to never going near the edge to see what was there; not with this wind.
The nearest outcropping of rock and small copse of trees was about fifty yards away, ahead and somewhat to the right. Seeing nothing more interesting, James stepped out of the tunnel and promptly lost his footing and was blown over. With a loud clatter of his armor, he fell forward and even rolled over, winding up on his back, gazing at the murky grey sky above.
He was thankful there were no monsters up there, at least that he could see. With a groan, he rolled over onto his hands and knees, and took a closer look at the ground. There was a thick mat of grass, coming up about a foot high, and then some rather fertile looking soil. James’ father would have been able to tell him more about the soil, being a Farmer, but James had never found Farming very interesting.
Still, it looked better than the hard packed dirt of the first floor, and the pebbles sand and clay of the second.
The problem was, again, his boots. The sole he had designed for the pebbly beach of the second floor slid on the matted grass as he stepped, and couldn’t get a grip.
Being only a yard away from the tunnel, James crawled back in out of the worst of the wind before he stood up, walked the rest of the way to the steps, and swapped out his Water Boots for his Green Iron Boots, the ones with the spikes for driving into the hard packed dirt of the first floor.
[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 12/12, Enchantment: Water Resistance (14)
He appraised the boots out of habit. They were still in fine condition from the last time he had repaired them, but the enchantment gave him pause, and he reflected on it.
On the previous floor, [Water Resistance] had been the obvious choice. Not just for the water spear that nearly killed him, but even for that essence filled pool that nearly drowned him and the snowy passage and hot springs area. [Water Resistance] had enabled him to keep pushing forward.
This floor, obviously, was windy. Which brought to mind the two enchantments James knew of the Air element.
Basic Air Enchantment: Rapid Blow
Basic Air Enchantment: Wind Resistance
Until now, he had thought that an entire enchantment for [Wind Resistance] was rather useless. [Rapid Blow], after all, only increased the speed of a strike. There was no increased damage from the Air element, like with [Frostbite] or even [Heavy Blow], to be mitigated. Maybe there were attacks that used the Air element, but given his lack of education, James knew them not. And yet, here, on this floor of the Dungeon, James began to appreciate that [Wind Resistance] might not be as useless as he had assumed.
Buoyed by the thought of testing out the enchantment, for he already had plenty of Green Magic Crystals and, although not a surplus of Green Iron, surely he could mine some out somewhere on this floor, he stepped out once again, more cautiously, but with the cleats of his boots giving him a better grip on the ground, and he managed to move without being blown over.
And so the Smith proceeded up and down the rolling terrain towards the rocky outcropping. At the bottom of one such hill, where the wind was weaker, James spotted a small patch of stone, and on that stone, a small vein of Green Iron ore. It was only as much as he’d found in the old iron mine that he’d been put to work in as a slave, but it was a good sign.
[Ore Identification]: Green Iron Ore, Sylph Essence
James blinked. The ore already had sylph essence? That would mean… He gazed at the air all around him. Was the air here full of sylph essence?
He couldn’t see it, for one of the characteristics of air is invisibility, but it gave him an idea.
Carefully, he withdrew his round Green Iron [Reflect] shield, pointed it into the wind, and activated the enchantment.
And he was promptly blown over, the force of the wind suddenly doubling, sending him tumbling along the shallow valley away from the patch of stone.
Fortunately, the soil and grass comprising the ground made for a soft landing.
Once he came to a stop, James quickly deactivated the enchantment, and returned the shield to the magic bag. He had learned two things from his ill thought out experiment: first, that the wind on this floor did indeed seem to contain sylph essence, which is what his shield had been reflecting, like it had with the water on the floor above. Second, and more importantly, his [Reflect] enchantment would be less useful on this floor, if every time he activated it he would be blown over.
As James once again took to his feet, he decided that his first order of business would be to find some essence saturated Green Iron Ore and enchant himself a set of armor with [Wind Resistance].
He plodded onward towards the stony outcropping, now about twenty yards distant, when he passed by some of the low bushes that dotted the landscape.
And a surprisingly thick branch came whipping out to catch him on his leg.
