The Dao of Magic

42 - Leisure

I keep Lola clutched to my chest while I walk over to the tree. She is struggling but I am not letting go until I know why she is here. I put my free hand to the Tree's trunk and push a trickle of qi through. I feel the forms of my disciples sitting around. They are in another small room with two doors and a hallway on opposite sides. This must be level twenty.

I jump through the dimensional portal and see six dark figures lying on the ground. Shit, are they breathing? Yes, they are just totally exhausted. I drop the struggling Lola and force some qi inside their unconscious forms and check their conditions. They are totally devoid of any energy. I pick up my Tree medallion from the floor and smile wryly while pulling the entire dining set from my ring again.

My silent humming, while I'm setting the table, wakes them one by one. I pull out a big pot of stew and ladle some into the bowls. Lola gets another pile of leafy greens. I put some Heavenly Grain bread on the table and pour myself a nice glass of spirit wine after sitting down.

My sorry group of students seat themselves one by one. They eye my smile with suspicious faces. I can't help but be happy right now, deal with it. Bord has emptied his bowl before everyone is seated and is now scarfing the bread down.

"Floor twenty?"

Tess replies weakly while picking up her spoon. "Thirty."

"Wow, that's impressive."

I did not expect them to have such tenacity.

"Any big problems?"

Ket replies with his mouth full. "I predict we will be able to reach level forty with our current strength."

I nod my thanks. "Enemy types?"

It seems to be Angeta's turn to speak. "More animals. Mirror maze at level nineteen. Level twenty five was just clouds. They get faster or stronger or bigger each level down, but not both."

They all nod with tired faces, agreeing with the beast woman. We eat and drink with only slurping and chewing sounds sounding out for twenty minutes. The entire pot of stew is empty at that point and Bord is scanning the table for any leftover crumbs. Their bodies are fully restored now. I sense a lot fewer changes in their physiques, so one more cycle will take care of their biggest problems. I see that they have all developed some muscle and Bord is still as fat as ever.

"Alright, have fun on the next decad!"

I skedaddle back to my Tree dimension after taking care of the dishes. I am in the mood to use my augur for something constructive, let's go craft shit.

⁂

Massive green mandibles snap close around Bord's arm. Before he can shout out in pain, a metal ball punches through one of the eight eyes that stare at the fatty. The torrent of brain ichor now gushing from the back of the massive spiders head shoots towards a blue haired girl. Before it can reach her, a lightning fast handwave scatters the goop like dust while a small stream of water joins the tiny lake floating above Selis.

"BORD, NEW GUYS"

Ket's voice booms through the marble hallway. A stream of colourful spiders is gushing out of a small hallway and on command, a large figure barrels into them, each step crushing a spiders' head.

"ANGY, BIG RED ONE"

A roar drowns out the chaotic noise, followed by the groaning of wood and crunching sounds. A water torrent picks up another spider behemoth and slams it into the wall while Vox is shooting white light beams at the party's meat shield. Something that could very well be called an ent, a walking tree, rampages across the room.