I finished my meal and changed into the dried clothes.
Sepia had been shy, but I had seen her changing countless times due to unavoidable circumstances, and besides, she wasn’t even a target of interest for me.
Mastema, on the other hand, was the type who wore something akin to underwear all the time. She didn’t care even if someone saw her changing.
As for the two slaves, well, having me see them is practically part of their job. But, of course, I’m not foolish enough to embrace a woman in a dungeon.
In the middle layers, we began encountering rooms with mechanisms like the underwater floor from earlier. But the general idea remained the same: we climbed through areas where monsters roamed.
The monsters here were stronger than in the lower levels, and lower-tier magic wasn’t enough to defeat them anymore. Even when five of us launched lower-tier spells, some of the tough monsters still withstood the attacks, so we switched to using mid-tier magic.
Mastema, bored of using magic by this point, had her Thorn Staff cast spells on her behalf.
It’s pretty much the same as the lower layers. Although mid-tier magic consumes more energy, everyone here has a considerable amount of magical power.
After progressing for a while, Noel and Arnella started looking pale. Compared to the rest of us, they had less magical power.
Eventually, they both stopped in their tracks.
“I apologize…”
“We’ve run out of magic power.”
Noel and Arnella apologized, but it wasn’t their fault. If anything, we were making better time than expected.
There were no prolonged battles; we were mostly just climbing steadily.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s take a short break.”
“Agreed. And we have some meat to eat,” Mastema chimed in, agreeing with my suggestion.
We were in the area where a group of boars roamed, and we had burned them with fire magic, leaving a strong scent of cooked meat. Mastema must have gotten hungry because of it.
She fixed Hellfire to her sword, cut up the boars, thoroughly drained the blood, and began roasting the meat. Meanwhile, I handed Noel and Arnella potions to recover their magic power and allowed them to rest.
Running out of magic power results in symptoms similar to anemia. Although neither of them had pushed themselves that far, even after recovering their magic, it would be hard for them to move right away.
Sepia drank some water from a canteen, looking refreshed. Her magic power was impressive.
Mastema, of course, didn’t need asking. Unless she used her demonic abilities, her magic reserves barely depleted.
When I glanced over at Mastema, she looked pleased with herself. Her entire species was basically overpowered.
“How much magic do you have left, Sepia?” I asked.
“Hmm? At this rate, barely any of it is used. I recover it while walking.”
She was overpowered too. Noel and Arnella seemed a bit shocked, but I reassured them. After all, I didn’t buy them expecting such abilities.
While Mastema was chomping down on the boar meat, I looked out from the tower.
We had already climbed so high that we were far above the ground. It was now closer to the clouds than to the earth.
The smell of roasted meat was intense, and my stomach growled.
I took a piece of the meat that Mastema had cooked.
“You can go ahead and eat,” she said.
“I’d like a bite too,” Sepia added.
I split the meat in half and handed a portion to Sepia. She took a bite and seemed to like it, biting off more. She had eaten fish earlier, but I suppose she’s still growing.
I tried a bite myself—it was well-cooked.
I thought about saving some leftovers, but Mastema ate everything. She could endlessly eat and convert it into magic power.
While using food to restore magic isn’t efficient, Arnella didn’t stop her this time.
After resting, we resumed our journey. To avoid repeating the same actions, I let Sepia handle the next wave of monsters.
Sepia cast area-of-effect magic and quickly wiped them out. She adjusted the magic’s attributes to match the enemies, so the monsters appearing in the middle layers of the Sky Tower were no match for her.
Kasugal, though… that guy brute-forced everything with fire magic, even against monsters with fire resistance. Thinking about it, Sepia is incredibly capable.
However, if Sepia ever faced Kasugal, she wouldn’t even leave behind ashes. He’s practically the embodiment of fire.
Mastema, probably just wanting to stretch her legs, swapped in for Sepia and incinerated the monsters with black flames. She then inhaled the remaining black fire into her mouth.
She was just recovering her magic.
After progressing further, we arrived at an area without external walls.
The height made the wind speed terrifying. If we didn’t take precautions, even I would be blown away.
The women, wearing skirts, might as well not be wearing any at this point.
“Whoa!” Mastema seemed to enjoy the strong winds and spread her wings, flying into the sky.
We could see the staircase from here, but there were neither walls nor floors.
It was just one of those tricky areas.
I remember we had to turn back here last time. Kasugal tried to use fire magic, and I had to frantically stop him. Using fire magic in these winds could lead to total destruction.
Even Renatishia had turned pale from the height.
Noel, a bit scared, clung to my arm. Arnella, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.
Sepia, using wind magic, cut through the wind and created solid air platforms for us to walk on.
The two slaves copied her technique. They were surprisingly adept.
I could block the wind too, but creating platforms was beyond me. The ones they made were too flimsy to support my full weight.
The sense needed for battle and the sense needed for using magic were different. While I was confident in combat, magic was another story.
In the end, I used the platforms Noel had made to cross over to the stairs. By the time I arrived, Mastema was already waiting at the top, having enjoyed her time in the sky.
“You’re slow,” she teased.
Unlike you, I can’t fly… If I tried flying with magic, I’d just get blown away from the Sky Tower and wouldn’t be able to come back.
