Joen smiled slightly, it was nice to think that there would always be people who would want to curl up in a window sill or next to a fire with a cup of hot tea or cocoa and read a good book. That thought alone was enough to warm his heart and rekindle his writers spirit but he couldn't help but feel as if he were betraying the books he loved so much with every minute that he spent in the world of Terrasphere. Joen tilted his head back and looked up at the floating orb of fire that he had created, that right there was why he continued to come to this world, he created that fire out of nothing something he would never be able to do in the real world. Joen grew quite as he thought about his time in the world of Terrasphere Online, in just his short amount of time there he had already experienced so much. He felt the thrill of an adventure, the adrenaline rushing through his veins as battled a monster, the wonder of magic, all of this was his for the taking in this world and he didn't plan on letting go of it. Turning his head he listened to his Felis companion and he had to admit that for a book to be good that the main character had to suffer a bit but he felt there was more it a book that just that one character. Joen nodded his head when his companion commented on the cave having to come to an end soon "Indeed, this thing has already gone on a lot longer than I had expected it to already" he chuckled slightly as he ran forward only for his eyes to widen as she almost fell off the side of a cliff that neither one of them had seen. Walking up to the edge he peered over and seen that looked to be a body of water down below, a sigh escaped his lips just thinking about what could possibly be living in its depths. Turning his head Joen looked at both sides of the cliff and didn't see any way down before an idea came to his mind. "Lethodar korilath igira!", the words of the magical incantation flew from his mouth without hesitation, he had to admit to himself that he was getting the hang of this whole verbal magic thing. Joen watched as the effects of his spell came into being, a small staircase crafted entirely from ice formed along the slope of the cliff, each step having small, dulled spike that would allow the shoes to grip onto them and prevent them from falling. As an added precaution a handrail rose up creating a perfect way for them to get down to the level below "Ladies first" Joen chuckled and motioned for his companion to take the lead.
Celly stared down the frozen stairs that Joen had conjured in front of her. They glistened in the light of his spell of the complete opposite elemental spectrum, and she had to admit it had a sense of beauty to it. Then again, the idea of walking down a staircase made entirely of a slippery substance sounded like a REALLY bad idea. Just as this thought had crossed her mind, Joen revealed that he had two solutions to the problem: spikes to hold the feet in place, and a rail for the hands. Neat. That’d work out just fine. Celestine threw Joen a weird sideways glance as he made his courteous gesture. Did he just call her a lady? Well that wasn’t something she was accustomed to at all. More like ‘weirdo’ or ‘annoying girl’ were the usuals. She shrugged. “Hah, if you are saying so,” she responded, making a point of driving that little chuckle to be as unladylike as possible. Turning back to the stairs, she took the first step. It was cold, and she could feel it, even through the thick boots she was wearing. She tried to slide the foot around on the surface, just to get a good feel for how easy it actually was to slip. Luckily, the answer was “not very,” so she commited the second foot to the staircase and grabbed the handrail. “Cold.” Her hand recoiled, and she quickly grabbed it again. “Cold.” And again. “Cold!” This repeated several times for each step, as she slowly made her way down the ice steps with caution. Finally hopping off to the cave floor below, she looked around for a moment, before slapping her head. “Ack! I just did a realize that I could have just done myself a spell of the airs,” she scolded herself, snapping her fingers in frustration. Whatever, at least this way she’d save herself some energy, so no harm done, really. Celestine took a look around her, focusing mostly on the water. There were definitely a whole lot of ripples coming from a pond that one might otherwise think should be still. It wasn’t the sort of thing to worry about - she figured - seeing as fishes generally like to remain in the water. As long as they didn’t go swimming, there shouldn’t be any sort of problem. In theory. “I am not seeing any of the things,” she called back to Joen, her not-so-stealthy voice echoing through the whole cavern. Although, now that she was down here, she did notice a large pile of rotten wood planks that were scattered around below the makeshift stairs Joen had summoned. Perhaps a bridge that had once been there before natural entropy - or something a bit faster - had collapsed it. “Maybe we should just do a leave! Unless you are wanting to be doing a swim for the buried treasures?”
Joen turned and followed after his companion and chuckled, here she was thinking that he was being chivalrous and in reality he just didn't want to look like a complete fool be stepping onto his own stairs and falling flat on his butt. To avoid this outcome he had simply pretended to be courteous and ask the Felis to go first, not to bad of a plan if he did say so himself. The air within the cave became noticeably more crisp with the creation of the staircase, Joen could now see each of his breathes in the chilled air causing him to grin slightly. As he traveled down the staircase Joen brought up his in game menu before swiping over to his Mastery Points and dumped two hundred of them into his Illusion Magic Mastery. Closing his eyes it was almost as if a flood of understanding assaulted him as he now had a greater understanding of illusion magic, what had once seemed impossible was now within his grasps. With his new understanding of the commands behind Illusion Magic Joen opened his eyes as the pair of adventurers came to the bottom of the staircase and looked around at the cavern they now stood in. Now that he was closer to it the body of water looked much bigger to Joen than it had from up above, standing there he watched the numerous ripples suspiciously. So far every twist and turn inside this cave had only led them from one danger to another which had led to him never taking anything at face value in here anymore, his mind racing with ideas as to what could have been making those ripples. Standing there staring at the surface of the water Joen turned his head slightly to look at his companion as she spoke and nodded his head slightly. Joen noticed slightly the the illumination from his spell wasn't reaching as for as it had originally, tilting his head back he looked up at the ball of flames that hovered above them and could instantly tell that it was starting to get smaller "So the spell is starting to wear off huh". He jerked his head back to the water when the sound of something splashing into its depths caught his attention causing him to narrow his eyes slightly. "Khetsaram tasarak akular vimi lethodar!", the magical invocation for one of his Illusion Magic spells flew from his lips with no hesitation, his vision changed from normal to him being able to see creatures based off the internal body heat that they put off also known as Thermal Vision. The giant flame up above almost made the spell useless however not entirely, in the distance of the cavern Joen could see it, the thermal outline of a massive humanoid looking creature, a cave troll. Turning his head Joen whispered softly to his companion "Get ready, there is a cave troll in here" lifting his arm he pointed in the direction of the creature "It's over there"
Celestine’s eye kept wandering back up to the bright little sun near the cave ceiling. She’d thought it was just her imagination at first, but no: that spell was definitely diminishing, little by little. With each passing moment, she could swear the shadows were creeping in on her. To a certain extent, they actually were… ‘technically.’ Celly reached her hand up to poke Joen and bring it to his attention, but let her hand fall back down once she realized Joen knew himself. He threw out his incantation. … So why wasn’t the sun getting any bigger? ‘Renewing,’ rather? “Um… Joen?” Celestine was less concerned with the hulking shadow that was slowly splashing its way closer to the bank they were standing on, and far more focused on the sun’s diminishing. Frantically, she started pointing back up at it with both hands. “Are you not going to be doing a fix of your sun thingy? It is quickly doing itself a death!” The massive silhouette slowly but surely began to define itself more and more as it splashed closer to the dying light that Cel was so concerned with. As she finally began to make out just how MASSIVE it was, her focus turned from the light to the hulking beast. Okay, so maybe the troll was a little more of a concern then the light. At the very least, it was a concern she could deal with best right now - in this moment - before it left the water. Rushing up to the side of the underground lake, Celly gave one last command point behind her at the sun, before returning her attention to the water. Bringing up the menu, she selected a new Aero spell and selected the auto incantation, muttering it out really quick. As the soft whispered echoed throughout the cave walls, her hands began to spark with an electric charge. With one last look at the beast that had nearly wandered into the light, she plunged her hand into the water, releasing the charge, causing the whole lake to ignite with faint white sparks. She looked back up at the giant shadow, which was now shaking violently. Haha! But to her dismay, once the spell had ended, instead of a stun or paralyze, the shadow released a booming roar that shook the whole cave. The surprise of that unexpected battle cry had Cel drop backward and shimmy away from the water a bit, and she felt a bit of dust from the cave ceiling powder the top of her head. “Erm… now would be the good time to do something,” she shouted behind her! The shadowy beast was no longer just leisurely wandering up, but now charging through the water directly at them. "I am thinking I barely did it a phasing!"
As Joen stood there watching the hulking creature make its way towards the two of them, he could hear the rising panic in his companions voice at the slow death of their illumination source. Turning his head slightly he looked at her before returning his attention back to the more pressing matter at hand, the massive creature that had decided to make them its next meal. Joen narrowed his eyes as he stood there and looked at the creature, his eyes scanning his body looking for anything that might even remotely resemble a weakness but all he could see was a thick structure covered in large condensed muscles. Turning his attention away from the creature and onto the area around him he looked for anything to attack the troll with. As he was searching the hair on the back of his neck slowly began to stand on end as the air became charged with an electrical energy, turning his head he looked at his companion as she began to cast an electricity based spell. Joen turned and watched as the electricity collided with the troll but seemed to have little to no effect on the creature causing him to grind his teeth slightly, if lightning had no effect upon it then perhaps fire? "Ne norn ith pilif igira!" the words of the magical invocation needed for the most powerful Pyromancy spell that Joen had mastered sprang from his lips, the effect was a large pillar of flames crashing down and engulfing the troll. The cavern was filled with the sound of its pained screams and the smell of burning hair hung heavy upon the air but when the flames died down the troll still remained upon its feet "Oh come on!!" were the only words that Joen could muster at the situation at hand.
