Arlie completed her spell, and with a burst of speed, she charged at Thron. Her blade flashed, and he barely managed to block in time. She twirled away, her blade striking again as she moved. Thron brought his blade forward after blocking the second strike and attempted a counterattack. His slash flew through empty air, and Arlie’s blade came to rest against his throat. He dropped his blade recognizing this match as her win.

Arlie moved away, and slumped to the ground panting. They had been practicing all day long, and she was getting tired. The current score was twenty-three to seventeen in favor of her. They had been sparing as it was the best way to master a new enhancement spell like this. At first, Thron had just trashed her every time, because he was stronger with a greater reach, but now that she was getting the hang of her new spell, Arlie was starting to get an edge in speed. Her technique was also a little better, and she had eeked out a few more wins during the last couple hours.

Horon who had been watching that last bout, said, “I think you are getting the hang of that speed spell of yours.”

Arlie waited a moment to respond as she caught her breath, “Yeah, I have figured the spell out, and am getting more used to the enhanced speed.”

Then she looked over to the twins, who were sparing with her familiar. They had left behind their bows and were practicing with short blades. Her familiar was using her vines to keep the two on their toes, but they seemed to be holding their own fairly well at the moment. They had asked her to fight the Arla as it was technically a monster, and fighting her would force them to adapt to fighting such opponents. Her familiar couldn’t move quickly, but its multiple vines, and ability to use nature magic made it a tough foe to combat. Arlie didn’t want to risk giving the boys a show, so she had set some limits for the battle. So far things had gone well for the twins. They were doing far better than they were this morning, but every once in awhile her familiar would find a way to trip them up. She was also realizing that she really needed to think up a name for her new companion.

As if to understate her thoughts, a burst of nature magic caused a vine to sprout from the ground right in Lily’s path. Lily’s foot got caught, and she stumbled. Before she could recover twelve vines wrapped themselves around her lithe frame, and restrained her. The Arla giggled and said something about always watching your footing. Arlie would have stayed longer to watch, but she had something to take care of.

She pushed herself off the ground, thanked Thron for his help, and headed for one of the doors in the saferoom. In her mind, she thanked the gods for their consideration when designing this dungeon. They had placed bathrooms in the saferooms and were considerate enough to separate them for privacy.

She entered the bathroom and locked the door. Heading straight for the toilet, she started thinking about tomorrow. They had spent the entire day practicing, but she knew they couldn’t stay here long. The safe rooms here provided them food, and water but those were limited. They were going to have to leave tomorrow, but she felt she had enough practice with her new magic technique for it to be useable. She now had a much better idea of how that particular magic increased her speed and was able to cast it at a far more reasonable cost. They couldn’t leave now because they were all exhausted, and her mana pool was just about empty. She was at her limits, and it wouldn’t be long before she started nodding off.

Finishing her business, she cleaned up. After washing her hands, she left the room to find that the twins had finished sparring, and the Rose was now busy cooking their dinner. Arlie joined them in making dinner and struck up an idle conversation. However, they all avoided talking about the dungeon. There wasn’t much to talk about on that subject that they hadn’t already. Arlie did manage to steer the talk to tomorrow’s plans, but everyone was rather tired. Not interested in the discussion the plans were postponed for tomorrow.

The next day, they left the safe room. They were immediately attacked by a small party of imps, but they were already quite used to fighting them, and made short work of the imps. They barely broke a sweat with the imps, and continued on towards the boss room.

It wasn’t far from the safe room, so they made it without a second encounter with imps. Like every other boss door they had faced there was a trick to opening the door. It didn’t take Arlie long to figure out the trick for this one, and the massive doors slowly swung inward revealing the chamber beyond.

What they faced was not at all what Arlie had expected, but if she had paid more attention to the hints maybe she would have. The room was decorated like a comfortable throne room, and settled comfortably in the center of the room was a large bear lazily sprawled across the cushions. At least that was the case before they walked in, as an instant later it was a large cat. Lazily regarding them with a single eye. Just as she began to speak it changed again, this time into a naked catgirl, “You have done well to make it this far. I am the boss of the sixth floor. From this point on, you have a choice. You can take my test, or attempt to beat me in a fight.”

Arlie didn’t drop her guard but did relax a bit. It seemed that the boss was quite sincere about that, even if she had already changed into an equally naked wolfgirl. Seeing as the boss fight wasn’t going to start right away, she decided to ask, “What exactly is this test of yours?”

The rabbit girl boss shifted positions and settled her arms under her small breasts. “My test is simple. Demonstrate to me your understanding of one of the ten major elements, and I will allow you to pass if I deem you well versed in it. If not there will be consequences.”

Arlie realized something quickly, “So if I choose to take the test, I alone would have to demonstrate my abilities?”

The Lion girl smiled approvingly, and said, “You are the main person undergoing this trial, and they are mainly here to support you afterall. Now, are you going to take my test, or do want a workout instead?”

Arlie didn’t answer right away, and instead watched as the girl changed three more times before she finally replied, “I guess I will take the test.”

The naked tigress gestured happily at a spot across from her, and bade her to sit down. Arlie hesitantly approached and settled into the spot. However, the boss made no aggressive moves here. Speaking up she said, “Lightning seems to be an element you are quite familiar with. So we will start there. Being one of the components of the advanced storm element, a subset of nature magic it is an excellent choice for any mage, and a specialty of the Contrey clan for countless generations. I want you to demonstrate your knowledge of it, and to start I will ask you a few practical questions. In the meantime, there is a game table in the corner your friends can use if they get bored.”

The following test was actually far tougher than she had expected, and even tested her knowledge on the more obscure aspects of her element. During the test, she even got a break during which she asked the boss why she kept changing, and why the changes were almost always female beastkin. The animal forms had only been the case when they first walked in, and after that, it was always a naked beastkin of both types. Although the more beastly version with full coats were rather rare around these parts. Mostly due to the fact that they had a reputation for being feral and uncivilized.

The boss simply giggled and teased her a bit. Something that was kind of hard to ignore thanks to the effects of the outfit she foolishly had put on. A mistake she knew she wouldn’t repeat again. No answer came to her question. After the teasing from the floor boss, the boss continued the test. It was this part of the test that proved more difficult, and it was mentally exhausting more than anything else.

Finally, after what felt like days, but had really only been a couple of hours, the boss smiled, and instead of a question said, “You definitely have a fair grasp on your element. Not as good as the few ancestors of yours I have met, but given your age quite impressive. Most impressive is that you managed to reach me without really understanding the defensive aspects of your own element. Personally I suggest you work on that. Speed and power can go a long way in a fight, but sometimes evasion is not an option. In those cases, you need something to let you take a hit. Lightning has some very good ward spells and mage shield spells that you can learn. I suggest you look one up in the future.”

Arlie didn’t like hearing about the one area she was weak in. She had always been good at casting spells quickly, and she could even do it on the move. Something that many mages couldn’t do without a lot of practice, but she had never really mastered any ward or shield spells.

Ward spells produced a single directional barrier of mana that could absorb and incoming attack. The resulting barrier is very strong, and difficult to break. However, it is also expensive to maintain. Most battlemages used them as an active defense. Only forming them when needed, and dispelling them when not.

Shields not to be confused with mage armor, produces an omnidirectional barrier of mana. The barrier surrounds the user and protects the user from incoming attacks. These barriers aren’t as strong as wards and can only take so much damage without failing. Most shield spells are intended as a passive defense and are therefore cheaper to maintain. As for mage armor, that involves using mana to fortify the user’s clothing and skin to repel attacks. Mage armor did fairly well against physical attacks, but unlike the other two defensive spell categories couldn’t repel magical attacks. As a result, very few true mages actually used it, but many warriors with a smattering of magical talent did. All three had their strengths and weakness.

“Are you saying I failed?” she asked feeling a bit downcast.

“No, you passed. I am just telling you that you will want to work on your defensive spells. I’ll let you pass on to the next floor.” answered the boss who was currently a cute little nine-tailed foxgirl. Just as she said that, the throne sank into the floor revealing a stairwell down. The foxgirl pointed at the passage, and said, “There is a safe room just on the other side, and good luck on the next floor. Just remember to take my advice and study a defensive spell. For a beginner like you, I would recommend starting with a shield. They are easier to work with than wards, but use the same basic principals.”

Arlie thanked her for the advice, feeling it best to be polite, and then gathered her friends before proceeding on to the next floor. All the while still feeling a little shocked by the friendly boss encounter, but after she thought about it a test did make sense given the purpose of this dungeon.