princess Zena of Zendor

When I leave the land of dreams, my heart is racing. I can’t really tell why though. Listening to the heavy rain for a few minutes calms me down though.

Right, it’s raining today, and we have to go to the ant-golem cave. 

What clothes should I wear today though? Unless I want to change inside the mine, I’ll have to wear something water resistant, and the clothes I wore yesterday have a hole in them.

Summoning the outfit in squation, in my hands, I inspect the hole, which is now about half the size it was yesterday. It is self healing, but very slow. I could use it, but I kinda feel like wearing something else.

Based on the fight yesterday, being able to move is of utmost importance, so that eliminates anything tanky. The same goes for robes and long dresses, because they get in the way of my legs.

Honestly a magical girls style outfit is probably my best bet. They are usually minmax for a specific stat, and their short skirt doesn’t really get in the way. The frills could catch on something though.

Putting on a blue and white, frilly outfit, which is optimized for agility, I find it quite comfortable to wear. Still feels a bit odd though, and with the cramped nature of the room, I can’t use the mirror to pose either.

I still look through the inventory for something else. Lots of outfits would be equally good at agility, but they are pretty much all skin tight endeavors, often with trailing ribbons and other peripherals. 

Walking out into the hallway and summoning the mirror, I find that it doesn’t look half bad on me. Sure, the frills aren’t entirely my style, but it’s a decent look. With my wings, I really look like a magical girl, though the black tattoos on my arms make it slightly odd. The ones on my legs are hidden by the white leggings, which I’m thankful for, since I’ll be moving around a lot.

Fuck it, it’s comfortable, good looking and helps me move faster. Even just walking is noticeably easier and faster.

Walking into the common room gains me a few looks, odd ones from the stamina users, but the mana users spot the quite frankly extreme speed enchantment on it. Murdoc looks like he wants to say something, but a glare and summoning a ball of mana has him clamping his mouth shut.

I’ve been eating pretty much only fruit for the last couple days, so I think a sandwich is in order. The one I take out is pretty much only vegetables with a savory sauce of some kind, and a thin slice of meat. Not sure what kind of meat as I don’t recognize the flavor. 

James comes in after I take a few bites, and sits down opposite to me at the table, and I give him the meat he requests. 

After a few more minutes of eating, he asks the question, “So what's with the outfit?”

“Speed minmaxing” is the answer I give him, which has him nodding.

“So we are not waiting till the rain goes away then” he postulates, and I nod.

We then continue to plan for the excursion while finishing our food, and a bit more afterwards.

Soon enough, we said our goodbyes to Jo and the others, and I put on my raincoat. James had the same raincoat, which we both got from the same quest. Obviously his was much bigger than mine, but otherwise they are identical.

Soon after we exit the settlement, I learn of my mistake. White shoes and white leggings plus muddy road equals disaster. Quite annoying, but I don’t do anything to immediately fix it as I’ll just get muddy again and continuously clean it would drain my mana an unacceptable amount.

I just sigh and continue on at high speed together with James.

Some golems made their way back onto the road, but nowhere near as many as previously. Most notably though, was a water golem that appeared.

It was basically a crystal suspended in water that it shaped in whatever shape it wanted, usually tendrils.

Mana bullets splashed away its water, but it just recollected it. A paralysis spell made it lose cohesion though, after which James just picked up the core and squeezed until it cracked.

Soon enough after that, we enter the mine. New guardians had appeared, but they were much weaker than the previous ones.

Magicking away our coats, I see the travesty that is my muddy legs. Cleanse fixes it, but it’s still annoying. James just chuckles and asks to be cleansed too, as his legs were even more muddy, though it was less visible on his brown armored legs.

I summon a lightning ball and we start our journey into the cave. The few golems we encounter on the way back to the crystal cavern are destroyed with impunity, usually my mana spike, but James got a few of them with his war hammer. 

During this period, I also noticed that my mana spikes are buffed significantly by my outfit. I think it is because the spell is based on dimensional impulse, which is originally a movement spell.

When we get to the crystal cavern, there is a new crystal golem, though it’s much weaker than the last one. Not wanting to do another dance off, I stand in the opening, take out a ruby, summon a spike around it with a good chunk of mana and fire it at the golems head, which is facing us. 

A fraction of a second later, the golem’s head explodes, and it immediately starts dancing.

This time the gems don’t move nearly as fast, and I move faster. I can actually outrun a few of them. Combined with the fact that it can’t see without a head, I think so anyways based on the fact it turned its head towards us, and it doesn’t manage to hit either of us by the time the sapphire smashes its body to pieces.

Honestly, the boost in speed provided by the outfit is no joke. My main outfit boosts it a fair bit as well, but not this much. This outfit shouldn’t buff my spell like that outfit though, the exception being that  movement spells are buffed, which as I found out earlier, includes the spikes.

So, with the new crystal golem in my inventory, we set off into the second part of the dungeon.

 

Kamba

Magica girl Zena has made an appearance once again.

Next time on 魔法少女ゼナ: the heart of the dungeon.

 

Also, I was tempted to make the title "a rainy day, the sequel"

The original a rainy day is one of my favorite chapters, but I don't know if the words written properly conveys my thoughts.