After the creation of my farming golems, time passes quickly. Not too quickly, however, as there's still plenty of time left to relax. The lack of needing to work the farms very often allows for plenty of that.

  Days turn to weeks, and weeks turn to months.

  A dedicated building for chickens is built near the slime barn, allowing us to raise our own for eggs and meat. A ramp allows them to exit and forage in a large pen we constructed, but the enchantments on the inside also provide grazing grounds. Immense ones, thanks to the expanded space within. We made sure the soil was capable of having a natural ecosystem of its own so that there would be plenty of things for them to forage.

  The slime barn receives a few more additions to its inside, allowing us a much wider variety of slimes to receive goo from.

  My mundane farm plot turns entirely magical, but we knew that was going to happen and it's fine. It's not as if I can't use the crops the same way in cooking as I could just because they gained magical properties. Performing alchemy is required to draw out their magical traits. At least, for most of them.

  The relationship between Dylan and me has grown, and I suspect that he alleviated any doubts he had about my magic usage by visiting my father.

  I've gotten closer with both of my parents as well, the latter of whom visits sometimes to teach me more about creating charms. Nolan has a collection of them lined up on the shelf of the headboard for his bed now and he seems quite protective of them. Nearly every day, he carefully cleans each one with a soft cloth and gently sets it back down, making sure it stays free of dust.

  While Nolan still hasn't spoken, he nods and shakes his head a little more often now. Seeing proper expressions on his face has become more common as well, including smiles. We've even heard him giggle a few times recently.

  He also loves his chore of collecting eggs from the coop. Tending to the chickens is the only chore we give him at first, and he completes it dutifully every day.

  Mostly. There's the occasional time where he tries to eat the fruit out of the feed buckets or on the bushes in their territory instead of giving them the food. Once every week or so. We're usually able to correct that course.

  Patrick turns thirteen and undergoes his Hunt of Passage, and reports back that the spirits decided to show themselves moving the arrow to ensure it strikes true. Or more accurately… riding on and hanging from it.

  The others have begun to learn just how much of goofballs the mid-levels can be.

  The Departure festival comes and goes, Luminraik leaving for his winter migration south. Not long after that, Nolan turns three and smashes his face into the cake I bake for him. It's a good thing I made two of them out of anticipation of that.

  Now that he's three, we add on an extra chore of tending to the slimes. That's an easier job as long as he resists the urge to shove his hands into the goo. Mostly, it involves checking on the goo bins and replacing them when needed. He also sometimes has to put food into their feeding troughs when we want to try and improve their quality a little or boost their goo production.

  All of the younger members of the village manage to weave magics together. Green touches into the eyes of each of them, ever-so-slightly. Thomas and Dylan use spells now when they hunt, mostly with their archery. They're not good enough yet to use tracking spells but they might be within a year.

  Cedric practically begs his parents not to move upon learning their plans as summer draws to a close. By now, however, they can see how happy he is in the area. That's helped by the fact that his companion spirit is now nearly always manifested and how he often manages to convince one or two others to show up and play. It's hard to deny the kid fits here when both the boy and the land are beloved by the spirits.

  With all of the loot which he acquires, and some of the stuff I produce, Thomas decides to visit Tempest Oak twice a month. That began in the eighth month of the year, not long after he cast his first spell. The magic in his bow and other combat and hunting gear did allow him to acquire extras, so I'm not surprised by that.

  Elaina begins working with Gerald and Laney. The two elders are getting up there in age and when they pass, there will be no one left to attend to their bees. Elaina didn't want that to happen and now lives in her own home on their property.

  On my side of things, I mostly focus on practicing my crafting, alchemy, and magic, while doing a lot of magic research.

  The lessons I provide to the villagers continue five mornings a week. Only the younger ones attend them but that's more than enough for me. They all get down the basics of reading and writing, as well as slightly more complex math than what they're used to.

  To continue their lessons beyond the basics in reading and writing as well as in magic, the others provide some help for me. Some of them assist with some of the work around the farm while others provide me materials from their own farms and ranches. Patrick goes hunting with Thomas often now and brings back loot to trade me for his lessons, just like Thomas.

  I manage to avoid visiting the Mines and the Mistwood for roughly three months. This allows me go through a significant amount of what I acquired in my visits to them up to when I harvested the wool from the floating islands.

  No attacks come, but I still make sure my wardstone works properly and the perimeter of my property is checked each day.

  The Festival of Souls is now just-under two weeks away, the final day of the tenth month of the year. It acts as the autumn harvest festival as well – nearly all crops have been harvested and everyone will begin their final preparations for winter soon.

  The magi and I will be working on something special for it over the next couple of weeks. That will take up a decent amount of free time, so there are some things I want to do before then.

  With me not going into the mines, that's left it mostly to Thomas, who can only handle the easier zones within it. After decades with a lack of proper use, the mines really need some clearing out. A good, thorough run will help clear things up a little bit more. Not enough to make a massive difference but enough that the spirits will probably be happy for awhile. A run today, and maybe tomorrow, will allow me to do that while also granting me another round of resources.

  Another thing I wish to do is marry Dylan. That's not something I ever felt with Jasper despite being with him for longer than I've been with Dylan. Not only that, but Dylan and I are basically living the married life already. The only change after would be that things become legally official rather than just… official.

  To that end, I wish to make a shared item for us. It's a tradition in some regions far away from here. When two people marry, they each wear an item representing it, such as a ring, a necklace, an earring, a bracelet, and so on. It's a tradition I'd like to perform with him, and so I want some very high-quality materials for it.

  Because of that, I've prepared for a trip to the mines. Fresh armor is worn over pants and a tunic, and my accessory setup is different. There's still my dusk-sight bracelet that I made months ago and my warp bracelet on my right wrist, as well as my Mistwood emblem necklace, tucked under my armor.

  Rather than a variety of storage bracelets, however, I have just a single storage item now. It's a medium-grey orichalcum cuff that's 1.25" wide, my personal crest patterned onto it on the part at the back of my wrist. That takes the form of a pair rhombuses and a pair of squares centered on each other, styled in purple.

  With a space this large, I won't need to worry about having to decide which loot to take or leave behind. To do that before this, I needed multiple bracelets. The size of this one meansI can gather all of the loot from my kills, from the boulders I shatter, and whatever I decide to pick up.

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  Just in case, I have a second one stored away in there, along with the rest of my supplies for the trip. To ensure I don't need to cheat on recovering mana to do so faster, I've prepared a lot of mana potions as well. Our plants have further increased in quality and I can get a decent recovery rate for just an ounce of potion now. With several gallons of it stored in my cuff, I should have zero issues with my mana today.

  "Breakfast is in the bracelet on the counter," I tell Dylan as he enters the living room. "There's lunch in there as well, and a dinner in case I'm not back by then. Nolan's out back playing with Cedric – he showed up a few minutes ago and they're currently playing 'catch the spirit'."

  Catch the Spirit is a game which involves a group of mid-level spirits standing in a circle, then "fleeing" when one of the boys tries to run after it. There's no reward for catching one, the boys just enjoying trying. To the credit of the spirits, they don't cheat to escape the boys and do actually get caught often enough to make it fun.

  "Alright," Dylan gives me a hug. "Be safe."

  "Always," I give him a kiss. "See you when I get back."

  We separate and I [Teleport] to the mines, then activate my warpstone to the first waystone. From there, I warp down to the twentieth floor and navigate my way through it until I find the entrance to the twenty-first.

  The fungus-filled mine shifts as I travel down the stairs. Instead of the more damp floors I just departed, this section seems to be a little bit drier. Still a little damp, but not so much that fungi grow everywhere. Instead, it's more forested. The support pillars and beams actually look like tree trunks and branches, and smaller branches grow off of them. When in a chamber rather than a tunnel, full trees grow with a slight density. Bushes grow throughout the halls and chambers, and wolves and bears join the mix of monsters around.

  My level of power upon setting foot on the twenty-first floor is equal to the Floor 25, so I'm able to easily kill the monsters here. Very few of them drop their meat, but a significant amount of the wolves and bears drop their pelts. Some of the snakes drop their meat and skins. As always, the monsters drop magic crystals upon death as a guaranteed loot drop.

  By the time I reach the Floor 25, I've begun to encounter boars as well. Many of them drop their meat, so we'll be having plenty of sausage without me having to buy pork in town for a long time to come.

  Rather than being a little more careful in my hunts, I begin unleashing more powerful spells. Spells like [Magic Missile] are good for lone targets but I'm strong enough to be an even match for this floor upon arriving. Maybe slightly stronger.

  At the same time, my Skill Levels for magic are high enough that I don't gain Levels as easily. Spell casts no longer make up a significant amount of the Skill Experience I need for each Level. This means that I need to slay more monsters.

  If I fight everything as I encounter them, in smaller groups or alone, it will take me all day to reach a strong enough Level to reach Floor 30. I could simply continue on as I grow strong enough to reach the next floor, but I still want to stay in batches at least for a little while. The primary metal I can acquire on these floors – adamantite, which is green in its plain form – also requires a high amount of Magic to work via magic forging methods. I want to hit a high amount of that stat during this trip so that I can make stuff with it on my own.

  To that end, I hold my hands in front of me as I enter the first tunnel of Floor 25. The spell I shape takes only a few seconds to cast and upon completion, the devastating power of an Archmage is unleashed upon the tunnel.

  A force akin to a mixture of a jet and a vortex blasts out of my hands, taking up the entire width of the tunnel. Arcs of force, compressed air, light, and darkness swirl within it, an added edge to take down nearly anything.

  The spell tears through the tunnel. The tree-like supports are destroyed, boulders shattered, and monsters shredded. Even the beasts which could ordinarily withstand my might fall to it as this isn't just a short burst.

  It's a torrent of power which stretches one thousand feet in length.

  No matter how much something tries to block against that, there's always more force to strike at them and more blades to cut through them. Its extreme speed only increases the torrent's destructive power.

  Blocking one part of the torrent doesn't stop the next because that wasn't blocked. It travels one thousand feet before fading away, for the full thousand feet of it I blast forward.

  When it fades, there's nothing left in the tunnel but plant matter, small stones, and loot scattered about. One nice thing about Labyrinths is that the loot always remains undamaged until after the destruction ends. At least, the destruction of whatever magic earned it.

  This spell is a continuous torrent, meaning the destruction lasted until I ended it. Despite how destructive it was, it remained unable to affect the loot. I'm not really concerned about the normal materials which can be harvested on this floor as I can always come back another day and look for them if I wish. The floors before this should have most of them as well.

  With the complexity of the spell and the amount of monsters slain by it, my [Casting], [Arcane Magic], and [Elemental Magic] Skills went up by quite a bit each.

  [Telekinesis] allows me to collect the loot with ease as I walk down the tunnel, and I cast my destructive torrent again when I need to. With this method, I'm strong enough to grind on Floor 30 bynoon so I take a break to drink more potion to restore my mana and eat lunch, then I head down.

  Upon reaching Floor 26, I note the changes to the environment. The trees here now have an orange tint to their bark, their leaves in reds, oranges, and yellows. The grasses and mosses match the colors of the leaves, and the mushrooms do as well. Some of the flora and fungi are either partially or wholly aflame.

  The temperature here is also considerably warmer than it was on the previous floor.

  "So this is where it begins," I mutter.

  Robin did tell me the mines gain a heavy fire aspect after awhile. I don't remember if he told me the exact floor number or not, but I do remember that he's told me there are fifty of them in total for each part of the Labyrinth. It makes sense that the heat aspect would show up halfway down if the final section is themed to fire.

  My torrent spell loses its blades of compressed air in exchange for blades of compressed water and razor-sharp ice. The mixture of force and air making up the torrent now includes water as well. This helps it pierce through many of the defenses of monsters here, as the bestial ones all possess fire magics. I add in a little bit of spatial magic to help it tear through some of the more tough beasts, and some time aspect to accelerate the ends of that which it touches. Thorns within the torrent here are mostly to add some Skill Experience to its school of magic as well.

  The more things which I can Level, the stronger I'll grow.

  By the time I finish for the day, I'm strong enough to handle Floor 35 – except I have zero intention of going there. I'm soaked through with sweat from the heat on this floor and that means it'll be even hotter when I descend to the next section. There's no reason for me to go deeper, anyway, as I have more than enough things for today.

  Especially since I'll return tomorrow and ascend instead of descend. That will be my first trip into the upper half of the mines. I'll use some of the materials I acquired today to create a protective item to keep me from feeling the cold up there. With the materials I acquire there, I'll be able to make a similar item to shield me from the heat down here.

  I return to the waystone, then use it to return to Floor 5. From there, I exit the mines, then teleport home.

  "No, Nolan," Dylan says as I silently enter the house. "I'm not burning dinner. It's stew, I can make that without a problem. It's just chopping things, dumping them in a pot, and adding a little more moisture as needed. And it's almost done."

  Nolan huffs and puts his hands on his hips as he stares at his father.

  "Seriously," Dylan says. "I know Rowan made something else, but you know how he gets. He's probably been moving almost all day. He needs something more filling than a plate of pasta and a salad. And it ain't burning."

  "It's not the stew he's worried about," I say, causing both of them to jump and look over. "It's the bread that's burning in the oven. Think it's done baking."

  "That's burning in the-" Dylan looks at the oven. "Oh, by the spirits! Dammit!"

  "It's fine," I tell him. "I've got dough already prepared and ready for baking. Let me take a look at the stew, and I can use my magic to bake some that'll go well with it."

  "Alright," Dylan says as Nolan sticks his tongue out at his father, then giggles and takes off. "Get back here, you little-why are you soaked in sweat? It ain't that hot out anymore. And ain't the mines cooler?"

  "They heat up if you go down to Floor 26," I tell him. "After dinner, I'll be doing some crafting so I can head up to the same levels in the upper section tomorrow. They'll get cooler at the same floor count, I think."

  "Alright," he says. "Thanks for rescuing half of dinner. I'm gonna go locate a little brat and punish him. Think a minute of tickling will make him regret it?"

  "Nah," I grin. "Give him at least two minutes. Then put out the fire in the fireplace."

  Nolan lets out a squeak from his hiding spot behind an armchair and he dashes over to the fireplace and stands in front of it, arms stretched out protectively. He realizes too late that he exposed his sides, which Dylan takes advantage of to begin the tickling, sending his son into a fit of giggles.

  While they do that, I'll finish dinner. Since I'll be using magic to bake the bread so that it finishes faster, should I reshape the lump for Nolan's into a wolf? I think that'd make him grin and bounce in happiness. The use of magic will allow me to cook each part evenly rather than over-bake some parts or under-bake others so the shape won't be a problem.

  "Yeah," I mumble to myself. "I'll do that."