No pain, no gain (I)
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miyuskyePairing: M/M
Esreth opened his eyes and looked around his room. The usual cold was still there and that inn didn’t think about building the guest rooms with a fireplace or anything to warm up the place. It was surely a poor choice in the business matter seeing that they were in the coldest area of the world. However, that was one of the few places that allowed people to rest in a quite secure way given the constant attacks from the demons at night, so there wasn’t much to complain. The only solution was to either put another blanket on his bed – Esreth already had his fair share, though – or warm himself up using magic. The main problem was that Esreth had never been very skilled with fire magic, thus his spells involving that area weren’t as effective as his others – and that was one of the endless reasons he could not really his sorcerer teammate. That man, Azin, also offered to cast a spell on him – after asking the young mage to spend the night in his room, in his bed, which Esreth declined promptly. He couldn’t deny that during the moments he actually stayed in the other’s room, he didn’t feel any chill in his bones. Well, it was mainly due to what they were doing, to be honest. Esreth sighed at the memory of the previous night; luckily, this time around, he was smart enough to go to Azin’s room to do the deed. It was indeed a great idea because it meant that he didn’t have to sleep on a soiled bed. Admittedly, having sex with Azin wasn’t as bad as he originally thought the first time: first of all, it was for the sake of his team and in order to have a powered-up spell due to the enhanced mana flow caused by Azin’s natural affinity with magic. Besides, his potion didn’t let him feel pain during the act and sometimes it also made it feel good – not that Esreth would ever admit to that openly. Regardless, Azin had a surprisingly okay attitude towards the whole matter: Esreth had always seen him as a ladies’ man, so it was actually strange to see him so acceptant about that matter. To tell the truth, since he was just putting his dick inside the other, it wasn’t so very different from doing that with a woman: Esreth convinced himself that was the main reason the other didn’t complain too much about their whole agreement. Of course, the other members of the party didn’t have a clue about anything: the shame for Esreth would be too much to bear. Sometimes he wondered if their bard secretly knew everything – he was on pretty good terms with the sorcerer. However, it was inconvenient for Azin to brag about bedding a mage like him: a more interesting story would be about him bedding that half-elf he was chatting amiably last evening.
As the last member of his party – the bard, who overslept after going to sleep very late at night, as Esreth could still hear some noises from his room when he passed it after finishing with Azin - finally joined the others downstairs, the group was ready for the day. Even if the place of their main quest – the one they departed together for in the first place – was still far away, the group had shown in more than one occasion to be more than ready to deflect their route for the sake of more immediate action. Thus, it was simple enough to convince them to follow him.
Actually, it wasn’t him who found the route they were following now, but it was indeed him the one who was most interested in seeking it out. Of course, it had been Azin: after all, he was the most affine to the Root between them. The previous day, he took aside Esreth to talk about something strange that happened to him: apparently, on the way of their journey, he felt a strong source of magical energy sort of calling him and he wondered if his fellow mage had felt it too. Esreth was very ashamed to admit that he didn’t feel it as stronger as he did. He knew, from the books he read about the matter, that the Higher Portal of the Ancient Irephior laid somewhere in those lands. He knew that inside said portal a dungeon with an important treasure was waiting for people to discover them. Every time some adventurers cleared Irephior’s trial they always obtained powerful items. His Grand Master used to talk a lot about that dungeon as if he was there himself: Esreth had always wanted to prove without a shred of doubt that he was worthy of the title they invested him with and returning victorious from such a dungeon would earn him the praises he so much craved for. He knew that the Ancient Irephior was an unusual mage, who loved to act on his whims and was way too fickle for his class; instead of prolonging his life for years and years he preferred to end it fairly early for a wizard – he was turning 70 that year - and seal the remaining part of his mana to his portal, thus creating a dungeon and a quest most adventurers loved to challenge. As far as clearing it was enough to have the approval Esreth needed, though, he didn’t really care about what kind of person Irephior was.
As the group was following Azin’s way, who was trying to find the magic passage using his instincts – which was annoying Esreth mildly, but he tried to focus on the bigger picture – they easily found the portal. After passing through it, the adventurers found themselves on an immense open space, full of white snow. They weren’t able to see its limits – if there were any, they were covered by the high mountains circling them – and after walking for a short while, everyone began to make out the dungeon’s shape in that desolate place.
It was like a stone sculpture, albeit massive and enormous. They were smaller than ants compared to it: the dungeon had the shape of what presumably was Irephior in life. The statue of the man, with a long beard covered with snow, was firmly hovering over what resembled a snake – his favorite choice for a familiar during his life, as Esreth remembered – which had his mouth open, baring his fangs and daring the adventurers who wanted to take on his quest to enter. The monument was quite grandiose and didn’t really reflect what was the real Irephior like in his life. Maybe that was how he wanted to be remembered, the young mage bitterly thought.
Esreth turned his head towards Azin, which had his eyes widened and was bewildered by that huge amount of stone covered by snow and ice.
“Woah, Es, you didn’t tell me that Irepher mage was this lit!”
Esreth sighed to Azin’s ability to make him furious with just a single sentence. First of all, he should have dropped that annoying nickname from the beginning – he did notice, though, how the sorcerer carefully avoided to use it when he was buried deep in him – and it wasn’t so difficult to remember a name he had told him several times already correctly. The paladin corrected him promptly.
“The name’s Irephor, Azin, didn’t you listen to our teacher?” While Esreth was grateful that someone other than him scolded Azin, he didn’t like how it turned out to be a mockery towards his person. At his words, the bard barely contained a burst of laughter and Esreth chose to ignore his provocation. Azin, however, did not.
“Hey, don’t treat him this way, okay? It’s because of him that we’re here now.”
“Heh, but you’re the one who conducted us here.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have known what to do with my guts if it wasn’t for Esreth.”
Azin was about to turn toward Esreth after saying it, only to notice that the young mage had already begun to walk into the snake’s mouth.
“Woah, it’s dangerous to go alone! At least wait for us!”
The dungeon wasn’t an easy one; the enemies guarding it – be it simple goblins or famine wyverns – weren’t forgiving at all. However, as usual, the thing that bothered Esreth the most was that the young mage was sure that if it hadn’t been for Azin’s help the night before he wouldn’t have been as useful as he was right at that moment.