As soon as Ren returned to camp with the rest of his group he immediately consumed the green crystals.
As for the reason he did this the green crystals were one of many types of drops.They were usually dropped by creatures capable of harnessing magic.
Consuming the crystals would increase the users mana capacity and give the consumer some elemental magic.Harnessing this elemental magic makes elemental spells more powerful.For example consuming fire element magic crystals and gaining some fire elemental mana which could be harnessed to cast more powerful fire element spells.
There is also a way to convert already existing natural elementless mana within the body into elemental mana if you had the mana crystals.This wouldn't increase the users mana capacity but it would still give them access to elemental mana.Ren naturally possessed this method but he wanted to increase his mana capacity.
When Ren learned of this method and the crystals he came to understand why the older mages in the village seemed to have multiple elements within their mana.They had either converted their mana or consumed magic crystals.
Once Ren was done consuming the crystals he began reading the three magical tomes that the dryad had dropped.
Hours passed as Ren assimilated the magical knowledge and plant element spells into his mind.There were some spells he wasn't interested in such as the wooden suit spell but the rest was fair game.
Reading through the tomes Ren also gained inspiration which he would use to create new spells.As for his gains he had learned some plant element spells and gained what he felt was hundreds of points of plant element mana in his body.
Ren had learned spells such as entangle,plant bolt,greenery beam and plant anchor.
Entangle was a simple spell that caused plants or roots to grow out of the ground and trap creatures.The roots and plants would only be as fast as the caster which was probably why the dryad didn't use it.
Plant bolt was a spell that launched a bolt of plant mana that caused plants to grow on whatever it made contact with.
Greenery beam was a spell that would launch a large beam or multiple small beams in a chosen direction and cause plants to grow on whatever it made contact with.
Plant anchor was a spell that could link a person's mana and life force with that of a magical plant most preferably a tree.This would give a person access to more mana and vitality which could increase their healing speed.This spell seemed to be based on the drayd and magical trees connection without the downside of dying when the plant was destroyed.
For the remainder of the night Ren went to sleep.Ren slept reasonably well and as dawn broke he was well rested.The group travelled the distance until they encountered some futuristic ruins at the edge of the woods.The ruins appeared to be bit past the modern day but were in large ruin with large buildings collapsed or too structurally unstable to explore.The group was still 1 km away from their goal.
"My parents told me stories of what used to be but it truly makes my imagination wonder seeing the ruins of this city.I never imagined it would look this damaged and old."
"Yeah...1300 years would do that to a city.Anyways is the dungeon inside the city Raphael?"
"Yes it's straight in the centre of it all and it appears to be a dungeon that was spawned in when the gods first spawned in the entities." Raphael then led them into the ruinous city.
On the way they encountered some weak goblins as well as a massive dog with a human face.The entity with the human face was strong but not as strong as the dryad and appeared unable to harness magic.
The goblins dropped nothing of note and the large dog with the human face dropped a sort of fist type weapon that increased strengh by a low amount.One of the close quarters mages equipped it as it was better then what they had.
After traversing the ruins of the desolate city they arrived at their location.They were standing in front of a colossal gothic mansion with gargoyles and and other fancy statues adorning it's exterior.The mansion in contrast to everything around it was undamaged and appeared to be an entirely different theme.It simply stuck out like a sore thumb.
"How should we go about this Raphael?Should we split into teams or stay as a group? Who will go in first?" Kasper questioned Raphael as he admired the structure.
"We'll go in teams,me,Ruth and Archie will go in first we will all go in separate directions within the mansion.Loot everything and kill everything.Ruth if you would please do the honours and knock on the door." Raphael came up with his orders.
Ruth travelled up the steps to the large door and used the door knob.
Bam
Bam
Bam
"I SEE MOVEMENT FROM THE GARGOYLES UP ABOVE.MOVE BACK FROM THE MANSION." Kasper yelled out to his companions
The group of 29 youths distanced themselves from the mansion and witnessed the countless gargoyles adorning the mansion come to life.