The cave was well hidden, but it still seemed like a lot of people knew where it was. Another group exited the entrance and passed us by without a glance. The fact someone else had arrived first didn’t phase the rest of the party, so we walked in and set off down a side tunnel as soon as we had left the light of day behind.

Several members of the party pulled out lanterns from their packs which they tied to their waists. The woman who walked beside me pulled out a spare and tied it to my waist when she noticed I didn’t have one. Why would I have been prepared for a trip into the caves if it hadn’t been in my plans at all?

The haze on my brain pushed down my thoughts, but I still retained a weak link to my consciousness. After a minute of walking, I managed to force away enough of the fog from my mind.

"Wait, I think I'll back out." I stopped in my tracks with a grimace. Though this was the obvious reaction for me, it hurt me to say it at a base level.

"Wait, I thought you said-" The leader turned to the woman who had persuaded me to join, but she waved him into silence and turned back to me.

"You should come along, we're almost there." She smiled as a purple tint covered her eyes. A new wave covered my thoughts once more, but this time I was ready for it. I held my own, like a rock pushing back against the sea. The woman frowned and pulled out a small object from under her jacket.

"No." I muttered as I forced myself to take a step back.

"Damn, he said you were strong. If I'd known you would fight it this much, I would've just used this in the first place." She shook her head and crushed the metal case in her hand. A wave of darkness washed over my vision as I lost all control of my body. My flagging resistance was smashed aside as the force blasted me from my feet. As I struggled against the new pressure for several seconds before it crushed me to the floor. As my consciousness waned, I heard the leader speak again.

"He brought you here because of your level, and you can't even take out a rookie? What's the point of your skills."

"Be quiet, or you'll face the same fate as this one. He told me the marked one was under level ten, but I had to use the item I received from the Master to trap him... At least he'll die peacefully now."

**Party disbanded.**

A moment later and the darkness covered me. It didn't knock me out, but I had been paralysed. My body wouldn't listen to my commands in the slightest, which meant I was a sitting duck should any monster wander past and find my unmoving body. With that thought in mind, I redoubled my efforts.

I'm not going to die here!

The darkness wavered and shook, but it didn't break. A minute passed, then five, then ten. Time ticked by slowly as I wore down on the cocoon around myself. After my arms were freed, that increased the speed at which I could beat it back. The woman had said I would die peacefully, so she obviously hadn't expected me to break out.

But, after a quarter of an hour, I did just that.

“Bastards!” I shouted at the top of my voice. It was obvious what had happened, though the fact I had walked right into it infuriated me. That woman had used some sort of ability to do something to my mind. I had fought it off, but this 'Master' of hers and prepared her well. For a moment I had a wild thought that it was Ray, but that didn't feel right. As strong as he was, he still felt like a pawn in a bigger game to me.

It doesn't matter anyway. In the end, this is all down to him. I'm going to...

It didn’t matter if it was just the woman and the leader, or the entire group. I’d find a way to pay them back for this.

But first, I had to get out of here.

They’re probably all in league with Ray… but why did he make them dump me in these caves? How is this a test?

That was when an edge of panic set in. It wasn’t like I was claustrophobic, but the walls suddenly seemed like they had closed in around me. A small lantern had been set beside me, but the blue light that shone out from within was faint and wavery.

How long will this light last?

That thought helped me make the decision. There was a chance I could make my own way out, but if the lamp was extinguished, my options would be limited.

At that point, my stomach couldn’t have sunk any lower. Not only had this been a waste of time, but my instincts had also been wrong once again. I remembered the slight smile the woman had shown when she spoke to me. At the time it had seemed like a friendly expression, but it had twisted in my memories to a warped smirk.

I turned to move in the direction of the exit, but a noise from behind stopped me in my tracks. It sounded like a voice mixed with muffled footsteps. A pair were conversing as they moved towards my location.

It had been awkward enough to make my way back to this point, the journey back out of the caves would be just as bad if no one remained to help. I turned to face the direction of the voices and narrowed my eyes. After the two speakers stepped round the corner, all my hopes vanished in a heartbeat. The distorted speech made a lot more sense when I saw their identities.

It was a pair of goblins, similar to the one Claire had fought in the forest.

They turned to face me as thick rivers of saliva dripped from their open mouths. It took them a moment to register that the intruder wasn’t another goblin, after which they picked up their clubs and ran towards me. My brain froze for a split second before I pulled myself together.

“Strengthen! Accelerate!”

I used the time to buff myself. The speed increase wasn’t much, but it helped. Technically, the strength increase would also increase my speed a little. Claire had treated the goblin in the forest with care even with a full party behind her. Running was a last resort, but my chances of victory were slim if I didn’t play this perfectly.

This is going to be tricky.

My hand scrabbled at the ties on my bag for a second before it opened up. It took me a moment to find the item that could potentially save me before. The goblins’ charge didn’t slow as I lifted up the single-use scroll and broke its seal.

The parchment burst open and a deadly spiral of air shot towards the goblins. They noticed that I had fired something, but they couldn’t react before it slammed into the lead goblin. The wind ball blasted it from its feet, but the other goblin was unaffected. It gave its colleague a glance before it turned back to me.

My surprise attack had given it reason to treat me seriously.

It sped up slightly and reached me a moment later. The highest priority for any melee fighter when they were up against a ranged enemy would be to close the distance.

It raised its club and smashed it down on me. The blow was quick, but it wasn’t so fast as to be unbearable. I dodged it with an inch to spare and thrust my staff into the goblin’s stomach.

“Buffed strike!”

It took a step back… and grinned at me.

“Rugh.”

I jumped back, but it was quicker. It knocked my staff aside, jumped forward, and slammed its fist into my chest. The strength of its blow was far stronger than I had anticipated, all the air had been blown out of my lungs. The goblin moved in for the kill as I took a deep, painful breath.

But I wasn’t done just yet.

“Buffed strike!”

I swung my staff against its knee. Its foot still hadn’t touched the floor as my blow smashed into its leg. The goblin teetered for a moment before it crashed to the floor, which gave me time to push myself to my feet.

Before I could move in to take advantage of the situation, I spotted the other goblin as it ran towards us. It had recovered from the wind ball, but the sneak attack had infuriated it. Its eyes were wide as a low roar escaped its throat.

These creatures were dumb, but my chances against two were close to zero. Any tactics I came up with would be beaten into the dirt by their overwhelming strength. The only chance I had would be to either escape or find some way to fight them one on one. But if the tunnel narrowed to the point where only one could approach at a time, my staff would be next to useless…

I have to escape. These things must be close to Claire’s level, I don’t stand a chance as I am now.

The speed from my dual buffs would have to be used to flee as fast as I could. I lifted my scroll and held it out towards the goblin that approached me. Its eyes flared as it dodged to the side, which slowed its advance.

And I turned and ran.

The scroll was technically useless, but it scared the idiotic goblin nonetheless. It was clear they wouldn’t let me loose without a fight as a pair of furious bellows rang out from behind. Their strides were more like long hops as they bounded behind me, as if they were out for a romp in a field of flowers. If it wasn’t for the fact they wanted to kill me, their gait would have been comedic. Unfortunately, there was no time to appreciate it as I ran down tunnel after tunnel.

I tried to follow the path the leader had taken on the way in, but that would have been close to impossible even in the best of situations. With two monstrous beasts on my tail, I barely had time to think at each fork. There was one thing that I knew quite clearly.

Without the buffs, they would catch up. And those buffs would only last a few more minutes. Each recast cost a chunk of my mana, and I had to make a decision on short term gains over long term benefits.

I could try to outrun them with both, or I could keep just ahead with one. After a moment of deliberation, I decided on the latter course.

At least then I can fight back if I don’t manage to escape. If I burn through my mana, I’ll have no chance at all.

My shouts echoed through the tunnels, but no one responded. After a short time, the buffs fell off, and my speed dropped noticeably. The difference in speed between myself and my pursuers became more apparent as they rapidly approached from behind. They were still hot on my heels, so I had no choice but to recast at least one buff.

“Accelerate!” I yelled as I continued my frantic run. If I used both buffs, that would leave me with one more use before my pool ran dry. It was scary, but efficiency was required over pure effect right now. A quick check proved that my pool had increased to one hundred and ten, which confirmed that each level added an additional ten mana to my total.

The higher capacity also increased my regeneration, but not enough to matter at this point. It was still basically at one point per minute, which meant I only got back a third of the cost of each buff in the time they lasted if no other abilities were used at the same time.

The longer I ran, the more chance I had to find someone else or to escape. The Strengthen buff had helped a bit, but the main boost in speed came from Accelerate. Maybe it lowered air resistance, or perhaps it just made your steps more efficient. Either way, it didn’t matter much to me. The speed was enough for me to keep ahead of the goblins, but only barely.

I’ve got twenty minutes to get out of here… but my stamina will run out before then.

Before I could make up my mind on the best course of action, I turned a corner at full speed and came face to face with a dead end not too far in the distance. There weren’t any other paths to take as the goblins approached from behind.

“Strengthen.” I murmured as I raised my staff. Whatever happened next, I wouldn’t go down without a fight.