I once got lost in a party with my friends. And at that time, there was no way I could contact them because I forgot to charge my phone. My friends took 2 hours before they could find me drunk at the bar though.

***

When I turned my head towards Sora, there, I saw him just for an instant, just a few seconds before he suddenly starts his rampage.

“Oh darkness that hides behind the light, lend me the power of shadows and show them my might! >”

After he finished his chant, the shadows around us moved as if it had life. It coiled around Sora’s body and flowed towards his hand. There, his dagger, it absorbed all the shadows that came towards Sora. Like his body, it started releasing black smoke. Finally, a sword-like form grew out from the blade. It’s the same as the ones I saw in Asian movies, a katana.

Sora jumped above me and then towards the golem nearest to me.

With a quick-draw stance, he position himself mid-air ignoring the strong pull of the gravity. Suddenly, he disappeared from where he was floating.

I probably blinked at that time so I don’t know what happened, but now I can see him behind the golem the he targeted like nothing happened.

Returning his sword to his waist, he then moved towards the next target.

When I shifted my eyes again to the golem he targeted first, the golem slowly crumbled and lost its life. I should’ve said that it’s like a stone pile going down, but since there are smoking parts on the golem’s joint, I can tell that Sora slashed it at that part.

And now, only 11 golems are left.

“Key, to your left!”

Because I got too amazed by Sora’s sudden power up, I didn’t notice that one of the golems managed to get near and attacked me again. Good thing Sora gave me a warning.

“>”

The golem swung its hand from the right, but since I’m in my boosted state, I dodged it just by ducking and casting a spell at the same time using that chance. When the magic got formed, I touched the snowy ground and after that, the stone from the ground rose up and trapped the golem restricting its movements.

I jumped above it and put my hand unto the head of the golem to check if it has a magic script or not. Upon activating the >, no script appeared.

“Sora, they’re not puppets but monsters!”

“You figured it out too late.”

Just when I turned my head towards Sora, he already defeated fived golems. Just like before, the main parts aren’t cut but the parts that seemed like joints are releasing black smoke.

Three of the golems charged at Sora in a straight line to get close to him. I think they’re trying to use the first one as shield.

“Useless. >”

Sora lashed the air in five ways forming a black star that seemed like it could absorb light. After doing so, he did a quick roundhouse and kicks the black star towards the lining golems.

When the star hit, the golems got engulfed by the darkness of the star. Then, the three golems got covered in jet-black color and stopped moving. Then after that, all three of them crumbled down as they release black smoke.

With black lines following Sora, he zigzagged around the battleground confusing the enemy. Since he’s running in such a high speed, I can only see blurred black lines of him.

And by the way, I didn’t let myself become useless.

“Sora, get away!”

“Roger that.”

Coated in bright crimson flames, my hands charged the magic that I’m about to release. At the same time, magical array formed below the golems that Sora grouped together by the use of confusion.

“Die you indestructible bastards! >”

The magic array below the golems exploded. And in the next moment, a very who knows high temperature pillar of fire came out from the ground burning the golems from where they stood. Sora just made it in time to get out of the circle I created.

Since it would be bad if I continuously use fire above a mountain which has ice that has a high chance of melting, I cancelled it out the moment I felt that the golems have lost their lives.

When the smoke settled down, the only thing that remained are the red-hot barely melted rocks. The fact that it didn’t fully melt despite the heat is very impressive.

Sora then stood beside me while still releasing black smoke. He’s breathing heavily since he ran around so much.

“I can’t say that it’s a good thing, but it’s good luck in barely melting them.”

“Huh?”

Because Sora gave a weird comment, I inadvertently let out a dumb reply.

“What do you mean? They won’t melt?”

“Well, they could, but they’re made of [Mithril]. They don’t easily melt.”

“That’s impossible. Roldenrauf said that [Mithril] ore is colored yellowish white. This one’s brown so it can’t be the same thing. And also, they’re supposed to be nearly indestructible, but my daggers managed to go through it. How can you explain that?”

“The [Mithril’s] color depends on how it’s used. Though I don’t know the category of colors, I can still tell that this is the real deal just by testing its hardness. And the only reason why you managed to damage them is because you’re too powerful.”

While saying so, Sora’s smoke slowly disappears as he approaches the golem I stabbed with five daggers. He tried to pull one, but it’s stuck deep so it won’t even budge.

“Well anyways, what was that all about?”

“What’s what?”

“You, you suddenly powered up. And I remember it correctly, you called it your >, correct?”

After jumping down the dead golem, Sora made an expression that says, ‘can’t be helped then.’

“Actually, this is the third time I used this. I acquired this magic during that time when you were still busy back at Dalseriev Dukedom.”

“I see, that’s why I didn’t see you at that time. I thought you were too embarrassed to show your face to Ghena.”

“Shut up, I’m not some kind of puss—something just moved!”

Sora suddenly turned his head towards a certain boulder. Because of that, the two of us because cautious.

“It ran away!”

Because I have no idea what Sora sensed just now, I only followed him as he chases that something.

After a few moments, Sora suddenly stopped.

“The sensation was here just now. Where could it possibly go?”

Sora kept on looking around erratically. His face really is full of sureness.

“Sora calm down, I think it’s just hiding. Is it hostile?”

“I don’t feel such, but I can tell that that one was the one who shot the [Mind Magic].”

“What makes you say so?”

“Golems don’t use magic.”

“Good point.”

I looked around us if there’s clue on the whereabouts of that something, but there’s nothing here, not even tracks on the snow… I just found something below me.

“Dude, look down.”

There, below me, a handle for a trapdoor could be seen. It’s made of iron so it could easily be distinguished in the snow.

“It probably went down here. Let’s follow it.”

“Wait!”

When I tried to pull the handle, Sora suddenly grabbed my shoulder preventing me from moving.

“What?”

“I didn’t sense it going down. It’s probably a trap.”

“I guess it could be.”

Then, with one flick of my finger, I used my magic to blast the trapdoor open. Because I did it without chanting, it surprised Sora.

“Dude! Say some warning when you do it!”

“I like making surprises.”

After making a devil’s smile at him, I immediately jumped into the hole on the ground first.

***

“This cave sure is deep.”

“I think this isn’t a cave.”

Twenty minutes have passed since Sora and I entered the trapdoor. Nothing happened after that. Although the amplified gravity pulling us down has disappeared and returned to normal, it became suddenly boring.

As a side note, the cave is not dark because of some glowing gems inside it. It’s arranged in a fairly odd way so I can’t tell if it’s meant to be there or not.

Also, Sora said that the carriage made a stop just 2 miles from our location which is good. It’s quite far, but the distance is nothing if I just use magic. I can still say that magic is really convenient.

Going back to the current situation, we’ve been walking inside the cave (in my opinion) endlessly. It’s like the whole place is a maze of some sort.

“We haven’t seen that thing yet. Can you use your power to track it?”

“I could, but I didn’t mark its shadow so it’s hard. Furthermore, there are a lot of things running inside here. I can’t tell which is which.”

“Though you say that, we haven’t encountered anything yet. Maybe it’s just a glitch in your power.”

“I’m not sure. The walls are probably disrupting my ability. But either way, we have to stay alert. We don’t know what might pop out--”

Just when Sora got to finish his sentence, the ground suddenly shook in an unprecedented time. The next moment, the ground in between me and Sora rose up and became a wall to separate us. The earthquake still continued to shake the cave, so I got worried big time.

After the earthquake ended, I immediately turned to the mud wall and called out as loud as I could.

“Sora, I’m going to that side! Get away from the wall!”

After making a magic formation in my head, I touched the wall to destroy it. However, there was nothing behind the wall, except for a thicker mud wall.

“I don’t remember the wall that rose up was this thick.”

I used the same magic again. However, the same thing happened, a layer of mud was there.

“No fucking way.” (English)

Just like I thought, Sora and I got forcibly separated from each other.

When I turned around, two golems (probably made of Mithril again) suddenly came out of the wall. This time, they looked tougher than the ones outside just by looking at their shape, a knight that is.

“As much as I want to burn you guys to crisp right now, I won’t because I’ll get roasted too.”

Like waiting for me to finish my comment, they then attacked the next moment. And of course, I’m not the type of guy who likes to get hurt meaninglessly.

“>”

I activated the spell in full power so that the attacks would just pass through when they land.

I didn’t move when the Mithril Knights (just thought of that) attacked me in full speed. And as expected, their Mithril Swords just passed through me like they’re swinging in empty air. If they were human, I could tell that they’ll be wearing dumbfounded faces by now.

“>”

From my back, I summoned two stone spikes and hit the two golems. Since they’re made of Mithril, it didn’t destroy them. Instead, it blew them away. And by the way, the stone spikes went through my ghost body. It feels slightly weird.

The golems stood up and raised their swords again. They’re really persistent.

“Guess I have no choice. >”

Activating my ring, numerous spells came out of my vision which I wanted to appear. These spells are very compatible for some reason, so I don’t have to make too much effort in combining them.

After a few seconds, I finally finished combining every rune. With the same Macro name, I called it forth.

“>”

A magic circle vertically appeared beside me. After that, a 9-foot knight in brown armor with four arms armed with red doubled edged crystal swords walked out from it. And this knight is my familiar, the new and improved Shell.

[Thank you master for bestowing me such great powers. Please give me orders so that I can exercise your greatness.]

As he spoke with such high regard, he bowed to me to show his unquestionable loyalty.

--I wish I can set the personality of my familiars. But this one ain’t so bad too.

“As you wish; go break them.”

From his bowing position, he then switched to offense mode.

Like it was rehearsed, the two sides charged and clashed with each other.

As to Shell’s new appearance, I combined the > which is set to Earth element and used it as his new exoskeleton, > which multiplies his existing strength by 40 folds, > for his swords, and last but not the least, speed granted by the >. But about his fighting style, it’s his own.

When they clashed, all of their swords made spark as they collided with great strengths from their users.

One of the Mithril Knights found an opening. It then shifted its stance and tried to cut Shell’s body. However, when the swords got in contact with the armor, it only made a metal hitting metal sound. This is because the armor is imbued with my > magic which enhances the durability of the armor by tenfold. It’s already sturdy enough, but I just applied it as insurance.

Using that chance, Shell immediately kneed that knight and throws him far back.

Now that his two hands are free, he used the swords on his hand to try and cut the other knight’s arms. Unfortunately, the knight’s body is very durable that the swords didn’t leave a scratch when it came into contact. But that didn’t stop Shell.

Instead, he dropped the swords from his free hands and grabbed the knight by its waist. After that, he raised it up high in the air and then threw it towards the just-about-to-stand knight behind.

After letting out a battle cry, Shell charged towards the Knights that are still trying their best to stand.

Since I’ve set his power to overpowered style, the match is obviously one-sided as the Mithril Golems became his punching bag. But more like his crash dummy because he’s crashing both heads to the wall… where did this guy get his mercilessness?

After tearing the golems limb from limb, Shell came walked back to me with a triumphant air with him. I can tell that he’s contented with this after his rampage after a long time.

“Satisfied?”

[I am. But I wish to continue following master for now.]

After saying so, I walked pass him and continued to walk straight to the cave. Shell followed suit.

[Master, why do you continue further?]

Out of nowhere, Shell suddenly spoke.

“Because there’s nowhere else to go. If we follow this path, we might probably meet up with Sora soon enough.”

[Why not use magic to create a path, master?]

“That’s a good idea, but we don’t know what might happen if I do. For now, let’s just follow the tunnel since the enemy probably got too scared to pop out after showing them our strength. But I still want us to be careful though.”

[Whatever you say, Master.]

Then, I noticed something odd from the corner not far from where we stood. There, a white bright something was peeking out to me—us I mean. I think this was the one Marie and I saw back at the carriage.

Just when I was about to call it out, it suddenly ran and disappeared.

“Shell, let’s chase that!”

[Affirmative…]

From a slow walk, we instantly shifted to quick running and gave chase to that something.

When we turned to that corner, I immediately saw it turn to another corner. Of course, we still continued chasing it.

While running, Shell suddenly talked with a calm voice.

[What are we chasing, Master?]

“I don’t know, but I think it’s a clue in getting out of here. Now that we mentioned it, why did we come here anyway?”

With the same routine, we still continued turning to the corners where that something would turn to.

You’re probably wondering why I’m not tired. This is because I enchanted myself with > and >, so I’m not running out of breath. In Shell’s case, he’s a professional runner by nature.

Just when my mind became astray, Shell suddenly grabbed me and pulled out one of his swords from the sheath on his back. Then, he slashed down a stone spike which I didn’t notice in front of me.

[Master, please be more careful.]

“I will. Thanks.”

Since I received a scolding from my own familiar, I became wearier of my surroundings. Still, we didn’t slow down and continued to give chase to that something.

From there on, we encountered various traps like pitfalls with spikes on it, falling ceiling with spikes, walls with spikes, and golems with a lot of spikes on their bodies. Good thing that Shell’s with me to protect me. However, I’m starting to think that the thing we’re chasing is fond of spikes.

After running for minutes, we suddenly reached a dead end. I’m pretty sure that it turned to this direction.

“Looks like it used magic to disappear from here.”

[No master, I think this wall was just created just now.]

While walking towards the wall, Shell made a frontal stance with his two fists ready for punching. After that, he threw both of it to the wall, smashing it into bits. There, the tunnel continues.

“How can you tell?”

[The wall has different color than the ones beside us.]

-I see. He’s got some good eyes.

When I turned towards the tunnel again, there, I saw the light we were following. This time, I can tell what this thing actually looked like. This thing was in a form of a female human. With white hair, brown eyes, about as tall as Matt (my ears), and she’s wearing white yellowish one piece simple dress. I won’t exactly emphasize her flat chest but overall, she’s quite a beauty.

And now that I have a good look at her, she stuck herself on the wall while looking at us like she’s seeing a ghost.

“P-please! Don’t destroy me!”

“Wait, what?”

With teary eyes, she pleaded to me with incomprehensible words. And of course, I, who did not understand, gave out a confused reply.