Shit," I whispered.

We did not get very far before we ran into another group of goblins. Like the last group, there were three of them all with little to no clothes and below average weaponry.

"Stop swearing so much," Rurika said with a roll of her eyes. "This much trouble is nothing. No, hold on, nuisance is a better word."

In a flash Rurika casted two Fire Lotuses which killed their targets on impact. This terrified the remaining goblin. It was so scared that it was shaking in place.

I swallowed down my nerves and stepped forward. Now was the time to prove myself. If I failed here, there was no way that Rurika would trust me anymore. Worst case scenerio she might even ditch me if the situation became dire enough, and I wouldn't be able to blame her.

A strong sense of guilt gripped my heart as my sweaty hands gripped the spear. No matter how you looked at it, Rurika had intentionally left the last one for me to deal with. With ragged breathes I slowly walked towards the quivering goblin.

“Drunkard’s Breath.”

There was no real need to use magic. I’m positive that the poor thing would have just stood there as I killed him, but I wanted it to have a more blissful last moment. The goblin was so drunk that it was still smiling as I thrusted the spear into its neck. If only it were that easy.

My kill was no where near as clean as Rurika’s. She had roasted her enemies in one shot. It was over in an instant. The only unpleasant part was the smell of burning flesh. On the other hand, my kill was a lot more gory.

Blood poured out of the goblin’s throat as soon as I pulled out the spear point. The problem was, the pain helped it to regain some clarity. It deprestely tried to use its hands to block the wound to no avail. Snot and tears flowed down the sides of its face as it fell to the ground spasming. I could smell the foul stench of the goblin soiling itself as it gasped for air.

Unable to continue watching the creature roll around in agony, I jabbed my spear into its left eye and impaling the brain. Besides some twitching, the goblin moved no more. Blood began to pool on the ground, staining my shoes red.

Tears began to swell up at the corner of my eyes as waves of conflicting emotions overwhelmed me. I wished that I had fought a hard earned victory against that goblin. Just the thought of me killing something so defenseless almost caused me to have a panic attack. I didn’t kill to protect someone or in self defense, I killed because there was a possibility of that the goblin would be a threat in the future. I took a life out of fear.

“We need to keep moving. Don’t dwell on it, the first time is always the hardest.”

Rurika started to run again, but paused just long enough to pat my back and give me some words of consolation. I guess she could see how shaken up I was. Although the words failed to relieve any of the guilt I felt in taking a life. Her firm pat woke me up from my daze.

I followed behind her without turning my head to look back at the bloody mess behind me. Now was not the time to let my mind be clouded. That's right, if given a chance I am certain that goblin would have killed me without a hint of remorse. I chose to eliminate a threat, that is all there is too it.

Rurika led me down several tunnels without rest. I glanced down at my phone to see how long we had been running. To my surprise we had been on the go for close to three hours. I guess the body of a magician is different. Even though only the veins are laced with mana, when it leaves the body to complete a spell, the impact it has on the muscles, skin, and organs are not small. Is that why Rurika was so fit? As I become a stronger mage, will I become as ripped as Mr. Suzuki?

After turning a bend, we finally reached another cavern. It was about the same size as the one that we stayed in before. The only difference was that this one had grass and other plant growing. To top it all off, there was some object hanging from the ceiling that looked like a miniature sun.

“Let’s rest here for a moment. Is five minute enough for you?” Asked Rurika as she sat down and crossed her legs in meditation in order to regain the mana she used.

“Yeah, five minutes is fine.” I gasped as I collapsed onto the ground.

While we were tired, anyone could point out who was more physically fit just by our clothes. My shirt was completely drenched in sweat. If I were to take it off and wring it, I could make a puddle. Rurika on the other hand looked only slightly fatigued.

In retrospect five minutes seemed pretty short, and it was. Yet I understood that this break was more for me than for Rurika. Despite our less than friendly relationship, she has been very considerate. If she were alone, she would undoubtedly have been able to cover more ground in the same amount of time. I grit my teeth and balled my hands into fists. Being a dead weight was frustrating, and being unable to get a clear picture of the situation was paralyzing.

I need to use my breathing technique, I used two Drunkard’s Breath without replenishing my mana pool. The muscles in my legs spasmed in protest as I forced myself to sit in a similar fashion to Rurika and began to meditate.

As much as I would have preferred to let Mr. Book do the mana collecting, I wanted to save that precious possession time for when I really needed it. It would take him only half a minute to fill my heart to the brim. One could say that this rapid mana recovery was my ace in the hole. Should we get in prolonged fight, this ability could be a game changer.

Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye. During this period of time, I managed to recover most of the mana I used. The feeling of having a relatively full mana pool was extremely refreshing. If I had to compare it to anything, it was similar to the moment right after eating some hearty stew. The flooding of warmth throughout my body on top of the satisfying feeling of being full was something else.

“Seems like you are ready to continue.”

Rurika came over to my side and inspected my body from head to toe. Failing to notice any irregularities she gave a small nod and turned around to travel down another tunnel.

“Wait Rurika, I wanted to discuss something real quick if that is alright with you.” I said, stomping my foot down with extra emphasis, as if to make a point that I would refuse to move until she gave in.

Without pausing her steps she kept walking, “depends what you want to talk about, we are still in a dangerous area.”

“That's what I wanted to talk with you about. I won’t pry into your family situation or who that person that attacked your grandfather was. I wanted to verify a theory that I haven't been able to get out of my head.”

Craning her neck to peak behind her back, I could see her cock an eyebrow. “Oh, and what is this theory of yours?”

“Is it possible that a portion of the goblins are working with that man who attacked us earlier?”

“What makes you say that?”

“I'm sure you have noticed from our last two encounters that we did not bump into those goblins by coincidence. My theory is that someone ordered them to guard those spots. The person pulling the strings clearly was lacking the information as to where we would end up after falling down the hole, so they cast a wide net.”

“Get to the point.”

Geez, this girl is so impatient. I mean I understand that we are in a rush and all, but at least be willing to hear me out.

“If it was a wide spread net to ensnare us, than when those dead goblins fail to report, won’t that mean that who ever is targeting us will follow the trail of corpses?”

“So you’re saying we have been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for the enemy?”

Apparently she was finally taking my words seriously, because she stopped walking. A nervous look crept onto her face as she began to twirl her hair around her index finger. Whatever she was thinking, I wanted to know as well. As someone who has more experience in the Slip, Rurika had to know something about the interrelationships within the Slip’s inhabitants. Maybe she could even draw a connection between that Mr. Goodman and the goblins.

“I had a bad feeling that the positioning of the goblins was too well coordinated. While there are intelligent goblins, they wouldn’t waste manpower on guarding the less traveled tunnels that we have been using.” Rurika said as she muttered to herself. "At first, I thought they could be new sentry points. It would make sense if the leadership of the clan changed. Still, that is a little too unlikely."

“Does that mean we can agree that we are in deeper shit than we thought?”

“Yeah, we need to change our route. Up until now, we have been focusing on the fastest route out of here, so that has made our potential location predictable.”

Rurika must had been under a lot of mental pressure. Normally, I would have expected her to condemn me for usage of foul language. From her mannerisms, it was not hard to imagine her upbringing mirroring that of nobility.

“Listen up Yuta, I think our best option is to do the exact opposite of what our pursuers are think we will do.” Shifting her feet, Rurika changed the direction she was going to walk towards. “I have an idea, but I want to hear your opinion. If you disagree or think we lack the ability to accomplish it, I will understand.”

I could feel a bead of sweat roll down from the side of my forehead to my chin. “So, we are going to go to the lower floors?”

Nodding her head in confirmation, we finally reached the entrance to the way that led to the second floor. From what I heard, the strength of monsters increase as you go down. However, we were running out of options.

“Relax, even if we go down one floor the monsters there are still manageable. You said it yourself, the goblins know where we are. Therefore the only chance we have in shaking them is to make it look like we disappeared into thin air.”

Throwing my logic back at me, I lacked a solid counterargument and could only follow her from behind. “How experienced are you in traveling in the second floor?”

This was the question that was gnawing away at me. It was intuitive that the lower a magician goes, the chances that they don’t come back up increases. I could believe that Rurika had trained on how to travel the first floor, but I can’t seem to be able to wrap my head around her knowing much about lower floors. After all under normal circumstances, there is no way that one would choose to go down.

“I have looked at maps of the second floor, but I have never been there in person.”

My stomach fell as she proved that my inkling was correct. The problem was how I was going to respond. There were so many uncertainties with either choice. By going down we risk being lost and possibly encountering stronger foes. On the flip side, continuing on the path we have been will almost certainly get us ensnared in an enemy trap.