I walked into the mine, along with Reco, Dota, Ritta, and his [drake], Asher, Thraisly, and her mule, Milo, Julius, Keen, and Symantha. Of course, Cobaltio was on my shoulders.

I could feel Cobaltio’s unease as he shifted on my shoulder. He seemed to smell something unsettling, though I wasn’t sure why I could tell.

“So, what happened when this outbreak happened?” Reco asked Symantha.

“My master told me that the nearby village, where most of the workers live, was attacked by a legion of monsters, forcing their most competent warriors to the entrance, where they fought back a wave of monsters.”

“That [mage] you mentioned, the one who made the light runes,” Reco said. “Who are they?”

“He is the manager of the blackstone mine. He was found missing in action after the attack, which is part of why the outcome was so catastrophic.”

We saw a second light rune on the cave’s ceiling, lighting a significant area. We walked under it, the other trainees looking at it with curiosity. Runes and magics made by [enchanter] general classes lasted virtually forever as long as the rune remained relatively intact, making them helpful in certain scenarios and pointless in others.

Cobaltio suddenly yapped, “monster!” a prick of danger leaking through our [draconic bond]. While the rest of the team was uncertain about Cobaltio’s sudden yell, including the other animals, I unclipped my falchion and took vanguard.

Apparently, Cobaltio’s nose was really good because a wolf with stone fur and a long tail with an arrowhead spike charged at me.

I quickly held my shield out to block its rock claws, then sent it plummeting with a strike from overhead, [decapitate] activating as I cut at its neck. Its rocky fur seemed to block a lot of the damage, but it was enough to send it slamming to the ground, dead.

Two more leaped from the shadows, but before the first managed to get to me, the ‘plant harness’ on my belt sprouted a new vine, which quickly swung it, throwing it to the side.

Seeing the first taken out, I repeated the same action, blocking the second wolf’s strike then swinging down.

It leaped off my shield, disconcerting me, then ran back into the darkness, with its comrade, barking into the dark.

You got 7 Exp for killing a [rockwolf].

“You won’t get away,” Julius said before calmly firing his crossbow at the hound before it could escape. Dota fired at the other escapee, landing his shot right after Julius. Julius’s shot seemed to miss the vitals, so his wolf managed to keep running.

Reco ran even quicker than the wolf, though, and managed to slam her flail into it, ending the monster’s life with a squeal.

“Nice job, everyone,” Reco said when she dragged the wolf to the others, illuminating the pile of monsters with her torch. I saw that the two bolts had gone past the wolfs’ fur, which was matted back only to guard against attacks from the front. I kept it in mind for later.

You won!

You gained 4 Exp.

Cobaltio gained 8 Exp from [shared experience].

Cobaltio leveled up!

Cobaltio gained +2 int.

Cobaltio gained [noble taste]

[noble taste]: this person gains +1 Str and +1 Con after eating food worthy of a noble.

Base Stats: Str: 11(+1) Dex: 13 Con: 12(+1) Wis: 7 Int: 25 Cha: 14

Cobaltio: 7 Exp

Me: 67 Exp

Well, Cobaltio got stat screwed, unfortunately.

I attributed his +5% growth to strength. Admittedly, his wisdom was worryingly low, but he seemed to be doing fine as he was.

Evidently, I wasn’t the only one with little to say about the encounter, so we continued.

We walked for another minute, the hall occasionally lit by light runes. There wasn’t much talking since we needed to be quiet to avoid danger. Eventually, we hit a splitting of three passages.

“So, Samantha, where should we go?” Reco asked.

“Master Luxo only needs this place cleared out and the source of the monsters sealed. Let’s start by clearing the left passage of the mine.”

We walked through the left passage. For a few minutes, we continued down, encountering nothing. The darkness between the light runes made me feel disoriented for some reason, and I found myself farther from the group than I had intended to be on multiple occasions.

“This doesn’t seem right...” Samantha said, staring down at her map with confusion. “We should have approached another split by now...”

“Let me see...” Reco snatched the map to take a look herself. Symantha waited with an irritated expression and eventually received the map again. “Yep, I’ve got no clue. It’s definitely been 300 meters.”

I looked beside Symantha’s shoulder, trying to figure it out myself. The map looked fairly complex, with diagrams, numbers, and notes strewn about it. It looked like it had seen use, too. It was pretty easy to figure out where we were, but I didn’t get the feeling I could provide any more insight.

“Let’s just go on. We will figure it out,” Reco said, continuing her march.

We all shrugged and followed. After another two minutes of walking, we made it to another split-off point, where a light rune illuminated three splitting passages.

“There’s supposed to only be two passages!” Symantha said, annoyed. “How come-”

Reco snatched the map away from her for a second, then handed it back. “Yep, I’m confused. Maybe it’s just old.”

“Maybe...”

“Anyway, let’s go down.” She pointed down the middle tunnel. “If we’re going to find a dungeon’s gate, it’ll probably be in the deepest or furthest point.”

Symantha rolled her eyes but followed Reco.

We walked down, descending further into the mine. I began to feel more and more disoriented, my strides feeling too small or big when I could have sworn I was walking normally, leaving me ahead or in front of the party without meaning to.

Once again, I was significantly ahead of everyone, and slowed down to keep to their pace, watching as Dota, holding a torch, walked toward me.

Where was Reco’s torch?

“Do you feel disoriented at all, Saya?” he asked as he let down his hood, his head and eyes pivoting around as he held his torch high.

I nodded.

“I thoguuhh-woah!” He said, stumbling.

Was he..further away?

“Saya, this seems abnormal,” he said, stating the obvious while he regained balance. “Something very wrong is happening.”

I ran towards him, my leg twisting as the distance between him and me continued to increase. I tripped, but Cobaltio activated his [death wing], lifting me up enough not to fall. As I got closer to Dota, space seemed to dissipate less until I was finally beside him and his torchlight.

He reassuredly patted my back with a feathered arm. “What is this?” he asked to nobody in particular. I heard the clopping of hooves in the distance and readied my falchion while Dota handed me the torch, which I carried in my shield hand. “I need to stay in the shadows. Sorry to make you hold this.”

I held my Falchion ready, only to see Thraisly gallop in on Milo.

“Saya, Dota!” she said as Milo stopped beside us. “Where is everyone? I didn’t even notice I had left you all, and then...”

“I know, Thraisly,” Dota said. “Space seems to be dilating.”

“The heck’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at your shadow.”

We each stared at Milo’s shadow and saw as its clear outline moved in the torchlight, rising as the very space between her and the torch increased.

“Where we are at this instant, unstable dark energy is manipulating space itself,” Dota continued. “Until it stops dilating, we need to stay near each other.”

“Go ahead and snuggle up,” Thraisly said to Milo with a nervous smile. The mule shuffled even closer to us.

{What’s ‘dark energy’ and why is it here?!} I asked, setting my sword down to awkwardly write on my slate.

Dota walked closer, his eyes looking in all directions. “It’s a force observed in only one place; dungeons.”

“But we’re not in the...” Thraisly began before trailing off.

A monster outbreak, large corridors, a force only seen in dungeons. It was difficult to deny what Dota was saying.

“We never found the dungeon gate, though!”

“It is the only possibility I can think of,” Dota said. “What else would cause these anomalies?”

“Shit, shit, shit! Jail the [priest]! We don’t-how...We can’t take on a dungeon, Dota!”

“No, I don’t think that’s possible either,” he responded. “But we can always escape.”

Milo snorted, and Cobaltio yapped, making Thraisly place her hands into her component pouches. “We can talk after this, but Milo says a monster is approaching.”

Assuming it wasn’t Asher, I put my slate away and picked up my falchion. We remained silent, listening while hoping not to be seen.

If I put the torch out, I could use my glow-in-the-dark slate to communicate, but...well, we needed to see. Damnit, how was I supposed to plan without an open hand?!

They’re coming.

Determined not to drag the others down, I walked to the front.

A black snake slithered from the darkness, only for my falchion to cut its head off, stopping it before it could attack me. Another came out, and I cut it, then another, and then another.

Soon, I was forced back, cutting down snake after snake, and eventually being forced to burn one with my torch, wielding it as a makeshift weapon, only for another to bite towards me and be blocked by a backhanded swipe of my falchion.

“Snakes?! Why?” Thraisly asked, shooting a [fire bolt] into the fray, killing two. I would have used [flame manimulation], but I couldn’t reach my charcoal without...actually, maybe I could if I really needed to...

“I’m not the only one who isn’t gaining experience from this, correct?” Dota asked, backing me up with his bow.

“Nope!” Thraisly responded, activating [nature’s wrath] to stop another snake from biting me. “Saya, say-I mean, signal if you need me to use [barrier]!”

I nodded my head slightly, concentrating as more and more snakes piled.

“Are they venomous?” Dota asked.

“I don’t recognize these animals...”

“That’d probably be because they aren’t animals!” Dota responded, shuffling through his pack. “This is a swarm, most likley.”

A swarm?

“You’ve got to be kidding. Saya, if these things are venomous...” She shot another firebolt, burning three more snakes. “Then I need to activate [barrier] now! Just one bite, and you’ll be left choking!” she said, giving me the option.

The snakes had begun to pile up, their numbers increasing drastically. I was killing dozens every few seconds, but the snakes just kept coming, more and more piling atop of each other, and if it weren’t for the [fire bolt]s, I’d be retreating. [barrier] could cover the whole tunnel, keeping them behind a screen, but that would only be a temporary solution, one that could very well bite us in the butt, literally.

“Not yet, Saya!” Dota said, insulting my dangerous pride as he threw a clay pot far into the fray of snakes. It splattered onto the dark-shrouded creatures, covering them in some liquid. “Stand your ground for just a little longer,” He stabbed a snake before it could get to me, engaging the swarm beside me. “Thraisly, use [fire bolt] to set my oil alight!”

We chopped, impaled, and burned the creatures as they came. The horde was only growing more and more dense, attacking the two of us with single-minded bloodlust. Then, as it almost became too much, my vine harness sprang to action once more, swiping five of them away, stalling for just enough time before another large [fire bolt] hit the swarm, combusting the oil and burning dozens alive

However, it only got a few. The [fire bolt] was large but not wide enough to incinerate them all. Seeing an opportunity to create even more damage, I slapped the end of my torch, burning my hand to cast [fire manipulation tier 2] with the charcoal at the top. The flame spread even further, igniting another few dozen snakes.

I had to step back and kick a snake away, then swiped my sword down to kill another two lunging snakes. Realizing the swarm was still fatally large, I had to use my trump card.

I nudged Cobaltio’s head twice, which had been uncomfortably leaning over my own in fear. He recognized my signal and leaped off my shoulder. Then, he jumped a second time in midair. Snakes instantly flew higher than I knew a snake could jump, piling towards the bigger, stalwart reptile like filings to a magnet. Cobaltio’s mouth, glowing with orange fire, grew even brighter just as I received a menu message:

Cobaltio gained [fire breath tier 2]

An eruption of flame engulfed the snakes, spreading across the floor five feet in all directions, creating a dazzling spiral of fire that incinerated countless snakes with heat so intense it made the light bend. Cobaltio was propelled backward from his intense flames, getting thrown onto his butt atop a mound of snake char.

Seeing a still living snake lunge at him, I quickly ran to intercept it, but its bite didn’t even penetrate Cobaltio’s [natural armor] when he raised his scaled arm to block. Cobaltio swiftly dispatched of its life, crushing its neck(is a snake’s body its neck?) between his molars in short but satisfying cracks of bone. As he spat it out, the remaining snakes, which seemed not to know the concept of fear, slowly stopped slithering and eventually froze, lifeless.

You won!

Cobaltio gained 65 Exp because of [shared experience]!

You gained 28 Exp.

Me: 95 Exp

Cobaltio: 72 Exp

“What in the world only gods see was that?!” Dota asked, holding his arms out to magically create a protective red aura in front of himself.

“Wait, you have [fire barrier], Dota?” Thraisly asked.

“Don’t change the subject ya scallywag! What’s with the [drake]! I don’t think they breath fire!”

{Did you become a pirate?} I wrote, clipping in my sword.

“I used to be a sailor, ye-stop changin’ my subject!”

{He’s a [dragon] kinda.} I finally responded.

“Ahh...what?”

“I don’t know how, but that [drake] is also a [dragon]. That’s why Asher seemed to hate him,” Thraisly said for me.

“Oh, that’s...quite peculiar, but it does explain quite a bit.”

That explanation seemed enough for Dota, as he casually reached into his bag and took out a brush, which he used to dust snake ash off his feathers.

“We can ask about it later, though.”

Yeah, it’d be a long story.

“Of course,” Dota said. “For now, I suppose we can focus our efforts on our grievous situation. Saya, are you alright to keep holding the torch?” Dota glanced to Thraisly’s two component pouches. “It seems we all need two hands to continue.”

“No, I can just...” Thraisly began, dumping the contents of one into the other. “Do that to use one hand. It just gets annoying to separate the bags.”

I eagerly handed her the torch, then wiped the snake blood off my sword. Dota laughed at me for it, yeah, but I wanted my sword to be clean. Besides, maybe, like, the snake blood was corrosive or something. You never knew!

Even I knew not to take on a dungeon, let alone under our circumstances, so I didn’t protest when we decided to make our way back to the entrance ASAP.

I picked up cobaltio and walked ahead of everyone again.

“You know, for being so young, you’re quite a good combatant,” Dota said as he walked on the edge of the torchlight, an eye looking behind us. “Where do you learn to fight?”

I wrote, {I learned myself.} while keeping an eye ahead of me.

“You’re self-taught?”

“No way,” Thraisly said, unbelieving. “You’re way too disciplined!”

I liked the accidental compliment, but it really bugged me not to be recognized, so I shoved the slate closer to Thraisly’s face, only for Milo’s snout to bat it aside in annoyance.

“Regardless of how proficient you are, you seem quite dedicated, at least for a Silent Angel. What makes you take to fighting so much?”

I turned my head in response to the question, genuinely unsure how to answer. It wasn’t like I wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps, becoming an accomplished general for the government, but...I didn’t quite have a goal in mind. I did what I felt like doing, and I wouldn’t let anyone tell me no.

So far, I had simply done what seemed right, what I liked, but I had never asked why I made those decisions.

I felt a pang of sympathy come from Cobaltio as he nuzzled me, sending warm chills down my spine.

{I don’t know.} I admitted.

Dota nodded before I turned to look forward again. “That’s fine, its ok not t’ know it all...but I think knowing why you fight is an important thing. After all, what’s the point in fighting for no reason?”

“Ok, Mr.Wisebird, what’s your reason for fighting?” Thraisly rebuked, up on her high mule.

“I simply enjoy collecting knowledge and learning about other people,” Mr.Wisebird responded with a feathered shrug and a click of his talons. “And you?”

“I need money to help my family.”

“Well, that’s that.”

We passed another light rune in silence.

“What...” Thraisly began, “What do you think is happening to the others? How did we get separated anyway?”

“I’m not sure,” Dota responded. “I suppose the dungeon reacted to our presence and decided to make things difficult for us by splitting us up.”

“Great. Since when did dungeons do that?”

“Well, young dungeons are extremely rare, so if I had to guess, it’s related to that.”

“Hmm...”

For almost ten minutes, we walked through the hall, only coming across two of the light runes on our way. We may have walked half a mile in that single corridor by the time Thraisly yelled, “I think I see the split-off point!”

Dota tried to see further, morphing his hands into fake trinoculars. “My eyesight isn’t all that good, so I’ll take yer word for it.”

I squinted to see a vague light further up the tunnel before Milo began to gallop up the slope.

“Oi! What d’ya think you’re doing!” Dota yelled, running after her alongside me. “Don’t blame me if we’re separated again!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Thraisly said, slowing down enough for us to keep up at a slow jog. After another minute, I could see the end more clearly, dim light illuminating the exit.

I felt...disoriented.

I kept running behind them, trying to stay as close to Milo as I could, then I dug my hand into my charcoal pouch to cast [flame manipulation] on Thraisly’s torch, sending a jet of flame into the darkness behind us, illuminating it in case we were about to be ambushed. After finding nothing there, I simply tried to stay focused, despite how the walls seemed to move and bend.

Then, as the end was in sight, I heard a vague echo.

Yahh...

The ground trembled.

Milo tripped over herself, sliding across the rock with Thraisly tumbling off him, while Dota and I managed to balance ourselves before tripping.

Dust fell from the ceiling, cracks beginning to form, originating from the split-off point and making its way towards us. “Oh my!” Dota yelled, his voice shaking. “We need to go back!’

Well, you don’t say?!

Thraisly grimaced as she crawled from under Milo, trying to stay balanced under the violent earthquake. “I need to get Milo out!” she said before beginning to lift the mule onto its back, no no avail. “Help me!” she yelled, terrified.

I saw rocks falling at the end of the tunnel, and Dota hesitated, glancing at me to see what I thought. If we weren’t quick enough, the tunnel could collapse.

To hell with it. Milo was Thraisly’s friend and as much a part of the party as anyone else, as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t going to abandon it to save a couple of seconds. That wasn’t my thing!

Gritting my teeth, I ran to Thraisly’s side, followed by Dota. We worked together and lifted Milo up. In a few precious seconds, the mule managed to get back onto its feet.

Further down the tunnel, the ceiling was collapsing, the cracks moving toward us, and the exit was fully blocked off.

I began to run the other way, deeper into the mine alongside Dota, and by the time Milo caught up to us, with Thraisly on her back, the falling rocks had begun to come closer to us, moving like an avalanche in deadly pursuit.

“Get on!” Thraisly yelled, giving me her hand.

I took it and threw myself onto Milo before reaching out and grabbing Dota’s hand, which briefly molded around my own as he climbed on.

Milo ran away from the landslide, further and further into the cave’s depths as the ground shook and the deafening sound of falling rocks approached us. I held onto Thraisly’s waist as hard as I could, hoping we would have enough speed to escape.

A rock fell just a few meters behind us.

Fear.

“Thundering gallop!” Thraisly yelled. Suddenly, Milo picked up in speed, galloping far faster than she had previously. The rocks tumbled further and further away as the mule carried us down the slope at ten times the speed we had walked up to it, barely outrunning the catastrophe.

By the time we felt safe to stop, we were back under a light rune, and our torch had died out.

I stumbled off, shaking as I stumbled to the wall behind myself and slid into a sitting position. All of us looked into the darkness we had come from.

There was only one way forward now.