I pull my knife out of the hobgoblin's throat and stand up, dagger still embedded in the middle of my left palm. The pain from my wound goes to the back of my mind as I look to Daniel, who is advancing toward the shaman, taking all of its attention. He has no visible injuries, and his previous opponent is lying dead, with a massive dent in its helmet.
“Good job, guys! Halon, you can let it fight normally now. Just stop it from running if it tries.” Merrick says, once again getting no reply from the invisible man.
“I’ll circle left. Watch for more floor spears.” I tell my partner as we start to circle the shaman on opposite sides.
The shaman looks pissed, snarling and screeching at us while it starts to cast another spell. The gem on the deer skull headdress starts to glow far brighter than it had before, while the creature frantically looks at all three of its visible opponents. It chants in its foul language while using both hands to gesture at me and Daniel. We're only fifteen feet away when it releases the spells it’s casting, one at each of us. The new spell appears directly in front of me, at an angle to impale my belly if I don’t dodge.
Thanks to [Mana Sense], I’m able to preemptively dodge the incoming stone spear but hear a grunt from Daniel to the right, who dodges forward into the spear and breaks it with his hammer before it reaches him. He continues the charge straight for the shaman.
The goblin spellcaster’s eyes go wide as it quickly moves both hands toward Daniel and then jerks them up into the air. Right in front of Daniel's feet, a nearly foot-tall wall is almost instantly raised up, causing him to trip as he has no mana-sensing capabilities. This makes me thank whatever decided to give me [Mana Sense]. I’d likely be dead without it.
I use the distraction to close the distance to the shaman, aiming to kill it in one blow with my knife. Once again, I boost my legs with mana as I sprint towards my prey, ready to put it down. Right before I can get in range to plunge the dagger into the side of its neck, I realize I fucked up. To my right, on the cavern floor, is another stone spear spell aimed right at me.
The spell must be a trap, as I couldn’t feel it until it activated, launching toward me. I reflexively push all the mana in my body to my right side, where the spear will impact me, and start burning it, reinforcing the skin and bones there. The stone spear shoots straight into my ribcage, breaking several ribs and piercing almost two inches deep into my side. I involuntarily cry out in pain, the worst that I have ever felt, as the tip of the spear breaks off and stays in my side, grinding against my rib bones every time I move.
It's not for nothing, however, as I manage to stab the shaman in the shoulder with my knife, leaving the weapon in it as I fall to the ground. My impact with the stone floor causes another surge of pain in both of my wounds, bringing more tears to my eyes and another involuntary cry.
I feel more mana gathering right under me and know I can’t afford to worry about any more pain my movements will bring. This thing wants to kill me now, so I have to move. I roll over as quickly as I can, tears welling up in my eyes as I feel bone shards and the stone projectile grinding against each other. The stone spear barely misses me, and I’m up to my feet before I feel the next one gathering below.
How much mana does this fucking goblin have? Why is it only focused on me?
I look up at the shaman, hand immediately going to my bloody side. My knife is stuck in its shoulder. Nearly half of the blade is penetrating it. Bright red blood leaks down its chest from the wound as it glares at me. Rage and a little bit of what I think is fear coat its face, snarling and snapping at me while it gets ready to cast another spell. Before I move to dodge, though, I see Daniel standing ten feet behind the shaman, with his hammer raised behind his head in a two-armed throwing pose. He’s smiling at me with a bloody nose as he lets the hammer loose, watching it fly towards his prey, and lets out a loud laugh as it crashes square into the spellcaster's back.
The goblin lurches forward from the sudden impact and falls to the ground in front of me with a crack sounding from its head, cancelling its spell in the process. I shoot forward, ignoring the pain from my wounds as I reach for the deer skull with the gem embedded in it. It’s attached to its head in some way, so I just grab the skull with a mana-boosted arm and slam its face into the floor until it breaks free.
The goblin stops moving, but I don’t get a notification, so I decide to finish it quickly before it can get up again.I flip the bloody goblin over with my good hand and pull my knife free from its shoulder. I stab it in the neck, fairly certain that it’s not necessary, as the goblin's face is mangled and bloody, hardly recognizable, but I do it anyway. I take a few steps back and sit down, breathing heavily as someone starts clapping.
“That was quite the battle, eh?” I think I hear Halon say as I take a second to compose myself. I need to get Stella to look at this before I can move again. That was stupid, getting caught in a goblin's trap. I underestimated them, and I paid the price. At least I should have gained some levels from all the goblins we cleared out.
[You have slain multiple creatures]
[Level 7 forest goblin]
[Level 3 forest goblin]
[Level 2 forest goblin]
…
[You have leveled up to level 9.]
[Level 37 forest goblin shaman]
[You have leveled up to level 10.]
[You have leveled up multiple active skills]
[Space Control] level 7
[Mana Shaping] level 8
[You have leveled up a passive skill]
[Mana Sense] level 7
I can’t find it in myself to be happy at the level-ups. My side and hand are in too much pain to think about anything else. “Can you go get Stella?” I ask whoever will listen.
“Sit up. I will remove the pieces of stone and knife, and then you will drink this potion.” Halon says from right above me.
I do as told, and the removal of the stone fragments and dagger is incredibly painful, but I know this world will offer so much worse later, so I power through it. After Halon finishes, he hands me a small metal vial and tells me to drink it all.
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The potion is bitter, but I’m well beyond caring. The mana in it feels very similar to Stella’s skill, moving straight towards the wounds and somehow turning into brand new flesh. It takes nearly ten minutes before I feel the potion finish, and my ribs and hand are back together again, with small white scars where the flesh was repaired.
After the pain is gone, I can finally feel the results of leveling up. My body feels a little bit sturdier, like it can hold more mana before it starts to strain. And my heart is once again producing more mana. My mana reserves are pretty low after that fight, so I let them fill up for a little bit.
Merrick is chatting with Daniel about what we could have done better in the fight when he turns to me. “Feeling better? Those potions are handy, right? Just don’t drink too many in one day. You'll get mana poisoning.”
“Why not just have Stella heal me then? I bet they are expensive too.” I mutter as I stand up, walking over to my discarded spear.
“They are, but I’m a rich scion of a noble house, remember?” Merrick responds with glee.
Halon speaks next, from the door at the back of the room. “The storeroom is back here, just the stuff from the previous captives. The only other thing of any value is the shaman’s gem.”
I walk over and pick up the rough red gem from the broken pile that used to be the deer skull. It’s small and no longer glowing, but I feel a small amount of mana trapped inside of it. “What is it?” I ask Halon.
“Just a low-quality crystal, most likely from a monster. It looks like the shaman was using it as a mana battery. It’s yours, as you killed it.” He says to me while walking back to the cavern entrance.
I look at Daniel. “You want it? I couldn’t have killed it without you.”
He shakes his head. “All yours. I have enough trouble with mana as is. I don’t need to make it harder. Yet.”
I nod and put the gem in my pouch for later, walking to the storeroom. “So, do we get to loot this now?”
“If you want, I doubt there’s anything good left. They tend to send anything shiny or pokey back to the main tribe every few weeks.” Merrick replies.
I decide to check it out anyway since we’re already here. Walking into the room, I find it is a rough cube, about twenty feet to each side, making me wonder if the shaman created it using her stone magic. It’s clearly not natural.
The room has a few wooden tables lining the edge, mostly filled with rusty weapons and a few pieces of rotting leather armor. I don’t see any of my stuff, or anyone else's from Earth, so I decide to leave, as everything else looks like junk. Before I get out of the room, an idea strikes me. If the shaman created this room, then it could probably also create a secret hiding spot in the stone.
I feed mana into [Space Control], pushing my spatial sense a few feet further than the size of the room in all directions. It feels like a natural sixth sense to me at this point. I feel like I'm blind when I turn it off. It worries me, a little bit. These skills are addicting, and I feel like I could easily get lost in the excitement and euphoria of leveling up. I need to remember that my goal is to get back home, and getting stronger is just a way to accomplish that.
After a few moments of looking over the room and its surroundings, I find exactly what I’m looking for. Right in the middle of the room, about a foot under the floor, is a small hidden compartment in the stone.
How am I going to get into it? I can’t get through a foot of solid stone, not yet at least. After a few moments of thinking, Occam's razor comes to mind.
“Merrick, can you come void something for me?” I shout to the other room.
Merrick walks in a few seconds later with a curious look on his face.
“What do you want voided?"
I point to the spot above the loot stash.
“There is a cache buried about a foot below that point. Can you get into it?”
“Easily,” he says as he walks over to the spot I pointed out and places both hands on the floor. After a dozen seconds of looking at the floor, a small tunnel in the rock appears, leading straight into the buried cache.
The hidden cache only holds a few items, and Merrick pulls them out while I watch. First is a small leather pouch full of coins that he throws to me after looking inside. It’s full of quarter-sized coins, easily a few dozen of them. Most of them are silver, but a few are made of gold as well. Getting money is a good sign. At least some kind of civilization exists here. I was afraid things would be more barbaric, but so far the locals seem like good enough people.
By the time I look back to Merrick, he has already pulled out the other two items. One is a broken sword. Only the leather-wrapped hilt and a few inches of a shattered blade remain. The pommel has a small clear gem installed in it, causing my [Mana Sense] to tingle at it. The other item is a palm-sized chunk of some black metal, which Merrick brings up to his eyes, examining it.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I’m not sure, but it feels valuable.”
“Maybe Daniel can do something with it. He has a [Metal] affinity.”
Merrick nods and leaves the room, telling me, “The sword hilt is yours, if you want it. It’s a broken magic sword, but you can probably still get some coin for it.”
I pick up the broken weapon and put it in the pouch next to the shaman’s gem, intending to look over both items after I get some rest. After exiting the storage room, we head back to the cavern with the fighting pit.
In the pit, Morah and Elsine are using paper and charcoal to copy some of the engravings on the wall, while the rest of the group lounges around. Stella is talking to the group of three that I haven’t met yet, so I decide to head over there while Daniel goes to talk to Morah.
Stella quickly introduces me to the three when I walk over to them. The female archer goes by Cale, and she too is a member of House Baradia, but a branch family, as Merrick and Morah are main family members. Warren is the tall armored one with two swords, and now that his helmet’s off, I’m able to get a good look at him.
He’s covered in short black fur with a very feline face. His eyes are yellow, with a black vertical slit, like a cat's that follows my every movement. The cat-man is a member of a race called the Greel and can apparently shapeshift to some degree, as he says this is not his ‘normal form,’ whatever that means.
The name of the man in the green and blue robes is Marle, and he’s the most regular-looking guy I’ve seen so far. He looks like he could be from Earth. Minus the magic. That and his clothing choice make me decide that he is definitely a wizard. Marle and Warren are both retainers of House Baradia, as are Elsine and Halon.
“Good to meet you all,” I say after they introduce themselves. “I’m Ray.”
They all look to be in their early twenties. Well, except for Warren. I have no idea how old he is.“Why does everyone seem to be so young here? I haven’t met a local who seems older than mid-twenties.”
Stella answers this time, apparently having spent her time gathering information. “It’s because of this place.” She moves her arms all around herself, gesturing to the world around her. “The planet, I mean. It was created for people like us to get skills and mana and level up, but the locals are different.
“They were never intended to be part of all this, but apparently initiates kept having children, so new rules had to be made. The island of First Landing, the one we have to leave for the [Quest], is one of three continents on this world. Each continent has more dangerous monsters and climates than the last, as we are supposed to move from one to another as we get stronger and work towards finishing the [Quest] before it kills us. But the locals don’t have [Quest]s, so instead they have age limits. The age limit for first landing is twenty-five. If anybody over the age of twenty-five steps foot onto this island, they will die.”
That’s rough. Also, what a weird way to live life, with the planet split into zones. The more I learn about Helot, the more I want to know why it was created. And why are the locals locked here like an afterthought? If the planet is already filled with people willing to fight, why abduct us from our homes?
I’m brought out of my thoughts by Morah, who calls for everyone to gather.