Mature Content: Lots of Combat, graphic at times, and some swearing.

Author's Note: A much longer chapter. Not sure what else to say, but I already know that when I go through and redo this for the commercial version it will probably be much longer than it currently is, or it will be broken into two chapters. :)

Chapter 5: Secrets and Strategies

The dim light of a torch stone provided both illumination and difficulty for Scott as he silently stalked the corridors of the mine. The light allowed him to see, but it also cast shadows on the area that allowed monsters to hide. He considered using more than one, but his supply was limited. Unlike Rhea, he did not receive many in his drops. There would be enough to train with until the bonus ran out, but he would have to procure more of them when he went to sell his loot in town.

He heard the change in the musical score long before he saw his next opponent. That was partially due to how the world worked, and partially due to the fact that it was high above him. A soft hissing noise was his second clue to its actual location.

Scott looked up just in time to be hit with a thick strand of sticky webbing.

You have been entangled with webbing!

Your movements are slowed, slightly.

“Shit.” cursed the sorcerer. It was another one of those damned shadow weaver spiders. They were a major pain in the ass, even when there were two people in the party.

The shadow weaver spider skittered through the shadows on the roof of the mine. It was quite agile despite the fact that it was easily the same size as a normal man. The open area that Scott had entered had a much higher ceiling, more like a natural cave than a man-made structure.

The music grew louder in tone and developed into a heavy percussion style. Drums beat loudly, ominously, in the background. That meant that the monster that he faced was strong enough to do serious damage if he let it. He had not heard that particular musical score until he had come to this mine, but whenever it played he had faced a hard fight.

Another hissing noise escaped the spider and webbing shot down again. Scott was prepared for it this time, and leapt backward. The spider skittered around some more and the sorcerer decided to take the fight to the creature.

The main issue that he had with these things was that they tended to only pop up in areas where there was a high ceiling. His freeze spell would not reach it, but he did have one other that he could try that he knew might do the trick. It had worked before. After narrowly dodging another web-shot he reached a large rock and leapt atop it.

Scott immediately jumped once more after reaching the top then loudly shouted, “Burn!”

A fiery dart of burning magical energy raced out of his palm. The spider tried to avoid the attack, and partially succeeded. However, the burn spell was more than just a tiny little darting flame. A bright explosion of fire and light erupted outward with great force only two feet from its position.

The shadow weaver screeched in panic and fell from the ceiling with a loud *thump!* The noise and light had temporarily stunned it.

Scott immediately hurled another fiery ball of destruction in its direction. The spider curled up like an angry fist, but that would not save it. The third burn spell set it on fire after doing over thirty points of damage. It did not take long for the annoying monster to turn into motes of light.

“Man, I hate those damned things. I waste so much mana on them.” Scott grumbled a bit. He would not make the mistake of trying to fight them in melee again. He could hurt them, and they could hurt him. However, they were also venomous. The poison was mild, but he only had three of Rhea’s herbal tonics to use in an emergency.

The music took a little longer than normal to change back to its standard mine exploration track, but the result was the same.

Victory!!

You have defeated a shadow weaver!

+84 EXP

+28 Fayth

+1 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

Spider Web X 3

Spider Leg s X 2

“Not bad.” The only good thing about the annoying monster was that it did not swarm. Usually there would only be one or two in an area.

Scott moved on. There would probably be no more monster spawns in this part of the mine due to the presence of that creature. The spawning system was a strange combination of random battles and natural habitat considerations that made little sense, but somehow worked.

Once he had escaped the spider’s lair, the web effect ended. It never lasted long, anyway. Luckily he had been his in the chest with the sticky attack. His movements had not been slowed enough to matter. During a hunting trip with Rhea, he’d had one of his arms trapped against his side for a while. That had been a serious problem.

The sorcerer walked boldly through the mine while he searched for prey. Hiding and stalking prey was either not possible or required skills that he did not possess. Either way, if he wanted to fight he had to be seen by the randomly attacking monsters.

It did not take long before he was faced with a new opportunity. A loud cry from the darkness alerted him to the presence of his next opponents. Four goblins ran at him from the corridor up ahead.

“Oh, yeah. Come on!” exclaimed Scott before firing off his burn spell. The tightly grouped monsters were caught in the fiery explosion that resulted. One goblin caught fire and started to squeal while running around in a blind panic.

Scott used their sudden panic to his advantage and raced in to take the battle to them directly. He had not reached a point where he could just spam cast his spells, otherwise he would have.

The sorcerer landed a flying kick to the chest of the closest attacker. It fell back with a loud cry. One of the other creatures lashed out with a rusty machete, but Scott easily blocked the strike with his forearm. His wooden armor was stronger than the dull and battered metal, and a surprised goblin found that his attack was turned to the side. Scott slammed his other hand forward, ramming his weapon into the creature’s exposed chest. A bright red number twenty-six floated up and away.

The burning goblin squealed once more then fell to the ground. It spasmed a few times then turned into motes of light.

‘One down, three to go.’ thought the man before following up his previous strike with a vicious uppercut that skewered the goblin’s jaw.

He was forced to dodge the strike of the third remaining goblin now that it had gotten its bearings once more, but the creature’s clumsy attack was easy to deal with. Scott turned with the motion of the attack and ripped his gauntlet from the second goblin’s jaw in the process.

A powerful kick slammed into the third goblin’s lower back that sent it sprawling. Scott cried out in pain suddenly and immediately turned to face the thing that had hurt him. The first goblin struck out once more. It had gotten back to its feet during the brawl with the other monsters.

Scott hopped back to avoid a hard horizontal slash, and then repeated that movement when the goblin swung back in a reverse swing. It seemed a little more skillful than the others, but it was barely noticeable.

A hard strike to his left side caught his attention. He was losing focus and taking hits! The third goblin had gotten back to its feet and joined its comrade. Thankfully the second goblin was bleeding out on the floor, or the man would be hard pressed. Fighting three monsters of a similar level to you could be problematic. He was strong enough to deal with two of them, but he was taking damage.

Scott jumped back to avoid a horizontal slash from the first goblin, but was forced to twist to the side to avoid a lunge from its companion.

The goblins grew more aggressive upon seeing that they could back him up in this manner, but they forgot to take into account the fact that he could use magic. Their murderous intent was clouding their judgment.

Scott hopped back to avoid a strike, but then leapt forward diagonally to evade a downward stabbing motion from the other combatant. His palm shot out and gripped the goblin’s face in a brutal display of aggressive dominance. “Freeze!”

He had expected the cone of freezing energy to wash out and capture both monsters in its field of effect. However, something far stranger occurred. The freezing magical attack coalesced entirely inside the goblin’s head!

“The hell?” said Scott, stunned. He was barely able to lean out of the way when the other goblin tried to strike him in the shoulder. Instead of hitting the sorcerer, however, the attack missed and slammed into its companion’s frozen head. The flash frozen goblin’s head exploded in a shower of meaty frozen splinters.

The surprised goblin who had launched the attack open its eyes wide then made a startled cry. It turned to look at Scott accusingly and the sorcerer shrugged. “You did it.”

It screamed at the man, but its scream was cut short by a strong kick to its stomach. It doubled over in pain, but its agony would not last for long. A brutal uppercut down rammed Scott’s rat fang gauntlet upward with enough force that he completely penetrated through the bottom of its jaw and up through its eye.

“Seriously?” Scott frowned at the dying monster and shook his fist. He was stuck!

“Damn it, just die already!” snapped the man while trying to free his hand. The goblin complied with his desired after a short time passed. He made a mental note to not do that again if he could help it. Getting his weapon stuck inside his opponent seemed like a good way to get himself killed.

Three of the four goblins were now dead, but the goblin he had stabbed before was still jerked and spasmed on the floor. It bled heavily from its brutal wounds, but it had not quite died yet. Scott elected to end its suffering via a hard kick to its face. He was such a kind soul and did not want to see anything suffer. The sound of snapping bones echoed down the corridor when he repeated his mercy kick.

The music changed back to its normal score and he eagerly awaited the results. These goblins seemed to be a little stronger than what he had found outside and in the entrance areas of the mine.

Victory!

You have defeated a squad of goblins!

+384 EXP

+320 Fayth

+4 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

Rusty Machete X 2

Torn Leather Vest X 3

Tatter Boots X2

Goblin Soul [Rare]

“Nice! Wait... I acquired a goblin’s soul?” Scott looked at his inventory screen to see what that was supposed to be. His eyes lit up.

“No way...” He pulled his new skill ring from his inventory and then looked at it until he could see its basic information

Goblin’s Soul

The ability to summon goblins as minions.

EXP: 0/2400

“I can use this to summon goblins?” That was cool, but he put it back into his inventory for now. He wanted to gain a few levels while he still had the bonus in effect. He would try and learn more about the goblin summoning ring later.

“I wonder if every monster can be summoned.” He was not a summoner by trade, but the ability to call extra help might be nice.

Scott checked his health then frowned. The short fights he had faced earlier combined with this goblin battle had whittled away quite a bit of his health. “I should probably go rest.”

The sorcerer made his way back toward the mine entrance. Along the way he ran across common threats in the mine, a few rats and a lone goblin. Once he reached the surface he trotted toward his campsite then sighed loudly. He really hoped that he would be able to restore his health and mana with greater speed in the future.

He walked into the sanctuary zone to make sure that it still worked properly then stepped back out of the safe area to practice his spells. He had gone on three quick hunting trips so far and his spells had been used frequently.

After firing off three freeze spells he received a message that stated that he had increased its level to two. “Sweet!”

“Force three, mana requirement six... Nice.” Sure, he had to use it seventy-five more times before it increased in level once more, but it was much stronger now. From what he could tell the magical damage that a spell could do was something like force times intellect. A monster’s intellect and a few other factors determined its resistance to magic as well. So, smarter monsters were usually more resistant to magic unless they had a critical weakness to a specific element.

The concept seemed a little broken, until he realized that the force would top out at five when his spells were mastered. Higher tier spells probably had a higher force rating, so it still balanced out.

He checked his other spells and decided to train his burn spell with the last of his current mana. He casted the spell twice then sighed. The draining effect of being critically low on mana made him feel exhausted. Still, he intended to get some sleep anyway. When he woke up, he planned to go in for one last hunt before the bonus period ended. He had not quite reached his next level, but he was one or two battles away.

Scott looked at his status then frowned. Hunting solo was a lot slower than it had been when Rhea was with him. It made no sense. What was he doing wrong? Sure, the spawn rate was lower now due to their constant hunting over the last few days, but he should be able to do better than this.

A thought occurred to him, and he decided to try it out on his next hunt. It would not be a particularly excited battle if it worked, but he could save those sorts of battles for later.

The exhausted man stretched out on his cot and considered the last few days. Things had been great between him and Rhea. They worked well together. However, there were things that still nagged at him. Not all of those things had to do with her directly, but they led to him thinking a few strange thoughts.

She had to leave for long periods of time, occasionally changed her speech patterns, and seemed to have personality issues. At one moment she would be the sweetest girl he had ever met, and at other times she had an icy demeanor. Did that matter? No, but when you combined it with a few other things... his suspicions were increased.

The most definitive thing was something that had nothing to do with her. It was the mine bonus. Why was it ninety-six hours? Wasn’t that extremely arbitrary and random? He had been in this world long enough to notice that most things regarding time and usage were similar to Earth.

Scott could have easily seen a twenty-four hour bonus, or even one for up to seventy-two hours. A week, or even a month might have made sense. Why four days? Why was the bonus for exactly four days when he knew of nothing else that synchronized with that? The world operated on a seven day week with twenty-four hours.

The sorcerer gazed up at the roof of the tent. Rhea sometimes had a strange sense of time as well. She’d had to go do her so-called elf stuff once on the trip to Meaden. She had said that she’d be back in ten or fifteen minutes. However, she had been gone for almost an hour. He overlooked it then, but the arbitrary four day bonus had tickled his brain a bit.

Scott called up his status screen then scrolled to the very bottom. He looked at the option to return home, and noted its locked status. The sorcerer stared at it for a moment then closed his eyes. In truth, he had started to suspect that she was like him. She was someone from another world who came here, but could leave and return to her world of origin. Yet, even if that were the case he was still missing something.

Why did the girl suffer from surprise narcolepsy? His suspicions pointed toward her being something like him, but that bit of her personal trivia about the girl kept him from honing in on that possibility. It was possible that she was similar to him, but she definitely had some other deal going on.

He began to drift off to sleep after a few more minutes. He was very tired. His last thought before slumber overtook him was that he wished that she would confide in him. As long as she kept her secret, it would be hard for him to completely trust her. Worse, if his suspicions were close to the mark, her supposed feelings for him might be nothing more than an act... a bit of role playing. How could he trust her feelings, when they arose out of nowhere and seemed to be so complete?

“Rhea, what am I to you?” He sighed softly and not long after, dreamland came to claim his disquieted soul.

***

It was time; Scott had readied himself as best he could. He was about to do something extremely stupid. The former soldier took a deep breath then took out several of his remaining torch stones. He would only hunt here one more time before going to town to sell off his loot and resupply. It was time to see what his stupidity would get him.

He activated the stones and the area brightened considerably. After the torches were lit, he ran forward and released his pent up breath in a loud battle cry. His shout echoed through the mine. The man kept running, and continued to shout every so often. It did not take long before something happened.

Your loud and aggressive presence has been noticed by the denizens of the mine.

Scott blinked. He had not expected a message window. He had just wanted to see if making a lot of noise would attract more monsters since he had mostly just walked around quietly before. That was one of the differences between how he had been hunting, and how he had hunted with Rhea. When they hunted together, they chatted and made a lot of noise.

Scott’s eyes widened when he heard loud chittering of cave rats, the clatter of goblin boots, and the sounds of cave bats shrieking in the darkness ahead long before the first monster arrived. He immediately realized that he had gone beyond stupid and headed full-speed into suicidal territory. The sorcerer briefly observed the area then shook his head. This was no good. He needed a place where he could limit their numbers.

He turned and ran back toward a place that he knew that he could use. One of the larger open sections of the mine had been used as a sort of office area. When he arrived, he heard the background music change into a song that he liked to call ‘The Pursuit.’ It was similar to the percussion based music that had played during the last spider battle, but it had a hungrier and more aggressive tone. The brass horns mixed with the drums gave it that extra deadly flair.

The sorcerer spied the place he needed to reach, the office. It was erected on top of a rock ledge that was high off the ground. Only a narrow ramp connected it to the mine floor below.

The background music rose steadily in volume as he ran, and soon it became an all-consuming assault on the senses. He reached the ramp just in time as six cave rats entered the large cavern area. They were not the only ones to join the coming event. Goblins, spiders, bats, even a few of the rarely seen slimes in this cave began to pour out of the various entrances to the area.

Scott tried not to crap his pants, but was not completely successful. There had to be dozens, perhaps over a hundred monsters!

The horde raced toward him, shrieks and shouts were their battle cries. The ramp was only large enough for a single person to walk up at a time, and it was designed with three connecting platforms. So, really there were three ramps each at a roughly ninety-degree angle. If seen from above the ramp system would look something like a lightning bolt.

Scott moved to stand at the second platform and chose to wait for the army of monsters to come. It did not take long. The cave bats arrived first. The shrieking creatures were black and brown monstrosities about the size of a bowling ball. They were not particularly strong, but they were fast and they could fly.

Two of the creatures swooped in for a quick diving attack but were easily dealt with by swift strikes to their critical areas, their wings. It was a tactic that served people well before. If a fast flying monster attacked you, such as the bats, don’t try to land a killing strike. Aim for the wings. If you damage them a little the monster will usually be a lot easier to deal with.

The bats were no different. They were the weakest monster in the mine once you took away their speed. One bat fell to the platform with a shriek, while the other fluttered around erratically. It was not able to fly properly and eventually settled down on the platform rail.

More bats came, but they were only an issue for a brief moment. Of course, that moment was a long enough space of time for the rats and goblins to reach the first platform then begin to run up the ramp toward him.

Scott rolled under a diving bat then came to a stop with his right palm pressed down and toward the oncoming hoard. “Burn!”

The tiny dart of mana erupted shot from his palm and impacted on the lead goblin before unleashing a loud and fiery explosion. It was knocked back by the blast and took the monsters behind it down with it due to the steepness of the ramp.

Another bat attempted to take him for their meal, but he leapt into the air and performed a spinning kick that neatly sliced off one of its wings. The creatures were annoying and took up precious time. However, he managed to fire another explosive dart of magic down the ramp. This time he was able to catch several of the monsters in the blast zone.

He ran half-way down the ramp and fired off two fiery attacks before returning to his position. The last two impacted dead-center of the platform and caught many of the massed monsters. Several of them went up in flames and started to scream and run around. The burning effect was contagious in its own way and whenever one of the burning monsters, especially the rats, was near another monster for more than a second it would catch fire as well.

Scott stomped on the weakly crawling bats that he had cut out of the skies before then returned to see that the fire was starting to die down. Several members of the horde were dead, but more had taken their place. It also seemed like more monsters were entering the area. That was not a good sign. He had already expended one-fourth of his mana.

A hissing sound from his left indicated the thing he had feared most had come to pass. The sticky string of web material shot toward him. He barely had time to react to it and knew that it would hit. However, his foreknowledge was flawed. Just as the spider began to shoot its webbing a bat swooped in to try and make an attack. The spider ended up webbing the bat instead!

The spider made a strange clicking growl sort of noise then looked between Scott and the bat. The sorcerer’s eyes widened when he realized what it was doing. The spider was trying to decide what it wanted to eat! Scott snatched up the bat by one of its feet then tossed it toward the spider. The hellish monstrosity chittered then jumped toward it.

Thankfully, it did not catch it until it had moved beyond the rail. The spider had its meal, but it also plummeted toward the ground.

Scott fired off two more burn spells toward the mass of monsters that were trying to climb the ramp to buy time then ran over to the downed bats. He snatched them up and threw them off the platform into the closest pocket of spiders. There were only a handful of the annoying eight-legged freaks, but the bats kept them busy.

He was surprised and excited to see that something else happened as well. The remaining bats heard the cries of their brethren. They turned on the spiders and began to attack them! The spiders were much stronger, but the bats had greater numbers.

Two of his most annoying foes were out of the picture for the moment. He returned to the rats and goblins. His mana was running low, so he opted to drink one of his tonics and focus on physical attacks. While his mana regenerated to a minor degree, he manned the entrance to the second platform.

A badly burned goblin struck out at him with its rusty machete, but he turned it aside and delivered a hard kick that knocked it back. It did not produce the same force as the explosive magical attack, but it did give him a little room. He continued his evade and kick tactic for several minutes before he was forced back by the sudden arrival of a creature that he had nearly forgotten about.

The slime did not do much damage when it wrapped around his leg but it did surprise him. The goblin that he was going to force back, took the chance presented and launched forward in a full-body tackle. Scott was knocked back and to the ground.

He bashed at the ugly bastard with everything he had and killed it quickly, but the real damage was done. Several rats and a goblin had made it to the next plat form. He fought them for a moment, kicking and punching for all he was worth. However, the momentum of the battle had changed. He was the one being forced back with every movement. Soon he was unable to hold position.

Scott ran for the ramp on the other side of the small platform. He fired off four consecutive freeze spells in order to slow the progress of the monsters, draining a large chunk of his remaining mana in the process. Unfortunately, the strength of his freeze spell was such that it could do over one hundred points of damage if it hit for the maximum amount. His rapid-fire attacks had not slowed the monsters; it had outright killed over twenty of them.

Killing twenty monsters so quickly should have been an amazing feeling. However, monsters dissipated into the ether when they died. Scott had done nothing more than free up space for the hungry bastards behind the unfortunate creatures who had faced his power.

The tonic had only restored a small portion of his health and mana. He had recovered his mana to about the halfway point, but the Fairy’s Cure had run its course. He had two more doses, but he had to use them sparingly. Besides he had no time to drink another at the moment.

Three goblins attacked at once. Scott managed to maneuver around the strikes but not cleanly. He took a hard hit to his left thigh that caused his knee to buckle. The temporary imbalance in his stance left him open for a flying tackle from an oncoming rat.

He was knocked to the ground, hard, and immediately received several hard strikes to the legs and face that whittled away his health. His defense was a bit high for his level, but with this many attacks coming at once he hit points were being lost at a rapid pace. He struggled with the oversized rodent, but had no leverage.

Finally, out of physical options he used his little used spell. “Flash!”

The rat screeched in pain as lightning arced through its body. It was stunned long enough for Scott to wrestle his way free, but his freedom did not last long.

A hard leather-clad fist raced toward his face. He was rocked by the surprising power of the blow, and it took a second to properly right himself. It was a second too long. Skinny arms embraced him in a bear hug and held him tight, giving his ugly brethren the chance to strike unimpeded.

Scott was hit over a dozen times before he managed to twist and struggle free of the hold. His health was close to the critical stage now and there was no end to this battle in sight. He suddenly felt strongly that he was going to die here. He had made a serious miscalculation when he had run through the mine screaming.

There was no choice. He needed breathing room. Scott called out, “Freeze!”

He only used the spell once this time, but several of the goblins and a rat still died. However, the ones that had not died slowed down quite a bit.

His body felt sluggish, but he struggled past the pain and growing exhaustion. He hopped back and moved toward the ramp as fast as he could go. He took a hard strike to his unprotected back in the process, but he got to where he needed to be.

Another freeze spell was unleashed in order to clog up the narrow entrance way with half-frozen bodies. While the horde attempted to crawl over their frozen compatriots Scott climbed the ramp and headed for the third platform, the one that contained the actual mine office.

The burn spell was employed to knock back a rat that came leaping after him. Luckily it caught fire and spread its burning love to the rest of the nearby rats. Soon rat and goblin alike were burning while running around screaming. Scott took the chance to take out another Fairy’s Cure tonic and gulp it down. They did not heal much, but they cured many ailments and restored by a little health and mana over a short period of time.

He returned to his previous tactics of evade and attack to keep the monsters pressed back along the ramp. He was thankful that they were quite stupid. If they had a reasonably capacity to plan, he would already be dead.

Over time his health rose back to around the halfway point while his mana was right around one-third restored. He did not have much time to survey the area between attacks, but it looked like monsters were still trickling in to the area a few at the time. It seemed like less than before, it was possible that he was emptying out the entire mine right now.

The only time he used a spell now was whenever a random slime popped up on his ramp. There seemed to be no more bats or spiders to deal with. Either they had grown bored of the battle or they had destroyed each other. Either way, good riddance!

Time passed, and he was forced to use his freeze spell five times due to the influx of slimes. He had opted for using it due to his low mana. Scott knew that he would not be able to hold here much longer. Yet, where would he go? He was backed into a corner now.

He kicked, punched, and shoulder blocked his enemies away due to the narrow confines of the ramp and his higher combat ability. Yet, his fall was inevitable if he was forced to continue in this manner. What he needed was more breathing room. He had done incredibly well up until this point when you considered the sheer number of opponents that he was facing. He had taken the high ground and forced his opponents to fight in a location of his choosing that eliminated their greatest strength, their numbers. Even so, he was but one man, one exhausted man.

This was not a battle like when he fought the grass rats. They had only come at him a few at a time and at intervals. These bastards never relented. Their numbers were starting to thin, but there were still far too many of them for his comfort.

Scott continued to push them back whenever they reached his position, but it was hard going. The rats were actually the most difficult opponent that he could face in this way due to their body shape. He could not just kick them in the chest. He was forced to lift and push them, or something similar. It was always a struggle to keep them back. More than once he had used his freeze spell just to be able to get his hands on a particularly insolent rodent.

Why were these damned things so persistent anyway? They just kept coming! It really was like an old school role playing game. The monsters kept fighting till they died, no matter what. It made no sense in real life, but in a game it was perfect logic. The monsters were designed to be obstacles and to kill the player. Was that all these things were? Did they exist solely to kill him?

What could he do, though? There had to be another sixty or seventy of the things, and more trickled in now and then.

The battle would never end at this rate. If he’d had more tonics he could have spammed his spells and killed them all. As it was, even if he drank his final tonic he could use freeze four times or his other spells three times.

Scott rammed his knee upward into a goblin’s chin before slamming his hands forward to knock it back. It fell over the top of a rat and rolled down further to knock over a few other monsters. The other goblins slapped the fallen one around a little without doing much damage then they all got back in place and continued to mill around like they were waiting for their turn.

The sorcerer caught a rat that leapt toward him, it was a smaller one, and tossed it back. It knocked several goblins over and they began to stab at it with more force than they had done with their comrade. If only he could coax them into all-out war with each other like he had done with the spiders and bats! They had refused to do that, though. He had tossed, burned, flashed, and frozen them all manner of ways. Yet, they would not turn on each other for long.

A noise caught his attention, a hard thing to do among the cacophony of the current combat scenario. It was the sound of metal straining and groaning. Scott stabbed a goblin in the chest then sent it flying back to knock over a few more monsters. The ramp made the groaning noise once more.

He saw that the moorings for the ramp were no longer connected to the rock face that it had been attached to. It was just a metal ramp designed for a handful of people to cross at any given time. It was only supported by the rock wall and the bracing.

Scott slammed his fist forward and impaled an overly large rat through its beady little eye. It dissipated into motes of light and he was forced to immediately fight the next monster. The aggressive movements of the monsters as they tried to pile over each other to get to him caused the unanchored ramp to groan and sway.

Somehow, he felt that this was a chance! If the ramp gave out, the bastards could not get to him and he could rest for a while. Sure, it was a long way down to the bottom, but that was fine. He did not care about that as much as a normal person would.

It was not enough, though. There needed to be more force, more damage to the metal of the ramp. It was not until a rat managed to crawl over the top of all the other monsters and come close to reaching him that he realized what he needed to do.

Scott delivered an upward rising elbow strike to the jaw of the closest goblin. When it fell back he jumped as high as he could and thrust out his palm toward the center of the ramp. “Burn!”

The explosive force rocked the ramp and sent several monsters hurtling toward their deaths. It was not long before a loud groan erupted from the over-stressed structure and it started to buckle. Scott had thought that it would simple come loose from its connection to the two platforms, but to his surprise and delight it broke near the center at the point of impact.

The ramp was attacked via a linchpin system so that it could be taken up later, though the company that ran this mine had never bothered to do so for some reason. When the ramp broke, both sides instantly fell straight down. Dozens of monsters had piled onto the bridge between platforms and the hapless creatures plummeted to the ground below. Most were so badly injured from the constant fighting that they exploded in a shower of light the moment that they hit the ground.

A loud outcry from the remaining creatures reached him, but they could not come to him personally. There were no more bats, slimes, or spiders in the area and neither the rats nor goblins could scale the walls. The rats were too big and the goblins were no skillful enough.

Scott breathed in and out for a moment, catching that long desired breath that he had wanted. He looked at the frustrated monsters on the other side of the gap. A thought occurred to him; he brought his feet together and raised his hand to his brow in a smart salute. The monsters across the way did not seem amused.

Safe for the moment, the sorcerer backed away. That had been quite a hectic battle! If he had been just a little stronger he could have just fought them down on the area below in a massive melee, but they were too close to his own strength.

He was still better than them individually, and that had saved him for most of the fight. By limiting their avenue of attack their greatest asset had been defeated. It was a simple and ancient battlefield tactic; the sort of thing that any gamer, soldier, or student of history might think of when faced with a similar situation.

He walked away from the edge and turned away from the monsters waiting for their meal. Instead of worrying about them, he opted to search the officer area more. He and Rhea had discovered it on the second day, but they had only performed a cursory look through it. There had seemed to be nothing of use that they could see.

Scott opened the office door and strode through the entranceway. It would be a nice place to rest for a while, if nothing else. At least it would protect him from wandering bats and spiders if any of them decided to crawl or fly out of the tunnels.

The office was spacious, considering its purpose. There were three rooms. One room was sort of a main foyer that seemed to double as a work room. Another was a place that seemed empty, only a busted file cabinet and a few scraps of paper remained. The final room was something like a dayroom for whoever worked in the office. There was a simple cot, and a small table.

Scott sat down on the cot and sighed loudly. He was tired, weary to his bones. His low mana state had caused him to feel sluggish, and his health was not doing too much better.

He looked down at the floor for a few minutes while attempting to fight his exhausted state. That exhaustion was probably why it took his so long to notice something off about the floor.

“Huh?” said Scott, before leaning forward to check it out. There was a section of floor that seemed to be a slightly different color. It was a tiny difference, but it was there.

Curious, he rose from the cot and tried to look under the bed. He could not see anything in the darkness, so he reached up and grabbed one of the torch stones that had been following him around. They were hot to the touch, but bearable. He placed his hand under the cot and let the little ball do its work.

He saw nothing of interest at first. There was a bit of trash strewn about, and a few spider webs, nothing useful. However, after looking at the floor he noted that there was definitely a tiny color difference in the wood.

Scott released the torch stone and grasped the cot. He pulled it away from where it had rested for decades and looked at the floor underneath. “A circle?”

He tapped the wooden floor in a few spots near that circle and received a similar sound. He tapped the slightly discolored circle and he heard a different sound. There was space underneath it!

“Interesting.” He stabbed at the floor a bit with his gauntlets, but the tough old wood resisted his efforts. It was dry in this part of the mine, the wood remained solid.

Scott stood up and started to kick downward with hard heel-kicks, and they performed the task of breaking through with far more ease. It did not take long before the wood succumbed to his assault. He tore it away afterward then snatched at a torch stone. He shoved his hand down into the space below and used the light to see what he could find. There was some sort of hatch!

He released the stone then climbed over the edge of the shallow drop-off and lowered himself down. His light source followed him and he was able to see the space more clearly.

The hatch did not have a lock on it, which defeated the purpose of a hatch in his opinion, so he pulled it upward and discovered something even more interesting. A light was shining down below.

The intrigued sorcerer walked down the stairs that had been revealed and saw that there was a treasure room hidden under the floor! At least, that was what he had hoped to find. What he actually discovered was a crudely hacked out corridor lined with glowing fungus.

He followed the corridor a short distance and entered a wide room filled with rusty metal crates and cracked barrels. Maybe this place really had been a treasure room at one time, but right now it was a dump. “Who would hide this?”

Several uninterrupted minutes passed as he slipped among the crates and barrels in search of scraps. He found only an old cracked plate and six Fayth scattered around the room. “Seriously, why hide this?”

At least that answered the reason for having a secret hatch with no lock. Maybe the old mine foreman had hidden things down here and didn’t want to be caught after they pulled out?

Scott was not satisfied with that answer. He began to move the boxes and barrels around. His old gaming instincts told him that a room full of boxes always held something good, even if it wasn’t necessarily the most awesome thing imaginable. There had to be more here than six Fayth and a cracked plate!

Nearly an hour passed before he moved a crate that was hiding something useful. There was another discolored section!

He immediately started tapping around the area and found that this section of wood also sounded hollow. Scott kicked his way through after several hard strikes.

“Oh, this time it’s a metal ladder...” He cleared the debris then climbed down into the darkness once again.

Once he reached the bottom he found that he was located in a natural cavern. The glowing rocks fungus from before was evident in far greater amounts, as well. He stepped forward and received a message.

You have entered a Fairy Grotto.

Fairy’s Grotto!

The home of fairy’s who live in sacred springs. They keep the water of life and allow those of good heart to drink without limit.

“A sacred spring?” Scott was suddenly quite excited. He did not know if it was true here, but a sacred spring in most games equaled free health and magic restoration!

“Oooh, who’s that?” asked a sugar-sweet voice.

Scott turned to see where it was coming from and came face to face with a tiny naked girl. She was small enough that she could have stood on his hand without any issues, completely nude, and radiated a powerful blue light. “Hello...”

He wanted to sound calm and collected, but he was seeing an actual fairy. She was quite pretty, for a tiny naked girl.

“Hi! OH Gosh, a human! This is... goodness, a human visitor!” The girl started to babble then began to flitter about in an agitated manner.

Scott blinked then asked her if she was alright. She seemed quite upset.

“Well, yes. I am. Thank you for asking! I was just excited because I have not seen a human in ages.” replied the tiny, but perfectly formed girl.

“I’m sorry if I have come at a bad time. I just discovered this place while waiting to see if a bunch of monsters will run off and leave me alone.”

“Oh! I see. That is a problem isn’t it? You’re not strong enough to fight them?” she asked.

“Well, I managed to defeat a few hundred of them I guess. I’m almost at my limit, though. I needed to take a break.”

“Ooh, so strong!” The fairy started to flitter around him in an excited manner. As she did so, she would occasionally make approving and disapproving noises.

“You do seem a bit beat up...” said the Fairy.

“Just a little.” admitted the sorcerer.

The Fairy’s glow intensified for a moment then it died down. She looked down at the ground and her tiny little cheeks took on a reddish tint. “If you want... You can have a little of my sacred water. OK.”

The Fairy looked up at him briefly then hid her eyes behind her hands. She tilted her head back down almost immediately.

“I don’t really know what sacred water is...”

“Oh, you don’t? Uhm... well.” The Fairy’s face turned bright red and then she shook her head.

Scott was vaguely concerned for a moment. Why was she stretching this out? Should he be afraid to find out what her sacred water really was?

“Fairy’s, we are the handmaidens of the gods and goddesses. The sacred water is formed by our sadness from being separated from them while we exist on the mortal world. Even though it is not really made from out tears, sacred water is also known as Fairy Tears.”

“OK... Why would I want to drink your tears?”

She slapped her hands out and pressed her palms toward him then started to wave them around. “N-no, no... Don’t say it like that. A Fairy’s real tears are special, too special to give away like that.”

“I don’t doubt that...” said Scott. He really did not know if that was a big deal or not, but he thought that he would humor the girl.

The nameless Fairy fluttered about the area a little then beckoned for him to follow her. He did as directed and soon reached a glowing pool of water that was pristine and clear.

“Sacred springs are a gift from the gods to help mortals and show their love. If you’ve never drank from one before, you can sometimes receive a special gift as well.”

“What kind of special gift?”

The fairy shook her head. “It is different for each person. If you need a gift just think strongly of your desire and the name of a god that you have a connection with. If they hear you, find you worthy, and believe your need to be just, you’ll receive a gift.”

“Really? That sounds nice. Shall I give it a try?” asked Scott.

“Sure! Go ahead!” exclaimed the fairly with great excitement.

The sorcerer knelt down and thought deeply about his current situation. He was not sure if it would work, but he apparently did have a connection to a deity. He was supposedly the champion of one of them.

Scott dipped his hand into the water. He lifted it to his lips and drank deeply. As he drank, he thought strongly of his current situation. He clearly envisioned the monsters waiting beyond the gap, and then thought of the goddess Origin.

He visualized the statue of her that he had seen and spoke her name and his need within his mind. ‘Origin, goddess of love... I do not know if you truly know me, or even care to do so. However, I am here at this sacred spring thinking of you and imploring your aid. Somehow, I feel that I am connected to you. If that is true, and you wish to help me with my current situation, I would appreciate it.’

He was not sure if that was an appropriate prayer, or request, whatever it was supposed to be. Still, it was answered quickly.

In fact, it was answered so quickly that the Fairy exclaimed in surprised. “Wow! Whoever you prayed to must really like you to answer so quickly.”

Scott smiled softly. So, there was a connection after all...

“See that glowing sphere? It’s a gift from the god that you prayed to for aid. Stretch out your hand and tell it that you accept it.”

Scott looked up at the floating sphere of light that hovered above the water. Whatever was inside would be the answer that the goddess had given. He stretched his hand out and said, “I accept and appreciate your gift, Origin.”

“Origin!” The Fairy dropped like a rock and barely managed to avoid hitting the ground.

“Uh, yeah... Is something wrong?”

The tiny naked girl shook her head back and forth. “No, but I’ve just never known her to answer the request of a man before. At least, not at a sacred spring...”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

That was an interesting bit of news. The glowing sphere of light floated over to him. When he took it in his hands a message screen popped up.

You have been granted a divine gift, the Miracle of Origin.

This gift is in answer to your prayer for a way to solve your current situation.

Gaze into the miracle and your answer will be revealed.

He gazed into the miracle and soon an image appeared. Honestly, he was surprised by what he saw.

The miracle flared wildly and then disappeared. In its place appeared two curved pieces of wood that were shined in the light. Scott took the items in hand and a loud orchestral fanfare erupted all around him.

You have been granted the divine skill: Dual-Boomerang Mastery!

This skill is learned immediately and does not require a skill ring. You may use boomerang weapons, immediately. Dual-

Boomerang Mastery allows you to dual-wield boomerangs with the same skill as you would have when wielding a single boomerang.

“Oooh, you were given weapons... Neat!” The Fairy looked at the sleek wooden weapons then back at Scott. How lucky!

“Absolutely... I think.” How would a boomerang solve his problem? He could probably hit monsters with them at range, but he would still be stuck where he was.

“Go give them a try on those monsters! Who knows what might happen.” said the Fairy in an encouraging manner.

“OK. It was nice to meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you, too. Come back whenever you need to restore your health and mana. This sacred spring will always welcome a boyfriend of Origin.” said the Fairy. She blew him a kiss then winked before disappearing from sight.

“A boyfriend of Origin, huh...” He was a boy, and he might be sort of like a friend... but to call him a boyfriend? He didn’t even know her. The fairy was probably just being overly enthusiastic or something.

Scott checked his status and noted that he was fully healed and rested. He could go make a solid effort to finish the battle at least. He hefted his new boomerangs and looked them over. They were a miracle granted by his patron. He hoped that they would prove to be as beneficial as she seemed to think.