“Seventeen goblins dead ahead.” Laela rushes back from a cave ahead. “Can we handle this Graem?”

Graem thinks for a second and then grins, a glint forms in his eye. “We can handle it. Gorm, you’re up!”

“Stalwart Defense!” Gorm roars before running through the cavern. He laughs manically the whole way.

“Laela, Reed. Clean up the stragglers!”

Laela races ahead.

“Right!” I call out and chase after her speeding figure.

“Berserk!” Gorm’s maniacal cry echoes through the cave ahead of us. “Crushing Blow!”

Past Laela, I see a dance of shadows; we’re nearing the firefight. She breaks out of the cavern first. Behind me Jaed and Graem follow us carefully protecting the rear.

“Berserk!” Laela cries as she exits the cave into the cavern.

“Berserk!” I cry a second later as I too break into the cavern.

Berserk activated: 60 seconds remaining.

As usual, I’m met with carnage. It’s clear where Gorm first met resistance from the splattering of crumpled corpses to the left of the entrance, a few with clear merciless cuts through their throats. Damn it, missed out on the easy exp.

“Five dead!” Laela cries towards me. “Eight on Gorm, four on me.”

Laela dashes away from the goblins on her, clearly unable to handle them. Gorm too stands back to a wall swinging his hammer back and forth wildly threatening any of the goblins that might feel inclined to take a bite out of his trunk-like legs.

“The wounded?” Graem yells from the cavern entrance.

“All dead!” I cry, confirming the goblins caught on the ground aren’t a threat.

“Laela, herd the stragglers to Gorm!”

“On it!”

“Good. Reed, reinforce Laela! Jaed, you’re with me!”

I sprint towards Laela as she kites the goblins in Gorm’s general direction. A single goblin branches off towards Jaed and Gream. I dash forwards, planting myself directly in front of it.

“Mana Bolt!” I yell.

Dealt 18 Health Points: Magical corrosive damage.

The bolt sends it sprawling and a second later I plant my spear in its flailing body.

Dealt 28 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

I yank my spear out and twist around back to my companions. Laela jumps forward still tailed by the goblins and jumps high, kicking off the head of one of the goblins fighting Gorm and falling into place beside him.

“Grasping Vines!” Graem shouts.

As the goblin collapses to the ground under Laelas foot, row after row of vines wreathe out and over it from beneath its feet. To its left and right its goblin kin are caught in similarly compromised positions.

“Six caught! Jaed, finish them!” Graem yells.

Jaed’s whole body is luminescent with the light of the growing ball of mana in her hand.

“Charged Mana Wave!” She swings her arm down and the wave of bright light rushes out towards the goblins.

One by the one the goblins are sliced from head to toe. Six bisected goblins, still caught in Graem’s vines.

“Five goblins left,” Gorm calls.

“Let’s finish this!” Laela laughs.

“Gorm, engage the centre. Laela, Jaed, don’t let any escape. Reed you and I will handle any stragglers!”

Heeding his orders, I rush over to Graem. But before I even arrive the goblins are dealt with. My companions are frighteningly efficient.

I slow down and walk over to the group. There I find Graem beaming. “Excellent work. This is a major improvement from this morning. All the training is paying off.”

“That was the last round for today, right?” I ask.

“Indeed.” Graem replies while stooping down to cut the ears off a goblin. “Still not going to help with the ears?”

I smile. “No that’s fine, after all it’s important to have a lookout.”

“So, my job?” Laela calls out, while pressing a goblin head into the dirt and quickly butchering it.

“You are busy.” I laugh.

Laela laughs too. “Yeah. Busy making sure we don’t go home empty handed.” Then she stands up and holds out a bloody ear sack. “If you aren’t going to cut them, at least help carry the spoils.”

I consider the bag hesitantly.

Laela raises an eyebrow before pushing it into my hand. “You know it’s funny how queasy you get over just the ears. After stabbing goblins all day.”

“It’s different.” I shrug keeping my focus off the sticky feeling of goblin blood dripping out of the sack.

“What about the head you carried around?”

I grimace. “That was different too.”

“I’m sure.” Laela laughs then crouches down to cut another ear.

“Come on, let’s head outside.” Graem urges, then begins leading us to the exit.

The walk back through the caverns is boring and no one says much. Practice I know for when we’re deeper in the dungeon and being so alert could save our lives. But right now, on the first floor, I can afford to lose focus for a couple seconds. So then let’s see how much exp. I earned today.

‘Experience.’

612/800.

Not bad. Won’t be long till level five.

Light streams from the cavern exit up ahead. Gorm yawns deeply and starts stretching his muscles. We step out back into the safe world of the surface.

“So…” I begin, but my voice quickly peters out as my nerves suddenly get the better of me. Come on, just spit out the question. Ask it and then grow.

“What is it Reed?” Laela asks breaking me out of my chain of useless thoughts.

“Just, how did we do?”

“A great question.” Graem beams. “How do you think we did, Reed?”

“I don’t know. I guess the fights felt easier today.”

“That’s an understatement.” Graem nods. “We’ve made a lot progress. I’ll start by saying I’m glad to see we are getting used to identifying the number and vicinity of monsters. That is helping improve our tactics considerably. In more specific areas, Gorm, your battlefield positioning and presence has been critical in drawing the goblins ire, lessening the danger we all face considerably. And Laela, you have markedly improved the speed with which you can manoeuvre a herd of goblin stragglers into a pincer area. I also want to praise our positioning and timing with ability use, but particularly yours Jaed, when activating Charged Mana Wave. Speaking of ability use, I’m extremely pleased by your improvement Reed, especially in your accuracy with Mana Bolt.”

Laela pats me on the back.

Graem continues beaming. “Honestly, our progress is brilliant. It’s hard to say how we compare with other similar level adventurers due to the complexity of our subclass composition. But, I’m feeling considerably confident about our future as an adventuring group.” Graem pauses and his eyes glance over each of us. “Does anyone else have anything they want to add?”

“Strong growth.” Gorm smiles. “We celebrate with feast.”

To this comment Jaed’s eyes light up.

“Err. I don’t think it’s that big an achievement.” Graem replies hesitantly.

Laela laughs. “Come on guys, if we have a feast over every improvement we really will go broke, and that goes double for Reed.”

Double broke? I snort. Sounds about right.

“Besides,” Laela continues. “I’m getting pretty close to saving enough for a shiny new dagger.”

Footsteps! I clasp my locket tight, letting out just enough light for me to see but hopefully not be seen. I take a few steps closer. Slowly, silently, stealthily. Good, it seems to be alone. A few more steps. I tighten my grip on the pointy stick. Just a bit closer.

It spins around claws flourished and growls. Fine then, time for plan B. Loud and proud like Gorm!

My left hand holding the locket opens, the locket drops until it is caught by the chain.

I charge at the goblin. It charges back.

My footsteps are heavy. I leap and lunge in my closest impersonation of Jaed’s Kung Fu strike.

The goblin leaps aside, dodging with ease. I twist with it. Left hand moving to grasp the pointy end of my stick. With both hands now grasping my makeshift spear I lunge at the goblin.

Dealt 5 Health Points: Piercing damage.

Green blood trails down a shallow gash on its arm. It glances down warily at the blood before once more meeting my gaze. Not so quick this time, were you?

The goblin lunges at my knees. I jump backwards, narrowly avoiding its left claw which scrapes through the air of the space I just inhabited. With continuing momentum, it leans in closer intent on connecting claw to flesh. Its right arm slices forward. Another clunky and obvious swing. My stick whirls and slams into its grotesque face.

Dealt 4 Health Points: Bludgeoning damage.

It falls flat on its back and I stab forward towards its stomach. It skitters backwards, fast enough that I’m forced to change targets, but not far enough to avoid me completely.

Dealt 10 Health Points: Piercing damage.

The goblin twists again, this time scampering to the nearest cavern exit. Blood dripping from arm, skull, and leg mixes in with the slimy coating across its skin.

I rush up behind it. Bloodied spear tip raised to its chest.

It twists around, terror present on its retreating face. I lunge. It rolls forward.

Dealt 2 Health Points: Piercing damage.

It keeps rushing for the cave exit.

“Not fast enough.” I whisper, before taking in a deep breath and raising my palm. Its retreating body visible in the gap between thumb and pointer finger. Deep breath. Steady.

“Mana Bolt.” I whisper.

The cyan light fills the room from the bolts point of origin. As it streams forward, the goblins shadow expands out towards the edges of the cave.

Dealt 18 Health Points: Magical corrosive damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

The goblin flings forward into the mouth of the cave exit.

‘Experience.’

652/800.

Enough practise for tonight.

As I step outside the dungeon the glow of my locket fades out. Thankfully it isn’t pitch black, there is still the pale light of the moon and the distinct wavy light and shadows of firelight outside the fortress.

“Another late night, Reed?” Braed calls out. “You should rest more.”

I walk towards Braed’s voice and find him sitting on a log by the brazier. Beside him Jester sits on the ground with Floofy stretched out across his legs. As I arrive, Floofy turns her head towards me and yawns lazily.

“Don’t discourage him!” Jester pets Floofy while laughing. “The boy’s determined to wipe away the poop stains from his honour.”

I roll my eyes, though he’s not entirely wrong. Then I crouch down before Floofy, unsurprisingly her tail starts wagging excitedly. She sniffs me and begins licking my hand. I open it showing her the couple of goblin ears I’d saved just for this. She grabs them and then begins the process of tearing through them with pleasure.

“Hope you killed enough goblins that you can afford to do that.” Braed says.

“Ten goblins. Twenty ears. Those two were my cut.” I hand Braed my bag of bloody goblin ears.

He rummages through it carefully while Floofy watches the ear counting proceedings in a drooly daze.

“Eighteen, just as you said.” Braed passes me my now empty bag back. “Locket.”

I hand it over. In Braed’s hand my locket lights up, colouring the surroundings with a pale blue glow as though I were back in the dungeon, before dimming once more.

“Not bad.” Braed smiles. “A few more days and your loan will be paid off.”

“How much left?”

“Four silvers and eight copper.”

“Great.” I verify the number in my locket then grab Floofy’s rope leash.

“Don’t overwork yourself Reed. There’s no interest, the loan can wait.”

I shake my head. “It’s not about the loan.”

Then together, Floofy and I head back into the city.