We find ourselves in another forest clearing, different from the one in the first Scenario. This time it’s late afternoon, and not the dead of night, and the trees are a little denser. I can just barely see a small mountain over the treetops, and the ground is on a shallow incline where we stand.

“Well,” Sophie says, “What now?”

At that, a pane of light appears before us, large enough that we all can read from it.

This is the third and final Scenario.

Within a cave system in the mountain before you, a clan of troglodytes has taken a number of residents of a nearby small village captive. Your task is to locate, rescue, and escort these villagers to safety. Your priority is to safely extract these captives, not necessarily to eliminate the troglodytes.

“Troglodytes? I’ve not heard of those,” I say.

“I know a little,” Sophie says. “They’re humanoid tribal monsters that prefer to live in caves when possible. They are faster, stronger, and tougher than goblins, though are typically less in number. They almost certainly won’t have a magic user, but they do show up.”

“Why would they take prisoners? I thought monsters needed to kill people to get their mana, so why leave them alive?”

“Could just be there for the sake of the Scenario,” Oslo says.

“Maybe. Give me a minute, I want to check with the Armsmaster about this.”

Hey Armsmaster, is there a reason why monsters would take people prisoner? Our Scenario requires us to save some villagers that were captured by troglodytes, and it just strikes me as odd.

I feel her hesitate through the gap between us from the mindscape, then she says, “It’s not pretty. When people with poor mana control, regardless of Grade, are under large enough amounts of stress, they passively release a small but constant stream of waste mana. No one’s figured out why exactly, but it’s a known fact that keeping a large supply of prisoners and subjecting them to… well, trauma, will keep monsters fed for a solid amount of time. The source of that trauma is irrelevant. Pain, fear, anger, strong enough emotions in an untrained person is an unfortunately good source of sustenance and growth for monsters. Eventually that trauma breaks them enough that the mana stream slows down, which is when they let the victim recover their mana and then kill them. Depending on how long this simulation has had these people captive, and how dedicated to realism the designer was, you might be about to see some disturbing things.”

I feel my face go pale. How often does this kind of thing happen?

“Not too often. Monsters need quite a few in one group to keep people properly contained, and they know that on instinct, so they won’t attempt this until they have a large enough group of compatriots. Most countries and such handle those monsters that use this tactic before they can gather, so it only really comes up once or twice every few years at most.”

Okay. Thanks.

I turn my attention back to the others, and give them a brief overview of what Armsmaster said. Our reactions are mixed. Ethan looks like he’s going to be sick, Sophie and Onslo look grim, while I can feel an undercurrent of rage begin to grow within me. I lock it down as best I can, knowing that getting overly emotional will only weaken me.

“Hopefully it hasn’t been too long, and we can get these people out without too much difficulty. We’d best get moving.”

After receiving nods of agreement, I start walking towards the mountain. We fall into a simple formation, with Onslo at the front in case of ambush, Ethan in the middle, and me and Sophie at the back next to each other, in case we are attacked from behind. We travel as silently as we can, though really only Sophie succeeds at all. Ethan and I never really bothered with woodland travel when we were younger, and Onslo is from a chain of islands. He does a little better than us, especially considering his bulk, but he still manages to make some noise.

Eventually we spot the mountain proper, and because the people who designed the mindscape are benevolent deities, we quickly spot the cave.

Well, Sophie did. Apparently the troglodytes are not fans of personal hygiene, and the wind is blowing downhill. I can’t smell much, but her nose is better than mine.

I signal everyone to stop, and turn to Sophie.

“Can you scout ahead? You’re the most experienced at this kind of thing, and we need to know what we’re up against when we approach.”

She nods. “Easy enough. I’m not my Dad, but he taught me what he knew. I’ll be back in a bit.”

She lopes off, leaving me, Onslo, and Ethan to wait. Ethan and Onslo spend the intervening time talking quietly between each other, while I try to calm down my racing mind. I don’t have much experience with small group tactics, or any at all really, but all the same I can’t keep myself from going over plans in my head, trying to figure out the best approach with what limited information I have.

Five to ten minutes later, Sophie returns with news.

“There’s three guarding the entrance, though they don’t seem too enthusiastic about it. One on the left, two on the right. The left one has a spear, while the two on the right are split between an archer and a swordsman. I think they got the weapons from a raid of some sort, they look to be a quality they can’t manage given their claws. No armour, or any way to signal those within. I don’t think I need to say it, but it would be best to take them quietly.”

I nod, thoughts racing. “How’s your control lately Sophie? Up to pushing yourself?”

She considers it for a moment. “I’ve seen some improvement. What do you have in mind?”

“Think you can block any sound from going further into the cave? That way we can be as loud as we like and they won’t know.”

“Maybe. You’ll need to take them down quickly, though, we can’t afford to waste too much mana on the doormen.”

I nod again. “Agreed. In that case, Ethan, you’ll start things off by targeting the one on its own, while Onslo and I will rush the other two. The surprise factor should let you take it down easily enough. Hopefully, those two will be something I can take care of myself, but if not Onslo can pick up my slack. Sounds good?”

I get a round of agreements from everyone, so I look at Sophie. “Okay. Lead us over, and say when you’re ready.”

She guides us right up to the edge of the clearing where the cave lies, behind some bushes so the monsters won’t see us coming. I can’t make out too much detail from here, but the troglodytes look like squat humanoid lizard creatures, coming up to my shoulders in height. Their scales are a burnt burgundy in colour, roughly patterned, and they have a single sharp horn coming from the center of their foreheads. Their long, burly arms reach down to their digitigrade knees.

The cave is a yawning gash in the side of the mountain. It goes in deep enough that I can’t make much out from here, but there are basic torches set in stands on either side of the entrance, unlit at the moment. That gives me hope that the interior is lit in the same manner.

I summon my sword and gesture to Sophie to get started, to which she gets down on one knee, holds out one hand, and stares intently at the cave.

“Okay. Go,” she says.

After a moment of hesitation, Ethan stands up and launches a bolt of flame at the spear wielder.

At the moment of impact, I enhance myself and rush forward at the two sentries, who are in the process of turning towards the one that got blasted. It’s not dead, the flame striking its gut, but it is burned badly. Ethan put a fair bit more into that strike than when he was sparring with Onslo and Sophie.

Putting that side of things out of my mind, and trusting that Ethan can handle his end, I come up to the monsters. I target the one with the sword first. The archer isn’t as much of a threat at close range, though it can still use its bow as an improvised club if need be.

I swing at a diagonal, hoping to end this quickly, but no luck. The troglodyte manages to react quick enough to get in a hasty block. The impact sends shocks up my arms, and though the monster’s sword is deeply gouged it hardly budges at all. These monsters are much stronger than goblins!

Pushing through the surprise, I attack again, and though it's unskilled it's still fast enough to defend itself. The sword it’s wielding is badly damaged by both my vastly superior weapon and it’s poor handling of it’s own, but still holds up. One final attack, a thrust that slipped through it’s guard, skewers the trog through the chest, and it screeches in pain.

I don’t get to celebrate my victory, as movement from my side is all the warning I get before the archer clubs me over the head with it’s bow. There’s a ripple in the air just over my body, a faint silver shimmer in the pattern of scales, and the force of the blow is almost entirely negated. Enough slips through that I still feel the hit, though it's not enough to debilitate.

It's at this point when Onslo catches up to me, and announces his presence with a blow to the archer that I can almost physically feel, and the creature’s skull outright caves in before it crumples to the ground.

Returning my attention to my own opponent, I just barely manage to duck it's frantic swing in an attempt to get me to back away. In response, I twist my sword, still lodged in its chest, and wrench it to the side, magically tough flesh and scale parting easily.

Seeing both of ours are dealt with, I turn to Ethan’s spear wielder, which I see is just now thrown back by a particularly nasty blast of flame, and like the two at my feet it begins to dissolve. I signal to Sophie that we have succeeded, and I see her pop out of the bushes.

Ethan’s target had gotten disconcertingly close to him, nearly three quarters of the way through the clearing before finally dying. I look in the direction of the cave, and I can see two scorch marks on the wall beside it. He missed two shots.

An idea occurs to me that I probably should have thought of by now.

I say to Ethan, “Is there an item you can make that could help with your aim? Because, in the short term at least, you could really use the help.”

He shakes his hands, likely from lingering heat from his magic, and says, “There is. Casting rods are a favourite of those that don’t receive formal training. I actually have one of my own, just in case, so I can use it once we’re done here. The downside to them though is that my control will reach the point where they become the less efficient option, but I can practice my aim until that day comes.”

I nod. “Good. Let me know if there’s any way I can help with that practice, maybe provide a moving target or something.”

I turn to Sophie, who has by now made her way to us. “Any problems with blocking the sound?”

She shrugs. “Yes and no. I blocked everything, sure, but it used more mana than I would have liked. I’m down about a fifth of my total.”

I click my tongue in mild annoyance. “Not a tactic we can repeat often then. Alright, regardless you’ll be able to help with the opening moves, so if we do things right we can make up for the lost stealth.”

Sophie grins slightly. “Looking forward to it.”

“Okay then. Let’s grab these remnants, because why not, and we can move in.”

The remnants are nothing all that special. Mostly scraps of scales, a few claws, two broken off pieces of horn, and what I think is a tongue. Gross.

With that, we start our descent into the cave.