I awoke in a small cave. It was dark save the light provided by some small stones in the ceiling. I sat up and saw that there were four other people laying around me, still asleep. I didn't know where I was, when I had gone to sleep it had been in my bed at home. I stood slowly, shapes on the edges of my vision making me stop several times.

When I had stood fully I noticed that the shapes stopped moving but were still there. I examined my surroundings more closely, the shapes tracking with me no matter how fast or slow I turned. The cave was about fifty square feet in all and had a tunnel leading out of it. The walls looked like they were made of stone with veins of minerals running through them.

As I was about to start walking the perimeter of the cave, one of the figures bolted upright, "Where the hell am I!" This startled the others awake, and a commotion ensued, as they attempted to figure out how and why they were in this cave

As their eyes began to adjust to the dim lighting, one of them noticed me crouched in the edge of the cave. "Who are you?" They questioned.

As a reply I put a finger to my lips and pointed to the entrance. They turned to see what I had, elongated shadows moving as whatever was casting them moved towards us.

"Who's there?" One of them shouted, a high pitched male who had been the last to notice me. The shadows stopped and I heard whispering echo back to me.

The whispering ended abruptly and a torch was thrown into the room with the effectiveness of a stun grenade. As our eyes tried desperately to adjust to the sudden influx of light, what appeared to be small green creatures ran into the room. They surrounded the people in the center, while two broke off and crept up to me. I noticed that the small creatures had two torches led among them, and that the rest bore stone axes or spears.

The two approaching me had axes, and as they got closer one raised theirs as though to strike. As they swung down at me, I grabbed quickly at their arm, stopping it dead. The creatures eyes went wide in surprise, when it realized the predicament it was in.

I twisted it's arm hard and it shrieked, dropping the axe. I picked it up and swung at the fairly alarmed creature that still was armed. The rest of them had taken notice to me, but luckily the others used my distraction to their advantage.

As myself and the second creature swung at each other, the others found themselves being mobbed by the rest of the humans. Even the spear welders had a hard time keeping the other humans at bay, their short arms not being able to fully take advantage of their weapons reach.

I held the axe from the now downed creature and faced the other one near me. It backed up slowly dropping it's weapon in shock. I quickly snatched up it's weapon and ran over to where my fellow humans were now fighting the still armed creatures. I was able to score a killing blow on the back of one of the creatures that had it's back to me, by swinging both axes downward at the back of its head.

It's body went limp and almost tore my weapons from my hand, but I managed to keep my balance and pull them free. I almost jumped when it faded away and left some coins and a crystal behind. I ignored it for now and started to help the others.

They didn't seem to need much though, while they didn't seem experienced in using their weapons, they held the creatures at bay just fine. One person, a shorter chick with blonde hair, jabbed the head of her spear forward and caught one of our attackers in the chest. They thrashed for a moment before going still and disappearing, this time leaving nothing behind. Her face went from shocked to puzzled before she switched her attention to another of the creatures.

It felt like forever before we had the creatures that had surrounded the four of our group killed. We took a moment to catch their breath and mull over what had just happened, but I had something or someone else in mind. I faced back to where I had been when the attack started and found the creatures whose axes I had used, cowering at the edge of the cave. I picked up a fallen spear and moved towards them, "Can you speak?" I asked them.

"Y-yes" the uninjured one replied, much to my surprise.

I looked at the group behind me, who were looking on waiting to see what unfolded. I turned back to the creatures, "What are you, and where are we?"

"We are goblins of the Shlakvin tribe, or at least we were. We are in the caves that most of your kind come to our world through."

"So you just sit here and wait for helpless people to show up and kill them?" The blonde woman asked. She looked about my age, probably in her 20's.

"We were forced out of our home and told that we could live here. We were to test the newcomers and anything that dropped from those who failed was ours to keep."

"Like this gold?" An Asian guy asked, reaching toward what looked to be empty ground near where he had been fighting. His eyes went wide, "What the hell!" He shouted.

I myself reached for a pile of gold and crystals that had fallen when I killed a goblin. When I touched them, they disappeared and what looked like rpg text popped up above my hand: +2 gold +10 exp.

My eyes went wide, "Umm. What the hell?" That's when I saw more shapes appear on the edge of my vision. When I focused on them, they finally became clear. At the top right of my vision there were three bars: red, green, and blue respectively. The red and green ones were slightly shorter, given my history with video games I guessed them to be health and probably stamina.

If the blue was some sort of mana then it would make sense that it hadn't moved at all, since I didn't know magic. Next to the three bars was an icon that looked like three coins stacked together and had a 2 next to it. As I was examining all this another bar appeared towards the bottom of my vision, it was purple and read 10/100.

"I'd recommend picking up whatever you can see," the injured goblin said, speaking for the first time. "Everyone can only see what is theirs to pick up, but everything is free to trade away." We took a minute to do exactly this and I ended up with 30 exp and 6 gold, the others reported similar results.

"Why are you helping us now?" The blonde chick asked.

"As opposed to fighting through five humans who just slaughtered our tribe? No thanks."

"Still doesn't make sense why you'd help us instead of pretending not to speak our language."

"You," the uninjured goblin said pointing at me. "could have easily killed me and my sister easily, but you didn't, even when we were both unarmed."

The rest of the group looked at me, as though expecting me to say something. "I mean you weren't a threat at that point, and considering you DROPPED your weapon, I didn't mind letting you live." I stopped and looked at the group. I wasn't sure how they would react to this next bit, but I didn't care. They were strangers and had proven capable of defending themselves if they didn't want to go with my plan.

"You have been very helpful and for that I thank you. I can't speak for the others, but I would be glad to have you as company. I'm obviously a stranger to you're world and it would be nice to have help getting acquainted with it. If you help me, I will do my best to protect you."

The other four nodded as I spoke, accepting the goblins and affirming that we were sticking together at the same time. The goblins looked at each other and murdered in a language I didn't understand. In the end they nodded and spoke again to us.

"We will join you, both of us were born inside and have never left them. We don't know much, but we will do what we can. Just know that our chief and his two guards are still in these caves. They don’t leave the main chamber since they protect the spawning grounds and our treasures."

I thought about the information and was about to ask them a question, but I was beaten to it by another of the group. She was tall and thin, and when she spoke it was quietly, "If they are left alone would they still pose a threat to anyone else who came through like us?"

"Yes. The tribe would eventually recover, but not without-" the goblin winced and hesitated. "Let's just say my sister and I don't want to be here for it."

"Would we be able to prevent it?" I asked. We were lucky to survive as we had with only minor cuts and scratches."

The two looked at each other, "With our help perhaps." The uninjured one spoke. "But it would cost us much, and we have small mana pools between us. Wouldn’t be able to fix much."

"Could you teach us how to use magic?" It was the last of our group, a short round guy. He looked like the type who had a lot more experience with role-playing games back home than I did.

The goblins were silent for a moment, the injured one looking doubtful at the other. "Magic isn't something that can be taught necessarily. In order for you to learn from another you have to find magic for yourself, and even then some people have to make the journey themselves."

"So this blue bar is useless right now?" I asked. The goblins looked at me surprised while the others just stared at me with blank expressions. "Do you guys not have a blue bar?" They all shook their heads.

"Naturally having access to mana is a very rare thing, out of all those who crossed over only one in fifty probably had it. We can teach you some basic things, but as I said before, the rest will be up for you to learn."

I nodded and the uninjured goblin beckoned me over, and we sat. The others stood around us listening. "One of the only things that I myself was able to learn was how to mend wounds. The seriousness of the wound determines how much magic it will require from you." I nodded in acknowledgement and the goblin continued, "Put your hands on Grathial's arm here. Good, now imagine the energy flowing through you and what you want to happen."

I did as instructed, imagining

the mana as a pool in the center of my chest and it flowing out through my hands, into the she goblins arm. At the same time I imagined her bone knitting itself back together. My mana pool drained quickly as a red glow surrounded the part of her arm where the break had occurred.

"+5 maximum to mana" and "Cure wounds lvl 1 acquired" popped up. I felt drained and had to catch my breath.

"Well done," My instructor said. "While the bone isn't completely mended, it is a valiant effort for your first attempt. The more you use your skills the more they and your energy pool will grow."

I nodded in acknowledgement, I'd have to focus on breathing the next time I cast a spell. I watched as my instructor laid her hands on Grathial's broken arm and channeled her own energy. The aura of her spell was a violet color and it only took her a moment to complete the job, the effort not even phasing her.

"If I may ask, what level is your heal wounds ability?" I asked the she goblin.

"It has been at 15 for some time now, although my energy pool does still grow a bit now and then."

I nodded and stood up, taking notice that in addition to the 5 mana I had earned, another 3 had regenerated.

“I think we should rest up before we go and challenge the chief, the extra mana could make a difference in the fight.” The others nodded and we all rested for a bit letting my mana flow back.