As we walked along the smooth tunnels lit by luminescent moss, the goblins filled us in on what to expect from the fight. The chief had risen to power by killing all the other goblins that had defied him, as well as any who he thought could become stronger than him. He was only focused on his strength, but even that had taken the back burner when opposition became almost non existent. It was definitely going to be a challenge to beat him, but not impossible.

The walk to the cave that the goblins called home, took us about five minutes. In this time we decided to use the two spear wielders, whose names I found out were Sarah and Samuel, as a front line of sorts. They were the most in shape out of us and probably more likely to take a hit and survive. Behind them would be myself and Kevin, the nerdy guy. We would serve as a secondary defense for the goblins while they cast their limited spells, we would then help finish off the chief.

When we finally saw the glow of torches and a cave opening, we paused and reaffirmed our plan of action. Kevin peered into the chamber then crept back to us.

“It looks like he is watching some sort of hole in the ground, towards the back of the cave.”

“That would be the spawning pit.”

“Spawning pit?” I asked

“That is where the dungeon set up our mating grounds and the place to keep our young.”

“Interesting, I have a lot more questions but we should probably strike while he is distracted.” The others nodded and we got in formation. As we entered the cave a window popped up in front of my face.

WARNING: YOU ARE ENTERING THE BOSS ROOM OF A GOBLIN DUNGEON.

THIS CHALLENGE MAY BE TOO TOUGH FOR YOU.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

We all looked at each other and then shrugged as if to say, “Well we’ve already come this far.” As we continued I looked around to see what else was around us. The cave had a half dozen or so tents in it, all surrounding a fire in the center. We got about half way to him when two goblins appeared, one to our right and the other to our left.

Minibosses Triggered:

Thwompus and Bopus

"Well shit," Sarah said.”Guess there’s been a change of plans.”

The goblins were carrying a sword and shield each. They approached us slowly.

“New plan,” Samuel said. “split into groups of three, spear users keep their attention while the sword users flank.” He waited for us to acknowledge him then darted towards the left goblin. Kevin gave me a nervous look before he and Tamani dashed after.

The rest of us kept ourselves between the other mini and the rest of the party. After a moment of our boss just watching us I heard a clash start happening behind us. Our boss started to move in and Sarah began circling him and blocking his test swings, until we had him flanked.

Sarah started lunging in with the spear then darting back out, testing how much of a threat the goblin was going to be. The boss blocked her spear every time and even had the awareness to block my sword the couple of swung it took at him.

This was looking bad, if we couldn’t even hit him how were we supposed to win. Just then, I felt a slight swell of energy from behind me and webs shot past me hitting the boss in the back of its legs. The boss flinched and tried moving its legs, its movement greatly hindered. Sarah and I wasted no time, taking turns darting in and out, our blows only causing minor wounds, but we were slowly whittling him down.

From the other team I caught glimpses of Samuel doing his best to fend off their boss while Tamani healed an injured Kevin. There was a cut on his head and he was clutching his knee. If they didn’t get help soon this was going to be bad. Sarah must have seen, because when I turned back she was taking more serious swipes at the boss. The boss looked taken aback as one of Sarah’s jabs scored a serious hit, piercing deep into his shoulder.

His eyes gained a tinge of red to them, but while he was paused I dashed in, slashing at his back. He howled as the blood began to flow and whirled on me, cutting the air in front of me so quick I could feel the air in front of me split. Was he using a skill or something? He took a step forward and made to swipe at me again. He was just as caught off guard as I was, when a spearhead was suddenly protruding from his right breast.

Bopus stumbled as, with a grunt of effort, Sarah pulled her spear from him. I didn’t hesitate, while he was still off balance, I rushed in and scored a long slash up his arm. His grip on his sword became visibly weaker and I knew we had him on the ropes. The effort to attempt to block our strikes was clearly taking a toll on him. When I rushed him for the last time, he spun around and lost his footing. Without hesitation, Sarah darted forward and drove her spear into the back of his neck.

I was treated to a nice view of his blood spurting out as he grabbed at the spearhead now protruding from the other side. Sarah placed her foot on the back of his neck and as she made to pull her spear out, there was a crack. She looked at her now headless spear in shock for a moment before I said, “Just take his weapons.”

I ran over to where Samuel was barely holding Thwompus off and shouted, “Oi, weakling.”

TAUNT LVL 1 DISCOVERED!

+5 Mana and Stamina

I blinked in confusion at the notification that appeared, right before the boss whirled around and charged me. He swung at me with reckless abandon, and it took all of my effort not to be cut to ribbons, even with Samuel jabbing mercilessly at his back. I was on the back foot for only a dozen seconds before Thwompus got through and slashed my thigh. I collapsed to the ground and Thwompus was about to end me, when with a flash of metal his blade was halted. I blinked away the pain to see Sarah, with Bopus’s weapons, standing between me and the remaining mini boss.

“Can’t even attack a standing target, whelp?” She yelled, pressing her attack. She must have gained the same skill as me, because Thwompus instantly lost all interest in me and began beating nonstop on her newly acquired shield. She held him off as Samuel continued to jab at his back. While I watched them fight the last mini boss, I felt Tamani and Grathial grab me under the arms and drag me back towards the entrance of the cave.

“There is no way that we can take on the chief with all of you wounded like this.” Tamani said. “I don’t even know how long it will take for the two of us to heal everyone up, let alone recover our mana completely.”

I had forgotten that I had the ability to heal until she had mentioned it. When they set me down next to Kevin, I placed my hand near the wound on my thigh and used my cure spell. Even after all my mana was expended the wound didn’t close, but the bleeding was slowed greatly. I laid there exhausted as Sam and Sarah slayed Thwompus. They took a moment to catch their breath then Sarah bent down and looted the fallen boss’s weapons. The items disappeared and I could only assume that she had put them in her inventory.

As she and Sam were about to head our way, both the goblin corpses disappeared and they were replaced by blue crystals the size of my fist. At the same time a small chest appeared in the middle of the cave. Sam walked over to the chest as Sarah gathered the crystals. She joined Sam at the chest and he opened it. Their eyes went wide and from they glazed over slightly I guessed they had gotten a notification.

They both made a gesture in the air then the chest disappeared. While they took a second to look at eachother a notification appeared in front of me:

You Gained 50 XP and 50 Gold

Received 1 common item ticket

Prepare to face the Goblin Chieftain

Oh God, the Chieftain.

“Guys,” I shouted to my awestruck allies “we need to leave”

They blinked for a moment, then turned to where the Chieftain was lifting a huge battleaxe to his shoulder. They stood stunned for a moment before whirling back around and bolting towards us. They stopped long enough to help the goblins drag us from the cave, not a moment before a barrier went up with us on the outside. They continued dragging us until Tamani, panting and wheezing informed us we were far enough away.

Sarah and Sam sat down heavily, gasping for breath while Tamani and I used what little mana we’d recovered for another bout of healing. At some point the goblins curled up next to each other, and we all passed out from exhaustion.

I awoke several hours later with my health, and most of my mana recovered. My joints creaked in protest when I finally sat up. Looking around I could see that the rest of my companions were out cold. I stood up and decided to see if I could work on my spellcasting some. I remembered how Tamani had taught me the healing spell, and from what I could gather, the magic in this world was based on imagery.

I walked a little way down the tunnel until I found a cave. It was about fifty feet by fifty feet and twenty feet tall. When Tamani taught me to heal the image she had described was very vivid. In theory, I would be able to apply this system to learn new spells. After walking to the center of the cave, I focused on a spot on the wall across from me and imagined my mana flowing down into my hand. I imagined this energy turning into heat and it forming a sphere in my hand. It worked as intended and I hurled the burning sphere at the wall.

Level 1 Fireball Discovered!

Quick Learner Acquired!

+1 Level Quick Learner

“Jesus.” I whispered to myself, staring at my hand. The spell had only used about ten percent of my mana. I wasn’t sure how strong the spell was since I didn’t have a target, but from the size of the scorch mark on the wall, it would probably do more than tickle.

“Well you seem to be getting a grasp on things,” Sarah said from the doorway. I jumped a little and blushed.

“Yeah I guess, from the way that Tamani taught me the healing spell, I was able to teach myself fireball. Not sure how much I’ll be able to learn like this but it’s something.”

“What does it feel like when you cast a spell?” She asked. She had walked over to me and was staring at my hand.

“Well, it's like having a pool of energy in the center of you that you can manipulate. From what I can tell if I work at it and have the power, I might be able to do literally anything.”

“And you just had the mana bar when we all got here?”

“Yeah it's pretty insane. They did say that there is a way to unlock it though, even if it is difficult.”

“Yeah but who knows when I will be able to find someone to do that.”

I thought for a moment, if the mana was just inside of me and I didn’t have it in our world, why did I have it now. Then I had an idea, “What if the mana has always been there, but coming here something activated it.”

“So then why weren’t you able to do use magic back home?”

“It could be something in our world that was suppressing it? I mean we did have witch trials and stuff, who knows how many of them actually could use magic and we just hunted them down.” I thought about it some more, “I don’t know if it will work, but can I try something?”

“Depends, what is it.” Her face was one of curiosity, but her tone was cautious.

“Maybe I can use the mana I have to activate your’s.”

“I mean what's the worst that can happen, you heal me?” She laughed, nervously. “Should we like, sit down or something?” I shrugged and we sat. I took her hand and closed my eyes. I focused on my mana and how it flowed through my arms and hands when I cast a spell. I imagined the mana flowing through my hand and into her, then up her arm into her core. My image evolved into my mana being a seed to for her to grow into her own mana pool.

The mana began to flow and Sarah let out a small breath as it flowed into her. I was met with some resistance as it reached what I felt was her core.

“Umm, are you feeling anything?” I asked her.

“Like there is something warm slithering through my hand and into my chest. Other than that, no.” Weird, well if she wasn’t feeling the barricade, it might not be part of her. I upped the amount of mana that I was channeling into her and imagined it gently sliding through gaps in it. It took a moment but, eventually I felt my mana break through and envelope the cavity behind it.

“Holy shit!” Sarah sounded slightly out of breath. “I can feel it, but I don’t think that I can do anything with it.”

“Try to imagine taking the mana in your core from me and making it your own.”

I felt a force tugging on my mana and then I was greeted by a notification:

Would you like to establish a mana sharing link with this entity?

Y?/N?

“I just got a message asking if I want to share mana with you, I might only be able to give you mana and not unlock it for you. Should I still do it?”

There was a brief pause then she replied, “Sure, even if it is temporary, I would like to see what casting a spell feels like.” I nodded and mentally accepted the prompt. There was a strange feeling as I drifted between not feeling the mana that was in Sarah and then the feeling coming back then I received another message:

There was an error establishing the link:

The entity you are sharing mana with can not use mana. Recalculating...

Sharing mana could be deadly to this creature.

Attempt to Salvage?

Y?/N?

Link our fates? If it failed it might kill me, but if I didn’t try she would. If she died with the threat of the chieftain looming over us, I would probably die anyways. Fuck.

For the third time I selected yes. For a couple heart beats nothing happened then I went stiff with pain as the mana flowing between us felt like it caught fire. I would have screamed if I hadn’t been put in the same stasis as Sarah. The pain continued for what seemed like years with more messages appearing, my brain unable to process them. When the pain finally stopped my vision went dark and I passed out.