The rest of the day was spent with Samuel giving us tips on how to fight with our new weapons. Unfortunately Kevin only had so many arrows, and with no viable target that wouldn’t damage them, he ended up just watching. One thing that Kevin was able to help us with though, was running through a “playbook” of our positioning in a fight. While we couldn’t perfectly plan out how fights would go, having something to fall back on if we got overwhelmed would help.

While Samuel was giving Kevin some tips for when he was able to finally able to use his bow, Tamani had us practice our magic whenever we had the mana to cast a spell. Whenever we cast a spell she would ask us a ton of questions, some of them about what we felt while the other was casting, some asking if we had tried this or that through the connection yet. We ended up finding out that if one of us was casting a spell, the other person could concentrate and spend their own mana to boost the spell.

By the time the day ended, we were all exhausted. We all had been barely able to keep our stamina pool from completely depleting, but Sarah and I had been on the cusp of mana exhaustion all day, only having a point or two after every spell.

All of our efforts weren’t for naught though. We had all gained one or two ranks in skills that would be useful in the fight ahead. The three of us who fought physically gained a rank with shield proficiency, which gave us a 5% discount on the stamina it took to block an attack. In addition we had all gained a rank or two with our weapon of choice, which gave us a stamina discount with them and also made it passively easier to use them.

For Sarah and I, we gained a mana discount for Fireball, and after much effort, Sarah learned Cure Wounds from Tamani. For some reason the imagery I used when casting the spell seemed confusing, and almost cloudy to her. Tamani and Grathial hypothesized that even though we were linked at the soul, our minds were still different, so we would still see and learn about things differently for some things.

The thing that really helped though, was whenever one of us picked up a skill or gained a rank in something, the system split the stat rewards between us. While we couldn’t spend allocation points until we had a full point, it meant that while one of us hit a block in training, we were able to still grow a little through the link.

While we didn’t grow too much, we would probably need every edge that we could get against the chieftain. We would also probably also need to have our minds as clear as possible going in. Grathial lead us to another cave, a bit away from the one I had found, that had a lake in it. The lake had fish in it and we enjoyed a nice meal, after bathing and washing our clothes.

When I asked our goblin companions where the wood for our cooking fire came from they told us about another tunnel leading from the goblin camp that lead to another series of caves, leading up to the outside world. Apparently there were caves along that tunnel who’s ceilings had holes that allowed sunlight in, which along with dirt they brought back from the surface had allowed them to plant trees and food.

“That sounds pretty sophisticated for a tribe that was nearly wiped out even before we got here.” Kevin muttered as he wolfed down his second fish.

“We have the current chief to thank for that. When he took over he started killing off all the goblins that he didn’t find useful. His definition of useful however was basically anyone that qualified for a combat role. All of our farmers, herders, and traders were all killed off shortly after he took over, and as a result the tribe started to suffer.”

“When our traders stopped going to the nearby villages, the humans sent some representatives to see if we were in trouble or had an issue they could help with. The chief killed them all and eventually launched raids on the villages when our food and supplies ran low. This caused a lot of anger among the human king whose domain the fell under and he eventually sent a series of counter raids on our dungeon.”

“We were barely able to fight them off, losing more and more of our dwindling tribe until we were forced to seal off the entrance and live the rest of our lives down here. From there things only got worse, the chief became even more irrational, his only goals being to train for combat, and pump out soldiers so that he could one day take over the human kingdom outside.”

“Before you had all shown up, we had already been down here for ten years. The chief is now barely able to keep his mind straight except for the few moments a day when he screams orders that are barely intelligible. If we weren’t bound to the tribe we would have left long ago.”

“Bound,” I asked, “Like by a spell or something?”

“Sort of, since we were born to the dungeon, it is what helps keep us alive. Creatures that come from dungeons are sustained by the magic given to them by the core, which the chieftain controls. Whenever another chieftain is chosen or takes the right from another chieftain, they are given control of the core and thus everything that is bound to it. Thankfully since the chief is hardly coherent, he hasn’t really used this power other than to have us bring him food and water.”

“What about when we saw him?” Kevin asked.

“That might have been one of his rare moments of clarity,” Grathial answered. “Or it also could have been the core activating a defense measure. In times when the dungeon core is threatened and defenseless it can take control of what is in it to defend itself. It only happens rarely, when its controller is away, or when something like this happens.”

“So it's not the chief that we are fighting?” Kevin asked.

“Not necessarily, he might end up having a moment of clarity when we face him. If he doesn’t though, the core will probably take control of him to defend itself.”

“Wait a moment,” Sarah cut in, “You said that the core will take control of everything in its control to defend itself, what about you two?”

“You bring up a good point.” Tamani replied. “As soon as the core began to take control during the chiefs blank periods, we have been building up a skill to fight it. As of right now, myself and Grathial have 10 and 12 ranks respectively in Resist Control and also a couple in Core Resist. Even then we have to concentrate in order to not be completely taken over, because of this, we are not sure how useful we will be in the fight, which is why we have been trying to help you as much as possible.”

“Even though we haven’t been able to help you get that much stronger, we will have to face the chief tomorrow, the less time for him to have a lucid period and call us back, the better. With your combined skills and strength, you should be able to work as a team and defeat him. I don’t know what will happen after that, but we will find out.” We all agreed to make and attempt at fighting the chieftain tomorrow, and with that, we tried to get some sleep.