Zane stared at the rugged wall of a cliff in the darkness. The cliff was tall and wide but Zane could not determine its exact measurements in the darkness. Luna and Lana both confirmed that the den should be past the cliff wall. After seeing an entrance to a cave directly in front of their path the group knew where they should go next.

Zane and everyone else began looking over their equipment. The armor that everyone wore had a belt capable of holding several potions. Sadly, Zane’s training clothes did not have that option. Zane made do with what he had. He decided to continue using his spear and shield but switched out the sword on his waist for a mace.

The bears would be slow but strong when compared to mana creatures or a person at the same level. Zane would have ample time to use skill combo with stab and pierce. Currently these three skills allowed him to deal the most damage. The reason he chose the mace was because it could break bones and slow down an enemy. This would be great when facing the already slow bears and the ability to break bones would increase when the smash skill was used. Also, the sword worked better on creatures that would die after a few cuts. A bear would not go down so easily.

Once he was prepared Zane looked at the rest of his team. Shane was taking a few practice swings with an axe. He was going for the brute force method that Zane picked. Lana was checking her quiver and arrows while Luna was keeping an eye on their surroundings. The three magic users of the group each carried a brown wooden staff. The staff gave them a tiny boost to the efficiency of their spell usage and it could be used to whack enemies that got to close.

“Before we go, I would like to ask for everyone’s advice.” Sophie said. “I unlocked the leadership skill and after leveling up I have enough class points to learn it.”

“Wait, how did you have enough class points to learn a skill?” Shane asked.

Sophie smiled before continuing to mentally speak to the group. “During the mana surge I was able to evolve my race.”

“Great. I guess I’m the only person who didn’t mange to evolve his race.”

“I didn’t evolve my race,” Lana said.

“I didn’t either,” Jason added.

After confirming that the others didn’t evolve their race Shane calmed down. Out of everyone in their group only two people manage to achieve a race evolution.

“Okay, two people is something I can accept, Shane said. “Especially when those two people are you guys.”

“If your done being shocked I think we should get back to choosing my new skill,” Sophie said.

“What’s there to get back to?” Zane asked. “By asking for our opinion its clear to see that you don’t want to pick the leadership skill. You probably want to pick a skill that would help all of us but none of us want to see you sacrifice for our sake. Plus, the leadership skill will probably give a tiny increase to our overall strength.”

“But what if that tiny increase is the difference between life and death?”

Zane gave Sophie an arrogant smile before replying. “I’m confident enough in my own strength to beat the dire bear and I’m sure the other would agree with me. You’re better off saving up your class points to learn a tier one skill.”

Everyone let Sophie know they agreed with Zane. They encouraged her to choose a skill that was useful to her or save the class points. Sophie smiled in agreement and decided to learn a mage skill she unlocked. Mystic skill didn’t deal direct damage to the enemy so learning a mage skill would increase her battle capabilities. Zane also had skills to unlock but he already decided how he would spend his class points.

Once Sophie finished learning a new skill the group entered the cave. Zane took the lead because he was the most suitable to react to danger in the cave. He could take more damage than Luan and Lana if an enemy suddenly attacked. His perception was greater than Shane so he would be able to react faster to threats.

The cave wasn’t narrow but it wasn’t wide either. Zane couldn’t swing his eight-foot spear without hitting the rugged cave wall. He couldn’t make out the ceiling in the darkness of the cave but he could tell it was a few feet greater than the height of his spear.

“I’m going to summon a light,” Zane said.

“Won’t that give away our location?” Shane asked.

“No. The bears will be able to find us through their other senses and creatures outside the cave won’t notice us. A lack of light harms us instead of helping us for now.”

Zane focused his mana and created a small white orb that emitted a white light. Everyone had their eyes closed in preparation for the sudden light. Zane focused on the orb and adjusted the mana it used. The orb began to emit a dim glow that wouldn’t provide them with sufficient light for their level of perception. The low level of light would also make it easier for their eyes to adjust to the darkness when they left the cave.

“I can see much further now,” Shane said.

“Teacher taught me a trick when we were in the wilderness,” Zane said, “You can feed a lot of mana into the orb and make it give of a bright light that will disrupt the vision of most mana creatures at night. This worked on the creatures I fought in the wilderness so it should work on the bears. I don’t know if it will work on the dire bear though.”

“It’s a good idea. Those bears won’t know what hit them.”

The others agreed with what Zane said and they came up with a word to let everyone know they should cover their eyes. After creating a light, the group continued to cautiously move forward. Although it was rare for mana creatures to intrude on each other’s dens it has happened before. If they rushed forward, they might be caught of guard.

As the group moved forward Lana saw some light in the darkness. This made the group nervous but excited. They sped up their walking speed and eventually saw a large open area with five sleeping bears. Once Zane saw the room, he cancelled the orb of light he created. The light that Lana saw came from the walls. The walls gave of a blue glow and Zane guessed that this cave contained mana stones. The room was circular and had an exit on the opposite side leading to darkness.

The mana stones were most likely created because of the den. It was also possible that the mana stones were here before the den was created. It didn’t matter to them because their first objective was right in front of them.

“I think we should rush in and attack.” Shane said nervously.

“You go ahead and do that.” Jason replied sarcastically. “Well stay here and you can let us know what happened if you return.”

“Shane’s idea wasn’t bad but it needs to be refined,” Sophie said. “It doesn’t make sense for those of us that use long range attacks to rush in but it makes sense for Shane Luna and Zane to do so. The rest of us should attack before or after they reach the enemy.”

“I agree,” Zane said. “I also think that Shane should enter first. If the bears don’t react then the rest of us can enter an prepare to attack. If they do react then Shane can begin rushing them. Luna and I will quickly catch up to simultaneously attack the bears with Shane.”

The group put their heads together and they were able to come up with an initial plan. Once they made a decision, Shane walked in front of the group and entered the large room. The bears didn’t react after a few seconds passed. The rest of the group carefully and quietly entered the room. They didn’t even use identify on the bears out of fear that it may cause them to wake up.

The bears were spread throughout the room with two bears at the center and the other three leaning against the circular walls. The bears were spaced far away from each other and were laying on their stomachs. Although they were laying on their stomachs their backs were at the same height as Zane’s chest.

After confirming that everyone was ready Sophie told them to begin. Zane and Shane used Charge on the bears in the center. Luna prepared to sneak attack one of the bears on the side and Lana prepared to attack the eyes of another bear with her bow. The bears started to stir when Zane, Shane and Luna were a few feet away from them but it was too late.

Zane’s shield crashed into the bear’s head. Seeing that the bear was rattled Zane went for the kill. Skill Combo. Stab. Pierce. Zane ripped his spear tip out of the bear’s neck and allowed blood to flow over its brown fur. Seeing that the pain didn’t wake the bear up Zane repeated the three skills. After tearing another chunk of flesh out of the bear’s neck it became less responsive. Zane could see that the bear was done for and changed his focus to his teammates.

Shane was using his axe to hack at the neck of his bear. The bear struggled to get up but Shane’s axe put it back down. Lana’s bear was blindly swiping at the air with two arrows in its eyes. Luna’s bear was chasing her with a serious wound on its neck. Lana distracted it with a few arrows and when it was distracted Luna would land two more blows with her short sword.

Zane saw that the final bear was confused. It had just woken up and it didn’t know who it should attack. Zane made it easy for the bear and started running toward it. When the bear saw Zane approaching it roared in anger and charged at Zane. Zane activated Warrior Steps one or two second before they met and moved to the side. The bear tried to slow down and Zane used Pierce on the bear’s butt. At the same time Zane also used identify to see what level the bear was.

Adult Bear Lvl 20

Zane’s attack didn’t do much damage but it angered the bear. With the bear’s anger focused on Zane it didn’t see Shane sneaking up from behind. Out of the corner of Zane’s eye he could see the Luna and Lana heading toward the blinded bear. Zane grinned as he knew they won this battle. Zane and the others quickly dealt with the remaining two bears and packed away their corpses.

“That was great,” Shane said. “I can’t believe I was so nervous before.”

“Being nervous isn’t a bad thing,” Zane replied. “It might even keep you alive.”

“At least you got to fight,” Jason said. “We stood on the side and did nothing while you guys had all the fun.”

“Don’t get too excited everyone,” Sophie said. “That was only five bears. We have eleven bears left to kill.”

Everyone nodded and prepared for the next fight. Zane formed another light as they prepared to enter another dark passageway. Zane looked at the darkness and felt excitement. He had a feeling a good battle was coming his way.