Mike sprinted towards the smoking maw in the mountainside, activating Footsteps of the Wind. He took in the hobgoblins panicked expressions as he blurred past the members of the lumberjack team that were all sprinting towards the cave to help. With only 5 Dexterity and their short legs. The hundred yard distance only took him a second to cross, and his brain was only barely catching up to his eyes as he found himself in front of a hole that was no taller than 4 feet. Thankfully, it was also about 4 feet wide, making it so that his shoulders had plenty of room as he hunched onto his hands and knees and speed-crawled inside. He had to halt his progress as his body was buffeted by a stream of hobgoblins scrambling underneath his bent form as they sought to escape their living tomb. He could easily force his way past them, but in the small confines, the smaller creatures would definitely be crushed.

By the time the stream of bodies ceased and he had clear visibility deeper into the tunnel, only 5 seconds remained of his ability. Over the next 2 seconds, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could make out several forms sprawled out on the ground. The forms seemed to be struggling to regain their footing, but the small rocks that were already coming loose of the ceiling made this difficult for them. He pushed his way forward at top speed, which was much slower than a sprint, but the tunnel was only 20 feet deep. In the next two seconds, he passed three hobgoblins, each of which he threw underneath his legs like a football as he continued to progress forward. He had to admit that the Body Throwing ability would have come in handy at this point.

The final two hobgoblins struggled side by side, their arms failing to find easy purchase on the loose rocks that made up the ground. In the last second of Footsteps of the Wind, Mike looped around each of them and then pushed through his legs, forcing his body backwards through the air. It was a desperate move, but thankfully his increased Dexterity helped him take off at the right angle. Suddenly, his Dexterity dropped off, and he failed to react in time as falling debri hit the trio's flying bodies, changing their trajectory and causing them to slam into a wall.

Mike’s brain screamed at him to act as the entrance to the mine collapsed, but failed to pierce his lethargic state. He could only watch as their only exit was completely sealed off by 10 feet of rock and dirt, changing their world to pitch black.

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Over the next 8 seconds, Mike tried to create a plan in the absence of a useful body. The loud hysterics of his two companions made focusing difficult, so he was only able to come up with the first step of his plan as his Dexterity was restored, which was to grab the louder of the two hobgoblins that was wrapped around his ankle and use Hands of Healing, turning his head to not be blinded by the light. The entirety of their small burrow was illuminated as the hobgoblin was healed, and Mike’s turned head noticed a strange fist-sized rock on the ground, small purple ran across its surface.

As the light diminished, Mike was appalled by truly abysmal way in which a low luck score impacted his life. The whole purpose of healing the hobgoblin was to shut the small beast up, and for the first time ever, Hands of Healing hadn’t put its target into a six hour coma. If anything the blinding surge of light had imprinted on the two creatures just how trapped they were, and their cries continued unabated.

Mike began feeling his way around in the darkness towards the strange rock he had seen. The two hobgoblins sat on his feet and wrapped their arms around his calves so that each step forced him to lug them around with them. The alarming truth that their screams were eating up his already low supply of oxygen was hard to ignore, and he tried to conserve his breathing as he sought to locate the rock. After a few moments, his eyes began to adjust, and for the first time he realized that they were not in complete darkness. Small purple lines were visible on the ground beneath him and spattered across the walls and ceiling. Focusing in on a single spot of veins, he Analyzed the strange phenomenon:

Unhewn Blasting Rock

Quality: Crude

Durability: High

Rarity: Rare

Attributes: This unformed piece of rock is known for the large explosions it can create when processed.

So was this some kind of new-System dynamite alternative? He had no idea how to process it, but took out one of his iron axes and began blindly hitting the first clump of rock he found. The rock around the veins wasn’t too sturdy and fell away easily, but he found that the vein itself was quite hard, and small sparks were launched off the butt of his ax as he attempted to break it down.

Eventually his repeated swings fully exposed the metallic vein and on his next swing, the butt of his ax managed to hit Blasting Rock, right on the edge where it was weakest, crushing it to powder. His next swing hit almost the exact same place, the darkness making it very hard to aim. His heightened senses caused him to hear a grinding sound as the powder was crushed, followed immediately by a small explosion that caused his ax to fly behind him, pulling him and his two passengers several feet back until they ran into the rock behind him.

“We can work with this!” he chanted in glee.

“Big Bossy Boss” the hobgoblins woozily replied.

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20 minutes later, a small pile of powder lay in front of Mike. He had eventually forced the hobgoblins off his legs and set them in a corner after repeatedly being launched backwards. Their speech was getting more and more slurred each time an explosion knocked them backwards, and he was worried they were concussed, their slight frames being unable to take the same force that he could. He had eventually gotten the hang of crushing the rock as his eyes continued to adjust to the dim purple light that seemed to surround him.

The air in the cave was all but depleted, and he knew that he only had a few minutes left at most.. He wasn’t sure if the pile in front of him would be sufficient to blast them out of the mine, but he had to try.

Ripping up the remains of his shirt as well as all but one of the ones he had pillaged from Noobtown, he picked up the hobgoblins and swaddled them in the fabric. He then attached their bodies to his stomach and swung at the pile of blasting rock, activating Unflinching Meteor at the same moment as his ax connected.

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Creencheez had always been more fervent in her attitude towards Big Bossy Boss than even her most devoted peers. Though the low Intelligence scores of her kind meant that relationships were much more childlike in their depth, she instinctively knew that she could trust this boss more than any other. For that reason, she had worked the hardest at carrying trees while he was away. Often pushing those around her to keep working when their arms were so tired that they were useless. For all of her efforts, she had gotten the Beast of Burden skill up to Level 3 and an accompanying Skill Ability called Bulwark that made it so she couldn’t be moved from her position for 3 seconds, during which time she took no damage.

Her high regard for Big Bossy Boss only increased as she watched him enter the mine in an attempt to save her kinsman. For the past 10 minutes, she had thrown herself at the mouth of the collapsed cave, throwing dirt behind her as fast as her relatively high Strength and Toughness scores would allow. She barely noticed that she got a new ability called Dirt Paddling as she worked.

The ground in front of her started shaking again, accompanied by a loud thrumm that slowly built up in volume and richness. The hobgoblins around her scrambled to flee, but Creencheez just kept digging. Suddenly, the wall in front of her exploded outward and she barely managed to activate bulwark in time as the broad back of Big Bossy Boss slammed into her. Her immovable state meant that his flying body ricocheted off of her face and changed course to a flight path with a much larger vertical component.

“He can fly too” she said in wonder to no one in particular.

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As Mike flew through the air, his immobile body making it so he was only able to see the receding mountainside, a notification appeared in his vision:

[Congratulations! You have impacted a lesser monster to the point

that they now revere you. 1 point of Veneration waiting to be used.]

“Revere is different than worship, right?” he thought to himself. “I can live with revere, but somehow I don’t think the Maker will take it kindly when I meet Him if there are beings that worship me.”