Chapter 73: Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Site of the Goblin Invasion; Gnome Warren Entrance

First, there’s no signs of goblins.

But there’s no sign of anything left except us!

“I still can’t find Yumi,” Rina is distraught with petrifying panic. I can hear her moving around trying to feel her through the rocks and dirt scratching desperately with her hands and feet. There’s like a scratching sound and the sound of scuffing through pebbles and debris.

“Sorry Rina…” I said.

Rina is crying.

“She has to be here right?” Asakura whispered.

I want to point out the obvious but if I do, they will both surely start crying. I’d probably cry too except for the fact that I’d seen that Yumi hadn’t really been with us fully from the beginning. I’d had more time to process that.

Asakura and Rina hadn’t still noticed that we still hadn’t see the blue light of Yumi’s glowing mana energy shield. If she were here, then we would have. It was a consistent glow that also glowed in the dark and gave the user a limited use light. That was the biggest clue so far that something really bad had happened. If she were still alive then wouldn’t we see its glow in the dark?

I draw the rune in the air for the light spell and hold it aloft in my hand. It flares brightly at first as the light activates and then stabilizes. I wave the light to the right and to the left until I figure out where I am. Things look different with so many changes in the cavern. Then I find the other two and I feel thankful. I still can’t see any sign of Yumi though, and I have a gnawing feeling in my stomach.

No sign of any goblins at the moment. That was my biggest concern; and it could change at any second. I can’t rule out that could change at any minute. I can’t worry about both Yumi and goblins at the same time though. I’m forced not too, in spite of caring about her welfare.

The light is effective and goes out in a big ten foot radius letting me see around us. I’m surprised it’s grown a bit in how far the immediate light radius penetrates. I take a look and see that only a few feet away from us the entire ceiling has collapsed over the entrance to this corridor. It’s such a bad collapse that I realize Rina was almost crushed. Only about a foot away a new huge column of rock is standing there. It’s obscenely big and bulky covering where everything could have gotten through.

“Holy shit! You have a light spell! I thought we were goners!” Asakura cried out. She’s elated that we aren’t blind. I can’t help but feel flattered when she hugs me tightly. She’s got like tears of gratitude.

“I knew you were good inside Shun! With being able to do magic that even makes you more of a catch!” she winked me after that.

Was it a special meaning for her to do that?

Does she mean it?

Wow, being a mage is awesome!

“Oh Shun Bro, thank heavens! I’m glad you’re safe!” Rina gets up off the ground, though I can tell she’s still upset that Yumi is missing. She looks unstable on her feet and her legs shake a bit as she struggles to her feet. She’s in the gnome overalls again too with my jacket around her for a shirt. But she’s got like cloudy dirt stains on her face and arms.

Rina comes closer to us, staying near me. “I can’t find Yumi though.” She says it nervously like she’s trying to hold together her willpower and its cracking.

“I don’t know if she made it,” I admitted.

I could hear Rina sniffling. She’s trying not to cry.

She and Asakura are hugging me in grief now.

I couldn’t help but notice that Yumi would have had to have been near where Rina had been sitting or standing before she was knocked off her feet. But that’s only a guess since she disappeared before the explosion, and not after. Rina was also nearly crushed, so…did that mean Yumi was under that huge new rock pile? I can’t say anything about it to the others yet. It will make them feel terrible.

“Yumi missing, that’s really bad,” Asakura says letting me go.

Still I look around it checking for any signs or clues. There’s nothing. No blood, no human remains, and no glowy shield left over. I’m not sure what to think except that I’m careful and thorough but still find nothing after a two, or three minutes worth of checking.

“You know I hate to be the one to say this, but I don’t really think Yumi was into our group,” Asakura says suddenly while we were looking for her.

“Hey that’s not nice,” Rina immediately reacted.

“But it’s true,” Asakura told her carefully.

I put my hand on her shoulder, “actually we’ve been really blind about it. She’s right, and it’s true. Yumi was forced to be with us, but didn’t really want our team to be her future,” I said to Rina. “She was being led by the nose by Saiya.”

Rina stomped her feet, but then softened up. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I just kept wanting to not see it. But she was trying to get me to go over to that other group, even though it’s not good for me. Why would she do that Shun? I can’t survive without you.” She looked at me seriously with an intense look.

“Sometimes people around someone with like a physical impairment or weaknesses have trouble accepting the reality of that person’s limitations. They refuse to admit it even after great numbers of experience with that person because admitting it, means they have to pick up the slack and sacrifice. It becomes convenient to not accept the truth,” Asakura said.

“Is that what happened with your mom?” Rina asked.

Oh I had almost forgotten about that.

But Rina had probably talked about it with her when I wasn’t around too. Asakura’s mom had some kind of physical impairment and it had probably influenced her accepting me, because of my healer job.

“Yeah, it’s kind of sad. People often turn their back on family members and people they are close to when it’s convenient. They just lose themselves in their passions and desires leading them off track. I’m sorry,” she then gave Rina another hug.

But I was surprised when she gave me a hug right after that too again. Of course mine lasted longer than Rina’s. She wasn’t jealous about it though.

The only question in my mind left is how far we had been knocked off our feet in the blast. In the movies you can get knocked off your feet for quite a distance without a scratch but reality is different. Even a short distance can get you torn up pretty badly, or injured severely. I suppose it is possible that Yumi’s shield might have absorbed some of the kinetic energy that was flowing towards us but I highly doubted that.

Even though Yumi wasn’t like totally in our camp I had hoped she lived through the blast at least.

We keep looking in the dark for what seems like at least an hour but there just isn’t anywhere to look. This area is very small too and we’re surrounded by rock walls and rock piles from floor to ceiling.

I am unable to figure out how far we were pushed back in the end.

“What are you doing?” Asakura asked.

“Trying to figure out where we are and how far we’ve been moved. None of the landscape looks the same anymore,” I said.

“You’re right. I can’t even tell where we are. Any idea how far we were thrown in the blast?” she asks.

I shake my head negatively.

She nods. It almost looks like we’re not even in the same cavern.

“You know Shun, I don’t think the walls and ceiling here are stable. In the explosion most of this stuff was disintegrated into loose sandstone and shale like pieces. I mean it’s not solid rock anymore see,” she shows me how the smaller pieces can be dissolved by hand.

“But, we have to find Yumi!” Rina says desperately.

I give her a hug, “I’m sorry Rina. We’ve looked everywhere. And it’s not safe here. And monsters are here. There’s just not anywhere near us where she could be.”

Rina hiccups with tears running down her face. “She-she was one of my only friends.”

“You know actually she was the cause of why you didn’t have many friends. No offense, everyone thought you were in her lesbian club. You would never guess how many times I caught her muttering something about Girl’s Kingdom too, when Shun wasn’t around. Even though she was pretty, people were afraid to hang around you two,” Asakura says. “Sorry,” she bit her lip, afraid she’d hurt Rina’s feeling.

Eh? Really? Sounds like there were things I wasn’t aware of still.

I look at Rina curiously…was she in it to??

Rina picked up on what I was thinking somehow, “It’s not true Shun! I would never betray you! I swear I’m not a lesbian! You can pop my cherry anytime!”

Asakura slaps me. “Ouch! What was that for!” I retorted.

“Don’t even think about popping your cousin’s cherry. Good lord…” Asakura shakes her head at both of us.

“...so you knew?” I asked.

“Knew what?” she replies.

“That she’s actually my cousin, and not my sister?” I asked.

“Yes, I knew,” she adds.

“I see...”

“What?! I have no control over Rina’s delusions,” I protested.

“Oh so now you think I’m delusional huh? If you keep that up maybe I won’t let you have my first time. And you should be thanking me for liking you. I know I’ve got challenges, but most people think I’m great looking. I just don’t have huge boobs like someone else,” Rina said spitefully.

She glanced at Asakura’s chest just then.

“Ugh, your right. Actually I was totally out of line Shun. Please forgive me,” Asakura gives me a seriously repentant look.

“Just don’t make it a habit,” I replied.

In the background Rina is complaining, but I’m too tired to listen.

I’m about to move when she grabs my hands. “Please Shun.”

“Uh just making sure trouble didn’t start. Sorry, you didn’t deserve that,” she replies. She is ashamed of what she did according to her face and posture.

“Please don’t be mad at me Shun,” Asakura says.

We start to try to move but it’s awkward. I feel like I’m being tugged on. Rina has her hands on my belt, and then I notice something else…Near us Asakura also has the same problem as Rina with the dirt stains on her skin. I notice she also won’t let go of me. Even when I push her hand away she just puts it right back into holding my belt.

“Please stop!” Asakura said suddenly. She’s got an intense look on her face.

“What? What is it?” both Rina and I said at once.

“Actually. I…I’ve had this on my chest for awhile. It’s been growing for a long time. I’m worried I won’t get another chance to say it later,” Asakura is looking down.

I don’t say anything.

She clears her throat. “Actually…I…I think I love you.” She’s looking at me desperately in the eyes.

“What? But I’m not into Girls Kingdom. I can’t accept anyone but Shun,” Rina says trying to shoot her down.

Asakura suddenly gets annoyed, “no, not you idiot! I meant Shun! That wasn’t for you!” somehow she ends up spanking Rina, who is really embarrassed.

I hide my snickering from the both of them. It wasn’t easy however.

Damn it. Even now Rina somehow thwarts the plans of the future. Even though Asakura has confessed I’m not sure what to do. Isn’t there a guide or manual for this?

After that Asakura comes back, blushing. Rina is behind her also blushing but for different reasons.

“So please accept me,” Asakura says to me.

“Wh-wh-what do you mean by accept you?” I asked nervously.

She is looking deep into my eyes. “I think you know what I mean. I mean accept me, all the way.”

“Are you serious about this? I don’t really know how this works? We’re like on some other world, and don’t even know how to provide or work for ourselves. We’re both, pretty vulnerable,” I admitted.

Asakura grabs my hand, and pulls it closer to hers and flat on her chest. “But you do like me to right?”

“Y-yes, of course I do. I’m just scared. I’m still a kid in that I haven’t fully figured out how to provide for a family,” I said.

“But you’re over thinking things Shun. All we have to do is be there for each other. If we’re both trying as hard as we can even if we fail 50% of the time we should still have enough for both of us. It’s just simple math really. I realized it when I was over thinking this myself and trying to figure it out. If two people are working and there’s less than a perfect income and a total failure on one of them, there will always still be enough if they pull together,” Asakura said. She presses my hand into her huge soft and heavenly warm boob. It’s an amazing sensation and so warm, and I’m starting to get excited.

Wow I kind of like this feeling. She shakes a bit when I accidentally squeeze. I want to play with these. They feel warm and squishy. I wish I could feel them all day…

“No! Please Shun! Take me instead!” Rina pleads.

We both have tuned her out and ignore her.

“Shun, just you only need to believe that we can work it out and face our problems together. That’s all it really takes. I’ve been too serious about waiting. But if I wait Rina or some other girl will take you away from me,” Asakura is now crying. She tries to cover up her sniffling.

The she’s hanging onto me tightly.

“I accept your love, and confession. I will return it the best I can,” I said wholeheartedly. “But I just wanted you to know I have fears still about living in this world, and how to figure that out.”

Asakura nods, “I understand. That’s how life is. Don’t you think adults think like that all the time? They just accept that no matter how strong you are there will always be unknowns. There will always be something more that we’re not sure about but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t wait just that we can work on it with both of us. You just have to buckle down and try to work past that part. Give me a chance Shun! You are all I have now. I’ve lost everything. I don’t even have a family on this world. I only have you and Rina.”

I’m kind of shocked.

Some of this is maybe accelerated by the fact that she wants to survive and I can give that to her. But that doesn’t mean her feelings aren’t real.

Asakura is sometimes serious and has a quiet personality so I hadn’t realized how deep things had hit her. She’d had this all bottled up inside the whole time. She was probably not sure how to face it partly too because from what I heard awhile ago, for many years she’d had trouble accepting relationships because of how her mom and dad had turned out.

Of course this whole time she’s still pushing my hand into her boob over her heart. Her face burns when I play with them.

“I get to play with these at night after the others are asleep right?” I confirm to make sure.

She laughs in relief, still crying. But it turned into happy crying. Why is she crying anyway? She doesn’t have a reason to cry. “I can let you play with them right now if Rina wasn’t here and if there were no goblins.”

I feel partly excited.

Until I hear Rina’s disappointment voice.

“We-well I can make up for size with …enthusiasm!” Rina said quickly.

We have to tackle her from becoming a streaker and force her to keep her clothes on.

I guess in a way Yumi and the others dying forced her to be courageous. I’m actually admiring Asakura…but not Rina’s courage which is misguided.

Of course another part of me is like…what will happen when she finds out about Fox Girl and Sunghee…and the others? My heartbeat races in fear worrying about that part. But there’s no way to avoid that either.

“Sorry Shun, you’re the only chance we have to live. I don’t dare let go. And...I think I liked part of you before we were kidnapped to another world. I realize I don’t have all the wonderful skills you do and the magic but please don’t reject me. I need you, and deep down inside I think our personalities are similar too,” she says. Her eyes linger on mine a bit longer than necessary. Did that have some special meaning?

She switches her arms to clasp my hand in hers.

Wow, suddenly this is real. This is way different than just a friendship now. It’s surprising that love really does manifest in strange places…like a goblin invasion ruin of all things.

Before sometimes I’d wondered like if I was really reaching them. I’d have the girls in tow as we explored but I wasn’t sure if they were really with me. Now it was unmistakable. I had reached someone finally. I could hardly believe it.

Asakura squeezed my hand again. “Thanks Shun! Don’t worry I know you are special. That’s why you have magic. I’ll be behind you the whole way!” In spite of having a bunch of dirt on her face she’s still beautiful.

As we begin moving I hear Asakura voicing her thoughts more often than before. “I’m so glad I decided to act on my own power instead of wait. The last few weeks, I’ve wanted to say something but I was feeling like…I needed more courage! Then when there was all those people we lost I felt I had to spill it out then in case I didn’t have a chance later.” she sounds…calmer now that she’s got it off her chest.

This was so unexpected, to find some jewel of hope, of love, in the middle of a crazy world in chaos.

The dust is starting to settle here, but it’s still thick as smoke and enough that it’s like dripping down in the way you see it. But one surprising bonus effect of the light spell is that it seems to help the dust clear out the air immediately around us as it penetrates the dust and smoke.

Eh? It could do that? Strange…it seems there’s a lot of subliminal effects that magic can have when stacked or used with different conditions or other things. I’d have to study it later on.

You are reading story Kidnapped to Another World at novel35.com

It’s disappointing because I’m very interested in the effect and want to study it further, but can’t now.

“We should get moving, Shun. I’m worried there are still goblins nearby. I’m sure they are looking for survivors,” Asakura says nervously.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said.

“But didn’t any gnomes survive?” Rina asks concerned. She’s looking for some of them, but there aren’t even any bodies of them in this caved in section.

“I don’t know kid, but we will survive even if they didn’t,” I responded confidently. With all the new skills I’ve got I’m sure we have a great fighting chance actually.

Rina has lost her spear somewhere we soon find out. We’re actually lucky none of got killed by kinetic energy throwing the weapons into us like debris from either us or others.

“I can’t see any replacement weapons here,” I said. Waving the light around confirmed it again.

“I want to help. But I wish I could do more,” Asakura says to me, her hand grazing mine.

Fortunately Asakura still has her spear. She keeps it ready and gets it ready to use again. I get another spear from my demon item box, and two long orc knives and give one to each of them.

“I don’t have infinite supplies. You need to not lose these orc spears. They also look sturdier than goblin weapons so I don’t want to lose them. Now let’s get moving,” I said.

“Thanks,” Asakura says.

Rina also nods.

“Can I have another kiss first?” Asakura asks shyly.

“If we don’t start now, we’ll never get away. There are still goblins here,” I reminded them.

“OK fine. But you owe me one later,” she chuckled.

Seriously they have no priority on reality…

Or maybe this is how they are staying sane?

I make them both test them out to get used to the balance first before we get moving.

We turn around another bend and then notice a pool of dwarven shields near us over a partly half submerged floor. It turns out the dwarves are still alive mostly, but a little bit banged up. Some of them look like they are hurting pretty badly. They’d had their shields interlocked and braced together so well that I’d not even seen them yet, as they were gathered in an indentation in the floor.

We didn’t even know they were there! They were almost buried in rubble!

Of course they weren’t moving until a minute ago because it looked like they had to dig out about half of their numbers from shale and other dirt landslides. They had to do it without anyone getting crushed, so it’s amazing we got to them like this.

They are staring at us. I’m not sure what to say.

Uh, how much of our previous conversation did they hear anyway?

“You better not make any sudden moves around them, until they accept us,” Asakura whispered.

The problem is we still can’t communicate with them. They know that too. They are giving each other hand signals.

It takes some time but we try to show peaceful intent. Eventually it gets worked out after several minutes. They gesture for us to follow them. At some point, I’m not sure how but our clothes and weapons having a lot of drying goblin blood on them, helped to convince them that we aren’t with the goblins.

“We should follow them right?” Rina asked.

“I’m not sure. It’s worth a try,” I said.

“Right, so we follow a bunch of dwarves. You really think they know what they are doing? Because it seems like this whole cave in nonsense was because of them,” Rina grumbled.

“The question is where are they going, and if they are really reliable to know the way out,” I said.

“Ah that’s true,” Asakura admitted.

We stop for a minute and I take a look at some of their wounded. I risk a few heals on them, but nothing major. I have to conserve power and they know it. Still my heal spells are stronger know that my mana pool is shared with Fox. The same heal power for one heal is now doing quite a bit more.

It helps to make a favorable impression on the dwarves. They gesture for us to stick with them.

Asakura and Rina pick up on it and give each other high fives.

Is it just me or does having a healer around make people more suicidal for fighting though? They seem to mistakenly think it’s a guarantee they’ll live. I don’t dispel that illusion now because the perception will help fuel a forward movement into something positive.

Its also odd that apart from us and them, I don’t think there is anyone else left.

One of the dwarves is motioning some kind of advance pattern. It’s the same full white bearded dwarf that was leading them before. They are also inspecting the cavern and tunnel ceiling sections to check for how stable this area is. I can’t blame them.

They’d also noticed like I did that the area we were in was completely sealed off in front of us. The only way to move is to retreat following them.

Steadily the dwarves start moving back the only available direction to all of us; deeper in the gnome tunnels. It seems that the dwarves can see in the dark. So they didn’t need a light, like we did.

But it gives me an idea as they move.

I carefully thread the mana off the light globe I’m holding. Then I attach try to stick it onto my dwarven war hammer. It doesn’t work. We stay moving behind them and as we keep marching I keep trying to stick it onto it. There must be a way to get the light globe to stick to equipment so I can have a free hand right?

I try the experiment a different way. I can’t make it float beside me. This makes me unhappy since it would be a cool idea.

But does it have to do with balancing the mana flow?

As we work following them I get another idea.

What if I first have to practice putting more distance between the light globe and my hand?

I try to carefully adjust it as I try to modify it. As it turns out modifying an existing spell isn’t very easy. I have to do it carefully by degrees even though I’m essentially not changing much about it. I have to do it slowly so I can keep the mana feed balanced. At first it started to flash and sputter but then I balance it.

Wondering what was going on, a few of the dwarves turned to also see what I was doing. They have become curious about this too. Even though they don’t need the light they would be curious just from the aspect of crafting alone. I think somehow more light makes them feel better, even though dwarves can see in the dark pretty well.

I fed the mana to the light globe slowly while trying to inch it further out. It finally gets to a position of hovering three inches above my palm in the air. It’s not much gain yet, but even if I go an inch at a time that’s pretty good. I then keep it like that for a little while. If I go to quick it will choke and die. After a few minutes of the flow being fed like this, I stop in mid-stride and adjust the distance another two inches. Again like before I had to adjust and stabilize the flow but it works.

We then catch up to the dwarves. They have a good steady marching pace, but the look on their faces says don’t slow down or you’ll get left behind.

I alternate trying to stretch the light distance like this as we stay moving. It’s working. After us following the dwarves for another twenty minutes I’ve managed to get the light spell globe out to nearly three feet. While working on it I have Rina also trying to watch behind us as we move, in case there are any surprises. There shouldn’t be anything alive besides us and the dwarves in this dead end tunnel but I don’t want to risk it.

We have to stay alert or we will die. It’s also good practice for Rina and Asakura to learn to help out. I need to have them practice sparring more often. It’s my big concern how I’ll keep them alive. But now isn’t a good time. I want them to save their stamina since we never know when we’ll get to rest next.

Also while moving with the dwarves we have to stay busy to catch up. Therefore I can’t talk to Asakura about our newfound romance yet.

We are moving along and the dwarves have increased their pace.

We keep wondering if there were other pockets of survivors that lived through the explosion. But so far nothing.

Rina asked us this several times, but Asakura only answered “I hope so too.” I’m glad she didn’t give her false hope though.

But do they know where they are going either? It’s safer to be with them, but I don’t know well they are aware of the terrain here. It looks like they are also checking for gnome survivors but that isn’t working out well so far.

We also haven’t seen any other humans so far, since the explosion and cave in. Was it a mistake for the dwarves to do that? I wonder what they were thinking. They literally nuked the entire place so bad it’s now a wasteland.

Soon we come to a tunnel we recognize. Or rather Asakura notices it first.

“Hey I recognize this spot! This is where the big fight was, where we saw all the dead gnomes and the five dead spiders,” she whispers.

“Hmm, I suppose so. Good memory,” I patted her on the back. She naturally feels obligated to pat me back affectionately. It’s a good feeling.

She kind of gave a half smile. “It’s not a complete victory but finding something familiar is good right?”

“Yeah I think so,” Rina agrees.

They are mostly hoping for mutual emotional support it seems, even though it’s not that great of a find.

The dwarves also confirm on their own that this is the entry area. (I think they don’t trust us yet.)

Somehow mentioning spiders while you are scared of the dark here alone and afraid isn’t a good idea, though. We all find each other looking over our shoulders remembering how scary big they were.

Strangely the dwarves keep going. It seems this isn’t their final destination. I had been trying to think if they’d turn but they don’t. They also don’t separate.

Did they stay together because of the overwhelming numbers of goblins though?

Or was there some other purpose?

Some of the dwarves seem upset, but we still can’t understand a thing they are saying. It’s a shame.

We keep moving.

By now I’ve gotten the light bulb to float above me. I’m still not where I need to be. I can’t get it to stick to my weapon. If I can get the light globe to stick to my hammer then imagine the damage I could do with the paladin holy light stuck to my weapon.

Despite several attempts at changing and shaping the spell I’m feeling down. I have so much further to go. I did manage to do one more thing though…

I got the light globe to hover by itself to a limit of two feet above my shoulder. I can stretch it to four feet but when it’s beyond two feet from my body than I have to actively concentrate on it to keep it from dying. But just two feet now its control has gotten to where I can let it sort of hang there.

The others are impressed. But sometimes I need to be reminded of our perils.

“Stay moving Shun,” Asakura says pulling me along.

Even the dwarves have noticed.

Does that mean they have mages too? I thought they have earth mages, but not sure if more than that.

Finally we reach the inner sanctum area. This area should have been too far inside the cavern to have invaders. But we are wrong in thinking that.

We’re shocked.

Somehow the goblins had gotten to this area too, some time ago. Everyone is dead. It seems some reserve guards had been positioned here with the gnome children. Even they have been put to the sword too. There is literally no one left alive. In some cases it looks like the goblins were playing jump rope with the gnome’s intestines, as some kind of twisted vile joke.

I find it puzzling how they got in this far though. Didn’t we slay as much as we could? Also the dwarves’ explosion probably killed at least a thousand of them.

We all stare in sadness. The dwarves are really emotionally hit by it; some of them crying openly when they see the slain gnome kids. Even though they look tough they are soft inside it seems. Some of them tore their beards in frustration. Others are ready to do infinite war against the orcs.

I couldn’t resist crying too. Seeing kids murdered will probably stay with me to the rest of life…as nightmares.

I motion for both Rina and Asakura to stay close and stay alert.

“From this point on we could get attacked at any time,” I said. The way the dwarves have their hands tight around their weapons says the same thing.

When I said that, neither of them said anything but they had big eyes. We then got closer to the last parts of the dwarves’ search.

It seems they are looking for something in the inner sanctum area. I’m puzzled by what it is, but sure enough after some time they are able to uncover a stone vault. They search and in the middle chamber they prop open a hidden floor treasury within the vault locking mechanism. It seems it has the gnome’s records and history there. They carefully place it in their bags like it’s a treasure.

It seems history and family records are really important to the dwarves. I hadn’t expected that. It wasn’t a money vault at all, but just where they put their secrets. If I’d been able to read dwarven writing then this would’ve been really interesting.

I doubted it would be very easy to learn though.

They turned to follow another chamber going out. It’s an area I’m less familiar with. The dwarves we follow through a chain of tunnels. There aren’t as many goblins in this part of the tunnels. Still they do engage them whenever possible. We standby ready to assist; they are content with us being rear guard while I keep trying to charge up mana.

They kill a few straggler goblins that were probably deserters and in hiding mostly; but not a whole lot of groups with big numbers down here. Usually packs of less than ten. It seems the goblins had divided into search and destroy patrols and partly to scout out for a main force.

“OK stay alert. We’re definitely still not alone,” I reminded them.

It makes me wonder if the goblins are going to leave soon or just trying to pick over the whole place in smaller groups? If they thought there was a significant number of us here wouldn’t they keep a bigger force together?

I’m also worried they may try to sneak up on us from behind but the dwarves stay moving. The dark is a lot scarier knowing they are hiding around here.

We went through every tunnel imaginable and then some for several hours. We get tired of marching but know if we stop we will sooner or later be overrun. It’s hard to keep up with dwarves too. They aren’t very fast but just never quit. Dwarves are built so sturdy I start to wonder if they have the best deal of all the creatures in this world that we’ve met so far.

Will it be like this forever?

Eventually even we have some close calls.

I was lucky the runic shields stay up for a good amount of time. I decided I would also invest in some practice on the runic shield spell asap.

A goblin ambush team tried to pick us off. I hear the runic shield take damage and look over and some masked and hooded goblins’ attacks bounce off Rina’s shield. I whirl in time to react and chop one’s arm off at the elbow.

Thank goodness for stainless steel.

Asakura is also struggling to keep up. She was attacked at the same time, and her shield has one huge crack in it while Rina’s has two medium cracks. She parries the blows while I’m trying to save Rina. They want to drag her off or kill her.

The runic shield spell is going to be my focus for training. It would be awful not to have it right now.

It’s a small ambush team, so only one of them goes after me and he attacks late. I take a risk on my mana being still pretty full according to gauging it how I feel; I unleash a star missile spell into him point blank knocking him back and killing him instantly. It was important to get rid of that fellow quickly so I could save Rina.

Sure enough, while I’ve killed the fellow going against me, they’ve added two more long gashes in the runic shield on Rina. I renew the spell just in time as their next set of attacks pops it. I’m glad the constraint is mana and not a set cool time.

So cheaty…

Rina is swinging is swinging away with the club wildly. What she lacks in coordination she makes up for in tenacity. The goblins dodge her attacks however. But they don’t like how ugly the club spikes are like.

I find another goblin moving up towards me, but I trip it by kicking at its knee cap. The knee cap shatters after I again whipped my axe in a left-handed and underhand blow against the side of the knee. Then I whirl to block an attack against Rina. She keeps the other one off her shield in time too.

We are then surprised when the dwarves lent support to assist us, but only after seeing we were worthy? Or were they just that slow?

They flow around us quickly and mow down the goblins like a lawn mower on grass. They make our measly skills look like elementary school kids trying to drive a car.

Dang. They are really good. We really need to step up our training. I had no idea steel could sing that beautifully when wielded by a true blade master.

I’m surprised they did help us.

It may have to do with the heals earlier but they seem like interesting creatures. Apparently they think we are worth trying to help. The dwarves kill the goblins so quickly that had attacked us that I realize how far above us they are in terms of power and strength. It’s like being surrounded by a pack of lions.

For now that pack of lions has guarded us at a rest point.

But how long will it stay this way?

I can’t believe we lost Yumi, my negative thoughts echo as we trudge along the tunnels. My heart aches…even though she was super annoying.

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