Chapter 2 - Inside

Inside the portal, the sound of metal scratching the ground echoed through the narrow tunnel of a cave as dozens of short green-like humanoid creatures came scuttling into view, blocking off one end of the tunnel completely.

'What is that?' Valina's tired voice whispered out as they hid in a small indent in the tunnel walls.

'I don't know…' Marc muttered, peeking his head out a bit, evaluating the situation. 'There's a person lying in the middle of that swarm. I think it's Jacob's mother.'

'We need to help her.' Valina gasped,

'It's too late, she's probably dead.' Marc replied with a deep breath.

'So what do we do now?'

The two of them had been running and hiding from the goblins for over half an hour. From the moment they entered through the portal, the portal disappeared instantly behind them and swarms of those creatures kept popping out of every corner, forcing them to play a horrendous game of hide-and-seek for the past 30 minutes.

'We need to find a way out,' Marcus whispered back, looking around in alert.

'But the screen says we need to kill 70 enemies before the exit appears! We don't even have weapons to defend ourselves!'

'We'll scout around. Maybe there's another way.'

The tension between the two thickened as they stared at each other in the eyes. One believing they should stay put until help arrives, while the other wanting to explore a bit further.

SHHHIIIRRKKKK

The ear-deafening shriek of a goblin suddenly sounded extremely close to them. A 4-foot goblin stood right outside the indent of the wall, screeching its lungs out.

'R-Run!' Marc bolted, grabbing a loose rock from the wall and smashing it on the goblin's skull. Instantly causing it to tumble onto the ground as blood gushed out of its wound.

[Morph - Goblin unlocked]

'Oh, it says there's 69 left,' Valina explained, as she looked at the newly updated screen while almost gagging and jumping over the body while running after Marcus.

The repetitive dirt and stone walls of the cave lined every direction. Lit with only some small flame-lit torches hung up with metal strips nailed sloppily every few dozen meters apart, the daunting shadows of the cave constantly loomed over them, creating an intense feeling of dread to wash over them.

'Sh! Hide,' Marcus suddenly whisper, stopping dead in his track as a large clearing appeared up ahead.

The sound of dripping water echoed through the silent air and the small shuffling of goblins sounded from ahead.

'Stay here,' He quickly gestured, hiding in a small ditch in the ground.

At the clearing stood over 10 goblins carrying what looked like a person into a small room.

'Isn't that Jacob's mother's body? What are they-?' Valina gasped putting her hands on her mouth to prevent her voice from traveling too far.

'Yeah,' Marcus looked over at the room they were bringing her into.

A small silver glint caught his eye as he squinted to take a closer look, 'That's a stash of weapons!' He realized.

'Valina,' He looked over with resolve as he slowly got up in preparation to bolt towards the loot. 'I'll try getting us a weapon.'

'Wait!' Valina exclaimed, grabbing his jumper in shock, 'What if something happened to you?'

'I'll be fine,' Marcus smiled, patting Valina's head, 'I'll be right back.'

'How about we try to retrieve Jacob's mother's body as well so they could at least have something to mourn when we return?'

Marcus gave a quick thought before shaking his head slowly,

'We don't even know if we'll make it out alive ourselves. If we somehow make it back alive, we'll retrieve the body then.'

'..Ok...' Valina slowly nodded, 'Good luck... I'll wait for you here,' She said gripping on the hem of the jacket tightly before letting go.

Taking a deep breath, Marcus got into a running position before dashing straight for the makeshift room. As he ran, the goblins slowly turned around to see the disturbance.

With a loud cry, Marcus closed his eyes and held his hand in a fist, punching the goblin directly on the face, knocking it down onto the ground with a bloody nose, and creating himself a path to rush in.

'Valina! Catch!' He exclaimed, taking the first staff he could find from the pile and throwing it directly to the spot he came from.

The staff whizzed past the goblins, attracting their attention and exposing her location.

'Got it!' She shouted back, grabbing the staff with both hands, and stumbled a bit before emerging from the ditch.

SHHHIIIRRKKKK

SHHHIIIRRKKKK

The goblins screeched as they saw the appearance of an enemy. Wielding their cutlass they began charging towards her with extreme bloodlust.

'Stop!' A loud shout came from behind as a goblin shrieked in pain before being cut directly in half, its blood splurting everywhere.

'Puff puff. I'm your target!' Marcus stated, putting up a brave front but his arm clearly trembling from the strength he had exerted from the previous attack.

The goblins turned around and stared at Marcus for a few seconds before looking at each other in confusion and returned their attention back to Valina. With their arms still raised, they resumed their attack.

'Stop!' He screamed, charging at the goblin and slashing his sword right into the goblin's brain, causing blood and brain juice to flow over the dirt ground.

Glaring at the other goblins, he began charging at them too with his sword swinging wildly.

After about 20 minutes, all the goblins laid on the ground with their heads either cut off or lying in a puddle of their own blood.

'A-Are you ok?' Valina asked nervously, holding out her staff, '[Small Heal],'

'Y-Yeah,' Marcus replied, dropping on the ground in exhaustion.

'58 more before we can leave,' Valina muttered, staring at her screen.

'N.'

The two sat down at the ditch and rested for a while, catching their breaths.

'How long do you think we'll have to stay in here for?' Valina muttered, resting her head on her knees.

'I'll get you out of here soon,' Marcus replied, leaning his head back onto the wall.

----

After about a short 10-minute break, the two of them had once again gotten back up and made their way past the large cave clearing, killing any goblins they saw on the way.

'3 more to go,' Valina stretched, eyeing the panel in relief. The initial fear of killing a living thing had completely disappeared from their minds now, as they had been wandering through the endless tunnels for over 4 hours.

With Valina being a Cleric, the strategy they used to progress this far required her to become the bait while Marcus simply slashed at them from behind. It was an extremely effective method, however, due to some goblins wearing helmets, rendering the strategy useless, a few fights had lead to some superficial injuries in which Valina simply cast her Small Healing Spell.

SHHHIIIRRKKKK!! A goblin jumped out from a side tunnel, pouncing on Valina, its sword inches away from her face, blocked by her staff.

'Get! Off of me!' She yelled, gathering her strength and pushing it to the ground, stabbing its chest with the butt of her weapon.

*Ding*

[Gained 10 EXP]

[You Level up!]

'Oh?'

Valina froze, 'I leveled up?' She stared at Marcus.

Quickly looking at the blue status screen, she found the newly updated information written down.

Status

Name: Valina Soreath

Age: 23

Sex: Female

Occupation: Elementary School Teacher

Title: Hunter (Ranked: E)

Class: Cleric

Level: 2

HP: 8/11

MP: 5/28 (+3)

STR: 6

INT: 12 (+2)

VIT: 7

AGI: 10 (+2)

STA: 10

RES: 12

LUK: 12

Skills:-

Small Heal: (Lvl 2)

MP Cost: 5 MP

Mass Small Heal: (Lvl 1)

MP Cost: 10 MP

Remove Ailment: (Lvl 1)

MP Cost: 5 MP

Mass remove Ailment lv1: (Lvl 1)

MP Cost: 10 MP

'My stats increased,' She stared at her screen,

'Wait! Does that mean the more monsters I fight, the stronger I'll get?' She stared at Marcus in surprise, 'Why didn't you tell me you've been leveling up?'

'I-' He stared at his status before looking back at her,

'I guess I forgot' he lied, 'C'mon, we've still got 2 more monsters to go.'

'Oh. Ok...' Valina replied, staring at Marcus oddly.

After walking a few hundred meters down the tunnel and turning a few corners, a giant block double door made with thick iron stood in their way.

'I'm guessing the last two are behind this door...' Marcus closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed the door with both hands...

The door creaked open slowly as the two slowly made their way in, moving cautiously with their swords drawn.

'Where?' Valina muttered, looking around in the darkness.

All of a sudden an ear-piercing roar echoed around the large boss room, the sound bouncing off the walls, making it impossible to locate its original location.

The torches flickered on as the looming figure of an orc, around 2.5meters tall stared directly at them, his light green hands duel wielding the largest machetes ever seen.

'R-Run!' Marus shouted, pushing Valina to the side and rolling to dodge the attack. The ground beneath them creaked open with a single swing.

With a grunt, the orc pulled the machete out again and glared straight at Valina, preparing its next move.

'Ahhh!' Marcus screamed, jumping into the air and smashing his swords straight into the back of the orc. The skin on its back tore open, making it scream in pain and howl in pain, spinning around aimlessly slicing and dicing the air around it.

Using this opportunity, Marcus ran up to its leg and pierced his sword right through, causing it to collapse on the ground. With it's screams becoming weaker and eventually becoming croaks, the orc's vision slowly dimmed and it passed away.

'There's one more left,' Valina muttered, wiping the sweat off her forehead, 'Where is it?'

The boss room had no other exits and they were sure they had combed through every room in the area.

Marcus stood there for a while, his hand placed on his chin as he gathered his thoughts. It had seemed his speculations were correct

Looking back at Valina, Marcus stopped his hand from trembling and walked over.

'Let's go comb the area again,'

He had to think of a loophole in the system. There must be. Nothing was ever made perfect,

'Marc.' Valina's soft voice called out behind him as they walked, 'Why didn't you use any sword skills at all when you were fighting?'

Marcus's heart dropped as he heard the question.

'Because I-, I don't actually have any sword skills. My skills are more... dagger oriented.' He lied again.

'... I see.'

Silence filled the air as the two continued to walk.

'You know there were daggers in that pile of weapons right...?' Her voice sounded out again,

'I-'

'And the goblins,' She continued before he could answer, 'None of them seemed interested in attacking you.'

'Thats-'

'Marc. The way they looked at you.' Her voice began cracking as a small sniffling sound could be heard behind him.

'Marc. Tell me the truth.'

'I-' Marc hesitated, his eyes planted on the ground, not daring to look at her, 'I don't know.'

'Marcus Elroi.' She said a little bit louder, a hint of anger and sorrow in her voice. 'Don't lie to me anymore. I know you've been hiding something since the field trip. So tell me. Please. What is your real title?'