XXII

  As Kaz stepped into the cave, the first thing that hit him was the stench, making him gag. The stench was overwhelming, the smell of rot and waste filling the air, and Kaz desperately wished he had some sort of mask to help filter some of the smells attacking his nose.

  Once he acclimated to the smells, with the help of the sleeve of his robe, he began his exploration of the cave. The cave was very dark, and it took quite a bit of time for his eyes to adjust and see at least some shapes. He wished he had Fire mana, as a nice flame would be useful in this situation to illuminate the cave, which was quite narrow, barely the width of twelve feet and a decent height, especially for someone Kaz’s height, which was around ten feet. Jagged rocks and rough walls proved that this was a natural occurring cave, not one the goblins made.

  Something scurried in the dark, a dark shadow appearing in front of him. He stood in place, holding his breath, trying to listen for any noises, which there was a slight tapping to his right side, where the shadow disappeared into. A low growl sounded, and he felt something smack into his side, throwing him off balance temporarily. He quickly summoned his [ Mana Shield ], and deflected the next attack, and cast [ Mana Burst ] as soon as he felt the mana construct deflect what he assumed was a wooden club. He hoped his attack would connect with the stealthy attacker, as he couldn’t get a visual of the enemy.

  A grunt of pain sounded when he released his attack, which meant his attack connected with his enemy, which filled him with a sense of relief. He quickly cast his [ Mana Burst ], his mana construct striking his opponent who shrieked loudly, and the sounds of movement and breathing ended.

  The shriek echoed across the cave, and Kaz felt his heart drop into his stomach. This was a plan from the goblins, a sort of alarm to alert everyone in the cave to know that an intruder was there. He let out an annoyed breath, bracing himself for the next attack.

  He didn’t have to wait long, until he vaguely saw two shapes running at him. Thankfully, his vision acclimated to the darkness of the cave, and he was able to see most shapes within a twenty-yard distance, including the two goblins running at him, one with a longer weapon, which he assumed was a spear, and the other with a sword.

  He cast his [ Mana Burst ], opting for the normal speed ones, as he wasn’t concerned about these two opponents, and also he had to conserve his Mana Points as he most likely wouldn’t have a chance at recovering his Mana Points through [ Mana Regeneration ] while he was in here. He connected with the one wielding the sword, causing it to fall over, yowling in pain. Kaz took out his dagger in his right hand. He deflected the spear’s thrust with his left arm, using his meager strength to push the spear away to buy himself more time to cast his offensive Skill Ability.

  [ Mana Burst ] connected with the spear wielder, causing the goblin to stagger a few steps from the impact and pain. Kaz’s [ Evasive Step ] pulsed and he dodged to the side, avoiding a swiping attack from the sword wielder. He immediately stabbed his dagger into the goblin, connecting with the goblin’s bare chest. He learned from his previous battles to not let go of the dagger, and held on to the dagger, pulling it out of the goblin with a nasty squelching sound. The goblin dropped its sword and instinctively covered its wound, to which Kaz quickly drove the dagger again towards the goblin, this time in the blade pointing downwards and thrusting it into the side of the goblin’s neck.

  Streams of blood poured out of the goblin, and it fell limply to the ground, succumbing to its injuries. Again, his [ Evasive Step ] pulsed and he took a quick two steps back, the blade of the spear catching him slightly, grazing his abdomen area, drawing blood but not an overwhelming amount of pain, just causing him to grimace. He acted instinctively and charged at the goblin, tackling it to the ground. Once on the ground, he quickly tried to outmuscle the spear handler, but was losing that battle, so he decided to use his dagger, stabbing wildly. He connected a few times, causing the goblin to shriek and scratch Kaz across the face with its long and dirty nails. Kaz rolled away and stood up, summoning his mana construct and struck the goblin on the ground, ending its life.

  He took a few seconds to catch his breath, trying to stabilize himself. He quickly collected the few Tokens that were dropped from the goblins, adding them to his growing collection of collected Tokens. These close quarters were putting him at a large disadvantage along with the limited vision, as it didn’t allow him to use his thirty-yard range of his attack. He wondered if he would be able to send out smaller bursts of mana, using less Mana Points and no casting time. He knew he wouldn’t get it to work right away, but hopefully in the future he would be offered a new Skill Ability related to that. His current [ Mana Burst ] already had an alternative option, so he doubted the Skill would involve another form of the way it operated. He huffed in frustration and continued on, already hearing the running steps in the distance.

  He rooted himself to the spot, casting his Ability. He shot it ahead of him, hoping it would strike one of the incoming attackers. He heard a yelp as he was already halfway casting his new one and sent the second burst ahead of him. Kaz heard a body fall to the ground, and he continued casting his third attack, seeing one shape running toward him. His silver construct met the attacker when it reached about five yards away. The goblin charged at him with reckless abandon, its spear pointed straight at Kaz.

  Quickly bracing himself, he summoned his [ Mana Shield ] and leaned forward. The goblin’s spear deflected off his shield, and crashed into Kaz, taking them both down. Kaz rolled out of the way and kicked the goblin causing it to stumble on the ground again, losing its footing. He summoned another mana attack and finished the goblin off. He collected the one Copper Token, never leaving behind the Tokens, as each one was valuable.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  He did a quick [ Status ] check, and his Mana Points were at 32 out of the 86 total Points he had. That slightly worried him, realizing he was running low on Mana Points, and he knew if he reached zero, he would pass out, and going below five percent would severely weaken him. His Health Points were at 70 out of 99, which wasn’t bad, so he decided he could take a few more hits. Kaz then decided he wouldn’t use the [ Mana Shield ] unless it was a life or death situation.

  He worriedly bit on his lip, wondering if he should try to recover some Mana Points through [ Mana Regeneration ], as he was worried one battle with multiple enemies could quickly empty out his core. He took a quick gamble, and quickly got into his sitting pose, and began channeling his Passive Ability.

  Kaz was able to recover 23 Mana Points, which brought him up to 55 total Mana Points, before his [ Evasive Step ] pulsed, causing him to roll away from a sword slashing down at him. He quickly cast [ Mana Burst ] as he was steadying his stance and pulling out his dagger. He struck the goblin with the mana construct, and then charged at it, using his full body strength and momentum to drive the dagger deep into the goblin, causing them to fall onto the hard stone ground. He felt the goblin get the wind knocked out of him, its vile breath causing Kaz to gag and fight off a wave of nausea.

  He steeled himself and removed the dagger out of the goblins chest and repeatedly stabbed it into the goblin until it stopped moving and breathing. That was an efficient way to take them out. Use one [ Mana Burst ] and then finish them off with his dagger, while it was risky, it proved successful.

  Pulling himself to his feet, he kept on walking along the cave, which at this point felt more like a tunnel more than a cave. He got mildly concerned as he didn’t hear any goblins approaching him as he walked along the tunnel for a few minutes. He felt a slight breeze go through the space, and a few steps later, he arrived at a section where the tunnel turned into a larger space.

  The large space expanded into a roughly circular shape, with the dimensions tripling the height of the tunnel and the whole room was dimly lit by two torches that were almost burnt out. There were a few pieces of furniture in the area, a few hammock looking beds, tables and chairs that were well past the term of worn, along with a few shelves and storage crates. In his moment of examining the space, he failed to notice the small goblin that exited the shadows near the entrance to the large space.

  The stealthy goblin drove a dagger straight into the knee of Kaz, causing him to lose strength in that leg and crumbling down into the ground. He quickly rolled away, summoning his [ Mana Shield ] when he saw the dagger descend towards his face. The dagger bounced off his mana protection, flying off the side. Kaz then used his own dagger and stabbed into the attacking goblin, only managing to glance the side of it as it dodged out of the way.

  He tried to get up, pain exploding from his knee, causing him to crash down onto the stone ground. His eyes watered from the pain, and he didn’t know what to do. He rolled onto his belly, and tried casting his [ Mana Burst ], opting for the increased speed because it seemed this goblin had good agility. It took him double the time in this position, but that was fine with him, as the goblin was currently preoccupied with trying to recover its dagger.

  The attack struck the goblin in the back as it bent over to pick up its dagger. It fell onto its face, and quickly rolled to the side, looking back at Kaz with anger. It flashed, and appeared right before Kaz, barely giving him any time to summon his [ Mana Shield ].

  What was that?

  Kaz concluded that this Stonerock Goblin had some kind of Ability. It caused the goblin to make a dash in the blink of an eye. This was some kind of powerful goblin, and Kaz himself let out a low guttural sound in frustration, as he was facing something that was strong meanwhile he couldn’t stand on his feet.

  He blocked another attack from his enemy, his [ Mana Shield ] deflecting the dagger, but unfortunately for him, the goblin learned from its mistake and had a firm grip on its dagger. Kaz instinctively kicked his good leg out, catching the goblins legs and causing the goblin to fly off its feet. Kaz used this moment to summon another [ Mana Burst ], again opting for the double speed. His attack connected with the goblin, but to his horror, it didn’t go down.

  The damage done to the goblin was significant, but even through its labored breathing, it still kept on the attack. Kaz was worried that he was running low on Mana Points, essentially burning through 20 Mana Points. He gritted his teeth and grasped his dagger, waiting for the goblin to approach him. He knew he would have to do something that would hurt him but hopefully it would end the battle.

  The goblin approached him, dragging its feet along the stone floor, heavy and ragged breaths echoing in the vacant space. It fell onto its knees right next to Kaz, using both arms to lift the dagger above its head. Then with a weak roar, it drove the dagger down towards Kaz. He urged his [ Evasive Step ] to help him move his body slightly in order for the dagger to drive itself into his shoulder area instead of his heart area. He cried out in pain, white light filling his vision as the dagger drove itself deep into his shoulder, tearing his flesh and muscle.

  Then the goblin went still with a slight gurgling sound, and fell over to the side, a dagger protruding from its throat, right under its chin. Kaz managed to stab his dagger into the throat of the goblin after it relaxed slightly after stabbing its own dagger into Kaz. Kaz steadied his breathing, unable to move at the moment. He slowly drifted off, losing his consciousness.

  Waking with a start a few moments later, his body immediately shifted into battle mode, remembering where he was. He cried out in pain when he abruptly sat up, his knee and shoulder area burning. Thankfully there were no enemies, and he moved to the side where he had to empty the contents of his stomach, nausea coming from the pain he was currently in. He weakly looked around, and saw the slightly glowing chest near him, and his mind tugged him towards the chest.

  Dragging himself along the ground, he made painstakingly slow progress towards the chest. Once he got close enough to it, he felt a ding in his mind, and the key flew out from his bag, and entered itself into the lock. The chest opened and he used his one good arm and leg to lean against the chest, peering into it. Before he could even inspect the loot inside the chest, his [ Archive ] opened, rolling out a piece of parchment in front of his eyes.