Deep breaths, steady feet. Come on, Kenji! Whoever just screamed needs your help!
...Who am I kidding? I'm gonna die! I can't even fight two goblins without getting hit! Agh my leg hurts! Isn't there someone else around here that can help me? Maybe if I left and shouted out some adventurers that are out camping would hear me and come to the rescue...
No, that won't happen. I'm all Tael's got. As much as I hate that, I can't just leave him to die. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I could try to save someone and then gave up.
I need to keep moving.
Slowly, I shuffled myself towards the epicenter of where I heard the scream. I could not silence my constant doubts and worries as they bubbled in my mind, so I instead elected to just ignore them and push on anyway. The only thing driving me forward was the knowledge that if I turned back now then I would live with the guilt of leaving people to their fate for the rest of my life.
I rounded corner after corner. The cave is immense. Judging by how far I've gone, I wouldn't be surprised if this cave went at least one hundred meters underground, if not more.
As I went towards the scream, I encountered another goblin and swiftly defeated it by using the torch blinding strategy. I know that it's only thanks to this light at my side that I am still relatively unharmed, but I'm still able to use it easily, so I'm grateful.
"NO! DON'T TOUCH ME YOU MONSTERS!" I nearly dropped my torch and sword as I jumped in surprise. Someone just shouted from the passage to my left, and by the sounds of it, they're very close.
This is it. Judging by the voice, it's probably a woman, but then again I'm not sure if Tael is one of those people that screams like a little girl...
This is something to worry about later. I need to move now.
I rounded the corner and saw two unarmed goblins that were what appeared to be a person down. As I entered the room, the figure looked at me and began to scream.
"H-HELP ME!" She screamed.
"Gragh!" The goblins quickly directed their attention away from the woman in response. Their gazes turned towards me before they shielded their eyes from the torchlight.
As a response to their reaction, I immediately continued my method of attacking when they were blinded. The closest goblin dropped to the floor once I had stabbed it in the chest, but the other goblin recovered in time and grabbed the woman. Judging by the fact that the monster is holding her neck and watching me, it seems as if the goblin plans to use her as a hostage.
Not knowing what to do, the goblin and I stared down one another for a moment before the woman acted.
"You're wide open!" She shouted as she kicked the goblin in its groin.
"Gwuo!" The goblin yelped in pain as it released the woman, clutching at its privates while it fell to one knee.
"Now!" The woman shouted to me. I took my sword and ran the second goblin through as it was recovering from its attack.
"Huff… Huff… Huff..." We both gasped for breath as we looked to each other. After some time, the woman stood upright and spoke.
"Thank you… If you hadn't come then they would have… Well... It's in the past now." She waved her hand to dismiss the thought. "My name is Erana. I'm a druid, level two. I came into this cave to rescue my friend who got taken by the goblins in the night. Who are you?"
This womans skin resembles caramel. Her hair is as black as the night and goes down to her elbows. Her soft facial features combine with her thin body to make her look youthful, though sharp. Her clothes are slightly damaged, but she is wearing a brown travel cloak, a green undershirt, and black pants. Her chest was covered by a leather piece of armor. She is also wearing dark brown boots that go up past her ankles, and fingerless gloves.
"My name is... Kenji. I'm… level zero." I turned and pointed towards where I entered from. "I also came into this cave for the same reason as you."
She tilted her head, letting her dark hair fall to the side. "You're level zero but you got all the way down here? How?"
I lifted up my torch and shook it. "Goblins don't seem to work well with bright lights, so I've been using this to blind them." I lowered the torch and turned away. "When they're stunned I stab them." I made a stabbing motion with my broadsword. When I moved, I felt the pain in my leg return as I winced. "A-Aah... Even though I used this method, I still got hit earlier…" I looked down at my right leg where it was cut. Though the pain has somewhat subsided, I can still feel the slight sting where I was cut.
"Oh! Here, let me help you!" She knelt down and looked at my leg. "Hmm... That doesn't look like it's a bad cut so... I can probably fix this." Erana turned around and picked up a strange stick off the ground.
"Cure Light Wounds!" Erana shouted out while she pointed her stick at my cut leg. Magic circles began to appear in front of the stick in a similar fashion to Tael's firebolt. As this was happening, I could feel the pain in my leg subsiding. My leg felt like it was being gently caressed, like a warm bath after a long day of work.
After a moment, the pain in my leg had completely disappeared, along with my wound.
Erana quickly stood up and held her branch with both hands. "Since I'm only level two, I can't do any combat spells. I had planned to sneak into here and grab my friend while the goblins weren't looking..." She frowned and turned towards the dead goblins, giving one of them a light kick before she turned back to me. "As you can see, that didn't work out for me too well..." Her face brightened up as she looked to me expectantly. "I can cast support magic though! Currently, I can cast cure light wounds to heal minor injuries!"
A healer! This is beyond fantastic! Though I don't plan on being any less cautious than I was before, I also can now recover from any injuries I might sustain, so long as they're not major.
This is good. With Erana's help, I can definitely make it to Tael.
I looked around the interior of this small room before I turned towards Erana. "How did you get down here without a torch of your own? Surely you would have found out that they're sensitive to strong light as well?"
"About that…" She looked to the side. "I was sneaking around by using faint light from my spell." As she said this, she began to spin her stick around in a circle as another magic circle appeared. "Fireflies!" she shouted.
Suddenly from the magic circle, a dozen fireflies emerged and began to light up the room. Though it's faint, their light is still enough to navigate.
"See?" She looked towards me and grinned from ear to ear. "I used this instead of a torch." She motioned towards the torch in my hand. "...They must not have much of a problem when it comes to this level of light though." She awkwardly looked towards the side. "I thought I could sneak past them if I kept it dark..."
"That is useful... But right now, we need bright light." I lifted up my torch. "I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the brighter the light the better."
Erana nodded her head enthusiastically. "Understood, Kenji-san."
I blinked a few times. Normally people like to question why I tell them to do something, so having someone just accept it immediately is rather surprising. "A-Alright... Now that that's sorted out, what are your plans now?"
Erana looked downwards and shuffled her feet in place. "I'm… not sure." She shrugged. "I've only been here for a few minutes at most. I want to find my friend, but..." She held her stick up to her head and looked at it. "I have no combat capabilities."
I thought for a moment about our situation.
Surely working with a healer would be beneficial? I know that two people makes it hard to sneak around with, but certainly just one more person wouldn't be much worse than just myself... Four eyes are better than two after all.
"...Do you want to come with me?" I raised my head and looked towards her. "I may be level zero, but I have a sword and I've been able to use it pretty effectively so far." I held up my broadsword and gave it a few light swings. "With us working together, we can save both my friend and yours."
Immediately, Erana perked up and grabbed me by the shoulders.
"Really? You're willing to do that for me? Thank you so much! I'm saved!" She began hopping up and down.
Too close! I know I shouldn't be worrying about this right now because of the danger we're in, but I just can't help it! Why am I so easy to tantalize? Is it because I've never had a girlfriend before, or is it because this girl specifically is acting cute right now? Maybe it's because the only female contact I've had for the past 7 months other than customers has been with an old woman? This is so frustrating!
"W-Well! We better move!" I turned my head away quickly. "I don't know the situation of my friend or yours right now and the longer we wait the worse it can get!"
She quickly let go of me and turned away. I could see her cheeks had turned a rich shade of maroon. "A-Ah! Right! Sorry, I got carried away there! Let's go!"
With that, I temporarily recruited Erana the druid into my party.