A large cave entrance stood on an empty plain in the middle of a giant forest. The cave wholly contrasted with the rest of the open and barren plain. Even though it stood alone in the middle of nowhere, it still seemed to dominate its surroundings.
In front of the large cave stood a group of men. The average age of these men ranged from 48-67.
The men were dressed like a mix between miners and warriors. Mining helmets rested on their heads while the rest of their bodies were covered in lightweight armor, and on the belt of each man was a sword.
One of the men separated from the group and stood in front of the cave. The man naturally gave off the aura of a leader. He was wearing the same strange outfit as the other men, but his equipment was clearly of higher quality.
The man stood
Eventually, he made his way to the front and commanded,
"Line up."
The men who were busy prepping their items and talking to each other instantly froze and hurriedly formed a line in front of the man. The man looked at the line in front of him and nodded in approval.
"All right, let's do a roll call." He said as he pulled out a clipboard.
Going down the list, he yelled out, "Edward Cullingham?"
A middle-aged man in the front of the line took two steps forward and said,
"Here, Sir," Edward nodded his head at the older man before he stepped back into line.
The man acknowledged Edward's voice and continued down the list. He went through the list, and at least 30 other names got called. The man finally got down to the last name on the list. The man looked up and called it out.
"Abel Vulcan?"
A boy emerged from the line. He looked no older than seventeen. He looked malnourished, as if he hadn't had a proper meal in weeks. Even with the malnourishment, it was still obvious he was no stranger to physical labor.
The boy was relatively tall. He stood at eye level with most of the men. Other than his height, the only notable thing about him was that his gear was old and cheap. The boy met the man's eyes and then responded,
"Here, Sir," His voice squeaked slightly, but he coughed to cover it up.
Surprised, all the men in line turned and stared at the boy. Also surprised by the young voice, the man looked up from his clipboard and gave the youth a scrutinizing look.
"You do know what you signed up for, don't you, boy?" The man's voice was filled with apprehension as he looked the boy up and down.
Taking a subtle breath, the boy squared his shoulders and stared into the man's eyes with determination as he responded,
"Yes, sir,"
The man took a closer look at the boy. He took notice of his gear, his frail body, and his long unkempt dark red hair that seemed to be a few shades darker than its natural color, But he also saw the determination swimming in the boy's ocean blue eyes. The man stopped, looked up then, sighed then muttered under his breath,
"Tsk, just what is this world coming to."
After complaining to himself a little bit more, the man proceeded,
"Good morning, gentlemen! It's nice to see such a good turnout for this expedition. My name is Joe, and I'm the expedition leader," taking a pause, he took a short breath while studying the lined-up men.
"Now, I'm sure most of you know why we're here and what we're about to do, but for those who don't, let me explain."
He pointed one of his big, callused fingers at the cave entrance.
"Behind me is one of many entrances to one of the most abundant mines that humanity has ever discovered, 'The Goblin Caves.' These caves have been found all over the planet and contain plenty of rare materials.."
The more the man talked, the more annoyed he seemed to get. Eventually, he gave up trying to explain.
"Look, I'm not a historian. I don't have time to yap endlessly about how priceless these mines are or anything like that. Besides, I'm sure you don't care. So, I'll get to the point. These mines may have plenty of treasures, but they also have plenty of goblins,"
The man paused his speech, surveyed the group to ensure they were listening, and continued.
"Let me give all you old fogies a warning before one of you does something stupid,"
The middle-aged men snuck glances at each other and then back at Joe and all collectively thought,
'Aren't you the oldest out of all of us?'
Joe coughed and ignored all of their stares.
"Don't take the Goblins lightly. As Foundation realms, the maximum amount of goblins you can theoretically handle at a time is one. A Rank 2 human like me isn't confident in fighting anything above ten goblins at a time. So don't be stupid and make sure you pick fights you can win,"
"Our goal today is to hit our mana crystal quota and to try not to get killed in the process. And as an incentive, the person who collects the most crystals gets a bonus depending on the amount and the quality of said crystals,"
Everyone in the line responded very positively to the idea of a bonus and started to talk amongst themselves. The one especially excited was the red-haired boy, who began eyeing the cave like it was a meal.
Joe looked at their reactions and chuckled to himself,
'Every time,' He thought smugly.
"All right, enough bullshit. Quit dilly-dallying and grab your shit, or I'll leave you behind."
Joe then walked into the cave, and as he went in, the red-headed boy who had already grabbed his things raced in after him. All the men were startled and hurriedly started grabbing their bags and pickaxes. Anxious that they would be left behind.