The so-called mine was a cave on the side of the mountain that contained multiple branches underground. Near the entrance was a small wooden construction, used for the storage of equipment and supplies.
Lucas and Venion got off the cart and inspected the scene, only the soldiers were there before, so they just watched from afar. The wooden house looked normal, it didn't seem that monsters attacked. There was only one thing that stood out to Lucas, 'Why are there no beds anywhere?'
He didn't have the time to ask the question or Venion gave his 'suggestions', "Alright, Lucas, go inside of the cave and report back what kind of monsters there are. Then we can come up with a decent strategy."
"You're not coming with me? Or the soldiers, weren't they supposed to escort me?". The soldiers were indeed prepared to into the mine and were also curious about what Venion was planning.
"This is training Lucas, you can only grow through hard work. A great man once said 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger', so follow this principle and explore the unknown for us." Feeling that totally didn't justify his orders he still prepared himself to go alone. He checked his equipment, but he only had a sword and his normal clothes. Lucas had potions with him, two in fact. They could be emergency potions that restored his muscles and energy.
Remembering there were some unlit torches inside the small building he went to grab two. One in his hands the other partially tucked in his pants by his back. It was still daylight, but where he was going he would need all the light he could possibly get.
"Good choice of using a torch, constantly using magic light would drain your energy reserves quite fast." Venion wanted Lucas to grow as a mage, so he needed to think like one. "Thank you, mentor, can I ask you for a favor? Can you light my torch?". Venion was pleasantly surprised by Lucas' insight and agreed without any issues. "Are you ready now? Now that I see that you're already somewhat thinking like a mage, let me make the task a tad harder. Figure out what kind of monsters inhabit this place and kill one of them, I want proof."
'I told you we should've just lit it ourselves. Asking anything from a mage will require compensation. Luckily this time it's just an increase of difficulty.'
'There are no free meals in Aurora.'
'You said it!'
His new task was more than just a tad harder, if there were Demonic Bears in that cave, creatures that 1st circle mages have problems with, he would be eaten in seconds. Luckily the cave was simply too small for such a beast to live in, giving Lucas some respite. After gathering his resolve and determination, Lucas walked towards the entrance.
Standing there, looking into the darkness, he felt like he could already feel something looking at him.
'Stare long enough into the abyss and the abyss will look back'
'Where do you even get those quotes?'
There was some pressure coming out of the cave, Lucas didn't stop though, he went inside with the lit torch and stayed near the walls.
The cave felt cool to the touch, wet even, which made it even colder. A few insects were skittering around avoiding Lucas escaping the flickering light of the torch. Pressing forward he still didn't hear anything special or see obvious traces. Eventually, he came to a branching path, both leading into darkness. Waving his light source in the entrances just showed two empty shafts leading deeper.
Lucas wasn't sure which way to choose so he opted to take a break and go over the possible monsters that could live here. The Demonic Bear was written off pretty much instantly or he would have smelt it, they like to mark their territory. So the fact that the cave smelt like water and nothing else, something seemed strange.
'I need to go deeper to find the nest of whatever lives in here.'
'That tome really needs to be further fleshed out'
'We could ask Venion'
'And pay the price for it, maybe we can get it during the experiments with the potions.'
'That's for later, I want to check something else out now.'
He hadn't seen anything, but the uneasy atmosphere spoke for itself. Taking a random branch he went down the left side. During his descent, he tested some things out. The tunnel had a slight slope downwards. The size of this tunnel is not big or small, yet felt artificial. The question was: what created it? Using his torch to ward off the dark he slowly kept going forward until he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Tap, Tap, Tap
He heard small tapping noises in the distance, his imagination ran wild for a moment. Looking into the darkness thinking what horrifying beast could be making that sound, he held his breath and cramped up in fear.
'Calm down, the rapid sounds must come from a monster that either has a lot of legs or moves in groups.', he tried to place his attention somewhere else to distract him even a tiny bit.
'Could it be the Magic Centipede?'
'I don't know, the tome didn't mention anything when it came to their movements.'
The tapping was quick but stopped after a while, confirming that it was still in the distance, Lucas could calm down. He looked towards his torch, there was no way whatever creature wouldn't see a bright shining light, so he was debating whether or not to throw it away.
Standing still for a bit longer, he regained his earlier confidence. 'It seems I'm still afraid of them huh, damnit'
'Hey, it's fine, we'll get used to them', what was surprising was that the negative side was supportive for once. Giving his other part the confidence to try its best again.
He pushed on with his lit torch, he would have to fight one of those things, so he needed both parts of his mind to cooperate. He arrived in a somewhat bigger cavern, there were multiple branches to continue forward, but he didn't even bother thinking about that. The reason why he stopped was that there were webs in a few of those branches. 'Steel Spiders! The web is green and doesn't have a very consistent pattern, it has to be Steel Spiders!'
Now that he had a good idea of what he was up against, he was a lot less afraid. After all, what's scarier, your imagination or a monster you've seen multiple drawings of? 'Shit, what were the weaknesses again?.....Heat….shit I can't remember the others!'
'Calm down, we're not going to die down here, I know it'll be difficult but stay positive. Heat is one of their weaknesses, the other is their weak points; joints and eyes.'
Lucas couldn't help but laugh at the fact that his depressed paranoid side was more confident than the optimistic one. Taking a deep breath he calmed himself down. His fear and anxiety washed away after a couple of breaths.
Trying to remember the different aspects of this species something changed. The tapping started again and this time it got a lot louder. The tapping grew in intensity like it knew that Lucas was there and needed some prey. Lucas stood there almost throwing up from nervousness, all his work to calm down fell apart in mere seconds. 'A plan, I need a plan!'
Lucas only had the time to pull out his sword before he could see one of the spiders exiting one of the tunnels. He saw the legs slowly come up like it was inspecting the scene. The first two legs, then another four emerged with the body. The spider was about half a meter bigger than Lucas and had grey-white skin. Its form was slowly revealed due to his torch, he stood frozen in his tracks. 'Come on Lucas, you need to do this, COME ON!'. Snapping himself out of his fear he took a stance and followed his training of Liam like a robot. 'First step, figure out strengths and weaknesses of the opponent, weaknesses done, just the strengths now.'