Gael was in the dark, keeping a light even a small one was an unnecessary consumption of mana, he had to think of something to get out of there, or he would die in a stone tomb, where he doubted that anyone could find him.
He had to think of something, he tried to stay standing, he had no problems with his healthy leg but supporting and applying force with the broken leg was not in the equation, he needed all his willpower to not faint from the pain.
He turned on a light for a moment to check the contents of his backpack again, in addition to the half sausage he had left and the chocolates he had a set of bottle caps, a thirty-meter roll of string, a change of clothes, a small corkscrew, some stilts, and a metal ring with a stick to make it spin.
Now that he looked at all those toys, they could be of little use to him in the situation he was in now... Well, that was not entirely true if he thought about it. The first thing was to get dressed to stop being naked, cold and wet.
The second thing was to get some support, he looked at the height of the stilts, luckily without having to modify it much one of them could serve as a walking stick, and the other one, well, for the other he had a shabby solution, but it was better than nothing. He took apart the corkscrew and using a rock he managed to stick the tip of the corkscrew into the end of the other stilt, it was a very precarious short spear or pike, but it was better than nothing.
The plates and the string could be used, but he had to check first if they would hold, he tied the string to the pin of one of the plates, and crawled towards a wall, using very little earth magic he made a hole several centimeters deep to put the plate with the end of the string. When he removed the mana the rock tried to recover its place, but it did not crush the plate, it absorbed it inside.
Gael gave a couple of strong tugs to check that it did not come loose. It was firmly sealed on the wall, the next one he put on the opposite wall a little higher up and repeated the same operation. It was like an improvised ladder that zigzagged from one wall to the other. When he got beyond the height that his arms could reach he used a bit of telekinesis to climb up and insert the plates, keeping two hands active at the same time gave him a headache, but he couldn't risk climbing and making the ladder at the same time, it took several hours until the braid reached the exit.
He bent the ring with his metal hand so that it would have more strength, he still had several meters of string left, enough to make two turns, one he passed through the metal loop he had made and the other he tied to the metal stick, closing both with a knot between them, he had to calculate well, he put all his ingenuity into it every time he went up he would adjust the second turn of the thread to make it shorter.
The idea was simple: the zigzag staircase would only allow him to support himself with his good leg, but the railing and the stick would allow him to hold on enough to climb up the stairs with one leg using his telekinesis. He wasn't powerful enough to be able to levitate up. It wasn't the best option, but it would help him get out of the tunnel.
When he really tested his ladder, it held up. It wasn't as easy as he thought, but he could slowly hoist himself up. Once he was up, he began to hit the upper wall with his staff. It wasn't that Gael believed he could break the rock ceiling, his idea went further.
The echoes of the blows attracted two Kobolds, who looked strangely at the ground where the noises were heard. It was the same place where the child had disappeared the day before. The Kobolds tried to scrape the ground with their stone tools. Their prey was alive. That human child had survived.
Gael was alert and in a precarious position, but he held on close to the wall. When he heard the noise on the floor above him, he knew that at least one enemy was there. His earth magic weakened the ceiling enough for it to collapse, dragging the two kobolds down the five-meter drop.
The boy narrowly escaped being hit by the blows, he didn't have much time, he used everything he had to climb up to the upper tunnel, stone handholds, wind to help him up, everything.
When he got to the top he turned on a powerful light, the kobold that was running covered his eyes in dazzle, a thin layer of ice that wasn't there before made him slip down to the hole. With the help of the pike, Gael finished pushing him inside.
With the help of the staff he got out of there and reached the next room, he could hear screams from those rat beings coming from various places, he didn't have much room, in the small room or cave there wasn't much to use. He would have to do it the hard way, Gael conjured a small dome of total darkness over himself while he turned off the light and stuck to a wall, crouching. A Kobold passed close enough for Gael to stab it in the neck with his pike. It wouldn't kill it in one blow, but those rats weren't brave. The shock and the sting were enough to make the being, the height of a child, not much older than Gael, run off in the opposite direction. Gael turned on the light again, his eyes half closed so as not to be dazzled. Several enemies were approaching.
A small blade of air cut the neck of another of the beings that entered the room. The being's head fell rolling. The child couldn't flee with his leg in bad condition. He could barely fight, much less think about the first monster he had seen die from his magic. He didn't have time to hesitate. A fireball surprised two monsters that came through a side tunnel. The explosion only scorched them. They wouldn't die so easily, although they fell on their asses and fled back the way they had come.
A ratman tried to surprise Gael from behind, but the boy detected him in time and did not hesitate to say:
" Sderanver"
The Kobold fell to the ground like a sack, but the boy did not hesitate and plunged the spear into its chest as many times and as deeply as his strength and precarious balance allowed, he would bleed to death before waking up.
Only one enemy seemed to want to face Gael at that moment, on his head he had the skull of what looked like a goat, as a helmet. He was wearing the short sword that Gael had taken from the armory.
An electric shock surprised the kobold in a direct and frontal blow that left him lying between tremors and spasms. He finished off the Kobold by hitting it with the spear. The boy's leg hurt to the point of crying. He had to find a way out, he did not have much mana left, and he did not believe he could really defeat those kobolds in an organized fight.
As Gael was thinking that, kobold screams were heard in the adjoining cave, but they were not cries of alarm or conversations, they were screams of pain. What were these beings fighting against? What if it was another predator worse than them? It seemed that something was approaching through the tunnel on the left. Gael created a thin layer of ice at the entrance and barricaded himself against the wall next to it, prepared for whatever was coming.
Moments later, a man slipped and fell on his ass. Gael only reacted by instinct, trying to stab the man in the body with his precarious spear, but a Qi barrier stopped his weak blow.
The man looked at him, surprised and amused.
"Hello, you must be Gael. We haven't been introduced before. My name is Rilcar. Now, if you don't mind, put down that spike, spear, or whatever you want to call it and let me get up. Your mother sent me to take care of you..."