I sighed, looking up at the dark red ‘sky’ above me that had slowly become my new normal over the last few days. We had formed a party and Aureus took care of my portion of the killing while I butchered the kills. After the fight ended Caroline would process the materials I’d gathered other than the meat. It wasn’t a well rounded team by any means but they were making good progress. Caro and Reid took turns being the front-line while Noel used stealth and magic to inflict critical blows.

It wasn’t until I watched them level up and the progress through Underhollow itself that I realized that my way of leveling was truly bizarre. From what I learned, not all monsters are created equal and most if not all are expected to be taken down through teamwork. Well I had assumed as much with the horned rabbits, but the slimes were easy enough.

“It’s like night and day…” I mumbled while watching the fight in front of me, we had been trekking through the Underhollow for days fighting these damn rats. And yet other than the first day no one got any injuries other than small scrapes here and there. Despite their bickering they managed to form a decent team and worked together in combat decently well. Compared to their team I had taken substantial damages and nearly died while they easily maintained their health and stamina by making up for what the other’s lacked.

[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” chuckles stating that most people wouldn’t choose to throw themselves into an unknown danger alone after all.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” exclaims that that was the precise reason that you were chosen, supporting someone who was just like everyone else was no fun.]

[“Traveling Spring Painter” tells “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” to speak for themself.]

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” says that very very few other humans fight alone, most of those who did have already passed away.]

“I wasn’t really alone… Was I really doing something so strange?”

[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” pouts saying that it isn’t strange, fighting alone is honorable just not what most mortals would choose.]

[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” scoffs at her and exclaims that what you do is insane for someone who is mortal.]

[“Lazily Reaping Souls” encourages you to be more reckless with your actions.]

“Yeah, but I leveled up really quickly though, didn't I?” I said cheekily, the gods didn’t reply for a while after that. It was strange they said I was alone though, I had Aureus. Maybe they didn’t consider him as company since he was part of my class?

The group was leveling at a decently quick pace, not quite as fast as me and Aureus had, but after a couple days they were already at level 8. A decent portion of that could be attributed to Aureus hunting while we slept. If it weren’t for the scarcity of enemies we would have been progressing much faster. Even when we did come across a group of rats, sometimes they would run the other way.

We had been walking in the vast empty expanse of this area for miles, the entrance was shrinking behind us, nearly too small to be seen at that point. Finally we approached a larger flat stone, it was strange to see some order in that chaotic place. We were walking together in a group, aside from Noel who had started walking ahead of the group on his own. He had started avoiding the rest of the group after a stupid fight he’d had with the siblings.

Well, he was understandably insulted when Caro said that his abilities had been next to useless since we arrived. When Reid didn’t back him up he started sulking. I expected him to look to me for confirmation that he wasn’t useless, but he never did. It seemed he was keenly aware that I was ignoring him for the most part, which was more social awareness than I’d seen him display since I’d met him.

“Why are you so opposed to the idea? I could create an anchor point for your ability pretty easily, why are you being so obtuse about it?” Caro glared at Noel as she complained.

“I don’t need help to activate my skills.” He retorted.

“Okay, then why did you only use basic skills and not your stealth attacks in the last fight? It's because we are on a larger rock with no crevices for shadows isn’t it? And you try to say you’ve been useful.” She shot back.

“I… It doesn’t matter though, because you can only create a shadow beneath the enemies.”

“What? I mean I can create shadows wherever I decide to? You want me to make a line from behind me to the enemies. I can do that. Always the excuses with you.” She rolled her eyes.

“Isn’t that dangerous? How will I run away if I need to?”

“Ohhh I thought you were the big bad Shadow Monarch, now you want to run away? If you start running, won’t we end up stuck with a wave of rats again?”

“That’s like half of an assassin’s job!” he protested.

“Okay sure, but not that many. Isn't it part of an assassin’s job to escape from enemies they can’t beat? And not to bring back danger to others? Plus even if you don’t use the stealth skill you can manipulate the shadows to attack right? Something is better than nothing, if you can’t contribute then maybe we should change the party settings.”

“Uhh… If we do that then we won’t get much contribution either…” Reid added quietly while glancing towards the where Aureus was gobbling up rats.

“Whatever, fine, we can try it later.” Noel huffed, then mumbled, “It’s not like we were in danger, what’s wrong with me practicing other methods of attack.”

“Maybe we should take a break?” I asked mostly just wanting to avoid a headache. I’d rarely been without one as they continued to fight for the last few days.

“Yeah…” Caroline said with a sigh. The ground under us was shaking slightly, it wasn’t very noticeable at first. The first time this happened we freaked out thinking we were going to have to fight another wave of enemies, but eventually the shaking stopped and nothing happened. I would have brushed it off yet again if the GGC hadn’t started getting rowdy.

[“Collector of Gems and Stones” pumps their fists in excitement.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” smiles saying it’s about time.]

[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” cheers.]

[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” cheers.]

[“Traveling Spring Painter” cheers.]

A few more gods joined in on cheering, well whatever was coming I was sure they were going to have some more entertainment for the first time in a while. Or had they also been watching other Candidates at the same time? Probably. The ground began shaking more violently, Reid fell backwards and I nearly followed suit.

The four of us were anxiously scanning our surroundings for the cause of the tremors, but outside of the ground itself there wasn’t anything.I had turned away from the group when I fell forwards onto my knees when a heavy pressure smacked into the back of my legs. My hands flew out and caught me preventing me from flopping on my face. I glanced back at my sore legs, a large rock was resting atop them.

With a grunt I pulled myself out from under it, at my level something like that wouldn’t even leave a large bruise. Once my legs were free I rolled over to see a huge worm? Looming over me, it’s maw filled with what looked like snake’s fangs. There were tens of them lining the opening; I caught sight of the beginnings of a few more rows further inside of it while it screeched in my face.

Hot, wet, putrid air smacking into me like a tsunami, and I froze. Looking into the mouth of the creature not even processing that I could be moments from death. The ground shook again while the creature writhed screaming at the sky for some reason. It turned away from me looking elsewhere.

“Oi, ugly! Over here!” I couldn’t see her, but Caroline had without a doubt attacked it to save me. It lunged towards her, then recoiled backwards. The creature shrieked again before disappearing back into the ground.

The four of us looked at each other, I was wondering what to do, how to handle this. Reid was still shocked sitting in the same spot he’d fallen in prior to the emergence of the worm, while Noel was looking into the hole seemingly contemplating his next move. Caroline’s eyes were scanning my body for injuries as I got up and started dusting myself off.

I let out a weak chuckle, “Well, that was… Something.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“At least we know why the rocks are so chaotic.” Caroline added gesturing to the ground beneath us. It looked like a bomb had gone off, a crater in the middle and several cracks emanating from it with large rocks strewn about.

“Heh, no kidding.” Reid croaked struggling to stand up again.

There was a dark purple splatter of the monster’s blood around where Caro was standing, she had started trying to wipe the thick liquid off on nearby rocks. I suppressed a laugh as she awkwardly bent to wipe the top of her shoe on a rock near her.

“When do you think I’ll come back?” I asked, not even considering the possibility that it might never return. Noel’s head snapped towards me with a wicked grin. My eyes went wide, “No. No, whatever you’re thinking, stop.” I said with a warning tone.

He stepped closer to the tunnel, his eyes beaming with delight as he bent down to touch the inside of the hole, “Absolutely not. Noel! Stop!” I exclaimed as he disappeared after our attacker. I groaned. It felt like he was deliberately causing issues, and not learning from what we told him at all. Who just does that? Why?

“This is not what I meant when I asked him to contribute more…” Caro said with a frown.

“He’ll probably be fine, Caro don’t worry.” Reid patted her on the back, but looked more worried than she was.

“I swear I am going to hit him. Ugh. If he dies I won’t hold a funeral, or go to what Reid holds for him.” I complained, but despite myself I was worried about him. He was annoying and useless at times but he didn’t deserve to die.

Don’t worry Master, he isn’t too weak. He is weak, but not too weak.

I patted the growing dragon on his head, he had walked up next to me while we were looking down the hole. A slight tremor returned, we glanced around preparing ourselves for a worm to explode from underneath us. This time the tremors got stronger much faster and the rocks beneath us were shaking violently, a rock twenty feet to our left exploding while the worm leapt out of the ground. There were several different shallow gashes on the back portion of the monster, oozing blood onto the rock as it soared over the rock.

“What in the world is he doing?” I wondered aloud as the worm thrashed wildly.

“I told you he’d be fine.” Reid said with a triumphant smile.

Soon the creature dove back under the ground disappearing from sight, but didn’t take the tremors with it. Several seconds later Noel popped out of the crater behind us covered in sticky purple blood, but donned a huge smile despite it.

“Did y’all see? I did a decent bit of damage while I was down there.” He said cheerfully. Was he just trying to prove he could be helpful in fights? He was doing rather the opposite if that was the case.

“Yeah… You did, but why did you come back?” I asked, annoyed.

“Uh, so, I can’t maintain stealth and attack with shadows for prolonged periods of time.”

“Well, now we don’t have a way to manipulate the monster. If you had waited for us to make a plan maybe we could have had you attack from below while we attacked up here. It might have ended things quickly. Just, seriously, why?” I said with an attitude. I made it clear I was disappointed that we lost a way to prod at the monster we were anxiously waiting for the arrival of.

“It’s pretty damaged though… and we haven’t really had a hard time at all while we’ve been exploring here. It shouldn’t be too difficult.” Noel complained. I groaned, rubbing my temples while I wondered if the lesson he learned on our first day in the Underhollow was already expunged from his memory.

“We always need to be careful with new enemies!” She paused, ”We don’t even know how much damage they can do or even what level it is. What if we get seriously injured because it’s a difficult fight?” Caroline asked, her voice breathy with exasperation. It seemed she was also getting tired of yelling at him, since it wasn’t really making much of a difference.

“I mean I didn’t use all of my mana, I saved some for later that’s why I came back now. It will be fine, we can do it.”

At that point we all just stopped talking, the tremors that had been intense suddenly stopped. We had gotten so distracted by getting upset at Noel we hadn’t noticed the stillness. Everything was quiet and still for just a couple of seconds before the horror started.

The rock beneath us started to give way, and as though time slowed I watched my friends’ expressions shift between anxiety, realization, and fear. At some point Aureus had determined the ground was dangerous and lifted me into the air with him. In a large circle around the crater cracked into existence. The ground inside the circle fell down into the depths. I watched as my friends fell down with it, my hands outstretched as they plummeted.

Aureus, put me down! Go after them!

I can’t do that yet Master, the ground has yet to settle.

Then bring me to an area of the ground where it has! I’m not worried about Noel, and Caroline probably will be fine as well, but Reid isn’t a Candidate and he’s just a healer.

Alright, but if it comes to attack you I will return to help you.

The bile in my stomach was stinging the back of my throat, it felt like ages while Aureus took me nearly a hundred feet away from the battle. He sat me down gently on a taller rock, took a long look at me before surveying the surroundings. Seemingly it passed his criteria for safety as he flew off telling me, I’ll be back soon Master.

Don’t worry about me, I'll be fine.

Yes, I know I will find the healer and bring him to you don’t worry.

No, don't bring him here! Just help them defeat that thing.

Understood.

I opened the system window, staring at the party app in the social tab. Noel must have used one of his skills to avoid the fall, he was only mildly damaged. Caroline and Reid lost a chunk of health from the fall. Of course Reid was the closest to death, he was the only one who’d dipped beneath half health. I stood up, I couldn’t sit down. I needed to move, I ended up just pacing in circles around my designated seat that was bestowed upon me by Aureus.

I watched for a minute, but nothing happened. None of them got hurt after that initial fall. I kept replaying the moment they fell in my head, me and Caro had been looking at each other. Her eyes went wide, glanced up at Aureus then down at her feet. Her head then promptly snapped towards her brother, I followed suit, the panic was plain on his face.

His mouth had been moving as he fell, and he was looking up at me. I couldn’t hear him over the noise of the rocks crashing down. What was he trying to say? Aureus was taking me away as they disappeared into the darkness.

I suppressed the urge to pick at my skin as I lost myself in my memory. It played over and over, asking me what I should have done, what I could have done. With every pacing step fear knocked.

They’re going to die, it's going to just be you. All alone again.

They’re strong, it'll be fine.

Why did you just watch him fall like that? You could have saved him.

There wasn’t anything I could have done.

Why didn’t you ask Aureus to catch them with wind?

We’ve never tried that before, it might not have worked.

But shouldn’t you do something? You did nothing. You just stared as they fell into the lair of that beast.

I am doing something, I sent Aureus to protect them.

No, Aureus is doing something. You abandoned your friends again.

I sucked air in through my teeth, one of my fingernails had sunk itself into the skin on my thumb. I must have been peeling at the skin around my fingernails absentmindedly. I had come to an abrupt stop as a result, while I pulled my hands away from each other and sucked on the wound I’d created. The colors on the GGC caught my attention.

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” quietly says that stress is accompanied by self harm as he scribbles in his notebook.]

[“Traveling Spring Painter” asks you to take a breath and calm down. Adding that you’re doing everything you can.]

“Not everything…” I mumbled, I could try to attack it too, rather than sitting up here waiting for answers.

[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” rolls his eyes telling you that following them into that pit would be stupid.]

[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” complains that they should protect themselves rather than putting everything on your shoulders.]

[“Gentle Autumn Breeze” expresses that they are receiving much grace from you already.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” shrugs saying that it was about time to throw the cuckoo birds out of the nest.]

“It’s not like that!” I snapped.

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” asks how it isn’t like that when they’re leeching off of you like this.]

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” points out that you would likely already have leveled up at least once if you didn’t have them around.]

“I can’t just leave my friends to die!” I cried, my eyes began to well up.

[“Traveling Spring Painter” smiles, saying that you shouldn't leave them to die, but you don’t have to share all of your experience with them either.]

[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” calls you stupid, yelling they’ve never seen a human this stupid.]

[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” mentions that she had suggested you go it alone in the first place.]

I sunk into my seat again. The rock poked me in the back as I let my head fall into my hands. I groaned.

“It’s not my fault all that we’ve seen around here are rats. Even then there aren’t many of them. Just finding enemies has taken ages.”

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” states you would have found enemies much sooner if you were alone. Higher ranked ones as well.]

“Well we certainly found a higher ranked one.” I said sarcastically looking over to the cavern in the distance. It wasn’t like I didn’t know they were making good points, I knew I was stagnating in my levels. I was getting half the XP everyone else was since I shared mine with Aureus. The problem was I couldn’t just leave them down here like that when something like that worm could happen and they could just die.

The other issue was that if I can’t keep leveling I won’t be able to protect them. I needed to get stronger, but leaving the three of them meant that they would have to hunt rats for ages. They weren’t strong enough to do anything else. Maybe that was for the best, they could ease into things naturally. I went to war with myself over whether or not I should leave the group. The world had changed, I had to as well.

Just as I was coming to a decision, the soft rumbling in the distance abruptly stopped. I shot to my feet, frozen standing and staring at the gaping pit my friends were in. Checking the system would have made more sense, straining my eyes for traces of them wasn’t very effective, but I couldn’t make myself look at the party window. Just as I couldn’t force myself to ask Aureus, I wanted news but at the same time I was afraid of it. There were too many what if’s swimming around in my head.