Filling up aether stones wasn’t exhausting as much as it was boring, though Noa was exhausted to begin with. Waking the following morning was refreshing, despite the hard stony earth beneath him and two trolls on either side of him, albeit evolved. Really, he counted his lucky stars that they’d not been attacked so━

The cave rumbled.

Damn.

As soon as Noa jumped up to his feet, furs falling from his form, Baby-blue grabbed him. The troll tucked him right under the arm like a football player making a mad dash for the end zone.

“Everyone, out of the cave!” Chief bellowed.

Noa clutched to Baby-blue’s arm, if only to make the ride smoother until he was dunked into his basket. Fortunately the troll had enough sense not to break something, yet not enough to leave him without bruises as he was tossed in the basket. Then Mama Troll took over, hoisting the basket onto her back as Noa stammered to his feet.

He bounced, dropping back down as Mama Troll ran, racing against a rumble that quite literally struck fear into Noa’s racing heart━more so because he didn’t have a seatbelt, obviously. Nothing to do with the fact that the cave entrance was closing.

Grasping at the edge of the basket to get himself back up, sunlight already fading from stones falling, he got a good look at the impending close-in. Trolls rushed, the first few making their way out.

“Stop! Everyone stop!” Armael bellowed from his basket nearby.

Chief, commanding all the trolls, listened. If nothing else, trolls were excellent listeners, eager even.

“Turn around!” he called again, Chief echoing his command.

Turn around? Noa thought incredulously, more boulders gradually falling from the cave-front.

Mama Troll about-faced, Noa getting slightly dizzy from the quick movement. A howl behind them had him whipping his head around, seeing a troll’s ankle stuck beneath a boulder. Rocks fell around the trolls who were quick to help, Chief at the forefront of the trouble as she bellowed her warcry, lifting the boulder to free the full-sized yellow troll.

The ceiling above them shook, and Noa’s mouth fell open as a boulder slowly released from its mountain confines there, barreling down on them. His heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively shot out a strand of aether, not that it’d do much good.

For a long moment, doom impending, the boulder fell. Noa’s aether connected, attaching to the man’s ankle. He stretched it around, pulling the aether to right the obviously broken bone.

System [Lesser Appeal] level 43 → 44.

System Direct [Mend]?

Yes or no?

Just do something to help, damnit! He thought, letting the aether go with desperation.

System [Mend] level 19 → 22.

The trolls leapt, synchronized with one another to save their lives collectively. The cave closed up, leaving them sealed away from the outside world, tiny rays of sun seeping through the cracks.

And what did Noa do? He healed an ankle. It had no effect on their survival, though he had hoped that something incredibly magical would have helped. Well, trolls were, far as he knew, magical all by themselves.

They could have died, and what would he have done? Healed an ankle before Chief, Yellow, and Brownie were squashed like bugs. This is why, he thought, staring towards the only source of light as the three trolls pushed themselves up. Mama Troll was slowly turning to look, Noa plunging into the darkness that laid behind her. Why I need to become a quickener. If they had died, then he could have just resurrected them, right? That’s what quickeners did.

Another man would have become a warrior to stop the boulders in the first place, but resurrection all but ensured survival, didn’t it? Albeit, probably after an extremely painful death. Maybe at a cost? Whatever, he didn’t know how it worked.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Why turn us around, human?” Chief asked, marching her way up towards Armael.

“Because we weren’t going to make it,” Armael said. “Half of us would be out there, and the other half in here. We can try to find a way out through the tunnels in the back.”

“Tunnels?” Noa asked, squinting as he peered into the darkness. A ball of light coming to life near Armael revealed that there were indeed tunnels.

Wait, a ball of light? “What else can [Grand Healers] do?” Noa asked, eyes twitching from the brightness of the light.

“Through the back, then,” Chief said, everyone ignoring Noa. He supposed asking irrelevant questions probably wasn’t the most helpful of things.

Mama Troll turned back around, and Noa turned in his basket to look ahead with her. He flopped to the back of the basket when she started sprinting, following after Chief as the evolved troll ran ahead. The rest of the trolls did the same, Armael’s ball of light leading the way.

The tunnel curved, becoming wider as they went until they came upon possibly one of the worst outcomes━options. Laid before them were three pathways, Chief halting, as did the rest of the trolls.

“Now what?” Baby-blue asked, arms crossed as he stared into the right tunnel.

“We either split up or pick one,” Chief said.

“The humans can’t see in the dark,” Armael chimed in. “Two pathways would be entirely without healers. Besides, I believe that our best chances of survival require us to remain as one unit.”

“Then we will pray,” Chief said.

Noa blinked. Huh? “What is praying going to do?” he asked.

“Your ignorance knows no bounds,” Armael huffed. “Trolls worship Jildas, God of Somatacy. In other words, god of the physical realm. Evolutionary races are tied closely to━”

“Now is not the time for lessons,” Baby-blue interjected.

“You’re right, proceed,” Armael said.

“This way,” Chief pointed down the center tunnel. “Jildas has sent his wind.”

A distinct roar sounded from the center tunnel, making Noa’s hair stand up as it echoed through the small chamber they were in.

“That doesn’t sound promising,” Tin said quietly from his basket, barely even audible.

“On the contrary...” Chief dashed toward the sound, the evolved trolls and spearmen falling in behind her, followed by Armael’s deep brown escort━so earthy, the troll nearly blended in.

Noa gripped the basket straps tightly, looping an arm through them to better secure himself.

“Makes me think there’s a way out,” Chief finished.

“This is really starting to sound like a trap,” Noa noted. Blocked exit and luring them in with lions smelled suspicious, if suspicious was a smell; he wagered it was a solid mix between fish and rotten apples (noting that all apples were rotten━not a single good one in Noa’s opinion).

They rounded the tunnel, then made a sharp switchback upwards where the smallest amount of light seeped down from the end of the upward incline. Armael’s orb disappeared as they neared it, boulders hiding what lay ahead.

Perhaps it was because of these boulders that Chief held a hand back towards the rest of the group, stilling them. She alone proceeded, her smaller size benefiting her as she snuck around the boulders. After peeking past them, she sharply turned back, her eyes wide against her stony gold face. Tiptoeing her way back, she gathered the other evolved trolls, Noa unable to hear their whispers from his spot.

As they discussed things, Noa noted that there was one, incredible flaw to this plan. Twenty-eight trolls, even with the five newly evolved and Chief as the sixth, were noisy. If a [Druid] is leading the lions, then they totally heard us coming already, he thought, the quiet growing eerie.

Gripping just a little tighter to the straps, Noa slipped a lit sapphire from his pocket, knowing that his own aether was running low after healing a break. He pulled a strand of aether free from the stone, readying it by shooting it towards the group. Unsure if the aether would vanish, Noa kept his focus on it, although sparing some to watch the evolved trolls.

“Curses!” Armael said quietly, barely audible.

Out of the corner of his eye, Noa could see two bronze lionesses slowly sneaking around the boulders. From this angle, he couldn’t see if any had climbed atop them, but he assumed it was likely.

“Fall back,” Chief said, turning to look at the lions. “Use the tunnel as a bottleneck.”

“Aether at the ready, both of you,” Armael ordered.

Noa nodded, keeping his focus on that aether that he’d already drawn.

The lions were methodical in their approach, not pouncing, just slowly closing in. Chief readied her spear, those alongside her doing the same.

This is too fishy. Something’s not right, Noa frowned deeply. He racked his brain to understand why the lions didn’t just pounce.

Closed entrance, lions to close us off at the end, he repeated, then realized he was missing something. Three tunnels. Damnit! Maybe even three ways out!

Noa gasped, hearing the shift in the rubble behind them. He whipped around, his strand of aether fading as he tore his focus from it. Out of the darkness leaped a massive lioness, an imperceptibly silent roar escaping as it clamped down on its prey.