Gare ripped his satchel open desperately digging for his fire stone. The sounds of claws scratching on stone were getting closer, and his search was getting more and more desperate.

Finally grasping the warm stone he quickly funneled his mana into it, the stone slowly getting hotter and hotter. A moment later the stone was floating in the air, but Gare wasn’t paying attention, he was scrawling a runic circle in the stone under the fire stone. The scratching was so loud by the time Gare finished he could feel the vibrations in the stone beneath his feet. Looking up he poured his mana out into the air, styling well practiced runes in tandem.

Face scrunched he cut off the flow of mana, the runes floating in the air thrumming with power. As soon as the mana faded in his fingers the scratching stopped and a roar thundered through the tunnel, looking up Gare saw a massive minotaur charging towards him.

“ERGOT” screamed Gare, throwing his hands forward, following the motion of his hands a massive beam of fire launched from the fire stone stopping the charging minotaur in its tracks. The massive creature roared pushing against the beam with every ounce of energy it could muster, but to no avail. Slowly but surely the minotaur got pushed back, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the tunnel.

After a few moments the beam sputtered out and the minotaur fell back burnt to a crisp. Gare, sighing in relief, grabbed the fire stone which was barely floating at this point and stuffed it in his satchel. Walking over to the still smoldering corpse, he pulled out a little saw, and took to sawing the minotaur's horns off.

Once done, he cleaned everything up and put the horns in a little pouch, which he promptly deposited in his satchel. Walking around the corpse he took to following the path from which the minotaur came but it was pitch black. Reaching behind him he grabbed his lantern which was hanging from his satchel, bringing it up in front of him he pressed a little button and a blue light filled the tunnel. Grateful that he purchased this mage lamp in town he stalked forward careful not to make too much noise. After a few moments he arrived at the end of the tunnel, there was a mound of packed dirt, where the minotaur was clearly lying, and four human looking corpses.

Scrunching his face in disgust Gare made his way to the mangled, half eaten corpses careful to not get too much gore on his robe. Crouching down he took a closer look at the corpses trying to see if there was anything of value, sadly everything was ruined and mangled, even the little adventurer medallions were ruined. Carefully reaching into the gory mess he surgically grabbed every little bronze mangled medallion carefully avoiding the blood. Once he had all four, he left promptly, trying to purge the sight from his mind.

Even after teaching and adventuring for a decade human corpses still weighed him down.

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Quickly walking down the tunnel and past the minotaur corpse he soon reached the exit. Looking up into the sky he saw the waning sun and cursed, he had been in there for far too long and would have to camp out before making his way back to town.

Turning around he debated re-entering the cave and camping there, but quickly decided against it, not wanting to camp so close to corpses. He remembered vaguely that there was a stream he crossed when he was hiking to the cave.

Pulling out his compass he quickly reoriented himself, the town was to the south and so was the stream. Putting away his compass he started walking carefully moving through gnarled roots and rocks. It was only around ten minutes later when he heard the calming sound of water running on rocks, looking up at the sky once more he sighed happily, he had made it to his campsite before it got dark.

Finding a clearing by the stream he pulled his satchel off his shoulders and set it down carefully. Opening the top flap he grabbed his tent, some jerky, a pot, and a small metal cup. Quickly setting up his tent, he went around the circumference of his little clearing drawing runes every step, once drawn he filled them up with mana.

Satisfied with his warding he went and filled his pot with stream water. Putting that down he went a little ways out of his ward circle to grab some firewood and some medium sized rocks.

Once he retrieved everything he needed he returned to his clearing a dug out a little fire pit, putting the rocks around it. Grabbing his pot he put it in the center of the fire pit. He laid out his firewood around the pot and pushed a little mana into his hands, drawing a rune in the air he filled his mind with intent of fire and after but a moment the firewood was ablaze.

Sitting down as comfortably as possible on a forest floor he closed his eyes feeling for his core. Once he had a grasp of it he reached to pull his mana out, opening his eyes he saw his hands glowing slightly as his mana pooled there. Mentally bracing himself he pushed his mana from his hands, after a short but intense struggle his mana breached his hand and was now floating in front of him in globs.

Forehead shining with sweat he took to manipulating it, slowly weaving shapes. A dragon flying through mountains, a sword cutting through a goblin, an archmage raining fire upon a city, and finally a nearly perfect sphere.

Pulling his mana back in, he started drawing runes in the air and unlike before his mana was desperate to fill the runes he was drawing. Not letting his mana move he focused his intent, moving his fingers with practiced ease, drawing rune after rune.

Around ten minutes of practice later the water was boiling, not trying to put out his fire, he once again pushed his mana out of his hands carefully surrounding the pot and levitating it. Slowly but surely he levitated it to the ground next to him.

He practiced shaping his mana as the water cooled, running through various shapes and items, once the water was at a reasonable temperature he grabbed his cup and filled it with water. Letting his mana relax back into his core he peacefully sipped his warm water while staring at the fire.

After a few moments of peace after that hectic day he retreated to his tent, crawling into his comfortable blanket he peeked outside and took one more look at the night sky, a beautiful starry expanse. Pulling his back in he calmly closed eyes, sleep whisking him away to dream land.