Aiko sat on the cold floor. He concentrated on not thinking about the wound on his left shoulder. Because every time he did, a great pain ran through his body. Not thinking about his wound at least eased his pain a little.

But now none of that mattered. He felt no more pain. Nothing. Why? Because Gaia was working magic on him.

She had approached him and stretched out her hand to him.

She spoke, "Heal."

A bright light surrounded his shoulder and suddenly his wound began to close. As he watched this process closely he felt different emotions. It was a strange feeling. He felt a strange tingling sensation as his skin regenerated.

'Woah... what a weird feeling.' he thought to himself.

It only lasted a few seconds and then his wound looked like nothing had ever happened.

"So this is healing magic," he spoke aloud.

Hiroki saw that Aiko was amazed by the effect and efficiency of the magic. Which is why he quickly shared with him some information about this magic.

"However, you must remember that this magic was still cast by a goddess.

If a normal mage had cast the same magic, it would naturally be much weaker and would also cost him many times more mana," Hiroki explained, indirectly praising Gaia as well.

But now that everything was over, and they couldn't afford to waste any more time, they went on their way again.

It wasn't long before they met the next goblin. This time it was Eichi's turn.

He had paid close attention during his brother's fight and had learned a lot from it. He didn't want to make the same mistake and underestimate the goblin's strength.

Just like his brother, he approached the goblin slowly at first. He waited until the goblin saw him and came at him. When the goblin struck, Eichi dodged relatively early to avoid any possible mistakes.

But even that was not the best decision. You have to find the right moment if you want to dodge efficiently.

Eichi went on the counterattack. He lunged with his sword and struck.

But since he had already dodged so early, the goblin had more time to react and was able to intercept Eichi's attack with his mace.

Eichi's sword bounced directly onto the mace. But since Eichi was already reasonably strong, his blow was also stronger than normal. Therefore, when the two weapons clashed, Eichi's sword got caught in the club. It was stuck there.

He tried to pull on his sword with force, but it did not come loose from the club. The goblin tried the same thing, but no reaction there either. Both were confused. The goblin opened its eyes wide in confusion.

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Eichi looked over at Hiroki. It was clear he didn't know what to do.

'Help me Hiroki... please.' In his mind, Eichi begged for Hiroki's help.

But the latter only laughed from the sidelines.

"HAHA, look at that stupid face!" Hiroki once again could do nothing but make fun of his friend.

From Hiroki's expression, Eichi immediately understood that he couldn't expect any help. So he had to find a way out of the awkward situation himself.

He tried again with brute strength. He pulled on his sword, but the goblin did the same. The two now had a duel of pure force as each tried to get the upper hand.

It was a wild pushing and pulling. However, from the sidelines, where Hiroki, Aiko, and Gaia, were anxiously watching the action, this duel looked very amusing.

Even Gaia and Aiko had to suppress their laughter. Because from their point of view, Eichi's duel looked more like a tug-of-war between toddlers.

Just like with Aiko, Hiroki did not help Eichi. He did that as always for the same reason. He wants his friends to learn to be independent and not depend on his powers.

Eichi continued to grapple with the goblin until suddenly his sword came loose from the club. They both hadn't seen this coming, so they fell back a few steps. Eichi had soon caught himself again, however, and he took the opportunity to finally kill the goblin. With just one powerful blow, he severed the goblin's body. The goblin immediately dissolved and disappeared.

Eichi now joined the others. He breathed deeply and beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead.

"Whew! That was exhausting. But hey... I made it:" While not everything went as smoothly as he had hoped, Eichi was still proud that he came out of the fight without injury.

Hiroki was also proud of his friend, so he praised him.

"That's right, you did a good job. It can only get better from here on out."

The party set off again, for there was not much time left. They continued to explore the cave. It took a few minutes before they spotted the next enemies.

This time they encountered a smaller goblin group. This one consisted of three goblins.

"Well then. It's that time again, you can now show that you learned something from your first fight." Hiroki told them.

He sent them forward to fight the goblins. However, since each of them could only take on one goblin, he left the third to his wife Gaia.

But she took her time. She wanted to let Aiko and Eichi make the first move.

The two, therefore, approached two of the three goblins and lured them in. Their fight went on as usual. The goblin ran at them and they tried to dodge.

This time they also managed to dodge. Immediately they launched a counterattack. Eichi, thanks to his great strength, managed to kill the goblin with only one blow. Aiko on the other hand managed to

only one, not so deep wound, to the goblin. The goblin was now bleeding across his belly, but he showed no sign of fatigue, or rather, he didn't look as if he had been weakened by it.

Okay, I'll just have to help it along a bit more,' Aiko thought to himself.

He also managed to kill the goblin with his next blow. This time, the two weren't so out of breath either.

Now only Gaia's goblin was left. She didn't want to have a normal fight with this one, so she resorted to a method Hiroki had once taught her.

She formed a sort of pistol with her thumb and index finger and aimed it at the monster's forehead. When she had it aimed, she spoke loudly.

"Bang."

And sure enough, a soft bang sounded. At the same moment, a hole appears in the middle of the goblin's forehead and it falls over backward.

This deadly trick scared Aiko and Eichi very much. But somehow this kind of attack seemed familiar to them. But it seemed to make little impression on Hiroki as if it was nothing worth mentioning.

Since there was still some time left, the group decided to look for one last horde of goblins before going back upstairs.

[AN: Thank you for reading the chapter. If you want to support my work, feel free to add this novel to your library and leave a comment/review. It would help me a lot ^-^]