[Asaru’s POV]

The next day, weaker teams of humans either consolidated or gave up on coming here. In a way, it’s a small victory, but it’s also another step toward the inevitable defeat. The first battle went remarkably well, in such a way that nobody died. One of my children got a nasty wound that would normally kill him, but Smag healed him. Smag and Axi spent a lot of mana, though.

I'm the strongest I've ever been. Although my bigger size is indeed a problem while sneaking and hiding around, I’m currently mostly doing ambushes, for which my bigger size doesn’t matter that much. It’s still tight in the tunnels, but I’m fine for now.

The goblins fighting with me are also the strongest I have ever seen. Axi’s as strong as me in a direct fight, while Smag can heal and buff us. The human woman is not as strong as the best humans around, but she pulls her weight.

Even so… I don’t see how we can win.

I sigh and concentrate on my mana sense. I was only a few times outside the dungeon in the human trap, but it’s enough to know mana there is different than here.

In the dungeon, the most common mana type is dungeon mana. The walls are filled with it. Goblins are filled with it. Even the air has some dungeon mana, though it’s mostly air mana. By faking dungeon mana, I can fake being a dungeon monster, letting me move unbothered by echoes. It also allows me to control the dungeon in small ways, like opening secret passages.

I lack good means of detection. My Mana Sense is fine, but to remain in the dark, you often need to spot those who seek you first. I have quite a few skills meant to either find minute detail or remember the layout of the dungeon and calculate the enemy’s routes. It’s a workaround, but usually it’s enough. Sometimes adventurers camouflage themselves, which makes it easy for me since that creates some fake mana.

Looking for the next target, I notice something in the air. A mana type I never encountered. I fake being air. Something unknown means it could be something deadly. I need to be cautious, though not investigating is going to bite me back. The dungeon is a closed system; whatever it is, it’s unlikely it will go away on its own.

My Mana Sense gives me the impression of water. The mana type spreads farther in the tunnel. The element fills the tunnel completely and looks white in the distance, obscuring tunnels. I decide to risk it and fake myself being that element, based on my meager understanding. The transformation is not ideal, but by dumping a lot of mana, I can brute force it.

I move into the element. The concentration of that mana increases to the point that water somehow condenses into droplets on the walls, making me think the element in question is just some strange form of water. Leaning into that understanding makes my transformation better.

“Can your mist go into hidden tunnels?”

I hear a male voice. Mist? Is that the element?

“No, but I’m telling you. Something disturbed it and escaped.” A woman’s voice replies.

I find four adventurers around a corner. Three men and a woman. Two males seem to be close combat fighters, both having swords. I concentrate on one of the swords. I can feel fire mana emanating from it. All decent fighters try to intrude mana into the opponent thought their weapons, but using incompatible mana types damages the weapon. This one must be a magical weapon. Dangerous.

The woman is a mage, while the last man is an archer, looking creepy, even for a human. The team as a whole looks too strong for us. I consider assassinating the mage, but I don’t think I will be able to escape.

I leave the group and go back to my team. Humans slowly walk behind me in the same direction. Ten minutes later, I’m back in a hidden tunnel.

“I found four humans, but their group seems too powerful.” I briefly explain the situation. Smag agrees with my assessment.

“Let’s leave here and try to ambush someone in another part of the dungeon.” He says, to which I agree. Just as I’m about to open the hidden passage, something happens on the other side.

Mist.

“Hurry!” Smag whispers. The mist is fast, though, and we raise our defenses. Mist passes shields out of mana, forcing Smag and the rest to move their shields to their skin. It won’t defend them against the mist, but it will defend them from the intrusion of mana. I transform into the mist.

“Found them!” The woman shouts. I concentrate on opening the passage, while I hear the sound of a heavy hit. Both doors open at the same time.

The woman created a vortex of water, which she used to drill a passage. Now, all that water is going after us. I move to the side, avoiding the attack. The rest are not lucky enough. Water swipes them off their feet.

Two frontline fighters move forward while the archer is aiming into the vortex. The mage controls the water and spits half of the goblins at their warriors. Archer shoots Smag, who shouts in pain. My buff stops. Smag grabs the arrow and pulls it out, but the arrowhead is missing. It was filled with some fire related mana. It burned out the rest of the shaft and now burns inside Smag.

At this rate, we are all going to die. There’s no choice; I need to go all out. Death is always present in the dungeon. Is now the time for me? I rush at the mage. In the meantime, Axi fights one of the fighters, rather evenly. The second warrior fights with my children. Buff returns, and I take a peek at Smag, who is still tossed around in the whirlpool. The warrior fighting my children is not only strong, but also ridiculously acrobatic. His movement should create openings and make him stumble, while he keeps wounding my children with his flaming sword.

I don’t hesitate and move at the mage from her back. I unfake myself and jab a dagger into her throat.

You have killed 1 2nd tier enlightened. You have earned 880 Experience Points.

“Shit!” The archer curses, noticing me.

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The woman seems to have had a lot of magic stats but no Endurance or Vitality. I suppose she thought her mist element would protect her from ambushes. The archer rapidly changes his target and fires at me. I hide behind the corpse, though the arrow grazes my arm. I hiss in pain. Some kind of mana intruded into me from the brief contact. It doesn't seem to do anything besides causing pain. Pain mana? Torture? I acknowledge it’s cost effective for distraction.

I pour my mana into the corpse and fake it being me. The puppet runs at the archer, while I go invisible and try a pincer attack. The man shoots my copy, which kneels down in pain, an arrowhead burning in her chest. He looks around, looking for his companion, whose corpse is suddenly missing.

I attempt to attack him from his side, but he figures things out too fast, copies Axi’s trick, and surrounds himself with fire. The change is too fast for me to fake being fire, but I accept the burns and go inside. He notices me through his fire and slashes with his short sword.

I block and retract fakeness from the corpse and change it back into my mana. Then, I duel with the archer. He uses mana sparsely, probably not having something better for a fight like this. I fake my clothes and skin being fireproof, making most of his tricks not very effective. He channels his pain mana through his weapon, trying to push it into mine and then into my arm, but a simple shield on my hand protects me well enough.

“Help me!” He shouts. I take a look. Axi’s bone ax rotten away. Anastasia shoots at the man, letting Axi grab the sword Smag has thrown her way. Both of them are soaked, and water has created a shallow puddle on the ground. The second fighter stands beside two corpses of my children. Two more and Smag’s hobgoblin remain, though all are wounded and burned to an extent.

“Go!” The flexible warrior shouts and attacks Axi, while his partner charges at me. Smag snorts, and one of my dead children grabs the flexible warrior. Axi rushes at him as well, while Anastasia shoots at him. He buries his sword in the moving corpse and somehow dodges the arrow and all attacks from hobgoblins. Axi’s Fireball hits him, but he has enough control over the element himself to prevent burns.

I’m forced to contend with two of them myself, though. The warrior has some kind of mana type that can decay weapons, so I don’t want to fight directly with him. I transform into air and disappear. If the rest of us can’t kill one remaining guy in the meantime, I won’t be able to win on my own. My plan is to harass the archer, so he can’t fire at my team.

Two of them create small domains of their most used mana types, while I stay in the back and observe the second fight with a corner of my eye. Axi fights the flexible man, while the rest of the hobgoblins help her by attacking from the sides. They are definitely winning, but it will take some time to wear the adventurer down. Something is wrong, though, given Smag’s sour face.

The archer, seeing no action, tries to shoot someone, so I fake one of my pebbles being a knife and throw it at him. The knife fails to penetrate his leather armor, but it stops him from firing. He snorts and continues. His bodyguards throw a knife my way in response, but I’m already not there. I fake my real knife being sharper and throw it at the archer’s head. He blocks with his arm in time. Now, the knife found flesh. He curses under his nose, but another shout attracts our attention.

“Fuck!” The flexible guy shouts, an arrow is sticking from his shoulder.

“Rally!” The other warrior shouts, and the flexible guy runs from Axi to my position. I expect the rest of the goblins to follow and create a big battle with opportunities for me.

“Retreat! Now!” Smag shouts. I frown. We could kill them. I hesitate for a moment, and finding that the rest of the hobgoblins listened, I retreat as well.

“Should we?” The flexible guy asks. Archer is trying to shoot again, so I throw another pebble. Anastasia follows that with an arrow, that flexible man somehow intercepts with his sword, even with an arrow in his shoulder. Most of the goblins have already left the tunnel, so I follow. It seems humans don’t follow us.

“Why?” I ask, returning to normal.

“Poison.” Smag declares. “The woman mage had a poison mana, or something like that. The mist and water were poisoned. We should already be slightly weaker. It’s going to hit us soon.”

“What now?” Axi asks with worry.

“Don’t worry. I’m guessing the mage didn’t have the poison mana trait, so it’s probably conjured poison. I doubt she had enough real poison to make it effective in so much water. It’s going to disappear on its own. We just need to somehow survive the next few hours.”

“Why don't they follow us?” Anastasia asks.

Smag shrugs. “We are weakened, but they may be low on mana. They could kill us, but probably not without losses. Would you sacrifice yourself or your friend to kill a random monster?”

I find an appropriate hidden tunnel ten minutes later, and all of us lay down. I feel the effect of the poison. I’m weaker. Hopefully, nobody finds us here.

Half of the day we moan in pain, some of us more than others. Smag is particularly insufferable after a while. He keeps complaining about his burn wounds and pain mana. After half a day, we recover from poison, while Smag’s magic heals the worst injuries. We are low on mana, and we still haven’t completely recovered, so we keep resting.

The next day, I go outside to seek the next target of an ambush. I search for five minutes, then ten, then the whole hour. Nobody is here.

[Jacob’s POV, Governor of Roheb, a day before]

I sit down. “Tell me.”

“It’s a failure.” The new Guildmaster explains. I already dislike him. I think he believes his promotion is only a start, and he has a stellar future. A career he is going to pursue against my goals, most likely. “I talked to Mist of Fire. Their mage died.”

“No point in relaying information. Invite them in.” I order. Three gloomy men enter the room. They bow lightly to me in a way that says they do it only for the protocol, and they think themselves above me. Maybe in a few years, as they certainly have the potential. I don't know their background, so I certainly not going to correct them.

“What happened?”

“We found them. Amanda, our water mage, noticed that something disturbed her mist at its border. We talked a bit to invite an attack in case they have means of listening at such a distance, but no luck. Regardless, we went in that direction and found them in a hidden tunnel. Amanda destroyed the passage, and we went as usual. Amanda used poisoned water to wear them down, while leaving a few of them to us so she could conserve her mana. It went good enough, until an orc woman killed Amanda.” He grits his teeth. “I’m sorry. I promised her father I would keep her safe.”

I sigh. I don’t pity adventurers. While every death is a tragedy, people like us have chosen this work on our own. At least in most cases. I pity civilians caught in a conflict. “Understandable. Death is always hard.” I reply.

“After that, we no longer controlled the situation. The orc was strong, just like all of them. That would align with the report of the warlock controlling vital mana. He controlled corpses in two instances.”

“I’m not sure it was Warlock. I mean, controlling Amanda.” Archer says. “It was some kind of illusion. Her body changed into an orc for a moment. It behaved like a living person.” He mumbles.

“Anyway,” the first guy continues, “we were losing, so we gathered back. They used the chance to escape.”

“Why not follow them?”

“The orc. Given her invisibility mana, she could easily ambush us. They also have a home advantage. Without Amanda…”

I sigh. Given that the strongest team in the town failed, the rest don’t have much chance.

“Dominic. Block entry to the dungeon. I will send a runner to hire a 3rd tier team. It will take a few weeks.”

“That’s overreacting.” The new Guildmaster protests. “How about we publish the information and let others decide on their own?”

I frown. “Will you return for revenge?” I ask the party.

“I want to.” Archer says with a grimace.

“Yeah.” The second guy mumbles quietly.

“It’s a waste of time, though." Their leader says at the end: "We will wait for your team. We need a very competent tracker. Otherwise, it’s just asking to be ambushed.” They all nod to that. They want revenge.

“Dominic, stop anyone from entering the dungeon.”

Guildmaster attempts to interrupt, but I’m faster. “You can tell adventurers they can still enter if they want, but make sure they know the situation and risks.”

Now, we wait.