Bianca helped the goblin reach the cave. They walked for quite a while making noise, but to the young woman's disappointment, they didn't attract any animals, neither wolves nor bears.

The cave was a hole in the steep rocky mountainside. Unlike dungeon entrances, where approaching revealed nothing but total darkness, here one could make out the tunnel extending into the stone, partially illuminated by moonlight seeping inside.

"Is this it? You don't have anyone keeping watch?" I found it strange.

Gump, as the goblin who had given me puppy dog eyes was called, shakes his head.

"They're on the other side of the passage, in the cavern."

Since the entrance is narrow, we have to go single file. He goes first, using the tunnel walls for the physical support I'm no longer providing. I follow. After a few dozen meters, he stops and greets someone I can't see. I do notice light in the gaps of the tunnel his body doesn't block. I wait while he summarizes to his interlocutor what happened and moves aside, allowing me to enter the cave.

It's spacious. There are more than twenty goblins, many of them women and children, and they're not crowded together. Two warriors frown at me as my eyes adjust to the torchlight illuminating everything.

"She is my savior," Gump repeats.

An older-looking goblin approaches us. He is wearing a sort of tunic made of skins and sporting a feathered headdress along with a wooden staff that seems magical.

It's the good thing about them all being in one room, there's no need for anyone to go fetch the chief and spend time explaining what a human is doing in their settlement.

"Human, greet the totem," one of the guards tells me.

The chief has stopped in front of me. I don't know the proper protocol for these cases. I incline my head.

"My respects, leader of the goblins."

The soldier who spoke to me furrows his brow more and seems about to say something, but a look from his chief stops him.

"I thank you for saving our hunter, as well as accepting his request for aid."

He speaks to me in the same common tongue as Gump and the guard. In the otome they didn't complicate things. If you encountered an intelligent creature capable of speech in a dungeon, it spoke the same language used by the kingdoms. If the monsters had their own individuality and language, they didn't use it with humans.

"You are not many. Your exodus through the mountains must have been hard."

The totem stares at me, as if gauging what his hunter may have told me. His eyes drift to my backpack.

"It was. Even here we have to be careful, as there's a giant bear's lair not too far away."

My face lights up hearing that. That's where I want to go.

"Could you help us bring the bodies of those wolves? We're short on food."

"Sure," I nod.

"Gump, tell your brother how to get there. Galp, take seven warriors and head over."

A few minutes later, I leave the cavern with Galp and his goblins. The way back is also quite peaceful. Galp advances in front and, as we approach the clearing, raises his arm to indicate we should stop. He gestures at me and I approach silently. From behind a tree, I observe how three bears are eating our wolves.

Bear, level 1.

I can't see their stats, but they're level 1. The beasts don't seem too large, nothing like the giant bear I've wheedled information about from Galp as we walked.

I indicate through signs that I want to talk; we carefully retreat to where the other goblins have stayed.

"Can you handle two?" I whisper to him.

"With one yes, with two we would suffer casualties."

Hmm... I look at their levels. Galp is 4, one higher than his brother. The others are level 2 or 3. The only thing I can think of is for me to quickly finish off my bear so I can help them.

"Let me think," I request.

Fire channeling to my sword, definitely. I want to see if they give me the mastery after real combat. Since right now I only have one mana left, I'll have to use the seed's lick. It restores half of my maximum health and mana points. I'm at full health. The mana will stay at four. I'll have two points left, of which I'd like to save at least one in case my life is in danger and I need the shadow wolf.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Well, about the best strategy, I can't think of much, attack them from behind all at once and hope that, since they're eating, we can deal a surprise first hit that critically damages them. I tell the goblin and he nods. While he gives orders to his people, I take out my pup to give me his lick and thus recover half my mana. I notice they look at it with a mixture of reverence and fear, but neither ask nor say anything. We approach silently, circling the clearing a bit to better reach our targets unseen. Galp gives the signal by raising his sword and his goblins start running toward two of the bears, wielding their spears. I do the same. The bear whose rear end is in front of me is eating one of the wolves and doesn't seem to realize something is happening until my sword sinks into what I trust are its kidneys in an attack movement I've been practicing for three days.

I have to admit, I look much better than against the skeletons and, moreover, the channeling is simply brutal. It makes what should be a tough hide serving as armor for the creature become something I'm able to pierce through despite my low strength value. Plus, it also deals fire damage. The only downside I see is that it cauterizes the wound, so it won't bleed out.

My nostrils are flooded with the smell of burning fur and flesh and the bear lashes out while emitting a menacing growl.

I leap back and dodge a swipe by a hair. I have no combat notification indicating how much damage I've done or if it was critical. I do see that its movements are slower than they should be and that its fur, near where I stabbed it with the sword, is burning in flames. If I concentrate, its life bar is also missing more than a third. Great. Now I just have to finish it off without it ripping my head off. I put into practice the movements the professor has tried to engrave in me. When I'm about to deflect its next claw with my sword, I sever it until hitting the bone, where it gets stuck. Nothing like the octopuses, which you can cut as if they were made of butter.

The bear pulls its claw back and almost rips the sword from my hands. I manage to keep hold of it and take a step back. My enemy is furious, growling non-stop and standing upright on its two hind legs. It's more than a head taller than me. Before I can realize it's going to pounce on me, it's already doing it. I raise my sword more by instinct than anything else, aiming at the creature throwing itself at me with the intention of knocking me to the ground with its own weight and sinking its sharp claws and teeth into my body. It's an instant in which I don't know if I shouldn't pronounce the word that summons the shadow wolf. The moment passes and before I know it, I'm on the ground lying on my back, with the bear's weight on me and quite unscathed. My sword has cleanly pierced its heart. The beast has fallen on me and is dead. I release the hilt of my sword and push the bear to get it off me. It's hard. It's heavy. I roll it face up, retrieve my weapon that's still glowing with flames, and hasten to help the goblins.

Of the two remaining bears, one has less than half its life left and is being harried by Galp and three of his warriors. The other, however, has its bar above 80% and one of the goblins is down on the ground, I don't know if dead.

The beast is so focused on them that it's simple for me to get behind it and deal a good diagonal slash. I have to attack with all my strength, but I pierce skin and flesh and my weapon stops when hitting the spine. Already imagining this was going to happen, I reverse the movement to recover my weapon. More smell of burnt fur and flesh. The bear growls in pain and turns toward me, its back ablaze with flames. I retreat with a couple of leaps and the remaining three goblins poke it in the back with their spears. The creature's life bar is now almost at half. I counterattack after the swipes I just dodged with my leaps and we continue like this a bit more, until the combined attack of the four of us easily finishes off the animal. I'm tired and the channeling has ended at some point during the fight. I look toward the remaining enemy. It seems Galp has it under control. One of the three spearmen, the least injured, is going to help him. Great. I approach the fallen goblin. He's still alive albeit heavily wounded judging by the scant red fill of his life bar. I spend a mana point to heal one health point on him. He doesn't wake up, but I trust it will help stabilize him.

When the last bear is dead, Galp raises his sword triumphantly and emits a victory cry that his warriors echo. Curious, I observe them closely and see that some have leveled up; Galp hasn't. I look at my own progress and it's barely moved. Animals, at least for NPCs and otome game players, give them hardly any experience. The goblins seem to have better luck. As for the wolves, not much meat remains on their carcasses. These goblins are going to have to eat bear.

Galp says that, to take them, they'll have to make several trips. To start, they're going to haul the wolf remains and one of the bears. A couple of them carry hatchets they use to cut thick branches from the trees and improvise stretchers with ropes. Four goblins, two on each side, carry the bear. Another loads his unconscious companion. The other two, the most injured, carry the remains of the wolves which mustn't weigh much.

I accompany them to their cave. They leave the prey outside—the bear doesn't even come close to fitting through the passage—thank me, and offer me the skins that several of their women are already skinning from the bloody remains of the wolves. Ugh, no thanks.

They're going to return for the rest of the bears but I say goodbye once in the clearing. I have exactly one mana left, which would allow me to summon the shadow wolf, but it's already very late. I return to the human village. With so much coming and going through the forest, I don't think it's long before dawn. I've told them I'll come back another day to continue helping them (and kill the giant bear), when I can.

When I arrive at the gate in the palisade, the same two guards as before greet me. They see me stained with blood. It's not mine, I think it's Gump's; but they don't know that.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes. This blood is from a wolf I killed."

"Do you have the pelt? The village furrier will gladly buy it from you."

The pelts... maybe I should have taken them when they offered. Or not, as they would have filled my backpack with blood.

I bid them farewell and go to the stone circle to teleport to my room.

I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't given sword mastery. I have to train more, I've only been at it for three days... I tell myself as consolation.

Anyway, I'm off to the shower and then to bed. Thank goodness it's Saturday and I don't have to get up early.