It took us a couple of hours to reach the 16th checkpoint, which had two camps on the premises. Both were empty, with their occupants out on expeditions.

The monsters we faced had gotten steadily stronger as we traveled downward, though even the biggest one had only required Lyon and Merior’s combined effort to take down. Interestingly, I never saw where the monsters came from, but the dungeon never seemed to run out of them.

We traveled a little further after passing the checkpoint until we reached a medium-sized cavern. It was around the size of two of our classrooms at the academy, which was big enough for all of us to move around and fight comfortably.

Lyon, Sera, and Merior all set up camp near the cavern's entrance and made themselves comfortable.

“This is as far as we’ll go for now,” Lyon explained. “Mother wanted you kids to get some practice in the dungeon, and this seems good enough. Arnav and Chris, come with me. Alric and Mason are with Sera.”

We followed Sera a little ways away from the others.

“Just do your best,” she said. “I” 'll be here to make sure you don’t get overwhelmed, and Lyon can always heal you of anything too bad.”

“Agnis kasi- fireball!” I chanted at the giant rat in front of me.

Right before the fireball hit, a barrier rose to protect the rat. I gritted my teeth- this was far from the first time.

Ever reliable, Mason soon came to back me up.

“Evais noul- arrow!”

Blood sprung out of the rat’s wound, and it soon fell over. Sera walked over to it with a knife and began cutting, searching for the core.

“Good job finding its weakness, Mason.” She congratulated. “And Alric, learn to recognize more spell interactions. The rat was using a barrier, meaning that spear or arrow would’ve been more efficient than fireball.”

I nodded in response, making sure to commit what she had said to memory.

Sera soon retrieved the blood-red core from the rat and threw it to Mason.

“Aren’t you going to take any for yourselves?” I asked. The core of every monster that we had defeated was given to us, while the adults stayed behind watching. I appreciated the rewards but knew that the party needed to make money somehow.

“We’ll grind the dungeon later, don’t worry. Right now, we’re just here to watch over you while you practice.” Sera responded. She pushed me forward, toward another monster. “What’re you waiting for?”

The monster she had pushed me toward was a giant lizard. This specimen in particular was around half my size, with glowing eyes that were the telltale sign of a magic beast.

The lizard didn’t give me the luxury of sending the first spell. Spears of stone immediately began to form above its head, preparing to shoot toward me.

I realized that a water-based barrier would probably be inefficient against this attack.

“Setu ta- dash!”

Being so far underground and away from fresh air, the mana drain of this spell was much more than I expected.

Nonetheless, I hoped that I had at least made Sera happy.

Now… time to attack.

“Agnis kasi- fireball!”

The lizard was attack-focused, as its first attack proved. Without proper defenses, it quickly fell to my fireball.

This was the first monster I had killed that day without Mason’s help. I turned around, expecting praise from the adults.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Instead, I saw Sera running toward me with a frightened look on her face.

“Alric!” I heard Mason shout.

“Wha-” I started to ask before something hit me from behind. The pain drowned out every other thought I had. I tried to scream, but for some reason, nothing came out.

I landed on the ground hard, rolling a couple of times before coming to a stop. I was facing toward my assailant, so was able to get a good look at the thing.

The thing is the best way to describe the monster- it was like a spider but with way too many limbs. It was completely black, making it almost impossible to see in the dimness of the cave.

The monster jumped at me to finish the job but was knocked out of the air by Sera. As quick as lightning, it was up again, and I could feel that it was angrier than ever.

The fight that ensued was like nothing I had ever seen before. Every single part of Sera’s body was in motion, launching attack after attack at the monster.

The monster fought back, using many limbs to its advantage. Almost every time Sera struck, a limb would move with lightning speed to intercept. But only almost- it was still getting inquired little by little, with yellow ichor leaking from more and more wounds.

Eventually the inevitable came to pass, and the monster fell down in a mess of ichor and flesh. Sera looked winded, but soon regained her usual cheeriness and began cutting into the monster.

As she was doing so, a group of two adventurers rushed into our part of the cave from further in, panting. Seeing the dead body of the monster, their faces broke into ones of happiness and relief. Until they saw me, and their faces went right back to ones of despair.

“We’re so sorry!” One of the adventurers apologized. “We were fighting on the 17th and let that monster get past us.”

Lyon walked over. “Are either of you a healer?”

They shook their heads.

“First things first, you need to get one. Adventuring without one is just too risky- trust me, the risk far outweighs the cost. You get me?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Lyon said, turning toward me. He looked me over and then nodded to himself. “Viwa sanaji- heal!”

The spell’s effects were quick, but not instantaneous. I got to feel the (very odd) feeling of my bones moving and welding back together while the open wound on my back snitched itself closed.

Overall, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. On the plus side, I was left with little more than an ache and some bad memories.

After making sure that I was okay, Lyon turned back to the pair of adventurers. “You’ll need to compensate us for this, you know. That healing took out a large chunk of my mana- we’ll have to quit for the day”

“Of course! Will two reds be enough?” They quickly responded, worry written all over their faces.

Lyon agreed to the terms, and the group left in a hurry after handing over the agreed items.

“Here, for your trouble,” Sera said after they had left, handing me a red core. “Your first healing is always an unpleasant experience, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah.”

Efficient as ever, Sera began cutting into the felled beast. This time, she took the core for herself.

We didn’t stick around much longer after Sera finished. Lyon called over Arnav and Chris and led us further into the dungeon.

“Lyon, why are we going further into the dungeon? Shouldn’t we go back to checkpoint 15?” Arnav asked after he realized the direction we were going in.

“If that monster was able to get from the 17th to here without trouble, then clearly the 17th checkpoint needs help. We’ll camp there tonight to prevent any more cases like that from happening.” Lyon explained.

Sure enough, the 17th was empty. The guild flag was all that marked it as a checkpoint.

Lyon directed us to set up camp near the far entrance of the cavern, right next to the tunnel heading deeper into the dungeon.

“Set up your sleeping pads so that they’re behind ours.” He instructed us. “It’ll be easier for us to block monsters that way.”

He and his party then set up their pads right next to the entrance, placing themselves between it and us.

I set up my pad behind theirs as instructed. By the time I was done, Lyon was already bringing out our food while Sera and Merior cleaned and sharpened their weapons.

I never noticed it before, but Merior’s battleaxe had a low-quality core embedded inside the hilt. The red of the core blended in nicely with the dark brown of the hilt that it was located in.

Since Lyon was still preparing the food, I figured that I might as well ask about the core. The cores at the capital were all used for either lighting or heating and were very boring, in my opinion. I still never forgot the first core I had seen on that sword in the weapons shop.

“What does the core on your axe do?” I asked.

“This thin? Jus' makes the axe a lil' lighter.” Merior replied. “Ya wanna feel it?"

This was exactly what I had wanted. “Yes, please.”

Merior made some quick last-minute strokes with his whetstone before passing the axe to me.

As promised, the axe was lighter than what could be expected based on its size. Even still, it was so heavy that I couldn’t get more than the handle off the ground. I could definitely see where Merior had gotten all those muscles.

“Hey, ain't it?” Merior asked me.

I nodded in affirmation, which caused him to laugh.

“Ya mages are all the same.” He remarked. “Too much wand waving an’ not nough effort is wha’ I say.”

I disagreed- but it wasn’t as if I was able to say that to his face. Luckily, Lyon called us to eat right at that moment.

“Hey, you guys! Get over here and eat with the rest of us!”

“Coming!” I responded, glad for the excuse to exit the conversion.