Mark stood still inside the brush and listened to them speak. He tried to gauge their location. Above them in this clearing was a massive tree, only visible once he came close enough to break through the wall of grass.

"This place sucks," he heard someone say. They weren't whispering. "Why'd we choose to come here?"

The next voice was also quite young. She said, "Just do your job, Alex." Then there was a pause as one of his skeletons made a slight misstep. "Did you hear that?"

Mark held his breath. He heard them shuffle around a while. "Nothing," the first man replied. "See, this place is so creepy."

"I don't disagree, but your whining doesn't help. Once we get to another tunnel, we can leave."

"Quiet down," a third voice said. This voice was softer, but Mark could still tell it was male.

Mark didn't know if they were his enemies. They had stopped talking as well, and judging by their movements, they were about to encounter his minions. His mind was wrestling with himself on what he should do. Attack, or let them pass? But if he did that, they'd hold the advantage.

It was a hard decision for him to make. As the sounds of weaponry drew closer, Mark decided to just strike first. The possibility of them working for the Mage-Thief woman was high enough for him, even with the lack of evidence from their bare-bones conversation. And risking his own life for these strangers was not something he preferred to do.

His portal silently descended into the mines. Meanwhile, Mark cautiously commanded his skeleton mage to order its orc and skeleton warriors to charge ahead first. They immediately alerted the three, who pounced without hesitation. Mark was able to peer through a gap in the grass and lay his eyes on his enemies.

Young faces, all at Level 10, slammed down heavy weapons onto his minions. He ruthlessly crushed down his feelings of guilt and ordered an all-out attack. The three of them had just used their skills to kill two skeletons, when another carrying a heater shield stumbled out from the grass. It supported the orc, creating a short stalemate.

Mark flanked them from behind the tree, sending his skeleton with Gleam and Glare to delay them further. Then his skeleton mage stepped out and began to fire off some spells. Though the sudden attack disrupted the three's offense, they were able to mount a swift defense in return. Mark had to drag another two skeleton warriors out to reinforce his skeleton mage.

"We've got this," muttered the first speaker, Alex. "Undead again."

"What are they doing here? This doesn't look right," said the third.

"Focus," the female speaker said. She hurled the hammer on her waist at his Ruined Light skeleton, but it dodged out of the way. The hammer flew back to her hand. "That one has a skill. Won't be easy."

Mark waited for them to expose a weakness before he summoned a swarm of Magic Missiles. They twirled around the weakest opponent he saw, the only warrior carrying a shield, and sheared off skin with each successive hit.

The boy cried in pain and cursed, flailing his arms around. His eyes grew wider. A Death Bolt had hit him in the back while he was distracted, and the pain almost made him collapse.

"Oh no," Alex said. "Hey! We surrender!" Mark almost listened, aiming his next spell downwards, but then Alex and the girl increased the intensity of their attacks. Speed blazed in their movements and a hammer smashed into his skeleton warrior, almost breaking it apart. Only Glare caused her attack to miss ever so slightly.

Mark regained his focus and no longer paid them any attention. His Magic Missiles poured into the gaps in their defenses, smashing bone and drawing blood. Their strongest warrior was the girl, who had expert skills in combat but could not stand up for long to his skeleton's relentless attacks.

A moment later, the shield-wielder threw his weapon into the ground and knelt. The fight ended there. Though Alex and the woman tried their best, they could not seize the advantage, and eventually their injuries grew too painful.

"Stop, please," the third boy said repeatedly. "What did we do wrong?"

They all looked pitiful, but Mark had not forgotten Bruce's betrayal. These three were just as cunning, if not more. So he kicked Alex in the ribs.

Alex groaned in pain, but then a hard light appeared in his eyes. "Let us go, now," he threatened.

"Or what?" Mark's first words were low and hoarse. In this new world, he found his morals loosening. And now, they were on the verge of slipping away entirely. Looking at their faces, these three couldn't be more than eighteen years old. Was he really going to take their lives here?

"Or you'll have to deal with Samara," the girl said. She beamed at him. "Wouldn't want that, would we?"

Mark's face scrunched up in confusion. "Samara's not here," he said, after a momentary pause. "Why are you so confident?"

"She's a very good tracker and won't forget what you did," Alex said. "You're dead if you kill us. Can't hide behind your skeletons forever."

"Then I won't hurt you," Mark said. Unless you work for her. "I have something to give to someone in your group," he lied.

"Who?" the third boy asked.

"A woman who can become invisible," he said. "She has red hair." Then he took out an undamaged mana core from his backpack. The three kids opened their eyes and mouth a bit wider, before they quickly tried to hide their expressions.

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"Uh, yeah, we know of her," Alex said. But his eyes continued to stare at the treasure. "Just give it to us and we'll deliver it."

Mark studied their eyes carefully before he accused, "You look like thieves. I don't trust you."

"We're warriors," they protested in unison. But Mark continued to glare at them.

"Fine." Alex looked at the third boy, who gave him a thumbs-up. "Yeah, we know about her. Our boss' right-hand. It's a good tribute, but we'll need something for us too. You know, a tip! For delivery. Pay up."

Mark nodded and took out a bottle of wine. He gave it to the boy for a sip, who smiled.

"That'll do," he said. "Just follow-urk!"

As soon as Mark saw a red glow emerge from the boy's body, he ran backwards as fast as he could. Three explosions blasted apart the clearing and sent him flying through the grass. With a jolt, his landing broke a few ribs.

He groaned and reached for a bottle of sleepy sap. Then he called out to his skeleton mage, confirming it remained alive, though with heavy damage. He had it crawl to him while he recovered from the sap's numbness.

His bones creaked back into place and he stood back up. Much of his body was still sore, however, and he had to concentrate to heal his skeleton mage as well. Once he was done, they reanimated another pile of skeleton warriors along with two Eyeless Wolves.

"What was that?" Mark's trembling voice whispered as he returned to the clearing. The orc had perished protecting the skeleton mage from most of the damage. Meanwhile, his skeleton warrior had dashed away at the right moment, throwing its sword far enough to leave it undamaged by the blast. Even the Helm of Ruined Light only received a few scratches.

The massive crater in the center contained no clues for him to find. All he knew was that the three of them had suddenly exploded after he gave Alex some wine.

But there were some assumptions he could make. Whatever the cause was, he knew it had to involve magic. And not something low in quality like the spells he currently had, but something a lot more powerful.

"Samara, the tracker," he whispered. "Could it be her?" The skeleton mage did not reply. It made sense someone good at tracking people would have high perception, giving them the opportunity to find secret rooms and gain their treasures. Bruce said that as well, and had some success. But Mark was more inclined to believe the Mage-Thief was the more likely candidate.

He didn't understand why she didn't use this type of magic when he fought her before. There were too many clues missing. But such a terrifying power made Mark realize how much the world had truly changed. He continued to press onwards, in a state of both disbelief and wonder.

Between each clearing, he threw himself into his training, working twice as hard as he did before. He strained to use as much magic as possible in a short amount of time. Pain echoed in his head, and sweat ran down his back, but it helped take his mind off things.

Mark's Magic Missiles no longer had to emerge straight from his hands. They appeared a few inches in front of them, making them faster and more unexpected. Perhaps more of this practice meant he could channel magic through other places as well.

When the cavern finally ended and a tunnel without a wall of grass appeared on the side of a wall, he breathed a sigh of relief. Though that journey was an ordeal both physically and mentally, Mark felt refreshed from the repetition of his spells. He needed to come up with a new plan soon.

The efficacy of Repair Skeleton also improved. Now a single touch could rapidly restore the fighting ability of his skeletons, so that they could return to the fight after a few moments of rest. It both cost less mana and used up less of the undead's body to do so. His training was worth the pain.

Mark had hoped he could upgrade more of his spells to the next level, but experimenting without a set goal in mind often failed to produce concrete results unless he was lucky. Casting the same spell over and over, again and again, was still the best choice for now. He hadn't yet hit a limit in the potential of these spells.

The next cavern came quite soon. It was a rather large clearing with many trees, and there was a bear standing on its hind legs, leaning against one. Its long snout reached upwards for fruits and berries found in the leaves.

Light-Infused Bear - Level 20

He immediately became very still.

But the bear only snorted softly and continued roaming around for food. Though Mark had managed to kill the skeleton mage, there was a considerable difference between a weak, spindly skeleton and a gigantic bear. Sneaking past would be his best option.

He ordered all skeleton minions to return inside his pocket plane, and switched to a few prey animal undead. They were weak, but they could be used as distractions for the bear. Mark tied a bundle of torches on an Eyeless Wolf and had it run around the clearing, dropping them one by one. It managed to light up most of the perimeter before the bear noticed it.

When the bear looked over, Mark was surprised to see it had eyes. Then his own eyes widened considerably at the magical light beams they emitted, piercing into his Eyeless Wolf and burning two holes into its skull. His minion fell dead, scattering the rest of its torches onto the floor.

The bear stomped closer and began devouring the body. Mark took the chance to sneak around the side, getting behind a tree as quickly as possible. He gazed at the monster and wondered if Theodore stood a chance.

Losing access to those fruits was not shameful for him. This cavern was probably tailor-made for Rogues, who could pluck the food without attracting the bear's attention. Meanwhile, other caverns held things like mana cores, which were probably much more useful for Mages. Mark felt like he had understood something new about this tutorial.

Mark was able to make it past without losing anyone else. It seemed the bear was uninterested in chasing anything after it used up its light attack. But he still remained as cautious as ever. With the bear behind him, he had no safe place to run to. And with Samara supposedly chasing after him, he was walking on a tightrope.

Darkness no longer gave him an advantage down here. Since the enemies he faced had developed eyes and animal intelligence, he could not use the same tactics from before. So Mark took up a different stance in traveling. He became a lot more aggressive, running from cavern to cavern, killing the monsters he could and avoiding the enemies he couldn't.

Each cavern gave him a new source of plants, and animal corpses he experimented on. Training in necromancy was hard without a dedicated tutor. All he could do was try and change how he wielded the magic every time he received a fresh batch of corpses. He even attempted to practice on the plants he acquired, realizing it would take too long to properly grow most of them to be useful in time. So sacrificing them to try and gain more knowledge was a worthy trade.

After blowing up another pile of corpses, Mark stopped and stared at a familiar body. It was one of the first goblins he had killed. He was pretty sure it was supposed to begin rotting by now. But in fact, none of the bodies had begun decomposition. Instead, they remained in the same state they had died in.

Tutorial Time Remaining - 650:11:18

His pocket plane was the only explanation. Somehow, it helped preserve the corpses from undergoing decay. But Mark couldn't stop to think about the effects of this discovery. Someone else was here, and the signs were littered all over the place: scattered campfires and loose materials.