Samara nodded her head. "Mark will be team leader. He gets the first choice of loot because his minions are invaluable. I will take the second share as the team's scout and herbalist."

"You can be our secondary attacker," Mark said to Elise. "Once you gain more knowledge over your magic, I can see situations where you might be able to surpass Samara in merit. That's when we'll give you second rights to the loot."

"I can heal, but it costs resources," Samara continued. "With your light magic, we hope you'll become a healer and help share the burden. It's an investment."

Elise slowly nodded her head. "I'll try my best," she said to encourage herself.

Mark nodded. "You're smart and intelligent. I fully believe in your ability to learn and perform. You proved that in the fight against the skeleton paladin."

"Thank you." A bright smile blossomed on her face.

A pack of ghouls, led by the Lifedrinker ghoul, cleared the way ahead while Samara consulted Theodore's map. Though the map wasn't the best at identifying everything, it still provided a good measure of where they were. Like the caverns they hadn't explored yet, for example. There was still much to do.

"We can take these caverns along the way," Samara said. "Elise, what do you think? You'll be using these to level up."

Though Elise looked nervous, she nodded. "I can do this," she whispered. "Let me grow stronger."

"Good," Samara said. "Then let's start running."

"What?" Elise protested as her arm was pulled away.

They ran down the tunnel and into a cavern with a generic horde of skeletons. With Mark's guidance, Elise eventually learned how to channel her light spell into a small bolt of magic.

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Got it!"

"Focus," chided Samara. "Kill everything first before you celebrate."

"Sorry." Elise continued to whittle away at the undead horde. The necklace she wore guided her progress, enabling her to learn much faster. Once her mana was depleted, Mark's ghouls swept through the rest of the skeletons.

"Good work," Mark complimented. "Are you ready for the boss?" he asked once she had recovered.

"Not if it's anything like the paladin," she muttered. "Well, guess I better get to it."

Elise visibly relaxed once she saw the undead leader appear. At Level 20, it was just a normal humanoid skeleton carrying a simple staff. She became emboldened with confidence.

But she quickly found her magic powerless against the undead's skills. Its staff had the ability to deflect spells. Both her light bolts and fire arrows were sent back to her at twice the speed.

She refused to cry out for help. Elise watched its movements closely and danced around the skeleton's attacks. Meanwhile, she developed her light bolts to become much faster. They went from a visible projectile to a brief flash of light.

Her expression hardened as she closed the distance. The staff swung, missed, and her magic found its mark. More and more Light Bolts slipped past its guard, scorching the skeleton's bones with each hit, and Elise brought it down soon afterwards.

"Next," Samara said. As Elise waited nervously at the side, Mark picked up the staff and handed it over to her. A smile grew on her face.

They rushed into the next cavern without stopping to rest. Samara took the chance to practice her newly acquired passive skill during this trip. Her hands were as swift as birds, plucking arrow after arrow from her quiver and into her bow. She shot down every single undead they met along the way, not even pausing to aim or rest.

Although she rapidly became tired after shooting down a few groups of skeletons, a wild grin was still on her face. She gulped down one of her concoctions and did some stretches, clearly willing to run it again. Mark encouraged such behavior - they needed to explore the place quicker since they took so long dealing with the skeleton paladin.

The three of them moved in tandem to slaughter the undead in this cavern. Elise became very good at kill-stealing. Her Light Bolts weaved in-between his minions, finishing their enemies off first, while also landing last blows on those who didn't fall to Samara's arrows.

Their decision to move as quickly as possible proved to be correct. As soon as Elise finished off another undead leader, a band of goblins appeared behind them.

Fortunately, Samara had always encouraged them to maintain vigilance moving in and out of the caves. She spotted them first, sending a flurry of arrows to fell the feral goblin warriors. Tall figures then ran hurriedly behind cover - hobgoblins.

Mark used his radar technique again with Raise Dead. He found movement. A lot of movement. How many goblins were waiting outside?

One of his ghouls lunged forwards. It dragged back a goblin warrior kicking and screaming, Level 11.

"They're half our level," Mark shouted. He immediately gave the order to attack. His ghouls rushed forwards without any regard for their lives and began a brutal massacre.

Then a fireball came blazing from the distance. Their mage was lingering far behind the main attacking party, but Mark had expected this. A signal pulsed from his mind, urging his ghouls to scramble backwards and escape the spell. All the Fireball did was blow up their own defenses.

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The ghouls swept forwards once again, killing the last of the goblins. But the mage was long gone by the time they reached the spot where the fireball came.

"How are there goblins here?" Elise asked.

"Beats me," Samara said. "But look at this." She pointed at their corpses. These feral goblins were adorned with excellent gear unlike the shoddy equipment on the floor above. Those didn't even have a quality level, but these were considered Common. Some sets were even Uncommon.

"Good craftsmanship," she remarked. "It takes professionals to produce such well-maintained equipment."

"Do you think they're a raiding party? Here for the undead."

"Maybe they're at the next cavern too."

They took more careful precautions while traveling this time, but maintained their speed. Much of the undead remained, meaning the goblins had to have taken an alternative route. It was not until they drew close to the third and last cavern that undead bodies appeared. A group of goblins stood watch outside.

After his ghouls made short work of them, they sat atop the cavern hill and peered downwards. This cavern plummeted in depth and rose up again on the other side, though not as tall as their current position. Below, a mass of humanoids trembled together, aiming for the other hilltop. There were a lot of goblins down there, and they had built fortifications.

"Should we attack?" Elise whispered. "What if they get the treasure first?"

"Don't get greedy," Mark said. "We might not even need the equipment." The last cavern didn't contain anything of value. It was clear not all caverns were made equal.

"Keep watch," Samara told them. "I'll go closer and you can start at my signal."

While she snuck into the group of goblins, Mark sat there and meditated. "How are you so calm?" Elise asked. "This is a risky battle for us Mages. An arrow could bite into our throats at any moment."

Mark blinked. "You're right," he admitted. "I just think there's no use worrying about it right now. The goblins will become much more dangerous if we start panicking."

Elise nodded her head but still looked worried. "So Samara will be fine, right?"

"The undead have a magical sight which they use to detect the living," Mark told her. "But these goblins rely on their sight and hearing - which have already been weakened by their time in these caves."

"You say it like you have a lot of experience," she muttered. Her eyes went wide.

Mark nodded. "When you met me, I was the one who killed all the goblins." Elise's mouth opened as well, but he interrupted her next sentence. "Now let's focus."

He stalked closer to the side for a better view. Samara likely had better vision than him, but he still wanted to be able to spot targets at longer ranges.

"See anything?" Elise whispered.

Mark watched patiently and waited in silence. Elise followed suit.

Three types of blobs were moving around on the cavern floor. There were large and fast ones, probably orcs. Slow, medium sized blobs were likely to be hobgoblins, while small, barely noticeable blobs were regular feral goblins. Occasionally, magic would fly out from the small blobs, indicating the presence of goblin mages.

But then spells started to shoot out from one of the larger blobs down there. Mark's eyes went wide. Those were orcs, weren't they?

"Elise, look down and tell me what you see," he said. "Aren't those blobs orcs? Why is magic coming from there?"

"Uh, I can't see that far," Elise responded. "Sorry."

"Fine," Mark said. "Let's wait for Samara to get back. I don't think she'll like what she sees."

They waited for another few minutes before Samara came crawling out from the darkness in front of them. "It's not looking good," she said.

"Orc mages?" Mark asked.

Samara nodded. "Orc mages. I'm surprised you can tell." She looked back downwards. "Much stronger than the goblin mages. This won't be easy."

"I think we can do it," Elise said. She snuck a glance at Mark before quickly turning away.

"Confident, aren't we?" Samara smiled. "Good."

"Agreed," Mark said. "Whatever is down there has the goblins in a frenzy. I think it could be worthwhile checking it out."

"Then I'll go down and get things ready. There are a few things I can do to make the battle easier," Samara said. "You can start heading down now." Then she disappeared.

Mark nodded, trailing down into the darkness accompanied by his minions. Elise walked beside him with her head held high. Did knowing more about his accomplishments somehow inject an ego into her?

Once they reached the bottom, Samara struck. An explosion erupted in the midst of some goblins surrounding a mage.

His ghouls ran in. They went for the weakest first, closest to the explosion, and tore the stragglers apart. Blood ran like rivers straight into their slavering mouths. Then they searched for more, crushing packs of goblins beneath their charge.

Lifedrinker moved alone, driving its knife into goblin bodies. Though sharp, the artifact didn't seem to be able to heal the ghoul. It, too, had its fill of goblin flesh.

Meanwhile, Mark, Elise, and his skeleton mage hid behind a tower, guarded by his skeleton general. A few of the goblins tried to attack but were quickly buried in arrows.

Samara had taken hold of one of the more reinforced stone towers. She was providing ample aid to his ghouls, taking advantage of the chaos to score some experience.

His ghouls were intelligent enough to exploit opportunities in battle without him having to constantly give orders. Their efficiency was unmatched to what he had before. And this was after considering the feral nature of these ghouls. If he had a force full of skeletons, their strategy might even increase further.

But the goblins managed to recover once the initial chaos died down. They somehow managed to reach a stalemate with Mark's ghouls hiding inside their fortifications. Spellfire tore apart two of his ghouls who went too far in their slaughter, and could not flee quickly enough.

Mark dashed inside the tower. Fireballs crashed down a moment later. Fortunately, Elise had followed him without missing a beat.

"Stay here," he ordered. "I'll leave behind the general to protect you."

"Thank you," she whispered. "What can I do to help?"

He looked around the room. There were ladders to climb up, but the tower was so rickety he did not expect it to hold up to a barrage of fireballs. "Just keep yourself safe here," he said. "There's no way the top of this tower is safe."

Then he ran back out and regained command over his ghouls. He ordered them to accompany him as he dashed from tower to tower, repairing their bodies as they tore apart the inhabitants. His magic smashed open doors and barricades alike. Once his ghouls had their fill, he quickly fled before the goblin mages could bring the tower down.

After butchering three towers, the forces fighting the undead at the front sent back some reinforcements to help. Included in the first batch were an elite group of warriors - Level 20 and with good equipment. Alongside these fighters came an orc carrying a staff.

Feral Orc Mage - Level 24