"It's go time!" Velvet jumped up from her makeshift bed on the ground as if something stung her. She turned to her right, where her friend was still sleeping soundly, and gently shook her.

"Hey, Arianna!" she yelled out excitedly. "It's morning! Time to get this task done!"

"Just...five more...minutes..." she mumbled and turned to the side, curling into a ball.

Velvet leaned down and quietly whispered into her ear: "I'm going to cast 'Illuminus'..."

"I'm up! I'm up!" Arianna's eyes suddenly shot wide open and she jumped up. "Don't do it!"

Her friend laughed at her reaction. "I knew this would wake you up! Good morning, sleepy!"

"Very funny." The rudely awakened girl crossed her arms.

"Come on! It's time to kick some cave goblin's asses and recover a treasure!"

Within half an hour they packed up the tent and were standing in front of the cave entrance, each holding her own staff in hand. Arianna wore a worried expression while Velvet grinned from ear to ear as she handed her one of the teleportation tablets and kept the other one for herself.

"Remember," she said, "if you find yourself in serious trouble, just break it!"

"What about you? Will you be alright?"

"I have my own! You don't have to worry about me! Besides, we won't need them anyway! Alrighty then...let the fun begin!" Velvet yelled and ran in without a second thought.

"Wait! Shouldn't we make a plan first?!" the other girl called after her in vain. She sighed.

"I swear if she doesn't stop being so reckless..."

Suddenly, a loud crack was heard from behind her and she jumped up, turning around. Was she just imagining this?

"H-hello?" she called at the bushes meekly. "I-is anybody there?"

There was no answer. She got a really unpleasant feeling that they were being followed. And she wasn't ready to find out who or what it was that followed them. Taking a deep breath, Arianna stepped into the cave and was immediately swallowed up by the darkness inside. It was much deeper than she expected.

"Velvet? Velvet, where are you?"

"I'm over here!" She heard a barely audible voice from far ahead and saw a faint light in the distance. Reluctantly, she followed it, dreading to stay in place any longer in case whatever was outside of the cave decided to come inside as well.

As she descended deeper, a pungent scent of moisture and mushrooms filled her nostrils and she felt her clothes and hair getting caught in cobwebs that hung from the ceiling. Arianna decided she did not like this place one bit.

Despite her steps being unsure and unsteady, she knew her friend was down there and counting on her. She steeled herself and pressed onward, pushing the spiderwebs away with her staff and keeping her eyes on the light that was getting ever brighter with each step. Just a little bit more and she would reach the end of the tunnel. Just a little more and she would see her friend.

"Ah, there you are!" Velvet said happily when Arianna's face finally appeared from the tunnel. She was standing in a cavern of some sort, lighting it up with the tip of her glowing staff. The walls were wet and covered in fungus, as the girls already expected from the smell. From there, several tunnels similar to the one they just came from lead onward. They had to make a choice.

But before that, Arianna decided to scold her friend. "Why did you run in like that?! That was super careless of you!"

"Relax." Velvet waved her hand. "Look, there's nobody even here!"

The blonde girl looked around. "That's exactly what worries me. Where are they?"

"Maybe they abandoned the cave and moved to another one!"

"Something tells me that just isn't the case." Arianna started to feel increasingly uneasy again.

Velvet was too preoccupied to worry, though. "Which tunnel should we go down? I like left!"

"This isn't about what you like." Her friend shook her head. "Let's take the one that looks less like it has a horde of cave goblins hiding in it. And keep your voice down," she whispered.

"But they all look the same!" Velvet complained loudly.

"I said be quiet!" Arianna hissed through clenched teeth. "We are in enemy territory here."

A growling sound was heard and both girls turned in the direction it came from. There was just an empty tunnel. Without hesitation, the fearless adventurer quickly darted into it.

"No!" the other girl tried keeping her voice down as much as possible. "Come back!"

"Let's check it out!" Velvet yelled. "Follow me, Ari!"

Sighing loudly, the air mage clenched her staff tighter and ran after her daring friend, praying that this whole thing would be over without them even meeting any cave goblins. A wish that would naturally go ungranted.

"I swear I am going to strangle that old man one day," Ralph muttered to himself while hidden outside the cave in a bush. The assistant has been following Arianna and Velvet unbeknownst to them this entire time, just as Argus had instructed him. He waited a bit to make sure that Arianna was sufficiently deep in the cave to not notice him, before reluctantly making his way in as well. This is such a waste of my time...I can't believe I'm even doing this...

Inside the cave, Velvet was hastily making her way towards the source of the sound, lighting her way with an illumination spell, while Arianna was stumbling in the dark and struggling to keep up with her.

The curious witch came to a stop in yet another cavern. This one was much larger and to her great delight, full of cave goblins. The girl laid down on the floor and crawled to the edge of the platform she found herself on, trying to see what was happening underneath. There were a lot of cave goblins gathered below and one of them seemed to be holding a speech of some sort.

Cave goblins were primitive creatures, but they did have their own language and basic hierarchy. Velvet read about them in her book about the various creatures of Rumerra. Apparently, there was always one leading goblin selected, similar to how wolves had a pack leader. Usually, that was physically the strongest one that fought its way to dominance. This certainly seemed to hold true for the goblin that was speaking. It was bulky and at least a head taller than the others.

As she was observing quietly, Arianna ran out of the tunnel, finally catching up with her. "Velvet, you're an idiot!"

Both Velvet and all the creatures below them turned around and looked at the blonde girl, who only then realized that in fact, she was the real idiot for yelling. "Oh...shit..."

"Well, we had to fight them eventually anyways!" Her friend jumped to her feet and cracked her knuckles, before picking up her staff and turning to the goblins below.

"We come in peace!" she announced, hurling a Light Nova directly into their midst. It exploded and lit up the entire cavern, making the creatures scatter and shield their eyes.

"Let's show them what we got!" Velvet smiled back at her friend, before jumping down from the platform and landing on a goblin's head, flattening it to the ground in the process. The small creature yelped as it was being squished beneath her feet. She looked down. "Whoops!"

"What are you doing?!" Arianna yelled with a concerned voice as she watched her being circled by the goblins. "Are you insane?!"

"No, I'm Velvet!" She laughed and raised her staff in the air. "Close your eyes! Illuminus!"

Her friend turned away at the last second before a flash of light would blind her and loud screeching filled her ears. When she opened them she saw the goblins running around in disarray, frantically rubbing their eyes, while Velvet was picking them off one by one.

"This is fun!" she exclaimed with a big smile as she was casting spells at them. "Come, Ari!"

Arianna took a deep breath and aimed her staff down at them. Before she could cast a spell, she heard footsteps from behind and turned around, only to see more goblins running at her from the tunnel.

"Air Burst!" she shouted in panic, repelling them back into the tunnel with a strong gust of wind. "There's more of them up here, Velvet! I can't help you!"

"That's alright," her friend yelled, still smiling. "You take care of those and I will kill these!"

This proved to be easier said than done. The goblins weren't strong, but there were a lot of them. They weren't stupid either, quickly realizing that Velvet was somehow creating the light that is bothering them so much and decided to all attack her at once, shielding their eyes in advance as they ran towards her.

"Uhm...a little help here?!" she called out to Arianna, her smile quickly fading as she realized this wouldn't be as easy as she imagined.

"I can't! They keep coming from the tunnel!" the other girl yelled back at her. Truly there seemed to be an endless outpour of creatures from the tunnel they came from — they must have heard the commotion and were running here from all parts of the cave!

She kept casting air spells and pushing them back into the tunnel, but for each one that got flattened against the walls by her winds, two more seemed to show up. "There's no end to them!"

This was starting to not go according to plan. Well, not that they really even had a plan in the first place, thanks to Velvet simply rushing in. Eventually, one of the goblins managed to reach Arianna and grabbed her staff, trying to pull it out of her hands.

"Let go!" She tried kicking it off, but it held on tight. Soon more of them joined it and they successfully disarmed the girl. She stumbled back and fell off the platform, managing to cast a wind spell to soften her fall.

"Finally you decide to help me!" Velvet yelled, starting to get overwhelmed as well.

"Help? They took my staff!" she yelled back at her and pointed to the goblins above them furiously hitting the ground with it until it broke in half. "And now they destroyed it! Great!"

"Cast spells bare-handed then!" Velvet commanded. "Just please do something!"

The smile on her face was all but gone now that the situation grew direr for them. This was not a fun adventure anymore — it was now a fight for survival. Arianna stood up and started blowing the goblins away, getting circled by them as well. They were jumping down from the platform and pouring in from the tunnel like an endless flood. Her spells were weaker without the staff, and she was feeling fatigue kicking in after casting only a few stronger ones.

"I'm getting worn down quickly!" she announced, starting to pant both from the exertion and from sheer panic itself. "I can't keep casting for long like this!"

"Tough it out!" Velvet demanded, fighting her own battle with them. "You're strong! I know it!"

Encouraging words from her friend did not make Arianna any less scared or tired, however. She felt her eyes beginning to tear up as her arms were getting heavier and heavier and every subsequent spell started to get harder to cast. It wouldn't be long now before they overwhelmed her. Gloomy thoughts began to cloud her mind. Was this it? Were they going to die here? One hand reached into the pocket of her uniform, where the teleportation tablet was. Should she use it? But if she did, they both fail their graduation. There was no way she could get back in time if she teleported back to the academy.

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Velvet looked over and saw her despair, yet she could do nothing to help her. Or could she?

Suddenly, she remembered something. Glancing down at her staff, she remembered what Arianna's mother had said to them in her abrupt visit. She heard her voice repeating the message again in her head. I think it's about time you ditch yours. It's starting to hold you back.

Casting another spell to push the goblins that were trying to get to her away, she raised the staff high up in the air and turned towards her friend, who was barely able to hold them back.

"Arianna!" she called, making the girl's teary eyes turn towards her. "Catch!"

Yelling this, she threw her hand back and hurled the staff at her like a spear. It flew above the goblins' heads and they tried to grab it, but it was flying too high and ended up safely in her friend's hands. As soon as she touched it, the staff began to transform. It shortened in length and the onyx crystals on each end were replaced by diamond ones. Arianna didn't waste any time nor did she have the luxury to do so. She pointed it forward and cast another spell.

To her great surprise, the spell was so powerful that she nearly lost her balance from the recoil. Goblins were blown away and thrown into the air by the strong gust of wind she created.

This is...so much more efficient than my old staff! the girl realized in shock.

Velvet also discovered that casting spells bare-handed was actually easier for her than doing it with her staff. She had more maneuverability because her hands were free and she could double-cast with both hands. Was Mary actually right about her staff holding her back?

After pushing back the horde of creatures using their new casting styles, it finally started to look like they might actually win this. The outpour of goblins from the tunnels stopped and it seemed that they were running out. On the platform above them, lying down and hidden from their eyesight, Ralph watched carefully as they took care of most enemies and the rest of them retreated deeper into the cave, the goblin leader growling something in a foreign tongue.

Well, I'll be damned, he thought to himself. I actually didn't need to intervene here!

"We won!" Velvet jumped for joy and ran up to a panting Arianna, hugging her tightly.

Her friend returned the hug. "That was some quick thinking," she complimented her. "Thank you for giving me your staff. I would have been a goner if you hadn't."

"Hey, that's what friends are for! Together until the end! Now let's get that treasure!"

Arianna nodded, handing the staff back to its original owner, but Velvet rejected it. "Keep it," she said, shocking the other girl. "I think your mother was right. I feel better when I am casting without it. It's as if the crystal is blocking my magic somehow."

"But that would mean it's not good enough to transfer all of it?" the stunned air mage said.

"I know. Weird, right? As if my magic is so strong that not even the highest-grade crystal can handle it! That's a good one!" Velvet laughed and skipped further into the cave merrily.

Arianna kept staring after her. She glanced down at her newly acquired staff. It was so pretty with its golden details on the pure white base. And it fit her hand perfectly. It looked almost like the twirling staff they used in the academy's marching band she was a part of for the last five years. If only it were a little longer...

"Ah!" She jumped up in fright. As soon as she thought that, the staff elongated itself.

"Are you coming?" Velvet's voice called from one of the vacant tunnels that lead even deeper into the cave network that seemed to be spanning hundreds of meters under the ground.

"Coming!" she answered her call and ran after her. Ralph climbed down from the platform and followed them.

After losing themselves a couple of times and running into the occasional goblin that Velvet killed without hesitation, they finally found the treasure they were supposed to be recovering.

It was a small wooden box with golden lining and the academy insignia painted on the front.

"We found it!" The pointy hat jumped up and down together with the girl wearing it. There it was, the end point of their first task. Right at the end of a large cavern.

"Really?!" Arianna came running after her.

"Task one, complete!" Velvet announced proudly and casually strolled to collect it. But all of a sudden, the ground started shaking. Not just the ground, the entire cavern!

"W-what is this?!" Her less confident friend clenched her staff tightly and looked around warily. "Is this a part of the task?"

"I don't think so..." the other girl spoke, taking a step back.

They soon realized what the source of the rumbling was. From the ground itself, a large worm-like creature with sixteen black eyes and long, sharp teeth burst out, screeching so loudly that they had to cover their ears to not become deaf. It was at least a meter wide and could probably swallow either of them whole if it wanted to.

"Earthworm!" Velvet yelled out after the screeching subsided. "Wow! So awesome!"

"Awesome?!" Arianna's eyes bulged out at the sight of it. "It's going to kill us both!!"

"Not if we kill it first!" the other girl exclaimed and got ready to cast a spell.

"Don't provoke it!" her friend warned her. "It might not see us! Let's get out of here!"

"Without the treasure? Fat chance! This thing is going to have to get out of my way!"

"Are you completely insane?!" Arianna yelled as Velvet threw a Light Nova at it.

"Help me kill it!" she demanded as the worm started biting at her. "Light binding!" A stream of light coiled itself around it and...did absolutely nothing.

"Oh...right." She scratched her head. "Can't bind it if it doesn't have limbs."

The tail of the creature sprung out from beneath her feet and slapped her away. She hit the wall with a loud bang and recoiled off it, landing flat on her face.

"Velvet!" Arianna yelled out.

"I'm...alright." She coughed and pushed herself back up. When she lifted her head, the girl found herself staring directly into the mouth of the beast, its saliva dripping down on her hat.

"Good...boy?" She tittered innocently. The worm only growled in her face, its rotting breath blowing her hat away. Arianna had no choice now but to join the fight.

While they struggled to keep the ferocious creature that seemed to be dead set on denying them access to the treasure chest at bay, Ralph peeked his head out of the tunnel, having caught up with them.

"What in the name of King Matthew is this?!" he exclaimed in shock.

Luckily, the girls were too preoccupied with fighting the creature to even hear him. But he had to make a choice now. Does he engage the worm and reveals himself? Or did he have confidence in them being able to defeat it without getting gravely wounded...or worse.

"This thing isn't even supposed to be here!" Velvet yelled, hurling another spell at it. "Earthworms are not common in these lands, especially not ones of this size! I read that in a book!"

"A whole lot of good that knowledge is doing you now!" her friend yelled back while building up another burst of air. "It's here for some reason so we have to deal with it!"

She's right though, Ralph thought to himself. What is it doing here? And why is it acting like it's guarding the treasure they have to recover that isn't even a real treasure?

He quickly put two and two together and realized it. Oh my gosh, the old lunatic was right! Someone is actually trying to sabotage these two to make him resign his position on the Council! How utterly low and despicable! Summoning an earthworm and sending it on two innocent girls just to get rid of the old fart! Whoever you are, I am not letting you do this!

Arianna got knocked to the ground and the worm's tail coiled itself around her like a snake coils itself around its prey. "Velvet, help!" she exclaimed in panic.

"Let her go!" her friend yelled. "Light Nova! Beam of Light! Piercing Ray! Light Cutter!"

She cast a plethora of spells at it. They did some damage, but not enough to make it let go of Arianna. Instead, they only seemed to anger the creature more and it decided to take its revenge on the trapped girl, squeezing her tighter and tighter.

"Please!!" she shrieked in pain.

At this point, Ralph clenched his fists and the marks of water and light lit up on the back of his right hand. He'd been observing for long enough. This ends now.

Before he could act, Velvet got a brilliant idea. A crazy but brilliant idea. She reached into her pocket, darted forward, and slapped the worm with her open palm, jumping back immediately after. "I said...let go of my friend!!"

What in the world is she... the assistant cocked his eyebrow, his hand at the ready.

"VELVEEET!!" Arianna yelled at the top of her lungs, closing her eyes. Suddenly, she felt the grip on her loosen and disappear completely and she fell to the floor with a loud thud.

When she opened her eyes, the earthworm was no more. Only a widely grinning Velvet with her hands on her hips was standing in the middle of the cave. "Well...that takes care of that!"

"W-what?" her friend looked around in confusion. "What did you do?!"

Ralph lowered his hand and rubbed his forehead. She...she sent the worm back to the academy with the teleportation tablet! I can only imagine the chaos this will cause...

"You teleported it back?!" Arianna was equally in shock when Velvet proudly explained to her what happened. "I didn't even know that was possible!"

"Well, neither did I!" The savvy adventurer laughed. "But it was worth a try! I mean, they said it teleports 'the closest living thing,' right? And it also says so in several books I read, so..."

Arianna shook her head in disbelief. "Seriously, you can go from an idiot to a genius in the span of a few minutes! How did you even come up with this idea?"

"Well," Velvet smiled, "I asked myself..."

"...what would Thoracc do?" her friend finished her sentence for her. "You are still the same crazy and energetic girl that I met nearly five years ago."

"And you still know me better than anyone." Velvet put her hand on her shoulder. "That's why you and I are the best team!" She glanced at the treasure chest at the far end of the cavern. "What do you say we get that chest and get the hell out of here? This task is done."

Arianna smiled. "I'd like that."

Thank you for reading this part of the story!

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The first task is cleared! What about the second one?