Ryan was the first to notice that something was wrong. “Do you see those storm clouds in the distance? They look like they’re moving pretty quick.”

Callum and Eliza now alerted, looked up and saw what he was talking about. And they were moving pretty fast, but Callum couldn’t feel any wind.

“That’s pretty weird. I didn’t think it was supposed to rain this week,” Callum said.

Eliza shrugged in response but drew her coat closer around her.

“It’s not. What time is it?” Ryan asked.

“I suppose it’s around 9 o’clock. Could this be it?” Callum was starting to get anxious, and his hand subconsciously drifted to the hilt of his rapier.

“It could be. Or it could be a freak rain, but my money’s on this is it. Should we seek shelter?” Ryan asked.

“There’s an awning over there,” Callum said, pointing across the street. “We can stay under that, and if it gets worse we can take shelter in the building it’s attached to.”

The group crossed the street and huddled under the awning. They idly chatted, mainly Callum and Ryan, as they watched the storm cloud roll in.

The clouds were moving much faster than any Callum had ever seen, but there was still no wind that he could see. It wasn’t unheard of for a storm to roll in like this but with the events of the past twenty-four hours, there was something else at play.

Once the clouds were occluding the whole sky, as far as Callum could see, a misting rain began to fall.

“Hey, there’s something more to this rain,” Ryan said. He stuck his hand out into it and watched as it collected on his palm. “There’s mana in it!” he finally exclaimed. “I can feel it. I just pulled up my status page to confirm and my mana pool is filling.”

“That’s weird, but not really apocalyptic,” Eliza said, seemingly disinterested.

Callum let the rain hit his hand as well. He stood there for a full minute testing to see if he could feel something as well, but he didn’t know where to begin. Even when he checked his status page, he could see his mana slowly ticking up, but there was nothing special about the rain to him.

“I’m not feeling anything. Maybe it has to do with your Basic Magic skill.”

“That could be. But if it is, I don’t know how I activated it. Or how I turn it off, for that matter.”

Over the next thirty minutes, the rain steadily increased into a downpour. By this point, all of their mana pools were filled and they saw no sign that the rain would let up.

“We should probably head inside,” Eliza said, breaking the silence.

“I agree. It’s not looking like we’re going to get to that library any time soon, and I don’t want to get soaked if this rain gets any harder,” Callum said, reaching for the door.

As soon as he did, the door slammed open. Callum jumped out of the way, barely avoiding the door as a rush of over a dozen people screaming in terror came pouring out. They rushed out into the street, heedless of the rain. Once the last person was out, the door slammed back closed.

“What’s going on?” Callum yelled, as much to himself as the group of people.

“M-m-monsters,” stammered a woman in the crowd.

Callum glanced at Eliza and Ryan, but pure bewilderment was on their faces.

“Monsters? What kind of monsters?” he asked.

“Short, green, and freaky looking. They had weapons. Oh God, they killed Sarah,” the same woman from before managed to get out before breaking down into tears.

Callum pulled aside Eliza and Ryan. “I think we’re going to have to go in there.”

“And do what?” Ryan shot back. “The only weapon I have is magic, and I don’t even know how to use that.”

“I have a sword, and Eliza has that knife. We can wait and see if you can figure it out, but I have a feeling that whatever’s in there is gonna come out at some point.”

“I am not going in there,” Eliza said, matter-of-fact. “I have no clue how to fight. My class didn’t even give me a combat skill.”

“Seriously. You’re just going to leave me out to dry on this one?” Callum sighed. “At least look after the people. They’re scared out of their minds right now.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“That’s insane, you know that, right?” Eliza said. “If you want suicide by short green men, go for it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Callum knew what she said made sense, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was in there needed to be dealt with. He had squandered a lot of opportunities in his life, and this whole damn apocalypse seemed like it was one big opportunity. He was determined this time not to waste it.

With his thoughts settled, he pulled open the door.

[Entering: The Goblin’s Sewer]

The words etched across his vision as he walked through the door. Once inside, a musty smell filled his nostrils, and his eyes were forced to adjust to the light. Whatever this building had been, it was not the same.

He appeared to be in a sewer with stone walls that arched towards the ceiling. In front of him, the pathway split into three branches, with a trickle of water running from behind him and splitting down all three paths.

When he looked behind him, there was a ladder that ran back up to the surface and ended in a trap door. There was a grate taking up a portion of the ceiling that appeared to be where the water was coming from.

There seemed to be no light coming from outside, and the little light that was there was provided by torches sparsely placed throughout some kind of entrance room he found himself in. Nothing immediately attacked him, but Callum drew his sword anyway. He was not going to waste precious seconds pulling his sword out if something did catch him off-guard.

He still had his backpack on and knew that he would need to set it down somewhere. The extra weight could slow him down if he had to run. In hindsight, he should have left it outside, but he was here now, so he settled for finding somewhere dry to put it.

He could have tried the ladder to make sure he could still get back out, but if he left now, he didn’t see himself having that same bravado that led him to enter in the first place.

With none of the paths seeming like the correct choice, he decided on the left one. If this did somehow turn into a maze, he could just hug the left-hand side until he found the exit.

Callum slowly made his way down the corridor, his feet occasionally splashing in the water creating an echo. Stealth had never been his strong suit, but with only the crackling of the occasional torch for noise, each splash sounded like a gunshot in his mind.

Soon he came to a left bend in the tunnel and could see it getting much brighter. Not the white glow of daylight, but the orange glow of several torches.

Taking better care to avoid the puddles of water, he crept closer until he heard voices. He couldn’t tell what they were saying and as he continued to listen, he noticed it wasn’t even English nor was it any language he had heard before.

Callum pressed himself against the left-hand side of the tunnel, and slowly followed the side until he came to the turn. He took a deep breath, steeling himself, and peeked around the corner.

Roughly fifty feet from where he was standing was a group of six short, green creatures. Now that he had laid eyes on them, there was nothing else they could be. Goblins.

Callum watched for a few minutes, trying his best to figure out how to approach these creatures, but the decision was made for him. One of the goblins broke off from the pack and started wandering in his direction.

He quickly ducked back behind the wall as he heard the footsteps getting closer. His heart was pounding in his chest as he took up a fighting stance. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, then thirty, and the goblin stepped around the corner.

Callum lunged, piercing the goblin through the chest. His aim had been off. He wanted to go for the throat, but there was no time to think as a cry escaped the goblin's lips.

He pulled his sword out and stabbed again, ending the goblin, but the damage was done. The clattering of weapons and goblin war cries came echoing down the tunnel.

Callum felt panic start to grip him, but he shoved it down. He had precious few seconds to come up with some kind of game plan. Don’t get trapped against the wall, was his only thought as the remaining five goblins came splashing around the corner.

They were carrying an assortment of crude weapons. Two had stone spears, another two had crude hatchets, and the last carried a real sword, though it was covered in rust.

The spear-wielders came first, jabbing at Callum forcing him to keep dodging backwards. He saw out of the corner of his eye the one with the sword was trying to flank him.

In a burst of speed he didn’t know he had, Callum threw himself at the sword goblin, catching it off-guard, his sword point going straight through its heart.

He wasn’t fast enough, as a spear shot towards him. He turned his body, doing his best to avoid it. He managed to escape the worst of the blow, but the side of the spear slid across his ribs. The adrenalin numbed the pain enough for him to fight on.

Callum continued his dance with the spear-wielding goblins. The same pattern was beginning to repeat, this time with the hatchet goblins trying to flank him.

Determined to not get caught in the same trap, the next time a spear-goblin lunged at him, he batted it aside with his sword and slipped inside the range of the spear.

His sword was useless at this close of range but he had the strength advantage. His foot connected with the goblin’s stomach, knocking it to the ground and forcing the spear out of its hand.

Callum wasted no time and stabbed the other spear-wielder ending its life. With the four of their compatriots dead or incapacitated, the remaining two goblins were enraged. They sprinted at Callum brandishing their hatchets, pure bloodlust in their eyes.

Blood was starting to pool on the ground, and when Callum tried to dodge the first blow from the hatchet-goblin, he slipped. Not enough for him to completely lose his balance, but enough that the goblin had a free strike on him.

He threw his arm up to protect himself and felt his skin resist the hatchet for a moment before it bit in. In the half-second it bought him, he was able to regain his balance and run his sword through the goblin.

The last goblin was on him only a second later. There was a hiss of steel as the hatchet slid down his sword. Callum threw a series of thrusts and was surprised by the goblin's ability to block them.

It wasn’t enough as with each thrust the goblin's defense was slipping more and more. In short work Callum made the goblin look like a used pincushion. No single wound was the death blow but as the wounds reached a critical point the goblin collapsed, lifeless.

Callum stepped over to the one he had kicked and stabbed it once through the heart before slumping against the wall of the tunnel.