“Keep your staff up,” Rainen said.

I raised it higher and shuffled down for a better grip. My hands were stuck to the smooth wood, bound to it by sweat. My fingers creaked as I curled them. Was I holding it this hard the whole time?

“What are we waiting for?” Dekam asked. It was the same boy who challenged Rainen to a duel last week.

Rainen didn’t respond and the boy clicked his tongue. His partner, and the other pair with us, all shook their heads.

Four goblins guarded the back entrance. They lazily held their weapons as they tossed rocks at a tree, having the one whose rock landed the furthest away go and gather the next pile. They were on their fourth game and the smallest one always lost. The others laughed as it grumbled and trudged over to the tree.

“Now.”

Rainen shot out, grabbing one of the three and sliding his sword through its back. Our group members rushed forward, muttering curses under their breaths. I chased after them, two steps behind. By the time any of us reached him, he’d already slain the three goblins, leaving us to deal with the smallest one.

“What in the veil was that? You didn’t even give us any warning.”

“If you’re not ready at any moment, then you’re not ready for a labyrinth. They’ll be waiting in there. Be ready this time.” Rainen lit a torch and started into the cave.

“Bastard. I should’ve been in charge,” Dekam whispered.

Mr. Argant led us to this goblin den. It was marked by the adventurers who cleared the labyrinth of monsters regularly and left to us by the previous classes. There were a few other entrances, each handled by a different group. Rainen was our leader, and we were supposed to kill whatever goblins we encountered on our way to the heart of their nest.

Etched onto the walls, depictions show the goblins triumphing over various animals. The drawings continued until we reached a wider area where the path split in two. Rainen pointed down the right tunnel. “The map said this way.”

“Wait, we want to go left.”

None of them discussed it, so it had to be impossible for him to speak for all of them. Rainen barely blinked. “Then you four can go down that way. Come on,” he said, beckoning me.

“H-Huh?”

Just the two of us?

Rainen left and I ran after him. “Why did you let them go?”

“They weren’t going to listen to me and that way goes nowhere. We can get them after we do our job. Better to drop the dead weight anyway.”

“A-A party isn’t dead weight.”

He stopped. “I’m not sure what gave you that idea, but we’re no party. We’re students who’ve been forced to work together. If you don’t like what I’m doing, you can complain to the teachers after we get our adventurer tags.”

I want those tags too…

Alone, I’d never get them. My only chance was Rainen. But I already knew it. I didn’t deserve to be an adventurer. If Rainen’s chances of being registered weren’t related to me, I might’ve given up by now.

Mumbles came from behind a bend in the path, followed by wet and muted footsteps that drew closer. Rainen passed the torch to me and crept forward. As the goblins rounded the corner, he lunged.

He slit the first one’s throat and ran the second one through. In seconds, they were down. He took back the torch and continued past the gurgling goblin, still clinging to life. I averted my eyes.

The further in we went, the smaller the tunnels got until suddenly, they would open up into caverns containing hundreds of stalactites. Sounds were loud and somehow maddeningly muffled.

Every time I spoke, my words were swallowed by the darkness the light didn’t touch. All the while, drops of water bounced off the walls as if they were next to our ears. If I had to go through a cave without a source of light or blind, I’d probably lose hope.

A faint, purple luminescence emanating from ahead made the torch redundant, so Rainen snuffed it out. The light came from a core the size of two fists. It was embedded at the back of the cavern, a cavern nearly triple the size of the others.

Over twenty goblins occupied the area. One goblin, dressed in an assortment of mismatched robes and bone piercings, knelt before the crystal. Two goblins accompanied it, clasping their hands in prayer as it offered up a leg of a deer. A moment passed and nothing happened.

“W-What’s going on?” I asked.

It looked like a ritual.

“I’m not sure, but there are twenty-seven goblins in there.”

“T-Twenty seven?”

That was almost as large as our whole group.

Rainen nodded.

He's not planning to fight them all, is he?

"Mr. Argant and the other should be here soon," Rainen said, unknowingly assuaging my fears. "There are a lot more tunnels than I expected."

From our vantage point, there were at least four other ways one could stumble into the cavern. The goblins slept and ate despite that. They felt safe knowing their entrances were guarded.

The leg held up by the robed goblin burst into flames. The goblin held it in its hands even as its two allies retreated from the heat. The leg burned away, shrinking and fading, turning into smoke that flowed into the core. The light pulsated. The other goblins stopped their activities. They focused on the core, trembling.

The pulsating stopped and the goblins chanted in disharmony until the robed goblin took the lead. Rainen tensed. He didn’t turn away from the core but his eyes traced a line across the goblins. I could imagine it, him cutting them down one after another, slaying a handful of them before the others organized and surrounded him. If there weren’t so many, he might’ve done it.

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From the core, a blinding light came free. It hovered in the air before splitting into five smaller pieces. The light receded, revealing a small crystal. Flesh sprouted from them. The bones and Rainen muttered a curse.

Mr. Argant and the rest of the students arrived not long after. The warm glow of their torches gave them away to us. None of the goblins noticed. Mr. Argant pulled out his communication scroll and wrote down his instructions. We were briefed beforehand about how we’d fight and so, the writing was meant to sync our actions. On the third mark on the scroll, we attacked.

Barrages of bolt spells pummeled the goblins. I cast my own. It was delayed but due to the chaos, the goblins hadn’t dodged. The spell finally shot forth, tearing the arm off one goblin and grazing another. I attempted to cast more and the goblin screamed. A horrid shriek rattled about the tunnel, drowning out the crash of magic and dropping bodies.

Rainen jumped into battle. He cut them down left and right, picking off the ones closest to where the weapons were stored. The robed goblin shouted a command and the goblins grabbed whatever they could reach. As more students poured in, the robed goblin began casting, targeting a pocket or arem who hadn’t broken through into the room.

“Get it,” Rainen said, shooting me a look.

A fireball amassed in its hand. Four goblins stood between us. Their attention was divided, and if I was quick, I might’ve been able to reach the robed goblin and stop its spell. I took a step. The whites of the goblins’ eyes seemed to quiver all at once as if they’d noticed me.

I held my breath. They hadn’t moved at all and they were snarling at the other students. Were they actually composed enough to pretend in this situation, waiting for me to run in and cut me down? My legs felt like I had run up the academy stairs while carrying a dozen books.

“Focus! Use your magic,” Rainen shouted as he batted away a spear.

With an unsteady hand, I cast a waterbolt. It was too late. The fireball soared across the room. I saw how the students' eyes changed as they realized what was about to happen. They wouldn’t put up a barrier in time. They couldn’t.

Mr. Argant leaped in front of them and took the fireball with his shield. He stood firm, unflinching against the heat even as everyone else turned away. Mr. Argant bolted straight for the robed goblin. Its lackeys, in ravenous fervor, threw themselves at him. He shoved them aside like a raging minotaur. The robed goblin tried to run. It was dead as soon as it turned around.

“Slay the rest of the goblins. They’re panicking because their leader is dead,” Mr. Argant said.

True to his word, the goblins fell quicker than before. Not only did they lose their leader, but their numerical advantage was gone.

“W-Watch out!”

I’d forgotten. For some reason, my magic was delayed, back during the incident at the training grounds, and now. My waterbolt flew straight at Mr. Argant. He threw up his shield. The water turned into ice halfway across and slammed into him. He grunted as he stumbled back a step. I stared at him and he stared back, both of us in shock.

A goblin seized the opportunity. It grabbed him by the leg and stabbed him with its rocky dagger. He split its skull with a punch and kicked it off. Bloodstained the tip of the weapon.

I did it again… I got someone hurt.

In my daze, a streak of green crashed into me. I tumbled and the goblin climbed on top. It snapped with its gnarled teeth barely inches from my face. Pushing against my staff, I barely held it back. I could smell its rotten breath and the lingering scent of blood. Its saliva flew everywhere as it thrashed and lunged, again and again. At some point, it stopped. I pushed it off and the goblin fell with a crack. A knife stuck out of its side and it was completely frozen solid. One of its arms was missing. It was the same one I hit with a spell earlier.

There wasn’t any strength going to my legs. I couldn’t stand no matter how much I tried. Fear washed over me and I frantically pushed up against a wall, clutching the staff with all my might. My hands were slick with sweat but I could feel the blood, even though there was none at all.

A goblin almost killed me.

Pathetic. How could I even dream of becoming an adventurer when a single goblin was a life-and-death battle? Mr. Argant, despite getting stabbed, killed the goblin that attacked him. I was saved by someone else. Someone with a knife. I was just a liability. A rookie who got other adventurers, real adventurers, hurt.

How could I explain to the guild that I wouldn’t be able to retrieve what they asked of me? Would they stop sponsoring me? Would I have to go back to that house? It was what I deserved. I was useless. A useless teammate who served no other purpose than to drag her party down.

If I wasn’t here, Rainen would get his tag easily.

The thought shook me. He was still trying his hardest out there. I knew I wasn’t worthy to be on the same level as everyone else. However, we were graded together. I needed to do something, anything to not make it harder for him.

Strength hadn’t returned to my legs, so I sat, looking for isolated goblins and sniping them. At the end of the battle, I managed to kill only one and wound two. The rest of the goblins were too close, and I risked hurting other students if I aimed for them.

“Is anyone injured?” Mr. Argant asked, gathering us around him. The goblins were dead. Their bodies lay strewn on the ground, marred by bruises, cuts, and burns. On our side, few were hurt, and those that were only needed light bandaging.

After confirming everyone’s condition, Mr. Argant called Rainen and me over. “What happened?” he asked. I shrunk back and stared at the ground despite his level voice.

“I-I-I’m sorry…”

“I’m asking for an explanation.”

“I-I can’t control my magic.”

Confusion flashed across Mr. Argant's face. "I had a feeling that more problems would happen if we went into the labyrinths earlier than other years. If you don't know how to control your magic, then don't use it. You'll only put others at risk. Do you understand?"

"..."

My words caught in my mouth. The shame that had been welling up came out all at once, so I nodded. If I spoke, I was afraid I'd look stupider than I already did.

Mr. Argant turned. "Rainen, where's the rest of your party?"

"They split off from us."

The cavern, though large and strangely muffling at times, had an odd habit of carrying quieter sounds. The other students who were left on their own, listened intently when they heard Rainen.

"Why?"

Rainen paused. Mr. Argant's tone, though curt as usual, carried a hint of something else.

"Why?" He repeated.

"They wanted to go down a different tunnel."

"And?"

Rainen's jaw tensed. "They wouldn't listen to my orders."

"And that's enough for you to abandon them?"

No response.

"Havasu."

A one-horned arem student stepped out. He was the leader of another group. "Yes?"

"Though there were many good performances today," he said as his gaze brushed over Rainen. "You had the most noteworthy, and so, you have the honor of taking out the Minor Core."

The arem students applauded him. Havasu grabbed the core and with a little bit of effort, pulled it out. The chests of the fallen goblins began to glow, and shards of light rose from their bodies, melding back into the core. Mr. Argant pulled out a backpack from his dimensional storage and gave it to him to put the core in.

"You two," He said turning to us, "will go back to find the members you abandoned. The rest of us will wait outside at the main entrance." They filed out of the cavern. Rainen stood there with his head hung.

"A-Are you-"

"Let's go,” he said.

He was quiet all the way there. When we found them, they had slain a few goblins. Dekam laughed when he saw us. “So you came crawling ba-”

I let out a gasp as Rainen punched him in the stomach. He crumpled. The others jumped back. “Wh-What are you doing?”

“Mr. Argant sent me back for you. If you don’t follow me, you can take it up with him."

“You fuck-”

Rainen grabbed him by the scruff of his clothes and threw him toward the tunnel. “I won’t hear any complaints.”

Not willing to turn against Rainen after hearing Mr. Argant’s name, and worried about becoming like Dekam, they followed us outside. Mr. Argant scolded them. They shot hateful looks at both of us.

When we met up with the other groups, we were lined up and evaluations were given out. In Mr. Intim’s group, six out of ten pairs were on pace to receive their tags. In Ms. Ein’s, Iris and Elis were one of the four, along with Axel and Feno, and Nula and her partner. As for our group, five pairs were deemed ready for their tags.

We weren’t one of them.

“We’ll head back and rest at an inn tonight. Tomorrow will be our last venture into the labyrinth for this expedition,” Mr. Intim said. “For those who weren’t mentioned, perform well, and you may still have a chance.”

“Do not be reckless. There is no reason why you should endanger yourselves when our next expedition is in two weeks,” Ms. Ein said.

Those words seemed to give little comfort to Rainen.