We ran as quickly as we could back towards our camp. Ahead of me I saw Persy trip and fall over. I spun around and held out my hands Emperor Palpatine style as I launched level four forked lightning into the incoming swarm. Several of them fell over, either dead or stunned, but I didn’t have time to figure out which. I ran over and threw Persy over my shoulder, then made for camp.
Once we were back inside the parameter of the ward spells I and the other mages had set up the night before I set her down then collapsed on the ground. My training hadn’t included carrying another person while running. I was also low on mana, as that lightning attack had dropped my mana pressure to three.
After catching my breath, I sent out several Detection threads into the surrounding woods. Thankfully it looked like the monsters had called off their pursuit and returned to the cave. Other than them the worst threat nearby was a killer squirrel about fifty meters away.
I got up and went over to the Captain. He was holding his arm but I assumed it was something minor. “The enemies have retreated. The only monster I sense nearby that could be of any threat is a Killer Squirrel about fifty meters away. Do you want me to neutralize it?”
“No, leave it be.” said Sir Philip. “Even as exhausted as they are any of the men could take it if it attacks. If it really worries you, though, you can kill it yourself.”
“I don’t like getting rocks dropped on me or chestnuts thrown at me either, but you’re right. It isn’t a threat.”
I went back over to Persy, who was tending to the wounded. “Getting rocks dropped on you?” she asked, having overheard us.
“Oh, yes,” I said, looking at a dislocated ankle. “They can only manage three kilograms or so, but they like to hunt by hauling rocks up into tree branches and trying to drop them on the heads of animals. If they manage to stun one, they can then bite it’s neck and kill it by exsanguination, feeding the whole family before other predators or scavengers show up.”
The trip there had been uneventful. There were no monster attacks and we managed to get to the mines well before sunset. We set up in a clearing five hundred meters from the mouth of the mine, in case the monsters were patrolling the area. After everyone set up their tent, I noticed that Persy was struggling, as she was never taught how to do that, so I ordered Taylor, the youngest soldier, to help her. Taylor was part of the same training group I was, so I had spent plenty of time around him. He was the type of person to constantly complain about everything, but you put up with it because he was so good at his job. He was the best swordsman of our trainee group, and one of only two people of our group to get his certification with distinction. Those fact were what got him a spot on this mission, despite being new to the guards.
When he finished showing her how to set up the tent a few minutes later, constantly insulting her intelligence while doing so, he once again returned to complaining. “So tell me,” he said as she started building a cook fire, “how did a slave get ahold of a star mithril ring? It would cost me more than a month’s salary to get one. Did you steal it, or perhaps do something special to earn it?”
“It belongs to my master. He is loaning it to me for this mission because he would prefer that we have an extra five percent strength to my healing at night than that he has an extra five percent strength to his attack magic.”
“Really?” he said, as if he didn’t believe her. “Then if you have answers for everything, how about you explain to me why you had to drink stamina potions to keep up with us? Shouldn’t slaves have enough strength and stamina to keep up with us?”
She didn’t immediately respond, and I was getting tired of his attitude, so I stepped in. “She is a domestic slave, not a combat or physical laborer. The most physically taxing thing she normally does is when she helps Lya muck out the stables at the palace.” Other than the Lizard man Chef bought recently to tend his garden, Lya the Cat woman milkmaid was the only other beast person at the palace. Because of that she had started helping Lya with her chores just to spend more time with her own people. “Though, if you prefer, I’m sure she would swap with you. Would you prefer to help in the stables while she does calisthenics with the guards in the barracks?”
I could tell by the look on his face that dealing with the smell of animal dung that had been sitting for several days was the last thing he wanted to do. “No, sir. I would prefer to stick with my normal exercise routine.”
“Good,” I said, nodding. “In that case, go tend to your armor until supper time. You don’t want it to get ruined.” He ran off to his tent and started removing his armor. The other soldiers were giggling at him as he started polishing his boots. “The rest of you should probably deal with your armor too.” I said, and they snapped back to cleaning it.
I made sure Persy didn’t need anything else to make supper, then removed my armor and started cleaning it. I finished a few minutes after the others, then had the squadron’s mages start setting up a perimeter of wards. We couldn’t manage anything as strong as a barrier, but there were plenty of smaller magic circles that would work as alarms if an enemy came near them, as well as circles that would cause various types of discomfort in monsters, or animals of a specific type. That should keep us safe enough.
As we finished I saw that Persy had started handing out bowls of stew to the men. Most of them would then pull out hardtack and mix it in with the stew to thicken it. The wards had built in circuits to draw in the ambient mana, so we hadn’t used any mana in making them other than the tiny amount needed to activate them. I let her feed everyone else, including Sir Philip, before getting a bowl and sitting down beside her. “So, how’s your first adventure going?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“It has been fine, but since we started nearing the mine I’ve started to get a headache. I’ve tried curing it, but it doesn’t seem to work.”
I thought for a few seconds before realizing the reason. “This is the highest background level of mana you’ve ever had to deal with. It’s probably a high three around here, while it’s around point five at the palace.”
“But you’ve never been in a place like this either, right?”
“Yes, but I’ve dealt with level five mana from a core before, and even level six from raw manacite that had some of it’s mithril extracted. You’ve only dealt with the level two or so that the core I loaned you outputs.”
“Oh, then do you know how to deal with the pain?”
“You can try meditating. They pain is caused by the excess mana in the environment forcing itself into your body. If you willingly accept it then it won’t damage you as it enters. That should let you adjust to the higher level more easily.”
“Thank you for the advice.” She said, then bowed slightly, which was strange as she was holding a bowl of stew and sitting down.
I got up to talk to Sir Philip. “So, what’s the plan, sir?”
He put his spoon back in his bowl and sat it down. “We’ll camp here for the night, and head into the mine after breakfast.” He motioned towards the setting sun. “Some monsters get stronger at night, and the men are a bit tired.”
“In that case, sir, I’ll set up the night watch.” He nodded and I left to talk to the men. I took the first watch along with Taylor, and assigned Persy to the third watch. That would allow us to have a five-man watch for each shift, while keeping Taylor from being alone with her and giving us both eight continuous hours of sleep.
Nothing happened during the night and when I woke up I could smell something cooking. Persy had brought enough bacon for one meal, and I could smell it frying. As I got out of my tent I heard several of the other men commenting on the smell.
After breakfast everyone grabbed their gear and checked to make sure their belts were full of potions. Once we were ready we marched up to the mines. Surprisingly there weren’t any monsters near the entrance. Sir Philip looked nervous upon seeing this, and ordered us to be on guard. The first hour of our trip we went down several levels without seeing any monster more dangerous than Blood Bats, Cave Rats, and Spitter Roaches. If this was the worst monsters we would come across, we would have no trouble clearing the place.
Shining a magic light on the ceiling, one of the mages noticed that the light circles that were supposed to be down here had all been scratched out. They should have been able to run indefinitely due to the high background levels of mana, much like the wards we set up at camp. This didn’t make sense unless there was some monster down here that was sensitive to the light, though the damage was minor, barely enough to deactivate it. An animal wouldn’t have been so careful, which implies a sapient monster with knowledge of magic circles. We repaired an occasional one in order to mark where we had been, carefully making our way through the mine.
Shortly after reaching the fourth level we came across a large room. This had probably been a staging area when the cave was open. Our light couldn’t reach the outside walls as we walked across the room. About halfway across we saw something reflect light in the darkness. Sir Philip threw a small, coin shaped magic light five meters ahead of us and it revealed several large monsters standing there. Some were simply larger versions of those we had seen already, but there were also wolves, mantises, snakes, and cockatrice, along with a goblin holding a staff.
“Ok, everyone, back away. We need to leave.” said Sir Phillip.
We started to back away, but a few seconds later one of the men spoke up. “Uh, sir, we’re surrounded.” he said, throwing another mana light over towards the exit. It revealed half as many monsters as we had in front of us, as well as two red skinned ogres.
“RUN!” I yelled, throwing three level five fireballs into the middle of the ogre’s group. They exploded, sending monsters flying away, and knocking the Ogres over. We ran back towards the ladder and started to climb out. The two mages and I were the last to climb out, as we threw spells into the advancing monsters, killing many of them and knocking others down or out. Some of the soldiers even threw in their own spells before climbing the ladder. One of the wolves was even hit by a soldier’s spell and fell over with its leg outstretched, screaming in pain.
Wen made it up the ladder and fled the mines, occasionally throwing spells back at the monsters who pursued us the whole way, only letting us get away when we exited the mine.
Back at the camp I pulled on the foot of the man with the dislocated ankle, a loud pop telling me I got it back into place. I left for the other injured people and, after ten minutes or so, all of the minor injuries they had picked up had been mostly treated by either me or Persy. “So, I saw you throw that spell back there and knock down the wolf.” I said to the last man as I sealed a cut at his ribs from where he got too close to a Mantis. “Pretty effective. What was it?”
“Oh, that was called ‘Leg Cramp’ or, as we called it ‘Charlie Horse’.”
“Never heard of it.” I had stopped the bleeding and was starting to close the wound.
“Only ruffians tend to learn it.” the man said, wincing from the pain as I did my job a bit too quickly for it to be comfortable. “I grew up in the city’s slums, and me and my friends used to use it on each other and occasionally others as a prank. I’m just glad I got out of there. I’m the only one of that group that hasn’t served time doing hard labor.”
I finished with his ribs and got up. “I’ll have to look into it when we got back. Could be a good debuff to use in battle.” He nodded, and I left to find the Captain.
I found him sitting in front of his tent drinking out of a water skin. “So, Cameron, how are the men doing?” he asked as I got near him.
“Well, we fixed all of the major injuries. We’re both running low on mana, though.” He nodded and I noticed that he was lifting the water skin with his off hand. “Are you ok, sir? You are using your off hand.”
He nodded. “I wanted to make sure you took care of the men first, but I had to block a club swing from one of the Ogres.” He carefully held up his arm, showing me that it was broken. “Even through my shield it did this much.”
I whistled and called for Persy and she ran over. “Captain’s arm is broken. You think you could heal it?”
“I’m not sure,” she responded. “I could probably do so in a few hours, after my mana regenerates, but right now I don’t have much left. Setting the fragments would take too much. My osteokinesis isn’t very good.”
I nodded. “In that case, I’ll set them. You just get ready to heal the fractures.”
Sir Philip let me hold his arm up and I sent detection threads into the arm. I counted seven fragments. I carefully grabbed each fragment and slid it back into place. I could tell Sir Philip was in pain by the way he squirmed and gritted his teeth, but if I stopped now the damage could get worse. It took me about two minutes to finish reconstructing the puzzle of the bones, and when I was done I signaled Persy to start. I felt the energy move into the bone and slowly knit it back together. A few minutes later the energy ended, but the bone was together well enough to stay together.
“That’s all I can do for the moment.” she said. “My pressure is too low to use that spell any more.”
Sir Philip nodded. “Can I use my arm now?”
“Yes. Just don’t lift anything too heavy. I will finish healing it once my mana is back.” She stood, bowed, and returned to her tent to meditate.
Sir Philip and I spent the next several hours coming up with a plan to clear the mine. Using the old maps we mapped out a course that would allow us to cover every meter of the floor, killing every monster we came across. It would take several hours per floor to do it that way, but it was the only way to make sure that the monsters didn’t flank us.
“So, do you think they were with the rebels?” I asked him when we finished. Three goblin villages the next county over had attacked the tax collector when he came to collect and, because they had made a deal with a local bandit group to feed them intelligence on nearby shipments in exchange for keeping the guards away, the goblins had so far avoided the guards sent to pacify them.
“Unlikely,” said Sir Philip. “This mine is too far from the villages that rebelled. Though, I suppose they could be mining the manacite to pay the bandits or mercenaries.”