There wasn’t really anything out here in terms of civilization and human interference, me and Jeremy were just walking through a forest without much of a plan in mind, we did see the odd goblin here and there while walking around and we made sure to capitalise on em’ but there wasn’t really anything interesting around here to fight or do.

After our first goblin encounter, we made sure we knew where we were going so we started marking trees along our path. We had been doing this for a few minutes without anything going on, but that’s when I spotted a cave in the distance.

“Over there.” I pointed, and we both jogged along, my hand reached for the light bulb on my side and switched it on, then I remembered something.

“Hey, we got loot boxes for that bear, right? Let’s crack 'em open.” I suggested

“Oh right.” He stopped right before the cave and said the command to summon the loot box.

“Basic Loot Box” A crate fell from the sky and cracked when it hit the ground exactly like it happened to me the first time. Inside it were two brass knuckles, he slid them on straight away and then I summoned mine.

Inside mine was a hardhat, I don’t think it would offer much protection considering that hobgoblin that could cut halfway into a very thick tree, but I would take anything I could get.

“Hey, what's that yellow thing?”

“It’s a hardhat.”

“It doesn’t look metal or stone or anything, how can it be hard?”

“It’s plastic.”

“Plastic?” Ah, right, plastic was a more modern invention, he wouldn’t know what it was. Now that I think about it, why was I getting modern stuff in my loot boxes, was it because I’m modern?

“Also, what is that on your side, that light looks very unnatural.”

“Light bulb. It’s from my world.” He just nodded and went along with what I said.

“Alright, let’s ignore all that and just go to the cave,” Jeremy said, walking in nonchalantly. For some reason his demeanor just spelled trouble, but I felt like I was already signed up for this, I had to go.

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I entered, my light bulb illuminating roughly 5 meters in front of me, everything else being dim. I was still considering whether I should go further in or not, but I had to level up, I need to be able to work competently among the rebels. I feel like there should be a better term for them, is it just rebels or do they have a sick name to go along with what they do? I should probably be not focusing on that right about now though, I had caving to do.

It was very warm and humid here. I saw little drops of dew fall from the ground and heard the skittering of termites. I don’t know who could handle living here but whoever - or whatever - they are, they aren’t normal at all.

After a few minutes of carefully watching our step so we don’t trip on wet jagged rocks, we found the first creature in here that we had to acknowledge, it was a gnoll.

I gripped my goblin dagger tightly, it had already seen my light and was prepared to throw down whatever glowing beast decided to enter its home.

I wasn’t some angel or any divine being that exuded light, I just had a light bulb.

And a knife.

The gnoll ran across slippery rocks like it was nothing, it was used to this environment, we on the other hand had the dexterity of toddlers when we entered. That’s an exaggeration of course but compared to this thing it didn’t make a difference.

Jeremy held up his knuckle dusters and tried his best to walk over to me with some speed to his stride, but the gnoll had reached me before he could defend, and it had swung its mace down onto my hardhat.

I ducked down and fell on my ass, Jeremy had reached the gnoll around this time and delivered a strong punch to its chest. The gnoll staggered back but managed to retain its footing, but I made sure it fell by shooting out my legs from the ground and sweeping its shins from under it.

I wrestled for control on top of the beast and delivered a strong punch to its nose before gripping its mace and slamming the bottom of the handle into its skull repeatedly until it went limp.

I gained 20 XP from that and a new weapon. I’d carry the mace in my right hand, which was stronger, and my knife in my left. I hadn’t tried out my new [Knife Fighting I] skill yet.

We kept track of where our things were, if we were alright and we kept advancing, hopefully the rocks would get less slippery. I don't know how that could happen though, I wasn’t a geologist.

We saw another one patrolling his segment of the cave and this time we made quick work of it, my knife skills enabled me to slash at the gnoll until it collapsed, and my mace kept it at bay, but I had to sacrifice power when swinging it around, I didn’t want to slip because of my own momentum.

Jeremy had advanced on his own when he saw I was handling it well, and he took on a gnoll for himself. He wasn’t experienced with hand-to-hand fighting so he did slip a couple times and got hit real bad on the chest, but he pulled through eventually and recovered quickly.

I noticed how quickly he recovered, and I realized that I had done the same against the bear, it was probably the game-like mechanics of this world hard at work making us heal much faster than any ordinary human on earth. That was something to consider, but right now I was just trying to get XP.