Darkness surrounded Garrett as he stepped through the portal.

'...Shit. Did I go through the wrong portal? Did Otris betray me? Is my soul about to become nothing?...'

Garrett reached forward to try and touch the darkness, only to find his hand resting against something wooden. Bracing himself, Garrett shoved against the wooden surface, which opened with relative ease. He felt himself fall forward and land on a rocky floor. He gasped, breathing in a full breath of air and slowly exhaling. He slowly got up and began to look around his surroundings as his vision adjusted.

The first thing that caught his eye was where he emerged from. It was a large ornate coffin with a gold finish. It was about the height of him and looked to just barely manage to fit him in there. The insides of the coffin were a soft red fabric, almost like velvet, and the portal that he had come from was gone. The coffin itself seemed to be embedded in the rocky wall. There wasn't even a gap where Garrett could wedge his sword to pull the coffin out, even if he wanted to. Turning to the ground, the lid of the coffin was ornate, but other than lines with gold trim, there wasn't anything special he could see on the lid.

Turning his attention to the rest of his surroundings, the walls were a dull gray from a stone he didn't recognize. It was certainly a cavern of some sort, illuminated by some unknown light source from outside the room. Other than the coffin, there didn't appear to be anything else, other than some rocky structures like one would normally find in a cave.

"Yep, I'm definitely in another world," Garrett said as he took another deep breath. "The air here has this sense of adventure to it." He exhaled and gripped onto his sword tightly as he approached the exit. Carefully, he stuck his head out, looking first left and then right. The path stretched down a hall in both directions, illuminated by glowing crystals along the ceiling. "I wonder if those are naturally occurring." Garrett looked down the paths before retreating back into the room. He surveyed the ground before finding a smooth round rock. Using his sword, and his foot to hold the rock steady, he carved a crude face into one side of the rock. After finishing, he picked up the rock and placed it on his thumb. "Alright, heads I go left, tails I go right." He flicked the rock up into the air and watched as it spun before catching it in his hand. Slowly, he opened up his fingers. "Tails. I'm going right."

He stuffed the rock into his pocket and proceeded down the right pathway. As he approached the corner, he heard the sounds of fists hitting flesh. He paused and listened closely to the ruckus.

"AUGH! Is that... the best you... got?" There was a response of monstrous growling and gurgling. "Yeah, that's what... I thought..." The voice sounded out of breath and Garrett could hear what sounded like a dripping sound. "Come on... Bring it..." The sounds of fighting continued, but the punches were sounding weaker and weaker with each blow. Garrett stared down at the sword and shield he held in his hands.

This is what I was tasked with, right? The job of a hero is to step in and save those who need saving? But, I've never had to do anything like this before in my life.

The monstrous growling grew ever louder and more chaotic as the fighting continued.

Can I even do this? It sounds like monsters, but I don't even know what I'm getting into! Ugh, just my luck that my coin flip sent me down this path, but I can't just ignore the person.

"I can do... this for hours... You all aren't... anything." The voice was wavering even more and sounding more muffled.

Come on, Garrett. You chose this, so it's time to be a hero!

Garrett gripped his sword and turned the corner, holding up his shield. "Fear not! I have come to save you!"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

'...Seriously?... That's the best I could come up with?... I'm really leaning into this role heavy, aren't I?... Well, I can't back down now...'

As he rushed in, he quickly began to take survey of the situation. Standing in the center of the room was what appeared to be a large humanoid leopard, covered in blood and scratches, and wearing, what Garrett assumed to be, leather armor, a backpack, and brass knuckles. Scattered around the floor were the corpses of small green hideous humanoid creatures, some of which had daggers and others had sharpened claws. There were still a couple of the small green humanoid creatures all around the room, all of whom now had their attention on Garrett. There was no doubt that these were monsters.

"Here goes something!" Garrett leaped forward and trusted his sword through the chest of one of the small green humanoid creatures. It yelled out in pain before collapsing over limply. "I did it. I killed something." The creatures all growled in response to seeing the freshly skewered corpse and ran to attack Garrett.

"Don't let their daggers touch you!" the jaguar yelled as he continued to pummel more of the green humanoids.

Garrett nodded and pulled his sword out, swinging it at the next creature that leaped at him, and using his shield to block an attack. "I can't believe I'm actually fighting!" He continued to swing and knock away creatures until he had amassed a kill count of seven. By that time, the other creatures had run off or were turned to bloodied piles on the ground. Garrett took a sigh of relief and rested on the handle of his sword for a bit.

"Well, that was some fine fighting you showed there," the jaguar said, limping over the bodies to Garrett and extending a paw. "Thanks for saving me. If you hadn't shown up, I don't think I'd have walked out of here." Garrett smiled at the jaguar and shook his paw back with a firm handshake. "The name's Min-Tul."

"I'm Garrett Bates."

"Well, Garrett, I certainly owe you. What were you doing this deep into the Darge?" Min-Tul's eyes narrowed a bit as he looked at Garrett. "You don't have any treasure on you, so you can't have gotten that far in."

"Oh, I was just adventuring around the, uh, Darge, when I heard the sounds of your fight and came rushing to help," Garrett said, only half lying.

"I'm glad you did," Min-Tul said as he rubbed his paws softly. "These goblins would have had me if you hadn't shown up. Wait a minute, no way."

"What?"

"Were you adventuring down here on your own? Don't you know how reckless that is?" Min-Tul said. "You don't even have any other equipment or anything. How did you even manage to make it down this far?"

"Uh, not really sure myself," Garrett said, not quite knowing how to answer Min-Tul. "Wait, you're alone too. What are you doing down here?"

"The same thing anybody who comes down to the Darge does," Min-Tul said, striking a valiant pose and smiling. "Searching for the lost treasure of Amer-Turul!"

"Ah, yes, well you see, I was searching for the treasure, but then I realized that I left all my stuff behind," Garrett said, only half lying through his teeth again. He did leave all his belonging behind when he ended up dead in front of Otris. He looked down at his armor and weapons, the only things that he now owned.

"Hmm," Min-Tul hummed as he pondered Garrett's statement. "Well, you must be pretty strong to be able to get this far down into the Darge without any other equipment." Min-Tul groaned a bit as he squeezed his arm in pain. "Ugh, I'm in no condition to continue on my own. Mind if I join you, Garrett?"

"You sure? Shouldn't we leave and get you medical attention?"

"Nah, I'm fine enough to continue," Min-Tul said, pulling a small pouch out of his backpack. He opened it and pulled out some small green herbs that he began to chew. "Just a bit of Sprig and I'll be in good shape." He began to walk on ahead of Garrett and turned the corner out of sight.

Garrett sighed a huge breath of relief. He stared down at the corpses of the goblins that he had slain. "I can't believe that I killed these things." He turned his attention to the bloodied sword he held in his hand. "I mean, they were obviously monsters, right? They needed to be killed. They were going to kill Min-Tul." He shook his head and shuddered before taking another deep breath.

As he took a step to catch up with Min-Tul, his foot caught on one of the goblin corpses, flipping it over. He would have ignored this, but something caught his eye. Coming out of the body was a glowing light blue orb, about the size of a quarter. It was completely spotless, despite coming out of the bloody corpse. Garrett bent down and picked it up, mulling it over. There wasn't any markings or engravings, or anything that seemed to make it glow. Garrett shrugged and put it in his pocket. He kicked over a few other corpses to see if they had any, but no luck.

"Hey! Garrett!" Min-Tul said, emerging from the corner where he had exited. "What are you doing playing around with the bodies? Those goblins might come back with reinforcements and we don't want to be here when they do."

"Oh, right!" Garrett said as he hustled over to Min-Tul. "Sorry. Let's get moving."