Waking up the next morning I was feeling melancholic.

Lyria was already gone, I guess I slept too deeply for them to just run off like that. They said that they would set out on dawn, they wanted to make good time and not waste any sunlight.

This would be the longest time spent apart from the girls, and I really became enamored with them. Just remembering how assertive Lyria was last night, she was a different person in bed compared to her usual shy persona. Last night she took it to another level, it was as if she was savoring the experience and trying to make up for everything she would miss out on the trip. Well I guess she wasn’t that shy with me anymore, but around other people she was still hesitant and cute.

I couldn't help but get a slight smirk on my face remembering the little vixen.

When I came downstairs there was a note on the dining table.

‘Alex I’m sorry that we couldn’t say goodbye, you were sleeping so soundly I didn’t have it in me to wake you up.

We left the array key with you, it’s on the table.

There is also a pouch with ten gold, silver and fifty copper coins next to it so you can buy food and other necessities.

I left a map of the city on the table. The house, relevant stores and the monastery are marked on the map.

Stay safe and try to cover your face whenever you go outside.

We will be back within a month I promise.

Lyria’

Lyria was really worried about me staying home alone, it felt like I was a small child while the parents went on an extended business trip.

Looking down on the note I saw it had some scrawling on the backside.

‘I’m coming for that ass as soon as we come back.

Inara.’

I had to laugh at her crude writing, both in form and function.

It was nice how Inara was back to her confident self after a couple of nights together.

She was over her issue and now was even more brazen than before, mostly because I encouraged her whenever she tried something.

After I ate my breakfast I decided to train in the backyard before visiting the monastery.

I had pondered as much as I could on my affinities, but unfortunately without the internet I really wasn’t that knowledgeable about most things.

I can’t understate how much I relied on my smartphone or computer for almost everything I knew. It wasn’t that important to really understand or remember the details when everything was readily available at the tip of my fingers. I have seen a lot of documentaries and know a lot of general and inane knowledge, but those are more anecdotal in recollection. It’s not real understanding if you just superficially know something from a couple of articles and maybe a documentary or two.

Feeling hamstrung on that front I could only work on my skills the good old fashioned way, practice. The things that I knew and wanted to try was still impossible anyway, because of my lack of abilities concerning mana in general. I was still a rookie, a couple of weeks wasn’t enough to make me an expert in any sense of the word.

After a couple of hours of my routine training I finally left the house.

I considered staying alone at the house for a couple of days, but since Eris knew I was going to visit and stay with them I didn’t want them to needlessly worry about me for not showing up.

Going towards the dorm I picked up a bag of meat skewers from a street vendor, it only cost 2silver for thirty of them. I had eaten them with Lyria on our first trip and they had a nice spicy flavor.

When I was getting close to the Cathedral I saw that there was a large congregation of people gathering outside.

Stepping closer to see what’s going on I heard murmurings of saint Joseph visiting the premise, he was supposedly a big shot seeing everyone gathering here.

There was an excited buzz in the air like a rock star was going to step up on the stage.

The crowd kept growing and since I wasn’t exactly comfortable being pushed around so that other people could get a closer spot I started to head out while listening to the people.

“Wow, we get to see Saint Joseph in the flesh.”

“I heard that he is considered as one of the top ten beauties in the kingdom.”

‘Oh my god, this is more like a Japanese idol that lonely guys are drooling for rather than a rock star...’

Having lost my curiosity I was heading out of the crowd.

“I never expected such a big shot would come to the frontier.”

Still picking up a few tidbits here and there I was out of the crowd when they started cheering.

Turning around in curiosity I saw a feminine man standing in a pristine white robe stepping out of the balcony and waving to the people while he was flanked by two old priestesses with elaborate robes.

I can admit that he was like a boy band pretty boy, and probably the best looking guy I had seen in this world. But that wasn’t anything special, putting the whole ordeal out of my mind I left for the monastery.

Walking into the dour building I was greeted by mother Eris.

“It’s good that you showed up, I was getting worried you got snatched up on the way.”

She gave me a jovial smile while nodding towards me.

“Hey Mother Eris, I was just taking my time. I brought snacks for the kids.”

Showing her the bag of skewers, it should be enough for everyone. I saw around twenty girls when I was here the first time.

“Hohoho, you shouldn’t spoil them. They will expect something every time you come to visit like that.”

Smiling at her.

“It’s fine, they looked cute being excited seeing Lyria last time.”

Going outside with my bag I was quickly swarmed by the rascals.

“Pretty big brother.”

“Is Lyri here?”

“What’s that?”

I laughed at their boisterous reaction.

“Relax, I brought snacks. And my name is Alex, remember.”

They ignored the relax part when they found out I brought food, swarming me I had to get help from Eris to put them in order. I insisted they lined up before I would hand out anything.

Afterward Eris showed me to a modest room that I could stay in. When I had dropped off the few things I brought with me she gave me a tour of the place.

The entire building and its facilities were modest and spartan in its functions. There was a small mess hall that could room around forty people, with a simple kitchen in the bacl. They had a classroom with benches lined up for seats. Except for that the building was mostly dorm rooms with bunk beds that held 8 kids per room. And at the back they had an outhouse while a neighboring building at the side was their clinic.

When we entered the clinic it had a medicinal smell, it seemed like it wasn’t just healing magic that they used here.

I greeted Lisandra who was there, she introduced me to their last member. A spindly girl that was walking around with dropped shoulders and long black hair lazily drooped over her head.

“This is Clara, she is our alchemist. She is a little anti-social but when you get to know her she is a sweetheart.”

Lisandra clapped Clara on her shoulder pushing her towards me from the corner she was skulking in.

“Uuuuh, hhhii. I’mmm Cla ra.”

She stammered out while blushing when we came face to face.

“She is a little shy around new people, don’t worry about her.”

Lisandra guffawed while Clara slinked away.

“Nice to meet you Clara.”

I waved towards her while leaving the premise.

This was where I was going to stay for a while.

                                                                                               ***

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The trek towards the cave was mostly uneventful, it took them seven days to get to westridge plateau. While sitting down for a quick break Cassandra could see the logistic part of the team was already setting up a permanent outpost that was only a hundred meters away from the infamous cave.

The guard team was making a parameter, while the other team that was responsible for clearing the surrounding had already left the premise.

They were getting ready for their first foray into the depths. The scouting party that found it was attacked by cave hulks. They were big bipedal beasts that were a mixture of gorillas and ogres. They had the gait and elongated hands of a gorilla but looked more like stretched ogres with less fat on their stomach. Cave hulks variant also liked to dwell in the walls as they made indents in the caves that they snuggled into and while sleeping where complete indistinguishable from the walls with their hard earth like skin. They usually hibernate until they feel tremors trough their skin and ambush whatever intrudes into their domain.

It was an annoying foe to fight in the tight confines of a cave. As they were impossible to detect unless they were active, and they didn’t like to attack until you were in range.

The cave variant wasn’t the biggest of creatures as they became more compact to easier fit into their environment. But what they lacked in size they made up for in toughness and brute strength. And you could never call something that was almost three meters tall small anyway, it was only compared to marsh hulks or forest hulks that could grow up to five or even six meters.

It would still be an easier fight than the ones they had in the endless forest against the kril or reavers as it wasn’t as fast and lacked ranged options, as long as they didn’t get caught off guard that is.

Going over the information in her head Cassandra rallied up the party. Nyla was rearing to go, but both Inara and Lyria had been distracted whenever they stopped for camp.

“I hope I don’t have to remind everyone on what to do and what to expect?”

Inara lazily waved her hand back and forth while unenthusiastically responding.

“Of course not, they are just some lumbering oafs that Nyla has to bait out and then we just chip it down. Easy peasy.”

Looking sternly at Inara Cassandra narrowed her eyes.

“You shouldn’t underestimate hulks, they are still fast and deadly monsters. It’s a reason they are classified as a class three threats like the kril and reaver.”

Shrugging her shoulders Inara lackadaisical attitude grated on her. She was really going lacks since Alex came into their lives. At least Nyla and Lyria were still properly training and taking their responsibility seriously. But Inara had started to daydream and slack around even after she admonished her.

Stepping up to forewoman Gina.

“We are heading into the cave, we will clear and secure a spot for you girls to prospect and mine within midday.”

Gina smiled at Cassandra while nodding.

“Good, I like your no-nonsense attitude. Now get to it.”

Gina was a gruff wide dwarf woman who was even more direct than most dwarfs.

They really didn’t like beating around the bush and were always on point, telling things as they thought them with almost no filter.

They headed for the cave entrance in formation, Nyla was in front with Cassandra right behind and Lyria after her. Inara was holding the back as she shimmered into the background and disappeared.

The cave was spacious with a positive glow of energy flowing through it, it wasn’t hard to see that it contained mana laden treasure inside. It had moss glowing a brownish-orange hue and a few stalactites on the roof filled with bats hanging on them. They didn’t really care so much for them as Cassandra could easily dispatch a weak swarm with an aoe spell.

They had walked in complete silence, it was a slow trudge with Cassandra sending cascading waves of detection spells inwards while Nyla was conspicuously ahead poking the walls periodically. It wouldn’t do them any good rushing this. As a cave hulk with that much earth mana in its vicinity would be sturdier than normal, even having a chance of awakening an ability on top.

Hearing a rumbling ahead a swarm of bats flew towards them.

Cassandra was prepared for this eventuality and quickly cast a firestorm in the air, it wasn’t at its strongest, but for this kind of critters it was more than enough.

Lyria had already cast a weak shield on all of them that would protect them from the billowing heat that rose in the air.

When the firestorm and bat corpses dropped to the ground a boulder launched itself on Nyla, it had stirred the bats with its presences before launching itself at its prey.

This wasn’t unheard of that monsters had instinctively learned to take advantage of their environment, so they weren’t taken flatfooted by its sudden appearance.

Nyla visible grew to almost matching it in height of two and a half meters, but it was still over twice as wide, and probably weighed over two tons. The sheer force of their collision shook the cave, but such a place was severely reinforced by its ambient mana. It would take more than a hulk to actually invoke any sort of collapse or real damage to the cave at this point.

Being forced several meters backward while her shield billowed darkness on the contact point, she didn’t even have the chance to counter-attack as she needed both hands on her shield to keep the monster from overpowering her.

The rest of the crew wasn’t idle Inara appeared behind the hulk and did a flurry of blows to the back of its knees. She had equipped a mace that could bash and impair its movements, it was pointless trying to cut through its hard rock-like skin.

Lyria was enhancing Nyla with all her might, supporting her front-line with as much power as she could.

While Cassandra herself was building up a sun lance that could penetrate the prodigious defense a cave hulk sported. It wouldn’t be as quick and easy as downing a kril.

The monster bellowed a thunderous roar that sounded like grating rocks it shook their bodies to the core, it had a special quality to it that scraped their ears and blew out their hearing.

Lyria who had the weakest body even had blood seeping from her ears while she cast a healing spell on all of them.

Cassandra was just about ready to launch her spell, but she couldn’t call out for Nyla and Inara to move away. She kicked a rock at Nylas back who quickly got the memo and disengaged from the fight, the hulk turned towards the pesky fly the was constantly barraging all its joints. But Inara would never stay in front of her foes and made like the wind as soon as she was its main focus.

Unleashing her full force on the beast the light was even more intense inside the enclosed space, the rocky ground close to its feet was bubbling and close to going molten.

The monster was still standing it had a gaping hole in its chest, but it still stood and radiated pure killing intent while pure hatred suffused its eyes. It roared while rushing towards Cassandra, Nyla slammed into the hulk from the side crashing it into the wall.

The hulking monster had problems standing up after all the damage it sustained, and it didn’t get up when Inara plunged her sword into the open wound that left its entrails exposed.

If this was the level of monsters in the cave, it might take them longer than planned to clear everything out. It had actually gained a concussive roar that could affect them through their mana enforced bodies.

“Good job, start harvesting the hulk while I and Nyla make sure nothing untoward comes our way.”

Wiping her head of sweat Inara exhaled.

“This was a big girl, it was sturdier than I thought. Good thing we have you.”

Smiling towards Cassandra she casually went towards the monster.

“Don’t relax yet. We still haven’t gotten to an earth crystal deposit, and we still need to secure a space for the workers within four hours.”

This day was far from over.