Might as Well

The woman fidgeted a little, then straightened and went into a shallow bow.

“Thank you for saving me!”

“No problem…” Sam said, waving it away. “What did they want with you?”

Again the knight began to fidget, turning her head every way to avoid looking at Sam. Finally, after several seconds of uncomfortable waiting, she spat out an answer.

“I don’t know… I was just doing my quest when they found me and announced that they wanted to play with me…” she explained with her head hung low. “I tried to fight back, but one of them used an artifact and sealed my mana completely. And after that…” she finished the explanation helplessly, shrugging her shoulders.

“So, you didn’t know them from before?” Sam asked, still a little suspicious about the circumstances.

“No? I don’t keep the company of such men!” the answer was so indignant and sincere that Sam felt bad even asking about it. Thus, for now, he shelved the idea that they were here for more than the occasional mischief and changed the topic.

“How long ago did they start?”

“Why?”

“Just to know how long the curse will last.”

“Ohh… Around half an hour, I think. Wasn’t keeping track.” She answered thoughtfully. “How long does it even last?”

“An hour on players,” answered Sam matter-of-factly. Thankfully, he was covered, as he had made sure to do a round at the mercenary bounty station and take a leaflet that explained everything. “Anyway, what was your quest?”

The knight looked up from her menu screens and stared at Sam. He couldn’t tell with what emotion as the full plate helmet obscured everything. Finally, she spoke after a few seconds of scrutinizing Sam.

“I need to collect samples of the soil and rock of the cavern here. They want to test it to see if it is worthwhile to expand here.”

“Mining Guild, right?”

“Mhm,” she hummed in answer.

Sam turned towards the gaping hole in the side of the mountain and thought about it. He had to head deeper than usual and while Lucky was an excellent partner, having another human with him would be probably helpful. Plus, it wasn’t like he could talk with Lucky about the latest news…

Turning back to the knight that seemed to have taken her sword and was doing maintenance on it, he spoke up.

“How about we go as a party?”

The knight’s head immediately snapped up from the whetstone and oil rag upon hearing his question.

“What?”

Sam chuckled a little, then started explaining.

“I need to get something from the caverns, you also need something from them. It would be faster and much more efficient if we went in together. Safety in numbers and all that jazz…”

The knight stared at him for an entire minute before nodding hesitantly.

“Alright,” she fell silent then after another second she spoke up again. “Is it alright, though? My mana is sealed and you’re much stronger than me. Do you even need my help?”

Sam considered the woman for a second before replying.

“On the higher levels? Not at all. Deeper in? More than likely… As for your sealed mana, by the time we reach an area where you would need it, the curse would have run its course,” he said honestly.

The knight nodded, seemingly relieved.

“Then okay. Let’s party!”

Instantly, a notification screen appeared in front of him, the game system seemingly accepting the previous exclamation as a proper invitation.

[KittenKnight is inviting you to her party! Do you wish to accept?]

Sam accepted the request, outwardly giving a calming look while inwardly freaking out for multiple reasons.

One of them was that while he sought out Lucy, he didn’t mean to look for the woman in front of him. Yet, this was the second woman with a troubled future he had happened upon.

Despite having the cutesy name of KittenKnight, she was a famous berserker in the future. She was well known for recklessly charging into throngs of enemies and destroying them with her greatsword. As well as being an excellent secondary tank. She was also abrasive, crude, and all-around mean to everyone.

Compared to the shy and anxious girl in front of Sam, the mental image was a stark contrast. He didn’t know what happened to her, but seeing as he was here, Sam hoped he would be able to figure out what happened and help her. If she needed help. ‘Maybe it’s like a split personality?’

Coming out of his thoughts, he saw that his newest friend was looking at him with a tilted head.

He cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Um, sorry. What did you say?”

“Should we go in?” she asked softly.

Sam nodded. “Yes,” he answered and began to walk toward the cave entrance. “Until the seal wears off, I’ll go first while you watch my back.”

“Understood.”

He said nothing more and continued into the cave with the knight following quickly behind him, her greatsword ready to strike.

The cave system was nothing special. At least in the beginning.

It had all the usual things caves have. Rocks on the ground, on the walls, and on the ceiling. Stalactites and stalagmites dotting the environment, hiding all sorts of flora and fauna. Which meant, at first, moss and a few flowers and smaller shrubs that preferred the darker environments. However, as they walked deeper, the moss was accompanied by mushrooms. Thankfully, some of the moss glowed so they could see. Plus, with Sam’s Mana Sense, nothing could really surprise them.

And a lot of things tried it.

It was mostly all kinds of bats, from the mouse-sized ones flying in giant groups to the raccoon-sized monstrosities that caused the knight accompanying to cry out in surprise and to begin windmilling with her sword until the monster fell to the ground in pieces.

There was also an enterprising bear that had made the cave system its home and upon the knight’s and Sam’s intrusion decided to come out to greet them. Sam simply took care of it and then made sure to harvest the pelt of the monster carefully. An intact pelt of a big monster like a cave bear fetched a rather good price.

As Sam was working with the carcass, knife in his hand, he looked up at the knight who was standing guard, gripping her greatsword tightly.

“How long for the seal?”

She jumped a little as Sam spoke up, but then answered, her voice still soft and a little uncertain.

“I think a few minutes… Why doesn’t it have a debuff timer?” she asked, exasperated.

Sam just shrugged. “Probably, because it’s not a real debuff but an artifact effect. Plus, usually, it’s used on people that have a bounty on their head.”

“Ugh…” came the response from the girl and Sam just shook his head and returned his focus to the pelt that he was separating from the monster.

The game was merciless, with buffs and debuffs. If you didn’t have the appropriate skill to know what spells were cast on you, like Mana Sense, then you could only depend on your memory.

And it seemed she was right.

They were in the middle of a small cavern, just finished with a small group of naked mole rats the size of Dobermans that seemed intent on devouring their flesh, when Sam sensed the mana in her body begin to bubble then after a few seconds of struggling, erupt like a geyser.

“Ohh, it’s back…” was the only thing she said while opening her menu and seemingly checking up on something.

While waiting for her to make sure everything was alright, Sam simply walked around and looked for any worthwhile drops. Sadly, the monsters were low-leveled enough that they barely gave him any experience points, not to mention loot.

Finally, she spoke up.

“Everything is alright, Solar. We can continue!” her voice this time was more confident. And with the same gusto, she unsheathed her greatsword that began to shine with ethereal yellow light, and strode forward, heading for the exit from the small cavern.

Sam just shook his head with a small smile and followed her while calling out.

“Do you know where to go?”

The corridor in front of him remained suspiciously silent, but when he caught up with the girl, she was standing there, staring at the ceiling and trying to whistle.

Gathering the samples for the knight was relatively easy. They gathered at the entrance of the cave system and then took another sample every fifteen minutes of walking. Or where Sam sensed something with his Mana Sense.

Sam’s newest friend didn’t have a set area she would need to take the samples from, so they were headed in the direction of his objective while collecting said samples.

And as they headed deeper the monsters became more aggressive and for lack of a better word, weird.

The bats were either mutated, with an extra set of wings, or giant maws filled with razor-sharp fangs. They even saw one that had an extra long tail with a sharp bone tip at the end, dripping something that seemed to sizzle as it touched the ground.

The naked mole rat-like monsters however just grew bigger and bigger.

As they stood around in the latest small cavern where they were besieged by the monster, breathing a little harder after the battle, the knight spoke up as she began to kick around the corpses, looking for loot.

“What’s up with these monsters? They are getting ridiculous…” Since regaining the use of her mana, it seemed, her confidence also returned. While she was still soft-spoken, there was almost no hesitation or uncertainty in her voice. Though, she still hadn't revealed her face to Sam.

Sam had to agree as the aggressiveness of the monsters surprised even him. Unfortunately, his knowledge about this area only contained the fact that several monsters of shadow and spirit could be found on the lower levels of the cave system. His inherited memories contained nothing of overly aggressive cave-dwelling monsters.

He just shrugged.

“Probably a bigger monster scaring them away. Or overpopulation…”

There was a moment as the knight bent down to pick up something. She turned over the item in her hand and then threw it away negligently.

“Let me guess. We are heading directly in that direction?” she asked dryly. Sam had the uncomfortable feeling that she was giving him a look.

Sam coughed into his fist, then pointed toward one of the corridors leading from the cavern that was the site of their latest battle. “Let’s go that way!” And with big strides began to head out, followed by a silently chuckling knight in an armor that was no longer as shiny as before they entered the caverns.

Reaching the entrance of the lower levels was straightforward. Sam just had to follow the mana in the air with his Mana Sense. Seeing as something deep down was radiating mana that flew through the caverns like some kind of river made of mana it was basically child’s play to him. To the others who didn’t have his skill level or a proper map finding it would be exceedingly difficult. After all how to find a hole covered in shadows in the darkness of a cave?

Standing before the gaping hole covered by flickering shadows, however, was quite different.

“Are you sure you want to go in there?” his new friend asked, staring dubiously at the hole in the wall.

Sam just shrugged.

“Your quest is complete, you can go back if you want. I’m pretty sure we killed most of the monster population…”

“No!” she exclaimed vehemently, causing Sam to turn to her. “You helped me out, so I’ll also help you out. My honor demands it!”

That caused Sam to chuckle a little.

“Didn’t know you were a roleplayer…”

Seeing as the knight was looking everywhere but him, he shook his head in good humor and boldly stepped forward.

The lower levels were similar to the previous cave system with the difference being that there was no fluorescent moss to provide lighting, thus Sam had to summon his trusty Light Ball, and the walls were wreathed in some kind of shadows that seemed to reach out to them but were seemingly unable to leave the wall. To him, it seemed that the entire corridor was undulating as the shadows rose, tried to reach out to the two of them, then fell back to the wall, almost as if exhausted.

It was beyond creepy.

“This is so creepy…” voiced the same thought of his knight friend as she made sure to walk close to Sam.

Sam just nodded, his focus on his Mana Sense trying to make sure that they weren’t ambushed in the uncomfortably narrow corridor. ‘Though, at least I can say that finding shadow-natured monsters was a success… Now to also survive it…’

Thankfully, they soon reached the end of the corridor and it widened into a cavern big enough that several elephants could have lived there comfortably. If they were cave-dwelling animals, that is.

And what a cavern it was.

Stalagmites and stalactites dotted the landscape with the elevation changing around as if they were out under the sun and watching rolling hills.

And that’s where the comparisons to the average caves stopped.

The stalagmites were made of dripping shadows, while the stalactites were composed of some kind of crystal that seemed to drink in the minimal light his spell was giving off.

Between the rock formations were fluorescent bushes and moss (and other flora that Sam had no name for), but instead of the calm blue that they were used to, they shone with sickly yellow.

And in the clearing in front of them, was a monster looking at them in surprise.

It was on all fours, with its forelegs a little longer than the hind legs, which ended in claws that seemed to drip some kind of yellow liquid. Their body was extremely white, more than likely due to the lack of sunlight, and it was filled with veins that pulsed as they transported the creature’s black blood.

Its eyes were deep red, almost black, shining with minimal inner light as they tried to comprehend Sam and the knight nervously gripping her greatsword behind him.

Then the stalemate was broken, and the monster opened its mouth and let out a screech that echoed off the walls, causing Sam to reinforce his Mana Shield to stop the ringing in his ears. The moment it stopped screeching, with his maw still open, dripping the same yellow liquid as his claws launched itself at them.

The knight instantly stepped forward and swung her sword, not even giving Sam the chance to use any magic and cut the attacking monster down.

They stared at the corpse for a moment, but then both of their heads snapped up as the screech returned, however, this time from multiple sources.

Looking around, Sam could see countless dark red eyes staring at them from beyond the limit of his light source with a hungry gaze.

He shared a look with the knight and unsheathed Moonlight.

It was time to fight…