He saw he’d gained a level at some point. Perhaps it was after the battle with the dwarves, or maybe after he finished the quest in the Slime Village. He was starting to get a handle on what each stat did.

Strength seemed to boost his physical capacity, including his damage dealt with melee weapons.

Dexterity helped him with things like moving quietly and quickly, dodging, and it seemed to have something to do with his hand-eye coordination - So it was useful for shooting.

Intelligence seemed to affect his ability to understand things, and his ability to process things quickly. It seemed that the higher his intelligence got, the more quickly he could make decisions in battle.

His Endurance stat seemed to directly correlate to his ability to take hits, and his health. He thought of it as his armor.

Lastly, his Willpower stat… He wasn’t really sure what that did. It seemed to be related to his cultivation, but he was sure there was another use for it.

All in all, he wasn’t unhappy with his strength at this point, but he didn’t feel prepared to handle an invasion the likes of which Reric described. He would have to put his trust in his party to see him through the upcoming exploration.

“Alright, then… Let’s make any preparations we may need and move on. We don’t know how long these invaders have been here, but based on the lack of corpses, we may not be too late to save your miners.”

They moved ahead without much fanfare. At the junction between the Adamantium and Mithril deposits, they decided to go to the left first - The Adamantium deposits. They'd been walking down the path for about ten minutes, their footsteps echoing loudly in the empty mine, when the shaft suddenly opened up into a large cavern.

The cavern was lit up by more of those glyph columns, but it was massive compared to the mine-shaft. This place seemed to be natural, with two sloping paths that hugged the wall splitting off and descending. In the middle of the cavern seemed to be a large lake. The walls weren't maintained here like they had been in the tunnel down, with moss and lichen growing along walls that glistened with signs of moisture.

Periodically, glowing green lines could be seen zigging and zagging throughout the walls themselves. He wasn’t sure, but they seemed to glow and pulse in a rhythm, as if energy was running through them from the bottom of the cave up to the top.

The party was descending on the path when they heard the sounds of a commotion coming from the passageway they were approaching. Saul held up a fist, giving the sign for everyone to stop advancing while he waited to see what was coming. As the quietest member of the group, Saul crept forward, his steps soft as feathers and hardly audible even to his own ears. He leaned back away from the edge of the walkway, minimizing his profile as he looked to see what approached.

Two dwarves, stockier than the others Saul had seen, were approaching the lake. The dwarves were dressed in armor and had fierce looking weapons strapped to their backs. They were dragging another dwarf between them, this one was shoddily dressed in comparison and didn’t have the look of a warrior. His feet were held tightly together, a heavy iron chain wrapped around them glinting in the dim light. There was a large rock tied to the other end of the chain that was dragged along the ground, a loud scraping sound echoing in the cavern.

From his vantage point, Saul could see the dwarf struggling against his captors, but his hands were bound and he was muffled. He didn’t have a fighting chance. Saul continued to creep forward, finding himself within shooting range of the dwarves. Basi slunk along beside him, quietly. ‘Advance as close as you can. If I shoot at one of them, I want you to attack the other.’ He told his lizard through their bond. Basi melded with the shadows and moved forward, hugging the curvature of the wall closely.

He reached over his shoulder and drew an arrow from his quiver, slowly enough to avoid making any noise. His fingers placed the back of the arrow against the bow string, as easily as if he’d been doing it his entire life. ‘I don’t remember being that smooth. Must be my higher archery level and dexterity.’

Saul knelt on the ground, feeling the cool earth below him as he drew in a deep breath. ‘I don’t want to kill anyone if I can avoid it…’ He’d go for a disabling shot in that case. He drew in a deep breath. His eyes locked on the closer Darkforge dwarf’s knee, and he took careful aim. When he saw the dwarves approaching the underground lake with their captive in hand, their intent became clear. 

‘I can’t let them drown that poor dwarf… Okay then.’ He drew back on the bowstring and filled his chest with air. His target in sight, he released the bowstring, a soft ‘thrum’ sounding by his ear as his arrow flew true. He grabbed another and had it nocked and ready to go, aiming for the other knee. Drawing back once more, he released his arrow. They soared through the air, and suddenly an arrow sprouted from the dwarf’s right knee. While he was still throwing his hands up in surprise, a second arrow sprouted from his body, this one in his left. His health bar appeared overhead and dropped significantly, reduced to less than a fifth of its normal value. It read: Darkforge Dwarf, Lvl 4.

The other dwarf let the captive go, reaching back to pull his weapon free. The dwarf was halted by a large crimson blur that suddenly bowled into him, crashing to the ground loudly. Basi’s jaws found purchase on his wrist, snapping the bone on his dominant hand. A health bar appeared overhead and dropped to about 60%. To the dwarf’s credit, he lashed out at Basi with a punch from his other hand, but it didn’t have much effect on Basi.

Saul called down to the dwarves, “Hold still and we can take you captive. There’s no need for anyone to get hurt any further.” Guided by his fingers and some mysterious force, another arrow found its position against the bow string as he watched the dwarf for signs of surrender. When he called out for support rather than surrendering, Saul cursed. Taking careful aim, he let another arrow fly where it blossomed from his knee, taking him out of the fight. 

‘Basi, get back up here!’ He commanded mentally. To Liza and Reric he said, “We need to free that captive in case reinforcements are coming!” Liza surged forward to do just that. She used her sword to cleave through the chains which separated easily before her superior might. “Run!” She shouted to the captive, then she followed him up the ramp. 

From in the hallway, they could hear the thunderous footsteps of more Darkforge dwarves coming to the aid of their allies. From the number of thuds that emerged, Saul guessed their contingent to be somewhere in the 20-30 strong range. He didn’t like those odds. 

The width of the ramp could prove to be an asset for them here. It wasn’t wide enough for three people to walk side by side comfortably, which meant it would limit the number of dwarves that could face them at once. “Liza, take point! Reric, help keep her clean! Basi will move in to assist when he can. Edwin, rain destruction down on them!” 

He prepared another shot, his whole body tight as he waited for enemies to emerge from the passageway. The groans and cries of the injured darkforge dwarves caused him some distress, but he suppressed those emotions for the time being. The first of the dwarves stepped forth from the passage with features illuminated by the pale light of the magical columns, a large axe in his hands. He moved to his fallen companions. There was disdain written across his face barely visible to Saul in the dim light. Soft words seemed to be spoken between the two of them, too faint for Saul to make out, and the dwarf turned and looked up the ramp with a gauntleted hand pointing in his party’s direction. 

His heart was pounding in his chest as those boots grew louder and louder, until more dwarves began to pour forth from the mouth of the passageway, almost like ants in response to their colony being kicked. Saul counted at least twenty of them as they formed up. ‘Can’t give them too much time to get ready…’ “Edwin, hit them while they’re bunched up.” He whispered softly. He began to focus his energy into the arrow, willing more and more of it into the sharp point. He drew back on his string, his heart thundering in his ears as he prepared to fire. He took aim at the one that had pointed them out, the one that seemed to be some sort of commander. “I’m sorry…” He whispered to himself, then released.

His arrow flew true and when it landed it seemed to grow from the leader’s forehead, a small red trickle of blood invisible to Saul in the night. His health bar vanished and he dropped to the ground, dead. 

That was when all hell broke loose. In the middle of the darkforge contingent, the ground seemed to swell in anger, and suddenly exploded outward. Rocks crashed into the dwarves with several of them flung in all directions from the force. A few unlucky dwarves landed in the lake, their heavy armor doing them no favors and dragging them to a watery grave. ‘Jesus Christ, Edwin!’ Saul fired at one of the dwarves that seemed least affected, the shot taking him in the neck and erasing what health he had remaining. Saul looked back at the wizard as he grabbed another arrow and saw that the man was panting, the effort having been considerable. 

“I’ve got a few tricks left, but that was almost all I could do for now.” He said in answer to the question in Saul’s eyes. He gave the man a nod and turned to pick his next target. 

The darkforge dwarves were professional soldiers, and they’d reformed quickly after the attack. The group that hadn’t been overly affected by the spell were charging up the ramp now, and Liza had her sword ready to greet them. The huge weapon gleamed menacingly, and as the first dwarf got into range she swung hard enough to cleave through his neck entirely, blood painting the wall as his head tumbled free. The new corpse fell to the ground, slowing the other dwarf’s progress and giving Liza enough time to deal another fatal blow to the next closest dwarf. 

By Saul’s guess, there were about fifteen on the ramp. He could see several more at the base, reforming a second offensive group, and he could see a number of corpses there. “Edwin, do what you can to finish off the ones who are still stunned!” He scanned the field, picking targets that seemed like the greatest threat. One dwarf had his axe pulled back menacingly and was within range of Liza. Saul’s arrow took him in the head, knocking his health near enough to 0. Basi surged forward to finish that one off, his sharp claws making short work of the man. 

A small pile of bodies was building near Liza but her efforts to keep the dwarves back were beginning to fail - There were probably ten dwarves left on the ramp, and all of them were close enough to form a sort of half circle around her. Sharp axes had been neglected in favor of large war hammers, the dwarve swinging frequently enough at her to put her on the defensive. 

Beyond them, Saul could see small beams of energy landing against those few dazed dwarves that sent them to whatever god they worshiped.

He continued to fire away with his bowstring singing an aggressive song, but before long all the targets were too close to Liza and Reric for him to risk it. He could see Liza was beginning to struggle with the dwarves, every now and again she got in a good counter hit that reduced their numbers, but trying to fend off nine war hammers was too much. 

Their blows were starting to land against her armor, and her health bar was starting to drop. Reric did what he could to help fight. It was obvious that he was more focused on keeping her health full than fighting, swinging his large hammer to catch one of them in a weak spot when he saw an opening. He willed his bow to vanish and withdrew his sword and dagger. ‘I have to help her or she’ll die…’ Saul flowed down the ramp like an avalanche, stabbing forward with his sword and taking a distracted dwarf through the neck. 

Suddenly, there were eight enemies. Four of them focused on him, three on Liza, and one seemed to be doing battle with Basi if the feedback from the bond was any indication.

The dwarf closest to him swung that heavy hammer at his head and Saul ducked below it while lashing out with his sword. Another of the darkforge dwarves seemed ready for that, and used his own hammer to knock the sword down. That was going to be a problem. Saul was knocked somewhat off balance by that move, so he went with his momentum, rolling forward and barreling into the dwarf that had swung at him in the first place. The dwarf was knocked off of the ramp into the water, taking care of him. 

Saul came up and spun to face the other three just in time, another hammer crashing down at him from close enough that he’d have no chance of dodging. He raised his sword and dagger together in a crossed fashion, grunting as he tried to absorb the blow. His body quivered and his muscles screamed as he tried to stop the hammer’s momentum. It blew through his defense, but he’d done enough to slow it down and weaken it. He ducked forward and let the blow catch him in the back. 

The blow drove him to the ground with enough force that he lost his wind. Stars seemed to explode behind his eyes, his health bar reducing substantially. ‘Move… Move… MOVE!’ His body screamed. He rolled to the right just in time to avoid getting his skull crushed. 

The dwarves could smell blood in the water as he pushed himself to his feet, his weapons held shakily in front of him, his body still reeling from the effects of that massive blow. Saul needed time to recover. Another blow was coming from his left. He stepped back, just out of range of it. Another swing came at him from the right, this swing an arc that seemed too wide. He ducked low, then rolled to the left to evade a swing that came at him vertically. ‘My legs don’t feel like jelly any more… I guess I can try to fight back now.’ 

When the dwarf on his left swung that mighty hammer at him, he was ready this time. From his lower position, he was able to duck below the strike. As soon as he finished sinking down into a crouch he exploded forward, his dagger leading the way. He punched forward with the pommel of the weapon, pain exploding in his hand as his fist met what felt like a steel chin. He shook it off and followed quickly with a slash from his sword, the weapon sliding across the dwarf’s head closely enough to remove his ear. His health bar appeared overhead and reflected this damage by reducing by about a fifth.

The other dwarves tried to take advantage of his distraction, but Saul dodged their attacks and darted forward to reclaim the high ground. He saw an opportunity ahead and took it, cocking his arm back and bringing it forward lighting fast. His dagger left his fingertips, slicing through the air and burying itself in the back of a dwarf’s head. Now Liza just had one foe remaining. 

Saul turned to face his own foes, his short sword looking woefully inadequate to handle their war hammers. The one he’d given free plastic surgery to was turning his way as well, leaving him alone against three angry Darkforge soldiers. ‘Basi, help!’ He called mentally, nudging the lizard at the one he’d injured. 

To his satisfaction, Basi bowled into the soldier, all fury and teeth and claws, and the dwarf’s health bar declined rapidly as a result. ‘Then there were two…’ Saul took a sideways stance, watching the dwarves warily as they approached. The sound of a gurgling cry from beside him let him know he wasn’t alone any longer, and a smile threatened to pull the corners of his lips up. ‘Just in time!’ Liza flashed by him, her mighty sword brought to bear on one of the dwarves. Saul used the momentary distraction to charge the other dwarf. After just a few short moments, the cavern fell silent as the last of their enemies were defeated.

Saul collapsed to the ground, his chest heaving as he tried to get his breath. ‘That was exhausting! I got lucky a few times there…’ The thought was a somber one. He looked around the room, littered with corpses… There had to have been over thirty dwarves. That was thirty dwarves that would no longer laugh, no longer sing, no longer get home to their families… 

He felt sick. Breath was coming in short supply, panic setting in as he realized that death was a very real thing here. He had been thinking of these creatures as NPCs in a video game, but they were living, thinking, breathing beings… ‘At least as far as I know…’ Sure, they were the bad guys, but… Still. 

Liza seemed to sense his distress. She laid a hand on his shoulder, her presence calming as her voice reached his ears, “There was nothing to be done. These dwarves are vicious killers, and we saved someone’s life. There are many more people to be saved, hopefully.” He looked up into her eyes and saw her resolve shining clear as day. Her eyes could be surprisingly kind when she wasn't scowling at him. He nodded, ‘She’s right.’

Suddenly, his vision began to flash with updates: