Maeva Coldin has been exploring these caves for many moons. She wasn''t lost. She was a scout for hire. Her entire career has been centered around spying on others, scouting difficult places for other teams, or creating a map for small parties or businesses. She loved this work; she loved that she was her own boss. No one was going to tell her what to do anymore. She had done the whole party thing before, which was not her style. Her leader was a jerk, always sticking her nose up at everyone as if she was better than them just cause her parents were dukes of a small provincial town.


    Maeva Coldin was a petite woman. She has a round face with sharp eyes. Her hair was short-cropped about shoulder length. It was wavy and earthly brown mixed with some blonde. She had dark tan skin and hazel eyes. If Ob had seen her, he would say she looked like a gymnast, with short, big legs, a strong core, and arms. She was fast and great at hiding.


    She had finally completed her mission, and she would be paid well for it. A silver-tier party wanted the Tornoc caves scouted out before their raid. There were rumors of legendary loot coming from adamantium-tier monsters, and this made the cave worth it. They wanted a map so they could escape quickly if they failed to conquer the monster.


    Job complete; she was expecting to meet the team in the small town; it was so small that it didn''t even have a name. "Ugh, what a drab; these small towns are unbearable sometimes," She thought to herself, her voice soft and raspy with a hint of constant sass. "I''ll stay one night until the team is off to Andohull first thing. I cannot stay around here for too long."


    <hr>


    KNOCK


    KNOCK


    KNOCK


    Three knocks woke Ob up from his deep sleep; he didn''t have a dream. First time since waking up here a week ago. Ob spent all last night meditating and training his aura/soul. He felt a different connection to the world as he had begun feeling the magic course through his body. He concluded he liked how the aura made him feel.


    Vincent, growing tired of Ob''s delay, burst through the door, "Come on, Ob, we''re off to train, we have to head to that cave, it''s time you learned!" He was pretty excited to be training; he had wanted to train with Ob since the day they met him. He wanted to figure out how this guy ticked and if he had a work ethic. "Were you training last night?"


    Ob rolled out of his bed on the floor and put some clothes on. While putting on his clothes, he responded, "Yeah, aura and soul, kind of. I was getting the basic understanding of the two."


    "Does Your world not have aura or souls?"


    "Well, not sure, we have people who claim they can read auras but really are just lying. And souls are harder to prove without magic."


    "Did you believe in a soul? Before here?" Vincent asked with the same excitement as Abigail.


    "Well, yes and no. Souls aren''t tangible in that world; it is something felt with a deep inherent understanding of you and your interests or beliefs." Ob responded by putting on his boots. The two men continued their conversation in the central area of their inn suite; Abigail joined them as Ob spoke some more, "Back there, a soul is something you feel but not enough to experience. For instance, when you do something that you really like, eating ice cream, watching a movie, or hanging with a loved one, you feel much more…" he paused, searching for the right word, "I don''t know, you just have this feeling of being very content, and people say, my soul is full."


    "What is ice.. cream…? Or a movie?" Abigail asked with bewilderment.


    Saddened by the prospect of no ice cream, he dismissed that question, "Never having ice cream is criminal! Nevermind that, that is something we''ll have to discuss later. My point is, souls are just feelings, but we can''t prove that they are real." Ob felt something prick his senses, but he let that sit for a bit.


    "But, is it not real if you feel it?" Abigail questioned with a hint of passion in her voice, "I may not be able to prove my feelings for pain, but I know I feel them. If I am grieving over the death of a loved one, I cannot prove that I am in pain, I am simply, in pain. So should not that feeling be enough to prove souls are real"


    Ob chuckled; he liked seeing how passionate Abigail got. "You make a convincing argument there," Ob conceited.


    "My my, what a chatty bunch you all are," a soft and raspy voice said from the shadows of the cave. "Been watchin'' y''all for some time and yet. None of you reacted to my presence.. not very aware are we?" That last bit was full of sarcasm and sass.


    Vincent, the team''s scout, turned red. He wasn''t even talking, and he didn''t notice this person. How was he meant to be the scout if he couldn''t even sense this person? As if his friends had read his mind, Abigail touched him with a calming, reassuring touch, and Ob said, "Don''t worry about it, Vincent. She is a high-level scout." Louder to the woman, he said, "Nah, I sensed you; you just didn''t pose a threat to the three of us. You are good, though."


    At that remark, the woman crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. She did not believe this man sensed her presence; she was too good at her job to be sensed. "Yeah, whatever you say, pretty boy," She said, staring back at Ob, "My y''all are all pretty cute. Anyways, there is a party coming here in two days'' time, so if you''re going to be exploring the cave, better be quick with it." Before she even heard a response, she stepped into the light and walked past them.


    "Thanks," Ob said, getting a good look at the woman who had walked past. She was short and built. Turning to Abigail, Ob asked, "Hey, is everyone here just attractive, or is that a magic thing?"


    Abigail raised an eyebrow, turning to see the woman, "she definitely heard you say that.” Ob shrugged, smiled and wiggled his eyebrows back at Abigail. She rolled her eyes and continued,” Magic helps yes. The more you level up the more powerful you get, this plays to the perception. If you are a friendly person you will give off the perception of being more attractive, if you are an enemy you will give off the perception of being more dangerous. Imagine it similar to a person being more attractive the more confidence they have."


    "Yeah that makes sense, so it''s not a physical thing, it is a perceptual thing?" Ob responded with a nod.


    "Just as you say. However, people are still attractive without that perception, they just look even more attractive."


    "Ahh, like you," Ob said absentmindedly, not knowing he had said it out loud. Abigail''s face turned red slightly, and Vincent stopped in his tracks. "What?! I have eyes; you did good, Vincent."


    Vincent chuckled at that, "I did, didn''t I!" he said proudly, grabbing his girlfriend''s hip and kissing her cheek. Abigail, getting tired of the limelight and talks about her beauty, changed the conversation, "That woman said we have a couple of days before a crusader party is coming. Let''s get to it."


    The training was different from what Ob expected. They used their powers, but not entirely; it was a mixture of sparring - hand-to-hand and weapon-to-weapon combat. They did push-ups, they did sit-ups, they stretched. Ob thought to himself that this was just like the training he did at home, and he loved it. He excelled in all the bodyweight exercises; this was his bread and butter, and this is what he did for a living workout. The couple looked on at Ob with wonderment; he thrived in training. It didn''t even seem like it phased him the things they had to do. He pushed himself harder than both of them and had this mindset that he could do one more rep every single time.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    After the physical training, they all found a place where they could practice their magic. Vincent was excited; it was time for him to showcase his skills. Abigail explained how they could gain levels by successful hits; this meant that it was hard to level up on each other. That was not the point of training, she said firmly; it was to get used to each other''s powers. To see how the party could be cohesive and thrive.


    "Ob, you deal heavy damage with your dragon''s breath. Vincent does great damage from a distance." Abigail started, "We had a great strategy when we were fighting the succubus party; it was natural. I felt like our timing went well. We struggled, though, when it came to the succubus transforming to that thing, and Ob couldn''t get close for physical attacks."


    "Speaking of your physical attacks," Vincent interrupted, "they aren''t physical are they? Your kicks and punches?"


    "No, they are not," Abigail retorted, "they are spiritual; they are soul attacks manifested in the physical reality."


    "That''s right, honestly not sure how or why, but that is how I killed that wraith, VON said that I would only be able to kill a wraith with a soul attack" Ob responded.


    "Anyways, you couldn''t get close," Abigail said, bringing the conversation back on topic, "you have two new modes of attack, your new skill and your scythe. I want you to spend an hour learning how to use both of those effectively. Vincent and I will work on our attack and defense styles. I did not get to use my new toxic pulse, and I want to figure out how we can add that into our combos."


    Ob nodded and left the couple. "Hey, VON, can you make many small foxes? I want to see if I can use that to practice the feelings?"


    Three silver foxes appeared around Ob, and they started to sprint in a circle.


    "Nice!" Ob said with determination painting his face; he pulled out Hades and got into a fighting stance. Without a moment''s notice, he launched at the circle of sprint foxes; one of the foxes dodged to the left of Ob, and Ob turned to the right and slashed backward to get the fox next to his left. He missed; trickery did not work. Ob took a deep breath and felt a warmth surge in his hands like he was holding a light bulb that was turned on. He felt the passage of manna enter his hands, and through the staff of Hades, with a long diagonal slash, he released a slash of light towards the fox; the fox looked to dodge, but it had nowhere to escape. The slash hit the fox, and it impacted with a boom. The fox vanished into silver smoke. "One down."


    The next fox was following him heel to toe. Ob thought it didn''t want to suffer the same fate as the other fox, and using his aura, he released some aura from his heel. He felt it connect with the fox, and he quickly turned and kicked. He missed, and the fox jumped over his leg. The fox lunged at Ob and bared his teeth towards his neck; Ob dodged, swinging his weapon towards the fox. That one strike connected with that silver fox; it sent the silver fox flying into the roof of the cave and exploded into silver smoke. "One more left"


    Ob started searching for that final fox, but he couldn''t see it. That made him nervous. The fox was stalking him, hiding. Ob used his cloak and jumped into a shadow, using his senses to search for the fox. He found it as he began to reappear out of the shadow. He felt his ribs get impacted with the butt of a hammer. It sent him flying across the coarse rocky ground on his other side. He looked up to see a giant creature. It was about 11 feet tall, with a body made of solid rock, with yellow eyes and sapphire lines throughout it.


    "Damn, ouch" he looked down to see blood trickling out of his side. He got up to look at the giant golem; it was swinging a hammer in its hands.


    Objective: Survive


    You have been attacked by a minor sapphire golem. Defeat it and receive a reward. Hidden Bonus award available.


    "Damn, a minor sapphire golem... That''s minor?" The golem swung its hammer again towards Ob''s head. Ob ducked and swung Hades towards the golem. As he swung the scythe, he felt that light feeling in his hands again, and as he swung, he focused the feeling on flowing through his hand and onto the staff of the scythe, then through to the blades, which sent a light bolt towards the golem''s legs. It connected, and a small boom erupted, and a minor crack formed at the golem''s right leg. "Damn," Ob swore to himself; that attack barely did any damage. The golem walked towards Ob and slammed the hammer into the ground; the ground erupted in blue crystals charging into Ob; he dodged narrowly, almost getting struck. Ob jumped into a shadow to reappear and swing his weapon; he slashed at the golem''s hammer arm. Small cracks of blue started to form in the arm of the golem. Ob jumped into the shadows again and went for the same hammer arm; again, small cracks were growing little by little.


    The golem, getting more and more agitated, started being more aggressive with its attacks. This time, the golem swung up and struck the ceiling while also striking the ground; blue crystals shot out of the roof and the floor, trapping Ob in a cage of sapphire. The golem slowly approached, the blue cracks starting to shrink as it was healing itself. Hammer in hand, the golem readied another blow; as it swung on the cage, Ob jumped into shadows, this was the first time he had been into the shadow realm since the skill progressed. The realm was a misty deep gray, it looked like the world but grayed out and cloudy. He could still sense, unlike the first time, pre-bronze tier, he could make out vague shapes and move smoother. The golem’s powerful swing, struck down destroying the cage but also following through, altering his swing rotation to land behind itself, expecting Ob to reappear there. He did not. Ob reappeared in the newly smashed cage. Now free from his cage, Ob performed another light attack on the same leg. The attack connected more cracks; this time, Ob appeared behind it and used Hades to continue to swipe and swipe at the leg. As he was getting ready to swipe once again, the golem swung down with the hammer, and a vast crater formed where Ob once stood.


    Ob was getting tired, his manna was running low, and he was about 50% left. He knew that he had to save some for his final dragon''s breath but wasn''t sure how much more he could take of this. Ob let out another light bolt with Hades to attack that same leg; this time, there was a small boom. The golem''s leg was nothing but blue smoke.


    The golem lost balance now that its leg was obliterated and started to fall on top of Ob. As it was falling, it was readying another attack with its large hammer.


    Ob ducked into the shadows and reappeared in the air behind the golem. He felt the fire spark inside his belly, and he focused, forcing that spark to grow bigger and bigger into a raging fire; he sent it up his throat. As he was focusing, the golem had a trick of his own; the blue lines on the golem began to glow a marvelous blue sheen. The golem turned quickly and swung its hammer in the air. As Ob prepared for his dragon''s breath, the golem''s swing struck him hard in the stomach. The swing was devastating; it put so much force into that swing that Ob spat out blood. And sent him flying several feet back. He grunted and got to his knees.


    Pride, arrogance, whatever you want to call it, this is what kept Ob from giving up; this is what kept Ob from running away and fighting another day. Standing up, spitting more blood out, he pushed that fire forward with some force and additional will to produce a massive dragon''s fireball. Black and orange flames engulfed the golem fully. The fireball melted the golem into a beautiful sapphire molten pile. Defeated. Ob grimaced as he felt his side; the adrenaline from the fight hid how much damage he had taken. He looked and felt his side; it was swollen and warm to the touch, and he broke at least one rib.


    Monster Defeated: Minor Sapphire Golem


    You have defeated a minor sapphire golem.


    Level: 24


    Reward: 15000 gold pieces (amulet in effect)


    Reward: Golem''s Hammer


    Reward: Sapphire Gems x5


    Reward: L Explier


    Objective: Survive - Completed


    You have survived the attack from the minor sapphire golem.


    Reward for completing objective - Golem Charm


    Hidden Objective: Obliteration


    You have completed the hidden objective, obliteration. Killing a golem is good, but these particular gem golem''s can be melted down, and their molten metal can be collected.


    Reward: Molten Gemstone: Sapphire


    Ob felt awful. His side hurt a lot; his head was pounding. He looked at his manna; it was almost empty. He slowly walked back to where his party had been. He stumbled up to them, clutching his side, still bleeding out slowly. He heard Abigail scream his name; Vincent was there in a flash to hold him up; Ob heard some vague chanting and passed out.