Randy clambered over the rough stone of the lake's shoreline and crouched beside Valoria. "She's not breathing," he said after placing a finger under her nose. Checking her pulse next, he grimaced. "No pulse either. Shit, Vesper, cover me. I need to give her CPR."

  Vesper nodded and straightened up with his one dagger in hand.

  Red light flickered around the cavern, followed by a roaring boom, causing the whole place to quake as Gerald unleashed his destructive Crescent Rage skill on the horde of Clay Goblins and the Clay Orc closing in on them.

  But none of that was Randy's concern. His attention was entirely on Valoria. As Hunters with levels, they were far more durable than normal humans, meaning her life wasn't in danger. But it would be if he did nothing. "Forgive me for this, Valoria," Randy said as he tilted her head back, gripped her wet hair with his hand, and gave her mouth-to-mouth. Two breaths, and then he switched to pumping her chest thirty times. Thankfully, it didn't even take that many for her eyes to shoot open and for her to inhale while simultaneously hurling up water. Coughing violently, all Randy could do was support her for a moment as she recovered.

  "What... happened?" she gasped out.

  "Our savior arrived," Randy said, gesturing behind him.

  Valoria tilted her head to see past him, and her eyes widened. "He really came back for us?"

  "Yeah, crazy, right? He jumped down the hole without a care, hauled you out from the depths of the lake, and got straight to fighting."

  "Is he even human?" Valoria said in disbelief.

  Randy thought about it for a moment. At first, he just believed the man was competent, if a bit strange. Then he thought he was a highly trained person, possibly even a Reaper with a skill that let him hide from the Appraisal skill somehow. However, a Reaper wouldn't come and save people, nor would a monster.

  "I don't know what Gerald is," Randy said honestly. "All I know is that he's our ally and asked us not to speak about what we see here today. Come on, he's going to need our help eventually, so we should prepare ourselves."

  Vesper snorted. "Prepare what? All three of us are drained physically, mentally, and of mana. You have a bow with no arrows, and I have a single dagger. Valoria has her staff, but she is in no state to fight."

  "I agree," Randy said, standing up and gripping his bow. "But we still have to fight. The only escape route I can think of will be behind the Underworld Orc floor boss. Unless a rescue team really does come down here and throws us a rope down the hole, pushing forward is our only option."

  All three of them looked at the hole in the ceiling above the lake.

  Vesper clicked his tongue. "Looks like we have no choice."

  "Guys," Valoria said, earning their attention. She was hugging her knees as the cavern continued to tremble, followed by the screams of goblins being slaughtered. "If we really do die here, I just wanted to say thank you for being my friends. University wasn't exactly easy for me, and you two made it tolerable. So... thank you."

  "Hey, hey, why are you giving up already?" Randy said, giving her a hand. Hauling her up, he patted her on the shoulder. "Come on, Valoria, I know you're stronger than this. We have to see this through. Don't you remember? We were going to form a guild together after graduation, and for that, all three of us need to make it out of here. Alive. Got it?"

  "That's a big if," Vesper said, surveying the surroundings, "and it all relies on one person."

  Randy nodded. "But that doesn't mean we can't be—" he paused mid-sentence as he saw a black object flying toward them. He caught it before it hit the ground. It was Vesper's other dagger.

  "I didn't know your dagger had a recall function," he said, handing it over.

  "That's because it doesn't," Vesper said as he gripped it, "Gerald must have thrown it back to me."

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  Randy noticed his confidence instantly return. Not that he could blame him—his signature skill, Shadow Sever, required two daggers to work.

  I'd appreciate some arrows too, Randy thought, his gaze briefly drifting to the lake and debating diving down. However, there hadn't been many left in his quiver to begin with, and Vesper's earlier comment about it being still water concerned him.

  As if sensing his desire for arrows, Valoria suggested, "Why don't you try to steal some arrows from the goblins? I'm sure there are a few archer ones."

  "Good idea. How's your mana holding up?"

  "Not great," Valoria admitted. "But I have enough for a spell or two."

  "Alright. Let's do this."

  The three of them headed toward the distant sound of battle.

  Randy looked at the armored back of Gerald, which was wreathed in a dull metallic glow, making him stand out in the darkness. All around him were Clay Goblin corpses, and he noticed an ashen light arcing off the bodies and feeding into Gerald.

  Some kind of necromancer skill? Randy wondered, but shook his head. Considering how strange Gerald was, possessing necromancer skills would hardly be enough to explain it all. He had no doubt that Gerald would reveal more eye-opening things than mere necromancer skills. I just need to support him and get through this. No matter how strange it gets.

  It seemed Gerald had finished wiping out the initial waves of goblins, and his attention had switched to the level 27 Clay Orc. Since Gerald was supposedly a level 15 Spellblade, he should have had no chance of winning, especially after all the spells he had thrown out to defeat the goblins.

  And from the looks of it, he was struggling.

  "Come on," Randy said, drawing back his bowstring and conjuring a mana arrow. "We gotta help him!"

  ***

  Xen tore the dagger out of the badly beaten Clay Orc's arm and threw it behind him. The monster hardly flinched and instead opted to roar in his face and spew its putrid breath everywhere.

  "Stupid human form and having a sense of smell," Xen winced. He drew back his armored fist, empowered by Buff of the Berserker and strengthened by Indomitable Defense, and planted it into the Orc's already bloody face to shut it up. The monster's head bounced back with a sickening crunch, yet after releasing some steam, it slowly straightened back out and grinned at him.

  An Orc's regeneration was no joke, which was an issue as Xen was already starting to run low on mana. So far, he had thrown out five Crescent Rages to wipe out many goblins, and despite leveling up his human form once, with all the other buffs he had going on, he was still running low.

  A slugfest with an Orc was going to get him nowhere, so he planted one more fist into the Orc's chest to force it to stumble backward. While his Soul Leech skill was helping him siphon mana and biomass from nearby corpses, it was never going to compare to chowing down. He needed to gather enough mana to cast his more lethal spells against the Orc to one-shot it.

  Taking off his helmet, he gripped the head of a random Clay Goblin and twisted it upwards so he was face to face with it. "Devour," he said, and a dozen slime tendrils erupted from his mouth and penetrated the Clay Goblin's nostrils and mouth in an effort to seek out the brain.

  [Devour in progress…]

  Xen's pupils dilated as memories flooded his mind. A life filled with hunger and desire while trapped down in cramped and dark tunnels. The fear and terror of the Orcs and of the outside world. But most importantly, he got information on how to build traps.

  Unfortunately, the Clay Orc recovered from the blow faster than he would have hoped and rushed toward him.

  [Devour Complete]

  You absorbed 40% of the Clay Goblin's memories.

  You have unlocked the [Clay Goblin] form.

  You acquired the following skills:

  [Trap Savant (E)]

  As the system messages appeared in his mind, so did the Orc's massive fist. It hit him hard in the chest—his strengthened armor barely withstood the blow, but he was knocked clean off his feet. He flew a few meters before crashing onto the rough stone floor. Briefly dazed as his head had hit the rock, he was surprised to see three human faces appear over him.

  Groaning, he pulled the Clay Goblin away from his face. The human looked understandably disturbed as his slimy tendrils retracted down his throat and then downright horrified as he used biomass to repair his bleeding head and cracked ribs.

  Yet to his surprise, Vesper offered him a hand, and the three of them helped him up to his feet.

  "You took quite the blow there. Are you alright?" Valoria asked.

  Xen nodded. "I am now."

  The half-beaten Orc trudged toward them, steam leaking from his wounds as his body slowly knitted itself back together.

  "What do we do about that monster?" Valoria asked, stepping in front of them with her staff raised.

  "Don't worry," Xen said, rolling his shoulders. "I can take him now—"

  An earth-shaking roar reverberated through the cavern. But it wasn't from the approaching Orc. Xen turned to look across the lake and noted it was coming from the floor boss.

  "Appraisal," Xen said, and golden mana flooded his eyes.

  Its name and level appeared in a massive system message floating above its massive form.

  [Underworld Orc (Level 41)]

  "What is it doing?" Randy shouted while covering his ears.

  "I don't know..." Xen said, but then felt the half-eaten Clay Goblin in his hand twitch, and it wasn't the only one. The many corpses on the ground began to rise once again, and the Orc that had seemed near defeat grinned as its wounds vanished.

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