Reverse Chronicles

The Invader

Monsters flocked the deeper parts of the Lyndium mines. There were skeletons, undead, lesser nharmoles, and more. Some parts of the cave were lit by glowing crystals, while some were dark, but Keith lit the way with a sphere of fire. The air was warm.

“We should be close to the first pocket soon,” the miner said pointing to a tunnel that forked. “In there, two of the miners should be there.”

We went in the forked tunnel. Suddenly, an archer skeleton sprang up and shot the miner on his right shoulder. I quickly rushed in and defeated it.

“Are you alright?” Keith removed the arrow from the injury and healed the miner. “We should be more vigilant from here on out. Who knows what other monsters lurk in the deep cave?”

I unsheathed Whisperer ready to strike at any monster that would show itself. Three undead later showed up, but we burnt them to a crisp as soon as they appeared.

We finally made it at the end of the tunnel, where two miners lay unconscious on the ground. The room at the end of the tunnel had rocks with a green hue. They mainly lit the room. We aided the miners checking their vital signs. We woke them up and escorted them back to the entrance, where their fellow workers and the woman who gave us the last trial waited.

We returned to the cave, and this time we went deeper. The next pocket of ore deposit was just right around the corner, when suddenly revenants attacked. They were numerous, but their numbers were not something that we could not handle. As we got deeper, I noticed that the air was getting heavier and it also became hotter.

“The air around here is heavy, but if we make it to the next pocket, the air there is lighter and cooler,” the miner indicated.

“I see,” I vigilantly looked around.

We reached the next pocket and a man lay unconscious on the ground. We tried to wake him up, but he was knocked out cold from the rumbling. Like the first pocket of ore deposits, this room also had numerous rocks with green hue.

“What is that rock?” I wondered.

“That is the wind of mithril ore,” the miner replied. “The other miners are in the pockets of the wind of mithril ore deposits.”

“By the way, we haven’t been introduced,” Keith followed. “My name is Keith.”

“I’m Josh.”

“The name is George”

We tried to awaken the unconscious miner again, but there was still no response. George volunteered to carry the unconscious miner towards the exit. Seeing him carry reminded me of Franz.

“I wonder how Franz is doing right now? I hope he feels better now.”

“He will be fine,” Keith answered. “He changed a lot since joining you in this journey. I was really shocked when he jumped in front of a blade to save you. I could remember when he was a greenhorn squire, one of his fellow squires got into an argument with a drunk man who carried a dagger. His friend, the squire, told the man to stop bothering other people, but the drunkard would just not listen. The squire tried to apprehend the man, but he fought back. He pushed the squire away and pointed his dagger at Franz. Then, the other squire jumped in front of the dagger to save him, and it seems he just did that for you.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I remained quiet the entire trip to the entrance. We let the team outside the cave take care of the miner, while we went back for the other four.

“The next pocket should be the last one,” George said as we went deeper than before. “The remaining four miners should be there.”

We entered the last pocket to find three unconscious miners. They all had injuries and one was even bleeding severely. At once, we healed them.

“I swear there was four of them here,” George looked for the fourth miner.

“Help…darkhound…a darkhound t-t-took h-him,” one of the miners suddenly regained consciousness. “Please save him”

“A darkhound!” George was flabbergasted. “Then, he is long gone.”

“Where did the darkhound take him?” I asked.

“Deeper,” the miner pointed to a fissure that was large enough for people to fit. It was at the exact opposite direction of the entrance.

“We have to save them,” I stood up and readied Whisperer.

“No, it’s too dangerous,” George protested. “Darkhounds are wild and ravaging creatures. He is long gone.”

“How can you say that?” Keith was suddenly filled with rage. “He is your colleague and yet you would abandon him? Wait for us here, we will bring him back.” He suddenly reminded me of Franz. An air of chivalry and selflessness emanated from Keith. It was an atmosphere that I detected from Franz, but what came out from him was different.

We entered the fissure. The other side was a dark tunnel. Keith lit the way.

“Look!” I noticed a trail of blood on the floor. We followed the trail and it led us to a large underground cavern.

Suddenly, an intense growl could be heard. It was the darkhound and it was clinging to ceiling of the cavern. It was a bipedal creature that resembled a hound that had two heads. Its claws were razor-sharp and its fangs were bloody.

Keith cast Fireball and tried to shoot it down. One of them hit it and it fell on the ground. The last miner was lying on the far side of the cavern on what seemed to be the nest of the darkhound.

“It’s coming!” Keith alerted me.

The darkhound was quick, but I was still able to do a Feint Attack. It slashed on my copy, as I struck its right leg. It retreated, but Keith showered it with Wind Blade. Still, it was able to dodge all of them. Its right leg was now bleeding profusely. It tried to launch another Feint Attack, but it slashed omnidirectionally prompting me to defend against its razor-sharp claws.

“Hold it steady!” Keith cast Lightning Strike but missed multiple times. “It’s too agile.”

“Can you still keep going?”

“I’m running out of mana.”

“We should retreat,” I suggested. “I’ll distract the darkhound, go and grab the miner from its nest.”

I used Intense Accuracy and carefully predicted the movement of the darkhound. It was very agile. I was barely able to keep up. When it attacked, I kept using Intense Accuracy and did my best to stop its attacks.

“Josh, there’s no miner here!” Keith shouted from the nest. “Only his shirt is here, there is no one.”

“Where could the last one be?” I shifted my focus to the darkhound in front of me. While I was parrying its attacks, I noticed something hanging from its neck. It was a necklace!

“Keith, the darkhound is wearing a necklace. Could it be?”

“No way!” Keith levitated back to my side. “It shapeshifted.”

“What should we do now?”

“Nothing,” Keith replied. “We must retreat. Defeating it would kill the miner. We must avoid battling it at all costs. Gust!” Keith cast Gust and blew the darkhound away giving us time to slip back into the fissure. By the time we got back, all miners regained consciousness.

“No time to explain, we need to get out of here!” Keith shouted and cast Levitate getting us out of the cave. We made it outside.

“That’s six,” the woman who gave us the trial indicated. “There are seven.”

“The seventh miner is a shapeshifter, and he turned into a darkhound,” I explained.

“It doesn’t matter. Shapeshifter or not, he is still one of the people that should be rescued.”

“But it’s too dangerous to go, we should wait for the spell to wear off,” Keith suggested.

“Do I hear slacking off?”

“Enough!” George intervened. “I don’t know what’s your business with them, but they did everything they could to save the miners. They risked their lives to save them and that is how you treat them. They deserve applause and respect.” All the other miners in the scene who heard George’s speech clapped at us. Some of them whistled for recognition, while some said their thanks.

I suddenly began to feel lightheaded. My entire body ran out of strength. I tried to hold on to Keith but he was too far away.

“You passed,” the woman whispered in my ear as my body lay on the ground.

Then, suddenly a sphere of various colors surrounded me. They moved around me and kept getting faster. In an instant, they stopped and came inside me. I floated. I could feel my strength surging back to me. And I felt stronger than ever.

“Congratulations, you are now an Invader,” the woman applauded. “Just as I planned.” He threw a smoke bomb and disappeared without a trace.

"Invader?" I began to wonder. I checked my status bar and noticed that my class had changed. It said 'Invader'. From 'Outsider' to 'Invader'? I also checked my other status and they all jumped exponentially. I also learned other skills, such as Appraise, Copy, Create Magic, and Instant Learn.