The Achievement Junkie

The party followed their captain closely, silently repeating his every step. Along the way they passed several monsters; most didn't notice the quiet adventurers, but a couple of monsters had to be avoided completely due to the party's risk of being found. They didn't fear those few monsters, but if they were surrounded by countless creatures things would change drastically.

Rydel was smart to avoid everything possible while keeping his aim for the nearest passage to the third level. Other than Jack, the entire party was shocked to find so many different beasts in the second level.

Slivia, in particular, found it hard to believe. She and her former party had ventured into the mine less than a week ago, yet the mine seemed so different. Her party had traveled with torches and had to fight many monsters to finally reach the third level. Seeing even stronger monsters now, she was glad to travel with the experienced Rydel and not her rookie party who wouldn't have survived the Light-tail Lizard hoard from before.

"We're almost there, there are a few passages to the third level nearby. The one up ahead should be big enough for the party to pass through together." Rydel's whisper just barely reached their ears.

After another two hundred meters, Rydel suddenly stopped. Everyone was startled but kept calm, waiting for his next command. After a light breath, Rydel said, "We need to find another way down. There's a goblin outpost at the passage."

Jack sighed and shook his head, amazed at how fast the goblins were able to change so much. The entire ecosystem of the mine had become dominated by them; they were even monitoring the passages between the second and third levels.

"There's no other way?" asked Maynard.

Rydel shook his head reluctantly. "I don't doubt our ability to finish them off, but it's best if we're not discovered."

Everyone agreed and backtracked until finding a new direction to go. Rydel kept his wits about him, always ready to act if needed. Luckily, there were no problems that arose.

Earlier they were surprised to see that the monsters kept themselves far from the passages to the third level, but now they understood the reason. Why would the monsters want to be near the passages when there were many goblins there, who would turn any monster into a nice meal?

'How much farther?' asked Jack via telepathy. He knew that more than half of the weathered jade's effective time had passed, meaning that they should hurry and find that city.

'It should be just ahead, but don't rush in. There haven't been monsters here either, so I'd guess that this passage is occupied as well,' guessed Rydel.

'Sounds about right.' Maynard agreed with Rydel. 'Got any other ideas? I'm sure ya can think of something like you always do.'

'If we take too long to look for another exit, Jack's weathered jade will run out before we can attack the city,' mentioned Rydel.

Maynard blinked and looked ahead to see Jack turn his head and nod. He yelled in his head, 'Then we've got to hurry! Sure, he'll gain plenty of EXP regardless, but what's the point of wasting a treasure like that? Why didn't ya mention that sooner!?'

'Because it wasn't relevant, and things were going smoothly. But now things have changed,' thought Rydel. 'There's another way to the third floor nearby, but it's a small vein of azure and it'll a tight fit.'

The three of them pondered the situation a moment longer before Jack broke the silence. 'Let's follow that vein. If we can avoid alerting the goblins, then the plan will go a lot smoother.'

Nodding in agreement, Rydel and Maynard stopped in their tracks. Rydel was the first to speak to the party. "Change of plans, there should be more goblins at that passage too."

"What do you mean? How can you know that before we see for ourselves?" asked Brunar.

Maynard answered in Rydel's place, "Have you seen any monsters? They all avoided the last passage because of the goblin outpost, which leads to the question: Where are the monsters now?"

Everyone froze as they realized the truth in Maynard's explanation. Rydel mentioned, "There's another way down near here, but it's much smaller and we'll barely fit going one at a time. We'll have to pass through a vein of azure to sneak by them."

"Why not just find another passage?" asked Troni.

"We need to get to the third level as soon as possible. The longer we're in this place, the more time and preparation we're giving to our enemies. Just ask Slivia, was the mine this dangerous the last time they entered it?" Rydel had guessed that things were different, knowing that Slivia's former party wasn't anywhere near as strong as their current party.

"He's right," said Slivia timidly. "I was in here just a few days ago, but the second level wasn't anything like this. If my old party came into the mine how it is now, I'm afraid I wouldn't have survived till the third floor, let alone to be here now."

Touched by the hint of fear in Slivia's voice, the two young samurai became more accepting of the change in plans. They both looked at Jack, surprised to see his indifferent expression. Troni asked, "What do you think about all this?"

"I think we need to reach the next level as soon as possible. I don't want to inch through an azure vein as much as the next guy, but if that's what it takes, then I'll do it gladly." Jack didn't mince words, directly supporting and accepting the proposed plan.

Troni had a weird feeling about Jack at that moment. He felt that Jack was different like he had already known and accepted the plan before it was proposed. Keeping this thought to himself, Troni set his mind to keep a closer eye on Jack.

"Good, then let's hurry. We don't have any time to waste." Rydel immediately led them toward some narrow passages, avoiding anywhere they could be easily spotted or discovered.

Soon enough, the party reached a dead end. Everyone was perplexed, wondering why Rydel would lead them to a dead end.

"Oh, so that's how it goes. No wonder captain doesn't think the goblins will find us reaching the next level," said Jack, catching the party off guard.

"Huh? How can we reach the next floor from here?" questioned Brunar, who was stumped by their arrival here.

A smile appeared on Rydel's face. "You want to tell them, or should I?"

Jack shrugged and answered, "This vein is untouched. My guess is that the captain found it and was planning to mine it himself, but he left it till he was stronger and could harvest it more easily. Since no one has opened it before, no one would expect anyone to come through a nonexistent passage, right?"

"Exactly," confirmed Rydel. "But we need to hurry, it'll take much longer to travel through the vein compared to the usual passage."

"I'll go first. All of ya just follow me while I keep breaking open the vein as we go," said Maynard, happy to volunteer his strength.

"Thanks," said Rydel. "I'll take the rear then."

"Right." Maynard stepped forward, unsheathing both of his katana. The others stepped back, giving him enough distance to swing them freely.

Before anyone could take another breath, the katana were swung three times. First in a crossed X-style swing, second in a vertical fashion to connect the tips of the big "X" in the rock, and third to connect the tips of the "X" horizontally. It looked like a human-sized square with an "X" in the center from corner to corner.

Wondering what was happening, the young adventurers watched as both katanas began to glow bright red. Silently activating his "Blood thrust" skill, Maynard jabbed his katanas, twice each, striking each side within the square. Like magic, the rock crumbled and practically disintegrated upon impact. All that remained was a ten-meter-deep, square hole in the stone wall.

In awe of Maynard's strength, the young adventurers took a deep breath. Beyond the hole Maynard created, the now revealed azure vein showed a slight crack in between the bright blue azure clusters covering the walls.

"This vein should take us near the third level. At that point, we'll have Maynard carve out a path just like this one, till then he's in charge. Any objections?" explained Rydel.

Everyone smiled and followed their temporary captain into the tight azure vein. The party originally didn't like the idea of traveling through a tight space like that, but they were too distracted by the beautiful and almost resplendent azure crystal. The azure was so pure that it even gave off a dim light from each crystal's base.

It would be a lie to say they didn't want to stop and harvest this azure, even Jack. During their entire journey, that was by far the purest azure they had found. Jack remembered the old mines he used to grind in and the beautiful azure crystals that would grow more resplendent with every floor he cleared until they were as bright as day.

Excited to see the natural beauty of the next level, Jack was anxious to hurry and get past that tight vein. That vein was only the tip of the iceberg compared to what the third level would offer.