Lance turned around after killing the bat, Reilly had just finished off the other that Valora deeply wounded. While doing so she had another attack and cling to her back slashing, biting, and clawing at her from just behind her head. Using a goblin dagger from when Lance saved her she began stabbing at her assailant in over head stabs. Hearing his sister Valora scream as another swooped in on her, who could hardly hold up the mace with one arm. Courage turned around and used an ability.

  " Psychic Cage!"

  Lance saw the bat swooping in and just a mere moment before reaching Valora a cage appeared around the creature forming its intricate weavings until a square cage just large enough to fit the beast formed of crackling purple tendrils reminiscent of lightning. Unable to truly flap its wings the beast fell to the floor in its new confined space.

  Courage held his hand outstretched, staring at the creature a purple haze from his eyes as he stared at the Psychic Cage around the beast. Lance stepped forward to help Reilly who a second later grabbed a hold of the bat and stabbed it in the head, then threw it on the ground, ripping out some of her hair. Lance stopped in his tracks at that point and turned to the cage. He raised his axe over it and nodded at Courage. The bat in the cage began to flutter and flap angrily before it grabbed a side hissing and shaking the cage. Courage stared for a few seconds longer and then winced and fell to his knees as the cage became a wisp of purple like smoke. Lance leaned into his axe swing hard chopping deep into the beast's spine and after a quick spasm it fell over dead.

  Reilly stepped forward a bit bloody and with a back full of deep gashes. She moved to check on Lance who immediately waved her off pointing to Valora. Lance then moved to grab all of the bat corpses into a pile.

  " Hey so what kind of ability was that? Psychic cage was it? It was rather impressive, you both have stunning abilities?" Lance asked as he cut into the bats grabbing the experience gems. Reilly then cast bliss twice healing up Valora fully leaving herself wounded a bit but able to continue fighting while conserving mana.

  Courage who had been out of breath for a whole minute watching them gather and heal finally broke through his panting. " It's not a stun. The beast could have gotten out if it really tried.. I just tried to hold on and make it calm but I still don't know how it works completely.."

  Valora then gave Reilly a quick hug and spoke. " Reilly you.. You're so brave. You killed two by yourself. Thank you. And also my ability is a stun but anything that harms it in that moment also happens to me. It's swift justice I suppose."

  Lance had to admit that Reilly had sure stepped up her aggressive side. She also seemed to be quite calm from what he remembered, that sniffling crying girl had almost disappeared. At least that's what he thought until he noticed she was trying to hide her trembling hands.

  Pulling the last stone out of the bats Courage leaned forward and asked Lance

  " Hey what are those you're pulling out of them? Jewels?"

  Lance was surprised but he had been in the same boat. He sighed because he understood how important this was yet it was almost like anyone who skipped the tutorial was blind. That sounded so obvious to hear himself say in his head yet the excitement many feel to just hop in to play seemed like an obvious winner for most mindsets. He decided he would just explain the best he could. " There are a few ways to get rewards from killing, one way is the mental and menu side, while the other is what's left. These are the most important parts. Not to mention materials and ingredients. If you were in the woods fending for yourself you wouldn't just leave behind meat and hide would you? Same thing. You can get lucky sometimes. Check your combat log and mailbox. If you want to find out more in depth make sure you talk to your bar...Space keeper. Whoever's there when you log in. They are smarter than they look." Lance at this point continued to cut into the bats, eventually cutting much more than he could carry from them and far more than they would need. But leaving behind bones and stripping them of their wings and lightly furred skins they left behind a gruesome sight. Valora and Reilly both couldn't look without gagging but Courage seemed to stare and try to decipher the beasts and learn from Lance how to gut them. Lance luckily took a few minutes earlier to learn the biology of bats and seemed to try to implement a few new cutting techniques, nothing a veteran would do, but a step up from the day previous.

  When he was done instead of being selfish Lance handed Reilly and Valora a gem and Courage two, who then asked Lance why to which he responded. " Reilly got the better of the bat on the ground due to Valora's sacrificial maiming, She only singlehandedly killed one. As I also only killed two due to your great help."

  Courage held them in his hand he stayed quiet but then took one and gave the other back to Lance. " We're a team, that's how this should work. No pity this, reason that. I appreciate the gesture though thank you."

  Lance waved his hands eagerly in protest.

  " Trust me when I say this is fine with me. Look at all this bat meat and bat hide, who's gonna cook that me or you? So long as I get the leftovers this should be fine with me. If you wanna pay me for the food you're gonna need it." When he said that he looked over at Reilly and gave her a wink. Her eyes grew surprised but then she just smiled. Lance put his hands down and where only she could see he waved his hand in a "iffy" like gesture.

  Courage smirked at his response and then put the gems in his pocket. Lance then took out the piece of wood he received from his axe's dupe log ability earlier and began to chop it into sticks. He then pulled out the goblin stone and sharpened the axe. A few whacks and shimmies of the axe head later left them with makeshift skewer sticks. He then took some bat meat and put it onto the sticks. Opening the box he had and grabbing out the three spiders he had, he took the knife he had and ground them into crusty flakes and rolled the bat meat in it. Lance then told them to wait a moment. Scouring the close proximity with his Discern ingredients he looked around for the cave weeds he saw last time. After a good look he ended up finding one small bundle. He looked over at Reilly who's mouth began to drool a bit from the anticipated spice and chuckled. Lance ground the weed with the pommel of the knife in the same fashion as the spiders and then rolled the three skewers in them.

  " Well shall we then? Cook!" Lance held the kabob's over the fire much in the same fashion that he did his first time cooking in the game. Slowly and at a good distance over the torch like marshmallows. He secretly held his vacant hand behind his back with his fingers crossed. A moment later his eyes beamed in glee with a mouth drooling smile as he looked on at his new favorite recipe.

  " Cave Crawling Kabats" recipe created

  Cave Crawling Kabats

  Dishwasher tier

  +4 health and 4 hours of Dark vision.

  "Yes! I knew it!" Lance yelled out.

  The rest of the party looked at his reaction to taking the meat off the torch in confusion. Lance however on the inside has been hoping for one simple effect: dark vision. It was too good a boon to not narrow focus on, he had been waiting to figure out if it were specific to the spider's, and rather than making things into too large a concoction he settled for a simple dish. The weed he had figured was some kind of an enhancement like ingredient, as well as a good flavor boost. It was too strong to not see it as a forefront power to the meal in the Goblin Alco taco's. By combining these ingredients Lance had cracked into the formula of the cave style of cooking, at minimum this cave man level cooking introduction fueled Lance's spur for wonder. Ingredients and combinations could make some things so simple and even similar but vastly different, potencies varying.

  Lance bit into a kabob, taking half the chunks off and handed the other half of it to Reilly. She immediately took the two remaining pieces off like delicious Takoyaki and quickly swallowed them. Lance then handed the other two their sticks and chewed in ecstasy Reilly and him full cheeked and staring at each other nodding and letting out a couple grunts.

  The siblings looked at each other and then back at them confused and a little worried about the food. Courage went first.

  Immediately after hitting his tongue the meat fell apart as if the nature of the beast was to be tender and weak, the strands of its chunk flayed apart like a slow cooked roast that had a crusted char like exterior. The naturally juicy medium rare meat combined with the spice of the cave weed and the crunchy bits of spider that seemed to salt and pepper the outside in a season of spice that glittered the inside of your mouth with speckles of stingy low roaring heat. Continuing to chew only slowly washed away that spice leaving you with a gamey wild meat like that of a venison. After a second pause of experiencing the flavor Courage shoved as much meat off the stick into his mouth and looked at his sister nodding yes and squealing yes under his breath.

  A minute later the excitement was replaced by a notification that Lance had been waiting for. The siblings both stood up and looked at each other and then around and back to Lance who was standing now helping Reilly up off the ground. They both looked at him with almost nothing to say, there was almost too much to say, their minds ran too fast, they were speechless. Lance simply gave them a thumbs up, and put out the torch. He and Reilly opted for only half of the buff but two hours was more than enough and a good portion of meat was left.

  Lance finally broke the silence. " So how was your first meal? Exciting, right!"

  Courage cleared his throat. " Well considering what it was that it was made out of I simply couldn't expect anything close to what I tasted. To be honest that plus the buff was completely out of the realm of outcome. Thank you for sharing this with us, I won't forget it. How did you find out about this?"

  Lance just laughed, " It's my class, when I cook it makes things better. I remember I cooked once in the beginning and it had no effect really just a single point of healing per stick. But having creativity, and a little bit of wild ingredients, I made a few understandings about what it is my class does. And this is just an appetizer."

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Valora stepped forward. She had hardly spoken much to Lance since the start of the cave, which had only been an hour beforehand. But for the first time she really looked at Lance and Reilly and smiled. Genuinely happy. She then asked " Do you guys wanna add us? We can play most weekends. You guys make me feel like I can take on the Hard mode."

  Reilly chuckled and Lance looked at her. Strangely he agreed he felt the strength in Courage as a counterpart, and knew that it took resolve to use a self sacrifice type move that Valora did. Not only that but he had tested Courage on sharing the spoils, he couldn't see a problem arising so long as things were fair, and that's how he wanted them. Reilly then said " I'm RainbowButterfly"

  " And I'm Sammich. And well yes, that was just the first fight, we can take on the hard mode together in the future, but first let's get some spoils here. This is good way to practice and learn"

  " Oh okay cool! Our names are actually FrayedKnot and Valora. Luckily her name was not taken haha." Courage said.

  Shortly down the path after taking care of the few bats, the trio began to pick up ingredients left and right. With their dark vision allowing them to see the spiders and weeds far easier, they quickly ended up with a large bundle of both, quickly filling the small box Lance had brought. Lance held a wing like sling around his neck that was carrying at least twenty pounds of bat meat. The only real problem the group faced was a need for an appropriate amount of wood to cook it all. Even though Lance and Reilly were fairly certain these siblings were a good pair they still held back on showing off their trump cards. The notion to group up again seemed likely as the cohesive nature of the group felt good, but this was still day one and the first pair they had met. One misguided bit of knowledge could surely ruin what they wanted to build.

  After traversing the path for a long distance the group came to hear the sound of distant water rushing. They slowly approached and eventually found a hidden pond much like Reilly and Lance had found their previous attempt. The group had both shared their fights with the larger creatures near the first checkpoint area. Shaking their heads to one another the semblance to their encounter was once again affirmed.

  Lance held the group from stepping further because he had noticed that once again there was luminous fish in the water which he believed to be the facade the slimes like to take on. He decided he would change tactics and bait out the large creature in one go. He found a nearby large stone and took a chunk of meat, smearing the meat all over it. With a heave he tossed it into the water near its center.

  A large thunking splash echoed back to them and they waited. The fish in the pond simply kept swimming almost unfazed outside of the current pushing them about. The next moment from beyond the pond, behind a wall of stalagmites a head popped up. It was wearing a large burlap-like sac hood, with holes near its mouth and eyes, it began to scratch its ear and then stand. A moment later it was towering over the pond looking into the water. It walked around to its backside just a few meters away from the group who now lay low and tight against some stone.

  Lance looked over at Reilly and Courage and mouthed, " What the fuck is that?" shaking his hand questioningly.

  They all just shook their heads no with a shrug, a sense of fear on their face. Peeking through the stone spires they saw the large dark brown wooden club it had on the side just dragging next to it. It leaned forward and sniffed at the water looking deeply into it for a second. The next moment it lunged its arm forward creating a large splash and retrieved the bloodied stone Lance had thrown in. It sniffed the stone and then licked it. It looked towards the cave mouth where the group came from, its eyes flickering the mirror like reflection of a tapetum lucidum and with a low grumbling gurgle voice it spoke. " Huuu.. maannns". It then stood up fully and nearly touched the ceiling of the cave.

  " It has to be nearly 12 feet tall. Its large muscles betray the pot belly it has; it's certainly stronger than it seems. Is it a giant? or an ogre? Either way this doesn't fall in line with what I thought would appear according to the difficulty modification! Something changed! Or I was wrong." Lance thought. Courage looked at Lance snapping him out of his daze before pointing to his eyes and then to his knees and out at the large creature who seemed to be sniffing at the air. slowly stepping nearer. That's when Lance saw it. A crooked leg as if it were pigeon toed on one side. The giant thing wasn't just dragging the large club, it used it as an intermittent cane.

  Lance looked back to Courage and gave a nod. Courage pulled up his knife slowly and backed away a couple steps. Lance slowly pulled off his bat wing sling. Reilly and Valora simply grabbed their weapons firmly and waited for the two to act. Lance reached back and held up three fingers and then counted them off. The giant creature was nearly upon them drooling when Lance stood up. " Hungry! Here! "

  He hurled the bat meat at the giant creature's face. At the same time it pulled up its wooden club and swung it rapidly at him. Reilly, Valora, and Courage all popped up afterwards and as Lance jumped back to dodge rolling away, Courage ran and jumped over the stone stalagmites and slid through its legs. From behind he slashed into its leg behind the knee and gave it a deep twist, blood began to spray. Reilly jumped over the railing next and charged the monstrosity with her staff, " Censor".

  Valora hopped almost right afterwards and smashed her mace into the kneecap of the creature. Lance standing up smiled, the large creature was screaming in pain yet no sound to come out. Lance rushed him as the giant turned his head to look down at the mousey trio. The giant then tossed the club from one hand to the other and gave a swift back hand hitting Reilly into Valora, they were sent flying back into stone crashing down a small wall.

  Courage used his dagger and jumped onto the giant's back stabbing deeply leaving a long deep gash. He stabbed it multiple times now standing atop its rope cinched waist. It began to reach behind scratching at him and finally it's voice came back to it. " Hghhhh You bug! Die!"

  Lance charged the giant while looking over at Reilly and Valora. They seemed to be barely able to get their bearings, Reilly looked the worst. He stepped off the stone and jumped at the creature axe in hand aiming for its face.

  " Haghhhh Predictabllle" The giant growled at Lance, the next moment it flung forward its left arm sending Courage by the arm flying towards Lance, smacking the pair into each other mid air. The two smacked the floor like a sac of potatoes. Lance and Courage groaned Courage spitting out blood and Lance's nose splitting open with a deep gush. The giant laughed deep and raspy. Courage's arm clearly was still left mauled and crushed in it's grip. The giant drooled above the two and then it slowly dropped his arm into his mouth, the sound of bones and meat and grisel crunching in it's teeth. Courage seemed to almost pass out, but Lance quickly used his pan against his now nub " Pan Sear!", which then brought the light back in his eyes but he clearly had no voice to scream in pain, he was quickly sent into shock.

  The Giant then swung its club at the pair with its full weight behind it.

  " Halt!" Mid swing the club stopped like a frozen pendulum. Lance grabbed Courage and tossed him at the girl's as fast as he could, sending Courage a measly three feet, just barely out of harms way. Spinning around he pulled up his left arm and tucked. The standstill broke and the club regained its momentum. BONG! Lance was sent flying backwards. The sound of a large bell dong, and then a large crash. The giant lost balance falling over onto it's side, it's leg finally giving out beneath it.

  Lance was flying backwards, his pan clearly split and dented concave but still attached to his now broken forearm. He felt his conscious fading, he felt weightless. The cave was spinning, he could see the blood twirling in front of his face. The dark liquid danced with a shine uncharacteristic to the darkness, he watched it flutter in front of his face. Nearly allowing himself to get lost in its deep alluring luster it reminded him of the dark miasma that the group entered the cave with. " Huh. It's so pretty, it looks so delicate.... I guess I can't even pass .... level one.. "

  " BLIIIISSSS! " Reilly screamed at the top of her lungs. The top of her staff shot out three large balls of light. Lance looked on as he spun just above her as if time had slowed to a crawl. The bright luster of the spell burst, raining over the group in a lightning bug like flutter.

  The brightness blinded Lance momentarily and then he caught his breath with a deep inhale, barely brought back from the brink of death. Time seemed to catch up to him, and quickly he was sent careening over the stones behind his group landing heavily on the ground. He coughed and groaned and winced in pain as he looked down at his forearm as it bent back into place cracking and rotating back to health. " Arrrrghhhhhhh!" Lance stood up slowly and looked over the rocks at his group. Valora stood in front of her brother waving her mace, While Reilly was down on her hands and knees out of breath and holding her chest. The giant looking over at them smiled menacingly with a bloody drool.

  " Huu maaaaaannnnnssss Arrrree TASTYYY!!" It growled at them getting up by pushing against its club with one hand and the ground with the other.

  Lance on the other side of the rock stepped over them. He walked next to Reilly pulling her up from the ground. He was clearly bloody and battered barely even alive and Courage was on the ground barely breathing but conscious. Kicking himself backwards Courage held his dagger out pointing at the Giant. Valora stood in her position at the front of them silent but tears streamed down her face. Lance looked at Reilly and whispered to her. A moment later she reached in her breast and slowly pulled out the tip of the spear. Lance quickly grabbed it and pulled it all the way out dropping his axe. He stepped forward in front of Valora. Reilly began to cast a spell.

  Lance's eyes began to glow a shade of red so crimson the only thing the Giant could see as it rose to its knees was the fierce glare Lance gave like a far off creature in the night ready to pounce on its prey. Lance's stomach growled loudly, his mouth began to salivate and his breath went cold. " I wonder what you taste like!"

  " Smoulder! - Pan Sear!!"

  Reilly smacked her staff down on the back of the spear in his left arm, Lance's Arm began to glow and the pan snapped free of its bindings, Lance quickly caught the pan before it even fell a foot.

  Lance charged, and the Giant swung out its club once again. Instead of a heads on clash Lance stopped on a dime with a surprising feint of sprint, and the club passed in front of him. The Giants eyes grew wide in surprise.

  Lance charged forward again with the spear aiming upward barely holding onto it. The giant began to fall to its elbow but still supported itself with its other arm.

  The giant quickly covered his face from Lance dropping the club and opting for defense. Lance leapt and stabbed down with the spear into the hand holding its face. The giant screamed in pain as the hot tip of the poker blazed through its palm and deep into its eye.

  The Giant rolled around screaming like a child, Lance barely moving out of its way. A second later on its back it pulled away its hand from its head, a large suction popping noise was made, clearly pulling out its own eye which sizzled and squealed on the tip of the poker.

  Lance caught his bearings and then quickly jumped onto the giant's chest. Standing on its chest Lance looked down on the giant and jumped again on its forearm sending the sizzling eye back into its socket and the poker even further.

  PONG!

  Lance smashed his pan atop the poker till it gave out and the bent section completely broke off flying a distance away. He then dove on the giant who grew still and smashed in the poker hilt with the leftover section of the pan, deep into its head.

  Next to the giant's head he screamed into its face a guttural war cry and then a moment later he fell over.

  " I bet you taste like shit..."

  Lance fell unconscious.