Useless Position

Much like everything else in this world, this was my first time going into a cave. I didn’t think I had claustrophobia, but fearful thoughts of being trapped inside with monsters surrounding us certainly made me question that. It was all unknown. Though knowing that there was a demon down there didn’t help to remove my anxiety.

I knew fighting the demon wasn’t the goal, but fighting in the cave seemed like the fastest way to get spotted. Though we didn’t really have much of a choice. If we were expected to do recon, we had to go through it. With my eyes on the dark tunnel, I took a deep breath and followed in behind the others.

With a mage in the party, I thought they’d have a light spell to see through the murk, but they just had a small orb of illumination that hovered out of a shell. It seemed to always be on and the shell covered it when not needed. A lantern, though not one that I understood.

Our light didn’t spread far into the small expanse, but it gave us enough to walk quietly through. I worried if it would be a beacon for monsters to find us. Though Denica stopped us before I could even see anything. She lowered a thin shield over the light that dimmed its effect.

Then in a blur I realized Renold was no longer behind me. ‘When did he… How fast is he?’ It wasn’t just strength that was inhuman about them. If what Eri’Sol explained to me was accurate, I could be like that eventually. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Was I still me at that point? What did they do to me when I came here?

Pushing aside my existentialism, I saw a flash of light bounce from the lantern. Slowly Renold walked back to the group, giving a nod to Denica as he passed. ‘Just one strike? Was it weak or are they just that strong?’ We continued forward and I could see what it was that he attacked. A medium sized insect looking monster with more legs than I wanted to count and long fur over most of its body sticky with some orange goo. I just focused ahead.

So far the trek ran smoothly. It wasn’t always Renold, though I didn’t really understand why someone was picked. They all acted without need for commands from Denica. Ferin launched a spike of ice through the head of some large mole creature. Denica even leapt in pinning down a jumping horned worm with her shield. A swift strike of her spear through half of its body ended it.

The best guess I could reach was that they were either rotating everyone around so not one person was being exhausted. Though I didn’t really know how they were making the decisions on who attacked without any gestures or orders. They had that much experience it seemed.

We moved steadily and quickly, though it still felt like a slow pace. They weren’t forcing a hard march. The only clue to the demon was Ferin’s sense of ill mana, which remained unchanged. So we could still be far away, but it didn’t seem like we were on top of them.

As we continued down, Eri’Sol attempted to take the lead on one of the monsters. Given that I didn’t see anyone else move first, they were letting her. It wasn’t just impulsiveness it seemed, even if it looked like that to me. Her sword however didn’t make for the ideal weapon within the cave. It limited her attack arcs and reduced her power. She thrusted at the creature, but lacked the same speed of the others.

It dashed into the light. Half the height of me with six legs and scales it looked like a cross between a wolf and beaver, just minus all the fur. It dodged around rocks and stalagmites well enough that Eri’Sol couldn’t make another attempt. Though a spearhead flashed suddenly straight through the head ending its flight.

The difference between the two started to give me a better idea of how far apart we were. These monsters weren’t weak, but they were definitely not something the two of us would have been able to handle. And while each kill cheaply gave me experience, it did little favors for her. But she needed a different form of experience and hopefully this was helping her.

There was a hint of disappointment I could see in her face, but she pushed past with her usual energy. I wondered how much this was pressing her. This was her first time with veteran fighters outside of training. I could only imagine how much it had to be affecting her. She just kept marching on, as did I.

Our pace continued and each effort that Eri’Sol made continued her struggle. It felt a little cruel at this point. These might not have been beyond her, but we didn’t have time to waste. And each time she failed, someone was there to finish it off like she baited it into them. If she was feeling out of league, I was completely useless.

As the healer in a raid, it wasn’t a new feeling that I wasn't the most important for dealing damage. But this scenario made me feel completely unnecessary. They weren’t even taking damage, so barriers or my other abilities weren’t getting any use. It was better this way for sure. But I wish there was a point to me being present.

After what felt like a whole day in the cave, we came to a rest. There was no telling inside how long it had been or even how much we had left. But a break felt reasonable. For them at least, they were doing all the work. The stone ground didn’t provide the best in comfort, but there wasn’t much to do.

I kept to my own corner of the tunnel away from everyone else. There was some slight wiggling I noticed from Eri’Sol trying to move closer since I sat down much later than her. It was hard to tell if she was trying to be subtle about it or not. Though no one was convinced by her efforts to pretend it wasn’t happening.

I just tried to ignore it. There was never any controlling what she did. If she wanted to sit next to me, she’d make it happen. And it wasn’t as though it was a problem. While everyone checked over their weapons and gear, I went through my pack and menu to confirm things. I had a level of points to allocate as well. It was more sanity checks since nothing changed, but it did pass time.

“Hey, Minoru, what’s your story?” I leaned up looking from my pack, it was Renold speaking. He leaned on his knees a little to look across the circle at me. It surprised me a little, but I then realized I was the only new person in the group. So I guess they had some curiosity.

Putting the pack down and looking around, there were more than just his eyes on me. It seemed everyone had the same or similar question. “That’s a fairly broad question. Was there something specific?” I wasn’t trying to hide from them, but I genuinely didn’t know where to start with such a topic.

“Like what did you do before getting dragged over here to be a Passer?”