“I have no idea how I’m going to make this.” Harvey finally admitted, staring at the blueprint she’d drawn for him.

  “It’s just a bowl with some rocks in it?” Elena asked, tilting her head

  “I know, right? But how am I supposed to make a bowl when all I’ve got is a flat anvil?” He asked.

  Realization flashed on her face as she looked at their meager selection of tools.

  “You’d never think a simple cauldron would be this hard to make, but here we are.” Harvey sighed.

  “I don’t exactly need one to get started,” Elena said. “I can’t even make a skill that lets me use a cauldron until I hit level 5, so we’ve got time to figure it out.”

  “Did your guide give you a blueprint for the skill, too?” Harvey asked.

  “Yep.” She confirmed.

  “You lucky ducks. I didn’t get anything from mine.” Harvey complained.

  Julian and Hannah left to find a few beasts to kill so she'd have some materials to practice with. He expected her to blanch at drawing with blood and bones, but she’d taken it in stride. Apparently, she could stomach the violence as long as she wasn’t the one doing the killing.

  While they were gone, Harvey got to work on a plan. The cauldron would be crafted from pure, essence-infused iron, with a few crystals strategically placed in key points. A skilled metallurgist would cast the whole thing with premade sockets and refined crystals, but Harvey had no way to replicate that strategy.

  In the end, he settled on pouring a thick sheet of metal and pushing the crystals into it like chocolate chips in cookie dough. The molten metal would cool around them, locking them into roughly the right place.

  He had plenty of ore, but still needed a quick trip down into the darkness for more essence crystals. The minecart sat just outside the mouth, its lamp gently swaying in the breeze. He made sure it had plenty of fuel before pushing his way into the mountain.

  Staring into the darkness, he could feel his heart rate rising. Suddenly, his throat was very dry, and he wondered if he should take a bathroom break before setting out. His body tried everything it could to remind his brain he should be afraid of the dark, but he ignored it.

  He was a new man and wasn’t going to let fear get in the way anymore.

  His footsteps echoed as the world shrank to a few feet in front and behind him. Before, he’d kept a sedate pace, doing his best to creep deeper despite the rusted minecart wheels' constant complaint. Now, he moved freely, daring an elemental to show its face.

  He made it all the way to the end of the tracks without finding one, and his jaw dropped as he marveled at the crystal cave once more. It was hard to be sure, but he thought the steely blue glow had gotten brighter, and it seemed most of the crystals embedded all around him had gotten bigger.

  With no elementals in sight, he got digging. He wasn’t strong enough to get much done with a pickaxe the last time he was down here, but now with a full 44 points in strength powering each swing, it wasn’t long before a small pile was gathered in the minecart.

  Where are they? Harvey thought, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he tossed another crystal inside. He looked for stones roughly the size of a golf ball. Each swing of the pick sent a shotgun blast of stones shooting up at him, and his shredded robes weren’t doing a great job protecting his skin. Without his improved body, he’d be bruised and bloodied all over. The stone surrounding the crystals was unnaturally durable thanks to the constant essence infusion, so it took full body swings to make real progress.

  Right as he dropped his head, something whistled past his ear and ricocheted off the rock face. Standing tall, he looked around. The orange light of the lantern blended with the steely blue glow in a hypnotic haze, ensuring his eyes never really adjusted.

  Must’ve been a rock falling from the ceiling or something. He thought, just as sharp pain erupted from the middle of his forehead. Blood ran down to the bridge of his nose before finding the tear duct of his left eye, temporarily blinding him.

  “Ahh! What the.” He shouted, pulling his robe up to try and wipe away the blood. A second impact hit him like a wild pitch nailing his shoulder during a baseball game. He couldn’t see with the robe over his eyes, but he heard a noise that terrified him to his core.

  Shattered glass.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The cavern was plunged into darkness, orange giving way to hazy blue. Harvey waved around, desperately trying to find the metal cart that would at least help him stay on the path out. He was under attack, and he was hopeless if running away wasn’t an option. His finger brushed the cold metal, and he gasped for air. In his panic, he’d forgotten the simple truth that breathing was still important in a fight.

  Holding to the side with a vice grip, he tugged it back into the tunnel. More stones shot into him, but all he could do was eat the attacks as he rushed out of the cave. He was faster than the elementals, but not faster than the projectiles either they or some new monster lurking down here was throwing his way.

  A flash of inspiration filled him, and he flooded essence into the flamestrike sigil on his bicep. He felt the power fill his hammer and took a wild swing at the wall. Flame erupted, briefly illuminating the tunnel like a lightning strike. He could confirm there were two elementals following him, both larger than any he’d fought before. Where the others were around 70% rough ore and 30% essence-infused metal, these were the opposite. It confirmed his suspicion that they got stronger as they refined more of their mass, and it looked like they got a level 10 boost just like everything else he’d faced.

  He had a choice to make. Try to fight in the dark using Flamestrike to find his enemies, or turn and run. He had the materials he needed, and his increased strength and dexterity would let him sprint the cart out of here even with the increased weight. But hadn’t he told himself he was a new man?

  Letting go of the cart, Harvey hefted the hammer in his right hand and retrieved the wand from his slipsack with his left.

  “I’m not afraid anymore!” He shouted. Wait, wasn’t that a line in a movie?

  A thud of pain in his gut snapped him back to reality, and he sent his hammer into the wall. The closest elemental was 20 feet away, so he turned to make a small profile, covered his head and shoulder with a fangbreaker, and stumbled towards it. Stones and shards peppered him like a paintball firing squad, and each flash of fire he produced showed the elementals were actually backing away. They’d charged straight for him just a few days ago, mindless brutes who still tried punching even when they’d lost their fists. Now they fought like soldiers content to wear him down at a healthy distance.

  “You weren’t supposed to start thinking!” He complained. He didn’t think they understood him, but a rock hitting his teeth made him wonder.

  He’d reach them in no time if he started running, but couldn’t risk anything faster than a shuffle on the uneven floor. Faceplanting in front of these things would be a massive drain on his essence reserves at best, or a death sentence at worst. Their barrage was unlikely to kill him, but he couldn't outlast them forever.

  Taking a risk, he leaped towards the nearest elemental with his hammer held high. He’d managed to clear his jump without hitting his head on the wall, a clear win in his book, and brought the hammer down hard when he landed. He hit nothing. The hammer only stopped when it rebounded off the floor. A thunderous echo shook the tunnel as firelight illuminated the tornado of stone looming above him. Finally in striking distance, the elemental returned to its old tactics, and he strained to block the fist hurtling toward his ribcage by covering them with a Fangbreaker.

  The repulsive force had improved as his Wisdom and Endurance increased, and Harvey grinned as the shadow spun away. Blood ran into his mouth from the open wound on his head, coating his teeth as he sent wide horizontal swings in front of him. A satisfying crunch met his ears as his first retaliatory strike hit its mark, flames shooting from the hammer head to fill every gap in the hurricane of stone.

  Each moment of vision was brief, but it was enough to see some of the stone making up the elemental’s fist fall to the ground. He’d hit it center mass. That shouldn’t have impacted the arms at all. Unless the flames were affecting the core… He thought.

  The smell of ozone filled the tunnel, like hairspray being shot at a lighter. Harvey could never have guessed what essence fire burning an elemental alive would smell like, but it seemed obvious now that he’d experienced it.

  The body of a lesser elemental like this seemed to be less about the metal and more about the energy keeping it afloat. Maybe that changed as the core refined the ore, but he’d already seen the preferential treatment given to certain areas. If his flames affected the core, he might be able to kill it without a direct hit at all.

  Harvey unleashed savage swings all around him, less than half of them landing as his blindness only abated when the hammer found a nail. Dozens of stones still shot towards him from the other elementals, and he realized he wouldn’t have enough essence or vitality to handle them all.

  Deciding to make one final attempt at ending the injured beast before running for his life, he covered his entire front with a fangbreaker and grabbed the hammer with both hands. Raising it high above his head, he flooded the second sigil and was delighted to see barely contained flames leaking from his weapon. It lit the tunnel just enough to see the lifeless swirl of stone desperately back away. Taking a huge step forward, he took an angular swing right where the iron chunk that was its head met the shoulders.

  Flame cascaded down into its body, the haze of energy holding it together burning up before his eyes. The power resisting his swing melted away, and he cut a wide gash all the way down into its core.

  A kill notification nudged his mind as the barrage of stone missiles returned, and the weapons in his hands were replaced with a health potion. Tipping it into his mouth, he basked in the healing glow and fumbled his way back to the minecart.

  Pain ravaged him when his essence reserves ran dry, the shields covering his back winking away. A dull crack entered his head when a stone chunk bounced off his skull, and he wasn’t sure if the vibrations he heard came from the inside or the outside of his brain.

  When his hands finally found the lip of the minecart, he pushed himself to sprint, letting the momentum of the cart carry him forward each time he stumbled. He fought pain, gravity, and the hollow feeling in his soul that came with being utterly devoid of essence, crying with relief when the marble of daylight finally appeared.

  Reaching salvation, he collapsed to the ground and stared up at the white, cloudless sky.

  Maybe I should be afraid of the dark.