Young and inexperienced as James was, not even yet sixteen years old, he did his level best to think about his decision. He had, perhaps, learned that his decisions had consequences, even if he did not always remember this lesson.

  Currently, James was inside a cavern of dubious safety, but with sufficient resources to last at least several months, and able to sleep peacefully thanks to the warding stakes. He also had an exit secured: back into the old iron mine, where he could probably dig his way out if necessary. On the other hand, the monsters inside the cavern would be trying to kill him indiscriminately: that’s what monsters did. At least people wouldn’t try to kill him on sight.

  Although, James remembered the whip-using slaver. He might, after everything that had happened. It was possible, if unlikely, that he’d survived and he’d be mad.

  James, without a combat class, had already managed to kill one monster. Maybe it was the weakest kind of monster in the cavern, maybe not, but he had managed to fight and kill it. Against a human, with one or more combat classes? Not a chance.

  Still, the choice seemed to boil down to death at the hands of monster (likely) and living the rest of his life as a slave to other people (almost certainly). With his only means of fighting back being his [Technique: Hammer Strike], it did not matter how strong his strike was, not against combat-classed humans. But against monsters…

  I need power, James thought.

  And he realized he had the means to obtain that power for himself.

  He recalled what Meridox, the only other Enchanter he had ever met, had explained to him about the enchanted sword. The sword he had insisted did not have [Haste] enchanted onto it. How selectively using an enchantment could give the element of surprise…

  Which was exactly what had given him the victory against the monster he had killed earlier.

  And he thought even further. Almost nobody fought totally unarmored, like his parents did as Brawlers. For Brawlers, being able to move and dodge attacks as fast as possible was most important, and armor got in the way of that. But James had no speed boost, nor was he particularly balanced or flexible. Dodging attacks would be beyond him.

  But what if he fought like a Knight?

  The thought felt almost blasphemous to James, to compare himself to a glorious Knight, nearly into the realm of nobility themselves, while he was a lowly Smith and until recently, a slave. But… knights wore armor while fighting, and rarely dodged attacks. No, in the stories, they always stood strong and took attacks on their armor and shields to protect others, before striking back with their sword to kill their foes.

  No speed needed.

  Would that work against combat-classed humans? James snorted to himself. Not a chance. Even actual Knights had to train long and hard to master fighting in armor against other combat-classed people, and they were not invincible. Every fighting style had weaknesses. But against unintelligent monsters? Maybe there was a chance there.

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  At the very least, James had already proved that he could kill a monster.

  And if there was a monster he found he couldn’t kill?

  He turned to the exit back to the old iron mine. Well, if it came to that, there was always a return to civilization, if he could manage it. If he was lucky, he’d make it as far as the nearest [Lord] and throw himself on the Lord’s mercy. A lifetime of servitude, but hopefully better than the slave camp.

  In any case, there didn’t seem to be any rush to decide. James’ sense of time in the perpetually gloomy cavern was poor, but judging by his hunger, it hadn’t even been half a day since the monster attack and earthquake. Probably still not safe to try digging back out.

  More urgently, James was getting mighty thirsty after eating all that salted meat.

  “Water.” he said to the magic bag, but it remained empty.

  Hmmm…

  Uh oh.

  James got serious about exploring the cavern, and his decision crystallized. He would explore the cavern as much as he could, see if he could [Forge] and [Enchant] himself some gear, and if he ever got in over his head, he would dig himself back out of the old iron mine and make a go of finding a Lord to serve.

  He started walking along the cavern wall in a counter clockwise direction, starting from the narrow end of the oval shape where the exit to the old iron mine was. As he walked, several of his skills activated, informing him of the resources available to be mined.

  [Brown Iron Ore]

  [Blue Iron Ore]

  [Red Iron Ore]

  [Green Iron Ore]

  [Iron Ore]

  [Fuel Identification: Coal]

  James paused. Up until now he had seen mostly various kinds of Iron ore, courtesy of [Ore Identification]. This was the first time in a long time [Fuel Identification] had activated, and he had assumed that that dark vein would be black iron ore, the iron ore with Dark magic affinity. It was a large coal seam, as well, and even from where James stood, about halfway along the long end of the cavern, it was likely not the only one.

  James checked the bag again. “Firewood.”

  Nothing.

  Please remember, dear reader, that James was still only 15 years old, and hadn’t thought everything through from the start.

  Still, that solved the fuel problem that James hadn’t realized that he’d had.

  Walking on, he soon found water. No creek or stream, this was a small, but steady, trickle of water flowing down the cavern wall from some indistinct crack beyond James’ reach. It flowed down the wall almost silently before vanishing into a crack in the cavern floor.

  As thirsty as James was, he didn’t hesitate to scoop some into his hands and drink. Luckily, it was regular fresh water, with nothing obviously foul about it. It wasn’t even sandy or dirty, the rock face of the cavern already smooth from who knows how long the water had been flowing over it. He drank his fill, and soon realized he had no container to store any water in.

  Moving on, at the other narrow end of the cavern, he found a large tunnel leading on further into the gloom. He couldn’t see far down it, but it was twice as tall as he was himself, and wide enough for three men to comfortably walk through it abreast, possibly four if they squeezed in. Not seeing any monsters or interesting resources, James continued his circuit.

  In the end, he found one more trickle of water, about half as much, on the other side of the cavern, much closer to the exit to the old iron mine. Along the way he found large quantities of regular and brown iron ore, decent amounts of blue and red iron ore, and smaller quantities of green iron ore, although still much more than he had ever seen in the old iron mine. There were fewer of the coal seams, but each seam was large enough that James couldn’t imagine ever running out.

  James moved his triangle of warded stakes to include the water trickle and as much territory as he could. With only three stakes, it wasn’t much, but he was still able to include every kind of ore, except green iron ore, and a coal seam.

  The ever present soft breeze continued to flow through the cavern as James got to work.