One of the main sources of income for awakeners are dungeons. Dungeons are pockets of another dimension that are connected to this world through portals. They are formed randomly through the whole Ephiosa region. They contained an abundance of resources, knowledge, and treasures. After they are formed, they naturally disappear after a set period of time. If there are still awakeners inside a dungeon while it's disappearing, they will be automatically teleported outside.
There are two types of dungeons: monster dungeons and scholar dungeons. Monster dungeons, as their name implies, are dungeons filled with monsters. Those are extremely hostile magical beasts. Their threat levels are categorized the same way as the grade of awakeners. A monster dungeon naturally disappears after exactly one week, whether it was explored or not. Monsters inside the dungeon cannot pass through the portals, so it wasn't necessary to explore each of them. But because of the resources and treasures found inside, there are always a lot of people who are ready to risk their lives exploring them. Only awakeners who know how to refine mana properly are allowed to enter a monster dungeon. That's because the atmospheric mana inside a monster dungeon is very corrosive. The monsters also respawn after being killed every day.
Scholar dungeons, on the contrary, are safer. The atmospheric mana inside can be said to be even purer than that of our world. For this reason, as soon as a scholar dungeon is found, the Alliance Research takes ownership of it. There are still a few monsters inside a Scholar dungeon, but their thread levels are only around G- to E-grade. A scholar dungeon also disappears after 1 month, compared to a monster dungeon.
Currently, I was in front of the portal of the F-grade Scholar dungeon. I was wearing light armour that the academy loaned me for safety reasons. A small black sword sheath was on my hip, and I was carrying a bag full of daggers and potions. Before coming here, my advisor, the funny dwarf, gave me detailed reports of the data they collected inside the dungeon. I already knew everything from the game, but I kept listening to him because he was always making a lot of strange expressions, and it was really entertaining. He even asked me to take a security guard with me inside, but I instantly declined.
Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself, I walked through the silver portal.
***
A few meters away, as soon as Alex walked through the portal, a black-hooded figure started calling someone.
"Sir, the target has just entered an F-grade Scholar dungeon. Should I follow him inside?"
"So he decided to steal the seed of the protagonist." Even if it was a quiet murmur, the black-hooded figure could hear exactly what the man on the other side of the line said, but he couldn't understand it.
Confusedly, he replied, "Sir, I couldn't understand what you just said."
"Oh, don't worry about it; I was just talking to myself. As for Alex, just keep a close watch until he leaves the dungeon. I'm not ready yet to get on the bad side of the Alliance Research, so you can't go inside their dungeon." With that, the call ended, and the black-hooded figure took a comfortable position without leaving his eyes from the portal.
***
I could feel a burning and twisting pain inside my whole body as soon as I made contact with the portals. I closed my eyes, and instantly, the pain was gone. It was as if it was never there. I opened my eyes, and a huge forest was standing in front of me.
"Don't worry, kid. That feeling you felt when you walked through the portal—everyone felt it the first time. When you go back, you will see that your body has already adapted, and the pain will be a lot less. But I'm surprised; everyone either cried or threw up during their first time, but you are just standing there as if nothing happened."
I looked at the voice behind me, and I saw a female elf wearing an oversized red coat covering her whole body and a long pointy hat on her head.
"And what makes you so certain that this was my first time?"
"Hahaha, you can't deceive me. I could feel the mana around you being completely twisted as soon as you came through the portals. It's something that occurs before your body gets used to the pain."
Her explanation surprised me. If she could feel mana that well, she had to be a strong, famous mage. But I couldn't remember anyone who wore this strange attire in the game. Sensing my curiosity, the female elf presented herself.
"I'm Serena Elxina."
This short presentation was enough for me to know exactly who she was.
"Blazing Queen."
"Oh, please, just call me Serena; I don't really like the nickname that people choose for me."
"It's an honour to be able to meet one of the world's top 10 awakeners." I respectfully bowed. The reason I didn't recognize her before was because she never appeared in the game. Only her name was mentioned, as well as how she died.
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"Now don't be so stiff. I'm curious about your identity. I didn't know the Alliance Research had someone as young as you. And why are you here alone?"
"Sorry for the late introduction. I'm Alex Fawn, a freshman at the academy."
Serena's eyes widened after hearing my name. "Alex Fawn—the same Alex Fawn that everyone has been talking about?"
"Yes, that's me. I'm surprised to see that even someone from the top 10 heard of me."
"Don't be too modest. There isn't a single person in Ephiosa who doesn't know about you. But why are you here?
"I'm here to do some experiments for a theory I'm currently working on."
"Interesting, and the reason you are alone is for privacy, right? Alright, it was nice to meet you, Alex Fawn. I will be leaving now." Before I could reply, the red witch left through the portals.
My mind didn't dwell on it since I came here for something else. I entered the forest in front of me while raising my guard. I knew the exact location, but I still needed to be careful of the monsters around me. They may be weak F-grade monsters, but I didn't have any combat experience.
After a few minutes, I became a little suspicious since I hadn't seen or encountered a single monster yet. Working my mind a little, I realized the reason was because of the Blazing Queen. She didn't say why she was here, but my guess was that she wanted to try a new spell. And most of the monsters either died or hid as a result. I suddenly had a bad feeling.
It took exactly 28 minutes for me to arrive near my destination, and I didn't come across a single monster along the way. I just hoped the bad feeling I had wouldn't happen. I carefully approached the place, but I immediately stopped and cursed silently while activating [Conceal].
The item that I was here to get was a small seed called 'Seed of Evolution'. It was a consumable, unique item that could upgrade someone's job in the system. It's something that has never happened before in this world. And right now, this seed was in front of me inside an ugly, poisonous mushroom.
Unfortunately, the bad feeling I had really did come true. Seven identical monsters were sleeping next to the seed. They probably came here while fleeing the Blaze Queen. They looked like rats, but they were bigger and taller than me. They had metallic fangs showing up outside their pointy mouths, and their long tails had spikes all around them. They were F-grade monsters.
It was suicidal to try to fight all of them at the same time. They may be sleeping right now, but as soon as I approach them to take the seed, they will notice me. The only good news was that I knew of their weakness. It was the nape of their neck.
Killing one of them right now would be easy, but I would then find myself in the middle of six angry monsters. I regulated my breathing and started analyzing the situation in the most logical way.
After coming up with a plan, I took all the weapons I had in my bag out. I had a total of nine small daggers. I took one, then cut my fingers with it. I let my blood spread on its blade before leaving it on the ground. I did the same thing with five other daggers, then placed them a few meters away from each other. Afterwards, I climbed a tree near the monsters and sat on its branch. I took another dagger and repeated the same things I did with the others. I then took a healing potion to heal my fingers and made sure there was no blood on my clothes.
After activating [Dagger Throw] and [Hide Attack], I threw my dagger at one of the monsters, exactly at the nape of its neck.
"Kkkkieee…"
As soon as my dagger pierced him, he let out a scream before dying. The other monsters immediately woke up from that scream, and after seeing one of them dead, they started getting aggressive. Then, smelling the scent of my blood, they all scattered to the bloody dagger I left all around. One of them was also coming in my direction. It really didn't matter to me. I unsheathed my short sword and waited for it to come nearer. When he was near the base of the tree I was on, I activated [Hide Attack] and jumped on it. I immediately stabbed the nape of its neck, and he didn't even have time to scream before becoming a lifeless corpse.
Without wasting a single second, I activated [Shadow Walk] and ran to the ugly, poisonous mushroom. Even though it was useless, I had to keep [Conceal] activated to be able to use [Shadow Walk].
I grabbed the ugly mushroom and kept running as fast as I could. I had to drink a stamina-recovery potion every 15 seconds while running in the direction of the portal. It took me around 6 minutes and 30 seconds to reach the portal. I knew the exact time because I had to consume 26 stamina recovery potions from the 30 initial ones I brought.
Even [Conceal] and [Shadow Walk] got deactivated after 5 minutes because I ran out of mana. I looked at the ugly mushroom in my hand, and a sense of accomplishment invaded my body.
'Now it's time to taste the fruit (seed) of my effort.'