Ander had become suspicious the moment he fought the second S-Rank. They were slightly stronger than the previous person but still weaker than Chiyo before her jump in power. He suspected that his opponents were weak so that he’d build confidence and get cocky. Only to slip up when someone with actual power came along.
His suspicions were confirmed when he boarded the private aircraft that would drop them off at the location. Two people in white robes and very large hats were present. Both of them used special enchanted items kept hidden throughout their bodies and carried something similar to spirits with them. Six assassin-like figures in black cloth were also present, welding various weapons and magical tools.
“The ninjas are Slayers, while the priests are members of Cerberus.” Chiyo’s granddaughter stated.
“That seems backward.” Ander leaned back and sighed.
“It somewhat is. The Exorcists are to be our support and long range specialists. The Ninjas will deal with the smaller threats and scout while we take out the big targets.”
“You should be at home, grandfather.” Chiyo insisted.
Ander squinted as the old man replied.
“I need to be here this time. I suspect things aren’t as clear as they should be.”
Chiyo looked at Ander. “Is that odd friend of yours coming?”
“You’ll know. He’ll make a big entrance. We’re meeting up with the remaining Asian branches to trade information. Correct?”
“Yes. We’ll trade the information you gave us for information on body enhancement pills.”
“I asked because I don’t know any other languages native here yet. Unless you want another incident you’ll need to translate.”
“That is also why I’m here.” Junichiro looked out a window.
----------------------------------------
Kyrion wielded a large club in an unfamiliar body; his expression was irritated, and his opponents were tiny, weak humans. The minotaur charged forward, intending to trample his foes.
The group separated for the most part except for Issac, who lowered his center of gravity and slid beneath the creature, grabbing a right leg and pulling it, causing it to fall flat on its face.
Lee and Jin ran forward, each with a gremlin club, and began to hit the minotaur in its ribs, doing little to no damage.
Moca forced a few wrapper-covered muffins into the minotaur’s mouth before retreating.
The minotaur bit down on the food in its mouth via Kyrion’s instinct before pain filled his mind, and he saw red. The next moment, his eyes were coated in pepper spray, and he couldn’t see. The untrained teenagers attacked the prone minotaur relentlessly for ten seconds before the minotaur swung his club to the right, instantly knocking out Lee.
“Spacy!” The minotaur roared as it swung randomly, each strike going wide as it tried to hit something.
Oddly enough, Jin tossed his club to the side as a distraction, resulting in the creature getting crushed by the club. As it did so, Jin had withdrawn a box cutter, which was used to sever a vein in the creature’s right arm and both legs, causing it to bleed profusely. With the creature in a state of pain and rage, it was open to more attacks.
After observing for a while, Kilo saw a chance to end the fight without standing out. Firing a spiked ball via slingshot into the creature’s head caused its skull to crack and its balance to shift.
Issac brought the creature to the arena’s edge with a tackle and proceeded to slam fist after fist into the cavity in the monster’s head. It went from flailing in rage to dead and unresponsive in moments.
Kyrion scowled from his position. He’d been kicked out of the creature’s body when the pepper spray connected, resulting in the beast being bodied by a group of teens. If he was being honest, the minotaur could have turned things around and taken out Jin had the projectile not given it vertigo.
The room went silent as an unconscious Lee did not move. Moca ran forward in surprise. “Don’t die on us Lee!”
Lee then proceeded to start snoring. He wouldn’t wake up without either healing mana or a time.
“I can accept this loss. They came prepared and gave it their all.” Karl stated bluntly.
“So. What are you giving them?”
“Power rings and Phoblades.”
Kyrion squinted. “How do you know how to make a Phoblade?”
“Oh, I borrowed that blueprint and made some adjustments.”
“You can make magical weapons? Why haven’t you made me any?”
“I have.”
Kyrion could melt the ice with his gaze. “When?”
“Oh, whenever you put an interesting weapon in your domain I destroy it and make a copy. Therefore I have made many of the weapons you have used.”
Kyrion’s nose began to bleed. “Why haven’t you made new weapons for me?”
“Because Imala has restrictions on what a dungeon spirit can give to their wielder. The Shepherd has a few on top of that. Also, they completed my dungeon, loot is normal and expected. Despite steamrolling through a test that would put a group of fledglings through their paces, mentally and physically.”
“They also outnumbered the boss so had more chances to attack. Think Moca has any more of those muffins?”
“The ones that melted the minotaurs mouth? Wait, are you still hungry?”
“Piloting a monster uses some calories,” Kyrion lied.
“Uh huh. Should I explain what they got as they open them?”
“Go ahead.”
Karl summoned a chest for every team member and color-coded them based on what was discussed outside, with Kilo’s being blue.
“Everything I granted them had to be something you were capable of to a degree or a very simplified spell. The more they use it, the more the mana runs off and becomes a part of them. In time they would eventually gain access to those abilities without the rings.”
“I see.”
Isaac opened his green chest and observed the green ring with the symbol of a bear on it. Putting it on immediately cured his exhaustion and healed minor cuts and scrapes. He didn’t feel magical, but he did feel stronger than he had been before, as though his skin was tougher than stone. A pair of odd gauntlets transformed into a watch after being put on.
Moca opened her chest and found a yellow ring. Only the picture on it was a cinnamon roll. When she put it on, she felt alert as her exhaustion faded. Oddly enough, she could feel and direct the air around herself to a degree. Her weapon was a knife handle with no blade. Upon activating it, she felt an energy drain from her body and flow into the tool, causing a Phoknife to appear. The blade was transparent yellow.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Lee had been slapped awake by a gremlin that immediately retreated through an opening in the wall. A pink chest, already open, had appeared in front of him.
“No…” Lee didn’t look in the chest immediately as he groaned and watched the others. He didn’t want to look in the chest. He watched Jin pull out a handle for a light blade from the movies. Although it seemed quite different, the crimson blade with a green tinge in the center looked eerie as it extended to the size of a longsword.
Jin’s ring had the symbol of a crown on it, which felt odd the longer he glanced at it. When he put it on, his body felt warm before settling as his mind cleared. If anything, he felt faster and knew that he could control small flames to a degree.
Mira’s ring was silver with an onyx center. The symbol on hers appeared to be a mirror. Upon putting it on, she felt nothing for a long moment. All of her senses had vanished before returning to her in reverb. She thought she had access to a world beyond this one where she could keep things. Her weapon appeared to be some type of gun, albeit it looked more like a toy than anything. When she turned and shot the minotaur corpse, it began to burn as though stuck with a powerful acid.
“Not a toy.” Mira imagined putting it up, and the gun vanished from sight and reality.
Lee got to his feet and finally looked into his chest, noticing a plastic wand with a heart in the center and a ring with a similar shape. “Oh, come on!”
Still, Lee curiously put on the ring and watched it fade from pink to white. The image in the center takes the form of a spiral galaxy pattern. He felt something similar to Mira, although his ability allowed him to phase through space. He thought he could become untouchable for a time limited to his abilities. Picking up the pink wand, he watched it shattered into a pair of metal bracelets. When he put them on, he watched as they multiplied into four metal rings on each arm.
Lee threw a punch with them on and watched as a wave of raw power passed through the rings. They hit each other before shooting through Lee’s fist with a loud bang.
“Heavy but interesting.”
Kilo had checked his chest while no one was paying attention and carefully hid his Phoblade in a compartment in his right arm. From there, he pulled out a ring and put it on, nodding in understanding as he didn’t feel anything. He’d need to put it on his physical body first.
“Kilo? What did you get?”
“Just a ring but I can’t figure out how it works yet.”
“No weapon to go with it?”
“I think it considers the slingshot to be my weapon.” Kilo had modified and upgraded the slingshot, but no one had paid him any attention. It looked pretty different and created a line of energy similar to a Phoblade in the center, which could be pulled with mana to fire powerful projectiles.
“I see. Well when you figure it out, please tell me.”
“I probably will,” Kilo answered as he looked at the sapphire gem with the picture of a blue dragon on it. He knew what it probably meant, but it took a while for Kyrion to appear.
When Kyrion left the safe room, he was transported to a door, where he was given a wooden ring and hanged into his skin-tight battle ware. His hair stood straight up as though he had gotten electrocuted, and his green eyes tiredly looked at everyone. “I saw we should get out of here for now.”
The group nodded, and a new doorway appeared, leading back to where they entered.
“What happened to you Kyrion?” Mira asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kyrion said with an honest shiver. Pepper spray and spicy food were a pain through his secondhand senses, as they bypassed his pain receptors.
“I’ll get my cousin home. See you all on Tuesday.”
“Right.” The group is mostly separated, with the only one behind, Jin.
Jin waited a moment before stating the obvious. “This dungeon is yours somehow. Isn’t it?”
“That would be correct.”
“You managed to complete the Phoblades over night?”
“Yes and no. My dungeon decided to make copies and tinker without my knowledge. Apparently it isn’t restricted here.”
“Can it produce metals?”
“No, it can create gems from mana, and create walls from stone or metal. But creating metal from nothing is impossible. Hence the need for a scrapyard. But it can purify and shape metals better than I.”
“I understand. Guess we should get going then.” Jin sighed.
“Hmm?”
“I’m a member of Cerberus, so I’ll be coming along on your trip to the island.”
“But you’re just a student.” Kilo stated.
“So are you two. Also it’s good training and experience.”
“Fine, but you have one order and that is to stay alive. I won’t be making it easy to accomplish that order either. I do have to show the people here that I am more dangerous than any calamity they can throw at me.”
Kilo sighed. “Fine then. Kyrion mind giving us a ride?”
Kyrion opened a portal leading to the front door and motioned for the others to step through it.
“Can you teleport anywhere?”
“Anywhere I have been or know the location of and the genteal area around it. So anywhere on Noodle Maps.”
“Ah, so the classified places and low information areas are either missing or outdated?”
“Correct. For now anyways. After today I’m going to be doing night flights.”
“You can fly as well?” Jin asked.
“The gravity on my world is twice this worlds. I could fly with ease there while weighed down by tons. Flying here is easier than walking if I’m being honest and I don’t need to worry about the speed limit.”
Jin had a feeling those words didn’t translate correctly.
“The cap on physical travel to avoid traveling through time.”
“How fast is that.”
“Beyond light speed I believe one’s body becomes particles and through the right maneuvers it is possible to travel through time back home. It’s usually done in space for everyone’s safety. I believe the cap back home is around Mach 100. Except for a short burst of light speed movement done in intervals less than 1.24 seconds total.”
“There are some serious monsters over there.” Jin stated.
“Yup, by mixing speed with horizon based teleportation jumps I can get anywhere quickly. It will just be quite destructive.”
“Did he just say he could break the sound barrier?”
“I believe he implied that he can easily pass it.”
“I cracked the sound barrier at around ten. It’s pretty common in short bursts with people with wind, speed, or strength-based styles. Mine just combines all three and more. Now, I’m about late, so see ya.” Kyrion waved goodbye as he jumped through a portal, only to briefly appear on the satellites as something that had just entered the stratosphere.
“Huh…” Kyrion said as he looked down and saw a large metal bird that the people called planes flying below him. It was going pretty slow, though given the fact that people here were quite delicate, it made sense.
A mischievous idea popped into his head as his hair returned to its natural red state, and he floated upside down. In moments, he caught up to the airplane and looked in through the window, watching a man with something in his ears look at a screen with moving pictures.
Kyrion stared at the man for a long time. Eventually, the man looked up and saw Kyrion staring right at him. Kyrion jumped into surprise and blinked a few times.
On the third blink, Kyrion appeared inside the plane behind the man. “What are you watching?”
The man turned around and saw Kyrion standing right next to him. “Oh, you were a reflection. Wait I didn’t see you on the plane.”
“I was in another room. I was just stretching my legs.” Kyrion looked around before walking through a set of doors and teleporting from the plane.
“Hmmm… I shouldn’t mess with planes too much.” Kyrion flew up quite a few more miles before covering his body in a wind barrier. He aimed his body forward and let wings of flame shoot out of his back to warm up before he shot through the sky faster than a meteor. In less than an hour, he’d circled the globe only to figure out he didn’t know where he was going. Thus, he moved around what he thought was the Atlantic Ocean for thirty more minutes. Finding an island where a ton of people seemed to be landing.
Like a meteor, Kyrion came down fast, with a ton of force breaking the clouds above and bloating out the rising sun with black flames so large that it made a wildfire look like a candle.
The sound barrier shattered as something landed with enough force to instantly wipe out a pack of demonic wolves. Everything within a hundred feet was within a crater as Kyrion tried to slow his fall to avoid human casualties. Everything had been calculated to avoid collateral damage and draw attention.
A series of gunshots went off as various forces from all around the globe shot at him simultaneously. Enough to coat the area with enough smoke debris to make the area seem foggy.
Kyrion snapped his fingers, and the smoke dissipated. “Oi. That’s not how you treat allies. Your weapons are quite loud. I’d hate for you all to rupture your eardrums for nothing.”
The bullets that had hit him head-on had been bent unnaturally while quite a few stopped ten feet short, and the rest landed in the area between with abundance.
“What is he made of?” Said one of the first people to fire at him.
Various guns were reloaded simultaneously as though they were trained for something like this.
“If you fire again, I will take that as a declaration of war against me and fight back!” Kyrion bellowed. He had to practice his Rion while he was here.