“I didn’t expect the thing to just…explode like that.”

“I know, it was great, right?”

“Speak for yourself. I was in the front row, and if it hadn’t been for the personal shield my father left me, I’d be covered in monster slurry.”

“But you’re not, so why are you upset?”

“It’s because her shield is old. It’s leaky and inefficient.”

“I’m out a mana crystal if I want it recharged. Not to mention my shoes.”

“They’re not that bad.”

“Then you wear them.”

“Too small.”

Dylan left the small teaching building surrounded by students discussing their latest lesson. An advanced trainee from some medium-sized magic academy had been invited as a guest speaker. He decided to give a lecture about the effects of different kinds of magic on the local monster population. Core pieces of monsters from the surrounding area and local dungeon were brought to class for the experiment. The results were a bit messier than anyone expected.

“Hey, Thatcher.” Dylan turned his head to the speaker. A thin boy who stood just under Dylan’s own five-feet-eleven. The one who seemed so excited by the exploding monster bits. “We’re headed to Mitchell’s to catch the tournament. You coming?”

“Sure,” Dylan said. He knew they were probably only including him on account of his brother, but it was something to do.

“Great. I hear one of the quarter finalists is actually a junior at Asheford National Academy. Do you think your brother knows him?” The boy was not able to do subtle.

Yes, because everyone at a school of nearly ten thousand knows each other. “He might. If he’s good enough to get this far in the tournament, chances are he asked some of the college’s Bondsmiths for help with his gear. Eric’s only a sophomore, but he’s doing well enough in his studies.”

“Let’s hope he wins then. Friend of a friend and all that.”

“Let’s.” Dylan tried hard not to roll his eyes. Who’s your friend? Possible acquaintance of an acquaintance’s brother. At best. He took a deep breath and watched the sky, following behind the small group of students.

The air above Fairbasin seemed to shimmer. It looked nice. Probably a result of the town’s reverse-engineered protective cover being impacted by fluctuating ambient mana. Pretty, but a sign of instability.

“How long until the tournament starts?” The girl with monster coated shoes asked.

Another girl looked at her watch. “Just over half an hour.”

“I think there’s enough time,” the first girl muttered. “I’m gonna run home and get a new pair of shoes. Save me a place.”

“Got it.”

Mitchell’s was one of the few bars in town with a public television, and with the International Collegiate Combat Tournament running, it would be packed.

It only took the rest of the group—Dylan, the thin boy, the girl who’d just spoken, and another two boys—a few minutes to reach the bar, but it took another ten to squeeze inside and get seated.

Maybe, coming here was a mistake. Dylan didn’t mind people but could do without crowds. Whatever, we’re already here. I may as well just watch.

He tilted his head to see through the throng of people in front of him until his gaze could make out enough of the television to understand what he was seeing. It was the end of a news program before the quarterfinals started.

“…Sanctuary is expected to stay near the Grey Forest until the herd’s migration is over before visiting the capital near the end of spring. Officials say they welcome the upcoming diplomatic exchange with the floating city, but they have warned the city against too much foraging as it passes through the Asheford Republic’s territory.”

On the screen was an image of a massive chunk of land, almost the size of a small mountain, hovering above a forest teeming with grey monsters that looked like a cross between an elk and a boar. The blond woman doing the newscast was mostly blocked by the bar’s other patrons.

“I wish I could see the floating city while it’s still in the Republic.” The thin boy spoke with an uncommonly sincere tone.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Why?” Another boy asked. “Belmond and his followers are all locusts, and you don’t have the money to travel to the capital for a casual visit. If you saw the floating city before it left, that would mean it flew right over Fairbasin and took everything of value with it.”

“Hey, they’re not like that!” The thin boy argued back. “The city itself is mostly self-sufficient. They only take a little from the land they travel over to supplement their needs.”

“And you actually believe that?”

“Why not? Belmond was one of the world’s great heroes during the Awakening. He wouldn’t just hurt people like that.”

“The Awakening was more than 150 years ago, and people change. He might have fought for the world when he was younger, but now he fights for Sanctuary and his own interests.”

“Not true. He—”

“Can you two shut up! I want to listen to this.” The remaining girl glared at them before turning back to the screen.

The news had moved on to another story.

“Most experts agree that the Tutorial will begin in about a month.” Dylan could see why the girl wanted to hear this; he wanted to hear it too. He’d turned eighteen a few months back and would be included when the system started its annual tutorial. Most of his classmates were in a similar situation.

“There are a few who disagree, claiming it will come earlier. According to Professor Hillcrest of Asheford National Academy, this year has seen a sharp increase in ambient mana, which may cause the System to start the Tutorial sooner than expected. The exact starting time of the tutorial has always fluctuated a bit, but has been mostly consistent. The professor has noted, however, that past cases of shortened tutorial cycles have coincided with increases in ambient mana, and this year has seen the largest increase on record. Contrary to the Hillcrest’s hypothesis, the general consensus is that these incidents are an example of correlation rather than causation. Taking the past few years as an example, we’ve had a stable annual tutorial cycle while seeing a continuous rise in amb—”

The screen flickered before going black.

The bar instantly became noisier as people began to complain or talk more with their companions.

“Oh, come on!” The thin boy. “There’s only five minutes left before the tournament starts!”

“Do you think they can get it fixed in time?” This from one of the boys who had mostly been quiet.

“Doubtful.” The boy who had been arguing about the floating city. “You know how finnicky these things can be. It’s hard to get the good tech when you’re not in a large city.”

“Don’t say that. I wanna see the fights!” The thin boy again.

“It’s just the truth.”

Dylan sighed. He really shouldn’t have come. Even though he knew the house would be empty, he should have just gone home. Not wanting to stay in a crowded bar full of upset, slightly tipsy patrons, he decided to cut his losses and call it an early night. Luckily, they hadn’t had time to order anything yet, so there was no bill to split.

He stood up and stretched before facing his classmates. “I’m gonna head home.”

“No, don’t go. Ignore him. They’ll have it fixed in no time.”

“They might.” Dylan said. “But I’m feeling more tired than I expected today. I want to go get some rest.”

The thin boy huffed a bit before letting it go. “Fine, but don’t complain in class tomorrow when everyone’s talking about how great the fights were and you don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Dylan smiled. “I won’t. See you tomorrow.”

With that, he began to weave his way through the crowd until he was finally able to get outside. It was probably an illusion brought by the contrast of the feeling of claustrophobia he had inside Mitchell’s, but the air felt crisper than it had just twenty minutes ago.

Dylan took a deep breath, looked up at the still shimmering sky, and started walking. He’d only made it to the end of the street before bumping into somebody.

“Hey!”

“Sh—, sorry.” Dylan caught himself before swearing and apologized. He was the one who had been looking up rather than at the road in front of him, after all.

Looking back down, Dylan saw that it was the girl who’d gone to change her shoes earlier.

She took a moment to compose herself before letting out a breath. “It’s fine. Why are you out here?”

“TV cut out. I didn’t want to wait around to see if it would get fixed.” He paused. “It’s really crowded in there.”

The girl looked like she wanted to say something when the ground shook. Both teens struggled to keep their feet, instinctively leaning on each other for support.

Sizzling came from the protective cover above, like meat just thrown on a skillet.

The previously shimmering air was now roiling, dizzying to look at.

For a moment the world seemed to stop. Dylan saw everything clearly. Indecipherable patterns of rotating mana suspended in the sky above him. Fine cracks spreading along the now fully visible protective cover. A small bird in a seemingly frozen freefall. Each strand of the girls brunette hair suspended in the space between them.

His head hurt. In the stillness, he felt a spot of wetness cloying its way down the insides of his nostrils. Blood.

His heart beat.

Before he had time to think about what had just happened, a sudden explosion of light pillared its way toward the sky just beyond Fairbasin’s town limits. The dungeon.

Where the world was just frozen, now it was Dylan’s turn.

That light came from the dungeon.

He almost couldn’t think, but he knew what it meant. How could he not? It was the greatest fear of anyone living in a dungeon town. Especially one as remote as Fairbasin.

Dungeon break.

When the walls of the dungeon could no longer suppress the amount of mana and the creatures it had inside. When the world at the dungeon’s entrance was turned inside out, and a horde of monsters flooded the surrounding land.

Dylan turned his head at a sudden noise. It was the girl. She was screaming at him.

“—ylan! I need a mana crystal.” In place of her earlier squeamish attitude, she was now resolute. “Dylan?”

It took a moment to fully regain his senses and push past the bubbling headache. He quickly wiped the blood dripping from his nose before he responded. “What?”

“I need a mana crystal for my shield. Do you have one?”

He thought for a moment. “Not on me.” He paused. “I have a couple at home.” Those who hadn’t been baptized by the Tutorial rarely had mana crystals unless they were from a wealthy family, but before leaving to visit his brother, his parents had given him five so that he could use the town’s communication array to contact them.

“Let’s go.”

Dylan, still a little dazed, took a second before responding. “Yeah.”

He took the lead and started running to his house. A glance up and he saw the cracks spreading faster. He ran quicker.