That night Diego dreamt of great magical beasts that flew through the skies.
It was gigantic in stature with arms and legs as thick as trees, a great maw filled with sharp fangs, horns attop is head, covered in crimson scales, and carried across the heavens on two massive wings.
This being embodied power and all others bowed before it, offered acclaims of admiration and fear.
The beast soared through the skies letting out a powerful reverberating roar–
– Diego opened his eyes, staring at a familiar ceiling above him.
He had lifted his upper body and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
After getting over that sense of grogginess one has after waking he immediately takes note of what may have awakened him.
He felt the hairs in his body stand on end. A similar sensation one feels when there is static in the air just before lightning strikes.
This was an all too familiar feeling to seasoned Hunters like himself. What he was experiencing wasn't an incoming thunderstorm.
What he was feeling was magical energy flowing through the atmosphere. At this scale the phenomena was caused by the opening of a Gate.
Diego immediately got out of bed, and looked out his window.
Right in front of his home was a Gate.
Judging by the size of it, he estimated it was E-Rank.
The area around it was completely empty, this Gate must have just opened and the Bureau had yet to take notice of it.
Diego put on some clothes, took his equipment, and hurried out of his home.
He looked around and was a bit baffled at the shocking silence in his neighborhood.
Yes it was three in the morning, but to have absolutely no one but him notice the surge of energy felt almost eerie.
After taking one last look around, he walks towards the Gate.
Ordinarily it was prohibited for anyone to enter Gates without a review from the Bureau, but Diego just couldn’t pass up such a rare opportunity to grab a few magical crystals while no one was the wiser.
Especially since he had accidentally consumed the big ticket item he wanted to sell.
The plan was to just pop in, take a look around, see what he could take, then call it into the Bureau.
After taking a deep breath Diego walks into the Gate.
The Dungeon was a dark cave faintly lit by torches.
At the entrance were scraps of wood strewn about. Some were used as makeshift fortifications, various primitive effigies, and stone tools.
All signs point to this Dungeon being a goblin nest.
Of all magical beasts recorded, Goblins are considered some of the most common and weakest. roughly the size of children and roughly just as strong, they aren’t much of a challenge for even E-Rank Hunters.
Goblin nests are such a low level threat that they tend to be used as training grounds for rookie Hunters.
But, even if individually they are weak, what they lack in strength they make up for in numbers.
One should never let their guard down in a goblin nest as they know the turf better than any Hunter and the best places to hide.
Goblins may be considered trash by most Hunters, but to Diego they were a boon.
They were so low leveled, that even he could kill one or two at a time without much difficulty, so long as they didn't gang up on him.
As a bonus, goblins carried weapons.
Even if they were crude and broke easily, they were at least free. So Diego would happily stock up on them whenever he could even if it made other Hunters laugh at him.
Diego took a closer look at the effigy, it was a cow's skull on top of a long stake with a sign nailed to it.
The sign had crudely drawn runic letters written on it.
A symbol of worship, this sign meant there was a goblin shaman amongst the horde, most likely the Boss of this Dungeon.
Seeing as how this dungeon was too dark, Diego felt it would be too dangerous to go in alone, even if it was just goblins.
They hadn't immediately come out, letting Diego know they were most likely waiting in the shadows to ambush any careless Hunter.
VREEN!!
KRRK!!
“...!!”
Diego was shocked to see that behind, a barrier had formed around the Gate entrance.
He tried touching it, but was immediately pushed back by a magical force.
The runic formula within the barrier may have been of a crude design, but were still above his level of power to break through.
“Oh no…”
Diego panicked as he realized he was trapped.
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This wasn't new to him, there have been plenty of instances where Gates were sealed to trap Hunters within.
A skilled enough magician could undo the seal, killing the caster also does the trick, or even just waiting for the magical energy that powers the seal to dry up.
It's also common for Hunters themselves to seal Gate entrances for various reasons.
The problem here was, Diego was alone, and didn't have any of the tools to undo a seal.
“Crap crap crap crap crap crap!!! What do I do now!?”
Diego ruffles his hair in panic, thinking what his next course of action would be.
At this moment, he only had two options.
He could either clear the Dungeon himself, or wait for the Bureau to show up.
If he waited, it could potentially take hours before they appear and because he came into a Dungeon unauthorized, it could also lead to his license being revoked.
Without a license, he would no longer be eligible to enter Dungeons.
“No way, I'm not risking it.”
With an expression of determination, Diego draws his sword and grabs a torch off the wall.
His only option is to kill the barrier caster and escape before the Bureau arrives.
If his hunch is correct, the caster is the Dungeon boss.
For the first time in his life, he will have to clear a Dungeon Solo.
***
Diego follows the cave path, guided by torch light.
Along the path, scraps of wood and parts of the cave are obscured by shadows.
At a turn Diego spots another effigy.
The section of the tunnel across from the effigy is obscured in shadows, to an almost suspicious degree.
Diego readies his sword and thrusts it into the shadows.
STAB!!!!
“GRAAH!!”
Diego pulls back his blade, the tip is covered in blood.
A goblin falls to the ground dead.
“GRAAAAAHHH!!”
Another goblin leaps from the shadows out from the shadows and attempts to stab Diego with a knife.
Diego quickly dodges the attack and swings down his sword on the back of the Goblin's head.
KSSH!!
THUD!!
The goblin falls to the ground dead.
Diego pulls his sword out of the creature's head.
He extends his torch to illuminate the crevice shadows.
The crevice is shallow, and the only goblins were the two that were dead.
Diego crouches down to grab the goblins’ weapons and to extract their cores.
WOOOOOOO!!
“!!!”
Energy radiates from the goblins’ corpses.
The energy, in the appearance of light blue wisps, flows into Diego's left arm.
His arm absorbs that energy.
The energy invigorates him.
“!?”
Diego gets back on his feet.
He feels the energy flowing through him, it feels like he has had a full eight hours of sleep.
He then remembers his dream and the image of that great magical beast enters his mind.
‘Is this that creature's ability?’
Deciding to put a pin in this for now, Diego continues to explore the Dungeon after collecting what he needs from the goblin corpses.
There were no further issues as Diego walked down the tunnel.
A short distance away from where he was ambushed, the tunnel opened into a chamber filled with scaffolding, more scraps of wood lying around, and bones.
Within the chamber are several other paths that lead deeper into the Dungeon.
Diego carefully looks around pointing his torch at the crevices behind him to make sure there were no surprises.
After feeling satisfied with the level of security, he looks at the three different paths he could potentially take.
GRRRR!!
Before he could make his decision, several goblins emerged from each entrance.
While still the size of human children, each goblin varied in stockiness, height, and musculature.
They all wore varying amounts of old broken pieces of armor covering whatever they could. Most of their sickly grayish skin was left bare where some had scars or tribal tattoos were shown.
Some carried wooden shields, wooden spears, clubs, torches, and axes.
The goblins all rushed at Diego ready to eviscerate him.
He easily dodges several of the goblins' attacks, stepping back towards the tunnel he emerged from.
‘My body feels so light!’
Ordinarily Diego would struggle with just two goblins, but noticing how well he was performing, he felt he could handle this horde so long as his weapon didn't break.
‘I can't let these guys get behind me.’
Diego continues evading and backing towards the entrance he had come in from.
His plan was to bottleneck this horde and fight them in a more manageable manner.
He may have felt he could take all of them, but actually doing so was a different story.
It was not a problem leading the goblin horde into the tunnel, they were so focused on killing the Hunter, that they failed to notice the narrowing walls.
By the time they realized they had squeezed together so tightly they couldn't move, it had already been too late.
The leading goblins panic as they see the terrifying image before them.
They try to struggle to get loose, but just can't.
Diego grins widely as he brings down his sword.
He cleaves the first goblin's head in two, instantly killing it.
KSSH!!
KSSH!!
KSSH!
He continues to go down the line violently dismembering the trapped goblins as he goes.
He removes the corpses that are in the way, while this frees up some of the goblins, they are no issue for Diego and he quickly disposes of them.
As he continues his slaughter, energy from the corpses wisp away and enter his body through his arm.
This invigorates him, creating an almost perpetual motion machine of violence.
It does not take Diego long to dispose of the last goblin.
After verifying he is alone and that all the enemies had been defeated, Diego catches his breath.
He doesn't feel tired, instead he feels wide awake.
He reasoned that it was the work of his new skill and started believing that maybe it wasn't a bad thing that he had attained it.
If he could fight like this all the time, then his problems as an E-rank Hunter may actually be over.
He looked down at his sword and the high he felt immediately wore off.
What he was holding was a broken piece of steel.
Even if they were enhanced with magic, weapons still had their durability limits and broke down.
Especially if they were of a lower quality.
But still, despite this weapon being on the lower end, it still cost Diego nearly five grand to buy.
Diego sighs accepting his careless mistake and simply throws the sword aside.
He pulls out the knife he had previously taken and tests it by swinging it in the air.
The knife was a primitive thing made from the sharpened jawbone of a large creature. The hilt was wrapped in a leather strap that was tied at both ends to the “blade”.
Despite its crude nature, the weapon was made from the remains of a magical beast and therefore still possessed magical energy within.
The energy was plenty to pierce the hides of any creature that would reside in this Dungeon.
Diego looked back at his work and began harvesting the corpses of the goblins.
He decided to grab a few more weapons, and quickly extracted the magical cores and placed them in his bag.
The amount of cores he had amassed was more than he had ever done in any single Dungeon raid.
He had also grabbed a few weapons he could use for future raids and felt for the first time in his life he had made actual progress at being a Hunter.
Looking at his arm once more he thought about how his abilities were dramatically raised, to think this was all he needed to be a real Hunter.
A surge of confidence envelopes his body, and with determination he moves forward ready to tackle the final challenge of this Dungeon.
He didn’t know how long he was in there, but he knew he had to hurry as there was the real possibility the Bureau was right around the corner.
***
Diego follows the path down the tunnel until he comes to another opening further in. In front of the opening was a crude wooden effigy.
He had reached the goblin nest. A large clearing filled with shelters made of scrap wood and primitive furnishings.
On the walls of this clearing were large blue crystals that radiated magical energy. The true prize for all Hunters.
Magical crystals are used as a source of energy in the modern world, they are still a fairly new resource and testing is still being conducted on their viability as a permanent alternative to fossil fuels.
But, they are no less valuable and plenty of organizations pay top dollar for them, just so they can get their foot into the market.
As much as he wanted to, there was absolutely no way Diego could mine these crystals and bring them back with him.
He didn’t have the equipment, or manpower to carry them off.
And even if he did, the Bureau would notice and that would be the end of his career.
The only thing he could do now was to defeat the Boss and exit the Dungeon.