The teacher pointed at Jake, “We’ll start with the people in the front.” Jake, not being sure what a proper response would be, casually nodded back at the teacher. He looked a lot cooler than what he really was, which pissed off the nobles beside him, who were clearly stressed.

“Do you know what to do? You probably do... Ah screw it, I’ll give all of an explanation now so listen closely because I’ll only say this once. You are going to capture your first monster.” The teacher coughed. “This will be the monster who starts your journey to creating your dungeon, this monster will aid you in many ways, so get a good one.”

“The way you capture a monster is by pressing their head against the floor for three seconds straight.” The teacher dramatically stopped in order to emphasize the point.

“Now if you die now, you’re dead forever. So don’t die, in other words, don’t get overconfident. Know your limits. Let me remind you, this isn’t your final- bla bla bla... bla bla bla. bla bla bla.” Jake couldn’t be bothered listening, and began fantasizing succubuses.

“One more thing, a week in there is a single second here so take as much time as you want to capture a monster.”

“Now that being said. Let’s begin!” Those words made the classroom a bit colder, the mood was dead serious. Charlie looked towards Jake and gave him a nod, alongside a small smile, Jake smiled back. All the students sitting next to Jake felt their

The teacher looked at Jake with an expectant view, and waited for him to come forward. Jake stood up from, his chair pushed back making a screeching noise, and he walked across the cold and hard stone floor towards the front of the classroom. All the students sitting close to him, the students who would do the test soon, felt knots in their stomachs. Jake had felt the exact same thing, but as he walked towards the globe all of that faded away.

He tried to place his hand on the white ball but it repelled him before he could. He tried to place his hand on it again, and this time pushed, he felt the force radiating from the ball repelling his hand, but he continued to push. It was as if two magnets were repelling each other.

His hand had gotten close, and suddenly, the white ball sucked it in. His hand sizzled as it made contact, then it froze and vibrated, the pain made his knees buckle. His teeth seethed as he strained not to scream, he tried pulling back his hand but it was stuck on the burning globe. He felt the burn travel up his arm, as if it was a liquid, his entire arm shook and the world in front of him disintegrated.

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He stood on a metal circle. He was in a cross section between a forest with tall trees coloured in red and green; a desert with dry sand and a tall horizon; a mountainous area with lots of stone; and a dark plain filled covered by grey thick clouds.

In front of him stood an orc. He knew the orc and the orc knew him, it was one of his fathers first workers. He was tall, almost 3 meters tall, muscle bulging, he wore a cow skull as a necklace and he grew a wide manly white mustache. Also, his voice had the tone of a mouse.

“Hey Jake kiddo!”

“Yo Jerome. I can’t believe father sent you. How’s his dungeon without you?”

“They’ll manage for a few days without me, don’t stress it. Anyhow, do you want me to catch you an orc?”

Jake was lucky to have Jerome here to aid him. Because without Jerome he’d have to wrestle the monsters himself, which was the fate of many poorer children. The opposite could be said for the nobler children, they were usually sent the strongest monsters from the get go, getting to pick any starting monster.

“I wanna try catching a gargoyle.” Jake said.

“Did you just say gargoyle?” Jerome asked.

“Yup.” Jake answered.

“I met one of those. They were nasty, made of stone and huge. I’ll tell the truth, I can’t beat that.” Jerome said.

“Don’t stress it. I gotta plan.” Jake said.

“Okay sure, what’s the plan then?” Jerome asked.

“Follow me, first we have to find one of the gargoyle.” Jake said.

“Are there even gargoyles here.” Jerome asked.

“Yup. It’s just hard to find.” Jake answered.

In the forest there were many creatures, but mainly there were skeletons and slimes. Sometimes you’d see skeletons riding the slimes. And for the most part, they were peaceful, not noticing Jake whether it be for incompetence or goddess. Sometimes they would attack though.

The skeletons were slow, weaky and flimy. But they did have a great strength, and that was how tricky they were to kill. Whether you separate their head, or cut their limbs off, or trap them underwater, they wouldn’t die.

Jerome had a club, one made out of metal. It was a horn of a beast he had slain in the past. And when the skeletons attacked them, he’d grab their heads like a nail, and then bash them down into the ground with his club. For the slimes, he kicked away, but slowly, as if passing a ball to a toddler. They would emit a “wee” sound, and skit away.

Eventually, they saw a graveyard. The irony was that there were no real people living here, the graves had been completely artificially made, as with almost everything else in this world. Here there were countless undead monsters, and most importantly gargoyles.

The graveyard was huge, a thick mist crowded the graveyard and the land around. There were small stone walls with metal sticks sticking out of them surrounding the graveyard, all around the graveyard there were lanterns shining a fickle light. Some of the lanterns appeared to be moving, really those were a type of ghost, that excelled in luring people to their deaths.