Chapter 1

"Today's gonna be another hard day of work." Karl murmured to himself as he was approaching the abandoned school building in the dead of night.

The school building stood there, on the outskirts of Vienna dark and abandoned, not a single soul setting foot in it for who knows how long. The school was due for demolishing in a couple of weeks. But before that could be done Karl had to fulfill his job.

Karl was a young man of 18 with black hair and a slim build. He didn't possess strong muscles and one could see it.

'It's been a long time since I've been here. Huuh-'.

In the darkness it looked really creepy, kind of otherworldly, Karl thought to himself.

He walked in through the front gate and headed for the school entrance.

It was in the same state as the rest of the building. Broken and unsightly.

'I wonder if everyone else is already there.'

As he entered the abandoned building he walked up a flight of stairs and arrived at the place everyone had been called to.

It was a pretty big classroom, where the desks had been pushed to the side, to make room for the people inside.

Counting the heads, there were about 15 People here. A sizable amount for the task at hand, Karl thought to himself as he checked if he knew anybody.

He turned his head from left to right and tried recognizing people that were here.

'I hope I'm not alone here. I'm not really feeling it today to be honest.'

But just as he was about to give up on finding someone, he got tapped on the shoulder.

"Hey Karl, it seems like we'll be working together again. Please take care of me."

It was a gentle tap, and the voice behind him was a familiar and friendly one at that.

Karl turned around and looked at the smiling man with brown hair in front of him.

"Good evening Markus, though I think I should be the one saying that."

Karl's worries lifted slightly as soon as he found out he wasn't alone. He was able to regain some of his composure and smiled slightly at Marcus.

"So how've you been? It's been ages since we last worked together. 2-3 Months maybe, I can't quite remember, that's how long ago that was."

Karl now calmer then before smiled and answered happily.

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"It has been an eternity hasn't it? I'm fine and you? How are the kids?"

"Oh they're fantastic. Happy to have a little bit more money now before Christmas. They sure are looking forward to their presents. By the way do you maybe want to-"

"RAID COMMENCING IN 50 SECONDS. EVERYONE GET READY."

And just like that their small talk got cut short.

They looked at each other, now more focused on the task at hand than anything else.

"It's a weaker level 1 this time right?" Markus asked as he looked Karl, eyes beaming with concentration.

"It is, otherwise I wouldn't be here."

Markus chuckled slightly as he went to his position.

As he was a tank he went to the front along with every other tank.

"Tanks in the front, mages and supports in the back and fighters in the middle. That's our formation today. Everyone hurry up and let's get this thing over with quickly."

The man acting as the leader of this raid, spew out orders and the others followed them immediately.

'So he's the highest ranked one. I wonder what Rank he is.'

Karl slowly moved into the middle of the pack, surrounded with likeminded people. Next to him stand multiple men, about 6 of them. They were all of a similar physique as Karl, skinny yet possessing the smallest amount of muscle necessary for this job.

'So there's going to be six of us.'

Karl turned his head around to check out the number of people behind him.

There were about 7 People standing there, some mages, some supports, no rangers though.

The Mage and support classes were easily differentiable because they wore different looking hats.

The mages wore a long black, grizzled hat that looked like it came from the previous century, nonetheless they shot upwards towards the, now black, sky for at least 30 cm.

On the other end, the Supports wore normal, well designed blankets or helmets on their heads. The color of Gold and red were a common occurrence on these blankets, as they strengthen the healing magic of the supports. There was also the color of the grass, but finding a blanket with that color here is quite unlikely as they strengthen the magic significantly, so only the healers Ranked B and above could afford to wear them.

'We have a sizable amount of healers here, this might just be easier than I thought it would.'

Clenching his fists in pure anticipation Karl looked around once more to spot the position of the leader.

And after a second or two he quickly found him meddling with his brand new looking armor in the front. He was wearing heavy armor that shine in the moonlight, there were so many layers of iron over it that it made him look like a fat man.

'He's in the perfect position. In the front, able to strategically command everyone else while still being able to get a feel for the battlefield.'

Karl was slightly less anxious knowing that the leader was a Tank. If he had been a Mage or a Support, Karl thought about just leaving the Raid party. Thankfully he turned out to be a heavily armored Tank, so his determination rose back up to the level it should've been at from the start.

Having confirmed the contents of his party Karl looked forward and looked at the doorway in front of him.

It was the entrance to the level 1 Dungeon they were entering. A blue aura flew out of the pitch black door.

Even though it was fully closed, the aura escaped through the small opening on the bottom.

"Seems like this one won't be a hard one."

One of the mages from the back said, as he used a spell to check the magical energy of the Gate.

'It seems I got quite lucky this time'

Karl got himself ready, tied his shoes again, got his training suit into place and just waited for the start.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

The people next to Karl started breathing heavy. Their eyes full of bloodlust.

It seemed like the want to kill would seep out of one of the large guys standing next to Karl.

"6"

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

'It's all or nothing from this point on.'

"1"

"GO!!"

The leader screamed as him and the other tanks rushed in.

Their heavy armor rustling and bustling on their bulky bodies could be seen and heard from the other people present. The armor that was made to withstand attacks from monsters double the size of its wearer was naturally were loud as its heaviness created a lot of noise when moving around.

But they did not care about that at the moment. All their concentration was focused on entering the Dungeon.

Everything else was secondary to them right now. They only cared about this one thing.

After the tanks went in, in what seemed like a split second difference, the Fighters and mages ran in hurriedly as well.