Standing outside in the frost was not something Karl liked to do much. However, because of the situation he was in at the moment it could not be helped.

He was standing in an abandoned building in the middle of December, wearing nothing more than a regular Tracksuit. He was freezing to put it lightly.

But despite that, Karl could not help but feel excited at the opportunity that had presented itself. Franz had written him the night before, asking him if he wanted to partake in a Raid.

And seeing the opportunity present itself, Karl was happy to oblige.

Now that he actually had the power to accomplish something, he was more eager than ever before in his life. He wanted to take every opportunity he could to get his revenge on the monsters that destroyed his life.

"Don't be so hasty, or else you might be rushing into your doom sooner rather than later."

Said the voice that had introduced himself as Geist to Karl the night before.

"I know, but I just can't contain myself. Now that I have the chance to actually achieve my goals, I'm more motivated than ever."

"You need to keep a calm mindset. You are not strong enough to afford haste and arrogance. Those two might well become the end of you before completing your goal."

Karl listened to the words of Geist carefully and took them to heart.

Whilst talking with him in the past couple of days, he had come to realize, that Geist was an incredibly wise person. He was someone who radiated the aura of an experienced veteran, often knowing what would happen if certain actions were taken. Through these conversations Karl began to rely on Geist’s teachings and started thinking about his actions going forward more carefully.

"I know....but I just can't contain these emotions."

Having finally gotten a chance to achieve his goals, Karl's emotions were overflowing. They were impossible to keep under control. Yet, due to Geist’s warnings he still tried doing so anyway.

Whilst thinking about the upcoming raid a hand suddenly landed on Karl's shoulder.

It felt like a large and muscular hand, like it was hardened.

Karl instantly knew who's it was.

"Didn't expect you to actually partake in the raid. So, what brought this on?"

The familiar voice of one of his acquaintances rang out as Karl turned around and shook the man's hand.

It was Markus, the one that had invited him to this raid in the first place.

"Haha, I wanted to earn a little bit more money, so that I can take it easy during the holidays."

With a smile Karl responded.

'I probably shouldn't let anybody know of this ability until I can at least protect myself sufficiently.'

Karl had decided to keep quiet about his ability for the time being, as he was not sure what it could entail for him if he were to talk of it.

People might think he's crazy in the beginning, but after seeing results, they might want to start experimenting on him or try to find out how the ability works. These were all things Karl did not want to deal with, so he decided it was for the best if he simply stayed quiet.

"Yeah, the last Dungeon had a small paycheck. So, you going to keep the same strategy?"

"Strategy..... What do you mean with that?"

"You know, the staying back and avoiding fights strategy you always seem to prefer."

Markus laughed mightily as he made that joke.

Karl didn't look really pleased with that joke, but he decided not to take it the wrong way, as he knew it was only friendly banter.

"No but seriously, what will you do? This Dungeon is almost level 2 you know. It’s really dangerous. I won't be able to protect you this time, I will have a hard-enough time protecting myself from those monsters. Protecting someone else is out of the question."

Karl smiled as he replied to the warning.

"Don't worry. I'll be able to protect myself if the situation gets dangerous."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Where is all that confidence coming from? If someone were to hear that without knowing you, they would think you were a strong adventurer. Hahaha~"

Markus laughed as he tipped Karl on the shoulder.

But after a second his expression changed.

"But really, be careful in there. This isn't like anything you've seen before, don't get arrogant and run if you need to."

As Markus was giving the young man one last warning, a man with short blonde hair approached.

"You guys getting ready?" the mysterious man asked in a friendly tone.

***

After entering the Dungeon Karl was walking alongside other Fighters from his Group. There were 5 of them in total. 4 guys and 1 girl. None of them looked that strong to Karl, but he was almost completely certain of the fact that they were stronger than him.

Because of this he felt a strange sense of security. He did not know how to feel about that, but alas it could not be helped, he thought.

The Dungeon they were in was completely made out of bones, every wall, corner, roof and even the floor were complete structures made from bones. Their sizes looked like they were taken right out of human bodies, but they were sturdier than normal bones. One could walk on them, without the fear of them breaking.

"Ahh, when's the fighting gonna start? I wanna fight already."

One of Karl's companions was eagerly waving his sword with a frown on his face.

He had blonde hair and big muscles, that were visible to the naked eye.

"Settle down, you'll alert the enemy." The Girl from the group warned him.

She looked like she was in her early twenties, with puffy cheeks and long brown hair. She carried her sword at her waist, and the way in which she was walking, one could see she was always ready for an ambush.

"Huh! That's my goal you idiot. If they know we're here, they'll come to us won't they?"

"You shouldn't do reckless things like that. If you were here alone I wouldn't care, but I am here too, as well as a lot of other people. So, you shouldn't put everyone in danger because of your bloodlust."

"Don't worry, I'm strong enough to beat every monster in this cave by myself. So, you can rest easy knowing you're safe and just let me do what I want." he proclaimed as he put his finger to his chest and displayed a wild smile.

The girl looked mad and replied.

" It's idiots like you that get everyone killed. You should stop with that nonsense immediately."

" What did you just call me? "

The boy walked up to the girl and was ready to pull her up by the collar, when another member intervened.

The boy had short blue hair and had a calm expression with a slight smile.

" It's okay guys calm down. We're a team, we shouldn't bicker like this."

He waved his arms, trying to calm the situation at hand. But it didn't seem to work.

The boy and the girl continued to bicker and argue back and forth, whilst the young man with blue hair held them apart from each other.

This continued on for a couple more minutes, until the two people arguing noticed the parties in the front looking at them judgingly.

The girl quickly noticed what was going on and apologized.

"I'm sorry for causing a ruckus."

Looking genuinely sorry, she immediately stopped talking and walked further away from the other boy.

He seemed to understand the situation at hand, but couldn't help but throw a last verbal jab.

"You giving up?" he asked while smiling like he had just achieved victory.

The young woman ignored him in turn and just looked forward as she walked.

With that it was over.

The Ruckus which had swept the fighter team vanished, and silence returned.

"Whuh, thankfully it ended without any fights breaking out."

The blue haired boy that had mediated the conflict said as he approached Karl.

"It's never a good thing if there is in fighting between the members of a group. Don't you agree?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, in fighting only leads to sloppy teamwork and more mistakes. We should avoid that at all cost."

"Oh-ho, you seem to know your stuff. My name's Leo by the way."

"Karl. It's a pleasure."

As they exchanged pleasantries the boy introduced the other members of the group. He had come to know Their names earlier, before they entered the Dungeon.

The girls name was Kristina and the boy's Alex.

They were both fighters of Rank D, much stronger than Karl was at this point. He didn't know how to feel about two people stronger than him bickering. He wasn't confident in being able to stop the fight, if it ever occurred.

But thankfully he had this guy, Leo, who was also a rank D fighter, so he was able to relax a little.

Consequently, Leo tried talking to the other fighter in the group, but he only ended up being ignored in the end.

This fellow was quite weird, Karl thought to himself.

His outfit looked really shabby, with holes protruding out of everywhere, his pants hanging, and his face covered by a black medical mask that covered everything except his eyes.

No matter how one looked at him, he looked weird. And it didn't help that he was constantly shaking and talking to himself in quiet.

'Ahhh, what a weird guy.'

Karl ended it with that, realizing it was a waste to continue to worry about that guy.

Walking along the Dungeon, Karl couldn't help but feel slightly nervous because of the Team's synergy. He was mainly worried about their Teamwork and if they would even work together in the first place.

He continued worrying about this as he walked deeper and deeper into the Dungeon.

***

The room the party entered after about an hour of walking was huge. An open area, where a hundred people could fit in easily. The makeup of the room stayed the same, but the sheer size of it surprised even the veteran Adventurers.

Karl also could not help but feel amazed by the size of the room. Incidentally, this was the first time he had seen a room this large in a Dungeon.

'You can see, this is a higher-level Dungeon...' he thought to himself as he checked it out with a gaping mouth.

"Woah, look, there's no roof!"

The blue haired man beside him said, also floored by the size of the room.

"How far do you think the ceiling expands to?" he asked.

Karl looked up at the ceiling, and seeing nothing but a pitch-black void, decided to answer nonchalantly.

"Who knows. It might not even have a roof."

Saying things like, "That would be crazy." and "Do you think there's something up there?", Leo's imagination ran wild.

After everybody had their fair share of amazement, the Leader of the group, a blonde-haired man, looking to be in his early thirties, decided to keep advancing.

"Come on men, we are still far away from our Goal. We won't stop until we reach the entrance to the Boss!" he shouted as he waved to everyone to follow him.

With eyes still sparkling with wonder, everyone decided it was smarter to follow the leader. So, without complaints everyone continued.

"Such a huge room must be really rare if even you've never seen it before Leo." Karl said as they continued onward.

"Yeah, in all my life I have never once come across a room that was this big. I don't think I've even seen a room half this one's size either."

"Speaking of which, you've been adventuring for quite some time now haven't you?"

"Yeah, I've been doing it since I was eleven years old...."

After hearing that, Karl couldn't help but jitter.

Somebody going into Dungeons at that age, I can't imagine what it must have been like, he thought to himself.

"They told me I had the talent and wanted me to nurture it. So, I ended up entering at quite a young age."

Leo showed a smile after a couple of seconds later, but one could see there were complicated emotions behind it.

Karl didn't know how to react, so he quickly tried changing the subject.

" But this Dungeon sure is weird. I mean just look at this ro--"

Before he could finish his sentence, something sudden happened.

The one and only pathway leading onward, suddenly closed.

The Bones, which made up the wall suddenly started moving and producing more milk white bones. Which in turn connected to the ones on the other side, closing the pathway.

"What's happening?!"

Karl looked around nervously, trying to figure out his situation.

"It's closing behind us to!"

One of the Healers wearing a red cloth screamed as he hastily looked back.

"This is bad! Really bad! We're trapped in here."

"Was this a trap?! Can we get out of it?!"

"There's no way out!"

Some of the less experienced people started freaking out and making a fuss, which in turn made other members of the party worry as well.

"This is not good. If we don't calm down, who knows what will happen." Leo said as he looked to the people panicking.

"We need to help them calm down before it's too late."

Leo urges Karl as he goes over to the panicking people.

Karl panics as well, but with Leo's words he regains a little bit of his composure.

He as well goes over to people who are panicking and starts calming them down.

But then an eerie echo reverberates from the pitch-black Void above them.

The sound transmitted sounded like something was cutting the air as it was heading downwards.

Swish! Swoosh!

After it got louder and louder, the sound of clinking could also be heard.

"What's that?!" one of the Adventurers asked.

After everybody was frozen in space, too anxious to move, only then could they truly see what was quickly approaching the group.