Chapter 1:

I was turning 16 soon, and I was stuffing my head with knowledge. My birthday is on October 15th, and December 31st is approaching rapidly. The most important event in my life is going to occur soon, as I'm going to enter the first floor of the dungeon.The 16th birthday, is like a coming of ceremony for everyone, as it is when they are allowed to enter the dungeon. December 31st is when the sixteen year-olds can enter, as everyone turns from 15 to 16 by then.

I don't live in a planet, there is no planets. The universe is one big dungeon, which has uncountable floors as no one has reached the top. There are many races living in the dungeon, they all have statuses. People have levels, which can be leveled up by killing monsters in the dungeon. I'm currently level 1, since I was born and raised in level 0, the first safe zone where there is no monsters. It is the most peaceful place in the dungeon, but it is the place void of experience for leveling up.

Each floor is different, and have different challenges, all floors have mini-bosses, and every 5 floors, there is a safe zone. To enter the safe zone, you have to kill the mini-boss of that floor, it is the only challenge on that floor. After killing it, you may enter that floor (the whole floor is a safe zone) without having to fight the mini-boss. If you are born on a higher level, you don't have to face the mini-bosses of safe zones on lower levels.

The challenges in the dungeon may be mazes, survival, killing others or the labyrinth on the 100th floor. The challenge is written on an indestructible board when entering the floor. There may be rules for the floor, and if you fail to follow them, there will be consequences. It can range from years of labour for the dungeon to immediate death.

There are also adventurer guilds, which have missions for specific dungeon floors. Many people earn money this way, and this is how many people choose to get richer. People also join the guild because it provides some basic training for free, while schools cost money.

Even though there is various races like demons, humans, elves, etc, there is no discrimination except from certain groups. There are many hybrid creatures, such as myself, as I'm a half black tiger and half high elf. Because of my race, I had innate agility, and innate high mana and mana control, paired with my claws. I had average talent for archery among high elves.

I had black hair, with green glowing eyes with a slit pupil instead of a round pupil, a sharp nose and had long ears.  My ears are the most unique part of me, as it is long like an elf ear, but it is rounded at the tip and is covered with black fur. It was soft, and I had better hearing than an normal black tigers. My claws were black, and were retractable, and I had a soft black furred tail. Other than that, I was 6 foot 1 and had a lean figure.

After reading my books, I started training my mana control. I made the mana weave around my arm, turn into a dragon, and turn into different shapes at varying speeds.  When I finished training my mana control, I returned home as I had Dungeon Survival School, a school which teaches students how to survive in the dungeon.

I took a bath, got my bag ready and headed downstairs. Then I heard my mom say " Arjun, come down faster! You're going to be late to school at this rate."

I hurry down the stairs, almost tumbling, and ran out. My mom kissed me on the cheek and gave me my lunch. My father was already at work at the adventurers guild, he was a manager of the guild, so he received some decent pay.

The currency of the world is copper coin, bronze coin, silver coin, gold coin, diamond coin, dragon coin and finally royal coin. 10 copper equals 1 silver, 10 silver equals 1 gold, 10 gold equals 1 diamond, 100 diamond coin equals 1 dragon coin and finally 100 dragon coin equals 1 royal coin. The coins are impossible to make, and can only be earned as loot by killing monsters.

A normal family earns off 1 gold a year, but my family makes 10 gold a year. My family can be consider slightly wealthy, but it isn't much compared to the truly wealthy. The truly wealthy are lucky as they can purchase skill books. Skill books are items which lets anybody learn the skill without any effort, immediately. They are dropped by monsters, but they are creatable. Using a mana infused book, pour the information of the skill into the book and use the skill on it. This will make the skill enter the book and turn it into a skill book.

Arranging my thoughts, I say status.

Status Window Name:Arjun HunterLevel:1Race:Black Tiger/High Elf HybridGender:MaleTitles 2 Locked TitlesHealth Regen:0.6x fasterMana:254 / 254Mana Regen:1/ Sec-Strength:15Agility:26Vitality:12Dexterity18Intelligence:22Wisdom:20Charisma:13Luck:10Spirit10

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I then call out skills.

SkillsMana ManipulationIntermediate Level 1Mana ArmourBeginner Level 3Mana ClawBeginner Level 7IdentifyBeginner Level 9Mana RoarBeginner Level 5

Mana ManipulationAllows for much easier movement and shaping of mana. The cost is greatly reduced. 3 mana/sec

Mana ArmourCoats skill user in an armour of mana. Increases attack damage, defence and speed of user. 20 mana/sec

Mana ClawCovers users claws in mana. Allows for more armour penetration, increases sharpness of claws, increases speed of claws and increases the damage of claws. 5 mana/sec

IdentifyIdentifies higher level objects and allows for identifying living creatures. Cannot identify higher level creatures. 4 mana/object. 10 mana/creature. Objects and creatures already identified, require no mana to reidentify, unless they leveled up, which that case requires 1 mana/object, 5 mana/creature.

Mana RoarMana is directed to the lungs and diaphragm, which is then used to enchance an roar. The roar has 5% chance to cause higher level creatures to feel dizzy, 2% chance to stun and 0.3% chance to knock out. It has 20% chance to cause same level to feel dizzy, 10% chance to sutn and 6% chance to knock out. It has 50% chance to cause lower level creatures to feel dizzy, 34% chance to stun and 25% chance to knock out. 50 mana/roar

Grinning for a while, I come back to my normal thoughts and dismissed my status and skills as I notice the school. I barely make it on time before the bell rang. School goes by quickly as I don't have any friends. I don't talk to people much as I always pay attention in class and diligently take notes. After school I train until I go to bed, sometimes not even returning home or sleeping. Waking up when I do sleep I train some more before coming to class. The reason I do this, is because my dream is to defeat all the levels of the dungeon. I suffer ridicule for many for having such a grand dream. Many say I can't accomplish it, and no one can; they say I'm crazy and am wasting my time training, but I don't listen to them. Even though I train and study so much every day, I'm not the best at either in my school. Many of the other students are extremely talented, and some even train diligently, albeit not as much as I do. Although I am around the top for academics, I am around the upper middle for combat. This doesn't discourage me as I train extremely hard every day, and believe it will pay off one day.

Continuing the same routine, my birthday arrived. While I was training, I felt a extremely painful headache. It felt like many ants were eating my soul piece by piece, while cooking it over a flame. The flame was so painful I fainted.

When I woke up, I woke up to a great surprise.

To be continued.

Authors note: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know it was a info dump, but don't worry, even though there will be more to come, this was the longest one. The next chapter will be more interesting, I promise, but to make me more motivated, leave comments, advice, reviews, and criticism. Remember, all of these will help me improve the story.