Elias quickly ducked and turned, slamming his palm onto a bundle of nerves on the man's forearm, forcing him to drop his gun. He slashed his machete at the man, but remembered the man also had a blade of some kind. A sword! He parried the sword with his machete and they both ringed as sparks flew from the impact.

The man breathed in the sparks and spit out a gout of flames, but he jumped forward and down. He slid past the man and the flames, right into where the gun had been dropped. He grabbed the gun and pointed it at the man, whose eyes had widened in fear. Elias was shaken awake.

“Ughh…” he groaned. He groggily opened his eyes and saw a pair of police officers, one of which was holding him in a seated position by the shoulder and shaking him. After a moment of confusion, he remembered what had happened and cursed softly.

The two officers wore identical deep-blue leather armor with a badge pinned over their heart and enchanted batons made of solid steel attached to their side. The woman, who was still standing and looking at him seriously, was holding a light-blue wand in her hand, pointing it at the ground. The man, who was shaking him, had a curved scimitar attached to his side and looked at him with raised eyebrows that seemed to ask, ‘Are you alright?’ All of their weapons and armor were obviously enchanted, filled with intricate runes glowing with power. Elias analyzed their badges.

*******

Police Officer

Reymond Ray

*******

Police Officer

Priscilla Price

*******

“Officers Reymond Ray and Priscilla Price?” Asked Elias, failing to hide his incredulity at the officer’s names. The woman’s face twitched slightly at the comment while the man just looked embarrassed and scratched his head.

“Yeah, someone thought it would be funny to pair us together because of the names, you know? It's kind of embarrassing but you get used to it.” Reymond stated, shaking his head slightly. “Anyways, how are you doing? We just found you passed out here.”

Elias took a moment to actually check his body for injuries, but found nothing other than a bump at the back of his head. He did notice, however, that everything he had was missing, including his left boot.

He clenched his fists in embarrassment and indignation but tried to remain calm and answer the police officer. When he finally internalized that he had just lost everything on his very first day, though, he got so angry that he started stuttering and rambling.

“I-I was robbed, officer! Did you catch that thief? That bastard took everything I had o–My machetes!” Elias did actually try to slow down and explain what had happened clearly, but from the officers’ expressions, he was clearly failing. So, he continued his crazed rant on armed men and stolen birthday presents, about just “how much of a freaking douchebag does someone have to be to steal a single boot!?”

“Calm down kid! Jeez, you’re not making any sense. We can see you were robbed and we’ll catch the man responsible in no time flat, trust me,” said Priscilla, who had clearly had enough of Elias’ ramblings. “We just need you to answer a few of our questions and everything will be alright. Can you do that?”

The two officers then proceeded to question Elias on the robbery and tease out what had happened. They asked general questions about him, what was taken, a description of the thief, which he didn’t have, and any other details he could remember. As they continued talking, he finally calmed down enough to be able to provide more concise details.

The officers exchanged their contact information with him and promised to keep him informed on any developments to the investigation, reiterating that the man should be caught quickly. According to Reymond, any and all forms of criminal activities this close to the surface were dealt with quickly and harshly. The police would be taking this crime very seriously.

Adventurer-on-adventurer violence and criminal activities are more common in the Dungeon’s depths, due to the difficulties of actually monitoring adventurers there. That is not the case in the cities and the first zones of the dungeon. In fact, the newbie zones were supposed to be just as free of crime as the city itself.

Raymond even agreed with Elias that the man was likely new to robbery, because he was an idiot for trying something like this in the newbie zones. Regardless, he was not looking forward to explaining to his parents why he was missing all his stuff when he got home. Worse yet, his sister would never let him live this down.

It was with a heavy heart and head down that Elias started on his walk back home, boot in hand. He walked past the clearing at the edge of the jungle and entered the large stone tunnel carved into the cavern wall. He followed the tunnel back to the surface, arriving at the base of the Temple’s stone pyramid.

He walked on the roots of the giant fig tree to the edge of the Temple, where barely any roots could be seen anymore, and the ones that could were thinner than his wrist. Through it all, his mind was stuck in a vicious loop of frustration and powerlessness.

He had spent so many days dreaming of how his first dungeon delve was going to go, so many years preparing, that it was hard to reconcile his dreams with reality. He had fantasized about encountering a group in trouble, or maybe impressing some people with his fighting skills, making friends with other new adventures. He wanted to emerge from the dungeon victorious, not a failure.

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? I don’t want to be a failure, not in this," said Elias, talking to himself. Too many people have dreamt of becoming powerful adventurers and failed; many more don’t even try. Too many times he had been forced to acknowledge that his limits lay below others in some aspects, due to his weak constitution.

Everything was supposed to be different now!

Having turned 18 years old, he was finally able to level his Vitality and Strength. He would no longer need to be the weak and sickly kid, be pitied or looked down on again. Whether he was still in shock over the violence he suffered or out of sheer anger and indignation, the hands holding his lone boot started trembling.

You know what? I will not accept this. I don’t need weapons to kill the monsters from the newbie zone. I’ll rip them apart with my bare hands if I have to. I have spent years training for this and nothing is going to stop me.

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His eyes were still glistening with tears, but the powerlessness he felt was slowly transitioning to rage, as he started to work himself into a frenzy.

I’m not going to wait around for others to find my weapons to go back to grinding. In fact, I’m going to go back to the dungeon right now and collect enough energy to buy a new pair of shoes. I’ll kill my way to level 10 without any weapons. I’ll continue growing stronger until bullets can do nothing more than tickle me. Then, I’m going to find that bastard and steal his boot!

Mind made up, Elias trekked back the way he had just come from, arriving back in the clearing he’d passed out on. The first thing he did was throw the boot as far as he could into the jungle in a fit of rage. Admittedly, it didn't go very far but it was the spirit of the thing that counted!

As he no longer had weapons and equipment, he decided to search for monsters to kill on the outskirts of the jungle where it was safer. Leveling wouldn’t be as fast, of course, but he should at least be able to gather a good amount of energy crystals.

The first monster he encountered was a wild boar-looking creature. As soon as it noticed him, it squealed loudly and charged him, trying to ram into him with its tusks. The monster obviously had trouble maneuvering in the thick vegetation though, as the tusks kept getting stuck.

Elias ran from the boar in order to get an advantageous positioning, using the trees and foliage as cover as he did so. Soon, he found a large tree that had a branch that he could grab by jumping slightly. He stayed still while facing the boar as it charged him.

When it was about to hit, he jumped and grabbed onto the branch, pulling himself up. The monster headbutted the tree and was startled for a few moments. Elias used the opportunity to kick the monster’s front legs viciously and repeatedly.

The boar squealed in pain and tried to chase after Elias, but something had obviously been broken in its legs as it would just fall forward whenever it tried. He circled around the boar and carefully broke its hind legs as well, so that it could only squirm on the floor. He then grabbed a stone twice the size of his fists and hit the pig on the head repeatedly with it, until he received the experience notification.

You have gained 30 exp.

Elias collected the energy crystal that the boar dropped and put it in his pocket. We wore military style pants with plenty of pockets, including zippered ones. Even the small crystals wouldn’t be falling off them unless they tore. Thankfully, even the beast's blood turned to ash, because he’d been splattered with it as he bludgeoned the monster.

Elias continued to search the forest for monsters to kill and collect energy crystals. He shot down bird monsters with small rocks, killing them after they fell to the floor. He’d set traps for the larger and dumber monsters, using rocks and sticks to deliver the coup de grâce like he did for the boar. Not even plant monsters were spared from his killing spree. Unfortunately, he could only easily kill the weaker monsters from the jungle’s periphery without weapons, and they only provided small amounts of experience and energy.

Having hunted monsters for many hours, Elias realized that going back to the dungeon so soon might have been a mistake after all. Although his pocket was full of energy crystals now, they wouldn’t actually be worth much in truth. The beasts were too low level to contain significant amounts of energy. The amount he collected was barely enough to buy a meal.

It was late and he had already been tired before he was robbed. Still, he didn’t regret going on his hunting spree. If nothing else, committing violence towards the dungeon creatures was very cathartic. It helped him direct his anger and powerlessness in a constructive manner.

It was with a pep in his step that he left the dungeon this time around, though still considerably poorer than when he first arrived this morning. It was a matter of pride and perspective, he found, even if the state of things were mostly the same. The experience helped him solidify his resolve to become a true adventurer, despite the difficulties he was sure to face.

Elias once again reached the end of the tunnel to the Temple, barefoot and smiling, his pocket jingling with energy crystals as he walked. He was surprised that the sun was rising outside and adventurers were already filing into the dungeon. There were far more people in the dungeon during the day than at night, even though there was very little difference inside. Some people were giving him weird looks as he walked and he smiled back at them sheepishly. Even he could imagine how ridiculous he looked right now and just hoped that he didn’t bump into anyone he recognized.

That was, of course, the exact moment he saw someone he recognized. They were looking right at him too. Melinda was a girl from school Elias had a crush on when he was younger, and his first heartbreak. They became very good friends over their mutual desire of becoming adventurers when they grew up. She did not reciprocate his feelings however and he was too young to deal with the rejection with maturity. It was his fault, he knew, but losing the familiarity they once had hurt.

Melinda was tall and beautiful, with light brown hair and a long neck. Her full cheeks had a small beauty mark, just below her honey colored eyes. She wore a loose shirt and tactical pants similar in style to his own. Her hands rested in the pommel of a rapier that was sheathed at her waist. Elias waved at her and she waved back, approaching him at a relaxed pace.

“Hey Elias, how have you been? Haven’t seen you in a while.” She was polite and haughty, but he could see the curiosity in her eyes. She was fishing for information from him. There’s no way he would make it that easy.

“Hey Melinda, I’m good. How about you? You haven’t been around the dojo in a while,” said Elias with a smirk. She gave him an exasperated look that said he should keep going, as if what she wanted to know was so obvious it shouldn’t need to be asked. Elias planned on making her ask anyway.

“Yeah, I turned eighteen and started coming here to grind to level 10 in all my attributes. I can’t wait to get Skills. I’ll probably start going back to the dojo to train my Skill masteries once I get them. I’m actually waiting for John and another friend of mine to arrive. Anyways, what happened to you?” This time, she looked him up and down slowly, gesturing with her hands to his feet as if to specify exactly what she was asking about. Elias looked himself up and down as well and looked at her as if surprised. He considered playing dumb for a while longer but decided to let it go. Chuckling at the girl's dry tone, he opened his mouth to respond when he heard another masculine voice coming from his right.

“Dear lord Elias, you looked like you’ve been beat up then robbed! What happened?” Elias’ face twitched and he looked in the direction the voice came from, spotting a large man holding a large shield on his left hand and spear on his right. John was handsome, tall, well built, and had a natural charisma about him. He supposed it was because he just looked so honest and good natured that it was hard to dislike him.

“I just asked him that, John,” said Melinda with exasperation. She looked at him expectantly, clearly indicating she wanted an answer.

“Hey John. Nice shield man. I bet it’s a pain to lug that thing around in the jungle,” said Elias. Then, he told the pair what had happened, emphasizing that he hadn’t been ‘beaten up then robbed’, like John said. He was robbed and then beaten up.

He kept the story brief and factual, trying to avoid letting any of his inner thoughts show. They both seemed to be worried for different reasons after he was done. John’s look of pity was very irritating, but at least he seemed genuinely worried about him. Melinda, however, seemed more worried about a crime having occurred so close to the city.

It turned out that Melinda’s friend, Rebecca, was an incredibly beautiful girl with dark hair and blue eyes. He gaped for a long moment when she appeared but quickly regained his composure and introduced himself. She rested her hands on a pair of daggers strapped to her sides and he noticed that she had throwing knives strapped to her vest just like he used to. She seemed nice enough if reserved.

Melinda and John appeared to have grown quite close and it was evident that their relationship was taking on a more romantic quality. They stood very near each other, and he couldn't help but notice their constant exchange of glances. Even though he no longer liked Melinda as he once did, it still hurt to see it play out.

Elias couldn’t help the pangs of jealousy he felt from observing the team’s dynamics and their apparent closeness. It seemed a lot more fun to level in the dungeon with friends than by himself. They all talked for a bit longer, but soon said their goodbyes and were on their way.

Despite his worries and fears, Elias arrived home without much fanfare. His sister was still asleep and his parents only smiled when they saw him. His mom gave him a brief hug and he even caught a smirk on his father’s face that spoke of old memories.

He immediately headed to the bathroom to take a hot shower to try and remove some of the filth on him. When he finished cleaning up and went to his bedroom to sleep, however, he found his parents sitting on his bed.

“Sit down son, we need to talk,” said his father.