Near the beach, Oswald sat down outside a cafe drinking some orange juice as the gentle breeze hit him. He can hear the sea gulls and the sound of the waves . He was getting himself ready to use the Blank Dungeon Pass on the G-Rank Dungeon found at the beach of the city of Linda. He was still nervous about his dad finding out he had taken one of the passes without permission. His mind still preoccupied with Hannah’s revelation about her being a Lunarian and her parent’s death during the Mass Lunarian Suicide.
This doesn’t make sense. Why would many people commit suicide out of nowhere. Oswald was beginning to question what happened in reality. I mean only the Lunarians living in Hills committed suicide. After this the Pope Marcus started calling them sinful and a year later the Lunarian Rankers began attacking the general public and the Church. My Grandpa has always supported Pope Marcus, I wonder if he is involved in all of this. It feels Hannah knows more than what she told me. If I want answers I should become stronger plus I have to stop the Lunarian Rankers. ”
Oswald took out a mask from his backpack and put it on. He also took off his windbreaker with the Deus Family coat of arms and put it in the backpack and now he was wearing a mask, a white t-shirt, black pants and dark brown boots. He then walked towards a gate by the beach. The gate was heavily armored and he could see the Mana Flow of the defensive magic put on the gate. The gate had a sign that read “Linda Beach Dungeon. Rank: G”. Oswald walked towards the gate and tapped his gate pass into the terminal. The gate’s door began to open and Oswald walked into the gate. Once inside the gate’s door began to close and Oswald could see that the inside was well lit.
So this is how the inside of the gate’s look like. Oh I see the portal up ahead. Oswald thought as he walked towards the portal. This is it, my first dungeon.
As Oswald stepped into the portal he could feel a strange sensation all over his body, he tried to observe the Mana Flow and found out that there was a huge amount of Mana all around him. After stepping out the portal Oswald began to feel normal again as the gentle breeze hit him and he could no longer see the huge amount of Mana. He began to observe his surroundings and he noticed he was in a beach just below some cliffs and on top of the cliff he was able to see a deep jungle. He started to walk to the path he saw going up towards the jungle. As he walked he could see some Adventures fighting against some monsters resembling crabs and lobsters; Oswald recognized those monsters as Mega Crabs and Lambda Lobsters. The sound of the waves accompanied the sounds of fighting. Oswald knew that if he stayed by the entrance someone might recognize him even with a mask. After a few minutes of walking Oswald reached the jungle area. As soon as he stepped into the jungle he could feel the humidity and his eyes could see all the trees and vegetation as far as his sight reached. He walked and observed the Mana Flow to find monsters to fight. Off in the distance Oswald was able to spot a group of five Jungle Rats. The Jungle Rats looked like regular rats with a green coloration and their fur looked like leaves and were about 1 meter long. Oswald sneaked until he was about 10 meters away from the Jungle Rats, then he started to manipulate his Mana Flow, he pointed his left palm to the Jungle Rats and gathered his Mana there and after enough was collected he fired his wind magic unleashing a powerful gust that knocked over the Jungle Rats. Oswald used this opportunity to gather his Mana on his right fist, once he had enough he jumped out of hiding towards the closer Jungle Rat, engulfed his fist with fire and punched the Jungle Rat. The Jungle Rat being weak to fire magic quickly caught on fire, let out a screech and stopped moving after a few moments. The other Jungle Rats recovered from the gust and started attacking Oswald by summoning razor sharp leaves and launching them towards him. Oswald dodged the attack, but some of the leaves managed to get him and his arms now had cuts. He quickly closed the gap to a Jungle Rat as he gathered Mana on his fist and as soon as he got close he engulfed his fist with fire and struck the Jungle Rat. He continued this process until all the Jungle Rats were dead. After the fight Oswald had some cuts from the attacks, but he looked satisfied. He walked towards a Jungle Rat and from his backpack he took out a knife.
“Unlike the artificial dungeons at school the monsters here have Magic Stones, so the magic stone should be where the heart is supposed to be.” Oswald said to himself as he started cutting open the Jungle Rat’s corpse. After opening the corpse Oswald quickly found a green glowing ball inside the Jungle Rat. “So small, the same size as a marble. Alright, four more corpses to open.”
Oswald quickly took out the magic stones from the other Jungle Rats and then he sat down while hiding in a bush.
“That fight was more exhausting than expected. I guess using Mana for Elemental Magic is more tiring than Support Magic” Oswald talked to himself. “I guess I need to practice more. Is that a Jungle Rat? But it looks bigger and it has more Mana than the others. I remember now, Mr. Johnson talked about Mutant Monsters during class before, so it must be a Mutant Jungle Rat.”
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Oswald carefully observed the 2 meter long Mutant Jungle Rat slowly approach the area where he was hidden. When the Jungle Rat entered Oswald's striking range, Oswald quickly came out of the bush and kicked the Mutant Jungle Rat in the face. The Mutant Jungle Rat stepped back and quickly saw that Oswald was the one to attack it. From the body of the Mutant Jungle Rat, a bunch of vines sprouted. The Mutant Jungle Rat used the vines to attack Oswald and because of the large quantity some of them managed to hit him despite his best efforts to dodge. Oswald grabbed one of the vines with his right hand and began to gather Mana, once he had enough Mana he engulfed his hand on fire and the vine was also engulfed on fire. Noticing one of its vines was on fire the Mutant Jungle Rat used one of the other vines to cut off the vine in flames. The Mutant Jungle Rat got furious and let out a screech, which paralyzed Oswald for a moment. The Mutant Jungle Rat used this opening to tackle Oswald, which send him flying and crashing into a tree.
“Damn it. This is way tougher than regular mobs.” Oswald complained. “Alright, I’ll try that. I think after this I won’t have much energy left.”
Oswald rushed towards the Mutant Jungle Rat and began kicking it and punching it as he evaded the vines and the tackles from it, while also gathering Mana in his hands. After a minute Oswald had enough Mana for his plan, so he jumped back, extended his arms, started to engulf his left fist with wind magic and his right fist with fire magic, then he quickly put both of his arms and hand together and fired both types of magic. The result was his fire magic quickly being fired right at the Mutant Jungle Rat thanks to the wind magic pushing it. The Mutant Jungle Rat Began to scream in pain and tried to run towards Oswald, but Oswald kept firing his combo magic. After a couple of seconds the Mutant Jungle Rat let out a final scream, fell down, and stopped moving. Oswald was sweating and breathing heavily.
“I should head home after this. A mutant monster is no joke.” Oswald said. After a minute of resting Oswald walked towards the corpse with his knife in hand and began cutting it to get the magic stone. “This stone is double the size. This is more fun than Artificial Dungeons. Time to leave.”
Oswald started to walk towards the exit of the jungle when he sensed a powerful Mana Flow, so he quickly hid in the bushes. The Mana Flow was so powerful for Oswald, he was unable to sense which direction it was coming from. He began to look in all directions until in the North he spotted a Fighting Tiger, a tiger with a martial arts headband.
A Fighting Tiger, damn what is a Boss Monster doing here, it should be deeper in the dungeon. Oswald’s thoughts raced as he saw the danger he had found. At least it hasn’t noticed me.
Oswald then saw his Aunt May wearing leather armor rushing towards the Fighting Tiger and killed it in one strike. Oswald was amazed at what he witnessed, but then thought that his situation got worse because if his aunt caught him, she would definitely scold him and tell his dad. His stomach betrayed him and it started growling.
“Who is there?” May asked while looking at the bushes. “Wait, no Magical Energy or Magical Power. Oswald Deus, get out of those bushes now, I know you are there.”
“Hi, Aunt. Hehehe!” Oswald got out of the bushes, took off his mask, and approached May. “Fancy meeting you here. I must get going now.”
“You’re not getting out of this that easy, Oswald.” May glared at Oswald. “I know how you got here without an Adventurer’s License, but I want to hear it from your mouth.”
“I … stole a Blank Dungeon Pass from my Dad’s study.” Oswald answered.
“Just as I thought. This is dangerous for you Oswald.” May began to scold him. “You just got out of the hospital a few days ago after recklessly fighting against one of the Lunarian Rankers. And now you come to a dungeon, I know this is a dungeon with the lowest rank. But this is dangerous for you as the only person with no Magical Power.”
I still don’t want to reveal that I can use Magic by using Mana. And she didn’t notice my fight with the Jungle Rats, so my secret is safe. Oswald thought as he tried to come up with something to say. “I won’t do this again, Aunt May. Please don’t tell my parents.”
“Oh you bet you won’t do this again. We’re going with your parents this instant. I am going to tell my brother.” May said and then she hugged Oswald. “I’m worried about you. But you've been making too many reckless decisions lately. Do you know how we feel when you put yourself in harm's way?”
“I’m sorry, but I want to become stronger.” Oswald responded.
“Let’s get some ice cream. But be ready to get scolded by your parents once I get you to your house.” May said as she took Oswald’s hand and guided him out of the dungeon.