Daniel glared at the window before him, angrily biting into the lollipop the doctor gave him.

He hated his damned doctor whose only half-decent trait was the lollipops he gave each of his patients, but even that could not quell his annoyance.

He slightly enjoyed the strawberry flavored lollipops he gave but this particular visit lingered in his mind.

Why? well because the dumb doctor forgot he was basically allergic to mana and began using diagnostic spells on him. This blatant incompetence lead to his airway suddenly constricting, making it nigh impossible for him to breathe. As he started choking he was rushed into the ER in a hurried attempt to separate him from anything magical. Thankfully this prevented the worst from happening but that didn't mean it was a pleasant experience.

He ignored his dad’s conversation attempts as they drove back home, he wasn’t in the mood for talking, not when the only compensation he got for reckless endangerment and medical neglect was more lollipops. The sticks of which were digging onto his leg.

When his dad finally gave up, he stuck his head out the window, staring at the huge crack in the sky, the warm blue color of it was interrupted by the galactic purple inside the crack, with lights resembling stars being noticeable even from inside the ocean.

At least that’s how others saw it, that was how people described it in books and when they were asked.

Daniel had to squint due to the insane brightness that the crack gave off. The light blue tendrils of light crept into the world, seemingly reaching into even the smallest crevasses.

It wasn’t enough to really harm him, as only the slightest bits that looked like pixie dust in books permeated the air and objects, but as they passed by a group of people his age, his eyes watered, and a headache started forming.

He closed the window before it got worse.

He envied those that didn’t even see or sense mana, which was most people in his life, they didn’t have to deal with near blindness when looking at people, or sneezing when a mana current happened to blow in their direction.

As he finished the lollipop, he popped the stick into the car pocket, he’d pick it up later, it wasn’t a big deal.

They didn’t speak for a while.

It was kind of awkward, but as mentioned before he wasn’t in the mood for talking, so he sucked it up, fumbling with the radio to get rid of the silence.

He changed between stations to find the one he liked. It only put songs and didn’t give commentary, stop the song midway, or speak about the news.

While he was doing that, his dad had been fiddling with the volume of it, increasing it to an appropriate volume that was hearable but didn’t blast off their ears (an unfortunate habit of his).

He gave him a soft ‘thanks’ as he continued checking the stations.

Once he reached it, a song he didn’t recognize was playing, but it was nice, the small screen on the radio said it was called “Misery”, the beat was pretty cool.

He zoned out as he drummed his fingers on the door to the beat. He was pretty good at that, that being predicting the beat of songs, it was a pretty useless talent, but it gave him something to show off when people asked what he could do.

He zoned back into focus when a song he recognized came up, and quickly took it off of the radio, he did not need his “no kissing till you’re married” dad listening to CPR, no way.

A faint blush dusting his cheeks, he looked out the window, listening to the new station, it was the news.

He very deliberately ignored the curious gazes his dad sent him after that.

A billboard soon came into view, it had a few pictures of hunters from the Typhoon guild. Hunters were the small number of people who could use their mana to their benefit and fight the monsters that normally appeared in gates.

As a child, he dreamt of being a hunter like his mother, who was a world-class hunter right now, and in Korea, but now, with his hypersensitivity to mana, there was no way he’d be able to even get near a gate or guild building without dying.

It was a disappointment, sure. And he couldn’t be near his mother ever since he was five, but his dad made up for both of them.

He spared the billboard one final glance before looking at his dad, who was looking at him sadly.

“You know, we could always just have the surgery they suggested” said his dad in a low tone of voice.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Daniel looked away again, they’d already had this conversation, why was it coming up again?

His dad had been pushing for it ever since they told them about it.

He still graced his dad with an answer this time “And end up selling both of my kidneys to pay for the debt we’d be put under for something not even guaranteed? No way.” He grumbled, as even with the salary of a world-class hunter supporting them, they’d still end up knee deep in debt if they ever went through the core removal surgery.

Core removal surgery was something not many people knew of, and it was extremely difficult to pull off, he wouldn’t die if it went wrong, but he’d end up worse than before, and to pay for it you’d need to be a world-famous guild leader. (Not to be confused with world-class hunters.)

Personally, Daniel thought it was stupid, and besides, even if he was deathly allergic to mana, he wasn’t getting rid of it unless there was no risk.

His father sighed, probably a bit disappointed, but at least he wouldn't be the one in danger of ending up like a vegetable in the big chance that the surgery went wrong.

They ended up staying quiet for a few more minutes as his dad drove through the streets of Manhattan.

The station was talking about some hunters clearing a dungeon, so he subconsciously listened, even if he didn’t want anything to do with hunters anymore. They were the reason he couldn’t see his mom after all.

As they turned a corner, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art came into view. Daniel noticed a dungeon right by it, mostly by his watering eyes. Shit. They normally tried to avoid dungeons due to his allergy, but sometimes it couldn’t be avoided.

He brought up his shirt to cover his nose and mouth.

“Oh look, that’s the dungeon they’re talking about in the news” his dad said with interest as they got stuck in traffic, forced near the dungeon.

He blinked, confused. “It is?” he questioned as he turned to look.

It certainly fit the description that the news gave off.

The fountain near the entrance was glowing with an otherworldly glow, that both flowed in and out of the water. It confused Daniel, but if he looked past the light of the mana it gave off, he could see the water was sparkly, as if it had a huge amount of glitter, and surrounded by hunters, which just made it more noticeable.

He looked away quickly, rubbing his eyes.

“That’s cool” he commented, but both of them knew that he couldn’t comment on the dungeon’s appearance properly.

A sudden spike in his allergic reactions meant one of two things.

Something strong was coming out of the dungeon.

Or a high rank hunter appeared.

When he turned back, he noticed it was both.

A man who he could only look at from his peripheral due to the huge amounts of mana he was emitting was running towards the dungeon, yelling something that no one inside the cars could get.

Except those with open windows.

And Daniel.

He didn’t know what the man said, but the increasingly large amounts of mana suddenly coming from the water made it obvious.

The dungeon was breaking.

“We need to get out!” He yelled as the other people that had open car windows also started panicking.

His dad was confused, but seeing his purely terrified expression, and others running away, including the pedestrians.

Daniel took off his seatbelt and opened the car door, running out.

“Ugh!” he began coughing, struggling to breathe as his eyes started watering and a headache pegan pounding in his head.

Ignoring the itchiness on his skin. He ran towards the other side, helping his father out as everyone else began running away from the dungeon, and if he looked past the blinding light. He could see cracks spreading across the water.

He could distantly hear some radios speaking of such things, of the museum’s dungeon breaking, sending out waves of mana that only hunters and him could feel.

He grabbed his dad’s hand and dodged in between the cars, trying to get away from what would undoubtedly be a bloodbath if any civilian stayed.

He wiped his eyes to look clearly again as they ran.

‘I’m going to die of allergies rather than monsters at this rate.’ He thought dejected.

A sudden wave of mana that was bigger than any others he ever felt shot from the general direction of the dungeon.

‘Dammit!’ He had to stop, he couldn’t get air in his lungs, he couldn’t see properly, his head was pounding worse than ever and his skin was filling up with hives. hecouldn’tbreahtecouldn’tseewhatthehellwasgoingonwashisdadokay?

A silhouette with brown hair appeared before him, he couldn’t see who it was, but he still had ears.

‘Dad’s okay.’

He tried to get up ‘When did I fall?’ and, with his dad’s panicked assistance, he managed to lean on a car.

A mask he duly recognized was forced in his face, it filtered mana and only worked when mana wasn’t being used on him.

like now.

His frantic breathing evened out slowly, allowing him to properly wipe his eyes, and he could see what was going on, his eyes first landing on his dad’s startling blue eyes.

He then looked at the museum.

“What the fuck?” He muttered as he saw a skeletal hand reaching from the cracked water.

“Come on Daniel! No time to gawk!” Yelled his dad while pulling him up, snapping him back to real life.

“Sorry!” He kept a hand on his mask to keep it on his face while his dad directed him away from the general zone.

He idly hated how much of a liability he was being to his dad, the monsters hadn’t even fully come out and he was already crippled and barely seeing properly.

Even when his eyes weren’t watering, that dungeon sent such huge amounts of mana around that it lingered in the air, making it difficult to look around any place that wasn’t his dad.

‘Thank God for dad’s NMA.’ He thought as they neared a shelter.

He stopped.

“It has a protection spell on it” he muttered, his voice muffled by the mask. “I can’t go through, go through alone, I’ll find somewhere else” he added.

His dad looked at him “What- How do you know that?” he said confused and worried.

“A normal building would collapse under a monster’s attacks” he explained, irritated “Just go in! I don’t want you dying!” He said, motioning to a group of low level hunters that were calling out for them.

“I can’t leave you here!” His dad said, dragging him while he tried to stop it, obviously it didn’t work, even if he had more mana than his dad, he couldn’t use it properly, unlike hunters. So his body was that of a normal human’s.

“Finally! What took you so long?” One of the hunters asked as his dad passed through the spell only Daniel could see.

As they tried to get Daniel through, He planted his feet on the ground. “I can’t go through” He coughed out through his once again obstructed throat. ‘Damn these stupid spells.’

“What are you talking about? Come on!” He tried to get out of their grip as the pushed him towards the barrier.

Panic rose through his throat, he didn’t want to not breathe again. He didn’t want to be on the verge of death for the third time that day-

“Don’t! I won’t be able to breathe-”

A mana explosion broke through the area, the hunters barely managed to stay standing, but he wasn’t a hunter, and he was suddenly thrown back, he heard a car alarm, and maybe some glass breaking, before everything went black.

The last thing he could sense was blood in his mouth and a ringing in his ears.