The Cavern Dungeon on the southeast of Pharsha Town was always damp. A natural characteristic of the dungeon. The ceilings and most of the walls were covered with dungeon moss that lit its pathway. In the deepest part of it, two figures were nonchalantly talking.

After months of diving the old man and the boy finally arrived into the deepest part of the dungeon. The dungeon core room was usually located at the center of the deepest floor of a dungeon.

The old man pointed to a glowing stone that was filled with magic “This is your birthday present Simon,” and the boy had just turned 6.

“What is that throbbing stone?” Simon asked, there was a large stone covered in rock formations and such, it was releasing an incredible amount of magic.

“That’s the dungeon’s core,” the old man said. He was an expert on those things.

There are 2 actions that they could take. One was to destroy the dungeon core, 2nd is to shave it off a little. The first one totally kills the dungeon and the monster would stop spawning and the other one was to make sure it wouldn’t cause another dungeon overflow for a good 100 years.

The cons would be that when the dungeon is killed, it would increase the spawn rate of dungeons and the second option is that it would be needed to be supervised as long as it is active.

“Let’s shave up the core boy, don’t try to destroy it, just crack a part of it,” the old man said to Simon, Simon jumped into the core and used an open palm strike to break off a part of it.

“It's glowing,” Simon said, then he jumped back down on the ground. The boy raised it against the ceilings of the dungeon where there were crystals that illuminated the room, he stared at the crystal core he broke off... strangely beautiful.

By no means their travel down into the deepest part was easy. The Tugaks got tougher as they descended down, they encountered many varieties. From the scaled and armored ones to the ones that used bones to fight.

The dungeon boss was a swarm of Tugaks, and its leader was the largest of all their encounters.

The leader of the swarm dropped a red large magic stone. The old man said that selling it would allow one to live freely for 30 years. It was very expensive.

“We gotta go up now, don’t drop your guard until we are out of the dungeon,” the old man warned, he took the dungeon core shard and he stashed it along with the other magic stone.

“I want to eat something different other than frogs,” Simon said. The old man was silent because he too was on an agreement with the boy.

From the dungeon core room, they went back to the boss room, where all of the monster corpses had already been dispersed. Still, there was a problem ahead. Well, they just need to dig out of the wall that collapsed during the fight.

The collapse totally blocked the path where they came from.

“Simon you better start digging,” the old man said in annoyance, it was the boy’s fault in the heat of the battle Simon would sometimes go over his head, smile, and follow his instincts.

…

In the evening they actually finished digging up the hallway out of the boss room.

“Let's rest for a while boy... it's already night,” the old man suggested.

In the dungeon; the crystals on the ceiling or even the moss would change color, it signaled the passing of the day so it was quite convenient. The two started preparing their camp to rest. There was a spring water spot just outside the boss room. Simon took some to be boiled back in their camp.

Some of the supplies they left outside were still there, he carries one with the Tugak’s meat, this will be their supper for the night. The boy was getting better at preparing food and already was a good meat carver.

“Simon it seems that you have mastered the arm bridges, we will do something different from now on,” the old man said as the 2 were preparing their food.

Simon was absorbed in cutting the meat to perfection but still heard it and nodded. The meat cut into thin slices when cooked becomes crispy and juicy, Simon and the old man love it. (Bacon Stripes: but frog meat)

…

The old man and Simon were standing in the middle of the boss room. The old man instructed the boy to hold his carving knife.

“Watch this,” The old man disappeared and appeared in a blink of an eye. He was already holding Simon’s carving knife in his hands.

“Whoa!! It’s the quick move you’ve been doing!!!” Simon excitedly said.

“Unfortunately you can’t do it like that… that was flash step… I will teach you now the basic watch me again,” the old man spoke and he walked closer to Simon.

He then threw Simon’s knife on a high curve and the boy caught it.

“Got you,” and the old man was already behind Simon and he placed his hands on his head.

“Old man… you just quickly moved behind me right?” Simon said offering his thoughts.

The old smirked, of course, he did, that was all it was. The basic flash step was distracting an enemy and moving away from the line of sight by going low.

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“Looks easy right? How about this, try to tap me even once, just touch me anywhere with a tap!” the old man said, then he went and distanced himself in just one step.

Simon smiled and tried to tap the old man but the old man evaded it. Left and right side stepping, as Simon missed the old man pivoted and baited, he would throw in shifting steps to mess up Simon’s instinct. Instead of going left or right or vice versa, the feints were doing so well.

After a few minutes of playing tag in the middle of the room, the old man raised his hands. It was time to start the train.

“All in all this is called footwork… the flash step is a bit more advanced now stand straight and make sure your feet are just as far as your shoulders… put a lead foot forward and there you have a stance,” the old man said as he showed Simon.

“Old man… I can burst a Tugak’s body in just one punch what’s the use of this?” Simon suddenly asked.

“You rely too much on your strength, the strength of your arms specifically but you’ve grown better at controlling it… after this training, you will be able to produce as much force without any effort,” the old man explained.

“And do you remember what I said earlier?"

The boy just scratched his head… “Oh… conserve everything… I understand,” the boy remembered.

“Also that... the one I told you back in the guild!” the old man glared at Simon.

“Ah... I can't be hit by anything…” the boy said evading the old man's sour mood.

The old man nodded as he knew what he was expecting “Hmm... I will let that one go... let's get into it!”

The 2 began doing drills of sidesteps, pivots, weight shifting, step back, and feints.

“Remember that the trick is to evade or get in a better position to launch an attack,” the old man explained… of course Simon was struggling to understand this but he was following the example of the old man.

<--->

The dungeon cavern is about 40 to 50 floors down. From the 34th to the 15th lies a large chasm that was as deep as the span of those floors. The old man tried doing the shortcut by climbing down the chasm but it was really too deep and keeping his magic up for a long time is hard. The 34th floor was a ravine that goes all the way to the deepest part of the dungeon boss room.

It had been four days since the 2 departed from the bottom of the dungeon, they were already climbing up the path in the side of the chasm that had some light on it coming from the dungeon’s luminescence moss.

The dungeon’s activity has been less compared to when they were going down, it was as if it was saying to the 2 that they had to get out now.

On an afternoon day, they were climbing up the endless natural stairs… for some reason, the old man slipped down because of the moss and moisture on the steps.

“Old man are you alright!?” Simon worryingly walked down, he was the one leading since he had good detecting skills.

He rushed and found the old man lying on the ground.

“Fucking moss… ouch… got some scratches on my knee other than that my bag fell down, would you pick it up?” the old man said, clearly he was annoyed that he slipped but what happened already happened.

Simon began picking up the luggage of the old man putting back the things that fell down from the bag.

“Old man it's gone!!!” Simon suddenly exclaimed.

“What’s gone?! Oh shit!!!” the old man immediately stood up as he felt it. There was already something standing behind Simon.

Simon by instinct dodged as the shadow with the shape of a human attacked the boy’s neck, he rolled down making some distance.

“It's a doppelganger!!!-” the old man said as he drew his blade. He knew by the form of it… it was copying Simon. “-Crap… but how did?” the old man muttered

Usually, this high-level enemy would appear in dungeons that had been housing a powerful monster but as far as the old man knows there was no powerful beast in the cavern dungeon. The old man was baffled but still smiled.

“We need to attack and disperse it now or else…” but the old man was too late, the doppelganger began to change, its height adjusted, the arm part becoming longer. There are only two possible targets it could change into.

“Damn it!!! Simon run!!!!” the old man said, and as for the rules, the words of the old man must be followed.

The 2 began running back up the stairs, they could not stop but it was impossible as the doppelganger arrived in front of them blocking their pathway.

“The dungeon core shard is inside it… it ate it!!!” Simon said.

Of all the things that it could take it took the most dangerous thing out of the old man’s bag. It would take a few minutes more for the doppelganger to completely morph into the old man and when it does they would be in deep shit.

The doppelganger was a shadow-type monster that would read its target’s memories as it tried to copy it. All of the target’s experience, skills, and knowledge... Cramped into a monster with an unlimited capacity to use magic adding to the fact that it absorbed a shard of the dungeon core.

The dungeon that was dimly lighted by the luminescent moss was swallowed by a gush of light that blinds all.

“DUCK!! BOY” the old man screamed. The old man gritted, it was how he would do it, always aiming at the neck, aiming at the weakest one.

Simon followed he ducked down jumping, it seemed something had just missed his neck.

After the light, the old man was now standing toe to toe with the doppelganger. They were of the same stance and of the same strength but not of the same durability. The 2 then began exchanging some swings. The old man was slowly getting pushed by it until the old man staggered.

At this point in the battle the doppelganger actually tried to attack the boy when the old man was staggered for a while, Simon dodged it since he had no way to parry the shadow sword. This was bad.

The old man could tell, they were in on it with their lives.

“Old man what now?” the boy asked after rolling away from an attack, a composure out of his age.

“Damn, boy…” the old man muttered in a low voice.

The boy was right, there was no point in overthinking things, the old man glanced at Simon and the boy was firm on his feet… no fear on his face. The old man smirked, too ashamed of the way he was thinking right now.

“Simon!! Support me!!!” the old man asked.

“How?!” but the boy didn’t have a way to attack the doppelganger.

“Throw something on it, anything would do!!” the old man said.

The boy nodded and he started picking up rocks and stones. The old man was steady against the doppelganger. In a flash, the 2 began swinging against each other. The boy upon seeing this started throwing rocks and stones aimed at the doppelganger.

“Thud!!!” it was not effective but the rocks were doing their work, stuttering the doppelganger’s flow. The boy noticed it immediately and began throwing harder.

The doppelganger was losing against the 2 of them… but it had already absorbed enough information.

The doppelganger’s body flashed… “Release!!” the doppelganger said in a very low voice.

“Shit!!!” It left the old man’s sight as it jumped into the air and went for the boy.

“Simon!!!” the old man screamed warning the boy. The doppelganger from the air proceeded with a piercing attack.

Simon actually didn’t see it jump but his instinct screamed as the boy rolled out of the attack but…

As the piercing attack hit the ground the ground started collapsing… even the doppelganger was surprised, they were near the edge of the path. The collapsing ground shook and broke leaving Simon and the doppelganger falling off the cliff… into the chasm.

“Simon close your eyes!!!! Do not open it!!!!” it was the old man’s scream as the boy fell down. The old man knelt and punched the ground in frustration.

“You won’t fucking get away,” the old man muttered as light flickered in his eyes.

He hadn’t felt that much power for a long time now… but it faded as he calmed down… he couldn’t properly control it. The old man sighed as he resigned to his fate.