“State your name, age, nationality, and—!”

“Dude,” I complained loudly. I grimaced at the way he cut off, not intending to speak that loudly. Oops, “Oh, uh… sorry, continue.”

The man’s expression flickered, and he sighed, lowering his gun, “You the guy who went into the portal?”

“Yes.”

“You look like shit. Report. What happened?”

I laughed once, the noise bitter and harsh, “I feel like it. I’m starving, exhausted, and I was in that dungeon for a lot longer than fucking… agh.” I shook my head, “If you’re still curious, I’m American. So are my two buddies,” I glanced around, “Don’t suppose you got any cots laying around? They kind of… need… to be set down. They’re heavy.”

“What’s with the get-up?” The man asked as he turned, gesturing at a few soldiers that were standing around doing nothing.

“Yes, sir!” They both said in unison.

“Get these two men to cots,” The man barked.

I almost collapsed with relief when the two weights were taken off of me, the thinner one grabbing Vincent and the thicker one lifting Lawrence from my arms. My shoulders relaxed.

“Do you have any weapons in your bag?”

“You mean aside from the baseball bat?” I asked, gesturing.

The stone beneath my feet looked very comfortable, and I saw food being eaten by some of the soldiers. My mouth was dry as a desert, my tongue feeling sticky and bloated. My stomach hurt like I’d been stabbed, the pain twisting just under my ribs.

“Oh. Just don’t pull it out,” The… commander? What did the other guy call him again? Lieutenant? The leader guy ordered as he walked.

Assuming he wanted me to walk with him, I did, looking up at him. He was a very beefy bear-like guy. I was certain that once he got out of the military he’d wear nothing but flannel shirts and gain a giant scraggly beard that was very curly. As it was, he just looked very wide and muscular, his jaw square.

“What’s in there?” Leader-Guy asked.

“Goblins and poisonous spiders. Don’t worry, the spiders said they had a handle on the goblins,” A second passed, and a realization washed over me, “Oh! This is kind of really important, but, um, in three months the things inside the dungeons will come out unless the first floor is cleared of enemies, excluding the boss rooms. Tell your superiors or whatever. Especially if they appeared all over the world, this could be an extinction event if we’re not careful.”

Leader-Guy scoffed, giving me a look, “Right. Hit your head?”

I hesitated, “Well, no? I have… I have video footage that proves what I say. It’s on YouTube…” At his derisive look I continued, hands raised, “I was recording for scientific discovery purposes. Sadly this is an invasion, not a friendly greeting. Also I’m wearing a helmet, I don’t think I can get a concussion. Can you get a concussion if you h—”

“You certainly like talking, don’t you?” Leader-Man interrupted.

I hesitated, then spoke, voice miffed, “Well, I’ll just go talk to my buddies, then.”

Leader-Man scoffed, “I’m taking you to the Staff Sergeant. You can leave with your buddies after you speak with him.”

Sighing, I slumped, “Can I at least get water and food first? I haven’t eaten in days.”

“I’ll get you some later,” Leader-Man dismissed.

I was taken into a building that was clearly commandeered by the military, US flags up and several people in officious clothing standing around.

Some dude was talking to others, his hair a light brown and his eyes blue. On his clothing was a weird not-red patch. It was a dark green with golden arrow-like stripes on it. There were three golden peaks, the last golden arrow connected to a rounded end.

In front of him were two others. One was a blocky woman with brown hair and hazel eyes, and the other was a tall muscular dude with blond hair, though I couldn’t see his eyes.

Their conversation ended as Leader-Man saluted to them. The blond turned, and I saw his eyes were blue. On his shoulder was a red patch, like I expected to see. It was similar to the green one but it had a golden gun on it.

“I’ve retrieved Blood as requested, sir,” Leader-Man said, holding his salute.

Blood? They called me Blood?

The brown-haired guy with the green patch turned and regarded me. The blond with the red patch did the same. Unlike what I expected, the green-patch guy spoke.

Did I get the leader wrong?

“You certainly uploaded those videos quite quickly, Blood,” The man said, his voice very forgettable and plain, “While our intelligence officers haven’t had time to go through them all, what we saw is very… interesting. Anything of import that you think we should know?”

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“This is an invasion by a species called Drowwe, and, uh, there’s three months before what is inside the dungeons comes out,” I said easily, gesturing behind me, “Also I’m hungry, can we do this whole question thing later?”

The blond spoke leisurely, his accent sandy and just as forgettable in a different way to the brunette, “David, get some food for us. We can chat over a meal.”

“Yes, sir,” Leader-Man said sharply, dropping his salute, turning on his heel, and leaving. I watched him go for a long moment before turning back to the two dudes.

My stomach made a very loud and pitiful noise in the silence.

“I’ll excuse myself, then,” The woman said, saluting quickly before leaving.

I watched her go, not seeing what her patch looked like. Was it blue? Black? It wasn’t red or green, I don’t think, and it certainly wasn’t as big or decorated as the two men’s. The colors probably meant different branches, right? The decoration was probably the rankings, but I had no clue what they meant.

I was going to presume green and red weren’t air force or navy, because it would be weird if they were here. That meant, what, army? Marines? Space Force?

We weren’t near the water, so probably not coastal guard, right?

“So, what, magic, dungeons, stuff straight out of a video game. You think this is an alien invasion?” The blond asked casually, ignoring the sharp look from the brunette man.

“Uh, well, yeah,” I agreed, shrugging, “I mean how else do you explain the portals and the monsters inside that attack everything that moves?”

The blond shrugged, not responding.

“I think this is something that should be kept hidden from civilians,” The green-patch guy said, frowning at me, “I would highly recommend that you take down your videos.”

“As a civilian,” Not of-choice but they didn’t need to know that, “I’ll accept your recommendation as the bad idea it is, and keep my videos up. No offense, but the military doesn’t have enough people to fight this war alone, especially if it’s global.”

Two different sets and different shades of blue flashed, annoyance filling their gazes as the men looked down at me. The blond’s jaw was visibly clenched.

“We can always recruit more people,” The brown-haired man said stiffly, “If the citizens of America go into a panic because of this event we cannot guarantee everyone’s safety.“

“You already can’t,” I argued, “Letting the people know will make your efforts to recruit members a lot easier, and also they’ll find out anyway. Me removing my videos will just put off the inevitable.”

“The military needs that time to come up with an appropriate response,” The brown-haired man said.

“You have a high enough position to speak for the entire military?” I asked.

“He does not,” An aged voice said. A man older than everyone in this commandeered building walked in, and I turned to regard him. He wore green, “I would say only the President himself would have a high enough position for that.”

“Sir,” The two men saluted.

Jesus, how high up was this guy on the totem pole?

“At ease. How far have you gotten?” The old man with peppered hair and a sharp yet simultaneously far-seeing gaze said, seeming to ignore me entirely.

“He refuses to take the videos down, sir.”

“Is that so?” The old man turned to look at me, “Think the people deserve to know?”

Should I be respectful?

…

I wasn’t even respectful to my own boss, what the hell was I saying?

“I am more concerned with the fact that the military doesn’t have enough men to effectively combat this,” I shrugged, “More people who know, more people who want to fight. Instead of having me take it down, why don’t you jump at the chance to monopolize the people who would happily jump into these things, like me? People who would fight to do so. Maybe even make a new branch, call it the Adventurer’s Guild branch or something. I mean you can comfort the scared civilians all you like, what comes first should always be protecting America. Or, in my case, the world.”

“You think these portal things are that dangerous?” The old man asked seriously.

I straightened, turning to fully face the guy, “I think this is an invasion of the world. We need to use these dungeons to grow stronger before the main invading force comes in. Look how many things have been destroyed already. They did that in a day. What could they do with a week? The people need to know now because the military needs people now.”

The old man stared at me for a very long moment. Then he nodded, turning, “We won’t prevent you from uploading, then.”

The man turned to walk off.

“Ah, wait—I forgot to mention!—or maybe I already have? There are three months before the monsters inside the dungeons come out. I would be mobilizing soldiers to go inside instead of guarding the portals. Oh, except the one I just came out of, I took care of it, we have a year for that one.“

The man hesitated, then nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind.” Then he was gone.

Nodding to myself, I turned back to the two men.

“You’re either the best bullshitter I’ve ever seen or a very sly and patriotic man,” The blond said bluntly, sounding half-awed and half-frustrated.

I shrugged, turning back to the men, “Bit of both. Nothing I said was wrong, really.”

The brown-haired man wore a blank expression, “You truly believe what you said?”

I turned to the man, “Yes.”

There were no extra flowery words necessary. The dungeons needed to be delved. People who actually wanted to live were in danger, and my suicidal heart wouldn’t be able to bare it if I just let them all die.

Wanting to live is such a precious, beautiful thing. Enjoying life, seeing its beauty and living to their fullest… To put people—to put anything—who has that desire in danger? Unacceptable.

Maybe I was desperate to find a cure for my desire to die, too, but even if I wanted to live or didn’t want to find a cure from a monster my mind wouldn’t change in the slightest.

I wasn’t the greatest of people, and my morals were practically nonexistent, but I would be crippled by guilt and pain if I just laid idle while the world was in danger.

Swallowing at the determination filling me, at the weird way my heart beat, I realized I’d found something I’d never known was possible for me to gain.

For the next three months, I had purpose.

Say I have a savior complex all you like, I wouldn’t just sit around doing nothing if I was able to save even just one life.

An amusing thought was breathed to life in my mind.

Maybe the karma I got for saving other’s lives would eventually save mine.

I would love to know what it is like to have the will to live.

Was it a refreshing feeling? Was it something that was hardly noticeable?

Maybe I was being too greedy, though. Even just having purpose filled me with such determination and motivation that I’d never had before.

An energy filled me that I’ve never felt before.

I had purpose.