Abri got off the train to a small town, with no major cities anywhere in sight. As she looked around, she saw the residents with hollow faces, an air of helplessness, and smouldering fields.
Swishing her head side to side, she decided to ask someone what's going on.
“Hehehe,” the citizen dryly laughed, “a dragon showed up. Some foolish kids went to slay the thing, and all ended up devoured. They came back though, a silver lining.”
“Where are these kids?”
“Want to slay it yourself? Fine, they’re in the mud house at the edge of town.”
Thanking the stranger, Abri headed over. Knocking on the door, Abri heard a call telling her to come in.
“Who’re you?” a young girl asked, seemingly speaking for all the children here.
“I’m Abri. I’ve come to kill the dragon. What can you tell me about it?”
“Our weapons bounced right off its scales, our spells dissipated on contact, and its presence made us unable to stand,” a young boy yelled, seemingly angry they couldn't do anything.
“Thank you for the advice. Were its scales big? A whole bunch of small ones? Any unscaled areas? Any reversed?”
“Big. Nothing but its eyes and nose, but you wouldn’t get there with its flame breath. Nothing backwards, just the perfect shield.”
“I see. Thank you for your time. I’ll be off.”
As she left, the children looked at her with confusion, and a spark of hope.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Abri scoured around and soon found the dragon's nest. It lay there, sleeping defencelessly. Abri gathered mana and prepared a powerful strike. She crushed it down and attached the bolt to her waist. Prepared with her final strike, she dashed at the monster's eye and stabbed.
With a howl, the dragon rose, staring hatefully at Abri. Abri was smiling back.
The dragon breathed its great flames, with Abri dancing past to strike the scales on the belly of the beast. With her blade glancing right off, it gave what seemed like a sneer, before swiping at her. Abri hopped on the arm, running up and ending at the top of its head. Grabbing the eyelid, she ignited the blade and stabbed.
Anguished, the beast sent its mana out like an energy shield, sending Abri flying. Landing softly, the beast keeps its shield, a mana barrier, active. Abri carefully observed the mana, seeing its structure, and thinking of how to best cut through it.
Seeing its form as large hexagons stacked together, She stabs through a gap and pries a piece off. The beast howled again, and Abri pulled back to avoid breaking her blade when the barrier repaired itself. The beast seemed like it was gloating, it likely thought could keep itself defended for longer than Abri could fight.
Abri saw the expression, and clenching her blade, she began to smile. She condensed her mana into the air, making steps as she jumped up to the dragon's head and stood in front of it and its barrier. The dragon breathed its fire at her, but she spun around it, pouring all of her mana into her sword. Continuing to dodge around its fire, she dashed forward and burst several pieces of the barrier, jumping through, and grabbing the spell still at her waist. The beast opened its mouth one final time, releasing the most powerful fire yet.
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But it was worthless. Abri cut through the fire and threw the spell inside the dragon. Hitting the back of its throat, it exploded, felling it.
The townspeople came out and saw Abri standing on their tyrant's corpse, and cheered.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
“Please teach us!” the failed dragon hunters called out together.
Abri put a finger to her cheek, and stood for a bit, thinking, while the children waited with bated breath.
“I don’t feel qualified. I don’t have any defined skills. Basically, use mana by imbuing it with meaning, and strike with that. Besides, I killed the dragon just for its core, and I’m responsible for it even existing. I’d be terrible for the job.”
Spinning around on the tips of her left foot, gets to work dismantling the corpse, all while the children watch stunned.
When she finished getting the materials, she held the core up and focused. The mana flowing through the air poured into the core, alongside Abri’s. After a bit, the mana burst out of the core, sweeping across the entire world.
“What… What’d you do?” the leader of the Dragon hunters asked.
“Automated dungeon formation! The world is all nice and changed! What to do now...” Abri trailed off straight into thought.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Cain gathered the monster hunters and began a meeting.
“Now is the time. We’re going out, and forming guilds. We’ll then take these guilds, and make a new branch of government designed for dealing with monsters. All on board?”
“Yep,” “Yes,” and nods came from the crowd.
“Final thing though, what will this profession be called? Hunter? Adventurers? Something else?
Many murmurs rippled through the crowd until Cain quieted them.
“Any alternative names?”
No response.
“We’ll put it to a vote them. All in favour of hunter?” Dozens of hands shot up. “In favour of adventurer?” Even more.
“Alright. Adventurers, now is the time to leave our mark on the world! Join like-minded colleagues, and make up your guilds. When we’re all ready, we’ll spread out and form guilds all across the country. Let’s do this!”
And a resounding roar of approval came in response.
The adventures quickly scrambled, trying to recruit others to their cause. Cain simply stood there, carefully eyeing comrades. When the crowd settled, Cain gathered the unaligned adventurers and asked if they’d join him. They all readily agreed.
Cain took them to a guild house he had gotten built and got Jane to join them for a meeting.
“First of all, want to join Jane?”
“No,” Jane said with a smile, “I got my own guild formed.”
“Oh well,” turning to the the adventurers, “So, let’s discuss a very important plan. You’re free to not participate, but hear me out first.”
The adventurers all had varied expressions of confusion, waiting for more.
“Abri Cath. She’s responsible for all of this. While she doesn’t have any malice, she’s still a disaster. Much like a natural disaster actually. What I’m saying, is we’re going to stop her. We’re going to seal her for a couple of decades, and let the world stabilise. When she returns, all these dungeons and monsters will be normal, and people will be prepared even if she does anything. Are you on board with this?”
Each adventurer thought about it, some longer than others.
As Cain waited, keeping his worry from showing, Jane just smiled, enjoying the opportunity to see her friend squirm.
“Have you all decided? Then, please leave if you don’t want to participate.”
As Cain scanned the faces of everyone, not one left. Releasing his breath, Cain had a hint of a smile appear on his face.
“Thank you. Now, let’s get down to business. We’re going to need a lot of mana. You 5 infuse mana into metals as they’re made into alloys, gather around 50 kgs. You 10, gather as much mana as you can. And you 6, join me. We’re going to hunt a mana stone to act as the core. Jane, join the Alloy group.”
With everyone gathering their resolve, they joined their group members to discuss future meeting times.
When they finished, Cain gave them guild credit cards. With everything prepared, Cain sent them all home, before heading home himself. Tomorrow would be a lot of work.