During the wars of ancient times, the world was divided into eleven domains and remained this way without a change of borders even until this day.
Some legends say that there were many races in the world, but today, only humanoid-like races are present. They were all included in the human race, so there are no differences between an elf, a dwarf, a giant, or a regular human. Thus, everyone has the same rights.
The ruling faction of the world consists of eleven elders. They oversee the safety of the world and every aspect related to it. Below them are the governments of the countries and General Guild.
The humanoid races all have some sort of presence in the ruling structure of the world. Either as an elder, a leader of a country, or even as a minister in their countries.
General Guild is the major guild that manages the dungeons and the guilds existing in every country, and its HQ is located in RECAM, or what is widely known as the Central Area, one of the eleven countries, and as the name suggests, it is in the center of all the other nations.
It also has branches in all the countries and is mostly located in populated cities. These branches are called dungeon management centers. Guilds and warriors can go to these centers to look for available dungeons to raid. They can also accept general missions to earn various rewards, and they manage the awakeners’ academies of each country, as well as attributing ranks and testing the strength of warriors.
At the age of twelve, General Guild controls the awakening of every youth through some devices that they’ve created. If the kid successfully awakens his powers, he is then tested for his compatibility with one of the three main types of awakening. Either a warrior, a healer, or a Jack-of-all-Trades.
Afterward, he is then enrolled in the respective academy of their type of awakenings where they will pass six years learning the basics and training his newly-acquired power.
During the six years at the warrior academy, apart from general studies and topics related to dungeons and theoretical subjects, the junior warriors learn how to control their powers. Thus they are divided into more categories and types; elemental mages, fighters, knights, guardians, tanks, spear wielders, archers, swordsmen, assassins, or gunners.
After the six-year at the academy, General Guild tests awakeners and attribute ranks to them depending on their performances, and if the newly-ranked awakener is at least C-rank at that moment, he is then scouted by a guild.
***
The hospital where I was admitted was located in Chemrak city in Comadra, a country located in the north of the world, or what we know as the world. Since beyond the vast sea that surrounds it, no one knows what exists.
Since I had no family members, no one visited me that day except those general guild members.
The next day, the first two to visit me were my closest friends from academy days; Clara Relish and Leo Alinsky. We were all part of the warrior program and went through a lot together.
Six years ago, after graduation, they were scouted to be part of one of the major guilds in our nation; the Armored Wall. They were both B-rank by this time. On the other hand, I became a D-rank solo-warrior who ascended to C-rank.
They didn’t change at all in the past months since our last meeting.
Clara was wearing a long pink dress that matched well with her pink sandals. Her auburn hair was pulled away from her angelic face and gathered on top of her head in a ponytail style. Her usual smiley face was darkened by a more stressed and worrying look.
“She must have been worried about me so much for the past week,” I muttered.
On the other hand, Leo was happy to see me awake. He was wearing a dark blue buttoned shirt with black jeans and shoes. His fashion sense remained the same as his stern personality. His black hair was covered by a black hat.
“He likes everything to be black,” I added.
“Good morning Shiryuu. How are you feeling today? I heard that you went through an incident during your last raid.” Asked Clara.
“Good morning Clara, good morning Leo. It’s a good thing to see you. Well, it was one hell of an incident, but I guess I’m fine. The doctor told me yesterday that I should be good with proper rest. There are some chairs over there, feel free to use them.” I explained.
“I’m glad that you at least can talk confidently like this. That’s what I would expect from my rival.” Commented Leo. “Jokes aside, the incident of the dragon’s tombs brought turmoil to the world. Everyone is talking about a potential Mythological Weapon being found and stuffs like that. What exactly has happened?” A worried look appeared on his face.
“Hmm, so that sword was indeed a mythological weapon. I don’t know much about them since I was never interested in them. This makes things more complicated for my case”. I muttered to myself. “Okey, hear me out, it’s going to be a long story”. I replied.
***
I told them what has happened in detail, and the ordeals we had to face in that hell of a dungeon. The new monster that appeared instead of the actual boss, the new door to a room with a dragon inside of it, the massacre of everyone who went inside, and the sword that appeared from nowhere.
“I remember the sword disappearing before I passed out, but I can’t bring it out. I feel that I’ve grown stronger from the last battle, and like something inside of me exploded and I’m brimming with energy”. I admitted.
“It’s a really hard experience my friend, but they say that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so be glad that you survived”. Motioned Leo to my heart.
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“I’m glad that you came back to us Shiryuu”. Said Clara with a relieved tone. “When we heard about the news, Leo rushed to the hospital before anyone else.” She chuckled.
“Hey don’t tell him that, it’s embarrassing.” He turned his head with embarrassment.
After a good laugh and dozens of minutes of talking, they decided to leave me to rest for the day and told me that they’ll come to see me occasionally during my stay here.
“After you get discharged, let’s go on a raid together like old times. I want to see your new strength. Don’t disappoint me. See you, buddy.” Said Leo.
“Goodbye Shiryuu, and take care of yourself”. Added Clara.
“See you later both of you, and take care”. I waved my hand.
After they left, I had time to think about what we’ve discussed. To sum it all, the dragon tombs were a mythological dungeon that happened to show its true colors during this raid.
All the previous dungeons of this type had a similar setting, a different boss, and a new hidden room where you fight the real boss to get the mythological weapon. But this time, the weapon was given to me as a means to clear the dungeon, and from what Leo told me, I think things will become more hectic starting from now. Well, it has already started to be.
“I was never the brilliant one of the group, so without the little details that Clara and Leo told me, I would not have been able to arrive at this conclusion by myself anytime soon”. I thought to myself.
Afterward, I decided to look for any useful information about Mythological Weapons on official websites and documents on the net.
From what I’ve found, eight of them were discovered in the past ten years, aside from my sword. They were all in the possession of the top ten guilds in the world.
The ones discovered so far in order were; the Fishman Trident, the Giant Shield, the Beast Claws, the Dwarf Axe, the Insectoid Needle, The Vampire Daggers, the Ogre Club, and the Elf Bow.
Aside from that, nothing worth it was mentioned aside from their potential destructive powers and some urban legends.
***
A few moments later, the General Guild members returned to see me. This time, I was ready to discuss what they wanted from me.
At first, Liam told me the same things that I’ve discussed with my friends earlier that morning, that I was chosen by a mythological weapon and that I became the ninth user, that there were ten weapons dispersed around the world and only one of them remained to be found.
He wanted me to show him the weapon, but I couldn’t. It had completely disappeared after my fight with the dragon, and there could be some conditions of its activation.
Later on, he told me that I was a special case, there was no record of a similar thing happening in the past, and that there was no voice talking with the previous users.
In the end, he told me that they wanted me to join General Guild and help in defending the world. I immediately declined as I was still keen on continuing my solo journey and prefer not to join any kind of guild.
He told me that the invitation is still on. He gave me his contact address and left with his henchmen.
***
During the whole week, a lot of journalists came to get information from me about what has happened, many recruiters from different guilds came to ask me to join their guilds. It was such a busy week. I would never have dreamt of being this famous before. I was someone who doesn’t like attention, but it eventually died down with time.
***
The busy week passed by quickly. I was finally discharged and was welcomed by my two close friends; Clara and Leo.
When we went out of the hospital, we saw one of the General Guild members, who came with Liam, waiting outside.
He approached us and told me that I should go with him to the dungeon management center to re-evaluate my rank and update it.
***
After getting a re-evaluation, I was ascended to rank B. The new power awakened inside me after I used the mythological weapon made me rank up from C to B. Normally it takes years of training and fighting monsters inside dungeons to go to B-rank.
I was told that all the other mythological weapon users were B and above before acquiring their weapons, and they grew even more powerful with time. The weakest of them was ranked A, so I still have time in front of me to get stronger and catch up to them.
Clara and Leo were excited after I told them that I became a B-rank warrior, similar to them and that soon I would catch up to them.
***
We got out of the center and decided to go hang out for the rest of the day. It has been a while since we enjoyed our lives.
Since I broke out from D-rank, I went to train in a swordsmanship dojo in the Asahi no Kuni, a country located in the far east of the map. That dojo was where I acquired my sword style; the Ono-ha-Itto-Ryu techniques.
When I returned a year ago from it, I only met them for few occasions or whenever we were on break from our respective raids and missions. So this was a good time to do so.
***
After a good and enjoyable day, I returned to my home in Qatenin, a town close to Chemrak, to rest for the night and think of how to tackle the following days. I immediately fell asleep after I laid on my bed.
Not moments later, I found myself flying inside a dark tunnel. I could only see a light at the end of it, and I could control my body perfectly, but I was pulled by a strange force.
I kept floating slowly until I reached my destination. The light blinded me and I couldn’t grasp what has happened.
Suddenly, as the light started fading, I saw a big figure standing in front of me. A gigantic body that towered at least over 20 meters. The monstrous figure was a dragon. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The dragon had a large blue body full of scales. He was standing on four big muscular legs. His wings were as big as his body. But the most memorable feature was his black beard that was coming out from his chin. I was surprised to find out that dragons can grow beards.
My floating body didn’t stop. It kept moving towards the dragon until few yards away from him.
“We’ve finally met little one”. Said the dragon.
“Am I dreaming? Who are you and what am I doing here?” I questioned with a puzzled look.
“Hahahaha, you are such an amusing boy”. He loudly laughed.
I didn’t understand anything from his reaction, so I just kept silent. I was overwhelmed by the situation in front of me.
“Well, I don’t blame you for being surprised. Let me introduce myself, I am the leader of the Dragon tribe and one of the ancient dragons, the sky dragon Raimeiryuu.”