“Damn this is more boring than I thought.” Rebecca sighed, splashing her hand in the water.
“If you wanna help us we’d more than appreciate it!” Jason and Kanashi yelled in unison. Both of them had been rowing the lifeboat with large wooden oars for the past few hours and it was getting tiring.
“I told you I’m beat, my mana pool is almost zero.” Rebecca replied, showing her trembling hand.
Some people have slower aura regeneration than others, Rebecca was on the slower side. She took about 3x as long to regenerate as Kanashi who himself regenerated twice as slow as Jason.
“Well I can tell some stories I guess!” Rebecca said, sitting up with a new found energy.
“About what?” Kanashi asked, now intrigued.
“I don’t know, what do you want to talk about?” Rebecca asked with a smile.
“Uhmmm, what did you do before being a private investigator?”
“Oh good question! Well I did a few things, I ran away from home at 17 and became a public magicians assistant as my first job…”
Rebecca in a bunny suit huh? Kanashi imagined the image in his head but it was not at all satisfying. Yeah, that’s not gonna do anything for me.
“Then after 2 years of that I became a Dungeon Junkie.”
“Oh!?” Kanashi gasped with glittering eyes.
“Hahaha, I knew that one would get your attention! Yeah I did that for about a decade before I joined this company I work for now.”
“Can you talk more about the Dungeons you explored?” Kanashi pestered.
“Oh sure.” Rebecca closed her eyes in thought for about two or three minutes the whole while Kanashi wanted to shake her awake but held himself back.
“Well I guess I’ll start off with the last one I explored and the reason I quit.”
“Starting off with the final huh?” Well I can’t complain too much…”
“Okay let’s begin.”
# # #
So by the time this story occurred I had been a dungeon junkie for about eight or so years, and- well I should probably explain the term [Dungeon Junkie] first huh? There are three types of dungeons, the first and most commonly known were originally created by magicians or rich people who hired magicians to hide away their most valuable things.
They’d build a literal dungeon full of traditional and magical booby traps to stop any potential robbers. As people tried and failed to raid the dungeon four things could happen.
1. Become some kind of ghost and haunt the dungeon
2. Attract Dark Beings who feast on ghosts
3. Attract animals to their corpse
4. Create a cluster of Mana.
Out of these four the last is the most important. When people die their soul moves onto the afterlife but the mana in their mana pool at that moment will be pushed out into the world. On its own it's not a big deal but when you have dozens of people dying in close proximity to each other it creates a Mana Cluster.
Remember when I said Griffons were imaginary animals? Well when enough people believe in something the “world” will “fix” itself by adding that belief into reality. Griffons aren’t something that Evolved like a Saber Tooth Tiger or Lady Bug. They just appeared one day after enough people believed they existed.
The same logic applies to Dungeons, except the world “fixes” them much quicker. Someone tries to raid a dungeon and they fail and die. Their friend says they failed to raid the dungeon and other people go to try it.
If it’s difficult enough those people will either escape or die as well. Eventually rumors, legends and stories about the Dungeons will be told. They of course will be greatly exaggerated and as these stories are believed the Mana Cluster (World) will react by putting those beliefs into reality.
The Dungeon will continue to grow in both size and fame, people will come to raid it and fail adding to the mana cluster. Ghosts, elementals, monsters, animals and all other general [Mobs] will fill the dungeon and its difficulty will increase.
The people who died will not only leave behind their own treasures and goods but their items after a certain amount of time will become enchanted and attract more people into the Dungeon. It’s a vicious never ending cycle.
The second type of Dungeon are those created by myth and legend alone. A cave that people call haunted or the creepy haunted house on the hill. These take centuries to create but eventually those beliefs will manifest and turn whatever the legend was about into a Dungeon.
The third kind Dungeons of unknown origin, these have been around for as long as humans and have never been defeated. There are nine of these Dungeons and they’ve been named [The Nine Circles Of Hell.]
Now I know what you’re thinking. How the hell can this all exist but still be a secret? Well the answer is that Dungeons are not as common as they used to be a few centuries ago. Legends of Haunted Caves while still occurring are rare because of Science and technology. The second type of dungeons are almost completely extinct by now. They take too long to form and are much easier to raid then the other types.
Speaking of which, the first type is also not common in modern times. While they still exist they are almost never created. It’s much easier to hide your valuables in a bank or storage room then build an elaborate dungeon in a hard to access place.
Due to these factors Dungeons are not being generated nearly as fast as they’re raided and are completely absent in urban areas. However in places like rural forests, mountains and islands, dungeons are still present. When governments and companies want to urbanize these areas they hire Dungeons Junkies for the job. People who will clear dungeons for a commission fee.
I was one of those people for the first nine years of my career. You see when you start out you’re only gonna get hired to take out small dumpy dungeons with no valuable loot and for little pay.
The dungeons are too hard for some suits with a pistol but too easy for a veteran dungeon junkie so you get lumped with them. As a rookie you have to grind your way through these shitty dungeons and up the social ladder until you either make a name for yourself or get picked by a group of veterans. You can create your own gang of Junkies to help you get a little bigger jobs but then you have to split the pay so a lot of people tend to avoid this.
If you join or create your own team eventually you’ll be experienced enough to take a crack at [Public Dungeons.]
Public dungeons are Dungeons open for Junkies to try and raid as they please in return for a large entrance fee. These are typical ancient and dangerous dungeons that the property owners know you won't be able to raid so they feel confident in opening them up for Junkies to give a crack at. Essentially farming money. Of course you will also sign a contract saying that if you do raid the deungons successful you’ll have to split the loot 50/50 with the owner as a fail safe on their part.
I kinda skipped these steps. I was picked up by a bigger group of Junkies last minute as a filler member because one of their crew members could make it to their next job.
What was this Job you may ask? Well they were contracted by a certain Edoland Company to try and map out one of the Nine Circles Of Hell [Limbo] which is considered the least dangerous of them all.
I was a rising star at the time, what you would call a veteran rookie and my job for that trip was to be their Bag Girl. It sounds like a shit job and it was but they offered me a fair cut if they succeeded so I agreed right away. If we succeeded, our great grandkids wouldn't need to work a day in their life. [Limbo] is located in the Black Forest of the Vulracious Continent so we flew there quickly and began our descent into hell.
If I knew what would happen I would never have joined that raid. It was a shit show right from the start. Right away one of team members fell ill with a curse we had no way of exorcizing. Our healer wasn’t a slouch by any means. She was super skilled and could regrow limbs in a few weeks. I think a good way to compare it is like expecting a 1st grader to solve a calculus problem. She had no idea where to even begin removing the curse so the only thing she could do was constantly apply healing magic to slow down the curse's effects until we could escape or get help. We couldn’t just go back the way we came in either. The thing about [Limbo] is that the dungeon constantly changes shape around you. We later discovered that there were about 150 different patterns that the dungeon could switch between every six hours.
We were stuck and our only hope of surviving was either trying to find the way out as the path constantly changed or try to beat the dungeon.
They chose the latter. I had a part to play in this decision. My chirpiness and confidence in their experience and power really helped boost their ego so they decided that they could clear the dungeon faster then they could escape it.
This was definitely the worst of the two choices. Within two weeks half of our twelve man team was dead. The [mobs] difficulty curve was ridiculous. They went from like level 5 to 20 and then 35 in the blink of an eye. But We figured as long as our healer was fine things would work themselves out. She was already nearly dead from exhaustion because of constantly healing the man with the curse. When he finally kicked the bucket she took a break for a couple days to heal herself and then we went forward.
This is where [Dungeon Fever] takes place, the reason there is [Junkie] in [Dungeon Junkie] is because of [Dungeon Fever.] The deeper into a dungeon you go the thicker the mana is and the greater “high” you get. It’s basically the same as entering the [Abyssal Zone]. So as we made our way further into the dungeon our desire to keep going rapidly grew. I’d say we probably got about 15% of the way through it before giving up. The most anyone ever cleared was 60% but they had a team of thirty six people so I like to think that we did pretty good for only having twelve of us.
After getting stuck at the 15% marker for long enough our [Dungeon Fever] wiped off and we realized how screwed we were. Deciding to head back we lost another two members on our journey. By some crazy luck we were able to escape because the layout was the same one we’d entered with. In total we’d only been in the dungeon for 50 days.
The people who cleared 60% were actually way slower than us. It took them two years to get that far, and they would constantly send out a small group of people every couple of weeks to get more supplies so they could take that long to complete it.
After we left the dungeon we submitted our findings and got only a single digit percentage of the original amount. But that was just enough to help me get started in a new career.
Experiencing that Hell made me realize I didn’t want to play with my life everyday. It just wasn’t worth it in the end. So that’s my story on how I quit being a Dungeon Junkie!
# # #
“I wonder if Jin could raid one of the nine circles?” Kanashi muttered rubbing his chin, he knew about dungeons because of his fathers work but he only took part in the folklore of them not the actual dungeon diving hence him not knowing about magic.
“I think he probably could.” Rebecca nodded, “One important reason for those dungeons not being defeated is because all [Holy] aren’t able to enter them. I don't know why but there’s a powerful barrier blocking them completely. So the strongest in history have never given their hands at it. But Jin is an exception. He’s as strong as a Holy but isn’t one.”
“I wonder why he never tried to raid it then?”
“Your guess is about as good as mine. But maybe there’s a greater reason behind it that we just can’t understand.”
“Hey it’s getting dark out, we should take a break.” Jason said, cutting their conversation off.
“Hm, oh yeah it is.” Rebecca hummed looking up at the slowly blackening sky. “Any idea how much longer until we reach Edoland?”
“Well… probably a good day and a half at this speed, the other rescue boats have enough supplies to last them about a week each so we should be able to get help to them within that time limit no problem.”
“Good to hear!.” Rebecaa nodded. She pulled three sleeping bags out of their supply bag and laid them across the boat. Though a life boat boat it was far from small. It was nearly three meters long and two wide, big enough for them to comfortably survive on.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Kanashi and Jason laid their sleeping bags next to each other on one end of the boat while Rebecca had the whole other side to herself. This wasn’t because Rebecca requested it, in fact it actually hurt her feelings that they didn’t want to sleep near her.
Jason and Kanashi did this because neither of them wanted to be the first to say they were going to sleep next to here. It was a stupid thing only men could understand and Rebecca drifted to sleep wondering if she’d said something to upset them.
Kanashi and Jason laid next to each other without saying a word. They could hear each breath the other took as they tried to fall asleep. In these kinds of situations there’s two men.
The “Sleeper” and the “Worrier.” Kanashi and Jason were both the latter.
The Sleeper will simply sleep next to another man without a care in the world. This is because it’s no different than sleeping next to anyone else. It’s only a place to sleep.
The Worrier on the other hand is obsessed with someone thinking they're into men because they’re sleeping next to one. To avoid this they have to constantly reinforce that this is not anything romantic but just them laying next to each other trying to sleep.
Kanashi and Jason laid in their sleeping bags feeling the boat rack as they tried to sleep, swearing to never tell another soul of this experience.
# # #
I looked down at my hands, they’re not that of my usual self. They’re small like I’m a kid again.
Wait, what do I mean by “again?” I am a kid. I’m seven years old right now.
“Smack!”
I feel a tingling sensation on my back and turn around. Frairk is running away from me while laughing “You’re it!”
That’s right we're playing tag while Dads sleeping and Mom’s on a work trip.
It’s always the most fun when things are like this. Dad’s a heavy sleeper so even if we burned down the house he’d sleep through it. If mom were here she’d yell and throw shoes at us. She doesn’t like when we have fun but she’s nice to me so it’s okay.
“I’m gonna get you!” I laugh chasing after Frairk. I jump down the staircase and land like a superhero in the living room. Frairk dives under the coffee table and rolls to the other side.
“Damnit!” I growl trying to run to the couch to tag him.
“!” I clap my hand over my mouth as I say that, why would I say that? I’m now allowed to say bad words. No, I've been saying them since I was eleven.
Wait, when I was eleven I’m only seven… right?
“I’m gonna tell mom you said a bad word if you don't tag me!” Frairk laughs running into the hallway.
“No!” I cry out leaping over the couch and into the entrance room. It would be quicker to run through the hallway to catch him but the Elk head is scary so I try to avoid it.
I charge into the Kitchen and the cold tile stings my feet. I run through the kitchen and slider over the wooden bench at our dining table.
“Too slow!” Frairk laughs jumping out of his hiding spot to scare me.
[Rock Riffle!]
Nothing happens and Frairk jumps over the table to escape me.
Why didn’t my [Rock Riffle] work? Wait, what’s a [Rock Riffle?] in the first place?
“Did you give up?” Frairk asks, peeking his head through the door frame in the hallway.
“No way!” I reply and give chase lunging at him. Frairk dodges and runs down the hallway further.
The hallway feels like it goes on forever with no ending. He’s running towards Mom and Dads room but it should only take twenty steps, so why are we on our two hundredth?
Wait! He’s going for Mom and Dads room!? That’s cheating! That's an off limits zone!
“No fair!” I scream trying to jump on him right as he enters the room.
“Haha!” He laughs slamming the door in my face. I’m knocked back and my eyes are watering.
I can tear this door apart easily using Enhancement! I focus all my aura into my arms and try to punch the door down but my hand just bounces off of it.
“!?”
Why didn’t that work? I punched through brick with that!
“Let me in!” I yell banging on the door as loud as I can. Dad’s gonna be mad but it’s Frairks fault for cheating.
“Come in!” Dad yells.
I instantly reach for the door handle and twist it open.
“Gaah!” I scream, ripping my hand from the door knob. It’s hot, super hot. So much so that it melted the palm of my hand leaving only bone.
“What the hell?” I shudder, staring intently at my hand. I can see every single muscle; bone and tendon.
“Why?” Dad asks, his voice is weird and distorted like a frog's croak.
I look up and see him, Frairk and mom looking down at me from inside the room. The rooms on fire, a blazing inferno and they’re just standing in the doorway looking at me with wide toothy smiles.
I scream, I scream so loud I can feel my vocal cords ripping inside my throat. I watch the flesh fall from their bones as the fire molests them.
“Why did you start the fire?” They ask in unison while walking towards me.
I scream again but this time nothing comes out, I try to run away but as I turn around there’s a fire behind me as well. When did that get there?
“It burns Kanashi, It hurts so bad!” Frairk cries, his eyes are nothing but black pits inside his skull.
“Why do you get to live while we die?” Mom screams reaching for my leg.
I try to kick her away but Dad grabs me and pulls me towards him. “Burn with us!” He laughs maniacally.
I try to pull away but I’m frozen stiff. I try to scream, cry and kick but nothing works. I can only hear the three of them cackling as I’m slowly dragged into their burning room. First my toes are one fire and they burn. It hurts, a pain not at all like anything I’ve ever before experienced.
“More more more!” Dad, Mom and Frairk laugh dragging me further into the fire. Next are my ankles and knees. I can feel my muscles melting and tendons shrinking. My flesh slips off my bone like raindrops from a roof.
I manage to let out a final guttural scream and blood flies from my mouth as I do so, making me choke.
“How does it feel Kanako?” I hear someone above me ask. A deep hollow voice.
I look up and see Satoshi standing above me, “Why did you start that fire?” He asks with a smile.
I try to curse him but nothing comes out. It’s like I’m gasping for air. My blood boils with hatred, darkness consumes my vision, I feel nothing but the urge to Murder the man infront of me.
“Burn like the rest of them!” He kicks me backwards. I fly into the fiery room which is now a massive pit in the ground. There’s large shadows in the shape of horrible monsters on the pit's walls.
I try to beg for help but no one hears me, I’m only replied to with demonic laughter.
I feel the rest of my body burning as I'm engulfed in flames.
“Why did I start that fire?”
# # #
Kanashi shot out of his sleeping bag and over the side of the deck where he vomited violently.
It felt like he was vomiting out his entire stomach. It began to spasm and cramp while he vomited until nothing came out and then it kept going further.
He was stuck dry heaving over the side of the boat while Rebecca and Jason slept through it. They were heavy sleepers apparently. Or at least Rebecca was as Jason just tried to ignore Kanashis sickening sounds so he himself did not throw up.
What the hell was that dream? Kanashi wondered as he gasped for air, his throat burned and his stomach hurt. He could feel every heartbeat pumping blood through his veins up to his brain which thumped painfully with each heartbeat.
Then he remembered those people he killed by starting the fire while fighting Satoshi. He felt the urge to vomit again but nothing came out instead he just poured tears out over the side of the boat while dry heaving for minutes on end.
He only stopped because he ran out of air and fainted back on top of his sleeping bag.
The next morning Kanashi was the first to awake like he was prone to being and he watched the sun rise over the oceans edge silent , soon after Jason woke up who then shook Rebecca awake and their second day of traveling the harsh sea began.
“Say Rebecca.” Kanashi asked.
“What’s up?” Rebecca answered. She’d regained enough mana to help Jason row the boat while Kanashi stood at the back creating a gust of wind to help push them forwards.
“I thought mana only came from living beings, so how can mana grow in places?”
“Did Jinen not teach you anything?” She asked with a scowl. “Well much like how when we breathe out we release carbon dioxide the same can be said for our mana. Even those who don't know how to use magic can produce mana in small amounts which will be pushed into the atmosphere, plants and animals all have mana as well they emit and that mana will normally either fizzle out after a short time or will cluster together and cause a multitude of things to happen.”
“Being?”
“Well one example is an [Elemental], these are embodiments of nature created by mana clusters near a certain element. Fire, wind, water, etc. They’re normally not a big deal and won't mess with you as long as you don't mess with them but sometimes they can act up and then hunters are hired to take care of them.”
“So the Venator Society then?”
“Yep, that’s the main hunting group. But there’s also smaller businesses which do the same.”
“I see…” Kanashi muttered. Man Jin really didn't teach me much at all now did he? Well now that I think about it his job was only to teach me about magic for combat… but this seems to be real useful stuff to know anyways.
“Speak of the devil…” Jason growled and Rebecca quickly turned around with a spike in her aura.
“What is that?” Kanashi asked in a panic, something strange was in front of them. A strange being with a unique shape made of swirling water.
“An elemental, It’s funny how these kinds of things happen huh? Rebecca laughed nervously. Shit , I'm still out of most of my mana and Jasons [Liminal Realm] is only good against things with souls… She thought.“Looks like you’re taking care of it Kanashi!”
“Got it!” Kanashi said with a wide smile. He stopped casting wind magic and walked to the front of the boat to properly observe the being, it was of an unknown shape somewhat like something living but also all kinds of jacked up, like multiple layers of animals and people were stacked on top of eachother and constantly changing place. Maybe like someone switching between photographs really fast on a projector? Something like that.
Kanashi focused his entire body. First he felt his soul, it burned at a nice and healthy rate supplying aura to his aura nodes. His aura nodes pumped Mana into his still healing Mana Circuits which sprung to life. He focused his mana into his hands which he stretched out.
[Rock Riffle - Size: Golf Ball - Speed: Fast, Shape: Sniper Bullet]
His aura gathered around his hands and twisted itself into a hard ball of [Earth.] What started out as an orange wisp quickly grew into a perfectly smooth black rock spinning in the palm of his hands.
Now!
The [Rock Riffle] flew through the air with a hiss and split the ocean's surface. The elemental tried to create a wall of water but the bullet ripped through it no problem and pierced the Elementals core creating a large hole in its center.
“#$&%*$#@$”
Its cry sounded like a mix of beeps, vibrations and whistles. The [Rock Riffle] had done some serious damage to it. As quickly as it had appeared it crashed back down in the oceans depths without so much as an apology.
“Wow…” Rebecca hummed, patting Kanashi on the back.
“What?” He asked, turning around confused.
“That was impressive, I dont think I’ve ever seen someone deal that kinda damage to an elemental with a type it's resistant to before.”
“Oh really? I think I coulda killed it if I used more power but I didnt wanna make a big explosion or damage my Mana Circuits more.”
“Hahaha, yeah that wouldn’t be good…” Rebecca muttered looking at Jason who swallowed nervously. Kanashis imagination was a real problem.
It's a good thing he’s on our side. They both thought in sync.
It was their shared belief that If Kanashi kept growing at the rate he was he could contend for the title of Pillar God candidate some day.
A Pillar God candidate is a general term for someone who has a potential stake at a spot in the Ten Pillar God positions. If someone kills a Pillar God they assume their ranking. This is how Jinen Lutece first earned the title of Pillar God though he was later recognized as the strongest being alive and changed to number one.
If a Pillar God is to die of natural causes or step down they will then have their role filled by a Pillar God Candidate. There’s no limit on the number of Pillar God candidates that can exist at once. Nor is there an order; it's simply the strongest that assumes the role.
The title of Pillar God is not entirely dependent on strength either, though that is most often how people earn the title in the past there were non combat Pillar Gods such as the [Pillar God Of Forgery: Kill Thunder]. A great dwarf who crafted some of the most renowned weapons in the world.
“Well that was disappointing to say the least…” Kanashi sighed.
# # #
“Hey Jason, what about you? How’d you get into this business?” Kanashi asked as the sun began to set.
“That’s private information.” Jason grumbled in response as he continued to row the boat.
“Oh come on!” Rebecca growled, slapping Jason on the back hard.
“All right, all right!” Jason yelped, rubbing his now stinging back. “Well I started about fifteen years ago after getting a recommendation from my dad who previously worked for the same company we do now. I have a high potential in barrier magic so they were eager to hire me on and that’s it.”
“Did you ever wanna do anything else?”
“I never thought about it. Dreams, aspirations and goals are all pointless. For some people having those kinds of things work but for me they’re constant reminders of our mortality. Chasing goal after goal to pass the time until we die, I’d rather live a life without goals. One which I’m able to control. I may have a goal but in the end it’s determined by someone else and I can approach it the way I want to.”
Jeez what a bleak way to look at things. Kanashi thought with a frown. “Well I kinda get what you mean but I think goals are something everyone should have. At least an end goal for your life. Maybe you won't know about that goal until the day you die but I think having something to work towards is what makes life worth living. I can’t say you’ll always reach your goals. Outside forces can make them impossible to reach but then you just need to adjust your goal to the new scenario.”
“I can understand your reasoning but I don't agree with the conclusion. But we should get to bed now. We’ll arrive in Edoland tomorrow morning.”
Edoland huh? Kanashi thought, feeling his stomach flip like he had painful butterflies. There was a bathroom on the boat. Jason cast his Liminal Realm and Kanashi created a first wall but this wasn't the kind of stomach ache that could be cured by using the restroom. This was a stomach ache caused by nerves. The worst kind of stomach ache.
“All right.” Kanashi sighed, preparing his sleeping bag. Another night of sleeping next to Jason awaited. A long night, but tomorrow his real mission will begin.
He surely had gotten much stronger on the Cymba so hopefully that will better prepare him for Edoland. He was still heavily injured from his battle aboard the Cymba. The hole in his stomach wasn’t healed only [Sealed] to prevent it from becoming worse.
There was something with Satoshis [Tsubashinai] that stopped Kakashi's wound from healing properly. If Jason's Healing Magic failed it wasn’t a stretch to assume that only Cao-Li or someone on his level could heal it properly.
Maybe Nordon can heal me? Wait a moment! I was supposed to arrive in Sarukou port right? Am I gonna end up anywhere near there? Well… that’s the me of tomorrow's problem. Kanashi thought, closing his eyes.