January 03, 2093.
"Jack!"
Jack was startled when a beefy hand the size of a shovel landed heavily on his shoulders.
"AH!" He exclaimed, jumping back and putting his pickaxe between him and the overgrown appendage.
"Woah! easy there." Tj said with his hands up. "What's got into you? the pudgy bat said you've been working triple shifts since the new year. Are you ok?"
"Fine, I'm fine Tj." Jack breathed a sigh of relief then lowered his pickaxe, rolling his stiff shoulders.
"This can't be healthy man, or safe. You can't mine alone. You never know when a monster will pop up even in cleared dungeons like this." Tj said with concern in his voice.
"Don't mind me, the leech gave me the green light and doubled my pay if I can keep operations going during the holidays." Jack resumed striking his newly found crystal ore vine into smaller pieces. "Mining competition's coming up, leech wants all the advantage he could get."
Tj kept quiet after that and just looked at Jack. after a while, he started mining a few feet beside him.
"You know I got your back right?" Tj said after swinging his pickaxe a few times.
"Yes, thanks, man. But I got this, don't worry."
***********
Jack didn't get it, Tj should have worried.
Lunch break came and Jack refused to eat and continued mining instead.
Suddenly, a monster spawned right where he was aiming his pickaxe.
"Mother fu-" Jack rolled to the side as he was backhanded by the two-meter monster when his pickaxe struck its stomach.
"Grarghul!" It shouted in pain.
"Help! Help! Spawned! Hobgoblin!" Jack shouted at the top of his lungs as he quickly scrambled up while clutching his left arm and ran for the exit.
To his terror, Jack was only able to run for a few meters before he was grabbed and his arms were clawed bloody as he tried to protect his head with them from the monster's frenzied attack. Every strike rends his flesh from bone, making Jack delirious from pain.
Jack's life flashed before his closed eyes, all of his disappointments and regrets surfaced.
Not being chosen by the system...
Only being able to watch as monsters destroyed their home...
Distancing himself from his parents because of shame and self-pity...
He can't die here.
'I can't die here!' Jack screamed in his head and opened his eyes against the crippling fear and pain.
"Ahhhh!" Jack screamed in rage and kicked his foot towards his pickaxe that is stuck in the monster's gut. the monster howled and backed away from him. Jack took the opportunity to jump towards the monster and grabbed the handle of his pickaxe, He screamed again and tugged it with all the might his mangled arms could muster, dislodging it with a terrible squelch. When the monster's arms lowered towards its wound to prevent its innards from spilling out, Jack spun on the spot and swung his bloody weapon towards the monster's head.
'Thud'
The monster fell to its side with a pickaxe on the side of its head. Jack followed suit and let his knees bend from fear and exhaustion.
'I'm alive... I'm alive." Jack thought repeatedly.
A blinking dot of bluish light suddenly appeared in the corner of his vision.
'This! I'm... No, it can't be... Not when I'm about to die!' Jack's thoughts were in chaos as indescribable emotions jump at him.
Then a sudden blow on the side of his head made his scrambled thoughts focus on the pain instead.
Jack fell to his side and saw through his teary eyes another Hobgoblin holding a wooden club.
'Fuck!' Jack thought in despair as he lay there dying when the system finally chooses him after all these years.
Refusing to die without even seeing his status sheet once, he used all the mental strength he could muster then willed the notifications to show up.
[SYSTEM WARNING!]
DUCK!
[END OF TRANSMISSION.]
'Oh you've got to be kidd-' were Jack's final thought as he heard multiple shouts and feet running towards him before finally succumbing to the darkness.
**************
January 04, 2093
Jack's burning throat woke him up. He looked around and found himself in a hospital room.
'Why..' Jack was confused for a moment then he immediately raised his arms and checked for wounds when he remembered, relief almost made Jack tear up when he found that they were completely fine.
"How are you feeling Mr Halloween?" A middle-aged female nurse holding a closed pitcher of water and a few paper cups entered Jack's room and asked when she found him looking around his room.
"Like I've been molested by a Hobgoblin." Jack replied hoarsely and tried to smile at her but failed, his throat screaming at him to stop talking.
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"Well, you were in a cleared dungeon spawn incident yesterday." The nurse explained innocently.
"Yeah, I know that- Never mind." Jack tried to sit up when his joke failed and the nurse help him, arranging the pillows to support his back. "Can I have some water?"
"Sure." The nurse said then smiled sweetly at Jack and started pouring water into a cup. "We had to use a common health potion because you lost too much blood, that's why your throat feels dry. Drink slowly."
"Thanks." Jack said then slowly sipped from the cup. "I thought I died." He added when he finished drinking.
"The big man that brought you here killed all of the weak initial monsters that spawned in the mine along with your fellow miners to get you out. You're lucky they got to you when they did."
There was a knock on the door then it opened without waiting for permission. A well-built man and a tall woman in black suits, each holding a briefcase, entered while flashing their shield badges toward Jack.
"Good afternoon Mr Jack Halloween. We are from the DSA. I am Agent Willford and this is my partner, Agent Herera." The man said after walking into the room.
"We hope that you are well enough to give us a statement regarding the dungeon spawning incident." Agent Herera added, taking a small video recorder from her pocket.
"Mr Halloween just regained consciousness a minute ago-"
"It's okay, thank you nurse Janet."Jack smiled at the kind nurse, reading her name tag to thank her later when he got discharged from the hospital. "The sooner I got this over with the better."
"He will need his rest, so try to be as gentle as possible with him, okay?" Nurse Janet said to the Agents and refilled Jack's cup before she left the room.
"Do you want to take a seat?" Jack asked the agents out of politeness, gesturing to the foot of his bed.
"No, we are comfortable enough." Agent Willford said as his partner clipped the video recorder on the metal frame at the foot of his bed, fixing the angle to capture Jack properly. "All you need to do is tell us exactly what happened during the incident and we will record it as your official statement. Your statement will be used as your official account of the incident and any misinformation or alterations that can be proven that you have given in deceit can and will be used against you. You have a right to a lawyer if you are uncomfortable giving an official statement without one present. Do you understand?"
"I understand, I will not need a lawyer." Jack said to the camera.
Agent Willford looked at his partner and when she nodded, he started
"On the third of March, around noon, you encountered a hobgoblin while mining at the cleared level two dungeon 'Greenskin abyss'. Is that correct?"
"Yes." Jack said simply.
"Describe what you remember from the incident."
"It happened a few minutes after the bell for lunch rang, I opted to continue mining instead of going to lunch since I'm not that hungry. then..."
Jack told everything that happened in order and left nothing behind except the notification that warned him to duck from the blow of the second Hobgoblin.
Agent Willford nodded solemnly after Jack finished and Agent Herrera unclipped the video recorder and pocketed it again.
"Your company has issued no insurance in your name, instead, they put forward a waiver signed by you, relinquishing them from any responsibility in case of any accident that may occur inside any dungeons during mining operations." Agent Herera paused for air then continued. "Luckily for you, the hobgoblin you killed was the first respawn after the two months cool down meaning it has the return stone and the initial core. You can thank your big friend, Mr Brown, for personally seeing to it that your company does not gain ownership towards it."
"That sounds like Tj alright." Jack felt enormous relief knowing he got something out of the nightmarish ordeal he went through. "Off the record, am I in any trouble?"
"Unless you mean working for a shady company like yours that operates in dungeons who are way past the acceptable mining period, paying below minimum wage and bribing officials to operate without any safety gear for their workers, then no, you are not in trouble." Agent Willford said then left without another word.
"I apologise for my partner, He saw enough kids killed by negligent dungeon companies. Here take this." Agent Herera handed Jack a business card. "If you need help finding another mining job that will guarantee your safety, give me a call."
***********
'Finally.' Jack thought when he was finally left alone in his room after thanking the agent.
"Status."
_
[STATUS]
[NAME: JACK HALLOWEEN]
[CLASS: GUARDIAN LVL2]
[SUBCLASS: SHIELDBEARER LVL1]
[TITLE: PROOF OF COURAGE]
HEALTH: 130 (13/HR)
MANA: 130 (13/MIN)
STAMINA: 260 (26/MIN)
PHYSICAL POWER: 13
MENTAL POWER: 13
DEFENSE: 13
VITALITY: 13
AGILITY: 13
CONTROL: 13
-CLAS SKILLS-
GUARDIAN(PASSIVE) - PLUS 5 TO ALL STATS
(STAT ALLOCATION= 1 TO ALL STATS PER LEVEL)
-SUBCLASS SKILL-
SHIELDBEARER(ACTIVE) - ENABLES THE USER TO CONSTRUCT A GUARDIAN SHIELD BARRIER TO DEFEND OR ATTACK.
(STAT ALLOCATION= PLUS 1 TO ALL STATS PER LVL)
-TITLE EFFECTS-
PROOF OF COURAGE(PASSIVE) - ABILITY TO ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR +100%
Jack almost fainted from happiness. He perused his status in an almost instinctive manner which didn't surprise him, he had been an active follower of all things related to Guardians and Hunters since he was a child, plus the system felt just like an easily accessible part of his new self.
'I'm a Guardian?' Jack thought, a little surprised. In his young self, he always wanted to become a Guardian because of his idol, Guardian Dante. But when he grew up and finally accepted that Guardians are no more and Hunters are improved versions of the former, He prayed and trained daily to become one.
Becoming chosen by the system as, Jack presumed, the last and only Guardian in the world made him feel a little special, even when he knew that Guardians stopped appearing because humanity needed the much stronger Hunters to defend it from the evolved monsters.
"I'm chosen." Jack said aloud, tears of happiness streaming down his face.
For the first time in a long while, he felt something that his younger self always had in abundance.
Jack felt hope.