"It's freaking hot in here!" Ryner said. He almost sounded like screaming while holding a burning torch and leading the way together with Jagger.

"You're the one who insisted on not wearing the anti-radiation armor." Jagger whispered his comment, looking at the guy with a hopeless look.

Only a minute had passed since they entered the ridiculously wide cavern where monsters are supposed to be residing. Yet they haven't encountered a single beast coming at them. The only problem that they have encountered so far is the heat coming from the underground volcano where the mining tunnel is sitting above.

"The dungeon might be located deeper inside the tunnel." Rose suggested, walking behind Jagger and Ryner, forming a traditional raid formation.

The standard raid formation are consist of three positions, the front guard, the main damage dealer, and a support troop. Front guards are tough berserkers who are positioned in the front line. They are assigned for defending the back lane and advancing the attack force. The Main damage dealers are consist of mages that are behind the front guard. Their job is to deal heavy damage using powerful spells.

Lastly, the most important role, the support, the support lane is the lane behind everyone in a raid. Support lane consist of mages that are capable of using origin magic. Their job is to increase the chances of survivability of the troops in front of them using origin magic to heal or to increase the other troop's stamina and physical feats.

In their case, Jagger and Ryner are taking the front guard role. Mira and Rose are the main damage dealer, while Bernard is positioned behind everyone, taking the role of a support. They walked deeper in the tunnel this position.

The front guards are keeping their eyes focused in front of them as the other members are analyzing the surroundings from behind.

"Nothing feels irregular in here." Ryner stated, keeping his eyes focused on the front, gazing at the deep and dark tunnel that they were about to explore. Although the tunnel feels even hotter than before, they couldn't feel any mana waves from inside the tunnel. That place is strangely quiet for a C-rank dungeon which why Ryner keeps having goosebumps.

Ryner never had goosebumps inside a dungeon before, since he liked fighting more than anyone in the guild. Moreover, monsters should appear upon realizing that an intruder stepped inside their territory, but strangely enough, in this dungeon, no one welcomed them but the hot radiations from the sleeping volcano.

'I have a bad feeling about this place.' Ryner's thoughts kept his blood running. Both fear and excitement are cursing through his veins as they walked slowly deeper into the dark part of the tunnel.

After taking a light step, a faint ticking sound went off from the ground, a small piece of the tunnel's rocky ceiling probably dropped from above. But that was only an assumption before suddenly...

"Crack! booommm!... boom!... tack!.. "

The rock supporting the cavern from behind them collapsed, shaking the ground violently on impact, causing them drop their torches and to duck to cover their heads.

"Crap!" The only word that got out from Ryner's mouth as he looked behind to check his comrades. "Is everyone okay?" He asked, looking at them with worried face.

"We're fine, but..." Bernard's calm eyes quickly turned to an anxious glare as he turned his head behind him, looking at the blocked passageway full of giant boulders of rock. "... this is a problem, right?"

"Seems like it." Ryner replied. Despite being trapped in the situation, he remained calm since he was the one with the strongest will among them and cowering might lead to the entire party to lose it's morale. "We'll find a way out somehow." He optimistically stated, picking up the slowly-dying torch and handed it over to Rose. "Fire please."

Rose quickly lifted his sleeve to avoid burning her clothing. Her spirit mark glowed upon releasing mana to ignite a small flame in her hand using magic, only enough to light up the torch.

"We need to be more cautious from now on." Ryner stated before cautiously looking at the deep tunnel in front of them. "I don't know if you've felt it, but that overwhelming mana coming from inside this place is really giving me the chills." He bluntly said as he felt the dense amount of mana surging from within the tunnel dungeon.

The other party members felt it too. The intense amount of mana, trying to suffocate them to death. If not because of their armors and mana reinforced bodies, they might die in that place without even fighting a single creature.

"Don't you think we should go back, guildmaster Jagger?" Mira questioned, worriedly looking at the darkness they're going to face if they try to go any further into the mining tunnel.

Jagger stared at nothing for a moment before uttering, "Whatever monster that is, I'm more worried if a beast as strong as that comes out and endanger the villagers." The muscular guildmaster tightly grabbed his ask and lifted it so that the handle is resting on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I agree, so there's no going back now until we clean this mess." Ryner commented, exhaling sharply before pulling his sword from its scabbard. "We need to atleast–"

"However..." Jagger intervened with Ryner's statement, immediately stopping the man from speaking. "... I wouldn't allow Bernard to go into battle with us." He said, gazing at the young support wizard behind them. The guildmaster's statement caused everyone to widened their eyes in surprise with a gasping sound filling the air.

"But guildmaster–" Bernard tried stating his complain but Jagger quickly shook his head, looking at the younger fellow.

"The situation has now changed uncontrollably." Jagger stated with a serious look. "I'm the one who brought you here," He said, referring to Bernard. ", So I'm the one who's responsible for all of this."

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"If you're planning on clearing this dungeon while keeping them away from danger, then count me in. I'll fight with you." Ryner bluntly uttered in a serious tone.

"Okay then, the rest will stay here and fined away to dug our way out of this tunnel. Can you do that?" The obviously anxious guildmaster stated, pointing at the collapsed ceiling. Then, he quickly went and walked towards the tunnel.

"Ryner, follow me." Jagger said, carrying a torch in his left hand, lighting up the darkness with its yellow flames.

Ryner followed him, also carrying a similar torch while looking up the rocky ceiling with his wild gaze.

"I'm also coming with you." Rose hurriedly followed them. She's not carrying a torch so she positioned herself behind Ryner and followed him as they walked deeper into the mining grounds.

They're positioned behind each other creating a straight formation with Jagger leading the way while Ryner and Rose following behind his back.

"Swooosh!"

"What the–"

Suddenly, a strong wave of mana pushed them back, causing them to get on their knees and hold their breaths. Such an overwhelming force is keeping them away from exploring the deeper parts of the tunnel. It was like something out of ordinary is inside worth protecting.

'What's up with this situation? Somehow, this feels similarly like one of those S-rank gates.' Ryner thought.

Shortly after a few waves of that heavy mana surge, the surrounding was filled with sudden strange silence that sends shivers dow their spine. Jagger who's leading the way looked left and right, up and down, and strangely, nothing out of ordinary.

Not until a low clicking sound that seemingly similar to a bird's chirping noises was heard about their heads. This instantly urged them to look up. Ryner was the one who raised his torch high enough to light up even the rocky ceiling and what they saw robbed them of speech.

"W-Wh-What the–"

****

Meanwhile, in the Grandfield household, Grey was peacefully meditating inside the private room that his grandpa and uncle prepared for him. It was wide and surprisingly quiet inside, probably because of the thick wooden walls and spells that his grandpa used to suppress the sound coming from inside and outside the room. This room was created for Grey's study of magic, but now, he's currently using it as a place for mastering zect using his young body.

Grey was steadily breathing, going deeper in his consciousness as he gathered mana particles from the atmosphere. He remained seated in that lotus position for hours everyday to make his premature body remember the sensation of zect.

'I need to concentrate even more.' He was determined to learn everything about this new life that he's going live on, probably for a long period of time. And because of the obvious differences between his previous life and the current, he can't help but compare them, and came into a harsh realization. 'I'm still weak, I need to be even stronger than this.'

It seems like fighting against his grandpa made him realize that he has a weakness that he wasn't aware of. His low capacity mana pool always drives him to the edge, just like when he fought against the shadow panther and the recent sparring against his grandpa.

Moreover, this world was filled with people who each wield powerful spirit marks that allows them to draw mana from the spiritual domain. Although this power was limited, Grey knows that his power wasn't even enough to equally match those kind of supernatural feats. He feared that one day, he will surely encounter someone stronger than him.

After summing everything up, Grey managed to come up with a solution. However, it may takes some time since he needed to master everything one step at a time. The first thing he has to master is his concentration regardless of everything that's happening around him. Mastering this ability takes time and require intense suppression of one's instincts. Which is why Grey started to learn this technique first because the earlier he starts the earlier he will accomplish it.

'Practicing in a quiet room surely helps deepened my focus.' He thought, breathing in and out slowly. 'I have to remember this feeling of deep focus over and over again until I no longer need to close my eyes.'

Knowing that he's going to stay in this place for a quite long period of time to train. He atleast need to prepare for his grandpa's very intensive training and make sure to last longer. He have to do this over and over again before he try training with the old man once again.

But while focusing and diving deeper into his own consciousness, Grey stumbled upon a piece of memory that had probably resting inside his consciousness for a long time. It was vague image of a bearded person, looking at him with pity.

'Huh? Who..?' The image stayed inside his head as he meditated, causing him to breathe unsteadily, almost sounding like panting. The image was familiar to him but couldn't remember who it was, which is why it surprised him even more. And to make matters worse, the longer the image stays inside his head, the more it causes pain inside his chest. 'What is this feeling?' He thought as he slowly lose focus. His head felt dizzy all of a sudden and cold sweat started dripping from his forehead.

A nostalgic feeling is seemingly remembered by his soul, causing him to open his eyes as tears started build up in the corner of his eyes. He panted heavily as he questioned himself, "What the hell was that?", with a puzzled look while sweat dripped down his head.

Instantly, Grey drowned in his thoughts. 'Who is that person? And more importantly, why can't I remember him?' He closed his eyes, and just before when he was about to try recollecting the vague memory memory, suddenly...

"knock... knock... knoock!"

He heard a violent knock, violent enough to not be called a knock but an act of breaking someone's door. At first, he thought someone might be knocking at the door of his peaceful room. However, that wasn't the case. The sound seemingly originated from the front door of the house and the knock became more violent that it can slightly shake even the ceilings. This caused the young wizard to stood up and flipped open his own door out of curiosity.

Upon stepping out of the quiet room, he saw his father, Edward also walking in the corridor. Grey assumed that he also came to check what's going on in the front door and followed him.

"What's going on dad?" Grey asked out of his curious mind.

"I don't know." Edward straightforwardly answered. "It's already this late at night, what kind of person would knock that wildly at this time?"

After taking three or four steps, both of them heard faint noises coming from the front door. Noises that soon became yells and screams.

"Mister Reynold!... Old man Jurgen!..."

"... Open the door... Mister Edward!..."

Two voices of seemingly familiar individuals are screaming on their front door. The first one is a voice of a man and the second is a gentle voice of woman. This caused Edward to hurriedly rushed to the living room and saw Jurgen also in the front door ready to open it.

"God damnit, who is–" Jurgen's rage was suspended upon opening the door and saw the two familiar individuals standing in front of their entrance.

Grey and Edward were late, but after taking a quick glance, they instantly recognized the people in front of their door way. This caused Edward to blurt out a worried question, "My god, what happened?..."

On their doorstep, two person covered in sweat are standing in front of them, panting and coughing. Their faces are almost unrecognizable because of a black colored substance that mixed with their sweat, covering their faces. They smelled like a burned rocks that can suffocate the lungs upon inhaling its scent, causing them to cover their noses. Jurgen and Edward quickly recognized the man as Bernard and the woman beside him is Mira.

"What happened to you guys?... What happened to the raid.?..and where's–"

Before Jurgen could even finish his questions, Bernard quickly got on his knees and said, "Great master Jurgen, sir Edward, please... I'm requesting for your assistance on behalf of Ryner."