"You're swinging it the wrong way!" Words escaped the fully bearded man's mouth as Grey held a sword firmly in his hand. The man has been watching the young warrior through his round glasses with his strict-looking eyes.

Grey started wielding a sword sooner before he could even remember. Holding and swinging this heavy object was always been his daily routine followed by intense meditation while he was being observed by this man who call himself Albert.

"Why l am I doing this again?" Grey calmly asked, looking at the middle-aged man with his usually innocent golden eyes, making sure not to anger the man in front of him.

"Grey Litborne, do not forget your purpose. You are a hero. You will raise your sword for the sake of humanity. You are born to drive away the darkness that was lurking into this holy land." The old man once again spoke those familiar words that he already heard multiple times somewhere before.

The old man's repetitive reply only caused dissatisfaction inside the young man's thoughts. Raising more questions that drowned his innocent mind. He already heard those words came from this man's mouth probably a thousand times til now, but this time, he wanted to know more.

"And what exactly is this darkness?" Grey blurted a question that he doesn't usually ask, causing Albert to stretch his face in surprise.

"You're still too young to know." The old man blurted his cold reply, without showing any expression as he stood straight. "Now continue swinging."

An order that Grey quickly followed, firmly planting his feet on the ground and vertically swinging the sword he was holding along with a sharp exhale. And then another swing, and another...

During every swing, the surrounding started to become blurry, causing confusions to occur in his mind. And before he knew it... all of sudden, the surroundings became pitch black.

Grey observed the darkness for a few minutes before realizing that his eyes are completely closed. He soon felt his own weight pushing him onto his back and the heat trying to pierce through his skin as he slowly opened his eyes.

'A dream?' The first thought that occured to him, before opening the entirety of his eyes just to stare at the dark ceiling full of nothing but rocks as a seemingly dim light of flame slightly reflecting through its dark surfaces, causing it to shine in the dark.

He fixedly stared at the blank space for a moment before a fleeting thought slipped through his mind and made him reminisce that strange dream that felt more like a memory to him. 'That's right, that man's name was Albert.' He told himself before the imaged of the bearded man popped up in his mind that will most likely stay in his head for a while. 'That's the man who taught me to be a hero.'

After a while of wandering inside his thoughts, the scenes from earlier fights suddenly flashed in front of the young man's eyes, remembering everything that happened before he lost consciousness. This caused him to suddenly lift his exhausted body, getting up in surprise and looking around him.

When he turned his head to his left, Ryner immediately came to sight, looking at him with relieved expression. Looking at his face, Grey already knew that he had caused troubles to this man. "Where are... we?" Once again, he looked around his dark surroundings and spotted Mira sitting in the corner, also looking at him with a bright smile that seemingly shines through the darkness.

"We're still inside the tunnel– I mean halfway to the exit!" Ryner stated in his usual screaming manner, pointing at the large boulders blocking the way.

Grey quickly gazed at the large rocks Ryner was pointing and saw it blocking the exit."What happened in here?" He stood up to see more boulders filling the entire tunnel, blocking the way.

His question was answered by sudden silence followed by Ryner gritting his teeth and clenching his fist. Gey glanced at him with puzzled eyes and then turned his gaze to Mira who also shrugged her shoulder upon eyes contact. After receiving no answers, Grey has no choice but to stop prying, filling the air with more awkward silence.

The silence lasted for about a minute or two until faint sounds of footsteps was heard throughout the tunnel. The sound became louder as the seconds passes. And soon, whispers and murmurs can also be heard along with the footsteps. The sound seemingly getting closer and the whispers became loud voices of people talking about something but Grey couldn't make out what they were discussing.

This leads to Grey turning his head to the direction where the sound originated. "Hm?" It was pitch dark in that direction but just brief moment after looking at it, a yellow light shined through the dark tunnel. This was followed by heavy footsteps and a human figure moving on their way. Boots were impacting onto the ground as the person walked towards them, carrying a torch. Behind him are a few more people following him.

Ryner recognized the first figure and stood up. "Great master?" He was unsure as it was too dark inside that tunnel.

But his assumptions were proven once the person replied, "Why the hell are you still here?" The old man Jurgen is the only one who could talk to him like that, so that's definitely him.

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Soon, the people walked closer to them as their face became clearer because of the flaming torch on Mira's side. The one leading the way was indeed Jurgen, followed by Reynold, Edward, and Jagger behind him. Bernard was the last one to arrive, staring with a dumbfounded expression at the large stone boulders that are blocking the way.

Getting back to the old man's question earlier, Ryner replied, "Well, seems like a little trouble.", turning his face towards the large rock behind him.

Jurgen stared at the rocks and said, "I see, I guess we have to dig out way to the exit." He let out a sharp sigh before looking at Grey. "It seems like you managed to kill the emberman huh?" The stubborn old man commended, placing his hand on top of the kid's head, rubbing it.

"By the way, did managed to find the boss?" Ryner surprised them with the sudden question, somehow causing them to have a shameful expression.

"About that..." Edward quickly stepped in, rubbing his head with an awkward smile. "... we failed." He bluntly stated.

Ryner's expression didn't even change a bit. It seems like he was expecting this to happen. "What did you find?" He asked again, hoping for a better answer.

This time, the Guildmaster, Jagger, stepped in the conversation. "We saw a massive... as in really massive door inside." He said, trying to describe its size by spreading his arms wide. "It seems like the boss monster is still inside, so I'm going to report it to the Guild association." He said.

"I see." Ryner briefly stopped after replying and said, "Then let's dig our way to the exit."

Meanwhile, Grey got into lotus position just a few minutes ago. He planned on opening their way using magic and proceeded to absorb the mana around him while breathing loudly at a stable rhythm. Soon, mana started pouring into the center of his body, his soul, and into that soul, his mana pool.

His sudden actions caused everyone to stare at him and wonder. Even Edward who have already seen his son in this position several times was curious to know what his son's doing.

"Hey, what's he doing?" Ryner asked the clueless old man beside him, looking at him with confused expression.

Jurgen looked at him, also in awe and pointed at himself. "Why are asking me? Like hell I would know. I only met that child this morning." He whispered his reply and faced away from his disciple.

After hearing the old geezer, Ryner quickly turned his head to someone who might knew was going on. But upon gazing at Edward, he immediately shook his head, refusing to gave him answer and most likely don't know a thing because of the curious face he was making. He badly want to know what the kid was doing, but when he came to face the last man he could ask, Grey suddenly rose up on his feet, stretching his arms.

A warning rang up inside Ryner's head, something's going to happen. "Get away." He blurted, referring to Mira who's still sitting near the giant boulders of rocks with Rose also lying on her lap.

Mira heard him clear and followed, vigorously carrying Rose with the help of Jagger who's still confused on why Ryner was acting like that.

"Let move back a little more." Edward suggested, stepping back a few feet from Grey while everyone followed him.

Jurgen also reinforced his body with more mana as he stared at Grey who's just standing there, looking at the large boulders. This causes him to wonder more, "What's he going to do now?"

"I don't know, he's jut standing there... menacingly." Edward replied, looking at Jurgen with a straight face.

After knowing that everyone are several feet away from him, Grey has no means to hold back. With Ryner giving him the go signal by saying, "Everything is clear, don't push yourself too much."

Grey couldn't help but look back at him while saying, "Thank you", before raising his mana to the highest point where he can still stay conscious. Filling the atmosphere with his golden-yellow colored mana aura while letting his body relax and feel his surrounding.

'Earlier I managed to use 'Mana Arts', but I totally lost all control of my mana and ended up spending everything.' Grey kept in mind, always keeping his mana level in check as he slowly moved the mana particles in the air, forming a golden-yellow spear-shaped mana structure that is pointed at the large rocks blocking the way.

'I'm more confident that I can pull it off perfectly this time.' He then slowly started moving the spear-like mana structure in a turning motion like a drill. Grinning from his accomplishment, he looked at the boulders once more. And then, in one sharp exhale, all the muscles in his body tensed as he pretended to throw a spear to command his mana.

"BOOM!"

All at once, the boulders were blown away by the strong explosion of mana, some turned to shattered pieces of stone and some flew outside the tunnel. The sudden disappearance of the hot airs that were trapped inside was also noticable. Even the tunnel that expanded because of the force didn't come unnoticed either.

"Woah!"

The scene brought a surprise expression to the people watching behind him. Followed by unheard praises and sigh of relief. Everyone has a smile they couldn't hide even in the dark tunnel.

"Origin magic?... and without a chant at that... that's awesome!" Jurgen was jumping in happiness while Edward ran towards his son.

"I didn't know that you have such a talented son, mister Edward." Jagger stated, slightly laughing.

"Yeah right, I wish I could spar with him." Ryner has such an excited look on his face but was quickly wiped when a wrinkled hand slapped his back hardly, causing him to arc his body in pain. "Oww, what is wrong with you, old geezer!" He yelled in pain.

"Your not a kid anymore to be fighting a child." Jurgen stated, looking at Ryner with a surprisingly calm gaze.

His statement caused Reynold to stare at him with a disgusted expression, remembering the fight between the old man and Grey earlier this morning. ' Look who's talking, I can't believe he said that with a straight face.' He thought before looking towards the young wizard who's also checking the way to the outside.

Grey turned around and said, "All clear, let's go home, I'm sleep–." He yawned while saying the last word. After having his dream interrupted just a moment ago, he become eager to sleep even more.

Everyone followed him as he walked the distance through the tunnel, leading the way. About 20 minutes have passed and finally they could see the slightly dim outside of the tunnel. Which is strange because they all entered the tunnel in the middle of the night.

Grey walked faster to see what's going on until he stepped out of the tunnel that almost killed them. Upon getting out, the first thing he checked was the sky on the west side, only to see it glowing, partially covered with white clouds. The sun wasn't there though and other parts of the sky was still dark while some stars were also visible which means it's close to dawn. This causes Grey to yawn and wonder, ' Just how long did we— in any case I'm glad we mange to get out alive.'