~Scroll of the Dead~

Noon

The alliance between Theseus’ party and the monks began their journey to Corinth. They had taken a quick break at a lake beside a nearby canyon, they led the horses to drink since they seemed thirsty. After all, they weren’t taking any chances.

Shin walked away from the group to check out the canyon, Yang noticing this, called him back with a straight-face

“Oi Potatoface, what are you doing?”

“Check out this canyon.” Shin pointed with a grin

“What about it?”

“Doesn’t it look like it’s shaped like a buttcrack?”

“Pfft!” Yang snorted, after moving in for a closer look he finally agreed with Shin.

“You see it don’t you?”

“Heh, that’s a good one.”

There was a pause for a while before Shin declared with confidence

“I’m going in.”

“No you’re not.” Yang shot back leaving Shin with a sad look

“Wait why not?”

Yang couldn’t believe this, was Shin always this childish? He let out a sigh.

“We don’t have all day you know”

Shin knelt in a Dogeza stance and begged “Please!”

Yang’s eyebrows twitched, he couldn’t believe they were almost the same age and Shin was acting like this. He had no choice but to succumb to his pleas to avoid witnessing this cringe.

“Tch, Fine.”

“Hehe,” Shin chuckled as he walked towards the canyon ready to explore it. Once inside, he quickly let out a breath of relief before continuing. After his next step inside, a magic circle activated beneath him and let out a red glow.

“Eh?”

Yang and Theseus quickly noticed this with the latter yelling out in shock.

“Shin, watch out!”

Shin quickly leaped from the spot but not in time to avoid the explosion from the triggered magic circle. Luckily Yang rushed in on time and shoved Shin out of the way. The two landed on the ground safely. Shin was the first to recover and looked around the surrounding area, he could see the sky had changed from blue to dark red.

“Ngh, what the hell happened?”

He looked further and saw the entrance completely blocked by boulders. Shin quickly ran to the blocked path – searching for even the smallest opening so they could escape but sadly he couldn’t, Yang appeared beside him and placed his hand on the entrance.

He closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling and inhaling while he did so before reeling his elbow backward. Shin glanced at the monk while he was doing this.

Yang focused his mind as he let Chi flow inside him for a while. He was going to destroy the blocked entrance in one shot.

“Shin.”

A voice called out making the boy look around in confusion and stopping Yang, where was it coming from? Whose voice was it?

“Hey brat, can you hear me?”

The voice became clearer, Theseus who was on the other side called out to the boy. Shin let out a sigh before responding

“Yeah, loud and clear.”

Theseus crouched down, feeling the ground for a while till he noticed a small red magic circle with the letter Delta ‘Δ’ on it.

‘So that’s what we’re dealing with huh?’ He stood up and sighed.

“Hey Shin, Furball,” He called the two “It seems you’re stuck in a dungeon.”

“Dungeon?” Yang’s eyes widened, he had heard of them from stories. Structures of different forms secluded in a separate space, they were home to various magic items, artifacts, and treasures, so clearing them was the best way to make money. But they were also dangerous as they housed dangerous magic beasts, creatures, and even demons occasionally. People rarely take on dungeon-clearing jobs as a result.

“So cool!” Shin’s face lit up in excitement

“Of course it is...” Yang sarcastically replied before turning back to Theseus “So what? We should wait our asses for a way out?”

“The current rating for this dungeon is D,” Theseus continued “You’d have a hard time but clear it eventually.”

“Agh, that’d take hours.” Yang groaned

“Days actually.” Theseus added

“WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!”

“Yang!” Hui scolded the boy. Though they were separated by space, Yang could still feel the old man’s vigor.

Shin placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling at him. It was as if Yang could hear him say ‘Don’t worry we’ll make it somehow.’ He had no choice but to sit down in defeat.

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“Hey Theseus, how far are we to that Terminal?”

“Currently we’re at Elysium.” He responded “The dungeon probably goes as far as Arcadion which is like three days from here”

“And how far is it from Corinth?” Yang raised an eyebrow

“Four weeks.” Theseus responded

“Tch.” Yang hissed

“What about this?” Hui placed a finger on a map he had. Theseus looked closely at the spot for a few seconds before he could recognize the location.

“Pyrathos? There aren’t any terminals there.” It wasn’t a popular city, nor did it have any military power, but it took nothing more than four days to reach if they met up at the dungeon opening.

“We’re fine with you guiding us there,” Hui nodded “Truth be told, I didn’t want to be a bother to the two of you.”

“Eh?” Theseus stared at the old man before concluding. He wanted to guide them there, but he had other things he needed to accomplish, not to mention his quest to become a god.

“If you say so.” Theseus let out a sigh. Turning his attention to Shin once again “Think you can handle it?”

Shin blinked twice before letting out a chuckle. This was the first time Theseus showed concern since they met, but it made sense since it was his first dungeon quest. Though Shin wasn’t that bright at times, he had a code he abided by.

Once someone put their trust in him, he wouldn’t disappoint them no matter what. This ignited a fire inside the boy as he declared

“Yeah, leave it to me!”

Theseus and Hui nodded before walking back to where the other monks were, they had been given the go-ahead to head on leaving Shin and Yang alone in the dungeon. Yang stared at Shin silently.

‘He seems to be enjoying this as much as the next guy.’ He thought, no normal person would be smiling in this situation, especially someone as weak as Shin.

Yang began walking away from the entrance, earning a look of confusion from Shin.

“We don’t have all day y’know,” Yang called out. Though he didn’t like it one bit, he’d have to put up with both whatever this dungeon threw at him and the antics of Shin Matsumoto till they got out.

Shin simply smiled “Alright!”

~Scroll of the Dead~

Five hours later

Yang sat down to meditate silently.

It helped him every time he felt like he was about to lose his temper, now he hoped it cleared up before he exploded out of rage

“Yo” Shin popped in from behind which Yang ignored. He pouted due to this and pressed his cheek against Yang’s causing him to growl

“What do you want?” Yang opened an eye

“Sheesh can’t even talk anymore in heaven?” Shin responded

“You realize you’re half the reason we’re in this situation.”

Shin assured him with a grin “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get us out of this place and you can finish your porridge or whatever it’s called”

Yang glared at the boy as he tried to figure out what he meant “Don’t you mean pilgrimage?”

“Yeah that, you’re a good listener!” Shin laughed causing Yang to sweat.

“And you’re a nutcase,” Yang muttered “Let’s hurry and wrap this up, the sooner we do the faster I can get on my path to AGH” he cut himself off

“Hm? Path to what?” Shin wore a look of confusion “Something wrong?”

“It’s nothing” Yang nervously turned away ‘Telling a stranger is the last thing I want right now.’

‘Path to…’ Shin thought about it, he could have sworn he'd heard this somewhere before. Suddenly, he recalled the words of a certain demigod

~ ‘My path to becoming a god!’ ~

A sly smile formed on Shin’s face. He appeared at the back of the young monk in an instant.

“Don’t tell me…” Shin raised an eyebrow “Little monkey boy has a dream he wants to accomplish”

“Tch, fuck off!” Yang cursed but Shin simply raised both his arms and waved them.

“Don’t be like that, nothing wrong with having a dream-”

“You’d laugh” Yang turned his head sideways

“Does it matter? You shouldn’t be ashamed of your goals no matter how dumb they sound” said Shin with a calm look.

There was silence for a while.

“Sun Wukong…”

Shin stared in even more confusion “Hm?”

“What do you mean ‘Hm’?” Yang stood up with an annoyed look “How can you not know about the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Monkey King?”

“Well, he does sound familiar” Shin scratched his head with a finger

“Of course he is, he’s the greatest hero to have ever existed!” Yang gestured proudly “Born from a stone with divine power to becoming someone acknowledged by Buddha himself!”

“You seem to know a lot about this guy” Shin laid his back against a wall, even more interested in the tale of the Great Sage.

“Why wouldn’t I?” He looked back “He’s my goal after all”

“Eh? Your goal?” Shin tilted his head

Yang nodded “Yeah, I’m gonna become someone like the Monkey King, or even end up surpassing him!”

“Not bad, Yang, I’ll try rooting for you” Shin commented

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you live as my servant when I get there” Yang jokingly replied

“LIKE HELL I WILL!” He snapped back

Yang chuckled as he sat down “You’re so easy to provoke”

“…What’s so funny, ya damn furball?”

“Doesn’t matter” He responded

“Tch, well I’m getting some sleep” Shin turned away

“It’s still early” Yang leaned forward, he could probably tell that the time was around six to seven in the evening, which still counted as early for someone like him who was focused on training.

“Maybe for you” Shin replied with a tired look, he’d been traveling and training nonstop for days now. He needed some rest once in a while, especially for the long and perilous journey ahead.

~Scroll of the Dead~

Elsewhere

It was around 6:00 pm, inside the large space inside the canyon also known as the Opal dungeon. A pack of horned cats were running as fast as they could. These were carnivores which could be distinguished by their brown fur and spotted body with pointed ears and an ivory horn on their foreheads.

They were species that hunted as groups, with a similar hunting style to wolves, except they weren’t running towards something like a predator to a prey…

They were the prey in this scenario.

The head of one exploded, causing blood to flow out like a fountain. The other cats stared in shock but kept on running, they couldn’t let what happened to their decapitated comrade catch up to them.

“Hey, why are you running?” A male sadistic voice called out. It was traced back to a white-haired figure standing in the twilight of the mountain room in the Opal Dungeon.

“That’s rude you know,” he raised a hand. Instantly, the heads of the other horned cats were cut off from their bodies “Cats are supposed to be man’s best friend”

The man walked slowly, he became more visible. He had blue eyes and wore a black sleeveless zip-up shirt with a long collar and grey rims. He also wore black gloves to match this look and on his face was a tattoo of a lightning bolt.

“Hmm,” He suddenly paused as he stroked his chin “Or was it a dog? Nah, could care less”

This was Ilias, in the underground world, he was known as the Phantom Blade. But he went by a different name in a certain organization.

“I can’t believe that bitch Aretha ditched me” he cursed “The boss won’t take excuses, especially with his recent mood so he’ll probably deduct my pay… ARGH DAMMIT!” He burst out in a fit of rage but calmed down for a second

“No matter, I’ll just wrap this up quickly and clear the dungeon” He looked up “As a bonus…”

He noticed a nearby horned cat trying to escape, he raised a hand as a gust of wind formed around it. It blew for a while before it took the shape of a circular ring. It flew towards the cat and wrapped around its neck like a collar, it began reducing in size gradually which caused the cat to gasp for air.

Ilias closed his hands shut, and on command, the ring-shaped wind disappeared. The cat seemed fine for a bit until he was frozen in place.

Slowly, like a guillotine, the cat's head fell off. It rolled over for a bit before landing at Ilias’ feet. He looked at it for a second before crushing it with his feet.

“I’ll slaughter the bastard that trapped me in this dungeon!” he let out a devilish grin, cackling out into the night sky.

Such was the resolve of [Ilias the Buzzard, Member of the Birds of Prey]