Stelle jolted awake from a nightmare with heavy breaths and a sweaty body, she looked around to see the outlines of her son(Iioshi) because it was dark, then checked her body and clothes, but soon after, she found herself calming down and mumbling: “it was just a nightmare”

She tried to sleep again, but sleep escaped her grasps as she kept remembering the nightmare's details, then she decided to wake up and do something useful instead of laying down and doing nothing, so she awoke and washed her face.

She turned on her desk-lamp and looked through the images in her camera, inserting a USB in it every now and then, watching the images with nostalgia and a small smile.

A while passed until she looked at her son’s sleeping face with the camera around her neck and stuffed up pockets of USBs, a sudden thought passed by her with a warm feeling of love: ‘oh how days move fast, he’s already 3 years old now’

She stood and approached him, staring at his cute face as she sat down, then gently kissed his forehead, the thought of her son made her crave some sweets, there was still a lot of puddings left, so she stuffed her pockets with sweets, actually, she took all of the sweets, whether it was puddings or chocolate, and she somehow made them fit in her black jackets pockets.

She ate small sweets from one time to the other with a peace of mind, after a while, she kept smelling a burnt smell, but she ignored it, yet it reached a point that made her start feeling paranoid, deciding to check the source of such a smell, she quietly unlocked the door and exited.

She got a series of coughs once she exited her room, she could smell and see the cause right and clear, there was a burnt smell and black smoke spread in the house, she saw a fire at the end of the hallway eating the stairs.

Fear consumed her little heart and she ran back inside, waking Iioshi with panic: “Iioshi, wake up! Iioshi!”

He woke a up with confusion: “what is it mommy?”

She immediately thought of a way to exit the house and remembered her older brother’s room, he was in college so she didn’t have to worry about the room being locked, it was close to a wall they could use to jump from and to, she thought of that because of a simple reason, it was impossible for them to try escaping by going downstairs, she’d seen the situation there, and she could tell, it was an absolute disaster.

Quickly, she got two cloths and wetted them with water, then gave one to Iioshi to cover his mouth and nose and did the same to herself, then ran to her brother’s room with him in her arms, she left him inside and left to look for her other family members, going to the closest room, her eldest brother’s and his wife, but she found neither, so she guessed they were sleeping outside tonight.

She then ran to her oldest sister room, but she was also never found, so she once again guessed that she slept-over at her friend’s house, then off she ran to her parents bedroom, but found none of the once she was looking for, for neither her parents nor her youngest sister were found.

She frowned and panicked, but then a sudden realization hit her as she remembered something that made her want to hit her head from her stupidity, she remembered hearing something about them being out of house that night for various different reasons, she actually smacked her head and internally cursed herself, then ran back to her brother’s room, where Iioshi was coughing up.

The fire wasn’t very far away now, so she opened the terrace in a hurry and sat on it, then picked him and tied him to her with a long piece of cloth she found in her brother’s closet, she found the camera around her neck annoying but didn’t have time to take it off, the same goes for the Mr.Loacha that Iioshi, who was crying and confused, was tightly hugging.

Stelle looked around and saw the long wall she could reach if she jumped to, then she would walk a bit until she finds a place that would get her closer to the ground, then she would jump to it, then she should be able to find anything she could use to land on the ground safely.

She made a quick plan and whispered before standing on the terrace: “hold on tightly”

Iioshi tightly hugged her in fear; she took a deep breath and jumped over to the long wall; using her her hands to hold the wall to avoid falling off, then took another deep breath after letting out a sigh of relief.

She stood and asked “did you get hurt?”

He shook his head that was stuffed in her shoulders, then she carefully walked on the wall, her focus revolving around balancing herself on it until she found her aim.

She saw a fireman and thought it was best to wait in her spot, it was much safer to do so after all, so she sat and called anyone for help, but, something unexpected happened.

Someone did spot her and did inform the firemen, who hurried to her rescue, but right when things were thought to go right, wooden planks crumbled from above none other than them, and out of reflex, she jumped of the wall.

Many would think that course of action was dumb, but the wooden planks were huge, and If she tried to move forward or backward, anywhere away from it was simply impossible because she was sitting, they would both be dead if she hadn’t done that, both her and Iioshi.

She tightly hugged her son and shielded him from the fall, closing her eyes tightly and hoping she’d be able to absorb the impact for him.

A weird feeling washed over her, the feeling of someone who just awoke from a long sleep.

They hit the ground and kept rolling around in dirt at a high speed, rolling around in all sorts of things until they finally slammed onto a solid thing that made her groan whith pain.

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She couldn’t move her body as it throbbed in pain, coughing out some blood because the spot she slammed with was her back, it was hurting all over, like that one time, she heard Iioshi’s cries of pain, yet she didn’t even want to open her eyes, even though she didn’t have the energy to do so, she had to check her son’s well being, so she opened her eyes, but the first thing that caught her eyes was a green forest, the problem was that there was no forests or as green a spot filled with trees as this near the area she lived in, heck, she lived in a resident area; so how did she get here?

“Are you okay?” She asked gently as she ignored the pain and tried sitting in surprise.

Iioshi nodded his head and stopped crying with teary eyes, she kinds of expected it, after all, she absorbed almost all of the impact, but she was still unable to stop herself from getting worried.

She tried moving her left arm in an attempt to pat his head, but an unexpected pain stang her joints, thus immediately realizing the fact that she broke her arm, so she gave up on that and examined there surrounding, it was still a forest.

She started feeling nervous, leaning against the tree she slammed on earlier while Iioshi looked around with teary eyes next to her, she said as she patted his head with her other hand: “don’t worry, things will turn-out great”

She needed to get help, anyone that would call her an ambulance or possibly aid her injuries, she was covered in scratches and they might get infected, her left arm was broken and she hit her head, so she might've gotten some damages.

"We need to get some help" she said.

Iioshi was scared, looking at his pained mother with fear, but said after summoning some courage: "I'll look for someone mommy, stay here!"

"No! it's dangerous!" she said in panic as her paranoid side pointed out the scary thoughts she was trying to ignore.

He flinched and stayed quiet with a lowered head, seeing the courage he collected wither made her instantly regret not controlling her emotions, so she gently caressed his face with a longing face: "sorry, it's just...sigh...dangerous out there, you shouldn't be away from me, someone will definitely find us"

She stopped talking and said with enthusiasm: " You have to protect me Iioshi"

It seemed her words got to him as he seemed to have gotten happier and prouder, he said as he clenched his small fist: "I'll protect mommy"

She weakly smiled and looked around to figure out a plan and whatever was going on, but a mechanical female voice interrupted her: "system downloading 1%"

"Huh?" Stelle looked around in confusion and saw a blue 2D box in-front of her with the words she'd heard written in white.

She looked at Iioshi and asked him with wide eyes: " Do you see this? or did I hit my head too hard?"

She pointed at the blue square, but he looked confused as he cutely squinted his big eyes to search for whatever it was his mother meant, she herself was more confused as it was, and this only resulted in an increase in that, she said as she pointed at the blue square more closely: "This blue square I mean"

"No" He cutely shook his head in curiosity.

She felt even more confused and shocked as an idea suddenly hit her, it said system, so is it like in video-games and animes? her eyes sparkled as she thought excitedly: 'I knew a day where a system comes out would come!'

She held a stick with her right hand and started drawing on the dirt any random thing that came to mind as she thought things through: 'If a system truly exists and I'm not merely hallucinations, then is my world going to be filled with dungeon? if so, it would explain how we got here'

She looked around: "We're in a dungeon right now!'

Stelle was filled with excitement as she was one who loved that genre, but after less than a minute, her eyes landed on a 3 years old kid with no life experience, weak and defenceless, innocent and young, and she happened to be the mother of that toddler.

She let out a small sigh with a similarly small smile, then patted his head as she tossed aside her excitement, she had a kid with her, and that excitement of hers would only lead to more trouble to both of them, so she couldn't afford to be careless.

"Mommy, where are we?" Iioshi asked as he leaned towards her.

"hmm...somewhere..." she answered with loving eyes as determination hit her, and her resolve to protect and love her son increased, a goal and obligation she made for for herself got updated: 'I'll protect my dear from any danger in this world-or era or whatever kind of place we'll live in'

she couldn't help wanting to witness her sons future, she had high and wide expectations for such a bright child, but if things comes to worst, she would gladly sacrifice everything -including herself to achieve her son's happiness.

She looked at the 2D box [System downloading 91%].

She looked around and searched for a hidden spot that would hide them from any possible danger, if this was truly a dungeon like she speculated, then it was bound to be swarming with monsters, so finding a hideout was a must.

She thought of climbing the tree above them, it was big alongside its tree chunks, so unless there's some type of cobra ruling over it, that would be a good hiding spot, but there just had to be a problem, how would she be able to climb with her broken arm?

She was thinking about the matter until she heard the same familiar android-like voice, causing her to immediately face it.

[System downloading 100%

Opening system after a quick update 1%].