Leto Pov
Growing up an orphan wasn't easy. His father didn't stick around long after having a good time with his mom; he didn't know much about him at all actually.
His mom died from an illness when he was only four years old. It was very sudden. One day she was sick and then soon after she was dead. She never stood a chance.
The only reason he was able to survive was due to the kindness of the village crazy lady. Crazy as she was, she had inherited a farm with a small house from her parents after they died. They even left her enough money to keep the farm going.
He began working on the farm shortly after he moved in. For eight years life was stable and he felt like he might actually stand a chance of living a comfortable life.
He was a little different from the rest of the children but no one ever held that against him. They even applauded him for it.
He could smell fruits and vegetables when they walked around the forest. It made hunting animals much easier too.
He could hear their footsteps as they walked and the branches they broke with their hooves. He was stronger than the other children too. He could carry all the stuff they gathered throughout the day, all the way home without breaking a sweat.
Most just thought it was because he had spent so much time working on the farm. He would surely awaken his system to acquire all sorts of skills related to farming and harvesting.
He knew that wasn't the case though. He didn't tell anyone because he was sure they would call him crazy, but he could actually smell emotions and valuables.
It was weird to say out loud but he could smell it when people carried money or jewels on their person. He was like a walking treasure radar. He could feel it getting stronger as the days passed and he got closer to activating his system.
He could pull up his status panel but it was very lacking. It just showed him his full name. He wasn't sure where his last name came from.
He suspected his father was some kind of noble out looking for some fun. The system didn't care if the father acknowledged the child or not. It would give the child their father's last name if there was one.
His full name was Leto Aitken. The count down showed him five days before his system would reveal all there was to know about him. He was excited to finally level up and be more helpful to the village that had been so kind to him.
Time passed quickly; five days passed and his system activated but all he felt was confusion as looked at his status panel.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting but what he saw was puzzling. His race was called Half Dragon. He clicked on it in hopes that the system would explain his origins to him.
[Half Dragon. A mix between a human and a pure blooded dragon. They often look exactly like humans. They lack the dragon inheritance. They gain their sense of smell, strength, hearing and love for treasure.]
He tried to comprehend what he just read but he's still very confused. He didn't know what a dragon was. He asked the system for more information about dragons. The system seemed to consider it for a second before responding.
[Dragon. A creature of legend. Large lizard like creatures with wings and tremendous magic power. They fled from their homeland, in order to save their race from extinction. Thought to be creatures of myth, they can blend in with humans after reaching a high enough level to transform. They are on the verge of extinction still.]
He was even more confused now. Why were they on the verge of extinction? Why did they have to flee? Is this why his father didn't stick around? He tried to ask the system for the reason they were almost extinct but it only gave a simply answer.
[They are being hunted.]
They response from the system made his whole body break into a cold sweat. Creatures of myths were being hunted? That was terrifying.
Should he be worried? He's only a half dragon. He should be fine right? He tried to put all this to the back of his mind and go back to farming.
It worked for a while. One day he smelled an incredible amount of malice coming closer and closer to the village.
He became scared after remembering what he had read about being hunted. He pulled his foster mama into the cabin and told her everything he had learned since the day his system activated.
He didn't realize it but a weight was being lifted off his shoulders. He didn't even realize he had been carrying it. She didn't doubt him or call him crazy. She told him to look out for his own best interests. If he truly found himself in a dangerous situation it was ok to run away.
She reminded him that he was just a child who had recently activated his system. No one expected him to be a hero. She left him to think about what she had said and went to warn to other villagers. They already thought she was crazy. As the days passed the stench got closer and closer.
When it was close enough that it began to permeate the whole village he started gathering up the village children. They were only eight of them.
It was a small village after all. When he heard the screams of the village elder who had gone out to greet the man who had arrived at the village; he grabbed his friends and started running towards the mines.
They were long empty. People had dug everything up way before they had been born. It was a tradition that the young children from the village, would gain their first levels by hunting the small monsters that lurked in the tunnels. They were followed by adults but accidents had still happened in the past.
They ran as fast as they could, occasionally stopping to let the smaller children catch their breath. The mines weren't far away only twenty minutes or so but the entrance had collapsed during the flood this year and they hadn't gotten around to clearing the entrance yet.
He stuffed the smaller children through the crevice in the opening. Once they were all inside he told them to get away from the entrance and hide so they wouldn't get hurt on accident.
When they confirmed they were all settled, he grabbed the large rock and started pulling it in order to make the crevice big enough for the other kids and him to get through.
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It was the hardest thing he had ever done in his twelve years of life. His face began to sweat from from the exertion. Just a little bit more he kept telling himself. After three minutes of pulling he was finally able to widen the crevice so they could crawl through.
It took him just as long to get the rock back into almost the exact same position as they found it. He hoped some leaves would fall or it would rain and wash away their tracks. The inside of the tunnel was pretty dark, hardly any light was coming in from the cracks at the entrance.
It didn't take long for their eyes to adjust. They began to travel deeper into the mine. They did their best to keep quiet.
They couldn't afford to draw any attention to themselves. They made their way deeper and deeper in the mines. Thankfully they didn't come across anything but rats.
He had enough strength to kick them to death. He could hear them as they scurried closer and closer to them. They thought they were so sneaky but he could hear them and smell them. It took a while to finally reach a deep enough area that they finally felt safe.
But was that even true? Could they really be safe staying in here? They didn't have any food or water; it wouldn't take long for monsters to find the rat bodies they had left behind and start hunting for them too. The situation was dire. There was no denying that. He would do his best to protect his friends no matter what danger came their way.
They all did their best to sleep. It was incredibly hard to sleep knowng that you might be being hunted down like an animal. They were alarmingly exhausted though, so they did end up sleeping for a few hours before waking up again.
It was awful being cramped here together not knowing what was going on but they held on to hope that things would work out in the end.
After a few days of the same routine they began to hear noises in the mine tunnel. They all began to sweat in fear of their impending deaths.
The younger kids were fighting back tears as they began to pray to the system for help. It was all they could do anymore.
They were exhausted and hungry. Even if he didn't kill them or turn them into slaves they would die of hunger in the very near future.
They heard the ding of a notification and it surprised the children and they didn't know how to respond. He pulled up his notifications and read it before yelling in surprise that they should all open their notifications as well.
[Congratulations! The Goddess Niamh has chosen to send you to a dungeon. It will be dangerous but you will also gain power. Do you accept? You will be teleported away if you accept.]
He thought it was better to go to a dungeon than to die like the villagers or become a slave. He urged all of the kids to accept the offer. They all hesitated before one of them finally clicked accept and disappeared in a flash of light. It didn't take long for others to follow suit.
He could hear the man getting closer and closer. He was sure he could see his shadow down the tunnel. The stench was burning the hairs in his nostrils. Once he was sure all of the kids has been teleported away he also accepted and disappeared in a flash of light.
It didn't last but a moment and then he was in a new world. He was still in shock at the thought of being inside a dungeon when he realized the children were being led away by foxes. He began to panic and tried to gather up the kids again. Wolves came out from behind a snow drift and began growling at him.
He wasn't frightened but he got the message. Don't mess with the kids and foxes. All he could do was follow the group as they traversed the frozen floor.
It was beautiful, in it's own way. When they finally reached the stairs to the second floor he realized the dungeon smelled funny. It smelled nervous.
He thought it was weird. Why would a dungeon feel nervous? Then he started smelling that awful stench again and he sort of understood the dungeon's nervousness. Before he could think on it any more a girl burst out from the stairway to the second floor.
She was adorabley cute with her fox ears but she smelled different than anything he had smelled before.
He wasn't sure how to describe it. He would give it more thought later. Right now he was wondering what she was doing. She pulled out a simple decorated golden metal rod from her ring and it blew his mind.
Then she began herding our group down the stairs. The children were so frightened they kept asking if she could kill them quickly so they wouldn't suffer. He almost laughed at them but he understood the seriousness of the moment so he held it in.
He didn't smell any bad intentions on her. She was scared. That was the emotion he was getting the most from her. They walked down the stairs as fast as they could, faster than that even. They were being pushed forward by the fox girl.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs they all froze from the shock. It looked nothing like the frozen wasteland they had first arrived at. There was a large quantity of monsters that were beginning to crowd around the stairs. It was an intimidating sight.
They were jolted out of their thoughts when the fox girl pushed them onward towards the cabins in the distance. When we arrived at the cabins the fox girl pushed us boys towards one cabin and took the three girls and went to the other cabin.
At first he was a little scared but then he reminded himself that she didn't smell like malice so he let them go and entered the cabin. The other boys had already started eating the food on the table. It didn't look poisoned or like a trap. He also found a ring on the table.
He went in to the small room in the corner and found a small wash area and a toilet. He told all the boys to come in and wash up and then he noticed the clean clothes on the bed and made sure they all grabbed a pant and shirt set that fit them.
The material was soft to the touch. It was the nicest thing he had ever touched. It was hard to believe they even owned something like this. First the food, then the ring, the clothes. What was this dungeon doing? He had never heard of a giving dungeon. The longer he thought about it the weirder it got.
He told the boys it was time clean themselves up and herded them in to the wash area. Thankfully the hot water never stopped coming so they didn't have to rush or do it while freezing.
After cleaning himself up and making sure the other boys were taken care of; he sat down at the table and began stuffing his face. He loved everything he put in his mouth.
While he was eating someone knocked on the door and he assumed it would be the fox girl. He swallowed the food in his mouth and opened the door.
He was relieved to see the girls standing behind the fox girl. They had also bathed and put on clean clothes. He asked if they were alright just to be sure and his body deflated when they nodded.
{Katherine} "Hi? The dungeon gave me this ring so I can speak with and understand you guys. I'm sorry about rushing you guys along earlier. It was an emergency. I'm Katherine."
{Leto} "Hi. I'm Leto. I understand. It's ok. What kind of dungeon is this place? It left a bunch of food on the table and even this black ring."
He pulled a black stone ring out of the pocket of his new pants and showed her.
{Katherine} "How old are you? Have you activated your system? This is a storage ring but you need the system to make the best of it."
{Leto} "I'm twelve, my system activated a few months ago." He was extremely proud that it did.
{Katherine} "Ok, good. Drop a drop of blood on that black stone and bind it to you. It will link to your system and then store all that food so it won't go bad. Would you like for me to come in and cook? I'll explain everything to you while you eat.
He took out a small blunt knife from his pocket and used it to stab the tip of his finger until he finally got a drop of blood and smeared it on to the ring. After that he invited her and the girls into the cabin so they could talk while eating.
He watched as she pulled out some food items from her storage ring and prepared it. She used her scepter to light the stove and put the pot over it while explaining what she knew about the dungeon so far.
It had a patron God though she didn't know who yet, the dungeon was extremely unusual and in it's own way almost kind but it also liked to test peoples capabilities.
It didn't use underhanded tricks, so far at least. Even though she hadn't encountered it she warned them about dungeons being able to use skills related to traps and never ending hordes of monsters. She also told them that dungeons could have skills but didn't know how dungeon skills worked compared to their skills.
She seemed to have a lot more dungeon knowledge than they did. She sent Leto back to her cabin for some extra bowls and utensils and then began to plate up food for all the children when she finished her explanation.
They all ate to their fill and then he watched as Katherine took the girls back to her cabin to sleep. She was good people. She might smell weird but he wouldn't hold it against her. Especially after she brought that tea over.