I looked down on the mobile to check if the address I received was correct. I only got an address to get here and see an abandoned building that seems to have been trashed by outsiders. It didn't even have a door and looked like a rundown building. It was strange that she wanted to meet me here. I walked inside, and it was broken glass and walls with several cracks. It's weird to meet up in a place like this and not in the office.
There was a stairwell that didn't look stable, but I could see a guy in a costume who was watching the floor above, and I took careful steps up the stairs.
When I came up, the man was staring without saying anything, and he made gestures with his face pointing behind me. I turned around and saw a shining light coming from one of the doors in the hallway. I went to the door, and when I opened it, I was inside a room with an old lady sitting at the desk. Another older woman and Victoria were seated on chairs leaning against the wall on the left side of the room.
"Eh...Hi! I uttered in the air.
Veronica got up from the chair, and I noticed an old gun in her hand. She openly put something round in the chamber, making me slightly worried.
"Are we doing Russian roulette or something here?" I asked with a hesitant voice and a chuckle.
Victoria kept playing with the gun.
"No! This gun is your transportation to Valiant!" Victoria said.
The old lady at the desk gathered some papers and stretched them to me, nodding her head.
"Take the papers, Taz! and leave all your accessories on the desk," Victoria said calmly.
"Eh, is there some machine or something I will use to travel to Valiant or maybe even a subway or something like that?"
"You are going to get shot by the pistol; you can't travel through the open channels. So, you have to take the backdoor into Valiant." The older lady beside Victoria explained.
I turned around and looked at her, with her staring at me now.
"What do you mean I can't travel through the open channels?"
"Everyone with the last name Van Polan is wanted in Valiant. If you travel through the open channels, you will get arrested and imprisoned as soon as you arrive. Going through the backdoor will alert the alarm that a human has gone through the portal, but you should have significant time to escape and hide." The woman on the chair explained.
Wait a minute, did I hear correctly? My last name is wanted in Valiant.
"So... I will be a fugitive when I arrive there?"
She just nodded.
"Eh...Victoria! Maybe you should have mentioned this in the assignment report I received yesterday."
"There is nothing you can do about it, young man. Even if you travel with another name, you would easily be identified through your hands. After all, Berk Van Polan murdered the king, and it made the Van Polan organization criminals. I, the Queen, am responsible for upholding this responsibility to the kingdom of Valiant."
"Well...It must have passed my mind. I am sorry for that, Taz!" Victoria told me with a smirk on her face.
She displayed sneaky behavior; did she forget that our last name was wanted in Valiant? That damn Berk, why did he have to go and kill a king.
"So... what happens If I get caught in Valiant?" I asked.
"Well, there is a high risk that you will get executed in front of a crowd." The Queen answered.
"Why exactly do we other Van Polans have to suffer from something Berk did? I asked out of curiosity.
"My husband died when he was with an individual within the Van Polan name. Because of the murder of my husband, the last name of Van Polan became publicly known as the Enemy number one of Valiant. You may be safe here, but all the Van Polans are fugitives in Valiant. We count all of them, and in this, we would happily cut the family tree completely." The Queen answered with a serious tone.
"Eh...How many are we?" I asked.
"What we know off, there are four, but we suspect there are six, while one is born and raised in Valiant in secret, and we have heard of the speculative information about the monster hunter who does special monster assignments as a living. We tried to get Victoria to confirm the other two , but she told us there were only four of you, including her. Berk Van Polan is on the immediate to-kill list, while you and Zark are on the wanted list to catch and be executed in public. They are allowed to kill you both. Victoria is not on the wanted list because we agreed on paper on some terms for the loss of my husband, and she agreed. So, she is safe to travel to Valiant."
I looked at Victoria, who had just closed her eyes and was smiling for herself.
"Wait...What! Was the agreement to only benefit Victoria?" I asked.
"Well, Berk has a blood contract with us and is working to fulfil it right now. He is on the hardest route in the number two area. Also, because of the disappearance of so many hunters, we had a pre-contract with the Van Polan organization that allowed us to request a neutral investigator sent to Valiant. That young man explains why you are in this room right now."
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Right, so it is not only a suicide mission. I have actually to be more or less invisible and not get caught. I think this just became even more impossible than it already is.
"Okay! So, if I get this right now. What everyone in this room wants me to do is to go to Valiant, where I am a wanted fugitive. At the same time, I have to investigate a dungeon to find out what happened to 50 hunters, try to survive, and report back my findings in this so-called Dungeon.
"That is correct, young man. That is why we are sending you to the Dungeon of Death.
I was now staring, waiting for Veronica to open her eyes, but she kept them closed and was still smiling.
"Oh... I forgot! You will have a partner; Faz will be with you. I have sent a report to Valiant and the Rattin Towns family beforehand that you will be coming there. People in Rattin Town spend time in a place called We Do Everything. You don't have to worry about being a fugitive; they don't have any wanted posters there and they don't care about fugitives, everyone is welcome there. Go there and find Faz, and he will guide you to the Dungeon. "The Queen explained.
"Eh... okay! So, I must find the guy and get guided to the Dungeon. Does not seem that hard to get to Dungeon of Death."
"Actually... Faz is a little blue dragon." Victoria commented.
Did I hear dragon? Have they smoked something or done something completely crazy? How will I handle a dragon? I was shitting my pants now and worried for my safety, and Victoria was smiling back and shrugged her shoulders before she spoke:
"Don't worry, Faz is a little dragon, like the size of a small dog. You don't have to worry about it that much. I have heard Faz is also a great companion to other hunters."
Maybe I should bail from this assignment or at least try to make an excuse.
"Eh...Is there any possibility of just refusing this assignment? It sounds like a huge chance to die during this. I prefer to live at least 60 more years."
The Queen grabbed my shirt, and I turned around.
"The other alternative is to die right here." The Queen uttered.
I looked to the room's exit, and a soldier was covering it like it had been a trap all along. There was my chance to escape, or maybe I should try to flee and push the soldier aside.
"Don't even try it, Taz! Several soldiers are outside waiting for the Queen's orders, even if you manage to escape. You will become a wanted man on Earth; you will be executed directly on sight if someone sees you. So, you will be hunted forever by assassins if you, by any chance, survive. The best thing to do is accept the assignment and get it over with. I have heard Berk is making some progress, and I think you will also be able to do it like him." Victoria said.
I leaned my head to the side and met Victoria's eyes.
"You think I am going to buy that shit about Berk. That guy is completely crazy; when you released him to hunt down demons together with me and Zark, his so-called old skills as a private investigator were gone. That guy made the demons angrier and ensured it by destroying three blocks in Stockholm City. Being lowkey or just keeping himself hidden is like a dream for him. He shines the Hell out of his environment and lures enemies towards himself. Don't let me mention the article I read about him; he killed ten freaking demons while bleeding all over the floor and creating a blood bath on a train station while people were still there. So, to say his name here about progress when we are entirely different and handle things differently. It's like saying that an Ant and an Ice Cream are from the same family tree."
"You are exaggerating now, Taz! If you look at the situation Berk is in, where he should be killed on the spot versus you being wanted is quite different." Victoria explained.
"Yeah, and where is the difference because I will be killed in front of the people compared to him getting killed directly?"
"Well, when you enter the world, the alarm goes off when you go through the backdoor. There is a bounty on Berks's head of 600 million Zan. Zark is 100 million Zan; your head is only 50 million Zan. Then there are other criminals, the highest being a pirate called Orion Frien, who has 10 million Zan for his head. So when Berk went there, the alarm went all over Valiant, and assassins and bounty hunters were recruited in Area Two to try and catch him dead or alive." Victoria explained.
Okay! Maybe Berk has it a little bit tougher than me, and if he made some progress, it can't be that hard...right?.
"Fine! What can I do to solve this now?" I asked.
Victoria pointed against the wall, and I moved to the wall and stood there. The Queen moved beside Victoria, who moved towards me and hugged me with the same feelings every time with a lots of love. She had a firm grip, I have to say. It was like saying farewell to a person for the last time. When the hugging session was over, Victoria was in tears, which made me slightly uncomfortable. It was like saying the final goodbye or something like that.
Victoria backed a couple of steps back and aimed the gun at me, and her tears didn't stop.
"WAIT A MINUTE! ARE YOU GOING TO SHOOT ME?" I screamed.
"By the way, there are 5 million citizens living in the Dungeon...I hope you find all your answers, Taz!" Victoria said.
You must be fudging kidding with me; that is like a whole country.
Precisely at that moment, I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I noticed I wasn't touching the floor anymore. I was floating; it was pitch black underneath me. Suddenly, a door opened that showed Victoria and the Queen staring at me. I waved my hands, but they didn't seem to be able to see me.
"VICTORIA!" I yelled, but there was no response.
Suddenly, something dragged me backwards, floating away from Victoria until I thought I was going at high speed. While Victoria was slowly disappearing, I tried to turn around, and a new light popped up, and I was floating against that light now. The light became so bright that I had to close my eyes, and I felt something in my back before the gravity stopped, and I was falling now.
I opened my eyes and was going down against something, looking like a swamp or something. I held my hand onto my nose before I fell into it, and I got some shit in my mouth and tried to swim up as fast as I could for air.
My vision was a little bit blurry when I tried to look around, and I tried to move the crap out of my face, but that was entirely useless even to try. I swam into the land, got up, and tried to clean my face with whatever I could find on the ground. There was what I thought I was feeling like leaves, but because I am in some other world, maybe it's like toilet paper growing from the ground. I looked behind me where I had gone up from the land, and something big was moving. What I noticed was black water. Looking around, I saw someone on the other side with a cloak. I couldn't see the face, but the individual must have noticed I had fallen from the sky.
"EXCUSE ME! YOU WITH THE CLOAK. WHERE AM I? I yelled over to the other side.
The person disappeared into the woods, and the movement from the big thing in the water started to move towards me; it must been my screaming that alerted it. Fudge this! It was time to move, and I began to run in the other direction, away from the swamp.
After a while, I approached some road and tried to catch my breath there. Strangely, there was no sun outside when I went up from the swamp; it was dark and chilling. However, it was hot here on the road, and the sun was shining. I heard the noise of horses and turned around and saw a couple of men approaching, sitting comfortably on their horses.
They slowed down and looked at me, and I recognized the crest on their chest from the guy who had been on the stairs in the building earlier. It must be something connected to Valiant; I thought I was safe here; where did I end up?
"The alarm just sounded in this Area, and a human named Taz Van Polan has entered our realm. If you don't mind, can I ask who you are and what your name is? The one in the front asked me while pulling up a paper and looking at it.
Shit, was I going to get the apprehended on the first thing happening here.