“All right. Let’s... hope we don’t fucking die.” Travis muttered, and peeked into the room they suspected held the Verdant Mound.

The Verdant Mound was in the center of the room, tons of vines crawled all over the floors, the walls, reaching up to the ceiling, which had a massive hole in it, letting in sunlight. The monster was huge, easily several stories tall, a huge shuddering mountain of plant matter.

“What’s stopping us from going outside and dropping in some semtex through the ceiling?” Derek asked.

Sven barked a laugh. “I like how you think.”

“We can’t. The hole is an illusion. There’s only one way in or out of a Dungeon.” Travis replied.

Derek turned to Travis. “So what’s the plan, then?”

Travis clapped Derek on the shoulder.

“You’re gonna step in the room- carefully, don’t step on any of the vines- empty a mag into it and then jump back here. If we’re lucky, the vines won’t reach us and we can just wait for your flames to burn the fucker down.”

“If that doesn’t work?” Derek asked.

“Some of us won’t be going home. We’ll dump all our fire spells on it and hope it dies, but...” He shook his head.

Derek nodded. “Everyone back up the tunnel, then. I’ll take the shot, and... we’ll see what happens.”

Derek waited for everyone to head back up the tunnel to the antechamber where they rested earlier, then carefully stepped out into the room with the massive monster. He shouldered his shotgun, then ran through his seven shots.

He turned to run, but the vines had squirmed over the entrance to the tunnel.

He turned back to the monster that had burst alight with patches of silvery flames that spread over it as if it was doused in oil.

The thing rumbled, and the vines trembled, quivering. He quickstepped backwards, toggling the other tube magazine. All the vines peeled themselves off the walls and ceiling and slapped at the flames that burned at the body of the thing, but instead of snuffing them, the vines caught alight. The thing rose up, it rose and rose and rose until it pressed against the ceiling of the chamber; Derek emptied the second mag at the base of the plant-monster, catching the base alight.

To say it roared would be to say an airline engine murmured. The roar shredded the air, it had a tangible weight that slammed into Derek’s chest and heaved him across the room to slam into the wall.

The vines were a massive, quivering forest that trembled and quivered and humped and rolled across the ground in slithering green ropes.

Derek struggled to rise to his feet, but he couldn’t get his breath. The irrational panic of being unable to breathe in the magical pressure of the dungeon resurfaced and he fell to his knees, struggling to stay conscious.

The whole Mound was roaring with fire now, the vines themselves were slithery torches that withered and crumbled to ash.

Derek could have easily made it to the passage, but he was wrapped in his terror, his chest was locked tight as phantom voices screamed in his head.

-sedate him-

-we lost the entire west block-

-no survivors-

-all gone-

And for a moment, he remembered a time in the Antarctic lab where they were testing his arcana ability and most of the ice shelf burned in platinum fire, a blaze he was utterly unable to control.

He slipped unconscious then, and the door that held that memory closed as well, once more shrouding him in merciful amnesia.

Travis ran down the passageway, and saw Derek slumped against the wall, unconscious. He glanced at the Verdant Mound, which was a boiling inferno of silvery platinum flame. The walls were beginning to catch fire, the floor was starting to seethe and bubble.

Travis ran to Derek, shouldered him up, hooked his foot around the strap of Derek’s shotgun and dragged him from the room and into the passageway.

“He’s out of it.”

“The Mound?” Sven asked.

“Cooking.”

“The whole thing?”

“The whole thing.”

“Goddamn if that ain’t some shit.” Sven breathed. “He could ... trivialize every single Dungeon we go against. He could take us higher up the ladder.”

Travis nodded.

Watch him close and report anything you see to us immediately.

Derek had single-handedly defeated a Dungeon boss with his goddamn arcana. What would happen when he learned how to use spells?

“Sven, Juan. Take him outside. Get Julio down here. When that thing burns out, Tap the Core and get the fuck out. We’re leaving.”

Sven and Juan started lifting Derek.

“Wait... no. Take him to the entrance, but not outside. You take him outside now, and the drones’ll spot him. Just to the entrance.” He turned, looking for one of his men.

“Hicks. Tap the Core. The rest of you start hauling ass to the entrance, too. Don’t leave yet. Hicks, you’re with me.”

They went down into the room, and the Mound was a simmering pile of goo, with a few ghost-lights playing across its surface.

There was a hole in the ground where the Mound had been resting; Travis and Hicks peered down and spotted a luminous orb.

“Can you rappel down there?” Travis asked.

“Of course. Want me to bring it up?”

Travis considered his options, and nodded.

Hicks tapped in some pitons, threaded in some rope and rappelled down quickly to the Core, which he gathered up and climbed up, hand over hand.

“Make a judgement call. Aside from Derek, who did the most?”

Hicks concentrated. Thinking wasn’t his best suit.

“You or Sven.” He decided.

“Not a bad call. I’ll let Sven tap it this time. And I think I’ll put in for a vacation. We went through some shit with the ants and that fucking Verdant Mound.”

“Vacation sounds pretty damned good, Cap.”

“Where you gonna go? Fiji? Hawaii?” Travis asked as they traversed the dungeon.

“Nope. Think I’ll go to Colorado. Get some snowboarding in.”

“Really? Snowboarding?”

“Can’t beat it.” Hicks replied, and struck a pose. “Whoosh.”

Travis let out a genuine laugh as they moved through the nest of tunnels. Snowboarding. What a joke.

“Sven, you’re up.” Travis proffered the Core.

“Really? Me, and not him?”

“Yeah. The man needs his rest.”

Sven took it and began pouring his magic into it.

Travis knelt by Derek, and patted his cheeks. “Wake up you lazy fuck.”

Derek opened his eyes, and for a moment Travis was terrified that they’d open into endless caverns of blazing silver flame.

“What happened?”

“You had a lapse. It’s not a big deal. Happens to everyone at least once. You got hit, you lost your magical resistance for a moment, and it crushed you. How do you feel?”

“Like ten pounds of hammered shit in a five pound bag.”

“Well, I know the feeling. What do you think? You wanna clean, or you wanna Dungeon some more?”

Derek took a breath and let it out.

“I wanna get off this goddamn mountain.” he replied.

“Ha!” Travis barked. “Good deal. Let’s see how Julio did and get off this goddamned mountain.”

“You seem awfully happy, boss.” Derek offered, struggling to his feet.

“We took a lot of hits.” Travis held out his bandaged arm for emphasis. “I’m gonna request some vacation.”

Derek nodded. “After that ant nest, I definitely need a vacation for mental health.” he agreed.

“Ugh. No more of that, please.” Travis replied, and glanced over at Sven, who filled the Dungeon Core. It crackled like glass, and then turned to powder.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

While they waited for the Dungeon to close, Derek marched around the mountain and cleared out what Julio missed. He didn’t say anything to Julio, simply piled his kills in front of the Dungeon, and went back out to comb the area.

“Hey boss.” Julio called out when Derek came back. “How’d he do?”

“He had more ammo than all of us combined at the end. He knows how to conserve his bullets. He helped us kill a Verdant Mound. He’s good.” Travis replied.

“Did he lapse?” Julio asked.

“Only once.”

“Only once? That’s some good shit right there, homes.” he clapped Derek on the back.

Once the Dungeon collapsed, they turned the truck around and drove back to the airport.

“Hey Derek, you did all right.” Julio nodded at Derek. “A lapse is a hard thing to pull out of, you know? That’s some good shit that you were able to do it. Me, I lapsed like five times on my first mission. Man, I got ragged to the dogs and back.” He laughed self-deprecatingly. “I got your back though, you know?”

Derek nodded. “I feel like I’m gonna sleep a week.”

“Ha ha, I hear bossman is puttin’ us up for vacation, so you’d best sleep up good.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Derek got back to Tokyo and took a cab home since Misaki wasn’t returning his calls. The request for a vacation went through, and they were given a month off, paid.

Misaki showed up, and Derek handed over her bag.

“Have you thought it over?” He asked.

She nodded. “That Mage Overwatch seems really... uncomfortable to me.”

He shrugged. “It’s not that bad.”

She shook her head. “People, being put on lists? Constant monitoring? It worries me.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine to me.”

She frowned at that.

“You can take your gun out of your holster, cock it, and fire- or choose not to fire- at any time you want. I’m a mage. The gun is cocked, ready to fire all the time. Further, I know I'm safe, but I don't know about other mages.” He shrugged. “It’s safer that way.”

She shook her head. “It just doesn’t seem right to me.”

He shrugged again.

“You know, if you give me a night to sleep, I should be able to keep up with you in the pool.”

“You really think so?”

“Pffft. Nope.” He replied with a smile. “Maybe in the batting cages.”

“The real question,“ he began, tapping his fingers on the table, “is if you, Misaki, want to be with me, Derek. For me, that’s all that matters. You know, human to human. Not police officer, not mage, not the situation of station or job, or whatever.”

“I’d be willing to give it a try.” She agreed readily.

He nodded. “I’d do it too. Give it a try, that is.” He smiled. “I’ll even promise to not do things to your underwear that would embarrass you.”

She frowned. “You’d best do those things only to me.” She stated flatly, and he laughed. “ I think we can come to an arrangement.”

Travis didn’t want to report their overwhelming success in the Dungeon to the Overwatch that was solely the result of Derek’s help.

Derek had the skill necessary- every round he shot was a round on target- but more, his arcana was both a bonus and a problem. The flames that burned his foes destroyed them quickly and utterly but they created an extreme unbalance with the rest of his crew.

A dungeon like that- the Verdant Mound, especially- would have been nearly impossible without Derek. The ant nest would have burned up their ammo alone.

The Overwatch wanted an eye kept on Derek. Why? Was it because of his arcana skill? Was it because of his ridiculous mana pool? His destructive power?

The only safe way to talk to Derek would be inside of a Dungeon, because at least then they weren't being monitored, but there was a great reluctance to get Derek back into one.

There were way too many unknowns, and Travis was worried about his friend.

Derek was interesting to Misaki because he was everything that the Japanese were not. If they were in school, and if someone was interested in Misaki, that person would ask their friend to ask one of Misaki’s friends how Misaki felt about them. A very convoluted and indirect communication would continue until they were mutually ready to try dating. Derek himself was simple. He was direct, straightforward, and as far as she could tell, honest.

Her father would hate him. Not necessarily because he was a gaikokujin, a foreigner, but because appearance-wise, he had no ambition, content to work in a restaurant. He would definitely hate Derek because he was a mage. Mages were mysterious, suspicious, and they were all under the eye of the international Overwatch, an organization that stepped on every toe in every organization in every country.

She herself didn’t understand magic very well, and assumed it was a mysterious power that allowed mages to do whatever they wanted, but apparently, magic was only allowed to be used within the even more mysterious Dungeons and to use it anywhere else was strictly prohibited.

“So what would happen if you used magic ... say, in this car? What would happen?”

He scratched his chin. “I’d get arrested, obviously.”

She rolled her eyes. “I mean, to the car.”

His eyebrows rose. “I’ve got no clue.”

“No clue?” She asked, eyeing traffic and wondering if she could make her lane change.

“Well, I only use it in my bullets, so I’ve never actually tried it on anything else.” He replied. “Also, I’m kind of a failure when it comes to magic, anyway.” He explained his situation with magic and how he could only use a tiny bit at a time, compared to other, more well-known mages that were sometimes seen in the news.

“If you’re only able to use such a small amount, then why be a mage? Can’t you just... ignore it? Be a regular person? Not be under the Overwatch?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter what your magical potential is. If you’ve got magic, you’re in the register.” He paused. “You don’t have to do Dungeons. But you don’t get a whole lot of options if you go that route. There’s only a few types of jobs you get to have when you’re a mage- for instance, I could never be a cop- and if you ever get tired of working those jobs, there’s always the facilities.” He let out a breath at that, and shook his head. “You’d have to be nuts to want to go there.”

“Why?” She asked, forcing her lane change. A car blipped their horn behind her.

“It’s like a jail. They say it’s not a jail, but if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and acts like a duck... it’s a jail.” He waved his hand dismissively. Sometimes it was hard to follow his metaphors.

He sat forward, suddenly. “Where are we going, anyway? I don’t recognize this part of town.”

“It’s closer to my neighborhood. There’s a festival nearby. I thought we should see it together.”

He smiled at that. “Do they have taiko drums? I always thought they were awesome, you know? Men beating on great big fucking drums all boom boom boom boom has a certain appeal, you know.”

She laughed. “I don’t think so. But there should be good food.”

He nodded. “I like good food. I’m sold. Take me to the good food, Misaki.” He announced, holding out his hands over the dashboard.

She let out a breath. “You know, you should really follow Japanese protocol when it comes to names. It’s considered rude to use a person’s first name without permission.”

“Ah, but how can I act like a stupid gaijin if I did that?” He asked craftily.

“You’re doing it on purpose?” She asked. There was a feeling of irritation growing in her.

“Hmmm.” He thought for a moment, closing his eyes. “It’s like... how did it go? ‘You don't have a lot but it's all that you've got; you can turn it into more than it seems, just give it a shot’... that sort of feeling.”

She gave him a baffled look as he adopted a singsong voice.

“You don’t get it?” He asked. She shook her head. He shrugged again. “It just means I feel about as close to you as I can feel to anyone.” He replied simply. “So feel free to address me by name as much as you like.”

She grimaced; he was really unfair when he said things like that so directly.

She eyed a parking spot and slipped into it.

He stepped out of her car, and the car settled- he really was much taller and heavier than the average japanese person- and he looked around curiously.

“Good food?” He asked, and she smiled. “This way.” She pointed, so he scooped her hand up in his.

“Hey-” She protested. He gave her his half-smile and replied,

“I’ll need you to lead me to the food, you know.”

“You’re really overstepping yourself, you know.” She growled.

“Well, you can let go, you know.” He offered, but she shook her head.

“It’s... fine.” She mumbled.

“Food?” He asked, and she nodded.

“Food.”

She lead him to various booths and picked up all sorts of plates of cheaply made food, and made him carry an ever-increasing pile of plates, and lead him to a nearby bench where she began to systematically devour everything she’d gathered.

“Not going to leave me anything?” He asked, and she smiled at him. “You could have bought some yourself, you know.”

He barked a laugh and took a couple takoyaki, sticking one in his mouth.

“Shit, that’s hot.” he mumbled as he chewed quickly.

“That was mine.” She complained.

He laughed and waved the remaining one in front of her. “You can take it back if you want.” He tipped it towards him. “Or should I consider this spoils of war?”

She frowned at him and snatched it away. He laughed at her and nodded. “It tastes good, but be careful, it’s hot.”

She passed him her half-eaten plate of yakisoba; he picked up her chopsticks and ate a few bites.

“It’s got a bold flavor. A lot stronger than you’d get in a restaurant.” he judged as he chewed. “That’s the difference between restaurant food and places like this. A restaurant has to care about the opinions of their clients, so they make it easier on the palate.”

She gave him a curious look, but he shook his head and gave her a dismissive wave with the chopsticks. “Just running my mouth. Filling the empty spaces with noise.”

She finished the takoyaki and stacked the plates neatly, then tossed them in the trash.

“A drink?” He asked, and she nodded.

They started heading in the direction of the drinks, suddenly his head snapped around. “Huh.”

She tugged on his arm. “What is it?” She asked.

“There’s going to be a very upset parent very soon.” He replied simply, and shook his head.

“What does that mean?”, a line appearing between her brows.

He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Magic happens easiest in the crack between what you want and what’s just right outside your reach.” he replied. “It’s greedy that way.”

He pressed his lips together. “Misaki, can we- can we go? I- I don’t want to be here anymore.” He asked tersely.

She looked at him, and really saw him. He was trembling and his expression- he was struggling to keep an amiable expression- but failing.

She nodded, and led him back to her car. “Do you want to wait here while I get drinks, or should we go?” She asked.

He shook his head. “Let’s go.”

She nodded, and got behind the wheel. He climbed into her car and sat there for a while quietly.

“It’s just right there, you know? Always. You can reach out and touch it. You want to touch it. You can’t help but touch it. You’re a glass and it’s a drink that fills you up.” He explained after a few minutes of silence. “But before that, before the magic, it’s outside of you. You’re a kid that wants a toy, or whatever. You want to win. Maybe you realize that you’re just a bit out of your league, like you just can’t quite make it, and then... it’s there. It fills you.”

He shook his head and fell silent.

It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together; she reached for the doorhandle. He put his hand on her arm.

“Don’t.” He whispered. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s already too late.” He shook his head. “They’ll take him or her, and their parents will try to call the police. The police will tell the parents that there’s nothing they can do. There’s nothing that they can do.”

He wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his head. “I’m sorry, I’m being a shitty date. It really was a great time, Misaki. I’m sorry that everything went bad at the end.”

“I... have beers at my place, if you like.” She offered weakly.

After a few minutes he nodded. “That’d be nice. I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

She pulled out and into traffic and took him back to her place. He was quiet the entire trip.

She brought him up to her place, and he eyed her apartment, which was a little bigger than his place, spotlessly clean.

“I like it. It’s definitely got a better view than my place.” He offered as she got him a beer. He sipped at it.

“Only a little for me. Nobody wants a drunk mage on their hands.” He explained, a strained smile on his face. “I wouldn’t want a drunk mage on my hands.”

“Should... should the Overwatch be taken down?” She asked.

He gave her a baffled look. “Why would you ever think that?” he asked. “That’s a bad idea. They do a good job.” He explained, toying with his glass. “You’re given an education. They test you, to see what you can do. They teach you how to use it- control it- so it doesn’t hurt you or others. You’re in classes with other mages that are there for the exact same reason.” he let out a breath. “If you want to join Dungeon Clearing groups- either through military or PMCs- then they teach you that, too.” He took a long drink from his glass.

“If you take away the Overwatch, then what do you have? Governments teaching kids the exact same things?” He shook his head. “Likely they’d be turning them into weapons to use against other countries. Then mages aren’t people anymore, they’re weapons.” he shrugged a little. “In a lot of ways, you’re less free than other people. But in other ways, you’re free.” He smiled across the table at her. “You’re a person, not a weapon. You can go anywhere in the world. You can go to school, get a job...” He touched her hand with a fingertip; “Even find someone you’re fond of.”

He let out a breath. “So what do you say?” He asked. “Should I go home, or would you like for me to stay the night here, with you?”

“Stay the night.” She stated firmly. He gave her a smile and a nod.

He fumbled for a lightswitch as he struggled to navigate Misaki’s unfamiliar apartment. He needed the bathroom. The light clicked on and a small girl prostrated herself before him.

O Great Master, The One prostrates before you in the hopes that the Esteemed One in Their infinite wisdom and compassion sees fit to take This One into his service as a sword to take up against his unworthy foes.

“What?” He mumbled, struggling to clear the cobwebs from his brain.

Girl.

Young girl.

Speaking in some form of outdated japanese that his brain translated the best it could.

Full prostration, wide sleeves spread perfectly, forehead pressed against the carpet.

Hair like perfect glossy black silk.

This One offers her unworthy self in perfect obedience to-

It wasn’t Misaki pulling some sort of joke. He wasn’t even certain the girl was even human.

*****

Name: ????

Age: ????

Occupation: ????

PMC: ????

STR: ??/10

DEX: ??/10

CON: ??/10

INT: ??/10

WIS: ??/10

CHA: ??/10

Magic Element: ????

Magic Gate: ????

Magic Pool: ???/100

Magic Resistance: ??