It was all too late… Too late!

Before my eyes, my dungeon was being raided — its inhabitants were massacred.

Inside were rubbles strewn throughout the ground that looked like to be the golems I made along with decapitated corpses of animals and monsters…

“Lorelei! Where is Lorelei?!” I hurried to the Core Room, diving into the unknown danger that might be awaiting me inside.

Stepping into the Core Room, I held my breath, gulping down a mouthful of saliva as sweat rained down my shoulders. Lorelei was dead (her physical form at least), and she was leaning against the wall, unmoving, as trails of blood kept gushing out from her chest. Her face wasn’t in agony but was pale white like a sleeping princess suffering anemia.

There stood one person not far from the Dungeon Core, likely to be the perpetrator of this all. But whenever my line of sight passed him, his body blurred like being censored. I held the question to ask who he was deep within my throat — simply unable to be uttered.

“…Finally here…?” With what appeared to be a distorted mask, he turned around to see me. I couldn’t see clearly, but I knew very well that he was jeering inside and his condescending eyes piercing straight into my soul.

“You bastard! What have you done to Lorelei?!” Not waiting for his reply, I brandished my sword, plunged at him with all the hate in the world, and stabbed it at his chest. Nevertheless, once I was a meter away from him, I was bounced back to what appeared to be an invisible force.

“It’s futile. You’re still weak, too weak.” The masked man raised his hand overhead and slapped the Core.

The perfectly spherical Core split into countless pieces, into fragments of crystals that soon disintegrated into light particles.

My world crumbled… I wasn’t dead, but it was as if my whole life had lost its meaning. The tightness in my chest wouldn’t subside no matter how I clenched it. Lorelei… the images of her were ringing inside my head.

My legs gave out, and I knelt down. “Why…? Why did you do this?”

The masked man stood silent, tapping his finger on the pedestal. “Isn’t it about time for you to wake up?”

I stared dagger at him. “What do you me—?!”

"The answer is not for me to answer but for you to seek. Search my cottage, and you shall find—”

Before he even finished his sentence, my vision went dark…

----------------------------------------

“What?!”

I jumped awake, drenched in a cold sweat. That... It was just a dream?

The dream, or nightmare, was so vivid and real, the first time I experienced something like it in the whole twenty years of my life. With Lorelei dying, the Core destroyed, and the masked man… Who was he, exactly?

Just then, I realized that I could’ve used [Developer Interface] to ascertain his information… but would my Vocation work in a dream in the first place? Moreover, it was a dream — irrational.

Whatever the case, I might have left the dungeon for far too long, and that nightmare worked as a wake-up call. But still, a cottage, huh… I wracked my brain, turning it upside down, and only one thing came to mind: the abandoned wooden house.

I must come there seeking answers, sooner rather than later. Maybe that’s the key to returning to my world… I gotta be sufficiently prepared, though. I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

“Yuck, I’m all sweaty now…” I cast {Cleanse} — a magic spell newly learned from Lara — on myself, and immediately a refreshing sensation washed over me from head to toe along with a flowery fragrance. So comfortable, so convenient!

Since it was just an Elementary Magic, the consumption of magic was minimal; I would probably be able to cast it a hundred times or more. In comparison, with eighteen points in MAG right now, I could cast a Bottom-tier Geo spell twenty times, more or less. As for Low-tier, I would probably exhaust myself after using it five times.

Well, using magic was like having another kind of muscle in the body, which was magical power. The mana I drew from the air needed to be purified first before being able to cast magic, hence the limitation of the total amount of spells I could use.

Still occupied by numerous thoughts over the dream, I was unable to get back to sleep and thus rose up and exited my tent.

Outside, the campfire was still burning wildly, and sitting on a boulder was Pallad. Being nocturnal, he said he would do most of the night watch.

Spotting me, he waved. “Can’t sleep? I heard a grumble just now. Must be a bad dream.”

“Y-Yeah, well... Um… is it my time already?” I gave a half-shrug, simply changing the topic of the conversation.

“Not yet. It’s only been six hours past nightfall. Your turn should be in two hours.” So now’s a bit past midnight?

“I see. Mind if I join you?”

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“Be my guest.” He offered me to sit opposite him.

When I was about to sit down on a nearby boulder, there was a loud snore coming from one of the tents surrounding the campfire — more accurately, Zeth’s tent.

“What the heck was that?”

“Haha! It’s just Zeth. When he’s spent, his snoring is the loudest.”

“I-I see…”

Relaxing on a windy night, I gazed at the clear night sky packed with countless stars and a half-moon with a tint of gold. The sky was clear of any pollution, not polluted by the slightest trace of light. It really spoiled the eyes of those who saw it.

“You guys are awake?” A sweet voice sounded from nearby.

“Oh, hello there. Can’t sleep too?” I asked Lara.

She shook her head. “Nuh-uh. But I’m quite sensitive to things, so—”

“Hmm?!” Pallad’s visage changed into dread. It was so sudden that I thought he was possessed by an evil spirit or something.

“Er… Is something wrong?”

“Hush! Beasts… No, hybrids.” He drew his sword, lit up the lantern on his side, and directed it toward the forest.

Hearing what Pallad said, Lara’s countenance paled. Hybrids generally had mixed blood of monsters and animals which made them manic and ferocious, thus more prone to thirst for blood. The least kind of creature we would want to encounter in this place.

And from the trees some distance away, three gigantic silver wolf-like creatures the size of a large motorcycle with terrifying, gaping jaws emerged. They had sharp razor fangs that seemed to be able to gnaw through anything with saliva dripping from their mouths like a waterfall. Curiously, they had three pairs of legs instead of two like other wolves.

“Wolves… What kind of hybrids are they?”

“I dunno.” Pallad shook his head. “Never seen one.”

I quickly checked their information through my Vocation.

Species: Unknown (hybrid)

Condition: Extreme starvation

Sex: Male

Age: 8 years old

Height: 153 cm

Stats:

* STR: D- (41)

* AGI: D (47)

* VIT: E (34)

* MAG: F (13)

* SPR: E- (21)

Accumulation Points: 26 [E]

Extreme starving

Famished from not eating meat for days has caused the creature to become weak but feral. It may exhibit more power when cornered or when it spotted a hunting target.

Extreme starving? No wonder… Species “unknown,” huh? This was essentially the first time that such a thing happened.

“Wh-What should we do?”

“For now, wake Zeth up,” I urged.

“Understood!” She immediately rushed to Zeth’s tent.

Pallad glanced back and forth between the wolves and me, stating, “The most rational thing to do is to use {Transmitter}, but…”

“Right. There’s no way that help will come instantly.” I let out a heavy sigh fighting the three hybrids was out of the question. Although one thing that reassured me was that I still had some leftover beast repellent in hand, just that…

Should I use the spray? There was only a little less than half, but it was more than enough to repel these hybrids. Screw it, I’ll just use it when things take a turn for the worse. Besides…

“Vincent!” His face stern, Pallad suddenly stated, “Our meeting is short, but I think I can trust you in this.”

“What do you mean by that?” I felt that he was getting on something.

Pallad took three glass vials of liquid from his bag and handed them to me. “Take these agility potions.”

“You mean, you want the three of us to…”

“You’re quick on the uptake,” Pallad affirmed with a nod. “I’ll buy some time to hold back those hybrids. So—”

“What’s this?” Zeth cut in. “Are you seriously going to do that? That’s a typical Pallad to think about others first than himself. But then, you’re underestimating us!”

Lara asserted by fuming and clenching her staff. “Geez! You’re doing it again. Sacrificing yourself for us.”

The three of them began bantering with each other with Zeth and Lara refusing to budge an inch and leave Pallad behind. Honestly. At a time like this… I guess they care about each other so much, huh…

“No, like I said, facing the hybrids is suicide with our meager ability.”

“Nothing is set in stone.” Zeth, showing a dauntless look, banged his gauntlets, causing sparks to dance. “Everything’s gonna be okay, something will work out.”

“Guys, guys! I have a solution to best those creatures—!”

““Owooooo!!””

The hybrid wolves howled, charging at us like the starving beasts they were. It seemed that they wouldn’t let me explain what I was going to do to the others.

“Vincent, we don’t have time! If you have something up your sleeve, use it now!” Pallad stood in front, pointing the blade of his sword at the wolves, undaunted by their fierceness.

I scrambled up to my tent, put aside the agility potions, and wore my backpack. Taking out two handfuls of iron balls from one of the side pockets, I ran back, stood tall, and waited for the perfect moment. These weren’t my usual bullets, but a special variant: explosive iron balls. Sweat trickled down my hands, making the gloves mushy since if I dropped even a single one, I would be dead.

“Time to use my ace in the hole.”

The hybrid wolves were now only ten meters away, waiting for them to get closer would be suicidal with how lusting for meat and blood they looked, so I threw the balls at them with all the strength mustered in my hands. Explosions echoed incessantly when the balls hit the ground as smoke arose and dust and dirt splashed about from the effect of the explosions, enveloping the air heavily — obscuring the view within.

“Wh-What the frickin’ thing just happened?” Zeth’s eyes and mouth were agape.

“M-M-Magic…?” Lara was the same with her losing her words.

“Did you just cast magic, Vincent? What kind of magic was that?!” Only Pallad maintained a somewhat calm look, albeit with a wry smile.

“It’s a magic item. Keep your eyes on them; it’s not over yet!”

A few seconds later, the dust dispersed and revealed the appalling things inside. Chunks of limbs and blood dyeing the ground red, flesh and bones were sticking out from all of their gruesome injuries that kept dripping with body liquid like a broken coffee machine. To my disbelief, the three hybrid wolves were still standing despite all that.

Zeth quickly snapped out and encroached on them. “Leave the rest to us! Let’s go!”

Pallad followed closely and charged into the fray, and Lara clasped her staff close to her chest and began reciting the words of her spell.

“O Goddess of Light, shimmering in holiness, bestow holy protection upon these two — {Safeguard}.”

Brilliant light enveloped Zeth and Pallad like the gentle touch of a mother, protecting them from all sorts of attacks. They then began unleashing skills onto the hybrid wolves without mercy.

“[Condensing Punch]!”

“[Superb Slash]!”

The rest of the fight was pretty much one-sided. With them working perfectly in tandem, the horribly injured wolves were easily annihilated, and I was left to do nothing but stare at the swaying grass. So calming…

In a short time, the battle was concluded when a flame cast by Lara shot down the least remaining hybrid wolf. Piercing it right between its eyes.