Chapter 2

"You don't say?"

"I realize this is unorthodox, but I assure you these portals or gates to another dimension are real. What we know so far is that human weaponry is useless to the monsters inside. Only four of these gates have opened up so far, and the only people capable of fighting the monsters within are our Metas. In fact, we believe humans were given the power to become Metas for this very reason," Chairmen Adam King stated. He was the head of the department for Bio research. His company was BioLabs. Now, he was spearheading the research into the biology of monsters killed within the Dungeons and brought out for examination.

"How have the general population not heard of these so far?"

Each kingdom that has discovered these gates has agreed not to disclose anything yet until we all know more and can mitigate panic. However, while these gates do pop up randomly and, therefore, have been witnessed by the public, the government has taken great strides to secure, quarantine the area, and persuade people to keep quiet. Sometimes with money, sometimes with less savory means. We expect to go public within the month, but until then, corporations like mine have had early access due to scientific discoveries. For instance, my company has been in charge of studying the lifeforms found inside. We believe these lifeforms come from other worlds. We don't know the purpose of why they are coming here, but we do know that if the final… uh… boss, I guess you can say, isn't defeated within a week, the monsters break out and rampage."

"So, what is the favor you're seeking?"

"Well, there are rumors that powerful artifacts and materials are being found within these gates, and in particular, a new power source. I want one of these Mana crystals, and I heard you're great at obtaining things."

Interesting. Mana crystals? My magic pool of energy is called mana. My interest has been piqued. I obviously knew other worlds existed, but the idea that Earth is experiencing random portals to those worlds or at least to some kind of limited plane of existence filled with monsters screams of an intelligent, possibly malevolent, entity. What kind of entity? Aliens? And for what purpose? To make humans stronger for something else? Only one way to know: I'll have to go inside one of these portals myself. For now, I'll finish this deal and then do some poking around.

"That I am. Very well, I'll take on this request for you. In return, you'll owe me a favor whenever and for whatever I want. Refusal will not be an option. But don't worry, I am, if nothing, fair."

We shook hands and exchanged contact information, and then I summoned some girls and drinks over for him and bid him farewell. I spent the rest of the night singing and entertaining the guests while I had Darci reach out to a few contacts of mine in the government and a few corporations I was sure would have dealings with these gates.

The next morning, I got a call from Oliva to meet her at a crime scene, and when I arrived, I was immediately on guard. Behind the police tape was the superhero, the Huntsman, being questioned by Oliva.

"I told you, I was nearby at a restaurant eating the entire time when this crime occurred; it wasn't me," the Huntsman stated again for who knows how many times.

"The knife, claw, and gunshot wounds all match your style of combat," Lucy said while leaning over the final victim. There were four in total, with the first two being killed with several knife slashes and the third being raked from neck to waist. Then it appeared the fourth tried to flee and was gunned down. Upon closer inspection I could see several details, but it was the Huntsman that said it out loud.

"Yeah, I see that," the Huntsman replied. "The slashes from the knife indicate a right-handed individual made it, while the angle of the claw slashes was made with the left hand. I carry my blade in my right hand normally as well. Then it looks like the fourth ran and looked over his shoulder, and whoever the shooter was, he stashed his knife and quickly drew his pistol and shot him dead between the eyes. Only the angle of the bullet shows it entered the skull at forty-five degrees. So, he looked over his shoulder. I'd say the four victims all died within seconds of each other, maybe less. But it wasn't me."

"Drone video doesn't capture this alleyway, but it does capture the front of the alley where a person matching your build with a hood drawn over their head is seen walking into the alley. The security cameras also show you going to the restroom minutes prior to this incident, and then two minutes later, we see what looks like you but with a hooded jacket. Then, two minutes later, after the killings, you leave the restroom. Also, that restroom does have a window that opens, and while the distance is three blocks, that is nothing to someone who can travel as fast as you. Plus, you could've stashed the jacket somewhere. Unis are canvasing the area now," Oliva stated.

"But it wasn't me. I'm a hero."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Well, since you are an active hero and I have nothing concrete yet, Article 2 Section 14 states you are to report to the Meta Association to be counseled by their legal team, placed on temporary suspension, and wait for future orders or summonses. You are free to go, for now, Huntsman."

The Huntsman began to walk off until he spotted me and approached. "I know you. You're that club owner Comic Rush was raving on about." He then sniffed for a second, and I could see his eyes widen suddenly. "You have no scent?"

"I do have a scent."

"No, your clothes have a scent; you do not."

"That is very observant of you. I have a rare condition. I have no sweat glands, thus no musk. But I assure you, the ladies are driven wild anyway." Of course, I could simulate a musk with my aura, but I had no reason to use it all the time. I never would have imagined being detected like this as someone of interest. I should be more careful in the future.

"I'll be watching you, Jacik."

So, he knows my name. I knew he came to the club every once in a while, but I didn't expect him to know me personally unless Comic Rush had been saying a lot more about me than he let on. When the hero left, I walked up to Oliva and asked the obvious question. "So, we think he really did this?"

"I don't know. He's certainly capable, but he could be framed as well. Is there anything you can tell me about the scene that he didn't?"

"You might want to check the Meta registry. I believe these four are all registered. Were their IDs on them?"

"Yes, and one moment," she replied and then keyed in their names. "Huh, you're right. They're all Metas. How did you know?"

Your arm has a green light still blinking. That's your Meta detector, right? I assumed you saw it earlier, but since the Huntsman was here, you probably just passed it off as him. However, the light is still on, and he's gone." I lied. I could smell the difference between them from humans now that I knew what to look for.

"Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Alright, let's look into who these four were and why they were in this alley at 11:07 last night."

"You should start there," I said, pointing to a small stairwell leading to a basement door in the alley. "There was some moss growing there that looked to be disturbed by footprints. I can also see traces of moss on the bottom of their boots."

"Wow, you're good at this," Lucy said. "He's right; this is moss," she said while taking a sample and bagging it.

"You said you, not we. Are you not coming?"

"I would, but unfortunately, I have a prior engagement I cannot miss. But I'll catch up with you in a few hours to help out further. See ya later!" I said as I waved over my shoulder, having already turned around to leave the area.

With vamp hearing, I heard her mumbling under her breath about unreliable partners. I chuckled at that. I climbed into my emerald green Jaguar F-type convertible with the top down. It was time to look into artifacts and gates.

~~~

"Dungeons?"

"Yes, that's what we're calling them," the nervous lab technician replied. "The environment inside changes. Sometimes, it is a cave system. Sometimes, it is open terrain as if in another world. Only there are never stars or even a sun. The sky is plain and bright. This leads us to believe that while it appears to be another world, it is, in fact, a closed system."

"Hence, dungeon," I replied. "Where did that term come from anyway?"

I had an inkling, but my experience with games and dungeons was more of fantasy raids on castles and strongholds like in World of Warcraft. These felt different to me.

"It isn't widely popular, but some of the smaller communities of tabletop gamers have been playing this game called Dungeons and Monsters, which feature nexuses of pooled power that form into dungeons. Inside these dungeons are much like what we're seeing in these gates."

Ah, there it was. A game in this world is similar to D&D in my world. I never played it, so I wasn't familiar with the particulars, but I had occasionally heard about it, in the words of a wise Vulcan, fascinating. Okay, that was one word, but still, this had me very intrigued. I took out five one-hundred bills and handed them to the technician. "Thanks."

So far, I've learned that twenty gates have opened in this country alone. Not all gates were disclosed to all privileged in the secret. Also, worldwide, it is estimated that around a hundred and thirty gates have opened, and a ranking system has been devised to classify their level of strength. Unsurprisingly, the ranking system correlates to the Meta system.

Luckily, all gates opened so far haven't exceeded B-rank. But in the very beginning, they were all D-rank. Then Cs started opening and now a few B. The trend is that they expect stronger ones to appear soon. This is troubling since the total number of A-ranks and S and above is less than two hundred heroes at this time.

I dialed up a contact I gave a favor to from the first week I opened my club. "Mr. Jones, I'm calling to collect on my favor."

~~~

"So, this is an artifact?" I asked while holding a dagger of exquisite design.

"Yes, it seems to emit a variant of powerful electromagnetic fields. We're calling them mana fields," Mr. Jones said. He was the head of Research and Development for the Ministry of Technology within the government. I used a spell that I hadn't used since the early days of Talip'etatu—a spell I learned from the first Arch Wizard, Siegfried. We exchanged spells, and he gave me Identification.

Identify, I mentally spoke:

Identification: Success

Name: Poisoned Fang

Grade: C

Damage: 685

Durability: 97/100

Description: Inflict a debilitating

and Health draining effect

If I had some kind of game-like system that I could use to give me more details, I absolutely would, but alas, I don't. But based on this result, I can connect a few dots. The grade is C, which correlates to the C-rank dungeon it came out of. Thus, there seems to be a direct connection between their grading system and this artifact. Fascinating indeed.

"Okay, Mr. Jones. Tell me about Mana Crystals."