I stare at the four portals inside the room in shock.
“How do we have dungeons inside a building? How are they lined up like this?” one of the red-haired girls asks.
“There are people who have the spatial affinity. They can unanchor, store and move regular dungeon portals,” the little woman says with a smug expression, “Now each of you is going to enter one of the portals. Once you hit level 25, you can come out or continue and clear it. Take one of the backpacks there and pick a portal to enter.”
None of us move.
“Are these dungeons scouted? If so, What monsters do they contain,” the green-eyed boy asks, his rough voice fitting his frame.
“Ehh, we don’t know. They aren’t scouted. The only reason you can go in is that, well, the monsters in there are barely stronger than children and most of you should have been trained in combat and strategy since you were kids,” the little woman says, “Now will you enter or sit here and cry injustice?”
Seeing the other 3 hesitate, I go and pick up a bag. The faster I get this done, the better. I hold the bag and am surprised by its heft.
“Inside the bag is enough dry food for a week, a portable campfire, a shortsword, winter clothes and a small tent. Everything else you’ll have to find yourself or salvage. You’ll also have to find the return stone to come back or clear the dungeon,” The large man remarks.
“How does all that fit in this small bag,” I say.
The giant looks at me and says, “It’s gear” like it explains everything. What is Gear?
I walk to the portal nearest to me and stand in front of it while the rest of my fellow awakeners take their sweet time to pick up a bag and walk to a portal. I shake my head and look at the two— wait, what even are they? Are they government agents, guards, or hunters? Damn, why didn’t I even think to question their orders or ask them who they were?
“You can now enter,” the little woman says. I see the two red-haired girls enter their portals first, then the green-eyed boy goes into his. I feel the ground shake and see the portal he jumped in, pitch black. Finally something interesting. I run to the black portal and jump in before it closes.
STEVEN DELORES PERSPECTIVE:
I watch as the fire mage’s boy’s portal turns black. I turn to look at my partner, Leandra, and notice the smirk on her face. She turns my face to look at the black portal again and I see the weird kid jump in after him.
“We should’ve stopped him, Now they’re both going to die,” I say to Leandra.
“I don’t really care, we work for the empire. This backwater kingdom losing a few potential mages does not affect us, no matter how rare mages are here. Plus, that Shadow affinity kid is a total psycho and he’s way too dangerous. My skill takes more mana to make him comply than it does for the other three combined. Although, I’ve never heard of a black gate. Still, it’s not like it matters,” she replies.
I shrug my shoulders and walk out of the room to report what happened to the Paragon.
ELIJAH PERSPECTIVE:
I fall onto the floor, head first. Aughh, my nose. I look around and notice we’re standing in front of an enormous castle in the distance made of pitch-black obsidian. I look up and see a dark violet sky which bathes the entire place in an eerie glow. I hear the green-eyed boy retching onto the floor and wait for him to get done.
I sit down and look through the bag they gave us. As I open it, I notice the insides are a lot bigger than it should be. Guess I know now how they fit everything in here. I pull out the short word to see the balance on it. This is a nice fricking sword. At least they didn’t skim on the quality of the weapons.
I hear footsteps and look up at the green-eyed boy.
“What’d your parents feed you? Was there something in the water?” I ask him
“Pardon?” He asks back.
“I mean you’re huge and good-looking, I’m asking if there was something in your water or if you were fed something special,” he looks at me like I’ve grown two heads and I change the subject, “Anyway, what is your role and affinity? You look like a warrior.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I’m a Mage with a fire affinity,” He shoots back.
“A mage,” I say to him in disbelief, “One of those guys who stand at the back while everyone else works hard at holding the enemies away.”
“That’s a very uncouth and unique way of describing what some mages do. How about you?” He shoots
“Oh, Me? I’m a Mage as well. Anyway, is your special attribute Mana?” I ask him.
“I have the Essence Affinity. Which is a second-order affinity of Mana,” He says back to me, but I don’t miss the look he gives me.
I look at him and nod, not bothering to ask any more questions as I see 2 dogs the size of German Shepherds with dark black fur and red eyes running towards us. I get up, clipping the sheath of my short sword onto my back with the handle of the short sword facing downwards and see the green-eyed boy unsheathe his short sword and throw the sheath into his bag. We stand in position and wait for the dogs to come closer to us.
“I’m Elijah, what’s your name?” I say as I glance toward him.
“Dante,” he says back.
The dogs finally reach us and I zone everything out. I see it jump toward me and I twist my body to face it head on. It growls and tries to bite my shoulder but I turn dodging out of the way and scratch it along its side. It growls and I see it run toward me again.
That thing barely got hurt. Geez, how strong is it? I crouch and when it comes toward me, I let it bite my arm and plunge the shortsword into its neck. Blood squirts out and onto my face.
I hear a ding, but ignore it and move to help Dante. I walk around out of the dog’s line of sight and slowly move behind it. It clashes with Dante and I see it scratch his chest before he throws it in my direction. It slides directly toward my feet and I give it a predatory smile before plunging my shortsword into its neck.
I get another ding and I fall to the floor panting from the exertion and pain. I look at my arm and notice the deep bite marks. That hurts.
Dante walks over to me limping and I send him my brightest smile with two thumbs up which instantly causes my arm to feel on fire.
He looks at me funny and says, “You shouldn’t be here and it shouldn’t be this difficult.”
“What do you mean?” I ask him feigning ignorance.
“Stop playing with me,” he growls.
“Alright, alright,” I say to him while waving my hands to calm him down, “There was a bit of a mishap and the colour of your portal changed. In my moment of chivalry and kindness, I decided that it couldn’t mean anything good, so I ran in here with you.”
He falls onto the floor and lies down.
“A coloured portal, he says to me,” he says to me before continuing, “We’re so screwed. Every time the colour of a portal changes, its difficulty changes and it typically leads to a trial of some sort. I’ve never heard of a black portal.”
I shrug my shoulders and lay down with him. I opened my notifications to see what level the dogs were.
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You have killed Regent’s Hound - F rank - Level 6 x2
You have leveled up x3
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Well, that explains the difficulty. I open my status to allocate the points I just got.
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Status
Age: 16
Name: Elijah Ashborne
Level: 1
Affinity: Shadow
Strength: 8
Agility: 9
Constitution: 11
Mind: 13
Mana: 0
Primary Artifact: None
Secondary Artifact/s: None
[Stat Points: 3]
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I put all three into the constitution to help my wound heal faster and feel a sense of euphoria take over me. I looked down, noticing that the bleeding stopped and that the wound scabbed over.
I get up and move to the hound I killed. Cutting it open, I find a tiny colourful stone and curse my bad luck. I look over at Dante and notice he has a ring in his hand. I see it disappear and appear as a tattoo on his finger.
He notices me looking and rubs his neck in guilt as I contributed more to the battle, yet he got the artifact.
“It’s an inspection ring. They’re the most common type of artifact out there. It lets you inspect a person or beast and get a name and level. But it only works if the person is less than 10 levels higher than me and in the same rank. It also can scan artifacts that are in the same grade,” He says and looks at my hand to see what I got.
“I got an Essence orb,” I say before throwing it into my backpack. I clean my sword with a tissue and sheath it.
“Let’s move.”