The moment when I first felt pain, emotional pain, I think that was the moment I started to dislike people more. Every day at school I witness the fake, obnoxious remarks thrown around behind their ‘friends’ back. But I guess that's just the way it is, school is but a tutorial for the real world, where nobody genuinely likes or cares about each other.

My name is Takumi, Takumi Satou. I attend the Shirogane High School in the Kitiyama district of Kyoto. This area is known for its peaceful, scenic environment, surrounded by nature and historical sites. It's slightly removed from the busier city center, offering a calm, reflective atmosphere. Perfect for a high school focused on intense study and self-discipline.

As if.

“YAMAMOTO! GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK!” That's the voice of my female classmate and bus seatmate apparently, Aya Fujimoto. “Why? Got a boy you’re texting? HMM?” She's play-fighting with my classmate Ryo Yamamoto, who sits by the open side of the bus seats while I sit in the window seat.

Even if they were not practically making out with their words in front of me, the rest of this bus is still noisy as hell. From the outside, the indigo colored bus travels along the green hills by narrow roads with really bad risks of falling. From the inside however, chaos ensues.

The teachers are not able to contain the sheer uncontrollable menace that is the mind of a high school student. I guess the only people actually silent on this bus are quiet keep-to-themself kids like me or reserved untalkative princesses like the class rep.

This field trip was not worth going on, even if it's my first year of high school. I'd rather stay home and do nothing than stay here with these lovebirds next to me on a packed and loud bus.

“Takumi! You should make some friends, you are worrying me a lot you know!” I recall my mother telling me during our family discussion on whether I was going for this trip or not. My parents aren't bad people, I love them a lot, but they have to understand that I just can't jell with my classmates.

My elbow on the armrest, propping up my head with my fist, I stare out onto the wrong side of the scenery. Instead of a beautiful view of the hillside, which had flowers, sunlight and farms that could be spotted, I was staring at straight green shadows this past hour.

The sound drowned out in my ears, the chitter chatter of high and low pitched kids got repetitive after a while. The rhythmic frequencies of the shouting got quite pleasant after a long while, becoming something of a lullaby for me. Somewhere along the way, I fell asleep...

I think if I dreamed more often, I would feel like sleeping more. Reality is often bleak and meaningless for most people, which gives rise to fictional stories depicting tales of great fantasy.

I stood in front of a mirror, staring at what I imagined was myself. I was pretty tall for my age, but I was skinny so it sort of evened out. Many people describe me as having a ‘Sad’ look on my face, but I just can't see it.

My hair parted down the middle, greasy and curly. I don't like to comb it all the time as it gets very messy or just looks ugly half the time.

I tried to look away from the mirror, but I just couldn't… Like I literally couldn't move my head to look away.

“TAKUMI! WAKE UP! SOMETHING WEIRD IS GOING ON!” Today marks the first time my face was held by a woman. Unfortunately she was screaming for help, so it does not count. How depressing.

My eyes opened wide, staring at the girl that somehow remembers my name. It's Aya Fujimoto, she was your average energetic airhead, popular with the boys and unpopular with the girls.

Looking at her face up close I can see why, she had bangs and straight shoulder length hair, light brown eyes that were wide most of the time. She was short and cute enough to be that popular, and at the same time be mistaken for a ‘Pick-me girl.’ when it's clearly not her fault.

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“Get up please! Look outside!” She spoke a little less loudly this time, letting my face go as well. I turned my gaze outside, sure enough, we were not on the sunny green hillside anymore. We were in some dimly lit dungeon of sorts.

From what I could make out from inside the bus, the ceilings were high, massive hallways and arched doorways extended to the ceiling around our bus. Which was all lit up by torches here and there, giving everything an orange hue.

“Oooh I like the change of scenery, I was on the wrong side of the bus you see.” I blurted out, I never know what to say to people or how to read the room. Turning my head to face her, I can see a look of confusion, her eyebrows furrowed and mouth sort of agape.

“What?” Aya asked, pretending not to have heard me I guess “Nothing, let's get outside.” Everyone was already outside, crying, shouting, panicking or jumping with joy. I guess I was last to realize our situation.

Aya obviously went to join Ryo, leaving me just standing there, wondering who to ask about the situation. I could go into detail about all the reactions of my 32 classmates but that would mean actually looking at all their pitiful faces. I'll just generalize instead.

Some girls were freaking out together, holding each other and panicking together, how fun. Most of the boys had widened smiles, almost drooling, at the entire implication of our bus somehow teleporting into this weird dungeon-like place.

Apart from the students, there was our teacher Ms. Haruka Minami, a woman in her late 30s, with shoulder-length black hair always neatly tied back, she always wears professional attire and carries a calm, composed aura. Well now not so much but..

And other than Ms. Minami, there was the bus driver and the attendant. The bus driver was a 50-ish man, salt-and-pepper hair with some wrinkles.

Lastly, the attendant, the short lady with brown hair and glasses, I don't really remember her name though. From what I can remember, half the guys were flirting with her, she seems to be in her thirties but I guess that doesn't stop them.

Ms. Minami was trying to calm the girls down while the attendant dialed the police. The driver was more or less amazed at his surroundings. I'm starting to like this guy.

I do what I always do when I sleep through something important, and ask the class rep what happened. Rika Kobayashi, our reliable silent queen. Slender and tall, with shoulder-length black hair that she often ties into a ponytail. When she speaks, she only says what she has to. I might be in love.

“Rika, what's going on? I was sleeping.” Rika was staring at the massive archways, the weirdly placed torches that offered some help in seeing the gray brick pillars that held up the entire place.

Rika spoke, without turning her attention from the pillars “You ought to pay more attention Takumi, the bus went through a tunnel and then suddenly we were here. That's all I remembered at least.” Rika is probably the only person I talk to in school, and only when I sleep through class or skip PE.

“I see, thanks. What do you-” I pointed at the entire medieval-castle looking structure around us “-think this is?”

Rika sighed “I don't know, the boys are excited, I think they might know something.” Rika isn't one to watch tropey generic anime so I guess she wouldn't know what this is.

Well I do however, this is that cliché where the highschool class all get transported into another world. I guess from here on out a few more things will happen before it fully turns into a ‘cliché opening’

I was going to talk to one of the boys about our situation, when a loud bang noise boomed from the bus, I turned to see a crumpled mass of blue metal. And on top of it stood a glowing figure.

Cliché number 2, Godlike figure informs us of our situation. The glowing figure was of a beautiful woman with pale skin and off white hair. She had her eyes closed with around 4 wings around her back and a book in her arms. When she spoke, it felt like it was reverberating inside our minds.

“Dear heroes, I am afraid you have been unfortunately dragged into this chaos-run world. I can only wish you the best of luck for this dungeon, please, Live..” The lady looked like she was crying, right after her motivational speech she kind of burst into a ball of bright light and disappeared.

Looking around me, the girls that were freaking out before, were freaking out even more now. Ms. Minami was also starting to lose it a bit, the boys were no longer jumping with joy, this was not what they were expecting I guess.

A text box appeared before me, black with golden rims. I guess things aren't so bad after all…

Name: Takumi Satou Unawakened Level 0: Unawakened Trait: Loner