Karan wore a leather hooded zip-up as he strolled along the drizzly street. Despite the fact that it was late at night, the street was still humming with activity.
It thrived as people went about their daily business, some walking or packing loads, others forging metals on stationary anvils. The sound of shrieking children mingled with flute music. The slanted moonlight gave everything a hazy look as it permeated the moist air.
Regan has been quite peaceful lately, thanks to the activities of the awakeners who were working tirelessly to clear the dungeons. This explains why the city could still be bustling with activities at such a late period.
Due to the advent of the monster invasions, the civilization of the world had been readjusted to a mix of medieval and modern lifestyles.
A lot of weapons, artifacts, and supplementary items were now created in a medieval style. This was as a result of the monsters being difficult to deal with and it was impossible to kill them with modern weapons because they also possessed supernatural abilities just like awakeners.
Karan traversed over to another corner of the road where several buildings were sited in an orderly fashion. He walked into a compound with a small bungalow. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.
"Who's there?" Came a tiny feminine voice from behind.
"It's me, Karan."
"Big brother is that you?" There was a trace of excitement in the voice as it inquired.
Before Karan could reply, the door was hurriedly thrown wide open. A young girl came rushing out of the house and threw herself upon him in a hug leaving him no time to react.
"How have you been Mireille?" Karan asked in an excited voice.
"Waah I miss you so much big brother," Mireille said mimicking a crying tone.
"Why are you crying? I haven't been gone for that long" Karan said trying to comfort her.
"What? It's been months since you left, that's too long." Mireille pouted in response.
"Alright, alright I'm back now, so you don't have to worry." Karan patted her head softly and said.
Just then, a beautiful middle-aged woman walked out of the house brimming with smiles.
"You've finally decided to come back?"
Karan scratched his head and gave a wry smile. "Mom, how have you been?" He proceeded to hug her tightly.
Karan never knew his real parents. He had grown up with the Mo's and considered them as his family. According to them, he was abandoned by his unknown parents when he was a baby. Dagen Mo, his adopted father found him and decided to raise him as his son.
They had lived as the perfect family for many years until three years ago when Dagen Mo died tragically from an explosion in the mine where he worked. His death affected the family both emotionally and financially. And Ayria Mo was forced to go into petit-trading to provide for the family.
A year ago, fate smiled on Karan and his years-long prayer was finally answered. He awakened his abilities and became an E-rank hunter.
Ayria couldn't describe her emotions. Karan had finally become an awakener, which meant he would be able to fulfill the daily oat he had always made to avenge the spirits of the dead heroes back there at Lymhurst. On the other hand, he would also risk his life battling those horrible monsters. She felt both happy and unhappy at the same time. She knew she couldn't stop his determination, so she could only leave things in the hands of fate.
After numerous screening and examinations, Karan's abilities were confirmed as being a magic swordsman and he was accepted by a guild for having an exceptional talent.
*
The three spent the night discussing and recounting past events. Karan also told them of the numerous battles he faced in Regan's tournament to rank fifth place, and also his experience clearing E rank dungeons. Both Ayria and Mireille felt perplexed and amazed by the numerous things he experienced.
The next day, Karan received a call from Amon, telling him that the date for the D-rank dungeon raid had been scheduled for the following day. Karan had a hard time convincing Ayria and Mireille that he would return safely before setting out for the guild house.
Getting to the guild house, it was already late and an intense spar was in full swing. The guild members had to practice their formation and test their powers for any rustiness.
The Front liners squad was made up of five members. Lilia and Amon were mages, Karan was a magic swordsman, Darvyn was a magic-archer and Igor was the tanker of the group.
Amon and Darvyn were already engaged in a heated battle.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Darvyn being an archer, tried his best to create a distance between himself and Amon, but Amon wasn't giving him any chance as he proceeded to bombard him endlessly with a basic fire spell. Darvyn wasn't a pushover either. He evaded all the attacks leaving them to strike against the walls of the spar area. The walls shook and shards of debris fell from the roof.
In the manner in which they fought, it was obvious that they clearly understood each other's fighting style. This was due to the fact that they trained with each other all year round.
"That's enough." The guild master who stood by and watched the whole scene immediately ordered
"What? I'm just getting warmed up, I've not even started."
"Same here."
At that point, neither Amon nor Darvyn had any intention of halting the battle. They were clearly exhausted from battling for an extended amount of time, casting different spells and secrete-techniques, but their competitive spirit got the better of them. If given the opportunity, they were prepared to battle until the very last breath.
The guild master was clearly agitated by their words. He sighed deeply and said in a hushed voice "What's the point? You'll be entering a D rank dungeon tomorrow and the difficulty is on another level. Why not conserve your energy till that time?"
Hearing those words, Amon and Darvyn seemed to have grasped the point. They raided several E rank dungeons in the past and they had a rich experience in It. Even E rank dungeons varied in difficulty. They could be easy or relatively difficult to clear at times. There were even cases where they narrowly escaped death while clearing the dungeons.
They were now up against a whole new level of difficulty. A dungeon with a greater rating than theirs. Thankfully, they would be joined in the raid by numerous other guilds, otherwise, the mission would have been regarded impossible.
"Lilia, Karan, you're next," the guild-master remarked as he turned around.
Hearing this, Karan walked calmly to the center of the spar area, while Lilia looked relatively shocked.