Dungeons were places where beasts gathered. Beasts of the same species would congregate in a certain place that fits them and begin to multiply and occupy such places.
After multiplying beyond control, they would seek to enlarge their territory to further accommodate their ceaselessly growing numbers.
If a city was nearby, they would attack its residents just to take space wide enough to contain them. Mages and others would often go to such places to regulate the numbers before they became uncontrollable.
The only thing common in all dungeons was the abundance of mana in the surrounding.
These beasts were more sensitive to mana than most humans so they found these spots and occupied them, absorbing the mana in the air and thereby creating mana cores just like humans.
All beasts found in dungeons always had a mana core even though they varied in size, quality, and purity.
Because different levels of beasts live in different dungeons, there was a difference in the danger held by each dungeon.
At the moment though, Seth was crazily battling through a Class Five dungeon. A dungeon that would require at least a dozen Class Five Mages was being cleared by a fourteen-year-old boy.
This dungeon was occupied by a type of bat. The Vampire Bats. A single vampire bat could be easily killed by a Class Three mage and the like but there was never a single one.
They moved in thousands posing huge threats to even Class Five Mages. Their bites had a certain restrictive ability. A single bite could stop a person from using mana in his core for a few seconds. After biting a person a few times, preventing the person from using mana for a couple of minutes, they would drain the blood from the person.
That didn't apply to the person currently attacking them though.
Seth was surrounded by flames with a terrifying degree of hotness. The heat made even the stones around him red like metal. This was a Class Six magic spell — Infernal Flames.
Any bat that got close to the fire would pop like a firework. These bats that knew not the definition of fear when they were in huge numbers were now terrified. They would try to evade Seth and his flames but that wasn't possible.
These creatures lived in caves and these caves were at most three meters wide. Seth's flame covered everything as he advanced without care for these bats.
He was after the bat that preceded these. The first bat in the cave, the Alpha Vampire Bat.
Seth had been walking into this seemingly never ending cave for over four hours. It snaked around and even divided into smaller paths as he went further in.
Seth had knowledge about these beasts from his previous life and knew most of their habits.
The blood and bone of the Alpha Bat were what he was after. It was the final material he would use to seal most of his mana pool in his core.
He entered a quiet cave and soon, he was standing face to face with the bat that made him come all the way here. He had wasted two days just to get to this cave and now, over five hours had gone inside the cave. He needed to end things quickly and return so he could begin creating the item he needed.
The inside of the cave was circular and thirty meters wide. The top was over ten meters high too.
The bat was half as big as Seth but the mana coming from it was nothing to scoff at but Seth wasn't worried. It would take less than five minutes for him to eliminate this creature.
Thud.
The bat that seemed to be staring at Seth fell to the side. To the side of the cave was another entrance. The mana coming from that hole made Seth shiver.
It wasn't just huge. It was bale and bloody. Bloodlust radiated from whatever was in there as its footsteps grew louder. It was closing in.
Seth had only felt such bloodlust from one thing in his life. Demons.
But there was no way a demon could be here now unless…
His thoughts went in another direction. What if the Transcendents had also fallen?
"No, that's not possible." Seth refused to believe in such a possibility.
He decided to face whatever was coming. Although it was dangerous, killing it was still achievable. He looked towards the bat on the floor and only then did he notice that most of its blood was missing. Probably drained by something else and what else could it be, other than the being getting closer to this spot?
Seth took out his special bag and pushed the bat into it. Its bones were still intact and the blood in the bat should be enough for his creation. Now, he has to face whatever was coming out but he was sure it was a demon.
Grrrr…
A hand appeared from within the other entrance of the cave.
Grrrr.
Another hand and a leg followed and soon, its head popped out.
Seth's assumption was no more an assumption. The creature standing a few meters from him was a demon. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a foot soldier-ranked demon.
The demon had long claws the length of half its fingers, jagged teeth, and pale black skin that seemed to have been seared by fire.
It looked at Seth with hunger in its eyes. "Human…" It sounded like two stones grinding away at each other.
The next moment, it was in front of Seth.
Boom!
Seth was slammed into the top of the wall, blood dripping down the side of his mouth.
Seeing the demon had frozen Seth for a moment as he activated defense spells a little too late and ended up injured.
Before he could even land on the floor, the demon had flown up and punched him deeper into the wall.
Seth spat out a mouthful of blood. Seeing this creature in front of him, memories he never thought would hit him came crashing down on him. How he would never get to live as a dragon, how he would never get to see his father and mother, his regret as the last dragon, and most of all, his death at the hands of the leader of this creature.
The demon had been throwing punch after punch and clawing out at Seth who hastily defended and ended up injured by each attack.
No, he didn't plan to die here and he wasn't going to. Remembering there was still a group of betrayers left to deal with before facing Tazoth, his string of rationality got cut.
Seth seemed like a different person as he raised his head to meet the creature who was running towards him.
"Kneel!" He said with a calm but commanding voice.
This time, it wasn't the voice of a fourteen-year-old boy. No… It wasn't even human. Seth was speaking dragon tongue to this creature.
Boom.
Gravity multiplied in the area around this demon stopping it from advancing any further.
The ground cracked and the cracks snakes through the cave. Gravity continued to increase as the creature tried to resist the power of a dragon.
"I said Kneel!"
Boom!
Gravity multiplied yet again as the ground caved in and the demon was forced to kneel.
The mana consumption of using dragon tongue was stupendous as well as strenuous. The body of this fourteen-year-old was getting to its limit as blood began pouring out of Seth's ears and nose. His eyes were becoming redder by the second.
Using most of his remaining mana, Seth conjured a flaming arrow that was so condensed it seemed like a real arrow.
"I'll be coming for you bastards." Seth said, his voice laced with extreme anger directed at those cowards that called themselves dragons and yet bowed before a demon.
Swooosh.
The arrow left his hand and a second later, it was in the head of the demon picking it from the ground as the arrow flew all the way to the other side of the cave, pinning the demon to the wall. It was… dead.
Seth's eyes had blood flowing out of them and his consciousness waned in and out.
He sat on the ground, his back against the wall, and fell unconscious.