All students in the school were suddenly woken up by an alarm that rang out through the whole building.
[Warning!!! Warning!!! All first year students must remain in their rooms. The school is now on lockdown. Code X This is not a drill. Repeat, Code X, this is not a drill]
Zen opened his eyes with as much emotion one might reserve for watching paint dry. He didn't know what a code X was, but he definitely knew what that itchy on the back of his right hand was.
"What's a code X?"
Xavier asked while rubbing his eyes.
Maximilian who seemed to be the most awake of the four, answered in a cautious tone.
"I'm hoping it's a false alarm, or some sort of training drill.... but if it's true,then it means that players have somehow gotten into not only the city, but the school itself"
Xavier immediately got fully awake after hearing that and jumped
"Seriously? In that case,why are we being locked in here and not out there kicking ass"
Maximilian looked at Xavier who was still in his underwear and rolled his eyes.
"What's going on? I thought they already destroyed the arcade and all the players" Neo asked a little bit confused, and very scared.
Maximilian sighed and explained that although the organization's base was destroyed completely, there are still lots of those people who survived and managed to escape destruction. If it was most organizations, the government would just ignore it, but for the arcade,they didn't dare let up, and were still searching for the survivors, albeit half-heartedly.
Maximilian turned to look at Zen who was still on his bed and completely calm even though he was awake. He had obviously heard what Zen said the before going to bed, and he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding.
Zen decided to find a way to pass the time, and brought out his throwing star,liu xing, and decided to test something.
'soul brand'
Zen chose the star as his target, not really expecting it to work, and just trying to see what would happen when....
[Target meets the requirements]
[Rudimentary beast and item soul, present]
[Initiating soul brand]
[Soul brand successful]
All of Zen's SP immediately dropped to Zero as the usual fatigue that accompanied it came.
"What are beast and item souls?" Zen asked the system, hoping it would answer like it did with the dungeon corpse, but it seemed his system wasn't in a talking mood this time and ignored him.
Zen sighed. He was getting more and more confused with the system. Hopefully it would clear things up once he completed his levelling quest.
"Wanna see something fun?" Black asked him, but didn't wait for his answer before implanting something into his mind.
Zen suddenly saw a first person image of a person clutching their head in pain while screaming. Zen immediately realized it had to be Clyde, but was surprised at what he was doing because he wasn't getting hit by anyone.
"What did you do?" Zen asked
"The same thing I'm doing to you"
"Which is...."
"Transferring his memories and knowledge to me. However, his mental fortitude isn't as high as yours, plus, I'm not exactly taking it slow and gentle like i am with you"
Zen nodded and felt like Black was learning quickly. It didn't even need to ask him for his opinion anymore.
"How's the other thing i told you to do?"
Black quickly responded.
"It's all good. I've been steadily consuming his bones and organs, especially his brain, but when you're the size of a spider, progression is slow"
Zen didn't really care. Slow was good for now. He still had seven days to complete his quest, and he was determined to make Clyde as weak as possible before then.
Zen's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Xavier.
"So what do you think, Zen?"
The three had also decided to find something to pass the time as sleeping would be difficult now. Maximilian had asked them what dungeon class they thought to be the most dangerous. Xavier had said that he was confident that psychic dungeons were definitely the worst,Neo felt like elemental dungeons were scary, Maximilian thought for a while and agreed with Neo, saying that elemental dungeons were a pain in the arse. They all debated for a while , giving points for why they thought they were right,before deciding to ask Zen.
"So what do you think, Zen? Would you rather face a psychic dungeon and have the dungeon take over the minds of your teammates,or frolic around with some elementals?"
Zen didn't have to think long before answering
"Fantasy dungeon"
The others seemed surprised by his answer. Weren't fantasy dungeons those ones with the magical atmosphere Inside them? What was so dangerous about that?.
"Haha! Sorry dude, but unless you're afraid of relaxing walks through the forest,then what are you even talking about?"
Zen shrugged and decided to humor them.
"One of my mom's told me a story to explain it. It started something like this ..."
Long ago, before dungeons and other things had even been fully categorized,a team that was deemed sufficient was sent into a newly spawned dungeon. The team consisted completely of ability users, however there was no way to measure abilities back then, so there levels were unknown.
The females,Sasha, Rachel,Carol,and summer had basic variation abilities of fire,Ice, telepathy, and healing. While the three males, Albert, Caleb, and Briggs were not only ability users but also the scout,leader, and tank of the team. The girls also had their special positions although it wasn't exactly sure what they were.
The seven walked into the dungeon mostly confident in their ability to clear it. They had gone through quite a few other strange dungeons and thought they knew what to expect, although they'd be terribly wrong.
"Al, why do you look so tense,man? Relax,we can deal with these just like all the others" Caleb, the team leader tried encouraging their scout to relax a bit.
Caleb nodded in agreement, but couldn't help being vigilant. It was his Job after all.
After encouraging Caleb, the optimistic leader walked towards Carol, the telepath of the group , and his girlfriend, planting a quick kiss on her lips, earning a few groans and chuckles from their teammates.
"Alright then,in we go guys"
The team stepped through the gate, experiencing the usual dizziness and lightheadedness.
A few seconds later, they appeared somewhere in the dungeon, quickly acclimating to their surroundings.
Albert quickly brought out a blank paper map, preparing to trace their journey.
"Alright everyone, don't forget. We aren't just here to kill some monsters,we also have an obligation to map out this dungeon and make exploration safer in the future for all of humanity" Caleb said with a sense of pride.
Albert rolled his eyes. He knew that by "helping all of humanity" what his leader really meant was to sell the dungeon map to the government,or some other big corporation for a huge profit. It was why they had fought so hard to get the rights to this unexplored dungeon.
Regardless of what he thought of his captain's morals, Albert was determined to do his job properly . He knew that they were all greedy and overambitious, but at least HE had the guts to admit it.
For the first time since getting in the dungeon, they suddenly realized that there was natural light in this place. They all looked up and were shocked to see something that resembled the sun in the sky.
That wasn't all that was surprising however,as they had appeared in a utopia like forest with beautiful flowers and flowing clear streams
"Uh...boss. Something's not right here . This is.... different" Briggs said warily. He wasn't sure why, but the thought of such a large open space unsettled him. Looking around, he was sure that what he was currently seeing was larger than some dungeons he had been in, and the thought put him on edge even more.
Caleb on the other hand,had dollar signs in his eyes and hadn't even heard his burly teammate as he laughed out loud, ecstatic at the implications of such a discovery, even going to the closest stream to take a drink of the crystal clear flowing water.
Carol immediately brought him back, stopping him.
"What on earth are you doing? We need to be on guard, and we don't even know if the water is safe to drink.
"Oh come on baby. Don't tell me you're not excited. This place is a fucking miracle! We're going to be sooooo rich"
Briggs coughed twice, upset that they weren't taking this seriously at all.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!!!"
Before any more could be said,a loud horrendous screeching noise reverberated through the forest,soon followed by multiple others.
The team suddenly found themselves surrounded by unsightly green skinned creatures about the size of a human child of seven to eight years old. They were all dressed with a simple loin cloth to cover their private areas. In their hands were rudimentary weapons like stone spears and knives.
The seven had already formed a circle with their backs to each other.
"What are these things? I've never seen beast like these before"...
****************
The end
Xavier who had once again scooched in with Zen on his bed, blinked twice.
"The fuck was that?" He asked exasperated
"Wait, did that story actually happen?" Neo asked
Maximilian seemed in thought for a few seconds before replying
"I think I've heard of similar situations in my family's archives, but never on such a complex scale"
The three of them seemed at least a little bit disturbed by the story and sat in silence for the next few minutes, but it was eventually broken when one of them checked the time and realized that there were still a few more hours before dawn, and the school didn't seem to have any plans on letting them out any time soon.
"Soooo, anyone else have an interesting story?" Neo asked
*****************
After a few more hours, the school lifted the lockdown, not giving any information to the students who mostly all rushed outside, some without even changing, to see the aftermath.
Outside the school was an absolute bloodbath, with dozens of academy officials being either dead or incapacitated on the ground .
"What do you think?" Keith suddenly appeared behind Zen and asked in a surprisingly tame manner.
Zen didn't seem suprised and answered as he scanned the battlefield.
"This wasn't them, not their style,or at least not a planned attack. This was done by a lone wolf"
Zen moved as close as the officials would let him to one of the corpses as he scrutinized the corpse.
"You already know?" Keith asked
Zen nodded.
"Julian. This looks like his hunting style. Only thing I don't know is why"
"I thought as much" Keith nodded before walking away.
As soon as he left, Zaria suddenly grabbed Zen's shoulder.
"Are you okay? What were you two talking about?"
Zen didn't answer and instead gestured for her to follow him as he sneakily left the scene.
Once out of sight, Zen started running towards the back of the school where the forest was.
"Where are you going?" Zaria asked as she ran behind him, but he didn't answer or even stop until he was a sufficient distance away from the main scene.
Zen looked around and a bit and noticed a few small tracks that even a professional would have missed.
To Zaria,all she saw was him picking up some sticks and leaves and going in a random directions, but Zen knew what he was doing.
After a few seconds Zen suddenly pulled a corpse from under a bush almost like he knew it was there.
"How did you..?".
"I know who did this, and he didn't get caught,he just got bored"
Zen answered before putting the corpse back where he found it.
"An old friend of yours?" Zaria asked, completely ignoring the corpse.
Zen didn't give a reply.
"So he was part of the attacking force?"
Zen shook his head, confusing Zaria.
"He did all this on his own. It's his style,i would recognize it anywhere"
Zaria was a little surprised when she heard that this was all done by a single player around her age, but instinctively knew it was possible.
"Let's go" Zen said as he started walking away.
"We're not going to do something about this? There could be more "
Zen looked back briefly.
"It's not "there could be",There definitely is. Plus,We found the corpses less than an hour after our release, do you think that anyone would believe what we have to say?"
Immediately after saying that, Zen walked off.
Zaria looked around for a few more seconds before yelling
"Wait up!" And running after him