With a deep inhale of the cool forest air of summer, path illuminated only by the light of his cellphone, the man gingerly crept into the entrance of the stone building. Having walked this path many times before, nightly constitutionals being one of the few releases he had left that allowed him to vacate the hellscape of his mind, the stone building that had erected was a new sight. Deep down, he felt inexplicably drawn inside, as if something was guiding him to find a higher purpose that laid inside. The building itself had no door, but stairs that seemed to lead down into an inky darkness that threatened to swallow anyone, or anything, that entered into it whole. Undeterred, he continued down the stairs for what felt like an eternity, the once clean air filling with must and mildew, Wet stone with a slight tinge of iron.

As the man reached the landing of the staircase, the room began to come to life quietly. Glyphs inscribed on the wall began to glow with a soft blue flame, igniting in a clockwise pattern around the room before proceeding up the corridor that the man had just proceeded down. Taken aback, the man looked around in a panic. The only other notable feature to the room, was a hewn-stone pedestal in the middle of the floor. Stalking up to the pedestal, fearful of a trap lain within the room, the man began to examine it slowly. As he touched the cap, a blue hologram with a border of soft white erupted from the center. Jumping away slightly and nearly tripping over himself out of fear, he re-approached the pedestal examining the information before him.

-NAME?-

- "Does it want my name? What will happen if I give it my name..Should I use a fake name? What if this is some kind of trick? Maybe this is just some kind of elaborate VidTube prank."

The man pondered for a moment before coming to an answer. "My name is 'Mist"

-NAME 'MIST'-

IS THIS CORRECT?

"Yes." the man softly replied. He hoped he wouldn't regret his choice, knowing that 'Mist' wasn't his real name. He saw this as possibly a new start. A way to escape the life he once lived.

-ADVENTURER MIST-

TO CONTINUE REGISTRATION, PLEASE PLACE BOTH HANDS ON THE PEDESTAL

Looking down at his hands, and then at the pedestal, Mist slowly did as he was told. The stone was cold, but began to emit a line of blue energy that slowly passed from the tips of his fingers to the base of his palms before reversing course and passing back over again.

-ADVENTURER REGISTRATION COMPLETE-

NAME: MIST

OCCUPATION: MIMIC

WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROCEED?

YES/NO

"Occupation Mimic?!" Mist thought to himself, confused "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Waitaminute, is this like a videogame? Does that mean that I just got assigned a job randomly and that'll limit my skills!? The hell does 'Mimic' even do!? And what does it mean 'Proceed'!? There's nothing else in this room but this confusing pedestal!" Letting out a dejected sigh, and figuring that he already came this far, Mist sarcastically said "Sure. Proceed"

-UNDERSTOOD-

BEGINING DESCENT INTO "SHEVAT"

GOOD LUCK

Upon confirming his decision, the room began to rumble as softly glowing lines began to form a circle around the room, the pedestal being its focus which Mist grasped onto tightly panicking. With one massive lurch, the floor began to descend deeper into the foreign structure.Looking up, Mist could see the floor filling itself back in magically, preparing itself for the next explorer. Drawing upon his knowledge and love of video games, He could only come to one conclusion. This building, that had never appeared until this night wasn't someone's practical joke. This was a Dungeon.

As the elevator reached the bottom of the shaft, it began to slow once more, shaking before coming to a full stop at its destination. Looking around, the dungeon itself was lightly illuminated by torches hanging from its walls. Stepping down from the platform created by the magical elevator. Pulling out his phone, Mist attempted to take photos of what he was seeing, albeit low quality, as his phone was something only really given out to those on some form of financial assistance programs for the needy. Turning around, wanting to take a picture of the elevator, he quickly realized that the platform, and the pedestal which sat upon it, were gone.

"...Well, that would figure. Gotta complete the dungeon to exit." He thought to himself with a sigh before proceeding down the hall.

The dungeon itself was eerily quiet, which unnerved Mist. His heartbeat alone was almost deafening. Trying to calm himself he began to mutter to himself-- "Its ok man, you've done this before, think of it just like a video game..But that means there's probably monsters. Oh crap, what if I'm right and there's monsters? How will I fight back?! I don't have a weapon! Firearms are out of the question too because of her. Waitaminute..."

Mist stopped at the far end of a T-shaped intersection to frantically search his beige cargo shorts. Patting around, he quickly reached into a pocket on his thigh and produced a black folding knife with a golden dragon on the handle. "Its not the best thing in the world, but for now, it'll work!". Before he could work the action on the knife, another blue hologram starlted him, causing him to almost drop the knife.

WEAPON CHANGE DETECTED

WOULD YOU LIKE TO REGISTER TO GEARSET "MIMIC"?

YES/NO

Mist furrowed his eyebrow upon reading the prompt, then shook the confusion off of his mind, stating "Yes".

-GEARSET CHANGED-

Upon Mist's confirmation. The hologram dissipated. Looking to his left, he noticed a heavy wooden door, and to his right, the path continued on a ways before taking another left around a corner. Thinking for a moment, he decided that he would explore the room behind the door.

The door was made of a heavy oak and iron construction, a ring on the left side acting as sort of a doorknob. Running his hands all along the oak planks and iron base plate, he didn't notice the markings of traps, nor a lock. Taking a deep breath and grabbing his knife in both hands tightly, he pressed his right shoulder against the wooden door, and pushed against it with as much weight as he can. Slowly, it gave way into the room.

The area before Mist was similarly illuminated to the dungeons hallways. Before him sat two desks with papers strewn about. There were places on the walls to hang jackets, near barren bookshelves with moldy scrolls, and one of the desks had a simple chair with which one could sit. Keeping his guard up, he slowly entered the room proper to further explore. Tucked away in the back of the room, between two of the bookshelves laid a small plain chest. The ceiling had the occasional small cobweb in a corner. A think layer of dust covered everything in the room, almost as if it hadn't been touched in an eternity.

Slightly lowering his guard, Mist began his examination with the desks. They were simple, lacking any kind of drawer or storage. Looking over the papers strewn about, he noticed that he couldn't make out the language written on them. If anything it looked similar to the glyphs that appeared in the dungeon elevator. Folding up one of the sheets, he placed it into his shorts pocket, before examining the bookshelves, which contained more of the same in scroll form, before finally placing his attention on the small chest in the back of the room.

Tightening his grip on his knife, Mist prepared himself to open the chest. He was painfully aware from one of his favorite games would occasionally like to put monsters inside of chests, and he was fearful that would be the reality. Would a monster leap out at him? Would it turn out that like his occupation, that the chest would be a mimic that would awaken and attempt to consume him in one bite? He kneeled down, slowly reaching out his shaking right hand. "Please dont kill me" he thought, "Please!"

"Oh would you just open it already!?" a boisterous female voice ordered, echoing through the room.

Mist shrilled in terror, leaping to his feet and slamming his back against the wall while tightly holding his pocket knife in front of him with both hands. His eyes were huge with shock, beads of cold sweat dripping down his face "W..Who are you!? How long have you been there!?".

The woman doubled over in laughter, her arms wrapping around her stomach, hardly able to breath. "Cant. Breathe. Too funny!" she gasped between laughs.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, Mist's terror turned to frustration. "Its not that funny!"

"You should've seen yourself! Oh my god, do you need a change of pants after that" the woman stated, slowly returning to a relaxed standing position.

As the situation calmed down, Mist was able to focus on the woman who so badly scared him. She was about mid-height, with her almond hair in an unkept pixie. Unlike himself, who wore specifically more casual clothing, she was styled in more athletic clothing. Her red sports bra,and white leggings accentuated her athletic figure. Upon her right hip sat a semi-automatic firearm. She lacked any jewelry asides from a smart watch sitting upon her left wrist.

"No, I don't need a change of clothing." Mist sighed. "I thought my heart was about to fly out of my chest though".

"I'm sorry." the young woman chuckled "Sometimes you just gotta take the chances when they're given. Besides, why were you so jumpy?"

"Because this is a dungeon we're in. Just because we haven't encountered any monsters yet doesn't mean they don't exist." he said, before turning his attention back to the chest, and kneeling back down.

"Wait. Dungeon? You mean like a video game? That's rich." she scoffed. "This is real life, not some kinda game".

"I am painfully aware of that, thank you. But at this point, with how much weirdness is going on tonight, I'm not taking my chances, and you shouldn't either." Opening the chest, he began to rummage through its contents, papers shifting around before something caught his eye.

Patting the firearm on her hip, the woman smirked "Oh don't worry, I'm not, I'm ready for all kinds of things. Coyotes, monsters, you name it."

Mist pulled a simple sheathed dagger from the chest. Drawing it , it seemed to be constructed of Iron, with a straight double edged blade. Standing up, he undid his belt before stringing it through the loup on the back of the sheath to the left side of his pants. Once more, the hologram pop'd up infront of Mist, and instead of vocalizing, he tested giving a simple nod, which worked all the same.

"Whazzat?" the woman asked quizzically.

"I'm not sure myself." Mist shook his head "It pop's up whenever I pull a new weapon out. It asks if I want to set it to a 'Gear Set' whatever that means."

"Huh" she thought aloud. Pulling her pistol from her hip holster and aiming it away from Mist, she jumped back when the same blue popup appeared infront of her. "Oh! I see what you mean! Yes! Register it to my gear set!"

Mist slowly made his way toward the door as she holstered her gun, keeping away from where her barrel was pointed. "Well, that's it for this room. I can't read the documents in here, and all that was in the chest was this dagger."

"I mean, its better than that dinky pocket knife you had I bet!" the woman chided with a smile "Here, since I've got a pistol, why don't we continue on together, just incase we find those 'big scarwy monsters' you're so afraid of."

Mist glared at the woman with a combination of absolute disdain and frustration, causing her to begin laughing again "Man, you should see your face". Mist had never wanted to

As he turned to leave, both of them were confronted with the suprise of a new popup.

-WOULD YOU LIKE TO CREATE A PARTY-

YES/NO

"A Party?" the woman cocked her head "The hell is that?"

"Its asking if we want to team up together...". Mist began to stroke his chin. "I wonder if that means there's a leveling system."

"Ok, now Im even more confused. Leveling system? Party? I don't get it"

"It..Ill explain in a moment. For now, we should probably accept." Mist rested his hand back into his elbow "Yes, Create Party"

-PARTY FORMED-

LEADER: MIST

"Wait, Party Leader? Does that mean you? Your name's Mist?"

"Yeah" Mist nodded " Whats yours?"

"...Well its Lara, but I wish it would have asked for my permission instead of just needing one of us to say yes"

-DISBAND PARTY-?

YES/NO

"No no no!" Lara said frantically. "I was just asking that next time you get my permission too!"

As Lora fought with the popup, Mist continued down the hall, but at a pace that she could easily catch up. Proceeding down the other half of the intersection, and taking the left turn, they continued down the stone hallways. They searched rooms as they found them, finding an identical room, and identical dagger to the one Mist found in the room in which they met.

"Hey Mist, how did you find this place?"

As Mist readjusted his belt from equipping the blade, he drew both, attempting to get a feel for the balance in each blade, as well as how each one felt in different grip styles. "I walk a lot at night. Helps clear my mind. You?"

"Oh, I jog at night. I find the temperature's just right so I don't overheat like I would during the day. Being outside while exercising also means having less people gawk at me when I'm trying to work out."

As Mist nodded in agreement quietly, he could suddenly hear a new foreign noise. The sound of sloshing like water being shaken in a mason jar grew louder. Closer. Aiming his attention at the door to the room, he placed his hands on his new daggers. "Hey, I think we got company."

"Company?" Lara glanced at him before realizing his attention was fixated on the door "Like...a person?"

Drawing his daggers in an underhanded grip, and lowering his shoulders, Mist positioned himself in clear view of the door "Doubtful. I hate to say it, but I think we're about to find one of those, and I quote, 'Big scawry monsters' you were so unconcerned about, so keep your guard up."

As Lara drew her pistol and aimed at the door, a small blue orb, the size of a soccer ball bounced into the room, sloshing. Blinking, as she was seeing things, she suddenly began to laugh. "Wait, this is what you were so concerned about!? Its a soccerball made out of jelly!"

"Slime!" Mist stated, shocked "Don't let your guard down, underestimating enemies is a good way to get-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the blue slime darted at Mist with frightening speed. Attempting to block with his dagger, he was off center, and the creature slammed directly into his fist, knocking him back a few steps as it bounced backward to where it attacked from. Getting his bearings back from the attack, Mist went on the offensive, rushing forward, attempting to strike back, the slime again charged, this time aiming for Lara. Before she could get a shot off, it slammed hard into her, knocking her gun from her hand and causing her to fly across the room, landing on and breaking through a table.

"Lara!"

The slime bounced twice, seemingly proud of taking out one of the adventurers before turning its attention back toward Mist. Taking a deep breath, the adventurer ran forward, putting as much strength into his left leg as he could and leaning forward to get as big of a boost of speed as he possibly could. The slime charged him again, but he was ready this time. As they closed the distance, he swung his right arm and hip in unison, narrowly missing the slime's charge, but landing a blow with his dagger against it, splitting the slime partially. The shift in weight threw it off balance, sending it careening into a bookshelf as Mist repositioned himself.

"Still with me?!" Mist was concerned. Fearing the worst as the rubble from the table began to move.

"Yeah" Lara said angrily "Just pissed off. I dont think it broke anything, but my weapons gone!"

Mist nodded.

The slime began to roll out of the rubble of the bookshelf it crashed into, spinning around just in time to see Mist close the distance and stab the knife in his right hand down into the center of the knife. Its rotund form tensed for a moment, and then melting away, signaling its departure before it faded away into nothingness, leaving a small white pouch on the ground. Standing back up and sheathing his blades, his breathing heavy, Mist let out a sigh of relief. "And now you see why I'm so concerned about creatures."

Turning to face Lara, Mist smirked. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this sensation of relief. Of being completely contented with events. Lara shook her head weakly before looking around for her pistol. Before she could find it, she suddenly felt a weight at her hip. Checking her holster, her weapon had reappeared, still armed and ready to fire, but with a few light scratches from sliding along the stone floor. "That's odd.."

"What?"

"My gun, it just holstered itself."

"If I had to guess, that's the benefit of a 'Gear Set'. If we get separated from our weapons mid-combat, it probably makes sure they're returned to us. Fascinating"

"You..you're enjoying this aren't you?" She teased "Turbo nerd."

"Oi!" Mist exclaimed "That's Mister turbo-nerd to you!"

"Oh my god, you do have a sense of humor!"

"Shuddap!" Mist chuckled. "I'm gonna try something. Status!" a new window appeared before Mist, taller, yet thinner than the others.

NAME: Mist

JOB: Mimic

LEVEL: 1 (100/300)

PARTY:

Mist (LEADER)

Lara (GNS)

ABILITIES: -

"Hey...Lara...Can you see this"

"See what?"

"This Status screen"

"I see a screen, but outside of Party Info, its blank"

Mist furrowed his eyebrows. He found some slight comfort in being able to be the only person to read his status screen. Turning his attention back to Lara, the screen closed. "I want you do do what I just did. Tell me what it says under my name"

"Ok, Status!"

"Well?"

"...It just says "Party Leader"

Mist hummed slightly. "I see..fascinating."

"Are you gonna tell me whats going on?"

"Yes, but not right now. We should focus on getting out of here now that we know we're in imminent danger".

Nodding slightly, the two continued on their way. Working through the dungeon further, they encountered a couple more blue slimes, which the two of them were able to dispatch rather easily. After traveling a bit more forward, they stood in a rather large room, an ornate archway with a dragon's head carved from what Mist assumed was white marble. The stone that made up the double doors of looked as if it was moving, shifting, alive.

"Here we go..." he sighed. "This must be the boss room."

"Do h'what now!?" Lara exclaimed "A boss?"

"Yeah. Ten to one we have to beat whatever on the other side of this door to escape the dungeon." Mist said, not loosing his focus from the structure of the entryway. "Its also going to be significantly tougher than the slimes we faced earlier. But if we keep calm, we should be able to get out of it just fine."

"Oh there's no doubt we're gonna get out of this just fine!" Lara exclaimed. "Lets kick its ass!"

Mist nodded affirmatively before walking to, and through the door. Lara followed closely behind, her gun drawn and ready to go at a moments notice. As they entered the Boss room, all that awaited was darkness. Drawing his daggers, Mist stepped forward slowly, a sense of confidence brimming from within after handling their last battles together. As they walked deeper into inky black room, Red glyphs began to light up in a clockwise circle around the arena. Suddenly, along the outskirts of the area, Fires began to rage like geysers to the heavens, showering the area in near blinding light.

When their sight recovered from the blinding light, they could tell they stood center stage in an underground amphitheater. In the center stood their prey, or rather, their hunter. Terror filled Mist to his very core, while Lara couldn't even let out the vespers of a scream. Clad in red scale, hulking leagues above them was nightmare incarnate. Twisted horn erupted from its skull like it was a demon from the depths of hell, while its crooked teeth looked as if it could shred through the iron of a tank like it was little more than butter. Letting out a deafening roar, followed by billowing its own flame skyward, turning the stone ceiling into obsidian, it prepared to attack.

Any confidence they had in their teamwork left, the moment they saw the Red Dragon.