Alaric was on his way to school, his body shaking as he awaited the various questions he was going to be asked during his time. So, he tried to take his mind off the incoming interrogation.
His mind wandered to the power of his system. 'I just got my system, but...I wonder how powerful I am already. I own an SSS tier weapon, but is it powerful right off the bat? I need to be able to test it...' He thought, as there was places he knew he could test out his newly acquired abilities.
A dungeon, but he would have to sneak out since he knows his parents will not allow him to go out to a dangerous dungeon, he'll have to plan that out, so he can successfully test out his powers.
Though, there are also training grounds used for training and testing, but you can't go to it without being a member of the academy that teaches you how to use your powers. And trying to sneak in there would be way harder and risker than just sneaking out of his house and trying to conquer a dungeon. He let out a sigh, 'This'll be difficult, but I'm sure I can do it. I just have to-'
"Alaric!!" A voice cut through his thoughts, making him snap back into reality. He looked and Arthur was waving at him, sprinting towards him at a fast pace. Alaric froze, and his body twitched, wanting to run the opposite direction. But his feet stayed planted on the sidewalk as Arthur finally reached him.
"Hey! Happy birthday!" He shouted, causing Alaric to physically show his discomfort. Arthur threw his arm around his shoulders, as they continued walking. "So, did you visit the subspace?" He wondered as Alaric simply nodded his head. "Awesome! What was it like?! Oh, don't tell me, I want to see it for myself," He exclaimed, his excitement causing him to speak fast.
Alaric could barely keep up. "So, I gotta ask, what are your powers?!" He shouted, his eyes glowing with curiosity.
Alaric gave an embarrassed expression, he didn't know the interrogation would start this early. "I-I...I got the, Monkey King," he stuttered, and Arthur went silently.
"Monkey king? Seriously? So you're the king of monkeys?!" He shouted, almost in a mocking tone. The boy then began laughing.
Alaric blushed and felt his voice get defensive, "Hey! It's not funny! I actually have a SSS tier weapon!" He shouted back, not caring about how much he was revealing. Without hesitation, Alaric opened his hand, as his staff appeared in his hand.
Arthur stopped his laughter and looked at the colorful staff. "Wow! That's pretty cool. What can it do?" His curiosity suddenly coming in, like he wasn't just laughing at Alaric's new system.
The white-haired boy shook his head and began walking, his face having a frown. "No, you laughed at me!" He said, as he carried his staff. Alaric does admit, he was acting like a child. But, it was to get back at Arthur. The boy walked next to him grabbing his arm, "Oh come on! You know I was kidding...!" He said, as Alaric opened one eye to glance at him, still feeling a bit petty.
He sighed and held out his staff, making it fly. "Well...I can make it fly..." He said as it began to fly around the two of them. Arthur's eyes glowed with astonishment. His eyes traced around at the staff. "Wow!" Alaric began to sit on the staff as he flew with it. "I can also make it longer and bigger." He said as he flew around on it around Arthur.
His smile was large taking up his face, "Wow! That's so cool!!" Alaric smirked, "Funny, you were laughing only moments ago." He said, as Arthur gave a small smile, rubbing his spiky hair. "Yeah, well, I didn't know it was going to be this amazing."
As they continued heading to school, people seemed to notice Alaric flying on this staff. Then, they suddenly rushed to him, there eyes filled with awe and fascination. Alaric blinked, realized he was bringing attention to himself by flying on his staff. His face turned red, feeling the embarrassment bubbling up over his ears.
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Alaric was visibility exhausted due to all the questions that he was bobared with during his class. He was carrying his tray, ready to just unwind and eat in peace. He sat down at a table and close his eyes, his eyes a bit strained. After a quick say of grace he began to eat. As he ate, his mind wandered back to his plan to sneak out and pursue a dungeon, but there were do main issues he needed to resolve for this plan to work.
First, he needed a way to easily escape without his parents noticing. But, maybe he could call in advance and tell them he'd be spending extra time at school. That would definitely make this easier. But, in the off chance they don't believe that and tell him to come home, he'll have to wait until they fall asleep and that will be his chance to sneak out. He nodded to himself, it was good to have two plans. Hopefully either one of them works.
Second, he would need to find a dungeon that is close and has an easy skill difficulty. This wouldn't be an issue if he was apart of the academy, since you could register for dungeon raids and stuff of that nature. But, that wasn't practical, since he'd prefer if he went by himself, giving him a chance to truly proof his skills. Though, being able to easily get access to an dungeon would be beneficial. But, for now, this was what he had to work with. But, he wonders who would know about low level dungeons? And what are the chances of him just walking around and finding one? This issue is what is keeping his plan from being complete. He needed to find a dungeon, and low level one.
He frowned as he ate, thinking of ways to find this dungeon. He looked up, 'Maybe I can find something that could help me, I just don't know what...' He thought as suddenly, Arthur sat next him. This caught him off guard since he would've sat by him a while ago. The spiky hair boy smiled, "Sorry bro, the line was sooooo long!" He said as Alaric gave a small nod. He was about to resume eating his food and staying to his own thoughts, until a question was shot at him.
"So Alaric, now that you have your system, do you plan on attending A.A.A?" Arthur suddenly asked as Alaric looked over at him.
A.A.A stood for Ascendant Arcane Academy. It was the Academy that teaches you how to better your abilities and unlock skills based on your system. But, of course it comes with loads of perks. You get special access to a special advanced training ground, you can directly request dungeon raids, and much more sort of minor stuff but still perks none the less.
Alaric thought about it before, but of course, it was an easy choice. "Of course," He said nonchalantly, as Arthur gave a large smile. "I want to get strong, and an easy way to do that is to attend the academy," he continued, and he was right.
Without a training ground, professional guidance through teachers and sensei's, and official access to dungeons at any time, getting stronger is honestly very difficult. To be honest, what Alaric was doing is something he seriously shouldn't be. If he were to get caught doing this, he could get into some serious trouble. But, it was worth the risk. He couldn't wait to try out his new power, he's been waiting his entire life for this moment.
Arthur threw his arm over his shoulder, Alaric was getting used to it at this point, "Alright! Once I awaken my powers, and once we get older, we'll both attend A.A.A and become the strongest together! Just watch," he exclaimed as Alaric couldn't help but smile.
He honestly was curious about what powers he would select. He wanted to tell him about the mythical gods that some of the statues represented, but, he figured he should just let him pick on his own. Not to mention, he probably wouldn't believe him if he told him. He turned his attention back to his food, and closed his eyes. But, he still had a long way to go before he could attend A.A.A. You have to be eighteen, so he still had eight years to go.
But for now, he had to focus on gauging his own strength, without training. His eyes loomed over his now empty tray, 'I should try and call my parents once school is over, I'll try the principle's office, surely she'll let me call them.' He thought as he stood and carried his tray over towards a square shaped hole that lead into the kitchen.
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The school day was now over, and it was time for Alaric to strike. He made his way towards the principle's office, to make this phone call. He already came up with an excuse of they ask why he's staying after school. His heartbeat echoed through his ears as he neared the office door.
He knocked and opened the door. One of the staff members glanced at him, as they took their eyes off their computer screen.
"Good afternoon, how can I help you?" They asked as Alaric began to feel butterflies in his stomach. "U-Um, could I call my parents on the phone? It's an emergency..." He said, and they gave a reassuring smile.
"Sure, what's the emergency?"
Alaric let out a shaky breath, "Well, I'm having to stay after school to help clean up the bathroom that some of my friends made..." He said, hoping that they will buy the excuse.
They nodded and pointed towards the phone, "Alright, go ahead. Do you know their number?" They asked as Alaric grabbed the phone and began to punch in the number. He just nodded silently and lifted the phone up to his ear. As it rang, he felt the butterflies punch his stomach, his nervousness through the roof. He bit his lower lip, he prayed that this worked...He had a second plan if it didn't but it didn't stop him from feeling anxious.
"Hello?" His mothers voice rang through his head and his anxiety went into 1000%.
"U-Um...Hey Mom," he stuttered. His Mother's voice changed to cherry as soon as she heard his voice. "Hi honey, is everything okay?" She asked as he began to turn away from the staff member watching him.
"Y-Yeah, but...I have to stay after school, and I wanted to tell you I'll be home later than usual. I hope that's okay..." He said, really hoping he didn't have to tell his excuse.
It was weird, he was an adult, but here he was acting like a scared little child. Maybe it's because he's never had to do something like this before in his previous life
"Alright honey, just be safe coming home okay?" His eyes glowed and he smiled, "Y-Yeah, thanks mom!" He said ready to hang up, "Hold on, I love you!" She said affectionally. Alaric blushed heavily with embarrassment. He leaned into the phone, "I love you too..." he whispered, as he put the phone down.
He turned to the staff member, "Thank you." He gave a bow and turned to leave. Once he was outside of the room, a smirk crossed his lips, "Worked flawlessly," he said as he began walking. "But the hard part still needs to be resolved, where to find a easy dungeon..."
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As he was walking outside in the town, he continued trying to think of ways to find a easy dungeon. He frowned to himself, there was no way he could find one by accident, he could end up running into a high level dungeon. He sighed, but his ears twitched and he began hearing chatter among the townsfolk. But it was mainly nothing important, like mentions of small scale Alien attacks and some of the strongest coming in and saving the day, discussions of new skills abilities acquired by others, generally useless information.
But, there was one conversation, that made Alaric stop in his tracks. "Me and my crew barely cleared this dungeon right, and then a second floor just appeared out of no where! We were in no shape to fight so we quickly left, but honestly that was freaky..."
Alaric gave a smirk, just what he needed. But, a second level inside a dungeon? That's unheard of. These Aliens must be learning... He shook his head and sprinted, he had no time to think. This was his chance, a chance to test his powers. But, he had little to work on when it came to knowing where this dungeon was.
All he knew was that it had to be somewhere outside of the city, since dungeons are never inside the city, and that it must be close since they were able to escape it and live to tell the tale. But, perhaps this was enough to go off of.
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He was now outside of the city, and he was walking through the area. There are signs of knowing when you're coming up on a dungeon.
There could be possible cracks in the earth, some sound cues and things like mist and other signs. So far, Alaric has felt or seen none of these signs. His steps echoed across the quiet space, giving him a sense of unease. His steps continued, but much softer as he didn't want to attract any unwanted attention to himself.
He felt his eyes getting irritated, and began to water. He shook his head and simply ignored this feeling of unease and sprinted forward, as the signs continued to pile up. And as he wandered further down the area, his eyes widened, the irritation getting stronger due to his highly exposed eyes, but it didn't matter.
What stood in front of him, was a large opening cave, that radiated with a highly strong rotten smell. Blood was exposed and splattered across the walls and floor of the entrance.
Alaric felt his stomach turn, he thought he was ready for whatever he was about to experience, but with it right in front of his eyes, he wasn't even close. He felt like he wanted to throw up, the rotten smell, the unnatural amount of blood, it was nothing he had ever experienced before.
He covered his mouth, and kept his gaze upon the dungeon. He let out a shaky breath, and took his first steps in.
'No time to be scared Alaric...It's now or never.'