"KNYght ? For real ?" asks Silver.
"In flesh and blood, boy !" proclaims the man as he approaches the duo.
"It's an honor, really !" says Armando as he extends his hand. "I'm-"
"Aramnado Fucci, 19, D rank. I know you, boy; I know every single Dungeonaut."
KNYght shakes his hand before turning towards Silver.
"Well, I'm actually wrong 'cause I don't know you, kid. Tell me about you."
"Yes, of course, sir." responds Silver, stiffening a bit. "I'm Silver Crown, 25 and I just Awakened."
"A newbie, huh."
KNYght starts circling around Silver before stopping in front of him, slightly pushing down his glasses. As he does, Silver feels a shudder in his whole body, feeling like his very atoms were looked at individually—a weird and unique sensation to be sure.
With a grin on his face, their savior pushes his glasses back in place.
"Yeah, that's good !" he exclaims as he takes a few steps back. "At least D rank, given the reaction."
"What ?" Silver is utterly confused by the whole interaction.
"That's KNYght's kinda hidden ability: he can tell the level of something just by looking at it." interjects Armando.
"So now that's done," says KNYght. "Care to explain to ol' KNYght here what happened to you ?"
So they start to talk, to explain the attack of monsters of way higher rank than anticipated, the massacre of the group, the resurrection of Silver, and their hellish journey back to the surface.
The explanations are followed by a few seconds of silence before KNYght grabs Silver and Armando by the shoulder and starts hugging them.
"You did good coming back here alive; be sure of that. I'm proud of you boys."
The duo could feel KNYght's sincerity in his words. In this moment, he almost had a father-like aura around him. He releases them and starts to walk.
"Let's go; you can't say you're really back before seeing the sun, ain't that right ?" he exclaims.
Quickly, Silver and Armando start to follow him.
***
As the group were marching towards freedom, Silver couldn't help but think: Why the hell was KNYght here ?
Ranked n°1 in the world, the crown jewel of America, the only SS ranked Awakener ever (even if there were some debate that Zatir Vanov from the USSR should also get this title), what was he doing here ? Was he just going on a stroll ?
"I can tell you've got questions on your mind, Silver." suddenly said KNYght without taking a look at him. "Feel free to ask."
As Silver was gonna start talking, KNYght immediately cut him.
"Why am I here ? Great question. Actually, we received a report that a large number of people disappeared at once: your group, sadly. Well, we didn't have nobody on deck to go, so I went."
"I-I see. Then-"
"About those unusual monsters ? Only pertinent questions Silver, I appreciate that. Well, sometimes monsters appear on layers where they shouldn't—a Dungeon Glitch, we call it. Extremely rare, well, normally, they have been way more frequent recently. The cause ? Good question, but nobody really knows. We don't really know anything about the Dungeon in reality."
As KNYght talks, Silver turns his head towards Armando, dumbfounded. It's well known that he is self-centered, but does he really like the sound of his own voice that much ? Armando simply shakes his head: he doesn't know the guy, so he doesn't know if he's always like that.
As they talk, they finally arrive on Floor 0: a huge space, still looking like a cavern but with buildings all over like a hospital, weapons and armorsmiths, some fast food, etc.
"The two of you should go to the hospital first; get yourselves healed. When it's done, go to the outside, Main Point Street. I'll meet you there. And Silver," he says as he hands him a sheet of paper. "I know you're not registered yet, but with this, you should get Dungeonauts-level care."
Silver grabs the paper where it's simply marked "He's good" with KNYght's signature.
Following those words, KNYght walks away, and the duo heads to the hospital.
"There's no way they're gonna accept this scrap of paper as actual vouching."
Well there was actually a way. As they entered, Silver handed the paper to a nurse, who immediately went all out, servicing him as well as possible and treating his injury at lightspeed.
In less than 10 minutes, he was out with a completely healed arm and hand.
"Surprising right ?" snarky asks Armando as he approaches Silver.
"That's an understatement and a half. Like, a broken arm shouldn't be healed at perfection in that little time !"
"That's cause KNYght personally vouched for you, but in general a minor injury like that can be treated in less than an hour."
A minor injury ? For Mercenaries, an injury like that meant at least two months off, without pay, of course. The Dungeonauts were insanely privileged, and they seemingly didn't even realize it. But given that they are on the frontlines of the exploration of the Dungeon, maybe they deserve it.
"We should get going" says Armando. "He asked us to meet him at Main Point Street, right ?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Following those words, they traverse Floor 0 and finally arrive outside. They stop a moment to take in the warmth of the sun and the good, clean air. Their nightmare was over.
***
Originally, when the Dungeon appeared, it was a relatively small island. Since it was in the middle of international waters, it was not clear who should own it, and quickly every major country tried to stake a claim for it. What could have easily started World War 3 was, however, cut short by the first goup of Awakeners.
They decided to make this island it's own nation, and the world had to obey; what could they do against a group of human sized nukes ? And what if they decided to seal the Dungeon ? And so the nation of Karcerinsulo was born.
It quickly grew, with every country trying to gain the favors of the new nation that had a stranglehold on the resources from the Dungeon. As it grew in power, it grew in size, and as it grew in size, it grew in population.
Now with an area of over 700 km² and a little under 10 million inhabitants, it's a bustling and lively city-state.
***
At last, the pair reaches Main Point Street. As they approach, they see a crowd of people almost falling over themselves to get to the center.
"It's not… is it ?" cautiausly asks Armando.
"It only makes sense, right ?" responds Silver.
"FINALLY YOU'RE HERE !"
A loud voice reverberates, loud enough to cut through the cacophony of the crowd. In an instant, KNYght appears before the pair, as if he teleported.
"You seem all fixed up; that's good. Welp, anyway, I brought you here for this." he says as he points to a building: the Awakener Bureau.
"I mean, it only makes sense for Silver since he has to get registered, but why also me ?" wonders Armando.
"You have those IDs, right ?" responds KNYght. "Well, you're not gonna hold on to them for life, right ? Give them here; they'll take care of what comes next."
"I see. It's the first time I have to do that."
"And the last one, I hope," says KNYght while putting his hand on Armando's shoulder.
Armando takes a deep breath before going in. Silver looks at him with eyes full of compassion. It can't be easy to do that. But that's the role of the living.
"Now for you, Silver." KNYght slaps Silver on the back. "We've got your evaluation."
"Ok, but do you need to be here ? Going inside with the number one feels weird."
"AHAHAHAHA. Well, I get you. But it's an insurance: if you're revealed to be interesting, then I want to have the exclusivity. Now, let's go."
As they enter the lively building, the chatter stops completely. The silence is heavy on Silver, who feels responsible for it. Finally, a woman comes to meet them.
"Mr. KNYght and, I presume, Mr. Crown, right ? I have come to guide you towards the testing room."
Silver seems surprised by all that, like, how did she know his name ?
"I called in advance." says proudly KNYght.
Yeah, it makes sense then why they have someone coming to them to guide them then.
Silver's nervousness rises with every step: like everything with the Awakening, the testing process is shrouded in mystery.
"This way, please." indicates the guide as she points to a door.
Silver takes a deep breath: after everything he went through today, a little test was not about to scare him.