Xerxes instinctively closed his eyes when he was about to be hit by a car. But when he opened them again, he was greeted by a dark blue sky, a large white-silver moon with a creepy, strange face on it, and bright yellow stars in wacky shapes that looked like some kid had hand-drawn them.
Oh, right. The kid...
Xerxes shifted his gaze down from the sky to the child he was tightly holding. The kid was wiping his tear-stained face with the sleeve of his gray hoodie, which was slipping down his shoulders. It seemed someone had forcefully grabbed him by the hoodie, causing it to unzip, and the sleeves were now hanging down to cover his hands. His short black hair also looked messy. Xerxes ran his fingers through it and patted it back down.
After cleaning his face with determined effort, the kid finally opened his eyes and stared at Xerxes nonchalantly. His amber eyes had a glint of orange in them, but they were very clear. There was a slight cut on his face, still bleeding a little. That explained the bloodstains on his white undershirt—stains that had even spread to the gray hoodie sleeves.
"What are you staring at? Release me." The kid struggled to free himself from Xerxes's grip. Instead of releasing him, Xerxes stood up, picking the kid up along with him.
"You're barefoot. You'll hurt your feet like this," Xerxes spoke without looking at him, his gaze scanning the surroundings. There was a solitary wooden house behind them. Beside it stood a lone tree, and in the distance loomed a small mountain. Apart from these, the area was desolate, with bare ground stretching in every direction.
"Just put me down, mister," the kid continued to struggle. Xerxes had no intention of letting him go. There were also about four strangers nearby, and... a baby?
The woman cradled the sniffling baby to her chest as though someone might snatch it away from her. She had a fierce and scared expression on her face. Her brunette hair was tied up in a bun, and she wore a casual pink top and blue jeans. She was doing her best to soothe the baby while cautiously eyeing the strangers around her. To her right stood a couple, and to the left was a middle-aged man. Xerxes, standing in front of them, noticed the last person—a figure shining unbelievably bright in the cold moonlight—standing between the woman and him.
"Where are we? I'm scared, Lucas," the girl from the couple asked, holding the boy's hand. The boy's face was hard to make out, as he was completely covered—wearing a white tracksuit with the hood pulled up, a black jacket on top, and a black baseball cap covering the hood. He even wore a white face mask, making it nearly impossible to see his facial features. On the other hand, the girl looked like a model in a short blue dress and white boots. Her silky light brown hair cascaded down her back, and her light brown eyes complemented her gentle features.
"We're inside a dungeon," the kid said, giving up on struggling and accepting his fate. The boy's grip on the girl's hand tightened after hearing him, and the others grew visibly tense.
"A... a dungeon?! How could a baby survive a dungeon? My daughter is only a few months old! How could that be?" The mother cried, holding her daughter even more closely than before. Everyone looked at the baby dreadfully. Xerxes walked over to Nova and whispered, "Go over and comfort her."
Nova stared at Xerxes with widening sky-blue eyes, pointing a finger at himself in self-doubt. Xerxes pitied the mother even more, considering she had such a clueless partner.
"So, should I go and comfort her?" Xerxes asked, clearly annoyed, when the kid whispered something in his ear.
"He's not the father," the kid said.
Xerxes looked at the baby, who resembled Nova down to a tee, and then at Nova suspiciously. He decided to step back, just in case he was wrong—after all, that would be extremely embarrassing.
"Wait, what about my project? It was so close to being completed!" The middle-aged man collapsed to his knees in agony over his work. Even the mother seemed to forget her crying over his devastated appearance.
"Crying over it won't do anything. It'd be better to save that energy and use it to clear the dungeon. If it's everyone's first time, it should be easy to clear since the first dungeon for every person is the easiest. We have a chance at clearing it with zero casualties," the boy spoke, seeing no one had anything more to say. It seemed like it was their first time in a dungeon.
"That's not entirely true. I know he's trying to calm the situation, but the survival rate for dungeons is rarely 100 percent—even for professional infiltrators. Much less for civilians who accidentally fall into a dungeon. It'd be a miracle if even one of them cleared the dungeon and came out alive. The survival rate for newbies is only 1 percent," the kid said in a low voice, so only Xerxes could hear. Nova, however, was listening intently as well.
"How do you know that?" Xerxes whispered back.
"I read about it on the internet," the kid replied vaguely, side-eyeing Nova, who was sneaking closer to them.
"How about we introduce ourselves for starters?" Nova suggested.