Kailan was awoken by his frantic mother who was crying another small lake. This time in his bedroom.

“Kailan, get up. Get dressed. We have to go, hurry.” She exclaimed weakly through her tears.

“Mom, what happened?” Kailan didn’t know what was going on but he could make a guess. He was very intelligent so it wasn’t hard to deduce what could cause his mother, the strong woman that she was, to break down.

“It’s Becca, her team is trapped in the dungeon and they sent out a distress signal. Hurry and get ready. We’re heading down to Greenwood to the dungeon she entered.” Maria urged him as she dashed out of the bedroom.

Kailan got up and put his shoes on. He was still wearing the blue night shirt and pants that he got from the Hunters Bureau. He didn’t really have any other clothes that fit. After he finished, he rushed downstairs to his parents. They were only waiting on Elias who came down after Kailan. He was on the phone arguing with someone.

Elias hung up and looked at his parents, his face was twisted from grief just like theirs. “Let’s go.”

They all filed into the Ford Occult and drove off.

Kailan was the only one who was still somewhat stable. He was upset but he had been through a thousand years of training. He knew how to control his emotions and when. Maria was muffling her crying while Edward was stiff.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Kailan tried to comfort his mother.

Maria and Edward felt that something was wrong when Kailan said this. Elias looked at him confused.

“Kai, did no one tell you about distress signals for the dungeons?” Elias asked, his face was warped with sadness and the rims of his eyes were red.

“No. But it’s just a distress signal right?” Kailan knew many things about the dungeons but he had never heard of distress signals. He thought it was some kind of communication device that Earth had created for the dungeons. Such things were not common but possible.

“A distress signal is a one-way alert that was created by a guild in Germany. It signifies that the party inside the dungeon has failed and that there is an extreme threat inside. It means that the majority of the party in the dungeon is already dead, and the rest don’t have much longer.” Elias explained painfully. It was hard for him to say that his sister was either already dead or about to die.

“What?!” Kailan let out a shout in surprise.

His sister, Rebecca, who he hadn’t seen for over a thousand years, well ten years for her, he just got back and she was about to die in a dungeon and would never have the chance to see him again. Kailan had forgotten for a moment that he was back on Earth. Once a party enters a dungeon the gate is sealed and they cannot leave until they defeat the enemy. It’s a bit different for the Gods which is why he didn’t think much of the concept of distress.

Now he was worried. His mood immediately plummeted and it seemed that the temperature in the car had dropped by 20 degrees in an instant. Elias looked over startled at his little brother. He had never seen him look so angry and vicious. He could feel a cold chill crawling down his spine, it was fear. Instinctive fear. Maria and Edward also felt it. Edward slowly turned his head to the side only to be frightened by the ferocity of Kailan’s face.

Kailan soon realized he had made a mistake. He quickly calmed his emotions, corrected his expression and retracted his aura. Gods are terrifying beings when they are angered. All life forms below them would naturally feel an instinctive fear of them in this state, much like how a primitive species fears thunder and lightning instinctively.

“Kai…” Elias worriedly called out.

“Sorry, I’m just upset, that’s all.” Kailan put on a forced smile. But it didn’t calm down his family members much who knew that he was only masking that terrifying feeling for them.

They soon arrived in Greenwood, Indiana. The dungeon gate that Rebecca and her team had entered formed inside of a building attached to the Greenwood Park Mall. The building that used to be a TGI Fridays. After it formed the Twilight Garden purchased the property from them at a reasonable discount. It couldn’t be used as a restaurant anymore because of the gate forming there after all.

Twilight Garden decided to purchase it in order to capture it and set up a new mine. It was common for guilds to purchase certain locations for this very purpose. All dungeons form around a Dungeon Core, which is a large basketball sized Mana Crystal that acts as the core and controller for the dungeon. Normally a raid team will destroy the core after they defeat the invading party, thus collapsing the dungeon.

However, sometimes a raid team will capture the core and wait out the 30 day invasion time limit. Once the timer ends, because the core is in the possession of the defending team, instead of the dungeon breaking and allowing the invading team through, the dungeon becomes captured. This expels what remains of the invading team and seals off the gate on their end. Gaia will then spawn in creatures similar to the invading team as well as resources that can be mined for experience and materials as a sort of reward for capturing the dungeon.

There are limitations to this, for instance a “fresh dungeon”, or a dungeon that has just formed, has a population limit of 300 for the invading force and every world will try to fill this quota. But a dungeon mine only has 150 enemies inside. So the experience return is only half at first glance, but the trick to a mine is that it resets after each defeat of the boss allowing for it to be re-ran for more experience. Even the resources inside will reset. Thus why it is called a mine.

Twilight Garden had hoped that Cole and Rebecca’s team would be enough to capture the dungeon for them. But instead something went terribly wrong.

Edward parked in a spot several parking lots away. There was a quarantine around the area being upheld by the Hunters Bureau and the local police. Members of Twilight Garden were also shuffling around doing their jobs. Outside of the quarantine line there was a sea of reporters and people who just came to watch. And to one side near a large tent was a group of people, all of whom were either crying or yelling. It was the other team member’s families.

Edward led everyone up to the quarantine where he flashed his bureau badge and explained that he was a family member of one of the raiders. The on-duty officers that were assisting with the quarantine led them further in and up to the group of other family members.

There was a representative of the Twilight Garden presently trying to calm everyone down so he could speak. He was dressed in a blue polo and khaki pants. He was about 6 foot tall, handsome in a Will Kemp kind of way and had short brown hair in a fohawk and looked to be quite strong. Kailan immediately knew that he was a Hunter.

“Ladies and gentleman, please. If you would all please quiet down I will explain.” Everyone quieted down but there were still many who were crying.

“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Alexander Taylor, and I am one of the Vice Presidents of Twilight Garden. Earlier today around 9 am, one of our raid teams entered the dungeon. It was estimated that it would take around 14 hours to capture it. At approximately 2:45 am our on-site correspondent received the distress signal from the team inside the dungeon.” Alexander spoke out calmly and evenly.

“What happened in there? Where is my son?!” One of the fathers of a raid team member cried out.

“We do not know what exactly happened inside of the dungeon. But we are doing everything we can to find out. So please, I understand this is a trying time but I ask that you remain calm and we will let you know any further information we find out.” Alexander replied coolly.

“It’s easy for you to say that when it’s OUR families in there!” Another disgruntled parent shouted out.

“Hey! You think I don’t know how you feel? Who do you think I sent in as the leader of this raid team?” Alexander snapped back at the woman who just spoke out. She retreated, startled by his outburst.

“My little brother, that’s who. So don’t...”

One of the other Twilight Garden members stepped up and grabbed Alexander by the shoulder whispering into his ear. Alexander turned to look at him and nodded before getting down from the car he was standing on to speak to everyone and the other member stepped up to speak.

This time it was a tall strapping black man with a buzz cut. He was also wearing a polo and khakis.

“I understand that you are all very upset. So are we. These are not just members of our guild. They are like family to us. Please know that we are doing everything that we can to get to the bottom of this. Thank you.”

The man stepped down and walked over to the tent where Alexander had gone to. Neither of them looked too good. Alexander’s once calm face was now slightly twisted in anger. They were talking to a young woman who looked to be in her mid to late 20s. She was around Rebecca’s height, 5’ 8”, and had long black hair down to her hips and brown eyes. Her skin was creamy and she was clearly of asian descent. She was very beautiful.

While everyone was either weeping with their heads down or watching the bureau and guild staff, Kailan was focused on the dungeon gate.

“Elias, what did you say the rank and level of the dungeon are?” Kailan leaned in and quietly asked.

“It’s a Plebeian rank with an average level of 4. Why?” Elias looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and sorrow.

“Then the highest level targets should be 5. And that should be the Commander and the Sub-Commander. And the highest Talent Rank for the Soldiers should only be Mortal at best. The Guardians shouldn’t be too far outside of that estimate either.” Kailan lightly spoke to himself as he contemplated.

“What are you talking about?” Elias didn’t know why Kailan was asking this or what he was mumbling. It didn’t really matter at this point.

Kailan was still eyeing the dungeon gate. There weren’t that many staff around it. Just a couple guards and they didn’t look very strong to him. Most of the other staff were busy with their own things.

“Elias, see that short girl over there? Go bump into her ‘accidentally’. Knock her down if you can, without hurting her.” Kailan turned to Elias and stated seriously.

“What? Why?” Elias didn’t understand. This was one of the strangest requests he had ever heard and it was coming from his little brother.

“Just trust me, ok?” Kailan put on his sweetest grin. The one that made his adorable points skyrocket by 300.

Elias was both stunned and confused. But how could he deny that face that made his brother complex flair up. “Fine. But you best explain it to me later.” He agreed before walking over to the short girl.

Kayla was doing her best to keep it together. She was a huge fan of Rebecca’s, one of the raid team members who entered the dungeon. They didn’t have a very close relationship but they had interacted a few times and Rebecca always seemed strong and aggressive. She admired her for her stoic and strong personality. The opposite of her own.

Just as she was walking towards the tent where the president and vice presidents were, a man bumped into her, knocking her to the ground. “Ouch!” She exclaimed.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” The man reached down to help her up but she screamed again and swatted his hands away.

“Uh, hey.” Elias was startled as she began beating him. He was only trying to help her up.

As Elias was dealing with the strange flailing girl and everyone’s attention was focused on them, Kailan darted out towards the dungeon gate. No one noticed him initially and he was so fast that even if they did most wouldn’t have been able to follow him. As he slowed on his approach, the two guards turned and called out. “Hey! Stop!”

“Sorry about this.” Kailan apologized as he stomped down with his right foot in front, extending his arms out in front of him. His palms were flat with his thumb to the side and his fingers curled down. He thrusted them into the chests of the two guards knocking them down and unconscious. He was careful not to cause any real harm to them.

As he stood in front of the dungeon gate, many of the bureau and guild staff noticed his presence. They were shocked. Those guards were only Mortal rank talents but they were level 3. Not just any low level hunter should be able to knock them out in a single blow.

Elias stopped playing with the girl he knocked down and looked back but didn’t see his brother. It was then that Edward and Maria also noticed Kailan was missing. “Kailan?” Elias called out.

They each looked around and their eyes seemed to land on Kailan’s figure at the same time. “Kailan!” Maria yelled out.

Everyone was startled for a moment before they all turned towards Kailan who was standing at the dungeon gate, staring it down. Maria’s yell seemed to be a trumpet to summon all of their eyes to Kailan.

Kailan turned back to look at his family with a smile. “It’s ok. I’ll be fine.” He yelled out before turning back to stare at the gate.

“Gaia, state this gate’s designation.” Kailan called out.

Gaia’s alert sounded throughout the area. Everyone stared on in amazement. The press were all clamoring as they tried to get closer.

“Gaia, open the seal on Earth Gate, C-12.”

“Have the Commander's and Sub-Commander's rooms been unsealed?”

“That’s probably where they ran into trouble.” Kailan thought to himself.

Elias and Kailan’s parents didn’t understand what was going on. They stared dumbfoundedly as Kailan communicated with Gaia. The president and vice presidents of Twilight Garden came out from their tent and were watching with great curiosity at the young man that was standing there commanding Gaia.

“How is this possible?” Alexander questioned. But no one could give him an answer.

“It’s fine Gaia. Open Earth Gate, C-12, administrative override.” Kailan called out.

As Gaia finished her alert, the red glowing seal that covered the blue gateway faded away. The seal was broken and now anyone could enter. Kailan stepped through the dungeon gate with confidence.

“Thanks Gaia!” Sounded out from Kailan as he disappeared.

The crowd of people standing around fell completely silent. Their eyes were wide open and jaws went slack with astonishment.

“It’s open…” Elias spoke out in disbelief.

“It’s open! Raid team 7, get in that gate!” Alexander yelled. He also rushed towards the gate alongside them.

But before anyone could reach it, the red seal once again formed around the portal, preventing anyone else from being able to enter.

“No!” Alexander cried out in dismay.