The next morning everyone got up as usual. Maria made breakfast and went door to door. This time she had to wake up Kailan who was sound asleep. Apparently content, sprawled out messily over his bed.

Kailan groggily rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

“The coffee will disappear at this rate.” Maria called out from the doorway.

Kailan’s eyes bulged as he jumped out of bed and hurried to the dining room. Maria just rolled her eyes walking back to the kitchen to grab the coffee pot she had yet to bring to the table.

This morning had one major difference from others. Instead of eggs, Maria had made blueberry pancakes. Although they consistently had eggs, bacon and sausage, every now and then Maria would change it up and add in something else. Kailan drowned his in maple syrup.

As they sat around the table chatting, they all started talking about what they had planned for today. They all had work so Kailan would be left alone.

“When do you plan to start raiding dungeons Kai?” Rebecca asked

“Um... I’ll call Eva after breakfast and discuss that with her. I’d like to try one today if possible.” He responded as he enjoyed his coffee.

“It might be a bit difficult to schedule a dungeon raid since it’s kind of last minute. So don’t be disappointed later.” Elias stated with some concern as he took a bite of his bacon.

Kailan had actually thought of this. It hadn’t occurred to him until this morning, but as he was thinking about it, it was a concern that crept into his mind.

“Well, if not then I can schedule one for tomorrow.” Kailan was in a hurry to start but it wasn’t that big of a deal if he pushed things back by a day. He always had his Heart Dungeon and the majority of his leveling will be from there.

“You should consider joining one of the guilds. Each guild has its own set of dungeons they raid frequently. It’ll make it easier to schedule them, and once your rank is released every guild will do their best to try and raise you, even giving you first pick of the dungeons. They can also be a good backup to handling the media.” Rebecca chimed in.

“If you’re going to join a guild you should consider Twilight Garden or the Sacred Paladins. At least that way we can be in the same guild and help you.” Elias followed up to Rebecca.

Kailan only thought about it for a moment. Even though he was curious about the guilds, he knew that joining one wouldn’t work out so well. Nor was he even interested in doing so in the first place. They had their own interests which certainly didn’t align with his, and quite frankly, it would increase his chances of exposure.

“I might consider it later but for now I think I’ll remain a free agent.” Kailan responded diplomatically. He knew his siblings were only trying to help so he didn’t want to shoot them down too harshly.

Rebecca and Elias were a bit disappointed but they understood. Kailan just got back and is only now getting into the Hunter community. It would be best if he learned about the world before he makes a big decision. After all, joining a guild was a contract that he would have to fulfill for as long as the terms were.

“Enough of that. Kai text me later and let me know when you are going out. The rest of you hurry up and finish, you all have somewhere you should be.” Maria interjected, urging everyone to focus on breakfast.

After they had finished, they all got dressed and ready for work. Although Rebecca and Elias were heading to their guilds, it was still for work. Kailan also got dressed. He wore loose fitting bluejeans and a black tank top. If he went raiding today it would be the most comfortable.

After dressing, Kailan watched as everyone else left one by one. Each of them getting into their cars and driving off. He was alone.

Pulling out his new cell phone, he selected the contact for Eva.

“Kailan. What’s going on?” She answered almost immediately.

“Hey Eva. I was wondering if there was a dungeon mine I could raid today.” Kailan got straight to the point.

“Today? So you worked everything out with your mom?”

“Yeah. Everythings fine. Rebecca also helped me to select some armor and a weapon yesterday.” He responded.

“Alright. Let me check, one sec.” Eva seemed to put the phone down as she started typing. Kailan could hear the sounds of the keyboard through the phone as he waited.

“Looks like I have a level 1 dungeon mine open at 10. It’s 8 now, so we can come and pick you up around 9:30. Is that fine?” She picked up the phone and explained.

“That’s perfect. Are you and Douglas going in with me?” He asked.

“Yes. That’s the plan and the promise we made to your mom.” She replied.

“Understood. I’ll see you at 9:30.”

“See you then.” Eva hung up and immediately booked the dungeon before calling Douglas to her office. They had a few things to prepare and they needed to inform the Director as well.

Kailan sat down on the couch, turning on the TV to the news. He had a lot of catching up to do still and he wanted to keep an eye on what was being aired. He would be able to monitor a lot of things simply by doing a Google search and watching the news throughout the day.

Information was key to staying ahead in any world. And the general public had it’s very own information network, whether they realised it or not.

Eventually the doorbell rang.

It was Eva and Douglas. It was 9:25 and they were here to pick up Kailan. “Let’s get going.” Eva said as they urged Kailan.

Kailan turned off the TV, grabbed his keys that his mother had given him this morning and locked the door. They all got into the car, it was another Ford Occult. A company vehicle no doubt. The dungeon was up off of 86th street and Ditch Rd, just 12 minutes away. Kailan messaged his mother as they were driving, letting her know that they were heading to a dungeon.

Maria immediately responded and told him to be careful and to let her know when he comes back out.

When they arrived there was a group of people just coming out of the dungeon gate. The previous raid team apparently exiting a bit early. Eva and Douglas escorted Kailan to the check in point. Every dungeon had a location where the Bureau’s or guild’s agents would check in any raid teams. Of course dungeons managed by guilds still had a Bureau agent also assisting with the check in point. It was policy.

When they passed by the previous raid team, Kailan noticed several people staring at him. They were apparently checking him out, no doubt curious because of the two bureau agents escorting him and the large case on his back. These points made him stand out. He simply smiled and then turned back towards the direction they were walking.

When they arrived at the check in point, Eva approached the desk to handle everything while Douglas and Kailan stood to the side.

“Ma’am” One of the men behind the counter stood at attention as he received Eva.

“I’m here for the 10 o’clock. Just put down that it’s under Eva Miller and Douglas Harmes.” She stated.

“And the third one?” The man asked.

“Kailan Jones. He’s not in the system yet.” Eva pulled out a letter and handed it to the man. It was stamped with the Bureau's seal.

He opened the letter and read it. It was from Director Morris giving his approval to take Kailan into the dungeon and that his official review is completed but not released publicly yet. Only the basic information needed.

“Not released yet?” The man questioned.

“Correct. Just put his name down and we’ll take care of the rest after his information is released on Wednesday.” Eva replied simply.

The man at the check in wasn’t sure what to do. It was against policy but he had a signed approval from the director, which trumped most things. He eventually pulled up his tablet and manually entered Kailan’s name into the registry, checking them in.

“What about the rest of your party?” Another man who was standing next to the counter asked.

“It’s just us three. Don’t ask any further questions.” Eva replied succinctly.

“Three? You can’t even enter the dungeon without a minimum party of 10.” The man replied in annoyance. He felt like they were here to waste their time. It wasn’t like they didn’t have things to do and there were plenty of people who wanted to raid the dungeons.

“We’ll handle that. Like I said. Don’t ask any further questions and check us in.” Eva put her foot down as she stared sternly at them.

“You’re checked in. The party before you already exited so you can go ahead and go in if you want.” The first man who was checking them in responded. He was a bit taken aback. All of this was out of the ordinary. But he did his job.

Eva nodded her head indicating she understood, before leading Douglas and Kailan to the front of the dungeon gate.

Although it’s called a gate, entering it is not the same as entering a regular gate. You can’t just walk through it. Gaia restricts the entry until she has confirmed that the minimum requirements of the party have been met. Once the party is designated, only those people can then walk through the gate. If anyone else attempts to enter with them they will be repelled, harshly.

“Idiots. Gaia won’t even let them through. This is why I always say that the people from HQ are arrogant. On the other hand at least we’ll get to watch a good show as Gaia tells them off.” The other man who was annoyed with Eva’s attitude stated as he watched in amusement at the eventual misfortune of Eva and her group.

“Dude. You shouldn’t talk so loud when you say things like that. Hunters have really good hearing. Do you want to get demoted or worse?” The other man replied with a warning.

The annoyed check in agent just grunted his disapproval.

In fact, Eva, Douglas and Kailan heard everything he had said. He hadn’t been very loud, but the three of them were very astute. Eva and Douglas were mid-level Hunters so their senses were already very heightened from leveling. While Kailan was a God, so despite being only level one, his senses were even more incredible than either Eva or Douglas’.

Douglas’ face scrunched in annoyance. A mere guard dog dared to speak about them and especially Eva in such a manner, really set a flame inside of him. He was about to turn around and have a little ‘chat’ with this know it all upstart, but Eva stopped him. She signaled Kailan with her eyes as she held a sly grin.

Kailan, fully understanding her meaning, walked directly in front of the gate before speaking out.

“Gaia, please state this gate’s designation.”

“Gaia, allow the removal of dungeon restrictions for my party for Earth Gate, C-53. Administrative override.”

“Thanks Gaia.” Kailan looked gently at the air as he spoke.

Kailan turned to Eva and Douglas gesturing for them to follow him. He turned and walked into the dungeon gate, unhindered. Eva and Douglas both followed, also able to pass through the gate without any difficulties. Once all three of them entered, the red seal formed around the gate as usual.

Both of the men at the check in point gawked in amazement as they watched this. They would have to be total recluses to not know about the incident with the Twilight Garden dungeon a few days ago. And after seeing it with their own eyes they now knew who it was that had just arrived to challenge the dungeon they were managing.

The man who had commented about them being arrogant only moments ago felt a cold sweat roll down his back. Gulping he decided it would be best to be more polite to them once they exit. And to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the day. Clearly it was not a good day for him to be voicing his opinions.

On the other side of the dungeon gate, Kailan, Eva and Douglas exited. Eva snickered as she imagined the looks on those guy’s faces. Douglas grunted in annoyance as he thought. “Serves them right.” Kailan just shook his head as he chuckled.

Kailan proceeded to walk forward a bit as he looked around to get a feel for his surroundings. They had been deposited into a large verdant green field of tall grass nearly up to their hips, with a sparse amount of trees. There was a forest in the distance and the sky was lit up by a moon and many stars. It was night time. It would almost seem as if they had arrived on another planet if not for the nearly invisible rocky sealing that shown above the moon and stars. And the walls that rolled down the sides closing off this entire area.

It was like a picturesque scenery that had been drawn onto a massive cavern.

Eva walked in front of Kailan and lifted her arm to show off a strange metal bracer. It had a screen on the bottom under her arm so she held her arm sideways to see it. Kailan could feel the strong flows of Mana coming from it.

“I’ve been meaning to ask but what is that Manatech?” He inquired as he stared at her arm.

“It’s a portable wrist computer. It would be difficult to bring a laptop or a tablet into a dungeon since we have to be cautious normally. Having one hand taken up by a computer device means one less hand to defend yourself with. So the Bureau came up with this wrist computer. It’s actually based on the Samsung O Series that came out about 7 years ago. Originally it was much bulkier but after the advent of Mana Technology we were able to make it much more form fitting.” Eva explained as she tapped on the screen.

“With this I can pull up all kinds of data on the dungeon or other things. It may not be able to connect to the Bureau’s systems inside of a dungeon but it keeps a local cache of the database and then updates it once we’re back at the bureau building. So we always have a way to stay informed in the field. I can even make new entries and take pictures to upload them to the bureau’s database later if we discover anything new.” She continued.

“Wow. That’s convenient. Earth has really adapted to the dungeons well. One of the biggest issues a lot of worlds have is the flow of information. It’s obviously something Earth is very good at though.” Kailan admired as he watched Eva plug away at the wrist computer.

“Alright, I have the dungeon’s information pulled up. So the species here are called Reigon. They’re around 5 feet tall, have brown skin, pointed ears and claws. They also use basic weaponry such as swords and clubs. Armor wise they have a mix of metal and leather armors. Most of the materials they use are not much different than what you would find on Earth in the Iron Age. There are also some mages mixed in but it’s relatively rare, about 1 in every 20.” Eva explained as she pulled up photos of the creatures called Reigon.

They looked kind of like tall goblins with hunched backs and skinny forms.

“The dungeon itself is a massive field. But there is a forest that’s roughly half the size of the field as well. The mini-boss and his guards won’t show up until we take out half of the minions. Then the boss and his guards will show up in the forest after we finish off the rest of the minions.” She continued.

“Easy enough. Just stand back and let me fight. I need to get used to being low level again.” Kailan said as he unpacked his Zweihänder. He touched the case afterwards and it disappeared into thin air.

“What the hell was that?” Douglas yelped in surprise.

“A dimensional space?” Eva also asked in surprise.

Dimensional spaces were what people commonly knew as a ‘player backpack’ in video games. It was a small independent dimension where someone could store things. They were actually really rare and typically only available to people who had Space Magic skills. Anyone who had a dimensional space was a lifesaver for mining teams. They could store everything that was mined in it, saving them from having to haul the materials out of the dungeons by hand.

“Sort of. It’s my Heart Dungeon. The first floor in it, floor 0 is an unchanging space. I can store a lot of things in there. So I often use it like a dimensional space.” Kailan replied.

“You really don’t understand the concept of normal do you?” Eva asked sarcastically.

Kailan just chuckled at her as he walked forward. The three of them continued on for a short while before running into their first enemy party. It was a party of four Reigon. Two had swords and the other two had clubs. All of them clearly close range fighters. And easy pray for Kailan.

“You sure you don’t need any help?” Douglas asked as he crossed his arms as if to also say, don’t ask me for it. His childish behavior had returned now that it was just the three of them.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Kailan replied as he turned to watch the group of enemies.

“They really do look like slightly tall goblins.” He thought to himself as he analysed their movements.

They had yet to notice Kailan’s party as they were heading in the opposite direction. Although they were walking along without too much care, Kailan and his group were still being cautious enough and as quiet as possible. So it made it easy to avoid their attention as they approached.

Just as Eva was about to suggest an attack route. Kailan leaned slightly down as he pushed off the ground with great force. His speed reached its peak in barely a second and both Eva and Douglas were wide eyed as they watched.

“He’s almost as fast as Douglas.” Eva thought in amazement.

Kailan didn’t pay attention to the two of them as his mind was solely focused on the party of Reigon. The four creatures were not tightly grouped together. Instead they were more in a crooked line. Kailan reached the first one within a moment. This poor little creature didn’t stand a chance against him.

He planted his right foot solidifying his momentum as he pulled his blade out at an angle, slicing straight through the first one from shoulder to hip. It’s body split apart as blood sprayed out, it’s insides falling out as the two halves fell through the air. It didn’t even have the time to scream. Only it’s face was plastered in surprise, not knowing what had killed it or how.

Before the body of the first creature even hit the ground, Kailan had already passed straight through the middle of it as he approached the second one. This time taking his blade from the opposite side slicing straight across, severing it’s head. The head flew up and Kailan once again accelerated after the third creature.

He held the blade straight ahead of him, piercing it’s heart as he rushed into the creature. Before twisting the blade and smashing down on the hilt with his opposite hand, forcing the blade up and out of it’s head, partially bisecting it.

He used the momentum of the blade swinging in an arc as he darted towards the last of the party of four, allowing the blade to swing back up fully bisecting the last. As he darted in front of the four now deceased creatures he swung his sword to the side splashing what little blood was built up on it off. He had killed them all so fast that their bodies didn’t even hit the ground before he stopped.