Rays of warm, morning sunlight shining through the window and yet another day had passed. It was now April 16th, exactly 10 days since the apocalypse started.

Richard laid on the bed, eyes open, pondering what is his next course of action.

''It would seem that going to the airport and just fly home is impossible.''

After several hours of rest he felt hard to keep still, knowing that while the two acquaintances seemed friendly, he could not be sure of their intentions.

Looking blankly into the ceiling he recalled the faces of his friends and family. How were they doing? Are they still alive?

Strengthening his resolve to return home he sat up, picked relatively clean clothes to dress up and prepared to leave.

Starting to put on his trousers, he heard footsteps from the stairway and went on alert.

His door was soon knocked on and heard the familiar voice of Nick calling out to him.

''Good morning, time to wake up! When you come downstairs you can tell bit more about your experiences and we can have an exchange of information.''

Richard replied briefly that he is coming downstairs soon and continued dressing up. Finally ready with everything, he started to unblock the door and walked briskly downstairs. He was greeted by the couples breakfast consisting of oatmeal and instant coffee and Nick smiled wryly while telling Richard to join them.

''So tell us what kind of hell you experienced out there? '' Nadia asked without any courtesies.

Explaining briefly the situation: Valencia, the tunnel, Snowflake and his experiences. Nick looked pale when the cocaine fuelled bear was mentioned but Nadia took it all quite well.

''So you're telling me that animals are going to be serious issue, besides mutant zombies?'' Nadia asked with a serious expression, looking Nick from the corner of the eyes.

''Hold up, mutated zombies? As in the same rotting bags of garbage that roam in groups outside?'' Richard was confused as he had never seen mutant zombies before and insisted for more information on them.

''Yeah, when we encountered one, it could use magic spells. My dear hubby charged in bravely after he saw me getting hurt and bashed it's skull in.''

''Magic? Those things can cast magic but I can't... How depressing...'' Richard mumbled, looking depressed and disbelieving.

''Yeap, my hubby got his magic spell from it too.'' Nadia grinned gloatingly at Richard, seemingly enjoying others misfortunes.

''So Nick, why did you not tell me that you are a black mage! Can you summon skeletons or curse enemies now?'' Richard stared at him with eyes glowing in admiration.

Nicholas, now speechless at Richard's assumption on his skill and coughed several times looking embarrassed.

''I think you are jumping the gun a bit too much Richard. I am black man, and I am a magician. But that does not make me a black mage by default.'' Facepalming at Richard's logic, wondering whether he was being serious or joking, Nick diverted the conversation elsewhere.

''So what is your plan from now on?''

''I am not really sure yet about the full plan but first step would be to get a vehicle and try to travel back to my country somehow.'' Richard said, shrugging his shoulders.

''In that case when we go hunting for supplies, tag along. I think the neighboring houses should have vehicles with keys inside their houses.'' Nadia cheerfully suggested it and went to the kitchen to get more instant coffee.

Richard had no objection to Nadia's suggestion, so he agreed easily.

While Nadia was making more coffee, everyone seemed to hear a distant majestic voice echoing.

Greetings from the God Societies. Listen carefully, as I am not going to repeat myself.

It has now been 10 days since the game of new life started on this planet.

Hopefully everyone has adapted to the new environment as much as possible.

Starting today we, the myriad gods offer each and every one of you a chance to grow stronger. Through the omnipotent system this world has started to accept and make various dungeons all around the globe, which in turn will reward the conquerors the power that you will need in the coming days.

New and exciting adventures, mythological beasts and fantasy races which have never been seen in this world before.

We sincerely hope that some of you may become powerful entities. Should that happen, you have a chance to become a champion representing a unique god, god's envoy in the mortal world so to speak.

May you overcome yourselves and others, so that You can become the shining beacon of light to the mortal world that lies in the darkness.

Richard and Nick sat in daze, trying to process this new information.

Nadia came out from the kitchen quickly and looked at Nick and Richard thoughtfully, confirming that she was not the only one to hear the announcement from God.

After a while Richard and Nick focused their gazes and started to interpret the message in a group.

Was there any hidden meanings? How will the world change exactly and most importantly, what are dungeons & where they will appear in.

''I think this changes our plans Nadia... We can't stay cooped here in the villa if there is going to be foreign races and beasts...'' Nick said dejectedly to Nadia.

''I think the most important thing about the message was that we should get stronger, right? We are severely limited in our area of action if we continue staying here so I think it would be in our best interest to start trying to find those dungeons and beat them.'' Nadia replied in a slightly excited tone.

Nadia could basically see question marks over Nick's head and punched him lightly to his shoulder.

''Don't you see? I think those dungeons are the key to survival, or at least a big shortcut to getting stronger. It is like the game I was playing before all this, First Fantasy XIV. The best loot and skills must drop from unique and boss monsters!'' To which Nicholas just rolled his eyes muttering that why did he not have any interests in her games before they proved useful.

''What about you Richard? If we were to start looking for dungeons from the area, would you come along? I mean it would be best if we had solid team to back each other out.'' Nadia suggested to Richard looking excited about the prospect of getting stronger.

''If there is a dungeon nearby, I can come to take a look. But it would be best to prepare and get to know each other a little better before that. I mean even when I played RPG games before all this, you should be aware of the team composition like tank, healer and so on.'' Hesitating slightly, he made a decision to make up a little white lie just to be safe.

''My skill is focused on observation, it is called ''Inspect'' and with it I can see some of the monster details. Of course I have a gun, but it has limited bullets and I can take some weaker creatures in melee. What about you two?''

''Wow, that is so useful, we should find out before engaging in a fight if it is too risky! Oh right, my skills are Mace mastery 5, Tenacity'' and ''Furious smash'' that deal a lot of damage! So I am like tank/physical damage in this team and Nick is the mage and secondary damage dealer in melee.'' Nadia exclaimed out loud.

Nick continued from there looking proud.

''My skill is ''Blast burn''and it is like this.''

He walked outside from the door, while we followed. When out of the door he raised his arms and conjured a blob of fire, levitating between his hands.

Just as Richard was about to ask how destructive it is, Nick started his demonstration.

The blob of fire suddenly started to spew flames to air, reaching 10 meters in range. After ten or so seconds he turned his head and said to Richard:

''It is a continuous casting spell, with my mana pool I can maintain the blob for a few minutes and cast the flames from it. It should be quite effective against groups of enemies, since the zombies I tried it on burnt to crisp in just few seconds.'' Feeling proud of his ability he finally canceled the blob and shoved his hand forward for handshake and said:

''To a successful cooperation.''

Richard shook both of their hands and repeated.

''To a successful cooperation.'' He was smiling and feeling glad that he found a prospective team he might be able to rely on at these times.