”Geeze, what dump… I thought adventurer guilds were supposed to be at least well kept”

I bet it looks even worse during the day when you can actually see it fully. Tch, why couldn't I be lucky and have found a dungeon map in the school library or even my family's library? While I could go hunting all over creation for one elsewhere I know that the guild has one, I would rather not waste my time. So here I sit on the rooftop across the street from the guild waiting for the last receptionist to leave so I can sneak in.

After what I could guess was thirty minutes a lady exits the building and locks up. I waited for her to be out of sight before I jumped over to the guild building. I moved above the third-story window that I had found earlier when I was casing the place out. I shift myself to the outside wall and move over to the window. With a little bit of effort I got it open, I figured they wouldn't think to lock it.

Wow, even the administrative area is still worn down. I need to make my way down to the first floor since I doubt they would keep any maps up here. Man, this place is really just the cliche isn't it… Like it looks like someone used a generic fantasy manga as a blueprint for this place. Well, I'm not here to gawk at the bad decor or the nasty smell of rancid beer, I need to find the map.

Luckily it's up on display, moving over to it I start to study its features, using known waypoints and distance data from my excursions I am able to determine the map's orientation and distance scale. Now with that, I can generate a decent point cloud that I can use for later, also I now know the exact location of both of the nearby dungeons. One is about 32 klicks past the city wall, the other is a bit further at about 100 klicks. Bet I can be there in 20 to 30 min if I don't push myself, well I best be on my way.

Right as I am about to start heading towards the window I hear a jostling at the main door.

“Shit…” I have no time to hide! There Is only one thing I can do but I haven't had any time to test it. At that moment the door opens and in walks the receptionist from earlier.

“Darn it, I need to stop forgetting my bag here, this is the second time this week…”

I feel her walk past me as I try to remain as still as possible. I can hear her walk behind the counter and pick something up. She finally starts walking back to the door and exits not a moment too soon. The second I hear the door lock click I collapse from the sheer mental load of what I just pulled off. “Fuck… I didn't know if I could keep that going much longer. Damn who knew bending light would be so hard” That technique is definitely not practical, needing to stay completely still and being unable to see while in use is just not worth it. Well now that I have the map information I need to get out of here.

Now that I'm back on the roof I can find my bearing so I can start on my way to the dungeon. After I find some waypoints I am able to reference the data I have memorized and am able to derive the direction I need to head in. “well no time like the present” and with that I kick off the roof at an incredible speed.

After a few minutes I soaring over the large wall that protects the city, I see a few guards below but to me, they are just torchlit specs, and if they did see they would just think I was a bird. Once over the wall, I see the sprawling farmland that butts up to the forest that houses the dungeon. This is the first time I have ever seen outside the city and I must say it is quite amazing. In the distance, I can see some snow-peaked mountains and in the other direction, I can see the faint glimmer of the ocean as the moonlight reflects off it.

I finally reach the edge of the forest, it definitely looks menacing and I am glad I am going to be staying above it for the most part. Luckily I am almost to my destination, I can't wait to see the status of my combat abilities. Plus I can then get a good idea of my current ability level so I can plan out how to become stronger. Hopefully, these enemies are enough to help me achieve that. If that becomes the case I hope that one day I can surpass even my previous level.

It's been a few more minutes and I can see a faint light in the distance from the campsite area by the entrance. Unfortunately for most, this would be a 6-hour trip, so many who come here camp overnight. I will definitely need to avoid that area, it's going to be hard to explain why a six-year-old is out in the middle of a forest near a dangerous dungeon at night.

Finally, I can see the entrance proper and it's a large stone threshold made out of some kind of marble-like stone. Making sure no one was around I landed right before it, I can now see stairs leading down into an inky abyss, I mentally enable my full reflection and steel myself for what is to come. This is going to be my first taste of real combat in this world and I can barely hold in my excitement.

Now that I reached the bottom of the stairs that seemed like they went on forever I noticed the faint glow of the crystals that lined the vast hallway before me. “How long is this thing. Why haven't I seen a single monster, what type of bullshit dungeon is this” Just as the words left my mouth I heard a screech followed by the sound of something bouncing off my barrier. Looking over I see what seems to be a massive rat splattered against the wall. As I walk over to it I can see a faint red glow coming from its disfigured corpse, after getting a closer look I can see a small red pearl-like sphere. “Is this some kind of monster core?” I pick the strange object up and after another inspection I decide to put it into the bag I brought with me.

Just as I finish up with that I hear the sound of more rats charging down the hallway towards me. “Looks like he had friends”, just like their companion they died when they got reflected into a wall. I continue to proceed down the hallway as a more variety of monsters from spiders to wolves and other monsterized animals attack me and meet the same grizzly fate as the rats before. At this point I have started going on the offensive instead of just letting my barer do all the work, I found that flicking pebbles at the monsters is quite effective. That is actually one of my limitations is that I am only able to effect things that I have direct contact with.

Now feeling quite upbeat and leaving a trail of coreless splats behind I then come across an intersection. Just as I turn right I hear a loud growl behind me and I turn around.

“Oh… Fuck…”