The sky suddenly changed. Something swallowed it up. No, that wasn’t quite right. It just looked like something swallowed the sky.

It wasn’t anything physical, but rather, it was all visual. The color purple devoured the sky. It was a deep and vibrant purple unique throughout the entire world. In fact, I was certain that no such purple existed anywhere else within this universe.

From my perspective, it appeared as if the entire sky had changed color, but I wouldn’t be surprised if only a small part of it was affected. In truth, it was a bit difficult to tell. The vantage point from within this valley was narrow. It was almost like being stuck in the bottom of a well.

The purple did not start in some faraway distant point in the sky. Instead, it seemed to have originated from somewhere much closer. How close exactly, I couldn’t tell, but it sprouted from all directions. The color continued to spread before eventually enclosing in on itself directly above my head. At that point, the sky above me was completely purple. It had been devoured.

The deep purple sky resembled the night, except without any of the stars. It persisted for only a few short seconds before the purple gradually gave way. From a deep purple, it transformed into a hot pink, and then into a soft hazy orange. It was like watching the rising dawn.

Eventually, the sky returned to the azure hue that I was familiar with. Unfortunately, things were not completely back to normal. For one, the sun was gone. The light was still there, but that familiar burning ball of fire was nowhere to be seen.

Just as I was marveling at the sudden change, a series of pop-ups suddenly appeared before my eyes.

Otherworld System detected.

Mass Personal UI detected.

Finalizing Preparations...

A sharp beep echoed through my skull.

Trans-Dimensional coordinates identified.

Establishing Root World… [Earth] UI activated.

Divine Pantheon System activated.

Ancient [Earth] System activated.

Evolution System activated.

Myriad Class System activated.

Gathering Ark System activated.

Connection with the Akashic Records has been established.

…

Final Scan activating...

Current Loop: 9

Current Trial: 9245387979797313424679

Current iteration of current world [Earth]: 98

…

System Diagnostics complete.

[Ideal World] Program now online.

Another beep, this time, much louder than before. The subsequent panel was somewhat familiar.

You have (1) new message.

Sender unique ID confirmed.

[Creator] privileges now in effect.

Bypassing Mass Personal UI privacy settings…

Unlike last time, there was no prompt for me to open it. Instead, it forcibly opened on its own. A half-second later, a completely new screen, this one considerably more transparent than before, occupied my vision.

Welcome, Newcomer.

From now on, your world will change and it will only continue to change. There is no way to stop it. The only thing you can do now is adapt and survive. Those that can’t will perish. If this world is deemed unworthy, then it too shall perish.

Pray to a God, worship a Demon, or rely on your own strength. It matters not what you do. There are many paths, but all paths lead to the same destination.

Sincerely,

-CC

It was another weird message. This time, it did not seem to be addressed only to me. Maybe it was something like a mass email? Who was the intended recipient, you might ask? Most likely, the whole world.

The message was also signed off by a mister/missus [CC]. It was probably a similar existence to the [GG] from before. These Gods or whatever they were, they had weird names. Were they all like this or was I just unlucky? Who knows but right now, I’m leaning towards the latter.

Just when I thought we were done with all this, another transparent pop-up suddenly appeared before my eyes.

Warning!

You have entered a Dungeon!

…

“A dungeon?” My countenance suddenly soured. For some reason, an unpleasant feeling leaked out from my heart. Whatever this new thing was, I was certain that it did not bode well for me.

Congratulations!

You are among the first to enter a Dungeon within the new world!

A Momentous Achievement!

I widened my eyes in surprise. It was another achievement. After the first one, I didn’t think I’d encounter another so quickly. Were achievements usually this easy to get or was I so lucky? For how long could this luck last?

Achievement has been recorded.

Now distributing rewards bonus…

ERROR!

Suddenly, an ear-shattering beep reverberated through my skull. I subconsciously winced in pain as my legs gave out and I fell to my knees. The noise was far greater than last time. It resembled an amplified police siren. By the time the sound receded, the back of my head was throbbing.

ERROR!

A large number of individuals have concurrently discovered a Dungeon at the same time as you.

The number of individuals has exceeded the limitable threshold.

Rewards cannot be distributed.

“…”

I stared at the new pop-up with narrowed eyes. From the very start, I had no clue that such an achievement even existed, nor did I expect to actually get a reward from literally just being inside this valley. Looking at the error screen in front of me, my heart was filled with mix feelings.

Just when I first learned of its existence, I was now being informed that I wasn’t actually going to get it. Since I didn’t expect it in the first place, I shouldn’t be all too bumped about this outcome. That was how it was supposed to be, but… unfortunately, humans were weird. When they see something just barely out of their reach, they can’t help but want it even more.

I was like that right now.

But before I could properly grieve over it, something unexpected happened. Another window panel appeared before me.

…

[Trailblazer] title detected… Now correcting rewards bonus…

…

Congratulations!

You are the first individual to discover a new dungeon!

You have earned the title, Era’s First Dungeon Diver.

“Ah, I suddenly got another title…” For a moment, I stared blankly at the sight before me. At the same time, I couldn’t help but let out a self-deprecating chuckle.

I felt like a cheater. According to the system, a lot of people were in the same situation as me. Somewhere out there, a dungeon spawned. Several dungeons probably. What’s more, they spawned in places already populated by people. In the blink of an eye, the whole world had changed. No doubt that danger would soon accompany those misfortunate souls.

Just because of my [Trailblazer] title, I happened to acquire another achievement, while everyone else got nothing. From an outsider’s perspective, the system was giving me unfair treatment.

Of course, this was all just hypothesis right now, but I had a feeling that I was far closer to the truth than what I’d like to admit.

As I was about to check out my new title, another semi-transparent screen popped up in front of me.

Caution!

You have entered [Arcadia’s Lost Hearth].

A remnant of a broken world. Within the depths of this dungeon hides Arcadia’s lost inheritance, but with every treasure comes adversity. Be wary of Arcadia’s disaster.

“How ominous…” I couldn’t help but mutter to myself. As expected, the dungeon’s description was left purposely vague. Unfortunately, the wording that they used was not very comforting.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder, what happened to Ashlea?

The dungeon took up residence firmly within the former national park. If so, then did Ashlea just not exist anymore? Did the dungeon superimpose itself into this valley? Or maybe, did the two separate locations merge into one entity?

I furrowed my brow. Unfortunately, my speculations remained purely speculations. I pushed the matter to the back of my mind. There was a far more pressing concern at stake here: the dungeon’s danger level.

A dungeon… that sort of thing sounded dangerous, right? No, it should be dangerous. After all, it was a dungeon. Unfortunately, I did not know how dangerous this place was. It couldn’t be helped. After all, I had no point of reference, nor did the system give me any sort of indication as to its current level.

Just then, I thought of something.

“Can my skill work on this thing?”

Eyes of the observer. It was a pretty decent skill with an emphasis on information collection. Even though it worked on physical objects, I did not know if the same applied to this transparent screen.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

I quickly activated the skill.

At first, there was nothing, but after a few seconds, I suddenly felt something change. A unique sensation unlike any other suddenly washed over me. It was as if something was forcibly sucking out my insides. It did not hurt, but it did not feel very pleasant either.

I hurriedly checked my status screen. To my surprise, my mana had been depleted! This time, it had been reduced to 13. Within the span of less than three seconds, I lost a total of 70 mana points!

At the same time, a new screen popped up in front of me.

Arcadia’s Lost Hearth

Formerly California’s Ashlea National Park.

Arcadia’s Lost Hearth is a remnant of the broken world “Arcadia” from loop #1, trial #34648593. It was ultimately destroyed by a Swarm-type calamity. Remnants of the Calamity reside within the dungeon.

Projected Dungeon Level: S.

Projected Dungeon-type: high-density, low-elite.

Due to the current low mana state of the host world, current dungeon level has been reduced.

Current Level: D

Current Dungeon-type: low-density, extremely low-elite.

Projected time until full Dungeon recovery: 90 days.

Warning!

High-density dungeons possess a tendency to undergo Dungeon Outbreak.

Projected time until first Dungeon Outbreak: 90 days.

The information provided was for more substantial than all my previous uses of the skill. What’s more, the stuff on here seemed somewhat useful. They even gave me a backstory on the dungeon.

As it turns out, Arcadia’s Lost Hearth was once a part of a world called Arcadia. It was a bit interesting, but unfortunately, most of the backstory was useless to me.

Like with the earlier panels, it talked about a trial and a loop. I did not know what those numbers meant. Earth apparently also had a trial and a loop number. I managed to remember the loop number, but memorizing the trial number was impossible for me to do.

Still, the information regarding what destroyed Arcadia seemed important. A swarm-type calamity was what they called it.

“Swarm-type? Could it be related to insects?” Considering the Whittle Mantis that I ran into earlier, it certainly made sense.

Aside from that, there was also information regarding the dungeon’s level. If this classification system was the same one that I was familiar with, then S represented the highest grade. No, that might not be right. There could be more levels above S-class, such as SS or SSS. Unfortunately, I couldn’t confirm any of that right now.

Either way, one could imagine how dangerous it would be for a newbie to fall into an S-class dungeon. Fortunately for me, the current level had been decreased to D. As for why such a thing happened, maybe it was because this whole mess was just starting out. Earth still hasn’t had enough time to acclimatize to the sudden changes. Whatever the reason, it could only be a good thing for the weak me.

Unfortunately though, the Dungeon would not remain purely in D-class. As the days pass, the dungeon will only grow more dangerous. It was sort of like a countdown. If I stayed in here for longer than 90 days, then at that time, I’ll definitely find myself stuck within a bonafide S-class dungeon.

In other words, the earlier I find a way out, the better. Still, finding a way out was easier said than done.

There was also something else that concerned me.

Dungeon Outbreak.

“What the hell is a dungeon outbreak?” I could begin to make some guessed based on its name, but it wasn’t very good for me to rely purely on baseless hypothesis. I silently pondered for a few seconds, before an idea suddenly struck.

“[Eyes of the Observer] works even with these transparent window panels. Can I take that a step further? Is it possible to narrow down the search parameters?”

Since I still had some mana left over, it was at least worth a try.

With some slight trepidation, I turned to the window panel and glared at the words ‘Dungeon Outbreak’.

To my pleasant surprise, it worked. A new screen popped up before me. In the end, I was left with only three mana. My body felt extremely sluggish, almost as if I had just woken up from a thirty-year slumber.

Still, I was happy. My understanding towards this cryptic skill had once more increased.

Dungeon Outbreak: A phenomenon that occurs when the maximum monster capacity within a dungeon has been exceeded. It occurs most frequently within high-density dungeons. During a dungeon outbreak, a large portion of the dungeon’s monster population will be forcibly expelled into the surrounding areas.

As expected, dungeon outbreaks were bad news. I subconsciously narrowed my eyes. Ashlea National Park was quite close to a populated city. If a large number of monsters were to suddenly appear here, then the city and its inhabitants…

I bitterly shook my head. Even though it was certainly something unpleasant, I did not have the leeway to care at the moment. After all, I still needed to find a solution to my current predicament. Before I can concern myself with the fate of the rest of the world, I first needed to deal with my own issues.

First off, the sole fact that I was inside a dungeon unnerved me. Usually, there were various special circumstances involved with entering and leaving a dungeon. I was almost certain that escaping this place was not as simple as merely climbing my way back to the top of the cliff.

“…”

I breathed out a sigh.

Before I forget, I decided to check out my newly acquired title.

Era’s First Dungeon Diver

Braving danger and the unknown, you hold within you the spirit of an adventurer! Go forth and unravel this world’s secrets.

Effect(s):

Improve rate of skill acquisition.

Improve rate of growth while in a dungeon.

Title can be further evolved.