Though its inhabitants didn’t seem to think so, what a strange, beautiful and fantastic place Earth was.

Apparently, despite it not having any working ley-lines or real magic, they seemed to have some concept of it. There, no other intelligent races besides humans could be found, while here we are the “weakest blood”. Research and curiosity were rampant. I immediately felt a connection to this distant lost world. If only I had been born there, during times of prosperity… There were no Great Tyrants, of any kind that caused worldwide calamities. People all had similar physical power. Even though they did have some great countries, they weren’t all empires governed by corrupt nobility and would often cooperate with each other. To me, it felt like an ideal place.

The next year of my life went by in a flash, so much that I can hardly remember my interactions with other people during that time. My parents at first were suspicious of the different books that I was bringing home, but I remember saying something about them being borrowed and that there was no problem, since I spent most of my time reading them inside my room, I explained away the strange language by saying they were foreign books. My mother did seem slightly sad, since she didn’t get the opportunity to teach me things, but I guess she was also happy that I was learning things by myself. My father didn’t mind, so long as I practiced the sword with him every once in a while. Some of the kids came by to ask me if I wanted to play, but soon enough they just gave up as I refused them every time. Learning about that world, about Earth, was everything to me.

The only one that would insist on disrupting my reading time was Aria. Unlike the other kids, even if I refused to leave the room to play, she would sometimes sit beside me, even though she didn’t understand a thing of what I was reading. Occasionally she would poke and ask me if I wasn’t tired of reading, I always answered that I wasn’t. Generally the things that took to make her leave was either the day ending, or my father coming around and teasing her about her devotion to me.

I can’t say this was necessarily unpleasant. Reading with someone by your side is quite different from being alone, but not at all bad. Humans are, after all, social animals, or so I saw written many times in the books that I read.

For quite some time it didn’t really dawn on me that I was hurting Aria in a way. At the time I thought that she hadn’t realized that I had broken my promise not to enter that house. Yet, what else could have been the source of those books? Where else could I have obtained so many foreign books and knowledge? To this day I don’t know if my parents realized where those books came from, but children can be quite blunter than adults.

It was quite a strange day, as my twelve year-old self alongside father looked at the many people setting up camp near our town. It was a Raid. From the moment that the “Impenetrable Mountain of Steel” appeared, many different raids tried to conquer it, but none even managed to find out the way to enter it. That one Raid was a bit more ambitious than all the others that came before, though.

“Are you completely sure about this?”

My father was talking with a concerned expression with the leader of the raid, a tall and fearsome looking minotaur, wearing an impressive glowing armor and carrying a strange rusted-looking axe on his back. Needless to say, those were all magical items found inside other dungeons.

“Yes, even if attacking the dungeon is not the key to opening it and many monsters come out, I swear on the pride of this raid that I’ve assembled that no townsfolk will be harmed, we won’t let it happen.”

Gauron, he was quite a famous Adventurer. One of those people that spend most of the time traveling around the world, exterminating monsters, doing odd jobs and most important of all, conquering dungeons. Regardless of their race, all of them are somewhat respected, but feared, since their ranks have spawned so many Heroes and Tyrants.

Normally, dungeon exploring would be done in a Party of five to seven people, but some dungeons that have proven to be way too dangerous have been explored by a Raid, consisting of upwards to twenty five individuals. Only the most experienced and famous adventurers lead those, such as Gauron, a minotaur that had previously conquered more than a dozen different dungeons, most of those as the Party leader and once as a Raid leader.

“So you say, but at the very least, can’t we have some sort of guarantee? Trying to force a dungeon open through attacks is very dangerous business.”

My father seemed undaunted by the Minotaur’s achievements, his mind full of worries about what might happen to the town if any monster coming out of the dungeon rampaged too much.

“I understand your worries, but I’m sure that whatever comes out of it can’t be worse than the Bone Dragon that came out of the “Bone Pit” or the Great Necromancer we found at the end of it.”

The “Bone Pit”. It was a legendary dungeon full of undead monstrosities, on the edge of a desert. When it appeared much of a vast area was shrouded in an intense fog which nobody could approach, as anybody that did would just die. The only way to enter it was through the mouth of an impossibly huge skull, which had to be blasted open every time, causing many monsters to come out. Gauron led the unusually large Raid of forty people which eventually conquered the dungeon. The great axe on his back was one of the many things he brought back from it. “Severance”, according to descriptions, it wasn’t such a sharp axe, but whatever edge it had was never lost, moreover, it completely cut through any magical barriers and destroyed any undead it cut down.

“I know of your exploits, I just worry that this dungeon of ours might be too different from the usual. No matter what was done to it, nothing happened, though none tried attacking it.”

“Such is the nature of dungeons, you know, you never know what they might do. I know that you may feel nervous about this, but leaving a dungeon untouched for too long might also be dangerous.”

“Are you talking about the story of the “Serpent’s Maw”? That was certainly a sad tale. I get your point.”

It was a tragic story about a village whose leader declared that none was to touch the dungeon that had appeared near it. Home to many powerful warriors, the villagers would even attack any Adventures that approached the dungeon. A hundred years after the dungeon had appeared, the whole village was destroyed by gigantic snakes from the dungeon, despite it having never been attacked.

“Anyways, don’t worry, I have some of the best adventurers I know in this Raid, all of them were with me on the “Bone Pit”, twenty four elite adventurers.”

All of the survivors from the “Bone Pit”. Did I forget to mention it? Forty went in, twenty five came out in glory. Though the number might seem harsh, it was much more impressive when you consider that all other raids that tried resulted in less than ten people coming out in defeat.

“I see that I cannot convince you of giving up on this, and it might be even better that I don’t, so I will just look for somewhere from which to observe your attack.”

“I thank you for your cooperation, and if possible I’d like for you to sell some supplies to my support team when we bust this place open and start exploring.”

“Fine, just don’t buy too much.”

“You worry too much, though I don’t dislike people like you, don’t you want to be a lieutenant in my raid? There is quite a good amount of money to be made in any dungeon, I don’t think this one will be an exception.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I want to make sure I will be back home for dinner, just observing your attack will likely be way more dangerous than usual. Come on Gaius, you run along and go home. I don’t want you anywhere near this place when the attack commences.”

I was quite disappointed; I really wanted to see the work of such a famous adventurer. So I put on my best puppy face.

“But dad, if anything happens, you can protect me, right?”

Father shook his head and gave me a somber look.

“I’m not so sure about that. Just go home; it is the only way to be sure.”

I had failed to convince him. I put on a dejected face, and started heading back home.

“Fiiiine…”

“Hey kid, if you ever have any taste for this kind of thing come look for me when you’re older.”

How tempting!

“Hey, hey, don’t you go recruiting my son for fodder, you hear?”

“How rude! Nobody is fodder in my party, or my Raids.”

I left their conversation behind as I knew that there was no way I could change my father’s mind.

Just going through the Raid’s camp was an experience in itself. Apart from the twenty five that would directly explore the dungeon, there were ten other people that would just prepare things so that the exploring group would have a nice place to rest right as they exited the dungeon. Exploring dungeons was a tiring and dangerous business that always took more than just one trip to result in a clear.

I saw people of many different races: Minotaurs, elves, dwarves, gnomes, even a demon warrior whose race’s name I did not know. He had dark, raven-like, wings and small horns on his forehead. He was polishing a sword full of runes. I would talk about everything that I saw in detail, but too be honest, that would take too long. Let’s just say that the Raid camp was a veritable melting pot. I even saw two humans, a man and a woman, readying their gear. I guess even if we are the weakest, some humans can go beyond the limitations of our race.

As I approached the town, I saw Aria pouting.

“You got all those books from that house, right?”

I was confused, why did she have to bring that up at that moment?

“Huh? What do you mean?”

She got even angrier at my response.

“You broke it! You just forgot about our promise and broke it! You jerk! If a monster gets away from the Raid, I hope it just eats you up whole! Jerk!”

I finally realized what I had done wrong and why she had pestered me so much while I read those books. My stomach sank and I felt like I was the worst person alive.

“Ah, I’m so…”

But she didn’t stay to listen to my apology. She ran away teary eyed, probably to her house.

Even remembering that situation hurts.