Jason was ready. He had his sword strapped across his back, dagger at his waist. Food and water tied to his belt. Combined with other odds and ends, he felt prepared. To the rest of the class he looked way to over prepared, after all, it was a Dungeon. Any mage worth their salt could easily beat the first floor. So why couldn’t they?

James yawned as he ushered them out to the main gate. They had been forced to wake up earlier then the sun. And James had drawn the short straw and with four other teachers had to supervise the young mages.

Shivering in the cool of the night. The class rode several carts not unlike the one Jason had taken the day before. Jason looked intently at the entrance of the Dungeon. It was hill. One side had a gaping hole that led down into the main part. A wall had been built in case of a Dungeon break, and to keep the unworthy out.

Many soldiers glanced at them as they passed and nodded, word had been sent ahead.

The stopped just in front of the hole. The path was well worn and gently slopped down. No light could be seen in the darkness. James had begun talking.

“Ok, you will be separated into five groups, since there is twenty-five of us, one teacher will watch over you. Good luck and try not to die”.

James came over to Jason’s group, it was the five of them, because of the danger they faced they had gotten close.

He led them through the dark and into a large cave which had five paths branching off. James choose the middle path; he took the marble sitting in a basin next to the door.

“Oh yeah, if the marble is gone, that means that someone has already taken the path”. The group nodded. The middle path twisted. James stopped them just before the first room.

“Ok, just around the corner is the first enemy, I should ask, has anyone killed an animal before?”. Jason and Kyler both raised their hands. Kyler was carrying a small recurve bow, and a quiver of arrows. Bows were an unusual choice in the Dungeon

James sighed, “Better then none, just leave this one to the others”. Alex was affronted, he thought he was fine with killing animals, “What it’s not that hard its just an animal”. James snorted, “Spoken like anyone who has never killed anything before”.

“Does anyone know what type of monster is in there?”. Kyler nodded; she had done some research the day leading up. “Iron-Jaw Wolf”. James nodded, “OK off you go”.

Jason pulled out is sword, His light appearing in a halo around his head. The others did similar things. They went around the corner. There is was, an Iron-Jaw Wolf.

It was slightly large then a normal wolf. The beast had the bottom of its mouth plated with iron, hence the name. The iron jaw stretched upwards making the bite worse than the bark.

“Shadow bind”. Jason called out quickly, not willing to take any chances. The shadows overwhelmed the wolf, but it struggled. He carefully came forward checking the room. He was about to kill the wolf when he thought better.

“Come here”. Jason said to Alex, handing him his dagger. Alex stared at him, unsure of what to do. “Come on, kill it”. The wolf continued struggling in its bonds but could not escape.

“Kill it”. Alex was suddenly scared, sure it was a monster, but to kill it when it was down. That seamed bad to Alex, and the others.

Jason, sensing Alex’s indication, grabbed his hand and plunged it into the wolf. Jason let go, but Alex held on, too shocked to move.

“You…. You killed it”. He screeched at Jason, who scowled at him. “You need to wake up, monsters in the Dungeon are less then animals”. Alex looked at him

“What?”. “Do you know what happens to monsters in the Dungeon, it leave them for day?”. Alex shook his head. “They fade into the floor and new ones appear”.

Alex looked better at that, “Ok then next room has two, can you hold them both Jason?”, James asked. Jason shook his head, “No, only one”. James turned to Kyler, “What abut you can you hold the other, and others can kill them”. She grinned, “yes I’ll hold the one on the left, if you go for the one on the right”.

They moved to the next room, where two wolfs were waiting. Same as the last room, Jason and Kyler cast their spells and the wolfs were bond. Kyler had cast a spell called, wooden bindings. Which was similar to Jason’s shadow bind spell.

Both Sophie and Eloise had trouble killing their first monster. Jason and Kyler were sent ahead by James to clear out some rooms by themselves.

“What’s the plan?”, He asked Kyler. She looked ahead at the path. “Well, following the pattern the next room will have three wolfs, so we bind two and kill the other one”. He grunted his agreement. He held his sword loosely,

“So, bind the two, you shot it then I’ll finish the injured one”. She nodded.

Busting into the room, they were so shocked to see only two wolfs that they forgot to cast. Jason managed to wake himself up by the time one had lunged at him. The wolfs mouth bit down in his blade, that Jason just managed to get in the way.

Casting sparks, the wolf jerked and ripped the blade out of his hands. While it was momentarily stunned, Jason pulled out his dagger and yelled “Shadow bind”. The adrenalin made his spell more powerful. Quickly stabbing the dagger into the head of the wolf he turned to see how Kyler was faring.

The wolf had torn her bow away and she had cast a spell that conjured a wall of thorns around her. The wolf, seeing Jason as an easier target, jumped towards him. Jason slid beneath the wolf and caught it by the jaw. Pushing himself of the floor he smashed it into the thorns, running Sparks through its metal jaw proved very effective.

“Are you ok?”. He called to Kyler, he sat for a moment, the fight had taken its toll. “Yes”, she told him, then she quickly made the thorns fade into the ground and went over to collect her bow. Jason also retrieved his sword.

“You did well”. James called from the doorway, Alex and the girls stood behind him. Jason nodded, having rested go up and was ready to continue. Making his way to the next room, he nearly left the room when he realised that no-one was following.

“Why are you not coming?”. He asked them. James glared at him, “We’re done for the day. You all did better then I thought you would”. Jason could not believe his ears, sure it had been only an hour and the others were exhausted, but Jason wasn’t. In fact, he felt more alive then ever. And he still had one spell to try.

“come on Jason, we’ve had enough”, Alex tried to reason with him. Jason wasn’t having any of it. He turned to James, “Please sir, can I just go to the next room”, seeing everyone not wanting to come he compromised, “Just me please”, he tried to convey the feeling in him, of how much he wanted to fight.

James groaned, “Fine, but be quick”. He went and followed Jason to the next room.

Jason now knew that the next room was larger. There was two wolfs at the entrance and one at the back. Just before he entered James held out an arm to stop him, “Last chance”. He shook his head, the plan in his mind.

As he was told the room had two wolfs at the start. They both locked onto Jason and started to dash towards him. Jason had another idea. His halo that had been running at a soft glow, that was enough to see clearly, He flooded it with mana. The large room was lit up by the white light, as strong as the sun. he turned it back.

The wolfs, blinked uncertainly, they were effectively blinded. Jason, who had closed his eyes in preparation lunged forward with his electrified blade, one quick slash to the side, then a stab into the body of the wolf killed them both quickly. Jason had another enemy to deal with. A horned Iron-Jaw wolf. He saw that it was far enough away that he could cast his spell, letting go of his sword he pointed his hand at the charging wolf and chanted quickly.

“Form and seek my enemies, Volt Wyrm”. From his hand a long steam of lightning arced out and formed into a long winding worm like creature. It flew across the room and collided with the horned wolf. The wolf roared in pain, its metal mouth and horns drawing the lightning to its head. But it was not dead.

With a half-melted body, it could somehow still fight, Jason hurriedly tried to pull his sword out of the wolf beside him. It was too quick. Jason could do nothing, the still burning body hurling itself at him. Jason was scarcely able to react and coved his face with his arms.

Feeling nothing, he uncovered his face. The wolf had been impaled on an Earth Spike. Turning around he looked back at James.

“Couldn’t just leave you, there could I?”. Jason thanked him and began gathering his things. They returned to the others and started walking back.

The cart ride back was done in silence, but James broke it. “You have the rest of the day off”. Jason finally noticed that it was only midday. “You did well, for your first time, not many beat the third room without help”. No-one else was in the mood to talk.

“Look back at your mistakes and how you could have done better, for next time”. The others flinched, now they remembered that they had to go in again and also unsupervised. Jason wanted to go back in already, he could see why his grandfather had been a Dungeon diver.

When they arrived back at the school, everyone one but Jason went back to their room to sleep. Jason was too hyped up to even think about sleeping, so he walked around the grounds instead.

As he was walking, he saw the other smaller towers, he had never been to them, so he started going over. Jason was close to the tower when he saw someone leaving. He went over to them; he had never seen anyone entre or leave the smaller towers.

It was no other than Lucas, who hurried along clearly heading to the main tower. He soon noticed Jason coming towards him. Glaring at him he stopped. Jason also stopped; they were five meters apart.

“What do you want”. Lucas all but snarled at Jason. “I just want to know what’s in the tower”. Jason told him. Lucas sneered at him, “It doesn’t concern commoners like you”. Jason was fed up; he wasn’t in the best state of mind and Lucas’ comments weren’t helping it.

“Come on Lucas, just tell me”. Jason groaned

Lucas’ eyes bust with violence, “Don’t disgrace my name on your disgusting tongue”. Jason snorted “What do you want me to call you then?”.

Lucas considered it, “Call me, Lord or Master commoner”. Jason was taken back, “And what have you done to earn those titles?”.

“I am the proph-” Lucas thought better and didn’t say his words. Grinning like a mad man he reached out and yelled at Jason.

“What have I done? This”. He clenched his hand into a fist, Jason began casting, knowing that Lucas was doing something with magic.

“Form and seek-”, Jason had gotten half the chant out when the earth attacked him. The ground shook and wrapped around him, mirroring the fist Lucas had.

“This is the difference between us you commoner”. The fist tighten around him, the earth started to squeeze.

“You are SO, pathetic”, Lucas roared at Jason. The earth fist squeezed even tighter, then released. Jason collapsed onto the now still earth. He couldn’t move. Lucas crouched next to his and whispered into his ear.

“Your weak and I’m not”. Lucas left him there.

Weak

That is what he was.

Not able to take on the wolfs.

Not able to fight Lucas.

Was he weak?

NO.

He would show them all that he was not. The world burred as he made his way back to the Dungeon. People would try and talk to him, but their voices were distorted. Not caring for them he zapped the next person who tired to talk to him.

The soldiers at the Dungeon tried to stop him, their shadows stopped them, crawling at their body’s, and binding them in place.

Jason continued through the Dungeon. He walked past the wolfs killed by him and onto the next room.

Rage filled him, his once still ocean of mana boiled and frothed. His anger filled his sea. His body started to change. Dark lightning ran wild in his veins, marking his skin where his veins were.

He came into the next room, five wolf pouncing at him, shadows hands rose from the ground and crushed them.

Was he weak?

The next room didn’t think so, the wolfs incinerated by lightning arcing off his body.

Was he weak?

Room after room he went through, he was never stopped walking, by the time he reached the boss room his anger has started to abate.

The boss was a werewolf, clad almost completely in iron, and holding a crude spear. The boss stabbed him, sending his spear deep into Jason’s gut.

He screamed and room felt his pain. Shadows whipped around him, his shadow stretched, and crimson eyes looked through.

The boss twisted the spear deeper and a new wave of pain enveloped Jason.

He was in pain because he was WEAK. No, he wasn’t WEAK. His soul screamed. Jason reached out, hands clad in shadow and like he was plucking a flower, pulled out the bosses soul and crushed it. The portal at his feet devoured the rest of the boss.

Jason yelled in triumph. He was not weak.

His barely functioning mind looked around and saw two magic circles, one red and one blue. One to go deeper and one to return to the surface. He would go down deeper.

He had almost made it to the red circle when a commanding voice rang out in his mind.

“STOP”

Why would he?

“If you go deeper, you will die.”

Who was talking?

“It is about time I reveal myself”.

The once still ring on his finger glowed.

“Sorry about this”

Jason fell to the floor; the voice had knocked him out.