Fighting physically was never something that is used much back on earth. Only professionals like boxers and martial artist; criminals like gangs and mafia groups fight it off to preserve their sense of victory and presence.

Here in the world of Atlanta…fighting is the very precedence of living. The people fight in the dungeons to grow and become strong so that when the old world returns, they would finally end the war as well as the existence of this old world.

They fight to survive…

To be brought upon this world, I have expected that fighting my way through to survive was the way to fulfill the missions given by God. But to experience the life of a hunter where compared to how it was written in the book, fighting head on was a completely different experience.

They fight…I fight… and each time I kill, my hand only ever becomes as numb to the touch of an icicle…but as I continue to fight, the numbing had only ever ceased and ceased, as if my body yearned it even more.

My actions…it was deliberately becoming more and more adapting to the nature of a fight against a monster. My eyes, each time a goblin appears after another, I did not look away, I look straightforward with my shield to assist my stance.

My heart, as it beats to the steps of my feet as I got closer to the corpse of its body, it races…it races and compels me to charge forth…

From the first goblin to the last…

I have killed…

I have perspired…

I have survived…

“…” the moment everything has ended, I could only ever stare at my hands…

They have felt less numb and they have never shook again…at this moment of my time, I realized that I fight to survive…and I might continue to fight with my life on the line just to survive…

It’s a heavy feeling no doubt, but nonetheless, I can say to myself that I stand with the proof that I won because my life was intact.

With that said, I have done what I can for the day. With the simulation over, I was finally given my new hunter card that signified my win in the battle.

They gave me my newly registered card and with it, I was able to look into the details of my status.

Name: Soril Remus

Age: 16

Birthday: December 25, 2006

Adress: Diamond Reef City, St. Winston Street

Rank: F

Level: 5

Strength: 10

Endurance: 7

Intelligence: 10

Agility: 6

Mana: 60

Seeing my level and rank, it was understandable how low it was. If I hunt more in the dungeons, I might grow just like the other hunters since gaining a level is somewhat easy to understand.

Just like in a game, when a player I able to kill a monster, he is able to gain experience from that fight and with it, it increases his level.

God made it up that way based on the book, but it isn’t as easy as one can tell. Its hard to gain experience simply by killing a monster, the easier it is for you to kill a weak monster, the harder it is to gain experience so its hard to level up your status card if you always maintain a fixed position of hunting weak monsters. When you reach a certain level though, you can have the opportunity to increase your rank. Increasing your rank means you can have access to harder monsters, harder monsters meant that you can level up faster.

So with that said, I plan to hunt as much as I can in the dungeons.

As I left satisfied and tired after receiving my card, for the rest of the day, I might just rest…

Or so I thought I would…but knowing the dangers of this world, I need to be prepared.

And one of the things that needs to be made clear of was a work-out session.

I need to get rid of the fat that’s in my body. To exercise and become fit would only ever increase my chances at surviving in a dungeon. So with that said, I need to run.

Jogging is one of the best ways to lost some weight as well as increase my stamina. Along with that, I might just be able to figure out the plan of this whole city, familiarizing myself with the area might help since I don’t really know anything.

So with that said, I rode back to my home via taxi where I had only used up about half the day’s time. It was only about 12:00 in the morning so I still have the rest of the afternoon to exercise.

Looking around my house, I picked up a few things I needed to jog all over the town. From a pair of jogging pants and my wallet to buy an energy drink along the way. I might just also go to a grocery store since the food in my fridge is running low. I was also looking for a phone to look at the maps of this whole town, and after digging a bit in his room, I found one hidden in his desk.

Picking up my phone that was in the desk of my room, I noticed that it was turned off and was collecting dust…as I turned it on, I noticed that it didn’t have a password locked on it.

“…he doesn’t lock his phone…that’s pretty weird considering his whole lifestyle.” I said as I turned back to see the posters plastered all over his wall. Being a person who lives like a neet, you usually would consider havign your phone locked for your privacy, but seeing as how no one else was in this house aside from him, maybe he didn’t need to worry about being snooped around.

Looking around the phone, I was wondering if there were notes left behind or a message from the family group chats since I was curious about his relationships and history with his family, but the phone didn’t have any. All he had in his messages were dated back to about two years ago and his gallery was completely wiped off.

There were no messages from any of his family or even from a friend…

It was a bit sad seeing his lifestyle being so antisocial, to see it waste away on his own interest really bothered me. I can understand why you want to be alone, but you have to at least have some evidence that you still connect with your family.

But seeing the state of his house… I can already imagine the worst thing.

Looking a bit further in his phone, I saw an app. It was a diary…it had a date but it went way back around two years… and looking around at the last messages, I found something that had a clue to what happened in his life.

[09/23/21…My sister said that I should take care of myself…who is she kidding. I’m the one who cooks in the house instead of her and I’m also the one who cleans it. And I goes to school…my life is hard already as it is with how busy I am at school. But my sister said that I should take care of myself…me.]

[09/25/21…Visited my sister today. She told me that I should change the password of the family’s bank account and link it to my own account. She said that everything in the house is already paid its due…so that I don’t have to worry about anything. Since I’m pretty forgetful about most of what I put into as a password, I guess I’ll just put in my birthday as the password for my bank account.]

[09/26/21…it’s a bit early, but I planned a birthday party for my sister. But when I got there, she…]

[10/14/21…My sister is hanging by a thread. I hate it.]

[10/15/21…Visited my sister today…she told me to be strong since I can’t see her anymore.]

[10/15/21…Angeline Rumes…11:45 PM…dead.]

Everything after this…nothing else was written.

“…”

Having read something so dreadful, I put back the phone inside the desk and left it there.

Its his phone…not mine, and the same goes for his bank account. I was unaware of his situation and I blindly used it.

So with that said, I guess I’ll have to manage on my own living. Touching his bank account felt wrong now, so I can’t use it. I might be able to transfer the payment for the registration on the test to his bank account in time, but for now, I’ll make a new account in my name and have to go into a dungeon to earn my keep.

To earn my keep, I have to hunt in a dungeon and with that I need my own set of weapons to survive.

Luckily, with the issue of weapons, I can buy it on the system point store.

With that said, I have to prepare going inside a dungeon.

***

Dungeons. One of the things that was common in this world. Since its beginning, God has made it natural for the people to hunt inside the dungeons as it contains valuable resources to support their livelihoods.

With the levels of each dungeon being labeled different. From F to S just like the hunters were, its quote common to find an F rank dungeon in a town.

Looking at the search engine in the computer in his room, I was able to see all sorts of active dungeons close to my area. There was one that was about 3 kilometers away from my house, so I might be able to go there now.

So with that said, I had to prepare.

As I brought out the System Point Store, and I choose to pick up both the Aranean shield and Aranean sword. It cost me 4.5 points, so I guest I’ll make due with what I have.

As it appeared before me, I was dazzled by the image of their features. A sword that had the skin and scale of a snake, a tip as sharp as horn with the barrings edges of a fang, this sword was like that of a wild animal. The shield, made with the scale as red the skin of a serpent, the weight as heavy as a soft wood, it completely fits my arm. The two items were not as heavy as I imagine. Both weighed around 1.5 kgs.

With that said, I went to the location of the dungeon.

**Everdeer River**

As I walked to this location, I saw a few hunters walking by. They must have hunted here a few times. Some didn’t have armor like I did and some who had one but wasn’t so complete. It was a dungeon fit for beginners.

Dungeons were made using the God’s blessing. By god’s hands, they had made these dungeons as a challenge to the people. The proof of these being true was the way when the people were able to complete a dungeon. At the very end of each dungeon was a shrine…one that had the symbol of God. Each shrine had a message to the one’s who completed it and as well as a reward…the hunters who completed these dungeons are rewarded with a gift of skill.

But the moment when a dungeon was completed, everything falls apart, and the dungeon disappears. Through the years of fighting inside the dungeons, people have discovered certain materials in them that were valuable to a point that it benefits their advancements in both the technologies and the sciences…but some dungeons are simply as dangerous as that of a war compelled landscape.

Two categories of dungeons were made. Dungeons to be benefited from and dungeons to simply be erased. To the dungeons with benefits, it is a gold mine. The government would decide that these types of dungeons were meant to be safe-keeped. And the dungeons that weren’t beneficial simply were taken care of.

Now the dungeon I was making my way to was a dungeon called the Everdeer River. A dungeon with the benefits to provide a source of meat products called an Everdeer. A type of monster that has the same quality of meat that was provided here in the world of Atlanta.

This dungeon was basically a butcher shop where hunters who catches these everdeers sell them at a price of 100 qoril for each kilo brought in. A single everdeer would range from 55 kilos to 70 kilos, making it about 6000 qoril for each Everdeers hunted.

Its quite a place to hunt since Everdeers don’t really attack someone out of bloodlust unlike the goblins. The only problem with hunting one was with how fast they are for an average F-rank hunter like me. It’ll take a trap to simply catch one…or a long ranged weapon.

As I handed my card to the guards, they had my card be run under a machine that records my time in the dungeon. It also acts as a GPS tracker if ever I got lost inside the dungeon.

“…” here in this dungeon, today I’ll try to make use of my mana.

To take consideration the idea of what mana is, it’s the one thing that is able to utilize the gifts given by god. Its like fuel in a sense, but with me having no gift or a skill yet, any simple long range attacks like mana cannon and mana spears can be done, as long as you know how to.

Basing off the things that I’ve read in a lecture in the school that Jason goes to, using mana as it is is simply the amalgamation of both your imagination, will and the ability to feel mana.

So here as I stand in the dungeons of the Everdeer river, I will feel mana for the first time.

“I have 60 mana…one thing to do to bring out mana is concentration.” feeling mana inside the body is simply like breathing…it is a natural process, and with it, you simply have to know where to lead this mana into an area of your body. I myself control the mana…to do that, I simply need to feel it and direct it.

So as I stood in the middle of the dungeon with my eyes closed, I concentrated. Searching through all over my body, I felt something alive inside the center of my chest…it was as if it was next to my heart…something moving and alive… this was my mana…I was certain of it.

Touching my chest, I began to feel…and like a natural sense to move my arms, I directed the mana down to my hands…it followed…

“…”

There, as I opened my eyes, I saw a blue aura radiating in my hands.

This was my mana.

“…Hahaha.” I chuckled at the success of perceiving my mana. To see that I had felt something that I have never felt before in my past life, it was something great. It was like I discovered something new in my body.

Next was to turn this feeling in my hands into a object of attack. A mana spear.

Imagine it…like a spear ready to be thrown…

Imagine it…

With my eyes open, I saw the mana starting to converge…I had to keep imagining it…one single fault at my concentration can probably lead to failure…

So I continued to willfully create the mana spear.

A minute later, after fully making this mana into its shape, what was in front of me now was a two meter long blue stroke of a mana spear.

With my sense of a command, I can throw it to a target. Just a signal…a sense of command to fire will all it take to make the spear fly.

So as I looked at a tree that was next to me, I had the thought to fire…and by my will, I commanded the spear to strike down the tree.

‘Fire!’

And just like that, it flew…

~swoosh~

The tree was about 20 meters away. And as the spear continued to fly its direction, it struck down the tree not a second later.

*Thack!*

The colition caused the tree to shake and the spear to explode, but it didn’t do so much of a damage other than the fact that the tree was cleared off from its bark.

It was similar to that of a bullet being shot at a tree itself, but the area of damage from the spear was much bigger compared to a bullet. And like a bullet, this was a deadly weapon to the Everdeers.

[A new skill learned: Mana Spear.]

Out of nowhere, the system’s screen suddenly appeared in front of me and showed me its message. I had learned the mana spear…

[Profile:]

Candidate: NPC

Mission Status: In Progress

Level: [5] [ >1002 exp until to the next level…]

Strength: 10 [+]

Endurance: 7 [+]

Intelligence: 10 [+]

Agility: 6 [+]

Mana: 58

Skills:

Mana Spear [?]

Looking at the screen, it showed me a lot of the things that were specified to my character, but instead of simply being numbers, it showed a plus sign next to it. It made me wonder what it meant…so as I reached out to click on the strength tab, the screen only expanded.

[Would you like to transfer your remaining 0.5 points into your strength status?]

“…huh?”

Seeing this screen show an option like this, I was surprised…

I can increase my stats with the help of the system points.

It was an amazing discovery.