Dark Ascension

Society was different than it used to be. A hundred years ago large gates appeared in the sky above most of the major cities. Technology failed, cars stopped moving, the internet stopped working, the world as we knew it changed over night.

But all of these changes were not bad, magic was once again born into our world in the form of mana armaments and skills. Each person had access to a single mana armament which was awakened when a person hit the age of 15, they took many different forms, elements, weapons, pets.

John was fortunate that he had awakened a useful armament, his was a remnant of the days passed. A pistol that was charged with his own mana. It was not a common armament to awaken, nor was it unheard of either. However he was the only one in his village that awakened any sort of firearm.

This caused his training to be basically non existent, and he had become bored with target practice. When he over heard some of the experienced explorers in talk about a nearby dungeon with slow easy to kill monsters he had jumped at the chance to get some real experience, but had soon gotten lost.

Night came faster than he expected, and he found himself at the entrance to a dungeon with the sun setting behind him. The forest around his village was no place to be after nightfall, yet the unknown dangers of this dungeon could be just as fatal.

John paused as he looked around him. The area seemed different then it had a moment before. The sounds of the night disappeared and the air seemed still.

The silence went one for what seemed like an eternity, then ground started to shake. Small rocks started to fall from the cave ceiling. Dark summoned his mana armament, a gun, and proceeded to move along the cave wall in a crouch. Whatever caused the ground to shake like this was big, and with his limited experience more than likely not something he could take on.

The look on his face was grim as he entered the dungeon, but a sence of excitement was mixed in. His body felt a cold tingling sensation as the dark liquid like entrance of the dungeon passed over his body. It explored every inch of his body, before spitting him out on the other side.

A screen filled appeared in his mind, though it was not something he had experienced before, it was something that he expected, he had long since been taught about what to expect. He would have to select a class before he could officially begin the dungeon. This class would follow him for the rest of his life, so what he chose now would shape his life.

Unfortunately the screen was not what he had been taught. The screen showed his status as he had been taught, and listed his basic stats, but there was no options to chose from for a class, instead the spot for a class was filled with a question mark.

As he was about to close the status screen he noticed an envelope icon blinking in the bottom right corner of his screen. Mail? He thought to himself, who could have sent me mail?

He opened the icon after a moment of pause and was surprised to see a letter from the system. The system of course being one of the upgrades to humanity after the fall of technology. It was through this that a person got their mana armament, their class, stats and status screen.

SPECIAL DUNGEON is what mail was titled and after some thought he opened it up. Maybe it could explain what was going on.

CONGRATULATIONS: You have been randomly selected to participate in a special dungeon. Level reset to one. The level of difficulty is increased at each level. Class abilities will be restored at the end of the special dungeon. You will be rewarded based on your level of completion. Good luck!

Rereading the letter, John concluded that his entrance into the special dungeon must have been random, and that more than just him was sent to a special dungeon, as he did not have a class and was already level one. This would work to his advantage though, as he was not losing anything.

Extending his hand he summoned his pistol. He felt the cold metal enter his hand and smiled. At least he still had his mana armament. Walking slow, crouching against the wall he proceeded down the hallway. The sound of his feet hitting the ground made little sound as he walked. This came from years of practice, being smaller than the other boys his age, he was used to moving quietly to avoid their notice. Of course this had been when he was younger, he had eventually grown and become of average height, but the habit had followed him from childhood and become second nature.

The hallway soon came to a small room, it appeared to have no creatures in it, but the floor was littered with bones. A large skull stared at him from the center of the room.

Peering down at his feet John grabbed what was likely a finger bone, and tossed it at the skull. It made a soft sound as it bounced off the skull, landing on the floor to the side.

A long black leg reached out of one of the eyes, quickly followed by another. In less than a second 8 long legs lines the edge of the eye, surround a black body with an hour glass on it's belly. Eight eyes scanned the room, quickly locking onto Dark.

Venom dripped from its large fangs as it opened its mouth, hissing at him. Its legs moved quickly as it ran towards him. He lifted his gun firing 3 shots at it, He felt his mana drain as the shots left his gun. 2 shots missed, the other grazing the creatures sides leaving a burn like gash on the side of its large torso.

Damnit he thought, as he jumped to side as the now enraged monster through itself at where he had just been standing. He rolled, lifting his gun again to fire at it's rather large body. This time the bullet entered its abdomen and red blood began to spill from it's body. The creature turned, thrusting its mouth towards him. He fired again, his mana already over half depleted.

By some stroke of luck the shot entered the spiders open mouth. Its body shook and the creature fell. Blood pouring from its mouth. It attempted to get up, but it did not have the strength.

John fired his last two shots at the spiders head, gore splattering every where as it finally died.

VENOM CRAWLER (LVL 2)

Beast Core available, allow mana pistol to absorb? (Y/N)

John selected yes, and a small black orb rose from the spiders corpse. It disintegrated into fine powder, which his Pistol absorbed. This was how a mana armament upgraded. It needed a certain amount of cores to get stronger, just like people needed stats to grow stronger. This world was not a video game, people did not have levels. They only had stats. these stats could be increased by training, skills, and certain herbs. That was not to say that Levels did not exist, people just did not have levels. Monsters had levels. and so did Mana Armaments. In a very true sense a Mana Armament was related to a person's strength, but a higher level Mana Armament in a weak person's hands was a waste, and even considered dangerous.

John sat down panting. His mana was depleted and would take a few minutes to recharge. 7 shots. That's all he could fire before his mana depleted. If he was a better shot that would be more than enough, but he wasn't. All he could do was practice.

5 minutes later he stood up, his mana had finally recharged enough for him to move. The spider's body next to him had dissolved, leaving behind a large fang, venom seemed to coat it. He carefully handled it, picked it up, if he brought it back to town he could turn it in for some coins, or he could use it to make a dagger.