Chapter 2

Tyler entered the dungeon portal and arrived on the other side as if it were just a door within his space. When he did, he entered a large metallic room roughly a mile long and wide. He could see the end of the dungeon plain as day. The whole room was completely flat, like he was just meant to walk to the other side. He knew it wasn't meant to be that simple.

As he walked, the landscape began to change. What was once flat flooring turned into a labyrinth of sorts. Walls grew out of nothing, obstructing his path and his view of the exit. He knew that if he didn't keep his bearing, he could probably stay lost in the dungeon for the whole day at least. He didn't hesitate, instead he moved forward trusting his instincts.

He knew that eventually he would meet up with a few of the combatants set out for him, so he checked every corner before continuing on. He kept his footsteps as silent as he could, keeping his eyes on the ground to ensure that he wouldn't hit a stone or anything else that could make a sound. He spent the next twenty or so minutes traversing the maze in this fashion.

"Shit." He spat the silent words as he ran into the first false path. As he turned to backtrack, he met the eyes of the first combatant. In front of him was no animal or cute fuzzy creature. Instead, there was a boy roughly the same size as himself. He understood why the system worked in this way. Outside of this pocket dimension was not a world of beasts and monsters, it was full of men and women ready to kill.

Tyler brought his hands up in an offensive stance. Though he was sixteen, he had been training in hand to hand combat since the last time he had seen his parents, ten years ago. Before the body double could react, Tyler launched himself at the boy. He dropped to the ground and swept the other's leg out from under him.

The other kid quickly recovered, bashing his head against Tyler's, causing his vision to darken just slightly. Tyler could feel the throb of a bruise form on his forehead. "Fuck this." He said as he raised his hand and put his pointer finger and middle together. He focused on the point of his middle until a black dot appeared. He then willed the dot to shoot.

'Thud.' The body dropped with no resistance as the black dot buried itself into the other boy's skull.

Tyler felt his body go limp just for a moment. It was like he ran a marathon and just needed to catch his breath, to rest for a moment.

'You have received Experience.' A blue screen came to life in front of him.

'Dark Ragnarök: Level 1

Experience to Next Level: 15 of 100'

"You don't make it easy, do you." He spat at the ground before putting his hand to his head. He willed a wisp of healing energy to enter his forehead where the bruise was forming. After a second, it subsided. The wound had been healed in an instant.

Tyler lost his balance and fell on his ass. "Shit, overdid it a little."

He thanked his lucky stars that he had hacked into Hero Institution's mainframe before unlocking his magic. The information they had accumulated over the last twenty years was staggering. He had learned that all one would have to do is learn to accept their new reality in order to create feats that would otherwise be impossible for a normal person. An unleashed potential could will an attack from nothing, or heal themselves with a thought as long as they had the magic to do so. They could also fly, like the assholes on the television, as long as they had the magic reserves.

He also learned that you could create just about anything so long as you had the magic to make it. As far as manufacturing your own equipment went, it would be just as powerful as the one who made it. There were always loopholes though. The streets of SkyReach City was full of markets which would trade in armor and weapons which were made by powerful heroes or villains. There were no real restrictions on the trading of equipment.

Tyler looked over the corpse of the boy and saw what he was looking for. A copper ring shone in a dull light on the boy's finger. He took the ring and examined it.

'Storage ring, level 1.

Stores up to twenty items (Limit to 1,000 crystals).' A prompt showed up in his vision. He put the ring on and saw twenty small crystals inside.

The crystals had become the main source of currency of SkyReach City after heroes were made. Since it was currency that was generated by the system, corporations no longer needed manpower to mint coins or print bills. Everything was generated by the magic that was unlocked by the system.

Tyler put the ring on, which automatically fit itself. Everything within the dungeon was made of magic, produced by magic, so it could be adjusted without thought to the person that wore it. No one else would be able to take what was in the ring unless the owner of it was dead. This is part of what made villains rise in the first place. Greed was the true enemy of his city, and the names of greed were heroes and villains.

He checked the rest of the body, but couldn't find anything else that could be useful. He moved the body into the false path before continuing his way through the dungeon.

He was more careful from then on. Not only did he check corners, but he didn't allow himself to be trapped between an enemy and a wall. He crouched, and sometimes even got in the prone position in order to keep himself from being eye level with another combatant. When he did find one, he aimed and fired another magic shot, dropping the enemy without much difficulty. He became tired with each shot, which lasted at least five minutes before he felt well enough to walk again.

The feeling of weakness worried Tyler. If he were to run out of magic as he fought off an enemy, he could easily be killed as he was suffering the backlash. With this thought in mind, he made sure to stay with each corpse until the feeling of weakness subsided. Only then would he continue his way through the maze.

After his fifth combatant, he felt that he could do at least two magic shots before becoming drained. He didn't know if it was because he was using the magic more, or if it was because he leveled up. All he knew was he could now dish out double what he was capable at first. This just meant that he had more of a buffer before he would tire. He would have to figure out a way to fix this after he made his way through.

Making his way further in the maze, he figured he had to be nearing the end. If he read correctly, most of the dungeons were designed to raise a hero by one level, unless he or she stayed long enough for the combatants to respawn, or the dungeon adapted to their strength.

Since this was his first dungeon, Tyler knew it was more of an introduction to being magically enhanced. Some didn't even make it past the first challenge before quitting and going back to the city. The fear of losing their lives kept them from really pitting themselves against stronger challenges.

Tyler checked knelt and checked around the corner, his magic ready to fire if there were another combatant, but instead he found a large sign in the wall. 'Exit' was plastered atop a large hole in the wall. He could see light from the other side. As he walked through, he found himself back at his new home.

'You have completed your first dungeon.

Reward: 100 Crystals

Experience: 200'

'You have leveled up

'Dark Ragnarök: Level 3

Experience to Next Level: 0 of 100'

Tyler went into the house. He took a seat on his bed and looked through his gains. With each kill, he had received twenty crystals. With that, he had two hundred in his ring.

The ring itself intrigued him. The smooth copper ring could hold twenty items aside from his money. The spatial ring was one of the first discoveries of the system. No longer did anyone need bags for groceries or a garage for their car. Instead, they only needed to unlock their magic to use these miracle bands.

He knew it was possible to upgrade his ring, the only thing he needed was magic. He focused on the ring, allowing a wisp of his energy to enter into it. When he did, the ring added a space. Now he could add an extra item into it.

He added another wisp of magic into the ring, only to be greeted by the draining feeling he loved so much. "Why can't I just absorb the magic back?" He said to himself, but when he did, the magic returned, taking one slot with it. "What the fuck?" His eyes went wide as he understood what he just did.

Tyler sat on his bed for the next hour funneling magic into his ring. When he was done, he unlocked sixty slots to his ring. He then focused on absorbing the magic from the ring once again. He felt a rush come over him as the power entered his body. He felt like he had just drank a barrel of energy drinks and topped it off with cocaine. He looked at his hand which felt itchy. He could almost see the glow underneath his skin. He didn't care what he had to do, he needed to use this energy.