1 First out of many

One day, the walls of the bustling kingdom of Rue, smooth and white, stood tall in front of the passersby that were flooding the drawbridge as they carried on with their days. But unlike any of the others that preceded it, this day had prepared an unimaginable disaster about to unleash over the peaceful lands.

"Dungeons", as they were called, appeared out of nowhere, and so brought new dangers upon the unprepared mankind. Their aspect was similar of portals, where one could enter inside and get into another world, made out of energy and they came in a lots of shapes and forms, from huge portals that could swallow entire homes, to tiny ones that could barely fit a dwarf in the diameter of their entrance.

They could be found everywhere, from people's homes, to the peaks of the mountains.

But their most terrifying aspect was the monsters lurking inside. Even if the outside world was no stranger to the beasts, they were inconsiderable to the likes of the ones in the dungeons. They were bigger, better, faster and stronger than anything ever seen before. If they were constrained just to the insides of the dungeons, everything would be fine, but the real danger is when these fiends managed to escape.

After a dungeon gets cleared, it seems to disappear forever, and, as long as there was a finite amount of them in the world, they could be cleared and not be seen again. At least that was the consensus of the general public on the situation, as no one seems to be yet aware of what their inner workings were. But nothing is as easy as expected, as it seemed like when a dungeon gets cleared, the difficulty of each and every dungeon left increases.

To combat the rising presence of outside beings, a new order was formed, as the dungeons from inside the city were cleared. Because of this, almost everyone's worth has been linked to the newly appeared dangers.

The old authority, the "Adventurer's Guild", was unable to stand against the catastrophe, as their clearing speed was slow and the ever increasing danger made that even slower, so a new group has been founded to take care of the event. It was called the "Heroes Alliance" and it mostly consisted of highly trained professionals, so called "Heroes", unlike the Guild's adventurers, which were amateurs at best.

In a village near the capital of this now cursed place was the small cottage of a man named Evan Cross and his clothes-fixing business.

He fell in love with a girl from said village, but wasn't able to spend that much time with her as his soldier job was keeping him far from her. But as soon as he finished his duties and got to retire, he moved to her family home, where she was living with her parents, that died a long time ago and her being alone for a long time. There, the pair lived a happy life, opening up the shop, and having a son, Tailor, until the rise of the dungeons.

When it happened, the old soldier felt a calling and started talking non-stop about some newfound power. No one was aware of what madness was he spewing, and, a while later, something inside him snapped. He went on his own path, trying to find that power, leaving his family to take care of the now failing business. The wife and the son, managed to live for a while, but soon came the time to close down the business, as the money didn't come in great quantities trough their doors.

Even without his father figure, Tailor grew up to be a fine man, being the strong pillar his mother would lean on when she needed help around the house and the shop. He was tall, not too strong, nor too weak, just enough to be able to do whatever errands she had him do to keep the place running.

During a lovely summer day, he got the news from his mother that she enrolled him into the "Academy of Heroes", as they call it. "The school, where heroes get born.", that was their motto as the main source of young blood for the Hero Alliance. And so, that evening, a wagon came to pick him up and bring him to the capital, but he was still sleeping soundly when it was getting near the small village cottage.

"Wake up! You're going to be late! The wagon isn't going to wait for you forever.", she yelled all the way from the other side of their propriety.

The carriage could be seen already far on the hills next to the house, but it won't be long until it reaches the pick up point. By the time Tailor finally awakened, it had been waiting for a solid five minutes.

"Oh no, I overslept!" he exclaimed. While stumbling around the entire house, Tailor managed to pack up everything in a rush and headed outside where the driver was waiting for him. Clothes, some food for the road, and, most importantly, gold, as he needed it to enroll in the Academy, he had them all prepared.

"Come on kid, I ain't got all day!" said the driver in a slightly annoyed tone. After all, he has been waiting for a while, so he can't really be condemned for being pissed off.

As he finished loading his luggage in the wagon as his mom rushed there looking as if she forgot to say something important. She stopped, gasping for air, as she wasn't used to running around the place. Catching her breath, she started:

"Look, I used most of our gold to send you to the big city, so you don't have to worry about the shop, as I have closed it. Make the most out of this experience, as I really want to see the best come out of you. Make friends and have a good time, it's all that matters at the end of the day."

"I know mom, I will. See you soon, I love you." replied the son while embarking the carriage. "Take care of yourself and don't mind me, I will be fine."

"I love you too, Tailor. Write me some letters whenever you can." said she with a moist-eyed look on her face. After all, her only son was finally leaving her nest.

As soon as the driver hit the horses with his whip, the wagon started moving, leaving the small village, the cottage and Tailor's mother behind. And so, the young lad made a promise to himself and a speech to his long left father.

"Wait for me, dad. I am coming for you. You left us all alone this time while you wandered around looking for 'power'. I will be the strongest hero that ever existed and I will show you what power is, as it is not whatever you sought all this time for no reason."

Tailor was laying on the floor, with a smile on his face. He felt incredibly strong and determined, as he was facing the greatest wall yet to appear in his life. But he will do it! After some more sleep, of course, as the distance between the village and the city was really long.

The sky went from a blazing red sunset to a pitch black night in what felt like seconds to the unaware Tailor as he was gathering his energy for whatever awaited him at his destination.

It is time for a new page in the story of this young lad's adventure.

A while later, Tailor woke up and was staring at the blackness above, when the driver, who got bored, started a conversation.

"You know, you really do have a caring mom. She risked everything she had to send you to the capital. You know, I never was as lucky as you, to have someone help me when I needed it, so I had to do odd jobs like these to make a living."

"Yeah, I agree. It's really unfortunate that dad left and she was all alone for so long." replied Tailor melancholically as he remembered, once again, the reason of this journey.

There was a forest ahead of them, and, as soon as the carriage entered it, everything went dark as the moon's light was unable to get to their location. Finally, the driver decided to light up the lamp that the cart had been prepared with, but afterwards he started waving with one of his hands. Then he turned towards Tailor, who was very confused by his actions, with a devious smile on his face.

"I'm sorry to hear about that, but it seems like your lack of fortune does not stop here. Good luck with the bandits, boy, this is where I get off."

"What bandits...?"

The driver then left the cart and vanished into the woods, without leaving even a single trace of his presence. Tailor was taken aback by his actions and started to look around him. He was all alone in the pitch darkness of the forest, with only the light from his lamp to shine on his face.