Our World

Cale had a tired look on his face as class was about to end. Exasperated, he took a look out of the window to find a cloudy sky that only served to bum him out further.

The year is 2020, and Cale was having a terrible time at school. He was in the final year of high school and his academic results were mediocre. He was uncertain about the future that awaited him. Getting into a good university was bound to be difficult.

Cale slapped the back of his friends and wandered and made small talk before he left class to return home. His friend Luke was walking back with him.

"Have you noticed that girl Isabelle often staring at you?" Luke asked.

"Huh? Today's the first I'm hearing of it." Cale replied. In reality, he had caught her staring at him multiple times, but she would swiftly take her eyes off when he would catch her doing so. He wasn't sure what was up with her.

Cale bid Luke goodbye as their paths changed. Walking home, Cale suddenly paused. "A new store? What does it sell?" Cale saw a shop full of trinkets and weird objects for sale that he had never seen before. "Is this some kind of pawn shop?" Muttering, Cale entered to see what was up. The shop was empty and there wasn't anybody manning it.

Cale walked around taking a look at the various bizarre objects in the shop that piqued his curiosity. He had never seen things like this before. Weird feathers and tribal trinkets along with bones of weird animals he couldn't identify.

He suddenly found a tiny orb lying on a table. The orb shone like a crystal ball, but within it was like an entire universe of stars. It was extremely beautiful to look at. Without hesitation, Cale picked it up to take a closer look. However, the orb began suddenly glowing brightly.

[Connecting....]

[Identity Registered...Dungeon Ownership Transference Complete...]

[Beginning Transformation]

Cale was shocked, but he couldn't react for long because the glowing orb fused with his hand and entered his body and Cale blacked out.

When Cale woke up, he found himself in the same shop. However, the shop was now completely empty. Groggy, he touched the wall of the shop and subconsciously a translucent display appeared within his vision.

[Dungeon Level 0 - Cale Bloom's Shop.]

For a second he got frightened and was frozen in place. However, he soon collected himself. With a doubtful thought, he mentally spoke out. 'Status'.

[Cale Bloom]

[Dungeon Master]

[Human]

[Skill: Eye of Insight]

[Level 1]

[Weakling]

With shock, he realized that he could see his own status and that he was level 1, but without a frame of comparison, he wasn't able to say if that was good or not. This was the ordinary world, not a fantasy world like novels, yet he had suddenly gotten a weird fantasy ability.

Among his peers he was physically very average. He wasn't a fighter or anything of that sort. So he wasn't sure what Level 1 meant.

"Eye of Insight" Is that the ability to inspect other objects? It was very interesting to Cale, but he was curious what a Dungeon Master did. When he had that thought a separate display appeared. A dungeon panel.

[Shop]

[Modification]

[Lottery]

[100 DP]

After exploring around for a bit after the compulsory tutorial, Cale understood that he had to expand the Dungeon and fill it with living beings to gather dungeon points. He could also sell items to the Shop or purchase special items for the DP. To level himself up, he had to kill other beings to gain experience points.

"Isn't this ridiculous? I can't go around slaughtering people. And where am I supposed to find monsters?"

The help tutorial had suggested that he should purchase the basic starter pack from the shop for 100 DP. Cale hesitated, but decided to purchase it.

[Opening Basic Starter Pack...]

[Skill - Inventory gained.]

[1 Lottery Ticket]

[10 Special Points]

[Shop Setting - Library Obtained]

The skill was great, he got an inventory with 10 spots, so he could store 10 objects within it. Special Points could be used to upgrade skills. Upgrading the Eye of Insight from level 1 to level 2 took 2 points, level 2 to level 3 took double that and so on.

Cale spent 6 points getting Eye of Insight to Level 3 and another 2 points to raise Inventory to level 2, which meant he could store 20 objects now.

Cale thought for a bit and used his lottery. The lottery was a big roulette which spun rapidly before the needle finally landed on an object. It was a fruit.

[Congratulations]

[You obtained... 1 Strength Fruit]

Cale took the Strength Fruit and ate it. It was a tiny cherry sized fruit that he popped into his mouth and chewed up.

[Strength + 10]

Such an alert showed up. Cale's eyes lit up as his body felt fresh and he felt energetic. He couldn't see his individual stats, but he felt like he had become stronger.

[Cale Bloom]

[Dungeon Master]

[Human]

[Skill: Eye of Insight 3, Inventory 2]

[Level 1]

[10 DP, 2 SP]

[Weakling]

The sky was darkening. Cale had spent a lot of time at the shop. He decided to head home for now. The shop had been empty all along, he wasn't sure why. His inventory already had deed papers showing ownership of this shop belonged to him. With a thought of closing the shop, he headed out.

He thought about shutting the shop for now and it automatically downed the shutters. As people were walking back home as well, they saw Cale staring at a wall.

One person tapped Cale's shoulder. "Kid, why are you staring at this empty wall?" Cale was surprised. "Empty Wall?" He realized that others couldn't seem to see this shop. Cale shook his head and walked away. His eye of insight told him that man was a level 1 human, just like him.

"What's the point of this power in our ordinary world? It's so weird, do dungeons exist in other places as well? Perhaps there are other dungeon masters like myself hidden in the world?" Cale thought to himself as he went home.

"Why are you so late son?" Cale's mom asked when he came home.

"Sorry mom, I was looking for a part time job after school, so I got late." Cale lied brusquely.

"Ooh, you decided to get a job?" Cale's younger sister asked with a mischievous eye.

"Found a job at a library on the main street." Cale said, before he launched himself onto the couch. His mom was sipping tea while watching the news.

Cale disinterestedly took a glance at the news, but suddenly had a dumbfounded look.

"What the..." Cale stopped himself from cursing as his mom looked at him, shocked. But Cale was still too shocked to pay attention to her.

His state of insight was running, identifying what appeared to be the entire council of ministers in the senate.

"How... is... this possible?" Cale yelped dumbfounded at what his eye of insight was telling him.

The council of ministers, the senators of the senate, the president, all of the politicians shown on screen, none of them were human. Dragons, they were all dragons!)