Chapter 1

I continue to walk through the dense forest. "This was going to be the last time I get lost in a place like this", I thought to myself as I cut down branches and large patches of grass until I have a view of our street. I still find it beautiful for modern houses to be vegetated by moss and vines, no matter what the older generation kept saying. My brother comes to view chopping wood that was too close from what used to be our ancestral house that was thankfully sparred cause of the thicket.

A large majority of modern houses were either crushed by the sudden vegetation that grew along with the appearance of the Ciana. A few of the houses survived but some stay uninhabited when the first surge of dungeon beast killed populates.

I waved towards him and made my way home. In our street that was formerly a quiet place with rows of houses now has only 5 houses still standing with most holding 3 to 4 families.

"I got a good haul of pigeons, Maybe we can breed at least 2 of them in the back" He picks up some of my catch smiling at me. "Sure, Seb is on the 2nd floor can you call him for me, he's been couped up again in your room" patting me and I followed it with a sigh.

My family might have survived on that day but when we found out about our cousin, he was petrified. His older sisters are safe but their parents saved them from a stampede when they were travelling back here. The three of them now shares my room which was large enough for them. I knocked on the door but a girl opened the door instead.

"Hey Althea, How's Sebbie?"She gave a sad smile and shook her head.

"Still not doing good, but he's starting to eat. Ah, Trisha went out and hasn't gone back yet, she's supposed to find Oregano for Sebbie" She said opening the door wider enough for me to see my mother taking care of our cousin before passing to me a pouch with 2 pills.

What was amazing was that some of the survivors of a the catastrophe either earned something called a skill. Christ, my brother earned a passive skill called 'The Brave' giving him +10% strength. Althea received hers when she saved Sebbie earning "Healer" and 2% increase healing ability and 4% medicine effectivity.

No one can see their skills except for their own, but I can see them. The magic and skills. For some reason I can open their information like reading a book.

I looked at the pills in my hand and sighed once more. I didn't have time to idle at home, I needed to visit the Adventurer's tavern. It's a few streets away and located on neutral land. I went back to my brother and gave him his pills.

The moment I was cleared , I wore a cloak pulling my hood up nearly running to the tavern before all the easy task were taken.

-

"You have to be kidding me"

There I was by the bulletin board pinned with a map ,marking all the dungeons found in the area with magic. Each blue dot represents an active dungeon that had easy targets, yellow dots for the dungeons requires a partner and red dots are for the stronger group, Dad joined in a group headed for a red dungeon. Trisha also wearing a cloak with her hood up looking at me picking out the same dungeon.

"Why are you here?" She asked and I asked her the same question.

"Althea is looking for you, I should be the one asking you that "I did not expect her to be here. Like I said some people earned a skill but others learned the ability to use extend of magic, the tavern had a no magic policy so she possibly used something to hide herself on the way here.

"Your here already so might as well take the blue dungeon" She said pulling me to register as a partner for the dungeon.

I pulled my hood while listing our names for the blue dungeon. Just in case we were caught, when we reached the dungeon it was like a small cave and we had to crawl down to get in. We were welcomed with complete silence. Pulling out a wand she flicked out a small fire that was the size of my thumb.

Caves were usually quiet but this was too quiet, not even a squeak of a vat. A loud thud got us onto our knees as if shaked the ground and as we looked up. A thousand ghouls stares at us from the ceiling lunging towards us in sudden speed.

{You're about to die. Aren't you going to use your magic?} ,A small fairy appeared floating and telepathically communicating to me as the cave suddenly illuminates and everything starts to slow down except for both of us. Even Trisha slowly takes out her wand from her waist.

"There's a lot of dangerous monsters here, This is suppose to be a blue dungeon" I look at the little pixie smiling before she sits on my left shoulder.

{Your cousin is not gonna survive if you don't use it} She whined. There's a reason only I can see her.

I grunted a reply "Your not playing fair Ciana" her smile drops by a little. I opened my palm while she stands beside me.

Chanting a small spell in my head the cave slowly returns to it's former speed but it was too late. A large glow of light illuminates bounding the ghouls pushing them deeper into their prisoned cage. Trisha holding her wand confused.

Ciana smiles on my shoulder {You'll have to use it someday. Your fate hasn't changed} snapping to me before disappearing.

The moment she left crystal loots from the ghastly creatures starts dropping like rain. Trisha starts to frantically catch them, I used a dimensional bag to snatch the other chunks of resources. Looking up she doesn't seem to notice the appearance of the literal being that wiped out most of the earth and opened inner spiritual domains for fun.

{Your such a pain sometimes} I linked back to her knowing she'll still get my message wherever she went.