5 First time
*BZZN*BZZN*
Mark´s hand almost automatically turned off the alarm clock on his mobile phone.
'What a great start to this Saturday.' he thought to himself as he crawled out of his bed.
Putting on a dark blue shirt a pair of trousers and some comfortable socks he went to the bathroom. He then brushed his teeth and came back to his room to prepare for today´s raid.
'The raid will start at 10 AM so I have about two hours to get there.'
Mark packed his grimoire into a backpack and went out. Passing by his father he told him "I´m going out with Drew. I´ll be back at like 4 or 5. I´m not sure."
"Alright, take care!" his dad said waving at him.
Mark quickly arrived at a nearby bus station and boarded the buses heading to a place a short distance from the dungeon site.
Having found a comfortable place to sit in the last row he pulled up his phone to look through the news.
{The new S-rank hunter Emma Jones joins the Scavenger guild!}
'Heh, dad was right. Fortunately, I didn´t take the bet.'
America was a large country with over 60 S-rank hunters in total and the fight over them was fierce, especially with the Scavenger guild which recruited even from different countries. They had around 20 S-ranks in their arsenal. That´s an army capable of overthrowing the US.
Then in second place with less than 10 S-ranks was the Viper guild. Their leader Alexander Wright was rumored to be the best assassin-type hunter in this country.
In the third place just behind the Vipers came the Zeus guild whose leader was a powerful mage who awakened with lightning magic. His insane offensive power was known around the world.
Mark then read through the article, finding out more about the new S-rank. She apparently awakened as a fighter-type, then was scouted by the Scavenger and now she will go through some training regiment provided by her guild.
Mark left the bus after 20 minutes of staring at his phone and headed to the dungeon site. There stood a provisional cabin one could find on a construction site.
He stepped into the cabin and the people inside stared at him without saying a word.
"Hello?" said Mark.
'Am I in the right place?' he asked himself.
"Are you here for the raid?" asked a man, holding a crossbow.
"Yeah?"
"Great! We can start, then." said a middle-aged man with a mace and a small shield. "I´m Rick, the raid leader, and a D rank tank. You should also be a fighter right?" Rick asked confused at the absence of a weapon in Mark´s hands.
The lady evaluating Mark has classified him as a D-rank fighter, due to the apparent lack of his magician skills.
"Mark by the way and I´m actually a mage. There was a mistake in the evaluation which I haven´t fixed yet."
"Even better! We don´t have a mage so you´ll come in handy. That is my daughter Ava." he pointed to a girl a few years older than Mark with a spear by her side.
"I´m Allen." the ranger with crossbow shook his hand.
'friendly guy'
"Hal" said another guy who Mark assumed was the healer.
This was a low-rank gate with low-rank hunters so nobody wore any kind of armor. Even the weapons they had, excluding Allen´s crossbow, were kind of shabby.
"Everyone´s here so let´s go! Leave your phones in the cabin! You don´t want them broken!"
"You don´t have to say it every time." said Ava.
Mark emptied his backpack, grabbed his grimoire, and left the cabin. Then Rick locked the cabin and everyone headed towards the gate.
"Is this your first time?" asked Allen with a smirk.
"Yes" Mark answered swiftly.
"Don´t hesitate in killing a monster and listen to what Rick says. That´s the best advice I can give you."
"Thanks, I guess."
With that, they walked through the blue vortex of swirling mana.
Mark found himself in a dark cave which was quickly illuminated by a lantern lit by Hal.
Rick walked in the lead focusing on every little sound that echoed through the dungeon.
'It´s quiet, a little too quiet.' thought Mark opening his grimoire.
As they were walking through the narrow cave, they came across a crossroad with many paths.
"I hear the sound of walking from there." said Allen pointing into a dark cave with his crossbow.
"Is it coming here?" asked Rick.
Allen nodded and everyone assumed a formation. Rick was in the front with his daughter just behind him. In the middle were Allen and Mark and Hal was safely in the back.
The steps were now audible even for Mark so he poured his mana into the grimoire creating a magic circle on his right hand.
A giant iguana-like lizard came running out of the hole.
Allen took aim and shot an arrow straight through the head of the reptile, instantly killing it.
'That´s either a skill or a bit too strong crossbow.'
Noticing Mark´s look Allen gave him a cocky smile.
The monsters heard the arrow scraping the cave walls and came in running. Big snakes and giant lizards headed right towards Rick when they saw the dead iguana.
Rick swung his mace spilling lizard guts everywhere, Ava stabbed the snakes as if it was her last day alive and Allen shot everything moving with pristine accuracy.
However, Mark was left with no space to do anything. 'There is not enough space for page 1, page 3 is unusable with people around and page 4 is a one-target spell. I should´ve prepared more for raiding in a team.'
