Milton pizzas at your service!

It took the chefs of the Milton pizza 2 hours to finish 290 pizzas which surprised Matthew as he thought that it would at least take 5 hours to make 350 pizzas.

"You probably thought it would take more than 5 hours right ?" asked a voice behind his back.

Matthew turned around to see the head chef who he sees every day behind the doors of the kitchen when he goes to get this order.

"Yeah, honestly I'm quite impressed how you guys managed to pull this off," said Matthew truly from his heart.

"Do you want to know how we do it?"

"Yeah, if you are not busy please show me your magical working area where delivery boys are forbidden to enter," said Matthew jokingly.

"Anything for our new Manager," said the head chef not minding the joke he just did.

They both entered the kitchen where the chefs were preparing the dough and keeping it inside the oven to make it rise to double its size.

"Good morning Manager, Good morning Head chef"

"Morning Manager, Head chef"

"Morning everybody, keep up the good work and make our branch proud," said Matthew cheerfully to raise their morales up.

"Aye aye, Captain," said the chefs in chorus.

Matthew followed the head chef to the door of the room which was situated at the end of the kitchen.

"Ava, can I come in?" asked the head chef as he knocked on the entrance door of the room.

"Yes, Father!" a female shouted from the room.

The head chef opened the door and asked "How much have you completed?".

A woman who was mid 20's old turned around and told " I've finished 40 more 10 remaining. Get your boys to give me another 5 pizzas" said the woman.

There were pizzas which was freshly made on the table with a long sheet under it and a pile of Milton pizza boxes near it which was meant for newly made pizzas to pack.

"Meet our new manager Matthew, Matthew this is Ava, my only child, and daughter."

"Nice to meet you, Ava," said Matthew stretching his hand out for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you too Matthew ah can I call you Matthew?" asked Ava hesitantly while shaking his hand.

"You guys act like I'm a 55-year-old geezer, of course, you can call me by my name, I am just 17 years old," said Matthew not liking the fact that everyone call him Manager despite the age difference.

"I thought you were 16?" asked the head chef.

"Ah...I lied to get the money that the king issued for the orphans living in the Forbes outskirts. The age limit is 16." said Matthew afraid of the fact he will get reported for age coverage.

"If it were any other guy, I would have reported it but I know about your sister so don't worry." The head chef assured Matthew that his mouth and Ava's are zipped.

"Thank you, Sir," said Matthew from the bottom of his heart.

"So she's an ability user, right?" asked Matthew getting straight to the point.

The head chef and Ava looked at Matthew with surprised expressions as they never told him the fact that she is an ability user.

"How did you know?" asked Ava breaking off the silence.

"Meh, it was nothing big. I just figured that you have an ability as to how the head chef trusted a single person to do 50 pizzas even if the person was his own daughter, I don't think he would hand over this to a chef without an ability," Matthew lied.

In fact, the head chef standing next to him is also an ability user and the assistant head chef too who he saw on the way to the room.

Matthew has known the fact that there are three ability users in the pizzeria since the first day he joined Milton pizzas as his senses surpassed normal human beings while he was serving as the 62nd brigade captain at the most fearsome place that every species avoid " Veus Valley".

It was avoided mainly due to the fact that it serves as the borderline of the 4 main kingdoms. The first one is the Angrith kingdom[where humans live]which is situated in the North, Next was Norgan kingdom{West} which is known for their notorious deeds where every species reside which naturally makes it a criminal hideout, next was the Godrid Kingdom{South} where vampires only exist. The Vampire King and Queen were anonymous persons for generations where only a number of important people know their real identity. For the last, it was the Fedric Kingdom{East} where Duiera and Kalsh co-exist under the Treaty of Talingan which was agreed upon after the war ended between the two spieces{Duiera and Kalsh} which happened in the year 6875.

"So what's your ability?" asked Matthew curiously.

"It's okay Ava, it's essential for the manager to know," said the head chef to assure his daughter.

"It's duplication," said Ava

"WHAT THE FU---" Matthew held himself from cursing as he knows the value of the duplication ability as it was very rare, very very rare as they appear only once a century.

"Sorry about that" Matthew apologized to Ava for nearly cursing out loud.

Matthew regained his calm composure and asked " It can duplicate things?".

"No, I awakened the ability at the age of 13 when I was helping my father knead the dough to make dinner. I was surprised at first when another dough appeared out of thin air. I tried it again but due to my inexperience and age, I collapsed due to the lack of mana. After training and meditating for 5 years, I tried it on the dough again and it happened again and I made up to 30 doughs from a single original dough.

"So why did you say no to my question?" asked Matthew with full of doubts.

"As for your question, I tried to duplicate metal or other things but collapsed to the pressure. I woke only after 3 weeks in the hospital. After recovering I tried it with other edible things, and surprisingly it only works with food materials with no effort taken but it takes an intense amount of energy and mana to duplicate other things apart from edible things. At the age of 22, I also found out that I can also duplicate completed dishes, and here am I working in a pizzeria that gives me 100,000 hels per month." said Ava.

Matthew on the other hand found out that her explanation consisted of some lies too but didn't pry too much into it as he was a man who had secrets too. But one line caught his attention.

"YOU GET 100000 HELS PER MONTH!?" shouted Matthew.

"Shhhh... Why the heck are you shouting, ability users in the kitchen get more salary than the normal humans," said Ava thinking this is a normal fact.

"While you guys were cooking pizzas, I read through the profiles of every worker and their salary but I didn't find your name in it. Can you explain that to me?"

"You do know the fact that ability users should definitely go to the continental academy right?"

"Yeah, I know about it," said Matthew as he tried so hard training in the public park at the outskirts of Forbes to awaken his ability after he came from Veus Valley to join the academy which is situated in the Imperial capital which is at least 2000 miles from here as the Angrith Kingdom covers 2000000 square kilometers at least.

"I'm being raised by the Mil--"

"Ava! The pizzas are ready!" shouted the assistant of the head chef from the kitchen.

"Coming up!" shouted back Ava.

"Well, I think it's to end our conversation. It was nice meeting you Matthew, now let me do my work alone as I don't like being watched," said Ava gesturing for us to go off.

"Okay, I will be waiting at the area where the minivan is parked. Tell the cleaners and the boys to get the pizzas on the minivan."

"Got it," said the head chef.

AFTER 30 MIN-

"So the location is at the outskirts of Sertun which is at least 300 kilometers from here ?" asked Matthew to AM

"Yes sir, it is and I think they ordered Pizza from here as we are the nearest pizzeria taking in the factor of distance."

"You sure this isn't a malfunction on the tech or something," asked Matthew.

"For the 5th time sir, I am telling you this is a genuine order!" said AM in an annoyed tone.

"Got it got it, sorry for pestering you." apologized Matthew.

Matthew ain't a god. Even though he was strong enough to make the Norgan kingdom place his name on the #1 bounty list, he isn't an ability user who can hunt monsters and go on par against an experienced ability user.

Sure, he has hunted monsters but they are all in the level F to E only which will only give him a few thousand hels which he can get from doing two days overtime deliveries.

By trying hard and hunting a monster that only has a strength level of E or F, he would be regarded as trash because non-ability users only work as a porter and will not dare to hunt monsters. Also, his reputation mattered as his mockery should not reach his sister's ears and ruin her life being named as a "Sister of a Trashy Brother". He read enough novels to know what will happen next if he does that.

"Boss, every pizza is loaded in the van. You are good to go!" shouted a worker who was helping to carry the boxes to the minivan.

"Thanks for your hard work," said Matthew to the workers and told them to get some rest.

Matthew changed his dress into his usual pizza boy attire and got ready to drive.

Matthew got on the minivan which is at least triple the size of other normal minivans. This type of minivan will be used rarely only for large deliveries but Matthew was sitting on it.

'Well, AM told that this van will go 300km/hr at max so it will take at least 1.30 hr to get there' calculated Matthew as he started the minivan and got out of the parking area.

He took a look at the online navigation and started driving on the path which was leading to the end of Forbes city.

'It is 1.00 pm right now and the customer who messaged us told us to reach there before 3.00 pm and told us to come inside the dungeon to deliver it. Will a minivan be able to go inside a Dungeon?' Matthew thought as he was not a carriage to bring 350 pizzas single-handedly into a dungeon.

After 30min, he was going through a narrow road which required him to drive carefully as he could hit anything.

While he was driving, he saw a cute kid being bullied by a bunch of children who seemed to be the same age as the cute kid.

However, Matthew had no time to care about others as he kept driving off the Narrow without paying attention to him.

After he left the narrow road, he sighed in relief as he can drive freely now but it didn't last for long as he heard a bump sound on the front side.

BUMP!

'Shit, did I just run over a person!' thought Matthew as his face turned pale. He got off the van to see the condition of the person he had just run over.

Matthew started to panic as he thought he had run over a non-ability user. But after sensing that the person was an ability user, he got calm as ability users have more endurance and strength.

Matthew got out of the minivan and saw the same kid who was being bullied was lying down groaning.

' Oh shit! It's a child! Fuck are you on booze Matthew? Couldn't you just drive a fucking minivan correctly?'

"Kid, are you ok?" asked Matthew while lifting him up and placing him on the minivan.

When Matthew checked the kid's pulse, he was greatly surprised as the kid's breathing was greatly concentrated even though he was just hit by a vehicle.

'He only passed out due to shock' Matthew sighed in relief.

Matthew got the water bottle from the back seat and splashed it on the kid's face to wake him up.

The kid woke up while groaning and saw Matthew with a hint of haziness.

" Who are you?" asked the kid.

"My name is Matthew, kid. I am the one who was driving the minivan and the one who ran you over," said Matthew truthfully as he never wanted to hide his crime.

"But it looks like you're okay because you are an ability user. That's why you did not get hurt and just fainted due to shock" said Matthew.

"Ability user? Me? Don't joke around Brother" said the kid with a frown.

Matthew stepped back a bit and swung a punch at the kid's face. But when he was so near to his face, a green light enveloped the boy as a shield came and took the hit.

"See, I told you so," said Matthew while he took his hand back and stood as nothing happened.

' IT FUCKING HURTS AHHHH!' thought Matthew as the shield felt like concrete to him.

"It's real, I awakened an ability!" shouted the kid as tears started to flow from his eyes.

The kid's shield naturally disappeared and so does the green light which enveloped him.

Matthew thought of stopping the kid's scream but no one was there in the street as this road is rarely used by civilians.

Matthew confronted him by placing his hand on the kid's crimson red hair and ruffled it by saying "Good for you kid. Be a man and hit those kids who hurt you all these times."

"You know I'm being bullied?" asked the kid.

"I mean yeah. I see those punch marks on your face which are likely seemed to be done by a kid about your age." lied Matthew nervously.

"What's your name kid?" asked Matthew hoping to leave the bully topic out of his mind.

"Thomas Angrith," said the kid but suddenly place his hand on his mouth realizing what he had just said.

Matthew thought it was a joke at first but soon realized the resemble. That red hair, those crimson red eyes, and that cuteness.

'So your William's son? No wonder he looks just like him. But I wonder if he has trust issues just like his elder sister?'

"Brother, that was a joke" laughed Thomas nervously.

"Nah. I get it so don't go around making jokes about your name like that. It is dangerous to talk and assume the name of the Angrith family easily. Where's your home?" said Matthew not wanting the kid to get uncomfortable.

Just when he was about to reply, somebody from the distance shouted...

"Thomas!"

"Aunty!" shouted Thomas and got off the minivan clumsily and ran over to the person who was rushing over to him and hugged her.

Thomas hugged the woman who looked like she was in her 40's. Matthew looked at her closely and sensed she was an ability user. A strong one at that. Her strength at least matched equally to the vice-captains of the color squad who is extremely strong in battles.

The person who Thomas called 'Aunty' looked at Matthew and observed him. Thomas suddenly said," I fainted in the middle of the road but this brother saved me and gave me water"

She came over to Matthew bowed down and said I'm really thankful for your help. Could you tell me your name?"

'Ah, so you want to investigate me. Well, let's see how far will William go to protect my privacy.'

"My name is Matthew Layman," said Matthew with a smile on his face.

"What's your name?" asked Matthew in the hopes of recognizing this lady.

"My name is Ella." said the lady.

' Holy shit! You are that Ella!. Ella The magnet queen!. I finally get why you have such monstrous strength. Why do I keep meeting the big shots of the Imperial family? Am I a calamity magnet!'

"I have to deliver the pizzas to the customers so I will take my leave here," said Matthew.

"Bye Brother! Thank you for your help. Let's meet again if we run into each other."

"Sure, Thomas!"

'Well, you would probably receive a scolding from you Aunty for going out to other places other than school so the chances are slim kid. Well, I should be happy she didn't detect the weapons I hid in the van.'

Matthew came to the place where the minivan was parked entered it and smashed the accelerator to the way where the online navigation is showing.

After 1 hour 45 minutes-

Matthew finally reached the outskirts of Sertun and asked the locals for the location of the dungeon.

"It's in that way?"

"Yeah, a big group of archeologists was going in that way to the dungeon with some guild members"

"Ok thank you, Sir" Matthew thanked the man who just gave directions and headed in the path which he showed right now.

After 5 minutes of driving, he came to the area where the dungeon was. It was located in a field where crops were riped not long ago. It was shining in blue with an addition of red light to it. It had a strong pressure which was completely different from the F and E rank dungeons. Matthew entered the dungeon with the minivan hoping it would go in. Fortunately, it entered the dungeon but he still have to locate the party who had gone in according to the man who gave direction as Matthew believed that they are the same group who ordered 350 pizzas.

The dungeon seemed to be some kind of maze. It was nighttime in the dungeon which made Matthew even wary but he can see through the dark clearly due to torches being hung on the maze walls. The pathway of the dungeon was wide, wide enough to make 30 people stand horizontally.

Matthew realized he can't drive the minivan around the dungeon as if monsters attacked the vehicle, it would definitely cause some damage to pizzas.

Matthew didn't come unprepared. He had a pistol in his hand, a shotgun strapped on his back, and a knife in his pant pockets which he took from his home when the chefs were cooking and secretly placed it under the minivan to avoid suspicion when they were placing the pizzas.

He had brought weapons from the ammunition center illegally with the help of some contacts. To be specific, it was only one man.

The current attire of Matthew made him look like a serial killer who kills people who order pizza.

He encountered a few F-rank monsters at the entrance which took him 10 min to beat them. He made his way deeper after a certain distance he did not even spot one single monster, Matthew could hear his own heartbeat clearly. It was eerily silent and even more terrifying as he heard his own footsteps stepping on crunched rocks.

Matthew's nose picked up some kind of smell that seemed familiar to him but it was too far from him to distinguish. He took steps faster to locate the smell when we suddenly heard creepy laughter sounds from the end of the pathway which turned right.

"Did you guys order pizzas?!" shouted Matthew completely ignoring the creepy laughter as he encountered people many people who had grunty voices.

"Yes, we are the ones who ordered pizzas!" shouted the voice back which sounded it had some creepiness added to it.

Matthew didn't heed attention to this and thought the whole group must be there resting. He kept his weapons on the side of the maze wall and ran there jump turned right took his pizzeria cap off bowed down without even sensing the most important thing.

"MILTON PIZZAS AT YOUR SERVICE!" shouted Matthew to make the group look at him.

But what greeted him was an eerie silence. A silence that he never thought would change his life.

He slowly looked back up and saw darkness. There was no torch on the pathway and was complete darkness. A strong blow of wind extinguished all the torches that Matthew encountered while he was coming here. He took his phone from this pocket and lit up the torchlight from his phone and what greeted him was a lot of skeletons which were lying down on the floor which was full of red. To be specific, it was a red liquid. It was a sight where people would puke.

The familiarity hit Matthew as the smell which he found very familiar was blood. The thing which he never wanted to smell again.

Matthew checked his time on the phone and saw it was 3.35 pm. He tried to call for help but realized there was no signal. Matthew felt pity for them but he just prayed that they would live a happy life the next time they were born. There was nothing he could do to bring them back.

If not for his experience on the battlefield, Matthew would have freaked out and done some unnecessary moves.

He got his weapons which he placed against the wall and started moving silently to the first skeleton.

However, Matthew did not get fazed and walked in the pool of blood and spotted a light that was glowing about 100 meters from where Matthew was.

He got his shotgun from this back and walked slowly and carefully towards the direction where he spotted the light. He saw several skeletons who were wearing the dress of the Angrith archeology team and some A-class Armor which would earn him a fortune.

' What kind of monster took out these guys, it looks like their flesh is already devoured. It looks like they have been dead for ages.'

Matthew didn't go into the pathway without heightening his senses. After confirming there was no living being around, then only he mustered his courage to walk through it.

He saw some flesh in the bones of the skeleton which was lying by the side of the wall and realized whatever killed them is still lurking around.

The only reason Matthew is venturing this deep is to find the emergency crystal which can defy the laws of the dungeon. That can be used to call for help if they encounter any monster they can't defeat.

' Are the guild members just a bunch of untrained elites? They should have at least tried to call for help right?' thought Matthew, as they must've either forgotten about the crystal or something, was terrifying enough to wipe out the group before they used the emergency crystal.

But Matthew was still afraid as he was still searching for a person. The person who laughed creepily and told him to come over.

He checked his distance and calculated that he must've come at least 80 meters but the headcount of the skeletons was already 156.

He came closer to the light and thought it was the emergency crystal but to his surprise, it was a smartphone.

He picked it up and saw something that even to this day that would make his spine chill.

Milton pizzas usually let their customers write their desired toppings for their customized pizzas but it seemed like the phone has already sent one, someone still typed another suggestion which wasn't sent to their restaurant but remained in draft.

What Matthew saw in the smartphone was...

TIME:9.57AM DATE: 25TH MAY

DAY: WEDNESDAY NO.OF PIZZAS:350[EXTRA LARGE]

INBOX FOR YOUR DESIRED TOPPING{MILTON PIZZAS}

SEND MESSAGES: CHEESE TOPPING WITH A FEW SPECIAL CAULIFLOWERS AND MINCED RED CHICKEN. PLEASE SENT THE DELIVERY BEFORE 3.00 PM. THANK YOU.{TYPED AT 9:59}

MESSAGES IN DRAFT:

HUMAN MEAT MIXED WITH WOMEN'S LEGS AND MEN'S HAIR AND HAND WITH A BIT OF SALT. AH, DON'T FORGET TO SEND A DELICIOUS DELIVERY MAN WHO IS YOUNG. I NEED AN SIDE DISH.{TYPED AT 10.35}

THANK YOU FOR THE DELICIOUS SIDE DISH{TYPED AT 3:34 PM}