Backyard

"Extremely weak fluctuations… That should be a low-Rookie ranked dungeon. A very small and weak one, if I'm not wrong…" Nial mumbled as he spent several minutes sensing the mana fluctuations of the dungeon.

During the last few days, he had learned how to use mana. This allowed him to perceive a few things in his surroundings.

His control was extremely crude, but the most basic aspects of learning to control were something that Nial, a blind person with extraordinary senses, was able to get the hang of, in just a few days.

Because he was not distracted by the additional burden of suddenly being able to see as well, it didn't take long for him to understand how to perceive his surroundings.

This also included the thin, unstable, and liquefied membrane of the portal that had manifested in their backyard.

When he first sensed the dungeon portal, it caused his entire body to stiffen.

Nial had subconsciously stepped back several meters as the blurry memories of the incident 15 years ago started to flash through his mind.

Fortunately, the mana fluctuations of the dungeon portal were extremely weak, and a beast had yet to emerge from it.

This confused him a little bit.

However, Nial knew that he was even more clueless about dungeons and their various types than mankind in general.

Through countless experiments, humanity was able to find out a few things about the existence of dungeons.

Among the few pieces of information they had acquired, one of them was the fact that the strength and the number of beasts inhabiting a dungeon portal could be easily assessed.

For that one had to simply observe the mana fluctuations of the said portal. The stronger the fluctuation, the stronger the beasts residing in it.

Through this, they learned how to categorize Dungeons into several grades that were further divided into sub-ranks, which made things much easier.

The weakest grade for a dungeon was called 'Rookie' and the sub-ranks ranged from Low, Mid, to High. These were a rough indicator of the beasts that harbored the realm, planet, or a separate space that was connected to the portals.

Nobody knew what one would find on the other side as it could vary a lot.

But in most cases, Originals entered a small mystic space that harbored one specific kind of beast.

Once all hostile living beings were killed, the dungeon would disappear, and never reappear again.

At least that was what happened in most cases.

There were also special dungeons with various unique features, but that was not something Nial could bother thinking about right now.

His mind was filled with doubts and his thoughts were one giant mess that he tried to unravel while thinking of a plan or something.

'What am I even supposed to do now?' He asked himself.

Right now, he was completely overwhelmed by the situation.

His parents were out, conquering dungeons, and his sister was bedridden, kept alive through the expensive medicine and life-support machines.

As such, he was alone…as always.

However, now it was different. His life had changed and a dungeon had emerged in their backyard!

Because of that, he did the only logical thing he could think of- he called the Originals association.

Others might think that he was stupid for not entering the dungeon before doing anything else.

After all, he had initially believed to be able to fight some weaker beasts.

Under normal circumstances, he wasn't even supposed to think about the association that governed the majority of dungeons inside all human shelters.

At least, not considering their financial situation!

However, Nial didn't care about that as he heard the ringtone of his phone that he had picked up from the table near his training spot.

Nial was not a big fan of using his phone, but that was also not something he could bother about.

Using the seemingly ancient phone that still had keys, Nial punched in the number of the Originals association.

The line connected as he entered a waiting queue made him frown deeply.

"Great 'emergency' hotline…" He mumbled quietly while trying to not be annoyed.

Having nothing else to do, he decided to divert his focus and tried sensing every single change in the dungeon portal.

It made him uncomfortable to be around a newly emerged dungeon portal, and it was only the extremely weak mana fluctuations that allowed him to remain relatively calm.

Despite that, he should feel much more desperate than he was actually feeling right now.

After all, beasts could suddenly emerge from the portal at any moment, and he would not have even the faintest idea of their numbers and actual strength.

His current reaction was weird and different from how he would usually behave.

All of a sudden, Nial heard the voice of a young woman introducing herself, breaking his chain of thoughts.

"Welcome to the Emergency hotline of the Originals association. This is Rebecca Karls on the phone. How may I help you?"

Weirdly enough, Nial felt that his heartbeat which had been eerily calm began to beat at a much faster rate the moment he heard the female's voice over the phone.

It forced him to be caught in a trance for a moment, only to shake his head before he explained the situation in their backyard in as simple words as possible.

"Hello Ms. Karls, I want to report the manifestation of a low-Rookie ranked dungeon in our backyard, it happened just…five minutes ago!"

Carefully listening to every single noise he could hear through the phone, Nial expected to be told that someone would come over to clear it.

However, the young woman's next words were definitely not what he had hoped to hear.

"Ok, Sir. So there is still some time left...great! Is the backyard your private property or did you, or your family lease it?"

When he heard this, Nial couldn't help but feel speechless as his mind began to run wild.

'How the hell is our backyard important, girl??'

"The entire area we are living in belonged to our late grandparents...and we inherited it...but how does that even relevant...right now?"

He was not quite sure what to say anymore, so he preferred to stay silent while patiently awaiting the next words of the young woman who seemed to be extremely calm.

It was as if she didn't care about his situation or predicament, at all.

"If the dungeon is located on private property, the landowner is allowed to decide whether he or she wants to use the dungeon for personal use. In that case, the association won't enter the dungeon, or intervene in any kind of way.

Meanwhile, the landowner takes full responsibility for everything that will happen on his property.

If someone dies because of a dungeon breakout, or astray beasts that emerged from the dungeon, the crime will be considered to have been committed by the owner of the dungeon!

As for the other choices you have- You can either sell the dungeon to the Originals association, other possible interested organizations, families, or interested individuals.

In that case, the responsibility of anything that will happen transfers over to them."

After listening to this, Nial felt that it sounded somewhat familiar as if he had already heard this before.

Maybe that was the case, but he couldn't really recall it.

Either way, the information he had received was extremely important right now.

But even then, he was not the rightful owner of the property, so he shouldn't be supposed to make a decision.

However, at that moment, he recalled a certain law that granted him some liberty.

It was about a similar situation to what was just happening with him.

As such, Nial was able to take up the responsibility to make a choice!

"If Sir wants to sell the dungeon, please inform me now itself. We will immediately send someone over to take the necessary precautions."

Upon hearing the reassuring voice of the young woman, Nial was almost inclined to sell the dungeon without even knowing how much they could gain from it.

Dungeons were worth a fortune because every single thing that could be procured within it could be sold for a high price!

Yet, somehow, despite not receiving any further intel, Nial felt that he should accept the deal because something kept nagging at him.

And that was not only because of the fact that he couldn't afford to endanger his ill sister.

They were also in a dire need of money.

However, even before he could say anything, the dungeon had completely manifested.

This was much faster than it was supposed to happen and now he was worried that a dangerous existence could simply emerge out of the portal.

If that were to happen, it would be a disaster for Nial and his sister.

And if the person who was supposed to come over would not reach in time, the beast would tear them apart to pieces.

But this disaster turned into a rollercoaster of emotions for Nial, shocking him in a good way.

A beast had emerged from the portal!

Through his acute sense of sound, smell, and crude perception of the surroundings' mana currents, Nial was able to figure out more about the beast.

With the use of the mana currents, it was even possible for him to roughly imagine the beast's outline.

It was inaccurate, but Nial was still able to tell what kind of beast had emerged from the Dungeon portal.

Because he now had the faintest idea of what existence he would supposedly fight, Nial's worry disappeared in an instant.

In a split second, he made his decision as he replied,

"I'm sorry, but we want to keep the Dungeon for personal use. I will call back later...maybe."

After that, Nial hung up, not even bothering to hear Rebecca's reply.

He stared ahead as excitement spread through his entire body.

This was a weird sensation which he hadn't felt since...he did not remember the exact time. 

Maybe, he had never felt like that, or he couldn't recall it.

Yet, what Nial didn't notice was that he had hung up on a flabbergasted woman, who couldn't help but look at the holographic screen in front of her as if it was broken.

"Did he just...hang up? How could my ability not work? Was he completely unfazed? Maybe he is...gay...or a eunuch?! That has to be it!"

She muttered furiously but it was of no use.

What Nial didn't know was that the young woman had used a charm type of ability that would normally cause men to react and act the way she wanted.

This ability worked through the phone too as long as she was the one who was talking to the other party.

This was the reason she was tasked with receiving the majority of calls for the emergency hotline that was flooded with doubts similar to Nial's.

In the end, Nial had only been distracted by her ability for a short moment.

Afterward, he was unaffected, as if he had gained immunity against it.

While perceiving the beast in front of him, Nial couldn't help but feel intrigued because it was, in fact, a slime!

'Is it a basic slime dungeon? That would at least explain the low amount of mana fluctuations...they're amongst the weakest existing beasts, after all…'

When the dungeon portal had emerged, he had been afraid for a second.

But Nial didn't even notice that this sensation had long since dispersed.

He had always been easily afraid of the unknown.

But somehow, his outlook and behavior had started to change since the awakening of his origin.

'Is it the influence of the seed?' Nial asked himself, only to shake his head.

There was no time for him to think about it.

He had to focus on perceiving the slime that was only a meter away from him.

It was advancing towards him at a shockingly slow pace that even a crawling baby could surpass easily.

This astonished Nial, who didn't expect slimes to be that slow.

While perceiving the slime, Nial tried to use his mana to figure out more about the beast.

Subconsciously, he pressed the button that transformed the white cane he had been clutching tightly to.

It turned into a poorly crafted spear which Nial thrust forward.

Nial didn't even notice that he had moved instinctively.

It was only after the spear had easily pierced through the slime's body that he grasped what happened.

The tip of his spear had penetrated the slime's core in a single strike.

Through this, the unknown, sticky liquid that had been held together by the core spilled over the ground before seeping into it.

With that seemingly simple strike, Nial had killed the slime, shocking him greatly.

He was not exactly fond of violence, let alone killing, but oddly enough, Nial felt nothing as he killed the small slime.

'Is it because I don't think of a slime as a living being?' He wondered, confused about why he didn't feel anything.

Only a moment later, Nial was dragged out of his thoughts as something odd happened.

All of a sudden, he heard weird sounds stemming from the slime. and Nial sensed how the corpse of the dead beast was being torn apart.

His mana perceived how it disintegrated into millions of tiny particles before they began to float in the air.

Slowly and steadily, they surrounded the destroyed mana core and the particles that began to merge with it.

Through his mana, he could sense the creation of something that made Nial smile vibrantly, dispersing the shock he had felt just a moment ago.

"An Origin crystal!!"