The Ascension

Ascended, a more advanced form of human, after an event known as the blood moon a year ago people known as ascended have appeared with supernatural like capabilities. These abilities seemly appear out of nowhere.

Although the strength of the abilities can differ hugely the single globally accepted fact about all ascended is the sheer difference between ascended beings and them. Jack a G- Rank ascended the lowest ranking ascended is seen more as a mascot to other ascended then a comrade, somehow managed to injure himself in even the easiest of dungeon raids.

ascended that often raided with jack used him as a reference to speak about especially weak dungeons.

Jack was a true blue Australian before moving to American a few years ago. Jack never really had friends but always kept a smile on his face. People often said his only positive note was his infectious smile.

the day the blood moon occurred everyone had simply believed a regular eclipse was about to occur. Swirling orb like vortex's began to form all around the world, simultaneously People all around the world minds were seemingly under attack as the grasped the heads and collapsed in pain, these attacks was a phenomenon known as ascending with their new found abilities being born.

Immediately after ascending people understood the newly acquired abilities as if they were born with them. As these superhuman beings appeared societies norm changed with strong ascended standing above all.

Present day.

Jack, a weak human. His younger sister about to finish high school and his mother now sickly it is up to him to support them through their hard times by becoming a ascended. Jack walked along the footpath, at the end of the road was a large constructed sight, large beams and machines scattered about as frustrated workers argued with men in suits.

"Yo, you better get this crap off our site. We got a job to do and can't afford to stop for the day"

"we've already evaluated the dungeon level and we're sending in a team to deal with it shortly, don't worry we'll be out of your hands shortly" one of the men in suits yelled as Jack walked passed into the construction site, hunters were all around the vortex ready to siege the dungeon waiting for the all clear to enter. The man in the suit quickly looked over towards jack as he entered the site, "Don't worry, jack here is a good luck charm. Should be a quick and easy dungeon you'll be back to work in a few hours hopefully"

As he smiled towards the construction worker, he walked away patting jack on the back, "good luck today jacks haha, try not to get hurt" The man in the suit was a government worker assigned to overview the dungeon appearance making sure hunters were following the laws and procedures for dungeons.

In front of the vortex was a group of 9 other people waiting around, a man with a longsword tucked by his waist glanced over at jack smiling at his arrival "aye jack's here we can finally head in" nearly everyone in the group was happy to see he had arrived, although one man barely in his twenties with tattoos covering his forearms saw him being late, "why did we even wait for him, this dungeon was supposed to be easy, plus isn't he really weak?" . The swordsman glared at the tattooed Young Man 'this man is best luck charm you'll come across, we've never lost a man with him around us. we also can't go in without at least ten people you should know that" The young man quieted down deciding best not to press the issue further.

The swordsman leads the group towards the vortex pressing his hand against it, instantly the vortex swirled frantically quickly he and each other person stepped through. They now stood in a large room with pillars scattered around the entire place, light emanated atop the pillars with rings of light built into them. The room had a cold breeze flowing through it, but the group didn't have the leisure of stopping to rest, small groups of rodent monsters like rabbits swarmed around them. The monsters fell easily to the group, the leader wielded a sword cutting down monsters especially fast, while casting fire magic simultaneous. everyone was easily defeating the creatures except for Jack, struggling to handle one, as he struggled to stand against them, he saw mason the leader mowing through enemies, he was both in awe and filled with envy wishing he had that kind of strength.

They progressed through the dungeon rooms dealing with the creatures swiftly, their goal was to collect the monster's cores to sell and find the boss room. the group progressed effortlessly with out a single hiccup or injury, aside from jack. Unbeknown to the rest of the group he was separated from the group and fighting for survival. The dungeon was so easy for everyone, no one even noticed when poor Jack fell behind and abandoned in this maze-like dungeon.

He ran as fast as he could to get away from the monsters, his legs aching all over. Ahead of him was a cave like tunnel in front of him, forward was his only option. As he ran full speed into the tunnel he glanced behind to see if they were still there, 4 rodent monsters were hot behind him ready to end him. suddenly his body felt light, he was falling, he'd taken one step to many and fallen down a cliff like drop inside the tunnel, down he plummeted falling, smashing into walls and spikes, tumbling all the way down.

He'd stopped falling but he was injured all over, he was flat on his back. He tried to lean forward to get up only to notice he had fallen on a large spiked pillar on the floor. He looked around frantically "no, no, no I want to live I can't die this pathetically I have to live" he looked around hoping for someone. He was losing consciousness as he started coughing blood up, when a hunched hooded figure crept towards him, his face was covered as he giggled sinisterly "hehe so you want to live then do ya, you want a second chance well your in luck, take my hand and I can give you that chance hehe" a grotesque hand made its way in front of jack, the hand looked like it belonged on a corpse that had been in the ground for years but that wasn't going to stop him.

He pushed through the pain and fading vision stretching his hand out little by little to grab on his second chance. As he gripped the hand with his remaining strength his consciousness faded into nothingness.

Jack opened his eyes, as his vision cleared, he realised he was lying down inside a hospital bed. Standing beside him was two men wearing extravagant suits and a nurse. Before jack had time to sit up the men quickly spoke to him "Nice of you to wake up finely, we've got a few questions for you".

One of the men had an orangey goldish hair colour and spoke with a serious tone. "your last dungeon raid, there was an incident and only 3 others aside from you survived. Normally this wouldn't spike any confusion, but all the witnesses mentioned you disappearing and here you are alive and well, while nearly your entire raid group was wiped out"

Jack was in shock, what happened to them? He kept thinking over and over in his mind. "um, ahh sorry ahh I fell behind and got lost, I kept running and somehow fell into a hole that's all I remember". Both the suits looked at each other, then one of them opens his jacket and pulls at a device. "we don't think you're the culprit jack, but the situation was so dire the chances of a G-rank like you surviving on his own is unlikely so we are going to have to test and see if you've reascended" the device has a small space on one side for people to press their palm against allowing the device to measure their capabilities. After Jack pressed his palm on the screen he began to wonder if he really did ascend again, he took his hand off to see the number appearing. Ten an extremely low number even for G-ranks appeared on the screen.

The suits sighed simultaneously in disappointment, they also hoped to find a strong individual. The orange hear one put his hand on jacks' shoulder and looked at him, "we don't understand much about what happened, but we do know you're weak, very weak. You should consider quitting before you die" after leaving a depressing statement to float around inside Jacks mind, they walked out of the room. jack left alone slowly drifted away back to sleep.

He found himself in the dungeon again with a cynical laughter filling the air, the air was thick and heavy, making it hard to breath, the monsters were behind him. "hehe run child hehe" the voice that came from everywhere was calling his name, follow the voice or face an unavoidable death by lowly monsters. The hole he plummeted down last time was right in front of him. the creatures began to creep towards him slowly. "I'm not going to die today you stupid animals" he shouted as he took a blind leap of faith into the hole. This time it was different, the hole was full of water.

Gasping for air as he looked around in the inky black water surrounding him. as he was gasping, he realised quickly that for some reason he wasn't drowning. As he tried to wrap his head around the current situation a flickering red light appeared in the distance, it slowly drifted its way towards jack. He couldn't look away it may be his death approaching but he didn't care. The laughing he heard surrounded him once again as it got closer and closer, until the red light was an inch away from his face. the red light was originating from the eye socket of the zombie like creature standing in front of him.

"Welcome to my home kiddie hehe" he flicked his fingers. The surrounding environment changed quickly as the area slowly became an old-fashioned home, with tacky wall papers to boot. Jack on his knees confused out of his mind. "I'm sure your confused about what's happening but worry not, you work for me now"

Did he hear him right? he works for him now? "what? But you're not even human?" the statement left no impact on the creature standing in front of him, he expected such a statement due to his appearance. "quiet the eye you've got there. You're right I'm not human but I'm not a simple monster either. Now all you've got to worry about is that you do as I say and you'll become stronger than you could imagine.

"okay but what if I don't do you what you say?", a smirk seemingly appeared on the creature's face.

"simple. You die or wish you were dead anyways" those few words were stung deep into Jack's mind as his heart started to race faster and faster.

"Firstly, you gotta get strong kid hehe, let's make it simple, your daily regime will be 2km runs, 100 push ups, 100 curl ups and 100 squats", jack just barely survived the dungeon and was currently injured all over. "How am I supposed to manage that I'm injured all over from that dungeon?", without a second delay a wirily smirk appeared, and his tone became cynical again "up to you, all I can say is you wouldn't want to see the punishment for not doing it I'm sure haha". After the laughter subsided the creature looked at jack and with a grin flicked his finger.

Like nothing happened jack woke up inside the hospital bed. After quietly pondering his situation he was awestruck at the task set out for him. as he thought about how to begin his regime a nurse quietly walked into the room. "hello Jack, feeling any better today"? her voice didn't phase jack at all, her existence wasn't registered inside his mind in the slightest. she changed his bags and left him to recover "have a nice day jack" giving him a polite smile as she leaves the room.

"I guess the running would be the easiest to complete", after a short while of internal discussions on how to begin jack suddenly finds it surprisingly hard to keep his eyes open. Quickly his vision fades to black without ever leaving the bed. Hours fly past quickly as jack sleeps away his day recovering. Eventually his eyes open, the sunlight shining through his window. Jack realising, he dozed off and quickly thinks to himself "a small nap properly did be good, but I should start running". Right after finishing that thought the cynical laughter fills his surrounding again, "you're a lot more correct then you realise you'd best start running kid hehe, you'd best start running and fast" these words filled jacks mind, his surroundings changed, he was now standing in a desert. An excruciating desert beamed itself against jack's skin. "That damn demon". The surrounding was mostly flat red sand in every direction, except for a few long hills off in the distance. After watching the surrounding he quickly realised this was worse then he had realised. The hills were moving and fast.

The Hills were moving quickly, he needed to run and fast. "I told you to do your regime Jackie boy, maybe if you survive for 2 hours maybe you can even have a reward hehe" the creatures voice filled jacks mind once, but the only thing jack took notice of was surviving for two hours, a tough task but not impossible. Now he was solely focused on his survival. He ran, fast, he wasn't going to die in an unknown desert. He ran and ran and ran for as long as could. The heat was beginning to blister his skin, it was becoming hard to breath, he couldn't run anymore. The monsters were like bullet trains speeding right towards him, his biggest fear became reality as they began to rear their ugly heads, giant worms with rows and rows of teeth along with giant pincers protruding from their faces. they dove out of the sand into the air and a if the only thing they could see was jack began to dive towards him. looking up all he could see was rows and rows of death.

As deaths teeth surrounded jack, he clenches his eyes, praying someone somewhere somehow would save him from this, he kept praying waiting for the pain, but it never came. As he pondered if he was already dead the feeling of being knocked around on a rickety boat washed over jack as he found himself falling, beneath him was the hard floor of the hospital room. around him was sand scattered around. "someone somewhere doesn't want me dead yet" he sighed a breath of relief that he can live for another day,

"you are a lucky one aren't you, well as promised here's your reward" unlike the normal voice echoing through jacks head the voice came from directly behind jack, he quickly turns around to see the creature standing right behind him. In his hand is a weird metallic box with odd symbols imbedded into it, he throws the box towards Jack. "You might be interesting kiddo, since your now my employee you can call me Camio" He gives a both relieved smile and a wily cynical smirk towards jack.

Jack exhausted grips the box and looks down to examine it. Once he looks up Camio's already made clear getaway. "Is it really okay to open this?" it might be a reward, but he kept comparing the box to the forbidden fruit, was it really okay to accept a gift from the devil? He considered throwing the box away and forgetting it exists, but he could "even if I have to sell my soul to the devil if it means getting stronger and providing for those I cherish I'll gladly sell it in a heartbeat"

He slowly opens the box, inside lies a beautifully designed curved dagger. The dagger contains a silver horned demon skull built into the guard with extravagant jewels in the eye sockets. The handle was made of a wood with silver rings on the ends. Along with the curved dagger was a small note underneath reading "Enjoy kiddo, this is my own personal creation. Its name is CarnWennan, not all your rewards will be this extravagant, but I can't allow you to die yet" the note was a surprise to jack, revealing some of the humanity inside of Camio. Jack for the first time in a while smiled, it was time to train. He put the dagger on his side inside a nicely made sheath.

On normal occasions a newly emitted patients would'n't be allowed to do much physical activity but due to jack being awakened that made him stronger, even if just a little. Around the hospital was a small pathway going around the entire property. Jack could be seen running around this pathway countless times, along with running he was also the topic of discussion due to being spotted doing push ups, sit ups and curl ups. The amount of physical activity he was capable on his first day fully wake was awe inspiring to the other patients.

By the end of the day jack had managed to complete his regime, the moment he finished an aura surrounded jack like he was being cleansed by groups of healers. "Do your tasks and get rewarded simple" the words left a meaning behind them inside jack "He heals and recovers my stamina maybe he isn't all that bad" Although it was day one of training, he was feeling extremely optimistic about his future as a ascended now.

After weeks of repetitive training and exercising jack was finally discharged from hospital, the debt from staying in hospital wasn't a small amount and was determined to deal with fast. After Being discharged he called up the Dungeon association, who handled freelancer hunters looking for requests. "Oh jack, we hadn't heard from you in a while everyone thought you died inside a dungeon. Well there is a party of 9 that's looking for another G- rank to join them in a dungeon raid later this afternoon. If you'd like- "Before the person could finish what they were saying jack quickly cut them off saying "Yes, I definitely want to do the run, send me the details please" excitement reverberated through his voice. After the quick call jack's face could be read like an open book with a smile from ear to ear appearing on his face. He was ready he'd been training and could feel a considerable difference in his strength since he last entered a dungeon.

Jack still had few hours before the dungeon run so he'd decided to quickly do his daily training, the training regime that jack thought to be impossible was slowly becoming a simple repetitive daily routine. As he began his run, he heard a woman scream, as he turned towards the scream, he realised the situation instantly, a man carrying a purse was sprinting away from the woman.

Perfect opportunity to test his skills out, he narrowed the man into his vision and sprinted after him. He was fast, the man glanced behind him. Jack was quickly catching up and he knew that. Into the ally he dashed throwing bins and trash behind as a last-ditch effort, "shit" a dead end. Jack stood their he wasn't letting him dip past him. the man obviously wasn't expecting to get caught, he was scared it was all over his face and trembling body. "Just pass the bag and we can ignore this" jack said but the man wasn't having any of it. the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small switch knife. His eyes were wide open, his hands were shaking he didn't want this. "SCREW YOU PAL" he ran full speed at jack with knife in hand, "He's really slow" jack dodged his attack easy, jack's speed was honed over the last few weeks making it easy to avoid such slow and obvious attacks. The knife came back around for another heavy swing, jack wasn't going to miss this opportunity, he quickly knocked the knife out of his hand and tackled the man down.

Jack might only be a G-rank but compared to a regular human the difference was clear and night and day. He gripped the man's arms behind his back and walked him out of the ally. A small crowd had gathered to see the spectacle. He didn't have time to give a report he had to finish his running.

"Someone take this guy I have somewhere important to be" With a wide smile he quickly Runs off to finish his training before the dungeon.