Fated Meeting

In a certain street in the market, in front of a bakery.

A teen with ragged clothes, shoes and other things that he wears are in tatters. His shoes has holes, his pants is torn, shirt has lost its glow and filled with dust. The only thing that is good is his belt.

The three way belt that is hugging his body.

"H-H-Help me." He said.

It's already two months since he got out of the labyrinth. The guards there looked at him with disdain. They only looked at him like a fly that can't even reach the second floor.

They kicked him, stabbed him with the rear of a spear, hit him and punched him. Some other pissed on him, and others spat on him.

The downfall of the hero.

Sometimes, people will give him bread that has molds, others give him rotten ones, and his stomach get upset sometimes.

He is a genius at cooking, but he needs ingredients, and his body is in that state, he can't even get energy from those food.

Some other time, when the guards threw him down the lower city, some people gave him bread that has no molds, but is too hard to bite. He got some energy from that, but in the end, it is not enough.

Now, he is as thin as a malnourished child.

"Give way!" A knight above a horse is shouting at the people on that semi busy street. The hooves of the horse is deep, meaning it is healthy and a good steed.

The teen grew jealous of the horse. That horse, without even getting tired, eats full meals and is healthy.

Behind that horse is a carriage, a fancy one at that. It has no roof, and six people are standing there.

"Is that the princess?"

"She's so pretty."

"I hope she marry me."

"Dumbass, her beauty is not of this world. Don't even think of her in your fantasies."

"Why do you call me dumbass, dumbass!"

Some people were teasing each other, and some are admiring the beauty of the princess.

Out of the six people in the carriage are the five people that carries the bloodlines of the Council.

Niana Oregon. From the Oregon Family. Their family is the masters of magic and mana. They have high aptitudes with mana and as kids, they are to learn magic. The princess is also known as the Fire and Ice Princess.

Keith Monterrey. From the Monterrey Family. They are the masters of martial arts. He is a bit extraordinary, for his body is not filled with muscles or like rocks. He is thin and a bit arrogant, but he can back it up with his fists. He is known as the Dragon Martial Keith.

Jovanna Rosenberg. From the Rosenberg Family. The weapon masters and aether. It is said that they are to choose a weapon when their first birthday comes. Jovanna chose a bow and a sword when that happened. She is called the Devil of Bow and Sword.

France Morgan. From the Morgan Family. The masters of glyph and beast tamers. When he was a child, a nine-tailed fox came to their house to be his guardian. Then came his monicker Nine-Tailed France.

Louis Musk. From the Musk Family. Masters of science, and engineering. Their family is the one that created the weapons for siege and wars. He is a genius that created a renewable source of energy. The source was made from two cation solutions that is extremely reactive and will change its partner from time to time. He earned the monicker Tech Guardian Louis.

And the recent addition to the consort. The one that arrived in this world four months ago. The jack of all trades, master of none, Celestine Axami. From the Noble House of Axami. From the Central Galaxy. She was sent here due to a turbulence after a fight between her and a man named Nehalenia.

She is here as an one of the those people that will spearhead the labyrinth. They said that it was two months ago that the labyrinth became more vicious and harder. Rank X and Y appeared in the first floors, but it should have appeared on the fifth floor and below.

Although they are good, they are also needed in their fields, so they will go to the labyrinth every weekend, and stay there for two days. They will have a camp in the labyrinth and the army they will lead inside will guard their checkpoints.

It is said that once you enter a floor in the labyrinth, you can only teleport two floors above the said floor. For example, you went back to the top floor and the last floor you are in is floor 35. The next time you enter, you will start at floor 33.

There are four major checkpoints in the labyrinth. Floor 20, Floor 40, Floor 60 and Floor 80. These floors have their difficulties skyrocket.

Imagine you are in Floor 19, and you faced a hundred Z ranks, 50 Y ranks, 25 X ranks, 12 W ranks and one V rank.

The next floor, Floor 20, will have 3 V ranks to deal with. Then the 21st floor will have 4 V ranks.

That is the hierarchy inside this labyrinth. The lower it is, the stronger the ones below.

The carriage then went on without stop. They know they are short in time, so stopping now is like making people experience peril.

After the storm passed, the people then became silent. It was a long time ago when a hero got there, and stopped the creatures from within to go out.

"I'm hungry." The man again said, his lips are dry and his stomach is growling.

"Hey, hey, hey, what do we have here?" A group of thugs then came. There are five of them. Burly and shredded muscles are their types. Their complexions are white, so no one will look at them as bad people.

They walked towards the man who has a nice belt on his body. A man, with a mice belt, but so hungry.

"I bet this belt will fetch us some money." The thug said, as he then picked up the man.

"Hey, give that belt to us, and we will give you money." One of them said.

"M-M-Money?" The man said and his eyes regained life. He then stood up, then took off his belt. One of them then took out a few paper bills, but when the boy took the bills, a punch was sent to his stomach.

He puked out blood, and his thin body collapsed. In a short moment, he lost his consciousness. The others laughed when they saw it.

"Serves him right." A lady said. She is the owner of the bakery, and she also has an inkling towards the belt. Little did she knew that it will lead her to her demise.

The thugs then arrived before her, and she then used the belt. After that, she experienced a boost in her energy, and became five years younger.

"So this is a magic tool, huh? If he only knew, he must have sold it somewhere and fetched a price to feed himself. Dispose him." When the lady said that, a group of three has already appeared beside the man.

One of them is a thin old man, carrying a bag on his back. The other two are a man and a woman at the same age as the man lying in front of her shop.

The old man fetched some water from his bag, and poured some on the mouth of the boy. It did wet his lips, but his consciousness isn't back.

The old man then took the man, and let the other man carry him. They walked out of the city, and they all vanished from sight.

The madam of the bakery then gasped. She knew that man, and she knew that the council are looking for him and his family.

"I struck gold this time." She said and let her goons follow the family, but she lost them.

Suddenly, the belt tugged her into somewhere. She knew then that it was the way that they walked, for Magic Tools are loyal, and will go back to their master if they are away from them, but, to kill her joy, the belt suddenly lied down and did not move.

"They are using a magic barrier. Let's go, next time they appear, their bounties are mine." She said as she laughed.

-----------------------------------------

Inside a cave.

There are almost twenty magic circles that are engraved inside the cave. Some are sensors, others are for entering.

Today, Cedric carried a man with a gray hair in his back. He is too light so he does not have a problem when he goes in. Melrose, his sister, also is curious about the boy they picked up from the street.

Their grandfather, Solas, is not the kind of person that will just pick up battered people on the streets. Also, this person has enough strength to work, and they need money to enroll at the Pentagon City Academy. Feeding one more mouth means less money for them.

"Let him rest at the bed. Tell me when he is awake." Solas said as he walked towards the kitchen. The only way to light the cave up is using torches, so they are a bit blind to sunlight.

Solas rubbed his eyes at first, then he cooked food that is good for four people.

"A-Am I dead?" When Solas was almost finished from preparing food, the man woke up and looked around.

He saw two people glaring at him with frowns on their face.

"Grandpa, he is awake!" Melrose said as she walked towards the kitchen.

"No, you are still alive." Cedric said coldly. He too, went out and fetched some clothes.

Solas went in, and he was holding a pair of pistols. A scarlet and blue aura is emanating from it.

He then aimed it at the head of the man, but the man simply looked at the guns like he was a kid looking at his new toys: excited.

"What's your name?" He asked the man.

"Name?" The man said, but when he thought about it, nothing came up.

He looked down, dejected, and said:

"I don't remember."

Solas then retracted his hand, then placed the revolvers inside a box.

"Take a bath. Eat with us after you do so." Solas said and nodded towards Cedric.

He only sighed and then Melrose and Solas went to the dining table.

It did not took long for the man to take a bath. He then changed his clothes to a more comfortable one. A shirt, short pants and sandals. Cedric then led him to the table.

When they started eating, the man was shying away, but when Cedric forced a spoon of the soup to his mouth, they were surprised. His appetite cleaned up the whole pot. It's a good thing that they already had their fill, but the problem is, they have no food later on that day.

"Are you perhaps a glutton?" Cedric sighed.

"Just let him, I guess he didn't have a good meal for a while. We will hunt later for food." Solas said as he looked at the satisfied face of the man.

The man then looked around, and saw some peculiar portraits near a torch. He was curious, and Solas saw it. He told Cedric to get some, and so he did.

He then gave some of the portraits to Vin, and then, he picked up four of them.

"These are mine." The portraits have different structures and different lengths from the real one, but the two shields and two swords are all identical to the swords and shields the man has.

The three are surprised. They know that the two shields are from the lowest floor of the labyrinth, but what's more surprising is that the two swords are just legend to them. It also means that the other ones are also legends.

"Are you sure?" Solas asked.

"Yes." Then the man touched his belt. It was then that he realized that he gave away his belt.

"On the belt." He said dejectedly.

"You will get back that belt. For now, let me teach you things from this world. From now on, I will call you Zion, for that is the name of the man who used to handle those shields." Solas then stood up and the two also grinned. A fateful encounter on the day he almost encountered death.