First Raid

[…

You have entered a Dungeon

…]

Aldrich saw the thick forest in front of him. He put the mask in his backpack and focused on the flashing notifications. And In the last three days, Aldrich had learned many things other than controlling his Perception.

[…

You have 3 new Quests

…]

"Open."

[…

Quest 1: Secure a Return-Stone

Quest 2 (optional): Hunt an Elite Crawler

Quest 3 (optional): Survive the fight with the Boss Crawler until its health drops down to 30% of its max HP

…]

Aldrich already knew what a Return-Stone was. Dreamers had also found Crawlers to drop Items, Skills, or Mana cores occasionally. And the Return-Stone was a Mana core that would allow a Dreamer to return, otherwise, he would get stuck here forever. Many things differed about these Dungeons when compared to the preconceived knowledge of them before the Night. The setting of the Dungeon had hardly come out to be a cave or tunnel. The thick forest in front of Aldrich was the proof of that.

'It's like it has sent me to a completely different world,' Aldrich thought.

Another thing that differed from the norm was the Crawlers. Unlike in video games or some novels, people had found the Dungeon Crawlers in Dungeons to be based on the local myths. And different countries had different Crawlers. And they depended upon the myths of legendary creatures of that country or region. This alone had cost many lives. The data on these Crawlers had become the most lucrative business in the last year.

And the third and the biggest difference between these Dungeons and the Dungeons of yore was that one didn't need to kill the Boss to complete the raid. Like with Aldrich, whether during the Bright-Day or the Night, a Party had to complete only the Quests given to them. And yet, Aldrich could feel the cruel nature of things, seeing the 'Optional' word. The Quests like these were only optional on the Bright-Day. What one could do if they were to be mandatory? Nothing.

"I only have 36 hours available to me. Unlike the Random-Dungeons, there is no time difference between the real world and here."

Aldrich had come to the Dungeon for a specific purpose, to monopolize all the ExPs. Aldrich raised his Perception to the max and took a machete out of his backpack. No, it wasn't an Item but only a normal weapon. Useless on the Crawlers, but was enough to make a way into the Jungle. The forest was dense, and he could hardly distinguish anything clearly a few meters ahead. But neither the forest nor the man was normal. Aldrich's outrageous perception soon detected disturbance at the periphery of his limit. Before he could make out what it was, the sound of metal clacking to each other reached him.

'This…?' Aldrich's eyes became wide, now that he could see those things.

The wind howled behind Aldrich, who was now running frantically in the opposite direction. He could hear a swishing sound around him now and then. Aldrich suddenly ducked, and an axe went hurling over him and lodged itself into the trunk of a tree. But Aldrich couldn't take his eye off the axe. Four legs originated on the axe, two in front and two behind. And with a jerk, it pulled itself out of the trunk. The axe stood upon the ground using its legs, and Aldrich could see two menacing red pupils on each side of Axe's blade. A low growl came out of the axe, and the lower part of the blade split in two. And there were rows of needle-sharp teeth in the axe's blade.

"Grrr… woof."

And similar barking sounds came rushing towards Aldrich from his behind too. Aldrich had expected that different Crawlers could spawn in the Dungeon. But the arrival of these Crawlers had turned out too much different from the mentioned list. A pack of Axehandle Hounds had surrounded Aldrich.

But Aldrich was even more astonished, seeing the displayed words over the head of those creatures.

[…

Record of Common Axehandle Hound

Status: Pack Buff (Strength +1)

Level: 3

HP: 116/116

SP: 168/168

MP: 179/179

Rank: Common

Attributes -->

Strength: 8 (+1)

Defense: 9

Agility: 11

Vitality: 4

Perception: 15

Correspondence: 3

Active Skills -->

1. Hurling Slash

2. Thousand Needles Bite

Passive Skills -->

1. Enhanced Senses

…]

'How am I able to see their Stats?' Aldrich clearly remembered that the only thing Dreamers had seen was the Health Bar of Crawlers. With a slight turn of the head, Aldrich eyed the other hounds and he could see the Stats of every Crawler.

'Is this mean I can see other Dreamer's Stats too?' But Aldrich put a hold on his thoughts. The situation had already turned fatal enough to think about anything else. The growling of the strange beasts had reached a tandem. But Aldrich wasn't completely unprepared. Though he didn't expect these Crawlers, he expected others. Aldrich's hand reached into the void and took out a blue ball with a red switch. Even if he didn't have a proper weapon, he had money, and plenty enough to buy these Mana-Shockwave Grenades.

Some Classes could use Mana cores as materials to create this type of Item. These grenades replicated a specific type of skill, Mana-Shockwave, from some mages. With only 20 of them being equivalent to a unit of Inventory, he could equip all of them.

'If only I could use a weapon-type Item, but they are useless without their accompanying Skill.'

Aldrich had been lamenting when one hound hurled itself toward Aldrich. The sharpness of its mouth had sliced open the air. Aldrich wasn't a marksman, but he had an unusual Perception. He pressed the switch on the blue ball and threw it towards the Crawlers.

BOOM!!!

The shockwaves sent Aldrich flying and so were the others that had surrounded him. And Aldrich could hear a whimpering sound at a far place. He stood up, using the machete as a stand, and saw the crumbling body of the blasted Axehandle Hound.

[…

You have killed 1 Common Axehandle Hound

ExPs obtained: 120

You have leveled up

You have obtained 6 Attribute Points

You have obtained 1 Skill Point

…]

Among the broken branches and terrifying creatures, the smile on Aldrich's face looked even weirder.

*

HQ–American Dreamer's Association

Washington D. C.

The Director of ADA was not a Dreamer, a fact that was known by the entire world.

Mr. Owen Myers was a busy man. Let alone America, sometimes he had to oversee the data related to other countries, too. But for the first time since last year, Mr. Owen had wasted a full 30 minutes. And Ms. Wells, the Deputy Director, seconded it. Ms. Wells hadn't been on this post since the beginning. The post used to belong to a Dreamer. But then the Dreamer died in one of Random-Dungeon, and the Government decided to just hire a normal human for the job.

So maybe the truly busy person was she. Mr. Myers and Ms. Wells had both valued their time, and both had admired each other's efforts. And yet, both agreed on the fact that they had wasted the last 30 minutes.

"Sir, we shouldn't." Ms. Wells suggested.

Mr. Myers took a deep breath and said, "Olivia, I see a woman full of potential in you. They say that I got this job because I had sucked up to someone, or that I am black or something else. But you, you could sit on this chair receiving no criticism."

Olivia didn't feel too embarrassed upon hearing the praise. People knew her as a composed woman. But that was not the reason she didn't respond. She didn't respond because Ms. Wells wasn't as old as Mr. Myers. It wasn't a big deal in the old world, but it did matter now. The data had shown that almost all Dreamers lie between the age group of 18 to 52.

Mr. Myers knew why there was a silence in the room and he advised, "Even if you were to turn into a Dreamer, don't let the post go." He again eyed the report in front of him. A verification employee from Arizona had submitted that to the Association.

"Can I do it?" He asked Olivia or to himself. Or maybe he was soothing his conscience.

"Sir," Olivia said in a stern tone, "We shouldn't."

The USA and all the UN countries had agreed upon the idea of using only the ID to verify a Dreamer Class. The most direct reason was to respect a Dreamer's privacy, and the reason behind the curtains was to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. It wasn't any secret that when one Dreamer kills another Dreamer, one could earn both ExPs and some or all the Inventory Items from the deceased. One could have easily turned the strength of the Licence into a weakness.

But there was one organization in the USA which could see the information behind the ID. Or there was only one who could find out the real name, address, and contact information of a Dreamer registered with ADA. The Director of the American Dreamer Association wasn't just a busy man, he was even, in some sense, more powerful than the President himself.

"The things we do for our country," Mr. Myers resolved himself and typed the ID number in his system.

Olivia eyed the projected laptop screen on the TV. Even if she was against it, she too wanted to know the Dreamer who had dared to raid a Dungeon by himself. Mr. Myers let the system scan his retina and pressed the enter key.

The files in the hands of Ms. Wells dropped. And the sheer force of him standing up threw away Mr. Myers' chair. There were no names, no addresses, and no contact information on the screen, but there were only two words.

"Only once."