New destination; A fate to steal;

As Kerren's parents observed the situation they understood less and less. Kerren didn't just eat that piece of meat of awfully cooked meat, he seemed to enjoy it! When did he become like that, to enjoy something not a single sane person would?

They didn't think too much about it, as they knew that Kerren was... Special is some regards, from time to time he would make absurd claims and do questionable things, but what he did now was on the whole another level... Compared to before, that is.

When Kerren finished eating his masterpiece that others would call a work of a devil, he looked at his parents and said - Need anything? -- He didn't elaborate, he simply stared at them after saying it, waiting for them to answer.

- Kerren, are you alright? -- his mother said with a strange expression

- Yes. I just ate, why would i not be? -- his answer was bland and wasn't really an answer if you think about it.

- Okay, that's good, sweetie -- she forced a smile -- why did you change your mind about going to that camp? We thought you wanted to awaked faster -- she asked that, but her intention was completely diffrent, although one could mistake her for a simple woman.

She was not, she was crafty and always got what she wanted in her life, she loved to prey on those who fell into her trap, and in previous life Kerren was a prey too, he listened to her almost all the time, thinking that she was a complete opposite from his father who did show any resented him for each "mistake" he made... later, he found out that she was even worse.

- Awakening has nothing to do with physical abilities. I looked it up on the internet, this camp has bad reviews and is only focused on physical training along with some medicine that helps the body to grow. -- he came up with a perfect explanation on the spot. Of course it was true, otherwise he would've said it, the only part that he took out of his head... well, he took all of it, but to spice thing up even more he added the latter part about medicine.

- Okay sweetie, i believe you -- she was stiling forcing that awful smile -- What will you do then? You are already 16, you have to think about the futur and... -- as she continued to preach about life and all Kerren thought about it too.

The best thing he had right now was his abilities in mana-manipulation, this could allow him to be the greatest mage already... but he didn't have any mana or a way to get in fast. He thought about different camps, schools or universities he could attend to. There were many that offered an 80%+ guarantee that their attendees would awaked by the end of the last year, but those were insanely expensive.

More than that, going to such a place has it's downsides - it was heavily guarded since many children of important people also went there, meaning he could not do whatever he wanted. Moreover, they had strict policies and if one didn't attend or failed classes, which were physical, theoretical or magical, depending on the choice of the attendee, one would be warned. 4th warning meant that one was kicked and banned from applying again for 3 whole years.

Forget about the problems of those places, even if Kerren wanted to - he couldn't attend them, yes, his family had some influence, but it was not enough for him to attend such a place, at best he could go to some backwater university that would give their attendees one or two low-ranking crystals at best. Success rate of awakening after using those was abysmal.

So, he thought about asking his family about such places, after all he didn't even remember their names, what about specific places?

- Mother. -- Kerren interrupted, she was still preaching -- Do you know any universities i could attend to? Any place that provides a middle-ranked magic crystal is fine. Main focus should, preferably, be magical. -- his way of speaking was blank, as if he was a program that just read whatever was written.

- I... I think i do, but why do you suddenly want to study magic? Did you not tell me to find a place with good physical training? -- she asked with a strange look on her face, as if she was confused, but in reality - she didn't care.

- I changed my mind. -- he answered.

- It's fine if you dont want to tell me, sweetie. We will look for such a place for you, but remember that if you miss this one you wont be able to attend this year, so dont do anything rash, okay? -- she pretended to care for him, again.

In reality she was against Kerren going to a magical class. In this time and age tankers were insanely rare and finding a "wild" one was almost impossible, which is why many people wanted to be one without even realising what horror it was. The only thing they thought about was attention and money they'll get. Kerren's mother was one of those people and she didn't even did that herself, she wanted her son to risk his life.

But... If he didn't attend anything at all, would she get any profit? Nope. Which is why she agreed to whatever he wanted if that brought her more fame and money. It wasn't a big deal after all, mages were insanely useful too, although they were as rare as tanks - they were somewhat popular too, as people could understand that their potential would bloom with time.

With progress in magical-research new and new things would appear, new start would arise and new geniuses would be born. It was obvious that the only reason mages were scarse now is that it appeared not too long ago, so those who studied it now had to do most of the things on their own. Even having mana from birth wasn't a thing now, in the future the percentage of people without mana would fall to 40%, which made them inferior and they were treated as slaves most of the time, what can they do anyway? Tell the police? They were awakened too!

Time went by, Kerren didn't do anything but basic things a person would do like sleeping and eating, most of the time he was simply lying on sitting on the bed trying to remember anything of use. Sadly, it didn't bear much fruit, but he never gave up and never thought that it was boring, after all more than 97% of his actual life he spent in his thoughts.

With that, a week passed by. Kerren woke up and didn't move a muscle, as usual. This behavior of his didn't alert his parents because most of the time he was either doing something stupid or sit in his room infront of his PC anyway, who bother checking on him? He can take care of himself after all, otherwise how would he surived until now?

As he was doing his now usual thing, he heard a knock on the door.

- Sweetie, are you sleeping? -- his mother asked loudly, clearly intending to wake him up.

Kerren didn't respond.

She became even louder - Sweetie, are you sleeping?

- I am not. -- he answered as he understood that she wont go away until she got an answer.

- Oh, i must've woken you up? I'm sorry, sweetie. -- she tried to sound as kind as possible -- We found you a university sweetie, we already arranged it all, do you want to take a look at it? -- she asked, slowly opening the door.

- I do. -- was an answer from Kerren.

- Look -- she said as she came closer to his bed holding a phone -- This is the place... There's like what, 4 different paths?.. Oh, also a child of my friend is there... They said many good things about it... Overall i think you should go to... -- she babbled and babbled and babbled...

- What do you think, sweetie? Do you like the place? You can think of a path you will take, it's arranged on the place, but some of them require a high magic affinity, so you might not be able to get in... -- she explained, this time without any useless information.

- "I will be an Archmage" sounds fine. -- he answered. In reality, all names they had were stupid. The one he chose was a highest-ranking path for magical specialy. It required the highest magical affinity and great knowledge. Also, it was fully sponsored by guilds and the government, so whatever their students good was of the highest quality... that was also the reason they only took 10 of them each year.

- What? -- his mother suddenly became quiet -- But... that is the highest ranking path sweetie, how could you enter it? You dont even know... -- she then told him that he is stupid in a very delicate manner.

- I've decided. -- he answered -- When and where do i have to go? -- he followed up.

- Uh... Fine, sweetie, i support you - she said with a smile -- It's tomorrow, i dont know about the class schedule but... Also, if you meet... Maybe you should take an umbrella with you... -- she babbled and babbled...

- Will you take me there? -- he interrupted her again.

- Oh, sorry, haha! It looks like i've talked too much again! -- she quickly "apologized" -- I will, sweetie, dont worry -- she then big her farewells, wished Kerren a good sleep or whatever and left.

Kerren continued thinking and never left the bed until his mother woke him up so she could take him to get enrolled, as he finally remembered something that was of use he tried to dig even deeper to unravel the mystery behind that hid inside of his head. The thing he remembered wasn't of such importance, but it was something to remember, rise of a "great" person!

It was a warrior that once studied in the university he was about to attend to! Why such a great person would attend to a backwater place? Well, because it wasn't a backwater place! Did you not listen to me!? The university Kerren was about to attend has of the highest grade! Not only that, it was top-tier in the whole world! Why could he do that? He didn't bother to ask. Why would he? It's not like he could abuse his family's power there, other than that there were no uses to knowing.

Anyway, about the warrior, it doesn't matter who, what or where he is now, the only thing that matters is that in his autobiography, that he had written, re-released several times and split into 5 books, he described a dungeon under the university! It wasn't something secret, it was a stale dungeon that was used for practice, for some reason all of the monsters there were low-level, but the methods to get the class of the dungeon, ranging from F to S+ have shown that this dungeon is ranked S+!

It was a mystery why or how that happened and many people tried to solve it even before that person, but he was the one to do it, gaining a massive fortune out of it. In the end, it turned out that this whole place was just the first floor of the whole dungeon! Why didn't anybody know about it? Well, it's not like dungeons show what they are and what someone needed to do to close them, duh. It was actually humanity-first multi-layered dungeon out there, and even in Kerren's previous life it wasn't closed properly, it was only closed until the 7th floor of an unknown number of them.

The dungeon itself was a giant mystery that we will talk about when the time is right, now i'll explain why it was so important - the reward for clearing the first floor! Usually, many people would participate in such activities, clearing the dungeon alone was intirely possible, it fact, many people did that to get more money! It was not unusual to see an A ranked Protector go to a C rank dungeon alone, after all if he cleared it alone - he would get all of the rewards for himself!

Usually, there were several rewards in one dungeon that were distributed according to one's contribution, it was unknown what that was exactly, but seemingly it counted everythng a person did to clear the dungeon, healing, killing enemies, bosses or finding secrets gave you imaginary points that would get you more rewards after you've cleared it. However, if you left without clearing the dungeon - they would reset.

Even in Kerren's past life the exact formula behind those was unknown, the only major thing that people discovered was that if you've cleared the dungeon alone - you'll get all of the rewards even if you've only killed the boss, thus inventing such a method of making money. Many people abused that, but... uh... Well, that's not a thing i'm supposed to say, but by doing that they made the doom approach even faster...

Anyway, how the hell did he clear it? He was just a kid, after all! He... uh.. described every single thing that he did in his biography... This was his greatest achievement in life, after all! He loved to boast that without him humanity would'nt be able to get those rewards, would not be as strong, etc... Yeah... Okay, so about the clear-condition itself, it was insanely easy - find and kill a certain monster.

Why did i not specify? Because it was unknown what monster that was! That moron killed it by an accident, then lying that he caught a gist of something not being right when he saw it, describing how the tracked and hunted it. In reality, however, he simply stumbled upon it and accidently killed, but that is a thing only you and i know, so shhh.

Kerren's plan was simple, since the floor was filled with lowest-level monsters he only needed to look something that isn't one. Maybe a ball of light? A fly? Maybe a funny-looking ant was his target. If needed - he would just nuke the place altogether to get those rewards, they were enormous! Of course, to even get a chance to do so he would need to enroll...

Which is what he was about to do now, as he long since entered his mothers car that was taking him there. Why did i not tell you about that earlier? I told you that, i quote, "Kerren continued thinking and never left the bed until his mother woke him up so she could take him to get enrolled" meaning that he already left the bed! I didn't specify when was it, yeah... Why do you think i was talking about a such unimportant character all of a sudden!? It's because it's boring here! This is a car! Kerren didn't even take his phone with him!