Prologue - How I got here: Part 1

As I stand here once again before one of these portals, I can't help this feeling of dread bubbling up in my stomach. I have had this feeling many times before, it wouldn't be the first time I went through one of these. However, the feeling of dread still remained every time. Sometimes I can't help but wonder what the people who first discovered these portals a century ago must have felt. We now have a lot of safety measures after all the time that has passed. But back then there were none. Yet my generation has never known it to be different. We grew up with the idea of an adventurer being a very possible career choice. I sometimes wish I didn't choose it though.

My name is Azure Nguyen. I am what you can call a pretty seasoned portal delver. Even though I am a 23-year-old who trains nearly every day. Even so I am still pretty scrawny looking, it seemed like my F- rank caused me to be weak forever. My parents had originally decided to give me another name. But apparently the moment I opened my eyes they felt like the name Azure fit me better. However, I think of my eyes just as a one of the few things that reminds people of my mom. People who knew her always say I look like her. Even my slightly long black hair reminds them of her. I don't like getting those comments though, that's why I keep my hair in a bun.

As I look around the place, I notice it's already quite busy here. But that's honestly expected for a D+ rank portal. The colour of the portal tends to be different each time. The rank didn't affect the colour. If you look at the portals youll see how they never stop swirling. If I look too much into the portal I would probably start feeling ill. Something people who don't come into contact with portals will never realise is the smell of them. This smell wouldn't even be considered a bad smell because it is a more neutral one in tone. Yet in my mind, it just equates to being a bad one. However, once you're through the portal the smell fades away. I think the bad experiences I have had with them have developed some form of danger response. My body seems to associate the smell of these portals with danger. It clearly indicates how terrible I am at adventuring.

As I look around the place where the portal appeared. I can't help but notice how calm it is. This seems to be a place where it isn't too busy for once. It is in an abandoned place in town. Which is good for the people who live around the place. However, it didn't really matter to be fair. Portal spills off gates didn't happen often anymore. Any portal above A+ is considered too advanced for someone like me. At that point, it is better to flee. Any portals above A rank are insanely strong and dangerous.

While looking around the place I immediately start recognising some familiar faces. One I quickly recognise is Drake. He's someone who has been doing these delves for at least two decades at this point. While he might seem a bit rough at first he has been at C+ rank gates and those can get pretty brutal. He has seen how badly planned things can actually turn out. He tends to even stand out in the crowd purely because of his hair. Well, it's not only his hair that stands out. I just happen to spot him with his hair every single time. He has a pretty tall stature. He seems to be talking to someone I haven't seen at any of these parties before. Drake seems to be calming down the girl. I think this is probably her first raid which isn't surprising, people tend to be the most freaked out their first time. Which is understandable, low ranking people like me understand this all too well. Well, when you're low-ranking like me then you will probably be freaked out every time you go there.

Drake is a veteran portal delver who's partly the reason I managed to survive all these years. You wouldn't think he was a veteran from the looks of it. I wouldn't even think he was over forty if I looked at him. Part of the reason was his amazing hair. I have no idea how he maintains it so well, but his beautiful mahogany coloured pushed back makes him look younger. He is however pretty pale looking, probably because he tends to do the portals with caves or forests behind them. But he is more than capable of dealing with these types of portals.

I also spot some people I wish I didn't spot or just, in general, didn't have to deal with. Like dealing with them not only takes a lot of physical energy but also a lot of mental energy. I don't know which is actually worse at this point. He is the typical high school jock even though he is 25 at this point. You would think he would've grown out of this phase already.

"Oi, guys look who showed up. Azure, are you going the attempt one of these again or are you going to flee yet again, like the baby you are." I hear Lake say, he is more than just a douchebag. He thinks he is the best D rank around. But yet he is still a D rank. He acts like he is the shit even though he isn't even the strongest person here. There are quite a few people here who have a higher rank than him.

Lake looks like a stereotypical high school jock to me. I am pretty sure the first delve he joined he mentioned that he was part of his high school football team. But was forced out after his power got activated. Honestly, I think his powers getting activated influenced his future in a bad way. Since I am pretty sure that he would have made a good football player. He does look like he could go back if he could. He still keeps his blonde hair very short.

"Leave me alone Lake, I really don't need you bringing down the little morale I have left. I don't want to lose that to be honest." I mutter out, in my mind this sounded very confident. But yet as the words come out, they sound out both soft-spoken and scared.

"Like we could leave you alone in there. You would be dead quicker than I can say go." He responds jokingly as he walks away towards another group of people. I hate to even admit that he is correct. I wouldn't necessarily die in one second. But I would die at least in a couple of hours if I were to wander off alone. But to be honest, having a healer around in the group is quite necessary for people like me. "Are you going to leave early yet again too? Because that would definitely fit your pattern."

They are right, I tend to leave these raids around halfway through. Not because I want to. But because I have to for my own sake. And it is not like anyone has gotten hurt because I was not there. "I will see, sometimes the choice is not really my choice. But made for me you could say" I stammer out as I walk the opposite way to sit against a wall to wait till this thing ends.

Sometimes I wish my power never got activated. Like a normal human with slightly above-average strength could beat me up with ease. Yet I could damage monsters while they couldn't. Just because I got activated. But of course, I got activated as an F- rank. Which is quite literally the bottom of the heap. Like there are not even a lot of F ranks yet also F- ranks. Yet here I am one of the unlucky people who got activated at the weakest point.

People who get their powers activated are pretty much on a scale. Like you have a lot of people in the middle around D to C rank. Yet you have fewer people to one end like F and E rank. The other side of the spectrum is completely different though. There are still quite a lot of people who fall under everything B and A ranks. But the rank higher than A is quite a different story. At that point, the system ranking even differs. There are no S- ranks. S ranks are just too powerful to be ranked with a - after their letter score. They get ranked with double letters and even more in their system.

Compared to them everyone else is just ants or pawns to use. We are weak and basically non-existent to them. Sometimes I wish I had chosen to do like an easier job. But the opportunity of getting money 'easily' while being active was just too much of an incentive to resist. It does pay well enough to support my medical bills and make sure to have a roof over my and my siblings' heads.

"They couldn't help but tease you again, could they Azure." Drake says as he walks up to me together with the new girl. Now that I see the new kid up close, I see she might be around my age. Maybe a year or 2 younger, or the opposite way a year or 2 older than me. Either way, she looks pretty capable and nervous. "Azure this is Kiara, she will be joining us today as a mage focused on water magic. She is new to this but her rank is around C- so she is more than decent. She however asked that she could observe some collecting which is something you do most of the time.

Kiara is a very beautiful girl. I don't really know her yet but I can feel she is powerful. But simply by looking at her clothes, she did read up on the safety rules for newbies. Since she is wearing something all newbies who use magic tend to wear. Larger robes, which hide arm and hand movement. However, something I did notice was how beautifully the royal blue threads that were weaved throughout the braids in her hair compliments her ebony skin.

"Nice to meet you I am Azure. Why would you want to observe collecting if I might ask? It is seen as one of the more tedious and boring parts of adventuring and raiding." I ask with quite a confused look on my face as the wind starts to pick up a bit. The wind making my black hair which honestly should get cut a bit shorter even more of a mess than it actually is.

To make it clear collecting is a very tedious part of adventuring. You search for objects, plants, stones, and other miscellaneous stuff that could either have value to sell to an auction which usually gives you the standard rate something goes for. But with plants, I immediately go to the science centre. They usually use that for research of either medicine or toxins. Collecting however does not include monster carcasses and everything involved with them. It is for getting stuff from the area around it. This is understandable but that means that other adventurers can make money easier. Since anything to do with monster stuff gives you more money. That makes it so that other adventurers don't find it worth the time to spend searching for valuable things. I however am too weak to slay any monsters even in an F- dungeon. So I only do collecting, this is the only thing I am actually good at. Because the pay I get from the association to do this type of stuff is not enough to support my family.

"Yeah, collecting seems like something people don't know a lot about. But apparently, you do know a bit about it" Kiara replies, her beautifully done in braids and then done up in a ponytail. She is right however, I have gotten one good reputation from doing these things. The one thing I am actually pretty good at is identifying plants from behind that portal. It is a pretty good way to get some money and also does something to help people at the same time. Yet I am not as effective as a large team with guilds. They don't have to worry about surviving.

"Okay, yeah I can help you with that. But I am pretty sure you can earn a lot of money by just fighting monsters. I would focus on fighting instead of collecting, for sure with your current magic strength and your probable potential you still have." I advise her which honestly is solid advice. Because if you are strong, you have better things to focus on than collecting. And on top of that I am right, this is her try-out raid to see how well she can do before she actually goes with one that is more on her level. That is how it usually goes with these types of things.

"Don't worry too much about it, Azure. Everything will be safe as always. There are a lot of people around the level of the dungeon. You are in fact that lowest-ranked person here and you are used to how stuff actually works already. So even that is not even too much to worry about." Drake responds as he gives me a light smack on the back of the head as a bit of encouragement, yet it just hurts. I don't think he always realises how a fighter like him has such high strength.

"Well, I was just advising her on the best way to make money. Which isn't collecting but actual hunting. And this is still a D+ rank dungeon so yeah there is still a lot of luck with monsters not organising together yet. Kiara seems to walk off with Drake a bit, probably getting introduced to some of the regulars.

As I check the time it seems to be nearly 9 A.M. already, which means we nearly have to go in. The dreadful feeling which had faded a bit while I was distracted came right back up as I look up at the purple spinning mess this portal actually is. I look around a bit to not freak myself out too much before going in. I do notice one other familiar face in the crowd of around 15 people. That person is Emily, she is a healer who is around a D rank I think. I am not sure, to be honest. She is pretty intimidating, to say the least.

I see Drake stand up on a box ready to probably ask if it is okay for him to lead the group. In which my opinion he should lead the group since he has the most experience with 2 decades and all. "Okay, everyone is here I see. Behind this portal is going to be a forested area. So assume the mission inside will be to hunt like X monster or something. So, everyone is safe inside and be nice to each other we will have to put up with each other for at least a couple of days." He announces, I assume the clerk of the association has already assumed he was the leader of the group. "If it is alright with everyone, I will lead the group and make sure everyone will come out safely again." The group collectively was saying yes, yeah, or some variation of that because we all agreed that seems like a good option. "We might expect that this will be a quick in and out. But we can't underestimate it, this portal has been ignored for a bit already. We don't want anything happening like what happened in the hospital around five years ago.

A portal spill is bad except for F ranks portals. These portals usually have smaller insect types of monsters which are easy enough to deal with but yet very annoying since they follow group tactics. But everyone remembers the hospital portal spill of five years ago. There were a lot of people who got more injured and people who died. But this is not the time to worry about something like that. Since I already see people walking into the portal following Drake which means I will have to follow suit. I can't help but feel even more worried than usual. But that is probably because I barely enter any D+ rank portals. As I step through it.

End prologue - how I got here: part 1

Complete

You got a character card

Name: Azure Nguyen

Ability: None

Class: Fighter

Date of birth: 15/09/2000

Age: 23 years old

Nationality: American

Hair style: straight black hair that gets to the shoulders

Eye colour: blue

Likes: His siblings, Cooking, Reading

Dislikes: Monsters that team up in a dungeon, Rude people, Tricksters