Door

In a place similar to a dorm, where the original workers of the apartment building reside, a young woman can be seen rampaging around with a sword in her hand.

At this point, she had already thrown away whatever she have learned from Gran during the past 2 years and was now enjoying the thrill of pure violence. No wonder domestic violence was a thing in the past, men back then got high from laying waste to their female companions.

May was in a similar state, except the violence now was warmly welcomed, although Gran thought otherwise.

'So barbaric. Simpleton! Give one power and they lose their marbles.' He was appalled at the lack of finesse in the way she moved.

If she missed a target due to her poorly control lunge, she would just crash into the next one before recalibrating her next charge. Obstacles in her way? Smash through! Zombie out of reach? Throw a friend! How unsightly!

'With her parameters calculated, I can confidently say that her strength and speed were akin to a body tempering realm cultivator in the middle stages.' Gran folded his arms as he made some observations.

'I hope father was wise enough to increase our clan's strength with this apocalypse, or I would have to reluctantly take the patriarch position away from him.' If his father were to hear his arrogant and domineering words... He would be afraid!

Suddenly, Centy appeared by his side. If he had facial features, his eyebrow would be twitching furiously right now. Oh, my poor body!

It was decided that Centy was a guy, solely because he admired Gran for his skills and intellect. Centy would be the first sentient building that will be attacked by feminists around the world if gender inequality was still a thing. Fortunately, that problem has already been solved.

Not knowing that he dodge a human rights bullet, Centy told Gran about his discovery.

"I found a door!"

"Wow.. Amazing.." Gran immediately replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Wait! Hear me out. This door.... Glows!"

This time Gran ignore the dumb building and continued to spectate his dumb disciple. Oh, the woes of being such a genius!

"Listen to me! This door is special. It is glowing with mana."

"So what is it," Gran questioned, his interest finally perked.

"Ahh.. I don't know."

"..."

"Are you... Doing your super analysis in your brain right now?" Centy asked carefully.

"No, I'm just done talking with you."

...

After a quick shower, May and Gran set off toward this glowing door that Centy spoke of.

In front of the door.

Has anyone tried entering, Gran asked the air.

"No, they were afraid of causing you trouble if something bad were to happen." Centy's voice echoed from who knows where.

'Smart, I've raised them well.'

"So how did it get here."

"It suddenly appeared. As in the door suddenly glowed after sucking in a ton of many. It felt like I got robbed of my 'food'."

"Hmm, my theory is slowly becoming more concrete."

"And what theory is that?" Centy questioned.

"I will need to enter this door first in order to gather the last evidence,"

Gran took a step forward.

"Shall we?" He looked toward May who had been silent all this while, trying to act taciturn and mysterious.

Continuing with the act, May nodded as she felt words were unbefitting for someone of her stature, filled with unparalleled strength. If only she knew that she was merely a slightly bigger insect in her teacher's eyes, one that he was rearing.

As Gran entered the door along with May, another thing was glowing in the reception area.

...

Opal walked past the reception area. Recently he ha been in a great mood.

He had successfully gained a position beside May as her left hand man, with the annoying brat as the right hand woman.

Although he didn't like to share the power with a snotty brat, it was still fine, he would swoop in when she makes an eventual mistake. He as sure she would.

With a smirk on his face, he strolled pass the ATM machine.

'Hmm? Why is it glowing?'

Curious, he took small steps toward it, hoping it would not blow up in his face.

As he entered a 1 m radius around the glowing ATM, a screen popped up in his brain, beside the status window.

*

[Bank]

[Old Currency: $20,305,928]

[New Currency: 0P]

[Wallet: $530]

[Withdraw/Deposit]

*

Opal's eyes widen. Holy shit!

...

After entering the door, Gran appeared in a whole new world.

The red skies, the black rivers. The skeletons marching in files.

The sky had 3 celestial bodies hanging over the bleak world. One had an oval shape that almost look like an eye, while the two beside it had a cuboid shape. What was most peculiar is that the cuboids had wave-like movements on its body, with red light seeping through to the outside occasionally.

What the hell was going on?

[You have entered a dungeon.]

"Dungeon?" May finally dropped the 'reclusive master' act and cried out in surprise and slight apprehension.

"Are we going to get tortured? Whipped?"

"I don't think that was the dungeon it was referring to. Perhaps more of a trapped space where certain objectives have to be fulfilled in order to be able to leave." Gran muttered, holding his chin.

"I was right in the end. The door had mutated, leading us to this dungeon, a new world. Since doors are usually used to describe new opportunities or new beginnings, the mana mutated the door and this was the result. How fascinating."

"An opened door can lead to anything..." May muttered.

"Exactly!" Gran nodded in approval at his disciple's rare show of intellect.

Like what Gran had theorized, mana has the ability to alter and mutate anything. Like Centy, who was originally a building, he had suddenly gained sentience after absorbing so much mana. This was why the apocalypse was so terrifying, no one knows what would turn into something next, and even ideologies and beliefs weren't excluded from mana's grasp.

...

*Creak* *Boom*

May stood amongst a pile of bones, the aftermath of her solo slaughter.

"These boneys don't give much mana. How stingy." She complained as she 'looked' at her status window.

"Let's go, this was already the 6th group. We should be encountering more groups as we head deeper in."

They had found out that even though this looked like a real world, there was a boundary that stopped them from proceeding further. Meaning, the dungeon was a fragment of the world that was in full view right now. So if they were at the boundary, they only had to reach the core of the dungeon in order to solve it right?

They continued on their journey, following the black river that sometimes bubbled. Every bubble that pops would let off a soul tearing scream, shocking May off her feat the first time they encountered this phenomenon.

...

As Gran and pal traveled deeper into the dungeon, the number of monsters increased as predicted. Not only that, but new monsters also began to appear.

A huge skeleton, covered in human skin without flesh. A grotesque sight even for Gran.

The skin wrapped around every inch of its bones, like it was originally supposed to be like that.

"Shouldn't there be some flesh between the skin and bones, why is this one so disgusting." Complained May as she fought those skeletons off.

"Concentrate" Gran said, even though the slight frown on his face indicates that he agrees with her words this time.

'Each of these giant skin skeletons has almost the combat strength of that rat automaton. How surprising. What would await me at the end of this journey?' Gran was raring to find out.

It has been far too long since he fought with his all, and although his stats are several times higher than a normal human-like may, that could not be an indicator of his strength. If combined with his martial arts technique and his qi, not including the newly founded mana enhanced martial arts, he was sure he could defeat a whole battalion of elite soldiers in combat suit.

"May get back!"

[Enhanced Earth Style: Earthquake]

Mana followed his every movement as Gran stomped the ground in a rhythmic manner. The resulting tremors superimposed and resonated with each other, creating a massive earthquake that threw the enemies off balance.

That wasn't all. The mana in the air also quaked as the bones of the enemies rattled violently, unable to withstand the earthquake that shook both the ground and space in the surroundings.

"Are you trying to get me killed!"

"well I told you to step back, and you reacted on time. You passed the test." Said Gran solemnly, successfully excusing himself from the reckless act of trying out his new move.

...

"Try gathering coating your whole hand with mana, yes like that. Now slash down as fast as you can while thinking of throwing the mana."

*swoosh* *boom*

A row of skin skeletons collapsed as their body got sliced, the aftershock further breaking apart their bones.

"I did it! Wow, what was that?"

"Hmmm, I would say that was your true potential."

"With mana and how I think it works, battling with mana is not only limited to strengthening limbs or body parts. That is just the 'enhancing' side of manner, just like with the door we went through mana can also 'alter' the properties of things."

As Gran was giving an impromptu lecture, May was admiring his intelligence more and more. Her appreciation of it was just below her appreciation of his body... And well, kindness, although he has a weird way of showing it. She blushed.

"If we were to take it one step further, mana can alter your thoughts and enhance them, creating endless possibilities for combat techniques. The only thing that limits it will be the mana capacity and your imagination."

'This could also be the key to advancing in my cultivation.'

Gran thought, as a rough outline of his future cultivation path was sketched out in his mind.