The Young Master in the Shadows

Scholars wondered for years on the subject of dungeons, there as no definitive answer, but there was a prevalent theory.

The dungeons are pockets of other worlds, they seemed to invade ours by chance. If the world deemed them dangerous it would confine them with a barrier. However, sooner or later the Barrier’s energy would deplete and a gate would open allowing people in at first, and if it was left untreated the barrier would disappear and what’s inside would leave it to wreak havoc into the world.

A Dungeons was both a blessing and a curse, it contained dangerous monsters and precious metals and herbs. Once a dungeon was cleared of all the things the world deemed dangerous, it would collapse and merge with the world, revealing its treasures to the outside world to be mined. so the world's hidden powers would usually fight over them.

But before it is cleared, people can come in but not out.

That is not usually a problem, as once a dungeon was opened only Full Player can get in, and whoever controls it would send a ready team of players, but sometimes if the Dungeon opened where people were already standing, it would swallow them regardless of there status. Those people would then be granted a player status. It was called Dungeon Awakening.

Many powers tried to send their youths who were not fully awakened to search for such dungeons so they may get a chance to advance. But finding a dungeon before it opens is easier said than done. It was much later after the Reckoning when dungeons began to appear every other day that a method was created to forecast dungeons opening. And even then it was more of an art than a concrete science.

At this time dungeons are rare maybe one every month. The strong families and alliances started to fight for access rights long ago, but one day they stopped and formed the Dungeon agreement after they lost all their forces in an S rank dungeon. You can’t know the dungeon's rank until you go inside.

If it was dangerous you could only tell when a dungeon has already swallowed legions of players without being cleared.

The agreement was drafted officially to let unaffiliated players and all the powers have an equal chance to clear the dungeon and take whatever spoils they gained inside.

But the truth was they needed canon fodders to explore and act as shields.s once the dungeon closes, the precious land left behind is for whoever has enough power to own it and control it. And once it was owned the others have to respect that.

Victor knew that there was a dungeon here, this entire mountain was affected by its otherworldly energy, and just now he has forced it to open by just tapping on the rock hard with a stick.

It was like a pimple that was about to burst, and he gave it the last nudge.

Back then, it happened after a month of Victor arriving at Vein city, the dungeon burst open and was discovered by the filming crew which altered the family.

Thankfully this dungeon was already owned by them, so no other powers tried to take it from them.

After sending a full team the dungeon was quickly cleared, as it was a low leveled dungeon.

Victor only heard about it from his father. After the clearing, it seemed to have been opened by a wandering hiker. The players' team found him inside hiding inside a cave. And when he came out they offered him to join the family but he refused.

It was Victor’s task back then to convince him, but he failed and could do nothing. The agreement states that players who awaken in the dungeons are free to choose their own destiny, and as long as they abide by the rules, no one can harm them.

That hiker died later though when he revealed the secret of being a Player to the press, so the same agreement that protected him killed him. And the media report was quickly changed to make the hiker a crazy man who committed suicide. The majority of players didn't want their existence to be exposed to the public.

“Now let’s see what do we have here,” thought Victor as he looked at the walls surrounding him, It was a damp gray rock cave, illuminated by a faint green light coming from algae that seemed to grow out of the cracks in the rocks. A typical wild dungeon.

He was alone, everyone was separated, but Victor was not afraid as he had already given the girls enough supplies in the bag. As for the others, they can only count on their luck, but they would probably survive like that Hiker, this was just an F rank dungeon after all.

The Goblin’s General Dungeon

F Rank

Clear Condition :

Kill the Goblin general.

He could see this screen when he entered the dungeon, and everyone else should see this too. So they would be stuck here until that general is dead. Once he is dead the world rules are enough to eliminate all of the other goblins, and the dungeon would be considered clear after that.

There was something else. On the corner of his vision, he could see the dungeon’s map all the way to the boss’s room and the exit. This was a part of his reward for opening it up.

He only knew the position of a handful of other dungeons. But they are not ready to be opened yet. One of them is an S rank.

There were some dots some red and some blue on the map which seemed to update every Minute. He was a blue dot, so he knew that the red ones are the goblins while the blue ones were humans.

There seemed to be only two secluded blue dots, the other’s has formed two groups and were staying in their positions, probably assessing the situation. There were no goblins near them so they should be safe for now.

He brought the twins and Aria here on purpose wanting to make them Players. Especially Aria, He did this to save her life. When the family investigates JACOB, they would probably discover that she aided him, but that is not the problem, because Aria had another secret, one that caused the family to kill her when they discovered it back then, this time however she would be a player. And killing a player in the family would require the patriarch’s approval. That would grant him enough time to save her.

“Wait a minute…” He told himself, why are there 10 Blue Dots?

The only ones inside the dungeon should be Him, Lily, Aria, The Twins, Tom, Peter, Ann, and Margret. Those are 9!

That dot was the closest to him and moving in his direction so he decided to investigate it, if it was any of the girls he would be able to help.

He activated his disguise skill, Hiding his presence, and walked towards the dot. It took him 1 hour of walking in the maze-like dungeon to see the shadow of a man dressed in black.

This was not someone he knew, he wore a black mask and seemed to be a player, so victor appraised him.

NAME : Olaf

LEVEL : 31

ABNORMAL STATUS : SLAVE ( weak )

CLASS : Spy

AUTHORITY : 4

Strength : 33

Intelligence : 32

Agility: 50

Luck : 13

Charm : 8

Order: 11

SKILLS :

Shadow cloak, A

Critical dagger, B

Follow trace, E

Hide presence, F

If Victor didn’t see him on the map he might not have discovered him, that Shadow cloak skill was similar to Lily’s. It only works if you didn’t know you were there. he observed the man for a few moments, and from his movements art, he could tell that he belonged to his family.

But was he sent by his father or the other factions? Does it matter? No.

Victor didn’t like to be spied on, this guy must have followed him from the mansion and that meant he had a car, and maybe a partner, but only this guy entered the Dungeon with them.

Victor showed no hesitation as he took out a dagger he bought yesterday and approached the unsuspecting man.

It was as easy as slaying a chicken, the man felt something was wrong, he felt a strange airflow against his skin, he was not alone here. He should be careful, his enemy…., he didn’t continue that thought.

He just felt a cold sensation in his throat and he stopped breathing the next moment.

Victor quickly inspected the corpse’s back, searching for the family’s tattoo and there it was, a tattoo of two daggers over a round shield with a lion’s face, this is defiantly not his father’s, it was them. They must have sent him to see what happened with Nick, and maybe to gather some incriminating evidence. He searched the man’s body and retrieved the recording device. It was an advanced one with many features. Victor didn’t try to open it as he knew he didn’t have the tools required here, he just used all his strength to crush it including the memory chip.

He stood there watching as the body dissolved by the dungeon's power, leaving only the clothes. So he quickly used his dagger to create some battle damage on them, then left the area with his disguise on.

An hour later he reached a stone hall where he noticed 3 red dots were walking nearby, Victor who was hidden, could easily see their green skin, hooked noses, and large red eyes. They were Goblins, one of the weakest sentential monsters.

They wore makeshift armor made of some kind of leather, two of them had stone knives while the last one had a wooden bow and arrows.

He has dealt with those a lot in the past, and he knew their weaknesses. Their defense was that of a human child, but their attacks were deadly. so he approached the one walking behind and plucked his dagger into his heart. He left it there and backed away, as the two others began to look around, they thought it was a thrown dagger, so they split up to hide behind big boulders and began to look deep into the cave, so they didn't notice when Victor leisurely smacked them with a large stone on their heads.

It only took him a minute to kill one and knock out the two others.

With his disguise, a low leveled goblin that didn't have AOE attacks would not discover him, So he had no rivals here.

Looking at the unconscious goblin at his feet he smiled as he took out the Ring of the Minor Masters he stole from Nick, that idiot used it on humans, but its unique power is that it allows a player to not only enslave a target but also communicate with it, so you would be able to use it on any sentient being. Including goblins.

Now he had all the tools he needed and can concentrate on his master plan. Dealing with Tom. He smiled as he reached out for his backpack.

Where did he put that pickaxe again?

Sh*t, he forgot it with Lily.