-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Chain Reactions(2)-

Everyone stared at dumbfoundedly as a huge thunder struck the ground where the level 2 dungeon which contained undead and specter type monsters used to be. Now the only thing it contained was a huge pit that could hold a skyscraper inside it. Green lights flashed from the inside every now and then, but the old shopping mall, as well as the gate, was nowhere to be seen.

“What the…what the hell happened?” a lady hunter stuttered while looking at the huge wasteland with googly eyes. She couldn’t believe what she just saw. They received an emergency call from DCB to gather here. She was here when dungeon break happens and had seen the horror of the mass of frenzy monsters coming at her with nothing but bloodlust on their eyes.

Only she knew how he had survived that night. She would forever remember that day for the rest of her life. It's not only her, but more than 70% of hunters gathered here were also the same ones who participated in dungeon break incident. When they received the emergency call, they dropped everything they were doing and ran here as fast as they could. Some even had said their last goodbyes and wrote their wills when they came here.

But it was not even an hour, and something like this happened!

“You know, when I came here, I was prepared for anything. I was even prepared to fight against a bone dragon...but this! It wasn’t even on my mind…I have never even thought that the dungeon would just vanish into thin air!! What the hell!” a middle-aged hunter said as he scratched his head.

“Me too…but dude, isn't your imagination a little too wild? Although we are living in a fantasy world, don’t you think dragons are just too far, fetched? We didn’t even saw dinosaurs, and they existed once upon a time…” a hunter standing near him replied while also looking at the deep hole in the middle of the wasteland.

Inside the DCB office, everything was in chaos. No one here had expected for the matter to escalate this way. Suguro sweated as he attended calls after calls from higher-ups without stop. Slamming the receiver on the table, he glared at the huge wasteland with radiation flooding out of it with red eyes. In a fit of anger, he slammed his fist on the table, vaporizing it into fine dust particles.

“What the fuck is happening? Who can tell me? How can a dungeon just vanish like that?” he looked furious but had no one to vent on. Gritting his teeth in anger, he sat down and took a deep breath.

“What happened Suguro?” a female voice was heard. When he looked back, Suguro found the very person he was waiting so eagerly since this incident happened.

“Miss Yuki, you are finally here…its as you see. The dungeon just vanished like that…I am having hard times giving answers to higherups. At this instance, I am not even sure what's happening…”

“Show me the footage of when this happened.” Yuki looked grave and serious. The matter was really out of her expectations. She could understand another dungeon break, but complete disappearance of a dungeon, it was first for even her.

“yes. Play the clip.” Suguro ordered. Heeding to his order, a clip started to play on the big screen of the room. There, everyone saw how a huge amount of green light flooded out of the dungeon and reached the sky. Then a massive thunder came down on the old shopping mall, vaporizing it into dust and forming a huge trench within. After that, that saw a few flashes of green thunder sparkling around the trench, making it an inaccessible zone for now.

“What are those green thunder?” Yuki asked. Before, Suguro could answer, Lily, who was standing beside her in her office outfit started, “It’s the personification of pure magic that took the firm of thunder after coming in contact with it…err…it's actually, the concentrated radiation that took the form of thunder.”

“I see.” Yuki nodded and looked at the data on the screen with deep thought. After explaining, Lily looked even more worried than Yuki. She had a secret identity that even Yuki didn’t know. She was actually an agent of a secret organization. And her organization specializes in defense, be it internal or external. A matter like this, she felt she should inform her boss as soon as possible.

After all, the vanishing of the dungeon was no small matter.

“Excuse me!” Lily said and stealthily backed away from Yuki and Suguro’s hearing range. As she backed away, Yuki game her direction a glance before turning away. At the same time, she remembered what Kenshin had told him that day, about Lily’s true identity.

Lily knew her place well, she knew that although she had a seeming high position in the organization, she was actually not privy to many details. She knew this because there are many low-level employees back in her old office, to whom even she with her status couldn’t touch. After hearing this from Kenshin, Yuki felt a little hurt but understood. Even though she thought Lily as her friend and vice-versa, they still had their jobs to do. What the other shouldn’t know, they would never tell them. Besides, she also felt a lot more secure after knowing about her strength.

“Hello, sir! I am Lily, code name Fox.” Lily spoke to her digital watch that had a graphical picture of a blurred human face.

“Speak Fox, for what reason you used this emergency contact system?” a male voice came from the other side.

“Sir, things are pretty serious here. Something unexpected happened. A dungeon disappeared just like that…” before she could finish it, the male’s voice came from another side, “I know. Crow already informed me about this. I have sent Weasel and Crow to that location to investigate this matter. Ahh…yes, Miss Aoi and her party of six are going to be there in a few hours. Make sure Miss Yuki knows that.” The call was cut off, leaving Lily with a frown.

“Crow! How did he know about this? Am I not the only one here?” she wondered this aloud before sighing. Then she hurried along towards Yuki to give her this information about Aoi Yamazaki and her team’s arrival.

…

Inside the dungeon, Kenshin stood silently. Although his body didn’t move an inch, a fierce struggle was going on inside his mind and psyche.

Everything happened in a flash for Kenshin, a few seconds ago he was rejoicing about him reaching 100 after killing that giant monkey. But then suddenly his vision went dark before even seeing his level up perks and found inside this ruin that looked like a dilapidated old mansion.

The walls were filled with cracks and spider webs. Few portraits were hanging on the walls, but nothing was visible as they were just too yellow to see clearly. But this wasn’t what startled him, it was the man standing opposite to him.

His eyes were as wide as dinner plates as his lips started to tremble like he was feeling extremely cold. This man who had a similar face as his own was none other than his father, who was dead for the past 7 years.

“Dad!!? What the hell are you doing here?” Kenshin took a step back and asked, unsure.

To his question, the image of his father just gave a cold grin before coming at him while holding a sword made out of the pure blue flame.