Dried out canals flowed all over the ruined city, all connecting to a lackluster fountain in the center. Only the fountain was filled with water while all the canals connecting to it were blocked off by debris. Most, if not all the creatures in the ruins came to this very fountain to drink water. Even ugly monsters that would rile up in disgust in all who saw them peacefully drank water from the fountain, it helped that the water never decreased, let alone run out.

But even this peaceful fountain had a time when no one would approach it. Exactly an hour before the suns drown in the horizon, a feral beast with claws like a reaper’s scythe and viciousness like a devil’s anger would drink water and play around the fountain. The sight of a four-meter tall beast with bloody fangs and bloodier fur playing around would scare away even the gnarliest of monsters in the ruins.

Once again today, the beast was fluttering around the fountain. It jumped here and there and then lowered its head in the fountain. The beast’s tongue stretched out and cupped some water…

…but it couldn’t bring it back up.

A chilling sensation climbed up its tongue and jammed its brain with a freezing sensation. Before the beast could make sense of its situation, a cuspate rock whistled through the air and tore into the beast's tongue. Blood splattered all over the fountain as the rock got stuck inside its mouth. The beast raised its hand with haste and hit the water next to it.

Its tongue was frozen solid and was then almost cut off. Though in immense pain, the beast had broken free and was now fuming in rage.

“Tsk. So that much wasn’t enough.”

A voice reached its ears but the beast could not see anyone around it. Its furious gaze ran in all directions when an icy arrow crashed into its chin! The enemy was somehow below it! The beast was pushed back, but not hurt. It had found its enemy and was now going to crush it, but as if to wave off its thoughts, dozens of arrows shot at it and settled right where the first one landed. A barrage of arrows consecutively hitting it with great speed. Even the terrifying beast couldn’t tank it all and ended up with a hole in its chin.

Blood gushed out from two places now. Luckily, the barrage of arrows had stopped. The beast jumped back in retreat and collected itself. There he was. With waving red hair and a nasty smirk, the tiny wretched human that had been troubling it all this while. But the attacks stopped. The human must have run out of mana. It will now eat this little monkey alive.

Just then, the red-haired pushed out his lips in derisiveness and gestured at the beast to come closer.

“Pspspsps. Come doggy, come, come.”

“GRAAAH!” The beast saw red! In a fit of mad rage, the beast ran towards the human while still profusely bleeding from its wounds. The boy only laughed and started running away. From thin roads to jagged paths, the beast and the boy ran all over the ruined city like a cat and a mouse.

As the beast got closer to the boy, it swung its claw with great speed. Crescents of wind gushed forth from.

“Uwaah!” the boy shouted as he dived to the other end before landing on his feet and running again.

The bleeding monster, too, blindly chased after the boy, crashing into various buildings at sharp turns and fumbling over the debris-filled path. It shot out its wind magic-like attack dozens of times before it finally landed on the boy.

The wind crescent struck the boy and sent him flying forward. The sharp blade of wind tore into his skin and made him bleed. The cut wasn’t deep at all, but it was enough. That damned cockroach-like human had fallen and couldn’t get up, it was time to tear into him and rip him to hundred pieces!

With growls that sounded like tired groans, the beast meandered towards the boy.

“Ahh! Shit! No! Don’t come closer, eek!” The human boy was now crying and shouting. A wide smile crept upon the beast's bloodied face. It would kill this pest. Tear it apart! How dare this human hurt the majestic beast?! The beast raised its claw when the crying boy’s face suddenly twisted into a wretched smile.

“Just kidding,” he said.

-Thud

The sound of a small pebble hitting the ground rang out and the beast stopped.

A gigantic crash spread into the air as the buildings around the beast thundered down on it. Hundreds of broken rocks and stones pummeled the beast at once as it got buried under the devastated buildings! Having lost so much blood and stamina from its wounds and the mindless chase, the beast had nowhere the strength needed to survive this trap, let alone break free from it.

The boy, Astolfo, got up from the ground and dusted his clothes. He shook his hands and caressed his wounds while going ‘ow, ow.’ Astolfo walked right in front of the monster and crouched down to meet its eyes.

“Haha, you clown,” the boy laughed. “Did you really think you had cornered me in the end? This chase was not mindless at all, I was luring you here! Even with those injuries, you foolishly chased after me, what an idiot!”

The boy laughed again and stared in the eyes of the beast with a victorious smile. “I had been investigating your movements all along. I knew exactly when you’ll be at the fountain and when you will drop your guard. Heck, I was hiding in the fountain all along!”

It had been almost a week since Astolfo had popped up in these ruins. He had carefully observed the beast's movements and had begrudgingly set this trap with much hard work.

“You see,” Astolfo continued. “I am very weak. I can use them very well, sure, but the fact is, I can’t use anything more than a basic ranked spell. I have no choice but to use cheap tricks to hurt my enemies and rile up their emotions.”

It was unclear if the entrapped and dying beast even understood Astolfo, but he continued to tell it about his strengths and limitations nonetheless. He rightly said that he needed to rile up his enemies, but even he knew the crying at the end and now mocking the beast was just in bad taste. Astolfo continued until he had his fill before finally closing his mouth.

“Now! It is time for you to die!” He could have just let it die over time, but Astolfo placed his hand on the beast's head and used a dozen more ice arrows and crush it. After all, monsters were just that, monsters. They were mindless, chaotic creatures that were after his lives.

There was nothing wrong with killing those that wanted him dead. Nothing.

Astolfo nonchalantly used the spell and ended the beast right there. Immediately after its death, he closed his eyes and listened carefully, but there was nothing. He drooped his shoulders and looked at the beast's dead body, circling around the pile of rubble and even climbing on it. In the end, he could only sigh as he sat atop the dead beast.

“Nothing… huh? Do I have no other choice?”

This place was in ruins, complete ruins. There were only monsters in this place. He somehow managed by hunting birds and taking fruits from the abundant wild trees, but he had to get out of here as soon as he could.

He looked for roads and pathways all over the city, but every time he reached the edge of the ruins, it would be covered in a mystic dense fog. He once even tried to walk into the fog but with visibility being an absolute zero, he soon lost his sense of direction and ended back into the city. In the end, he remembered what Vincent had told him about a few dangerous locations in the world that only opened their gates once you defeat the biggest baddest monster around and hoped that the beast would be like that.

Unfortunately, he could hear no grand door opening nor could he see any part of the land float into a bridge even after killing the biggest baddest monster around.

“Haah… if only I could fly like the damned birds.” He didn’t know if even that would help him leave, but it sure would have been nice. After moping for a while longer, he decided to go check out the fog once again. He didn’t think that it would go away since that would be too uncool of a gate but decided it was worth a shot.

Astolfo jumped up and got on his feet. He took a step forward and a faint rumble reached his ears. ‘hm?’ he said with a tilted head when the faint rumble intensified into a trembling quake that shook the ground. Maybe because of the beast's attack or because of the crashing debris he brought down, the ground below the body of the monster cracked open. First, the beast, then the rubble, and lastly Astolfo powerlessly fell through the ground.

A second, maybe two, Astolfo’s fall was much longer than he thought. He flailed in the air, awaiting the impact. Astolfo finally hit the bottom, but the landing was rather soft? Astolfo slowly raised his head to get up but a bunch of small rocks rained on him and forced him back down.

“Ow, ow, ow. What goes around comes around, huh?” Astolfo muttered as he got up. This time, there was nothing to push him down. The dust from the fall faded away and he opened his eyes. The first thing he looked at was the hole he had fallen through. The hole that had the beast and a pile of rubble falling through looked very small. He had fallen far.

He lowered his gaze and looked around.

“Wow…” Words of wonder left his mouth as he took in the scene around him. Structures much taller and detailed than the ones above were erected all over this underground lair. Even with a cursory glance of the somewhat broken houses, he could tell that they were created and positioned with great attention to detail. Enchanting pathways made of refined stones were created in this place below the ground. Astolfo turned in his spot, marveling at the sight in front of him before stopping at exactly a hundred and eighty degrees.

Four whip-like arms. Three meters tall body padded with what seemed like stone armor. One mouth with messy and sharp teeth, and one madder red eye.

Astolfo was in front of a completely different monster from before.

“Karara…” the monster growled in confusion.

“Hahaha!” And Astolfo replied with a friendly laugh. “[Wind Magic: Gale]!”

Wind burst from Astolfo’s arm and hit the dusty ground, raising a cloud of dust. It was Astolfo’s most basic and useful tactic! He covered the monster's sight and broke into a fierce charge without looking back. The monster’s angry grunts reached his ears, but he ignored them and continued running. After turning from road to road in the dark place, he jumped right into one of the buildings and smashed the door close behind him.

Leaning against a wall, Astolfo placed a hand over his chest and collected his breathing. “What in the world was that?” he muttered. “That thing can’t be fought with just ice and wind magic. There’s absolutely no way…”

After sitting like that for another five minutes, Astolfo finally calmed down. He shook his head and started looking around the building he was in. There were stairs leading to the floors above near the entrance while the rest of this floor was deeper inside. He walked right inside the rooms around. A well-furnished living room, spacious and big kitchen. The study on this floor looked extravagant despite not having any books or papers. Astolfo even found a bathroom here.

Astolfo thought that this would be a good place to make his base as he climbed up to the first floor. Thoughts of how he would get out and how deep he was in rushed in his mind, but he pushed them away for now. He was wondering what he would eat and drink, but as soon as he entered the first room of the first floor, his wonderings disappeared. From the window, an unthinkable sight spread in front of him.

“Trees… underground…?”

It was so bizarre that he was having a hard time taking it in fully. Maybe his food problem was solved, but how in the world did such lush trees grow in this place, that too with such great spacing and numbers?

Astolfo shook his head once again and moved to the other room on the floor to inspect it. This one seemed like the room of a child. A small desk on one end and a small bed on the other. There was a bookshelf and a not so spacious closet too.

Placed at the center of the desk was a thick book that was covered with dust. Astolfo picked it up and dusted it. Deteriorated characters revealed themselves, characters he had never seen before. Astolfo curiously looked at the writings on the cover before opening it.

“A textbook of sorts?” he remarked. The book had a lot of text that he couldn’t make out with some occasional illustrations. It looked like one of the books his mother used for his education. Astolfo flipped through the book when he reached the illustrations at the center.

Bright open sky and well-built buildings. Though it was vastly different from what he had seen, there was no mistaking it. This illustration was of the ground above that was now in complete ruins. Astolfo ran his finger over the page before flipping it. This time, an image of beautifully structured houses with paved and polished paths and a bustling cityscape was printed on the page. With each flip of the page, a grander and more beautiful place would replace the one before while growing smaller and narrower in size, and at the end was one beautiful mansion with a vast ground and a tunnel behind it.

Once again, a smile bloomed on Astolfo’s face. “Looks like… I have found my exit.”