บท 3: Falling Inside a Dungeon (1)
Dungeons.
Spatial singularities that appeared for the first time thirty-six years ago.
Although at the start there was not much known about them, after thirty-six years, scientists have theorized a reason for their occurrence.
When two different dimensions intersect, the place of intersection forms a spatial singularity, creating a small mirror world with both dimensions mixed up, and swallowing all the living beings in the place where the singularity formed.
The problem is what happens afterward. The conditions inside dungeons are very harsh, with berserk mana and many other dangers rampaging constantly. Many times, normal living beings that fall inside a dungeon die instantly. And even if they survive after entering the dungeon, the berserk mana inside it will slowly poison them until they turn into mindless and crazy monsters whose only desire is destruction.
And after a certain amount of time, when the spatial singularity vanishes, the creatures inside the mirror world, the Dungeon, return to the main world.
In other words, a pack of mindless monsters is released into the world.
But there is a way to resist the mana poisoning.
That is, with enough mana in your body to protect yourself.
Unfortunately, only Awakened possess mana.
As for the non-awakened…
I looked around the autobus with a terrible expression on my face. The strong pressure in my body was a sign of the berserk mana poisoning me. A sign that the countdown for my death had started.
There were another twelve people besides me inside the bus, including children and elderlies, and none of them seemed like someone of help in the current situation.
The people in the autobus were panicking, with the children crying in terror and their guardians trying to calm them down while suppressing their own fear.
One of the women in the autobus was lying on the ground and bleeding from her head. Besides her, a man was hurriedly asking for help. Perhaps her husband.
Fortunately, someone stood up at that moment.
"Everybody, quiet down!"
The voice of the man reverberated in the autobus.
Almost as though it was magic, all the people in the autobus shut up.
"Everybody." The man spoke with a serious expression. "We are in trouble. I fear that we are inside a dungeon."
A commotion occurred in the autobus again, but the man managed to calm it down quickly.
"Listen to me first. I'm an Awakened." The man said, to the relief of many of the people in the autobus. "And although my rank is rather low, I know a bit about dungeons. I ask everybody to keep calm and wait until someone comes to rescue us. Don't worry, I'm sure that it will not take long for more Awakened to arrive."
"W-Why don't you clear this dungeon, mister?" A young girl asked nervously.
The man smiled wryly. "I'm sorry, but my rank is not very high. Besides, If I left and monsters attack this place, none of you can survive."
The girl turned pale and stopped speaking. The man then sighed in relief and looked around.
"Everybody, if we want to survive, we need to cooperate and keep the calm. Otherwise, none of us will manage to escape this place."
The man was pretty good as a leader. Quickly, he managed to calm down the people on the bus.
However, his face carried a worried look.
And I knew the reason.
What the man was doing was a mistake.
Even if his intentions were good, it was a mistake.
And it seemed like I was not the only one aware of it.
Just when everybody calmed down, a girl, who had been silent all this time, stood up. She then tied her long whitish-blue hair into a ponytail and walked towards the door of the autobus.
"H-Hey, where are you going?" The man asked, but the girl ignored him, leaving the autobus with an indifferent look on her face.
Then, she kicked the ground and disappeared at great speed.
I looked at her in surprise. Another Awakened!
… Thinking about it, I never noticed that there was such a beautiful girl in this autobus.
But I didn't have time to think about that.
When I saw the girl leave, I moved too. Without caring about the voices of the other people in the autobus, I left as well.
Then, I ran as far away from the autobus as I could.
I explained it before, but to normal people, the greatest danger inside a dungeon is the berserk mana.
When manaless living beings fall inside a dungeon, the berserk mana slowly erodes them, until transforming them into mindless and dangerous monsters.
Living beings without intelligence are affected first. Mana is inherently good for the body, so normal animals instinctively try to absorb it, and as result, their minds are quickly eroded by the berserk mana.
As for human beings and other intelligent species, the process of erosion is slower, and the time it takes for mana erosion to occur depends on the state of the body.
The stronger your body is, the slower it's eroded.
My dream has always been to be an Awakened, thus, I have trained a lot since I was a child. I don't want to brag, but if this was a videogame, my psychical stats would be much higher than the average person.
The problem is the other people in the autobus.
These people are literally time bombs.
Eventually, they will become monsters.
I looked at the watch on my wrist. This was something that my mother gave me in case a situation like this happened.
After pressing several buttons, a number appeared on the screen of the watch.
142.
According to the density of mana and the state of my body, that is the time in minutes it will take before the mana erodes my mind.
A bit more than two hours.
And using that information as a reference, I estimate the people in the autobus will start to become mindless human-shaped monsters in around half an hour.
The Awakened man in the autobus... Although I don't know how strong he is, he is obviously inexperienced. I doubt he will be able to react calmly after the others start to change.
Most likely, all the people in that autobus will die.
But there is nothing I can do.
In the current situation, I must do everything in my might to guarantee my own survival.
After calming down my emotions, I took out something from a pocket. It's a black-colored and palm-sized cube-like object.
I pressed down a part of the cube according to my memories. One second later, the cube started to change.
Soon, it turned into a small dagger.
This too, was something that my mother gave me in case of trouble.
Although this dagger is nothing special, it will help me to increase my chances of survival slightly.
The rate of survival for normal people inside a dungeon is less than 0,0001%.
But I… I don't want to die.
And I'm not going to die.
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