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Outside The A-Dungeon
A teenage boy, one with spiky blue hair and deep blue eyes, held a sword in his right hand and pointed it a man.
The man wore a white fox mask with holes for his eyes, along with casual attire.
"Are you ready?"
The man questioned him as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Yes."
He replied.
"You asked for it."
The boy rolled his eyes at the man’s words.
The person who was talking was the sa person who had been pleading with him to practice. He claid he wanted to test out his magic.
"Don’t fail on , after all it’s you that’s been asking for this."
The man said out loud.
Once again, the boy rolled his eyes.
’This guy.’
The man’s eyes had holes, just for the eyes. He claid that it was to hide his identity but the boy doubted that he was even known in the first place.
His scarlet red eyes glowed from behind the mask.
It contrasted with the boy’s blue eyes.
He got ready for the imminent attack, pumping mana throughout his entire body to block it.
But the attack didn’t co, at least it didn’t co as soon as he expected it.
"Won’t you start?"
The boy asked, his irritation showing.
"Won’t you give a mont?! I’m trying to add so special effects here!"
He shouted as he raised his hand.
As soon as his hands stopped moving a fireball was shot into the air.
It wasn’t a normal fireball, it was larger than anything the boy had ever seen and it soared into the air.
Another followed it, there wasn’t any difference between the fireballs he shot out.
And another one.
There wasn’t even any slight difference between the balls of fla as he shot them into the sky.
They didn’t rge together, instead stopping just a little distance between each other.
’They’re piling at the sky.’
He thought, his eyes widened in shock.
’Is he testing it out with ?’
The boy mused as his gaze settled at the sky.
He stopped watching the man that seemingly pumped out fireballs from his palm.
"Hey, Hereon!"
The man called out.
Hereon’s gaze returned to him.
"You must’ve noticed that I’ve tried sothing out, right? And I’m testing it on you, right?"
He questioned as another fireball positioned itself in the sky.
Hereon didn’t respond to him, his gaze resettling on the sky where the balls of fire lined.
"And don’t try to cheat with your eyes!"
He shouted as he tried to gain the boy’s attention.
The boy turned back to him.
In that second, the fireballs rained down on him.
’He was distracting .’
Hereon raised his head as the sound ca to his ears.
’He says I shouldn’t cheat.’
’But he’s using sothing ant for rank 0’s on .’
’And its not like I’m even a rank 2 yet.’
Due to the resources and intense training that these people put him through Hereon had advanced in his rank.
Before he was at rank 4, now he had advanced to rank 3. Though, it had been a while since he had.
However, it didn’t justify that he was using sothing he made to attack rank 1’s and 0’s on him as he was just a rank 3.
’Screw his words.’
Hereon thought as his grip on his sword tightened.
He changed the direction of his sword, raising its sharp edge at the incoming volley of fireballs.
In a mont, a tentacle made of water shot out of his sword.
It made contact with one of the incoming fireballs, only to be turned into steam the mont it made contact.
’It didn’t go down.’
’How much mana did he put in a single fireball?’
Hereon turned back to the man.
As he saw him, he waved towards the boy. There was no doubt that underneath the mask there was a kind smile on his face.
As if he was oblivious to what was about to happen.
"Crap."
Hereon said out loud.
He flung his sword in a random direction and sprinted madly to the side.
He was just in ti as a fireball crashed in his initial position, from where he was currently he could feel the heat.
And it wasn’t over yet.
There were still about 18 more to deal with.
’They aren’t going to et .’
He thought as he continued working.
Suddenly, the fireballs changed trajectory.
A sharp turn.
They moved in a single file, a straight line that couldn’t be broken.
"Hey, Hereon."
The man called out.
"I just want to tell you that these fireballs are a little bit special before we officially begin."
He said.
"I an, they can only change directions."
Hereon didn’t need to look at him to know he was right.
"Does he want to kill ?"
He asked himself.
He could feel the heat of the fireballs behind him.
"Do I have a choice?"
He murmured aloud.
It seed more like a statent than a question when he said it.
Hereon mustered force in his legs, then he leaped into the sky.
’Water.’
He thought.
For him to create a ball of water that could even dream of rivaling one of the man’s fireballs was impossible for him, currently he didn’t have enough mana.
He used wind to boost himself, increasing his speed mid-air and taking a single step forward.
Two steps.
The fireballs suddenly turned upright.
Hereon didn’t fret, the only sweat that dripped down from his forehead was from the heat being emanated from the fireballs.
He landed on the ground as the final fireball turned upright.
A small crater ford around him as he landed, it took him two seconds before he began running again.
"What are you doing?!"
The man shouted.
He had realized that Hereon was charging at him, the boy wasn’t even planning to take his magic head-on.
"Fight it, don’t bring it to !"
The man waved his hands around in a frenzy as Hereon approached him.
Hereon ignored his childishness and rushed towards him.
He bolted around the man, standing right behind him.
Hereon was shorter so even his shoulders didn’t peek out, in a sense he was hiding behind him.
"No, what are you doing?!"
He yelled as the fireballs approached him.
Hereon held him tight to stop him from moving.
The man seed to have no way of leaving...
Seed.
Hereon felt his grip slip on the man.
His body beca translucent.
See-through.
And in so seconds, he vanished from his position.
’Teleportation.’
Hereon thought.
The large balls of searing heat were coming straight at him and he had no way to dodge.
’But even then, I still win.’
A triumphant smirk appeared on his lips.
The fireballs vanished.
"I win."
The man declared as he approached Hereon from behind.
"You didn’t win, I won."
Hereon retorted.
While he wasn’t able to deal with the fireballs, he destroyed them the only way he could think of.
By making the person who created them snuff them out by himself.
The man on the outside was childish, but he understood that training exercises wasn’t sothing that could be taken lightly.
It had to push the participants to their limits, or kill them while they tried and failed.
"But you cheated."
The man said.
"No, I didn’t."
He replied calmly.
"But you cheated!"
He insisted, even going the extra mile to point an accusing finger at Hereon.
"You told that I shouldn’t cheat with my eyes-"
Hereon began, but he was interrupted mid-way.
"But you cheated."
He insisted.
"But you never told that I couldn’t cheat without my eyes."
He had almost co to the point to using his eyes.
But he had seen the silver lining in this exercise.
In a way, the man wanted to test his own new application of fire magic, but he also wanted to test Hereon’s ability to think under pressure.
Both had succeeded in their parts.
And Hereon hadn’t been able to find any flaws in his new application of fire magic.
He couldn’t move, but he could always teleport.
"Alright, I admit that I win."
The man said.
Hereon stopped paying attention to him and was soon drowned in his own sea of thought.
The man’s rambles weren’t important.
"Today is the last day of the year."
He questioned.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Isn’t..."
He stopped speaking.
"Nothing at all, I guess."
He had just rembered that today was a special day, at least for the Hachiman clan.
He clearly rembered the tradition of the clan as he had attended several tis.
The mory of the sweaty, crowded hall still remained in his mory.
"Hey, kid."
"Hmm."
Hereon awoke from his train of thought.
"Open your eyes."
He said.
Hereon blinked in confusion at his words.
"Anyway..."
He stretched the word longer than he was supposed to as he put an arm around Hereon’s neck.
"...Since today is a special day, I decided that you’ll accompany on my mission."
He said as he walked with Hereon slowly.
"Mission?"
Hereon asked.
"Yup, a real mission for the team. It’s for you to get to know the ropes of our organization."
He explained.
’An organization of eight people?’
He wasn’t sure if he rembered the number correctly, but, most organizations like theirs had hundreds of mbers.
This one didn’t even enter the two digits.
"Okay."
He accepted it.
"Good, and try not to scare them with your eyes. They’ll look scary in a mask, right?"
He asked as both of them walked.
The man wasn’t aware that it was his eyes that were scary in a mask.
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