END Initiated...

Desolate and forlorn.

These were the only words that described the feeling Kiel got from the street he was standing on. For one, he couldn't even spot a single person or carriage anywhere.

Looking around even the building around him looked quite different. A dreary and bleak landscape without even a single organism. The streets here had like modern stone and wood-built apartments, unlike the cottage ones in his home village. 

But surprisingly everything seemed to contain a strong feeling of unnatural? Even the sky above looked a bit weird with too much saturation of the blue colour. 

Kiel could even see a huge structure at the distance, it was like a tall tower standing among the many residential buildings. Kiel wondered if people actually lived here once or was this just a construct of the dungeon?

[Beep… Host has successfully entered a space pocket. Scans indicate a very high concentration of mana in the space pocket! 

Host is advised to exert caution.]

"So the trial grounds do exist." 

Realising this, Kiel rummaged his pocket to find the silver invitation. Just as he touched the card, a mechanical voice rang out.

<Identity confirmed. The registration of the user has been completed. Welcome participant no. S153 to the one hundred third Blood Trials.>

A robotic voice different from his system came from the card as it lit in silver colour. Then a holographic triangular screen poked out of the card with a blinking mail icon at the top vertex. 

Kiel was startled for a moment due to the sudden content. However seeing the blinking icon, he hurriedly tapped on it and some texts replaced the icon.

The registration reminded him of the dimensional gate tool which transported him here. It was the first teleportation gate that he had ever seen. And it was really that amazing of an experience. He remembered the special full-body suit they made him wear for the dimensional travel and how it sublimated just after landing here.

The suit even had its own ventilation system and it was light and cool inside. It was really magic! Although he had seen similar products in his previous life, it was a first time for him to see something so hi-fi here.

He thought that he was the only one chosen in the organisation. But it seems that it was just his misinterpretation. There were two more kids already there.

 However, they too were wearing the full bodysuit, so he could not get to see their faces.  But he could still feel their unkempt arrogance oozing through their suits. Kiel could even feel that they were looking down on him.

"Little kids!"  

However what remained extremely vivid on the mind were the words of Stiv "Don't let me down, kid!" 

--- 

<Mission no1: Arrive at the Dungeon Tower in the centre of the town before time runs out.

Time remaining: 00:17:42

Sender: The Guide>

Seeing the contents of the blink, Kiel could feel a headache coming. Finding a place in this complicated street was a very difficult place for a direction blind person like him. But the sender was kind enough to send them a map. 

"Oh, this looks quite high-fi." Kiel wanted to study the map, but it was proving to be rather difficult. "Azrael sync it with the system map and open it in a 2d view!"

[Beep… Syncing data with the system… Activating 2d m-view… Scanning the surrounding area for accurate map location… Scan successful. The map is now available in Host's sight.]

Kiel could see a familiar small grey circular map with him as the centre at the right bottom corner of his sight. It was truly like a game. What was even more interesting was that when he focused on the map, the map suddenly expanded and took almost half his sight. This was actually a full view of all the area around him. Kiel could even see the 10km scale words at the bottom of the map matching that of the map sent to him.

It was really a strange experience for him, but just as fascinating. Even the events of alternate space access, dungeons and even monsters. It was truly a fantasy world, and it excited him much more to find out on what principles this work worked.

"Azrael mark my destination and provide me with an accurate way to it." 

[Acknowledged Host.]

Kiel could now see a blue dotted line connecting him through the small map telling him the general direction and a yellow coloured line specifying the street directions. This was a very good feature for someone like him.

"Now let's get started."

---

He walked around with the directions of the map. But there were too many turns. Kiel felt it was more like a maze than a simple route. Luckily he had the system's help or this would prove to be rather difficult for him.

But while he walked unexplainable jitters continued to rear their ugly head inside him. Besides the strange feeling of the last man standing in the world, it felt like he was walking around a place which had been splashed by the blood of millions. It was that strange of a feeling. Kiel had witnessed many such conflicts in his previous world. So he was not unaware of this feeling.

But finding the way around the unknown place was not that difficult with his system. He followed the direction of the map and arrived at the destination in around ten minutes. 

Kiel was still not sure if this was the right place, as the tower was more like a rundown dilapidated ruin of some building which has suffered some apocalyptic calamity rather than a dungeon itself.

But the eye-catching plaque with the words "Dungeon Tower" proved that it was.

'This is it?'

"Huh? What the f.u.c.k is this decayed fish tank?"

An unexpected voice surprised Kiel and he looked to his side. He didn't know when he had arrived, but a guy with an ivy style cap was standing there.

'Finally a human. And here I thought I was the only person in this world.'

Their eyes met. He looked a little older than Kiel and had a smug look on his face. His arched up chin indicating his arrogance which seems to be considering the world beneath him.

[Host I am getting a rather weird mana signature from this guy. Please be alert.]

'Oh? That's a surprise.'

Just as Kiel got this impression of being looked down upon from that smug face, the boy brushed past him. Both of his hands were shoved deep in his pockets as he quickly stepped past the open gates. He seemed to be in the attire of a hooligan from the 90s.

The attached map specified that this was the destination, but didn't specify it to be the meeting point. Kiel looked around to find an assembly hall a little distance away. And as he approached the doors, he could hear the murmurs of people within.

There were some stairs leading to the big dilapidated hall. Kiel walked up only to come to an abrupt halt. A blonde woman wearing a casual business attire was standing there. "Welcome, Sir! Please show your invitation card for the entry"

'She seemed to be the guide here.'

Seeing her bow, Kiel just flashed his card at her. However, seeing the silver colour card, she froze up for a second. Then she lowered herself in a deep bow. An elegant traditional greeting! Kiel reminded himself. Seeing her like this, he was stunned.

As if perceiving his stupefied gaze, she just giggled and carefully handed the card to him. Then she pointed to the hall, guiding him towards an empty chair on the left side, bowed politely once more, before smoothly retreating away to her original spot. Her attitude was clearly evident after viewing his card. 

Most of the assembly's eyes were on him, the newcomer who just entered. Kiel was accustomed to strange glances, as he just took his seat on the far corner that the guide chose for him.

"What's the matter with her?  Why is she acting like that to that newcomer? She did it to that previous guy too."

"I wonder too? She didn't point me to my chair. Does she do it for the pretty kids only?"

"In my hometown, there were a few ladies like that who liked young boys. My brother said to me it was a kind of fetish! But I think it is just pure racism!"One of the kids remarked!

"You idiot. That was because of their cards!"

"Huh?"

Kiel could feel the stares on him. And he could even hear the conversations quite apparently too. However, it didn't matter. He was a little nervous now. And this was not a theory paper, which he was the best at. So he didn't pay them any heed.

 So as a born loner, he did what every loner was best at. He started gauging out of the place and the new environment.

Actually, now that he looked closely, the interior of this place was totally different from the exterior. This looked like it was completely renovated. Probably they did work a lot to make it more pleasing to the eye?

Kiel was noticing the various people gathered here, and he suddenly remembered the words of the person responsible for teleporting them to this place. 

"There will be a lot more kids from other frontiers who will be joining the Trials beside True Blood because of the prizes of the dungeon. So don't be too arrogant of yourself for getting a permit from us."

Kiel searched for a clue if he could find the other two who entered the gate with him. But there were approximately 30 teenagers here. Most seemed to be at the age of 8-10. The same age gap that Kiel was in, before being able to attend any academies. 

He looked around a little but there was not much information for him to begin with. But what was noticeable was that the hall was seemingly divided into two sides- left and right.

The left side he was sitting on had four boys and three girls. There was also a relatively far distance between each participant.  Kiel even noticed the fella he saw previously at the entrance sitting on a chair some just a little distance away. 

As Kiel was looking around the receptionist lady escorted another kid. This time it was a boy with black hair and black pupils. Kiel even saw the receptionist lady offering him some snacks. However, the boy looked a little confused and fl.u.s.tered as he sat on a front chair of the left side too.

The gossiping around turned to increase a notch just as the boy sat down. Obviously, he was no ordinary kid.

'Well… this person should be one of the lead characters here. Must be a high-level card than mine. Not that it matters'

Kiel looked around as time started to flow by and more and more kids came by. Most of them were pointed to sit at the right side while only one girl at the end was escorted to the left side.

The right side now had almost twenty people sitting. Obviously, it was not hard to see the hierarchy here. 

Kiel was on the verge of making more deductions when a boy suddenly stood.

"It must be fate, meeting each other in a place like this. Why don't we introduce ourselves to each other?" 

He looked at the leader type. And a bulky figure despite his age. His voice was loud enough to attract everyone's attention and had a faint smile on his face. Obviously, he was not unfamiliar with such attention. 

However, he was from the right side… So Kiel lost most of his interest in him. The system too notified him that the boy had no unusual mana signature.

"Nice to meet You all. I am Khan, son of Vice-President of the Western Maritime Merchant Association."  This guy seemed to be implying his origins rather than introducing himself. Kiel further lost his interest in the fella.

"I'm Yi, son of Baron of Amer province "

"Jin, son of the Herbal Sage of the north Limner province."

"..."

Some of the kids inspired by the person started introducing them too followed by the others. There was even a pair of siblings among those introduced. Gleeful at his success, he even started asking the left side.

"Why don't you all introduce yourself too?"

His target was a girl at the back. However, she just ignored him as if she didn't even listen to him. Completely indifferent. Kiel for a moment even compared them with those arrogant college belles of modern times. But Khan could only scratch his head this time.

"What a party pooper!" One of them voiced his opinion.

Obviously embarrassed, Khan could only turn his head to the other girl sitting close to the previous ones.

"Hm?… my name is Yebon Yialga."  Just a short introduction.

"Oh! nice to meet you." although he didn't get a proper introduction, still she did answer.

"What's your name?" The next in line was the black-haired kid. And when he was called the entire hall quieted down. This made the boy even more fl.u.s.tered.

"I am Leone Wilbert. N-nice to meet you"

'Interesting. And the last name? I recall hearing such a name sometime earlier?.... Whatever Azrael scan the mana signature of this kid too.' Kiel found this function of the system to be quite to his liking.

[Beep… Mana signatures scan successfully. The subject has a high-grade mana pool and very high mana compatibility, viewing from the resonating elements. However, most of the mana signatures are originating from his optic chiasm and occipital lobe. The subject probably has a bloodline ability. The host is advised to stay alert.]

[A/N: both optic chiasm and occipital lobe are related to vision. Not the red one with the yellow stone. Just the eye!]

Kiel deduced him to have some great powers but didn't expect a legendary bloodline user to be among them. This was definitely turning out to be more interesting. 

However, he was more surprised to see the system use a scientific term. It was only yesterday that he allowed the system to scan his memory database for anatomy and basic technical science. 'Didn't expect it to use these terms so soon.'

Although this target worked, obviously he was not so lucky next time cause the next one was the kid Kiel saw at the entrance.

The reply he got was a smug smile which seemed to indicate 'you are not worth my time'

This was even more embarrassing than the earlier one. But when he wanted to look at the others on his side, he got a similar response, including Kiel. So he could only sit down on his chair again.

Kiel saw the remaining ones included a spectacled girl with a fairly large pair of bunnies disregarding her age, with a frilly frock. It looked, high class. Kiel wondered if she had come for a picnic. The spectacles made her look even cuter. The remaining guy was wearing a green coloured shirt and had his eyes closed. His left leg was vibrating steadily. He also didn't introduce himself to anyone.

Although the leader type kids would be a problem late on, now he looked more like a newbie. So Kiel too closed his eyes for the moment.

.

.

.

The timer on his card ticked down to finally 00:00:00 and a voice echoed all throughout the hall.

"It's time dear participants."

Everyone who was present there heard the voice. However, no one could point out the direction from where it was coming from. Even the lady from earlier seemed to have vanished. 

<So all of you passed the first mission huh? Let's see. Huh? Eight people have still not arrived. Failing even such a simple task? Well, whatever. Time and tide wait for none. And we can't wait any longer. So let's begin the next phase of the trials.>

Everyone who heard the voice was still surprised. There were no speakers or magic tools. So the voice itself was flowing to them through magic.

<Oh and before that, allow me to introduce myself. I am the Dungeon Core autonomous control module 2.0, tasked with guiding all of you here. You all can simply call me the GUIDE!>

< Introduction over. Now let's see what do we have here. Hmm… 24 black and four bronze cards… Oh isn't that quite a lot of black cards this time. 

And we even have two silver invitation cards and hmm… even a GOLD card!! Quite fascinating. It had been quite some time before I saw a silver card, let alone a gold card. I guess this time the competition would be more exciting. Let's see seeing such enthusiastic participants, why don't we change the next task to make it even more exciting?>

Kiel was already deeply intrigued by what was happening. First, the guide was totally an AI. The autonomous word said it all. And even the talks had emotions. So a high level AI at that. He really could not wait to open up and see how the thing worked. After all advanced AIs only came into being in the late 21st century.

Kiel's thought was broken when the GUIDE continued his monocle as silence still prevailed in the room.

<Ok! Before beginning, let me introduce to your badges. And by badges I mean your invitations. Don't think that your invitation card roles are finished now. They will play a very important role in your upcoming trials. Ok now drop a little of your blood in the back of your cards.>