"Five already, I think it's time I accept," Zylus said.
The day had arrived, it was a Saturday, and Zylus was ready to accept the mission that they received from the course heads.
"They should be ready by now." Zylus whispered, putting on his white zip-up sweater, "Yep, that should be good."
He now had his entire fit on, the same white zip-up, the same white baggy jeans, and the metal Louis Vuitton belt that matched with it. Zylus turned to his system, preparing himself to teleport wherever he might be taken to.
[Quests]
[Quest from The Demon Realm's administrators]
[Quest: ???]
[Accept]
[Quest must be completed by Monday]
[Date Due: December 15th, 2025 by 11:59 PM]
[Approximate Calculated Time To Finish: One Day]
[Quest Accepted]
"Time to go-"
[Hacking into the quest…] → [C-Rank Dungeon]
[Successfully Hacked!]
[Status: Teleporting]
[User Has Been Successfully teleported]
[Completion for the quest will appear as 'Finished' towards the administrators once finished, so they carry the same weight in value]
[But this one's extremely more Difficult]
[Mission: Wipe The Entire Dungeon Out]
[Failure: Death]
"No way, they did it again…" Zylus remarked nervously, "How am I going to explain it to the others? Better I don't, honestly, I'll just have to pretend like this is the same mission as the one we were supposed to go on."
Slowly but surely, Zylus's body began to disappear from his room. Jace hadn't come back from yesterday, but Zylus allowed that thought to cross his mind because he had more important matters to attend to.
And then, there they were, all of them, Michael, Emilia, Frey, and of course, Zenos. They all stood closely to one another, each one had their entire Cadet suits on, prepared to fight. But Zylus had his unique clothing on himself; he preferred fashion over being a civilized cadet.
"Never seen something like this before…" Emilia declared.
"Where are we?" Frey added.
"I don't even know, but it looks like we can fight recklessly here," Zenos smiled.
"Let's go then, what are we waiting for?" Michael asked, "But tell me next time when you guys were going to teleport, because I can't just come here but-naked." He laughed, shifting his attention towards Zylus.
Zylus faced his attention upwards, "This is a C-Rank Dungeon, in accordance with my system-given quest from the course's administrators." It was such an obvious lie, but he couldn't just tell them his system overlapped with the higher-ups, that would have aroused too much suspicion.
They each nodded, now walking forward throughout this mysterious cave they inhabited.
[Arrived: The Dungeon of Tears]
Interesting name, anyway, let's get back on track.
The cave was wide and dim, lit only by faint blue crystals embedded in the walls. The stone beneath their feet was even, but clearly worn down as if countless battles had taken place there before. The air was clear, nothing that made them hold their noses, so they didn't see it as a bother.
The ceiling stretched high above them while thick stone pillars lined the path forward. Dense feelings of Systemic Flow flowed faintly through the cave, just enough to make each one of them sense it, but not overwhelming in any case.
The dungeon felt too quiet.
The group continued to march forward, not looking back, focused on what lay ahead.
"What's our mission?" Emilia asked, expecting a reply from none other than the group leader.
"To fully wipe this dungeon out." Zylus responded, "Probably some boss we would have to defeat."
Zylus's experience from playing multiple dungeon crawler video games now came in handy, and that was his only assumption.
"A boss?" Zenos smirked, "Let me take him on…"
"No, silly," Frey denied, "We're a group, we should fight it together."
Michael stayed slightly behind, as he was the shortest; he couldn't really fit in with them. Being so tiny is difficult, especially when you're in the presence of multiple giants.
Bang!
Wolves suddenly appeared before them, a pack of twenty surrounded them, each one had gray fur coating, standing between forty and fifty inches, but they all had good weight to them.
Zylus smirked, "No weapons, let's see who defeats the most."
Each one of them nodded, progressively forming in an attacking formation.
[Side Quest Activated]
[Slay 20 Lesser-Puppies]
[Group Added To The Quest]
[Slain: 0/20]
[Failure: Death]
"Let's go," Zenos was the first one to rush into two wolves that stood on four legs in front of him, "that's two down."
[Slain: 3/20]
While this happened, Michael also rushed one, but wasn't strong enough to take out two in a quick sprint, adding one more to the kill count, making it three.
"They're leaving me behind," Zylus said, "Time I catch up."
In one swift move, Zylus took out three of those 'Lesser-Puppies' using his one-two jab combo, kicking the third into a wall, where it lost all consciousness. His fist does pack a punch after all, so that was clearly enough to kill them all.
[Slain: 6/20]
While Zylus was worried about catching up, Emilia jumped in with her strong touch.
"Starting to think of it, I never got to see you in battle," Zylus said towards Emilia, "But I guess you're no weakling." He declared.
"I hate rusting myself up with dirt, but fighting these creatures is a good stretch, I guess," Emilia whispered.
[Slain: 19/20]
Each of them continuously went for more and more wolves; they all packed a heavy punch, and none of them stayed behind, including Michael. Unlike how Michael once was, he was clearly much more powerful now, and it showed because he kept up with the four of them.
They all looked at the last 'Lesser-Puppy', in fear of losing his own life, the puppy started to run, lightly barking towards them, he was clearly the youngest in the pack. But none of them cared, except for Frey, who stayed behind as she watched each one of them rush.
Zylus tripped Zenos as Emilia made Michael collapse, and now it was all up to the ones who were still standing.
"It's mine!" Zylus and Emilia both yelled, their hands just in reach.
"Got you," Michael whispered, obliterating the puppy out of existence with his heavy punch.
[Lesser-Puppies Slain: 20/20]
[Side Quest Successfully Completed!]
[You May Continue Now…]