The Acknowledgment - Volume One

Old Dungeons and Lizards

                While training with his new dagger, Winter continued his daily quest. Gaining more rewards for the extra work he does. With each passing day, his body improves, and with his efforts, so does his mindset. By proxy, his mental health. "With each passing day, and with each experience point, I gain. I can feel myself grow that much stronger," Winter thought, resting as he looked through his phone after his deep workout flow. "Why did I get an email from Cyrus?" He thought just before he began reading. "Oh. That's why, he wants me to join a dungeon raid," Winter talked aloud to himself. He began to think over this proposition from Cyrus. "I've brushed up against death so many times already, and barely survived. I can't test my luck with Cyrus around. I'd think I'm only B-rank at most, but I wouldn't stand a chance in a fight against an S-rank," he thought, but he couldn't understand why they needed someone like him to carry bags, or maybe even be a secondary mage. He's a druid, after all, nor does he really have any abilities to support others without access to Gaia directly. "I'm useless for any type of raiding," Winter explained to himself, baffled by this offer.

                The pay for joining was good, and there was a contract they were signing for the pay. The rights to this dungeon were already paid for, so it seemed fishy as if Cyrus was plotting something. With a weary cautiousness, Winter accepted Cyrus's offer to join a raid. They weren't alone, rather there was a whole strike squad that was joining, and getting the same pay as Winter was. They were an experienced squad, and with Cyrus they were formidable. In all reality, Cyrus just doesn't like to get his hands dirty and despises work of any kind.

                The day of the raid came around, and Winter had just arrived at the entrance of the dungeon. Since the last time Winter saw Cyrus, he had grown significantly, from an E-rank level of strength to a B-rank strength. "Just to confirm, we're raiding a C-Rank dungeon?" Winter asks, keeping his cards close to his chest. "Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Cyrus asks, trying really hard to suppress his lust for blood. "Nope, it's just fine," Winter replied, getting a cold sensation. As if he knew something sinister was on its way to kill him. They all get ready for the raid, and Winter was shown the bags that he'll be carrying. Throughout the long, and quite frankly uneventful raid. Something just nagged at Winter at the back of his mind. Each encounter with small, arachnid monsters brought out the true colors of the strike squad. "Maybe it's because we don't have a healer, but they're a bit rough," Winter thought, getting more and more cold sensations in his body. With the ever-approaching sinister desire for his death.

                "Hey Cyrus, we found something on a monster," Kyuwan gestured him over, a thin young man with pale skin, androgynous facial features, and shoulder-length black hair. He wore a green cloak over a brown shirt and black pants. "That would be?" Cyrus asks. "Something took a bite out of this one," they explained. "Oh. It must have been another, stronger monster, or the boss," he replied. "Sounds like money to me," another strike member added, then they all began to laugh a good chuckle. But, right away. Winter knew something was off about them, "What are they planning?" He thought as he stayed near the back of the party. "This ominous feeling. It's growing each minute I'm here," Winter thought, looking through his skills that could come into use. It was only a matter of time until it was time for him to fight these monsters he was surrounded by.

                They reached the entrance of the boss room, with silky webs lining the walls. From the entrance, it expanded into a longer, rockier stone room. An apparent difference from the silk-lined cave entrance. Walking through the entrance brought the sensation of the webs sticking to Winter's face, but left after a few swipes. Half of the raiders stood at the exit of the silk-lined entrance, trying to remove the webs from their faces, the rest noticed the edges of the room filled with expensive mana crystals around the boss room. Near the back, over a near ocean of mana crystals, the boss lay asleep in its intricately crafted webbed bed. Hung midair by massive, thick threads of silks. The boss was a massive spider with a gray carapace on its abdomen with eight legs, covered in black chitinous armor with gray exposed joints. With multiple glowing red eyes, it stared blankly at the entrance, in its trance of slumber. Unaware of its current surroundings. As a C-rank Boss, it is a powerful Magic Beast, just by the look of it, Winter knew it was capable of great power.

                "Woah! Look at all of those mana crystals!" One of the fighters exclaimed. "They're low in quality, but their quantity makes up for the low price," Explains Kyuwan, "How much do you think they'll sell for?" Asks the fighter, looking at Kyuwan. "Most likely 1 million dollars," He replied. "That's $125,000 for the 8 of us!" Exclaimed the fighter, enthusiastic about his larger paycheck. "Hold on. I thought we signed a contract to split the profit equally amongst us," Winter suspected something to come out of this. "Oh, yes. Of course, They must have forgotten. You'll get your portion when it's all said and done," Cyrus explains, smiling poorly.

                This only brought more suspicion of evil intent with this raid to Winter's senses. "Damn. Do you know what we forgot? The pickaxes!" Kyuwan remembered. "Wait- I have them," Winter replied, trying to correct their mistakes. "No, he's right. We don't have enough in those bags. How about you stay here, Winter, while we get the other axes," Cyrus explained, already by the entrance to the boss room. "Okay-" Winter replied, still weary to show objection to this S-rank- "Alright, let's go," Cyrus gestured to the others, waiting for them to catch up to him before making his way to the exit of the dungeon. "Even though it's asleep. I need to be careful. I wouldn't want to wake it and be forced to kill it," Winter thought, glancing at the boss.

                "Block the entrance," Cyrus commanded Kyuwan, he nodded and shot a blast of fire into the ceiling, collapsing part of the entrance to the boss room. "Mm, just as I thought," Winter sighed to himself, glaring at the explosion. "Damn lizards," Winter gritted his teeth, watching the falling rocks pile up. "I need to remember that C-rank mage has fire magic," he mumbled, creating a mental note for later. In a matter of a minute, everything had settled around the entrance, and he walked over to the blocked entrance. Feeling how the rocks were stacked. "He blocked it quite well for a mage," he thought, "If I really wanted to I could get out," Winter thought, glancing over where the boss was resting a minute ago. "But, the explosion woke the boss up," he mumbled without any surprise. The Buryura stretched and tremble, warming up. This began to make the room rumble and shake. "Now I have to deal with the boss," Winter sighed, setting the bags down to the side. Cracking his knuckles before summoning his daggers. "You sure you can take another C-rank boss, kid?" Ultima asks, remembering how the past C-rank had brought Winter trouble. "I should be fine. My rank has risen significantly, not to mention that this spider has weaker armor than the snake," He replied, smirking smugly. Ultima went silent as the Buryura began climbing down to the ground, sending a tremor through the boss's room with its weight.