It was a shiny afternoon. The kind where the sky was blue, and the air smelled of flowers and greenery. Bke, no older than ten, sat on the curb outside his house, his sneakers soaked from puddles. His bike y a few feet away, tipped over. Tears bur the ers of his eyes, his khrobbing from pain from the earlier fall.

  His hands trembled in frustration. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t learn how to use this annoying bike. It was like it was resisting him.

  “I ’t do it,” Bke muttered, looking at his bleeding knee.

  His father crouched beside him, staring at his bleeding knee and the tipped bike on the ground. He wasn’t the kind of man to give long speeches, but he also wasn’t the kind to let his son wallow.

  “You remember the first time you tried walking?” his father asked.

  Bke sniffled, wiping his face with his sleeve. “No.”

  His father smirked. “Of course not. You were just a baby. You’d stand up, wobble a little, then—” he cpped his hands together, “—right back down on your butt.”

  Bke frowned. “What’s your point?”

  His father oward the bike. “Point is, you kept getting back up. You didn’t think about quitting, because quitting wasn’t even something you uood back then.” He patted Bke’s shoulder. “You didn’t learn to walk in one day. You won’t learn to ride in one day either.”

  Bke looked up at him, frustration in his young eyes. “What if I fail anyway?”

  His father exhaled, shaking his head. “You might.”

  Bke blihat wasn’t what he expected.

  “You’ll fail a lot of times,” his father tinued, his gaze hard. “But the only way you truly fail, Bke, is if you stay down.”

  The words struck deep.

  His father stood up and held out a hand. “One more time.”

  Bke hesitated, then reached for his father’s hand. He got up, wiped his eyes, and walked back toward the bike. However, before he could try again, his father stopped him in his tracks. Bke’s blue eyes moved to meet his father’s hazy ones.

  His father raised two fingers. “I said one more time.”

  Bke raised an eyebrow, fused. “I got your point, father.”

  “No, you didn’t.” His father shook his head, raising two fingers into the air. “Two more, Bke. Go kick their buts.”

  Suddenly, his father’s face distorted, along with their house behind him. Bke’s eyes closed involuntarily and memories flickered in the haze of Bke’s mind—faces he couldn’t remember, choices he wished he hadn’t made. But there, in the chaos, ohing remained clear: the wo more.

  And then Bke woke up.

  His body still screamed in agony, his sense were dull. The smell of his sweat and blood, mixed with the dampness of the dungeon, made him almost wrench. However, Bke realized that something was wrong, for he couldn’t move his hands. In faeither could he move his legs.

  He didn’t open his eyes, he didn’t even twitch a muscle, trying to remain as calm as possible. Then, slowly, Bke slid off his eyelids slightly, revealing a peculiar se of three adventurers sitting in a triangle, iing all of his belongings on a carefully id piece of cloth on the ground. A burly man with a beard, a skinny teenager with a steel chest pte and a woman with overly long earrings – all of them were staring hard at the ground, as Bke calmly closed his eyes, despite his beating hard.

  His chakra reserves had barely restored, but it was enough to slowly start juring a small ieedle in his left hand.

  The trio of adventurers stared at Bke’s belongings, not knowing what to do. There was a lot of stuff pced on the cloth. A few shuriken’s, one kunai, a water fsk, ten monster crystals, a dagger, some beef jerky and two poison bombs, though they didn’t realize it was, in fact, poison, siheir attention was solely focused on the ice gun.

  The burly man picked up the ice gun. “Never seen anything like this. It is not magical, but it is dangerous for sure.”

  “Don’t touch it.” The woman hissed as the burly mahe gun back with some annoyahis guy is defihe killer, I am telling you. He is so suspicious. His injuries seem to have e from bdes, not monsters, and he was clearly running away from something. I say we go to the city immediately and give them to him.”

  “What if he is not? We would just waste time then.” The man with the armor responded.

  “It doesn’t matter, we would get pensated either way. Easier money. Besides-“ The icked up the biggest crystal from the cloth, which was shimmering with a dark light. “-if the man is actually not the killer, I am sure he wouldn’t mind pensating his saviours himself.”

  This time both men smiled in unison.

  The burly picked up a monster crystal. “Anyway, the man must be pretty dangerous.” He threw a gnce back, seeing Bke still unscious. He turowards the woman. “You sure you strapped him well?”

  “Yes, I am sure.” The woman simply answered, engrossed in the crystal. “He is half dead anyway, and all of his gear is here. Talking about that, we will have to patch him up a bit if we are going to make this journey with him still breathing.”

  “Seems like a hassle.” The man with the armhed, pig up the beef jerky and mung on it. His face twisted. “Damn, this is ass. Where did he get this cheap meat?”

  As they eased into a versation about what they were going to do with the money and all of the gear, Bke finally freed his hands. Yet, he preteo be still unscious. trating, Bke pushed his remaining chakra into his mouth, twisting his tohin to create another small ieedle.

  Then, Bke opened his and eyes, log the poison bombs immediately. He took a deep breath, holding the air in his lungs and spit the needle, aiding it with chakra. It flew like a bullet, hitting the poison bht in the middle. Purple smoke exploded out of it, engulfing the entire area and c the three startled adventurers.

  “What the fuck is happening?!”

  Bke could hear the burly man shouting, as he promptly twisted his body, freeing his legs from the ropes.

  “Don’t breathe! It’s poison!” The woman was shouting and coughing desperately.

  “It’s that fucker! I ’t see him in this smoke! He is trying to run away!” The armored man roared.

  “Get away from the poison first!” The womaed, when, suddenly, another explosion resounded within the dungeo, it was more trolled. “What happened?! Noer?! Bjorn!? Where are you? Guys, run to my voice!”

  The woman tio run until she was out of the poisonous smoke, where she could finally breathe normally. Some of the poison got into her lungs and she felt heavy, but the situation was dire.

  “Crystal! I am here!”

  “Bjorn! Run to my voice! Get out of the smoke!” The woman shouted desperately, when she heard another round of fire ing from within the smoke. She heard a scream of her rade, which forced some fear to creep into her mind. Looking at the smoke, uanding that her rades have seen their demise, she began to retreat rapidly.

  Yet, as soon as she turned around, she heard another shot, followed by an exhirating pain in her back. She fell onto the ground, her hitting the ground. Promptly, she twisted around, only to see Bke standing above her, murder in his eyes.

  Then he fired, killing the third adventurer and finally finishing his mission. Away from the smoke, Bke could start breathing, as he gazed down at the dead woman. He had do. He had woe the three dead bodies around, Bke raised his left hand into the air in triumph, almost wanting to shout.

  “I have won.” Bke didn’t know whether to smile or cry. The pain, the misery and the memory of his dad all suddenly merged into one, and Bke felt tears going down his cheeks. “I have won, dad. I didn’t give up.”

  He had experience a lot in these few days and the mission proved much harder than he had anticipated. He had almost died multiple times, and Bke wished nothing more than to go bae a. As he thought about going back, Bke felt a pull ing from the side, where he saw the bck door emerging from the ground. It was huge, seemingly made from some ethereal ore.

  Bke looked at it for a sed, wanting nothing but to reach out and grab the handle immediately, yet, he still had some unfinished business. Stumbling slightly, like he was drunk, Bke reached out into the pocket of the dead woman, taking out a monster crystal that he had gotten from the abnormal Shadow Monster.

  Then, Bke walked back to the two dead guys, falling to the ground due to bad footing. His breath was ragged, yet he stood back up upon remembering his dad’s words. With robotic precision, Bke removed the man’s chest pte, took their ons, stole all of their crystal and then threw everything onto the cloth with his stuff.

  “e on.” Bke bit his lip, taking each side of the cloth with his left hand and trying to lift it. No success. Feeling weak, Bke simply dragged the cloth along the ground towards the door, opening it and presenting himself with eternal darkness.

  He turned bae st time, raising a middle fio no one in particur. “I fug hate this dungeon.”

  Theepped in and smmed the door behind him, leaving behind three dead bodies.

  -

  “Over there!” Bete shouted, pointing towards the interse in the distance. Ais and Tione sisters rushed forward like lighting, appearing right behind Bke. Yet, the instant when they were about to catch up, Bke stopped and turned around. Raising two of his middle fingers, Bke’s skin began to shift. A moment ter, Bke turned into a sculpture of ice depig his frozen body.

  Ais stopped iracks, staring at the sculpture. A few seds ter, Finn and the rest of the team were standio Ais, looking at frozeh his two raised middle fingers. Everybody was frowning, getting even more annoyed.

  “Back to 10th floor, fast.” Finn anded.

  They rushed back to the 10th floor, where Bete discovered a new st leading upwards. They followed that st, stumbling upon three more dead bodies. Ais narrowed her eyes, finally showing a ge in her expression, whilst Riveria and Finn cursed openly. Bete was still sniffing the air.

  “They died from that on.” Finn cluded after iing the bodies, his face a snarl. Looking at Bete, who was staring at a wall with fusion, Finn asked. “Find anything else?”

  “The st disappears here.” Bete raised his eyebrouhe cave wall, yet it simply cracked slightly. It was a normal wall. “I have no idea where did that bastard go.”

  “Fuck.” Tione sisters cursed.

  Finn buried his head in his hands. “We have been tricked.”

  -

  Bke has not left a deep mark oy of Orario, for almost everyone fot about the mysterious murderer in a few weeks. heless, certain people remembered the man for what he had done. Lili, as she begun adventuring with Bell, tio use the on given to her. It wasn’t the best, but it was the first time someone had shown her hope in people.

  Loki familia were the one who remembered Bke well, putting him on their wanted list. Even the god of their familia got ied in the man who had fooled them, helping them in their search of the mysterious individual. Yet, it was for naught, for the man disappeared from the city of Orario, leaving behind nothing but unanswered questions.

  Why did he kill the adventurers? What was the goal of that man?

  No one knew and no one was going to find out.

  -

  “Nightmare! Good job!” Konan beamed, appearing besides two Nightmare’s standio each other. They were practically identical, yet Konan could see that one of them didn’t have a shadow. She extended a fist towards the real Nightmare, who puffed some smoke and ected his fist to hers. “Now, you know the basic three that Jiraya taught us. Since you got a hold of how chakra works, you finally start learning some actual ninjutsu.”

  Nightmare stood up more straight, pride clear in his cow-face.

  “You are pretty talented as well, Nightmare.” Konan smiled. “Holy, I didn’t expect for you to learn how to trol the chakra this fast.”

  This time, Nightmare seemed to almost blush, but he kept his face straight.

  “e on, give me a little smile.” Konan nudged him on the shoulder and Nightmare finally broke in, giving her a huge grin and portraying his straight row of teeth. Konan stared at his creepy smile for an overly long sed. “Nevermind, don’t force yourself to smile.”

  Nightmare stopped smiling, turning around to go sna something, when he suddenly stopped. Before Konan could ask what is happening, Nightmare was already rushing out of the room and through the underground tunnels, his full speed activated. Hell, Nightmare even activated [Battle Rage] to run faster.

  Konan followed him, but struggled to keep up with his speed.

  “Nightmare, where are you going?”

  Yet, Nightmare didn’t stop. Konan tried to keep up with the huge monster, finally realizing where the creature was heading. Upon realization, Konan pushed chakra into her feet, increasing her speed and quickly catg up to the mohey run in silence, until finally appearing in the pce where Bke walked through the door.

  Bke y on the ground, unmoving. The man had no clothes, instead being covered in stained bandages from head to toe. There uddle of blood around Bke. Konan rushed to him, seeing that the man was unscious, his face pale and his eyebags dark. Konan didn’t say a word, some spearing on her forehead, as she promptly created a paper be which lifted Bke into the air.

  Without a sed thought, she rushed towards their main hiding pce, pushing everything she got into her feet. Nightmare picked up the cloth with all the stuff that Bke brought and followed Konan.

  Fear of losing his master clouded Nightmare.

  Yet, a hint of triumph sprouted in his heart, for his master avenged him.

  That emotion ushed away until Nightmare made sure that his master was alive.