I would really appreciate it if you left a review after reading my story. It helps me know if it was well-received or if I made any mistakes and can improve.
---
Money?
What is that?
Maybe it can be eaten?
I had never heard of it!!
Turns out buying a plot of land and hiring a construction company is much more expensive than I imagined.
Almost all the money I had in my account has vanished.
The good thing?
I only have to wait a few months, maybe less.
I hired the company 'Yoojin Construction', a Korean company run by Yoo Myunghan, the father of Yoo Jinho, who would be Sung Jin-Woo's best friend in the future.
During these days, I also made sure to find out at what point in the plot I am.
There was no news on the internet about a double dungeon in an E-Rank Gate.
Park Kyung-Hye, Sung Jin-Woo's mother, still suffers from the Eternal Slumber disease.
Those who suffer from this disease are intolerant to mana and, as a result, usually begin to develop symptoms after prolonged exposure to a human radiating mana, specifically a hunter.
She was still in the hospital, in a coma, showing no improvement.
Investigating on social media, I also found Sung Jinah, Sung Jin-Woo's little sister.
She had a photo posted with her older brother, where they appeared showing his accreditation as an E-Rank Hunter, at the entrance of the Hunter Association.
The photo clearly was taken the day Sung Jin-Woo became a Hunter.
And judging by the date of the post, that happened three years ago, which leaves me with one year until the beginning of the plot.
One year for Sung Jin-Woo to become a Player, one year for the return of the Shadow Monarch.
That was all the time I needed to recover part of my original power.
...
<< AN ADDITIONAL MAGIC CIRCLE HAS BEEN ADDED >>
<< NOW YOU ARE A LEVEL 2 SORCERER >>
"I didn't remember it being so complicated..."
After almost a full month absorbing the mana inside the mana crystals I extracted from the boss room, I finally reached the requirements to create my second magic circle.
Finally I have access to dual spells!
Although... is this cause for celebration? I'm still weak as shit compared to my old self.
I curse the moment I decided to provoke Akaluman. If it weren't for that lizard I wouldn't be here, starting from scratch and forced to sneak illegally into Gates to level up.
And all because my damn pride doesn't allow me to accept a Hunter license that doesn't say S-Rank.
My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a deafening crash.
CRASH!!
The peace of my apartment was shattered, literally.
The living room windows exploded inwards in a rain of hundreds of sharp glass fragments, immediately followed by a heavy lump that impacted against the floor with a wet and disgusting sound, sliding until it stopped a few meters from my feet.
The silence that followed was only broken by the crunch of some glass settling.
I stood still, looking at what had just entered uninvited into my house.
It was the corpse of a woman.
Or what remained of her...
Her limbs were grotesquely twisted at angles human anatomy does not allow, with bones protruding through the skin like broken branches.
Her face, however, was intact, frozen in an empty expression, with open eyes staring at nothing, devoid of any trace of life or fear.
I didn't scream or back away.
I am used to seeing this type of scene, although certainly this time it took me by surprise.
I simply blinked a couple of times, confused, before slowly averting my gaze toward the huge hole where my window used to be, through which a gust of cold wind was now entering.
"What the hell is happening out there?" I murmured, frowning.
I walked calmly toward the disaster zone, ignoring the crystals crunching under my feet.
The wind messed up my hair, and through the open hole, the terrified screams of people and the deep roars of what sounded like monsters began to filter in.
This was annoying.
Who was going to pay for my window? I'm broke, you know?
I extended my right hand toward the shattered window.
Luckily, I am not just any man.
"Restoration!"
The effect was immediate.
A soft golden light wrapped around each of the hundreds of fragments scattered on the floor and furniture. As if someone had pressed the rewind button on a movie, the pieces of glass began to levitate, vibrating gently.
With a hum, the fragments flew back to the window frame.
The large pieces fitted first, followed by the smaller splinters and glass dust. The irregular edges fused together upon contact, sealing the cracks without leaving a single scar. In a matter of seconds, the surface was smooth, transparent, and perfect again, blocking out the wind and outside noise once more.
Not a single scratch remained.
Satisfied with my work, I lowered my hand and looked back at the twisted corpse on my floor.
"I suppose I'll have to call the police to take this away..." I thought, scratching the back of my neck with indifference. "Although it can wait a bit. I just hope it doesn't stain the carpet too much; I don't want to lose the deposit."
I didn't feel nausea or discomfort. After hundreds of years watching wars, starting them and ending them, a broken human corpse was no more shocking than seeing an overturned chair.
Without paying any more attention to the dead person, I approached the window I had just repaired again and opened it to look out.
What I saw below made my eyes narrow.
There, right in the middle of the road, paralyzing traffic and causing chaos, was something that shouldn't be there.
It wasn't one of the blue and undulating Gates created by the Rulers.
This Gate was different.
It was an oval portal, its color was a deep and sickly purple, with reddish and orange turbulence swirling violently at its edges, as if it were unstable or corrupt.
And most importantly...
"That amount of mana..."
Even from up here, I could see it clearly. An overwhelming and chaotic density of mana floated around that dimensional rift, distorting the air.
<< A LEVEL 1 DUNGEON HAS OPENED >>
<< ONLY LEVEL 50 OR HIGHER CAN ENTER >>
My eyes landed on the new System window.
Level 50...? Did it really have to be Level 50?!
Damn it!
I lamented internally, feeling a stab of rage.
Frustration invaded me upon realizing the mistake I had made. I had focused on creating my second magic circle, on becoming a Level 2 Sorcerer, dedicating a whole month to it, without bothering to raise my level.
I didn't want to depend on the Ahkasha System...
But now I was trapped with my Level 17, facing a dungeon with a level limit... of 50.
It is the curse of every gamer... level limits.
My eyes fixed on the street, on the chaos.
Huge creatures, which looked like praying mantises the size of small cars, ran across the asphalt. Their sharp and fast claws dismembered civilians, throwing them into the air or devouring them with their jaws.
The blood splattered the facades of buildings and abandoned vehicles.
"Judging by the density of mana emanating from them, compared to the Goblins from last month... these monsters are at least B-Rank."
Without thinking twice, I jumped out of the newly repaired window.
My Mana Cube manifested instantly above the palm of my right hand, floating gently over it.
I descended the floors slowly, landing on the asphalt with the lightness of a feather.
The dull thud of my feet on the ground caught the attention of one of the nearest mantises, which, with a deafening shriek, abandoned its prey, which it was devouring, and began to run toward me.
A spherical and crystalline shield, composed of small joined hexagons, appeared around me.
The mantis was a few meters away from shattering my barrier, or at least trying to, but by then, I was already preparing my next spell.
I extended my left hand toward the mantis, joining two spells simultaneously.
"I command you as the minister of magic..."
"Lightning + Magic Arrow."
Both spells merged above my head. A huge crackling bolt surrounded a gigantic bright blue magic arrow, condensing great destructive power.
"Go, Lightning Arrow!" I exclaimed, pointing with my extended hand toward the mantis.
The arrow shot out at blinding speed; the mantis didn't even have time to register the attack.
The arrow went right through the creature. It not only crushed its hard exoskeleton and organs, but the lightning overload left it shrouded in acrid smoke, its shell scorched and useless crashing against the ground.
The power was excessive. The arrow did not stop at the mantis but continued its trajectory, piercing and destroying a couple of parked cars behind it.
"Wow, I used too much power for such a little thing. I need something more appropriate."
By then, the other four mantises on the street had fixed their gaze and fury on me. All of them, in unison, lunged in my direction.
Around me, flames engulfed an overturned bus, the asphalt was stained with blood, corpses lay scattered like broken dolls, and in the distance, the screams of people mixed with the noise of sirens.
While the four mantises were about to attack me simultaneously, I extended my hand toward them. A small purple magic circle, with a triangle superimposed, appeared on the palm of my hand.
"This will do..."
"Psychokinesis."
Before the creatures could even touch my shield, the necks of the four mantises twisted and cracked with a chilling sound, turning completely on their axis before being ripped from their bodies with a single yank.
"If I only break their necks, the corpses will remain intact and I can sell them for quite a lot of money."
More mantises began to emerge from the portal and I simply huffed.
"How fun!" I said aloud, without a shred of fear. "How dare they invade a sorcerer's territory without any fear? Even the wildest and most primitive beasts usually have some survival instinct."