The Earth After Rebirth

They all just stood at the other end of the tunnel. Each of them were puzzled, they didn't imagine a dungeon would be like this, it was, a whole world? It looked like a city, but it was in ruins.

The buildings that once towered the skies resembled a dead army of nothing but littered skeletons. The plants were about the only things they could see alive.

As they clung tightly on the already fallen buildings. Some were stubborn as they just leaned to the side, refusing to fall, the plants clung onto them all the same.

"This is a dungeon? Let's go back." Ishaan said in a whisper, but it was so quiet his whisper was heard loud and clear.

"We can't. We have to clear the dungeon before it can let us out." Kiro told him. He had never seen this in his past life, so this was confusing for him.

As if on queue they all took a step out of the tunnel and into the ruined city. They figured standing around will not help their case, the sooner they clear this, the sooner they can get out of it.

Ding!

[You've entered the ruined city of the student town. The city was attacked by a deadly virus. Humans couldn't do anything to stop it so they perished. This dungeon is about survival. Good luck.]

"This is the student town?" Nikolai asked dumbfounded.

"More importantly, the system didn't tell us about the monsters here." Hiro said, looking toward Kiro.

"Let's just walk on, be ready to fight at any moment. It's a survival dungeon, danger will lurk at every corner." Kiro said taking charge.

The grass was tall, what was strange about all of this was that, there wasn't even a sound of birds, crickets or anything.

The only noise now was their feet marching through the grass. They were walking in their triangle formation, Kiro ordered Ishaan to not use his force shield unless they were engaged in a dangerous fight.

Nothing jumped out to attack them, which made them the more paranoid. Where were the monsters? Navigating through the city wasn't easy, they had to use weapons to cut down the plants at times. They had to be quick on their feet since the rubble would fall where they stood.

"We need to find shelter." Kiro said looking around at the dead city.

"You mean, we can't clear this dungeon today?" Ishaan asked.

"There's no time limit. That much should be obvious." Felix said coldly. He didn't like Ishaan's cowardly nature and he didn't hide it.

"We could be here for months. Let's split up and investigate." Nikolai chimed in.

"That's, not a good idea." Ishaan said sternly. "You've seen the horror films right? Splitting up could be deadly!"

"We'll cover more ground that way, you have a force field shield, what are you so scared of?" Kiro scorned him.

Kiro summoned Kel. Unfortunately he could only summon one beast at a time. Kel was overjoyed as this was his first time being summoned by his master, he pecked Kiro to show his appreciation.

The flyer looked like a hybrid, between a wolf and a bird, his fur still as dark red as when Kiro found him. They had tried to imprint Frost to Hiro so that he could summon him, but it wasn't easy.

"You have a bird dog?"

"It must be nice having a beast tamer subclass..."

"..."

The flyer looked at him with the deadliest of eyes. As if to tell Ishaan to shut his mouth before he could swallow him whole. Kel didn't speak but he was aware and didn't like being reminded of that he was a halfbreed.

"Hey now Kel, calm down." Kiro could sense his deadly aura shot towards Ishaan. "We're all on the same side here."

Ishaan broke a sweat. Even with all the levelling up he wasn't invincible. He could however sense Kel's animosity towards him that made him somewhat docile again.

Kel scoffed, he was liking Ishaan less and less. And was glad when his master waved him away from the kid.

It was decided that they went in pairs, Hiro with Ishaan, Nikolai with Felix and Kiro with Kel and his spectres though nobody knew they were there, and so everyone went their separate ways.

Kel was smaller than a wolf but bigger than a bird. It was a great addition that his wings could carry his body, so flying wasn't a problem for him.

Because he was a halfbreed, he gained abilities from both the species he hailed from, Kiro thought it was too bad he couldn't evolve. He couldn't imagine how strong he'd become if he could.

He had a very strong beak that could pierce even steel. Kiro had previously tested a lot of materials, there was nothing in Hiro's shop he couldn't damage.

His claws weren't as strong, they could still rip flesh into shreds though. His speed was also impressive. Wings gave him an aeriel battle advantage. Making his field of vision unparalleled to most monsters and some players.

He had a very sharp nose, this made it impossible for him to forget a scent, he could chase you to the ends of the earth with just this.

Originally, Kiro didn't like that none of his beasts could talk but he got used to it quickly. Which made him more glad they couldn't, he wasn't looking for a Hubris replacement.

What he couldn't get used to though was the fact that tamed beasts didn't have their own mana, so they used their owners. He had forgotten that's how they started with Hubris before he evolved.

It wasn't a problem that they needed mana and Kiro had kaos. Somehow, the game converted the strange energy into mana when the beasts absorbed it.

Kiro tried to use vibrations to sense the lay of the land, but the world was simply too vast to feel everything. He didn't want to push it, lest he jumped to another realm. He wasn't accomplished yet with using his reality warping abilities.

The closer he got, the more familiar the buildings became. He was here not too long ago with his friends after all.

"Well, let's go."