Dawn: Another World, Another Fight, Another Clam

Kuduk!

kachack!

Badup!

He leaped off a tree to slice a snake with an mana pattern who was preparing an attack.

The shrubs rustled as an agility runed snake leapt to his neck, he twisted his body and stabbed it along with his blade in the ground.

He quickly took a few tai chi stances to handle a group that was surrounding him- with this #### form, he would be ready for any attack from any direction and could directly manipulate his body and theirs to an extent.

"Haaaaa....haaaa....haaa"

His breathing was rough, his body was covered with scratches and bite wounds here and there, nothing too deep. It was hard on him as all his stats weren't even and he was saving a lot on his wrist so there was a bit of a struggle getting .....Here.

'Good'

V nodded his head and calmed his breathing, It was clearing up .

The lack of Rune Pattern Snakes meant he had almost reached the habitat of the Rune Eater Snake. He had been hunting snakes nonstop for a while now. His body was covered with injuries that were healing rapidly due to his colorless level stamina.

It was impossible not to get injured no matter how strong you are, of course he could have avoided some with his Sixth Sense but that was a waste of mental energy, those unthreatening attacks were allowed to hit.

Even with the puppet decreasing the burden, not getting a scratch was not possible and impractical, using Tai chi was also a waste of time as it was tailored with time and technique in mind, against mobs that was unnecessary, so Kendo was the natural method remaining.

As such he used his techniques while taking only d.e.s.i.r.ed hits before mowing down all his obstacles.

Soon he saw it,

A humongous tree that couldn't even be compared to the trees until now had appeared in front of him.

And the surroundings trees had been broken and smashed to create an open area.

He stopped, looking at the top of the tree.

'There it is.'

<Rune Eater Snake>

A giant snake of 15m that had coiled upon the tree.

It had become the leader of the Rune Pattern snakes by eating them and absorbing their runes.

Most mutant Rune Eater Snakes became strong like that and acted as predators.

A monster that couldn't even distinguish its own clansman and only saw them as food.

And because of this, other rune pattern snakes did not live around it.

'But that one is useless'

That one was useless.

Since due to its size, if you gave it 3 runes it will eat all of those 3.

It was only useful while it was a baby, when it did not eat much and would puke out two when you gave it three would it be useful.

But since it was only useful for three months, he just needed to release it after that.

He nodded as he thought of the rune pattern snake's egg somewhere within the tree.

'Let's go'

This beast was weaker than the Altar beast and he was even stronger than then despite the substantial amount of runes on his wrist.

He rested his blade on his shoulder before lowering his centre of gravity and pushing forward for the kill. With his puppet behind him with its toe on the spear that was expertly hidden within the grass, upon him attacking, it waited for his signal on when to kick the spear end and snipe the snake.

The agile beast rushed at him like a pillar of high pressure water, twisting it's huge body upon him, he blocked and leapt back while dodging and slightly nudging it during its attack here and there.

'Urgh!'

He inwardly grunted,as he blocked one such twist, by tilting his body and steadying his blade to make a shallow line in its skin.

Despite it being weaker than him in terms of quality, it's body was superior physically which gave him a hard time. Thankfully his colorless perception was quite useful in reading its movements, the added normal level sixth sense was a great boon as well.

After a while his eyes narrowed,

'I've got it!'

The flow and pattern of movements that came with it twisting, he could now fully utilize his Tai Chi.

He eyed the tip of its tail, seven inches below its head, and the roof of its mouth.

...

Kudududk

"Whew!"

He quietly breathed out as he retrieved his spear from the enormous head. He felt nothing as getting complacent over killing something originally weaker than him was nothing special.

True accomplishment came from hunting stronger prey.

Kachak!

Bripp!

And soon the egg cracked open as a small snake that couldn't be imagined to be a baby of that giant snake came out and crawled above V's wrist.

'Good'

There were quite a bit of Strength, Stamina, Agility and Perception runes gathered on his wrist.

He started to feed the baby rune eater snake with all the runes he had gathered up.

The rune eater snake didn't realize it's parent was dead as it greedily gulped down the runes on V's wrist.

The four types of runes on his wrist quickly disappeared as a different type of rune replaced their spots.

'First, raise sixth sense, physical and magic resistances.'

His Mana wasn't really lacking.

He had in instead raise these other three stats in order to raise his ability battle powers which were lacking.

Since soon things with abilities will pop out one by one. And luck, charisma and charm weren't things so easy to increase.

He took his time to clean out the path in the forest slowly bringing each rune one by one into the colorless stage before the resistances, he diverted 60% to increasing his already high rune stats to colorless and the remainder increased his three most precious stats.

He would love to get more regeneration runes , those consumables were quite useful in recovery but he was hit almost fatally a few times despite his preparation with the Altar beast so he was out.

******************

Minerva and her gang cleared the forest with no life threatening incidents or injuries.

'…Tunnel?'

A giant tunnel located near the bottom of the mountain.

And in front of it a very familiar existence was located there.

"Congratulations on reaching the goal."

And then the fairy pointed towards the inner parts of the tunnel.

There was a dormant volcano's crater that could be seen along with few tens of people who had already reached this place next to many weird-looking boats.

They all heaved sighs of relief.

"Hello everyone. Welcome to the goal line. Heehee. Let's see… there's 85 alive right now? It's good that not many died. You guys worked hard."

"…"

Whilst everyone was grinding their teeth, the fairy smiled as it spoke again.

"Since there's 85 people, 85 tickets should be prepared right?"

And then a ticket with strange patterns started to appear on the hands of the people.

While the people were mumbling about the ticket, the fairy continued to talk.

"If you get on that then you can get on the boat that leads you to the island above. You've done well. I will now tell you how to use the ticket."

"…?"

Wasn't it just that they had to get on the boat after handing it over.

"Basically the boats you guys will get on is for three people"

"…"

"And of course three tickets must be gathered in order for it to work. Isn't it so peaceful? Since its three tickets per three people, there's no need to fight"

Everyone sighed in relief at these words.

Since that meant that all 85 people could go up.

"But it will be unfair if one person or two people pay three tickets and get treated like three people right? So we prepared something special"

'Goddamit, of course it won't just let us go that easily…'

The fairy made an amused expression as it looked at the people and spoke.

"Firstly, if you hand in three tickets then you can go to any island you want. By the way, if you think that all the islands above are the same then that's a huge misconception. Check the islands map in your pockets."

The fairy laughed and spoke as it saw a few people's eyes shining.

"If you hand in three tickets with two people then you can go together but you cannot decide where it goes. The boat will move randomly"

At the fairy's words, the eyes of the people who were comrades or partners changed.

If they wanted to act together then they had to gather an extra ticket.

"Lastly if you hand in three tickets as three people then you will get off separately. You can go up but you cannot be together. A situation like a family would be very very sad right? I hope if you are in a family of three that you can gather nine tickets to go to the island you want."

And the fairy spoke in amus.e.m.e.nts without caring for such matters.

"There should be about… 30 minutes left until the island collapses completely? Heehee. I guess only 35 boats are needed. I will separate the boats all around the crater. It won't be fun if you just protect the area of the boat right? Ticket. You just need to gather three tickets with whichever method and then depart! Good luck!"

The fairy disappeared after those words.

And everybody's faces started to stiffen.

It was better to go together and even better if you could go where you wanted.

So it was better the more tickets you had.

If there were 6 in a party then 18 was optimal, 9 was ok and six was a worst case scenario.

The people who had laid their decisions looked around for weak people. Minerva immediately stopped hesitating and along with the Three women with her, she forced all women present to accept her lord symbol. It wasn't that hard when a knife was against their throats.

Her symbol was getting stronger and stronger as well. No one could disobey her, she was their leader, their Queen. She didn't let the power go to her head, nonetheless large groups enhanced survival.

With that, she was 25 strong, they gathered together and fought against all the males taking their tickets and headed off to the next islands on the boats.

Elsewhere,

Corpses decorated the floor, forming a gory river of blood, they were piled up high like a tower of death, each individual, man and woman, having shocked expressions as they died, a figure dressed in a loose black kimono with a melon color sash Sat atop the pile, with a bloodied katana.

'What a joke, before the island, no one will have colorless runes straight away, one level above is really something. Though this is the only time I'll get to be this rampant for a while, after the tutorial things get serious when I have a single skill alone.'

He stretched as he thought of how his future looked bleak and full of labour, The kimono rustled with the strong gale that suddenly passed by.

He was in Japan before, as such he only had access to such traditional clothes, though they allowed a wide range of movements so he had no complaints.

While looking up at the sky, the fairy clapped while still cheering him on as he used three tickets to go to the central island and converted all the runes he received to evenly distribute among the non-colorless stats.

Through the adorable snake curled up on his wrist. He touched his ear.

[Vicente Von Vongola]

Strength (colorless): 0.04%

Stamina (colorless): 0.02%

Perception (colorless): 0.02%

Agility (colorless): 0.03%

Sixth Sense: 66.1

Mana: 80.1

Magic: 82

Physical Resistance: 68.3

Magic Resistance: 68.1

Luck: 20

Charm: 20

Charisma: 20

It wasn't bad. It was far from his d.e.s.i.r.ed colorless all stats, killing was really the way to go, humans dropped better runes, but it wasn't good to be too greedy. He boarded his boat and set off.

He looked at the Central Island that he could see afar from the boat.

An island that was huge even in comparison to other islands.

**********************

He landed.

"Welcome to the Central Island. You are the last person. We will start now"

And at that moment, everybody who was on the landing area teleported into one place.

"This is…"

Everybody looked around.

A giant castle.

Over a thousand people were looking around after being teleported high above the walls.

And soon the fairy which had appeared above their heads started to explain the situation.

"Hello, 2002 participants in the Central Island. I guess I need to explain three things first basically. There are three things of utmost importance on this island. Castle. Demon Lord's Castle and Underground Dungeon."

Everyone made a bitter expression at those words.

There was only the underground dungeon marked on the island maps.

The underground dungeon of the central island was filled with beasts with good rewards and that they could get strong and armed quickly.

And that was why everyone had used three tickets in order to come to the central island.

The castle they were standing on was one thing, but what was the demon castle.

The fairy laughed as it continued to speak.

"My explanation was a bit lacking but these aren't lies. Can you see the castle afar?"

At those words everybody above the castle looked at something on the edge of the island.

It was an island but it was so big that they had to focus really hard with their eyes in order to see and figure out that it was a castle.

"That is the Demon Lord's Castle which is your final destination. Well you would all die if a real Demon lord were to come out so we specially prepared a weaker version of the demon lord for you instead."

"The Demon army is largely separated into the demons and undeads. The demons are the ones that give bountiful rewards that you think of. But the undead do not give anything. No item, no rune no anything."

The fairy rested for a moment and then continued to explain.

"And the castle is where you guys are at. There is 1 month. If you can withstand the attack of the Demon Lord and protect the crystal in the center of the castle you will win. You can also win by just taking over the Demon Lord's Castle."

Everyone made a bitter face at these words.

Since they could see the swarming armies on the way to the Demon Lord's Castle at a glance.

When would they have the time to break through them.

It was obvious that defense was easier than offense.

"And finally, I should explain the underground dungeon. You can see multiple entrances on the insides of the castle right?"

Everyone nodded as they looked towards the inner parts of the castle.

There were multitudes of suspicious looking dungeon entrances located in numerous places.

There were entrances on the castle walls and even entrances in the drill hall.

"These are the same as the underground dungeons that you know of. If you hunt in there then the runes will drop like flies and artifacts will drop as well as you knew"

And then the fairy talked about colorless runes and artifacts.

And then everybody's expression changed.

A lot had happened but it had only been 10 days since they came here.

They had become stronger physically but they only at a knife at most as a weapon.

But a chance to earn higher runes and artifacts.

The fairy persuades them to go into the dungeons asap in order to become stronger.

It was quite the evil act as they would all get killed if no one defended and only greedily hunted.

"Now. You will need a tutorial right? Since it's only the first day there'll only be about three attacks. There also won't be any demons. Start!"

And soon a large amount of skeletons started rising up at a scary rate outside the castle with clacking sounds.

"Damnit… Isn't that a weak mob that we fought around level 1?"

A person mumbled atop the castle walls.

The skeletons with blue fire burning in their eye sockets or the ghouls who were screaming out terrifying roars were not weak mobs in anybody's eyes.

No, they were actually armed better than themselves who only had a sword at most.

Since they were even wearing armors.

And soon the undead who had formed a battle line started to charge towards the castle door and the castle walls.

"Guard it!!"

And soon the adventurers and the undead started to clash with a fearsome energy.

V didn't bother to look around so he had no idea a familiar face was nearby, Minerva. He had a lingering thought to meet her but despite his numerous flirtations in the past, they weren't all that close really, so he soon forget she was in the area when he was brought here.

His only thought was to spend a few days at the very least in the dungeons to get stronger as the situation couldn't possibly deteriorate that fast when they were given a tutorial, he would first bring all combat runes to colorless stage before acting out, hopefully.

The people were all curious about their new environment, and pondered how to set themselves up to battle. Among them was one particular fellow, Tenjin. He was a pro baseball player and had a quite the good start compared to others with his base stats being higher.

These Ten days had been pretty educational, he was quite belligerent and a drunkard who acted out but he would go unpunished with a light slap here and there in real life from his coach who valued his talents. Here he was even more unbridled from pulling ahead.

He had no thoughts of helping out his fellow humans at all and just wanted to enjoy himself. At this moment he saw an opportunity.

'Dungeons..... Let's go there, f*ck this. Should I get a few followers.... yea, a group is better despite some opportunistic selfish bastards.'

He scanned the large crowd and went over to few that looked to be doing well.

Seokhoon was one such person,

"Hey there man, this situation doesn't seem all that dangerous for now right, why don't [email protected][email protected]@@$"

He explained his thoughts with a few baits here and there , the bastard. Seokhoon instantly saw through his honeyed words but they had some merit so he agreed and followed him as he devilishly whispered here and there.

"Is this enough? We're only 30."

"Yea, anymore and it might draw suspicions. Just look at those big groups over there."

"Yea I came up with one of them, Clan I think they called themselves tsk how unfair."

"Yea"

"Yea!!", everyone unanimously approved.

"Ssshhh", Tenjin put his finger on his mouth.

"Let's go quickly and quietly...", he lead them to a nearby hole to jump in.