Calamity Strikes

"Zekuth"

Two men were sitting in an office, the office of the Head of the Hunter Association.

The room was illuminated by natural light, which came in due to one of the walls being fully made of glass, which allows people to see outside.

This office was on the 75th floor of the main building, and you could see the whole city from that place.

The Head, Aiden, wearing jeans with a pink T-shirt, was standing, gazing at the beautiful scenery through the windows.

As he called his name, Zekuth, the man sitting on the sofa, which was about 10 steps away from the window, turned to look at him.

Aiden continued . . .

"I cannot see today"

Zekuth's eyes widened, as if a realization dawned on him. He shot up from his seat.

"So that means . . ."

Zekuth looked at Aiden for confirmation, to which the latter merely nodded.

Aiden walked to his seat and started calling some people, assigning them their work.

"The plan goes as we thought of it . . ."

He said, not looking at the man on the sofa.

" . . . let's see what he changes"

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I like coffee.

Today's breakfast starts with Coffee Jelly.

Followed by a Coffee Cake.

Because I like coffee.

Cold Coffee as a beverage.

And Coffee Ice-Cream as dessert.

Which is also because I like coffee.

Did I mention that I liked coffee? 

In case I forgot to tell you, I like Coffee.

My very important thoughts were rudely interrupted by a loud screeching sound, followed by a bang.

I didn't care though, probably some malfunction, or short-circuit, or mayb–aaand there's a huge swirly gate on top of the Academy.

It is like a dungeon gate, but it exudes a more . . . oppressive energy.

Also, it seems like it is moving downwards, well, that is to be expected, because dungeon gates usually need substances with over a certain amount of mana to be kept under them.

It's like . . . they sink akin to a ship in water, but they stop if they something with a lot of mana comes under them, like the seafloor in the ship example.

Well, this one is quite big, the amount of energy coming out of this suggests that it is an A-Rank, maybe even reaching S-Rank.

S+ Rank may be possible, but I'm not too sure.

I took a bite from the coffee jelly.

Well, I can't escape now, it's already really close.

I lied, I can, but I don't want to, because it will be fun.

Now, while the gate comes down, I will give a little explanation of the high ranked gates, trying to ignore everyone who is running around and shouting.

A-Rank gates are basically like the lower ranked dungeons, just bigger, but some high A-Ranks can transport you into some open place.

For example, the 16th A-Rank gate which was soloed by an S+ Rank Hunter, was said to be set in a snowy, mountainy terrain, where she had to fight mostly beings that were found in the arctic.

I took another bite from the coffee jelly.

S and S+ Rank gates are more interesting though.

Some S-Rank and all S+ Rank gates have their own sets of civilization.

A lot of hunters that went to clear these dungeons said that some monsters had gained human levels of intelligence, and created villages and even towns.

An S+ Rank dungeon's exploration party said that the dungeon was literally like a 'second world', divided into countries with creatures having a real power struggle.

One of the hunters that were first to enter an S+ Ranked dungeon, was quoted saying:

'That dungeon was so realistic that I thought I died as soon as I entered and got isekai'd to another world.'

Another one of the same party was quoted saying:

'It was an otherworldly experience, literally'

The members of the party said that they had to kill a sort of 'evil ruler' to clear the dungeon.

That 'evil ruler' could be said to be the boss of the dungeon, as there has been no dungeon without a dungeon boss till now.

And the conditions for the clearance of a dungeon is the death of the dungeon boss.

Another teammate of the party was quoted saying:

'Usually in dungeons, there is a 'way' to go, there is a path, no matter how vague, there is one to reach the end, but in that dungeon, there wasn't, we had to roam around, gathering information for a long time before we even had an idea of what to do.'

The first S+ Rank dungeon was cleared in 103 days, 21 hours, 13 minutes.

I tried to reach my glass of cold coffee, then noticed that someone had knocked it over, while they were running, probably. So I just took a bite of my coffee cake, but then I noticed that my ice-cream was melting.

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That was the inner workings of the dungeons, as for their impact on the outside, S and S+ Ranked gates exude so much mana that the surroundings near them start to erode.

The humans near these gates start to experience organ failure due to dangerous levels of mana concentration.

Some high level hunters can come near these gates without consequences because they are good at removing extra mana from their bodies.

All in all, the effects of S and S+ Rank gates are close to that of a nuclear explosion.

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I got up from the seat, finally finishing my meal, and walked outside into the open, where teachers were trying to calm the students down and help them evacuate, which went very poorly as the students were DUMB and ran all around the place.

I looked around to see Lucas. He had a frightened face which had turned white from fear, I could see a few tears on his face.

Eva was near him. She was much calmer than other students, but still had a bit of fear shown on her face.

Our eyes met, and she looked at me with focused eyes, as if to ask what she should do, what she can do to escape this situation.

Looking at her face, I just smiled and stretched my hands into the air, as if warming up to exercise.

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In less than 20 seconds later, the gate had engulfed the whole Academy, and trapped all the humans in there, students, teachers, and sweepers alike.

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Aiden had a grave expression as he sat on his seat, which did not go well with his pink shirt that said 'I Like Tomatoes'.

Zekuth was reporting his findings to him about the recent event.

"It has a mana like a low S-Rank, but . . ."

He unconsciously paused before hurriedly continuing.

". . . it is a portal"

Saying that Aiden was surprised would be an understatement.

He wanted to get the students of the Academy under his control by closing the Academy down by repeated disasters.

An A-Rank gate was supposed to open on top of the Academy, but it turned out to be an S-Rank portal.

Gates and portals are two different things.

Portals allow people to travel to different worlds, like different dimensions, that is why S+ Rank dungeons have literal civilizations and countries, because all S+ Rank gates are portals.

But, a portal with mana only of a low S-Rank was thought to be impossible by him.

This is quite disastrous for his plan.

Some of the people he had an eye on might die.

But this will cause a huge uproar.

"Zekuth"

He said in a serious tone.

"We are speeding up the plan, no more need to gain anyone's trust, or enslave anyone . . ."

He continued without stopping.

". . . We will plunge this world into chaos, not from the shadows, but from right in front of everyone"

He had a little smile by the time he ended that sentence.

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"Let the games begin"