1 Chapter 1: Excursion

Samuel couldn't move, the girl who had just pushed him to safety now stood in front of him. A hole in her abdomen. Collapsing, she held a hand out as her fingertips pulsed green. 

[Skill: 'Roots of an Elderly Sapling' S-Tier

Allows the user to create and manipulate tree roots]

The ground rumbled and in the blink of an eye, a dozen roots shot up from the ground, piercing through the insect that had caused the girl's injury, it froze as the monster's blood dripped down the roots.

Turning away from the insect, Samuel put his hands against the gaping wound as it turned her green hair red, even if he knew it wouldn't help. He tried to stop the blood from pooling out. "I'm so sorry, I'm so-" The insect let out a loud shriek. "It's not dead-"

In response to its shrieking, the girl spread her fingers apart, which caused the roots to also spread apart, this, in turn, tore the insect into pieces.

Her hand falling limp by her side, the girl looked up at Samuel as she rummaged in her pocket. "What's, what's your name?"

Tears streaming down his cheeks, Samuel cleared his throat. "S- Samuel, I'm a big fan…"

Faintly smiling, the girl pulled something out of her pocket. "What a coincidence, you're Samuel, my name's Samantha. Tell me about yourself, Samuel…"

"Wh- what? This doesn't seem like the correct place for that, I need to heal you- wait! You need to heal yourself, you're like, the best healer aren't you?"

"Pff, bleeding out, and I'm pretty sure that thing severed my spine. I can't feel my legs. Tell me, Samuel, if you were given the opportunity to become something great, would you take it?"

-- Earlier that morning --

The TV screen flicked on to a young man standing on the side of the road, he spoke quickly and clearly.

"This is Alan Cartridge with Hunter's Today. Chaos downtown today as what should have been a simple Dungeon clear quickly ran out of control due to an Excursion as the Dungeon gate jumped multiple ranks, turning from a C-Tier to an S-Tier Gate. Here we have first-ranked Hunter Yggdrasil," The camera turned to show a girl with green hair, rustling it she shyly smiled at the camera. "Who happened to be in the area at the time of the Excursion, along with Hunter Beelzebub and Bahamut." The reporter turned his attention to Yggdrasil, "Hunter Yggdrasil, do you have anything to comment on the Excursion, they seem to be happening more frequently, no?"

"Um, whilst I don't feel confident to exactly comment on how frequent Excursions are becoming. I do feel confident enough to say that it was a team effort really, without Beelzebub's debuffs or Bahamut damage we'd never have been able to beat the cause of the Excursion. I'd be lying if I took all the credit. It was a hard-fought victory, but more importantly, nobody died. That's all that matters."

"Ah yes, the cause of the Excursion. These so-called, Deviants. Powerful S-Tier monsters that, as of yet have not dropped any loot. Is that still the same as the one that appeared today?"

Rubbing her hands together, Yggdrasil nodded. "Yep, yes, that happens to be the case I'm afraid. I'm uh, I'm sorry I have to go. I have a… uh… Doctor's appointment? Yes, my doctor's appointment that I really need to attend." As the girl awkwardly laughed a little, the screen cut to the news station.

A man with more gray hair than black ruffled a handful of papers as he smiled at the camera. "For those of you just tuning in, that was the number one Ranked Hunter Yggdrasil and her thoughts on the S-tier dungeon that suddenly appeared within the downtown shopping mall, Prary. A dungeon that at first was no cause for alarm, until the Excursion which trapped one hundred and thirty-six shoppers. Many Guilds moved to mobilize their Hunters but upon hearing it had become an S-tier dungeon all of them backed down until the appearance of the two top strongest Guilds, Justice's Beautiful Heart and Special Communion. With the top two guilds handling clearing out the dungeon, this left the top three ranked Hunters to deal with the Deviant. Number three, Beelzebub, number two, Bahamut and, of course, the number one Ranked Hunter, Yggdrasil. Due to their intervention, casualties were kept to a minimum." Putting a piece of paper aside, the man continued speaking. "In other news, preparations for the upcoming anniversary of the Shattering that occurred almost one hundred years ago and shepherded a new era filled with Hunters, Dungeons, Monsters and more is upcoming within two weeks' time-"

The man was interrupted as a woman stood in Samuel's way.

"You mind," He muttered, trying to look around her. "I was watching that."

Crossing her arms, she moved her head to block Samuel's vision. "That's no way to speak to your older sister, Sammieeeee."

"Ughhhh," giving up on trying to watch the news, Samuel lay back in his hospital bed. "Emma, what do you want? Can't a guy get some rest in here?" 

"I know you spend a lot of your time in hospital, but you know you're starting to sound like this place is your second home."

Blinking, Samuel rubbed his face. "Good lord, I am."

Placing herself down on the bed, "And you're getting out today, so I thought, maybe you'd like to go somewhere, to celebrate?" Just the two of us, you know you know."

"You make it sound like it's not always just the two of us," Samuel huffed. "I want something sweet."

"All you need to do is ask, and your big sis shall provide." Hopping off the bed, Emma held her arms up to stretch. "Now I've just got some errands to run, but I'll be back by the time you're out. Mhm mhm." About to walk away, she turned back, pointing at Samuel. "Make sure you actually remember what the doctors tell you this time, there's no way I'm coming back here just to find out what you could have told me."

Motioning for her to go, Samuel rolled his eyes. "Go go, deal with your errands, make sure you bring your wallet back."

A couple of minutes passed after Emma stepped out of the room, spending the time looking out the window watching the world pass him by, Samuel was alerted to a new arrival when the door swung open. A portly man in a white coat stepped into the room, a doctor.

"Hello, Mr Eve."

Samuel glanced at the doctor. Looking back out the window, Samuel sighed. "Don't go into too much detail, Doc. I need to make sure I forget everything you tell me so when Emma asks if I remembered what you told me I can be one hundred perfect truthful when I say I forgot it all."

Pulling a chair close to the bed, Doc put his hands together. "It turns out your recent faint shows that your condition has not got any better, Mr Eve."

"Old news," Samuel kept his tone disinterested. "This'll be easy to forget."

Doc rubbed his hands together as he tried to form his next sentence. "Due to the scans taken during your current stay, it seems your condition has gotten worse… Much worse. I know I don't need to tell you how deadly Mana Sickness is, but it has become… Terminal. The corrupted mana has spread across your entire body. I'm sorry-"

"Oh, don't give me that," kicking his covers off of him. Samuel got out of the bed. "You give everyone that prepared speech. Tell me I'm going to die and then, ugh." Moving over to the window, Samuels' eyes caught on Emma exiting the hospital. Gritting his teeth, his nails scratched the windowsill. "I need a walk." Taking his hoodie off of the coat rack, he opened the door.

"Mr Eve, I advise you-" Doc stopped talking as Samuel slammed the door shut.

Putting his hoodie on, Samuel pulled the hood up.

The words kept replaying in his mind

'Terminal, terminal, terminal, it has become terminal, terminal, terminal, terminal, terminal, terminal-' lost in his own mind, Samuel didn't notice as he bumped into a wall.

Falling on his butt, Samuel rubbed his back. "The hell, where'd that-" Looking up, Samuel saw that he hadn't bumped into a wall, but a person. Jumping up, Samuel brushed himself down. "Sorry, lost in my min-"

Interrupting him, the girl frantically waved her hands around. "Oh nononoo, I'm sorry that was my fault. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going."

Samuel could only blink at the girl as she profusely apologised. She was wearing a hoodie with its hood up hiding most of her face and with a mask covering the rest, the only thing Samuel could make out about the girl was that her eyes were a bright green.

Their gaze held for a moment before the girl turned away, hiding her face with a hand. "S-sorry, I need to get going."

Before Samuel could get a word out, the girl had disappeared down the hallway.

Rolling his eyes, Samuel continued down the hallway.

Avoiding the stairs, he took the elevator to the ground floor and moments later he was outside.

His eyes focused on the ground, he wandered the hospital grounds before finding a place to sit.

'How am I supposed to process this… It's… Terminal… I can't believe it, I'm going to abandon Emma just like Mom and Dad did.' Covering his face with his hands, Samuel did his best to not cry.

//Hunger//

Jerking up, Samuel looked around. "What was that?"

//Food//

Getting up, Samuel followed the voice.

//Searching//

It didn't take long, the object Samuel was looking for was catching glances by everyone who passed by.

Floating three feet off of the ground, it looked like a doorway.

//Searching//

A Gate. They first appeared one hundred years ago during an event known as the Shattering when Mass Dungeon Breaks occurred all over the Earth.

"It's nothing to worry about."

Samuel looked at the man who had just spoken, a head of grey hair with speckles of white. A sword sheathed at his side and leather armour. This was a Hunter alright.

"My party and I will clear this Gate soon, shouldn't take us longer than, I don't know, half an hour, an hour if it's a big one."

//Finding//

Scratching his ear, Samuel looked into the churning energies of the Gate. "Do you hear that?"

Crossing his arms, the man turned to look at Samuel. "Hear what?"

Samuel rolled his eyes, "Nothing. So this is a, I want to say C-Tier dungeon?"

"You're correct. You can tell from the colour, D-Tier is a pale blue, C-Tier is a jadeish green, B-Tier is a deep orange, A-Tier is blood-red and S-Tier is a very pretty gold."

"Then that would make you," Samuel looked the man up and down again. "C-Tier?"

"I'm almost hurt." The man held a hand on his chest as if he had just been stabbed. "But no, I'm A-Tier."

Samuel squinted. "A-Tier? Why are they sending an A-Tier into a C-Tier Gate? Talk about a waste of resources. Aren't you guys supposed to be like, taking on Raid bosses?"

The man let out a mighty laugh, slapping Samuel on the back. Samuel could tell that if this man wanted, each slap could send him sprawling across the floor. "A waste of resources, you say? Tell me, what's that behind us."

Samuel looked behind them, "A hospital?"

He nodded, "And what do hospitals have?"

Samuel cocked his head to the side, "People?"

"Close enough. Sick people. Tell me, if something happened to this gate, say if a Breach occurred, would they be able to evacuate all the sick patients inside before the monsters got to them?" Samuel would open his mouth. "Rhetorical question, no. A little bit of overkill never hurt anybody."

//Found//

Samuel felt his attention drawn to the Gate.

"Uh, I didn't get your name?"

"My name? Dante."

Putting a hand against Dante's chest. "Hi Dante," Samuel pointed at the game. "You ever seen something like that?"

Smiling, Dante laughed, "Like what?" Looking at the Gate, Dante's smile disappeared in an instant.

The mellow green energy of the C-Tier Gate began to crackle, golden sparks mixing in with the jade green.

Grabbing Samuel, Dante threw his own head back as he roared.

"EXCURSION!!!"

Samuel's vision was obscured as golden energy burst out from the Gate passing through both Samuel and Dante.