Things were going well.

  Apart from the little hiccups we had with all the seemingly ‘random’ people trying to stake their ownership claims over the city, things were going well. There hadn’t been any fights apart from the ones we had chosen for ourselves in either Dungeon, nor had there been a problem with any of my family members getting sick, hurt, or worse.

  Honestly, apart from missing modern life and the things it had like the Internet, playing video games, and watching anime, the only real problem I had was the lack of toilet paper. We made do, but I still really do miss toilet paper.

  So apart from all that, everything was fine, which I guess should have been more than enough of a flag for me. I have read enough books, watched enough anime, and although I am young, I have lived enough life to know that sometimes when everything seems to be going right, when everything seems perfect and life is just that good with every passing day, that means something is coming.

  Of course, in real life, that might not always be true and life will just continue on. But within books and video games, something is always coming, and this new world is a lot like the ones I read about. And if it has been so similar in so many different ways, there is no reason for it not to be similar in the sense that something is coming.

  And boy, did it come.

  I was out in the river that sat now on our property, practicing mana manipulation, trying to get better at controlling the mana within me and hopefully the mana that existed around me. I found one of the best ways to do that was to constantly be in the water. My body was attuned for water, and thus my mana was attuned for water.

  I was only out there for barely an hour when I heard loud screams. I jumped out of the water and quickly ran into the house, alerting everyone that was home, then haltingly putting on my armor, grabbing my spear, and running back outside.

  The first thing that came to mind was that the red people were finally back. Of course, everyone with a brain knew they had never really left. All we did was remove them from our little town, but we all knew that they were still on the planet and it was only a matter of time before they returned. So I wasn’t scared nor was I worried. I was ready.

  I ran back outside, a couple members of my family trailing behind me, and quickly moved toward the sound of the screams. The earlier we got eyes on what was coming, the better. That did not mean I had to engage, just that we needed to see what was happening so we could prepare properly.

  Looking over my shoulder I saw my dad and Rakeon next to me, plenty of strength between the three of us. Good.

  The screams were coming from the south, which was a bit weird now that I think about it…Lagia didn’t extend to the south. There was just highways and scattered marshes in that direction until you reached the major city to the south of us.

  Then someone crossed my mind that I passively ignore for some reason…the red people would not be screaming. It would be humans, the people of Earth. I was getting a bad feeling about this. So with my dad and cousin in tow, we ran further south until we could see something that made me stop in my tracks.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Lava. A lot of lava.

  I was quite literally looking at a wall of lava that was rising into the air, clearly intending to come crashing down on a relatively large group of people who were running into our little town from the south.

  This was along the highway, so there were cars and plenty of broken roads and water all over the place, but that did not stop them as they ran for their lives, some of them a lot faster than others and also a lot louder, probably due to being of a relatively high level and the reason why we could probably hear them from back on our compound. That or my hearing was that much improved…though it was probably a combination of both.

  Anyway.

  I don’t know exactly what came over me, but what I do know was that there wasn’t a hint of hesitation in the actions that followed. I saw people running and screaming while a wall of lava that was high into the air, preparing to come crashing down on the fleeing people. There was nothing else to see or say. I simply acted.

  Gripping my spear tightly, I took off in a sprint. There was no need to activate any skill to move faster. My body was powerful enough to carry me where I needed to go. I ignored the strange and frightened looks I got from the fleeing group of people and rushed past them.

  As I neared the wall of lava, I rose up into the air with a mighty leap and activated my one Unbound Skill.

  “Ocean’s Maw.”

  The second the words left my mouth and mana gave them life, the gigantic maw of a mythical creature formed in the air out of water and roared as it came into existence in the world, as if nothing here could compare to its might and regality.

  The powerful skill shot forward as I brought my spear down and it made contact with the wall of lava and a massive explosion of steam, fire, and water drowned out every other sound in the area. It was like a geyser going off, and a hissing sound could be heard for miles.

  I landed on the ground with a thud as I dealt with the aftereffects of using such a powerful skill. I still did not have the mana capacity to handle it without repercussions and it showed in the pants of exhaustion that left my body.

  There was a good chance I probably would not be able to handle the tax it caused on my body until I reached the next Grade.

  But for now, to do something like this was at least in my skillset.

  Then the smoke and steam began to clear, and eventually I could see further south, beyond what the wall of lava had been blocking.

  There I saw a man.

  A red-skinned man.

  He stood there with long jet-black flowing hair and wearing full plated armor from the chest plate to his legs, and to the gauntlets on his arms. It was beautiful armor, appearing to be built from layers upon layers of pristine obsidian shards. It shone under the sunlight and glistened even amongst the steam, and I immediately knew that my spear would not even scratch a single shard of that armor.

  I met the eyes of the man. They were red and resembled lava itself. Even as he just stood there, it seemed like embodied the feeling of a volcano where slumbering lava lay undisturbed.

  Just waiting for the most opportune and likewise most unfortunate time to explode onto the world below.

  He smiled at me, but it was not a smile of warmth; instead, it was one of provocation. As if he was inviting me to challenge his current position.

  Just as I was getting ready to defend against this new threat, he turned away from me and leapt back to the south.

  I stood there for a few seconds, not quite understanding what I had just seen, and then it hit me. If he was the one to use cause the rise of that wall of lava, he showed not a single sign of exhaustion or fatigue.

  Meanwhile, my most powerful skill that only matched it in power, left me in a state of real exhaustion.

  Ah…

  Fuck.

  We were so god damn fuc-…

  End of Book One

  Thank you for all of the support on this book and I look forward to making sure book two is even better :)