Akira let out a sigh,

'Totally not scary... totally not gonna die... yeah'

Meanwhile at the door to the forest zone five astras were examining the destruction left behind. Their team had been sent into the dungeon based on a distress signal from the raid team before them. Their mission was to investigate what happened to the previous raid squad and eliminate any rogue astras. In recent months, throughout the Red Dragon Guild there had been talk and suspicion of Eric being a traitorous rogue. 

In the eyes of society rogues were seen as the enemies of humanity. However within the closely knit community of elite astras who were perceived as the pinnacle of humanity, rogues had been labeled as worthless scum for the crime of failing to serve the military. In other words going rogue as many had done meant making yourself an enemy to humanity. 

Eric turned to his short teammate Skye. The red haired young woman looked at him with a mixture of fear and confusion. Then, she spoke.

"They were all burned alive Captain. The assailant left no traces"

The lanky blonde Astra next to her, Noah turned pale. He seemed quite the scaredy-cat and his demeanor would fool others, he couldn't fool Eric. He was a stone cold killer; merciless and borderline psychotic. For all it was worth, that face could have been one of twisted excitement. Despite his superior military position, Eric feared Noah in terms of sheer power. He had once witnessed the young man slaughter an entire syndicate of rogues in a way that seemed almost more vile and torturous than the enemies they faced that day. While Eric's ascension to [C- ] rank had made him the team's leader in this expedition, he dared not oppose any sanctions on Noah. 

The team leader Eric had recently been involved in a scandal at a night club which caused the public opinion of him to be skewed. This lead to some mad exaggerations of the events and eventually developed into very uncomfortable rumors sorrounding him. Some speculated that he had had an in with the club and others outright accused him of being a rogue in disguise. His reputation however had convinced the people that he was trustworthy and that he was not a liability.

Furthermore, he'd embarked on this expedition to clear his name. That was the only reason he was even on this raid, and he'd assumed that the mission would go smoothly but so far they had found no traces of who, or even what, had slaughtered the previous raid team. He hoped for his own safety that it wasn't the latter. 

Skye Further examined the charred remnants of their allies and then spoke.

"This... if this was done by an Astra... a rogue that is... they would have to be extremely skilled and atleast a D rank. This is a specialist we're dealing with. Any idea who it could be captain?"

Eric hesitated for a moment; distinctly remembering a young blonde Astra with a similar ability. He dismissed the idea. The eighth generation of the KM22 facility. They were labeled the generation of legacies. Every last one of them, was talented beyond compare, alas they were all slaughtered for trying to escape the facility. That kid was dead,so this had to be someone else.

"No idea Skye... but they're dangerous, stay on guard. That goes for you too Noah"

The sky blonde scoffed,

"Yes yes. I know. Beware of the dangers unkown." 

He added in a sly tone,

"But you know Eric they're no match for me,"

Just then a wild monster appeared. The towering furry humanoid wolf was over five meters tall, but It couldn't even bare its fangs or so much as to let out a growl. A red line was drawn by its neck. Noah was gone from where he stood. Then a footstep was heard behind Eric. There Noah was. In his hand; he held the Grey wolf's head. A startled expression painted on the beast's face. Eric almost felt sorry for the creature.

"Sorry," he continued "my apologies, I should be calling you captain now... right?"

With that, the group resumed their expedition into the dungeon. Any potential conversation snuffed out, with a palpable air of horror hanging over Skye and Eric after what they had just witnessed. Understandably so as well, the Grey wolf was a C rank beast. It wasn't even suppose to be in this dungeon in the first place. And as far as questioning how Noah dispatched the monster so efficiently, neither Eric nor Skye dared to ask. They just continued on in silence.

Back in the nightmarish cavern which Akira had found himself in, he was sitting quietly with his legs folded leaning his back against a wall as support. He closed his eyes and turned his focus inwards to the process which was taking place during his meditation. He held the beast's mana core in his hand; his body slowly, steadily sapping it of its essence. He could feel the flow of energy running from his arm into his own core. The complex channels of mana running throughout his body felt hot when absorbing the foreign energy. Mana was absorbed and purified within his core then redistributed throughout his body through his mana channels. His solar plexus burned where his core was. As if his very being was ignited. The mana channels acting like veins in his body were being tempered and refined. The advancement in ranks was only a rough marginal indicator of an Astra's strength. Within a gap of one rank. Say from B- rank to B+ rank the gap in strength could be bridged by proper control of one's mana. Of course depending on the person's experience sometimes this wasn't even the case. As explained by the educators within the facility, it was indeed true that the system was just merely a guide as to how to utilize one's own power. This meant that while it did simplify use of astral abilities, one's abilities were not limited to what the system showed and explained. This was the truth of the matter. Although the system presented itself as a user friendly almost game like interface, this was no game. Combatants would have done well to understand that fact. 

Akira was seated just before an ominous stairwell carved from the cave stone itself. The staircase spiraled downwards into the deep darkness. The sight threatened to consume Akira with fear. However he steeled his resolve and decided he would rather have dealt with whatever lurked in the depths of the abyss below than the squad behind him. He had just absorbed almost four hundred mana essence from the beast's core. His own core was filled to capacity; well almost filled. He was afraid of awakening the slumbering horror below with the noise and mana pulse of his advancement. No Longer apprehensive of using his power, he lit his own hand aflame and used it as a light source as he descended the stairwell. 

With each step, a hollow echo rang through the ominous stairwell. Akira thought to himself that the deeper he went, the more the smell of wet stone and earth, twisted to something more sinister. His nose was permeated by the smell of decay. Of rot. The steady flame of his left hand began to flicker as he descended even further, the darkness of the cavern now beginning to fight back against it. He'd already went down four flights of these stairs and was becoming more and more concerned. Just how deep was this stairwell? He estimated that he'd already went down about forty meters. There was no backing out now, he just had to keep going. 

He summoned his relics. A stalwart medieval knight's together with a similar fashioned longsword; the chestplate seemingly made of darkness itself. The carapace of its mid chest held a red gemstone and the sword's base was a deep red and held a red gemstone embedded in the hilt. The sword began to glow, it's steel hot as if it were coming out of a forge. As he stepped, his grip on his sword tightened his breathing slow and controlled. His eyes searched the abyss for any signs of movement. The silence was deafening. It was only broken by the faintest sounds of his footsteps, but with no other sounds to be heard, the stealthy clips of his feet resounded like war drums. It was as if the world itself had gone completely silent and time was still. Now descending the sixth flight of stone carved steps, his heartbeat began to speed up if so ever slightly. Something had crept into his mind, heart and soul. An uneasy feeling. Not so trifling as to wave it off while not as impending as a sword to his neck. With every step he took his heart began to beat just a tad bit faster. He continued his descent. Now all he could hear were the faint sounds of his footsteps, but only just barely. They were drowned out by the rapid, thunderous beating of his own heart. What had crept into Akira's very being and embedded itself there, was mone other than fear. A deep, dark, almost primal fear. Inexplicable and unfounded. But within the dungeons and their monstrosities, nothing was unfounded. 

Akira steeled his resolve, drawing blood from how hard he'd been biting the inside of his lip. He continued forward. The silence eating away at his courage. Some part of him deep down was screaming at him to turn around, whether instinct or something else, he did not know. He had long lost count of what flight of this cursed stairwell he was on. He felt like he'd been walking for hours; maybe even days. His perception of time felt warped as if something inside of him was being tinkered with. Akira siphoned every drop of mana in his core and looked inwards. His mana reserves were almost empty. But that was impossible. He'd only been using mana to light the way with a small flame on his hand. The amount of time it should have taken him to burn through that much of his mana reserves would have been days-

'There's... there's no way right... '

Akira fumbled about himself and looked down at his watch piece..

|| Date: December 1st, 2063.    Time: 4:08PM ||

He couldn't believe his eyes. This must have been some sort of glitch. Yes, that's it, a glitch. however no matter what he wanted to believe, this was no glitch. This was no game. This was reality. This cursed cave and this cursed stairwell, all of it was real. 

Three days had gone by.