The news woke me up in the middle of my nap. I had decided to skip school today, so I was just laying on my couch at home. School had been getting more and more annoying since I started high school, so I had been skipping more and more often.
Next time my parents were home, they would probably talk to me about this, but I really didn’t care. Even skipping as many days as I am, I was still top of my class by a large margin. As long as I know when tests are, I’m fine.
The news report was important for me to pay attention to, since it was about a dungeon break. The hunters association has a deal with every television station to make sure that evacuations go correctly. It's just a quick look at the evacuation map before I lay back down on the couch.
I didn’t need to evacuate, so I didn’t really care about the news. But, I couldn’t turn off the news because of the chance that the evacuation map changed. Legally, manufacturers can’t let you change off of news of this nature, so no switching to a different source on the tv.
On top of it being a safety thing, it is also a good way of showing humanity's stand against the monsters when they break out. It has only been 12 years since the tower appeared and dungeon breaks started to happen, and people really needed assurances that the hunters are good at what they do.
I really didn’t care about watching a bunch of hunters show off, since most of the ones the news would be showing are from the guilds that pay the news stations. This was a major city, with a tower, so there was a large number of strong hunters participating in the dungeon break.
Pulling out my phone to see if anyone from my family has messaged me, I see nothing from either of my siblings. They are probably busy helping with the dungeon break.
Being bored, I decided to look into the break a little to see if it's particularly bad and if there is a chance that the evacuation zone will spread. Since I wasn’t doing anything at home except sleeping, I wasn’t against just heading to my evacuation point early, since it would just be the hunters association building.
From the post I see online, the break seems to be from the 10th floor of the tower, meaning it was actually pretty bad.
A dungeon is a rift in space time that forms outside of the tower, connecting a random place surrounding the tower to a random point in the tower. The higher the floor, the harder the dungeon.
And floor 10 is one of the highest floors that we have gotten to, so it would take high level hunters to deal with the main fighting force of the dungeon. It also meant that the chances of the evacuation spreading was pretty high. And the zone was already boarding the area I lived in, so I decided to leave before anything bad could happen here.
I quickly put on my jacket since it was the middle of December, and headed out of my house. THe break was in the nearest commercial district, but after seeing the news, a number of other people were evacuating as well just to be safe.
Unlike me, their evacuation points were the safety bunkers throughout the city, which are maintained by the different guilds. Some people paid to get into major guilds bunkers, but even the ones that offer free entry are strong enough to defend against direct attacks from high level hunters. The only real difference is the amenities inside, and the level of active defenses the bunkers have.
But, since my family worked for the association, I was allowed to be there for evacuations.
I calmly walk through my neighborhood on my way to the hunters association, when a new notification dings on my phone.
Checking it, I see the notification from emergency services, saying that the evacuation area had extended, and now included the district I lived in. It was not urgent, like the other districts were, but it was still mandatory.
The news said that a few lower level monsters had broken through the defenses around the district in town and had entered this one, but nothing too strong was coming this way.
But the change in the demeanor of the other people on the street was drastic. I lived in a family friendly neighborhood, with a lot of parents, and a large number of young kids. I saw a number of parents with babies and young kids start to rush when they see the same notification I got. It was the middle of the week, so kids should be in school, unless they were skipping like me.
And a lot of people were still at work, but calls were being made by basically everyone on the street right now, making sure their loved ones were safe.
It was not the most normal thing, for a dungeon break like this to occur.
Dungeons formed outside of the tower, yes. But they were handled quickly, due to the chances of this very situation. The fact that a break occurred meant that someone was going to be fined.
And possibly even face jail time.
The right to raid a dungeon was either bought by a guild, or is used by the association. There is about a 2 week period in between the forming of a dungeon and the break occurring, and they have to raid it in that time, or face a fine.
And if it's found out that they didn’t raid it because of negligence, the guild head could face much worse than a fine. Famously, a few years ago, a guild was completely disbanded and the head was thrown in prison because it was found that he purposely let a dungeon break to make money off of insurance from the destruction.
And all of these get worse because of the floor the dungeon is from.
While walking down the road, a very intrusive thought occurs to me.
I could just, not evacuate, right? I mean, I was alone right now, and every second, the people on the street went down and soon I was going to be the only one in the neighborhood.
And as long as I didn’t get hurt, no one would ever figure out that I was ignoring the evacuation order. If someone found me, I could just say that I was moving slow since it was urgent.
My curiosity about hunters was second to none. I had been obsessed with them since the founding of the association when I was 5, and even more when my siblings started as hunters 6 years ago.
There was still about a week before I could start as a hunter, since no one under 16 could get the license from the association. I was going to go right when I turned 16, but the days leading to then kept dragging on and on.
This was one of the reasons why I had been skipping school, since I was finding it hard to focus on it anymore.
Deciding that I was right, that there was nothing that could go wrong if I just waited for a little while to get a look at the monsters, just to feed my curiosity.
I continued to move until the last of the few cars on the road were gone from sight and I could no longer hear anyone around me. When I was confident I was alone, I changed directions. There were at least 5 evacuation points, so if anyone saw me, they could possibly assume I was going to a different one than them.
I quickly pulled out my phone to check the news reporting on the increased activity over the district border. If I could find the specific location, I could watch what was going on, instead of just going to the hunters association.
Luckily, the area where they came into this district was not far from me, and on a, somewhat, direct path to the hunters association building I was heading to.
I don’t run over to it, as to not draw any more attention to myself, I move towards the area the news said.
Pretty quickly, I make it to the area, and I see a few hunters fighting off a small group of monsters. I don’t have a way to judge their strength, but I do know they are brand new hunters.
“Is this really my luck?” I say, leaning against a wall, thinking about giving up on my idea of watching. It was insane that the 5 hunters in the whole city I would not want to interact with. Well, 2 hunters and three of their friends, as well as an adult I assume is instructing them.
“Noah, pull back so Mia can heal you. David, move forward and defend his retreat. Katie, keep up the support from the back line” The older woman says. She was fighting her own group of monsters while the others took on a smaller group. “And good job sticking to your strengths Abby, keep in cover until you see an opening”
Back in elementary school and middle school, Noah and Mia were what I would probably say were my best friends. But when we started highschool, the two of them started dating and we grew apart.
This also coincided with them making new friends since the high school we went to took in students from several middle schools to one building.
I didn’t blame them for any of this. Looking back on it, I knew that Noah liked Mia for a long time, and it's not their fault I was okay with my limited social interaction and they made new friends.
We grew apart, that's all.
But, it would be really awkward to see them now, since they have also transferred out of our school to a different one now. Specifically, the two of them, and the three friends with them here transferred to a hunter academy. They were older than me by a few months as well, and got accepted into the school at the beginning of the school year.
Deciding it was the right idea to just head to the evacuation point, I started to leave the area.
But, before I can get too far away, I hear a noise behind me. I turned out of instinct, since it was unfamiliar, but that was the wrong move.
Suddenly rushing at me was a small, impish, monster with red skin, and small bat wings and a tail, what someone would call a lesser imp.
“Shit” I say, with just enough time to stumble back and fall on my ass. This could have been it, but suddenly, the lesser imp was cut in half while still rushing at me. And standing behind the dead body was the woman who had been instructing Mia and Noah and their friends.
“Are you…” the woman started to say to me, before stopping mid sentence. Based on her appearance, I would put her around mid twenties, but it was impossible to know for certainty anymore, magic just had that effect on life span. She kind of just stared at me for a few seconds before the others rushed over.
“Ms. Lucy, is everything okay… Zenith?” Mia said, when she got to where I was sitting on the ground.
“Hi” I say, standing up. “Sorry for causing you problems, Ms. Lucy. I was just heading to my evacuation point and didn’t see the monsters and didn’t know what danger I was in” I say to the lead hunter, lying since I would definitely get in trouble if I told the truth.
But before I could leave the area again, The rest of Mia’s friend group came over as well, since they had finished dealing with the monsters.
“What was that… Zenith, what are you doing here?” Noah said, coming up to the group.
“Um… this was on my way to the evacuation point. Once again, I am sorry for distracting you all” I say.
“It’s the middle of the week, and school is in a completely different district” Noah said, thinking out loud.
“I was at my home, not school” I say, clearing that up. “Once again, thank you” I say, turning back to the Lucy women, who had just been staring intently at me the whole time. “But I should get going quickly, before anything else happens”
And I start to walk away, before both Mia, and strangely this Lucy woman speak up.
“We should probably make sure you get there safely”
“We’ll take you to your evacuation point, just to be careful”
The two of them talk at basically the same time, bringing up the same idea.
In all honesty, I didn’t really care about Mia and Noah, plus their friends helping me. They were fine, but something about this Lucy woman was bothering me.
The way she looked at me was strange, and on top of that, ever since I saw her, I had been having a splitting headache that came out of nowhere.
I don’t think I really want to spend that much time around her.
But I don’t really have a good excuse to say no right now.
“Um… Fine” I say, turning to the direction I had to go to reach the association satellite office I was heading to.
And right when we start walking in that direction, I get a text on my phone.
Link to full series page - https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2157866/absolute-creation/
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