Ryan cursed as he dove out of the way of a spear made of solid, deep blue ice. It shattered against the ground leaving a crater in the spot he had stood moments before.

Damn, Ryan thought, realizing how close he had been to dying.

“Whoops, sorry about that man! I got him!”

There was an explosion of heat, followed by the roar of a lion as his best friend Lee activated Taunt. The sudden release of energy forced the boss’s attention away from Ryan and back towards Lee.

“Oh shit. Incoming! Shield me!” Lee yelled as the boss started sprinting towards him.

Ryan watched as the twenty-foot long, cyan-colored lizard leaped at Lee. Its black, sharpened talons extended, eager to tear him apart.

Lee took a knee and raised his massive great-shield a moment before they collided. He groaned from the impact but managed to stop the lizard’s momentum.

There was a sound like breaking glass, and a golden flicker of light as the boss swept one of its claws at Lee’s head. Instead of making contact and taking off his head, the lizard’s claw rebounded. The force of the blow threw Lee across the room, but Ryan knew that the well-timed Shield had saved his life. The boss roared in fury as it raced towards Lee to finish the kill.

“I’ll heal him! Ariel, take aggro!" Vivian yelled as golden light surrounded her hands. "I'll Shield you!"

Ariel spun her spear as she raced across the ground towards the giant lizard. "Hell yeah! Come here ugly!" Her bright red hair trailed behind her, as her wild emerald eyes searched the creature for a weak spot.

The two-foot-long spearhead crackled with power as Ariel activated her Lightning Spear ability. She struck the creature at the base of its neck, blue blood gushing out of the wound and covering Ariel’s face. “That’s soooo gro—”

“Watch out!” Time seemed to slow down to a stop as Ryan raised his hand in Ariel’s direction. Her wild eyes widened in surprise as the boss emitted a wave of ice from its body. Ryan activated God’s Defense right as the ring of sharpened ice impaled Ariel.

A red aura covered Ariel’s entire body, and the ice cracked and shattered as it struck. Ariel grinned as she realized what had happened. She gave him a quick wink before delivering another blow to the beast, this time piercing its right eye.

Ryan sighed in relief as Lee re-joined the battle. God’s Defense was his strongest spell. It reduced the incoming damage of all magical and physical attacks by 100%. The downside was that it only lasted ten seconds, and could be only used once every twenty-four hours. It was an overpowered skill when used the right way. The problem was he had cast it earlier than he wanted to, so now they needed to kill the boss as soon as possible.

Lee roared a challenge at the boss, compelling it to forget about Ariel. It limped towards Lee, blood seeping from its ruined eye and throat.

Lee grit his teeth, squat down and then used all his strength to soar through the air towards the behemoth. His shield collided with the lizard’s face, a crunching noise echoed across the room as metal met bone. Shield Bash.

The boss reared backward, dazed, its cries equal parts pain and fury.

Ryan realized that this might be their best chance to kill the beast.

“Now! Give it everything you have!”

He triggered all the support spells that he had access to: Serpent Strikes, Iron Blows, and Flames of Wrath.

Serpent Strikes and Iron Blows increased the attack speed and damage of physical blows. While Flames of Wrath added a small amount of elemental fire damage to each strike. Each buff lasted for sixty seconds and wiped away the little bit of mana that Ryan had left.

The seconds passed by as both the group and beast fought against each other. Neither willing to give ground as blood soaked the desiccated dirt. The boss fought a losing battle, with Vivian able to repair the worst of the wounds that Lee and Ariel received.

Ariel skyrocketed into the air and activated her most powerful ability. “Dragon Dive!” Her body and spear caught fire, matching the vibrant red of her hair. She flipped mid-air and began to spin, faster and faster as she fell.

Ryan watched in amazement as Ariel turned into a fiery tornado of death, the head of a dragon taking shape as she picked up more speed.

The entire room shook as Ariel slammed into the lizard’s head. A second later Ryan heard the roar of a dragon as the boss collapsed to the ground.

Another second passed before Ryan heard a familiar popping sound from the middle of the room. Ryan looked over to see that a large silver chest had appeared.

“Got ya!” Ariel yelled, grinning from ear to ear.

Ryan couldn’t help but laugh as she ran over to the chest, jumping up and down in excitement.

She waited till they had all gathered around the chest before trying to open it. She grimaced as she pushed, but the heavy lid didn’t budge. “Lee, Ryan, help me out here! Let's grab the loot and scram before the damn portal closes on us!” With the three of them pushing, the chest swung open with a loud creak.

“Score!”

Ryan looked over to see Lee caressing a monstrous black tower shield. The damn thing was as big as Lee, which was incredible since Lee was over six feet tall and weighed close to 260 pounds.

They spent the next few minutes fitting the rest of the loot into their backpacks. The four friends high-fived each other as they finished their work.

The chest had contained dozens of uncommon-grade healing and mana potions. Not to mention a handful of common-grade spellbooks. Even if they kept the potions for themselves, the spellbooks and monster cores would fetch a pretty penny. Enough to last them for a couple of weeks once they split the profits.

Lee picked up his backpack and headed for the entrance of the dungeon, “alright, let’s get the hell out of here team”.

The rest of the group followed, Vivian humming a tune as they approached the entrance portal.

Moonlight greeted Ryan as he stepped through the portal. “Damn, we must have been in there for a couple of hours”.

“It was worth it though, we shouldn’t have to clear another dungeon for a couple of weeks!” Vivan said beaming.

They waited around for a few more minutes until the portal closed, signaling that they had cleared the dungeon.

As they walked, Ryan didn’t notice Ariel as she slid up and wrapped her arms around his chest. “Aww Viv, you know I hateee that we only do a dungeon every couple of weeks! They’re so much fun!” Lee laughed as he caught up with them, a cellphone in his left hand. He put his right arm around Vivan and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to Ariel.

“That’s because you have some sort of death wish!” Ariel pouted like a sad puppy and Ryan couldn’t help but smile as he pulled her closer. “You are a tad crazy” he whispered into her ear.

“I already called the guild and told them that we cleared the dungeon. I’ll drop off the stuff we want to sell and then transfer the money over to everyone when it's sold.” Everyone nodded their heads in understanding.

Hundreds of thousands had died when the first dungeon portals appeared on Earth. Curiosity had killed them. Soon after that, the world changed. Ordinary people over the age of sixteen gained superhuman powers overnight. Reborn. Armed with these powers, people again tried to explore the dungeon portals. Hundreds of people gathered and cleared portal after portal. Dungeoneers. Some of them came out with weapons that could shred steel or armor that could stop bullets. Others came out with potions that could heal any wound or illness, or books that could teach magic. Corporations and governments realized that the dungeons held unlimited amounts of natural resources. They hired dungeoneers to clear the dungeons before sending in teams to extract the resources.

Corporations began to fight each other over the dungeons. Thousands of dungeoneers killed each other. And ten times that number of ungifted died as a result of the conflict. Guilds rose from these conflicts, acting as a bridge between corporations and dungeoneers. The guilds took in dungeoneers, training them and providing them with powerful equipment. Corporations would buy the rights to farm a dungeon from the government. They would then pay a guild to clear the dungeon for them before they sent in crews to excavate the resources. Profit for everyone.

Smaller guilds, like the one Ryan was in, made most of their money by clearing lower-ranked dungeons. They acted as middle-men, selling off the items that the group looted, and taking a fraction of the profits.

Lee bumped into Ryan, interrupting his thoughts. “Hey man, you alright?”

“Yea, sorry, was thinking about stuff”. Lee nodded in understanding, “me and the girls are going to grab something to eat, wanna come along?” Ryan looked at his watch. Shit, it’s already 11. Mom’s gonna kill me.

“Nah, I have to get home. Mom is probably worried sick right about now, and I promised to take Eve to school tomorrow.” A few minutes later they reached their cars and unloaded all their equipment and loot into Lee’s car. Ryan fist-bumped Lee and Vivian and gave Ariel a kiss on the cheek. “Call me later?” she asked. Ryan nodded and chuckled “if my mom doesn’t kill me first”, and gave her another kiss before they drove off.

By the time Ryan made it home, it was well past midnight. He opened the front door and found that the lights were off. His mom must still be out on the job she’d taken, and Eve was fast asleep on the couch. Ryan smiled, realizing that she had fallen asleep while waiting for him. The television was still on, bags of chips and cans of coke strewn across the room. A plate of cold food sat on the dinner table, where Ryan usually sat. Ryan tiptoed past his sister, grabbed the plate of food, and threw it into the microwave. He set the timer and carried his sister to her room, and gave her a kiss goodnight. Waking Eve would invite questions that Ryan was too tired to answer. It was better to let her sleep and save any questions she might have for later. He ate his supper in darkness, more asleep than awake. After finishing he placed the dishes in the sink and climbed the stairs to his room. He spent a few minutes talking to Ariel and they made plans to head into the city tomorrow to do some shopping.

Ryan considered taking a bath to wash off the dirt and blood that clung to his skin, and soothe his aching muscles. But a couple of seconds of reflection made him reconsider and he was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

* * *

Ryan woke up the next morning to the sound of alerts on his phone. He was still exhausted. He stretched out, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The smell of sizzling bacon from downstairs made his stomach rumble in anticipation.

He got out of bed and headed over to Eve’s room. She was still snoring when Ryan walked into the room. “Time to wakeeee up!” Eve’s eyes opened in a panic as Ryan flung himself on top of the bed, launching her into the air. “Ryyyyaaannn!” she giggled as she threw herself at him.

“How did it go? What kinda monsters did you kill? Did you get hurt? Get any cool weapons? Tell me everything!” Ryan laughed as Eve's mouth moved a mile a minute. “How about you get dressed and go downstairs to eat. I’m taking you to school today so I’ll tell you the story on the way.”

“Okay!” his sister jumped out of his arms and headed towards her closet. She turned around and gave him a shooing motion. Ryan rolled his eyes and headed into the kitchen to find his mom.

He found her sitting on the dinner table reading a book, a plate of unfinished food in front of her. Ryan grabbed a plate and loaded it with bacon and eggs and sat down across the table. As he sat down his mom looked up from the book, her face narrowing, “you could have called! Your sister and I were about to head over to the guild and demand they tell us where you were!”

Ryan couldn’t help but laugh at the thought. His guild leader was a cranky old C-ranked warrior named Jacob. Jacob was one of the strongest reborn in the city, but Ryan knew that his mother would have nagged him into submission without breaking a sweat.

His mother was about to start another round of lectures when Eve skipped into the kitchen. She immediately snagged a piece of bacon from Ryan’s plate. “Hey! That’s my bacon, you little thief!” Eve grinned as she put the whole strip into her mouth and stuck out her tongue. His mother threw her hands up in surrender, realizing her moment to strike was gone.

Ryan drove Eve to school, dropping her off in front of the black and white building that served as the only elementary school in the city. She spent the entire drive pestering him with questions about yesterday’s dungeon run, stopping only to breathe.

His phone chimed again, reminding him about the alerts he had ignored earlier that morning.

Ryan stared at the message from Lee. He raised an eyebrow as he read that they had gotten paid already. Because the guild was small, it didn’t pay them until it had sold off the items.

“Hey man, here’s your cut from the dungeon last night. The books sold pretty well, but the monster cores we grabbed went for some pretty crazy prices. I deposited it straight into your bank account.

Ariel mentioned that you guys had plans to go shopping. Mind if I tag along? We should get some gear. We can’t keep borrowing stuff from the guild forever. Jason said that he needs it to train some of the new guildies.”

Ryan sent off a quick reply to Lee, letting him know he was welcome to join them.

He swiped the message away to find an email from his bank stating $50,000 had been deposited into his account. Ryan whistled. I didn’t realize that D-ranked dungeon drops were worth so much more than E-ranked items.

Everyone in Ryan’s team was a D-ranked reborn, the second to lowest rank possible. They had only been running E-ranked dungeons since they joined the guild, but the one from last night had been their first D-ranked clear. Ryan had been worried when Lee told him that he had accepted that particular job from Jason. But the dungeon run had gone smoothly, and the payout had been almost five times more than what they usually got. He’d made fifty-thousand dollars in one night!

His phone chimed again. The text from Ariel told him to meet her at Dungeon Alley in an hour.

Dungeon Alley was the name of the street that held most of the shops in town that bought and sold dungeon gear.

He grinned as he put the car in drive and headed towards the meeting place. With fifty grand in his pocket he should finally be able to get some cool stuff!