I decided that I should focus on agility and magic from now on until the battle tournament, which takes place in two years. The only problem with my plans was that learning magic was not as easy as it sounds. The reason being, learning magic was not cheap. From the books, the materials, and the mentors required to learn magic, all of the costs build up. And frankly, I don't have the money to afford it.

 

The school does provide magic lessons. However, if it were any good, the school's state wouldn't be as pathetic as it currently is. On the other hand, agility is something I could train freely without fees. I just need to start doing speed training, and my agility stat would naturally increase. However, having high agility itself would not propel me to greatness. Many Hunters in the world are fast, but that doesn't mean they are all excellent hunters. To make the best use of high agility is to have a technique that benefits from agility. But that requires money as well... Damn! Why does everything require money!

 

As I sat on my bed, deep in thought, having an existential breakdown. I knew my previous plan went down the gutter. I needed to revise my plan a little bit. Step 1 on the new plan. Make money. Step 2, refer to Step 1.

 

But how could I make money as a 15 year old? I can't legally get a job, and even if I could, I still have school to attend during the day. Even if I don't like the school, I still need to participate in classes if I want to continue living rent free in the dormitory. I could get part-time jobs, but frankly, I won't make enough money to accomplish my goals in a short two years. Beyond that, part-time jobs take more time out of the little time I have to train.

 

The only method that came to mind that would fit my schedule, make me enough money, and still provide me time to train is dungeon diving. But that's illegal. Why? Cause I'm not a hunter. Yet. And, I'm a minor. But rules are mean to be broken, right? Either go big or go home.

 

I concluded that if I wanted to accomplish my goal of doing well at the battle academy, I needed money. And to get that money, I need to start dungeon diving. Fortunately, there is a dungeon that's relatively close to the school. That dungeon is a very low level dungeon meant for students, but that doesn't mean it's completely void of danger. Typically, the school would bring the senior class into that dungeon with the supervision of professional Hunters to gain dungeoneering experience.

 

I decided to scout the dungeon out before curfew to measure how feasible it is for me to hunt in it. Before heading out, I sneaked into the empty kitchen, grabbed a butcher knife, and donned my winter coat. Although the effect would be minuscule, the coat should act as some padding against attacks.

 

Fortunately, I managed to reach the dungeon's entrance while the sun was still in the sky. The front of the dungeon entrance is barren, devoid of people and life. Typically, there would be guards in front of the dungeon entrance in case the monsters escape from the dungeon. However, because the danger level of this specific dungeon was so low and the monsters in it had never tried leaving the dungeon before, so no guards were designated here.

 

I made my way to the dungeon and peered into the entrance. The inside of the dungeon was dim but not dark. Specks of light floated around inside the dungeon-like fireflies in the night sky. There was enough light to know to see your surroundings and the surfaces of the walls in the dungeon.

 

The dungeon extended downwards, and the further I traveled, the moister the air became. I considered taking off my coat because I was getting very sweaty, but I fought against the temptation because it would be dumb to take off my only form of protection due to slight discomfort.

 

As I was walking deeper into the dungeon, I suddenly heard a scuffle in the distant dark. I instinctively took out the butcher knife and got into a defensive stance. As I stood there, paranoid of what the sound might have originated from. The sound slowly got closer and closer.

 

My heart was beating fast, very fast, uncomfortably fast. My right hand, which held the butcher's knife was shaking. I began to regret coming to the dungeon. Just when the paranoia was reaching its boiling point. I saw a hand extend out of the darkness. My heart stopped. I felt blood rushing to my head. The hand lacked both skin and muscle. It was a bony hand, literally. Slowly, the owner of the hand walked out of the darkness.

 

It was a skeleton—something right out of a fantasy book. The skeleton, supported by some unknown magic, can walk around with only bones. No muscles, no joints, no nothing. Just bones. Seeing the skeleton, I immediately let out a sigh of relief. The skeleton wasn't even half my height. I almost gave up becoming a hunter over a midget skeleton.

 

After calming down, I tightened my grip on the butcher's knife and made my way to the tiny skeleton while maintaining a defensive stance. When I got close to the skeleton, the skeleton's head suddenly jerked in my direction and speedily pounced towards me. Reacting to the skeleton's attack, I swung the butcher knife downwards, bashing it against the skeleton's skull. The skeleton was pushed back by the knife's blade, creating distance between the two of us. My hand felt numb after attacking with the butcher knife. Fortunately, I could see a crack on the skeleton's skull.

 

I maintained my defensive stance while waiting for the skeleton to continue its attack. After recovering from its fall, the skeleton got back onto its two little legs and proceeded to pounce at me once more. I swung the butcher's knife downwards once more after seeing the skeleton execute the same attack. Following this, a sequence of the same actions happened several times before the skeleton stopped moving when its skull was split in half. After the ordeal, I was pretty tired. My hand was also in lots of pain. Before the fight, I underestimated just how tiring hunting such a small monster could be. Fortunately, the skeleton defaulted to only one method of attack, making it a simple but tedious task to kill it.

 

I made my way to the skeleton's corpse and proceeded to see if there was anything of interest on the skeleton's body. To my dismay, besides a bunch of old bones, the skeleton didn't have anything else. I checked the time on my watch and noticing that it was still fairly early, I decided to continue exploring the dungeon with renewed confidence and rigor.

 

On my way down the dungeon, I met many skeletons similar to the first one I met, some slightly larger and others smaller. Using the same method of waiting for the skeletons to attack before counter-attacking. I successfully managed to kill four more skeletons. Though, the only thing I've gotten out of the trip so far is a blistered hand. Desperate to obtain something in this dive, I continued going deeper into the dungeon with my numb hand and sweaty brows.

 

Making twists and turns in the narrow spaces in the dungeon, I was eventually found myself in an open space. I immediately ducked behind a nearby rock that was slightly larger than I was. In the center of the open space, I could see a skeleton that was somewhat bigger than I was. In its hand, it held a rusted blade about the length of my arm. It stood there wearing leather armor that has already decayed to the point of becoming mere straps wrapping around the skeleton. But else something caught my attention, through the small openings of the skeleton's skull, I could see an orb-like item in it. That was it! That was my purpose for coming to the dungeon, to get the monster core.

 

I took another look at the skeleton. Although I wasn't entirely confident in taking it down, I still didn't want to give up due to the temptation of getting the monster core. Taking the previous skeletons as a reference, even if I couldn't defeat them, I was much faster than they were and completely capable of retreating to safety if the situation demands so. I took another look at the skeleton from behind the rock. Since entering the open space, it hasn't moved a single bit. I wondered if I were to circle behind it and approach it from its back, would I be able to sneak attack it?

 

I decided to give it a try. Silently, I moved along the walls of the cavern until I was directly behind the skeleton. Making sure that the skeleton has not noticed my presence yet, I slowly inched towards its back. For every step, I took five breaths to stabilize and observe the skeleton. Once I was within an arm's length of the skeleton, I reached for my weapon to swing at its neck. However, the second I touched the handle of my kitchen knife, the skeleton abruptly turned around and stared at me dead in the eye. I internally started screaming, and my heart stopped beating for a moment.

 

During my moment of shock, the skeleton quickly swung its blade at my waist. The skeleton's sudden attack woke me from my distraction and prompted me to jump backwards to dodge the blade. I successfully avoided danger; however, due to my slow response, the skeleton's blade nicked the edge of my coat. A small scratch could be seen on my waist underneath the cut part of my jacket. If the blade cut any deeper than that, I would've been a dead man by now. The sudden realization of how close I came to dying put me into a state of fight or flight.

 

I grasped the handle of my blade and immediately backed away from the skeleton, establishing distance between the two of us. My eyes were concentrated on the skeleton's every movement. My breathing slowed down as my brain put all its effort into observing the skeleton's every action. After failing to cut me down the first time, the skeleton limped in my direction while dragging its rusted sword across the hard ground. Once the skeleton came close enough to me, it swung its blade in an upward motion. In response, I dodged towards the sides and counter-attacked by swinging the butcher's knife at its head when its attack was still in motion.

 

The butcher's knife only managed to leave a small scratch on the skull of the skeleton. I wasn't capable of cracking this skeleton's skull as I did with the ones.  Once again, I backed away from the skeleton, making distance. The skeleton dragged its body towards me and proceeded to swing at me, this time a horizontal slash from the left side. Because the skeleton's attacks are slow, I managed to duck beneath the blade and tackle the skeleton from its legs. Once we were both on the ground, I immediately kicked away the sword in the skeleton's hand. Now that I no longer had to be worried about being slashed by the knife, I felt more confident about killing the skeleton. Once again, I backed away from the skeleton. However, I took the incentive this time and rushed toward the skeleton, slashing at its neck while still getting up from the ground.

 

I successfully managed to cut off the skeleton's head from its body. After losing its head, the skeleton's body stopped moving. Only after seeing the skeleton becoming truly dead did I finally let out a sigh of relief. After calming down, I noticed just how tired I was from a fight that might not have lasted more than a minute. But now was not that time to be tired. Inside the skull was the skeleton's core. I immediately ran to where the skeleton's skull was and proceeded to remove the core from the skull carefully. The core was black with a dash of purple. It had a cold touch to it, and the edges of the core were flawless, like a perfect pearl. I tucked the core that fits inside my palm into my pocket and proceeded to check the rest of the skeleton's belongings.

 

Besides the monster core, the skeleton had a rusty sword and decayed leather armor. The leather armor has deteriorated to the point where it can't even be considered armor anymore, so I didn't take it. I thought about taking the rusty blade with me, but upon closer inspection, I realized that the sword didn't have much time left, so I reluctantly left it with the armor.

 

Still high from the intense battle from before, I swiftly made my way out of the dungeon, proud of my achievement. Then it came to me, the sun was no longer in the sky and instead hanged the moon. I quickly checked the time and discovered that it had been a long time since curfew. Panicking, I immediately started sprinting back to the Damaculus Battle Academy.