Lyn trekked on. He could get used to the dry smell of the dust, but the blood was starting to wear him down. He often passed by the shinning weapons and jewlery that represented a dead hunter. He almost wished it wasn't such a peaceful walk just so he didn't have to think about the loss of life.

"It's not something I could have prevented..."

Even with the meaningless words, Lyn could not shake the feeling that lingered in every graveyard across the country. The impenetrable fortress that stood infront of him was almost like a breath of fresh air.

I haven't checked my skill progress in a while..

Name: Lyn Cypher

Magic Type: Life Force
Skills: [Beginner's Construct] LVL 5, [Deep Sleep], [Spark Barrier] LVL 3, [Blink Chain] LVL 1
Special Items: 
Race: Energy Being [Human-Based]

Level: 3

[Your growth is stagnating so early..]

[You are the first to discover the 'Homeward Path' Dungeon!]

[Creating special path for your achievement!]

The dungeon gave off no particular energy. It wasn't as if that energy was being concealed but..

It's.. empty?

Lyn stepped in the dungeon regardless of the information it witheld from him, but was taken aback by his first set of notifications.

[Difficulty: ?]

[You have entered the special path 'Mirror Domain'!]

[Please confirm your details!]

"Another new problem, huh? This one actually has a difficulty measure too?"

Although it appeared as a question mark, as far as Lyn knew the system wasn't so kind to share the difficulty of the dungeon. Any dungeon he heard of before had been catergorized by human efforts. In addition to the incredible new information, Lyn was shown his own Status and Stats by the dungeon. More excited than scared of the challenge, Lyn quickly confirmed what he already just checked, and recklessly sent himself down the only hallway revealed to him, a stone path covered in fog.

. . .

The needlessly long path behind Lyn had long closed. He approached the now temple like room, that had it's stone floor also covered in the same thick fog he saw since the entrance. The room itself was circular with a cracked mural that seemed to depict a battle between two people stretching across it's walls from one side of the doorway to the other. The battle wasn't clear in the darkness and through the cracks, so he couldn't makeout much from where he stood.

Observing the room further, he focused on a specific patch of fog was glowing under the moonlight that crept into the dungeon. In the middle of the room, a space seemingly seperated from the rest of the room stood tall. As he approached the zone, the fog decended with him revealing stone steps and a dirt ground.

[Mirror of 'Lyn Cypher' registered!]

[Difficultly: Level 3!]

Lyn stared at the man who descended from the moonlight. It was obviously him.

Was this how I looked to people?

With some differences from his looks, the aura the mirrored Lyn gave off was nothing short of a pure murderous intent.

The copy wore no glove, showing the cracks up Lyn's wrist and completely exposed arm. It wore simple but tactical black clothing, covering everything but it's head, revealing it's messy hair. It's eyes were already glowing, and it's ragged breathing showed a glow come from it's mouth as well. It showed more emotion than Lyn expected from himself, as if it had been pushed to the point where it was fighting to the death.

As soon as Lyn came to the final step and touched the dirt, it began to glare at him. He could have sworn it looked at him before but now it's stance was different.

Immediately a mace that was a construct of Ren's mace appeared in it's left hand. It constructed needles that for some reason appeared sharper than his split tears, and it's energy began to spread.

[Falling into the 'Deep Sleep' state!] 

Lyn staggered. He couldn't even think straight before a blur approached him in an instant.

['Energy Being' offsets the effect! Falling into 'Drowsy' state!]

But the lessened effect was meaningless. The mace slammed in to Lyn's head unhesistantly. He fell to the floor unable to recover from the polarizing effect of the pain and [Drowsy] state. He did try to move but he was held down firmly. Then, a mace came down towards his head again. 

Crack-!

. . .

As if what he just experienced was a traumatizing nighmare Lyn awoke at the entrance to the of the temple in a daze. He fell to his knees, and felt sick to his stomach. He heaved, but he couldn't manage to catch his breath. He held himself but it didn't offset the mental shock.

That was... I just... died?

He couldn't have. If he was here now, then that couldn't have been death. 

"Fuck.. fuck! I need to get out of here..!"

Lyn desperately searched for a way out the temple but the giant door that seemed so obvious before, that he should have awoken right in front of, was nowhere to be seen. Lyn's eyes danced around, seaching for any change in the room, just maybe it's a trick of the fog, maybe he wasn't trapped in here, maybe he wasn't all alone. 

But there were only two differences.

The temple began to shift, revealing a part of the mural that was now illuminated directly by the moonlight. It depicted a man onesidedly crushed by another wielding a mace. In just three scenes, the man was approached, knocked to the ground..

"And his head... Don't tell me..."

Lyn soon came to realize the truth of this dungeon, and again looked for another way out of the room. Perhaps if he used [Blink Chain] he could leave from where the moonlight shone, however as he approached the circle a green light stared back at him from the fog.

[Adjusting settings! Would you like to see the changes?] 

"I-I..." Lyn was speechless. Barely acknowledging the system notifications, fear and dread consumed his thoughts in front of the monster that allegedly was him. 

He backed away slowly into the comfort of darkness and decided to just try and steel himself for what he had to do.

. . . 

Bellora stared solemly at the library across the street. She guessed that Lyn was trust worthy despite how he appeared if the chief himself could depend onhim. According to Lyn, it was possible he wouldn't be back until the day of the mission. However he did give Bellora pointers to build on. Still this left the Saintess with no one to turn to. She was stuck wondering how she would grow stronger since she couldn't access any dungeons she was familiar with. 

Should I try to contact the ACPP or those two?

As far as Bellora knew, the only things she could rely on were Lyn's team or Rivers himself. Because of the meeting she just got out of, she wasn't sure she could withstand the ruthless leader that was the Chief of the ACPP so she chose much more human option.

Tap Tap!

Bellora dialed in the numbers she wrote down, but.. there was no response..?

She dialed again but just like the time before it went to voicemail immediately.

The Saintess shuddered realizing what the two really meant about being on probation for another month and a half.

Did they really mean 'no' outside connections? How could a person live like that?

Of course the rules weren't really that strict, but there were certain things the ACPP wouldn't allow entirely. Like in this case, instead of finding an excuse to monitor thier hunters, the ACPP would limit phone calls going in and out of hunters on lists. Truly, if they needed to though, Sunny and Ren could meet with Bellora in person.

It seemed, that in the end Bellora was alone on her endevor. There was one place that did catch her eye, however, since she landed. 

A national reserve. Home to a monster that only appeared on this side of the world since two weeks ago. Since no one had hunted it yet, it went by many names. The Bearded Eel; The Lake Dragon, and the Ghost Eel. It only spotted once and was considered a trophy monster at this point because of the air of mystery surrounding it.

I don't have a flying monster though!

Bellora was defnitely stronger than Lyn at this point in time. Her level exceeded his by 7 at this point in time, since she spent most of her time training without concern. Although that concern made Lyn a more tenacious warrior, it stagnated his skill evolution.

Similar to Lyn, Bellora is a unique existence.

Name: Bellora Hourson

Title: Spirit King's Apostle

Magic Type: Spirit Conduit
Skills: [Summon Spirit] LVL 7, [Buff Ally]  LVL 4 , [Light Arrow] LVL 3, [Flash] LVL 1
Special Items: [Evoker Staff]
Race: Human

Level: 10

[Continue forward.]

She was one of the few people who managed to gain a title. Her magic type was a result of the title's changes to her body and he early transition from Light Magic techniques to Spirit Control. Titles could only be given by gods or beings with the authority similar to gods, like the Spirit King himself.

Her skill [Summon Spirit] had quite a few slots empty. From the repeated advice from Lyn and many others, Bellora decided she would focus on elemental monsters in the future. As of right now though, she needed some form of transportation that was always availible to her. 

Although it's fishy, a flying monster is almost unheard of. There is no way I'll pass this up.

So Bellora went to the ACPP, but not to visit the chief. There she found a party of 3. A team of two archers and a mage who were raring to get a chance to rediscover that monster's domain and hunt it down.

"Hmph, just my luck.."

Just like that, the Saintess had found her ideal bus for the fight.