Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 1

I woke up in a daze after hearing a series of loud knocks at the door. My head was pounding, I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night reading comics. It's a bad habit of mine.

"Jay! Rent is due."

Ahhhh man, is it the first of the month already?? I grab my black jeans with rips in the knees off the foot of my bed and put them on. I couldn't find the shirt I was wearing last night so decided I'd look for it later.

"I'll be right there Mr. Winser, give me a minute."

I open my bedside table. There's 2 silver coins, 36 bronze coins, my iron dagger, and a half empty bottle of water I bought on the way back from dungeon diving last night. With a sigh of relief, I grabbed the 2 silver coins and walked over to my door.

"Here you go sir, have a nice day."

Mr. Winser grabbed the coins and nodded at me.

"See ya next month kid."

I close the door and mentally relax myself a bit.

Rent is paid, life is good... Out of nowhere I started to feel lightheaded and my vision started going blurry. Luckily I caught myself on the door, shook my head a bit, and straightened up. I walked over to my bed again to grab that left over bottle of water.

As a chugged it my head started feeling better and I almost heard my younger sister's voice yelling at me.

"Jayyy you have to remember to drink your water when you wake up!"

It's more like I need to drink more water in general. I get so sucked into my fantasy worlds sometimes, I forget the real world is moving on around me. I start muttering to myself.

"Sighhhh, alright time to get up."

I find a new shirt from the closet in the corner of the room, throw on my boots, tuck the iron dagger into a small sheath in my jeans and grab 3 bronze coins before I walk out the door so I can buy some breakfast on my way to the dungeon.

"Morning Jay, are you going out to hunt today?"

My neighbor Maria was sitting outside her apartment waiting for me to come out.

"Yes Maria, just like everyday."

"You know, I'm going to be a hunter soon too! My first college term starts next week. I'll get to see my status and be a great hunter just like you ya know."

"Oh really? Looking forward to it!"

I really wasn't taking in all the words she was saying, I was just making small talk and zoning out in my head like usual. She is really pretty though, that was at least half of what I was thinking about during most of our interactions.

Maria has short blond hair that barely touches her shoulders and bright blue eyes. Plus she says good morning to me pretty much every day since I moved in here a few months ago. She's my daily dose of dopamine before I go to work in the dungeon everyday.

After a few more smiles and meaningless conjecture I walk down one flight of stairs to the street to make my way towards my team's usual meeting spot. I became a hunter myself 2 months ago but not in the conventional way, plus I'm only a porter.. my team's weakest link. I'm really not as great as she thinks...

Most people become hunters when they turn 18 or 19 right after they enter college. It's pretty normal in society for students to pursue a hunter's career. Over half of the population is, or was a full time hunter at some point in their life. There's good money in selling mana crystals for the energy inside them, and also many other magical items for various reasons.