Dungeon of Zero

White Flowers.

Blood tainted flowers.

Burning humans.

Red lake.

Marching giants.

Dinosaur stuff toy.

Hand drenched with blood.

And...

Lastly...

"See you later, Retto..."

The young boy woke up, his eyes widen in shock. He immediately make a deep breath and gets up. He looked around looking confused.

"What are you doing Retto? Do you have a bad dream?"

"I can't remember."

Turning his glance on his hand. Droplets of tears came falling from his eyes.

...

A hero with his shining sword defeats the demon king. Saving the people from endless nightmares. Heroes are powerful. With his strength, the world can be changed.

So cool!

Fascinated while reading a book. I made a big smile. It was already late at night but these wonderful stories keep my eyes awake.

The picture on the hero stories always makes my eyes glimmer in excitement. Hero is a title bestowed to the person who saved a kingdom.

"Someday with my sword, I will save our country."

I was innocent and young when I made that promise to myself. In order to achieve my goal. I trained my mind and body.

It's said that the first step in becoming a hero is to become a knight. Learning that fact, I wanted to learn anything necessary to become a Knight.

I always bother the retired swordsman in our town to teach me swordsmanship. I always thought his angry with me, but there are times I caught him waiting for me in front of his house with two swords ready.

Many years of training have passed…

Old folks and children are all at the gate of our small town. Some of them are crying so hard including the chief.

“Retto, please stay safe and don’t forget to become nice to people… Don’t forget to eat three times a day and take a bath.”

“What are you, a mother?”

“Retto is really grown up… Time moves so fast. You're already 15 and ready to conquer the world.”

“Retto will visit us?”

The little girl asked. She is my neighbor and she was like a little sister to me.

I pat her head.

“Yup, I’ll visit after I became a knight. I will also work hard and save the world. I will make sure the world will be a better place for everyone to live in.”

“That speech is for the hero… You’re not a  chosen one. So don’t be a wannabe hero guy. City folks will surely laugh at you...”

The one talking was the master who taught me swordsmanship. His tongue is sharp as ever and he doesn’t care what other people feel.

“... Be strong Retto. You have talent in the sword. I know you can achieve your dream.”

I grinned briefly and offered my fist to him.

“Of course, I will.”

Our fist connects to each other.

"Here Retto... Have this blade. This blade is the treasure of our village. It's called a holy blade..." the chief handed me a fancy-looking blade. It's long enough to be called a dagger. It looks very expensive. The chief look at me straight to my eyes and continue. "... If something bad happened you must..."

"Sell it," I added.

"Don't sell it, moron! It's a holy blade. This blade will guide you in your journey. Stay safe."

"I will."

I keep the holy blade with me and keep it as my secondary weapon.

Everyone makes their farewell to me and gives me some stuff to carry. Most of the items given to me are food. I appreciate their gifts to me. I know I have a long walked before I reach the kingdom.

Early in the morning, I set off on my journey.

“The start of my journey to became a hero begun...”

The first night comes. It was chilly cold. Making fire is dangerous became it can lure monsters. I covered myself with a thick blanket.

Unfortunately, the gods are opposed to my journey.

Heavy rain came falling. Making the surroundings muddy and cold. I have no choice but to sit down under a big tree.

I can’t fall asleep in such a condition.

The thick blanket became heavy to carry. I decided to leave it in the forest(I don’t have time to dry the blanket anyway.)

Second day.

Monster appeared. I’ve been battling monsters around the town with my master. Defeating a small fry monster is just an easy task for me.

But unexpectedly, A high-level monster appeared. It's a giant earthworm. The strength of my sword was strong enough to cut it down.

I started to realized and become confident in my sword skill. It's fine to be confident, but arrogance is out of the question.

The demon king and monsters in the hero's stories are all arrogant and annoying pieces of trash. They always underestimate their enemy. That’s the main reason they always getting killed in the end.

Third day.

The monster keeps on appearing and I accidentally fall from a cliff. I lost my bag pack including all my food.

Fourth day.

I started eating wild mushrooms and monster meat. Monster meat is really disgusting. Making fire is so hard. The rain recently drenched mostly of the branch.

I tried to imagine myself using magic, but it was useless. I’m still unable to use any kind of magic.

My sword is my only ally in these moments.

Fifth day.

Heavy rain comes and I stay in the cave all day.

A week was passed.

Finally, I reach the kingdom’s capital city. Compare to the capital city my town is just a smudge on the map. There are lots of differences. The people wore differently from my native folk.

I’m wearing dull clothes and a board sword on my back.

People turned their glance on me staring at me with their funny eyes.

Is there something wrong with me? I guess they are thinking that I’m a knight because of my sword. Well, they can think that already because I’m going to become a knight soon.

There are almost no requirements for being a knight. As long as you can wield a sword and beyond 15 years old is fine.

I advance to the castle and enter the facility where the people applying being a  knight lane up.

Being a knight was easy (said by the master), but why these middle-aged men are all line up here. The lane is so long. I think it will take an hour before I reach the receptionist.

“A woman can’t become a knight. Just learn to stitch and became a proper wife.”

I heard some noise behind me. It caught my interest and turned my head.

A big bulky man was talking to the girl. The girl was young maybe the same age as me. She also has a sword.

Her face looks very cute.

Girls in the capital city are different breeds.

“I’ll become a knight.”

The girl retorted.

“Hahahaha… kids these days need to learn the harsh truth early. Being a knight is not something you should be dreaming about. Knights job is dangerous.”

The girl brushed the hand of the man and threw a daggered glare.

“I already knew that… How about you, Mister? How about considering giving up on your dream? You look so old. You should accept that you failed in life already.”

Such harsh words came out of her mouth. It goes to the middle-aged man’s nerves. His head was red and steaming in anger.

“Shut your mouth!

He drew the ax on his back and swing it down to the girl.

The girl closed her eye’s in fear.

“Who are you?”

“Just an aspiring knight like you.”

Before the sword landed on the girl. I intercepted his ax with my sword. My sword is made of the finest material from out town. It won’t break easily after receiving a strong swing from this man.

“Aspiring Knight…”

He looks at me in my eyes and continues.

“... I’m sorry about that… As a fellow aspiring knight. I should not lose my temper from this girl.”

He lifted his ax and bring it back on his back. Before he leaves he glares at the girl. The girl gritted her teeth and anger.

This girl behind me is wrong because she said something that she should not be saying. Meanwhile, the man is wrong because he tried to hit this girl.

They are both wrong but never apologize to each other. Pride keeps their heads up.

Just like this girl…

“Why do you interfere? It's not your fight. Besides, I’m a skilled swordsman. I can easily dodge and counter his attack.”

“But I saw you close your eyes.”

She was startled and step back a little. Her face was telling me that she is really afraid earlier.

“Shut up! It's my first time encountering an attack from a person. But I already defeat countless monsters near our house before. I don’t want to brag but I defeated 100 goblins and slime's.”

Goblins and slime…

Goblins and slime are dangerous kinds of monsters. But judging from the girl's reaction earlier. The goblins and slime she defeated might be a lower class.

“Hey, you're face is telling me that you're not believing my stories!”

She protested.

“I believe your story.”

“Liar.”

Why would I care about her story? Even it's true or not. It barely affects my life.

I put my sword back on its sheath and return to my line. But I find out that my line is already missing. I tried to talk but they accuses me of cheating.

I walked toward the back of the lane.

The same fate happened to the girl.

“Hey, how about letting me first? I’m a woman.”

“Being a woman doesn’t give you free privileges.”

“Something is wrong with you?”

She said with a disappointing tone.

“Are you perhaps a gay? I’m a cute girl… can’t you see with your death eyes. At least, trying scoring some points to become popular.”

This girl is annoying.

She is really cute just like what she said. But her personality rubs me the wrong way. I understand why the middle-aged man was forced to hit her earlier.

I ignored her.

I sense her stare at me while we are in a lane and tell some stories about her.

But I continuously ignore her. I don’t even get her stories.

After hours of standing in line. We reached the receptionist and fill-up the form on becoming a  knight.

There are few requirements in becoming a  knight.

The knight must have battle aptitude above 50. Magical aptitude is also measured but it's not really needed.

Our body was appraised by a magic stone. By putting our hand on it. The stone will glow and numbers will show up.

“Wow, mister has 150 aptitudes in battle…”

Does that mean I’m amazing?

“... But you have zero magic. Still, it's great that you have the high battle aptitude. Above 100 is considered a genius. I’ll be looking forward to your future.”

“I’ll do my best.”

The next day.

The aspiring knight was gathered in a dome. This part is called the selection. The 12 knight commanders will appraise each individual ability and chose them to join their squad. Out of hundreds of people who applied only a few were chosen including me.

I was assigned to the fourth knight squad. My captain was a serious-looking guy called Bladedarts and vice-captain is a young-looking man called Zeff.

In the same team, the annoying girl is with me.

I then find out her name.

Her name is Yunis.

We both started completing dangerous missions together. Strengthen our bonds.

Yunis is a cheerful girl. Who is always fun to be around.

She might be arrogant sometimes, but she also reflected on her fault and learned to apologize.

“Don’t look at me like That Retto. Are you planning to impregnate me?”

Despite being a girl she is quite shameless and has those naughty jokes on her.

Being illuminated with her light. Something more started to develop in my heart.

“We’re been together for three months now. Many of our comrades die in the battle. Only the two of us remained from our team.”

Yunis is cheerful but she started to mature little by little.

“Many people died… but they didn’t die in vain. They fight to protect something, they fight in order to achieve something. I think is a noble way of living.”

“is it the same for Retto?”

I pulled my sword and look at my reflection on its blade.

“With this sword… I’ll continue working hard. Someday I’ll become the hero who will defeat the demon king. People are always anxious because of the demon king. When their defeated people will live a peaceful life.”

Yunis make a cute laugh.

“I understand now… The reason why Retto is so cool…”

“...”

“... Because Retto is a hero.”

“I’m not yet a hero… But I’ll definitely get that title in the future. Just wait. I’ll promise… I’ll make a place for you and me.”

Yunis offered a pinky swear.

“Me too… I’ll do the same… I’ll promise to make a place for You and me.”

We both sealed our promise to each other.

Under the starry night. Yunis and I put our lips together.

Being with her… I developed feelings of love.