Wednesday Afternoon - 13:30 hrs

In the visual arts room, two students sat across from each other. The boy wore navy blue pants, a matching navy blue waistcoat, and a white shirt. His black hair was styled in a buzz cut. Across from him sat a girl in the same navy blue uniform, her ebony hair tied in a high ponytail secured with a navy blue ribbon.

"What the hell just happened?" the girl with the ponytail asked, her brows furrowed.

"Huh? What happened?" the boy with the buzz cut replied, looking confused.

"My [ ] is broken," she answered.

"???" He gave her a questioning look.

"You know, the protection charm I have on my chain," she explained.

"Oh... but how?" he asked, puzzled.

"I don’t know, but something doesn’t feel right." As she spoke, she checked her phone. "How strange..."

"What’s strange?" the boy asked.

"My phone signal is down," she said, frowning.

"Let me check mine... Huh, strange, mine's down too," he replied.

"Now I really have a bad feeling about this. Let's go to class and see if the same thing happened to the others," the girl suggested.

---

In Class

The classroom had three rows of paired desks, totaling 28 seats. Currently, 26 students were present, but when the two arrived, the count went up to 28.

Standing in front of the board, the girl and the boy asked everyone to check their phone signals. A chorus of surprised voices filled the room:

"Mine's down!" exclaimed one of the boys.

"Me too!" several others chimed in, making the girl with the ponytail even more nervous.

"But that’s not really that strange. Something must be wrong with a cell tower in the area," a boy with messy brown curly hair suggested.

"Well, he has a poi—!!!"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. As quickly as the tremor came, it stopped. A loud roar echoed through the air, sending chills down the students’ spines.

What the hell?! No... this can't be happening, can it? the girl with the ponytail thought as a blue hologram appeared in front of her. Looking around, she realized she wasn’t the only one—five other students had similar holograms. She took a shaky breath, trying to calm herself and assess the situation.

Then, a voice boomed from nowhere:

[YOU HAVE NOW ENTERED A DUNGEON BREAK. ESTIMATED TIME OF COMPLETION: 2 HOURS. FAILURE TO COMPLETE WITHIN THE TIME LIMIT WILL RESULT IN THE DEATH OF ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE DUNGEON.]

[ELIMINATE ALL MONSTERS WITHIN THE DUNGEON BOUNDARY TO CLOSE THE DUNGEON.]

[GOOD LUCK TO ALL PARTICIPANTS.]

[YOUR TIME STARTS NOW.]

[13:40]

---

Amira cautiously peered outside the classroom. Her heart pounded at the sight—monsters of all shapes and forms, at least 50 of them. In the center stood a monstrous creature, about 25 feet tall, with two gigantic saber-like fangs protruding from its mouth. She quickly pulled her head back inside, locking the door behind her. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to stay calm and think of a way to escape the school while avoiding the monsters.

Suddenly, she remembered the blue hologram she had seen earlier. She clicked on it, and a detailed information screen appeared, listing her stats and abilities.

"Well, that’s... informative," Amira muttered. Looking around, she noticed that her classmates also had similar blue holograms in front of them, though she couldn’t see what was displayed on theirs. Sighing, she mumbled, "What are we going to do now?"

One of her friends approached her. "Hey," said a boy with brown curly hair and green eyes—Dave. "Did yours say something about powers and whatnot?"

"Yeah," Amira replied.

Before they could discuss further, a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and brown eyes stepped to the front of the room. "We need to find a way out before the monsters get here," she said in a commanding tone.

Amira rolled her eyes. "No shit, Sherlock."

The blonde girl turned and glared at her—Rasta, the class’s self-proclaimed leader, always in everyone’s business.

Sighing, Amira muttered, "I'm too young for this kind of stress..."

Wednesday Afternoon - 13:30 hrs

Screams and growls echoed throughout the school, sending shivers down their spines. Amira sat quietly, deep in thought, while her friends looked at her expectantly.

"So... what's the plan?" Sara, a girl with medium-length wavy blonde hair and light blue eyes, asked.

Amira looked up, puzzled. "What plan?"

"We know you're thinking something in that head of yours," Sara said.

"Okay, okay. I was thinking about what the voice said. It mentioned a boundary, meaning there's likely something preventing us from escaping. If we try, we’ll probably be cornered."

"Makes sense," Dave, a boy with shoulder-length black hair and gray eyes, agreed.

"I'm not finished," Amira continued. "Our only choice to get out of here is to fight."

A serious tone took over her voice, making everyone tense. "How are we supposed to fight monsters?" Ruby, a girl with short black hair and green eyes, asked nervously.

"Apparently, we have powers now," Amira replied with a deadpan look.

"Oh, right... I forgot about that," Ruby muttered.

"Seriously?" Dave sighed.

"If anyone has a better idea, feel free to speak up," Amira said loudly, already knowing the whole class was eavesdropping. Silence filled the room. "Yeah, I thought so."

"AMIRA!" A voice suddenly called her name.

"Huh?" Amira looked around. "Did you hear that?" she asked her friends.

"Hear what?" Sara replied.

"That voice just now," Amira said.

"No," Dave answered.

"AMIRA, OPEN YOUR HAND."

"What the hell?" Amira thought.

"VISUALIZE ANY WEAPON IN YOUR HAND, AND IT SHALL APPEAR," the mysterious voice instructed.

She complied, imagining a katana in her grip. A blade made of purple flames materialized in her hand. Her friends turned to her in shock.

"How did you do that?" they asked.

"A mysterious voice in my head told me to visualize a weapon, and this appeared," she whispered.

BANG! BANG!

The monsters had reached the classroom.

Screams erupted as they began banging on the door.

"The door is strong, but it won’t hold for long," Amira warned. Right as she said that, the door broke down.

Sighing, all of them simultaneously looked at her.

"Seriously?" they said in unison.

One sweat drop slid down her face as she looked away.

The monsters rushed into the classroom, attacking the students.

"Well, it's now or never!" Sara shouted.

Amira summoned her katana again as the others activated their powers. The battle began.

---

The group fought fiercely. Amira decapitated a monster about to attack Rasta. Dave froze two with his ice powers. Sara used wind blasts to knock down another two. Within minutes, they had taken down seven monsters, but there were still over forty remaining.

Amira surveyed the battlefield. "This is surprisingly easy... which means the boss monster is going to be a nightmare," she thought grimly.

"We have to keep moving forward," Dave urged.

The others nodded in agreement.

"Wait a minute," Dave interrupted before they left the classroom.

"What is it?" Sara asked.

"We haven't discussed our powers yet. We need to know how to work together and avoid harming each other," Dave pointed out.

"Damn, I can't believe I forgot the most obvious thing," Amira muttered, placing a hand on her face.

The group quickly went over their abilities, strategizing for the battle ahead.

As they stepped outside, they were met with a horrifying sight—blood, monsters, and fallen students. The reality of the situation crashed down on them. There were around 900-1000 students in the school, but at least 80 were already dead.

Trembling at the thought of failure, they braced themselves as the remaining monsters spotted them.

"There's no going back now," Dave said.

Amira tightened her grip on her flaming katana.

"Let's end this."

It took them 30 minutes to clear out the remaining monsters. The only one left was the gigantic one at the center that hadn't moved since they arrived. The bad thing was that they were all getting tired, and now they had to finish off the massive creature, which was finally beginning to move. To make matters worse, since they took so long in the classroom, they only had ten minutes left before the timer ran out—and they all died. What a lovely situation.

They looked at each other and nodded, understanding what had to be done. Daniel was now putting all his strength into strengthening the illusion to stop the monster in its tracks. Daniel was increasing their stats even more than he had a minute ago, and now it was their turn to attack. Dave went first, but his attack didn't leave a scratch. Sarah followed, but the monster didn’t even flinch. Now it was Amira's turn. She rushed toward the monster, swinging her katana, but it still didn’t deal any damage. Shit just got even more serious. Their attacks weren’t working, and now both ruby and Dave were out of mana.

"Oh, we're f***** now," Amira thought. Their little advantage was gone.

---

Amira's POV

Shit, they're out of mana, and I'm running on my last bit.

[8 minutes to countdown]

The monster began attacking, destroying the nearby classrooms and sending them flying against a wall.

"Ow, that hurt like a son of a bi—"

"Language," Sara interjected.

Amira sighed.

[5 minutes to countdown]

"What can we do now? We put everything into those attacks, but they didn’t work," Dave said as panic started to set in.

"The time for panicking already passed when the monster broke into the classroom, so get your shit together! We can't die here—we still have six months left until graduation!" Amira snapped.

The wall behind them started to collapse, sending them tumbling backward as debris was thrown toward them. They scattered, dodging the monster’s relentless attacks.

[3 minutes to countdown]

"There are only three minutes left!" Ruby shouted. "If I die here, I just want to say I'm sorry for stealing your gum, Amira."

"So you were the gum thief?" Amira said, looking betrayed.

"I said I was sorry!"

"Fine, I forgive you," Amira grumbled.

[2 minutes to countdown]

"Two minutes left, huh?" Amira exhaled.

'God, if you're there, give me some of that stupid luck everyone says I have so we can survive...'

[1 minute to countdown]

Everything suddenly became quiet for Amira. The only thing she could hear was her pounding heartbeat, drowning out the chaos around her. She suddenly felt drowsy, her eyelids growing heavier by the second. Her hands began to burn with a surging heat, as if molten fire were running through her veins. She clenched her fists, feeling like they were submerged in hot coals...

[Countdown starts now]

[5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

A raging purple light engulfed her vision before everything went black...

A mysterious voice whispered: "THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING."

---

She woke up to find herself standing on top of the giant monster, her hands covered in blood, breathing heavily. She looked around to see her friends, shock written on their faces, as the monster's body began to disappear.

[CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THIS DUNGEON. YOU WILL NOW BE RANKED BASED ON YOUR PERFORMANCE.]

As the voice stopped, the blue hologram appeared in front of her again.

Name: Amira Singh

Age: 16

Rank: B/??

Power: Purple Flames

Strength: 15/100

Mana: 30/?

Stamina: 13/100

Agility: 10/100

Influence: 20/100

She felt weak, falling to her knees as her friends rushed to her with their own blue holograms in front of them.

"What... happened...?" Amira asked weakly.

Dave, still shaking, spoke. "You... defeated the monster."

Amira turned to him as if he were an idiot. "Haaaaaaaah?!"

"Yes, you looked like you were possessed," Sarah added.

They sighed.

---

You don't remember what happened...