Demon Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 18: Ironridge Territory
In all actuality, Alex had never known or experienced one of these so-called ’Dungeons.’
He had obviously heard of some being scattered across Ashtar, where creatures on rogue use as their habitat. Their difficulty is measured by how much one can sense the amount of mana coming from within.
Their statistics are directly associated with mana core ranks.
Thus, it can scale from F-Rank, which is initiated, all the way to Ex-Rank, which is Anomaly.
Although at the current moment in time, these statistics didn’t apply to Alex. Because this just wasn’t the quest he chose to partake in.
The one he had chosen was nothing of that type, but one that meant evolution.
Alex will ascend, or so he says. As a Demon Tamer, nonetheless, with those he deems as his allies along that path.
Alex remained in his room, all alone, locked inside the nice and cozy wooden estate.
But once he looked down at his own two hands, he saw a soft purple glow illuminating his silhouette.
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[Teleporting User To Designated Quest Location]
└ 21%
└ 57%
└ 69%
└ 74%
└ 80%
└ 95%
└ 98%
└ 99%
└ 99.99999999999999%
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Alex grinned, his heart started pounding, fast, very fast. Not in a frightening manner, but one that showed he was anxious to step on his first [Quest].
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└ [100%]
[Location Established!]
[Locating User Towards Designated Terrain...]
[Venue]
[Description]
└ In the heart of Ashtar, there remains imperfection, where those tossed aside, with no chance of life, remain.
└ Some may never seek life, and some may never seek death. Whoever evolves is the individual who takes place.
└ In BeastFall Capital, all seems joyous and pleasant.
└ But those tossed aside suffer in other regions within Ashtar.
└ One you may seek is the Ironridge Territory, far away from peace, and a step forward into chaos.
[Welcome, Alex Thorn]
└ To Ironridge Territory
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’Ironridge?’ Alex blinked, ’I’ve heard of it before.’
Then, white light swallowed him whole.
For a moment, there was no sound, no air, no ground.
Alex felt his body stretch through something unseen, as if the world itself had turned into liquid and he was being pulled through its currents.
His vision blurred.
White.
Only white.
His eyelids instinctively shut from the overwhelming brightness, then the pull stopped.
Alex blinked.
The world returned in fragments. First came the wind, then the smell of iron and dust, then the sound of distant pickaxes striking stone.
When his sight fully returned, the bright and comfortable room he was in vanished, and in its place stood towering grey cliffs carved with massive mine entrances. Wooden scaffolding clung desperately to the rock faces while exhausted workers hauled carts overflowing with ore.
The land looked tired. It looked broken and poor.
Alex looked around slowly.
"Ironridge..."
So this was how those outcasts from society, those placed in a 5th-degree family or above, lived in Ashtar.
In treacherous and dangerous lands.
A strong gust of wind pushed dust across the valley floor.
"Fucking hell, this is incredible."
Alex stepped forward slowly, his boots sinking slightly into the loose dirt and scattered gravel beneath him. The ground here was uneven, littered with broken tools, rusted metal scraps, and chunks of dark ore.
The constant clang... clang... clang... of pickaxes echoed from every direction.
He could hear it from the cliffs above, the tunnels carved into the mountains, even from the valley floor where dozens of workers dragged wooden carts along crooked rails.
Alex stared, speechless.
The miners looked... miserable.
Their clothes were rough and patched together from thick brown fabrics, some even wearing leather aprons stained with black soot and dried blood. Most had cloths wrapped around their mouths to keep the dust from chocking them.
None of them looked older than forty. But they all looked exhausted.
One man pushed a cart past Alex and paused.
He squinted at him.
"... You lost, kid?"
Alex blinked.
They didn’t question where he came from or how he suddenly got here, because they didn’t see it happen.
The man wiped sweat from his forehead, leaving a streak of black dust across his skin. His shirt hung loosely from his shoulders, torn at the sleeve.
"You don’t look like you belong here."
Another worker nearby laughed under his smoky breath.
"Look at his boots," a woman muttered while hauling a sack of ore onto her shoulder. "Those things cost more than my whole house."
A third miner leaned against a broken rail and stared openly.
"Must be some noble brat who wandered too far from the capital."
Alex didn’t respond immediately because, technically, they were right in some sense.
Their gazes crawled across him.
His clean clothes, straight posture, and unscarred hands.
Everything about him screamed outsider.
One of the younger miners, probably only a few years older than Alex, stepped closer with curiosity,
"You here for the guild office?" He asked, casually. "They send new hunters sometimes."
Alex tilted his head slightly.
"...Hunters?"
As an aristocrat, he had never left the main suburban areas of Beast-Fall capital, where his estate was built upon.
"Yeah." The boy pointed toward one of the distant cliff tunnels. "Beasts come outta those holes every now and then. Nasty ones. Stronger than the usual trash."
Another miner spat into the dirt.
"Especially the evolved ones."
That word caught Alex’s attention instantly.
’Since when was it a regular occurrence that beasts evolve? That’s the first I’ve ever heard of it, at all.’ He thought, ’But that’s it, my reach.’
His purple eyes sharpened.
The system panel quietly appeared in the corner of his vision.
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[Quest Objective]
└ Defeat 1/3 Evolved Beast-Forms of [Adoff]
[Location]
└ Ironridge Territory
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Alex’s grin slowly returned.
The miners noticed it, and one of them frowned.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
Alex stretched his neck slightly, cracking it.
"Well," he said casually, looking toward the massive glowing tunnel carved into the mountain wall, "I think I found what I’m looking for."
The younger miner followed his gaze, and both of their eyes widened.
...
