(15) Gathering of Novices

By the time Kraton woke up, the sun was already setting. They had been resting for around two hours and the time was just past 18:00. Kraton rubbed the sleep from his eyes and glanced around, Kim was already awake and had pushed a small boulder towards their rest site whilst Kraton was asleep, what it was for Kraton did not know yet.

"Who are you?" Kraton asked cracking his voice midway, trying to not sound threatening. Kim growled in return, it was obvious that she was mocking Kraton, telling him that he was a dum-dum - how could she talk? She's a beast-type monster, not a humanoid beast or demon so asking her to reply would be like asking a cat to say its name.

Instead, Kim trotted towards the boulder and sat down, she looked back at Kraton telling him to come over. Although confused, Kraton lumbered his way over and plopped his massive figure in front of the boulder as well.

Kim touched the boulder, stroking down with her paws.. The centre of the boulder face slowly turned into a rough, black texture, after a few moments, a name, title description and several other lines of words and numbers appeared. Kraton's eyes lit up upon seeing the scene, he had completely forgotten that he could call up his black tablet in most places, even if it wasn't in another dungeon.

Kraton read Kim's information, noticing that she was already level 13 and had a much better battle record than him. Kim was the Boss in one of the desert dungeons, not too far from Florid Boulevard, but still part of another territory. Her dungeon was a level 10, rank 2-star dungeon, the level was low compared to her own level because of the other monsters which resided in the upper levels of her dungeon, they were mainly weak or had limited attack capabilities, such as the desert worms and this had held her dungeon level back.

Kraton read her data and sighed, if only his record had a K/D ratio like hers. Remembering what his own data rock read made him depressed. Kim swiped away her tablet and the boulder regained it's normal looks. She patted the boulder again and looked expectantly at Kraton, signalling him to show his data. Kraton was rather hesitant, it was rude to not display his data when the other being had already shown their's, however Kraton really didn't want his shameful records to be shown.

"No need, I am Kraton, a boss in Flo--" Kraton started to narrate his information.

"Growl" Kim interrupted Kraton and whacked the boulder again, she didn't want Kraton to tell her, she wanted to see the evidence and truth of who he was, otherwise he could always lie and trick her.

Kraton's face became gloomy as he sighed in defeat. He slowly approached the boulder and pressed his palm against the rock surface. A few seconds later his black tablet appeared showing all his records, information and title, as well as an extra piece of trivia that said: "Known as the weakest Boss in the human empire".

Kim made a wierd noise, half growling and half choking. Kraton turned round to discover Kim rolling on the ground, unmistakably laughing at him.

After quite some time, Kim had stopped rolling in laughter and sat in a serious looking posture, however her eyes still glimmered with humour and every time she looked at Kraton, she couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

"Are you also going to the Novice boss gathering?" Kraton was asking because from her record, she had already completed the requirements to be sent the invitation almost a whole year ago.

Kim looked at Kraton again as if he was dimwit and rolled her eyes. Even the desert worms in her dungeon knew that the gathering was once a year, therefore she had to wait almost a year for the gathering to occur, even after recieving the invitation near the start of the previous year.

[A.N. Bear in mind that the gathering is on the first day of the year, therefore previous year]

Looking at Kim's expression, Kraton figured out that he made a fool of himself again and quickly realised why his question was stupid. After a moment of awkward silence, the pair of them got up and left in the direction of Hell's Dungeon.

They arrived at Hell's Dungeon three and a half hours early, and spent this time napping by the entrance, as well as having one-sided conversations. During this time, they got to know each other's personalities much better and weren't as tense or cautious as before. For Kim, it was because Kraton wasn't that much as a threat, whereas for Kraton, he didn't want to get on the bad side of Kim, knowing how powerful she is.

When the doors of the assigned dungon room finally opened, all the bosses that had gathered piled into a luxurious room with glowing magma stones illuminating the rather dark and scary dungon. The room looked like a majestic jade and marble room that the rich humans built for palaces, however the rocks were dyed red, almost pulsating with veins of molten ores and rock that seeped through smooth, translucent rocks. The decoration consisted of large monstrous skulls of extinct creatures as well as newer bones of that were clustered somewhat neatly in a pile.

The bosses all sat down on the available seat in the spacious room, some beast-type monsters sat on the floor, whilst flying and aquatic monsters chose their respective areas. The dungeon room was vast and seemed to hold different biomes or habitats for different monster species so everyone could feel comfortable, or as comfortable as they could in a room that spoke danger and death.

When everyone present had settled down, the glowing stones dimmed, and an altar at the front appeared after it had illuminated itself. Behind the altar stood a figure, half masked by the shadows and half illuminated by the flames behind.

"Well done for making it here... shall we start then."

A deep, powerful voice reverberated around the room, everyone's focus was on the central figure, that being held a suffucating aura, preventing any of the bosses from making a sound.

"Welcome fellow bosses.. to Hell's Dungeon."