Black clothes again

The explosion shook the ground and shock waves travelled through the air. Some large stones and wooden planks were thrown into the air. Some of it even reached Alan who was a couple of hundred meters away. The force behind the explosion was larger than Alan imagined it to be.

Esther, carrying her large claymore ran towards the explosion site. The twohanded double-edged sword made to destroy her foes were fluttering in her arms.

Although it was as tall as her. She blocked scattering material thrown by the explosion with her sword while completely disintegrating larger stones. It didn't matter if she was slashing or thrusting, nothing could prevent her from moving towards her goal.

Alan too went towards the explosion, trying to verify if his guess was true. He didn't want to be trapped inside a dungeon.

Suddenly a large log came crashing from the sky towards Alan. But before he could take action, Esther slashed through it saving him.

'Is this the same girl that slapped me? Now she is protecting me.' Thought Alan.

—--

Alan's POV

The moment I entered a dungeon, I knew that it would not be a good idea. I had underestimated the dangers a lot.

All I could see was a black spatial distortion that fluctuates every second and a large pit under it. The dungeon gate was completely destroyed and it was all that remained. Seeing the horrified eyes of the spectators, I was sure that travelling through the portal was impossible. I just hope no one died.

Someone died.

Near the weirdly twisting portal, there was a corpse of a man clothed in black. And I remember seeing the same type of clothes on the Life Corps farm. It was exactly like the man I burned inside the Life Corps waterfall cave.

Isabella and Smith looked at each other before moving towards the corpse. The dead body shone a light into the mystery of the dungeon gate explosion. With an understanding look, they both went to check on the twisting portal. Making sure the situation was not deteriorating, they went back.

Weirdly, knowing all this made me more confused.

Why was a person who looked exactly like that psychopath that tried to kill me, inside the dungeon?

Is he part of some faction that I know?

Why did he destroy the gate and how did he destroy the gate?

As far I know. Dungeon gates that are naturally formed were impossible to destroy. Even with the strength of an S rank mutant, space was something they could hardly mess with. Now, an unknown person had destroyed a gate cutting all connection with the earth.

How does that even make sense?

I know Vulcan's just invented technology to stabilize dungeon gate due to them bragging about it. Even before they could fully explore the technology the gate was destroyed. This would directly impact Vulcan's and their reputation. Unless they could prove their innocence by showing that the gate was deliberately destroyed by someone, this might also put Life Corps in a disadvantageous position.

This might be bigger than it looks.

When a similar black-clothed person attacked me in the past. He was searching for something and I just came in between. So, he tried to kill me to bury the truth.

Now, seeing as how decisively the portal was destroyed. The black-clothed person's goal might have been to destroy it all along. And his target might be someone influential who is inside the dungeon.

The only outcome of his action was that he prevented everyone inside the dungeon to be trapped. Considering this as his primary goal, I might be able to guess his motive.

And the fact remains that both times I saw a black-clothed bad guy. It was related to the Vulcan's and Life Corps.

If Life Corps was the target, the black-clothed man did a great job in crippling Life Corps strength outside the dungeon by trapping most of the strong mutants inside. Considering how even the younger generation of the major shareholders was trapped inside. It would surely make a big wave outside.

I am calm just because of that. I know that if I was the only one trapped inside, no one would bother coming to my rescue. But now that Isabella and many other strong mutants are inside, everyone would surely try to find a way out.

The motive of the black-clothed person might be cripple Life Corps and sow discord between other factions.

Whatever the black-clothed man's goal was, I need to escape somehow after gaining some strength.

'System is there a way to reactivate a destroyed gate.'

[System level insufficient]

'Then how can improve the system level.'

[By exchanging system points to the system. It requires 10000 points to unlock the system-level 2. This would provide a shop function in the system.]

'Shop! What can I shop with it?'

[System shop will be filled with energy-based artefacts that can only be used by the host. These artefacts will allow the host to make temporary portals.]

'Oh! such an advanced feature. Why didn't you say it before? It's not like you would hide it deliberately, right?' I asked the system with slight doubt. I was having the feeling that system is a parasite that mooches of his host to gain strength. After all, it was me that toils to collect energy while the system just sleeps all day long.

[The host was too poor to consider opening the shop before.]

A one-liner arrow pierced my heart. Cruel and cutthroat system. Calling me poor, don't you know that I am a sensitive man.

As usual, the system only showed me possibilities without giving me any solutions.

So, I put all my points to strength again raising it to 20.

The feeling of strength increasing every hour was better than drugs. I should do everything to not get addicted.

Now that I am back on square one. I chose to return to the housing area.

Isabella, Smith, Esther and her friends all went to a meeting to create an action plan for the future. And only me and low-level mutants were the only ones left near the gate.

The first thing I did after reaching the house was to look at the kitchen. It was said that mutant beast meat that contains mana tasted especially good. And now that I have a chance, I should eat it every day if possible.

Just imagining makes my mouth water.

But thinking about sharing my house with the three girls made me miserable. After all one was cold, the other was hot, but a nut case and the third was a drunkard.

Let me pray to make my life less miserable.