A Promotion

After washing himself calmly, Lukas walked purposefully to his car, fearing that a single misstep would tear down his fragile state of mind. Being aware of it would give his mentality an extra layer of protection.

He entered his car and turned the keys to his ignition.

Almost as an insult to him, the car began sputtering as it tried to bring itself to life. He turned the keys once more, only for the same result. A third time, but nothing gave in to him, and the car remained firmly turned off. It was nothing but a mass of metal that existed to spite him.

"Shit." He muttered before softly placing his head on the steering wheel and exhaling. The sun had yet to come up, and he wanted to head to work early to sit in the parking lot and think about what to do.

As moments passed, however, an alternate opportunity presented itself.

"I see your bucket of bolts finally gave up on itself."

Lukas turned and looked at his sister, who was wearing a neat black suit – the same as him. Their jobs were different, though, and the subtle differences in the craftsmanship of their clothes revealed it. He found the dungeons and made a relatively pleasant sum of money, yet she cleared the dungeons.

As such, her clothes were much neater. Some might even say perfect. But Veronica, despite all her money, was still very down to earth. Most of it went to helping their mother anyway.

"Wanna ride along in my bucket of bolts?" She pointed somewhere else in the parking lot with her thumb.

"Please." He smiled with a bit of embarrassment.

"Then right this way, little man." She said heartily with a joking salute and a serious face.

The two walked some distance with minimal conversation between them—if not for a lack of trying from Veronica. Lukas, nevertheless, replied with simple sentences that were not focused on prolonging the conversation.

"Alright, ya dolt, what's wrong?" She rested her head on her side of the car and stared at him standing by the passenger's side.

He looked at her awful car with paint chipping off everywhere and rust shining through with a smile.

"You really should fix up dad's car…" He mumbled as he opened the door, changing the subject.

"I'll get to it eventually!" She hit his shoulder as she got in the car as well.

Their dad always said that whenever their mother told him to fix the car. However, he loved the charm of a car falling apart. None of them understood it, but it always ran well under the hood.

Lukas thought the same could be said for their dad.

"Seriously," she let her hands holding the keys hover near the ignition, "what's wrong?"

Lukas looked at her and wondered if he should tell her. She was strong, and she had [S Rank] potential like his friends growing up. However, it wasn't until her later years that she started training, meaning that she was only around [B+ Rank].

If Lukas had told her, he thought it would only have made things worse. He loved her, but she had a habit of sticking up for him. Yet, here, Lukas didn't know how deep the conspiracy was. When he woke, he looked up the news, but there was nothing about Manuel.

In fact, if you took the news at face value, the city was crimeless yesterday. Not much of anything in that department had been mentioned.

Lukas was fine dying; if it was to happen, it would happen. But not his sister. He wouldn't allow her to get involved if he could help it.

"Met a girl and had fun, but it didn't work out." He lied with a shrug.

"My little bro is a philanderer? What is the world coming to…" She shook her head with joking disappointment before looking at him with a teasing face, "Was she hot though?"

"Just drive." A smile managed to appear on his face.

"Okay, okay, you're the boss." She raised her hands in surrender before turning the ignition.

Before long, she swung the car by the front of the Association, and Lukas got out. They parted ways with a wave, and Lukas turned to look at his destination. It didn't take much, but his heart began to tremble.

The Association building towered over him like an unending obelisk of glass and concrete. It twisted itself impractically into a spire towards the peak that rose into the clouds, clearly taller than any of the buildings in the city.

Lukas looked back towards the ground and closed his eyes for a moment. He gathered his thoughts and walked into the building.

As he entered the office, he couldn't help but notice all the cameras dotting the halls. Everyone underneath their watchful eyes carried on about their day – and Lukas had to as well.

He walked into his office and sat down at his desk, licking his dry lips. He pressed his monitor's ON button, and as it flashed to life, he felt a hand hit his shoulder.

He froze for a moment before calmly turning around.

'They can't do anything to you here.' He told himself internally.

"Lukas! Did you get that letter to Manuel?" His boss crossed his arms and took a step back. It seemed like he had just arrived at work.

Lukas swallowed some built-up saliva before leaning into his office chair.

"Of course. I met him in the parking lot and gave it to him by our cars, " he said.

"Oh! Good. I haven't seen Connor anywhere today, so I'm afraid that the letter probably hasn't reached him. Ah well, we tried, right?" He jabbed Lukas' shoulder as he started to walk away, "Come over to my office when you get the chance, I've got a request."

Lukas watched his boss' fading figure, which was eventually obscured by his door.

Lukas turned in his chair to meet his monitor, which reflected his face.

'Connor didn't come into work? He has an [S- Rank] dungeon to coordinate.'

There was only one obvious answer, and Lukas didn't want to consider it.

However, if he was to solve the mystery, he would have to.

'With what I know currently, the simplest conclusion is that Lumirae or some other adversary will try to attack using the dungeon. Hero would be spearheading it if that was the case.'

As he thought, he cursed under his breath.

He thought back to the blank eyes on Hero's mask. Back to when he was told he'd be playing a game.

There was something there. Something in Lukas' childhood that he couldn't remember – if Hero was actually someone he used to know.

*Tap! Tap!*

Lukas looked over to see his boss tapping the glass to his office and waving him over. He had almost forgotten.

When Lukas opened the door, his boss directed him to take a seat, causing Lukas to get nervous.

"So Connor had made a request the other day before disappearing." His boss smiled slightly as he lifted a glass, "Lukas, I honestly believe you're the best Gate Technician in our office. As such, when Connor requested the gate to be reexamined by another technician, I put your name in the hat."

Lukas stared hard at his boss, watching the man's joyous eyes.

"Although it pains me, I believe it's time for your promotion, " he chuckled.

Lukas opened his mouth before abruptly closing it.

"You see, the Gate Technician in the National Guild and Connor think the dungeon should be analyzed again. Apparently, its state is fluctuating, and they *think* it's an ambush dungeon – but they aren't entirely sure."

'That dungeon is scheduled for today, and it opened up early yesterday, as far as I know. That means 6 days remain before a rupture occurs and releases all the monsters directly into the city. Since it's such a high tier, the raid will definitely start today. They'd be stupid to delay it.'

Lukas' hand gripped his pants tight.

'Meaning that Hero will be there.'

"I'd prefer not to, sir. I-" Lukas started before getting cut off.

"Ah! I'll have none of that. I know about your mother's condition, and your sister may be rising in the ranks quickly, but medicine and hospital bills aren't cheap. Take the job; this is an order if needed. I'll fire you if you're stupid enough to decline it."

Lukas knew his boss wouldn't fire him and that he was just trying some cheap intimidation to get him to accept. However, he also knew it was from a place of genuine care.

Lukas bit the inside of his cheek.

'If I really want to investigate Hero, I suppose getting closer isn't the worst thing.' He felt stupid just thinking about it, but it was a risk he needed to take.

"Alright." He said simply.

"Great!" His boss laughed, "Get your van ready and hop over to the dungeon. As you know, time is of the essence, so hurry. I'll tell the Association team there that you're coming."

As he left his boss's office, Lukas couldn't help but think.

'This seems like an awful idea.'