Chapter 1. An Unknown Event

Somehow and for some reason, the Earth was completely changed. From using fuels for energy to using Eldranite. The world changed after the appearance of creature territories. Creature territories are the places where many different types of monsters appears randomly. The size of territories vary according to the power of the monsters. A monster palace is considered the weakest territoty of monsters, the monster village is stronger than palace, the monster town is stronger than village, the monster city is stronger than the town and the monster kingdom is considered strongest. Monster kingdom has apeared 3 times in the world and no greater territory has ever appeared.

Those who hunts the monster and clears a territory are known as Arbiters. These Arbiters are controlled by the Arbiter Organization. Arbiters can join different guilds but all the guilds must be registered under the Arbiter Organization and must follow their rules.

Arbiters are divided into different ranks, from E-rank to SSS-rank. The rank they recieve in the starting is not their permanent rank, they can increase their power all through their life and increase their rank. Currently, there are only 7 SSS-rank Arbiters, 13 SS-rank Arbiters and 39 S-rank Arbiter in the world and more than 4 billion people who awakened as Arbiter.

It was a normal day, a E-rank team was inside the Monster Palace and clearing it. The Monster Palace have 7 floors and the 7th floor is the throne room where the king of a Monster Palace is located. The power of the monsters increases as an Arbiter climes the floor. The team which was on their way to clearing the Monster Palace was on the 4th floor and were surrounded by a group of Oarks. There was also an elite rank Oark which was at the level of an E-rank Arbiter. The group had seven E-rank Arbiters and three D-rank Arbiters. Those D-ranks were healers and among the seven, two were mages, one was the leader who was a samurai, two were archers and the rest two were tankers. They all were rankers as they all were their to increase their rank.

The elite Oark jumped on them but the tankers blocked the Oark attack and the mages burned the Oark into ashes but suddenly, one of the healer was attacked by a Oark and was severely injured. The other healer was busy in providing them buffs but had no choice but to stop the buffs. When she begin to heal the other healer, several elite rank Oarks came from the darkness and attacked them. It was the first time that in a Monster Palace, there was more than four elite rank monsters.

Even among the E-ranks, there is a power heirachry. The leader charged on all the elite rank oarks and started killing them one by one. The other healer was completely healed and all the buffs were back. The leader with one tank and one healer was taking care of all the elite rank oarks while rest of the team was killing all the normal oarks.

They cleared the 4th floor and now was ready to climb the 5th floor.

"It was all thanks to you leader that we were able to survive those elite rank oarks. " said a tank to the samurai.

The samurai replied, "It's okay. It's my duty to protect you all. ".

They cleared the 5th floor and even the 6th floor and now was ready to climb to the 7th floor, the throne room. Doesn't matter the territory, an omnious aura can always be felt from the throne room but from the throne room of this palace, the team was unable to feel any kind of aura coming from the king. They all were nervous because they were going to face the strongest creature in this monster palace.

They climbed to the 7th floor and saw something very odd. The king was sitting on the floor but looked like a child, a 12 year old child. There were 2 commanders surrounding the throne and both of them were of different monster race. One was a werewolf and the other was a goblin. There were numerous monsters in the throne room, from a giant centipede to a monster who's lower body was of a spider and upper body was of a female.

The king said, "State your buisness, humans! " and with the statement of the king, they felt like the king was a human, a human child.

Without saying anything, the archers launched their attack on the monsters and king said, "Very well, go and annihilate them. ".

With the command of the king, all the monsters there attacked the Arbiters except the two commanders. The Arbiters were killing all the monsters with a constant speed. It was all because of the buff provided by the healers.

In the throne room, the throne was made up of silver and there was carpet on the ground. On the ceiling, there were weird bulbs which were lighting the room and the pillars were covered in moss.

After few minutes, the Arbiters killed all the monsters but were very tired.

The king gave the commanders the command to attack them and the commanders rose and jumped on them.

They were unable to track the commanders movement. The werewolf was called Varulf and the goblin was called Bogeyman.

Samurai said to the tankers, "Take care of Bogeyman and leave the Varulf to me. Remy, buff me and heal me continuously. ".

Remy was the name of the female healer.

Samurai charged on the Varulf but was unable to connect even a single attack to it because it's movement was untraceable to them. Monster Palaces have commanders but they are not this much strong.

Here, the archers launched their attack on Bogeyman but it was unsuccessful because the Bogeyman was using two axes and cut all the arrows with it's axes. The tankers charged on Bogeyman to reduce it's movement and told the archers to shot their arrows again and not to be worried about them.

The tankers did their work and the archers launched their attack but all was for nothing because suddenly, time stopped for them for one second and Bogeyman escaped their strategy. The time resumed and Samurai lost his one hand. They all were confused because just now they were on advantage but suddenly something happened which put them on a big disadvantage. They all didn't know that the time stopped for one second.

Remy started healing the arm of the samurai but before she could do anything, right infront of her eyes she lost both of her hands and started screaming in pain.

They all were cornered pretty badly and were on the verge of death because Bogeyman killed one of their tanker. The death of the tanker put the other healer in despair because the tanker was his wife. The healer was consumed in pain and rushed on the Bogeyman. Everyone tried to stop him but in a blink of eye the healer lost his head and died.

As the time passed, each of them slowly died by the hand of the commanders and in the end only one was left alive, the samurai. The king said to the samurai, "Remove your armor, pest. ".

Samurai did as the king said and removed his armor. He was a 15 year old guy. The king came out of the dark and it was obvious from his outer appearance that the king of this Monster Palace was none other than a 12 year old human. The king asked, " What is your name? ".

Samurai said, " Williams, my name is Williams Rex. ".

Williams then questioned the king, " Aren't you a human? ".

The king said, " I didn't gave you any permission to ask me a question. " and as the king finished his sentenfe, Varulf cut his other hand. He started screaming in pain, crying and begging for his life. The king gave a smile, a smile of a big victory and started laughing.

The king said, "I will let you live if you will guide me to the outer world. You know, I am a human just like you and I don't know how i got here. If you will lead me to the outside, your life will be spared.

Williams did as the king asked and lead him to the portal from where he and his team entered the monster palace.

Outside the portal, some agents of Arbiter Organization was waiting for them to confirm their victory. The agents saw Williams coming out with a expression of fear on his face. One of the agent walked towards Williams to ask about the condition and his expression but suddenly, an axe came flying from the portal and beheaded the agent.

Everyone went in the alert mode. Williams said, "Everyone, don't move and don't even try to attack him. ".

They were confuse about the identity of " him" but their confusion was cleared when the king came out of the portal with his commanders.

One of the agent said, " Lucas Grant? ".

They all were shocked to hear the name.

The king said, " Oh, so that's what my name is? ".

Lucas Grant, the son of the current chairman of the Arbiter Organization was lost in the Monster Palace 6 years ago when the chairman of the Arbiter Organization wanted some entertainment and entered a monster palace with his one and only child, Lucas Grant with a S-rank Arbiter and couple of A-rank Arbiters but during the raid, Lucas was lost. They all did their best to find him but were unsuccessful and had to leave because the palace was going to collapse after the palace's king death. They all lost their hope of finding Lucas and thought that he got devoured by the monsters inside the monster palace.

Lucas asked, "Can anyone of you call my father here? ".

One of the agents took his phone out and called the receptionist of the Arbiter Organization and explained about the situation. Lucas has kept Williams as a hostage for his own safety, he didn't believe anyone around him and after an hour, the chairman arrived, Ademar Grant with his wife, Lucy Grant and his son and the younger brother of Lucas, Arthur Grant.

Ademar and Lucy were very happy to see Lucas alive and Lucy ran towards Lucas and hugged him. Varulf and Bogeyman launched their attack on Lucy but before it could connect, Lucas gave them a sign and stopped them. Lucy was crying after seeing Lucas alive. Ademar also hugged Lucas and Arthur was watching all. Arthur was 5 years old and didn't know that he had an older brother. After seeing his parents crying, Arthur also started crying and Lucas asked, "Is he my younger brother? ".

Lucy and Ademar said, " Yes, he is your younger brother. Isn't he your spitting image, Lucas? ".

Lucas gave a smile and said, " I don't think so. He is such a wimp. ".

After few minutes, they stopped crying and one of the agents said, " Sir Ademar, we understand that Lucas is your child but we can't overlook the murders he had done. He killed nine Arbiters inside the monster palace and took Williams as a hostage. ".

Ademar asked, " Is there any proof? ".

The agents declined and Ademar said, " Then how can you all blame my son for their death? ".

The agents said, " Williams saw all that. ".

Ademar questioned Lucas, "Is this all true? ".

Lucas declined and said, " Williams was the one who murdered them and then came to the throne room to kill the king but even after realising that I am, a human is a king, he didn't hesitated and attacked me so I had to use force to protect myself. ".

Williams declined all Lucas said and Ademar said, " Let's suppose my child killed them but even if they won't have died, you were going to kill them anyway for the rewards, right? ".

Williams remained silent because he killed all his past companions in greed and that's why he was never promoted by the Organization because the Organization suspected him after so many Arbiters who were his companion died in the monster palace and always only he came back alive.

Agents then questioned Lucas about Bogeyman and Varulf and Lucas said, "I am too tired to explain you all anything. ".

Lucy said, " You heard my son. He is tired and coming with us and until he recovers none of you is allowed to question him and don't let media and the world know about his existence until we give you permission and dispose of Williams because we don't want any more problem. ".

Williams cried, " I promise I will keep it a secret. Please don't kill me. ".

Ademar said, " We are not killing you because you know about our son's existence but because you killed your companions and this time we have a proof, my son. ".

The agents shot Williams and the Grant family took Lucas with them.

The story has just started, the story of Lucas Grant. The journey of a child who was lost in a monster palace. Nobody knows what his future holds and what his fate is but the only thing which they know is that he is surely destined to great achievements in his life.