02 Dungeon
Before the detective could continue, a woman entered the interrogation room. The first officer put away his gun and removed his feet from Alex's chest.
The woman had short sky-blue hair, wore black leather armor, and a sword lay at her waist. The woman looked as if she were dressed for a cosplay meeting.
"Detective Julião, abusive as always, better prepare yourself to face another lawsuit, leave me alone with my client," she looked at him with irritation.
The woman said this while helping Alex sit in the slightly damaged chair. The detective snorted coldly before leaving, not caring about the woman's words.
"Hello, I'm Joana. I have worked with your father in the past. Currently, although I act as a hunter for the government, I am also part of the Bar Association. Can you tell me everything that happened?"
Joana said, showing a friendly smile.
"Didn't you already read the report provided by the police about what happened with Tiffany?"
Alex asked in an annoyed tone.
"Yes, I did, but I would like to hear directly from my constituent. A warning: it's better that you tell me the truth, so that I can develop a good defense strategy to get you out of here as quickly as possible."
Joana made sure the cameras were turned off before making her statement. Alex shook his head negatively in response.
"Don't worry, I am your lawyer, commissioned by your sister, and as I said before, I have already worked with your father. You can trust me.
"It's not that I don't trust you, unfortunately," Alex showed the back of his head where a visible bruise was.
"I lost my memories, I am also unaware of what happened, I only learned my name from the detective."
Alex decided to pretend to have amnesia for the time being; this way people might explain to him what was going on. He was not stupid; apparently, he was in some parallel reality where there were slight differences compared to his original reality.
"That complicates things. The Weber family is very influential in the city since they have three-star hunters, but I should be able to handle that for now. What do you remember or not remember?"
"The only thing I remember is waking up here, and I was only able to speak when I heard people talking. By the way, what is a awakened? And what is this story about hunters?"
Some time later, in a few minutes,
Joana took a stack of papers and gave them to Alex. It contained personal information, everything he needed to know about himself, and also information about the so-called hunters.
"You recently awakened as a hunter. Use this on your dominant hand."
Alex put on a glove on his right hand, and a light was emitted slightly. After a quick expansion, the glove was returned.
Joana put on the same glove, and after a slight glow, two stars appeared.
"The hunters are classified from zero to five stars. I have two, and you have none. The more stars you have, the stronger your authority will be. That is, you belong to the lowest class of hunters that exists. Now let's see your authority."
"How do I do this?"
"Easy, you just need to open your attribute window."
"And how do I open the window?" Joana hit her hand on her forehead in response to what Alex said. She then decided to be even more direct.
"Just think or say 'open attribute window.'"
When Alex thought of the attribute window, a translucent Semi screen appeared, revealing his information:
(NAME ALEX, LUCID BEING, AWAKENED)
(GRAVITY AUTHORITY)
(SKILLS=NONE)
(LEVEL=0)
(STRENGTH=5)
(AGILITY=5)
(HP=10/9)
(MP=5/5)
"It says here that my authority is gravity and level zero."
Joana then explained how the hunters' system worked, which was actually like a game. Thanks to this, Alex had no difficulty understanding it.
Hunters possess something called authority. It is something connected to a concept or a phenomenon of nature, intrinsically linked to their elements. Thanks to these authorities, they could manipulate phenomena, concepts, and elements of nature. Their manipulation was proportional to the number of stars the hunter had upon awakening.
There was also a class system. The hunter was assigned by the system to a class according to their use of authorities. Mage, warrior, assassin, and others were the easiest to obtain.
If someone acquired a special class item, they could obtain a unique, rare, legendary, or mythical class.
As Alex was a newly awakened, he did not yet have a class; his level was the lowest that existed.
Joana explained the current situation of the city, particularly regarding Alex's family, before leaving to find ways to free her constituent.
Back in his cell, two days passed. He had to endure the interrogations, and a doctor would come to perform an evaluation to verify his mental state and determine whether he had amnesia or not. His sister came to see him several times, but he could not receive visitors.
A week later, Alex and several other prisoners were about to enter a dungeon.
Dungeon clearing was currently considered the most practical way to accumulate resources. The State and private entities competed almost equally. The Hunters' Association was a government organization that aimed to protect the country and collect revenue through the dungeons.
They also regulated the activities of hunters inside and outside the dungeons.
Hunter guilds were private organizations whose primary objectives were the enrichment and strengthening of their hunters. They also helped the government when necessary or when their interests were aligned. More generally, they were obliged to provide assistance to the people through the association.
"Quickly, one after the other, I don't have all day," a penitentiary agent organized the prisoners as they exited a prison truck.
One by one, they came out wearing orange uniforms from the municipal prison. Two rows were formed: one of young men aged between 19 and 40, about 14 prisoners in total, including Alex.
The second row consisted of girls from the women's prison; there were about 8 of them.
All the prisoners were awakened, and like Alex, they had no stars. They were the weakest hunters that could be found among the awakened.
With the help of the officers, several teams were formed and distributed to raid different dungeons. A hunter agent was assigned to each team to coordinate and supervise the raid.
"Very well, allow me to introduce myself. I am Joaquim, an agent of the Hunters' Association."
He raised his dominant hand, displaying a glove that shone with the faint light of a star.
"I am a stellar hunter, as you can see, and I will be in charge of this mission."
Agent Joaquim displayed a set of weapons and asked each of them to come and take one that best matched their abilities.
SYSTEM ALERT
YOUR LEVEL IS ZERO, YOU CANNOT EQUIP A WEAPON
LOW-LEVEL SWORD, STRENGTH 5 AGILITY 1 DEFENSE 2
REQUIREMENT TO EQUIP LEVEL 3
When Alex picked up a sword, he felt his hand being electrocuted, and then the weapon fell to the ground. Nevertheless, a system alert appeared before his eyes. The remaining prisoners cast Alex a look of contempt.
The agent made a sinister face before hiding it behind a fake friendly smile. Since Alex could not equip a weapon, he was tasked with carrying any resources in a large backpack.
Including Alex, there were about six young men: Joaquim the agent, a bald man with prominent muscles named Augusto, along with his brother Cardoso, a 25-year-old, Alfredo, and Paulo.