She was ten when she first encountered a dungeon. Near her village, someone was investigating a mana influx and soon enough found the cause. A cave leading to tunnels reaching for the depth of the earth.

  The tribe was happy about it, for they found pride in their strength. Bel thought about clearing the dungeon, maybe with her father she could get a title and their worries would disappear. Her father was wiser than that, there was no way he’d risk her life. She then thought about doing it alone, and so she went.

  From afar, she could see the cave’s entrance. It was fairly small. Many parties were in front of it, going in and out during the day. It was only during late at night that the traffic calmed down. She saw that as an opportunity, she just had to sneak in when no one was looking. She waited.

  Her father was probably panicking and wondering where she was, so late at night and still not home. She felt bad for doing so but she already brought so many problems to him, just one last and it will be over.

  An opportunity appeared and as she approached the entrance, someone grabbed her. “We saw you the whole time, go home.”

  Another came, “Isn't that?”

  “It’s her.”

  The one grabbing her hastily unhandled her, as if she was carrying some sort of disease. Whatever, she was used to it. She went past them and entered the dungeon. Running as fast as she could. All she had to do was clear the dungeon, somehow.

  And so she ran, dodging monsters and parties, and continued until she had to catch her breath. Eyes on her. They recognized her, of course they did. No one dared touching her, except monsters, who latched in her direction. People started defending her. Were they showing care to her? Probably not. Maybe they were just doing their job or feared a System’s penalty.

  Someone yelled at her, “Get out!” Then everyone followed the movement. And without any physical contact, they pressured her to get away. She stepped back at first, going slowly back. Then they threw rocks at her and blue screens would appear in front of the throwers.

  Penalty: -1 level.

  They continued anyways, as one of them figured out that they could just regain the levels by fighting in the dungeon.

  She received many rocks. Got bruises here and there. She ran. The exit of the dungeon was right there. She went out and thought it’d be over. Wrong. A movement had started with a simple goal: get rid of Bel.

  The lynch started, telling her to get away from the village, that she didn’t belong here. She ran toward her home but villagers joined the lynching too and blocked her path.

  Where was her father? She thought, as her mind was in turmoil.

  She continued to run; bruises and injuries accumulating. Even though the pain was excruciating, she didn’t shed a tear. She refused to give these “persons” a single spark of emotion. It was her own way to fight back and make her father proud, because if she died here at least it wouldn’t be with tears running down her face. That way, maybe her father won’t have to be sad because of her anymore, maybe it was for the best.

  She blinked and someone grabbed her. She couldn’t see who it was. But the smell, she recognized. Father. He hugged her firmly and she could feel him shaking. Again, because of her.

  “Let’s run away,” he told her.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She wanted to but couldn’t anymore, it was too much. She just wanted to end it all already. “I’m tired.” She closed her eyes and stopped any kind of movement, no breathing, no trembling, nothing.

  Her father put her down. She didn’t know what was going on and didn't care either. She was in such a state that nothing but her father could shake her away from it. She heard yellings, but didn’t listen. She felt heavy wind blows, whatever. Then many and many sensations later, her father hugged her again. “Everything will be ok now, I promise.” He cried.

  That night, her village got obliterated.

  That night, her father lost all of his levels. That night, a new village’s chief was born.

  They’d talk of her father as the strongest person in the world, the one that vanquished half of the Pink tribe with one right punch and the other half with a single left hook. A new saying came to be: don’t be the reason a [Monk] breaks his vow.

  Her life completely changed from then on, and everyone acted like they never did anything wrong to her, some even denied. But she would never forget what they did to her, and that would continue to haunt her no matter what.

  Everything returned to what was supposed to be normal, her father was more absent though, he had more responsibility now, because of her. But at least her dad returned, as she didn’t really need a “cure” anymore. She would have that underlying feeling of uneasiness and she knew exactly why, the daughter of the Pink tribe’s chief couldn’t be a fraud, she couldn't do that to him. Not after everything he did for her. She had to go home one day, and make her father proud, as a “thank you for being my father.”

  ***

  The heavily injured woman was safe, Cayn did an insane job as most of her missing body parts were regenerated.

  The trio was done treating them and they were about to continue with other people but there was no need to. Indeed, parties had at least one healer each. They weren’t in need of more. So what now?

  The strongest party got back on track and pursued the dungeon boss after reuniting with its two missing party members.

  Cayn took the lead, “Let’s follow them and see if we can help out.”

  They did as told. The boss was easy to track, as the ground was fractured by its running. It was currently on the second floor, if Bel calculated correctly.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked Cayn.

  “We will serve as back up, dealing with the monsters around while they focus on the boss.”

  Sounded like a good plan.

  They catched up with the boss. It wasn’t running anymore but it still walked. Even humongous beasts had stamina. The strongest party started the fight, focusing on the minotaur. And while the fight was ongoing, Bel kept an eye on the mimic. It was standing, observing everything while adopting the form of each person involved in the fight. Was it learning?

  Astor and Cayn were taking care of the monsters without trouble. She figured out that fighting the mimic and securing the dungeon core wouldn’t be too bad.

  She rushed toward it, going for a sneaky attack from behind. [Slash] with a sharp kick. The mimic took the full blow and scattered around. And as she looked for the dungeon core, it quickly reformed into her and replicated the exact same attack with the same sneakiness. Bel fell and hit the ground, face-front. Very unpleasant, but she was fine. She hastily got back on her feet and faced her copy, ready for a full-blown fight.

  It ran away.

  “Get back here you little shit!” she said.

  The mimic headed for the exit, but given that it was probably controlled by the dungeon core, it couldn’t possibly get out of the dungeon. It would be cornered soon. She switched to [Mage] and prepared for the biggest fireball she could make, hoping to burn the monster whole. But as she was about to fire it, the mimic did the unthinkable: it brought the dungeon core out of the dungeon.

  What? There was no way it could be possible, or maybe it was; she used to slack a bit during classes, must’ve missed the info, whoops.

  She paid no mind to the nonsense and continued her track, it wouldn’t leave her sight for miles ahead. They went through the dragons, Bel yelled about the mimic and they started following it from the air. Strangely, it knew about the danger and went inside the mountain.

  Bel was starting to feel strained from all the running, but she didn’t give up. Forget about the pain, get this monster and get that title. She focused on the mimic and nothing else, until it ran into a crowd. It was going to shapeshift, keep track of it. From Bel to a random man. It tried to fit in, copying the exact movement of the man. Thank the System, it was stupid enough to not understand that two identical persons in the same place wasn’t normal. Now came the problem of how to deal with it. Brute force didn’t work, so maybe some magic would but she wasn’t good enough with [Mage]’s skills to pull that off in a crowded area. How about trapping it in a barrier? Yeah, that should work.

  “[Switch: Priest],” she activated, “[Protection].” A bright light shone above the monster and swiftly trapped it in a barrier.