[You have entered the dungeon the dungeon Kuoh Park: Night.]

As soon as that messaged had appeared in front of me, I knew I was going to regret my decision. Why? Well, the moon turned red and a heavy fog descended upon my surroundings, obscuring my vision. I could only see approximately five meters in front of me and even then I could barely see my own hands when holding them out in front of me.

It didn't help to know what happens in horror movies that have a setting like this, so I was obviously afraid. Scared for my life? No, not yet. I hadn't even seen a monster yet so why would I think I was going to die?

Although, I couldn't exactly hear or see anything, so I had no clue as to what may be beyond my limited vision.

Ah, yes, that's right. Now that I have noticed it, there was nothing but an oppressive silence blanketing the park as the distant sounds of traffic and people had become non-existent. Were my fear levels rising? Definitely.

Sighing and resisting the urge to tremble, I decided to make my way out of this park. I mean, the conditions aren't exactly favourable and I don't know what I'm up against, so I'd prefer it if I wasn't stabbed in the back without knowing what had happened.

I don't even know anything about this dungeon, either. I only know its name and that's it, but I could guess it contained some kind of demonic or undead creature in it because it's a night dungeon. Maybe there were even ghosts, but who knows what is lurking beyond the curtain of fog?

[Because of a logical deduction, your INT has increased by +1.]

Well, I wasn't exactly wrong in thinking that, was I? I've played too many MMOs and RPGs to even count, so I definitely know my stuff. Although, that stat message kind of implied there were undead and demons around.

Never mind that, though, as I believe I have found the exit! Actually, that was pretty quick, wasn't it? Was I walking faster than usual because I was afraid or is space warped in this somewhat large area?

Ah, who cares about that pointless stuff? I just want to go home.

I approached the large gate that had appeared in front of me and tried to force my way through it, seeing nothing but a large wall of fog on the other side that offered no views of the outside world. Thinking this strange, I attempted to stick an arm through the gate and wall of fog and winced as it felt as if I had straight up punched a brick wall.

[Exit Conditions: Defeat 5 Lesser Undead.]

So there are exit conditions, huh? And the exit condition is to defeat five lesser undead, whatever that means. Wait, if my gamer sense is right, those are harmless zombies and whatnot, right? So if I find five zombies and literally kick their heads in, I should be able to leave.

Although, finding a monster to fight in this fog may prove to be more difficult than I think it is. I mean, no sight and no sound? This is going to be fun.

After a few moments, I had encountered my first enemy.

A short silhouette in the fog, limbering around, they seemed like the perfect target. I mean, as I got closer, their quiet groans revealed their status as a zombie or other similar undead, so they literally were a perfect enemy because I was weak and kinda slow.

Yeah, I should probably become stronger so I can fight more powerful beings.

Anyway, I cautiously approached the silhouette and, as their form appeared through the fog, I recoiled and resisted the urge to run away. Sure, running away would be cowardly, but this zombie looked extremely scary.

With grey, decayed skin and sunken eyes, blood covering the front of their suit and their guts spilling out, they were the essence of an undead human who had risen once more.

I respectfully resisted the urge to vomit then and there.

However, as the undead turned to face me, I actually vomited. In fact, I could almost taste the mocha I had earlier as it left my throat. Delightful. To simply explain the next chain of events, I was dragged to the floor by the undead while vomiting, grabbed him by the neck to stop him from biting me as I choked on chunks of my lunch and somehow managed to throw him off of me, rolling onto my side straight away to clear my throat.

Scrambling to my feet with a cough and a splutter, the undead copying my movements, I took a moment to regain my breath. Although, the undead didn't give me enough time to do that as he lunged at me once more. To avoid a probably dire fate, I stepped to the side to dodge his attack and watched as he fell onto his stomach with a groan.

I stared down at him in pity as he squirmed around on the floor, however, without any hesitation, I crushed his skull under my foot and vomited once more, watching as the corpse of the zombie was covered in bile.

I came across a fountain and sighed in relief, my clothes permeating a putrid mixture of stomach acids and dried up blood. It had only been a while since my first kill, but I was craving for more. Feed me undead blood!

On second thought, please don't. The undead scare me because they look horrible, sound like they need to constantly clear their throat and groan very loudly. Needless to say, I didn't like this dungeon as it was less than desirable.

Is it possible to get PTSD from such a thing? Maybe.

Anyway, I took my blazer and red undershirt off and washed them in the oddly clear fountain water. Luckily, nothing seemed to be wrong with the thing as the pure water was slowly dyed an odd brown colour. Although I was probably being too cautious, thinking this was some kind of trap, I had to be careful. I mean, I am in a dungeon that feels like it's straight out of an RPG. Anything could happen.

After wringing my clothing out with a grunt, I put my shirt back on, tied my blazer around my waist and went to unzip my pants, also intending to wash them. However, when I thought about it, exhibitionism wasn't exactly a fetish I wanted to partake in when there are zombies around every corner. They may bite my precious weaponry off by accident.

I shuddered at the thought of that occurring.

So, with a deep and hefty sigh, I sat on the edge of the fountain and stared through the fog, my lips pursed as I thought about my next course of action.

Well, there wasn't really any kind of plan in my head. I was scared of the undead, they wanted to desperately kill me and I needed to kill five of them to get out of this place. Not wanting to suffer at the hands of the deceased, there wasn't really anything I could do to get out of here if I didn't fight them, so I only had one choice.

It's time to hunt some zombies.

Like any good protagonist in a work of zombie related fiction, I wasn't acting dumb like before. Instead of rushing the undead and giving my position away, I cautiously approached it from behind with barely audible footsteps.

Is this the effect of my Stealth skill!?

It apparently was as I could almost feel the power of a ninja growing inside of me.

Just kidding. Nothing changed.

Anyway, as the undead aimlessly stumbled forward with no goal in mind, I dashed up to it and kicked it behind its kneecap, forcing it to drop onto its knees as the natural reactions of the body did not change even after death.

Quickly forcing it to fall flat onto its face with a second kick to the back, I bounced over to its head and raised my foot.

[Acquired skill: Hand-to-hand Combat.]

Eventually, I managed to escape the dungeon; the fog wall was not present anymore and I could leave the damned place. My clothes were bloodied (I had given up on cleaning them at the fountain after the third kill as the water almost black with blood) and my feet were sore.

But, despite the hatred I garnered for my current state of dress, I was alive.

[Defeated five Lesser Undead: +82 EXP]

And here is where I gained my well-deserved EXP in a cumulative fashion. Not minding why the EXP was gained upon exiting the dungeon and not after killing a monster (it didn't really matter to me because I was sure I wouldn't willingly enter another dungeon for a while), I decided to head home.

Although, heading home in my current state of dress, isn't it likely the police would stop and ask me a few questions? I can't say, "Mister Officer, I just killed some zombies in the park over there," because it's something a chuuni would say and I was covered in blood, so the chances of me being arrested were high.

However, the blood mixed in well with my shirt and my blazer barely had any on it due to being tied around my waist, so I only had to worry about my pants, shoes and bag. But, for my bag, can't I just say it's a graphic I unlawfully applied without the school's permission? And for my pants, I could just say I spilt a lot of ketchup on them. That just leaves my shoes and the harsh reality that no matter what I say, the police would still pull me up for looking suspicious.

Well, I can only take the backstreets and hope for the best, although, when I reach suburbia, I shouldn't have to worry too much.

"I'm home!" I shouted while kicking my shoes off, the front door already locked behind me. Checking the time on my phone, the planet already on its nineteenth hour of the day, my mom welcomed me home as she poked her through the living room doorway, her expression souring as she noticed the state of my clothes.

"Ise, did you get into a fight today?" Glancing down at my uniform and bandaged arms and sighing, I stepped onto the wooden floorboards of my home, briefly acknowledging the fact that Yuuma, my girlfriend, did not show me she cared for me by asking about my wounds

My brain trembled as my heart sunk.

"No. Although it looks like I did, I fell over at PE and spilt ketchup on myself." My mother furrowed her brow as she hummed in thought, trailing my body with her eyes. Eventually, she shrugged her shoulders and walked off, leaving me to sigh in relief.

"Oh, about this afternoon…did a girl finally ask you out on a date?" I resisted the urge to sigh as I waltzed into the living room, dropping my bag in the doorway before I dived onto a couch.

Strangely enough, I was hit by a sudden wave of fatigue, although, it made sense considering the things I went through this afternoon. My mother didn't seem to appreciate me ignoring her, either, as she raised her voice.

"Are you going to answer me, child of mine? If you don't, it'll create unnecessary misunderstandings!" I glanced over at my mother, who was busy dancing around in the kitchen to prepare dinner, and subconsciously sighed.

I swear that's the only thing I know how to do in these situations.

"I'd like to say it doesn't concern you too much, mom, but I know you'd get mad. To answer you question, I just had an outing with some people I know." My mother glanced at me from over her shoulder with narrowed eyes before she returned to what she was doing, cutting up potatoes and carrots with a big, scary knife.

"Is it the horrible Matsuda and Motohama?"

"I don't get why you don't like my friends, but no. It isn't them."

"Then who is it? Is it that Rias girl everyone at your school likes?"

"Hah, I wish," I said as I grabbed the TV remote, flicking the wonderful technology on to watch mind numbingly boring children's anime. You know, I never understood why they play the more adult stuff super late into the night, "I'd literally be crucified if I had any kind of interaction with her."

"That's harsh."

"You don't say." I sarcastically responded, a small frown appearing on my face, "It's almost as if she's a queen or heiress or something."

After that, there was a short moment of silence, the obnoxious voices and cries of the TV filling the gap. Eventually, though, my mother spoke once more, not wanting to leave me be.

"I know it's a girl, Ise. You can't hide that from me."

"Your intuition surprises me sometimes." I absentmindedly responded as my focus on the TV was too great, my heart sinking moments after I had realised what I had said.

"So it is a girl! My son, he's going to lose his right to be a wizard, isn't he?" Wait, how does my mom even know of that abomination of a joke!? It's every man's worst nightmare to become a wizard, dammit, so it's not something she should be joking about, especially when she constantly harasses me about having children in the future! "Tell me, Ise, is she cute?"

"I'm not saying anything else, you know! I've already told you enough!" My mother snorted as she turned around to face me, the knife raised in the air as if it was an extension of a finger.

The comfortable atmosphere became bone chillingly cold all of a sudden.

"You can't hide anything from me, Issei. I know everything about you." And, like a professional stalker, she slowly licked her lips with a devilish giggle.

"That…sounds creepy as hell." With that, mom turned around with a smirk and got back to work, her repetitive chopping sounds becoming less frequent. After a while, she slid a board of vegetables into a pot of boiling water. I opened my mouth to speak.

"Because I know you're about to ask what's for dinner, I'll let you know we're having curry on rice." I closed my mouth again and pursed my lips, silently cursing my mom's innate ability to do stuff like that. I mean, it's kinda creepy, isn't it?

"Isn't it too hot to have curry on rice? It's not exactly winter and it'll be summer soon, so I don't understand why we're having it." I said, making sure I left no room to give my mom a chance to counter me.

"We're having it because your dad has been craving it this past week."

"Oh," I responded, acknowledging my mother's right to be a worthy opponent, "that makes…sense? Anyway, I'm gonna go bathe now because I'm dirty." With that, I slowly pushed myself to my feet and left the room, my mom thankfully keeping her mouth shut.

After devouring my dinner, my parents conversing amongst themselves, I respectfully retreated to my holy sanctuary after cleaning the dishes. Sitting on the floor, legs crossed, I slowly breathed in and out with shut eyes.

What was I trying to do? While my parents would say I'm meditating if they walked in on me now, I was actually trying to summon my magical powers to test the limits of my abysmal MP. How exactly was I supposed to do that? I don't know. That's why I'm probably wasting my time sitting here doing nothing.

I mean, I can't exactly feel the mana that should be inside of me. Nothing feels different about my body and I don't feel the mana run through my blood as it does in fantasy novels, so I couldn't help but start to despair.

Acquiring magic and then not being able to use it is something to be sad about, right? I'm not weird for panicking, am I?

Either way, nothing seemed to be happening. So, knowing that I had wasted what felt like half an hour of my time, I slowly stood up and stretched my arms above my head.

Maybe I'll come to some kind of conclusion tomorrow.

The next morning, I woke up expecting to go to school, however, I had forgotten to wash my blood soaked uniform and shoes. Confiding in my mom, who obviously knew best in these situations, she told me to not worry about it and take the day off.

I mean, I have near perfect attendance so far, so taking one day off wouldn't hurt. It's not like there's any major things I'll miss, either, so there's really no problem. Although, I found myself with no purpose and nothing to do.

While I could watch anime or play games or masturbate, I didn't exactly feel like doing any of those things. Those are the lifeblood of my teenage existence, so without wanting to do something that I considered to be fun, what was I supposed to do?

Was I supposed to exercise? Laze around all day doing nothing? Study?

No, I wasn't going to do any of those things.

I was going to try and use my mana.

Well, considering the process I'd use to try and use my magical powers, I guess I was lazing around doing nothing. Just like the previous night, I sat still in my room and tried to focus on something that was inside of me. I was reaching out for it, digging through the lecherous insides of my body, trying to grasp the small seed that would inevitably sprout an Yggdrasil.

Well, it might not be an Yggdrasil in the end, but you get the point.

After a while, though, my lack of concentration was disturbed by my phone as it buzzed on my desk. Cracking an eye open and glancing at my desk with a frown, I jumped to my feet and grabbed it. Turning it on, the first thing I saw was a text from Yuuma.

"Hey, Issei, I heard you're not at school. Want to come over to my place?"

Needless to say, my spirit as a teenage boy was flaring and my perverted thoughts were running wild, despite the fact that Libido Suppression was currently active.

Hey. It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, I've been busy with school and work. I'm in my last year of school so 'studying' is really important. Anyway, this is the fourth and final version of this chapter. Wasn't satisfied with the other three versions but I still have them, so if you want to read them, just message me and I'll PM them to you. They're incomplete, by the way.

Thank you for reading Rock-Paper-Scissors.