Chapter 1: The Child 2025-12-10 Author: Xinglu Cangqiong
Chapter 1: The Child
Thirsty......
Lu Cang propped himself up against a wooden pole, looking up at the seemingly endless rock walls surrounding him.
Where is this place? His last memory was in the airport waiting area, when he suddenly heard the roar of an explosion and saw a blinding flash of fire.
Then he opened his eyes again.
And found himself in this place.
His body felt terribly weak, his vision went black, and he felt as though he could lose consciousness at any moment.
"Ah!"
"Someone looks like they're about to pass out!"
What are they chattering on about......
The voice sounded very pleasant, but it was speaking a language he couldn't understand.
No.
He could understand it! He could understand what she was saying! At the edge of his vision, he saw a female with long green hair rapidly approaching! Swish! A bright green light flared up.
Enveloping Lu Cang's body.
His body, which had felt impossibly weak, miraculously began to recover at a rapid pace.
"How could a human be in such a dangerous dungeon?"
The green-haired female's tone was clearly filled with concern.
Whoosh! Behind the female, flames condensed into the shape of a human.
It was a man who looked at first glance like he was cosplaying a mage.
However, a hearty voice rang out: "Kumiloni, you're saying there's a human here?"
"We should have cleared out all the monsters in this dungeon already."
The one called Kumiloni was clearly the female currently healing him.
Her ears were long and pointed.
Is she an elf?
Is this a dungeon?
And this miraculous power...... could it be magic?
Even if it wasn't magic, it was definitely a power beyond humanity......
Lu Cang couldn't help but think to himself.
Kumiloni: "Yeah...... clearly we didn't see him when we came through."
"Could he have been randomly teleported to us by some unlucky teleportation array?"
"Or maybe just an ordinary lost child."
"Well...... of course, we can't rule out the possibility that it's a monster disguised as a human to trick us." At this point, a solid fireball suddenly materialized in the mage's hand.
Lu Cang hurriedly spoke up: "No, wait, I'm human!"
He had a strong feeling that if this misunderstanding wasn't explained immediately, that fireball was going to smash right into his head! Whoosh! The flames dissipated.
The mage grinned: "Just kidding."
"I can tell at a glance whether you're a monster or not."
"Besides, it doesn't matter even if you are a monster, we're very strong."
Kumiloni reproached: "Izu, he just recovered, don't make jokes like that."
The mage called Izu offered an apologetic smile: "Sorry, it's just that seeing a child here felt so interesting, I couldn't help teasing him."
"I don't see any class traits on you at all."
"You must be a newcomer who hasn't completed their first class advancement yet."
Lu Cang didn't know what specific thing he was talking about.
But having just time-traveled over.
Not understanding was to be expected, so he simply nodded.
Izu scratched his head: "Leaving you here isn't a solution either. Anyway, we just finished clearing this dungeon and are heading back, so we might as well drop you off home along the way."
"Where is your home?"
Asked like that......
The faces of his parents flashed instantly through Lu Cang's mind.
Home......
He was supposed to be heading home by taking a plane.
His parents were waiting for him at home.
However......
However.
Now, it seemed he could never go back.
Whether due to his body not fully adjusting or not, tears welled up uncontrollably in the corners of his eyes, streaming down unceasingly.
Lu Cang tried to wipe away the tears with his sleeve, but they only flowed faster.
"Izu......"
Kumiloni cast a reproachful glare at Izu.
"You made him cry, he's just a child."
Damn it......
I didn't want to cry.
Though suddenly thinking of his parents brought deep sorrow, bursting into tears so casually in front of strangers was hardly the mindset of an adult.
Besides, they were currently in an unknown other world, so keeping a calm head was an absolute must.
Wait.
A child? While wiping his tears, Lu Cang looked down at himself.
The ground was so close.
Then he looked at his hands.
His hands were so small.
Ugh...... It seems I really did time-travel into a child.
Once his attention shifted, the sorrowful emotions gradually subsided.
So it turns out a child's tears really are unstoppable; just thinking of something sad makes the nose sting--what a troublesome body.
If he accidentally cried in front of others again in the future, it would be utterly humiliating.
Fortunately, it seemed that shifting his attention quickly made it easy to stop, too.
"Home...... I don't know." Lu Cang replied in a childish voice.
Speaking up now.
Lu Cang only then realized how youthful his voice sounded.
Just how old was he anyway? Ten years old? Or even younger?
Izu looked a bit helpless, but he still stepped up in front of Lu Cang: "If you don't know where your home is, that's going to be a problem."
"We can't just casually dump you in some town."
"Could it be that...... your home is already......"
A trace of sympathy flickered across Izu's expression.
In this era plagued by monsters, there were always disasters where monsters leveled entire villages. In such situations, some villagers with weak magic capabilities would use random teleportation magic to send the village's children away.
If they were lucky.
Those children might manage to survive.
But in reality, random teleportation could send you to any corner of the world.
And in this world, safe places accounted for less than 1% of the globe.
Not to mention death zones that even Level 8 adventurers wouldn't dare enter, even the boundless ocean, boiling magma, or glaciers locked in eternal winter......
None of these were places where a child could survive.
Soil with civilization and education occupied only a tiny fraction of this vast land.
This child cried just mentioning home.
It seemed...... he already knew what had happened to his village, but just hadn't mustered the courage to face it.
Izu smiled: "Decided then, you'll come with us. Wherever we go, you go."
Lu Cang: "Is that okay?"
Though he had just arrived in this world, they looked like adventurers who explored dungeons everywhere.
Dragging along a child with no combat capability at all.
No matter how you looked at it, it felt like raising death flags.
Izu: "It's fine, we're very strong."
"Let me introduce them. This is our team's healer, Level 5 Healer, Kumiloni."
"I am the caster, Level 5 Mage, Izparut--they usually just call me Izu."
"Aside from the two of us, there's also a Level 5 Defender Obades, and a Level 5 Warrior Chicheng."
"Though right now they're deep in the dungeon collecting the spoils, you'll see them when we gather in a bit."
Mage, Warrior, Defender, Healer.
It really sounded the part.
But Level 5, was that a bit low? Sounds pretty much like a rookie.
Aren't you exaggerating a bit when you say "we're very strong," Mr. Izparut?
The author's books have neither prequels nor sequels; every book is an independent entity with a completely independent worldview. Any shared character names are simply coincidental same names, with no lore connections whatsoever. Any reader can enjoy them without hindrance.
Reader comments that look like spoilers don't need to be taken seriously. Because of the independent settings, everything in the comments is mere speculation, not actual established lore or plot.
(End of Chapter)