Chapter 1 1 : First Encounter

A boy was lying down with his mother on the midrib of a big tree. The boy compares the palm of his hand with his mother's palm. From the palm, his hand goes to the thumb, gripping his mother's thumb tightly. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not grab his mother's thumb, which was the same size as his arm.

"What are you doing?" she confusedly asks.

Her voice sounded stern and harsh, with a slight echo. The type of voice that will make children cry just by hearing it, but the boy was already used to it. He already listened to his mother's voice every day.

"Mother, your hands are big. Will my hands be as big as mother's hand when I grow up?"

She pulled her hand away from the boy and then replied,

"I don't know. It might be hard or even impossible."

"Why? Am I not your son?" asked the child with a frowning face.

The mother somehow got an unpleasant feeling from the boy's question; she unconsciously didn't like how the boy asked her.

"It is impossible because we are different. You are human, and I am something called an orc. Even though I am okay if you keep calling me 'mother' as long as you want."

The boy is confused and full of joy at the same time. He did not clearly understand what his mother said, but he was happy to hear that from her.

He grabbed his mother's hand and said,

"So even though we are different, we are still family!"

This is the story of a human child raised by an orc.

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Dungeon

A demon towers

or Devil's Labyrinth

That is how humans refer to a dungeon because dungeons are filled with monsters and demonic mana.

A thousand years before the human year began, a war between angels and devils was waging. In order to combat the demons, the angels provided humans, dwarves, and elves with a god's blessing and mana. In contrast, the devils employed various kinds of monsters that possessed their own mana. However, unlike the angels' subordinates, devils and monsters have different mana called demonic mana.

Mana is one of the most abundant elements in the world, second only to oxygen. Like oxygen, mana is almost everywhere, and every species in the world absorbs mana into its body. The devil's subordinates, like monsters, couldn't absorb mana like angels, but they had another option: demonic mana.

For a thousand years, The angel's subordinates fought the demons fiercely, never faltering in the face of adversity. Ultimately, they persevered in pushing the devil back to the underworld. But the war had left its mark. The intense negative energy from both sides had caused the mana left on the battlefield to become corrupted, transforming it into dark demonic mana.

Unlike divine mana, demonic mana is not spread all over the world. Demonic mana exists inside the devil and monster. If demonic mana is scattered worldwide, the monsters could be born anywhere. To prevent this evil mana from spreading worldwide, the angels unite their powers to confine the demonic mana in a tower. These towers were now known as dungeons, and they could be found all over the world.

One day, inside a dungeon. The sound of a crying baby reverberated all the way to the end of the dungeon's entry hole. A female orc was the closest to the baby's voice of the various monsters in the dungeon.

The orc's height was nearly 3 meters, and each stride sounded like a hammer hitting the floor. The orc's body is stocky and green. It wears leather garments and has wavy red hair. It has no nose and has little horns on its mouth's left and right sides. The orc's right hand holds a large wooden bludgeon as its weapon.

'a human?' thought the orc.

The orcs should be barbarians who only act and live on their instincts and desires. but this one is different. She became a Queen Orc after living for more than 200 years and fighting in several battles. She possesses a way of human thinking and intelligence.

When the Queen Orc arrived at the crying source, she saw a dying lady, drenched in blood, leaning against the dungeon corridor walls, carrying a crying baby.

'bringing babies to dungeons, humans have gone mad.'

The devil's subordinates have the instinct to kill angelic subordinates like humans. The monsters' desire to kill the humans and other angelic subordinates who entered the dungeon sprang from this instinct. In any case, killing the human was like breathing to them, a necessary thing for the monsters.

When Queen Orc looked at the two humans in front of her, she raised her bludgeon to kill them both at once.

The woman is aware of her fate but refuses to give up. The woman's strong desire for life, as well as her desire to save her child, caused her mana to flow more quickly.

With the last of her power, she raised her hand, put her index and middle fingers together, and pointed it at the Queen Orc.

A straight, thread-like light came out of her finger, aimed straight toward the orc's head.

'Mana emission?!!! I let my guard down! I thought she didn't have energy left to use her mana!'

The orc spontaneously slammed her bludgeon at the woman, crushing her head, and then the blood splattered over the baby. The baby was crying much louder now. The orc who was hit by or accepted that light, felt an unbearable headache.

'W-what is this?! It really hurts! But this isn't an attack-type of amnis. What is that woman up to? Is this her skill? A god's blessing?'

Amnis is the term humans use to describe all the powers utilized to manifest mana. After numerous decades, the whole race, not just humans, began to refer to the manifestation of mana as amnis.

Queen Orc, in pain, let go of her bludgeon and pushed her head firmly. She felt something from within trying to ruffle her head.

"I realize now, this blasted woman implanted her mana in my mind so she could continue her determination to protect this baby! She is trying to brainwash me! I can feel this woman's memory of the baby creeping into my mind!"

Queen Orc tried to fight herself by repeatedly pounding her head. After realizing it was in vain, she raised her weapon and attempted to kill the baby. She assumed that by killing the baby, the mana that was attempting to keep the woman's determination would vanish. But it is impossible since the woman's mana has begun to mix with her demonic mana. Queen Orc flung her bludgeon but missed; she purposely missed it. Her instincts and desire to kill the baby diminished, and instead, a new feeling of wanting the baby to live arose. Inside her mind, she was torn between the desire to kill the baby and the desire to raise the baby.

"Right now, killing this baby is impossible; in eleven years—no, twelve years—when the dungeon reset starts, this woman's mana will be gone from my body."

Seeing the crying baby, the orc grabbed the baby with her right hand, neither rough nor soft, as she determined something in herself.

"In year 12, I will kill this baby."