"Please hand me your permit."
The voice was flat and professional. Verso looked up at the man in a black suit standing at the edge of the portal's designated zone. The man held out his hand, his expression completely unreadable behind a pair of dark sunglasses.
This was a Government official present at the gate that ensured that no unauthorized people entered the portal as it was akin to committing suicide if you were not an awakened.
Verso reached into his pocket and pulled out the red card Kolden had given him. He handed it over, but as he did he couldn't help but notice the eyes on him.
The open ground surrounding the portal was crowded with dozens of students who were loitering around as some prepared to enter and others just returning.
Their gear was covered in dust and monster blood while Verso stood there in his normal uniform looking completely out of place. As He stood there, the sound of whispering began to spread through out the crowd like a wildfire.
"So it is true! He actually awakened!"
"See? I told you!"
"I thought he completely failed. How did he awaken then?"
Overhearing their conversations Verso felt his face twitch. He kept his eyes fixed on the man in the suit trying his best to ignore the fingers pointed at him.
'News really spreads fast,' Verso thought bitterly.
'Thanks a lot, Sir Kolden...'
He knew exactly how the word had gotten out.
Kolden's booming voice on the practice grounds had basically been a megaphone for the entire school. Any hope Verso had of keeping a low profile while he figured out his new powers was officially dead.
In front of him the man in the suit swiped the red card through a small handheld device. A green light flashed, accompanied by a soft beep.
"Okay," the man said, handing the card back to Verso.
"The permit is valid. You may enter the portal."
"Thank you," Verso muttered as he took the card and started walking forward.
Directly in front of him he saw the portal, it was massive almost like a tear in space that stood nearly twenty feet tall. It glowed with a bright, swirling yellow light that cast long shadows across the pavement.
'This is the first time I have gotten this close to it.' Verso thought as he took a second to take in the view of this large portal.
He had seen the portal every day since he started at Meridian High as it was impossible to miss, being right in the center of the school grounds but standing a few inches away from it was a different experience entirely.
He could feel a strange heat radiating from the light of the portal as air around the tear seemed to hum with a low vibration that he could feel in his bones.
'I guess I can just walk in now.' He mumbled quietly to himself.
He took in a deep breath as he braced his shoulders and took his first step into the yellow portal.
The transition was instant and overwhelming.
As his body passed through the light he felt a weird and heavy sensation. It wasn't painful but it was suffocating.
It almost felt like he was being sucked through a straw and that the air around him had turned into giant invisible hands that were hugging him from all sides.
His vision blurred into a smear of yellow and white and he felt a sudden surge of pressure in his ears and instinctively he closed his eyes.
For a heartbeat, he felt completely weightless and then just as quickly as the pressure had appeared, it completely vanished.
Verso felt his boots hit solid ground as the hug of the air was gone now, replaced by a cool breeze that hit his face that smelled of damp earth and blooming flowers.
He opened his eyes and froze.
"Wow..."
The word left his mouth almost instinctively. Verso stood with his mouth wide open with his head tilting back as he tried to take in the sheer scale of the place.
He was standing in a wide clearing in the center of a dense forest and this was unlike any of the forest that were on Earth.
Above him, the sky was almost like a breathtaking canvas with deep pinks and vibrant blues. There were no clouds that he could see but rather only a soft haze that made the entire world look like it was seen through a colored lens.
Although the sky was beautiful, the terrain was the most striking part.
It looked exactly like the name of the dungeon. Shattered. The ground beneath his feet was uneven and jagged as huge chunks of the earth had been broken and raised high into the air, creating floating ledges and deep ravines.
It looked like a giant had smashed the forest with a hammer and the pieces had just frozen in mid air frozen in time.
The trees looked ancient and were massive. Their trunks were as wide as houses as long, glowing vines hung from the branches.
'This is completely different than the pictures I saw in the textbooks...'
Verso had spent the entirety of last year studying about the Shattered Wilds in class.
He had seen hundreds of photos and videos of the dungeon's entrance but none of them had captured the feeling of actually being there.
But before he could take a single step toward the path between the trees, a familiar flat sound rang out inside his head.
[Ding!]
[New Realm Detected!]
...
[Downloading Realm: The Shattered Wilds.]
Verso jumped slightly, his eyes narrowing as the mechanical voice echoed in his skull.
'Downloading?'
He stood perfectly still as his brow furrowing in confusion.
'What does it mean by downloading?'
He mumbled the question to himself, completely forgetting where he was for a second. As he looked around half expecting to see a progress bar for the download he spotted something else.
A few feet away, a small group of students near the entrance had stopped what they were doing and were instead looking at him.
"Is he good?" One of them whispered.
"Wait, why is Verso here? Did he awaken or something?" another asked, her voice filled with doubt.
Verso overheard them and immediately felt a flush of heat in his cheeks.
He realized how he must look standing in the middle of a clearing, staring at nothing and talking to himself like a crazy person.
Realizing his mistake he quickly fixed his posture, trying to look as natural as possible.
He turned away from the group and walked toward a more empty area near the edge of the clearing, hoping to avoid attracting any more attention.
'Does this mean that the system is actually downloading this entire dungeon?' Verso wondered as he walked.
'Also, what does it mean by a realm?'
The system has not called the Shattered Wilds a dungeon but rather a Realm. The word felt significant as it sounded more ancient and bigger.
Just as he reached the shadow of a massive stone barked tree, the voice returned.
[Download Complete! The Shattered Wilds is Now Available in The Realm Menu.]
[Additional Function: Realm Menu Unlocked.]
"Realm Menu?" Verso repeated the words under his breath.
He stopped walking and focused his mind on the new phrase trying to pull up the system window like he did before.
He didn't have to wait long as a blue transparent window popped up in front of his eyes.