I was an unawakened hunter.
Put simply, a porter.
My primary job was to follow Awakened hunters around, doing odd jobs and carrying their gear.
There were two reasons I did this despite the danger.
Money and revenge.
As a Gate orphan with only a middle school education, this was the only job where I could earn money while avenging my parents.
It was hard at first, but I had gotten fairly used to it by now. I had built up a little experience, too. I was no veteran, but I took pride in being a decent porter.
Some Awakened had even begun looking for me first whenever they entered a Gate. You could call them regulars.
But…….
None of that mattered anymore.
"Sa-save me!"
"Do-hun!"
"Mister! Are you crazy? Just run!"
Why?
Because a Gate transformation had occurred.
[The Red Dragon, which had been sleeping while brooding over its egg, opened its eyes.]
A dragon was pursuing us from high in the sky.
Dragons were monsters that had never once been sighted before, whether in release-type Gates or entry-type Gates.
Meanwhile, the highest-level member of the team being chased by the dragon was only level 19.
That was right.
We were fucked.
.
.
.
Nothing about the situation had seemed like it would turn out this way when we entered the Gate.
[Sankria Forest]
-Recommended Level: 11–15
-Entry Limit: 5
Before entering, you could not know the missions issued inside a Gate. Only the Gate's name, recommended level, and entry limit were disclosed.
Even so, Gates named Forests' were famous.
That was because their difficulty was relatively mild and they did not have many hazards.
The monsters inside were exactly at their recommended level.
‘The toughest things in there would be Awakened Orcs or Iron-Horned Deer, at most?’
We were a party of a level 19 warrior, a level 17 mage, a level 16 healer, and two porters, including me.
We were a ‘play-it-safe’ party, above the recommended level and putting our lives first. It meant there should not have been any danger.
[Sankria Forest]
-Hunt 50 monsters.
That was how it was in practice, too.
We hunted monsters, collecting magic stones and byproducts.
- Oh, I learned the ‘Ground Tremor’ skill when I leveled up. It’s C-Grade.
- Ground Tremor? I’ve never heard of it.
- It’s okay if I try it, right?
The trouble began when the mage leveled up. Ground Tremor was a skill akin to a weak earthquake.
Its destructive power was considerable. Not only the monsters, but we ourselves staggered. Birds flew up everywhere, too.
- Not bad, right?
- Yeah. The mana cost’s reasonable, too. As long as the vanguard isn’t in close combat, it seems you can just fire it off.
When the mage had used Ground Tremor around ten times.
RUMBLE—!
A massive earthquake struck the forest.
And the notification window showed us that it had not been an earthquake.
It was not some mere disaster. The Gate had undergone a transformation.
[The dragon that had been sleeping while brooding over its egg awakens after the repeated Ground Tremors.]
[The Gate is transforming.]
[Storm of the Firmament]
-Recommended Level: 90+
-Survive. Remaining time: 9 hours 59 minutes.
None of us could speak. Recommended level 90 or higher? A dragon? No one could have imagined it.
The highest-level Awakened on Earth at the time was level 58. There was no way anyone could fight a dragon.
Even when Gate transformations occurred, the difficulty only shifted by around ten levels…….
I did not know. Maybe there was no information because everyone had died in Gates that transformed this drastically.
- Wh-what is this?
- We didn’t see it wrong, did we?
Yet we had no time to think deeply about it.
ROAAAAAR──────────────!
A roar that seemed to rip open the sky, a massive body so immense that I could not even begin to gauge its size…….
It was a dragon.
The Red Dragon.
Its brilliantly gleaming scales made it seem as though another sun hung in the sky. No, it was the sun itself.
The forest melted from a breath it casually exhaled.
- C-crazy!
- Run!
Resistance was pointless. Everyone there knew it. The highest-level warrior was swallowed in a single bite.
After that, even my memories of what happened became hazy. I just ran through the forest.
"URK!"
The last thing I remembered was tripping over something underfoot and driving my head straight into the ground.
……And when I opened my eyes again.
I was inside the dragon's lair.
*
"Ugh……."
"Shh."
Mr. Deoksu covered my mouth as I got up with a groan. I looked around with my muddled mind.
In the huge cavern, only Mr. Deoksu and I remained.
"You’re alive?"
Mr. Deoksu and I had been partners for about six months. Just as Awakened formed teams, porters tended to team up as well.
I was glad to see him, but he started and put a finger to his lips.
"Shh. Hye. Be quiet. We do not know when that bastard will return."
Mr. Deoksu warily checked our surroundings.
A reddish egg sat in the middle of the cavern. The dragon was nowhere in sight, perhaps because it had gone out for a while.
"This is the dragon’s lair. That bastard brought us here. It ate the rest."
"Huh?"
"Exactly what I said."
"Why us?"
"I do not know. We may have emergency rations."
As he said that, Mr. Deoksu gestured toward the egg in the middle of the cavern.
"Or it may have left us for its kid."
"Kid? What kid?"
"That egg was twitching. It seemed like it would hatch soon."
Now that he mentioned it, the message that appeared when the Gate transformed had said that the dragon had been sleeping while brooding over its egg.
"Maybe it was hungry and irritated, so it ate the dangerous Awakened first for its kid?"
So…….
Right now, I—no, we—had become ‘our baby’s nutritious snack’? That damn lizard bastard.
"We’re fucked."
"…No. We still do not know that."
I shook my head. Mr. Deoksu smacked the back of my head. THWACK— Pain shot through me.
"Why, you little bastard……."
"Damn it, why did you hit me? You said to be quiet."
"How dare you speak informally?"
"Does that matter in a situation like this?"
"You little punk? If you were on the brink of death, would you speak informally even to your parents?"
"I don’t know. I don’t have parents."
"Ah."
At my words, Mr. Deoksu’s mouth hung open for a moment; then he cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject.
"Ahem. Anyway, what do you mean, we still do not know?"
His knack for changing the subject was truly impressive. Anyway, it was too early to give up. There was hope.
Who was I?
A Gate orphan.
I was someone who had clung on fiercely and survived in a shitty world. In other words, my survival instinct was remarkably strong.
The clue to hope lay in the form of the transformed Gate.
[Storm of the Firmament]
-Recommended Level: 90+
-Survive. Remaining time: 7 hours 53 minutes.
The Gate had transformed into a survival-type Gate, known for especially high difficulty.
The difficulty was already absurd, but…….
In any case, because survival-type Gates were difficult, simply surviving earned you a Gate clear.
I did not know when that egg would hatch, but the moment the time limit ended, it would count as a subjugation and we could leave.
In other words, we only had to hold out for eight hours.
"Ah!"
After I explained that, Mr. Deoksu’s eyes finally widened.
"What an idiot……."
"How long have you worked at this? How do you not know that?"
"Do you want to get hit again?"
I quietly shut my mouth.
This was a situation where a low-level Gate had transformed into a level 90 Gate and a dragon had appeared.
Even smart people could end up with narrowed vision and thinking.
"Let’s hope the egg does not hatch before the time runs out."
That was when the sound of wind came from somewhere. It was not mere wind, but the sound of flapping.
The dragon was returning.
"I-it’s coming! Get down!"
Then the Red Dragon I had seen just before I passed out arrived in the massive cavern. Its mouth was red, perhaps because it had eaten something.
I had even forgotten to swallow, and saliva pooled in my mouth.
GULP!
I swallowed quietly, but even that sound seemed far too loud.
My heartbeat had already risen to its limit.
‘The heat…….’
Once the dragon entered its lair, the temperature felt as though it had jumped several degrees in an instant.
The dragon looked at its own egg for a moment.
CRACK—.
At that moment, the egg gave a slight twitch with a small sound. It was not cracked.
The dragon blew a satisfied snort and turned its gaze toward us.
Those terrifying reptilian eyes looked back and forth between Mr. Deoksu and me.
‘Is it choosing a meal?’
That was what it seemed like.
Then it happened. A blue light formed in front of the dragon and struck Mr. Deoksu. It was magic.
CRRRACKLE—.
An odd sound came from beside me. When I turned my head, Mr. Deoksu had turned to ice.
What the hell.
In other words, the Red Dragon had turned Mr. Deoksu into frozen meat with magic.
The process had been absurdly simple.
He did not even have time to scream, much less leave last words. A flash of light, and it was over. It sent shivers down my spine.
‘That fucking bastard killed Mr. Deoksu……!’
Six months. A short time, but Mr. Deoksu had been a good man. He had taught me when I was still inexperienced, and he had bought me meals, too.
I wanted to rush at the dragon right then, hurling every curse I knew.
‘……Damn it.’
That was all I felt. I could not give myself over to rage and charge at the dragon. That would have been suicide.
The excessively large and powerful lizard glared at me.
‘Why did it leave me alive? Is it going to eat me?’
Thankfully, that was not the case. The dragon looked at me for a moment as though debating something, then lay over its egg and closed its eyes. Soon, regular breathing could be heard.
Was it going to eat me later? I did not know. At least I was alive for now. As relief set in, I gradually began to think again.
‘Run?’
I could see the huge entrance the dragon had entered through. Get out there and escape.
That was the only thought in my mind.
Just as I tried to slowly rise.
"……!"
The instant I shifted slightly, the dragon opened its eyes. Those fierce eyes bored into me.
I could not even move. I watched its reaction as I sat back down.
‘Damn it.’
I could neither advance nor retreat.
*
They were two agonizing hours.
Without being able to move, I worried about everything.
I was going to be eaten anyway, so should I just close my eyes and bolt? Would melting in its breath not be better than being eaten by those teeth?
I felt that especially when I thought about being eaten by its kid.
‘One bite would be better. Watching a little mouth tear my body apart in real time…….’
However, I could not finish the thought. The sleeping dragon woke up and stood.
It looked at me for a long while as though it were thinking hard. As though it were debating whether or not to eat me.
‘Phew.’
Thankfully, after its deliberation, the dragon headed outside its lair. Maybe it thought I could not break the egg because I was not awakened?
But one thing was certain.
This very moment would be the last chance given to me.
I hurried toward the entrance the dragon had exited through.
"Fuck."
But escape was a pipe dream. A sheer cliff stretched out before me.
The dragon’s lair was high up in the mountains.
Climbing down that cliff by hand would be suicide. I briefly considered simply jumping, then returned to the nest.
A sigh escaped me.
‘Break the egg? No.’
Mr. Deoksu had become frozen meat, but I might not be eaten. If I broke the egg, I would immediately be saying goodbye to this world.
And I did not have a weapon. Could I break that hard-looking egg with my bare hands?
"Ha."
About six hours remained.
If the dragon’s kid came out at that time, or if the dragon got hungry and impatient, I would be as good as dead.
‘If only there were somewhere to hide…….’
I quickly looked over the dragon’s nest, wishing desperately.
That there was someplace to hide.
Or that I could escape.
I think I wished more desperately than ever before.
I did it despite knowing that wish would never be granted.
I could not die like this, after living a life at the bottom and before I could avenge my parents.
DING—.
Surprisingly, at that moment, a sound I had never heard before rang in my ears. As though responding to my wish, an unfamiliar energy I had never felt before filled my entire body.
It was my first time experiencing it, but I knew what it was.
An awakening.
The thing I had longed for ever since my parents died had happened.
I hurriedly checked my status window.
[Lv. 1 Void Master, Han Hye]
Strength: 4
Agility: 3
Stamina: 5
Mentality: 3
Mana: 5
Spare Points: 3
Skills: Subspace (S-Grade) Lv. 1, Swordsmanship (F-Grade) Lv. 1
……Void Master?
Just as I reeled from the unfamiliar name.
The sound of flapping wind came again from far away.
Damn.
It seemed the dragon had returned. I hurriedly checked my ability.
‘Subspace?’
It was a skill whose exact meaning I could not tell.
It was S-Grade, but…….
Could this ability help me right now?
The sound of wind came closer. There was no more time to hesitate.
WHUMMM—
When I decided to activate the ability, a space the size of a door appeared before me.
Without hesitation, I tried to step into it.
...No, wait.
Was merely escaping enough? That lizard bastard had killed Mr. Deoksu.
WHOOSH—
I clasped the dragon’s egg to my chest. The dragon had already appeared at the entrance to its lair.
And it saw me holding the egg. Instinctively, I threw myself into the Subspace.
ROAAAAAR─────────!
The roar, brimming with fury, seemed to reverberate not through my body but through my mind.
For a moment, my body stiffened and I could not move.
But my mind remained intact. Close, please close. I prayed desperately.
And…….
The door to the Subspace closed.