Mm... let's start with Gates in general.
Like I explained before, the Skyfall Incident happened in the past. When it did, rifts opened up and interdimensional monsters began invading.
The Skyfall Incident was actually the first recorded incident of a Gate Outbreak. Basically, an interdimensional incursion caused by another world bleeding into our own. After it reached a critical threshold, that pocket of space in the 'Gate' became fixed in our reality, overwriting chunks of it and dumping out monsters.
The only saving grace was that it didn't work on water. God knows how ridiculous it would be to keep track of Gate appearances all over the ocean or ocean floor.
According to the best Gate researchers, that was because water served as a natural fluid barrier similar to the fluctuating quantum foam of spacetime, so Gates couldn't latch onto them.
The sky was fair game though, as seen earlier when Yura came crashing out of that Gate Belial ruled.
Anyway, back to the main point.
There were two ways a Gate could be cleared.
The first way was to destroy the source of the Gate. Most Gates had a 'boss' and a 'core.' They might be one and the same, they might not. But if you destroyed both, the Gate poofed out of existence, collapsing like a bad dream in daytime.
That was what happened when I got rid of Belial. Since I didn't technically kill him, but basically rewrote him into a new form of existence, the Gate got deallocated like a bad memory node before getting garbage collected.
The second way to clear a Gate was to claim that 'core.' By doing so, the Gate became a farmable resource spot.
Think of it like a reverse incursion. Instead of them locking their world's coordinates onto ours, we overwrote our world coordinates onto theirs. Kind of.
I didn't know the science behind it. I just knew it was kind of like claiming mining spots.
Hunter Guilds usually put a lot of resources into trying to claim Gates like that since it served as both a training ground for new recruits and a source of income.
Hence, the Gate Expeditions.
New Gates formed every day.
The most dangerous ones were cleared out by the Ten or by Lee Shin if they were ranked too high. But most of the Gates that were measured to be S-Ranked and below were divied out to Guilds either by bidding or first come first serve.
...There was this whole scandal about people sneaking into Gates to try and claim them after a Guild had won a bid on them too, but that's a different story.
Anyway.
The Hunters out at this point in time were probably just the guys who were farming the claimed Gates.
Ah, the slang for claimed Gates was 'dungeons' by the way.
A lot of guilds hired out low-ranked Hunters to farm resources from their dungeons, letting them keep a variable percentage based on the day and current need.
All of that to say, there was an entire economy around being a Hunter as well, and you didn't necessarily have to risk your life diving into unknown Gates.
But there WAS a high risk-reward ratio for it.
Merit points to rank up and get a higher stipend was one reason. Getting rare artifacts and monster drops was another. And also the chance to refine and strengthen both your body and ability by the increased mana density in the Gate, as well as siphoning said mana from slain monsters in the Gate.
"Hey!" Yura huffed and leaned over to look into my eyes. "Are you seriously spacing out right now?"
I blinked and then laughed. "Sorry, Love." I kissed her cheek and said, "Just sorting out my thoughts. You dumped a lot of knowledge about Hunters on me over lunch, remember?"
Yura rolled her eyes. "You would have known it if you'd paid even basic attention in school, idiot. But I was saying..." She hesitated and then looked at me. "Are you sure you're fine staying over? I'm not taking away from your job as a writer, am I? Grandpa mentioned you had a story to update too..."
I blinked. Then I let out a soft smile after I processed what she was saying, feeling touched. "You don't have to worry about that, Yura." I gently caressed her cheek and said, "You matter more. I'll arrange my life to suit you. Not the other way around."
Yura froze.
Was it because no one had ever said it to her before? Or was it because she was just overwhelmed with my sincerity?
Either way, she brushed tears out of her violet eyes and murmured, "Not fair." She let out a trembling smile and said, "At this rate, I won't even be able to leave your side anymore. You know?"
"Good." I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "I like clingy women."
Yura wrapped her arms around my waist and said, "Good. I like being clingy." She giggled. Then she let out a warm smile. "...God. I feel so cringey. I'm acting like a high school girl with a crush..."
"Aren't you?" I raised an eyebrow. "I mean, you're 18. And just graduated."
"Shut uuup~" Yura smiled. "You don't have to always be right, Neol."
"Mm, I like being Mister Right though." I nipped her chin with a kiss. "Isn't it nice to not have to think when you're with me, Love?"
"Careful~" Yura teased back. "Keep talking like that and people will think you genuinely charmed me. You're sounding a lot like those villains who love corrupting innocent young women, Hubby."
"Hubby, huh?"
Yura blushed. "Wh-What? You keep calling me Love! I want a pet name for you too! A-And..." She mumbled. "...I wanna marry you someday. So Hubby. Okay?"
I chuckled and leaned against her. "You know, if this was a game, your affection bar would definitely be maxed. And it's not even day two of our relationship. The players would all be complaining about how forced the route is."
"Well, they can go to hell." Yura huffed. "I love you. Even if it's a crazy whirlwind romance. Besides, my mom can't say anything about it since she ran away with my dad to America when she was even younger than me."
I blinked. "What?"
Yura blinked too. Then she burst out laughing. "Finally! Something my cheeky hubby doesn't know about." She poked my arm and said, "Since you didn't know, the prodigious daughter of the Legendary Hunter, my dear mother Eunhwa Shin, ran off with the American prodigy Kyle Everbright when they were both 16."
"Huh." I nodded. "That explains a lot. Folding to the first guy who's serious about you runs in the family."
Yura punched my arm. "Bastard... I hate that it's true though." She mumbled. "All Dad did to win Mom over was hand her a rose and say he wanted to make her happy at the international Hunter Academy ball. She folded like a wet napkin after that... Grandpa's words, not mine."
"Noted." I nodded and said, "I'll keep an eye on our future daughters."
"You'd better- Wait!" Yura blushed. "Wh-Why are you talking about kids already?! I mean, we don't know... even if we...! Ugh! Stop making me have a panic attack when I still haven't even processed the last 48 hours!"
I laughed and kissed her cheek. "Fine, fine. No more deep stuff."