After the System appeared, humanity learned that our world was not the only one in existence.
Beyond the Gates lay the Otherworld.
Magic and other races were real there, while monsters and spirits roamed freely. The Otherworld was a realm of fantasy straight out of fiction.
Before long, we discovered yet another world.
Beyond black Gates lay a hellish realm teeming with malicious monsters.
The Demon Realm.
The danger rating of a Gate leading into the Otherworld was determined by how close it was to one of those black entrances connected to the Demon Realm—or by how powerful the monsters emerging from nearby Demon Realm Gates were.
Based on those factors, the System divided Otherworld Gates into seven danger ratings, each represented by a different color.
How hypocritically considerate.
It was no different from a kidnapper sorting torture devices by how much pain they inflicted, then kindly explaining the colors to the victim.
In any case, the black Gate before us was a low-level one that produced only low-level monsters.
Even so, the tension among the Class 1 trainees was taut enough to snap. No matter how weak the monsters were supposed to be, this was everyone’s first time facing one in reality.
I looked away from the black Gate floating in midair and surveyed the surroundings.
In the distance, a massive iron fence blocked the path into the basin. Members of Paraku Village’s guard stood watch in front of it.
Lee Seonggi led us over.
He handed the guard captain the pass he had received from the village chief and exchanged a few brief words with him. Then he gathered us together and personally handed each trainee a green ticket.
“The creatures you see over there are the lowest-level monsters that cross into the Otherworld through black Gates. With your abilities, you should be more than capable of killing them, so don’t get too nervous. When you defeat one, it will drop a blue Mana Orb. Make sure you collect them. You do have an enormous tab to pay off, after all. Right?”
Laughter broke out throughout the group.
Lee Seonggi continued.
“And don’t forget the green tickets I just gave you. As you all know, tearing one will immediately return you to Earth. However, there’s a high chance that your Trait Level will decrease or your Trait experience will be reset, so use them carefully. Of course, nothing matters more than your life. If you’re truly in danger, don’t hesitate. Understood?”
“Yes!”
Green Tickets were expensive items.
The penalty of losing a Trait Level was terrifying, but their ability to return the user to Earth immediately from anywhere made their value undeniable.
Handing out fifty of them was a precaution I had never received in my previous life.
It clearly demonstrated just how highly the Association valued the lives of Hunter Class 1’s trainees.
Once they had been given a means of escape in an emergency, everyone’s morale soared even higher.
The trainees’ eyes gleamed as though they wanted to rush into the basin that very instant and pulverize every monster inside.
“One last thing. You’ll be hunting in teams of three. I assigned the teams myself based on what I’ve observed so far, and I won’t be accepting objections.”
Teams of three…
I wondered who I would be paired with.
“Team 1! Kim Daram, Sa Jeil, and Kwon Sua.”
Huh?
Well, I supposed it didn’t really matter.
*****
RUMBLE—!
The enormous iron fence blocking our path opened to either side.
The Awakened of Hunter Class 1 surged into the basin, with Team 1—my team—at the front.
The black masses of slime swarming across the basin immediately noticed us.
These low-level monsters were known as Shadow Slimes. They normally existed as shapeless blobs of ooze, but when they encountered another creature, they mimicked it and formed a body of their own.
Sure enough, they clumsily assumed human shapes before charging straight toward us.
At that moment, someone shot forward beside me.
It was Sa Jeil.
He gripped his long greatsword in both hands, crimson armor covering his entire body. As though determined not to let a single monster reach me, he cut down every Shadow Slime that came charging in.
“Hey, Sa Jeil! What’s the rush? Take it one step at a time!”
I hurried after him.
But in the next instant, blue lightning flashed down upon a dense cluster of monsters far ahead of even Sa Jeil.
The air exploded with a deafening crash.
Caught in the spiraling current, the monsters burned away into ash without leaving so much as a recognizable shape.
I looked back.
Kwon Sua stood with one hand extended, excitement brightening her face.
Her Trait, [Lightning Strike], had just displayed its power.
Well, would you look at that.
We had close-range and long-range combat completely covered.
There didn’t seem to be much room for me to contribute.
Still, a true Hunter found a role and pulled his own weight no matter the situation.
I straightened the fingers of my left hand into a sharp edge, activated Tentacles, and transformed it into something resembling an awl.
Then I used the tentacle awl to finish off the Shadow Slimes that Sa Jeil’s sword had torn apart but failed to kill.
Whenever I pierced the black core buried within their soft, gelatinous bodies, it shattered into pieces and a blue Mana Orb rolled free.
The slime surrounding the core then collapsed and seeped into the ground like water sinking into dry soil.
My role might look insignificant compared to theirs…
But delivering the finishing blow and collecting the spoils were hardly minor responsibilities.
In fact, they might have been the most essential tasks of all.
Determined not to miss a single monster, I carefully searched the area around us.
And so the hunt began.
Hunter Class 1’s sixteen teams spread outward from the starting point in a fan-shaped formation and devoted themselves to hunting monsters.
Among them, Team 1 stood out by a wide margin in both the number of enemies defeated and the distance advanced.
Put another way, the three of us had approached the black Gate more closely than any other team.
This is getting a little dangerous.
Just because it only produced low-level monsters did not mean the black Gate itself could be taken lightly.
It was a passage directly connected to the unknown Demon Realm.
No supernatural phenomenon around it would have been surprising.
Fortunately, Sa Jeil seemed to understand that warning as well.
After sweeping aside the monsters in front of him, he abruptly changed direction and shouted,
“It’s too dangerous to go any farther! We’re changing course!”
Look at the bastard acting like the team leader…
Still, he wasn’t wrong, so Kwon Sua and I nodded.
We began curving gradually back toward the starting point.
Then an unfamiliar tremor rose through the ground beneath our feet.
It was a heavy, ominous vibration, as though a massive explosion had erupted deep underground and forced its way up through the thick layers of earth.
The instincts I had honed over decades began screaming warnings in my head.
“Sa Jeil! Fall back, now!”
I shouted toward Sa Jeil, who was some distance ahead, grabbed Kwon Sua’s hand, and leaped backward.
But in the next instant, the ground beneath us collapsed all at once.
The three members of Team 1 and the hundreds of slimes surrounding us plunged downward like a waterfall, carried along with an enormous mass of soil and rock.
I kicked off a large boulder falling nearby and launched myself into the air, but I still couldn’t reach solid ground.
The collapsed area was simply too wide.
And I was still holding Kwon Sua’s hand.
At the apex of my leap, suspended in midair for a fleeting instant, I looked at her.
Her dark eyes shook uncontrollably.
Vice Class Rep Kwon was known as one of the calmest and quickest-thinking members of Hunter Class 1.
But now, overwhelmed by confusion and fear, she could only stare at me with a bloodless face.
It couldn’t be helped.
She was still a rookie Hunter who had Awakened only a month ago.
Considering how terrified she was, the fact that she neither screamed nor thrashed around was already worthy of praise.
I nodded to reassure her, then considered my options.
First, use the Green Ticket.
Ridiculous.
For a Hunter, losing a Trait Level was—only slightly exaggerating—a penalty almost equivalent to death.
Using the ticket had to be postponed until the very last possible moment.
Sa Jeil and Kwon Sua were probably thinking the same thing.
Second, escape from here.
Alone.
If I used Self-Awareness Puppet together with Tentacles, it was not yet too late.
But I would only be able to save myself.
Even if I used every ability I possessed, carrying someone else out of this situation looked impossible.
Rejected.
My twenty years of Hunter experience would never let me live down something so pathetic.
More importantly, being Class Rep without Vice Class Rep Kwon and Vice Class Rep Sa…
I didn’t even want to imagine it.
That left only one option.
I immediately put thought into action.
I summoned two Puppet Needles and drove them into my neck.
Self-Awareness Puppet activated at once, flooding my entire body with power.
Then I activated Tentacles, stretched out my left arm, and wrapped it securely around Kwon Sua’s body.
I planted my foot on a large falling boulder and began twisting my body, adding rotation upon rotation from the sole of my foot through my ankle, calf, thigh, and waist.
Accumulating minute movements throughout the body and releasing them in a single explosive instant.
That was the essence of Dragon Surge, the technique Song Guseul had taught me.
I released all the power I had built up at once and hurled Kwon Sua toward solid ground with my left hand.
Naturally, I didn’t forget to make sure she knew she owed me.
“Vice Class Rep Kwon! You’re treating me later!”
Kwon Sua soared upward in a smooth arc and finally landed near the edge of the intact ground.
I immediately turned toward the opposite direction.
Even in the middle of the collapse, Sa Jeil was cutting down every slime falling alongside him.
However, his greatsword kept narrowly missing their black cores, almost as though he were doing it deliberately.
Was he planning to use the slimes as cushions when he landed?
Even in a situation like this, he hadn’t panicked.
He had assessed the situation without hesitation and immediately acted on his judgment.
That was more like the Sa Jeil I knew.
In that case, perhaps I could benefit from his plan too.
I extended the tentacles of my left hand and caught hold of a boulder falling near Sa Jeil.
Then I used the recoil from pulling the tentacle tight to launch myself toward him.
“Get lost, Kim Daram!”
Get lost, my ass.
In a situation like this, we were supposed to help each other.
RUMBLE—CRASH—!
The rocks that had fallen ahead of us struck the bottom, unleashing a thunderous roar.
Impact was imminent.
From here on out, we would each have to do our best to survive.