After years of preparation, training, planning, manipulation, everything in between and beyond.
Now that gates had become a part of daily life, the hunters, these people were sent into the gates to kill the monsters, and the dungeon boss to stop a dungeon break.
After 7 days open, gates allow the monster to pass through into Earth, to wreak havoc, and that's why hunters must succeed.
With the formation of the hunter associations, the government sector dealing with hunters, while individual private powers also rose, known as guilds, and they worked mostly independently but sometimes with associations to close as many gates as possible, though mainly they were profiting off these same gates.
Since inside the gates, valuable materials could be found and later sold, it was no surprise it had business side to it, aside from politics, and even crime.
In all of this, the biggest defining factor was a hunter's ranking, which went from E to S, E being the lowest and S the natural strongest.
It was a matter of chance which rank any one person would awaken to be, and the vast majority of people were E-ranks, who are not all that much stronger than average humans.
In a dog-eat-dog world, only the strong survive, but strength can come from many places, though those who can't find theirs are doomed to fail.
It was finally time, Nitrian found himself outside on a construction site amid Seoul, and the air was cooler than usual while the clouds looked grayer, there was no need to look at the weather app, not that it was trustworthy to begin with, but he just knew it would rain.
This young man with green eyes, black curly hair, dark skin, and a great lean muscular physique complimented by sharp features, allowed him to be what could be called a conventionally attractive young man.
(Image Here)
(How odd, it didn't rain in the canon timeline, not that it matters… We've reached the point of no return.
(I wonder, should I have helped Jinwoo grow stronger for real? Would that have ruined his rebirth into the shadow monarch… Should I save him?… No, it's not the time to get sentimental after how scummy I've been to everyone, manipulating things to go my way.) Nitrian reflected on everything that brought him here, and he could not help but frown slightly thinking back on all he did to stay ready.
The worst part wasn't regret, no, it was the fact he didn't feel any, that's what truly bothered him.
It didn't stop there, however, the world didn't slow down so he could be busy thinking.
"Hey! I'm talking to you. You're very rude sometimes you know." A pouting Joohee woke him up from his dazed thoughts looking at him with that cute face of mild frustration he grew to appreciate.
"Sorry, I got distracted by your cuteness again." He winked at her, his various lures passive at this point working without any command.
Arlo, only made his cuteness more evident, Potpourri, turned his scent into a pleasant aroma, Alluring Whispers, caused his voice to sound seductive even when he didn't try, though he could stop it if he wanted to, Love spot, made him intriguing almost like a puzzle you want to solve. Stud service had a light effect making her see him sexually even if unintentionally. White knight fed off the 'hero' role he decided to take on her life, pushing her to look at him romantically.
All those were the main lures catching Ju-Hee in his traitorous net, and while they didn't make her love him, they surely gave her a light push in that direction.
"Don't treat me like that! We're not kids anymore, plus, I'm way older than you. Maybe if you were Jinwoo's age you'd have a chance." Her words attempted to turn things on him, but the deep blush on her face told another story.
She was a young woman with blue eyes, fair skin, and long bright orange hair that she either wore down or tied up into a long ponytail. Wearing a simple brown fur coat.
(Image here)
Even if he didn't have the communication talent, Nitrian would have seen through this facade from miles away.
"You're such an open book, it's adorable. Hehehehe! Let's go, before Jinwoo gets mad we're stalling." He chuckled and walked past her swiftly grabbing her hand without her noticing.
"So full of yourself. Lucky you, I have to be there to heal Jinwoo, otherwise I would never take such behavior from you." She complained but didn't pull her hand away, and went along with him, a light blush still present on her face.
Courtesy of both his covert talent, and his trace defense x2, those two together with the 14 years of training he went through living in this world made it impossible to not move smoothly.
Walking through the low-ranked party of hunters gathered in front of what should be a D-ranked gate, they soon reached Jinwoo.
The Lanky young man had grown into a much more muscular and taller version of himself, his shirt black hair, dark eyes, and even overall style much closer to how he looked after first gaining the system in the original timeline, due to all the training he did with Nitrian, even if his E-rank didn't go up, he was surely much more capable than originally.
(Image here)
"You two get along." Jinwoo smiled lightly as he saw them approaching hand in hand.
This caused Joohee to pull her hand back to herself before hurriedly spouting a defense. "NO! Never! He's a baby… More like a little brother. If anything you're more my type… I mean… It's not what you think." She then covered her face with her hands face palming before going quiet.
"Pfff…." Nitrian did his best to contain his laughter as he covered his mouth.
Jinwoo on the other hand, simply shook his head lightly slightly amused, but made no comments on it.
(What is going on with me?! Am I a damn teen girl or something?! Get yourself together Joohee! It's all Nitrian's fault! I always get so messy around him… I no… I don't like him, right?) Joohee looked at him and memories of the many times he would come to her with home-cooked food, and kind words to lift her spirit, even the time he protected her against that D-ranked dungeon boss.
Not to mention the many other times he saved her while they were in a dungeon during the team years.
It was a thought she could always easily bury in the back of her mind when their age difference felt so grand that it was an insurmountable wall, but now?
Things changed, not only was he an adult legally, but he had grown over the years, and she couldn't pretend he wasn't at least cute to her, but not how he used to be, cute in a new way.
(Bad! That's a bad thought! He's like a younger brother! Get your shit together! You can't let these evil thoughts win. He's your friend, and he's always been a flirt so that means nothing, you'll weird him out if you do something…
(Forget this! Focus on the dungeon raid! Drown yourself in something else… I know! Jinwoo! He's much more my type, and he's much cooler than that cheeky bastard, Nitrian! Damn it! Stop thinking about him!) Her mind was a mess as she found herself fighting herself.
At the same time, a middle-aged man wearing a blue jacket was getting a coffee when another man, wearing a green jacket came up to him.
"If it isn't Kim!? Been a while, hasn't it?" The green jacket man greeted him with a wide smile.
"Bak? You old dog, what are you doing out of your house? If your wife finds out… I can only imagine. Didn't think I'd see the day you hunt again." Kim replied with a matching wide smile.
"Hmph! You'll be just like me, soon, just wait on it. Plus, I have a second baby on the way, so I have to live up to the demand. It seems we'll be seeing each other for a while now. Hahaha" Bak responds and they shake hands on it.
"You better not drag us down, after being out for so long," Kim commented before he took a sip of his coffee.
"Hmph! It hasn't been that long since my last dungeon raid, plus, if we have Selner around, it won't matter anyway, that kid will clean it all up on his own. He's a rank C mage, and he's no joke at all, I wouldn't be surprised if he's almost rank B even." Bak smiles widely knowing this was a secured bag.
"Tch! Song is a C-rank mage, and I've never seen him do anything like what Selner does! He's another breast... Might even have a second awakening." Kim commented almost sure of it.
"You can't compare that! Song has the fighting style of warrior types like us, the mage class just doesn't suit him. You can't just shoot out crazy ideas like a second awakening like that, there's no way any of us would ever be lucky enough to get such a blessing." Bak shook his head unconvinced by such a loose baseless idea.
"You're right, why the hell would he be here if he was that strong?" Kim laughed it off leaving the idea behind.
Meanwhile, Nitrian smiled as he stood next to Jinwoo and Joohee, his dragon heritage body allowing him to hear their conversation perfectly.
Not to mention the Body tune-up talent which made him the prime apex version of his dragon heritage, the communication talent, that allowed him to read lips, and notice they were talking about him from simple cues like the involuntary glances they sent his way, and the covert talent, that kept him alert to these kinds of things.
Then finally if he wanted, he could use his psychic talent, to read their mind, even if only to a limited degree. Even his land talent helped with this allowing him to be in tune with the environment around him.
Shivers were sent down the spines of the two men as Nitrian looked at them and he smiled, leaving them startled.
"Did... Did he hear us?" Bak asked feeling bad for revealing his intent to lass and letting him do the heavy lifting.
"Don't say nonsense, a hunter at this level can't just hear us from this far especially when multiple other conversations are happening around, it was just a freaky coincidence," Kim responded though he narrowed his eyes looking at Nitrian.
Seeing this Nitrian widened his smile, then winked at the man.
Thus Kim hid behind Bak feeling the mother of all shivers in his spine.
That reaction caused Nitrian to burst out laughing.
(Consider this the payment for getting carried by me. No hard feelings, of course.) He thought to himself amused by the reactions he got out of them.
"Jinwoo, you're not an anomaly like Nitrian, you can't afford to keep going so hard, you'll get yourself injured!" Joohee frowned as she spoke upon noticing he had a few wounds on him, though it was nothing major.
"Hehehe, you get quite protective over nothing, don't you?" Jinwoo softly laughed it off, not bothered by her words.
"It's because you don't take good care of yourself, so since someone here hasn't been doing that, I'll do it myself." Joohee puffed her chest out, but there was an air of worry and concern on her face.
"Talking about me that way's quite rude, you know." Nitrian lightly pokes Joohee, as he speaks.
"Hmph! If the shoe fits." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, full defense.
At that time, a loud voice cut through calling everyone up.
"Everyone! We're about to have a good time hunting. Even if I'm not exactly the greatest choice, today I would like to be leading the raid, any objections?" A man with orange hair, and a blue jacket asked the people around, gathering everyone's attention.
There were various groups of people, E-ranked people even if the most common, didn't usually take to becoming hunters, so most people there were D-rank hunters, with the rest being mostly E-rank, and the only exceptions being Nitrian, Joohee, and Song.
"You're one of the highest ranking in this party, so I'm all for it." Kim nodded his head in agreement.
"That works here. Gives me space to see if I can outdo Kim even after my long break." Bak commented with a chuckle.
"Same~"
"Yeah, me too."
"Of course, the sooner we decide this the sooner we go."
The vast majority of voices around quickly agreed to it, with no major objections being placed.
"You and Sung both have pretty good heads on those shoulders, why not try a hand at leading for once?" Joohee asks them in a whisper not wanting to attract attention to herself.
"It's a hassle right now." Nitrian shrugs his shoulders, acting as if this matter had nothing to do with him.
"You think so?… Even if you're right, it's not like the others will want to listen to an E-rank like me. Plus… I don't think leading is my style at all, I'm more the stealthy type." Jinwoo shook his head, dismissing the idea entirely.
"You'd be surprised by how much of a good leader you'd be. A general, ruler… Maybe even a monarch." Nitrian said casually.
This caused an eyebrow to rise in Jinwoos's face just as he looked at his friend confused. "What are you even on about?"
"Don't mind him, he loves to talk nonsense then never explains, anything. He's like a greedy dragon, trying to hoard a treasure. The bastard!" Joohee narrows her eyes as she scolds him.
Though both Nitrian and Jinwoo look at her confused, causing her to realize she let more of her frustrations out than necessary, happily for her there was no time to explain.
This was then broken by people turning to them for their votes.
"Take care of us, Mr. Song." Jinwoo replied with a small smile.
While Nitrian simply gives a thumbs-up.
"…Of course, that works." Joohee sighed in relief as this pulled the attention from her.
"Gotcha! All set! Let's enter the dungeon, then!"
"This is going to be easy money!"
"Can't wait to see my girl's face when I'm balling."
"My mom is waiting, this better not take too long."
"Tell me about it, my waits for me every day, can't keep her waiting."
"There they go, these two really make it feel safe." Kim commented as he looked at Nitrian and Joohee, ignoring the third member.
"A rank C mage, and a rank B healer, that's the kind if line up some people dream about," Bak replied as they both walked towards the gate.
Last in order, as Joohee, and Jinwoo went in, Nitrian stopped to look at the swirling blue portal in front of him, and he couldn't help but frown lightly.
(I need to be strong… There are already changes from the canon, like Mom(Norma) being here, and whatever project my Dad was a part of…
(Aside from the changes I made with universal calibration II, there were things I couldn't move because they were too connected to the plot, so I had to stick to superficial choices…
(Now however I wish I could just make changes, unfortunately, Meta shift, Be it I or II, they aren't for this kind of thing… What if the Architect sees through me? My defenses aren't perfect even if they help me… I mean Joohee managed to follow me to that D-rank dungeon even with them on…) He was full of doubts, even if he trained for this moment the whole time, he wasn't fully sure things would go his way.
All it would take for death to come, would be a capricious choice by the Architect, after while he was strong, was he stronger than the Demon Monarch? Or Beru?… If not there was no facing the statues.
(I'm not here to fight, I'm here to survive and ensure Jinwoo gets his powers… Then again maybe me training him, made him lose the spark that attracted Ashburn… Damn it…) The doubts just kept piling up even about things he long thought off, and decided to gamble on, now that the time came though, the pressure was completely different.
Walking through the portal that shiver that hit him the first time he entered a dungeon, and has followed him every time since, caused his dragon blood to flare a bit while his scales reared for a second before going back in.
(How did that not notice?! This place reeks of trouble... It feels like I'm in hell… I guess I can't blame them… It's so… disgusting to me here, it's like I'm getting dragged through a sea of needles.) Nitrian couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
The party advanced as the various hunters around would kill the small time monsters there, like goblins and kobolds, cleaning through them with ease
"Careful!" Jinwoo stabbed a goblin that was about to sneak Nitrian.
"What..." Nitrian's eyes widened it was as if he was going crazy.
(My senses are all fuzzy… How did I fail to see that?!… I can't sense much of anything right now… it's like I'm back to being a normal guy.
(No other option, I'm have to commit full on, I hoped Dragon break, would work, but this place is too strongly isolated… I can't escape… So, I'll go all in!) He sighed internally furious at this place.
Slowly but surely party advanced, as Nitrian took over, using his Sunshine magic to eliminate most of the monsters before anyone could do anything.
All they was watch as a small sphere of flame dashed around dancing through the dungeon in a flash, leaving only its trail of light behind for an instant like it was never there.
Deeper and deeper until the very boss of the dungeon stood in front of them, a High Kobold, nothing that could do too much damage.
That and it's many minions, goblins, and kobolds all over the boss room as the hunters charged in and picked their battles.
Kim, Bak, and even Song all surrounded by monsters as they tried to plow through to reach the Boss.
A situation that could be found for most other hunters, except three, or more exactly two staying behind one.
(This thing is the last obstacle… After this it's the temple.) His mind still railing with doubts, the same doubts that pushed him to train so hard until now.
14 years, and he was still far from strong enough to face this one.
"Nitrian, cover for me, if I can get in close, I could end it with a sneak attack." Jinwoo spoke but didn't wait for an answer and jumped in.
"Jinwoo! Wait!" Joohee tried to stop him, but he was already gone.
At that time, Nitrian was far gone into his mind.
"Nitrian!" Joohee's voice faded into the back.
Meanwhile, there was more thinking going on in his mind.
(If only the system woke up earlier than yesterday… Things could have gone better for me, then again I got a meme system, how good is it really?) Nitrian questioned in mind.
"NITRIAN!!" A shout unheard was left behind.
[Notice: The system exists to help the contractor excel, and there is nothing better for that than constant challenge… The same kind of challenges you took on your own in the shadows behind everyone. That's why the system today is sponsored by Raid Sha-]
Before it could finish the ad, he closed the screen tab.
"NITRITAN!!! HELP HIM!" Joohee pushed him this time.
(I'm cooked… I knew I should have chosen intensity 0, instead of 1. I could have at least gotten another heritage that way, but I wanted to keep the minimum of pride! Look where that got me?!) Nitrian hated on his past self for the choices he made.
"Aaaarghh!" Jinwoo got a good hit in, managing to stab the High Kobold from behind right before his dagger broke, and he was kicked to high heaven being sent flying against a wall, spitting blood out of his mouth, his stomach looking almost completely caved in.
In the end, an E-rank was still an E-rank.
Pulled out of his thoughts Nitrian one-shot the boss with zero difficulty, a negative diff. As a sphere of flames burned through it faster than it could realize it was gone.
"Jinwoo! Are you ok?!" Joohee ran to heal him, taking a moment to give Nitrian a glare though even if by accident she seemed more so concerned about him than mad.
(Look on the positive side, almost dying is good in this context… Man, I'm messing up, I really need to focus.) Nitrian slapped both sides of his face.
His green eyes light up with the golden yellow glow surrounded by orange that was carried by the sunshine.
(Stay in the background, keep Jinwoo, and Joohee alive until it's time to leave Jinwoo behind if that doesn't work go ballistic and bring forth the high noon.) Pushing all doubts aside as best as he could, Nitrian finally properly steadied himself.
At the same time, Jinwoo was properly healed to full capacity by Joohee as a green light emitting from her covered him, and all his wounds closed up to looking like they were never there.
With the High Kobold defeated, the hunters relaxed, but Nitrian's tension lingered. His senses, still sharp despite the dungeon's haze, caught a faint shift in the air. He raised a hand. "Wait."
(So this is the entrance to that accursed place… The Cartenon Temple…) He frowned slightly but was ready.
Approaching a stone wall, he traced his fingers along it. A click sounded, and a hidden panel slid open, revealing a dark tunnel.
"What's that?" Kim asked, peering in.
"Hidden passage," Bak said, eyes gleaming. "Could be loot."
"Or trouble," Song cautioned. "We're not equipped for more than D-rank."
Nitrian's pulse quickened. He knew this led to the double dungeon—and the Architect. But Jin-Woo needed this. "Let's check it out," he said, feigning nonchalance. "Might be nothing, might be useful."
Joohee frowned. "It feels wrong."
"I'm with Nitrian," Jin-Woo said, voice steady despite his recently healed injuries. "Let's see."
Murmurs rippled through the group—some eager, others wary. "Let's vote," Song decided. "Who's for exploring?"
Nitrian, Jin-Woo, Bak, and a few others raised hands, tipping the scales. "We go in, but stay sharp," Song ordered.
The tunnel swallowed them, the air growing colder, heavier. Nitrian's discomfort spiked, his dragon blood recoiling. They emerged into a vast chamber, greeted by towering statues with watchful eyes.
"What is this place?" Joohee whispered, gripping Nitrian's arm.
Before anyone could respond, time halted. The hunters froze mid-step, faces locked in shock. Nitrian, though immobile, remained conscious, his eyes darting frantically.
A figure emerged—the Architect, its form a shifting shadow, eyes glowing with menacing light. "What do we have here?" its voice boomed, echoing in his skull.
Nitrian couldn't move, couldn't speak or so it was supposed to be, but he could feel it slight movement in his finger tips, his paradox defense x2 and Destiny defense x2 both working overtime.
The Architect closed in, its sharp nails grazing his face, hovering near his eyes. Its gaze intensified, glowing brighter, more sinister. "Do tell me, who? Odd human? No, just what are you?!"
The question hung unanswered as the chapter ended, Nitrian trapped in the Architect's grasp, his fate uncertain.