Jin-Soo placed the filter of the mana smoke between his lips. Similar in appearance to an e-cigarette, it drew the compressed mana into the user’s mouth in a steady stream.
He could feel his mana being replenished after taking down fifteen trolls in a short amount of time.
He placed the used mana smoke back into a slot on his combat belt. Although it was a low-grade mana smoke extracted from a D-rank mana stone, it restored about thirty percent of his total mana.
“Alright, time to head out again.”
The hunt was going well today. If things kept up, he would finish with a solid score. Jin-Soo smiled faintly.
“Maybe we should head back,” Yoon-Hee muttered, sounding uneasy.
Having already crossed the three-hundred-meter boundary set by their instructor, they couldn’t see anyone else around them.
“We still have two more hours until we need to regroup. Let’s push a bit further,” Jin-Soo encouraged his friends.
“The guy who normally jumps at Yoon-Hee’s every word is acting pretty bold today,” Hye-Jung teased him.
Jin-Soo frowned in response.
She continued, “And we’re too far out. We must’ve walked about a kilometer. We can keep hunting on the way back, so let’s turn around.”
They weren’t opposed to Jin-Soo’s idea to continue, as their hunt had been going better than expected for their first Great Fissure; however, the empty surroundings made them uneasy. On top of that, for some reason, the sky was starting to darken, and twilight was settling in.
According to the “Fissure Analysis Manual,” the weather in a Fissure should remain constant—if it was bright, it stayed bright; if it was dark, it stayed dark.
Then it happened. The saying that bad premonitions never miss came to life.
There was a loud rumble.
It felt like an earthquake. The ground began to shake violently.
[Fissure Distortion is occurring.]
[The Moon of Distortion rises.]
[Due to the Moon of Distortion, monsters are empowered.]
[A boss monster is appearing.]
A Fissure Distortion was a rare phenomenon that only occurred in Great Fissures of B-rank or higher.
[Fissure Distortion—Troll’s Valley]
Clear Condition: Defeat all Distorted Trolls within the valley (including the boss monster).
While the Moon of Distortion is active, monsters enter a distorted state, greatly increasing their combat strength.
Near the Fissure entrance, the horrified Seong-Rok counted the students and gestured urgently toward the exit.
Inside the Fissure, which had suddenly grown dark, the sun vanished, and a blood-red moon rose in its place. That had to be the Moon of Distortion that the system referred to.
The over three meters tall trolls had doubled in size, towering at least six meters now. The ferociously mutated trolls roared as they charged toward them.
The students were thrown into chaos.
Some trolls had grown a second head, others had limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and their once-green skin was now a menacing shade of red.
The terrified students hurried to escape the Fissure.
Seong-Rok counted the students as they exited. Seventeen, eighteen...
With the five who were outside waiting, there should be twenty-six in total.
Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three...
The trolls were now alarmingly close.
“Damn bastards.” Cursing under his breath, Seong-Rok drew his blade as five trolls lunged at him.
He shot over ten meters into the air with a single leap, dodging them. The trolls collided with each other, unable to catch him.
Seong-Rok gulped. He would have been crushed on the spot if he'd been down there. He landed back on the ground and continued evading the trolls, but they were shockingly fast.
If they catch me, I’m dead.
Trolls were typically B-rank monsters, but these trolls were at least A-rank. In fact, he was beginning to think they might even be S-rank.
The only relief in this situation was the fact that the usual condition of a Fissure Distortion, which prevented anyone from leaving the Fissure until the boss monster was killed, seemed to be absent.
His primary concern was the three missing students who were still inside the Fissure. They could not handle these trolls with their current abilities, as each troll was nearly as powerful as an S-rank monster.
Then he had an ominous thought. Surely they haven’t... already died.
For a moment, an image of the students as corpses flashed through his mind.
No, no way that happened. He shook his head, forcing the thought away.
Maybe they already left?
Perhaps while he was away for a brief period, they returned to the entrance and exited the Fissure. After all, he had told them not to go more than three hundred meters away. That was the most likely situation. If they had been within the three-hundred-meter boundary he had set, he would have spotted them already.
With that conclusion, Seong-Rok spun around and ran back toward the brilliant glow of the Fissure’s entrance.
“Oh, my god. Is this actually happening?”
“Shut up, Jin-Soo. You’re going to get us caught.”
Huddled together in a small pit beneath a tree, Yoon-Hee and her friends watched in horror as trolls stomped past the opening of their hiding spot.
Jin-Soo felt someone trembling against his arm. Yoon-Hee, trying to stay calm, kept saying they would be fine and that the rescue team would come soon. However, every time a troll walked by, her body stiffened in fear.
The tiny emergency cam hanging around her neck whirred softly.
Hopefully, the others made it out safely. They must have realized by now that they were missing. Perhaps their instructor was out there desperately searching for them. After all, he was a former A-rank Hunter, so these trolls should be nothing for him. Jin-Soo clenched his fists, seething at the helplessness of watching the girl he liked struggle with fear.
Suddenly, the sound of a tree breaking filled the air.
Had they been found? Was this the end?
Thankfully, the troll moved on.
As they watched in tense silence, Yoon-Hee let out a quiet sigh of relief. But her fear only continued to grow.
She opened her phone, only to see the expected “No signal” message. She nervously bit down on her lower lip.
Ten Hunters sat around the round conference table inside the Hunter’s Bureau Conference Room. These were Korea’s top-ranked Rankers[1], from first to tenth place, gathered for a regular meeting that took place twice a year.
The Hunters read through the meeting materials placed before them.
Kang-Hyun glanced at his wristwatch to check the time, as Young-Chul, who had never been late to a meeting before, had not shown up, even though the meeting was now ten minutes overdue.
Just then, the door swung open, and Young-Chul walked in.
“Today’s meeting is canceled,” he declared.
“What?” Jun-Yeol frowned in disbelief.
Young-Chul had gathered everyone here, kept them waiting, and then arrived late only to announce a cancellation. Even for the Bureau Chief, this seemed too much.
“A Distortion has occurred in the Great Fissure at the National Cemetery. The Fissure wave level is at 1,100—over seven times the usual level, and we’ve raised its estimated rating to S-rank. The issue is that a Hunter inside the Fissure sent a distress signal...” Young-Chul trailed off, his sentence unfinished.
The Hunters could guess what he was trying to convey.
“The National Cemetery is close by... But, sir, did you say a distress signal? You mean a call for help from inside the Fissure?” Jun-Yeol asked, still puzzled.
Usually, with Distortions, the standard protocol imposed a lockdown, preventing entry until everyone inside was wiped out. Activating the emergency cam in such situations was typically for recording purposes, not for seeking rescue.
“An instructor from Hunter Academy, Seo Seong-Rok, contacted me. He said there are no entry restrictions this time,” Young-Chul explained.
“That’s a rare exception. So, we’re skipping the meeting and heading out for a rescue mission instead?”
Young-Chul nodded and said, “Everyone here is.”
“But it doesn’t seem like all of us need to go for a 1,100 reading.”
A level of 1,100 was below the average for an S-rank Great Fissure; as such, Jun-Yeol thought there was no need for him or Behemoth to go. Besides, he had just returned from the Core yesterday and wanted to rest.
Young-Chul recalled the footage from the emergency cam and the names of the three cadets trapped inside, as Seo Seong-Rok had informed him. His lips trembled slightly.
“Supervisor Lee,” he muttered.
“Pardon?” Jun-Yeol looked taken aback. Why was that name coming up here?
“The Hunter trapped inside is Supervisor Lee’s daughter.”
A heavy silence fell. All the S-rank Hunters swallowed hard.
“Fuck, we’re fucked.”
With a clamour, the Hunters burst through the conference room door.
Left alone, Young-Chul pulled out his smartphone and dialed a number.
After hanging up the call from Young-Chul, Do-Jun got up and picked up his suit jacket from the back of his chair.
He recalled Young-Chul’s words. “I’ve sent our S-rank Hunters to the site. I’m monitoring the camera feed, and she is still safe for now. We’ll ensure she and her friends are rescued as soon as possible.”
“Senior, I’m going out to a site.” With that, Do-Jun rushed out before Hyuk-Soo could even respond.
Seong-Rok ground his teeth, turning his smartphone on and off repeatedly.
That was all he had been doing.
His legs were shaking. He should be going inside the Fissure to rescue the students still trapped there, but his fear of dying kept him rooted to the spot.
He had contacted the Hunter’s Bureau for backup, but it would take at least thirty minutes for them to arrive, and they would likely send A-rank Hunters.
I’ll go in with the support team when they arrive, he thought, as the rest of the class restlessly shifted their feet, visibly anxious.
When their eyes met his, he felt himself shrink, embarrassed to be showing such weakness as their instructor.
Then he heard footsteps. Someone was approaching. It was a young man in his mid-to-late twenties, dressed in a suit.
That’s... Yoon-Hee’s father?
He remembered him clearly due to his youthful appearance.
They hadn’t contacted him specifically, so it had to be a coincidence.
At that moment, the roar of luxury sports cars reverberated through the air. With a screech of brakes, the cars came to a halt in front of the Fissure’s entrance.
The people stepping out of the cars were even more unexpected.
“It’s Kang Min-Hyuk!”
“Kwak Young-Ho, too!”
S-rank Hunters, not just one but multiple. And most notably, even Behemoth Guild!
The students’ eyes widened in awe. The top ten Hunters in Korea, every single one of them, had all gathered in one place.
Seong-Rok rushed over to them. He wanted to confirm if they were the support team sent by the Hunter’s Bureau.
“H-hello...” He approached, bowing slightly, extending his hand for a handshake.
The S-rank Hunters walked right past him without a glance and gathered around one man.
“We’re late. I apologize.” The Sword Emperor, Lee Kang-Hyun, bowed.
Seong-Rok’s eyes went wide with shock as he saw who the Sword Emperor was bowing to.
I thought he was a grade-nine civil servant...?
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The idea of Korea’s top Hunter bowing to a low-ranking civil servant was unfathomable. What happened next was even more astounding.
After staring at Kang-Hyun for a good second, Do-Jun turned and walked toward the Fissure.
With that, all the S-rank Hunters moved as one and leaped into the Great Fissure.
1. Reminder: Rankers is used for all S-rank and above Hunters. ☜