1 Ch 1 : Prologue and Dungeon Master
Chapter 1
- 28 February 2024 -
Humanity has just lost 20% of its population because of a severe virus outbreak. They thought the calamity was over, but they never saw that it was only the start.
- 29 February 2024 -
A strange voice appeared from nowhere and shook the whole world.
[ Humans, your greed and evil have never failed to disappoint me.]
[ Your greed should have destroyed your world, but I will give you one last chance.]
[ Be grateful Humans, there is only one task for you, that is "To Survive"]
Along with the voice, the earth entered the era of awakening that it had never experienced before.
-2 years later-
Outskirt of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Standing in the middle of the crowd, a typical average-looking youth was queuing for the low-grade Dungeon entrance.
Apprentice rank Awakener, Ray Sanjaja
One of the weakest awakeners around.
In the beginning, Ray was happy when he realized that he had become an awakener, but reality hit him fast. He only awakened the worst possible skill, F-rank danger-sense.
This ability might sound pretty useful, but it became almost useless because it was limited to the F-rank capability. The range of the danger sense was tied to Ray's sense stats, and since he was only a weak awakener with F-rank ability, his danger sense could only scout up to 1 meter ahead. Worse than normal human visibility.
No eye-catching or super-flashy ability, no increase in combat capability, and not good enough to be a scout. Ray was stuck in the middle of a normal human and awakened with no option to go forward.
All the hopes he got when he first discovered himself as an awakener were soon thrown into the trash, and he must face the fact that he was no different than an average human.
Of course, as the weakest possible awakener, Ray not at the slightest enjoyed his job as an awakener.
The job was dangerous and had a high rate of casualty. If not for the fact that he was an orphan and needed the money to help sustain the orphanage he grew up in, Ray had long forgone his profession as an awakener.
That's why, even though he didn't like the job, he must participate in the ruin exploration, as it gives a pretty well pay-out.
***
As a frequent customer of a low-grade dungeon, Ray was pretty accustomed to the layout of the ruins, and he was often hired as a newbie guide to the new-awakener.
However, this time was different. This job came from a giant-class company, which their only heir recently became an awakener. Ray could say that he was pretty lucky to be chosen as their guide in this Dungeon exploration.
To not let down his client's expectation, Ray has come into the Dungeon entrance early in the morning, queuing with the others and reserving a spot for the heir and his team to arrive.
..
Thirty minutes later, the long-awaited heir and his team eventually arrived at the entrance of the Dungeon entrance, and Ray was very enthusiastic to greet them.
But just as soon as he greeted the heir, he was faced with the cold response and mockery from them.
" I don't need a guide who is weaker than me."
That sentence was like cold water splashed on Ray's face. Even so, he must keep himself calm.
This was a big client, and he needed the money to help the orphanage.
" Sir, I might be weaker than you. But my experience in exploring this low-grade Dungeon is second to none. I had explored this Low-rank Dungeon multiple times in my two years experience as an awakener, and I guarantee you that my experience could be useful to you."
The words from ray were calm and polite, but it didn't help much in convincing the youth's party.
" I said scram. Don't you see I have a Captain-rank awakener with me?"
In the era of awakening, Awakener could be divided into ranks.
Lv 1-10 appretience
Lv 11-20 Soldier
Lv 21-30 Captain
Lv 31-40 Commander
Lv 41-50 General
Lv 51-60 King
Lv 61-70 Lord
Lv 71-????
With the help of a Captain-rank awakener, it would be no surprise that the heir didn't want the help of Ray anymore.
Still, Ray wouldn't just give up like that. If he lost this client, he would also lose the payment from the contract.
" Sir, I-"
" It is about the money, isn't it? Take it. Take all you want and scram. I don't want to see your face anymore."
The heir proceeded to throw a huge buck of dollars into Ray's face. He couldn't see how much exactly it was, but from the impact, it should be no less than fifty thousand bucks.
" This…"
" Don't let me repeat myself, Scram!!!"
Ray swallowed back his words and shut his mouth. All this humiliation was nothing if he could help the orphanage. His whole life has been full of harassment and insult, and adding one more to the list would not hurt him.
He stood up and began to gather the scattered money around him.
After gathering all the scattered money, he bowed one more time to the heir and left the location of the ruins. Along the way, he could hear many people sneer and insult his cowardly action. But pride means nothing if he could help his orphanage.
Ray was an orphan from a big flood that happened twenty years ago. During that time, the orphanage manager had picked him up when he was still a baby. And Ray owed her his life since then.
Those words of pride were no more than a luxury to rich people. For someone like Ray, he would even gladly lick someone's shoes if it means he could get the money for the orphanage.
Leaving the ruins, Ray didn't directly go back into the city. He chose not to use the bus and walk into a forest ten kilometers away from the Entrance of the low-grade Dungeon.
It was a forest with a low level of harm and appearance rate of danger-beast.
When the voice came and startled the whole world during that day, humanity was not the only one to get awakened.
Animals started to evolve and became danger beasts, while Dungeons appeared everywhere in the world.
Humanity was almost dragged down to the bottom of the food chain, but luckily they quickly found that the voice had left a survival route to them.
A system panel was now accessible to all humans.
Even the most ordinary worker would also have them.
This was also the start of the awakener era. Humans soon noticed that some of them have unique attributes called awakener, and only a few chosen ones had it.
Those humans who have the awakened status then became the backbone of humanity to fight danger beasts and conquer the dungeons.
During recent studies, it has been confirmed that the possibility of becoming an awakener and their ability greatly correlated with a person's heritage. A person with the lineage of a great hero will have a high chance to become one and get a super-strong ability.
But all of that was no concern to Ray. He had been awakened with one of the weakest ability and had no hope to get stronger.
Now all he wanted was to live a peaceful life with everyone in the orphanage.
Ten minutes of walking and running later, Ray arrived at his secret base. It was not spectacular like in the movie, but only a little cave hidden between the trees.
It was during an accident when he found this place. After his first time being an awakener, Ray was still a naive boy and tried to fight a danger beast in the forest. Luckily, he was able to find this place and hid away from the danger beast.
" I'm home."
He entered the cave and acted like it was his home. This cave was his favorite place when he had trouble in his mind, as he needed always to be the bright hero when he came to the orphanage, or the little guys will be worried.
" *Sigh* Some time I just hoped that I could throw away everything and just vanished."
It was not a lie that he once wanted to disappear from this world, but looking at the crying little guys back at the orphanage, he retracted his mind.
" God, if you were there, why did you give me the weakest ability."
" Nah, Ray, you need to stop thinking about those heavy things."
Ray knew that grieving wouldn't help him a bit. So he stopped thinking about those bad things and decided to lay down in the cave.
The interior of the hidden cave was pretty dark, and Ray didn't notice that his hand had hit something sharp when he laid down on the cave.
"Ouch, couldn't you just let me be happy for a while?"
He stood up and checked the sharp things that had prick him before.
It was only a sharp edge of the stone, but unbeknownst to Ray, a drop of blood fell down from his wound and was absorbed by the ground.
[ DING!!! Detecting the blood source of the host.]
And suddenly, the cave started to tremble.
*Rumble Rumble*
" An earthquake??"
