Earth, within an unknown dungeon.

A girl with dark blue hair and matching eyes stood before a giant snake-like beast. Her eyes shone with a vicious light as she charged to face it head-on.

The snake held the human in contempt. She had come to his layer alone and expected to defeat him? He couldn’t help but look down on her. As it opened its mouth, a stream of green gaseous substance poured out, heading straight for the girl.

However, she didn’t stop her charge. A faint blue hue surrounded her body and she sped straight into the snake’s breath. Before the snake could celebrate its easy victory, however, the girl emerged from the cloud and jumped towards the snake’s head.

“Haa!”

With a spirited shout, she raised her sword, which was now covered in a blood-red hue, and swung.

“SKREE!”

The snake let out a shrill screech as a deep gash appeared on its body. However, it had lost its chance to do anything. The girl’s speed suddenly multiplied as she moved around the snake’s huge body and cut various gashes in its flesh.

After many minutes of this, with the snake being unable to even escape from this girl who had seemingly infinite stamina, a sword was plunged directly between its eyes. The snake, whose eyes were filled with unwillingness, slumped to the floor lifeless.

“Haa…haa…” The girl panted as she wiped the blood off her sword. Feeling the new levels of power coursing through her body, she checked her status

‘Status’

[Status]

[Elena Pierce]

Human

Female – Age 18

Level 65 – [War Maiden]

Experience value: 20,100/68,000

Title(s): [N/A]

Affinities: Light, Life

Physique: None

Magic Power: 1200

STR: 180

AGI: 190

DEF: 175

INT: 195

DEX: 185

Skills: [Recovery Level 4], [Holy Magic Level 1], [Regeneration Level 5], [Sword Mastery Level 5], [Judgement Level 6]

Although she was satisfied with her strength, she thought she wasn’t improving fast enough.

‘It’s been one and a half years since Damien disappeared, and in this time I’ve only gained around 30 levels. While this speed is extraordinary in comparison to the other ‘geniuses’ I’ve seen, it doesn’t feel like it’s enough.’

Although she couldn’t explain it, she had always had a feeling that she should be leveling up faster. This feeling was similar to the one that told her Damien was alive.

She may have been hallucinating, but she truly felt as if there was a faint link between them, allowing her to know if she could keep up or not.

Around 5 days after Damien’s disappearance, she felt an intense stinging sensation in her heart, and when it vanished, she felt like she could no longer sit still. She started covertly going to any available gates that could make her stronger and leveling up like crazy.

Her guild also became a problem due to this. She spent all of her time either inside of a dungeon or visiting Damien’s mother, so she became relatively unreachable, and the guild began berating her for it.

They had also begun pressuring her to partner with Jin in various publicity stunts and dungeon raids, but she vehemently refused. It seemed that the guild itself had been bought out by the Horten conglomerate and had become their dogs.

With Jin’s active pursuit of her never ceasing, and even getting worse once he had her guild’s backing, Elena decided she’d had enough. She entirely left the guild and acted solo.

Luckily, anyone could earn money through hunting beasts, and their corpses could be sold in various subsidiaries of the Guild Association, which had long cemented its reputation and status that was above any other organization in the world.

Elena was pissed, but she couldn’t do anything about it, so she hid her strength and continued to level up. In the world’s eye, however, she had stopped her action as a hunter due to the grief of her friend’s death.

Elena put her hood up to hide her face and stealthily exited the dungeon, heading to the hospital once again to have idle talk with Damien’s mother.

Although she was unresponsive, her presence was enough to remind Elena of Damien. As Elena entered the hospital room that looked just the same as it always did, one of the clerks at the front desk subtly grabbed her phone and made a call.

“Yes sir,” she said, “the woman you were talking about has just entered the hospital.”

On the other side of the line was a relatively handsome man, whose twisted expression completely ruined his face. After ending the call, Jin smashed his phone on the floor.

‘Dammit! That slut is still over there taking care of that bastard’s mom! How does she even get the money for it? Hmph, she’s probably selling her body like the whore she is!’

Jin’s expression became more and more menacing as time passed, and his aura began to leak, forcing his assistants and bodyguards to make distance.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter anymore then. If she’s already letting others have a taste, it doesn’t matter if I get a little forceful. Hehe, yes she hadn’t even leveled up since she left the guild, she’ll be easy prey.’

Jin smiled wickedly and stood up. “All of you, don’t follow me. This young master is going to have some fun tonight.”

Stuck in his delusions of tasting Elena’s body, which he had been chasing for the past year and a half, Jin failed to notice the ominous air that was revolving around him.

Back in the hospital room, Elena was making idle talk to Damien’s mother, telling her of the events that were taking place in the world.

“Stronger gates have been showing up recently, and some are even so strong that only our peak experts can close them. Luckily for me though, these gates are the ones that help me level up the fastest.” Elena said before switching the topic.

“Oh, I also heard that the guy with raisin manipulation has become a multi-millionaire through reality tv. Isn’t it crazy that even a power as stupid as raisin manipulation can make you rich? I guess the world will always love its comedy and stupidity.”

The “Raisin Game”, as it was titled, was one of the most popular shows on the internet at the moment. As the threat of gates and monsters started to become more serious, the common populace turned to shows like this to negate their worries.

After all, it was a man who had been stuck with the sad fate of having useless powers but had been creative enough to raise his fame and status until he was at the top. Humans will always love a good underdog story.

However, this was only entertainment for the common populace. Among those who sought power, the most trending topic was about a certain Japanese man named Fujimura Ryutaro.

Even before the World Awakening, Ryutaro was a famous swordsman who had practiced throughout his life. Once mana was introduced, he had continued on this path.

He had risen to prominence and become one of Japan’s most talented hunters, and now, after six and a half years, he had achieved a groundbreaking feat.

Ryutaro had raised his Sword Mastery skill, which was common among those who had even slight attainments in swordsmanship, to level 10 and unlocked something he called ‘Sword Aura’.

Sword Aura was a widely known concept to those who had ever been engrossed in the fantasy genre, and its discovery had rocked the world.

After all, if concepts that were only prominent in fiction turned out to be real, did that mean that humanity on Earth had already been in contact with mana before, or was the human psyche already prepped by the system to adapt to mana beforehand?

Many scientific studies had been started due to this discovery, and humanity was starting to enter a new age.

After getting this far, Elena decided it was time for her to leave. She had already been ranting for many hours and felt that any more would be embarrassing.

After Elena left, the shadows that lurked in the corners of the room converged into the form of a man.

The man, whose features were obscured behind a veil of shadows, had a mystifying presence. It was as if he both existed and didn’t exist in reality. He walked up to the bed and stared at Damien’s mother for a few long minutes before heaving a sigh.

“Claire, I’m sorry you had to end up in this condition. If his birth didn’t sap all the mana in your body you’d be living comfortably, but I know that neither of us would want it that way. Even if I can’t be there to watch over him, he’s my pride and joy.” As he spoke, the man’s body began to fade.

“Just wait a bit longer. I can feel his presence in a world nearby. I believe he’ll return soon and wake you up. As long as that stupid brat listened to the things I taught him when he was young, he’ll be fine.”

Suddenly, a nurse entered the room.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” She had thought she heard voices through the door, but visiting hours were long past over.

However, when she entered, she saw nothing but a sleeping patient and curtains blowing softly in the wind.

The shadowy figure had vanished as if it never existed in the first place.