The First Step of an Awakener

Energy rose off my body, stretching long and thin as a cord before it latched onto Han Gyeol's back.

"...Huh?"

The kid seemed to realize the skill had taken hold.

"It's a buff I have. Your abilities ought to be a lot sharper right now. Honestly, even without it, you're already more than strong enough to handle gnolls. Quit shaking."

"...Y-yeah."

"All right. We're out of time. We have to move."

Most of the passengers had already fled into the cars behind us, leaving this one nearly empty. I swept a glance around the cabin. Anything we could use as a weapon?

"Nothing. This'll have to do. Hup!"

I seized a nearby vertical handrail and wrenched. Metal shrieked. I put my weight into it, and the pole tore free. For a Level 1 D-Rank, it was a little much—but the moment Han Gyeol saw me do it, his eyes went wide.

"What are you so shocked for? We're Awakeners now."

I ripped off a second rail, tossed it to Gyeol, and cranked the emergency lever. The subway doors hissed open.

Time to hunt.

"Lucky we're in the front car."

I muttered it under my breath and moved low, keeping the gnolls in mind. One glance into the operator's cab made my eyes tighten at the wreckage. The front windshield was completely shattered, and the operator looked as if he'd died on impact.

"Ugh."

Han Gyeol groaned behind me. The sound was so unfamiliar that my eyes went wide. Right before the regression, he and I had both been veteran Hunters; corpses had long since stopped surprising either of us. We had grown used to that many bodies, and to that many scenes of ruin. Was being able to endure such things, simply because you'd grown used to them, a blessing or a curse?

But the Han Gyeol standing in front of me now was not the one from before the regression.

We had tasted every bitterness the world had to offer and taken violence without mercy, yet what lay ahead of us was something else entirely. Blood, corpses, monsters. If we could simply pretend we didn't know—pretend we weren't Awakeners—and go on living that way, would this kid never have to see the brutal sights waiting in the years to come? Could he live an ordinary life?

I shook my head almost at once.

The world had already changed. Fail to adapt, and you were simply left behind. From here on, the world we had to survive would only grow crueler.

I just have to do better. Better than before. Everything dangerous, everything filthy—I'll take it all...

Before the regression, Han Gyeol had done everything for me. I could do more than that. I was still reeling, but having already lived a life once was a greater comfort than I'd expected. I could do better than last time. If I just did better—if I just did better...

"Grrrr..."

The gnolls had drawn close to the train.

A chime rang. The System, utterly lacking in tact, sounded a notification.

The first quest of this life. So it triggered when you got close to the gnolls. Last time I'd been too busy running to even know a quest like this existed.

"Ha-jun."

"Shh."

From what I could see, there were roughly thirty of them. They sniffed the air without pause and scanned their surroundings, as if this were the first time they had ever stepped outside a dungeon. It probably was. They moved like creatures who understood that an entirely new landscape—one they had never seen—had opened before them.

Right. The wind was blowing from their side toward ours. That was why they still hadn't charged the train sitting plainly in front of them. Strange, though, that they hadn't reacted even after hearing people evacuate.

"Gyeol. See those? The axe-spears. We're going to have to fight those with these."

"You're serious?"

Gripped tight in the gnolls' hands, catching sunlight and the auroral glow spilling from the dungeon, were the halberds that might as well have been their signature—a vicious weapon, an axe mounted at the end of a spear. It didn't matter that gnolls weren't particularly bright. A weapon like that was a killing tool the moment you swung it.

"It's fine. Don't worry. Just trust me. Watch what I do, and follow. Remember this: you're a lot stronger than you think."

I clamped a hand around the rail Han Gyeol was holding. With a metallic rattle, chains of energy wound themselves around it—mine and his at the same time.

"Hah—! What is this?"

"My skill. Normally I use these energy chains to bind things. But we're up against halberds, so if I wrap them like this, the rail takes on an Awakener's power and gets a little tougher."

A handrail had no magic in it, and it wasn't made of dungeon materials either—just ordinary matter. Even so, wrapping it in an energy body strong enough to restrain a powerful monster was more than enough to make it stronger than it had any right to be. A small application of technique.

"How did you even think of that? We awakened at the same time. So how are you already using your skill like—"

"No time to explain, friend."

"What..."

I burst out before the gnolls could spot us. I kicked off the ground and leapt, clearing, in a single bound, a height no ordinary person could manage—well over two meters. An Awakener's jump. Set beside an A-Rank or an S-Rank, it would look like crawling, but still. I swung the rail without mercy.

The head of the gnoll at the very front—the one standing a little apart from the rest—caved in. The impact sang up the pole and into my hand, a buzzing shock. Familiar, and yet deeply strange. Before the regression, I couldn't have imagined this. Back then, the moment I awakened, all I could do was run. Awakener or not, I hadn't had the luxury of caring. No time to look after anyone else—I just grabbed Han Gyeol and fled like a madman. And we survived. How many people made it out of here that day...

"Kyeegeh!!"

The gnoll I'd hit staggered helplessly. I didn't hesitate. Once. Twice. I swung the rail, and at last it collapsed. In the end, the thing went down without landing a single real attack. Good. Gnolls were manageable even as a D-Rank. A D-Rank carrying a veteran's knowledge, of course.

"Grrrng!!"

In an instant the whole pack's eyes locked onto me. Little bastards, glaring like that. Tension made me grip the rail even tighter.

"Haaah!!"

What burst out beside me then was Han Gyeol. Seeing me drop a gnoll in one hit seemed to have given him courage. Good. He was an S-Rank Awakener anyway—he could stand to lend me some of that strength. Just don't get hurt.

"Keong-keong!!"

"Grrrr...! Keng-keng!!"

Whoosh. Whoosh. Swinging the rail clumsily, Han Gyeol looked exactly like what he was: someone who had awakened minutes ago, still far too close to an ordinary person. The gnolls, apparently determined not to be caught twice, slipped his attacks with practiced ease. Times like this, I had to help.

Chains surged up from the ground and seized the gnoll trying to dodge right in front of Han Gyeol. Tch. I'd thought I could summon three or four more energy chains, and I only had two? Pathetic. Being freshly awakened was harder to adjust to than I'd expected.

Only for a moment. With a heavy crack, Han Gyeol smashed the head of the gnoll in front of him. The skull shattered in an instant, and warm blood sprayed across his face.

Nice shot!

"Hah—hahk!"

Unlike me, he looked stunned by what he'd just done. Fair enough. No matter how used to violence we'd been since we were kids, this was a brutal sight. In the brief moment he hesitated, two more gnolls closed in. I snared both of their halberds with my two chains and stopped them cold.

"Han Gyeol! Focus!"

At my shout the light came back into his eyes, and he swung the rail at the two gnolls without delay. Crack. Thud.

"Kyaeng!"

Caught in my chains, they couldn't dodge. Their heads were crushed where they stood.

"Whoo. An S-Rank Awakener's base strength really is something else."

I called it out like a joke, and some of the tension bled from his face. Yeah. His head had to be spinning. The least I could do was take the edge off his fear.

"Think of it as a game. A way-too-realistic game."

I darted in and struck at the gnolls rushing us from every side. Next to Han Gyeol, my movements were closer to a martial master or a special-forces operator. He noticed; his eyes went huge. What else could I do? I'd made my living as a Hunter for more than ten years. Skulls split and limbs snapped. I was far behind him in both power and speed, but experience let me mow them down.

"Ha—Ha-jun!"

I turned at his look. The gnolls pouring in were only growing in number—more than the thirty I'd first guessed, it seemed. No way to wipe them all out at once... except there was. Our Han Gyeol still hadn't used his skill even once.

"Keong-keong-keong!!"

"Kieeeek!! Kyeong-kyeong! Keong!"

The gnolls that hadn't dared approach under the pressure rolling off us barked a few times, and then a much larger one emerged from the rear. It looked close to three meters tall. A boss-class? For relatively trivial monsters like gnolls, even a boss wasn't particularly troublesome to deal with. For Awakeners who had only just awakened, of course, it was troublesome enough.

"...Ha-jun. We can actually fight that thing, right?"

Han Gyeol tightened his grip on the rail and set his stance. In that short time his form had already improved a great deal. The degree varied by rank, but after awakening, an Awakener's physical ability and combat sense climbed beyond anything you could imagine. Strength, agility, and the rest of those stats changed to a degree no ordinary person could match. F-Ranks—hardly different from ordinary people—were the exception, of course. Even so, awakening didn't turn you into a combat machine on the spot, which meant Han Gyeol was keeping up remarkably well. His hands, though, were shaking so badly it hurt to look at them.

Then again, between those gnolls barking and souring the air and the gnoll chief putting on a final-boss atmosphere, it was a lot for a novice. Too much—so I'd end it quickly. Gyeol. Just trust me.

"Gyeol. Use your skill. Just wanting to use it is enough to activate it."

"What?"

"What was it you said you had earlier? The Blessing of the Lightning God, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then you're basically Pikachu. You know? A million volts."

I winked, and the tightness in his face eased.

"But will it be okay? For us, and for anyone still out on the tracks even after the evacuation—if the current reaches them..."

"No. It's fine. The lightning and electricity you make aren't ordinary."

"What...?"

"You can control which way it flows."

"How would you even—"

"...Well. We work as dungeon porters, don't we? I saw a Hunter with the exact same skill name as yours. Plenty of skills do things that shouldn't be possible. Trust me."

"...Is that so."

Funny thing was, an Awakener's abilities were a jumble of things that shattered common sense and things that still obeyed it. Han Gyeol's lightning could be used freely, in whatever direction and range he wanted. Wasn't that cheating? A completely arbitrary, shameless power. Then again, ordinary humans gaining superhuman abilities was already absurd, wasn't it?

"Graaaah!!"

The gnoll boss let out a monstrous cry and charged. Every step shook the ground hard enough to make my legs wobble.

"Gyeol...!"

Crackling light erupted. In an instant I felt awakening energy writhing through Han Gyeol's body, and a heartbeat later it shifted, taking on the nature of electricity. He reached out to catch the boss's enormous halberd—the one plunging down at us—with his bare hands. One wrong move and his whole arm would have gone flying. My friend Han Gyeol had never known fear, not since we were little. The type who charged in without checking what was in front of him, or what was on fire.

My skill, Oppressive Chains, surged up and suppressed the hand the gnoll boss used to grip its halberd. That bled off its momentum—and in the same moment, through Han Gyeol's arm and into his hand, a massive bolt of lightning took shape. The blast detonated, and the boss's body convulsed violently. A hiss followed, and then the smell of scorched flesh. Mixed with the gnolls' musk, it stabbed up my nose in a horrific stench.

Damn. Truly powerful. As expected of the man who would be called the Thunder Lord.

"Hah!"

Sparks were still jumping around Han Gyeol where he'd toppled backward in shock. His hair stood up in spikes, as if he'd been hit with static. Still far too cute to be called a god of thunder. Our eyes met—his were round as coins—and when I smiled at him, the trembling in them settled almost at once. From his perspective, he'd suddenly become Pikachu. Of course he was startled.

"Han Gyeol, focus! It's not over yet!"

Even at Level 1, his skill should have been far stronger than a gnoll boss. Maybe it was inexperience, but the thing was still breathing. I shot to his side in one motion and swung the rail. The thoroughly cooked chief's head caved in. It swayed, and at last its body lost all strength and collapsed. I turned my gaze to the remaining pack and pointed at them.

"Go! Han Gyeol!"

This time he charged them with confidence, and chaos broke out—some fleeing in blind panic, others lunging in with wild, clumsy swings. Which meant, once again, it was big brother's turn to tidy up. My energy chains shot upward, swept wide around the pack, and hauled them into a single knot, like a cowboy's lasso in a western. The rails we'd been carrying weren't needed anymore, so I poured everything into binding them. That would buy us a little time. All he needed was the split second it took to use his skill.

"Keong!"

"Keong-keong-keong!"

"Keeeek!!"

Unable to move an inch, the gnolls shrieked. Han Gyeol reached them and thrust out an arm wrapped in lightning so fierce you could see it with the naked eye. Noise and stench followed the blast. The gnolls were, quite literally, cooked through. An S-Rank skill really was something else.

"Hah... hah. There are still some left!"

He shouted it while swaying, exhaustion written all over his face. Right—still Level 1. Firing off powerful skills back to back must have bottomed out his mana. The ones at the rear of the pack had been lucky enough to survive the lightning and were running. Then how about this.

I thrust out a hand, and my energy chains shot from the outer edge of the bridge. I hauled the captured gnolls in with everything I had.

"Keeek?!"

The moment their yanked bodies lifted clear of the bridge, I released the skill. They dropped beneath it. A heartbeat later came the splash of bodies hitting water. Han Gyeol came over with a stunned face, soaked in disbelief and admiration.

"You can use it like that too? They said you were D-Rank, but you're insanely strong, Eun Ha-jun! With those chains you reinforce things, bind things, even attack—you can do all of it?"

"Mm. Just a little application."

"...Amazing. Really amazing."

Amazing, sure. It took me nearly ten years to realize I could use it like this.

A chime rang, sudden and bright. A System notification.

The System kindly informed us that we'd won.

Rewards. Originally, experience and items were things you received for killing monsters inside a dungeon, or for clearing one. It really was no different from a game. Starting today, it applied outside as well.

By my ear came the sound of something like coins pouring down from the sky. I couldn't check the exact figures, but we must have received experience matching the gnolls we'd just taken down. Items, probably, went into the inventory window—the subspace only an Awakener could use after awakening...