Pain.
That was the first thing I felt waking up.
Not the sharp, immediate agony of broken bones or torn muscles. This was different—a deep, pervasive ache that radiated through my entire body. Like I'd been run over by a truck, then the truck backed up and ran over me again for good measure.
I opened my eyes slowly.
My apartment ceiling. Wrong water stain, familiar cracks. Home.
I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Every muscle screamed in protest. But I forced myself upright anyway, biting back a groan.
Bandages covered most of my torso. My ribs were wrapped tight. My left arm was in a makeshift sling. Various other bandages dotted my arms and legs where I could see them.
Someone had patched me up. Professionally, by the look of it.
Something slipped from my lap as I moved—a folded piece of paper.
I picked it up with my good hand and unfolded it.
Neat handwriting. Probably a lady's hand writing. Hye-jin's.
Suho,
You passed out after the boss fight. I wanted to take you to the hospital, but we both know they'd ask questions—like why a first-year student was in a C-rank dungeon in the first place, and how he got injured badly enough to need emergency care.
I brought you back to your apartment instead. You were smart enough to write your address on your hand before we entered the boss chamber. (Did you expect to pass out? Were you planning to nearly die? We need to talk about that.)
I've stabilized your injuries as best I could with healing potions and basic first aid. You'll be sore for a few days, but nothing's broken anymore. Your natural recovery as a hunter should handle the rest.
I realized your apartment had literally no food. I'm going out to buy groceries. I'll be back in about an hour.
Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone. That means don't get up, don't train, don't do anything. Just rest.
We're having a serious conversation when I get back.
- Hye-jin
P.S. You're an idiot.
I read it twice, then set it aside.
She'd brought me home. Treated my injuries. Was buying me food.
And she was definitely angry.
Fair enough. I'd pushed way too hard in that fight. Nearly gotten myself killed multiple times. Used her Protection of Vishnu buff five times, which meant she'd burned 250 mana protecting my reckless ass.
The fact that 250 mana was nothing to her 120,000 mana pool didn't make it less embarrassing.
But I'd gained something valuable.
I pulled up my skill list.
[CURRENT SKILLS]
◆ Fission (SSS) - LV 2
◆ Fusion (SSS) - LV 1
◆ Isolation (SSS) - LV 1
◆ Bite (F) - LV 1
◆ Mana Lance (C-) - LV 4
◆ Basic Fire Manipulation (E) - LV 3
◆ Fire Lance (D+) - LV 3
◆ Mana-Enhanced Strength (Passive)
◆ Berserker (B) - LV 1
There it was. Berserker. B-rank skill.
I activated it experimentally once again.
[BERSERKER ACTIVATED]
STR: 52 → 104 (x2 multiplier)
Regeneration: Active
Pain Suppression: Active
Side Effect: Madness (mental clarity reduced)
Mana Cost: 50 activation + 20/minute
Current Mana: 68/300 → 18/300
The power flooded through me immediately. My muscles swelled slightly, strength doubling.
But the headache came with it. That horrible, splitting pain behind my eyes. And the rage—the barely controlled urge to destroy something, anything.
I deactivated it quickly.
[BERSERKER DEACTIVATED] Side effects: Fading
The relief was immediate. Strength returned to normal, but the madness receded.
"The skill is powerful," I muttered. "But the side effect is a problem."
I thought about it. Berserker was useful—doubling strength was incredible. But the madness made me sloppy, irrational. In the boss fight, it had nearly gotten me killed because I couldn't think strategically.
What if I could remove that side effect?
I activated [Isolation], focusing on Berserker itself this time.
[ANALYZING: BERSERKER]
Skill Structure:
├─ Component A: Strength Multiplication (70%)
├─ Component B: Regeneration Enhancement (20%)
└─ Component C: Madness Side Effect (10%)
Components A and B: Beneficial effects Component
C: Detrimental effect
Fission Compatibility: HIGH Can separate components
Perfect. I could split it.
I activated [Fission], targeting Berserker's skill structure.
[FISSION ACTIVATED]
Target: Berserker (B-Rank Skill)
Attempting to separate: Madness component Processing...
[WARNING] Side effect component cannot be discarded. Two options available:
OPTION 1: Madness becomes PERMANENT SELF DEBUFF
- User will suffer constant mental instability
- Cannot be removed or suppressed
- Progressively worsens over time
OPTION 2: Madness becomes separate SKILL
- Can be activated/deactivated voluntarily
- Functions as debuff skill usable on others
- Serves no beneficial purpose to user
-High mana consumption.
- Remains in skill list permanently
Choose: [OPTION 1] / [OPTION 2]
I stared at the options.
Option 1 was suicide. Permanent madness would destroy my mind over time.
Option 2 was... weird. A skill that existed only to inflict madness on others?
I selected [OPTION 2].
[FISSION COMPLETE]
Berserker has been split:
NEW SKILL CREATED: ◆ Berserker (B)
- Madness removed Effect: STR x2
-Regeneration enhanced
Cost: 50 activation + 20 mana/minute
Side Effect: NONE
NEW SKILL CREATED:
◆ Madness (D)
Type: Debuff skill.
Effect: Inflicts rage and migraines on target
Success Rate: 10% (same rank), 5% (one rank higher), 0% (two+ ranks higher)
Cost: 30 mana per attempt
Duration: 30 seconds if successful
Mana: 18/300 → 3/300
I felt the change immediately. Berserker was still there in my skill list, but cleaner somehow. Refined. The madness had been excised like a tumor.
And now I had a new skill: Madness.
Completely useless against anyone stronger than me, which was basically everyone. A 10% success rate against same-rank opponents was pathetic. And it cost 30 mana per attempt.
But I'd take it. A useless skill was better than losing my mind.
"Now for the interesting part," I said to the empty apartment.
I opened my inventory.
[INVENTORY]
Slot 1: Goblin Cores (x15)
Slot 2: Goblin Skin (x12)
Slot 3: Goblin Bones (x8 sets)
Slot 4: Stone Minotaur Core (C+ Rank) (x1)
Slot 5: Scrap Metal Armor pieces
Slot 6-10: Empty
Fifteen goblin cores. Low-rank, but I had an idea.
I pulled them all out, laying them on the floor in front of me. Small crystals, glowing faintly green. Each one contained a tiny amount of mana—the monster's life force crystallized.
What if I fused them all together?
I activated [Isolation] first, analyzing the cores.
[ANALYZING: GOBLIN CORES]
Item: Mana Core (E-Rank)
Components:
├─ Crystallized Mana
├─ Trace Monster Essence └
─ Residual Life Force
Fusion Compatibility: VERY HIGH (identical items)
Fusion Result Prediction: Concentrated Essence
Potential Effects: Mana capacity increase, Minor stat boost
Worth trying.
I activated [Fusion], targeting all fifteen cores simultaneously.
[FUSION ACTIVATED]
Targets: Goblin Core x15
Compatibility: 98%
Requirements:
├─ Mana: 40 (INSUFFICIENT - Current: 3)
├─ Understanding: SUFFICIENT
└─ Materials: PRESENT
[INSUFFICIENT MANA] Cannot proceed with fusion
Damn. I was out of mana.
I waited. Low ranked Hunter mana regeneration was slow—maybe 5 points per hour naturally. With meditation and my increased mana pool, maybe 10-15 per hour.
I sat cross-legged on the floor, closed my eyes, and meditated.
Twenty minutes later:
[MANA REGENERATION] Mana: 3/300 → 48/300 Sufficient for fusion attempt.
I tried again. This time, [Fusion] activated properly.
The fifteen cores floated into the air, glowing brighter. They began to orbit each other, spinning faster and faster. Energy arced between them—green lightning connecting crystal to crystal.
Then they collapsed inward, merging.
The light intensified, almost blinding. I shielded my eyes.
When it faded, a single object remained floating in front of me.
A sphere. Larger than the individual cores, about the size of a baseball. Swirling green energy visible inside the crystalline surface. It pulsed with power.
[FUSION SUCCESSFUL]
Item Created: Goblin Essence Rank: D
Type: Consumable
Effect: Permanently increases Mana capacity
Estimated Increase: 100-150 mana
Additional Effect: Small chance of skill acquisition
Warning: Consuming monster essence can have unpredictable effects
Recommendation: Proceed with caution
Mana: 48/300 → 8/300
Consumable. Permanently increases mana capacity.
That was exactly what I needed.
The warning about "unpredictable effects" gave me pause. But I'd literally died, regressed into another body, and fought a boss monster at D-rank. A little unpredictability was nothing.
I picked up the Goblin Essence. It was warm to the touch, pulsing with energy.
"Here goes nothing."
I bit into it.
The crystal shattered in my mouth like hard candy. The taste was... strange. Not unpleasant, but definitely not normal food. Like eating pure energy flavored with copper and earth.
I swallowed.
Heat exploded in my chest.
[CONSUMING: GOBLIN ESSENCE] Processing...
Effect 1: Mana Capacity Increase Previous: 300 New: 450 (+150)
Effect 2: Skill Acquisition Analyzing essence composition... Goblin racial trait detected... Compatible with user...
NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: ◆ Resilience (E)
Type: Passive
Effect: Strength increases proportionally to survival instinct
Formula: STR + (Willpower x 0.05)
Current Bonus: +2 STR (minimum)
Maximum Bonus: +15 STR (life-threatening situation)
Processing complete
My mana capacity jumped to 450. A fifty percent increase from a single consumable.
And I'd gained a new skill: Resilience. Passive strength boost based on how desperate the situation was.
Not powerful individually, but...
An idea formed.
Berserker doubled strength. Resilience added strength based on survival instinct.
What if I fused them?
I activated [Isolation], analyzing both skills.
[ANALYZING: SKILL FUSION POSSIBILITY]
Skill A: Berserker (B-Rank) - Strength multiplication - Regeneration enhancement - Mana cost: High Skill B: Resilience (E-Rank) - Strength addition (situational) - Passive effect - No mana cost Compatibility: 76% (Both enhance strength)
Fusion Possible: YES
Predicted Result: Enhanced combat skill Predicted Rank: B or B+ Special Effect: May combine multiplication with addition May replace mana cost with stamina cost Mana Required: 150-200
This could work. But I needed more mana.
I meditated again. Thirty minutes this time.
Mana: 8/450 → 198/450 Sufficient for fusion.
I activated [Fusion], targeting both Berserker and Resilience.
[FUSION ACTIVATED] Targets: Berserker (B) + Resilience (E) Compatibility: 76% Processing fusion... Combining strength multiplication with survival bonus... Replacing mana cost with stamina cost... Integrating regeneration with resilience... [WARNING: HIGH MANA COST] This fusion will consume all available mana Proceed? [YES] / [NO] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I selected YES.
My remaining mana drained instantly. I felt lightheaded for a moment.
But it worked.
[FUSION SUCCESSFUL] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NEW SKILL CREATED: ◆ Warrior's Spirit (B) Type: Enhancement/Transformation Effect: - STR x2 (base multiplier) - Additional STR bonus based on survival instinct (0-15) - Enhanced regeneration (proportional to fighting spirit) - No mental side effects Cost: 0 mana (uses stamina instead) Stamina Drain: 15% per minute Duration: Until stamina depleted or deactivated Note: This skill grows stronger the more desperate the battle Note: Regeneration increases when fighting to protect something/someone Note: Unlike Berserker, maintains full mental clarity Previous Skills Consumed: - Berserker (B) [REMOVED] - Resilience (E) [REMOVED] Mana: 198/450 → 0/450 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stared at the description.
Warrior's Spirit. B-rank.
Same strength multiplication as Berserker, plus the survival bonus from Resilience. Enhanced regeneration that got stronger when protecting others. And it used stamina instead of mana, which meant I could use my mana pool for other skills during combat.
No madness. Full mental clarity.
This was perfect.
I tried to stand up to test it, but my body protested immediately. Still too injured.
Instead, I checked my full status.
[STATUS - Suho Park] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ AGE: 19 (Body) / 32 (Soul) RANK: D+ (Approaching C-) STATS: ├─ Strength: 52 (C-) ├─ Agility: 54 (C-) ├─ Endurance: 51 (C-) ├─ Mana: 0/450 (C+) ├─ Intelligence: 28 (C) └─ Luck: 7 (F) COMBAT ABILITY: C- Rank SKILLS: ◆ Fission (SSS) - LV 2 ◆ Fusion (SSS) - LV 1 ◆ Isolation (SSS) - LV 1 ◆ Bite (F) - LV 1 ◆ Mana Lance (C-) - LV 4 ◆ Basic Fire Manipulation (E) - LV 3 ◆ Fire Lance (D+) - LV 3 ◆ Mana-Enhanced Strength (Passive) ◆ Warrior's Spirit (B) - LV 1 ◆ Madness (D) - LV 1 TOTAL SKILLS: 10 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
All my stats had broken 50. I was solidly C-rank in physical stats now. My mana pool was C+ rank at 450.
Combat ability: C-minus.
In less than a month, I'd gone from F-minus to C-minus combat ability.
The tournament was in two and a half weeks. If I kept this pace...
The apartment door opened.
I looked up to see Hye-jin walking in with grocery bags. She froze when she saw me sitting on the floor surrounded by bandages, clearly having ignored her note's instructions to rest.
Her expression went from surprised to furious in about half a second.
"What part of 'don't do anything stupid' did you not understand?!" she shouted, dropping the bags.
"I was just—"
"I told you not to get up." She marched over and grabbed my shoulders—gently, since I was still injured, but firmly. "Suho, you nearly died today. DIED. Multiple times. And the first thing you do when you wake up is play with dangerous skills?!"
"I needed to—"
"You needed to REST!" Her voice cracked slightly. "Do you have any idea how scared I was? Watching you get beaten half to death by that Minotaur?
I met her eyes. "I'm sorry. But Hye-jin, I needed that experience."
"Why?!" Tears were forming now. "Why is getting stronger so important that you'll throw your life away for it?"
"Because..." I hesitated. How could I explain?
Because I'd been weak before. Because everyone I trusted had betrayed me when I was powerless. Because I watched my murderers walk away unpunished while I bled out on my own living room floor.
Because strength was the only thing that mattered in this world.
But I couldn't say any of that.
"Because I refuse to be weak ever again," I said quietly. "The world doesn't care about weak people, Hye-jin. It uses them, betrays them, discards them. The only way to protect yourself—to protect the people you care about—is to become strong enough that no one can hurt you."
She stared at me. "That's... a really sad way to see the world."
"It's a realistic way."
"Maybe." She wiped her eyes. "But you don't have to face it alone. You have me now. You have allies. You don't need to risk your life constantly."
"I appreciate that. Really." I managed a small smile. "But the struggle itself makes me stronger. The risk, the pain, the desperation—that's what forges power. Comfort and safety make you stagnant."
Hye-jin was quiet for a long moment. Then she sighed.
"I understand," she said softly. "I don't like it. But I understand." She looked at the grocery bags. "At least let me make you food before you do anything else insane."
"Deal."
She helped me back to the mattress, despite my protests that I could walk. Then she unpacked the groceries—rice, eggs, vegetables, meat, proper ingredients instead of my usual instant ramen.
While she cooked, we talked.
"The dungeon cores sold for decent money," she said. "The guild I'm affiliated with bought them. Your share is about 340,000 won."
"That much?"
"C-rank cores are worth more than you think. And that Minotaur core? I'm holding onto it for you. That's worth at least a million won to the right buyer."
A million won. That was two months of rent. Two months of food.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me. You earned it by nearly dying." She stirred the pot. "The tournament starts in three weeks. Are you sure you want to participate? You're still injured."
"I'll be healed by then. Hunter regeneration plus proper nutrition—I'll be fine."
"You've changed so much," she said, not looking at me.
"People can change."
"Not usually this dramatically." She turned to face me. "Who are you really, Suho? What happened during that suspension?"
I met her eyes. "I died. And I came back different."
It was the truth, just not the whole truth.
She searched my face, then nodded slowly. "Okay. I won't push. But just know... I'm here. Whatever you're dealing with, whatever you're trying to accomplish—I'm on your side."
Something warm settled in my chest. "I know. That means more than you realize."
The food finished cooking. She brought me a bowl—rice, stir-fried vegetables, and meat cooked perfectly. It smelled amazing.
I ate slowly, savoring every bite. Real food. Cooked with care.
"This is really good," I said.
"My mom taught me." She smiled slightly. "Said cooking for people was a way of showing you cared."
"Then thank you. For caring."
She blushed and looked away. "Yeah, well. Someone has to keep you from killing yourself."
We ate in comfortable silence.
When we finished, Hye-jin stood. "I should go. You need to rest properly. And I have classes tomorrow."
"Wait." I reached for my wallet—then remembered it was empty. "The groceries. Let me pay you back—"
"Don't worry about it." She waved it off. "Consider it payment for giving me a heart attack watching you fight."
"Still—"
"Su-ho. Let people help you sometimes." She looked at me seriously. "You don't have to carry everything alone."
I nodded. "Okay. Thank you."
She left, and I was alone again.
I spent the rest of the evening resting, meditating to restore mana, and checking my new skills.
Three weeks until the tournament.
Time to get stronger.
THREE WEEKS LATER
KOREAN HUNTER ACADEMY - MAIN ARENA
The tournament venue was massive.
The academy's primary combat arena had been transformed. Reinforced barriers surrounded multiple fighting stages. Seating for thousands of spectators—students, faculty, and guild scouts. Camera drones floating everywhere for live broadcast.
This wasn't just a school event. This was a showcase.
I stood with the other first-year participants in the staging area. About sixty students total, all wearing academy combat uniforms—reinforced black and navy gear with rank insignias.
Conversations buzzed around me.
"Did you see the brackets?"
"I got matched against an A-rank first round. I'm screwed."
"At least you'll get points for trying. Better than getting destroyed by a C-rank and looking pathetic."
"Is that Park Su-ho?"
The whispers followed me everywhere. Some curious, some hostile, some just confused.
I ignored them, checking my status one final time.
[STATUS - Park Su-ho] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RANK: C- (Tournament Official Rank) STATS: ├─ Strength: 57 (C) ├─ Agility: 59 (C) ├─ Endurance: 56 (C) ├─ Mana: 450/450 (C+) ├─ Intelligence: 28 (C) └─ Luck: 7 (F) COMBAT ABILITY: C Rank CONDITION: Fully Healed, Ready ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Three weeks of training, proper nutrition, and one more dungeon run with Hye-jin had pushed me to solid C-rank stats across the board.
I'd also practiced my new Warrior's Spirit skill extensively. It was everything I'd hoped for—power without madness.
A loudspeaker crackled to life.
"ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS. THE TERM EVALUATION TOURNAMENT WILL BEGIN IN FIFTEEN MINUTES. PLEASE PROCEED TO YOUR ASSIGNED STAGING AREAS. FIRST ROUND MATCHES WILL BE ANNOUNCED MOMENTARILY."
The crowd roared.
I took a deep breath.
This was it.
Time to show everyone what Suho had become.