They were all dead and it was his fault. He blamed himself for being the only one to have survived. He hated himself for not having had the courage to have done anything from start to finish. But in the end he realized that he survived because of his cowardice and that any action on his part would have turned little of the tide of waters past.
He curled up as the shallow gash in his abdomen reminded him that he was still there. He courtesy of one of the snowmen from the dungeon he had entered. He couldn't afford a hospital, not being in charge of keeping his uncle in a stable condition after being left in a coma in the raid on the dungeon.
(Where are the deities that praise so much when one needs them?), he thought, entering the bathroom after walking three meters with a limp; it was a small apartment, but no more than the most common in Seoul.
Twelve years ago, in 2023, they inaugurated the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in history in Switzerland. Everyone thought that it would be the golden age for science, they were not entirely wrong. The machine exploded in such a way that the night around the world became as clear as it was thousands of years ago, revealing hundreds of stars. The bad came later; a hundred blue portals opened around the world, from the most inhospitable to the most crowded places, and from these came out numerous kinds of beings that killed indiscriminately.
They called it the moments of darkness.
But with it came the hunters, the professionals, the awakened, as they were called; people with abilities out of the ordinary that varied by just over twenty classes. Hansung Se-Yon Park had obtained the rare profession of adventurer but rank D, all the more reason why he blamed himself for what happened, since his job was to discover the traps of the dungeon.
The deity "Daunted Warrior" shows empathy towards you.
A dim blue panel lit up in the air in front of his face. He was the same god who had been his beholder since he had awakened from him. He thought about giving a sarcastic answer but in the end it came out of him it was a bitter laugh that ended up mixing with his own sobs, which he tried to hide.
"I suppose not all celestials are strong on their own", he commented with pity for both his own and others.
The "Cowardly Warrior" deity lowers its head, clenching its fists.
The spectators were entities from all the Earth cultures that had praised each other since the beginning of time. Those whose existence was unknown to the whole world did not need to use a nickname that had a relationship with them, having the opposite effect on those who were famous. They observed the awakened ones that caught their attention, and to their favorites, if they were extremely lucky, they offered them gifts or even being their incarnations, a legendary class that meant being the physical presence of the deity, which ended up granting them immeasurable power depending on the god. A synonym for these were heroes, whether they were half-breeds or beings renowned in mythology.
The entity "The Knight of Notingham" says to look on the bright side.
"The good side, you say?" Hansung asked, frowning as he grabbed the remaining bandages and alcohol.
"There is not, there is only reality. In this world only the strongest survive, that's the sad reality" he answered annoyed, tensing his jaw as he left the bathroom.
The Knight of Notingham she had recognized. He was funny at first but then it was sad and understandable knowing that it was the hunchback that rang the bell. From that moment he knew that the nicknames of the deities could also be antonyms. He and the second entity had been seeing each other for so long that he was beginning to suspect that the second was also an outcast like him.
He dropped back to the floor, leaning his back against the wall to watch the small TV screen while he changed his bandages. The news was on.
"…Instances of mutable dungeons have been on the rise in the last quarter, going up by seventeen percent. These are dungeons that evolve one level, there being cases in which up to two, such as one of these ascending from a rank C to B.
The dark memories returned to his mind. The trails of blue energy turning white. Snow falling heavily. Nine of the eleven participants in the party that included him and his uncle were killed by the four-meter-tall mallets, fists, and jaws of snowmen. “They said it was a rank C dungeon. No, no, it was my fault, I was the adventurer. He had only one job, and it was to discover the traps, he blamed himself —looking away from the television—. But how could I have foreseen that it would be a mutable dungeon?
The hour of notices, warnings and others ended up starting the number of commercials that lasted ten minutes. A man with tousled hair and gaudy attire came leaping up, letting out irritating shouts.
"Are you an Awakened rank B or higher? Then come and join the First Guild, the most famous guild in the world, where four of the seven S-rank hunters in all of South Korea are located. You're emo...
A blow was dealt on the screen ending up fragmenting it. Haun had kicked at him out of sheer rage.
"Damn..." he cursed realizing what he had done.
The "Daunted Warrior" deity exults in violence.
The boy's features scrunched up in disbelief before throwing his head back with a sigh. He couldn't stay there, he knew it; he had nothing to do in his apartment.
The spectator deities shuffle the thoughts of him.
The entity "Knight of Notingham" tells you to train to become stronger.
The "Daunted Warrior" deity laughs out loud, taunting that he can offer a better option.
"Gods, not again."
He knew what he was to offer. He had already twice rejected it before; when he bravely faced the news that he had been rejected from the guild he so admired and when he set out to improve himself as an Awakened.
The deity "Daunted Warrior" offers you to be the incarnation of him.
"You really are fucking stubborn. Why should I accept when I don't even know what deity you really are?" Him he asked, standing up to change his blood-stained shirt after renewing the bandages. "Accepting it would be practically walking blind."
The "Daunted Warrior" deity presumes that he was once someone very powerful.
The deity "Daunted Warrior" promises you on the river Styx that it will provide you with great power.
He wanted to believe in it, he wanted it with all his will, but his mind was clouded with doubts, as was to be expected.
The deity "Bad Harvest" mocks the power of the "Daunted Knight".
That deity was recent; He appeared as a spectator of his when he used his abilities to escape from the mutable dungeon with his uncle on a man.
"And if you're so strong, how come you keep seeing someone as miserable as me?" I ask, feeling my heart tighten and my eyes burning. "Let's talk again when I have a second awakening", he promised going to the exit.
The floor shakes slightly under his feet.
He had the subconscious action of looking out the window confirming that it was only his building that was moving abruptly until it stopped a few seconds later.
A dungeon had been opened in the residential building.
When you have nothing, you only have courage and stubbornness. That was Hansung Yoi-Lung, a C rank hunter adventurer, just the brave stubbornness to solo raid a dungeon out of reach for him. But he could not perceive or guess that this stupid decision would bring him more harm than good.
He would now face mythological pantheons and entire nations for defending his right to life, which was only a butterfly effect.
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