Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue: 10 Years Ago

“Hurry! We’ve got to get out of here!” Hanna’s mom screamed.

A deafening crash sounded as Hanna dashed out of her room. It hadn’t been their building, but it could be the next one to fall. Her phone blared the alarm again.

“-please evacuate the city. Repeat: a battle between highly dangerous hunters is taking place, please evacuate the city.”

Hanna’s best friend, Eliza, was a hunter and apparently a strong one. Eliza claimed the governments of the world were working on a standardizing system to rank hunters but the phenomenon was too new right now. They hadn’t had time to implement anything. In the meantime, the stronger ones were basically unstoppable, even by the military.

Even so, Hanna had difficulty wrapping her mind around the idea that the whole city should evacuate just because two were in a fight. Shouldn’t one just overpower the other? She had once seen two boys get into a fight in school. The bigger boy had just knocked the other down and that had basically been it. Hunters might be stronger and tougher than normal people, but surely a fight would be the same? One would hit the other too hard for the other to shrug off and that would be that. Why the rush? But then… why those huge crashes?

Regardless, Hanna rushed outside with her mother. As they opened the car doors, a huge pillar of flame launched into the air. She couldn’t really see where it had come from but it definitely came from the direction they would need to go to leave the city. A second pillar rose up at an angle, like they were aiming at something in the sky that kept dodging them.

Her mother turned the key and backed the car out. And had clearly not noticed the pillars of fire because she drove towards them.

“Mom?” Hanna said, attempting to tell her mother her mistake.

“Not now hunny, mommy needs to get us out.”

“But mom-“

“Now now HannAHHHHHHHH!”

At that moment something crashed into the car next to them, stopping it dead and causing more cars to crash into it.

Hanna tried not to cry, she was nine years old, she had to be a big girl! But her mom was crying. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to get them out of the city, even while unwittingly driving at the current position of the danger.

Hanna’s mother cried because she already knew she’d never see her husband again. He’d been a hunter assigned to the raid that had gone so horribly wrong.

Both mother and child cried until a falling building buried them. They never felt a thing.

The Chicago Incident, as it would later be titled, would be covered up afterwards. A dungeon break, the authorities was say. After all, nobody who would have wanted to say otherwise lived to contradict them.

Chapter 1: The Weakest Mage

“Hey! Alex! What’s going on man!”

“Nothing crazy, how about you?” Alex answered back.

“Just hoping for a good haul today!”

“You and me both!”

Alex smiled as the guy turned back to his friend and kept on with their conversation. A few other guys called out to him, just the ones who’d been on enough raids with him to know what he represented: an easy day.

Alex Andrews was one of the weakest hunters in the area. Not the weakest alive, at least by some reports, but also no doubt close to it. He was a mage type, and he could use five spells, that was all. He couldn’t even use them very many times. Most E-Rank hunters were at least fighters, using sword and shield to kill the enemies in the weaker dungeons so the one or two higher ranked guys on the raid could focus on the boss while they got the smaller essence stones.

Alex didn’t even have that option. All he could do was cast a few light magic spells. His biggest was about strong enough to kill a weak monster on its own… but it completely drained him to use. If he used any other spell before it, he couldn’t fire that one anymore either. As he walked up to the supplies stand he overheard some guys talking about him. He recognized one of them, a C-Rank tank and official party leader he’d raided with a few times named Daniel.

“You can’t be serious, he’s that weak and everyone’s happy to see him?!” asked the guy Daniel was talking to.

“Yeah, and if you live long enough in this job you’ll learn why. You’re new so I’ll explain. Nobody ever dies on the raids Hunter Andrews joins. He’s not strong, true, but he’s got a stunning spell that’ll make up to a D-Rank Boss stand still for a second. It doesn’t do any damage but that second has saved more lives than you have friends. That guy may be known as the weakest mage alive, but that only looking at straight power. Just wait till a monster’s about to cut you in half and his stunner stops it short. Then you’ll know why we always donate him a few e-stones.”

“Oh come on, you give him your essence stones, why not just make him get his own?”

“Because he never gets any, idiot! He can’t cast many spells so he saves his mana to save everyone else when they’re in a tight spot. He’s gotten really good at it too, not wasting spells when they aren’t needed, so even when he never casts a single spell, we still give him a few e-stones to make sure he keeps up this job. If he left, there’d be a lot more casualties on these things.”

“Sounds like he’s tricked y’all into thinking he’s some kind of saint if you ask me. Why would anyone act like that? You end up giving him more money than he could make fighting like a normal guy. That’s why.”

“I don’t know any details… but they say someone died on his first ever raid, and he blames himself for it. They say he can’t stand to lose anyone on a raid, and that’s why he does it. And, even if we are giving him more money than he could normally make, who cares? He’s saved our lives more often than we care to count. Bet you’ll feel different when it’s your neck he saves.”

“Well I’m not giving him any of my hard earned cash!”

Alex stopped listening. He had never figured out where that myth about him losing somebody on his first raid had come from, but just about everybody believed one of those two things: that he did what he did for the money or out of guilt. Neither was true.. but he didn’t much care what everyone else believed. He made enough to pay the bills… barely, with the help of those donated e-stones (a slang term for E-Ranked Essence Stones).

It was also untrue that nobody ever died in the raids he joined. People tended to keep him alive more than he did them. They held the line and made sure no monsters got past to get to him and any healers they’d brought along. He watched and waited and tried to save anyone he saw in danger. But sometimes, especially in less experienced groups, a monster or two would get past the main group and he’d be forced to try and fight the monster off himself. Sometimes that meant not being able to save other hunters. It was rare… but it did happen.

Of course he hated it when someone died, that was the whole reason he joined these things, certainly not because it was a lucrative trade for someone like him. He’d awakened three years ago right after his first year of college. He’d had to think long and hard about his decision to drop out and become a hunter but, in the end, he was certain it had been the right call.

“Hey, Alex!” called a woman’s voice.

Alex turned and saw a tall brunette walking toward him who he recognized as a C-Rank healer named Michelle Estes.

“Yo, joining me in the back row again, Michelle?” he answered.

“Looks like it, though if you’re here I might not have much to do,” she said, looking put out.

“Nah, between the two of us we can make absolutely certain nothing bad happens, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s no fun if I don’t have anything to do, and you always stop the magic beasts before they can hurt anybody. I don’t know any other kinds of support magic, so I’m literally just here to make it legal to enter, you know?"

“Hey, requiring a minimum of at least of healer and one C-Rank Hunter for D-Rank dungeons only makes sense, and you can fill both roles, that’s why they pay you so much to come, you know?”

For some reason, this didn’t seem to cheer her up, but instead make her pouty.

“I don’t do it for the money, you know. If I just wanted money I could join one of the larger guilds.”

“I know, you do it because you want to help people, right? I can’t imagine another reason for choosing these lower-ranked raids,” Alex said, smiling.

She looked on the point of arguing, but a whistle blew and turned everyone’s attention to the Gate, a stereotypical blue swirling portal that lead to the dungeon they had to clear.

Daniel was standing with his back to it with a whistle in his hand. All the Hunter’s walked over to him, Alex and Michelle included. Alex scanned over the group. There were thirteen aside from himself, and only he and Michelle were back line hunters. He didn’t know most of the guys here… but he did recognize a couple faces:

Jack Speakmen, a D-Rank swordsman who typically worked with the Moonlight Guild, the third largest in the state. He made good money with them but had big spending habits so he often joined independent raids like this one for extra cash.

Antonio Fortune he knew pretty well, Alex was pretty sure he did the job to support his family or something like that. He never gave Alex any stones, but often bought him a drink if Alex actively helped him on a given raid. He was a E-Rank tank, but on the higher end of E so he often did really well on independent raids.

“Alright guys,” Daniel called out when everyone had gathered, “For those of you who don’t know: my name’s Daniel Cross and I’m a C-Rank tank. Unless anyone has any objections, I’ll take the role of party leader.”

Nobody dissented, and there were even a few calls of affirmation.

“Great, in that case I’ll list the rules since I know there’s a couple newbies in today’s raid.

“1: Protect the back line. We’ve got a light mage and a healer today, so keep them safe and they’ll keep you alive in return. It’s really that simple.

“2: Any essence stones dropped by a MB you kill today are yours to do with as you will, but if I see any kill-stealing instead of teamwork I will report you for bad teamwork. Ten marks of that from any licensed party leader like me will get you called in for questioning from the South Carolina Hunter’s Office, and that’s a hassle you don’t want. Don’t worry, it’s a D-Rank dungeon so there will be plenty of beasts for everyone on the front line.

“3: It’s literally life or death in there, so what I say goes. If you disobey and can’t convince me you did the right thing I’ll report you for that too. Everyone got all that? Good. Let get in there and make a killing!”

There was a roar of masculine energy (Michelle being the only female hunter present) and everyone followed Daniel through the Gate.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: The Three Commandments

The dungeon turned out to be the most basic, barebones, cave Alex had ever seen. It was decently lit the way most were with glow stones, but otherwise appeared incredibly bare. Most of the hunters grumbled, and Alex privately agreed with the sentiment even though he didn’t say anything. While dungeons like this could sometimes have a huge loot storage in the back... it wasn’t very common on raids below C-Rank. Most of a hunter’s money came from pulling essence stones from dead magic beasts, but it always paid to mine up any mana crystals you found, and you could usually see a few right away, at least in these lower ranked dungeons. A bare dungeon like this tended to turn out to have very little to give from MBs or mana crystals.

“Come on guys,” David said from the front of the group, “we still have to clear this place even if there’s only a little in the way of rewards. We can’t have a dungeon break.”

It was true, the fact that being a hunter could theoretically turn a huge profit wasn’t the original reason people started becoming hunters, it was the dangers of dungeon breaks made hunters start risking their lives. After about a week any given gate would ‘break’ and let loose its monsters into the human world. There had been a couple extremely bad incidents around the world of that happening. Most of them stemmed from the early days, before anyone had figured out how to measure a gate’s power and classify how dangerous the monsters inside would be. The rest were typically red gates.

As they party started forward, Alex kept his eyes peeled for the first monsters. There were usually a couple fights before the boss, but at the low levels they wouldn’t be a problem. He doubted either he or Michelle would have anything to do until those were all cleared. Right on cue the first goblins appeared. Other types of monsters could appear, but for a cave dungeon like this one goblins were almost always the first up. Fortunately, they also had higher rate of having an Essence Stone inside them.

“Alright, goblins are up first; looks like about a dozen, so remember to watch each other’s backs and not let any past to hit the back line!” David called.

“Hraaaaaaaah!” was pretty much the only response he got from anyone, but he didn’t seem to mind.

About a minute later, all the goblins were dead and the hunters were searching for Essence Stones. Most of the goblins had one so, for the first wave, it hadn’t been too bad. Though even for those who’d gotten one, this wasn’t nearly enough for a good raid.

Just as everyone stood up, a wolf-like howl echoed down the cave.

“Here comes wave two so I want tanks up front,” Daniel called. “If these are normal wolves they probably won’t be a problem, but if it’s wolf men we wanna be good and ready for them.”

It turned out to be normal wolves and they didn’t drop nearly as many stones either. Nor did the next wave. Then it was time for the boss, a humanoid lion creature with a big sword. Standard for a D-Rank dungeon. Alex did end up firing one stun spell, but it was because Daniel asked for an opening rather than because the boss presented an actual threat to anyone.

Daniel cut out its essence stone, which was just a slightly larger than average D-Rank stone and everyone set about mining what few mana crystals lay around. Being a mage-type hunter, and a low ranking one at that, his strength wasn’t any better than a unawakened human, so even the mining was hard for him. All too soon the work was done, though something was bugging Alex. Gates closed one hour after the boss was killed… but even ten minutes after there should have been signs of the imminent collapse. But there simply weren’t.

“Hey, Mr. Party leader!” one of the newer hunters called out, “is this normal?”

Everyone looked over and realized that, behind a bend in the rocks wall, the guy calling out had found a slightly hidden second cave. Everyone rushed over.

“Huh, well will you look at that. Maybe that lion guy wasn’t the real boss?” Daniel wondered aloud.

“Or it’s a double dungeon,” Alex pointed out.

“What’s that?” the man who’d been talking with Daniel before the raid asked the party leader.

“Hunter Andrews can explain better than me,” Daniel said, making an offering gesture towards him.

Alex sighed, “Double dungeons are like… lesser versions of red gates. They’re usually tougher than the main dungeon by a bit but not too much, and you can leave and get help. Legally, you’re supposed to do exactly that, since a double dungeon’s rank can’t be read from outside the gate, you have to get it assessed separately. Of course, thats really just a precaution. I’ve never heard of one that caused a real problem for the original team.”

“So the loot could go to another team if we leave?” Antonio asked.

“We don’t know it’s a double dungeon, that ‘boss’ was extremely weak, even for a D-Rank,” Daniel said. “Besides, both our mages are completely fresh and nobody’s been hurt. This dungeon was really dry, so I say we keep going.”

Alex hesitated. Everything he and Daniel had said had been true… but…

“I say we keep going,” Daniel’s friend said. “I’m a C-Rank fighter and I want a challenge for my first raid.”

“It’s not you we have to convince,” Daniel said, “You don’t get the danger that we might face. Hunter Alex Andrews does. My decision is final but I want his opinion.”

Everyone in the party either looked at Alex or looked confused. There were a couple newer people here, and most of them were the ones looking confused, but Alex understood what Daniel was implying. He was weak for a hunter, experienced in dungeon raids, and primarily concerned with getting everybody out alive. If he decided it was too risky, Daniel would take that opinion seriously.

Alex looked over everyone. They were fresh, unhurt, and short rewards. Most probably couldn’t count on another raid for a couple days at least. He’d only used one stun spell… so even if they had to fight another boss right this second he could use another six before running out of juice, and Michelle hadn’t used any spells. She looked incredibly bored and annoyed.

“Thoughts?” he asked her.

“Hey, I don’t do this for the money, I’ve got plenty of that, I do this for fun, and I ain’t had any fun yet.”

Alex sighed again, “Alright, I get that some people need the money… and I can’t deny I wish we’d gotten more stones and crystals too. So… screw it, I think it’ll be fine to keep going.”

“Alright, I’m the partly leader, and I say I don’t think that’s a double dungeon so let’s go.”

Everyone hoisted their weapons and followed their leader in.

It’ll be fine. Alex told himself. Double dungeons are harder, but not by much. I’ve never even heard of one that increased by even one rank.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thirty minutes later, they were still walking, and there had been exactly zero signs of the dungeon shutting down. There were some mutterings about how little time for looting and gathering they’d have once they killed the real boss, but otherwise the conversation stayed quiet and between the people who knew each other well.

“Hey,” Michelle said to get his attention.

“Yeah?”

“If something got back here and nobody could help, what would you do?”

“Try to kill it, I am supposed to be a combat mage after all.”

“But you only know one strong attack right?”

“Yeah, and I have so little mana I can only use it once.”

“You don’t have a backup weapon? Like a dagger or something?”

“Nah, can’t afford one really. They cost almost as much as my rent.”

“Well… here then,” Michelle said, holding out her hand.

Alex held out his hand to accept the small item. It was a small jeweled ring. He looked at it, confused.

“What’s this?”

“It’s… well it’s a ring that boosts spells a little. It doesn’t make them cost less mana… but it amps their power a bit.”

Alex’s eyes widened, “This can’t be man-made equipment… that has to be an artifact from a high ranked dungeon.”

“It’s not that great. Someone found it on a B-Rank raid last week and… I bought it off them. Its boost isn’t very good because it works with any kind of magic. But, you know, since you don’t have anything like it at all…”

Alex put the ring on his right forefinger, “This is incredible. I promise I’ll use it well.”

“Good! You’d better not sell it!” she said.

“Why would I sell it? This will help me save even more lives!”

“I… yeah. Obviously,” Michelle said. She didn’t seem to want to talk after that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Whoa… that’s an ominous door.”

The party had stopped at the apparent end of the tunnel where a set of double doors stood, far bigger than any Alex had ever seen.

“Yeah… starting to think this might be a bit more than we bargained for…” someone said.

“If anyone wants to go back, they can,” Daniel said, “But I’m going. Alone if need be, I’m not going back all but empty handed.”

“I’m going,” Daniel’s friend said.

“Me too,” said Michelle.

Alex spoke next, and soon the whole party had agreed to go on. Daniel opened the doors and the group walked in.

The ‘room’ was immense. Easily larger than any church in the entire U.S. It was also almost completely empty. Only filled with enormous statues around the perimeter. With nothing else to focus on, Alex examined them from a distance while everyone wandered around asking where the magic beasts were. No two were the same, but they generally fell into the categories of knights and angels. The knights held weapons and the angels had instruments.

The only exception was the one at the far end of the room, that one was sitting on a throne and wore a crown. It was also twice the size of all the others.

“Hey! Hunter Andrews! Any chance you can read Latin?” Daniel called.

“I remember a little, why?” he called back.

“There’s a tablet over here, pretty sure it’s in Latin!”

Alex jogged over. Off to the right of the largest statue there was indeed a tablet, like everything else it was gigantic. The words were Latin, all right, but… they weren’t written like Roman letters, though the difference was pretty insignificant.

“Huh… hey everyone, you should hear this!” Alex called out after reading it. When everyone had gathered he translated: “The Commandments of the Cartenon Temple:

“First: Thou Shall Worship God.

“Second: Thou Shall Praise God.

“Third: Thou Shall Prove Thy Faith.

“Those who fail these Commandments shall not be spared.”

When he had finished there was a silence.

“Ok, I’m officially freaked out,” Antonio said. “I’m out.”

He walked back to the huge double doors which had closed without anyone holding them open. Alex’s mind noticed the two statues right by the door were both knight types, meaning they held weapons. For a brief second he considered the idea that they might attack Antonio on his way out. But that idea was absurd, statues couldn’t…

“Antonio don’t get near-!” Alex readied a stun spell, but it was already too late. One of the statues by the door had lifted its axe and sliced Antonio before he’d even turned around. The spell, a sparkling ball of light, was still in Alex’s hands.

“What the HELL?!?” someone screamed out.

Alex canceled the spell. It wouldn’t do anything in this dungeon. He spun towards the giant statue. That one had to be ‘God’. Worship God. That was the first commandment. Anyone who failed to do so…

“EVERYBODY HIT THE DECK!!!” he bellowed. Most people obeyed just from his tone of voice, and their own fear. Those who didn’t, and even some who did but weren’t distanced enough didn’t live to understand their mistake. A searing beam of concentrated fire arced out from the giant statue’s eyes and burned a massive dent into the stone ground. It had arced across all those still standing, and it had not cared that anyone else who happened to be there got caught in it too.

Alex did a headcount. Nine. Nine survivors out of thirteen.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: Prove Your Faith to God

“What… was that?” Michelle asked. She had ended up near Alex when he himself had dived.

“No idea. ‘What’ doesn’t matter, though,” he answered truthfully.

“Why doesn’t ‘what’ matter?” Daniel asked.

“Because it’s an instant kill! What we need to work out is ‘why’. That way we can convince it not to do that again. I’m going to try something.”

Suiting his own words he very slowly changed positions. Instead of just laying flat on the ground he turned, staying as low as he could, and took a bowing posture on all fours, like he’d seen in some movies. He waited.

“What are you doing?”

“Obeying the first commandment. Worshipping God. I think that means bowing to him. And since I haven’t been vaporized, I think everybody should try. Stay as low as possible though.”

Everybody followed suit, and soon everyone was bowing before the self-styled god. It watched them impassively and Alex started wondering if all they had managed was to not trigger anything, but hadn’t ‘passed’ yet. Then it smiled the widest, most terrifyingly self-pleased smirk Alex had ever seen. Despite the good omen, it only made Alex even more afraid. The weight of this ‘temple’ really coming down on him in that moment.

“W-what now?” Jack said, trembling.

Alex stood up. He was not lasered.

“It’s safe to stand, everyone,” he said.

Michelle stood first and she was… grinning? No not quite grinning, but not particularly shaken up either.

As everyone else stood up, though, Alex found she was the only one. Each one of these men were higher ranked than him and most had been in several dangerous situations before. The only one Alex didn’t know by name was Daniel’s friend.

“Ok, we’ve passed the first test or commandment or whatever,” Alex said. “Now we need to figure out the second one before it kills us.”

“There’s gonna be more?!?” Jack asked with more than a bit of panic in his voice.

“Yeah,” Alex said, turning back to the giant, “We’ve worshipped God, now we have to figure out how to praise God. He won’t let us leave until we do that and then prove our faith somehow.”

“Great, I was hoping there was more,” Michelle said with only the tiniest hint of sarcasm.

Right on cue, the giant stood up. Alex couldn’t judge its height at all, but it had to be fifty feet tall at least. He started walking towards them.

“Pr-praising God is easy,” one guy said, Alex picked his voice out as Sean Preston. “I was raised catholic, I know a thing or two about this.”

Sean passed Alex, somehow finding the nerve to walk towards the oncoming colossi.

“Sean, wait! That’s not the Christian God at all! I was raised Baptist and there’s no way.”

Thankfully, Sean stopped, but the giant god didn’t.

“Everybody scatter while I think of what to do!” Alex yelled.

“Who put that guy in charge anyway, he’s the weakest one here!” came the voice of Daniel’s friend.

“Shut up, Sax! As far as anyone here is concerned, Hunter Andrews word trumps mine until we get out of here, got that! He’s our best chance by far!” Daniel yelled out for everyone to hear.

Alex barely listened, he was scanning for clues. This wasn’t a god from any religion he’d ever heard of and certainly not Roman, despite the Latin text. That most likely meant the ability to follow the commandments had to do with things only in this room. Anyone could bow. But how did you praise God without the right hymn or prayer? Music.

Alex dashed for the nearest angel statue, but as he did he heard a scream, he turned to see what it was and saw Jack laying on the ground in two pieces at the feet of one of the other statues against the wall. He screamed once more before fully dying. Alex had been too slow to work it out… but if the statues could attack if they got too close… he had to test it first.

He made it to his target, an angel with a harp. He waited a moment… and a stringed instrument’s sound echoed out from the statue.

“EVERYONE, GET TO ONE OF THE STATUES WITH MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, THE REST KILL YOU!” he screamed. He watched as they all sprinted to follow his instructions, but they quickly learned there was another angle: only one could find refuge per statue. They lost a D-Rank hunter named Calvin before it was over. He got trampled by the giant god.

One by one, however, everyone else found their way to one of the statues with musical instruments and the song the statues played was, despite everything else happening, actually beautiful. It was almost more insulting for that, but Alex didn’t have time to be outraged or insulted about this test. He had to try to make sure everybody survived it.

Still, passing the second commandment was some small relief. He couldn’t think about those he’d already failed.

A rumbling shook the entire room and put most of the survivors on their backsides before it was done. A platform had raised in the center of the room, Alex vaguely remembered symbols of some kind over there. At some point, the statue of ‘God’ had returned to its throne.

“Well this test seems obvious to me,” Daniel said loud enough for all to hear.

Alex disagreed. Based of the information available, the obvious answer was to sacrifice one of their number to the ‘God’, but Alex thought he saw a layer past that. He couldn’t be sure but… well he remembered some stories from the church he’d attended until recently. He strode forward to was he could only assume was an altar.

“Alex stop!” Michelle called out, but he ignored her.

In a moment he passed some kind of outer ring and a red flame suddenly appeared about four feet from the altar itself. Nobody spoke.

After glancing around, Alex spoke: “We all have to approach, I think.”

It took some convincing, as almost everyone was at the end of their rope, but eventually he coaxed all eight of them into the ring. A red flame lit up for each of them, as he’d expected after his own had flared to life.

“Now what?” Daniel asked. “You’ve already got an idea right?”

“Not yet,” Alex admitted. “This isn’t the real test yet, though I expect if we’d taken too long to get in here there would have been more lasers. Somehow, we’re going to have to ‘prove our faith to god’ and the way it’s been going: we won’t have all the information until it’s already started.”

A ring of blue flames suddenly shot up around the red ones, and at the same moment, the doors opened.

“Hey! The door’s opened! Did we pass?”

“I doubt it,” Alex said with as much trepidation as he could put in his voice.

Sure enough, all the statues with weapons began walking towards them. Or… maybe not?

“Keep your eyes on them!” Alex shouted, “Weeping Angel game!”

“What’s the weeping angel game?” Michelle asked, with more curiosity than anything else as she took position to keep her eyes on one angle of the statues.

“If you blink they move, it’s a children’s game. They don’t move while you’re looking,” Alex answered.

“Is that all?” Daniel’s friend asked. “The rest were way harder. What about the open doors?”

“I’m thinking, but I don’t think that’s all either. There’s no win condition here…”

“Hunter Andrews,” a man Alex knew as Hunter Price asked. “The blue flames are going out.”

“Let Hunter Andrews look around!” Daniel commanded. “Someone make sure to cover his area.”

Alex turned to regard the circles of flames. What were they? A timer?

“I’m done trusting my life to someone else’s brain,” announced Sax. “The door is open and it’s a clear shot. I’m leaving.”

“It could be a trap,” Alex warned. “But I obviously can’t stop you.”

“No, you can’t,” Sax said spitefully.

Daniel tried to get him to stay as well, but he dashed right out of the circle and through the doors to leave the dungeon. The only thing that changed was that one of the orange flames went out with his passing. Nothing stopped him. If he was killed afterward, there was no sign, and Alex suspected they’d have heard screams.

The puzzle still wasn’t clear. There were no guarantees. There never had been but this time... this time he couldn’t test it himself first. Two choices, four ways this could go. A choice between two fifty-fifties. Except that Sax hadn’t screamed. It sounded like he’d gotten away.

“Hunter Andrews, have your worked it out yet?” Daniel asked.

“I think so,” Alex lied. “This ‘God’ likes blood. It’s the oldest form of worship in the book: sacrifice. Those doors will fully close with one person still inside. If we wait for the blue flames to go out… we’ll probably all be killed. Someone has to stay behind and die.”

“Alex, no!” Michelle immediately yelled. “It can’t be you. Nobody else would have made it this far without you.”

“The girl’s right,” Daniel said. “If we leave you behind, many, many more people won’t have your protection moving forward.”

“Do you think I could live with myself, leaving you behind after you’ve saved me so many times?” Sean asked.

“I can’t see that far ahead, Party Leader,” Alex said, cutting off their protests. “Those blue flames are going out. I have to get everyone here to safety. Do you think I’ll be able to live after leaving behind so many people I could have saved?”

“You’ll save a hundred more if you live today!” Michelle pleaded.

The others gave words of confirmation to the same sentiment.

“Maybe, but if I stay and you all go home, then I’ll have saved a thousand more people. Because I charge you all to fight like I do. Not for the money, but for the people standing all around you. Stop the gates from breaking open and endangering human lives. Stop the magic beasts from killing your fellow hunters. Don’t fight for what you can gain, but what you can protect.”

All the men were now silent. Michelle started to speak, however, she was cut off.

“He’s right,” Daniel said. “We owe him our lives. We should do as he says.”

The hunters began to nod in agreement. Michelle appeared dumbstruck, whether from the sentiment or how foolish she found them all, Alex couldn’t say.

“You, might have to force her to go with you,” Alex said to Daniel.

“Let’s go men!” Daniel said.

They did have to force Michelle to go with them, but not one of the statues gave them trouble as they ran out of the temple. The doors swung closed behind them. The statues had obviously continued their journey towards the center. Towards Alex.

Did I send them all to their deaths? Did I spring an obvious trap? Or was I right? I guess I’ll never know.

There was still hope for him. ‘Prove your faith to God.’ In the Bible there was a story. In it, God instructed the only man who worshiped him to sacrifice his only son to him. The man had obeyed but, just as he’d brought his knife down on his only son, God had stopped him, and provided a simple ram to be the sacrifice instead. Maybe this test was similar.

The colossal statues were right on top of him. Alex stared them dead in the eye. Today, he was the son on the altar, watching the knife rise over him. Would it be stopped short?

The spear that tore through his body and lifted him into the air tore through all hope as well. Alex’s scream was a series of gurgles as his blood flooded his own throat. He couldn’t breathe. Everything was pain. Even his vision turned red with blood leaking out his eyes.

At least this means everyone else is probably safe.

Notification.

The secret quest: Courage of the Weak

Completed.

His mind barely registered the words.

Notification.

You have acquired the qualifications to be a Player.

Will you accept?

Your heart will stop in 0.04 seconds if you choose not to accept.

Yes. No.

Somehow, barely able to think enough to realize there were words in front of him, only his subconscious actually reading the words, he managed to gasp out a ‘yes’ so faint nothing could possibly have heard him. The Yes. option highlighted anyway.

Congratulations on becoming a Player.

Chapter Text

Interlude 1: The Flamethrower

As one of the first fire mages to awaken when the gates first started appearing all over the world, Samuel Charn had been given the title ‘The Flamethrower’ due to what was once considered incredible power. These days, while the nickname still stuck, he wasn’t considered to be all that powerful anymore. Fire mages had become the most common back line type and, when the technology for reading mana levels both in hunters and on gates was developed, he’d been placed as an A-Rank.

Of course, A-Ranks were incredibly powerful, just not when compared to S-Ranks. While most countries had fewer than ten S-Ranks awakened, the United States as a country was enormous and had the third highest population in the world and therefore was approaching forty S-Ranks awakened in-country.

Of course… there were the problems that came with such numbers. S-Ranks were basically too powerful to police in any capacity, and for those that were even stronger than their peers…

“Hey! Flamethrower! Torch that one!” came a commanding voice.

Samuel looked at the massive high-orc magic beast that had vaulted over the tank line. He charged a lance of flame so hot and dense he almost felt mass in his hands. The high orc bellowed and charged him, so he hurled the incendiary javelin through its eye. It’s brain boiled and the magic beast died.

Samuel looked up ahead at the cause for his earlier musings. Victor Drew, the Eagle. The only hunter in the entire world who could fly. Oh sure plenty could reach him in various ways, but no other possessed true flight. He was also the reason everyone here had stupid nicknames. He liked the idea of having them and made sure everyone used them on raids. It was the least of the issues of dealing with him, however.

Victor might not be the most powerful hunter in America… but that flight skill made it nearly impossible to actually hit him, even for those who actually possessed greater raw power. His pride was unmatched, even among S-Ranks, and nobody existed who could bring him down. At least… not without obliterating an entire State. One day, though, Samuel knew he’d have to be brought down. One day, they’d have to put the entire country at risk to kill this one man.

Or it would be the world that suffered.

Chapter 4: I Should’ve Played More Video Games

Alex sat up in bed, gasping for breath, sweat beading all over his body and rolling down his skin. Had all that... been a dream? He yanked the covers off his body and felt at his chest. He’d been skewered by those statues but... no, it couldn’t have been real. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing regularly. When he was calm again he opened them and looked around. He was... in a hospital room?

There was also a screen hanging in front of him.

Notification.

You have unread messages.

That was all it said, but it didn’t make any sense. It had a transparent red coloring and was designed like a cool sci-fi game’s UI. He reached out to touch it, but it fuzzed when his finger made contact.

What is this? This kind of tech doesn’t exist yet, and definitely not cheap enough to be in hospitals.

Under his breath he uttered: “Confirm.”

Nothing happened.

The door opened and a nurse walked in.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” he said. “How do you feel?”

“Uh... I guess I’m not sure yet. How did I end up in here?”

“Apparently, you were rescued from a double dungeon,” he said simply.

“So it wasn’t a dream... that really did happen.”

“Yeah. I need to run some checks to see how hurt you are. Apparently, the healer in your party couldn’t do anything for you even though you were unconscious and covered in blood. There’s no wound... but you were extremely dehydrated when they got you here, so you’re quite the mystery, Hunter Andrews.”

“Well, thank you all for patching me up. Run whatever tests you need, uh...” he read the nurse’s nametag: “Mr. Colins.”

The nurse nodded his acceptance and went about his business, taking Alex’s temperature, blood pressure, and more.

“Well, I’ll get these to your doctor, Hunter Andrews, but just eyeballing it I’d say you’ll be fine once your body is able to catch up on rest. When the doctor sees this he’ll likely allow visitors.”

“Thanks, again!” Alex said in farewell, then he turned back to the screen, he’d been thinking what other things he could try.

“Open inbox.”

The screen changed.

You have become a Player.

Daily Quest: Strength Training has arrived.

His mind picked at something from right at the end of the double dungeon. Had he... seen this screen before? Yes... and he’d accepted its offer. Apparently, it had saved him after he completed its requirements?

After playing around with it, apparently it responded only to voice commands, he managed to get some information out of the screen as to what in the world it was.

This system is designed to assist the development of the Player.

Failure to comply with the system may result in a penalty.

The rewards have been delivered.

What rewards?

Before he could try anything else, the popup about the strength training appeared.

“Uh, confirm?” he tried.

The screen was replaced with another.

Quest Info.

Goal:

Push-ups 0/100

Sit-ups 0/100

Squats 0/100

Running 0/10km

WARNING: Failure to complete the daily quest will result in an appropriate penalty.

Alex’s eye widened at the requirements. At the very bottom there was also a circle of twenty-four marks, just over half of which were filled in. Alex got the clue, it was a timer of twenty-four hours. But how was he going to do all of this? The doctors and nurses would never allow him to get up and start such a rigorous workout. At least... rigorous for him, a mage type E-Rank hunter with no increases to his physical ability.

He supposed he could break up the work into chunks... but the Squats and 10km would still prove an issue. Running over six miles would be rough on him even if he weren’t in a weakened state. Running that much, even with breaks, might prove too much for his legs alongside the squats. He seemed to remember some guys at the college dorm discussing a similar topic and they sounded pretty sure that kind of workout was dangerous.

But… there was the penalty that was mentioned. Presumably, the penalty would be worse than not completing the tasks so… how much was he willing to risk?

The door opened and three suits walked in. Alex knew one of them: Cole Beaker was an A-Rank who worked for the state of South Carolina as a sort of… hunter’s law enforcement. Alex supposed the benefits of such a job must be good, but it was arguably more dangerous than raids… Alex’s last experience notwithstanding.

“Hunter Alex Andrews, yes?” Beaker asked.

“That’s me,” Alex answered.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. We would just like to confirm a few points of the incident in your last dungeon raid before we close the books on it, if you’re feeling up to it.”

“Yeah, no problem. Better now than later, really.”

“Excellent. First of all, when the Moonlight Guild rushed in, they found no double dungeon at all, let alone a temple with giant statues that could move. All the bodies were there, including yours, but you weren’t hurt; just unconscious. Nobody in your party could possibly have done that, however, so foul play has been ruled out. As long as you confirm the existence of that temple, we’ll assume the existence of it as fact.”

“Yeah, that was real,” Alex said solemnly.

“I see, in that case, would you mind explaining how you survived? The other survivors reported that you gave yourself up to get them all out alive. What happened when those doors closed?”

Alex glanced at the open screen, still showing the daily quest explanation window.

“It’s hard to remember,” he began, and it was true. If he could, he would like to stick to the truth. “That temple operated on its own rules, different from a normal dungeon. The point wasn’t to kill the monsters, it was to pass a series of arbitrary tests. I’m not sure exactly what, but I’m sure I must’ve passed the final test, or I’d be dead too.”

“I see, well. If the statues were as bad as described, you’re all lucky to be alive. That said I hope this doesn’t put you off being a hunter. The other survivors, with the possible exception of Hunter Estes, actually seemed reinvigorated somehow, though that goes against what one would think. In the meantime, rest up and enjoy some downtime.”

“Thank you, Hunter Beaker.”

Beaker nodded, and both men left the room. Alex waited a moment to make sure nobody was going to barge in right after them, but it didn’t happen. So he got up and started doing push-ups. He managed seven.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later, he’d completed all the pushups, sit-ups, and squats, and was currently running in place, which apparently counted. His whole body burned despite the sweat pouring like a waterfall, but he pushed on. He was almost done.

Running 9/10km

That was when a nurse walked in.

“Hunter Andrews, what would you like for dinner? We’ve got—whoa man!”

Alex stopped dead as Mr. Colins walked in holding what appeared to be a menu.

“Hey, uh, you really shouldn’t be doing that, you know? I know it sucks sitting in bed all day but just because you can walk doesn’t mean you should run.”

Alex dropped onto his bed, practically gasping for breath, “Sorry, I just really needed to do something other than watch TV, you know?” Again, technically true.

“Well I’d say you’ve done plenty, given how out of breath you are, let alone all that sweat. I’ll get you a change of clothes, then we can order you your food, yeah?”

“That’d be great, thanks.”

Colins left and Alex hurriedly got up and finished the rest of the workout. His legs were screaming by the time he was done. He sat back down gratefully and looked at the screen in front of him.

Daily Quest has been completed.

Collect rewards?

Yes. No.

“Uh, yes?”

More screens appeared, but Nurse Colins opened the door and delivered a change of clothes as well as directed Alex to where some washcloths were in the bathroom. Alex placed his dinner order and went to clean up.

As he washed up he explored his rewards for the daily quest. First, he apparently had earned three ‘Ability Points’. It took him a moment but he eventually worked out that he could use them to increase specific stats on a screen where he could essentially view his personal data. Alex was starting to regret not playing more video games as a kid.

He could add the ability points to any of five stats: strength, agility, vitality, perception, and intelligence; all of which started at 10. He stared at those words for a while trying to work out what they meant. Strength and agility made the most sense. He could understand the system making him stronger and faster but the rest? What did vitality mean? Surely it couldn’t actually increase how many wounds he could take without it killing him.

What about intelligence? Could it possibly make him smarter? Alex knew he wasn’t a genius or anything but he wasn’t dumb either. But to be able to supernaturally increase his IQ? He couldn’t credit it, there had to be another angle. Perception… maybe it gave him better vision or sharper hearing? He supposed that could be useful. Still, if he was going to be doing that workout each day, it made the most sense to start with strength, so that’s where he put his first three points.

Next, the system gave him… a full recovery? He used it and a green light flowed quickly over him. Instantly his exhaustion and aching muscles went away. Well, that answered the question of how he was going to handle the daily quest day after day. In fact, he felt better than before he’d started.

Finally, he was rewarded a ‘random loot box’ it opened in his hand and dropped… a pen? Huh. Well maybe better things were available but those first two rewards were plenty in his opinion. He hurriedly dressed and went back out to enjoy his dinner. It wasn’t very enjoyable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Alex had to argue with doctors about his need to work out, but in the end they agreed to let him go down to the gym/rehab area and use a treadmill. He didn’t tell them how many other types of workout he was doing, but he didn’t lie either. The full recovery restored him in, well, full and he once again put all three ability points into strength (the three points from yesterday had already made a massive difference in the difficulty of the daily quest today). His random loot box gave him a roll of bandages.

He spent a good chunk of the day on the internet, reading up on video game mechanics, particularly UI. The Intelligence stat apparently applied to magic and would likely either make his spells do more damage or increase his mana pool. Possibly both. He couldn’t find anything to suggest Vitality would do anything other than up his HP, so he was still confused about that one. Perception was still a little vague, but after all his digging he felt it was safe to assume it would either increase his range of vision or protect him from illusions and the like.

Some higher ranked hunters got a stealth or camouflage skill, so maybe he could eventually be able to see through those? If magic beasts could have similar abilities he might have to eventually invest points there. More interesting, though, was his ‘level’. Despite two days of daily quests, he hadn’t gained any experience points towards leveling up. He was still at level one. His online research suggested he would only gain experience from actually killing magic beasts, or possibly from getting an ‘assist’ where he contributed to the kill, even if his wasn’t the final blow.

Wondering what the benefits from leveling up would be, he scrolled around on his ‘profile’ page until he discovered an interesting detail. He had apparently been granted passive skills. ‘Debuff Immunity’ apparently prevented any effects from lowering his base stats even temporarily and would quickly cure any effects placed on his mind. There was also a passive called ‘Treasure Hoarder’ that increased his chances of drops from enemies. Well those could only help, he supposed.

A knock on the door had Alex hastily closing all the windows he had open, at least from this strange ‘system’. His phone he simply turned off.

“Come in?” he answered.

The door opened and his father walked in. John Andrews was pretty much just an older version of Alex himself, both in terms of body and mind.

“Hey, son, heard you had a rough time of your last raid,” his father said.

Alex gave a self-deprecating chuckle, “Yeah, you could say that. How’d you pull this off though? If mom finds out you’re here…”

“Yeah, she’d be pretty upset, but I’m just on lunch break, I had to drive by this place to get where I’m going anyway. As long as I’m quick it should be fine.”

Alex nodded, “Well thanks for stopping by, then. Don’t worry I’m perfectly fine. I’ll probably be out in a day or two.”

“That’s great news. Look uh, I needed to talk to you anyways and this was just kind of convenient. Eliza awakened three days ago.”

Alex’s eyes widened, “Oh no.”

“Exactly. Legally she has to be tested to determine her rank, so your mother can’t complain about that. Of course she will anyway but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway that’s scheduled early next week. Thing is-“

“She’s already saying she wants to be a hunter,” Alex finished.

“Not where your mother can hear, thankfully, but yes.”

They both let the silence hang for a moment while Alex’s mind raced.

“She’s old enough. Legally, nobody can stop her,” he said after a moment.

“I know.”

“If you’re going to try and get me to talk her out of it… I won’t do that. You know how I feel, and if I got anything from mom, it was her stubbornness.”

“I know.”

Alex paused, “I can try to look after her, though. I may not be all that strong but… I’m at least experienced.”

“Alex, if she does decide to become a hunter, that’s all anyone could ask of you. What I’m hoping you’ll do first, though, is show her what it’s like.”

Alex frowned, “I can’t take her on a raid without her having a license. I’m not sure how you’ll manage that behind mom’s back.”

“You let us worry about that. It’s just… well. You once told me what type of raids have the highest fatalities, but I’m not sure I remember clearly. Would you mind running through that again?”

“Uh, odd change of topic but sure. Well, Red Gates have the highest death rates for sure. B and A-Rank gates very occasionally turn into Red Gates. I’ve never been in one personally, but it’s fairly well documented that once the initial party steps through the gate, about one in a few thousand can turn red: locking everyone else out of the gate and locking the party in. Besides that, the magic beasts inside Red Gates are typically far worse than the magic reading of the gate suggested, sometimes enough to actually increase the rank of the gate.”

Alex’s father nodded, “What about aside from Red Gates?”

“Well, that would be B-Rank gates. A-Rank gates require an S-Rank to enter, at least legally, but are still mostly handled by A-Rank hunters. B-Ranks are more common and often the guild associated with a particular gate sends only the bare minimum of two A-Rank hunters and fill rest with the B-Rank, or even C-Rank, hunters. It’s just more profitable that way.

“C-Rank gates sometimes have casualties, sure, but the legal requirements for those are actually safer. E and D-Ranks aren’t allowed in accept as back row, and they require two B-Ranks. That’s true whether it’s a guild or a Strike Team so, most of the time, nobody gets badly hurt. All raids accept S-Rank require at least one healer, but if you only bring one… well sometimes there’s more than one person needing their help at a time.”

Alex’s father had been looking more sick by the sentence, so Alex decided to dial back a bit, “Look, it’s still rare, but you asked so I answered. Even B-Rank gates almost never claim lives anymore. The country has gotten way better at this entire system. Besides, you don’t even know what rank Eliza is, yet. No need to worry.”

“Yeah…” John said, “But you’re telling me B-Rank gates have the highest number of accidents AND can turn into Red Gates?”

“Well… yeah that’s true,” Alex had to admit.

“So… if we can’t dissuade her… you’ll take her on a test trip… and if even that doesn’t work… you’ll look after her?”

“Father. It would be my honor.”