Chapter 2
Title: What is a guardian?
At the time, I had no idea what awakening as a Guardian truly meant. But one thing was clear: I had never felt so light on my feet, and my sword had never felt so powerful.
I reached the demons, and in the crowd, I recognized a familiar face. A bloated, grotesque demon—the one who had swallowed my siblings whole. I leapt into the air, and filled with hatred and anger I used all my strength bringing my sword down in a brutal arc, splitting the demon's skull in half as we both hit the ground.
By the time I was back on my feet, all the other demons were staring at me, evil grins stretching across their twisted faces. I yanked my sword from the demon's corpse and pointed it at the rest as they began inching closer.
*Ding*
### You just got your first kill—Nice!!###
You have killed the Demon Squad Leader: Rut the Glut (C+). Rewards: 700 XP + 1,000 XP (Bonus Xp: first 'named' demon kill).
*Ding*
##Levelup!##
You are now Level 2. +1 Skill Point +5 Stat Points
*Ding*
##Level Up!##
You are now Level 3. +1 Skill Point +5 Stat Points
*Ding*
##Level Up!##
You are now Level 4. +1 Skill Point +5 Stat Points
The windows continued all the way to level 7.
*Ding*
##Reminder###
To check your stats, simply tap your forehead and think 'stat window' Only you can see your stats—no other Guardian can.
The messages kept popping up, but I didn't have time to read them. One of the demons charged me. Instinctively, I angled my sword and jumped to meet it, plunging the blade through its chest. I kicked it off and used the momentum to leap backward, sprinting toward the gate.
For some reason a chill went up my spine and every fiber in my body screamed 'run!'
*Ding*
## Nice Kill ##
Killed Demon (D) reward: 100 XP
The demons chased me back through the portal. As the first few crossed, a roar—so loud it shook the very ground—erupted from inside the gate. The demons froze mid-step, their grins vanishing.
I seized the opportunity. I rushed the nearest one, sliced off its leg, and as it hit the ground, I took its head.
*Ding*
## Nice Kill ##
Killed Demon (C) Reward: 100 XP
Another charged me!
*BOOM!*
Like a flash of lightning, a massive spear shot through the gate, impaling the demon and slamming into the ground beside me. As the demon's body slumped, I looked toward the gate past the corpse.
There, inside, stood a being whose eyes were redder than blood, taller than the demon who had slain my father. He had four massive black horns, skin like molten crimson, and a giant double-headed axe strapped to his back.
We locked eyes. A grin crept across his face, and a shiver of death ran down my spine.
He could've killed me—I knew it. The precision of that spear alone made that clear. But for some reason, he let me live.
The demons who had followed me backed away, returning through the gate. The giant demon pointed at me with his finger and winked.
Then the gate vanished, replaced by a massive stone wall. With pillars on its sides.
I collapsed to my knees and cried—this time from relief. I'd at least avenged my siblings.
I wandered through the village, gathering supplies—gold, clothes, food. I was determined to grow stronger. I read through all my new stats and skills, testing the blessing I'd been granted. I collected these crystals, unsure of what they were for yet, that appeared after the demon body's vanished from both the demons my father had killed and the ones I'd slain myself. (Later to be called mana crystals)
Once I'd gathered what I needed, I stood before the gate one last time and placed my hand on the stone.
"I swear," I whispered, "I'll get revenge for my parents."
*Ding*
##Hell's Gate – 98th Floor (SS Rank)##
This gate leads to the 98th floor of Hell.
Currently on cooldown.
Time remaining until next open: 4 years, 364 days, 22 hours, 11 minutes.
Even as a boy, I knew this was just the beginning of a brutal war.
I buried my parents and what was left of my siblings beneath an old oak tree that had stood since before I was born. The hill overlooked our estate—once a place of laughter, now just a quiet land soaked in blood and memory. After speaking a few final words, I carved our family name into the thick, weathered bark. I let my fingers trail over the rough etching, then turned and walked away.
I couldn't bear to stay.
I set out to become stronger—to restore what was lost, to reclaim my territory. The counts and barons who still bent the knee rallied to my call. During my travels, I studied the blessings of the Goddesses and the nature of the Gates. I learned everything I could, every scrap of knowledge that might one day tip the scales in our favor.
I taught my people how to become Guardians. We secured a low-level Gate and converted it into a training ground, cycling recruits through it until we forged warriors instead of victims. Slowly, brick by brick, we rebuilt our territory. We made our people stronger.
And before I knew it, five years had passed.
I returned to the estate with an army of Guardians. Our goal was simple: destroy the Hell's Gate that had slaughtered my family. But when it opened—nothing came through.
We waited. Watched. For nothing.
So I set out to gather more information on why.
Here's what I learned over the years.
When someone from the Middle Dimension crosses into a Gate and awakens as a Guardian, they're presented with three potential jobs—each gifted by a different Goddess.
The Goddess of Life, Epatra, offers classes rooted in light and healing.
The Goddess of Death, Adith, grants assassin-oriented classes: high-damage, quick speed, high perception, specialized killers.
And the Goddess of Balance, Sarien, bestows classes that are suited to you specifically, based on your experience and natural talent.
There were a few outliers here and there from the goddesses granting a job that didn't align with the presets, but these were typically the A-rank or S-rank jobs.
Jobs were ranked from F to S, F being weak, S being exceptional. Each granting a different amount of starter points in stats.
The different stats where:
STR, investing points into strength directly correlated to how much damage you did to an enemy.
VIT the amount of health you had.
INT was the amount of mana you had.
AGI was how fast you moved.
PER was how fast, far and detailed one could see.
That was the standard—for everyone except two people. That I knew of.
Myself… and Bella.
When I awakened, I was granted a job marked "1 of 1"—a job only 1 person could obtain. Its ranking was (Unknown) when it gave me my three choices and then was later revealed to be (SS). It didn't take long to understand how powerful it was.
Bella, our party's healer, also received a 1-of-1 job. The daughter of a count who perished in the first invasion, she rose from despair to lead and rebuild her people. The Goddess of Life smiled on her kindness, and granted her a 1 of 1 unique healing job.
Every level gained came with five stat points and one skill point. Basic skills were either granted at awakening or inherited from preexisting knowledge.
The only way to get new skills was from skill scrolls dropped by demons. Though you had to be careful which ones you selected due to the fact you could only have a certain number of skills per level.
Skills could not be ranked higher than your job rank so talent played a huge part in your ability to get stronger. Instead of naturally trying to level up your skills though you could instead use skill points to upgrade your skill. 5 skill points for F to E, 10 for E to D and so on increasing by 5 each time.
Not all Guardians chose to fight—some awakened only to use their skills in farming, crafting, or politics. Even merchants and nobles would awaken to boost influence with skills like Charisma or crafting.
But it wasn't the basic skills that truly mattered. It was the unique skills.
Unique skills couldn't be learned. They were branded into you the moment you awakened—and whatever rank they held then, they would remain.
These were what separated the elite from the rest.
If your unique skill was weak—even with a powerful job—you were labeled useless. But if your unique skill was strong, even the lowest-ranked Guardian might rise to greatness.
Because of this, people guarded their skills and stats like secrets. Suspicion and betrayal spread through parties like rot, until someone finally figured out how to use mana stones to share stats voluntarily using a C-rank mana crystal. Trust became easier—though never guaranteed.
Guardians only had one unique skill. I had two.
Both came with descriptions, effects, instructions—everything a Guardian needed to understand them. All but one. My second unique skill, Misfortune, offered no explanation. No guidance. No hint of what it could do.
I tried everything to figure it out. But it remained a blank mystery, lurking beneath my skin.
I dove deeper into my studies, expanding beyond just skills and stats. I turned my attention to the Gates themselves.
With the help of other kingdoms, we estimated there to be 100 Hell's Gates scattered across the continent. Most had been found. But Gates 90 through 97, Gate 99, Gate 100, and Gate 50 remained missing.
Each Gate had its own ranking—its own difficulty level. The deeper the Gate, the harder the fight.
Demons could cross over from their dimension during gate invasions. They had twenty-four hours before the portal closed again. If they were still on our side when it shut, they turned to dust—leaving behind nothing.
After an invasion, a Gate would enter cooldown. The stronger the Gate, the longer it remained dormant. The shortest we'd seen was ten minutes (Gate 2). The longest, five years (Gate 98).
Guardians were allowed to invade the Gates once every 24 hours, in teams of no more than six.
A Gate could be destroyed in only two ways:
Destroy the Dimensional Orb powering it.Kill the Floor's General and Crush his mana crystal—a powerful demon who served the King of Hell.
Either act would collapse the Gate.
Except for Floor 1.
There was no Orb. No General. The portal remained wide open, bidirectional, with no cooldown and no limit to how many could pass through.
Using that knowledge, we created training grounds out of the easier gates. We'd invade, kill everything and leave the generals mana crystal behind, then exit. By the next team's entry, the floor had reset—same demons, same challenge.
It became our crucible. A place to sharpen blades and skills.
Then I began to study the demons themselves.
They came in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Some fought out of instinct, others for hunger, and a rare few simply for the joy of it. They didn't have levels like we did—instead, they had rankings. The higher the rank, the more experience you earned for the kill.
Some demons were named. Stronger than their kin. Intelligent. Capable of memory.
They were the true danger.
Most demons forgot you the moment you left the Gate. Not the Named. They remembered. They studied your movements, remembered your fighting style—even if you'd killed them before. When you'd raid the gate again, they would respawn with all that knowledge intact.
When a demon died, they dropped mana crystals. The crystal's rank reflected the demon's. These could be used to:
Forge weapons and gear Sell and trade for coin or skills Or share your skills and stats publicly, if the crystal was ranked C or higher.
With every victory, my name spread. I gathered skilled Guardians, cleared Gates across the human kingdoms, and became known by a single title:
The Guardian of Lukeauh.
Things were going smoothly. Until I came home.
Back to Gate 98.
It had been another five years.
There was a stillness in the air. The kind that coils around your spine and whispers that something terrible is watching.
I spoke with my party, shared my unease. We agreed—if there was a threat, waiting for the invasion wouldn't save anyone.
We decided to invade first.
I was ready, I was finally strong enough to take on the gate after 10 long years.
None of us had ever beat an S-rank or higher Gate before. The risk was massive. But if we failed to act, and that Gate burst open on its own… the loss of life would be unimaginable.
So we stepped through.
And I, like a fool, led them straight into the pits of hell.
We knew next to nothing about the enemy. Nothing about the terrain. No strategies. No preparation.
And because of that…
I got everyone killed.
Except Bella, she was taken. I was the only one who made it back.
Grief turned into rage. And that rage burned into something even more dangerous: desperation.
The next day, I stepped into the Gate alone. I was going to bring Bella and the others back—or die trying.
But before I passed through, something happened.
I blinked—just once—and everything around me disappeared.
I found myself in a white void. So quiet, I could hear my own heartbeat echoing like thunder.
I hadn't even moved when a voice, calm and elegant, spoke from behind me.
"Come here. I have something for you… for your desperate heart."
I turned.
And saw her.
She was so beautiful I could've gone blind.
Dark black hair. Smooth tan skin. A little shorter than me. Her eyes were bronze and glowing, like molten metal beneath sunlight. Her pupils shimmered with a star-shaped iris.
White wings stretched from her back—angelic and wide. A blue halo floated above her head, humming faintly.
She wore a single-piece tunic the color of desert sand, with golden etchings running the length of it. Intricate symbols traced her collar down to her ankles. It hugged her body in a way that revealed her slim waist and generous curves—graceful, but powerful.
Gold dots ran across her face in a straight line beneath her eyes. She was barefoot, standing atop a dune of soft, glimmering sand.
In her right hand she held a glowing balance scale. In her left, a floating hourglass, sand frozen in time.
Her hair was tied into a long braid, woven with golden threads that shimmered with each step she took as she descended the hill toward me.
I was too stunned to move. I could only watch as she approached.
Then she spoke.
"My name is Sarien. I am the Goddess of Order. The youngest of the Three, and the protector of balance in the Middle dimension."
Her voice was soft—every word chosen with deliberate care.
"I created the Guardian system as a response to the God of Calamity's invasion. His actions broke the laws that prevent divine beings from interfering with mortal affairs. My sisters and I have made it our duty to restore that balance… and you, Basileus Narciss, are one of our chosen weapons. No, rather, MY chosen weapon."
I asked "Why me?"
She smiled.
"Because, you chose me."
And I remembered. When I first awakened, I'd been furious. Lost in grief. When given the choice between the three jobs, I'd picked one of the two remaining at random—angry at the Goddess of Life for her pity.
I asked Sarien what the God of Calamity wanted. Why he had come.
"To control the middle dimension"
"But what matters now," she said, "is pushing him back."
Then she reached forward and placed her palm over my heart.
"You are now the Goddess's Guardian. Mine. No matter where you are, if I need you, I will send an avatar to summon you. You will protect me—and the balance of the dimensions."
And with that, she gave me two gifts.
Immortality and Overview Sight.
Immortality meant I would never age. No matter how I died, I would fully regenerate in twelve hours.
Overview Sight allowed me to see the stats of other Guardians and also grants me a personal inventory.
Before sending me back, she gave me a final warning.
"Soon, the God of Calamity may gain enough power to walk the dimensions freely. That is when I will need you most, Basil."
The way she said my nickname… the way she smiled when she said it… it caught me off guard. I blushed.
And when I blinked again—
—I was standing right where I was before.
❧