I was going to die.
Until—
Delta appeared in front of me.
"You're pathetic," he sneered.
"Useless. Just like I thought."
He grinned.
"Check your system."
I did.
There it was:
Temporary Regeneration – Duration: 1 Hour
---
I felt the surge.
Power rushed back.
Wounds stitched.
Level Up.
Screens popped everywhere.
Time to end this.
I leaned back, tightened my grip on my dagger—
Then leaned forward and dashed, flickering with speed.
Two wolves—the fastest—blocked my path.
They slowed me down, but I spun, slicing their heads clean off.
As their heads hit the ground—
I swapped with a wolf deeper inside the pack.
Right behind the Alpha Boss.
Before they could react,
Two more wolves down.
Two others leaped toward me.
Sigma – End of the Hunt
The ones attacking me — I stabbed them from behind, then looked straight at the one in front of me.
I snapped his neck.
That's when it happened — they began to fear me.
All of them stepped back.
Then the boss wolf stepped forward.
He was almost taller than me.
He walked like some model dog straight toward me, stared into my face, and said:
"Useless human."
I thought I snapped his head right there.
But nah, bro… the moment I blinked, he'd already pierced straight through me.
Then I woke up again… and he did it again.
That's when I realized — he wasn't attacking me from the front.
He was using a fake image of himself standing still while the real one was moving through the shadows and tearing me open.
At first, I thought I caught thin air — but no.
I'd actually caught his claw.
I jumped back immediately, activated my aura, and used my Filter Eyes — they allow me to see through illusions and find the original.
With that, I went back in.
I pulled out another dagger.
This time, it was game on.
Every time I attacked, his claws were right there — sharp, fast, brutal.
We fought so fast, I couldn't even see my own hands.
It was the first time I'd ever hit that kind of speed.
But I was hurting — fast.
The other wolves joined in.
They began overwhelming me — wave after wave.
So I gave it everything I had.
Screamed out loud, then used a technique the system gave me after leveling up:
"Hundred Fangs!"
A powerful combo used with Dash Flash style.
That one move wiped them all out.
I finished it by leaping forward, grabbing the boss by the throat, and ripping it out.
Victory.
---
For soloing the dungeon, I got a reward.
Actually, I got three rings:
The White Ring: Increases mana capacity by 50%.
The Black Ring: Reduces damage taken and increases body strength by 40%.
And the Void Ring: A storage ring — infinite space inside to store whatever I want.
If I wear both the white and black rings together, they boost an extra 10% each.
I put the Void Ring on my finger.
The other two? I stored them in my pocket.
---
The moment I walked out?
Same thing.
An S-Rank Hunter stood waiting for me.
He said:
"Any move… and you're dead."
I smiled. "Yes sir."
I slowly reached down to place my dagger on the ground...
But right at that moment — click-click.
I swapped myself.
Boom.
I was thrown into a shabby dark alley, between buildings — hidden and quiet.
There, I changed my mask.
I was still hurt badly.
Then a woman appeared.
She said,
"You're the one who's been doing all this… right?"
I replied, "What are you talking about?"
She said she needed my help.
She also said she had the power to give me a Hunter License, and she'd keep my identity a secret…
Only if I promised never to reveal anything about her or what she'd done for me.
Well, I guess this is my new life —
Pretending to be a good guy.
At least I got myself a license.
Time to start working as a real hunter.
Can't disappoint myself now.
It's been 3 months already.
Bro… we've trained so hard.
Even his voice is different now — deep, like a damn dragon.
His body? Built like a war general.
He used to be an ectomorph, but now? Solid. Solid like a tank.
Tomorrow is the big day.
We're finally going to break the curse.
When I said his family had a curse, I wasn't kidding.
Anyone who tries to use earth or sand manipulation to reach the fruit 500 meters underground… dies.
Because down there… there's something terrifying.
A massive serpent.
30 meters long, 10 meters tall — the largest one alive.
Tomorrow, we're sending him back to his family.
They're part of ancient history now.
---
Zephyr: "Yo… aren't we gonna train one last time?"
Me: "You nervous? Don't worry. She's coming tomorrow.
She'll skip the academy just for you."
Zephyr: "No, you're wrong. She's coming for the curse… not for me."
Me: "Come on, man. Be a man. If you like her — ask her out.
It's been months already!"
Zephyr: "But girls need years to accept that kind of thing…"
Me: "Bro, listen.
A man doesn't need years.
Sometimes it just takes a single glance at her back, and boom — love.
So yeah, you're a man.
Just do it."
Zephyr: "…I'll ask her. If I survive tomorrow."
Me: "You will."
---
That's when Layla showed up.
Layla: "Guys…"
Me: "What a coincidence. We were just talking about you."
Zephyr: "No! No, I wasn't— I wasn't blushing or anything…"
Me: "Bro, grow a pair.
We were saying if we die tomorrow, you'll be lonely."
Layla: "Don't say that…
If you die, I'll really die missing you."
I didn't say anything. Just nodded and left quietly.
Went somewhere alone and connected to Sigma through the system.
---
Me: "Yo, I wanna ask you something."
Sigma: "Go ahead."
Me: "I want my Teleportation skill. That's all I need.
Now that I'm recognized as an Aura User, I can't let them find out I can't use magic or mana. That'd be a red flag."
Sigma: "I've been using Swap for that reason.
Check your system."
> SYSTEM REMINDER:
YOU HAVE RECEIVED [TELEPORTATION] SKILL.
Me: "Thanks. That's all I needed."
I spent the whole night meditating.
Meanwhile, Sigma was chatting with someone on his system screen.
This world doesn't even need phones — you can do everything from watching vids to chatting through your screen.
---
Morning.
The Grand Head of the house came and personally woke us up.
"Good luck."
I put on my black comfy harem pants and black t-shirt.
Zephyr wore oversized trousers and the same shirt.
Matching fashion duo.
The door opened, and Layla came running.
She hugged us tight.
Me: "Give him a cheek kiss. Won't hurt that much."
She was so scared… but she did it.
Then she stepped back to watch with the others.
---
The moment my foot touched the ground —
Teleport.
Mid-air.
Zephyr ran straight to where I jumped from and started forming barriers with sand magic.
I'd once asked him,
"Do you know what the barrier colors mean?"
Zephyr: "No…"
Me: "Try changing it to red."
He did — and boom.
The barrier burst into flames.
Me: "Depending on the color, you can trigger magic indirectly.
Now, what else can you do?"
He learned to shape barriers — turning them into swords.
Me: "Shape a hundred barriers.
Create a sword army.
This is your new power — Barrier Alchemy."
He combined sand and barrier techniques, calling out every monster in range.
While all this was happening, I kept teleporting into the sky — vanishing from sight.
Up there, I saw the sun above the clouds.
Backflip.
Dagger out.
I dove straight down toward the battlefield.
The moment I neared the earth —
BOOM!
Explosions and screams everywhere.
I fluttered between teleportation points, aiming straight for the weak spots —
especially the jawline on the serpent types.
Zephyr, on the other hand, had shaped giant barrier swords, controlling them with ease.
It looked like he was walking on air.
But it wasn't air —
it was the barriers
beneath him, constantly forming.
---
More monsters are coming.
The curse battle has just begun.
But this time, we're ready.
And this time…
we're not dying.
The moment he stepped on another one, it got destroyed. And not to waste stamina, he was constantly using his shoe-size barriers. That's what I taught him.
As for me, I was using daggers to butterfly them all.
After that, we stood up — then two serpents came. They were so slippery, they even stuck to each other and started devouring.
Whenever I attacked one, the other would pull the other and throw it at me. And when I went for the other, they'd switch places.
If we can't beat these two… we can't defeat the last one.
Then I stood up — I got a nice idea.
I told him: "Create barriers around them but far, so they can't reach it. And make sure it's the longest barrier. Then cover them — form a ball all over using the barrier and change it to red."
He started throwing barriers while I deflected the attacks coming his way.
He did it — and then we stood up. He lifted them up in the sky.
The moment he raised them, the last serpent — the huge gigantic one, the only one that exists near human land — woke up and stood.
The red barriers were vaporizing the slippery, watery side of the two smaller serpents. He threw them at the big one's head, and before they reached, I teleported, rolled over their bodies, cut them into pieces, and stood on its head.
It saw me.
Then when it got drenched with the boiled poison blood of its own twin monster kids, it went into rage.
It opened its mouth and started collecting sand — it was powering up an attack called Poison Sand. Then it flashed it toward the city.
I ran straight at it — and Zephyr covered the wall with barriers. He used an attack.
The moment the serpent closed its mouth, I slashed its face into two parts — and kept going.
But when I reached its jaw, it exploded again using the same attack.
I teleported back and saw that the barrier user needed help. He pushed himself hard, so I gave him a potion and said: "Fight from the sidelines for now."
He began creating huge barriers and launching them at its body.
I used the barriers to jump, then I thought it was over when I destroyed its head — but nah, it regenerated.
The reason was simple — the tree roots nearby gave it regeneration.
Now that it regenerated, I loved it — "Let's go one more round."
The moment I ran to it, it came straight at me.
And I saw a core glowing inside when it regenerated — through its mouth.
That's when I knew — I had to attack the core.
But it grew small serpents all over the core's skin. So if I got close, I'd get swarmed.
I stood straight, stared it dead in the eyes, and then used speed and strength buffs.
Then I was fast — almost like sound.
I was attacking and defending hundreds of them in less than 30 seconds.
Eventually, when I got even closer, it started throwing more serpent clones at me.
I cut them all one by one and reached the core.
Then it used the clones again in a 360° dimensional attack, growing them in circles and making them fire poison sand.
No time to waste.
I was healing, so I teleported back, grabbed some chains, connected the daggers, caught one dagger, and started rotating the other.
I teleported mid-air, caught the chain in the middle, and used the sharp daggers as spinning attacks — doing variation attacks one by one.
It started getting cut all over its body because I was constantly moving and running.
Then, after I reached the tip from the back, I ran along its spine.
The monster was planning to launch a mega poison sand attack — and Zephyr was poisoned, and healing takes time.
So I used my strength — the moment it was about to launch, everyone was yelling:
"Quick sand!"
"Defense walls!"
Panic everywhere.
But Grand Murad, the late king's son — the firstborn and the uncle of Layla, said:
"This kid… he's something."
Even the highness himself came and said, "No one moves."
At that moment, everyone was shocked. They all gave their gratitude to both of us — they were watching the whole fight.
He said, "Just watch."
I caught the serpent's tail, rolled the chain around it, used my strength, and folded it in two.
Ten seconds before it launched its final attack.
I made it eat its own tail.
And Zephyr… even poisoned, he refused to give up.
He made red barriers — a massive ball-shaped one.
The moment I folded the serpent and fed it its own tail,
he threw the red barrier ball —
called AstroBarrier: Mega Explosion.
He used his barrier to come back, and I held the serpent down.
Then I teleported to the underground basement,
took the 3 fruits,
and walked out like a predator.
I came out like a king and said:
"That's my last fruit delivery job, Grand Master."
He laughed and came to me with the king.
While that was happening,
the barrier user finally confessed his love to her at the edge.
And when they asked, "Where's the other one?"
Boom — they're kissing out of nowhere!
We all laughed —
and for the first time,
I met the king.