The world was no longer the same.
When the first Dungeon Gates tore through the sky a decade ago, humanity thought it was the end. Cities fell, monsters spilled out, and entire nations vanished overnight. Yet… humanity adapted. From the chaos rose Awakened Ones, men and women blessed—or cursed—with Systems that allowed them to wield powers beyond comprehension.
To survive, civilization restructured itself around a new order: Ranks.
F-Rank: The weakest, often cannon fodder. Their skills are simple, their stats minimal.
E-Rank: A step higher, but still replaceable.
D-Rank: The backbone of dungeon expeditions. Reliable but far from extraordinary.
C-Rank: Respected fighters, strong enough to lead smaller raids.
B-Rank: Powers that could devastate battlefields alone. Often wealthy and influential.
A-Rank: Walking weapons, enough to bend nations' will.
S-Rank: Legends. The pinnacle of humanity, able to rival entire armies.
And then… there were rumors of something beyond S-Rank. A rank so rare it was more myth than truth: World-Rank. Beings said to hold powers rivaling the very essence of creation itself. No one had yet proven its existence and knowing how mysterious existence was who knew whether there was more out there ?...
The Protectors
To manage the chaos, the world united under one global guild: The Protectors. A mix of government, military, and business elites, they became both saviors and opportunists. Their mission was simple on paper: protect humanity from dungeon threats.
In reality, they were businessmen first, saviors second.
The Protectors controlled access to dungeons, regulated who could enter, taxed monster materials, and auctioned rare beast cores. Their headquarters—massive towers in every continent—were symbols of both hope and greed.
Inside one such headquarters, in the city of Arcanvale, Protectors sat around a long crystal-lit table.
"Dungeons are multiplying at an unstable rate," said a sharp-suited man, sliding glowing charts across the table. "Each one an opportunity for profit. Core trade is already up by 67% this quarter."
Another chuckled darkly. "Good. The more dungeons appear, the richer we become. And with every new recruit we send in, we gain both money and free labor. The weak die. The strong return stronger. It's a self-cleansing system."
The others nodded, their smiles cold.
Meanwhile, Kael sat cross-legged in the corner of a cramped inn room. His battered cloak lay folded beside him, his sword propped against the wall. In front of him floated the faint blue hologram of his Skill Tree, branching out like veins of fire and smoke.
[Skill Tree: Bloodline Tree – LOCKED][Skill Tree: Skill Combination – ACTIVE]
The words pulsed softly, mocking his current weakness. He clenched his fist.
"To get stronger… I need skill books. And to buy those books, I need cores."
Cores were everything. Beast cores, harvested from slain monsters, could be used to:
Absorb directly → leveling up the system's rank.
Sell for gold → to buy higher-rank skill books, weapons, or artifacts.
Kael's system was unique though. Unlike others who could stack as many skills as they wanted, his system demanded sacrifice.
If he fused two or more basic skills to create a higher-tiered skill, he lost the originals forever. It was a dangerous trade-off: more power, less variety.
Yet in that restriction, Kael saw possibility.
"I don't need a hundred skills… I need the right ones. The strongest ones."
His eyes burned with quiet determination.
A Glimpse of What's Coming
Somewhere, far across the continent, another dungeon gate cracked open in the night sky. A shriek thundered from within, shaking mountains. Villages below scattered in terror.
At the same time, inside The Protectors' headquarters, a cloaked figure leaned forward in the shadows, whispering to the guild leaders:
"An anomaly has appeared in the dungeon reports… a boy with a system that doesn't match the records."
And in his small inn room, Kael unknowingly set his first true goal:
Clear dungeons. Gather beast cores. Buy better skill books and Level up.
His adventure was no longer about surviving—it was about rising high enough to tear down the chains binding this corrupted world and this was the perfect time to do so - The Apocalypse.
But as Kael began to think he realized he's not really gotten to know much about his system "I have to know what he had to be able to effectively use it" he thought as he said out loud "System what are you ?"