Everything was quiet.
The sun was still high in the sky, but the desolate surroundings killed whatever joy a fresh morning might have brought.
Kael stood on top of a hill, staring down at the group of people gathering around his nephew's tomb. The last time he had seen his nephew was three years ago. The young teenage boy had just awakened as a Hunter.
His older sister and her husband were so happy that they immediately threw him a party. When Kael heard the news, he was happy for him. He did not hesitate to buy a Basic Guide to Becoming a Hunter, along with a B-Class weapon, and gifted them to his nephew.
Kael could still remember the smile on his nephew's face when he opened the gift. That smile was still etched into Kael's memory.
Even though the owner of that smile was now lying in the cold, hard ground, and his family was preparing to bury him beneath the soil forever.
Nobody knew Kael was there.
Not even his older sister, the very person who had loved and supported him when their parents died.
In fact, no one knew he was still alive.
His family thought he was dead. The world believed he was gone, along with the forty-nine individuals who originally formed the "Special Army" fourteen years ago.
Almost fifteen years ago, portals as huge as black holes began appearing all over the world. Back then, Kael and his older sister were at school, attending class. He went to his sister's classroom so they could go to lunch together. But neither he nor the students present expected a portal to suddenly appear at the building's exit, preventing anyone from leaving or entering.
At the time, his sister suffered from a weak heart condition. The shock of seeing massive mutated animals and creatures that could only be found in movies and comics caused her to lose consciousness and collapse.
Kael remembered carrying his sister's body with his frail fourteen-year-old frame, desperately trying to find an exit. He remembered seeing other students screaming in pain as monsters caught them and devoured them alive.
He remembered seeing his neighbor desperately crawling on the ground with both legs missing. He could still recall the horror he felt when he saw a monster bite into his neighbor's severed leg before swallowing him whole, without leaving a single drop of blood behind.
And it was at that moment that he failed to realize a monster was already behind him. It snatched his sister away and bit into her shoulder.
He remembered pushing the monster away. Acting on instinct, he dragged his sister and locked her inside the utility room before the monster could reach him.
He was supposed to die that day.
But he didn't.
A message appeared before him, stating that the sacrifice he made for his sister was commendable, and that he had been given a gift.
At first, Kael could not understand it. Soon enough, he realized that the "gift" was a superpower. With a single touch, the monster that attacked him disintegrated into dust, and the wounds it inflicted healed in the blink of an eye.
Desperate, he touched his sister, and her wounds healed as well.
Overjoyed, Kael went around touching every monster he encountered. All of them died from a single touch of his hand.
That was the beginning.
Fourteen years later, he stood beneath the scorching heat of a cloudless sky, watching his sister's hunched figure. He stayed for the next four hours, until everyone had left.
With a bouquet in hand, he approached his nephew's tomb.
Kael felt a soft wind brush against his cheek. He bent down and placed the bouquet at the front of the tombstone.
Kyle WoodhartSeptember 20, 2009January 30, 2026
Remembered dearly by family and friends.
"Dying at only seventeen," Kael murmured.
His sister admired Kael and had one-sidedly decided to name her eldest son after him, hoping her child would become a Hunter just like his uncle.
And the innocent young man became just like him. Kyle also died. The only difference is Kael's death is fake while his is real.
Kael stood in front of the tomb for another thirty minutes before his phone vibrated in his pocket, pulling him out of his stupor.
"Yes?"
"Hey, Clyde, where are you?"
Clyde is an alias Kael introduced himself to anyone he met.
Kael did not answer. The man on the phone knew he wouldn't get one anyway, so he continued.
"Look, the Hunter Association contacted our guild and hired us to recover the damages caused by the dungeon explosions nearby. According to your smartwatch's GPS, you're the closest to the site. I'll send you the location, okay?"
A small beep came from Kael's smartwatch. He tapped the screen, and a transparent display popped up, showing a map with red lines marking the route he needed to take.
Estimated drive time: 3 hours and 9 minutes.
Kael: "..."
The man seemed to know Kael had seen the travel time and laughed.
"I told the Association you'd be there in ten minutes—"
"It's three hours away," Kael said.
"Then use your mana transportation stone," the man replied patiently.
"I don't have one," Kael said.
"Oh, really? The guild provides ten mana transportation stones to each of its members every month, and they're free. I checked your records, and the database shows you haven't used a single one. Not even one. So how can you say you don't have one? Unless you've been using them as fuel substitutes to save on gas. Am I right?"
Kael fell silent. The man knew he had hit the mark and continued.
"So be there in ten—no, eight minutes and forty seconds, all right? Remember, if you're even one second late, I'll have Matthew transfer some of his workload to you."
"...I'll be there," Kael promised.
"Good! Off you go, then!"
Matthew's workload is packed with extreme physical labor. Lifting heavy collapsed debris and rescuing citizens who fell victim of dungeon explosions... Kael felt his head ache just imagining it.