《Dead Emotion》


 Chapter 1: Lyden Willwalker

    What stood in front of him was a silhouette of a man. In front of him was dense fog that made it hard to see any details about him. In front of the silhouette of the man was a heavily injured person.


    One of his arms was missing as blood formed a puddle beneath him.


    "I gave you a choice, and you still want to defy me! Defy my authority!?" the being behind the fog spoke in a deep fiery voice. "The chance to reincarnate, the chance to have a second life, a chance that few ever get to have. Yet, why do you defy me till the end, my student?"


    ''My student¡­'' The middle age looking man pondered in melancholic eyes. The man laying on the ground was Ronald Willwalker, and they indeed did have a master and student relationship. Although their relationship was by pure chance unlike his other students, he looked up to him like a parental figure he never had.


    "You have to¡­ realized that thing you created¡­is flawed! Look at you now¡­ You are not the same master I knew..." Ronald was panting hard as he spoke. One side of his lungs was punctured.


    "SILENCE!" The master before him bellowed out causing the fog to vibrate around them.


    Ronald knew how stubborn his master was, but he wanted to give it a shot. He wanted his master to listen to him, but it was all for naught. Ronald stared at the blood beneath as he slowly came to a decision.


    "Fine, I give up¡­ I accept..." Ronald said in defeat.


    "Good, my student. But just in case, eat this." The man behind the fog floated a small size pellet towards him with a simple wave of his hands. It landed on the blood beneath Ronald.


    Ronald picked it up, struggling like it bare the weight of a mountain. With great hesitation, he swallowed it.


    Ronald felt the coldness coursing through his body. He smiled bitterly. He had failed himself, and he had failed his master.


    When Ronald''s master saw him swallowed it, he aimed his finger at Ronald''s forehead. A burst of light shot forth him.


    "Now go forth and carry your mission¡­ Until we see each other again" The fog dissipated along with the man within it leaving only the corpse of the middle-aged man. The corpse was slowly blurring out of existence until it seems like nothing ever happened at all.


    ***


    In front of a restaurant, a young man was giving out free samples in a basket.


    "Would you like to try some teriyaki chicken?" the young man asked politely. However, the stranger ignores his approach.Stolen novel; please report.


    The young man, named Lyden WillWalker, sighed as he thought about how pitiful his job was, but he could not give up since it was not easy to find a job these days.


    After several hours, he was finally done with his shift and was preparing to go home.


    A slight tremor shook beneath the town.


    [Emergency, a tower have been detected. All citizen please evacuate the vicinity.]


    Lyden saw everybody peacefully leaving the area. Even Lyden was not surprised about the slight tremor or the announcement he heard. He casually walked home like everybody else.


    The existence of the towers appearing randomly had been happening for three years. With the spread of information, people were not ignorant about it for the most part.


    As Lyden walked towards the lit ally way, he saw a young boy looking around in a panic. The lost child was on a verge of tears as he looked around for his parents.


    Lyden carefully approached the young and gave a kind smile. "Hey, is everything alright?" Lyden asked softly so he does not spook him.


    "My parents, I got scared and ran. I can''t find them" The boy said with an anxious look on his face.


    "It is ok, I''m sure they are not far. Let''s head back to where you last saw them."


    The boy simply nodded as he wiped his tears and followed beside Lyden.


    They are many people walking in the street due to the evacuation. Hence, it was hard to spot his parents.


    Lyden noticed the boy anxiety and thought that this might be the first time he saw an event such as this. That expression reminded him of the ones of his younger brothers.


    "Is this your first time being in something like this?" Lyden tried to console him.


    "Yes, my friends told me about this, but I have never seen it happen before. My parents said if something like this happened, go somewhere safe."


    "I see. Well, there is nothing to be afraid of. How about I show you something cool. Ever heard of hunters?" Lyden asked.


    The boy shook his head.


    "They are like superheroes. They will protect you from scary things, trust me. My older brother is a hunter ." As he spoke, Lyden was about to recall something, but he quickly suppressed it.


    Anyway, he guided the boy so they can see where the tremor originated from a safe distance couple of miles away.


    There they saw a tower that rose from beneath the area. Fortunately, the place where tower rose from was an abandoned hospital waiting to be demolished.


    "What is that!?" The boy gasps in curiosity. He locked his eyes towards the tall black tower.


    "That is the tower of lost worlds, and those who wander in there will never return home ever again." He teased.


    "Really?" The child shivered a bit when he heard that.


    Lyden quickly reflected on his action. "I am kidding. Hunters return from such towers many of time."


    "Can we see it up close?"


    "Not possible. You will have to be a hunter with a hunter permit or else it is deemed illegal."


    "Are you a hunter too? You seem to know a lot about this."


    "Not really," Lyden said with a bitter smile like he had something to had.


    "Can I be a hunter too?" The boy''s eyes lit big.


    "Hmm, maybe. I cannot say. Maybe you will be chosen someday."


    "Really? Who chooses them?" After hearing Lyden talking, he was more curious about the towers and hunters. The young boy anxious face was filled with curiosity.


    "I do not know the requirements to be chosen. It can be just a lottery or maybe something more."


    Lyden and the boy looked back at the tower. They can already see a few hunters driving there with the U.S army.


    "Now that the hunters are here, let''s go look for your parents. It should be easier to spot them since the crowds had settled down."


    The boy reluctantly agreed, peeling his eyes away from the tower and the hunters.

 Chapter 2: Tower

    Lyden returned home after finding the boy''s parents.


    The sun was beginning to set across the horizon. Lyden was worried that if he was late to get home, there would not be any food left for him. Therefore, Lyden quickened his pace to make haste.


    His home was far out from the town so he had to trudge through the wood until he reached the orphanage. Lyden had lived in the orphanage house for pretty much all his life. Before that, he could not recall much.


    After half an hour of walking, he saw a white orphanage house. The orphanage was named ''The Willwalker Homage.'' Lyden had never met the person who built this place, but he heard a few stories about him from others and there was even an autobiography written about him


    Lyden entered and walked to the dining hall where he saw 13 of his brothers and sisters. In there own separate table, there was his two Housemother enjoying their food.


    "My apology on my lateness, Housemother Nanci, Housemother Tera." Lyden gave a formal apology.


    "It is alright. I heard that a tower had arisen in the town." One of the two house parents, Nanci said.


    "Yes indeed, but there was no casualty and the tower appeared in a vacant area so the town was not severely damaged," Lyden replied.


    "That is good to hear. Our grace had protected the people of this town from suffering."


    Just before he heads back to his room to change clothes, he rummaged through his pockets. "Before I forget, here you go." Lyden took out one of the two paychecks he received today. It is required to donate 70% of their earnings to help the orphanage. They said it was to provide things like food and cleaning supplies for all the children.


    "Thank you, Lyden, you should go change before you eat." Nanci kindly said when she accepted the check.


    When Lyden head back to his room, his eyes slightly lit with anger in the dark.


    ''We should not have to offer so much of our hard-earned money. Ever since they came here two years ago, they are just doing whatever they please.'' Lyden was not only the one working, and the other had to donate just as much to them.


    Before Nanci and Tera became their Housemothers, there used to be another. Her name was Jasmine Willwalker, the daughter of the man who built this place. She was like a saint to the children. She actively teaches them every day as well as provide them without asking for anything in return. Because of her, the children regarded her as their mother.


    Many of the children had their last name changed to be Willwalker because of her. It was the same for Lyden.


    Unlike Jasmine, Nanci and Tera would exploit the children as they see fit.


    Lyden was not worried for himself since he had other means to make money, but he did worried about the others.


    Lyden had turned 18 last week, thus he was the oldest one in this orphanage.


    He was also planning to leave the orphanage place last week, but he decided to delay it.


    Suddenly, a quiet knock came from behind the door. Lyden opened it to see two of his siblings.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    One was a blonde-haired girl and the other was a boy taller than her standing beside her.


    "Tiff, and Joey, what are you doing here? Are you guys done eating?" Lyden smiled with no hint of anger from before. "I''m about to take a shower before heading down."


    "I heard there a tower appeared near your workplace. I was wondering if you are ok?" Tiff softly spoke with a worried expression.


    "I''m fine. The hunters got there before anything happen."


    Joey simply nodded before heading back down and Tiff followed after.


    Lyden had a long history with those since the three been here ever since they were young.


    An hour passed, and Lyden finished his meal alone while the rest of his brothers and sisters were getting ready for bed.


    By the time he got to his bedroom, he saw five of his brothers, including joey, were already fast asleep.


    "I am going to go for a bit, but I will come back soon," Lyden whispered. He grabbed his backpack and stored some water and food he bought before he left.


    Lyden walked outside of the orphanage.


    The sky was lit with white stars and a full moon hanging over him.


    Lyden looked at the moon like with determination.


    "I will do it. A loser like me can only struggle until the end." Lyden recalled his past as he walked back to town.


    When he was in school, he did not have much care and only enjoy a stress-free life. He blew off school because he did not understand the value of education until it was too late. Nevertheless, he was still able to graduate due to the ''No Child Left Behind Act,'' and probably because the teacher gave up on him, and wanted him gone.


    He had no talent because all he did was hang out with his classmates until all of them left the small town to go to college or find work.


    But when a miracle happened, it was taken away as easily as it was given.


    But he knows, if he let his past drag him down, then forever, he will be the biggest loser.


    "I will cast my old self away. I will struggle to find my own path. I will enter the tower." He had nothing to lose and much to gain.


    He spent many years with his brothers and sisters, but he knew that someday they will all grow up, and will leave him behind. It was all the same just likes his friends and his parents, who he can''t even recall.


    However, he wanted to become someone they can look up to and not be pitied. It was a sense of pride he had left.


    After half an hour of walking, he made it through the town. Unlike a city, the small town was barely lit. The street lamps were the only thing guiding him through the night.


    Occasionally, military vehicles would drive by him. They seemed to be heading towards the tower also.


    When Lyden got close to the tower, there were guards on duty. One of the guards saw Lyden approaching.


    "Hold it there, no one can go there without clearance or a hunter permit." The guard said in a stern voice.


    "I am a hunter and came to enter the tower." Lyden handed his hunter permit from his wallet to the guard. The guard lit a flashlight to see.


    "I also need to see sigil on your body."


    Lyden revealed his lower wrist, showing a sigil with two white stars. Then the guard handed him back his permit and pointed him to the entrance of the tower.


    A sigil was a sign of a hunter. All hunters have a white sigil somewhere on their body.


    However, some would tattoo a sigil on their body to disguise themselves as a hunter to sneak inside the tower. For those that do succeed on sneaking in, only death waits for them inside. That was because only hunters could survive in there.


    Near the entrance, Lyden saw at least dozens of other hunters waiting to be let in inside.


    Lyden stood next to one of the tower''s pillar and waited patiently to be let in, as well as the others. With nothing else to do, he would eavesdrop in other people conversation. Lyden felt no guilt since it was a way to gather information.


    "It seems that the US government are increasing their authority in regards to us, freelance hunters. How annoying... " a woman said with an attitude.


    "Even if hunters are stronger than ordinary people, we can easily be killed with a bullet. It is best not to be swallowed up in your ego and do something you will regret." the man replied to her with a carefree tone. "By the way, have you gathered enough people? The more we have, the better the chance we will come back alive."


    "I did, but all the hunters here are mostly 1-star. The first team got all the goods one and already went inside. So in the end, I managed to get 3 1-star hunters on our team."


    "That seems pretty low." The man looked around to see if there was anyone else. "How about that guy standing near the pillar. He has been looking at us. Perhaps, he does not have a team, yet."


    "You should go ask then," The woman told the man as if she was tired from walking around all day.

 Chapter 3: New Team

    ''Crap. They noticed me,'''' Lyden had a habit of looking at the direction of what he was hearing.


    He saw the buff man walking towards him, but since he got caught, he might as well introduce himself.


    "Hey, did you just came by? I did not notice you earlier." The man said.


    "Yeah," Lyden put on a friendly face. "It took a while to walk here so I was a bit late."


    "You''re not that late. There was a team that went ahead of us, but they should be out soon. Anyway, I''m Gary Steele a 2-stars hunter, and we are looking for another member to raid the tower. We already have 5 people on the team."


    Lyden did not know much about hunters, much less in raiding towers. He only met two other hunters in his life, one of his friend, and someone who used to live at the orphanage. But they were not there in his life for very long.


    "This is my first time doing this. I honestly have no clue what to expect." Lyden gave an awkward laugh as he scratched his head.


    When Lyden said that, Gary expectation of him lowered.


    ''Everybody had to start somewhere, but I cannot bring a newbie like him. If we had to protect him, I can lose another team member. I can''t risk their life on a gamble.'' Gary was about to leave, but he saw the sigil on Lyden''s wrist.


    "You''re a 2-stars hunter!?" Gary asked surprisingly. The chances for someone to awaken as a 1-star hunter are 75% and to be awakened as a 2-stars was only 25% percent. Beyond that, it was rare and those were the hunters that usually get snatched by the big-time companies or government.


    "Yes!" Lyden was caught off guard by Gary changed of tone.


    "That''s great. You should join our team. We are in need of more people. We already have two 2-stars hunters including me." Gary tried to sound pleasing as possible but he saw Lyden hesitating for some reason. "We will split the rewards based on contribution so do not worry that we will short-handed you."


    Lyden was hesitant because of the team. In all actuality, they have a decent amount of people and even two 2-stars in their team. It is a good team to be a part of for someone with little experience.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The reason he was hesitant was another reason that made him feel powerless. However, he needed to enter for his own sake.


    "I''ll join," Lyden said.


    Gary was glad that he wrapped his one of his arms around Lyden''s neck.


    "Good. You have made the right choice."


    Lyden showed signs of discomfort with Gary being so close to him. He tapped on Gary''s arm to tell him to let go.


    "Alright, let''s go meet the team." The entire team was waiting for the two of the team. Lyden saw the woman that was with Gary before, and three other people he had seen yet.


    "It seems that we are ready to enter soon. Before that, let''s introduce to each other as well our aretisite," The woman said with enthusiasm.


    Aretisites look like a cross between a parasite and another living organism, and they grant people magical abilities. Some awakened but reject their aretisites but of their disgusting look, thus, causing it to die.


    Aretisites need specific nutrients to be kept alive from their host body. However, by doing so, they grant their host power to protect themselves. It was a symbolic relationship between the aretisite and the hunter.


    Aretisites were something that every awakened hunter was gifted. Without it, they were nothing but normal humans.


    Also, their strength depended on the stars on their body. The higher the star, the stronger the abilities. However, they needed more nutrients to stay alive. If hunters do not constantly eat, the aretisite could kill them.


    "My name is Maina, and I am a 2-stars hunter. This is my aretisite," She revealed her palm to everyone around her. Slowly a small tentacle arose from her hand than many until they could see the head that resembles a dog.


    None of them had a look of disgust. They all have more or less similar aretisite in term of appearance.


    "My 2-stars aretisite, Howling Dog, is a crowd control aretisite that causes its targets to tremble in fear." A crowd control ability was a valuable ability that was good against fighting many monsters at the same time.


    "That''s a nice aretisite. Even if it is a 2-stars, it still can''t be stronger than mine in raw strength." The confident man with a scar on his left arm revealed his aretisite. It looks like an animal fang but it had one big eye right at the center of it.


    "This is my 1-star aretisite, bellow eye blade, that I, Terry Polar, owns!" As he says that, that small aretisite turned into a giant sword that was almost as tall as him.


    The other 1-star hunters were surprised about how such small aretisite became so huge.


    Maina was displeased with Terry interruption and her face shows it.


    "With my Howling Dog, you will kneel in fear. So compared to your aretisite, my aretisite is stronger." Maina tried to size him down, but Terry did not take that without a fight.


    "Bitch, please, just because it''s a 2-stars aretisite, that does not mean shit. I will cut you down before you can even use it." Terry was very confident that he can hold his own against the 2-stars hunter.


    Maina was about to activate her artesites, but Gary grabbed her shoulder before she did anything.


    "That''s enough you two, we are a team now. And Maina, remember where we are at..." She looked around and saw the soldiers being wary while grasping their gun.


    She simply walked away while Gary stood there awkwardly.


    Terry withdrew his aretisite and apologize to the team for getting heat up.

 Chapter 4: Entering the Tower

    When Lyden saw the two aretisites, he felt how powerless he was before other hunters.


    Around two years ago, as soon as he awakened, he signed up for a hunter permit, but he never got the chance to test his aretisite nor enter a tower.


    Before he could, he lent his only aretisite to one of his friends. His friend gained his aretisite a few days before him. He was a 1-star hunter and was planning to leave the town to head to a nearby city to raid a tower. He wanted to borrow Lyden''s aretisite because he felt safer if he brought along a 2-stars aretisites to his first raid.


    Sadly, his friend died that day and Lyden lost his aretisite.


    Until this moment, Lyden dream of becoming a true hunter never died. It was because of his hunter permit and this what gave him a chance to find a new aretisite.


    In the towers, there were not only rare materials but also wild aretisites that could be obtained.


    Even more, today was his last chance to enter one because his permit expired the next day. Hunters need to renew their permit every two years and to do so, they needed proof. One was the sigil everyone had, and an aretisite to go along with it.


    Lyden stared at the black tower before him and then back at to his fellow teammates. He knew as soon as he told them the truth, they would kick him out.


    "Alright, let''s go. They gave us the okay." Soon after the small argument between Terry and Maina, one of the solider informed Gary, the leader of the team, that it was their turn to enter soon.


    Lyden was glad because he did not need to show them his aretisite that he did not have.


    They walked towards the tower and waited. The entrance of the tower did not have a door, but a thin blue barrier in front of the giant gaping hole.


    "That barrier time is about to expire. The other team should be able to exit soon." One of his teammate, who was beside Lyden, said. She had short blonde hair with a confident look on her face.


    "The barrier?"


    "Yeah. This is your first time entering a tower, right?"


    Lyden nodded.


    "Every time someone or a group enters, a barrier appears blocking anyone from entering or exiting. However, it is important that the barrier stays up."


    "Why is that?"


    "Because if it does not, monsters would come out from the other side. Did you heard about the incident that happened in New Mexico around three years ago?"You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Lyden easily recalled that incident. It was the day that hundreds of monsters came out of the tower after hunters abandoned it after finding out that the tower was a desert with next to none resources.


    Since no hunters wanted to enter it, hundreds of monsters came out from the other side to earth.


    The government tried to salvage the situation back then by hiring top-ranked hunters to eliminate the monsters, however, it was too late.


    Back then, there were not enough hunters to handle the situation, thus, New Mexico was overtaken by monsters and hundreds of thousands of people had died.


    To this day, monsters have still populated that state.


    "I do. But I did not know it had something to do with the barrier."


    "The barrier had to be kept active every 12 hours. And the only way to do so if someone with a sigil on their body enters."


    "The sigil? What does it have to do with the barrier?"


    "As of this day, we do not know much. Well, in any case, us hunters, need to keep the barrier by rotating every 12 hours. Do your best and try not to die in there."


    She ended her conversation and walked away to talk to one of her teammates.


    Lyden did not get a chance to ask her name, but he will have more chances to ask.


    The thin barrier was weakening to the point that small blue particles floated into the air until the barrier completely vanish.


    They waited before entering for the first team to come out.


    After several minutes, they realize something was wrong. No one was coming out of the tower.


    "Why is no one coming out?" Terry asked Gary. It was almost always a bad sign if no one exit. This made Terry somewhat anxious. "If we enter now, the previous team won''t able to exit for another 12 hours."


    "I know." Gary was getting worried. As the team leader, he had to make a decision. If he let the barrier open to long, it left the chances of monsters running out of the tower.


    However, if they entered now, they could be trapping the previous team.


    Gary only took seconds before deciding.


    "Alright, team. We will now enter. I want all of you to survive through this. Do not be greedy, and do not wander by yourself. We will get plenty of chances to explore the tower again. Stay alive for 12 hours, and only then, we can return home when the barrier opens up once again." Gary gave a warning speech to all his teammates. He had lost many teammates due to greed and did not want to see that happen again.


    Lyden was nervous as well as excited. He followed the rest of the team as they step towards the entrance of the tower.


    When Lyden entered, he could not see anything in front of him. There was a thick fog through and through.


    He walked what seems like miles until he could not see the light behind him. The only thing that guided him through the fog was the wall next to him. He placed his hand against the wall and walked carefully. He did not let go until he saw a light at the end of the tunnel.


    There he saw five people waiting for him. It was his teammate.


    "What took you so long? We have been waiting for years over here." It was the blonde woman from before.


    Lyden gave a light smile to her exaggerated comment.


    Lyden saw the scenery before them. It was a luscious forest, however, instead of green leaves, it was purple. Even the grass had a hint of purple in them.


    The blue sky reflecting off the purple leave gave a dazzling sparkle, unlike any gems.


    "It is weird, right? Unlike our earth, things exist that does not much sense to us exist in these towers." The blond girl said as she stared at the magical scenery.


    Lyden nodded in agreement. He was also breathtaking by the view.


    "By the way, I never get the chance to ask you for your name."


    "Oh, right. I never introduce myself. I''m Cindy. Call for my help anytime." She giggled.


    "Enough chit-chat, let''s go," Maina said.


    The six of them headed towards the purple forest.

 Chapter 5: No Danger?

    "Everybody, do not separate from the group." Gary gave his warning to the team.


    They transverse the purple forest cautiously.


    However, it was eerily quiet. Only sound of the leaves rustling from the slight breeze could be heard. Gary thought that it was weird. He raided many towers before, but nothing quite like this. From his previous experience, monsters roamed around endlessly. The minute he entered, he would encounter a monster or two.


    "Just because there is no danger present, does not mean that there will be one."


    The others took Gary''s warning seriously. Beside Lyden, the rest had entered a tower before, thus, they all knew the danger of the towers.


    After several minutes of walking, Lyden could not help feeling that something was out of place.


    ''How strange¡­ There is no trace of the previous team.'' Lyden thought. He observed his surroundings, but he found no trace of anyone from the ground to the trees. It was like no one have steps inside this forest ever.


    ''With no sign of anybody traveling by ground, can they fly through the air? Or were the previous team able to teleport.''


    Lyden thought of many possibilities as he could, but he realized his mistake when he couldn''t think of anything concrete.


    He knew nothing about the previous team members aretisites'' abilities, which led him to jump to exaggerated conclusions. He did not even know the limit of an aretisite''s ability.


    He came with little to no preparation and he did not gather any information. If they encountered danger in this forest, he had nothing to defend himself with.


    Lyden broke out in a cold sweat. He felt a sudden chill as he thought about something.


    ''If they found out that I am a hunter without an aretisite, they would abandon me. The chance of surviving if they do is slim.'' A small tug on his heart pulled him into a state of panic.


    Lyden had experienced a life and death situation before when he was 10 years old.


    He and his siblings were exploring the mountain late at night one day behind the orphanage.


    However, he fell down a cliff because he could not see where he was going.


    It was not until sunrise until Lyden was found.


    His siblings did not know what happened after Lyden fell, but he never forgot that moment.


    On that eventful day, he almost got eaten by a large wolf that day, but luckily for him, he was trapped between two large rocks when he fell, but small enough so that the wolf could not fit in.


    Lyden never slept that night as the wolf stared at him between the gap.


    It was not until the wolf heard the adults, who were looking for him, that it left. Till this day, it had traumatized him.


    Its teeth, breathe, eyes, and the bloodlust hunted his dreams for many years till this day.


    Even though it was a bad memory for him, it also became his strength. A reminder of what terror was and what can he do to not put himself in a similar situation.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ''No, I should not rely on them,'' Lyden gave a firm look. He came to find an aretisite.


    Lyden feared his future. He did not want to feel powerless. He wanted the strength to protect what he deemed worthy.


    He had no talent. He never did well in school. He did not have any passion, unlike many others.


    Nonetheless, he wanted to put great effort into something.


    As they walked in one direction without any sign of real danger. The other members began to relax a bit.


    "Cindy, do you know anything about the previous team?" Lyden struck up a conversation with her. He wanted to gather more information to understand what was going on.


    "The previous team? I don''t know much about them. Why do you want to know?" Cindy did not care for gathering information because she felt that it would not be as much help.


    "Just wondering."


    "Hmm, let me ask Jai," Jai was Cindy friend. He was somewhat a reserve type and have not talked to anyone besides her.


    "Do you know anything about the team who enter before us, Jai?"


    "Not really. Why do you want to know?" Jai looked at Lyden. It was easy to overhear each other in such a quiet forest.


    "Don''t you think that something is off here, Jai? There are no traces of the previous team." Lyden replied.


    "You are correct. I was already suspicious as soon as we got here. I already activated my aretisite to find any traces of the team before us, but I discover very little."


    "Your aretisite?"


    "My aretisite, naked ruby eyes, which allow me to see smells. I had it activated until but there was nothing. The smell probably became to faint to be noticed by my aretisite." Jai was concerned about this purple forest the whole time. He explored other towers before, but nothing like this.


    So far, Jai experienced with other towers were straightforward. He would only need to defend himself against monsters until the barrier opens up. He did not need to do more than that since hunters do get a lot of money just from entering the tower by the government or private corporation. Many hunters would gather materials so they can sell it, but Jai would never do that if the risk of death is highly present.


    With his naked ruby eyes, he can see any monster approaching him. Thus, he can escape or warn his teammates before anything happen.


    The other team members, who were taken the forest lightly, heard Lyden and Jai conversation. The two reminded the rest of them to not loosen their guard in the tower.


    After two hours of walking, Gary decided to head back. He did not know what was going on in this forest, but he knew something was not right. He felt little confidence in solving the mystery of this purple forest and as team leader, he did not want to put his teammates in unknown risk.


    Also, Gary wanted to use Jai''s ability to find his way back. He was afraid the further he went, the harder for Jai to guide the team back to the exit.


    It was a good thing that the forest was not windy or else it would be heard for Jai to see the smell.


    They agreed, however, Lyden was reluctant. If he leaves this tower, there will be no second chance. But he could not say anything and nodded his head in agreement.


    With Jai''s aretisite, it was easy to retrace their steps back to the barrier.


    "The barrier still won''t open up for 6 more hours," Gary said.


    "That is so long! What a waste of time..." Terry complained. "We should just explore deeper into the forest and look for the other team."


    "No, we will stay here. The only team member who has a utility skill here is Jai, and he can only do so much." Beside Jai, the other aretisites were mostly battle oriented.


    Gary did not know Lyden aretisite, but he did not ask about it. He guessed that Lyden was the type of hunter that kept his aretisite a secret until needed.


    "Why don''t you cut those trees with your sword if you want to find them so much." Maina retorted. She thinks that Terry did not care about the safety of the previous team and just wanted to find something to bring back to sell.


    Terry glared at Maina before walking away. He did not want to argue with her again.


    Cindy and Jai shared their food supplies with Lyden while they waited. The two shared their stories of being a hunter and what they have experienced inside the tower.


    More than five hours have passed.


    Lyden was getting impatient as he thought about leaving this place with no gain. Of course, he would get money from the government, but it was not enough for an aretisite. For him to buy one, he would need a valid hunter permit.


    Of course, there were black markets that sells aretisites, but that was highly illegal.


    However, Lyden only heard about it on the internet and does not know anybody with connection about the black market.


    ''I''ll have to risk it. I''ll enter the forest by myself. But I have to wait until the barrier opens up. I don''t want to have them risk their lives to look for me.'' Lyden thought. This was his first team and he liked them. He did not want to see his teammates harm because of his selfish reason.

 Chapter 6: Alone in the Forest

    At the military base in the city of Capeturn, Warrant Officer Ron Alec was alone in his office with papers stacked in front of his desk.


    Ron belongs to a new service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces created after the incident in New Mexico. It was called Hunter Raid. They are tasked to control and eliminate threats coming out of the towers.


    However, the Hunter Raid did not have enough forces to subjugate all the towers themselves, so they created a system to hire hunter as a freelancer and also to keep track of them.


    It was the need of a hunter permit to enter the tower. Since then, the government had pretty much every information about the hunters.


    Although they could not force them to show their aretisites'' abilities due to a privacy act that been established to protect the hunters.


    As Ron was flipping through the document, he stopped at a team of hunters who recently entered the tower in Capeturn.


    "3 2-stars hunters, and 3 1-star hunters¡­ This team is quite strong, however¡­" Ron read a document about Lyden.


    "A 2-stars hunter, but with no experience, and no information about his artesite. Even more, he was a recent graduate of high school. He probably did not have any physical training." Ron did not have a high opinion of Lyden. "A boy who overestimates his ability because he is a 2-stars hunter will most likely die."


    Ron showed no empathy to Lyden because many had died because they relied on there aretisites too much. It takes more than some magical ability to survive.


    Many hunters were once civilians with little to no combat training so casualties were inevitable.


    Upcoming hunters should train themselves physically and mentally because once they enter a tower, they enter a war zone.


    However, young new hunters think they were a hero that can overcome any hardship as they see in movies or books.


    Those were the type of people Ron liked the least.


    He looked at the next stacks of documents. It showed the information on the first team that entered the tower.


    "Jennifer Parker, age 23, 3-stars freelance hunter. Her aretisite can control, summon, and as well as extinguish flames. There are rumors that she possesses another aretisite..." The information presented here was not given by her own free will, but from a thorough investigation of her. She was a veteran hunter so it was easy for the government to gather information about her.


    "Nonetheless, she still went missing inside this tower. How dangerous must it be for her to not be able to come back in time..." Ron sighed as he thought of losing such a valuable hunter. He wanted to recruit her to the Hunter Raid after she finishes raiding the tower. However, he did not lose hope.


    In the tower of the purple forest, the barrier was thinning and was about to vanish at any moment.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Everybody, let''s get ready to leave," Gary said. Everybody was bored out of their minds that some of them wanted a monster to come to have something to do.


    "At Least it is easy money. We should enter here again when more spots open up." Maina did not mind earning free money. It is not like they get stronger from killing monsters like in video games. Although, she did wish they found something useful to bring back to sell.


    Since they get paid just for entering the tower, it was not necessary to take unknown risks.


    In a matter of moments, the barrier completely dissipated.


    "Alright it is gone, let''s head home. I will report this to the Hunter Raid officials." Gary was leading the team to where they once came from. They all exit one by one.


    Lyden was the last person in line until he was the only person left in the forest.


    The rest have already exited while Lyden was hesitating to do so.


    "Why am I hesitating to stay? Did I not already told myself to do so?" Lyden''s chest felt tight.


    He stared at the exit in front of him. He knew that the second he steps inside, his dream of becoming a hunter was over. Anxiety fills his chest and froze his legs. He thought about the future after he steps through this door.


    "If I left, what can I do?" He thought of the possibility of what can he do once he left, but none of them was what Lyden wanted to do.


    "I want to become a hunter, no, it is not the title of a hunter that is the most important." He thought of the orphanage, his siblings, and his future. "I want to become strong so that I can give them a home. if someone like me can become a hunter, if I find an aretisite here, I can provide for them. We won''t have to separate from each other. And I will go look for him, my brother." Lyden slowly turned his back against the exit.


    He stared at the purple forest for a long while until his legs began to move.


    He slowly took one step and then two until he walked deeper inside the forest.


    Lyden''s anxiety was overshadowed by his resolve.


    "I will come back as soon as I obtain an aretisite¡­ wait for me till then," He said as if he was talking to someone.


    After 8 minutes, Lyden was deep inside the purple forest. The pace was quicker since Lyden was less cautious about his surrounding since he already explored this far before.


    "Something weird is happening in this forest. The tracks before had all vanish. It was like we never walked in the forest," Lyden first followed the track him and his team left behind, but it was not before long he lost all sign of it. "I guess it is better than finding a monster..."


    He wanders aimlessly looking for a way out, but it seems somewhat endless.


    After another hour, he left lost. He also felt his backpack feeling lighter as he occasionally drinks water from it.


    "No, I can not go on like this. I will die from starvation before long." He forced himself to not give in into his fear. He calmed his mind until he can feel his emotions stabilizing.


    He began to think of possibilities of how he can leave this forest.


    "There is a slim chance I can find my way back to the exit without Jai helps." Lyden could retrace his steps, but he was not confident in doing so.


    "I could also wait for the next team to find me..." Although Lyden thought of this, he realized the chances were low since his team could not find any traces of the previous team.


    "If I can solve the mystery behind this forest, perhaps I can find a way out. There must be a trick to this."


    Lyden stopped wandering aimlessly and slowly examining his surroundings.


    "What I want to know is how can the forest remove traces of other people who had been here. When going through the forest, people would step on the grass. However, the plant looks normal like no one had touched it. But how does it do it?" Lyden pondered until he came up with a possibility. He reads a lot of fantasy novels so he came up with plausible ideas that do not follow normal logic.


    "Perhaps the forest can fix itself when no is looking after a certain distance," He recalled when he camped near the exit with his team. He remembered that the grass they stepped still had footprints on it after several hours. But when Lyden traversed through the forest, his footprints started to disappear.

 Chapter 7: Clue

    Lyden broke of a thin yet sturdy branch from a tree. Then he stabbed the branch into the soil creating a shallow hole in the ground.


    Next, he dragged the branch as he walked backward leaving a streak on the soil. This way, if he sees anything happening, he would know.


    He walked backward for about 15 minutes until he decided that it was enough.


    Lyden did not see anything particular happening. So, he followed the streak back to where he first dug into the soil.


    However, when he reached the end of the streak, he noticed that it was not where he first stabbed the branch into the soil. It was just a thin line he made while walking. Thus, It made it seems that the original origin point never existed in the first place.


    "It took me about 7 minutes of walking back until all traces disappear. So about 600 meters. This is a big hint on how to solve the mystery of the purple forest." Lyden solved a piece of the mystery, but he could not see the whole picture, yet.


    Lyden continued to probe the forest using other methods.


    However, he did not find anything else, but it reinforced his previous test. Whenever someone walked 600 meters away from their original steps. Their traces at the beginning begin to disappear like it never existed in the first place.


    In fact, because of this reason was why someone would get easily lost in this forest. At first, they were confident they can head back by seeing where they step before, but if the traces were to suddenly disappear, they would begin to doubt themselves. Slowly they would get more and more lost until they were in the middle of the forest.


    Eventually, they would die from exhaustion or lack of food.


    Lyden and his teammates were lucky that Jai had the ability to see smell or else they could not found their way back, and died from lack of water and food inside the forest.


    "This forest is extremely dangerous." Upon realization, Lyden almost had a panic attack. More so, then if he were to face a monster. With hardly any food and water, he would die with nothing to show it.


    He forced himself to calmed down, to think about anything, but the fear of his upcoming death.


    ''No they have to be another clue. Something I am not seeing¡­ That is it. Jai could see smell! If Jai could see it then that means that not all traces disappear. If I were to mark where I have been with a strong smell, then I can find my way through this forest.''This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    However, Lyden could not have anything would allow him to create a strong smell. The forest was mostly trees and grasses. There were flowers, but nothing strong enough that he could easily smell.


    He searched for more than five hours until he got blisters on his feet.


    He found a small hope to get out of the purple forest and did not want to give up on that hope. He continued until sweats covered his entire body. He had to keep moving because there was no one else to help him here.


    Under the summer hear, the situation was desperate as he drank his last water.


    ''I got to keep going. I got to keep going.'' He thought to himself repeatedly.


    He looked around for anything he could make a and luckily he found something peculiar. It was a small pastel blue flower with a similar shape of a corpse flower.


    ''This is my only hope.'' Lyden felt he would be mentally crushed if this flower could not help him out.


    When he squeezed it, a strong smell similar to a skunk piss came out of it.


    "Finally... I could use this, however one is not enough." There was only one of the flower present around his vicinity. And it took a while to find a flower like this, so it might not be possible to find another one like this.


    In spite of that, Lyden was still looking hopeful. He plucked the flower and tuck it safely inside his pocket.


    Next, he broke a branch of a tree and begin to walked as he dragged it across the ground.


    When he reached about 600 meters, he stopped walking further and followed the streak he made back to where the flower was.


    Unsurprisingly to Lyden, the flower was there like it never was plucked.


    "This is truly something. How can a forest do something like this?" Although Lyden was tired and covered with sweats, his eyes glowed with excitement. He felt a second wind rushing throughout his body. He was glad that he made it this far.


    Although he could fight monsters, he found solving mysteries to be just as adventurous.


    "I am one step closer to my dream, but I should not get ahead of myself. This is the first step of thousands of steps."


    Lyden grabbed a dozen that took almost 2 hours of going back and forth.


    "I hope this is enough."


    Over the past several hours, he would occasionally squeeze the flower in his hand and whenever he caught a whiff of it that means he had already been there before and Lyden would walk the opposite direction.


    The wind was quiet and did not blow the scent away.


    "Just one flower can produce a large quantity. I probably did not need all of those flowers." It had been 3 hours, and he never had to replace the flower in his hand. "I guess I did not need all those extra flowers."


    The smell lingers in the air for an unknown time. It could be hours or days, but the smell never left.


    Lyden could not accurately tell time, but if he had to guess, it would be around 12 hours after his team exited.


    ''I need to start looking for food and water.'' Lyden sighed at the thought. He did not come across anything edible yet.


    Lyden looked up at the skies as he sat down to take a break. He stuffs some dried grass up his nose so he does not get used to the smell of the pale blue flower, thus, making him unable to smell the flower.


    Lyden was starving and thirsty, but he was content about his choices. He did not regret it because he realized this moment that life was worth living only if there was something to strive for.

 Chapter 8: Dead?

    ''I need water¡­ so thirsty,'' He staggered his way through the forest like a zombie under the bright sun.


    He could even see his dry skin cracking.


    ''Why the hell the sun is still high up?'' After several hours of traversing through the forest, the sun never shows a sign of setting. Lyden''s body was dangerously getting hotter that he felt light-headed as if he had a fever.


    ''I cannot take this anymore...'' He thought, but his body kept moving forward. Occasionally he would take breaks under the shades, but it was barely helping.


    ''So far I had used 3 of the flowers up¡­ but I will die before I used them all.'' He could hardly smell anything from the flower anymore. He had been at it too long and he was physically and mentally exhausted.


    He had to put more effort in sniffing out the smell.


    Suddenly, he felt the small breeze


    The more he walked, the getting stronger the wind was getting.


    Eventually, the smell coming off the flower was blown away before Lyden could smell it.


    ''Where is the wind coming from?'' The wind was greatly cooling him down.


    Lyden did not need the flower anymore. He decided the breeze, which came out of nowhere, was another clue to help him leave this forest.


    He thought whatever causing the wind to stir was better than being in this forest.


    The closer he got, the faster the wind blew. It was not before long until he saw the source of it.


    "What is that?!" He said shockingly.


    It was a 400 meters purple giant statue of a golem kneeling with one knee.


    One of his arms was buried halfway into the ground as if it had punched it.


    It seems to be here for ages because it was wrapped in all types of plants and grass similar to the forest.


    The wind was coming from the ground where one of its arms had dug in.


    Lyden looked at the hole trying to be careful to not fall inside of it. As he peered inside, he could not see the bottom except there was a strange translucent purple glow just below where the fist had stopped.


    It seems similar to the barrier when he first got in here except the color.


    "Is this something similar to the tower from earth? If it is true, then this could lead me somewhere else." Lyden thought of climbing down, but he hesitated to do so. The reason he was against it because if he went down, then he felt that it would be impossible to find the way back home.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    However, to go back to where it came through the forest, he was not confident in doing so. The purple forest took a toll on him, and he did not want to go back that way.


    From what he could see across the horizon was more of the forest.


    After a quick thought, he decided his best option was to climb down into this hole.


    "This is going to get me to kill, but at least it would not be as suffering," He wished he had an aretisite to fly him down, but he did not.


    He grabbed on to its arm and slowly made his way down as slowly as possible. Thanks to the plants wrapping around the golem, it made it easier for Lyden to climb down.


    After several minutes, he made it to the point where he could move not on any further. He was on one of the knuckles of the golem.


    Lyden kneels at the edge and stared at the purple barrier below him.


    "This is a barrier like the one I saw before." Lyden verified up close. He was close enough that he could touch the purple barrier.


    He touched the semi-translucent barrier ever so slightly and it rippled like water.


    "If I applied more force, it seems like I could break it easily." Lyden watched it rippled until it stopped.


    For five minutes, he was mentally preparing to jump through the barrier.


    He recalled about life in his orphanage, all his siblings, and his even his teammates he met briefly.


    He came here to become a hunter, to find an aretisite but things did not go as plan. Life took an unexpected turn for Lyden.


    He thought about walking away, finding his way back, and heading back home.


    That thought would echo inside of him over and over again as he stared beneath him.


    A part of him wants to give up because he fears the unknown. Another part of him wants to jump in.


    It was because what lies ahead was unknown to him.


    "It is decided." Lyden suddenly jumps into the barrier head first. When Lyden had dived in, the barrier dissipated and he could see fogs all around him, which was the same thing that happened when he entered the tower and into the purple forest.


    Lyden was fearless.


    He did not scream in terror. He did not shut his eyes.


    He opened his eyes wide.


    He wanted to watch till the very end, even if he would meet with concrete.


    He made his choices and he would see this till the very end.


    He continued to fell through the thick fog. As he fell, the fog became less and less until he sees a light.


    The light grew larger until it encapsulated him.


    In the next moment, Lyden found himself surrounded by water.


    He was transported inside a sea with no end in sight. The water was raging as if it had detected an intruder and wanted him out.


    Lyden consciousness was barely holding on. From one trial to another, his body had taken a heavy toll.


    His feeble strength could not go against the currents, so swimming away was not an option for him. All he can do was nothing as he watches himself drown to death.


    ''Shit¡­ I''m dying¡­ without achieving anything.'' In all honesty, Lyden was scared ever since he entered the tower.


    He felt scared when the decision to go alone in the unknown tower, but he wanted to find an aretisite so he can come back home with pride.


    He felt scared when he was alone in the wood, but when made it to the giant statue, he felt hope that he was getting closer to his dream.


    He felt scared when he dove into the dark hole, but since he came this far, he wants to see it till the end.


    He felt scared all his life, but this was the first that he went against his fear.


    He thought he can overcome any challenges if he tried hard enough, but he figured it was not enough. However, he did not feel any regrets.


    As he suffocates, he imaging his future if he had never entered the tower. He would probably go work at a random place. Probably find a girlfriend, and get married. He would live a simple life.


    However, he felt like he would always wonder what could have been all his life.


    ''This is fine¡­ I tried¡­ I give up. I did what I wanted to do and fail, but I won''t regret it...'' Lyden forced his final smile as he lost consciousness.

 Chapter 9: Random Monster Transmutation Aretisite

    Beneath the sea of an unknown location that was far from earth, a massive structure shaped like a halo was submerged at least several hundred meters. The giant structure spun like a fan which created many ocean large currents around it.


    The structure looks like it was made up of materials similar to the towers on earth. However, it was filled with shallow cracks everywhere. It was a mystery on how it did not break apart under the pressure of the sea.


    Inside a blue-lit room, there were thousands of aretisites of different shape and size were floating around like the gravity had been turned off.


    In the center of the room was giant aretisite in the shape of a sphere. It had seven spikes and each spike have a star on it. And of its surface of the aretisite, it seems like there were millions of worms crawling on it.


    Suddenly, out of nowhere, a person appeared as if he had teleported.


    He wore a robe that covered his feet. He wore a hoodie that covered half of his pale face. The only thing that could be seen was his black lips.


    He stood there staring at the sphere before he laid his palm upon it.


    "For such a long time, someone had made it here... " From where he laid his palm, the outer surface of the aretisite revealed what was inside.


    It was Lyden surrounded by a red liquid like diluted blood. Evermore, he looks good as dead. His limbs were ripped apart and crushed by the pressure of the water. There was nothing resembles Lyden beside half of his face.


    "Your name is Lyden, am I right? Respond if you can here me."


    The aretisite blinked twice with a red light.


    "Good. I''m going to let you know now. You are already dead. Your body got ripped by the current and crushed under the pressure of the archaic sea."


    When the aretisite heard this, it blinked rapidly like an anxious heartbeat.


    "Calm down. I can give you your life back, but I have a request for you."


    When the mysterious person said that, the aretisite stopped blinking and waited for what he had to say.


    "I cannot tell you much because you would not understand many of it. Perhaps someday. However, I need you to get stronger first. I can temporarily give you a new body similar to your own, return you home, and give you an aretisite."


    The aretisite blinked twice as if he was telling the mysterious man that he was excited about the news.


    "Do not get excited about it yet. First, I cannot completely revive you. I have a 6-stars aretisite, Give In Give All, that can make a copy of your body and I will transfer your consciousness in it. Although, there is a downside. After three years, it will begin to break down and you will die then and there."This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The aretisite blinked feebly.


    "Do not worry, I have another aretisite I will you give. This is a 7-stars aretisite called Random Monster Transmutation that I fused from thousands of aretisites as well as bloodlines of hundreds of monsters over the thousands of years. Although it does have a great flaw. What you will turn into is something I do not even know, but whatever it is, it will be stronger than your former body."


    The aretisite went silent when he heard about that aretisite.


    "Either accept these or die without knowing nothing. These are the choices I can only give you. If you accept these, I will return you to your world. If not I will destroy this aretisite that contains you and you can die in peace. So what will it be?"


    The aretisite did not respond immediately.


    The man continued to wait as he laid his palmed on the aretisite. He waited patiently for it to blink or two.


    The sphere aretisite blinked once.


    Then it blinked once more.


    "Good, I already peered into your memory before we talked so I have an idea on where your world is. I will also store the Random Monster Transumation aretisite inside the clone body of yours. If you ever activated, you will become a monster. If you do not use before your body decayed, or if you let it out without the intention to use it, it will destroy itself."


    The aretisite blinked twice to convey to the man that it understood what he had said.


    "Alright, by the time you wake up, you will be back home on earth. And since I already read your memories, I have an idea of how to get you back home. But remember, you will need to get stronger or else you cannot survive what I need you to do for me."


    Lyden''s consciousness began to fade.


    "I will tell you about my request when you wake up."


    Lyden could barely hear what he said until he fell into what seems like a long dream.


    At the Willwalker''s Orphanage, the children were having dinner once again without Lyden.


    "It been 6 days and Lyden still has not returned from the tower." Tiff was worried about Lyden.


    Ever since she heard the news about him being missing inside the tower, she could not concentrate at school or home. "I did not even know he was a hunter until recently."


    "We are all shock like you. There should not be a reason for him to hide about being a hunter. If anything, we will all be proud of him." Joey responded.


    Over the past couple of days, they waited for Lyden to return home, but he never did.


    They first heard the news one day after by a soldier who was stationed at the tower, where Lyden went to, came to the orphanage.


    He reported that the hunter, Lyden, could not be located even after hunters went in to investigate. He was presumed dead.


    Tiff did not believe that he would die easily and ignored what she heard from the soldier. She told herself that he was out there somewhere and was unable to return home.


    "Joey, can we become a hunter too? Maybe we can help find him." A tear fell onto her untouched soup.


    Joey did not say anything. He knew why Tiff was so attached to Lyden. Tiff was a kind person and gets easily attached to people.


    Evermore, Lyden once save her from taking her own life. Ever since then, she followed Lyden around.


    Lyden did not realize how Tiff feels for him, or he chose not to, but Joey knew. He was always beside her, watching her as she cried or when she was happy.


    Joey regretted that he was not there that day, none the less, he was grateful for Lyden that day.


    Everybody at the orphanage had their problem. But even if they do not have parents, they had each other. They learned from one another, and care for one another like any real siblings.


    When he heard the news, he wanted to rush to tower himself, but it would be pointless. He was not a hunter, nor did he have an aretisite.


    "Tiff, we will find a way to become one. We will." Joey reassured the crying Tiff.

 Chapter 10: Joining the Hunter Raid

    "How?" Tiff asked.


    "Let''s go to the library early tomorrow morning. They have computers there and we can search on how to become one." Joey said. "I''m sure someone figured it out by now."


    Tiff nodded as she wiped her tears away. "Yeah, let''s go."


    Ever since then, they would go to the library to know more about hunters and aretisites.


    They read as much research papers on aretisites as much as they could.


    From what they all read, there were few things scientists agreed on about aretisites.


    First, every aretisite have at least one star somewhere on its body. The max star an aretisite was ambiguous, but there was a hunter who had awakened to a 5-stars aretisites in America.


    Thus, they concluded that the max was 5-stars.


    The studies showed that aretisites with more stars have higher strength compared to the lesser one.


    However, this was not always the case. There were aretisite with higher stars with little to no battle strength, but its ability was more bizarre.


    Second, aretisites fall under certain categories depending on their abilities.


    The research papers noted that many of the aretisite will fall under these categories such as debuffer, buffer, cleanser, immunity, utility, and more.


    For example, Maina''s aretisite, Howling Dog, induced fear would fall under the category, debuffer.


    Or Terry''s aretisite, Bellow Eye Blade, would belong to the armament category since the aretisite can change itself into a weapon.


    Some aretisites can belong in more than 1 categories, but those were more common when aretisites have more than 2-stars on its body.


    Then there were aretisite that did not fall in any of these categories. It was because of their uniqueness and strangeness of their ability.


    There was very little to none information about this type of aretisites but there were rumored that they do exist.


    The third conclusion was that aretisite needs a living host to survive. If not, they cease to exist and it was impossible to preserve the aretisite''s remains thereafter.


    The aretisite feeds on the nutrient of there host. Some aretisite feed on the host blood, while others feed on their fats. What it feeds on depends on the aretisite.


    Hunters could obtain more than one, but they can easily overburden themselves and would be sucked dry from their aretisites and die if they were not careful.


    There was also evidence that aretisite can affect people personality the more stars the aretisite had, but there were not enough studies involve in that area to reach a conclusion.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Joey, did you find anything in becoming a hunter, yet?"


    "Nothing much, but a lot of information about aretisites. Also, it seems to be a lottery on who will have a sigil appear, thus, becoming a hunter. Even if someone normal like us do manage to get an aretisite, we will die after a few weeks..." Joey sighed.


    There was a correlation between sigil and aretisite, but no one had figured it out yet. When the sigil on the hunter''s body was inspected, it seems like an ordinary birthmark or tattoo. Although many knew that there were more it than that.


    Frustrated, Tiff suggested an idea she read on a forum. "How about we prayed to god? I read it somewhere that if you pray every day, god can grant you one." Tiff pointed out.


    "I also read you can sacrifice a goat to the devil to get one too." Joey rebutted sarcastically.


    He did not believe in such an answer like that. But it was suspected that Tiff would say something along those lines.


    The orphanage they were raised in was heavily religious and many were taught young.


    "At least try it if nothing else works." She mumbled as she pouted at Joey.


    "Ok, whatever, we try it tonight. What else we have to lose..."


    "Yay!" She hugged Joey quickly.


    Joey felt his face was heating up and was trying to push her away. "Ok, I got it. Let go"


    "Hehe," Tiff made a wide smile.


    Joey sighed once more before deciding to go home. Even after their research, they felt that it was impossible to become a hunter simply by wanting to become one.


    Another week past, then months, then a whole year.


    Many of the orphanage kids slowly forgot about Lyden. He was hardly ever mentioned again except about for a few. The two housemothers had forgotten about Lyden before anybody else.


    Tiff and Joey still were not able to find any possible way to make a sigil appeared, so, they decided on a different approach.


    Now that they were 18, they decided to join the Hunter Raid.


    Although they were not hunters, the Hunter Raid would train civilians to become soldiers to enter the towers with the hunters if needed.


    Joey and Tiff had recently graduated from high school and was ready to sign up to join the Hunter Raid.


    "Joey, let''s go to the recruitment center in town for the Hunter Raid," Tiff said.


    Over the past several months, she exercises every day alongside with Joey. Her physique was more toned and tan than ever before.


    Joey became muscular compared to his skinny self from last years. They both have trained hard to get into the Hunter Raid.


    They were aiming to be soldiers that assist hunters inside the towers.


    They heard that soldiers of the Hunter Raid do not use guns since it was not possible to carry one inside. So instead, soldiers rely on weapons made from monsters'' parts.


    It was the next best thing fighting against monsters beside aretisites.


    The two arrived at the recruitment center that was built next to the tower.


    There was a long line of young men and women wanting to join the Hunter Raid.


    They had no choice but to wait under the smoldering heat.


    "That is the tower that Lyden went to." Tiff stared at the tall black tower. She heard the news about this tower long ago.


    It was considered safe for the most part yet mysterious.


    A tower with no monsters.


    Inside there, an endless amount of trees in the shade of purple and nothing more.


    This tower was the only one of its kind so far. All the other towers had monsters roaming everywhere inside the tower.


    For a year now, many hunters tried to reach the end of the forest yet none of them could.


    Even more, quite a few hunters went too far and could not find there way back. All attempt to find them was a total failure.


    No traces of them were ever found. In the end, they were presumed dead just like Lyden.


    However, that did not stop the hunters from entering the tower.


    Since the barrier was needed to be kept up at all time, hunters were sent in periodically.


    Many 1-star hunters signed up for this tower since it was considered safe.


    It was also the best place for recruits to experience what it was like inside the tower as long as they do not wander deep inside the forest without supervision.


    "Yeah, The Quiet Purple Tower," Joey responded.


    This was what the hunters called it due to the quiet nature of the purple forest.

 Chapter 11: Back Home Naked

    On an island of South Korea, a caucasian young man washed up naked on the shore. There was no one around him besides the piles of trash everywhere.


    He had very defined muscles like that of a pro athlete. Although he was in the saltwater for who knows how long, his skin maintain its moisture. There were no signs of the skin pruning from being in the water for far too long.


    The young man slowly opened his eyes to see himself in a place he never saw before. He stood up and looked around as he recalled what had happened to him.


    "This place seems to be Earth, but where exactly am I?" He noticed the seagulls flying above him and concluded that the mysterious man did indeed teleported him, but it seems he was off by a long shot.


    Where he lived, the oceans were hundreds of miles away from his home.


    "What a hassle this was..." He mumbled out loud in annoyance, but his facial expression showed differently. He was smiling even after all that. After all, he made it back alive, in a sense.


    The young naked man was Lyden. He recalled everything that had happened to him as if it had happened just moments ago.


    In fact, he did not know how much time had actually passed. To him, it felt like he took an afternoon nap.


    "He indeed did give me a new body." Lyden opens and closes his fists a couple of time as he felt the surge of power flowing within him. "It is similar to mine in terms of appearance, but the inside feels different."


    He could not pinpoint what was different besides his bulging muscles, but there were indeed many changes compared to a normal human body. He tried to bend his finger-nail, but it was as hard as iron, yet flexible enough which made it not as brittle.


    This was a clone body of his created by a 6-stars aretisite.


    If people were to discover an existent of a 6-stars aretisites, world leaders would want to obtain and if they can''t, they will want to destroy it. Such an aretisite would be on par to a nuclear missile or better.


    Unfortunately, it was not possible. The aretisite was a one-time-use type of aretisite. Once used, the aretisite die, but its ability remains.


    "He said I have three years to decide before my current body break down. To die a human and live like a monster?" He sighed at the thought of when he had to make a choice in the future.


    However, he did not feel the burden by the thought of his inevitable death.


    He felt free instead like the pressure of society was lifted.


    He closed his eyes and focus on the aretisite within his body.


    He saw the small Random Monster Transmutation aretisite residing in his heart.


    It was blurry like a dream, yet he knew it was real. This was how all hunters felt when they looked at there aretisite from within their bodies.


    The aretisite inside Lyden had the face of a pale lion but its body was like a long tapeworm. It wrapped itself around his heart carefully to prevent any damages to its host.


    Along its wormlike body, it had a total of 7 stars.


    ''This aretisite does not look so bad. Compared to my first, it looks kinda cool,'' Lyden thought.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    He was about to open his eyes, but he felt another aretisite moving around within his body.


    He concentrated on his left eye where he felt movement.


    There, he felt that it was small, the size of a pebble, aretisite. It was swimming in the whites of his eye.


    ''What, another aretisite? He did not mention giving me another one.'' He pondered anxiously.


    It looks like a green pigeon with a fishtail. It had one star on each of its wing.


    It was a 2-stars aretisite.


    He was anxious at first, but it quickly faded. He quickly discovered that this aretisite was under his control.


    He had to will it to activate it, similar to moving his limbs.


    As he opened his eyes, the aretisite flew out of his left eye and floated in the air near him.


    ''It does not look harmful, but what does it do?'' Lyden could not think what its ability was on the spot.


    Just because hunters have aretisites does not mean they know how to use it. Many hunters have to practice with it to get a full understand of its capability.


    With a careful motion, Lyden reached out to the floating aretisite. When he touched the aretisite, it produced a dense blue mist in front of him.


    "Lyden, it seems that you found the Misty Pideo aretisite I gave you."


    Lyden snapped his eyes wide in shock. The mist in front of him formed a screen like a floating television screen or hologram. He could even hear the voice clearly.


    "This is one of the aretisite that I fused after I looked into your memory. It is based on the things I saw from your life such as computer and television. And the reason you can hear me because I transmit my voice directly to your mind with it." He spoke in a deep yet weary voice.


    The screen showed an aged man, who was covered by a hoodie. Lyden was only able to make out the deep wrinkles all over his neck.


    "I have many questions? Who are you? And what was that place? Why did you save me?"


    "It is too early for me to say. But If you want answers, meet me here once again when you are stronger. But for now, you have to listen. This aretisite is a one-time-use aretisite. I implemented this inside your body to give you more information about what is happening in your world."


    Lyden did not like that he had to wait for answers, but he kept his mouth shut and listen.


    "How much you know about the towers that have been appearing in your world?"


    "I don''t-"


    "That was a rhetorical question... I already saw your memories and you basically know nothing about it." The man interrupted. "I have to make this quick... I just notice now that this aretisite is flawed, and will not last long."


    Lyden nodded.


    "Alright, first the towers are a gateway that connects to a small dimension created by Aspecters, those who wield aretisites. In your world, you would call them hunters... Call them however you want, but I am such a being, and so are you."


    "I still do not understand completely¡­ But if these Aspecter who brought the towers here, what do they want?"


    "I do not know nor do I care to. But I let you in on this, the sigil that was once on your original body is a contract created by an aretisite. Because of that, hunters in this world belong to one or more Aspecters. However, since your old body is gone, the contract no longer binds you."


    Lyden thought what he said was too vague. Why was the sigil bad? Was it not use to prevent the monsters from coming out? He was about to ask him to explain, but the man already moved on to the next topic.


    "Next is the Random Monster Transmutation aretisite that is inside your body. You should know that aretisite need to be fed or else they will consume you. What this aretisite feeds is not something as simple as nutrients inside your body. What it feeds on is the feeling of great triumph, or, another word, the emotion when you feel you have achieved impossible to you."


    "Wait? The impossible? That is crazy. I can never achieve that." Lyden shouted.


    In his whole life, he was a failure. Even if he tried all day, he could not recall a moment in his life he had achieved something in his life.


    "You already did it once... when you came back here alive, did you not? If it burdens you so much, you can activate whenever. That way you do not have to feed it anymore."


    Lyden looks at the ground silently. He did not know how to respond to that.


    The mist screen was slowly fading. It looked like it will not last for much longer.


    "Last topic and this is important. You need to get stronger with your strength, not borrow power like that sigil. To get stronger, you need to infuse aretisites to any part of your body, but the most important of all is your 5 vital organs. Brain, heart, kidneys, liver, and lungs. Be careful to not..."


    In all of a sudden, the message cut off.


    This left Lyden in a predicament.


    "Not to what¡­?"


    The way the man just cut like that was a bad omen like he seen in movies.


    The Misty Pideo aretisite broke down into ashes and scattered into the wind.


    Lyden was left alone naked alone on a side of a cliff. He was thoroughly confused about what to do next. But for now, he needs to find a pair of clothes and hopefully contact his friends and family at home.

 Chapter 12: Strutting Through the Weak

    Lyden thought about the conversation he had just had with the mysterious man. After all, his life was still in danger in one way or another.


    "To do the impossible... I do not understand... " This was something that Lyden could not find an answer to. After several minutes of thinking of it, he decided to ignore it for now.


    Right now, he needed to find some clothes and contact someone from back home.


    He climbed the cliff that was several meters with ease until he reached the top.


    From afar, there was a tower that was in the middle of a small town. Even though it was at least four miles away, Lyden could see it as if he was up close.


    From, there, at least twenty Asian men were standing around the tower. Besides them, there was no one else in the town. It seems that the resident might have abandoned it after the tower rose.


    "Those must be hunters. Perhaps they can help me." Although the mysterious man said Aspecter, he decided to keep the word a secret. He would keep on using the term hunter to not attract the attention of other Aspecters.


    Lyden strutted naked until he got into the town. The town seemed to be badly damaged as there was rubbles and broken down houses everywhere.


    Regardless of the reason, he continued to make his way to the tower where the men were standing guard.


    As he got nearer, he could hear them shouting something. However, he could not understand them.


    "Is this Korean?" He said to himself. He watched Korean drama with his friends once and a while that he could make out a dozen words or so.


    "Perhaps this is Korea then."


    Many of the guards were holding guns except for a few.


    They turned there head to see a butt-naked man walking like he was in his own home. All of them with guns pointed at him.


    However, a buff Asian man walked in front of all of them with a big grin. He had a tattoo sleeve of an ocean on his right arm. He was one of the men who did not carry a gun.


    Instead, he raised his pointing finger at him, and his finger turns black as night.


    ''I can see it. He is activating his aretisite. It is most likely long-range aretisite.'' Lyden stood there casually as he looked at the man with the tattoo.


    Lyden did not know where his own confidence had come from. If this was him before he entered the tower, he would most likely run away in fear.


    In a matter of moments, a thin stream of fire shot out of his finger. It was not as fast as a bullet, but it was still fast enough that would make it hard to dodge for a normal human.


    However, Lyden was not a normal human anymore.


    The stream of fire was slow in Lyden''s eyes. He could have easily dodged it but he stood there like a statue. He wanted to test his new body of his, a body made by a 6-stars aretisite.


    He flexes all his muscle to prepare for the attack.


    When it made contact with Lyden''s torso, the small stream of fire grew big until it covered Lyden from head to toes.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The yelled of victory could be heard from the other side of Lyden. They were like children throwing rocks at animals and laughed about it when they hit the target.


    However, Lyden stood there as if the fire was just clothes he could wear every day. It did not affect him at all.


    "How cold this flame feel..." He can see trash he was stepping on burning. Yet, the flame feels like nothing more than a warm shower.


    They all stopped cheering when they see him still standing. They all see the flame died, but not one burn mark on his body. Not even his hard was burned.


    The hunter who fired at him stood there in shock.


    Some men yelled towards his fellow mates to take him down in Korean.


    Bullets came like rain towards him.


    ''I just wanted to talk to them, and yet they want to kill me.'' Lyden felt a strange emotion he had never felt before.


    He felt disrespected and wanted to teach him a hard lesson.


    With his new profound body, he kicked off the ground and dashed towards the thug who first attacked him.


    He closed the distance of one and a half miles in an instance. The rest of them did not even notice before it was too late.


    He punched the man who attacked him first square in the chest. The man did not fly forward as Lyden expected. Instead, his right fist jabbed straight through the hunter''s heart and out his back.


    Lyden pulled his arms out of the now-dead man.


    ''I''m sure I held back and yet it felt like he was made of paper.''


    The other Korean men turned pale in fear. By the time they turn their head around, the corpse flopped to the ground bleeding.


    "AHHHHH! Hunter!" They shouted.


    They aimed and shot at Lyden out of fear, however, it was for naught.


    All it did was caused bruises on his skin.


    The 2 other hunters, who did not attack, were smart enough to figure it out and instantly retreated to the tower.


    Lyden ignored the two men running away and went after the gunners first.


    Dozens of gunshots have already been fired and it was stinging Lyden.


    With a ruthless vigor, he rushed towards the nearest one while avoiding as many bullets that he can.


    The man shouted something that Lyden could not understand, however, Lyden did not stop.


    -Crack


    He grips the gunner''s hand and crushes it along with his pistol he was holding.


    "Ahhh! AHHHH!" The thug screamed in pain as he screams bloody murder. He kneeled in pain holding his crushed hand.


    The others could hear the sounds of bones and metal being crushed at the same time causing to feel grateful that they were not him.


    Lyden let go of him and scowled at the rest of them. The others lowered their gun and placed their arms up.


    Ignoring the cry of the man beneath him, he walks to another man who was wearing a black tank top and blue jeans.


    The man spoke like he was pleading for his life. Lyden did not care what he was saying nor did he understood.


    "Do you mind donating your clothes?" Lyden pointed at his tank top and jeans.


    The man understood what he wants and stripped right then and there, down to his underwear.


    "Thanks" He replied with a smile. This made the now naked man scared.


    Lyden then wore the clothes that the man ''donated'' to him.


    "Now, do any of you guys know English?" Lyden spoke loudly. Despite his question, he had no response.


    He slammed his foot on the ground causing a tremor. "I will ask again. Do any of you guys speak English?" This time he heard a response after a couple of seconds.


    "Y-Yes I do." A weak feeble voice said.


    He was a middle-aged man with lots of tattoo around his body.


    "Ok, good, now answer my question. First, what''s your name? Second, where am I?" Lyden kept his dominating domineer to prevent the others from acting up.


    "I-I am Sim Chul-Soo. You''re on Jeju island which is the province of South Korea. Please do not kill us, we were just following orders." Sim Chul-Soo stuttered with a heavy accent. He felt shaken up by the whole ordeal.


    Lyden had guessed right. That mysterious man had sent him to South Korea, which was the other side of the planet from where his home was. Much less, an island. He felt a headache coming.


    "What are you guys trying in there?" He was curious about why they were guarding the tower. And also what happened to the civilians who lived here.


    Lyden recalled that the hunters in South Korea had a system that was different from the U.S.


    The U.S. had a system that the government were the only one who could hire and recruit hunters. It was essentially controlled by one power but scattered all over America.


    Instead, South Korea have guilds that can be created by private citizens. Guilds can recruit hunters to join their forces and the South Korean government does not have the authority to command the guilds. They were more like private companies.


    "You guys do not look like any guilds in Korea. You guys are more like a mafia." He commented out.


    Sim Chul-Soo hesitated to reply. Lyden was scarier than any other hunters he had met so far.


    "Tell me what is going on with this town, the tower, and your gang." Lyden was curious about what was happening.

 Chapter 13: The Tower in the Sea

    Sim Chul-Soo stared at the Caucasian man before him. He looks young, yet his body was very well toned. His biceps weren''t huge like a bodybuilder, but lean and tough.


    There was not any facial hair on his face nor body hair.


    If someone told him if that man trained all his life in the mountains ever since he was young, he will be inclined to believe it.


    Sim Chul-Soo had seen many body-builders all his life ever since he worked in the Korean mafia, Hwangsaechi, starting two years ago. Although the young man did not have huge muscles, yet, he looked more dazzling than any bodybuilder he had met before.


    He could tell that this man did not use steroids at all. He could spot it instantly if he did.


    "Did you not hear me?" Lyden said.


    "I''m sorry. You asked about what happened here?"


    "Yes..."


    Sim Chul-Soo sees the man crossing his arms impatiently.


    "First, let me ask the name of someone as great as you." Sim Chul-Soo put on his business smile and tried to flatter him.


    However, instead of hearing a friendly voice, he heard a clicking noise from the young man''s mouth.


    "Lyden¡­Now tell me." Lyden simply stretches his neck as he said that, but to Sim Chul-Soo, Lyden looks intimidating no matter what he did.


    "My apology!" He said as he quickly bows his head. Seeing Sim Chul-Soo bowed, the other people did the same.


    "My apology!" They all said in unison.


    "When did I become a mafia boss?" Lyden mumbled.


    "We are the members of Hwangsaechi! We serve our boss, Ougeo!" Sim Chul-Soo shouted while keeping his head bowed. "We are here to keep a lookout for any other hunters and if we do, we inform the boss!"


    Even when Sim Chul-Soo was done saying all those things, he was still bowing.


    "Alright, enough. Raised your head." Lyden told him.


    Sim Chul-Soo and the rest of the men rose their head.


    "For tough looking guys, I thought you will you guys would be up to something." Lyden read too novel that he expected one or more of them to fire their gun while he was distracted.


    He was always listening to the other men to make sure.


    "Dignity is what keeps a man living. Dignity is also what makes the man dead. Know when to keep it, and know when to cast it away." Sim Chul-Soo said.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "I see. I keep that in mind." Lyden was still young and have very little experience in how the world works. Especially living in a peaceful town for most of his life.


    Hearing the thoughts of others allow him to grow a bit.


    However, he could not admit his inexperience or else they would look down on him.


    Lyden looked at the tower in the middle of the town. It was very similar to the one he entered before. It was tall with pillars around near the bottom. There was a gaping hole that was the entrance to the tower.


    However, when the two hunters ran away and entered the tower, the barrier appeared and prevented anyone from entering or exiting the tower.


    "Your boss, Ogre?"


    "It is Ougeo, Mister Lyden" Sim Chul-Soo politely corrected him.


    "Ougeo, is he inside the tower?" It was not possible to enter the tower now since the barrier had been erected. It would take another 12 hours before they can enter.


    "Yes, he had occupied at along with the many members of Hwangsaechi."


    "Does the Korean guilds know that a gang had occupied the tower?"


    "Yes they do, but they cannot do anything about it."


    "Why is that?" Lyden asked.


    "It''ll be easier if I show you."


    Since Lyden had nothing else to do, he agreed to follow Sim Chul-Soo.


    Sim Chul-Soo and Lyden walked off leaving the other men to their own device. Many heaved a sigh of relief when Lyden left.


    The two walked silently as if they were strangers through the grassy plain. Sim Chul-Soo was nervous, but he was not completely terrified of Lyden.


    After the brief conversation with Lyden, he knew that Lyden was not a man who killed relentlessly.


    Although it was unfortunate that a member of the Hwangsaechi had died, even more, a hunter, but Sim Chul-Soo did not take it to heart.


    "Here it is." After walking for miles, they stopped at the edge of a cliff where the sea thrash against it.


    Sim Chul-Soo pointed in the direction where the sun was setting. From there, a tower sticked out of the sea.


    With Lyden''s eyes, he could see it.


    ''How tall does that tower have to be? Even the depth of the sea was not enough for it to completely submerge it.''


    What''s more, there was something large swimming in the water. His eyes peered through the water and saw shark-like monsters swimming about.


    Not just one, but a dozen of them.


    "That is..."


    "Yes, a tower appeared one day, two and a half years ago, without anybody noticing it. By the time someone pointed it out, it was already too late. Monsters had already escaped the tower, and there was nothing we could do about it. Many of the people who lived on the island were stranded. In the end, food became scarce. It was then that the Hwangsaechi came to be to quell the people here." Sim Chul-Soo recalled a terrible past that he was barely keeping it together.


    "Now I understand a bit more about what was going on here. I''m guessing that fishing became impossible then?"


    "That is correct. Many ships were sunk by those monsters. And many more people have starved because of the lack of food. The mainland tried to send us food once, but it was all for naught. The sea monsters can shoot out powerful jet stream into the air¡­"


    Lyden listened to his story carefully and felt a bit remorse.


    "So why did you guys attack me first?" He wanted to know the reason they attack because, in the end, he did kill someone.


    "On the opposite side of the island, there is a gang, The Huin Dong-Gali, and they have been trying to take over the tower for months. They would send their men to ambush our hunters when they come out of the tower. To prevent that, we will always have a group of men to warn if anything was happening."


    Lyden saw the overall pictures of what was happening here.


    ''They thought I was part of the member of Huin Dong-Gali and tried to kill me. The three hunters had probably just exited the tower and were planning to reactive the tower''s barrier, but they saw me and one of them attacked¡­''


    He stared at the tower in the sea as he was deep in thought.


    Suddenly, he felt something in his chest. It was the Random Monster Transmutation aretisite acting up.

 Chapter 14: Baited

    Lyden, who was staring at the edge of the cliff, was fixated at the tower within the sea.


    Ba-dump-


    Ba-dump-


    His heart was aching and pounding loudly.


    The Random Monster Transmutation aretisite reacts inside his heart was reacting to the tower. It was squirming around and slightly tighten itself around the heart like it was excited about something.


    ''Impossible¡­ Something impossible of me to do have appeared in less in a day.'' Lyden was breaking in a cold sweat.


    His body wanted to retreat, but it felt like the aretisite was tugging him to go in there. It was squeezing onto his heart to tell him to go there.


    However, Lyden did not move a step forward.


    "Let''s go." Lyden turned his back and walked away.


    "Ok?" Sim Chul-Soo did not understand what happened. He saw Lyden showing a painful look, but that was it.


    He thought it might be something he had said. However, he kept silent and followed him.


    Lyden''s heart still felt the pressure from his aretisite. It did not fade away, and he could not ignore it.


    ''Even with this body this strong, there is something that exists that I cannot do.'' Lyden thought.


    "Sim Chul-Soo, that gang, Huin Dong-Gali, where exactly are they?"


    "10 miles from here, they occupied a town there. The town with the red boulder in the middle of it. May I ask why you are going there?"


    "I am going to help y''all out for a bit. Also, ask your men to gather any information regarding the tower in the sea as soon as possible." Lyden said with a scary expression.


    "Yes, Mister Lyden." Sim Chul-Soo shouted as he bowed before Lyden. He did not want to anger him like before.


    ''I need to prepare myself. I need to gather more aretisites in case I need to go inside that tower.'' He was planning on extorting the Huin Dong-Gali for some aretisite. He also did not want to let Sim Chul-Soo that he was going to hunt down the hunters for his own personal gain.


    "I''m going to head out now. You go head back alone." Lyden did not need a guide since he could run there. Also, his eyes could see further than anybody so it will be easy for him to find it.


    Lyden pressed his foot on the ground and pushed it which causes strong turbulence in front of Sim Chul-Soo.


    "Finally, he left." Sim Chul-Soo felt great pressure from being next to him. "I should warn the boss to not go against him." He ran back when he could not see Lyden in the distance anymore.


    With one pushed with his own feet, Lyden propelled himself several meters into the air with great speed. He did this continuously throughout his short trip.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    He was like a bouncing bullet.


    After half an hour, he found a town that Sim Chul-Soo was talking about.


    Lyden could see that it was not deserted and people were wandering around everywhere.


    However, it was not a peaceful place to live. Robberies were happening, homeless people begging for food, and dead bodies lying on the floor.


    It reminded Lyden of his orphanage and the young children living there. A few of them had a rough past, but Lyden did not blame them for their action. They were not born criminal, they were just doing what they had to do to survive.


    "Now is not the time to be sentimental. I cannot let me feeling get in the way now..." He needed to remind himself about his goal. If he let his empathy get in the way, he will regret it in the future.


    If he could not feed the aretisite that resides in his heart, he will not be able to return home, or at least, not in human form.


    He wanted to go back home as a human and talk to all his brothers and sisters again before he becomes a monster or died along the way.


    The sun had set and the moon rose to witness tonight event.


    Lyden was near the town. He stopped just outside the town where no one else could see him.


    ''It is best to be discreet about this. I do not want them to run away before I get the chance to meet with their boss. The boss of Huin Dong-Gali must be in equal term or more powerful than the boss of Hwangsaechi. It would be nice to have his aretisite. If anything, I can trade it for something that suits me.''


    He stepped into the dimly lit town where the air was eerie with a stench of rot.


    Lyden scouted the area, but he did see anybody that had a tattoo or look like someone that belonged to a gang.


    Instead, he had homeless people tailing from behind.


    ''At least four people. Maybe one of them can help find the Huin Dong-Gali,'' Lyden could hear the footsteps of them.


    Their footsteps were light because they had done this many times over.


    Despite trying to be careful as possible, they could not escape Lyden unnaturally good hearing.


    ''Let''s play for a bit then.'' Lyden smirked.


    Lyden took off running at normal human speed so they could at least chase after him.


    The four people stalking him must have guessed that their target had noticed their presence.


    Soon after, they began chasing him down.


    As they went after Lyden, they knocked over many things which caused a ruckus. The noise alerted many more people.


    ''Good, a little bit more and that should get there attention.'' Lyden thought as he casually ran away.


    It was not before long until Lyden was surrounded by at least fifteen people. Lyden stopped running and stood there without a hint of fear.


    They said something in Korean, but Lyden did not understand. But if he had to guess, they were probably saying along the line of robbing and killing him. Maybe something even racist about him.


    ''Now where are they?'' He attracted enough people that there should be at least one member of the Hoin Dong-Gali nearby.


    Lyden''s eyes could see well in the dark and to his fortune, he spotted two men with tattoos who looks likes gangster.


    ''My lucky day. They are also hunters,'' He could see the sigil with stars on their body. One was a 2-star hunter and another was a 1-star hunter.


    Without warning, five ragged men out of the group charged at him with weapons on hands.


    Lyden violently stomped the ground that caused a tremor. The tremor quickly knocked the men off their feet.


    "Know who is your target is before you attack them in your next life..." Lyden moved through the dark with a speed that could not be easily followed in the dark. The only thing they could see was the trail of silver moonlights reflecting off of Lyden''s eyes.


    Lyden swiftly kicked the five men who fell on the ground. Their body blew up into pieces as if a cannon had shot at them point-blank.


    Blood splattered everywhere and got all over on Lyden''s body and the surrounding area.


    ''Shit, I tried to hold back, but I cannot control it¡­ My emotion is unstable right now.'' He once again reflected on his mistake. He needed to control his strength and his emotions before he really regrets it.


    It seems that this new body of his trigger some emotional response he never felt before when he gets heated.


    The two hunters saw Lyden''s murderous eyes like he was the devil. They felt like the devil was closely itching at them as Lyden looks towards their direction.


    They fled for life pushing through other people.


    "They will not escape," Lyden said in a menacing voice.


    The men, who now regretted chasing after Lyden, felt the air turn cold.


    Lyden strutted casually towards the direction of the hunter before he took off with great speed.

 Chapter 15: 2-Star Bull Flow Aretisite

    Under the moonlight, two men were running like gazelles being chased by a predator.


    "Who the hell is he, Park Yoon-Jae?" The 1-star hunter yelled in fear to his brother next to him.


    "How do hell do I know, Park Rim? He is a hunter, that''s for sure, although I did not see the sigil on his body. With his strength, he must be at least 3-star hunter¡­ We have to get to our boss. I''m sure he will be able to kill him." Park Yoon-Jae believed that his boss can handle anything. Even a monster like Lyden.


    The two Korean brothers were born in America. They came to Jeju island to visit their family 6 months ago, but ever since the tower in the sea appeared, it was impossible to go back home, and no one was coming to save them.


    So they decided to join the Huin Dong-Gali as hunters for protection for themselves and their family. However, they forgot the reason for joining in the first place and began turning into criminal like many of the members of Huin Dong-Gali.


    Moments ago before running away, they heard the commotion and wanted to see what was happening. What they saw was at least a dozen Korean men chasing a white guy.


    However, they were not going to help him.


    Especially Park Yoon-Jae because over the months, he enjoys the feeling of seeing those who were weaker than him, begged for their life.


    As the two ran with all their might, Lyden watched them beneath the full moon. He never lost track of them from the very beginning.


    "It seems that they can speak English. I should capture one of them for information. As for the other one..."


    Lyden jumped down from the roof and landed in front of the two.


    The two stopped in their tracks. They could not budge forward due to the pressure of the young man in front of him. They felt like mice going against a tiger.


    "Park Rim, run away. I will handle this. Get to the boss no matter what." Park Yoon-Jae said.


    "But-"


    "I say go, you useless bastard!" Park Yoon-Jae yelled at him with anger.


    Park Rim ran away with all his might without looking back.


    "I swear I will reach the boss, and he will get vengeance for the both of us." Park Rim swore to himself.


    Lyden and Park Yoon-Jae were beginning to fight each other with the moon in the night sky the only witness.


    "What is your name?"


    "Lyden,"


    "Why are you attacking us?"


    "It is because y''all attack me first. Well, in your case, you just watch with an annoying smile. It seems like you like to watch people suffer."


    "Is that it? If I plead to let us go, will you let us?"


    "No"


    A sigh of regret could be heard in Park Yoon-Jae. He looked back in his life and thought judgment day was here. And Lyden was here to punish him.


    "So be it." Park Yoon-Jae was beginning to activate his aretisite.


    "Bull Flow!" He shouted.


    A small 2-star aretisite that looked like a bull with a skeleton tail came out of his back. In less than a second, it infuses himself into Park Yoon-Jae''s tail bone.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "This is my armament type aretisite, Bull Flow." The red skeleton tail whip across the air. It was twice as long as him and at the end of it, a sharp point like that of a spear.


    Park Yoon-Jae was not experienced in fighting other hunters before, but now he had no choice but to experience one. He dashed towards Lyden with his tail aiming at him


    "You will die here to-"


    BAM


    "..tonight..."


    Before Park Yoon-Jae could finish his sentence, Lyden already closed his distance against him and jabbed straight through his chest.


    "You took to long. Next time, if you''re going to attack, make it quick and discreet. Well, I guess there won''t be a next time for you."


    Park Yoon-Jae flopped to the ground lifelessly with a splat.


    Lyden sighed as he stared at the lifeless body beneath his feet. He felt no satisfaction nor guilt from doing so.


    ''I became less emotional, unlike my old self.'' Lyden thought, but he quickly decided to not dwelled too much in it.


    Next, he inspected the dead body of Park Yoon-Jae for the aretisite. To his surprise, his aretisite was not there. It was reduced to a glittery liquid before it evaporated into thin air.


    "It seems that hunters cannot be killed or else their aretisite died alongside with them." This was the first time he saw the death of a hunter and his aretisite.


    It did not matter to him about the lost of Bull Flow. It did not suit him anyway.


    "The other guy should have not gone far." Lyden listened carefully for the footstep of the other person running away.


    It was not before long before Lyden went after him.


    ''This time I let him unknowingly lead me to his boss.'' Lyden left the corpse bleeding on the floor and followed Park Rim right after.


    With painful breathing, Park Rim ran so much that his legs were cramping up. Even then, he still ran with all his might.


    "I''ll come back to you, brother. I promise." He swore with a vengeance as he ran towards the den of the Huin Dong-Gali.


    Eventually, he could see the place where the Huin Dong-Gali was located.


    He ran inside and stopped at the door with a clownfish on it.


    Bang! Bang!


    "We have an emergency! There is a hunter out there targeting the Huin Dong-Gali!"


    Park Rim banged on it pleading for someone to open up.


    The door opened up by a young girl wearing skimpy clothing.


    She guided him to a room that was filled with the smell of cigarettes.


    There he saw the boss playing video games with two others.


    "Boss Yang Seung-Joo!" Park Rim bowed before him without ever looking at him in the eyes.


    "There is a hunter that came and is killing people. Five people have already died by his hand and my brother is fighting him now."


    There was no immediate response.


    He and his two other friends kept playing their video games.


    Park Rim was frustrated but there was nothing else he could do but wait patiently.


    "Your aretisite¡­ Give me your aretisite and I will take care of it. If not, leave."


    ''Take my aretisite? You want to blackmail so you can take care of an enemy that is coming after your gang?! Shouldn''t you protect your followers, you fucking asshole.'' Park Rim hated him, but his younger brother insisted that he was a great guy.


    He only treated his brother well because he was a 2-star hunter, but Park Rim was only a 1-star hunter. Yang Seung-Joo only saw him as a fodder. He did not care for anyone but himself.


    "Well, what is going to be?"


    "I understand." Park Rim stopped bowing to him and released his aretisite. It was a small worm with one horn on its head. "Here take my Drill Worm." He places it on the table next to Yang Seung-Joo.


    Yang Seung-Joo put down his controller and picks up the Drill Worm aretisite.


    "What does it feed on?" Yang Seung-Joo asked.


    "It feeds on calcium..."


    Yang Seung-Joo gave a wide smile like he found some treasure.


    "Haha that is good that is really good. This is what I''ve been looking for. Honestly, I do not care for the ability of a 1-star aretisite." Yang Seung-Joo laughed in joy. "Do you know why this is valuable to me?"


    Park Rim shook his head.


    "You should know that aretisite feed on something within their host. But did you know that when they feed on something, they defecate another product inside your body?"


    "I-I never heard of such a thing"


    "That''s because you have a 1-star aretisite. What they defecate is negligible to the human body since the liver can clear it out. However, the stronger the aretisite the more they produced the excess product. Mine feed on keratin and produce calcium. Now because of it, I am beginning to have signs of hypercalcemia."


    "How do you know all this?"


    "Because my dad was a doctor of some sort. Alright enough talk, for this gift, my friends will handle that person who dares go against the Huin Dong-Gali."


    The other two who were on the couch put down their controller and got up to head out the door.


    "You can leave it to them¡­ Uhm, Park Rim, right?"


    Park Rim nodded.


    "Watch how those two 2-star hunters torture and then kill those who dare challenge us. So until then, I do not want to be disturbed..."


    "Well, here is me disturbing you." A voice brimming with confidence was heard outside the room. "That is a nice piece of information that I heard."


    The four men inside the room opened their eyes wide in shock.


    Lyden had voluntarily entered the den of his enemy.

 Chapter 16: Resolve of the Weak

    Inside the dimly lit room, the four men stared at the young man covered in blood.


    Lyden smiled at Park Rim, and then the rest of them.


    "I have been looking for you, Yang Seung-Joo." He ignored the other three like they were nothing but mannequins.


    However, Yang Seung-Joo reacted like a threatened animal that wants to bare its fangs.


    "What are you guys doing?! Attack him!" Yang Seung-Joo commanded.


    Yang Seung-Joo should have people secretly watching the den, but no one alerted him. Although he did not have many hunters on his side, his people were not weak.


    Responding to their boss, the two muscular men quickly activated their aretisite.


    "Aauuuuuuhhhhhhh!"


    The one with the blonde hair yelled out, and when he did, a massive gust of wind came out of his mouth.


    Lyden was off caught and was blown several meters along with bits and pieces of the den.


    He skidded across the hard ground like a puck on ice.


    On the tongue of the blonde-haired man, there was an aretisite. The aretisite looked like a small pink octopus with a large trunk like an elephant.


    His 2-star aretisite was a close-range attacking type, Octogust.


    He blew at Lyden with the power of the wind.


    However, the wind he summoned disappeared after traveling a few meters. It was like a car braking hard.


    "He has excellent reflexes. He stepped away at the last second. Because of that, my attacked has lessened. But, nonetheless, that should break many of his bones." The blonde-hair man said to the black-hair man next to him.


    The black-haired man was not worry that his friend was not able to finish him then and there. His aretisite was a buffer type that granted him abnormal strength to his limbs.


    "Muscle''s Muscle," He said as he activated his aretisite.


    He felt a rush of power flowing down his thighs to toes.


    His legs became jacked like that of a powerlifter. Veins were bulging everywhere.


    "I will end his life quickly. He should be unconscious after that." The black-haired man grasped the machete next to him and with great control of his legs'' muscle, he leaped towards Lyden. He was careful not to jump too high, or else he would break his bones.


    It was not possible to reinforce his bones or tendon his aretisite. Instead, he does grueling training to bear the pressure of it.


    After three leaps, he made it where Lyden was laying down flat on his face.


    Just as he was about to take Lyden''s head with his machete, Lyden stabbed it with his nails into the oncoming machete with great force.


    The black-haired man could not hold onto the machete, and it was sent flying out of his hand.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "What? How?!" He could see the machete have holes on it as if it shot by a gun at point-blank.


    "Does he have an aretisite that strengthen his fingers and nail?" The black-haired pondered anxiously.


    ''This guy must have multiple aretisites within him. Hard nails, greater strength, and tough defense?! Is this possible?''


    When he was close enough to attack him, he could not see any blood coming out from his friend''s attack.


    Sensing great danger, he leaped into the air.


    Lyden already got up and saw the black-hair man trying to retreat to his allies.


    He leaped into the air with higher speed than his opponent.


    ''I should carefully try to hold back my strength this time.'' Lyden did not hold back his strength because he felt merciful. Instead, he held back was because he wanted to train himself to control his power.


    ''Let''s try with one finger,'' Lyden decided.


    As the two glided in the air with haste. Lyden was already closed in on his opponent like a homing missile.


    ''He is fast!'' The black-hair man quickly reacted and activated his aretisite once more. He felt his legs were losing strength, and then his arms increase in mass. He was preparing to block Lyden''s attack, instead of attacking him, with pure muscle.


    With a flick on Lyden''s index finger, the black-hair man flew backward towards a warehouse next to the Hung Dong-Gali''s den.


    With dust and rocks flying everywhere, the black-hair man crashed against the steel wall of the warehouse.


    He unconsciously transferred his power from his arms to his back muscles, thus, reducing the damage he had taken when he crashed into the wall.


    ''What a monster?! He is more terrifying than those things that came out of the tower!'' The man thought while in pain. He was barely conscious as blood was seeping out everywhere from his body like a broken fountain.


    He willed his aretisite, and his muscles from all over his body increase evenly in size. Although his muscles were not as big as before, he was still strong from head to toes.


    He pulled himself up to see the white man looking at him through the dust in the air.


    "You can still stand?" Lyden thought that a flick was still too strong, but he now thought differently.


    "What is your...name?" The black-haired man spoke with great pain.


    He wanted to know who was the monster in human skin.


    "Lyden..."


    "Are you human and... not a monster?"


    Lyden did not answer him. He always thought of himself as a human even with his new body.


    It was because someday he knew that he had to choose to become a real monster or die like a human.


    ''So in the eyes of others, I am a monster even though I look human.'' Lyden sighed, but when he does that, the blonde-hair already sneaked up next to Lyden.


    "Aauuuuuuhhhhhhh!" A scream echoed throughout the night sky, and the dust was blown away along with Lyden.


    The blonde-hair man quickly ran up to his friend and picked him up.


    "Let''s get back to the boss. We cannot take care of this alone. He reacted to it once again and jumped before he took the full force of it. The first time was indeed, no fluke."


    The injured man agreed, and with the blonde-hair man carrying him, they returned to the boss and Park Rim.


    "Yang Seung-Joo, you have to help us. We will die at this rate."


    "Your aretisites, give me your aretisites, and I will kill him. I will return it to you guys once I''m done killing the intruder." Yang Seung-Joo said to the two.


    Yang Seung-Joo was not confident anymore now that he saw Lyden''s strength.


    The other two nodded and released their aretisite so Yang Seung-Joo can assimilate with it. The two felt the connection between their aretisite broke when they did.


    Yang Seung-Joo gave back the Drill Worm aretisite to Park Rim. Park Rim did not cut the tie yet because Lyden came in out of nowhere.


    "Take this back, and buy me time. I need fifteen seconds for each one. So I need a total of 30 seconds, do you understand?!" Yang Seung-Joo said to Park Rim.


    Park Rim stood there like a statue.


    ''There is no way I can do it. Those two were 2-star hunters, and I am only a 1-star hunter.'' He felt a burden that was impossible to overcome when Yang Seung-Joo said that. He was shivering in fear.


    "Man up, already!? Didn''t you say your brother was fighting him!? He has most likely died! Don''t you want revenge for him!? So hurry the fuck up and go out there!" Yang Seung-Joo yelled at him.


    Park Rim took a breather before he steeled himself.


    Although Park Rim did not like Yang Seung-Joo, he was right. He did not have anybody to protect him anymore. His brother died protecting him, but he felt a great sense of guilt.


    He thought they if they fought together then Park Yoo-Jae would still be alive.


    ''He is right. I will avenge my brother.'' He promised himself that he would not let others bring him down. That he would become a brother that Park Yoo-Jae would be proud to have.


    His Drill Worm returned inside his body, and he carefully walked towards the direction where Lyden was blown away by the blonde-haired man.

 Chapter 17: Puppet Type Aretisite

    After taking the attack from the blonde-haired man once gain, Lyden was losing beginning to lose patience.


    Lyden got up and dusted himself off. His clothes were already torn all over the place that he needed to get a new one.


    "It was a good thing I came here before entering that sea tower. I''ll be dead many times over for being careless." Lyden slowly understood himself and the power of aretisites that they have to offer.


    Aretisite were too illogical compared to reality. Without experience, Lyden would die without knowing why someday.


    Even though his body was strong in terms of raw physical strength, it can easily be nullified.


    ''My strength is useless unless I''m on the ground. Since I can''t freely control the way I move mid-air, my attack and speed will suffer... It was good that I held back so I can learn from experience.'' Lyden thought.


    Lyden knew now that by grounding his feet firmly to do the ground, then he can bring out his strength.


    Without a firm footing, it was like a missile without speed. Even with all that strength inside Lyden''s body, without speed, it was not as effective.


    However, Lyden attacks were not something an average person could take on regardless.


    Coming out of the boss''s den, Park Rim headed towards Lyden with a fearless expression.


    "I think that was the 1-star hunter I was tailing." Lyden was vigilante towards other hunters now. He wanted to overcome his arrogance as soon as possible now that he knew his weakness.


    Park Rim stopped 100 meters in front of Lyden.


    "Lyden, right? What happened to my brother, Park Yoon-Jae?" Park Rim uttered with anger.


    "He is dead. I killed him." Lyden said bluntly.


    "I, Park Rim, will avenge him here by killing you!" He shouted that everybody in the town could hear it. He was shaking with anger as he stared at the man before him.


    With a wave of his hand, he threw out his small aretisite, Drill Worm, onto the ground. The Drill Worm started to grow until it was the size of a dog and long as a python.


    The white worm had a drill for its head that was screeching as it spins.


    Lyden slightly widened his eyes. He never saw such a type of aretisite.


    "That a puppet type aretisite. It is rare for a 1-star aretisite to be such a type." Black-hair man said out loud.


    "Why is that?" The blond-hair man questioned.


    "I do not know if you know this, but the most common type for a 1-star aretisite is the armament type. They turn into weapon or armor depending on each aretisite. Unlike armament type, a puppet type aretisite is very valuable that could be rival 2-star aretisite. Because puppet type aretisite does not need to rely on their host strength, they are more flexible than many of the 2-star aretisites. You should know by now that your aretisite is not as flexible in terms of distance. And my aretisite lose its strength if I distributed its evenly throughout my body."Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    The blonde-haired man nodded. "I understand, the higher the stars on an aretisite, the more flexibility of its skill as well as power."


    "And for a puppet type, they are more flexible. Along with its unique skill, it has strength beyond its host and can attack its opponent from afar. The only downside is that if the aretisite died outside, then the hunter using it is defenseless."


    The two stopped speaking and carefully watched the battle that was going to occur any second now.


    Yang Seung-Joo, who was laying down on the couch, was still trying to assimilate with the aretisites. But, he could hear everything that was going on.


    With great agility, the Drill Worm dug deep into the ground to avoid Lyden''s careful watch.


    Lyden tried to see where will it appeared, but nothing came out of it.


    Instead of wasting his time on the Drill Worm, he tried to attack Park Rim directly. "How are you going to protect yourself if you don''t have your aretisite?" Lyden lightly kicked the ground enough to propel himself forward to Park Rim, but the floor beneath began cracking instead.


    "You should worry about yourself," By the time Park Rim said that Lyden felt his footing wavering and then the ground collapse under his feet.


    ''Tsk, he already caught onto my weakness?'' He admired Park Rim for his quick decision that left Lyden off guard.


    Lyden was falling without anything to grab on.


    ''It already did such damage to the ground? How fast is this worm?''


    Charging him at the left side through the soil, the Drill Worm drilled at Lyden''s left side.


    Its drill was rotating at such a speed that it was piercing Lyden''s skin, although, barely.


    Park Rim was nervous going against Lyden.


    ''Not only he has high strength, but I cannot even piercing through his skin. How monstrous is this guy?'' Park Rim was able to see what was happening through his aretisite like it was his own eyes.


    ''No, I do not need to kill him. I just need to buy time.'' Park Rim was drenched in sweat. It was because controlling the aretisite took a lot of stamina out of him.


    When the Drill Worm was not able to pierce through his skin, Park Rim commanded it dive into the wall inside the hole to escape.


    ''I will bury him here.'' Park Rim quickly thought of a way to stall for time.


    Lyden already landed onto the floor of the hole, but he was not able to grab the Drill Worm when he attacked him.


    Just about when he was going to leap out, the wall shook violently.


    In a matter of seconds, the wall of hard soil collapsed and buried him.


    ''That should be enough time for Yang Seung-Joo to finish assimilating with those two aretisites.''


    On the couch, Yang Seung-Joo opened his eyes and pulled himself up.


    "Ahahaha, I finish. Now I have two more aretisites inside me." Yang Seung-Joo rejoiced. He finished assimilating his aretisites and could feel the rush of ecstasy from it.


    "That is great, and now you can fin-"


    But before the black-hair man could finish speaking, Yang Seung-Joo pierced his neck with his muscular finger.


    He already activated Muscle''s Muscle aretisite and directed to his fingers the moment he finished assimilating both of them.


    Seeing this, the blonde-haired look at Yang Seung-Joo with anger and regret.


    "You?! You planned on killing us this whole time." The blonde-hair man said as he watches his friend bleed to death.


    Yang Seung-Joo replied with a jab towards his heart.


    "Ahh, this aretisite feels great. I feel like I have the strength of a bodybuilder in one finger." Yang Seung-Joo could not wait to test his new aretisites against someone.


    "Now where is that kid, Park Rim? He has a rare aretisite. I want it." Yang Seung-Joo heard everything about Park Rim aretisite from the two men.


    He stepped outside where the fight between Lyden and Park Rim was held.


    "Where is Park Rim? It seems like he ran away." He looked around but found nothing. "And it seems that he buried that guy before he left. Whatever now I can go to the tower where the Hwangsaechi is in and take over that tower."


    Underneath where Lyden was buried, a small tremor shook the ground above. Then it grew larger and larger until the ground exploded like a volcano made of dirt and rock.

 Chapter 18: I Will Break Your Arm

    Dirt and rocks flew everywhere like a geyser. The ground rippled like waves, which was kicking up dust that was at least one meter tall.


    The ground violently vibrated as if it were shaking in fear.


    "What the hell is going on? Is that an earthquake or something!?" Yang Seung-Joo could not believe his eyes. In all his life living on the island, he never felt one as powerful as his one.


    Nor did he heard about a geyser made out of dirt appearing during such event.


    Yang Seung-Joo used his Muscle''s Muscle aretisite to leap away far from the ground and landed away from the geyser.


    Yang Seung-Joo was able to escape until he could not feel the tremors anymore. From a distance, he saw something in the air. It was hard for him to see it due to the dust, but it looked like a human.


    "You gotta be kidding me?" After a few glimpses, he knew. It was the intruder who was aiming the Huin Dong-Gali, the hunter Lyden. "That is not possible to do with pure strength! He must have an aretisite that can do that¡­ At least a 3 or 4-star aretisite!"


    Yang Seung-Joo was a man who took risked ever since he was young. He would take what he wanted, bought what he wanted, and even rape girls if he feels like it. Also, if that something or someone belongs to someone else, he would take it by force.


    He had an influential father that made others hard to go against him. But even then, he would go too far sometime that he would also bring troubles to his father.


    "I can do it. I have two more aretisites now. How can that bastard compared to me!? If I torture him to give up that aretisite, then the Huin Dong-Gali will rise!" Yang Seung-Joo said to hype himself up.


    In the air, Lyden was looking for the person who was controlling the Drill Worm, but he did not see him. He was slowly falling to the ground, but he was still vigilante against his opponent.


    "Did he escape through the ground? Or is hiding behind some buildings? If it is the former, then he would be the one buried now. Not even his aretisite can survive that attack..." Lyden was somewhat doubtful. He felt it in his heart.


    Lyden knew that the Drill Worm was incapable of harming him, and so did Park Rim.


    So he thought that if he were in Park Rim''s shoes, he would surely escape when Lyden lost sight of him by going underground.


    However, Lyden thought that Park Rim was not able to predict what he just did just now and that would be his downfall.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    When Lyden was buried by the Drill Worm moments before, he had to free himself by smashing his way out. With each smash against the ground from within, a vibration occurred.


    That was what caused the ground to create the waves.


    Then he leaped out like a rock being shot out of a volcano to free himself.


    "I need to find his body, but now, I have to take care of someone else." Lyden already landed safely onto the mounds of soil.


    After all that, the town around him looked like it had been through a natural disaster. Homes were destroyed, roads were bent awkwardly, and many people were left running away from the battle between the hunters.


    Through the moving dust in the air, Lyden looked at the only person who was walking towards him.


    Lyden mocked him a bit for not running away like Park Rim. He can see how arrogant Yang Seung-Joo was being by confronting him after seeing what he was capable of doing.


    "Since he wants to torture me for my aretisite, then how about I treat him the same?" Lyden could hear Yang Seung-Joo talked to himself even though they were a couple of hundred meters apart.


    Lyden struck the ground with his foot to propel him closer to Yang Seung-Joo.


    "That bastard, he dared to look down on me." Yang Seung-Joo scowled when he saw Lyden rushing towards him. He opened his mouth, and then his tongue began swelling.


    Suddenly, something appeared on top of his tongue.


    It was the aretisite, Octogust, from the blonde-haired man he stoled.


    Just about Lyden was close enough, Yang Seung-Joo was moments from yelling out to activate Octogust.


    However, with one swift movement of his hand, Lyden closed Yang Seung-Joo mouth before he could yell out.


    "Why don''t you shut up for a bit?" Lyden could see the terror in Yang Seung-Joo eyes. "You should have run like a dog you are..."


    ''No way, he stopped my attack. How the hell?'' Yang Seung-Joo had never use Octogust before, and he only knew how it worked from the original owner. But he did not know its weakness.


    Lyden did not know either. He just wanted to stop Yang Seung-Joo from yelling when he saw the aretisite in his mouth.


    ''I would thought that his head would get blown apart, but I guess not.'' Lyden thought. It was a good thing, too, or else he would not have a chance to get his aretisites.


    Lyden recalled that the mysterious man said something about infusing aretisite to himself. It seemed that Yang Seung-Joo was capable of doing it.


    Yang Seung-Joo used Muscle''s Muscle to increase his strength in his hands. Then he grabbed onto Lyden''s wrist.


    ''You! I will crush your fucking wrist!'' With his muscular veiny hands, he tightened his grip, attempting to turn his bones into powdered. ''After that, I will rip your teeth out one by one.''


    However, Lyden flexed his arms, thus, making his muscles hard enough that Yang Seung-Joo could not crush it.


    "Are you done playing? I have a few questions for you that I would like to have answers to." Lyden pried one of Yang Seung-Joo''s arms away from his.


    With one hand on Yang Seung-Joo''s mouth and the other on his arm, Yang Seung-Joo could not do anything.


    He then crushed it like Yang Seung-Joo tried to do to him.


    Yang Seung-Joo muffled scream could be heard through Lyden''s hand. Blood was spilling over his head from his crushed arm, which dyed his hair with blood.


    After a few seconds, Yang Seung-Joo knees went weak from the pain and collapsed.


    "Nod your head if you understand me..."


    Yang Seung-Joo feebly nodded his head. His pride was crushed and became submissive from how powerless he felt.


    "Good, now how did you do it? How did you store those two aretisites into your body?"

 Chapter 19: Failure and Blacked Out

    Under the full moon, Lyden and Yang Seung-Joo were in the middle of the demolished town.


    One was crying in pain as he begged the young man to stop.


    Lyden lets go of his hand that was covering Yang Seung-Joo''s mouth, but he was still gripping Yang Seung-Joo''s crushed arm.


    "I''ll tell you¡­ please let me go¡­ it hurt so much" Yang Seung-Joo pleaded with tears in his eyes and nose.


    ''How pathetic. You hurt so many more people, yet you plead for mercy...'' Lyden thought with scrutiny. He knew that he stole his aretisite from his own members.


    That was because he saw the dead body of the two from before.


    Nonetheless, he let him go, and Yang Seung-Joo flopped onto the ground.


    Yang Seung-Joo did not think of attacking him this time. He feared him more than he feared his father. Lyden reminded him of an old folklore, the Juju-Ra, the one who wear the skin of humans but with the strength and cruelty of a demon.


    "Hurry up and tell me or else I crush your other hand." Lyden did not want to give him a breather to instill fear within him.


    "I will give it to you..." With Yang Seung-Joo intact hand, he willed his two aretisites to come out of his palm. One was a small octopus with a nose like an elephant''s trunk, and the other was a red snake with hundreds of tails, which were very thin like fish wires.


    "These are the¡­ Octogust and Muscle''s muscles aretisite..." Yang Seung-Joo was barely able to speak due to the pain. "I will now break the link between us..."


    As soon as he does, the two aretisites oozed out something gray from their small body. Then it turned into something hard like a shiny fossil.


    "Once the hunter break their link with their aretisite¡­ It will become a fossil that allowed someone else to assimilate it."


    Lyden was surprised to hear this. He knew that forcefully taking someone aretisite was impossible. He had first-hand experience with Park Rim''s brother, Park Yoon-Jae. When he died, the aretisite died along with him.


    Lyden picked up the two aretisite on Yang Seung-Joo''s palm.


    He felt the two fossils were somewhat fragile. He can feel that if he wanted to, he could make a connection with them.


    "Will you let¡­ me live? I gave you what you wanted..." Yang Seung-Joo said, hopefully.


    5 seconds¡­


    10 seconds¡­Stolen novel; please report.


    15 seconds had passed.


    He waited for Lyden to respond, but it felt like forever. He could not do anything else but kneel before Lyden in fear.


    "Alright, I will let you off the hook this time, but if I see you again, I will make sure you regret it." With that said, Lyden walked away into the quiet night.


    Yang Seung-Joo slowly fainted after Lyden disappeared from his sight. He was mentally exhausted.


    However, instead of leaving Yang Seung-Joo alone, Lyden watched him from afar.


    He sat on the roof of a warehouse, which was a couple of miles away.


    "It seems that Park Rim survived. He has been hiding this whole time..." When Lyden was talking to Yang Seung-Joo. He heard the sound of a drill whirling and believed that it was Park Rim aretisite, Drill Worm.


    However, the sound vanished after a few seconds. Hence, he could not pinpoint precisely where Park Rim was at.


    ''I do not know why I need to be wary of him, but Random Monster Transmutation reacted to Park Rim, but very slightly.'' The aretisite squeezed his heart after Park Rim seeing him the second time, but ever so slightly.


    Nonetheless, the aretisite deemed that he will be a significant threat to him in the future.


    ''It is best to take care of the problem now... I can''t have Park Rim live if he is going to come after me in the future.''


    Although Park Rim could help feed the Random Monster Transmutation aretisite in future, there was already one tower that exists that could fulfill its requirements.


    Also, a moving human was more of a threat than a stationary tower.


    "I left Yang Seung-Joo alive because it seems that Park Rim held a grudge against Yang Seung-Joo. I''m sure he will meet up with him when it deems safe." Lyden said with confidence.


    After an half-an-hour of waiting patiently, Lyden had not seen anybody walking towards the unconscious Yang Seung-Joo.


    "Perhaps I was wrong..." Lyden pondered on what to do next but decided to wait a little bit longer.


    As he waited, he caressed the two aretisites he obtained from Yang Seung-Joo between his fingers. "I guess I can start assimilating with these aretisites now." He was curious about the process. When he first became a hunter, he did not have to do anything to it. The aretisite just appeared inside of him.


    Now, he had to put effort to obtain one.


    Sitting with his legs crossed, he created a connection between himself and the 2-star aretisite, Muscle''s Muscle.


    When he does, he could feel thin string like that of a violin.


    When he plucked it once, the aretisite and his body vibrated like they were resonating with one another.


    He began to pluck the string multiple times.


    It was simple at first, but something happened when he plucked the string the 14th time.


    The string broke, and he felt a jolt of pain throughout his body.


    "What the-!"


    Before Lyden could cut the connection, he blackout, thus, he dropped the two aretisite in the fossil states onto the ground.


    It happened so quickly that Lyden was not able to react to it.


    In the middle of the town where Lyden left Yang Seung-Joo, the unconscious Yang Seung-Joo showed signed of waking up.


    Yang Seung-Joo intact hand began twitching. His eyes were slowly opening, and his mind was foggy.


    He had been through mental stress that he never experience, which caused him to faint.


    He quickly recalled Lyden because of the pain in his other hand. His face turned red with fury. Since Lyden was not here, he did not have to cower to him anymore.


    "I will kill that white bastard. That fucking bitch." Yang Seung-Joo said as he gnashed his teeth. "I will get my father to hunt that guy down."


    Yang Seung-Joo does not want to forget this moment without paying Lyden back. His pride as boss of the Huin Dong-Gali would not let him. If the other knew that he got beaten and crippled, he would be a dead man.


    He made lots of enemies over the years and showing a sign of weakness was costly to him.


    Suddenly, Yang Seung-Joo heard footsteps.


    ''Is that guy back? Dammit, did he hear what I just said?'' He was breaking out in cold sweat. The footsteps were coming from behind until it stopped when it got close.

 Chapter 20: Park Rim Waiting

    Yang Seung-Joo''s heart was beating faster because he knew that someone was behind him.


    ''What is that bastard waiting for?'' Yang Seung-Joo thought. He was afraid to look back, but he peeked at the person behind him nonetheless.


    ''What the-'' Yang Seung-Joo was relieved from what he saw. It was one of the Huin Dong-Gali members he recruited some time ago. Although he was not a hunter, he had muscles from working out consistently.


    "Are you ok, boss?" He had a tattoo of a boat with a giant clownfish on one of his arms and wearing a tank-top. "I will take you somewhere safe."


    He carefully helped Yang Seung-Joo get up.


    "Did you see him anywhere?" Yang Seung-Joo asked.


    "Who?"


    "That white man, The Juju-Ra." Yang Seung-Joo spoke his name in fear.


    The tank-top man was puzzled when he heard the name Juju-Ra. "No, I have not seen anyone like that. A lot of people have already left the town after that earthquake so he could have left when them. So, what happened here? This place seems like its been through hell."


    "I''ll tell you later. For now, take me to the doctor? That bastard broke my arm."


    Now that Yang Seung-Joo mentioned it, the tank-top man could see that Yang Seung-Joo''s arm badly swollen with blood on it.


    "Alright, boss. There should be one a few miles away. I''ll make a call to someone to get the car, but we have to walk a bit."


    "By the way, how did you know I was here?" Yang Seung-Joo asked. When he confronted Lyden, he had to move away far from his den. Even more, it should not have been easy to find him in the dark.


    "Oh that. Someone told me about where you were. I think his name was Park Li-"


    "Park Rim?" Yang Seung-Joo corrected him quickly.


    "Yes, that guy. The 1-Star hunter who joined a couple of months ago."


    "Be careful around him, I do not know what his game is, but he isn''t our ally." Yang Seung-Joo had made an enemy of Park Rim, and he knew it.


    Whatever loyalty he had with Park Rim, it was gone when he tried to take his aretisite and told him to fight against someone with no hope of winning. It was like throwing him into a pit with a hungry tiger.


    He did not know why Park Rim told the tank-top man his location, but it was not a gesture of goodwill.


    Next, to a collapsed building, a young Korean man was sitting. He was observing Yang Seung-Joo leaving with the tank-top man.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    The man was Park Rim.


    He had been watching what transpired between Lyden and Yang Seung-Joo. It ended in less than a minute with Lyden dominating over Yang Seung-Joo.


    Park Rim felt lucky to survive against Lyden but felt bitter to see such a huge gap.


    Park Rim had not escaped since he was injured when Lyden created the tremors.


    Park Rim recalled what happened that led up to this point.


    When he buried Lyden with his Drill Worm, he called back his aretisite to dig a tunnel for him to escape from Lyden and Yang Seung-Joo.


    He saw the whole ordeal when Yang Seung-Joo killed his own friends for their aretisite.


    Going against two opponents who were hunters, he quickly made a tactical retreat by creating a tunnel underneath him.


    However, Park Rim did not expect that Lyden was able to escape by attacking the ground, which caused a small earthquake.


    He highly underestimated Lyden raw power, which almost cost him his life.


    When Park Rim created a tunnel for his escape, it suddenly collapsed on him when the tremors started.


    Then, He was being pushed like the dirt was water. Luckily for him, it rose him to the top, thus, sparing his life. But his body were heavily damaged from that, and he could barely stand up without the help of his aretisite.


    After finding himself next to a collapsed house, he saw the short fight between Lyden and Yang Seung-Joo.


    When Lyden dashed up to him and grabbed his mouth, not even 5 seconds had passed, but Lyden traveled several hundred meters in such a short period of time.


    Park Rim thought he had a chance back then, but Lyden was not even trying when they fought.


    Ignoring his sense of insecurity, he kept watching those two under the moonlight like they were the main actors and he was an extra.


    Due to the distance between them, Park Rim was not able to hear them, but it seemed that Yang Seung-Joo was begging him to stop after Lyden crushed his arm.


    Lyden showed no emotion when hearing the cry of Yang Seung-Joo.


    This event made Park Rim wary of Lyden even more.


    Then without a moment''s notice, a slab of concrete was falling on top of him. He had to use his Drill Worm to protect himself.


    The Drill Worm''s head spun, thus, creating a high pitch noise. The Drill Worm pierced through the concrete slab, thus reducing it to crumbs.


    Park Rim did not pay attention to the slab that was about to crush him; instead, he kept his eye on Lyden.


    Park Rim heart was beating when Lyden stood there motionless like he was locking on to his prey.


    Drill Worm instantly stopped spinning once it destroyed the slab, but the sound it made was somewhat loud compared to its surrounding. He was worried that Lyden might had heard it.


    5 seconds¡­


    10 seconds¡­


    15 seconds had passed.


    And after all that waiting, Lyden left like nothing happened while the Yang Seung-Joo fainted on the ground.


    Park Rim released a breath of relief. Seeing Yang Seung-Joo alone, he was about to go out and confront him, but he stopped himself last second. Although he wanted to take Yang Seung-Joo aretisite, he forced himself to take a step back.


    He questioned himself on why he left Yang Seung-Joo alive. It seems that Lyden was targeting hunters for one reason or another. And it just happened that all the few hunters in this town were in the Huin Dong-Gali.


    Perhaps he was a target too, and he was using Yang Seung-Joo as bait to lure him out.


    Park Rim broke out in cold sweat realizing how cunning Lyden was and he was about to take the bait.


    He waited for some time to see if Lyden would come back.


    Half an hour had passed, and no sign of Lyden, but Park Rim never left his spot.


    It was not until Park RIm happened to see a member of the Huin Dong-Gali walking by. He told the tank-top man the boss location, and to go check on him.


    Now up to this point, Park Rim was watching the tank-top man and Yang Seung-Joo leaving.


    "I think I waited long enough. Lyden would have done something by now seeing how Yang Seung-Joo is leaving..." He told himself. In all honesty, he wanted to see Yang Seung-Joo dead for the crime he had done, but he was more important alive for the time being.


    He commanded the Drill Worm to follow the two just in case. The Drill Worm slowly traveled beneath them.


    He was still wary of Lyden so he could not move out just yet.

 Chapter 21: Park Rims Revenge

    With Lyden unconscious, Park Rim was safe from him at the moment, but he does not know that.


    Park Rim was observing the two with his Drill Worm.


    The Drill Worm was following underneath Yang-Seung-Joo under the guidance of Park Rim, and it was ready to attack at a given notice.


    "If I attack now, I can secure Yang Seung-Joo alive and force him to give up his aretisites. However, if he meets up with the other hunters, I will have to give up on him." Park Rim was debating to take the risk. Even more, he did not know if Yang Seung-Joo had already given up all his aretisites to Lyden.


    It felt like he was gambling on poker with pairs of 2 while there was an ace on the field.


    "And there is Lyden. He is probably waiting somewhere¡­ unless he really left," Park Rim did not know what the correct choice was. And the longer he hesitated, the higher the chance the opportunity will slip.


    "I have to do this. I can''t let Yang Seung-Joo lived after he knows about my aretisite. The Huin Dong-Gali will target me endlessly and my family. And If I can''t take the risk for my success, then I have no chance to kill Lyden and avenge my brother."


    He began to calm down and then commanded the Drill Worm.


    ''Target Yang Seoul-Joo''s Achilles heels and drag him to the opposite direction of me.'' As soon as he thought it, the Drill Worm burst out of the ground and swiped Yang Seoul-Joo''s Achilles heels.


    "Aaaahhh. It hurts--" Yang Seung-Joo yelled in pain.


    "Boss!" The tank-top man took out his gun, but it was already too late. The Drill Worm already dragged him down before the tank-top man had the chance to aim at it.


    "What was that?" He said as he tried to make sense of things. "It-it must be the Juju-Ra!" He remembered that Yang Seung-Joo mentioned it before, and that thing must be it or was working for the Juja-Ra. The tank-top man quickly ran away from the scene to get help.


    Park Rim could see what was happening through his aretisite.


    The kidnap was a success so far.


    ''Now, I have to wait. It was safer to have my Drill Worm move away from me. I need to know for sure if anyone would be tailing it...'' Park Rim commanded the Drill Worm to move around within Park Rim view.


    With Yang Seoul-Joo being dragged by the tail, the Drill Worm moved quickly without stopping.


    It had already been five minutes, and Drill Worm had slowed down significantly.


    ''My stamina is almost gone, and there is no sign of Lyden, yet. He must have left already...'' He was so tired that he could collapse at any moment now. ''Not yet, I have to finish him off. I have to get to Yang Seung-Joo before anybody else.'' He was worried that if not Lyden, then the other members of the Huin Dong-Gali would try to find Yang Seung-Joo.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    He instructed the Drill Worm to go the warehouse near here, and he would meet up with it.


    Park Rim dragged his tired and broken body to the warehouse while avoiding the open spaces.


    When he arrived at the warehouse, what awaited him was his Drill Worm and Yang Seung-Joo.


    "Hey, Park Rim you bastard! What the fuck you are doing!?" Yang Seung-Joo shouted with vein coming out of his neck. He could not get up since his Achilles heels were torn and had to crawl to get to Park Rim.


    "Your aretisite¡­ Give me your aretisite, and I might spare you."


    "You are mocking me now, eh?! Once my father found out about you, he will tear you apart!"


    "Correction, if he found he found about me. Besides, if he were to blame anyone for your death, it will be that white guy."


    Yang Seung-Joo eyes opened wide upon the realization that he had pretty nothing to use against Park Rim.


    "Now are you going to give me your aretisite?"


    "I do not have it. I gave it all to that guy..."


    The sound of a drill echoed throughout the warehouse.


    Next, the Drill Worm pierced Yang Seung-Joo arm, which was already broken by Lyden. Whatever blood was left in his arm was now on the floor beneath.


    Yang Seung-Joo screamed in pain with tears in his eyes.


    "Don''t lie to me! If you really do not have anymore aretisite left, then why is your spirit not broken yet. For one reason or another, you cannot use your aretisite or else you will a long time ago. Am I right?"


    Honestly, Park Rim did not know that Yang Seung-Joo still had his aretisite or not. Instead, he just had to break him mentally. Yang Seung-Joo had to think Park Rim seen through him and he had no trump card to play.


    And it worked. Yang Seung-Joo was now truly broken. After going through what Lyden had done to him and now by Park Rim, his eyes were filled with despair.


    Yang Seung-Joo had nothing to say and released his aretisite outside for Park Rim to see.


    The small aretisite was an animal with one green eye in the middle of its face with antlers. It was floating around Yang Seung-Joo emitting purple fume. The eye had three pupils shaped like a star.


    "How peculiar? What does it do?"


    "The Carry One For All aretisite can give freely lend anybody my aretisite up to 3-stars without breaking the connection between us." He said meekly.


    ''No wonder Yang Seung-Joo did not use his aretisite. It is because he had no other aretisite to lend out. And given Yang Seung-Joo selfish personality, I doubt he would lend his aretisites out. However, it will have great use for me.''


    Next, Yang Seung-Joo broke his connection, and the Carry One For All became a fossil for Park Rim to pick up.


    Park Rim was happy with this aretisite because its potential was high. Although its combat ability was next to none, it had a great utility.


    "Park Rim¡­ Can you spare me¡­ I promise to stop doing bad things, and I will disband the Huin Dong-Gali once and for all. I want to live..." Yang Seung-Joo softly spoke as tears dripped down on the floor.


    "You should''ve realized your sin. The people in this town felt powerless because of you. You took everything that was good and pure, and you made ugly and corrupted. You killed your friend, and you even tried to blackmail me."


    Yang Seung-Joo did not respond. He could not even lift his to look Park Rim in the eyes to say sorry.


    ''How pitiful...'' Even though Yang Seung-Joo was a man without moral, he was still human after all. Park Rim thought that he could change his ways.


    "Fine, but I will be watching you. And next time, I will make you regret it," and with that said, Park Rim turned his back and headed out of the warehouse.


    "Thank you¡­ Thank you so much..." Yang Seung-Joo sobbed.


    However, a sound a drill quickly pierce his head before Yang Seung-Joo could blink.


    ''Yang Seung-Joo, you never meant you said and will come chasing me down and my family. If I do not take care of you now, I''ll put those who I care for in danger. Now I need power, the power to defeat Lyden,'' Park Rim cast his final thought about Yang Seung-Joo and solely focused on overcoming Lyden from now on.

 Chapter 22: Full Set of Armament Type Aretisites

    Early in the morning, a young man woke up next to the edge of the roof. There were two fossilized aretisites on the floor where he had dropped it.


    "What happened-" Lyden''s head hurt like he a hangover and his muscles felt weak. He could barely pick himself up.


    "Where is he? How long did I pass out for?" Lyden said as he looked at the morning sun.


    Lyden tried to recall what had happened, but all he remembered was the pain he felt from trying to assimilate with the aretisite.


    "Yang Seung-Joo is not there anymore..." Lyden looked at where he left them but did not see anybody.


    With no Yang Seung-Joo in around, and not knowing whether Park Rim was dead or alive, he put on complicated expression. Even more, Yang Seung-Joo still had an aretisite within him. He did not force it out of him because he was trying to lure out Park Rim.


    But it was a fail judgment on his part.


    "I do not know why the aretisite rejected me. With Yang Seung-Joo is gone, and the other two hunters are dead. I will need to find another hunter to give me the detail..." Lyden sighed the disappointment he felt. He picked the two aretisite up and tried to connect to it again.


    Everything seemed normal as before.


    He even plucked the string that formed when the two were connected, but he only did it three times instead of fourteen times.


    "It seems fine until I pluck it until a certain amount." Lyden did not want to push his luck on this. Even with his durable body, it seemed that it was not invincible. It was still susceptible to internal damage.


    Even if he can''t use it, it was still valuable.


    "I should head back to Sim Chul-Soo. The tower''s barrier should be nearly deactivated by now, but I need to head back now before they reactivate the barrier. But first, I need a new pair of clothes." Lyden went to a random abandon store and grabbed a pair before he left the town.


    While avoiding the roads, he made it back to tower where Sim Chul-Soo was guarding.


    After a few hours, Lyden saw the men from yesterday.


    Lyden heard some shouting, but instead of shooting him like before, they waved their hands at him.


    Sim Chul-Soo came running to meet up with Lyden.


    "Hello, Mister Lyden. I did not expect you to come back this early. Did you anybody from the Huin Dong-Gali?"


    Lyden coming back soon was a surprise to Sim Chul-Soo.


    He wanted Lyden to be gone longer because he had yet to explain to the people inside the tower about Lyden. Even more, the hunters of Hwangsaechi.


    "Yeah, I met the boss, Yang Seung-Joo."


    "What? Really? It seems like nothing had happened to you." Sim Chul-Soo was surprised that he was able to see him and come back unharmed. "It seems that you did not get into a fight with them. He had two hunters always following him, and they always with Yang Seung-Joo..."


    "Yeah, I saw them. The blonde-haired and black-haired guy. They were interesting to fight, but they were not that strong."


    "What?! You fought with them, and you came back here, uninjured?!" Sim Chul-Soo was shocked to hear that Lyden fought against them.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Months ago, they were defending against those two, and the Hwangsaechi barely won. The blonde-haired and black-haired hunters strong compared to the Hwangsaechi hunters but they lost due to being outnumbered and had to retreat.


    "Yeah, by the way. I have something to show to your boss." From his pocket, he presented two aretisites.


    "Fossilized aretisites?! How rare for someone to give it to you? Wait, don''t tell me you torture them-"


    "No, I got them from their boss."


    Sim Chul-Soo could not easily reply to that. Sim Chul-Soo knew that in the world of hunters, fossilized aretisites were precious. He never had seen one in person but heard stories about it from the hunters in Hwangsaechi.


    It was rare for hunters to give up their aretisite unless for profit or mercy.


    "You should go meet with the hunters of the Hwangseachi. They will know more information about the situation regarding aretisites. At any moment, the barrier should go down, and the hunters should come out of it."


    Lyden was glad to hear that.


    He wanted to meet other hunters to explain to him on how to assimilate with an aretisite.


    He could not think of the reason that he failed to do so before. Yang Seung-Joo showed that it was possible.


    Thus, he was hoping to find out answers from a more experienced hunter than him.


    "Alright, I''ll wait for them," Lyden said.


    Sim Chul-Soo gave an awkward expression. Sim Chul-Soo recalled that the two hunters, who entered the tower, must have reported back regarding Lyden. They were most likely coming back with armed forces.


    Sim Chul-Soo left alone for Lyden to wait while he gathered his men. Ever since Lyden caused the two hunters to retreat to the tower, Sim Chul-Soo became the temporary leader of the group due to Lyden.


    ''It is impossible to send a message through the barrier. Because of that, I will have to mediate between Lyden and the hunters as soon as they see each other.'' Sim Chul-Soo thought. ''I am sure that the two hunters reported that Lyden was attacking the men at the tower and ask for back-up.''


    Sim Chul-Soo wanted to mediate between the two parties in hoping they reach an agreement. Although he was not a hunter and had very little influence in the Hwangsaechi, he was still a member.


    Soon after, the tower''s entrance opened up when the blue barrier dissipated. Sim Chul-Soo and the other men waited just outside, waiting to greet them.


    Slowly exiting the towers, hunters began to show themselves with their armament type aretisite already activated.


    Dozen of hunters stepped out of the tower into the town to be greeted by the men outside.


    "How strange? Their aretisite look the same. Even more, that a few of them had multiple aretisite equipped on them." Lyden mumbled to himself.


    All the hunters had the same looking armament type aretisite. Also, there were three of them with fully covered from head to toes with aretisite that made them look like a red knight.


    "That had to be at least five different kinds of aretisite which make a set." Lyden was genuinely intrigued that he walked up to them to ask them a question.


    However, before he could speak, two men shouted from behind the group.


    They yelled out something in Korean and pointed at Lyden. They were the same two people who ran back into the tower from before.


    ''It is those two hunters who ran away. They probably saying something like I attacked them or something...'' Lyden thought as he sighed. Not able to speak the same language was troublesome for Lyden. He looked at Sim Chul-Soo for help.


    Sim Chul-Soo nodded when they made eye contact.


    "Wait let me--" But before Sim Chul-Soo could finish what he had to say, the 12 hunters, who were wearing the red armament aretisites, encircled Lyden.


    One of the three hunters who looked like knights said something to Lyden.


    However, Lyden did not understand her because she was speaking Korean.


    He just gave a deadpan look that somehow annoyed her.


    Seeing how she was ignored, she began to yell louder and louder before someone else stepped in to talk to her.


    That person was a middle-aged man with two aretisite equipped. He had a red gauntlet and a red looking medieval sword.


    He spoke to her with a friendly face before he faced towards Lyden.


    "As she was saying, your crime is death for our men." The Korean man spoke with a heavy accent. His friendly-faced was replaced with anger when looking at Lyden.


    He pointed his sword at Lyden.


    "Hey, if you can understand me then why don''t we talk it out?" Lyden asked. He did not want to fight but instead wanted answers regarding aretisites and how they had so many of the same kind.


    Instead of a word, the man charged at him. He was aiming for Lyden''s eye.


    However, Lyden quickly stopped it between his fingers.


    The Korean man looked gasped on what just happened. The sword was not a regular sword, but an aretisite in the form of a sword. Thus, the sword possesses a unique ability that made the sword goes up to 100 degrees Celcius.


    The only reason he could wield it because he was wearing the heat resistant gauntlet, which was also an aretisite.


    "Why are all hunters so eager to fight?" Lyden glared at the middle-aged man with an eagerness expression. "Well, I guess I am too."


    DING~


    Lyden flicked away the sword with his index finger like it was nothing.


    The man lost his grip on the sword, and it flew behind him, landing on the now burning grass.

 Chapter 23: Welcome to The Tower of The Black Ash

    When the middle-aged man sword hit the ground, he quickly backed away from his opponent.


    As he does, he looked at his opponent with bewilderment.


    ''Not only did he not get burned, but he caught my sword?!'' He thought. Never in his life that he thought it would be possible. Even the hunters he knew could not do something casually as the young man before him just did. At best, they could block with their heat resistance aretisites.


    "What''s your name? I''m Cho Kyung. I seat on the 5th position of the Hwangsaechi."


    "Lyden Willwalker¡­ Why don''t you go pick up your sword?" He noticed that Cho Kyung was looking back and forth for his sword.


    Cho Kyung slowly went back for his sword without losing sight of Lyden.


    Even Cho Kyung''s team was prepared to jump in to save him when necessary.


    After picking it up, Cho Kyung did not charge at him recklessly this time. Instead, he wanted to probe Lyden.


    "How many stars are on you?" Cho Kyung asked.


    Seeing Lyden was not responding, Cho Kyung showed his black star that was on his left arm.


    "I''m a 1-star hunter, but unlike many others, I do not have a sigil along with it."


    "So you are not awakened? Then how did you obtain a star on your body?"


    He felt like the star had something with the strength the aretisite he could assimilate with. Since he had no stars in his body, the aretisite, Muscle''s Muscle, must have rejected him.


    He also had questions about their multiple copies of aretisites on their side, but now was not the time to ask.


    Seeing how Lyden was not answering his question, Cho Kyung assumed that he was as strong as the first four seats with his strength. He knew that winning against him was difficult and even impossible. Even if all the hunters here attacked, they will surely lose.


    Cho Kyung did not want to make any rash decision that would bring harm to his teammate.


    "I''ll tell you..." Cho Kyung said as he lowered his sword. "But let me ask you first, why did you attack our men?"


    "Because they attacked me first."


    Cho Kyung released a regretful sigh when he heard that. Next, he walked to the three hunters who were fully armored with aretisites.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    They were all speaking Korean, and occasionally, the female would stomp her foot and point at Lyden.


    Lyden could not see her face, but she was obviously angry from her exaggerated movement.


    The other two seemed to agree with what Cho Kyung had to say, but not her.


    "She looked so stupid." As soon as Lyden said that, the grass beneath her began to burn. "If it were not for that helmet hiding her face, I would mistake her for a primate," Lyden said out loud that even Sim Chul-Soo and Cho Kyung could hear him.


    Cho Kyung quickly tried to calm her down by telling her that Lyden was complimenting her as she could not completely understand English.


    It worked for a bit until Lyden smirked at her. Now she knew that Lyden was mocking her.


    Before she can leap towards Lyden, the other two held her back while Cho Kyung went up to Lyden.


    "Lyden tried not to upset her, ok?"


    "Why not? She had a problem with me ever since she saw me¡­ "


    "Even so, it will be a problem if something happened to her."


    "A problem? For you or me?" Lyden took that response as a threat. He gave Cho Kyung a menacing look that made Cho Kyung''s heart beat faster.


    Cho Kyung soon regretted his choice of words. English was his first language, so it was hard for him to convey the right words.


    "I meant to say that we will get in trouble if she gets injure."


    Lyden relaxed his expression when Cho Kyung said that.


    Cho Kyung sighed. He felt that those two together would be a ticking time bomb.


    "Lyden, let''s head inside the tower. I''m sure the leader would like to meet with you, and you can ask him any question you have, I''m positive." He decided to pass on the problem to his leader.


    Besides, having Lyden as an enemy was not the best outcome. They still need to reactivate the barrier every twelve hours so that the monsters from inside would not be able to reach the outside. And most importantly was the enemies from the outside won''t be able to go inside.


    And If Lyden were to to become an enemy, it will be a huge problem.


    The two fully armored hunters told the angry woman to head back first and other hunters that came with them to go with her except for the two hunters that ran away from Lyden. They had to stay behind to activate the barrier.


    Cho Kyung had the normal people, the one who guarded the tower, to follow them inside. Sim Chul-Soo was one of them.


    Thus, leaving behind Cho Kyung, the two men who ran away from before, and the two red hunters. Of course, Lyden was with them.


    "Those two will follow behind us. We do not have the sigil to activate the barrier."


    Lyden remembered that there was a connection between the sigil and the towers. No one knew why it is so, but Lyden had a hint about them from the mysterious man.


    Lyden and the rest of them entered the tower.


    He once again walked through the fog of darkness. Not even his enhanced eyes can peer through it the fog.


    It was not before long until he reached the exit. As soon as he does, a burst of hot air blew past him.


    The floor beneath him was filled with ashes.


    "Welcome to the Tower of the Black Ash" Cho Kyung said to Lyden.


    From as far as he can see, the ground was made out of dense black ashes.


    There were even black mountains covered in ashes.


    From above, the sky was red-brown instead of blue.


    "How do you guys survive in this world? Isn''t the ashes toxic to the human body" Lyden could not imagine someone surviving here for very long.


    "You''re right. These ashes would destroy the human lungs shortly after living here. However, we found aretisites that can absorb these ashes and its toxicity from within our body."


    Lyden recalled Cho Kyung''s aretisites.


    "So your aretisites can absorb these ashes?"


    "Yes. I see if I can provide you one for your stay here."


    Lyden thought if they were casually given away aretisites than they must have a lot of supplies.

 Chapter 24: The Ceremony to Become a Hunter

    As the rest of the hunters went on ahead, Cho Kyung and Lyden took a detour.


    Cho Kyung guided him to a black mountain where thousands of Korean people were living.


    "This is the town, Sang-eo, which the Hwangsaechi''s leader found. He persuaded many people to live here. Although at first, only a few people agreed, and then eventually, it became like this."


    Children were laughing, and adults were chit-chatting. They seemed to live a carefree life despite their environment.


    "Why chose to live here? I do not think it is possible to farm here. Also, aren''t people going to get sick from breathing inside this tower?" Lyden did not see any farmland, nor ranch. He was not sure how the people were feeding themselves.


    "Remember the monsters by the tower in the sea? Because of them, there is a food shortage. And because of that other people will fight for scarce food. However, with these aretisites, they can convert the ashes into protein for our body to digest. Thus, we can survive on very little food and remove the toxicity from our body. Occasionally some of them will go back to gather food."


    Lyden never heard such a way to use aretisite beside such for combat.


    He could see that from the young children to the middle-ages adults all have a star somewhere on their body.


    "How can they all be hunters?" Lyden was puzzled by what he was seeing. He remembered that the U.S. government and even China said that if a normal person was luckily to assimilate with an aretisite, then only death will await them." Lyden wanted Cho Kyung voiced on this.


    "It is accurate, and yet false. As long they do not use their aretisite after a particular time, then they can become an official 1-star hunter. Although many never even activate it after that here. They are just happy knowing that they have an aretisite to survive the harsh condition here. So going by that, the governments were keeping it a secret from the public for reasons."


    Cho Kyung explained. He did not explain to him that at least a dozen children died due to not listening to this advice. It was unfortunate that it had come down to it, but the others learned from them and the death toll decrease.


    Lyden thought they would be unhappy living such a bleak place like this, but they seemed content about it as he looked around more.


    ''With the help of aretisite, humans were able to adapt faster... There was a downside to what Cho Kyung had said though. They needed the ashes to feed on or else the host will die by their aretisite.'' Lyden thought as it as a prison in a way.


    "Alright, let''s head to the base. I want to show you something," Cho Kyung said.


    Lyden simply nodded.


    They headed to the Hwangsaechi base on one of the black mountains. The two had to walk around in a spiral before they reached a stone door that was double their size.


    The door had a black sheen with a craving of a swordfish on it.


    Cho Kyung pressed his gauntlet onto the door, and the door released a bright red color like heating a metal.


    "Be careful not to touch it. It is hot. You will need a heat resistant aretisite to push the door open." Cho Kyung warned Lyden with a friendly laugh.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    "How is it getting hot?" Lyden asked with curiosity.


    "It is made with combustion metal that can be found in the mountain and only in this tower. And we made the door to protect ourselves from outside monsters and intruders if there is a need."


    Lyden and Cho Kyung stepped past the blazing door.


    Then Cho Kyung shut the door, and the two went in deeper. The stone hallway had red-orange veins ran all the way that made it lit with a bright orange color.


    At the end of the hallway, there was a lobby with luxurious items that can be found on Earth.


    Many people stood in the lobby. There Sim Chul-Soo and the other men waiting around there too.


    "There is a ceremony happening now for the new recruits. They will pick out an aretisite and officially become hunters of the Hwangsaechi. You should stay and watch for the time being. I will need to talk to them before they start."


    At the other side of the lobby, there the red armored hunters he met before and a tall skinny man. He had a 3-star sigil across his cheek.


    ''He must be the leader. I do not see anybody that could compare to him.'' Lyden was wary of him more than the fully armored hunters since they were all 1-star hunters. ''That curve... It is that woman.'' Lyden felt a headache coming.


    Lyden saw the female hunters from before, but this time, her helmet was off.


    Her skin was tan, big eyes, and flowing black hair. She looked calm and matured compared to how she acted before.


    When she saw Lyden, she scowled at him.


    ''Why is she angry at me? I guess I did kill some of their men, but nobody else does not seem to hold a grudge...'' Although murder was a heavy sin, in the world of hunters, death was to be expected.


    Anyway, the blame goes to the person who attacked him without understanding his opponents.


    Lyden decided to ignore her and walked to Sim Chul-Soo.


    "Hey, Sim Chul-Soo."


    "Lyden, I did not expect to see you here! Are you here to see the ceremony?"


    "Yeah, but I do not have not to know what to expect."


    "Right, it is rare for outsiders to know about it. A ceremony is an event that is given to members of the Hwangsaechi who wants to be a hunter." Sim Chul-Soo said. "If we become an official hunter, then our family can try to become one too. The children was able to obtain an aretisite to live here was because of one or more of their parents became a hunter for the Hwangsaechi."


    "Then, how does a normal person become a hunter?"


    "I do not know yet. I heard that you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement when you become one. Honestly, I am surprised that they let you see the ceremony?"


    Lyden shrugged his shoulder. Since Cho Kyung invited him to see, then it must not be a big deal.


    "Attention new recruits! We are about to begin." Cho Kyung yelled out in Korean.


    Sim Chul-Soo quietly translates to Lyden so he could understand.


    "You will come up only when you are called! First up is Kung Kang-Dae!"


    Kung Kang-Dae went up and bowed to Cho Kyung. "I paid respect to 5th knight of Hwangsaechi, Cho Kyung" Then Kung Kang-Dae bowed to the tall man, "I paid respect to the leader of Hwangsaechi, Ku Sang."


    "Kung Kang-Dae, are you willing to risk your life to protect the Hwangsaechi?"


    "Yes, leader Ku Sang!"


    "Are you willing to risk your life to fulfill the duties that the Hwangsaechi requested of you?"


    "Yes, leader Ku Sang!"


    On the table that was standing between them, there were red towels on it. Ku Sang unfolded one, revealing a single fossilized aretisite.


    It had a dull white color with black speckles. The fossiled revealed a small creature that looked like a lizard.


    "Lay your palm on it, and concentrate on nothing else but the fossilized aretisite before you."


    Kung Kang-Dae did as he was told.


    Then Ku Sang placed his index finger on top of Kung Kang-Dae hand.


    Ku Sang helped Kung Kang-Dae visualize the strings that Lyden saw before. After 15 seconds, the fossil broke opened, revealing a live aretisite. It was a small red creature with a thick red torso and spikes coming out of its spine. Its name was Red Torso Scale Lizard.


    Then the aretisite went inside his Kung Kang-Dae.


    "Congratulations, you are an official hunter of the Hwangsaechi. As per rule, your family will also get the chance to assimilate with an aretisite."


    "Thank you, leader Ku sang"


    "But be careful. You are not allowed to use it until 60 days have passed. Only then can you activate it. If you do not heed my warning, then no one can save you." Ku Sang gave an ominous warning to him and the rest of them to take in.


    After Kung Kang-Dae left, Ku Sang then proceeded to call the others one by one. Many of them collapsed like Lyden did when he had to assimilate with the 2-star aretisites.


    They all failed, and the aretisite was placed back on the towel.


    Before it was Sim Chul-Soo turn, only three of them made it.


    "Alright, it is my turn. Wish me luck, Lyden" Sim Chul-Soo said before heading to the table.


    "Good luck, Sim Chul-Soo." Lyden casually replied before Sim Chul-Soo walked away.

 Chapter 25: Information Regarding Refining Aretisite

    Sim Chul-Soo succeeded assimilating with the 1-star aretisite, Torso Scale Lizard.


    ''Now that I think about it. I know why I failed before. I tried to assimilate with a 2-star aretisite without first assimilating with a 1-star aretisite. Thus, the chance of failure was even higher. It seems that I have to assimilate with a 1-star than a 2-star to increase my chance of success.''


    Lyden was able to deduce why he failed after seeing the ceremony. He watched many of them failed, and a few of them succeeded. Given that the ones who succeeded have nothing in common, he concluded that it was random. Hence, the chance for a normal human to become a 1-star hunter was around 12%.


    After the ceremony, they were separated into two different groups. Sim Chul-Soo went with the three others who had passed while those who failed went somewhere else.


    After they all left, Ku Sang went up to Lyden to greet him with a friendly smile. He took out his hand towards Lyden.


    Lyden did not refuse and shook his hand out of politeness.


    After they let go, Ku Sang chatted with him.


    "I heard a quite interesting thing about you from the others, Lyden. Did you enjoy the ceremony? It is not every day we do one."


    "It was enlightening in a way..." Lyden could not help looking at the sigil on his cheek. He was wary of being next to a 3-star hunter. Although he was strong, he was not invincible. He had many weaknesses and was cautious with dealing with unknown hunters.


    Ku Sang noticed Lyden was looking at his sigil. "Seeing a 3-star hunter is pretty rare, right? I do get a lot of stares from it..."


    Lyden gave an awkward smile. He reminded himself not to stare when thinking.


    Ku Sang did not mind and switched the topic. "Lyden, do you mind following me?"


    "Why? Do you need my help?"


    "From the story I heard, I believe you can help us."


    Lyden was hesitant, but he agreed.


    The two went alone down the stairway.


    Ku Sang led Lyden underneath the base until they stepped out into a giant chasm. The hole ran deep down, and stairs were spiralling downward, and the steps were large enough for at least a dozen people to stay on.


    The hole was so deep that Lyden could not see the bottom. And also because of the bright flame spewing out of it.


    Lyden thought that something or someone built this place.


    "Where are you taking me?" Lyden asked Ku Sang.


    "We are going to see one of the monsters that dwelled in this tower. This monster came out from the gorge. We captured it a week ago before it reached the town..." Ku Sang replied.


    "So what seems to be the problem? It seems that you guys have it under control."


    "Not quite. That monster has a high resistance to heat, and we were barely able to capture it. Since it countered the aretisites we founded here, it made things difficult to go against it... I''ll explain more about, but let''s go down deeper to see it."


    Lyden and Ku Sang went deeper underground, and the surrounding area was getting hotter. It was not before long until Ku Sang had to resort to activating his aretisites to prevent himself from burning.


    He summoned four 1-star aretisites out of his body.


    Lyden recognized one of them, the Red Torso Scale Lizard. It was an armament type aretisite that change form into a sleek red chest armor.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The other three looked similar to the Red Torso Scale Lizard with some differences. They changed form into gauntlets, leg armors, and a helmet that fitted Ku Sang.


    When Ku Sang equipped his aretisites, he felt cooler.


    Lyden did not need it since he did not feel the heat, although it was getting slightly warmer for him with each step.


    "It seems that I was right about you. You haven''t felt the intense heat, am I right? With each step, the temperature increase by 2 degrees Celsius. The first step starts at 40 degrees Celsius, and now after 21 steps, it is at least 80 degrees Celsius."


    "You were testing me?" Lyden did not like that. If it were not for his new body, he would have melted before long, but Ku Sang should not have known that.


    "Yes, my apology for that, but when I first saw you in the lobby, I did not see your body temperature rising. It was like your body deflected the majority of the heat from your surroundings to help regulate your body." Then Ku Sang left eye turned an orange-red color when he was looking at Lyden. "I have a 3-star aretisite, Blank Red Blue, that I received when I awakened. It allowed me to see the temperature of others as well as control the temperature around me to a certain degree." Ku Sang did not want Lyden to think he had the intention to harm him.


    ''Since he is telling me his aretisite, then the situation must be desperate enough, or does he think that I would not tell anybody...'' After Ku Sang had said that, Lyden thought of many ways that Blank Red Blue could be used such as decreasing or increasing the temperature of the aretisite armors he was wearing.


    ''He was using his Blank Red Blue aretisite this whole time, and I did not even notice...'' Although the extreme changes in temperature could not harm Lyden, he was not sensitive to the changes of it anymore.


    "So because of your 3-star aretisite, you can go deeper without the help of other aretisites. Then how far can you go down?"


    "40 steps is my limit, even after equipping my aretisites. These armored aretisites will begin to melt soon after 35 steps, but I am able to cool it down with Blank Red Blue to go to 40." Ku Sang said to Lyden like he was casually bragging.


    Then he led Lyden down nine more steps before they stopped next to a tunnel.


    They ventured forth with Ku Sang leading Lyden. It was not before long that they reached a humid room that could fit at least 100 people at a time.


    On the other side of the dark red room, there had been a tunnel, but it got closed off when the tunnel collapsed on its self.


    In the middle of the room, a monster the size of an elephant was sleeping. It had blood-red fur with black claws and a long yet skinny nose like an anteater. Its tail looked like it was made out of rock with a sharp tip at the end.


    "What is that?" Lyden said calmly, but his heart beated slightly faster. He never confronted a monster before and only saw them in the media.


    "We called that the Blood Nosehound. At first there were no signed of it, but lately, more and more have been coming up from the bottom. The first few were the size of dogs and was easily dealt with before they reached the surface. But suddenly this one appeared. It is far larger than the others and has a high resistance against physical attack. We could not even make it bleed."


    "Then how did you get it to sleep?"


    "With my Blank Red Blue, I lowered its temperature, thus, putting it to sleep and then encased this room with ice, but as you can see, it had already melted. We tried killing before it woke up, but nothing we could penetrate its fur and his jaw was shut tight so we cannot even attack it internally."


    Lyden could guess why Ku Sang was so desperate now. It seemed that Ku Sang was cooling the Blood Nosehound body every couple of hours or so to prevent it from waking up with his Blank Red Blue.


    ''Seeing how Ku Sang looked ill, he must have overexerted his aretisite without feeding it probably. But what can he expect me to do? I doubt he knows my true strength and probably thinks I can''t kill it. He must have another plan.''


    Lyden did not trust Ku Sang. If he were to use him as bait, then the Hwangsaechi will become enemy of Lyden.


    "So how do you expect me to help?"


    "The Blood Nosehound is blind but very sensitive to the change of temperature to its surroundings. Saying that you should be invisible from it. The plan was that once it was awake, I will use myself as bait to lead it to the edge, and you will push it down."


    "This is based on your assumption. What if it can see me and attacked me? I am risking my life with nothing to gain." Lyden said even though he knew that the Blood Nosehound was not a threat to him. He wanted to see what Ku Sang had to offer.


    Ku Sang expected this, but he was hoping that Lyden was the type of person who helps for nothing.


    "I can give you a full set of aretisites like the one I am wearing."


    Lyden did not say anything and looked at Ku Sang like he was expecting more. Ku Sang hid his displeasure, but he offered something else.


    "I will also include information on how to refine aretisite..."


    "Refine? Explain what you mean?"


    "It is possible to make a 1-star aretisite to a 2-star aretisite..." Ku Sang gritted his teeth as he told Lyden. It was information that only he knew after researching for months. It was something that could increase the strength of the Hwangsaechi, but it was still in the early stage. He could not perfect it yet.


    "Tell me everything about it, and only then I will help." Lyden did not care for the full-set aretisites as much, but the information to increase the star was extremely valuable to him.

 Chapter 26: Ku Sang plotting

    Before the appearance of the towers and the aretisites, Ku Sang was working man at day and a leader of a small unnamed organization that smuggled drugs at night.


    Back then, no one knew Ku Sang was secretly a smuggler, but a well-respected biology professor. He deceived many with his acting skills and manipulation.


    But he disbanded the organization and became a full-time professor three years ago. His organization could not go against the hunters. Even with guns, hunters could take them out easily. In the end, Ku Sang framed his friend and got out scot-free.


    Then half a year ago, a tower appeared in the sea.


    It made it impossible to import food, or pretty much anything to Jeju island and food became scarce. Hundreds of thousands of people became desperate for food, and the island resources were not enough to feed them all.


    After months, people protested to the government to do something, but there was no permanent solution.


    After losing dozens of hunter, the South Korean government could not continuously maintain the barrier, and the monsters from inside were let loose.


    Eventually, the people on the island protested even harder until no one cared. They also tried to force the few hunters on the island to take care of the monsters in the sea, but it backlashed, and a riot started between them.


    Hunters isolated themselves from the protester, which they can only whine for someone to fix their problem.


    They decided to create a hunters organization, similar to the Korean system, Guild. However, the organization was managed by the person who founded, and they would fight over territory.


    Ku Sang awakened as a 3-star hunter and created the Hwangsaechi using his experience as a former leader of an organization.


    Younger people flocked to them while the older generation tried to suppress them. But in the end, those who joined lived a better life, and those who did not live in the streets.


    The Huin Dong-Gali and Hwangsaechi were two of the many organizations that were formed after that event.


    Then another tower raised on Jeju Island right in the town where Hwangsaechi base was located. Ku Sang was the first hunter to entered, and he did so alone.


    And with his Blank Red Blue, he was able to survive the tower and explored it by cooling his body. He found a deposit of fossilized aretisites in one of the mountains, thus, making his body immune to the toxic ash. Many other hunters tried to enter, but few came back alive due to the intense heat and toxic.


    When Ku Sang discovered the aretisite deposits, he slowly and secretly made his own members into hunters. At first, many died a few weeks later after activating it once.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    However, Ku Sang noticed that the symptoms were similar to that of organ rejection. So he forbid his normal members from activating the aretisite, and after 60 days, only then they can use it without a sign of rejection. Awakened hunters did not have this restriction.


    However, other organization caught wind of what Ku Sang was doing and tried to stop him. Yang Seung-Joo, leader of the Huin Dong-Gali, was one of them.


    But it was already too late. The Hwangsaechi outnumbered all the other organization in terms of hunters. They fought many times for the tower, but the Hwangseachi always came out on top. They even a few recruited 1-star awakened hunters.


    Yet Ku Sang was paranoid. He had only 1-star hunters in his organization beside him, and that did not make him feel secure at all.


    Because of that, he never left the tower after. Then a couple of weeks ago, he discovered by accident that combining five 1-star aretisite of the same kind, he was able to evolve the aretisite into a 2-star aretisite.


    He had not told anybody about it and never to plan tell anybody about it.


    But after weeks after weeks of refining, he could only refine three aretisites. The failure rate was too high, and many aretisites turned into dust from the process.


    And then monsters started to come out from below until one came that took him and three others of his hunters just to make it go to sleep. This brought him even more pressure and stress since he had to manage it every couple of hours. He did not have time to refine anymore after that.


    It was not until he saw Lyden that he devised a new plan to bring.


    Ku Sang had to tell him since he had nothing else to offer Lyden. He was not willing to let go of Blank Red Blue. Thus, the information was the next best thing.


    "To evolve an aretisite is a piece of valuable information," Lyden said.


    "Indeed, it is. So are you willing to help me knock it down?"


    "No, not yet. What if you''re lying? I should test it out first."


    "Indeed you''re right, Lyden." Ku Sang nodded like he understands what was Lyden was coming from, but on the inside, he was boiling with rage.


    ''Shit, why is this guy so cautious? I thought all Americans were gullible. Even more, this guy is barely an adult.'' Ku Sang did not want the information to be leak outside.


    He suppressed his rage and quickly came up with a plan to have Lyden kill.


    "So why don''t you freeze the Blood NoseHound once more and show me personally? Let''s head back to your base then." Lyden recommended.


    "Wait, I can show you how to do it now. I brought some aretisite just in case, and since this matter is important to you, we can do it here. We have another hour before the Blood Nosehound wakes up." Ku Sang was speaking the truth when he said he had more aretisites. Everything else was basically lies.


    He took out two pouches that contained small fossilized aretisites and showed it to Lyden.


    "I have another set, so, why don''t you refine together?"


    Lyden knew he was up to something, but he grabbed the bag anyway.


    The room dimly lit by the red veins coursing through the walls, and the sound of humming echoed from the wind. Ku Sang told Lyden to calm his mind and follow what he did.


    Ku Sang took a deep, slow breath and then slowly breathe it out. He grabbed two fossilized aretisites and placed him on his left hand the three others onto the right.


    Lyden copied his action.


    They were all the Torso Scale Lizard aretisites, which was what Sim Chul-Soo obtained.


    "When refining these kinds of aretisites, it is better to refine in high heat because it will improve the success rate. Although the chances are still low, it is still better. First, you have to connect to all of them at the same time. Then when you see the five threads, instead of plucking them, you are going to fuse into one."


    Lyden did as he was told. He closed his eyes and remembered the feeling he had when he tried to assimilate with the Muscle''s Muscle aretisite.

 Chapter 27: Blood Nosehound is Awake

    Lyden saw the thread similar to when tried to assimilate with the Muscle''s Muscle aretisite.


    But this thread was thinner since it was a 1-star aretisite.


    Following what Ku Sang said, he then began to focus on another fossilized aretisite while not losing focus on the first one.


    He now saw two threads. He repeated the steps until he saw all five. It was not easy to focus on it simultaneously, but it was doable.


    Sitting next to Lyden, Ku Sang was watching him with a sinister look.


    "He took the bait. He would not be able to leave that state until he either failed or succeed. And once he failed, there will be a backlash causing him to blackout. Kuhahaha." Ku Sang was in glee. Although Lyden was suspicious of him, he could not resist the bait.


    "This is what you get for trying to extort me, you bitch. If I could only beat the crap out of you right now" But Ku Sang did not. He did not want to wake up Lyden from that state. He had heard what happened between Cho Kyung and Lyden.


    Ku Sang was not sure what aretisite he had, but he overcame Cho Kyung with ease. Cho Kyung was one of the top hunters in his organization. If he succeeded in assimilating with more aretisites, then he can quickly become top 3 in his organization.


    Cho Kyung could even defeat Ku Sang if they fought with only 1-star aretisites.


    Ku Sang got up to get close to Lyden, who was sitting crossed-legs. Lyden was not able to hear what Ku Sang was saying as he was in a deep state. "It took me three hours to succeed in refining and waking up from that state. So even if you succeed, it will be too late. Even more, the Blood Nosehound will start to wake up in 15 minutes, and he will eat you up! If only you just helped me without asking for anything in return..." He spat on Lyden''s face before heading out.


    He stopped just outside the entrance of the tunnel.


    "Since I do not want the Blood Nosehound to leave, I will just destroy this entrance." Ku Sang took out a small 2-star aretisite that he had refined. It turned into a red sword larger than Cho Kyung''s sword.


    He stabbed the sword aretisite into the ceiling of the tunnel. Then with his Blank Red Blue, he quickly freezes and then heats up the sword over and over again. This action caused the ceiling to expand and compress until the stress was enough for it to collapse on itself, thus ceiling the entrance.


    The Blood Nosehound was twitching from the noise caused by Ku Sang. It was already showing sign on waking up.


    Inside the mind of Lyden, five thin thread can be seen was like slow-moving streams. They all flowed from one side to the other. It was slow, but Lyden was able to change their direction at will and make it move towards each other.


    ''What do I do now? Ku Sang did said make the five threads into one, so I guess I try that,'' He positioned the thread side by side and tried to squeeze them together, but as soon as he does, the sound of his heartbeat echoed in his mind.


    ''What!? The Random Monster Transmutation aretisite is acting up?'' He quickly separated the threads and only then the Random Monster Transmutation began to calm down.


    Lyden was puzzled by the random aretisite''s action. He tried to squeeze the threads again, and the same thing happened again.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ''Why is it doing it? Is it some negative feedback?'' He thought of a possibility. The Random Monster Transmutation aretisite was more than transforming him to a monster. It fed on what was impossible to do.


    Another word for that was failure. The aretisite can sense if Lyden will fail and send feedback through his heart, although he could be wrong about it.


    He remembered that he failed before when he tried to assimilate with Muscle''s Muscle aretisite, and there was no reaction from the Radom Monster Transmutation aretisite.


    But he decided to go with his gut since he did not have any better ideas.


    Lyden ignored about what Ku Sang had said about fusing the threads into one and let his Random Monster Transmutation Aretisite become his teacher.


    He tried multiple ways to make the threads become one.


    Forming a ball¡­


    Stitching it together¡­


    He even tried to create an outline of a cube, but each of them the aretisite reacted to it.


    ''This is harder than I thought¡­ It is hard coming up with ideas now¡­ Then how about this.''


    The next thing he did was to create a loop by fusing the endpoint of the threads.


    He was going to make one long thread that formed a circle.


    When the first two thread fuse, there was silence in his mind.


    He then continued until it became one big circle. It reminded him of the ouroboros, but with five snakes biting each other to make a circle.


    He knew he had succeeded because the thread started to squirm together until it became a single dot.


    Lyden opened his eyes to see that on the one hand, it was empty, and on the other hand, a single fossilized aretisite.


    ''Haha, this is a great find. The side effect of this aretisite is better than its main ability.'' This was the first time that he was glad to have it. It was like discovering a glitch in a game that gave him a massive advantage over others.


    The fossilized aretisite had a bright red sheen to it. It was like jewelry expect one could see an outline of a small lizard. Lyden wanted to assimilate as soon as possible, but he needed to assimilate with a 1-star first.


    The fossilized aretisite was now a 2-star.


    "The color seemed different. Perhaps it has a different ability or is a stronger version of its predecessor." Lyden speculated.


    Lyden got up and looked around for Ku Sang to ask him for a 1-star aretisite, but he did not see him. Not only did he not wait for him, he even destroyed the entrance.


    ''Tsk, that bastard, he was trying to get rid of me after all.'' Lyden was annoyed that he thought he was a good leader and thought they could help each other now and then. However, this made Lyden feel less trust towards others.


    Suddenly from behind him, a high pitch howl echoed in the room. The Blood Nosehound had awakened from its sleep.


    It opened its red beady eyes, and the drools from its mouth formed a puddle beneath him.


    Its mind was disorder and could not think properly.


    It felt very hungry from not eating for days and wanted something to stop the painful craving. It sniffed around until it smelled Lyden. It roared at him releasing hot air.


    ''I guess Ku Sang theory was wrong about that monster not seeing me. This must be Ku Sang''s set up. He must have known when it was going to wake up and let it kill me when I was refining.'' Lyden was furious. Not only did Ku Sang entrapped him, but he even tried to get him eaten by a monster.


    The Random Monster Transmutation aretisite squeezed his heart, telling him that he could fail. It was not as strong as when it happened near the tower at sea, but it was tight enough that made him feel uncomfortable.


    "I should be careful. I do not know if it is squeezing just because of the Blood Nosehound or is it something else." He deduced that the Random Monster Transmutation aretisite does not signal what was impossible or upcoming failure directly. But instead, it was one event that led to another event until it becomes too hard for him.


    What gave him the idea was the tower in the sea. A tower cannot harm him, but the things inside the tower. Also, when he was refining. The closer he got to failing his refinement, the more intense the aretisite was.


    The Blood Nosehound lunged at him a gaping mouth full of jagged teeth. It was trying to eat him right away.


    Before it can even get a taste of Lyden, Lyden swatted away to the wall.


    BOOM~


    A deep imprint had been formed when the Blood Nosehound smashed into the wall and the room tremble.


    Rocks fell from above the room and cracked formed on the ceiling to the floor.


    The Blood Nosehound got back on his four legs with an angry growl.


    "This is not going to be easy," Lyden said. It was not because of his opponents, but the room he was in. It was not sturdy enough to fight in and could break apart at any moment.

 Chapter 28: Out of the frying pan into the fire

    The Blood Nosehound darted at Lyden like a red cannonball. In its maddening eyes, all it could see Lyden. When the Blood Nosehound ran up close enough to its target, it pounced on him with its sharp black claws.


    But before it could land on him, Lyden swiftly side-stepped to its side to avoid its frontal attack. However, the large monster instinctively used its tail to turn in midair. The tail pounded on the ground beneath it and forced its body to spin just enough for its bulky arm to smash against Lyden.


    Lyden was caught off guard and got hit square on the chest. He was flung across the room like a rock skipping on the water until the wall stopped him. The clothes on his chest were burning when it touched the Blood Nosehound fur.


    Its fur was capable of burning pretty much anything it touched.


    Blood Nosehound was not a merciful monster. Seeing that Lyden was down on the ground, it propelled itself towards him so he could not have a chance to get by up. This Blood Nosehound had riched battle experience and was using all it got to take out its prey.


    Usually, it would look for weaker prey, but since it was hungry, and there was nothing else around to eat. Lyden was the only choice for the Blood Nosehound.


    With its gorilla-like body, it smashed down its red arms at Lyden hoping to crush him. Rocks flew everywhere when it smashed the rocky ground. The room vibrated, and more cracks were forming from all over.


    Rather than seeing a dead body, it missed and hit nothing. Lyden dodged it so fast that the Blood Nosehound could not follow it with its eyes.


    The Blood Nosehound instinctively sniffed the room to find him with its long nose.


    Without looking, the Blood Nosehound stabbed its tail to its left. From there, it hit Lyden.


    It was not able to pierce him, but it attacked with enough force that Lyden was flung once again and landed on the floor once again.


    ''How did it find me?'' Lyden baited it to get closer when he was flung across the room just moments ago. When it got close enough, Lyden quickly stepped to its blind spot. He was hoping to strike its head to end it without damaging the room. But he did not expect it to counterattack him.


    ''Is It because of my shirt?'' He recalled that Ku Sang said that the Blood Nosehound was sensitive to change in temperature. Lyden thought the fur was just for burning its prey and had not paid attention to it since it was ineffective against him.


    The Blood Nosehound did not move towards Lyden this time. It was wary as it failed twice to kill Lyden. Even though it was angry, the Blood Nosehound was not like an animal on earth who relied solely on instinct. Monsters had enough intelligence to adapt to their situation.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Unlike animals on earth, monsters'' life was never peaceful. They were in constant war with their own kind, all looking for a way to survive. Thus, many evolved to rely less on their instinct, but instead their emotions and intuition. Although they could not think logically and complex thoughts like humans, they were not far from it regarding their needs for survival.


    The Blood Nosehound calmed its anger and quickly decided on its next move.


    Seeing how Lyden was able to survive its attack from its tail, it knew that it had no chance of winning. The Blood Nosehound would now disregard him as food.


    Instead of giving up its life for a food that could kill him, it decided to run away. With its steel-like claws, the Blood Nosehound was digging a hole to escape.


    The crack in the room was getting larger and larger that more rocks were falling on top of them.


    Lyden knew it had to stop it before the Blood Nosehound dug deeper. He decided that holding back was no longer an option.


    As the cracks slithered like snakes all over the room, Lyden dashed towards the hole the Blood Nosehound. It was shallow enough that Lyden was able to see it still digging. He jumped inside the tunnel and fist in the air.


    If the Blood Nosehound had already eaten and did not tire itself out from fighting Lyden, it would have dug much faster. But unfortunately, it could not escape now.


    Lyden''s fist smashed directly on its skull to the ground. The Blood Nosehound did not have time to react and died without retaliating.


    However, before Lyden could rejoice, the ground collapsed, and he fell through the room.


    It collapsed due to the room structure. When it was formed, dozens of small tubes were established throughout the room. This caused it to have a weak structure. So overtime during the fight, the small tubes collapsed on itself until more and more did, thus, forming crack all over the room.


    Eventually, the walls and floor could not hold itself anymore.


    The ground opened up and created a gaping hole big enough where Lyden and the corpse Blood Nosehound to plunge through.


    When Lyden fell into it, it what seemed to be an endless over. As he sank deeper, the surrounded area got even hotter like he was swimming in lava. Even Lyden was beginning to sweat from the intense heat. His body could not block out all that heat.


    After dropping several meters deep, he plummeted to a lower level with a loud explosion and kicked out everywhere.


    Lyden created a crater on the rocky ground as if a small meteor had landed on it. Thankfully, his body was sturdy enough to withstand the impact. But he did not come out completely unscathed. He coughed up blood due because his inside was injured.


    Slowly the dust in the air dissipated and revealed Lyden was lying on top of a pool of Blood Nosehound''s blood. Its body was in bits and pieces from falling from such height.


    "Shit, how far did I fell in?" Lyden looked above him and did not see the hole where he fell from. It was clogged by rocks and was sealed off.


    "This place is so hot, and I cannot stay here long..." He was sweating immensely that his sweat was evaporating the second it touched the air. If it weren''t for his cloned body, he would be a small pile of ashes by now.


    Lyden went up the craters to see his surroundings clearer.


    "What the--"


    From the edge of the crater, he saw something unbelievable. Sea of Blood Nosehounds propped their heads to look in the direction where the newly formed crater was at.


    Some of the Blood Nosehounds were small, some were large as the one Lyden fought, and few of them were larger than the rest.


    Like a war drum signaling an enemy approaching, they all roared towards the intruder, Lyden. They can smell the blood on Lyden''s body, which made them more furious.


    "This is the nest of the Blood Nosehound!"


    With a thundering stampede, a tidal wave of Blood Nosehounds all galloped to kill Lyden from all direction.

 Chapter 29: I Will Become a Monster?!

    Lyden had nowhere to run. From all directions, more and more Blood Nosehounds were swarming him.


    They were like the sea dyed in blood, and Lyden was a boat waiting to get sunk.


    Hundreds of them leaped into the crater where Lyden stood.


    Lyden quickly jumped several meters into the air to avoid getting piled on top by them.


    From above, he saw the hole flooded with Blood Nosehounds.


    The monsters below him were not able to jump that high, so they all waited for him to land. The roared at him impatiently to get down.


    ''There is nowhere I can land. How can there be so many of them here in this underground cavern?'' He thought as he tried to find a place to land. But eventually, he landed on top of one of them.


    The Blood Nosehound tried to swipe at him when he touched its head.


    But with a swift movement, he jumped backward to avoid it. His shoe got burn however when he stepped on its fur and was now on fire.


    Once his feet touched the ground, he found himself encircled by Blood Nosehounds. A large one stood on its two legs swiped at Lyden with its muscular arm. But with Lyden''s strength, he quickly deflected its arm and kicked it with great force that he made a hole in its chest.


    Also, more blood got on Lyden that it seemed from a distance that he was wearing a dark red tight suit from head to toes.


    However, since Lyden touched the Bood Nosehond''s fur, the Blood Nosehound''s blood on Lyden caught on fire. It made him look like a vengeful fire spirit.


    Its blood was flammable like oil, and it kept burning without showing sign on lessening.


    WIth Lyden''s cloned body, he had high resistance to fire and did his best to ignore the growing discomfort. Along with the intense heat from the cavern, and being on fire, he still was fighting back against the hordes of monsters coming at him.


    He slammed his foot onto the ground to kick up the dust to cover him. However, it did very little as the smell of fire and blood continued to cover his body. The Blood Nosehound quickly tracked him.


    Another Blood Nosehound swiped at him with its tail from behind. Catching him off guard, Lyden blocked it with his arm and flung him to another one.


    He was pinballed around as he had no choice but to keep blocking their attacks one after another. When he tried to counter-attack, another Blood Nosehound would swiftly dart its tail at him when he was not guarding.


    "I can''t keep this up." His internal injury was getting worse, and blood was dripping out of his mouth.


    The next time was sent flying, he made it so that he would be flung into the air.


    It was only then he was finally able to catch his breath, even if it was for a short period of time.


    There were so many of them, that where ever he landed, he would be smacked around.


    He killed one, two, tens, and hundreds while the flames engulfed him. Their blood only fueled the flames on Lyden''s body that it made bigger and harder for him to see. Also, he felt his bones and skin were becoming fragile as time goes on, and they will eventually devour him.


    However, he felt that he did not make a dent in reducing the number of Blood Nosehounds. And his Random Monster Transmutation aretisite was squeezing his heart tighter and tighter telling him that it was becoming impossible to survive and he will die when he failed.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Lyden ignored it as he fights for his survival. With the heat and the fire was raging, he was losing stamina quickly. His lungs were burning, and so was his inside. But his body kept pushing through. His body was made from a 6-star aretisite and was stronger than anything, but sometimes quality does not overcome quantity. This was one of those moments.


    Even with his strength and durability, it was not enough. He had no other power to get himself out of the situation. It was the weakness of purely relying on raw strength. It was unbeatable when facing a small amount of enemy, but when facing against many, it showed its flaws quickly.


    He can easily kill one, but for each one he killed, dozens of Blood Nosehound injured him at the same time.


    After going on for hours and hours, thousands of monsters piled up like mountains.


    Lyden stood on top on a mountain of corpses as he fought for his life. His skin was burnt black, but the flames around him never ceased.


    But time and time again, he would be thrown off the pile and would repeat the process once again. Eventually, more mountains of dead monsters formed as they kept trying to kill Lyden.


    They would not retreat since Lyden had killed so many of its kind. They wanted him died. Blood Nosehounds were vengeful creatures. When Lyden confronted the first one, it was planning on taking revenge against the hunters who killed its children. But it was trapped in the cave by Ku Sang and the others before it had the chance. In the end, it lost itself in hunger for a short time and died without exacting its vengeance.


    Lyden was panting hard, and his vision was getting blurry. It was taking him longer to fend off one of them now.


    "I''m going to die if this keeps going¡­ and I find an exit... There has to be one." The cavern was too big. He was trying to look for an exit, but it was just an endless amount of Blood Nosehounds roaming all around. To him, it felt like an inescapable hell.


    He felt like he had not slept in days and was about to collapse from exhaustion. All he could do was swing his fiery fists to keep them at bay.


    From all that had happened to him, there was something that never left his mind. It was the Random Monster Transmutation aretisite that was squeezing his heart. The sensation of it squeezing it became stronger, and he could feel it moving around.


    It was like it was calling for him to assist him.


    ''No, not now. I can find my way out. I can''t lose yet. I do not want to become a monster,'' Lyden wanted to meet his friends again. He remembered Joey, Tiff, and everybody else in the orphanage.


    He even recalled his brother, Ron Willwalker. Ron was one of the first hunters who awakened as soon as the first tower appeared. Those who awakened during that time were one of the most powerful hunters. They called them the Golden Generation.


    He awakened as a 4-star hunter and left the orphanage one night without telling anybody. Ron Willwalker and Lyden Willwalker were actually blood brothers. They grew up together in that orphanage.


    But for him to leave without saying anything, Lyden felt sadness and regret. He did not know what happen to him. He might have died for all he knew, but he wanted to find out himself.


    Then a miracle happened one day. He awakened as a 2-star hunter and signed up for a hunter permit right away in the hope to find his brother someday. But that plan did not work since he lost his aretisite and fell into depression for almost two years until he could not take it anymore.


    Before his permit expired, he decided to enter a tower to find an aretisite. Many things happened, which led him here.


    More time had passed, and Lyden''s body was covered in deep scratches, and he even lost an arm when one of them took a bite of out it. His body weakened from the fire on his body and thus, weakening his defense. It made it easier for him to get injured.


    Because of his cloned body, he can still move even with his organs heavily damage. His energy came from an unknown source within his cloned body, but all it could do was to keep him barely moving.


    "After everything that was given to me, I cannot fail now. I feel like I only took two steps out of a thousand. I cannot die here and now..." He fought and fought until they took a bit out of his other arm. He sent out flurries of kick instead to kill them.


    At rare times, he would get a minute break when things slow down. And when he does, he goes into a daze when he thought about his situation.


    He blamed himself for getting into this situation. It was all because of Ku Sang. He, himself, was too ignorant since he did not have enough experience as a hunter. He was easily tricked and could not see what Ku Sang was plotting. He felt a rage inside burning hotter than his entire body.


    With dozens of piles of dead Blood Nosehounds and thousands of more coming, Lyden was at the ends of his wits. He could not keep fighting them.


    "I will have to use Random Monster Transmutation¡­" He tried to prolong it in happening a miracle would come, but it did not. Even now, he was hesitant about using it. Honestly, for Lyden do not use it before, it showed how deep his determination.


    "I have no choice now. I will become a monster! Random Monster Transmutation, come ou--"


    But before he could activate it, he was attacked from behind from the largest Blood Nosehound yet. Its tail was bigger than Lyden, and when it made contact with him with great force, it cannonballed Lyden through the piles of corpses and straight through the ground.

 Chapter 30: Hope Shines the Brightest in the Dark

    The Massive Blood Nosehound roared in victory, seeing that Lyden launched straight through the ground and could not sense Lyden''s temperature anymore. It believed the human had died, and so did the other Blood Nosehounds.


    The rest of the Blood Nosehounds roared alongside with it. Then they all lowered their head to it as if they were declaring it the king of the Blood Nosehound.


    It stood up on two legs and roared was more with all its might as he accepted his new position as ruler.


    What the other did not know about the Blood Nosehound that defeated Lyden was that it was watching and waiting for Lyden to be weak enough before it attacked. Its intelligence was superior to the other Blood Nosehounds and was not foolish to fight Lyden head-on. Instead, it waited and waited until thousands of Blood Nosehounds sacrificed themselves to weaken him enough before it dealt the finishing blow.


    Unbeknownst to it, it did not kill Lyden.


    Lyden survived its attack, although barely. When he was slammed to the ground, he was hit directly into a weak spot on the floor, thus, creating a small enough hole for a human-size person to fit in.


    The Blood Nosehounds could not see it since there were stacks of corpses on top of the hole now.


    That hole led him to a small room that could barely fit two people. The temperature was significantly lowered compared to the cavern above.


    Lyden could not get up, and many bones were shattered into pieces, and the organs were heavily damaged. If it were not for his cloned body not needing functional organs to keep him alive, then he would have died a long time ago.


    "I can''t move¡­ It seemed like I''m paralyzed now¡­ That last one was able to hit so hard that he broke my spine..." Lyden felt great regret. When he was fighting for his survival, he let his tired mind slipped and lost concentration. He never noticed something that massive came up close to him before it was too late.


    Now he could not even move anything from the neck down. The Random Monster Transmutation aretisite was still squeezing his heart tighter than ever, but the connection between them was weak. This was due to the nerves being cut off, and Lyden could not activate properly. When he tried to activate it, the aretisite did not respond as if Lyden thought cannot reach it. It was the same for his limbs. No matter how hard he tried, he could not move it.


    Lyden could not do anything but lay down. He had nothing else can do to get him out of this situation.


    "Why did I hesitated¡­ Why did I not use it earlier¡­ Even if I become a monster, I will still have a chance to see them again¡­ Now, all that left is regret in this cold dark place..." Lyden silently cried even though he vowed not too ever since his brother left him. Even with the strength that could rival the top 10 hunters, he failed and was stuck alone. Tears fell over and over again to the cold ground beneath him.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He tried to be strong¡­


    He tried to careful¡­


    He tried not to feel scared¡­


    But even if he tried, he still failed.


    He did his best, and he still failed.


    In the end, even though his body was less than human, he was mentally still human.


    What hurts him the most was not the pain from the Blood Nosehounds, nor him dying the first time.


    It was him failing himself, especially when given a second chance. It was unbelievably unbearable that he wanted to throw his life away then and there.


    When he obtained his new power, he felt special.


    He thought himself as a hero of a story after meeting that mysterious man.


    He thought he was someone who can overcome any obstacle.


    He thought he was someone who always makes the right decision when the time comes.


    But in the end, he told himself that he was nothing more than an extra in someone else story -- someone whose life was quickly forgotten and died without any importance.


    He regretted it so deeply that he hesitated to use the aretisite when he got the chance. Now he knew it was arrogance, and that was what cost him his life. It was a lesson learned too late, he thought.


    Days passed, and his cloned body kept him alive even though his organs barely working. He could not even starve to death.


    Lyden tried to commit suicide many times by biting his tongue, but he could not. Every time he tried to bite it, a voice in his head tell him to stop. And whenever when he stopped, tears fell out of his eyes and onto his burnt skin.


    A coward to live, and a coward to die. He did not know what to do anymore.


    He felt so vulnerable that right now.


    He felt like he was a boy again where the hungry wolf was watching him die so it could eat him.


    He wanted someone to save him from this nightmare, anyone.


    But he knew deep down that no one was going to save him this time: not his friends, family, or a stranger. The only thing above him was the Blood Nosehounds waiting to kill him. This place was his hell.


    More time had passed that Lyden could not keep track of the time. It was dark with not a single source of light. His body could not heal itself from the significant damage he had taken. To passed the time, Lyden simply slept and slept.


    His dreams were the only thing that made him forget where he was currently. If this place was his hell, then his dream was his heaven. He dreamt of many things.


    He dreamt of graduating high school along with his brother, Ron, Joey, and Tiff. He dreamt of living a simple life: a life without towers, monsters, hunters. However, always at the end, the dream turned into a nightmare. He lost everything when Ku Sang appeared. He destroyed his peaceful dream and left Lyden wandering in the dark alone.


    He woke up soon after with the feelings of sadness and rage.


    This dream repeated over and over again until one day, it changed. Ku Sang was teaching him how to refine the aretisites and Lyden followed his direction like before, but this time it was different from what he had experienced. Instead of seeing five threads, Lyden saw hundreds upon hundreds of threads.


    It was so intense that Lyden''s eyes snapped open only to see the darkness once again.


    ''Were those threads from aretisite?'' Lyden thought that dream look very similar when he tried to assimilate with aretisites. ''Can it be?''

 Chapter 31: Between Eerie Aretisite

    Lyden woke up with a hopeful look in his eyes and not the same soulless look he had moments ago.


    He could not count the minutes, hours, and days he was trapped inside the darkroom.


    His skin was burnt black, his hair pretty much non-existent, and paralyzed from the neck down. He lost two of his arms in the fight. Even after all that, he did not feel pain.


    Even though it was dark with no hint of light, Lyden still tried to look around for something.


    ¡°Am I surrounded by fossilized aretisites?¡± Lyden forced himself to speak softly. He could not get up due to his spine breaking from the last attacked, but he did not need too. With Lyden not able to see anything, he closed his eyes.


    He recalled the sensation when he connected with the 2-star aretisite, Muscle¡¯s Muscle, and when he refined his first 2-star aretisite, the Red Torso Scale Lizard.


    From the depth of his mind, a single thin thread appeared like a star being born in the void. Then seconds later, two threads popped into his mind, then five, then ten, then one hundred threads, until his mind was covered with so many threads.


    ¡®These threads, they are all from aretisites. Some of them look quite different from each other,¡¯ There were different colors of threads that Lyden could see. Eighty percent of the threads were red-violet, fifteen percent were neon green, and the five percent were pink. ¡¯There are three different kinds of aretisite in this room...¡¯ They all seem to be 1-star aretisite giving the thin width of the thread.


    Lyden was lying on top of fossilized aretisites this entire time. Even part of the walls and ceiling were fossilized aretisites.


    He was able to connect with hundreds of aretisite at the same time just by connecting to a few. This was because the aretisites were so densely packed together.


    ¡®I do not know they can help me get out of this situation... But they are my best hope¡¯ Lyden was hopeful yet pessimistic about it. He recalled his Random Monster Transmutation aretisite. Even though he could still sense it, he could not activate it since he was paralyzed from the neck down.


    Because of that, he was worried that if these aretisites were to assimilate with the body parts from the neck down, he would not be able to utilize it.


    ¡®Let me try to assimilate with one of them.¡¯ Lyden plucked a pink thread to assimilate it. He did it fifteen times until the thread moved like it was alive and swam down from his mind to his lungs. The small aretisite, the size of a flea, safely infused itself to the side of his lungs.


    Also, a single star appeared on his chest, but it was hard to tell since his skin was burnt black.


    ¡®This one, I cannot use it...¡¯ He knew he had succeeded in his assimilation with it, but he could not activate. Thus, he did not know what it looked like or its ability. He felt his disappointment growing.


    He tried the next one. This thread was the neon green and was just as thin as the pink one. He finished assimilating with it shortly after plucking it fifteen times.


    This time, the thread swam into his head and rested between his skull and brain. It was smaller than any other aretisites so far, but when he focused it on it, it felt as if he was looking at it with a magnifying glass.


    ¡®Great! It is in a place where I can use it.¡¯ Lyden felt hope after going through a letdown.


    The aretisite that he just obtained was called Between Eerie. It had one eyeball and a silver crown on top of it. On its back, it had a ghostly tail with a star on it.


    Lyden activated Between Eerie to test its ability. After testing it, he was disappointed at the result.


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    ¡°It is using a telekinesis force to move my body parts like muscles. However, it is so weak. It can barely move my toes. What makes it worse is that it only affects my body.¡± Although Lyden was disappointed about it, he did not give up on it. He had another idea. He was going to assimilate with all the Between Eerie.


    After assimilating with more than a hundred of Between Eerie, which took a half-hour, he had to stop. There were too many Between Eerie in his head, which was giving him a headache. If he were to keep going, the many Between Eerie would be pushed against his brain and would have negative consequences. The Between Eerie do its best to live in harmony with its host, but if the host tried to push it, the aretisites could cause damage to their own host.


    ¡°Alright that should do it. Let¡¯s see how much of my body I can move now.¡± Lyden willed all the Between Eerie like an extension of his limbs. When he activated it, he felt a dense invisible force flowing downward from his brain to his legs. He could feel the force moving to his toes, but he still could not feel his legs.


    The force shaped to fit his feet like a sock, then traveled up to hips before it stopped due to reaching its limit.


    Lyden was able to move his one of his legs freely. However, it was hard for him to curl his toes at the same time. If he willed one of his toes to curl, he had to focus on that entirely. He was having a hard time trying to bend his knee while curling his toes.


    ¡®This is hard. Unlike muscles, I have to think about every little movement. It is like I am using a controller with hundreds of buttons to control my leg¡­¡¯ Even with great difficulty, Lyden did not give up. He had no choice in the matter because if he does, he will stay trapped here until his clone body of his dies out in three years.


    So he began practicing with significant effort.


    Unlike in high school, where he felt free and chose to be lazy, he was now more productive, more focus since his life was at risk. He had no one telling him how to live or how to prepare for the future. Instead, life hit him in an unexpected way, and now he had to discipline himself and focus on what he had to do to survive.


    Unknown to him, but this moment was the moment that Lyden knew the value of effort. It was an experience that only came in a desperate situation.


    He spent days to weeks trying to control the force until he got to the point that he move his toes with ease. It was not much, but the amount of time and effort to succeed was tremendous for such a small movement.


    Nonetheless, Lyden was ecstatic. He had put so much effort, and he came so far. At first, he could hardly control a single toe to move correctly but now could do it with all five. He could even control the telekinesis force to split in half, one for each leg.


    ¡°The Between Eerie are getting hungry again¡­¡± The Between Eerie fed on a hormone, melatonin. And since it was consistently dark, his pineal gland was able to produce it efficiently. One Between Eerie ate very little, but since he had so much of them, they eat a lot of melatonin. He hardly felt sleepy because now he had insomnia.


    He could only sleep for one hour every 2-3 days. It was tough at the beginning that he wanted to quit many times, but he got used to it as he focused solely on training. If it were a regular person, they would die from what attempting to take in that many Between Eerie, but fortunately, his cloned body does not function as an ordinary human.


    On the plus side, once the Between Eerie finish eating, they secrete collagen throughout his body, which helped his skin recovered faster.


    ¡®I need to start refining all the Between Eerie now. There should be another hundred left.¡¯ Lyden thought it was about time. He needed more Between Eerie so the telekinesis force will be able to fully enveloped from head to toes. But currently, he could not assimilate with it anymore without bringing danger to himself.