Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Big brother!”

A child slightly smaller than his peers.

He runs over with a big smile.

“What’s that?”

The child’s gaze shifted downward.

He saw the large box in the man’s hands.

“Here, a present.”

The man handed the box he was holding to the child.

The child was so delighted they lifted the box high with both hands.

“Wow! Isn’t this it? Metallic Hero Mark Six!”

“Yep, you got it. It’s expensive.”

The child jumped onto the bed and started tearing open the box.

Out came a toy wearing a shiny, metallic robot suit.

Click.

“Wow! It moves!”

After inserting the included batteries and pressing the button, the toy began to move.

Its joints moved smoothly, and the cleanly recorded voice of the Metallic Hero boomed out.

“Like it?”

The man watched the child staring intently at the toy with a satisfied smile.

The two were each other’s only brother and family.

“Thanks, big bro!”

The Metallic Hero began buying one toy at a time for his bored younger brother.

Before he knew it, he became more passionate about collecting than his brother and knew more about them than his brother did.

“You little rascal, that’s the real deal. It’s the material-enhanced version from Metallic Hero Comics Volume 12.”

“Really? I haven’t read past Volume 9 yet, so I didn’t know.”

“Take your time reading. Finish your homework first.”

“Okay! I ate my dinner and finished all my homework because you said you were coming!”

Even as he spoke, his eyes were fixed solely on the toy.

The man put on a feigned angry expression, but his heart soon melted away.

After all, he’d bought it just to see his little brother’s happy face.

“Bro, but when can I get out of here?”

After fiddling with the toys for a while, the younger sibling suddenly looked up at the man and asked.

“Hmm…”

The man hesitated.

Should he tell the truth or lie?

“I don’t know? Huh… I wish I had a suit like a Metallic Hero. Then I could go outside.”

After hesitating, the man finally chose to lie.

“Just three more treatments!”

“Really? Just three more sessions?”

“Yeah. I asked the doctor.”

“Wow! Does that mean I can go to school? I gotta brag to my friends!”

The younger brother’s gaze shifted toward one wall.

A small storage cabinet holds various poses of Metallic Hero figures.

All bought by Dad.

Thud.

The man perches beside his younger sibling and strokes their head through the fur hat.

A strange, poignant feeling wells up inside him.

“I should be going now.”

“Already? You just came after a whole week! Don’t go!”

“Big bro’s been busy lately. But next time I come, I’ll buy you a Metallic Hero Mark Seven!”

“No way. I don’t need it!”

“I need to make a lot of money so you can get treated quickly and go to school.”

“Forget it. I don’t need to go to school!”

His younger brother whined, looking as if he might cry at any moment.

The man’s heart ached.

He wanted to stay by his brother’s side forever, but he had to work to pay the hospital bills and buy him toys.

Finally, after coaxing and soothing him for a long while, he could barely make his way out of the hospital room.

Knock knock.

The man tapped on the glass window and called to his little brother.

– Study hard and listen to the nurse. That’s how you’ll get better fast.

– Ugh, I know that already!

Whenever this glass window separated them, both the man and his younger brother felt a pang of sadness.

– I’m leaving, little brother.

– Come back soon!

He gave his little brother a faint smile, though it might not have been clearly visible.

His face turned bitter as he walked down the hospital hallway.

***

F-rank Hunter, Lee Do-jae.

The lowest-ranked Hunter among Hunters.

He possesses no special skills, and his physical abilities are only marginally better than those of an athlete.

He’s barely qualified to be called a hunter at all.

Because of this, guilds rarely accept F-rank Hunters.

Most people don’t even acknowledge F-rank as hunters.

Consequently, the vast majority of F-rank hunters live ordinary lives.

But Dojae chose to remain a hunter instead of living an ordinary life.

The Hunter Association organizes dungeon raids for hunters without guilds, taking a certain commission fee, and he participates in those.

Of course, the weak and frail Dojae has been injured many times and narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions.

But the reason he keeps going as a hunter?

Isn’t it obvious?

Money.

With no particular talents, he had to risk his life tackling dungeons to cover his younger brother’s hospital bills.

Treating his brother’s congenital magic immunity deficiency required an enormous amount of money.

Just keeping him in a special ward that blocks external magic costs tens of millions of won a year. There was nowhere else to earn that kind of money except dungeons.

He used to blame himself, wondering why he had to enter dungeons and why he was only an F-rank.

But now, he accepts reality and lives with it.

He even enters dungeons with gratitude, knowing that even as an F-rank, he can still care for his brother as a hunter.

Lately, he’s been saving money little by little, waiting for a cure that might come someday.

But why is God so cruel to him alone?

***

It was a routine operation, no different from any other.

The kind where no one paid much attention to Dojae, an F-rank.

“Take a break here for a moment!”

At the leader’s shout, the hunters settled down one by one and began preparing.

Given that this was a dungeon commissioned by the Association, the hunters’ average skill level was abysmal, making frequent breaks necessary.

And now.

For Dojae, who couldn’t contribute much in combat, this was his chance to be of some use to the other hunters.

‘Let’s get started.’

Swish-.

Dojae began retracing his steps through the dungeon.

Because he needed to collect monster carcasses.

Monster eyeballs or tendons, for instance, can be processed into medicines or items. It’s one of the main sources of income for dungeon raids.

Swish-.

Dojae drew a short dagger.

Then he sliced off the chest section of the creature, now nothing but a lifeless body.

‘Careful not to damage the venom sac.’

Guilds have dedicated collection teams.

But there’s no way a collection team would be present in a dungeon targeted by day-rate hunters.

Therefore, they carry daggers as essential gear and collect items themselves.

This is where loot gathering can be a huge help.

While other hunters rest, a loot collector can gather items in advance, so they only need to collect them after the raid is over.

It’s a way to use time and labor efficiently.

“Huh?”

After rummaging through the blood-soaked monster carcasses for a while, something catches Dojae’s eye.

Doja immediately moved toward the wall.

And there it was, glistening.

‘It’s a magic stone!’

The magic stone had been so close to the floor and covered in dust that he had simply passed it by before.

Doja, whose line of sight had lowered while dismantling the monsters, barely caught the small glimmer.

‘This raid is going to be quite lucrative.’

Magic stones aren’t easily found in dungeons.

Therefore, regardless of its quality, it commands a high price on the market.

However, Dojae had always been incredibly skilled at finding magic stones.

Well, he’d never found a high-grade magic stone in the low-level dungeons he usually ran.

“Huuu.”

He blew air through his mouth to brush off the dirt.

Since it was expensive, he had to be careful collecting it.

Twinkle-!

Even after just brushing off the dust, the magic stone emitted a bright light.

I don’t know much about magic stones, but this one seems to have the clearest light I’ve ever seen.

‘Could I buy Mark Seven right away?’

Dojae reached out, filled with anticipation.

And the moment his fingertips touched the magic stone.

Wooong-!

The magic stone suddenly begins to vibrate.

And then.

“Gah!”

An immense gravitational force erupted, pulling Dojae’s body toward it.

A moment later.

Only the dagger Dojae had dropped remained where he had been standing.

***

Sssshhh-.

Do-jae, who had been unconscious, opened his eyes.

“Ugh…”

A groan escapes him involuntarily.

As if he’d fallen from a great height, his body ached all over as if from a crash landing.

‘What was that?’

The surroundings are pitch black.

Dojae slowly got to his feet.

He felt something hard in his hand, and all he could see was a tiny speck of light.

‘Let’s check where I am first.’

Do-jae reached into his inside pocket.

A smartphone encased in a thick case.

He tapped it, and the screen lit up.

“Ugh.”

The bright light blinded him.

He immediately shone the screen’s light onto his palm.

‘Magic Stone.’

It was the magic stone he had managed to grab without letting go, even as he was sucked into the powerful force.

He carefully tucked it into his pocket and flipped his smartphone back over.

‘I wasn’t unconscious for long.’

The time he had checked when the raid party decided to rest was an hour ago.

Considering the time spent collecting loot from the monsters and moving through the dungeon, it meant he hadn’t been down for very long.

‘The lack of signal means we’re still inside the dungeon.’

An X mark appeared on the network icon at the top of the screen.

A place in South Korea with no signal?

This place is definitely a dungeon.

Flash!

Dojae turned on his smartphone flashlight.

A much brighter light illuminated the surroundings.

‘A tunnel, huh.’

As the surroundings became brightly lit, he could tell this place was a round tunnel.

Dojae started walking forward.

After all, the way back was blocked.

‘What are these drawings?’

As he walked, he noticed the cave walls were densely covered with strange paintings.

He had entered many dungeons before, but this was the first time he had seen paintings like these.

Moreover, upon looking more closely, he realized some of the paintings shared the same form.

‘These are characters.’

I had heard of it.

A special language that doesn’t exist on Earth.

The runic language that even now cannot be fully deciphered, only its general meaning grasped.

Of course, having never actually seen it, I could only speculate that it might be Runic.

Curiosity filled me, but I kept moving through the tunnel.

And soon, I reached the end of the tunnel.

Whoosh-!

A space so bright it rendered my smartphone flash unnecessary.

A large space formed by a hemispherical dome appeared.

It is as vast and tall as several football stadiums placed end to end.

Within it stand various structures, ornaments, and symbols of all shapes and forms.

It resembles an ancient temple.

And the pinnacle is.

“Whoosh!”

A colossal form stood at the very center of the space.

Dojae couldn’t close his mouth for a moment.

“A giant?”

It took the form of a massive human.

Dojae slowly approached to take a closer look.

“Is it armor?”

Up close, the giant was not a living creature but a suit of black iron armor.

Metal armor that thickly encased its entire body, from the tips of its toes to the top of its head.

Then, the magic stone in his pocket began to vibrate.

Wrumm-.

When he pulled out the magic stone, it indeed emitted light and vibrated violently.

Simultaneously.

Wooong-.

He could see light seeping out even from within the metal armor.

The light reflected off the statues, gradually illuminating the temple interior.

Guguung-.

And the magic stones and armor trembled as if resonating with each other.

The tremor of the massive armor soon shook the entire chamber.

Finally.

Whoosh-!

The moment the light from the magic stone met the light emanating from the armor, illuminating the entire temple.

A piercingly bright light spread out in all directions.

A voice reached Dojae’s ears, his eyes tightly shut.

– To the worthy one, I bestow the Golem’s Heart.

– Quest completed!

[Quest]

Category: Main

Content: The test to determine if you truly possess the qualifications begins. Survive within the time limit.

….

“What?”

And suddenly, an immense pain surges through his chest.

“Guh.”

Do-jae lost consciousness with a short groan.