1 Chapter One

Our story starts in an ordinary apartment complex in the city of Manchester, England. A man was stood in the small kitchen of his two bedroom apartment whistling a tune that was stuck in his head. He was abruptly cut off by the apartment door suddenly slamming shut, forcing him to place the pot of vegetables he was cooking down to a simmer.

As he turned around to meet with his sudden intruder he was met with a tackle as the 18 year old girl with whom he lodges with began uncontrollably crying on his chest. He was only startled for a second before he wrapped his arms around her and began to console her.

"Oh Christie, what's wrong?" He said in a sweet voice, unfitting of his large stature.

"It was Kurt...*sob,sob*...He slept with...*sob,sob*...Another woman!" Christie stuttered between sobs.

"I'm here Christie, what do you need me to do?" He asked while pulling her closer into his chest.

" I just need to sit down...*sob*...Will you?...Never mind it's stupid." She said as she broke from his embrace and went to walk to her room.

The man quickly grabbed her hand as she walked away.

"Hey whatever you're feeling is okay and normal, I asked you what you need so tell me." He said whilst he pulled her back towards him.

She looked startled for a moment but then did something that the man didn't expect at all, she grabbed his face and kissed him.

Him and Christie had been best friends since they were born, there birthdays were only four days apart and their mothers were childhood friends. Christie's mum had died when Christie was ten and her father had died before she was even born so she came to stay with him and his mum. That was until two years ago when a dungeon break occurred near their house, they got through it by hiding in the basement. Their mother however had gone to the near by store to buy some groceries and sadly didn't make it back.

From that day on they had moved to the other side of the city, far away from any gates, the rooms were small and the rent was steep but it was safer than anywhere else in the city.

Although he was surprised at first, he quickly responded to her kiss with one of his own. He re-wrapped his arms around her, ran his hand through her hair and began a passionate kiss, their tongues intertwining.

After about three long minutes of passion, the pan on the stove behind them began to whistle. They broke apart for a moment, keeping close to each other as the pan kept hissing loudly.

"Are you sure this is what you want Christie?" The man asked while looking deep into her eyes.

"Yeah Noah, I'm completely sure." She said with a giant smile on her face whilst wiping away her tears, "I just want you to hold me for a while, can you do that?"

"Tell you what: we can have dinner, then I'll put on a movie and we can just chill out and sleep on the couch, that okay?" He said whilst brushing her hair from her face.

"That sounds great." She said back while standing on her tiptoes and planting a kiss on his lips before separating and setting the table. Noah turned around and started dishing out the food he had just finished preparing.

They shared a wonderful dinner then watched a good action movie before falling asleep in each other's arms on the couch.

==========

Noah awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, he was lying on the ground paralysed and in extreme pain. He moaned and groaned in pain until Christie was roused from her slumber and dropped to his side with a concerned face.

She pulled out her phone and dialled 999, the emergency services. She talked on the phone for about 10 minutes describing what was happening to Noah in great detail before a look of pure elation became plastered across her face.

She quickly thanked the woman on the other end of the phone and then hung up.

"Noah hang in there okay, this is the awakening process that will evolve your abilities. It may be painful, but the longer it takes the higher the chance of awakening a better power!" She said whilst grasping his hand firmly with a smile on her face.

Noah knew a lot about the awakening process as he was a hunter himself, that was the only reason he could afford their apartment in the first place. There were three different ways to earn an ability, the first way was just by being born, the world bestowed every individual an ability upon being born. You could check your abilities and stats by focusing on a little white spot in the bottom right of your vision, upon doing so a screen as such would appear:

[Status -

Name - Noah Lennard

Job Class - Hunter (E Class)

STR - 14

CON - 8

INT - 14

Skill(s) - Vital Points Targeting (E - 18/100)]

The STR stat corresponds to the physical strength of the individual, the CON stat is for the constitution of the person and the INT stat represents intelligence and mental fortitude. The higher your stats, the greater your abilities will be.

The second way for someone to get an ability is to gain one from a dungeon. The boss monster of a dungeon had a small chance of having a skill stone buried in it's skull, and upon defeating it a hunter could take this stone and absorb it into their body to gain one of the boss's skills.

The third and final way is to go through an awakening like the one Noah is experiencing now, it was an extremely painful experience and no one knew how it was triggered. During the process, the world pulled apart and reconstructed your genetic code to show your potential, resulting in a boost in previous abilities as well as a new ability for you to use.

It was one of the best things that could happen to a hunter as they would get a free skill that could help them out massively when fighting monsters, and they would get a boost in their overall abilities as well.

Christie stayed by Noah's side feeling both pity and hope all night and all morning until the sun was high in the sky. That was when Noah finally awoke from the light coma he had slipped into.