The Gate.

[The next evening.]

In an abandoned construction site located in Seoul, a man could be seen walking towards a large blue portal.

The man wore a high collar black form fitting shirt, black jeans and simple black boots. For the dangerous mission he was about to undertake, he chose an outfit with no protection, strange enough.

It's like he had no regards for his body.

To top it all off, he wore a black hooded jacket with a red insignia at the back. But, if one were to actually look at said insignia, it seemed as if it were...alive as it flashed periodically.

This man was of course, Kenjaku.

'I think that's the group that put the message up. Let's see...6...8...11, and I should be number 13. I guess dungeons really are that dangerous for them.'

Seeing Kenjaku walking up, a large, muscular approached him, outstretched his hand and said, "I'm Hwang Dongsuk. What's your name?"

'I guess I should put on a nice smile huh?'

Kenjaku, giving the man a wide smile, shook his hand and responded, "Kenjaku."

The man raised as he heard this.

"Oh? One of our Japanese brothers eh? It's good to have you. You said you were D-rank right?"

Kenjaku nodded, confirming the man's questions.

Hwang Dongsuk quickly pulled out a sheet of paper and laid his hand on Kenjaku's shoulder, saying, "You might be able to join in on the hunting since this is a C-rank gate, but you don't have to. We just need you to fill the numbers. If you decide to hunt, we'll give you a share of the essence stones. But, regardless of your decision, you'll get two million won for your time. Pretty sweet deal, yeah? Just sign this contract and we'll he gold."

Kenjaku took the paper from the man and read it, trying to see if there was any fine print he should be aware of.

In reality, the contract was just a statement saying the squad of hunters weren't responsible for any accidents that happened inside the dungeon.

'Accidents huh? Heh. I don't think that's matters to me at this point.'

Kenjaku signed the paper and gave it back to the man, tapping his shoulder as he walked past him, heading closer to the gate.

"I'll join you in the hunt. Why don't we get going? I'm excited to enter this gate."

Hearing this, another member of the strike squad agreed and Hwang Dongsuk made the announcement for them to enter the gate.

Kenjaku had noticed that he wasn't the only one filling in while he approached the gate. There was a boy in fancy armor and another seemingly normal teen.

But the moment Kenjaku laid eyes on him, he knew the truth. This gate was going to be an interesting experience.

'This boy is stronger than everyone else here...well, expect me of course. And those eyes he's looking at me with, heh, I think he's figured me out. I can't wait to see how this plays out.'

The group then entered the large blue portal, commencing their raid on the dungeon.

----

The moment they stepped inside, the surroundings became dark as they arrived in what seemed to be a cave.

"It's too dark. Kyuhwan, turn on the light."

A nearby mage summoned a magic spell, illuminating the area completely. Now, the group could see that several, smaller caves lay before them.

But surprisingly enough, no magic beasts.

As Kenjaku looked around, trying to find the beasts, he suddenly experienced a slight headache.

'Hm?'

Then, something strange happened. A viral, omnidirectional pulse erupted from him, scanning everyone there and everything within a massive range within the dungeon.

And of course, the location of magic beasts were revealed.

This wasn't an ability that Kenjaku had before. He deduced that his body developed it in response to his desire to find the beasts. This revelation excited him.

But he couldn't celebrate this fact just yet. He had located the beasts.

"They're above us!"

Hearing his shout, everyone gripped their weapons and looked up, waiting for the enemies to emerge.

Then, the boy who Kenjaku had noticed before, added on to his shout, saying, "Insect-type beasts! He is right! They're coming down towards us!"

No one else could hear or see them at this moment, so they were a little confused about what the two of them meant.

But in no time, the truth revealed itself.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

"They're here!"

"How many of them are there?!"

"Use magic!!"

"Shoot em' down!!"

"I'll go aggro and draw their attention when they get down here!!"

The group erupted into a plethora of shouts as they all gave commands to each other, their attention focused on the beasts coming down.

BOOM!

An innumerable amount of beasts burst out from the caves above, immediately attacking the hunters below.

'Just some measly ants. This is why they're getting so riled up?'

Kenjaku stood back and watched the hunters fight the beasts, uninterested in the battle.

It didn't matter how many giant ants they were. In the end, they were just ants.

The battle went on for several minutes, but in the end, the hunters managed to win without any casualties. Kenjaku didn't expect any less.

For some reason, the ants didn't approach him. While they did focus majority of their attention on the larger group of hunters, a few of them broke off and tried to attack the people who filled in.

But the ants just walked past Kenjaku as if...he was one of them.

'That's what I think anyways...I need to confirm later.'

Before they continued, Kenjaku walked up to the boy who sensed the beasts along with him and said, "Kenjaku. What's your name, boy? Your senses are pretty good."

The boy smiled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, simply responding, "Haha, no no. You were better than me, Kenjaku. I'm Sung Jinwoo. Nice to meet you, man."

Just as the two of them were about to get into deeper conversation, Hwang Dongsuk appeared and placed his hand on both of their shoulders.

"I'm glad you two are all right. It's impressive how you easily picked up on the beasts location even though no one else could track them. How did you do it?"

Jinwoo calmly responded, "It was just...a feeling."

Kenjaku squinted his eyes as he looked at Dongsuk. Something was off.

"Instincts."

Hwang Dongsuk nodded at both of their answers, his face retaining the warm smile he had when he spoke to them.

"You guys got good instincts. But I hope they won't pick up on anything unnecessary."

As Hwang Dongsuk turned around to walk away, someone suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him back around.

"Is that a threat?"

Kenjaku stopped feigning kindness right at this moment. This guy was planning something, and he wasn't as nice as Jinwoo to let a thinly veiled threat go by so easily.

All of the hunters stopped what they were doing and looked at the scene, some of them reaching for their weapons.

Dongsuk didn't back down from Kenjaku's words.

"It is what you think it is, friend. Let's not make this more than it needs to be. Because if we do...I'm afraid the outcome won't be in your favor."

A vein popped out of Kenjaku's forehead as he clenched his fists within his pockets.

The glow in his eyes increased tremendously while a red aura started to appear around his body.

"Is that so? Then let's-"

Jinwoo suddenly appeared, standing in between the two men.

"Please, let's conserve our strength for the boss. When we're done with this, then personal matters can be handled."

Dongsuk said nothing as he clicked his teeth and walked away, whispering something to the rest of his comrades.

Kenjaku leaned his head from side to side, cracking his neck while he watched Dongsuk's every move.

'I should just kill all of you right here. No one is going to know anyways. Matter of fact...'

Kenjaku made one step towards the rest of the hunters, seemingly about to charge at them.

Again, Jinwoo stopped him. This time, he whispered something in his ear.

"Let's stop here for now. Let them gather the essence stones and do whatever they need do. What we need to do is be careful. I think they're planning something."

Listening to Jinwoo's words, he stopped his advance. While he did want to just act upon his...base instincts, Jinwoo had been agreeable thus far. It wasn't time to act just yet.

"You're right. Let's take it a bit slower for now. After all, I'm in no rush to put down trash like that. He is going to come to me."

After the group gathered their essence stones, they proceeded to another section of the cave that had giant blue crystals littered all around it.

"Whoa! Mana Crystals!!"

The group immediately started forming discussions around the giant crystals, making estimates about how much money they would make and how they were planning to split it ten ways.

Leaving Kenjaku, Jinwoo and Jinwoo's friend, Yoo Jinho, out of it.

'These guys aren't hiding anything anymore. Now it's just a matter of when they're gonna make their move.'

Yoo Jinho, in his expensive armor, walked up to Kenjaku and Jinwoo, saying, "Give me your contracts. I'm good at things like this."

Jinwoo gave his contract to Jinho, while Kenjaku declined. This didn't matter that much to him.

Kenjaku watched as Yoo Jinho tried to negotiate Jinwoo's contract, asking Dongsuk why he wasn't included.

Immediately, he saw the positions of the rest of the hunters subtly change. They quietly surrounded the trio and carried on having their own conversations as if this movement was natural.

If one wasn't paying attention, they wouldn't have even noticed this change.

Kenjaku didn't care about them though. His eyes were stuck to the ceiling looking at a gigantic spider sleeping above. It explained why this section of the cave seemed to be a graveyard of ants as they were all cocooned in webs.

'This must be the dungeon boss.'

While inspecting the body of the spider, Kenjaku overheard the rest of them talking about going out to get equipment to gather the Mana Crystals.

That's when Dongsuk proposed a wonderful idea. An idea that surely wouldn't provoke the Kenjaku's ire.

"We're going to go out and grab the equipment real quick. Chuljin here forgot to bring it. So I'm sorry to ask you this, friends. Can the three of you stand guard here while we grab it?"

Kenjaku chuckled, grabbing his own face as that slight chuckle quickly turned into a belly full of laughter.

"Ha! Whew...Hwang Dongsuk, you really crack me up, man. Just say what you really mean."

Jinwoo was starting to get the picture but Jinho was still confused.

What was going on here?

Dongsuk put on an expression of confusion when he heard this.

"Kenjaku, what could you possibly mean?"

Kenjaku's smile immediately disappeared and a cold, vicious look replaced it.

"That's enough games. Other than Jinwoo and this guy in expensive armor over here, no one else is leaving this room until the boss is dead."

The moment those words were said, Kenjaku felt the air tremble behind him.

"Fools. You should've just shut up and let us kill you."

The hunter who struck at Kenjaku could already see the man's dismembered body in the near future. There was no way a mere D-rank could dodge this attack.

Unfortunately, the hunter had no idea what he was getting into.

Kenjaku immediately sidestepped the vertical slash, turned around and ran his fist through the hunters chest, holding his twitching body up in the air like a ragdoll.

"Yongsuk!!"

"Die!!"

"Let's kill all three of them now!!"

Ripping his body into two uneven halves as he threw him into the wall, Kenjaku wiped the man's blood off his face and looked into the eyes of his enemies.

Fear.

Uncertainty.

Anxiety.

Confusion

Regret.

This is all he saw.

All the makings of weaklings. He knew that they weren't going to attack him full force just yet. After all, there was still a boss right above them.

Glancing at Jinho, whose face was pale, and Jinwoo, who was clutching the pack on his back nervously, Kenjaku said, "I don't think you two were part of their little scheme. If you guys wanna leave now, you can. If you wanna stay, then it's up to you. Just know, that while we're in this dungeon, I am on your side."

Jinho, with his trembling shield and sword, turned to Jinwoo, whispering, "L-Let's leave, Jinwoo. We can't get invo-"

"I'll stay with you, Kenjaku. As the situation would have it, I don't think I'll be able to sleep well tonight knowing that I left a friend behind."

Jinho shuddered. Afraid to leave the dungeon by himself, he stood behind Kenjaku and Jinwoo, shouting, "Y-You criminals are going to face justice today!

Kenjaku chuckled at this scene.

'Well, it seems that some people do have a backbone after all.'

Cracking his neck, Kenjaku took another glance at the strike squad and said, "Let's finish what we came here to do today yeah? Jinwoo, Jinho...get ready."

In a blur, Kenjaku disappeared and jumped up to the boss, hovering over it as a crazed expression appeared on his face.

His leg muscles bulged considerably while a red aura encapsulated his body, giving him the appearance of a red star.

"Wake up, boss."

BOOM!

Kenjaku delivered a vicious double legged stomp to the spider's thorax, sending the massive creature careening and screaming to the ground.

Now, the true raid had begun.