becoming a dungeon explorer (1)

My father was the direct heir of a clan known for its spearmanship. There were other powerful ancient martial art clans scattered throughout Korea,but even my father was strong even amongst the heirs. While growing up, I never once saw my father lose But even so My father would complain every day about his misfortune like qi, items and other things I myself couldn't understand.

Not that I would.

"tsk, what use is there being strong on the outside? With no qi, it's all decorations with no substance."

" Dad, are you missing the key to the house?"

"haha, not that kind of key what I meant is qi,It's an energy you build up inside the body."

As I was 8 years old at the time I didn't understand a single thing he was saying because I was more interested in smashing boulders with fists or drilling a hole in a concrete wall with a wooden spear in less than 10 second.I thought at that time I wanted to be stronger than him.

"Of course you could do it too"

"really!?" I answered with excitement and without waiting for him to answer I ran up to a boulder and punched with all my strength.

"uaaah" I started crying.

Even with all my strength I only managed make a dent around the size of my fist on the boulder plus my hand hurt alot

"Dad you lied to me" with tears falling down my face and yelled at him. Father walked up to me and patted my back to calm me down. Once the pain from my hands went away I finally calmed down and asked

"How can I be stronger than you dad?"

"You can, you just have to train really hard?"

"YAY!" I yelled excitedly at the sky.

Not noticing the shocked expression on my fathers face.

At that time I marveled at martial artist strength like at how they could break brick with nothing but a hand and I wanted to be the best out of all of them.

Even though I was sure something was wrong when I trained I ignored it. He then proceeded to make me climb mountains and threw me into forests saying it was the process of becoming stronger.

Did I obediently follow what he said? you may think I didn't but you're wrong I unbelievable did right?crazy. but at that time I instinctively thought that If I did what I was told I could get stronger. The only people who could cheer me up were my mom, my little brother and sister.

"argh!"

"there'll be no dinner If you don't kill that bear" said my father from the distance

"please die bear!"

that's how I spent my first and second summer break, winter break and spring...

my father tried teaching my spearman ship but I refused and wanted to only learn martial arts. I felt like I was better at martial arts rather than spears. After trying so many times My father gave up. he said he will only teach me martial arts.Happy I kept my training.For two years I fought against all different kinds of animals in a multitude of different places.

at the age of ten I was able to destroy a boulder I was happy but I could feel I could do better so I trained hard again...

at the age of 11 I was on par with my father in martial arts. Also my little brother kang shin,kang which is our family name and shin which is his given name. Started training too, saying things like 'I wanna be a dungeon explorer' and what not.I'm happy about him taking the same path I did so I continued to train

At the age of 12 I beat my father and took his self proclaimed title of strongest my father also murmured with bitterness, "So you didn't manage to obtain qi…" I heard him thanks to my enhanced hearing but ignored it thinking who needs qi and I also noticed that boys around my age in school that I was close with started distancing away from me and girls said that the cute little Min turned into a monstrous giant but I took no notice, so I continued to practice.

Finally at the age of 15 my height was around 2.5 meters body filled with frightening muscles making it incredibly hard for me even to stand up in my own house. I already transcended the human body.Then father finally brought up the subject of 'dungeon explorer' which I have not heard about since I was ten.

"In the dungeon, there are lots of precious things. Mana Stones, magical weapons… heck, even orc skin would be treated as new material never-before-seen on Earth!"

"seriously? how is that even real?" unlike my ten year old self I was no longer the dumb kid back then though I still was pretty dumb in my class getting barely passing grade but never mind about that.Back to the topic.

"it is real" dad said

still not believing what my dad said I asked

"oh yeah show me"

"it's on my cell phone"

"yeah right" I walked away to go practice. I was so strong that even bullet that could have injured me before aren't even able to get past my skin.every part of my body was a deadly weapon able to punch through slid steel but now that I have gotten so strong It was getting hard to practice without any suitable opponent so watching my brother practice was to pass time.

One time I heard a conversation going between mom and dad said

"It's like an orc. Min's handsome face takes after me, but his body…"

"Dear husband, you must mean his face takes after me. His body is just like yours and your also making shin go through the same training!"

"ummm... Min and shin said they both wanted to do this!"

Mom narrowed her eyes as dad sweated "you probably told him a lie about some dungeon thing you talk about all day"

I left as I knew where this was going and on the same day I received a message on my phone which I got for my birthday last year.

[You have been acknowledged by the self-proclaimed Strongest on Earth 'Kang YungGoong,' and have acquired the Dungeon Explorer's License. As of this moment, you have become one of the five dungeon explorers on Earth. Would you like to enter the dungeon now?]

Dungeon explorer it said! My eyes became wide in surprise as I realized dungeon exploring was real after all. I thought dad was lying because He wanted me to train really hard like what he did to Kang shin my little brother.

"This old man dares to mess with his son with KaTalk? Today, he won't go unpunished."

"What's KaTalk, Mom?" Recently I haven't been in contact with technology that much because of the time I spent practising.

"It's the messenger you're looking at now."

"Oh ok then what does it do?"

"…"

I became confused at my mothers silence, so I went to my younger sister to ask. She was still in elementary school but she was as smart as me. When I knocked on her door, she ran towards it happily and opened it. After seeing a 2.5 meter giant, she let out a shriek and backed away in fear. When I explained my situation, she kindly explained it to me with a shy smile. I looked scary on the outside, but she still cared for me deeply.

After learning how to reply to the KaTalk I received, I typed 'Yes' into my phone.

The next moment, I was inside the dungeon. An endless grey hallway, walls made out of stones and torches hanging on them. It was exactly like what father had described.

There was more. The moment I realized where I was, I heard someone whisper in my ears.

[Kang Min, Bronze Rank 9 Dungeon Explorer, has entered the dungeon.]

[This is your first time. Beginner Dungeon Explorer Support has sent you 5 Lowest-grade Potions.]

[Analyzing your abilities… complete. Beginner Dungeon Explorer Support has sent you hard metal gauntlets.]

[Confirming rank... complete. You are 5th of the 5 Dungeon Explorers from Earth. You are 146,298th of the 146,298 total dungeon explorers. Rankings will be renewed at 6 A.M. tomorrow morning.]

[You have obtained a Status. Would you like to confirm? Yes/No]

Everything was leading up to this moment.

The moment where I became a true dungeon explorer.

… The dungeon explorer, titled 'Emperor of 5F.'