Chapter 3

Tae-jun Kim, a C rank hunter, 35 years old with no family as his whole family died because of a dungeon break

He works as a freelancer, people would hire him to go hunt monsters on a lower-rank dungeon and just be there to protect them from monsters if it gets too much for the newbies

Today was a bit different from the usual, he was hired as a mage for a party planning on taking on the C-rank dungeon, but they were lacking in range attacks so they hired him

He arrived at the gate a tad bit too early so he was waiting for the people who hired him, like usual he avoided the crowd as it reminded him of a bad time he did not want to remember

He went for a walk and found a spot where no one was around and was a perfect place to wait for them, but as he sat down he saw a person walking towards him

He seems to be in his mid-twenties and looks carefree like he has no care in the world, but Tae-jun keeps his eye on the man as he notices that he is walking towards him closer and closer until he's only a couple of meters from him.

"G'day kind sir, just wondering if you're interested in selling your sword?"

The man asked while pointing at the sword on his waist, Tae-jun looked at his sword and shook his head

"Sorry no fo-"

Tae-jun couldn't even finish what he was saying when the man who seemed to be a foreigner burst with superhuman speed and lunged at him clamping his neck and quickly crushing it with sheer strength.

Tae-jun's eyes were wide as he had his eyes fixed on the man who killed him in a matter of seconds, he didn't notice any ill intention until he was dead, even if he did it would still not change the outcome as the sheer speed of this person was too fast for him to even react

"Hmm, it's been a while since I've spilled blood all over me, still unpleasant as ever"

The man or Kade to be exact said while looking at the corpse in his hand

Then out of nowhere a black mass so thick came out of his body and absorbed the corpse as a whole in seconds not leaving anything behind, even the spilled blood on Kade's clothes and on the ground was absorbed by this thick back mass

Kade suddenly fell on his knees as new memories surged from within, from how Tae-jun lost his family to his high school days, but what came as a surprise was a few of the new abilities that Kade had obtained after consuming his first target

Kade's appearance begins to change to that of Tae-jun including all of his gears and from what Kade knows about his power, he could keep this appearance forever if he wanted to, not that he does.

Another one of his new abilities is to transform his arm into whatever weapon he wants to, be it a blade, a hammer or even just an enlarged version of his fist.

And the last one isn't really an ability, it's more of new knowledge about his body, his whole body including his brain and heart does not have a speck of blood in it, he doesn't know how he's even functioning right now but what flows through his veins aren't blood, but black biomass of unknown origin.

'It's like that black slime that tried to consume me, so does that mean my whole

being is made out of that slime?'

As he ponders on his new abilities and new knowledge about the origin of his powers, he sees five people walking towards him

The one on the lead was a bulky man with a sword on his back and a toothed grin plaster on his face

"Hey Tae-jun, glad to meet you in person"

Said the bulky man who seemed to be the leader, after absorbing Tae-jun Kade can finally communicate with the locals as he gains the language of the one he consumes

Mimicking the way Tae-jun acts and talked, Kade just nodded at them quietly not even greeting them back, from memories this guy's name was Hwang Dongsuk and behind him is the four irrelevant characters.

"I had a feeling you were the quiet type, but I didn't expect you to be this quiet, come on lads show him some love he'll be one of our range attacks for today's raid"

Kade was observing the whole crew, from their body language to eye contact and the bad feeling he was getting from them, first was the fact that they were not lacking in range attack like what they told the original

Tae-jun and second was how they tried to make eye contact with each other without making it obvious, which somehow made it more obvious for Kade.

"Let's get this over with so I can go," said Kade as he turned around and started to walk towards the dungeon, while he couldn't see Hwang Dongsuk and crew from behind him, he had a feeling they got a wicked smile on their faces as they look at him from the back

What they failed to realise was the same wicked smile on Kade's face as he faced away from them, already having some knowledge of what they were about to do once inside the gate.

Although Kade hadn't been here for a long time not even a full day yet, but it was not hard to realise what they were up to.

From the information that he gathered one thing stood out to him, and that is information inside the dungeon, once you're inside there's no way for people outside the dungeon to know what happens inside so it's not hard for humans to do shady things once inside.

But most importantly, after consuming Tae-jun and gaining new abilities, he could take advantage of this, the possibilities are limitless and the best part of this is no one will ever know about him if he doesn't want to.

But of course, he understands the importance of origin so he will show his might to the world with his true identity and he can do all the shady dealings with other personas so he doesn't have to fear for any consequences.