Chapter 12

[General POV]

After Toneri 'saved' a lot of hunters from the Ant King, the remaining 200 hunters stayed behind the island to either kill the remaining ants, collect their bodies, or harvest magic stones.

But, on a certain part of the island where the battle of the Ant King and Toneri took place, a shadowy figure emerged from the shadows

A man came out and looked at the surroundings before going near the destroyed lands caused by the fight.

Seven shadow creatures appeared out of nowhere and kneeled before the man

"Do you have it?"

The man coldly said as he looked at the shadow creatures

Hearing the man's question, the shadows each took out large chunks of meat... And for some reason, it is still emanating a huge amount of mana. Yes, it was parts of the Ant King's body that were preserved by the shadow creatures.

The man looked at the seven different parts and ordered them to gather all the parts into one pile, to which they did.

Looking at the pile of meat that is now releasing concentrated residue mana, the man thought secretly

'Even if it's only a small chunk of that ant... Its mana is still revolting...'

The man only spoke one word

"Arise."

Black flashes started gathering around the pile of meat and soon, mana started gathering.

But it soon disappeared and nothing happened to the pile of meat.

"Again. Arise."

But the man did not give up and persisted

Once again, the black flashes appeared and mana once more gathered in one spot. But alas, just like the previous attempt, nothing happened

"Tch. This is the last try... Arise."

This time, it seems like determination has appeared in the man's eyes, and his tone changed to the seriousness

And the phenomenon of the black flashes appeared along with the mana, but this time, something happened. A black arm made out of mana appeared out of nowhere from the pile.

But, the man soon found himself in a dark plane of existence. He thought the last extraction failed but he was soon returned to reality

Soon, one by one, more of the creature's body emerged until finally— the familiar Ant King's silhouette emerged.

"It seems like my luck isn't that bad after all..."

Looking at the Ant King who has been severely weakened due to the amount of mana lost because of how long it had stayed dead, although it was severely below its previous prowess, Jin-Woo believes that the Ant King can return to its previous strength if he lets it level up along him.

This was his plan ever since he saw the Ant King's power from his phone.

When he was watching the live broadcast, he knew the raid will be successful, but with the appearance of the Ant King, he thought of going to the island and participating. But he then saw Toneri fight it and manage to restrain it until the other hunters arrive.

Seeing such a powerful monster, Jin-Woo can't help but want to add it to his army. So, he commanded the shadow soldiers he planted in the other S-Rank Hunters and collected parts of the Ant King while the other hunters were busy.

And it worked. Although the Ant King has been reduced to the Elite Knight rank, he can just level him up.

(A/N: Beru's rank when he was extracted was 'General', a rank above Elite Knight)

Seeing the new shadow, Jin-Woo tried to enter the ant best and try to extract the Queen as his shadow. But he remembered an important detail

"That's right, I still haven't named you, right?" (Jin-Woo)

The ant king just nodded and kneeled.

(A/N: If you're wondering why Beru can't speak, the ability to speak is only granted to the 'General' rank and above.)

Jin-Woo looked at the ant king and said while scratching his chin

"The name 'Ant' won't be quite fitting, won't it?" (Jin-Woo)

He then thought of all his shadow soldiers and what the Any King distinguishes from them.

'A name that distinguishes him from the others...'

Then, the name struck his head. It was as if the name itself had been hiding at the back of his mind and only needed something to retrieve it

"Your name will be 'Beru'." (Jin-Woo)

The Ant King nodded and kneeled as if it was overflowing with joy.

"Alright, now it's time for the queen..."

He took Beru with him and traveled to the ant queen without any hunters noticing him. Everything happened exactly like in the series. Arrived beside the queen's dead body and extracted her shadow. But he canceled the summon later.

After leaving the ant's nest, Jin-Woo commanded Beru to take care of the remaining ants. And surprisingly enough, even though Beru was nerfed more than he was supposed to be, he still annihilated the remaining ants.

Seeing the ant's bodies dropping to the ground, Jin-Woo summoned Kaisel and only had one thought

'Toneri... The one who retrain— no, it was clear that he was about to kill Beru if it wasn't for the interference of the other hunters...'

Looking at a distance, Jin-Woo's eyes flashed for a moment

'Maybe I should meet him...'

With that single thought, he left the island while riding Kaisel.

- Near China's mainland -

The remaining ants manage to fly long distances and reached here, causing China's hunter association to deploy destroyers (ships) to take care of them.

And on one of the destroyers, a certain National-level hunter saw the ants approaching them.

It was Liu Zhigang

He unsheathed his fuel blades and slashed towards the ant causing a violent slash made out of mana, killing all of the remaining monster ants.

"These small fries are boring..." (Liu)

He then sat down as he looked in Korea's direction

"I'd rather fight the ant Toneri fought..." (Liu)

- In America -

Sitting on a couch while holding a TV Remote, a person building with muscles and has no shirt but only short pants is watching Toneri's fight with the ant king

He then laughed loudly as he watched the other hunters arrive

"HAHAHA, such a shame... I can see in that man's eyes that he did not want anyone interfering with his fight..."

It was Thomas Andre, the guild master of the Scavengers Guild.

*Click*

A blonde woman then entered the room and spoke to Thomas.

"His name is Ōtsutsuki Toneri, ordinary background, though his documents look a bit forged." (Laura)

Hearing Laura's report, a small grin appeared on Andre's face

"Forged documents? What? Is he a Japanese spy or something?" (Thomas)

"No... There had been no records about him in japan's government files." (Laura)

Hearing this, the grin on Andre's face froze. He looked at Laura with dead-serious eyes

"Don't tell me he's..." (Thomas)

"Yes. We too suspect that he's similar to Sung Il-Hwan, who 'came out' of a dungeon."

His face then turned a bit serious as he looked at the laying Toneri on the ground on the TV

"South Korea, huh... I might take a vacation there later..." (Thomas)

- Outside world -

The reactions of everyone that watched the broadcast all had one expression. Awe.

Due to Toneri clearing A-Rank Dungeons shortly after his debut almost immediately, he was dubbed on the internet as 'The Gate Eater', it was given to him because it was as if he's always hungry for clearing Gates. It was even almost made official by the association but was stopped by the Chairman.

Anyways, after watching Toneri's fight with the ant king, how he formed green orbs that explode and summon hurricanes or storms, everyone immediately clipped the recording and spread it all over social media.

Of course, his fanbase increased ten-fold. His fan group members have already reached the 200k's.

But, not all were happy. Some were frustrated at a certain S-Ranker who didn't show up. And so, the keyboard warriors made a fuzz about it again.

As for Toneri?

[Toneri's POV]

Fucking hell dude.

After entering the aircraft and getting transported to a hospital, they made the necessary procedures of checking my body to check if there was any serious injury. Of course, since it was bullshit, there wasn't that much injury in my body except some bruises.

So now, here I am laying down on a hospital bed, alone.

Don't get me wrong. Hae-In, Jong-In, Dongwook, Yoon-Ho, Tae-Gyu, Beong-Gu, basically all the hunters I saved from Beru came and greeted me.

The Japanese hunters dropped by and thanked me too. Though, Goto Ryuji wasn't present. I guess he was still pissed after our fight? Oh well

Now that I've thought about it, the timeline is now fucked isn't it? I mean, just my appearance alone made some characters that weren't shown in the series pop out. And how that I've stolen Jin-Woo's fight with Beru, I'm sure I've strayed from the path of the canon.

Oh well, at least not all things are different from canon. I'm sure Jin-Woo got Beru in his army by now. And yes, I sensed his shadow soldiers after the fight with Beru and they took a huge chunk of him. They were probably gonna use it to extract Beru's shadow from his mana residue. Moreover, it would be weird If I wasn't able to sense that.

Now that the Jeju Island raid Is finished, I wonder if I got the attention of Selner?

There are, however, some problems with my plan that I haven't thought about. How does Selner upgrades a hunter's abilities? Due to reading only the manhwa, I didn't get that many details about it. Though, since everyone in this world has mana, she upgrades their abilities— more specifically, their mana-related abilities. Now, how would she upgrade mine? I don't have mana, after all...

It feels like my plan is ruined...

Anyways, my plans right now are to go home and make some random hand seals. Yes, in order to expand my techniques, I'll try to make some random hand techniques to see the outcome. I can already do a simple Clone Technique because it was just two fingers forming a plus sign.

I'm planning on testing different hand seals as well as using scroll techniques.

The most important thing is whether I can use sage mode. But I don't know how that works and just have a theory of how it works. But that's why I'm skeptical about this theory because if I fail to try to learn sage mode, I'll turn to a stone.

But putting all that aside when I get home, there's still a memorial tomorrow that I need to attend. Attend the funeral of hunters the died during the battle. Especially Jin-Woo, I'm sure that guy will come and apologize.

===

So uhh... I just checked the comments in the chapter where I asked whether there should be romance or not and... Y'all seriously want to ship Toneri with Jin-Woo's sister?

I'm serious. I counted the comments and about 60% want Jin-Woo's sister, 30% Chae Hae-in, and 10% Natsumi.

Btw, how old is Jin-Woo's sister? If she's underage... I'm afraid FBI-chan will hunt me down...

And just as expected, the comments in the last chapter boomed with hate. Can't say I didn't expect it tho, so I can't be disappointed in something I expected.