A hidden gate

"Taerun, is there something wrong with my body?"

Sato was lying on the floor without moving a finger and Taerun was fixing the mana flow inside his body by putting his hands on his stomach. 

The technique was simple and it was created by the same scientist who wasted all the seeds by grinding them into powder. But the technique was also dangerous because nobody knows who will become an awakened. So, experimenting on normal people by applying mana was banned.

But if you know who has the possibility of becoming an awakened, it's a different case.

If I can see the possibility, I can definitely make him a top-class hunter.

Taerun's aura was directing Sato's mana flow into his body to open all the seals in his organs and joints. After flowing his mana into his blood vessels, Sato's heart formed a small mana ball which indicates the pre-awakening of a human.

"Taerun, can you see a floating screen in front of me? Am I sick? It says my name and something called level? What is mana?" 

"Will you shut your a**? I'm trying to make a mana heart by risking my life here!!"

"ok."

  Tsk! This damn talkative brat!

[Congratulations, you have successfully awakened a person.

You have levelled up.

Host :Taerun Osamu. 

Age : 16

Class : C+ level 10

Mana : B+ level 3

Skills : Basic stabbing : A+. Basic magic attack: A+.

Basic body defence: C+ . Medium cutting skill : A+.

Medium skinning skill : A+. Medium monster weakness detecting skill : A+. 

New skill:

Awakened Crafter : A+

Special skill : Familier Connection.

 Class : SSS. Level : Null ]

Taerun looked at his status and saw he reached 20 from 35.

So, I need 15 more to reach level B. Not bad. A B-class hunter is countable in this society. But I have to worry about something else.

"Taerun!! Taerun!! I FINALLY GET IT! I'm an awakened right!!"

"Brat keep your mouth closed!! Mom will hear you!"

"ok."

"Hah!!! Look Sato, don't tell anyone about your awakening yet. But can you tell me what your screen is saying?"

"Yes, it says I'm a level B+ 13? And mana is B+ level 2. 

And I have basic spear stabbing skill D+."

   This lucky brat! Hah! Looks like my 'Awakened Crafter' class is for not messing around. If I used two more seeds on him instead of one, he'd become an S-class awakened by now.

"You are stronger than me I guess."

"You're an awakened too?" Sato became excited to hear his words.

So he answered him to fill his curiosity and told him to eat dinner together. It was a wonderful dinner for him because his new tastebuds were also open. So, basically, Taerun's mother has a question mark too. And it was pure green.

   So, she will become a healer class awakened if I help her become a hunter. And my brother has a blue mark. That means the older he gets, the brighter his mark will become.

I wonder if my stepfather has one above his head…

"Sato, do you like the vegetable?"

"Aunty!! Your cooking is extremely delicious today!! I suggest you to open a restaurant. You will become rich in no time."

"Hahaha! Thank you Sato."

    She is happy today. I hope we can have meals like this quite often.

As soon as they finished eating dinner, both of them went inside their room to talk about their current situation.

Sato was staring into mid-air and bragging about how high his level is after searching some stuff on the internet. But Taerun's attention was on something else.

He was looking at his twin dragon sword that he bought for free.

   Hm.. My analysing skill is saying that it has locks on both of my swords. But there are no clues to open them. And the witch's ring is too powerful for me to use right now. I need to become an A-class hunter to use that.

He rummaged into the box full of old rusty rings and found more than 10 that had healing and shield magic on it. But all of them have one or two uses left.

I should give the strongest to mom and little brother. And one for that dumba** who's about to eat his screen with his eyes.

"Oi, take this."

Taerun threw a ring to Sato and he made a disgusting expression after looking at that rusty ring.

"I really appreciate your hard work, but I'm a straight guy. Plus you aren't supposed to give a rusty ring to that person you like. They will probably kill you. You're lucky that I'm such a kind guy."

Taerun's stomach almost crushed everything from the inside after hearing what he just said. His soul nearly left his body.

"You *** , ***, *** I'm not proposing you to be my ***mate. That ring is a healing ring with 3 uses left. But I changed my mind. Give me that ring back! You deserve to die."

"nope"

"Ugh! My stomach feels so bad."

Taerun ended up using one healing ring to fix his stomach in the end.

   Man! That was a hell of an emotional damage.

The time reached 12 pretty soon, so they prepared their bed and went to sleep. Taerun took 4 more seeds before bed to increase his mana overnight. Because the monster wave was near the door.

Next day in the morning…

Taerun looked at himself in the mirror and saw he grew about 3 inches overnight. Not only him, but Sato also grew taller than him in just a day. They became taller in just one night.

"Taerun, is this the effect of my awakened?"

"Yes. And be prepared tonight. We are going to visit somewhere."

I can't stay inside the house and do nothing. The monsters from the gate will be above A and some of them will be S-class monsters. To fight them, I need to reach A class in just 2 months. Also, I need to figure out how to make my family an awaken in secret too. Because I don't want my mother to think of herself as a burden when the time comes. 

Taerun took his school bag and went to school with Sato. Because school comes first.

I was wondering about something last night, but I couldn't figure out one thing. How did the dwarf seller know where my tattoo was? And the thing about me coming from a different world. What did that even mean? And mother never talked about my real father in her whole life. She never mentioned anything about him. So, was he a criminal?-_-

Taerun was lost in his deep thoughts and Sato smacked his back out of nowhere which made a shockwave on his back and their surroundings. Fortunately, they were on the roof of the school.

"Sato. If I weren't awakened, I'd be dead by now."

"Sorry, I forgot. Man!! I should control my strength when I'm playing baseball now." 

"It would be better if you stop paying. Because we have another game to play today."

"What game?"

Sato was genuinely shocked by the place where Taerun took him after school. It was under a bridge near a forest. Only one or two cars pass the bridge in an hour. So, it was nearly abandoned.

"Um, Taerun. Why are we here? You know? We just skipped school, you bullied the school bully and snatched 300k yen. Then you brought a spear online. And we're here in hunter's jackets. And I assume that we're looking for monsters ?"

"Shut up. We need to come back before 7 pm. Let's go"

"But where?"

Taerun went under the bridge and went inside a dry sewage pipe.

As long as I can remember, I discovered the hidden gate when I was running away from some bullies. It was deep inside the sewage pipe and it was nearly invisible. So, I was surprised when I fell inside of it.

An F-class gate with low level F class grasshopper. And a lot of rare herbs that I found after cleaning it online. I cried for a week over my loss after the hunt.

Taerun and Sato walked 200 meters inside using a torch and finally reached the place where the gate was supposed to be.

[You have discovered a hidden gate.

Clearing drop items : Unknown.

Gate class : Unknown]

"Wow. Is this a gate? It's not like the huge gate in our neighbourhood. It's small and barely visible."

"Are you ready for your first hunt?"

Sato ate his fear down to his stomach and motivated himself to see the world inside the gate. So, he took the first step inside the gate and Taerun followed him behind.

[You have entered a hidden gate]

Sato opened his eyes and saw the vast world filled with unknown trees and huge mushrooms. It was a whole different world that he had never seen in his whole life.

  Heh. This place is the same as I left 6 years ago. At first, I thought those mushrooms were poisonous. So I avoided it with my life and soul and starved for a whole day. But when I saw it on the market with a million-dollar prize tag on it, my soul wanted to lick my brain and leave my body forever.

This can be eaten raw and I heard they taste like apples with honey.

"Sato, this gate's time flow is different from our world. One hour here is only 10 minutes outside. We came here with 5 hours time limit. So, we can hunt around for 2 days and 2 hours."

"No wonder why you bought two sets of clothes and a whole family pack ramen with you."

"Hehehehh! You should start calling me master for now on. I will guide you for 2 days and make you the world's best hunter in just 5 years."