Chapter 27: Revelations, Training & Healing a Hunter

A/N :

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

{ }: Parallel Wills,

« » : Artificial Intelligence,

| | : Sung Jin-Woo's System Panels, Sung Jin-Woo's System Messages.

For those who may not have read Solo Leveling, the first part of this chapter is going to be a significant lore dump.

And Happy New Year.

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Dante POV

The explanation I'm going to give Jin-Woo is about the Rulers and Monarchs, and how he fits into all of this. I know that it's an early reveal that would force Kandiaru to make a drastic move, but it's a necessary one for Jin-Woo to grow stronger than his canon self.

"Before we begin, tell me. What do you know or think you know about the world and the Gates opening on this world?" Jin-Woo goes silent, thinking about the knowledge that he has so far of the state that the world is in as well as how it has affected humans and human society.

"No one is really sure about it, and all I know is what most people already know. Some years ago, Gates started opening around the world, releasing monsters that killed hundreds of millions of people, reducing the population of humanity by almost half. Some time down the line, some humans started to exhibit superhuman capabilities and supernatural powers, giving humans a fighting chance against the monsters. Those humans were then called Hunters." He says, giving the standard explanation that most of humanity had for the current state of things.

"I see. Scrap that." I say, as this is simply an uninformed assumption. "The reality of things is far more grim for Earth." My words cause his posture to stiffen. "You'll want to brace yourself for this, because the truth of the earth, of the universe, is a lot crazier than most people think or believe."

I begin the explanation by telling him of the Absolute Being that used to rule over the entire universe and the beings that he created, the Fragments of Brilliant Light or the Emissaries of God, whatever you want to call them, this universe's stand-ins for angels and the light of the universe, and the Monarchs or Sovereigns, this universe's stand-ins for devils and the darkness of the universe.

I told him of how the Absolute Being had set them to battle against each other for its own entertainment, without a care for their lamentations and did not wish for the war to end. How despite the praises and prayers that the Fragments of Brilliant Light offered to the Absolute Being, they were met with indifference.

How the Emissaries eventually chose to rebel against the Absolute Being, except for one, that was overwhelmed by the power and forces of the others. That one Emissary was granted a power by the Absolute Being that would only manifest upon death, and this Emissary was the one that would become Ashborne, the Monarch of Shadows and ruler of Death and Darkness.

How Ashborne had returned to the Absolute Being with his army, wanting to defend them, but he was too late, as they were already dead. The Emissaries had killed the Absolute Being and had assumed the positions of Rulers and had used tools with the power of the Absolute Being contained in them to hunt down Monarchs.

How using these tools, they captured one of the most powerful Monarchs, Regia, the Monarch of the Beginning and King of the Giants, collapsing the balance between the two sides. Ashborne approached the Monarchs in their unfavorable situation and offered them the chance to combat their common enemy, the Rulers, by combining his forces with theirs.

How Ashborne had been a balance breaker so powerful that he single handedly turned the tide of the war, decimating the Rulers' forces. How in fear of his power, some of the Monarchs betrayed him but were soon defeated, with one of them being absorbed by him.

How the Rulers had asked forgiveness for their actions, pushing for peace, and told Ashborne of the Absolute Being's thoughts of them. How the Rulers had defeated the Monarchs, who had retreated by escaping using a crack that exists between dimensions.

How the most powerful of the Monarchs, the Monarch of Destruction and King of the Dragons, had forbidden any conflict between Monarchs so that they would recover their strength, and accepted Ashborne into his forces.

How the Monarchs had searched for a world to build up their new army. That world was Earth. How the Monarchs had basically annihilated most of humanity and the Rulers had noticed a bit too late.

The Rulers in their anger at their failure to stop the Monarchs and in a bid to erase the failure and save the lives of humanity, used one of the tools that had the power of the Absolute Being, the Cup of Reincarnation. A tool that would rewind time by 10 whole years.

The Rulers had used everything in their arsenal to fight against the Monarchs while also trying to prevent the destruction of Earth, but as the Earth was, the strength of its inhabitants was far too low, so whether the Rulers won or the Monarchs won, the planet's entire population would be dead as a result of the mass scale battle.

The Rulers then made a drastic decision for the survival of mankind, so that at least, some of the people would continue on after the war. This decision was to strengthen the people of Earth by lending some of them their power, this allowing them to be able to kill monsters.

But as the Rulers rewound time multiple times to help the survival of Earth, the Monarchs had taken notice of the changes to the flow of time that had been caused by the Cup of Reincarnation. So while the Rulers were trying to fix their mistakes, the Monarchs were modifying their plans, until eventually, the power in the Cup of Reincarnation had reached a point where it couldn't be used anymore, with only a single use left.

The Monarchs had taken note of the Rulers' methods and began to emulate them, just a bit differently. As with the Rulers, they would lend the humans the power and push them to defend the earth, but the Monarchs would take over a human's body and use that body to descend onto Earth and bring their armies to the planet far earlier than the Rulers would expect.

I let him know that the Monarchs plan on using the magical energy to turn Earth into a trap for the Rulers, so that they would destroy the armies of the Rulers that are being sent to aid humanity in a single assault.

"This is all pretty crazy important stuff, but what does it have to do with me?" He asks, clearly shaken up by the fact that Earth was dated to become a battleground where humanity was going to be written off as collateral damage.

"Your system isn't something that just came to you by luck. You were chosen." I tell him as I get to the climax of the history behind the state of the world today. "By whom?" He asks. "You were chosen by none other than Ashborne himself." I could very well tell that he had a myriad of questions to ask, but the most obvious one was simply, "Why?"

"You see, unlike the other Monarchs, Ashborne and the Monarch of Destruction, Antares, are far too powerful for a regular vessel to hold their powers. So they need to go through a rigorous and thorough selection process to choose a vessel." That made him say something that I expected. "If that's the case, then why'd he pick an E Rank like me? He could very well have chosen an S Rank hunter instead."

"He very well could have, but you'll soon understand why." I tell him while motioning for him to calm down. "You see, Ashborne was approached by a particularly powerful mage with a proposal. They would find a suitable human to be his vessel, if they were granted an immortal body."

"That mage's name was Kandiaru." He thinks about what I've said for a few seconds before his eyes widen in realization. He then opens up his status panel and looks for the skill/boon that he got as a reward for the Courage of the Weak quest.

"Kandiaru. He's the one that gave me this blessing." He says, referring to Kandiaru's Blessing that gave him a high regenerative factor, status immunity and increased his lifespan. "Kandiaru is of a hermaphroditic race, if that's of any importance." I tell him, causing him to look at me with a raised brow.

"Anyways, getting back to why Ashborne chose you. Ashborne had given them an immortal body like he asked, and so Kandiaru searched all around the earth, looking for a human that would be strong enough to become Ashborne's vessel. Meanwhile, Ashborne was looking for someone suitable to wield his power." I say, insinuating that they weren't looking for the same thing.

"What does that mean exactly?" He asks with his arms folded. "While Kandiaru was looking for a strong human, Ashborne was looking for a human with the aura of death close to them. In that search, he found you. An E Rank hunter that would always escape death by the skin of his teeth, yet would always return to hunt down monsters. Not to mention, there's also your own behavior and character that he most likely relates with." Hearing this made him silently contemplate his history as a hunter, prior to gaining the system.

"If that's the case, then why is it that the system only makes and pushes me to become stronger? Since I'm the most suitable according to Ashborne himself, why hasn't he just taken over my body like the other Monarchs?" He asks, genuinely curious

"For one, while you are suitable, you aren't strong enough yet. Secondly, I don't think that Ashborne is going to take over your body. It seems more likely that Ashborne is going to transfer his powers to you, making you his successor." He still had one question. "Why?" I tell him that only Ashborne would know why.

"So what now?" He asks as he reclines into the chair. "Now, you can choose to accept or reject my offer to train you." I say, removing the concealment I had placed on myself and Shiro to hide our presence from Ashborne and Kandiaru. "So, what do you say?" I put my hand out for a handshake.

Sung Jin-Woo POV

Hearing Dante say that he would train me, I was skeptical of him, despite the revelations that he had given. I was prepared to reject his offer until I saw the cascade of system windows showing a quest for the ages.

|A Quest Has Been Issued|

|Training Quest: An Outsider's Aid|

|An Outsider has offered his hand to help strengthen you. The 'Player' is advised to accept his offer. No Penalty will be issued if the 'Player' rejects the quest.|

|Reward if completed: Bonus Stats +500, Unknown number of skills, Recipe: Panacea, Recipe: Elixir, 5 Panacea, 10 Elixir, 100 Million Gold.|

|Accept/Reject|

I couldn't believe my eyes. The fact that this had no penalty whatsoever was already good enough, but the rewards were just too good to pass up. The bonus stats alone would shoot all my stats past 100, then there's the Panacea and Elixir, which if they're as their names suggest, could possibly cure Mom from the Eternal Slumber that she's currently under. The Gold and skills were secondary to me.

I gulp down a globule of saliva and let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding and consider my options. The fact that these rewards showed up in the system means that Dante is fully capable of providing them himself, and seeing how multiple of them showed up, it's safe to say that he could make these things quite easily.

There's also the fact that whatever training he's going to give me would be rigorous enough that it could provide such an improvement to my power. And lastly, there's the possible skills that I could get while training with him. And then there's me rejecting the offer and regretting it for the rest of my life. The better option of the two was quite clear. Although, I do wonder why he was called an outsider.

Shaking his hand, I accept his offer and he nods in satisfaction. "Well, we're going to see how strong you are first, then I'll plan out a training course for you and set you to it." He says as he stands up and walks off behind me, where I see his girlfriend, Shiraori, if I remember correctly.

"So, how'd revealing the truth of his world go?" She says with a calm voice. "It went great. Giving him some incentive to accept the training offer also helped." I knew it. It wasn't the system that would give me the rewards but him, except maybe the Gold.

Dante POV

Bringing Sung Jin-Woo to the training ground that Shiro was using earlier, I create multiple energy constructs of monsters within E to B Rank in comprehensive power and tell him to fight them. He pulls out Kasaka's Poison Fang from his inventory and begins going to town on the monsters, easily ripping through everything from E to C Rank, but the B Rank monsters gave him some pause as they lasted longer and used slightly more intelligent tactics than simply throwing themselves at him to kill him, taking his HP down by about a tenth, as he was still able to avoid most of their attacks.

But before he destroy them, I create 7 C and 3 B Rank boss monsters to trip him up, and they're able to get a few hits in, taking his HP down by about two-fifths, before he begins destroying those constructs too. The fight went on for about another hour before he destroyed the last one, with his HP teetering on the last 5% and his fatigue up to the max.

Using the Rejuvenate spell on him, I restore his HP and MP to 100% and clear his fatigue, which must have shocked him as he just felt himself gain all the energy he expended back almost instantaneously.

"I've seen what I'm working with, so I know what to start with. Go upstairs and get some shut eye. We'll start when you wake up." My words must have confused him, because he asked why I spoke like he'd be staying here. "Because you are. This entire place is a pocket dimension that has the flow of time in it being heavily dilated, so time moves a lot faster in here than outside. So, if you stay here, we can finish your training a lot faster than we would outside." I say, leaving him with a dropped jaw.

"From what I've seen, you mainly need better mastery of combat with and without weapons, a skill to help you move faster for sustainable periods of time and another to improve your defense and processing capabilities." He looks at me, shocked that I had gotten down the exact shortcomings in his combat style from a single battle.

I altered the time dilation in this pocket dimension so that a year would pass in it, while only 2 hours would pass outside it, giving me ample time to train Jin-Woo. It's also enough time for my clone that I had sent out earlier today to get ahold of the information of all the Monarchs' current conditions and forces.

(A/N: Quick training montage, cuz I'm too lazy to write the entire thing.)

For the first month of the year, I trained him purely in weapon combat. Bladed weapons, blunt weapons, mid-range weapons, long-range weapons, gauntlets, greaves, all the weapons. After that, I went on to unarmed combat, which lasted for about half a month, with him reaching a level of mastery where he could face an S Rank hunter equally for over 30 minutes. Of course, both his weapon and unarmed combat mastery skills had reached the maximum level the system would allow.

During that training, I had beaten him so regularly that his Tenacity skill had reached the maximum level as well, same with his Sprint that grew to become Quicksilver. I also taught him Shūndō and Anpō to help him with stealthy movements and sustained high-speed movement, which lasted another half month.

The next 10 months however, were spent helping him develop and max out the Thought Acceleration and Parallel Processing skills. After that, I made sure he would master their usage in fast paced combat while also making sure he understood how it was to truly be on the brink of death every single day. During that time, I felt pure death energy emanate from him in small, nigh imperceptible bursts.

For his defense, I taught him the Mana Armor skill that was enhanced beyond normalcy. This one coated the entirety of the user's interior and exterior with a dense, compact and malleable shield of mana, giving them multiple layers of protection, all at the low cost of 5MP/min at max level. I also taught him how to control his own mana internally, and used that to help him perform permanent Mana Infusion.

On the last day, I made him spar with one of Aurora's most proficient combat bots, the Astartes, as the last bit of training, with its comprehensive combat capabilities being at the level of a National Rank Hunter, or one of the vessels of the Rulers. The duel lasted for about 2 hours, but ended with the Astarte's close victory. This puts Jin-Woo at the same level as an average S Rank hunter comprehensively, despite his stats putting him at B Rank.

Of course, in this time, he had done the hidden quest attached to his daily quest and gotten the key to the Demon Castle. I had analyzed the key and created a copy that I would use when I replicated Ashborne's authority as the Shadow Monarch.

As he left, Shiro and I headed to the Hunter Association Administrative building to meet someone, the Chairman and the most respected hunter in Korea, Go Gun-Hee. Instead of walking through the door and facing the delays of the staff, we simply teleport to his office, startling him a bit.

"Who are..." He begins, before looking at our faces for a bit and calming down. "You are the new S Rank hunters, Dante and Shiraori. May I know why you have barged into my office on this day?" He says after regaining his composure. "Nothing much. We're just here to offer you something no one else can give you presently." I tell him and bring out a Panacea and an Elixir in their respective containers made from nanobots. "So, let's talk."

Chapter End.

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I want to thank everyone who's taken out time to read my work. This was something I had just started for fun, but you guys were the ones that kept me coming back to continue. Thank you all, and 🎊🎊 Happy New Year 🎊🎊.