Natsuya takes the elevator, clicks on the "1" button, and gets to The Upper Lobby, greeting the front desk.
Receptionist: "*Looking at Natsuya, inspired by his looks and face* Hello..! Welcome to The.. Corporation! How may I help you? I'm very-"
Natsuya: "Hey, how are you doing? One Question: Where are the E-Grade Realms located?"
Receptionist: "*Hiding her emotions, thinking* SO NONCHALANT! HE IS TOO UNBEARABLE!!!"
Natsuya: "You Okay?"
Receptionist: "Yeah, I'm Okay. So, where are you headed to again?"
Natsuya: "The E-Grade Realms. Do you have any idea where it is?"
Receptionist: "It's... in the hallway to the left, keep going straight until you take a right, and you will see those portals, but it takes some time to wait for them, since they are currently in high demand. If you want to take it more easily, go outside and find portals, use your Hunter System to check its grade, and keep searching until you find the desired grade."
Natsuya: "*Running Outside* Thanks! If it wasn't for you, I would've died! Have a great day!"
Receptionist: "You too!", she thinks to herself,
"*Blushing* Blue Jacket, black hair, blue eyes, and a pair of blue/white Nike Jordans... just my type! I should've talked more! Well, giving him that is better at least."
Natsuya walks on the streets, trying to find an E-Grade portal, until The Admin guided me to one, which was 112 Meters away.
The Admin: "The Nearest E-Grade Realm is in Eonju-Ro 75-Gil."
Natsuya runs to the street until he reaches Eonju-Ro 81-Gil. He saw the portal nearby and started walking.
Natsuya: "This is my life as a hunter... just my life."
When he reached the Portal, it was streaking a yellow aura, and it was an E-Grade realm. His confidence and determination came back after the temple incident, and locked in.
Natsuya: "The First Mission Starts. No Regrets, a Fresh Start."
He enters the portal, finding himself in a bright, blue, glowing, desolate labyrinth. Natsuya tried to stay bold and positive, as the winds almost frightened him. In his inventory is a boot knife, leather armor, and a bow and arrow. He walks in the labyrinth strongly, trying to act confident. Everything went fine until he was met up with a group of Four E-Grade Demons.
Hunter System: "Demon Horde. Level: 5."
The Demons looked red, with purple stripes over their body, horns on their head, and snarling with their sharp teeth. Natsuya notices their presence and halts, equips the Boot Knife, and gets into a stance of action. He grips the Knife tightly and dashes to the Demons. The Knife went through a Demon's arm, which gained Natsuya 12% Mana.
The Hunter System: "12% Mana. Infuse Your Mana with the Knife to increase attack potency."
Natsuya: "How do I do that?!!?!?!"
Natsuya gripped the knife more tightly, expecting to infuse his Mana with his knife. The mana infuses, Natsuya lunges with his Knife.
Natsuya: "I can take care of this effortlessly. Killing these four will be my limit!"
The mana disappears from the knife before Natsuya could slice the demons. He feels exhausted, causing him to slip and fall on the ground.
Natsuya: "O-o-ow. How did I fail?"
The Admin: "Requires Mana focus. 5% Mana. You infused the blades with no effort. Concentrate your energy on mana. 5% of energy was focused on mana. 95% was focused on the grip."
Natsuya: "*Deep Breaths, Standing Up* Maximum Effort."
He runs at the demons, slits the knife into one of them, punches the others rapidly, and then, grabbing the knife from the stabbed demon instantly, gains mana.
Hunter System: "25% Mana."
Natsuya: "If they're E-Grades, they are supposed to be easy to beat."
Natsuya infuses the blade with 25% Mana tightly and then holds both the energy and the knife tightly. He runs to the demons and stabs one critically. The attack killed the demon; only three remain.
Hunter System: "Level Up. Current Level: 1."
Natsuya: "*Thinking* My first level! Cool! This really is the process of leveling up!"
As Natsuya gets excited, he throws the knife at the demon charging to slaughter him, and it lands on his head.
Natsuya: "Headshot."
He rips the knife out of the demon's face before stabbing his throat. Only three demons remain.
Natsuya: "*Thinking Strategically* I need more mana... and precision. Punches can give me mana, I have to check how much depending on the roughness."
Natsuya throws the dagger high up in the air, 10 meters from the ground, and starts punching the demons. The demons tackled Natsuya, pinning him to the ground.
Natsuya: "*Struggling* Why did I think stupidly? Throwing the dagger high was not part of my plan."
He stayed down on the ground when the demons tried to bite off his face. The dagger looks like it was going to stab his face, it miraculously landed right next to his right shoulder, and he tries to use his left hand to grab it while getting strangled by the demons.
He tried to move his left arm out, and he gave in all the strength he could until dislocating his left shoulder.
Natsuya: "*Feeling Agonized* You faced more pain than this!"
His left arm got out from the demons' strong arms, and he grabbed the knife, throwing it to his right hand. His right hand tries to grapple the knife until getting hold and then reverse-gripping it.
He stabs the demon's arms from the right side of his body, giving them prolonged pain. They stayed vulnerable, which gave Natsuya the chance to escape. He curls his knees tightly to his chest, then kicks with both legs together, knocking back the demons until landing on Natsuya, and then prepares to stab the demons in their chests, killing them. Two demons died from the knife, and only one remains. He lunges at the last demon, hitting it with five punches rapidly using mana, and then infusing it with his knife to serve a fatal strike to the heart.
The Demon Horde has perished. All because of Natsuya's first hunting.
Hunter System: "Level Up. Current Level: 6. Health Fully Regenerated. Punch Barrage Mastery: 5. Next upgrade requires 15 more mastery."
Natsuya: "Punch Barrage? Did I suddenly master it because it corresponded to my five punches?"
Natsuya's dislocated arm had been fixed. That is when he realized he could fully regenerate upon leveling up.
Natsuya: "Let's go over to the maze!"
Natsuya ran around the labyrinth in a spiral pattern to find the center. He tries to find more demons to wipe out this realm. He grabs his knife when he sees demons.
He finds two of them, both level 12, and more experienced than he had fought the other ones. The demons were about the same size as him, and maces as weapons. It was hard for Natsuya to face both of the demons; he focused on disarming them to minimize moderate damage.
Natsuya bolts and attempts to slice off the demon's arm, but it blocks his attack with its mace. This caused him to jump out of place, making him off guard.
The other demon swings its mace violently at Natsuya's head; if he had been closer, he would have had his head crushed. It barely missed, and Natsuya tilted his head away from the swing, surviving.
Hunter System: "Precognition Mastery: 2. Next upgrade requires 8 more mastery."
Natsuya: "*Landing* My sixth sense kicked in! It's now a skill, accordingly to the Hunter System. And The Admin."
The Demons were so fast, dashing at breakneck speed. Natsuya tries to punch them with his fists, but they knew his next action.
Natsuya: "*Confused* How are they that fast? It's supernatural!"
The demons were circling Natsuya without noticing, until he saw them trying to fool him, leading to a brutal smash with their maces. He coughs up blood, then crashes into the walls.
Natsuya: "*Coughing, Struggling to stand up* I will clear this realm. If I don't, I will die, and I WON'T LIVE ANYMORE TO HELP THE PEOPLE!"
Hunter System: "Mana: 45%. Absorbing energy-focused mana caused the Mana exchange."
He grabs his boot knife, infusing his energy-focused mana into the knife to defend himself. From above, the demon appeared, trying to squash Natsuya with its mace. When a demon attempted to crush him, he grabbed the knife, blocking the attack.
The Admin, informing in The Hunter System: "New Skill Unlocked: Parry. The ability to block opponents' attacks to absorb the force and transfer it to them."
Natsuya: "I will beat you down to rubble."
He punches the demon, crushing its head before delivering a strong kick. The demon now looks disfigured, which frightened Natsuya and made him think of more strategies to take down the negative force.
Natsuya dashes at the demons, replicating their breakneck speed. He grabs the knife and aims for the disfigured demon's throat.
He dodges the mace's swings, infused his knife with the remaining mana, and successfully slit its throat before pulling it out and slicing its head from the neck when he infused the knife with mana.
Natsuya: "Die! Just like the pricks I killed!"
With the anger, Natsuya tries to defeat the last demon. In the previous fight, if he hadn't blocked the demon's attack in time and infused it with mana, the decapitation would not have been successful due to the attack's potency. His jabbing had turned into heavy strikes, making him stronger in combat.
Walking towards the demon, Natsuya goes into the state of precognition, the skill where everything slows down, and does anything for a specific amount of time. He mastered dodging an attack that would've killed him in the other fights, and he has two seconds before it ends.
He quickly dashes to the demon, rapidly striking it violently with the large attack potency, and finally kicking its torso with his right leg, and then the time runs out.
The demon gets beaten up by the afterimage, replicating it was struck by the punches, then is damaged, almost killing it. Natsuya runs up to the beaten-up demon and then crushes its skull, ultimately killing it, and leveling up.
Hunter System: "Level Up. Current Level: 12."
When Natsuya runs deeper into the center of the labyrinth, he finds a giant demon with a big club, which has chains on its chest, yellow stripes on its left arm, red skin, and two horns on its demonic face; the right horn is intact, while the left is broken.
Hunter System: "Boss: The Labyrinth's Denizen. D-Grade. Level 20. Bosses are the final entity of the realm; once defeated, the realm clears."
The Labyrinth Denizen swings its club towards Natsuya. He dashes forward, and the denizen misses. The cooldown for precognition takes some time, and the only ability he can perform is parrying. Despite the relatively long wait time, the denizen tries to crush Natsuya with its fist, but he blocks it with his arms, resulting in a parry.