The room was quiet, wrapped in the stillness that only came before dawn. The faint ticking of the wall clock echoed against the walls, steady and slow, marking the passage of time in the otherwise silent house. 4:00 AM. The world outside was still asleep, and inside the room, only one person remained awake.
Akane lay motionless on the bed, deeply asleep. Her breathing was slow and steady, chest rising and falling in a calm rhythm. The exhaustion from the long night had completely claimed her, leaving her body relaxed and unresponsive to the outside world. A few loose strands of her hair rested across her cheek, and even when Kaito moved nearby, she didn't stir in the slightest.
Kaito stood beside the bed for a moment, quietly observing her. His sharp eyes lingered on her sleeping figure, confirming what he already suspected—she wouldn't wake up anytime soon.
"Out cold…" he murmured under his breath.
Good.
That made things easier.
Without wasting time, he turned and headed toward the bathroom. The door closed softly behind him, and moments later, the sound of running water filled the silence. Warm water streamed down from the shower, washing over his body as steam slowly gathered around the room, blurring the reflection on the mirror.
Kaito stood beneath the flow, letting the heat relax his muscles while his thoughts remained sharp and focused. A lot had changed in just a few hours. The system had responded. The quest had been completed. His level had increased, his body strengthened, and most importantly—he now possessed something that would push him into an entirely new world.
A dungeon key.
Even now, the memory of the glowing notification lingered in his mind.
And yet—
He still hadn't chosen a role.
Not because he was hesitant, but because he understood the weight of that decision. A role wasn't just a skill path—it was the foundation of everything that would come after. Once chosen, it would shape his future battles, his strength, and the kind of hunter he would become.
"…Not yet," he muttered quietly, letting the water run over his face. "I'll choose after I see what I'm dealing with."
After finishing his shower, he turned off the water and stepped out, drying himself quickly but quietly. The last thing he wanted was unnecessary noise. When he returned to the bedroom, Akane was still asleep in the exact same position, her breathing unchanged.
Not even a twitch.
Perfect.
Kaito moved toward his bag and unzipped it carefully, pulling out his uniform.
Kaito slipped into his school uniform. He adjusted his collar, smoothing out a faint crease before fastening the final button. His movements were calm, precise—almost mechanical in their neatness. From the outside, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary student preparing for another school day.
But inside—
He was anything but ordinary now.
His body felt different. Stronger. Sharper. More responsive than before. Every movement carried a subtle sense of control, as if his muscles were working in perfect coordination with his mind. Even his breathing felt steadier, deeper, more efficient.
Kaito glanced toward the bed again.
Akane remained asleep, completely unaware of what he was about to do.
"…Good," he said softly.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the small metallic object.
The Dungeon Key.
It rested cold against his palm, heavier than its size suggested. The moment it touched the open air, a faint blue glow shimmered along its surface, like energy trying to escape from within.
A quiet excitement that stirred deep inside his chest. His grip around the key tightened slightly as he focused his thoughts.
"System…" he said under his breath. "Use Dungeon Key."
Ding.
A faint blue light flickered into existence before his eyes, forming a translucent screen that only he could see. The air in front of him began to ripple slightly, as if reality itself was being disturbed by an unseen force.
Slowly—
Very slowly—
A circular distortion began forming in midair.
The space twisted inward, bending unnaturally, until a dark, swirling portal started to take shape right in the middle of the room.
Kaito watched it without moving, his expression calm but focused. The faint hum coming from the forming portal filled the room, mixing with the steady ticking of the clock behind him.
Kaito's hand stopped just inches away from the swirling portal. The dark vortex pulsed slowly in front of him, releasing faint ripples that made the air feel colder than before. Even without stepping inside, he could feel the pressure coming from within. It wasn't exactly fear that stopped him, but caution. A sudden thought crossed his mind—something important he had almost ignored in his excitement.
His brows furrowed slightly as he stared at the portal.
"System… are dungeons like this actually safe for me to enter?" he asked quietly, his voice steady but cautious. After a brief pause, another concern surfaced in his mind, making his expression tighten slightly. "And what if the government finds out? Don't people have to register as awakeners or join guilds before entering dungeons? What happens if someone discovers I entered one without permission?"
For a moment, nothing happened. The portal continued swirling silently, as if ignoring his worries.
Then—
Ding.
A blue panel appeared before his eyes, its glow reflecting faintly in his pupils.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SYSTEM RESPONSE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Notice:
User possesses a System-Generated Dungeon Key.
System-generated dungeons exist outside government-monitored dungeon networks.
Detection Risk: None
Government or guild organizations cannot detect entry into System-created dungeons.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kaito read the message carefully, his eyes narrowing slightly as he processed the information. So this dungeon wasn't part of the public network at all. It existed separately, hidden from the systems that tracked awakeners and guild activities. That explained why the key had appeared directly as a reward instead of something he could find in the outside world.
Another line appeared beneath the previous one.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Additional Information:
System-generated dungeons are created exclusively for user training and growth.
Dungeon Type: Private Practice Instance
Access Permission: User Only
External Detection: Disabled
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kaito let out a slow breath as tension eased from his shoulders. That was reassuring, but he still remained cautious. Just because it was hidden didn't mean it was harmless. Dungeons were still dangerous places, regardless of who created them.
The panel updated again, new information forming line by line.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Safety Protocol Enabled:
Initial dungeons assigned to the user will be Low-Tier Practice Dungeons.
Monster Threat Level: Low
Expected Monster Types:
• Goblins
• Slimes
• Low-Rank Wild Creatures
Purpose:
Provide early combat experience and controlled growth.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kaito read through the details once more, absorbing every word. Low-tier monsters… goblins, slimes, and weak creatures meant for beginners. That didn't make the dungeon harmless, but it did mean he wouldn't be thrown into something impossible right away. The system was guiding his growth step by step, starting from the bottom.
A final recommendation appeared at the bottom of the panel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Recommendation:
User is advised to equip at least one weapon before entering the dungeon.
Unarmed entry into combat zones is not recommended.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kaito exhaled quietly, a faint smirk forming on his lips.
"Yeah… I figured as much."
Going inside without a weapon would be reckless, even against weak monsters. Strength alone wouldn't be enough—not yet. He needed something reliable, something that could give him distance and control in a fight.
The swirling darkness in front of him pulsed faintly, releasing a low humming sound that made the air feel heavier. Going in empty-handed without a weapon would be stupid and reckless, even against weak monsters. Strength alone wouldn't be enough
"System… Open Weapon Shop."
Ding.
The translucent blue interface appeared instantly before his eyes, floating quietly in the air.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WEAPONS SHOP
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Starter Tier Weapons Available:
• Iron Dagger — 300 SP
A basic close-range weapon. Lightweight and fast. Suitable for beginners.
• Short Sword — 800 SP
Balanced weapon with decent cutting power. Easy to handle.
• Steel Sword — 1,500 SP
A stronger blade with improved durability and attack strength.
• Iron Spear — 1,200 SP
Long-range melee weapon. Useful for keeping distance from enemies.
• Basic Longbow — 1,400 SP
Allows ranged attacks. Requires arrows.
• Arrow Bundle ×30 — 200 SP
• Heavy War Hammer — 2,500 SP
High damage weapon. Slow but powerful.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A second section slowly appeared below.
The text looked dimmer.
Locked.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Advanced Tier Weapons (Locked- Level 10)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Knight's Greatsword — 4,500 SP
Status: Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 10
• Reinforced Battle Spear — 5,200 SP
Status: Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 15
• Flame-Enchanted Sword — 7,800 SP
Status: Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 20
• Shadow Piercer Lance — 9,500 SP
Status: Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 30
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rare Tier Weapons — Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 50
[ Multiple Weapons — Hidden ]
Status: Locked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Epic Tier Weapons — Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 70
[ Multiple Weapons — Hidden ]
Status: Locked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Legendary Tier Weapons — Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 80
[ Multiple Weapons — Hidden ]
Status: Locked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mythic Tier Weapons — Locked
Unlock Requirement: Reach Level 100
[ Multiple Weapons — Hidden ]
Status: Locked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kaito studied the list carefullly.
"Purchase Iron Spear."
Ding.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PURCHASE COMPLETE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Iron Spear — Acquired
–1,200 SP
Remaining SP: 2,490
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A flash of light appeared beside him.
From thin air—
A weapon materialized.
A long Iron Spear dropped neatly into his hand, its shaft smooth and balanced. The metal tip gleamed faintly under the dim light of the room, sharp enough to pierce flesh with ease.
Kaito adjusted his grip instinctively.
It felt… natural.
Balanced.
Comfortable.
Not too heavy.
Not too light.
He gave it a slow test swing through the air.
Whoosh.
The sound alone told him enough.
This would work.
But he didn't stop there.
Protection mattered too.
His eyes shifted back to the menu.
"Open Armor Shop."
Ding.