The Lonely Hunter

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Crystal

Kal Nietes is a 16-year old hunter who lived alone after his only family member; his father died on a hunting expedition. He was left with not a single penny in his pocket and to pay with his daily needs, he started to earn money by registering as a hunter.

A dangerous job that consists of killing monsters for the cost of a life. There's a gem imbued with an energy substance called 'Mana' that can be used to craft weapons,  armors, and other items needed for hunters alike. Although, most of mankind's history had been completely wiped out that resulting in us returning to the stone age. Due to this magical essence, we had further advanced in our technological knowledge and unrealistic inventions that we perceive to be just science fiction has become real.

If a person absorbs mana, he'd receive superhuman strength and abilities that gave humanity a chance in defeating the monsters that may come as a threat to mankind. The people who have entered a state of awakening are called Hunters. Their main goal is to subjugate monsters and collect their mana crystal which can be used to further increase their strengths and prowess.

We have now developed space shuttles, wireframes,  flying cars, many futuristic inventions have come to life. Because of the abundance of new resources, many third-world countries have rapidly advanced and have now become second and first-worlds.

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Kal lived in the Philippines, a once third-world country that has fortunately advanced to become a second-world one due to an area of abundant minerals and monsters. He lives in the suburb parts of Mindanao, the 2nd largest island in the Philippines and also the lesser modern part of the country.

A place where monsters reside and inhabit is what we call a Sanctum. A sanctum is arranged into levels of difficulty, the stronger the species of monsters, the higher the difficulty. The difficulty can range from F, as the lowest of difficulty, and A as the highest difficulty, there is also an S-rank difficulty which is the most dangerous of sanctums but fortunately, finding an S-rank sanctum is like finding a needle in a haystack. If one manages to find an S-rank sanctum, the monsters that reside there can be counted to one hand meaning the Sanctum inhabits one to five high-ranking monsters.

 

In the rural parts of Zamboanga, there's an F-class sanctum called Mabundok Sanctum which also translates to 'A lot of mountains' because most of the sanctum's area is filled with mountain ranges.

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Just like any ordinary day, Kal changes himself up to start with a new hunt. He arrives at Mabundok Shelter where all the local hunters gather around. The shelter also serves as the entrance to the sanctum and even though a sanctum is a huge place and the shelter is just a small part of it, there is a barrier covering the entire sanctum that helps to avoid any of the monsters from leaving the place that could cause a ruckus in nearby towns and also avoid unregistered hunters and people who do illegal business transactions from sneaking into the sanctum.

Kal arrives in front of the entrance of the sanctum where he must verify his hunter license before entering the sanctum. When walking to the entrance, an AI is implanted in the sides of the gate where it automatically scans the hunter to check if his body is healthy and if his rank is illegible for entry.

A sound of a processing tone reverberated to the gates and as the system finishes scanning his hunter's license, the light above the gate will turn green meaning he is registered and the barrier blocking the entrance disappears.

"Hey dude, it's Kal-ibangon!" A hunter nearby laughed.

"Back at it again with his stinky ass." Another hunter said in a teasing manner.

The hunters began to laugh at Kal but Kal just let the teasing go from ear to ear and enter the sanctum.

"A**holes." Kal silently spoke in a serious tone. Kal-ibangonn or Kalibangon is a Bisaya word (one of the major languages spoken in Mindanao) used to call someone if they are in need to poop. That's why they tease him as Kal-ibangon because after leaving the sanctum,  he'd either be covered in monster blood that when left to dry up emits a horrible odor that would depict the smell of poo or get beaten up badly that he'd resemble a walking feces.

Not all monster blood smells bad, it's just that a certain species of a monster called SkunkSloth has very dirty green blood that when it dries up becomes as horribly smelly as human deposits. SkunkSloths can be found scattering around the sanctum and is one of the most common monsters inhabiting the place. They may sound like a mutation of a skunk and a sloth but they look like normal sloths except they do not live primarily on trees, they can move inland and they have a speed and agility of a cat. Their main weapons are their long and sharp claws that can slice open the flesh like they are holding a scalpel in every finger. The word skunk is just derived from their smelly blood that attracts nearby monsters when it's dried up.

'I'm done with SkunkSloths! I'm sick tired of people calling mesh*t!' Kal curse to himself as he walks towards the mountain valleys. Kal was getting annoyed with killing SkunkSloths every day so he decides to go deeper in the sanctum to find other monsters to hunt on. In an hour's walk, he always passes nearby SkunkSloths minding their business and some hunters hunting them, and every time a hunter sees him, they would call him out by his nickname but he'd just clench his fists and walk away from their sight.

After an hour of walking, he saw a steep mountain that had a thick dead tree sticking on the edges of the cliff. Using his scope he found that there was a bird's nest on the branches of the tree.

"If I'm not wrong, this might be a nest of an Iron Falcon, or if my luck is good, it might be a Furrow Eagle. If I can snatch myself with one or two eggs, that would be enough for me to pay my living expenses for 5 months!" Kal delightedly said to himself. Monster eggs were highly sought by hunters because once it hatches, you can grow them to become pets to help you in hunts or couriers to carry your stuff and resources.

Although some trucks and ships can carry your loads, the sanctum was mysteriously built where almost all technological crafts deem to not work. Even if you bring a Lazer gun or any technological weapons would just become a hunk of scrap metal inside the sanctum.

The only technological items that seem to work inside the sanctums are small items like GPS trackers, small cameras, and more. That's why monster couriers are very useful to hunters because they make the workload 3 times more efficient than doing without one.

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Since this sanctum was filled with mountain ranges, one must be a proficient mountain climber to survive this place and Kal had enough experience to climb the steep edges safely. In just a few minutes, he had reached the dead tree. He immediately climbs the tree's thick and sturdy bark and uses the branches as a foothold to climb up towards the nest.

Luckily, the mother bird has not yet arrived so it was the best time for Kal to sneak and steal the eggs. As soon as he arrived at the huge nest that was big as a jacuzzi pool, he found himself finding three eggs that were the size of an adult man's head. Not only was it a great find, but the egg was also coated in golden color.

"Golden Beak Hawk eggs!? And there are three of them! What a jackpot!" Kal gasped in excitement. Immediately he tried to grab one egg and inspect and as he looked at the shiny golden egg, but then a blinking light caught his eyes among the other two eggs.

"..?" With a confused expression, he checked the blinking light's source and to find out that it didn't come from the other two golden eggs but beneath the surface of one of the eggs was a shiny white crystal stone that had a foreign symbol in it.

"What's a gemstone doing here?" Kal said in confusion. He continued to inspect the gemstone. He couldn't quite tell what kind of monster was this gemstone from but looked unique to look at.

"Did the hawk get this from killing a monster?" He said to himself. Since he couldn't tell what monster it was from, he didn't know what the exact price of this gemstone if sold so he decide to pocket it and focus on the eggs on how he will retrieve it back down before the mama hawk arrives.

But before he could pocket it, the gemstone began to melt in his palms that slowly went inside the pores of his body.

"Enough! What the hell is this?" He said in disgust. He tried to waddle his hands to remove the liquid but it continued to stick in his palm. He tried to rub the liquid away on the bark of the tree but the liquid just held on to his palm like super glue.

As the liquid completely enter his bloodstream, his head was beginning to ache horribly like his brain was being punctured by long needles which gave him a heavy headache.

"Urgh! My head! It hurts!" He groaned in pain and he rolled in the nest. He continued to grumble in pain and when the pain had soothed a tiny bit, he heard a loud squawk from a distance.

"Kiyaaaaahhh!" The sharp shriek of the Golden Beak Hawk. The hawk was double the size of an adult man and when it saw a poacher inside its nest it began squawking in rage. The hawk was the size of two adult men and it had a wingspan of 5 meters which undoubtedly looked very intimidating as if every flap it would make would cover the entire skies.

"F*CK this sh*t I'm out!" Kal exclaimed as he hurried to grab one egg in his arms. Immediately, he climbed down on the branches of the tree. Because of the size of the egg, it prove to be a hard endeavor just climb hee the tree since he had to have a firm grip on his right hand when grabbing the branches while the other hand is tightly locked on holding the golden egg.

"Kiyaah! " The hawk immediately arrived at the nest and clawed down to the tree where Kal was trying climb down on. The tree began to shake violently with its continued rampage causing Kal to almost fell from it but he was quick enough to lock his legs on the thick log of the dead tree.

"Stop shaking the tree you dumb bird! You want both me and your baby to fall on the ground?" He said to the hawk. The bird didn't understand what Kal was saying but even if it did, it wouldn't listen and continue ravaging the branches of claw it's way to Kal.

"F*king bird brain!" He exclaimed. Kal went back to climbing down slowly in the tree but because of the continued shaking of the tree, his leg which was trying to get a firm foothold accidentally slip on the branch and fall down the tree.

"..!" In a quick rush of adrenaline, Kal manages to grab hold of his bayonet and stab deep into the bark of the tree.

Pang!

He was able to hold on tightly to the bayonet and force himself to go back up but because of the accumulated weight of the golden egg, he couldn't raise his body to go back up so he remained hanging on the tree.

"F*CK! My life costs more than this golden egg!" He gritted his teeth and decided to throw the egg away. But before he could throw the egg, the hawk had already reached his distance and swooped its massive talons to Kal's dreadful face.

"Sh*t." Kal knew he was gonna die so in a response to the incoming swoop, he let go of his bayonet and fall down the tree.

'I'd rather die in an instant than to feel the pain of death!' Kal said to himself gritting his teeth. The mountain edge was very tall and he was falling 400 meters off the ground but even still, he still grabbed hold of the Golden egg.

"If I'm gonna die, I'll die along with your child you bird b*tch!"

Kal exclaimed.

"Kiyaahh!" The hawk squawk in anger as it pursuit on Kal in mid-air but Kal manages to flip his body backward to make sure that the egg would fall first on the ground.

"Heh, you bi-" Before he could finish his last words, he had crashed himself on the hard ground. His body became a crumpled mess and his blood flowed along with the yolk of the Golden egg.

Ting!

A soft sound of a bell echoed in his head, as to where the sound had come from, he had no idea.

'I was expecting a holy trumpet to greet me from the afterlife but a soft bell is okay.' Kal said to himself. His consciousness was slowly drifting away but he manage to open his eyes once more. As his vision slowly became a blur,  what is seen in his naked eye made him believe how different the afterlife is.

[SYSTEM HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY GENERATED!]

[WELCOME, HUNTER KAL NIETES]

+129 EXP

YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP!

YOU HAVE OBTAINED: Golden Beak Knife (F+)

A floating window panel appeared from his sight. It resembled generic RPG games so Kal couldn't help but make a wry chuckle.

"Heh...so God's into gaming now?" He said chuckling to himself, he began to puke blood and his conscience had drifted away. He had died. Or maybe not?