In the year 2020, the human race was normal, it was happy, it was weak. That was the year that monsters appeared to attack the planet for the first time. Over four billion people were erased from existence in the course of seven days. It took the entirety of Earth's nuclear arms stockpile to finally turn the course of the massacre it was facing. That event marked the beginning of what is known as the New Era.

In an effort to rebuild, all of humanity came together in what was once known as The United States of America. This area became a beacon of light and the hope for future generations of uninterrupted peace. Fast forward a decade, this marks the breakthrough discovery of an item hidden deep within a monster carcass, a monster core.

Scientists quickly discovered that all monsters had these cores and the race to collect them had begun. Very quickly the old ways of currency vanished as the amount of cores you collected would dictate your standard of living.

Things proceeded this way for another decade, the nation now known as New Camelot founded its first monster hunting task force to be prepared in case of another incident called the Kings Guard. They specialized in using modern weaponry to attack and defend from monster related attacks specifically.

The only problem with this plan however, was that without any monsters to practice with, the logistics of their training had yet to be determined.

Finally, in the year 2120, exactly one-hundred years from the first attack, the monsters attacked again.

The century long gap in activity had let humanity prepare fairly well. Bunkers were ready for the wealthy, and weapons were readied as the onslaught started. Only it wasn't enough to fight the monsters off completely as they weren't stopping like the last time. The portals that they came from weren't closing up, so it was quickly becoming a battle of attrition.

That was how things remained for awhile. The monsters would come out of the portals periodically and humans would fight them off. Until one day a traveling merchant arrived with an incredible discovery, the Ability Orb.

The Ability Orb, nobody really knew where it came from, but as the merchant demonstrated how to use it, the people became entranced at its unique effects. The orb would grant a unique ability to any human to lay their hands on it. At first it was for military and extremely wealthy use only, effectively creating the first generation of super-human Kings Guard.

This did not last though, as even with these new abilities, humans just kept dying at an alarming rate. That was when the Excalibur Academy was founded and situated in the heart of the capitol city of New Camelot. The new law dictated that every child fourteen years of age and older would be required to enroll in the academy and train to become monster hunters.

It was also at this point in time that one lucky boy in a small village heard from a shady looking merchant that there was a way to enhance abilities by absorbing monster cores and re-visiting the Ability Orb.

What the boy said was true as it was found that by pushing a monster core into ones chest, it would effectively boost the power output of an ability. But only if it followed a certain order. Due to the military not wanting to waste resources on the weak and undeserving, abilities were ranked by how practical they were in the field with the highest rank being SSS and the lowest being H.

While everybody had different ability rankings based on potential, every single person started with an ability at level one. The only way to upgrade a level one ability was to absorb a certain amount of monster cores from level one monsters. After that one had to re-visit the Ability orb and would then receive add-ons to their abilities.

With the advent of levels and rankings came that age old race to the top within the social and political world. After graduation, the top hunters were inducted into the Kings Guard while lesser but still quite capable hunters were sponsored by companies and became the face of new groups called guilds. While the guilds and the Kings Guard did not see eye to eye, in the end it still meant more bodies on the front lines.

And now, over four-hundred years later, mankind hasn't changed much at all and the monsters keep coming in through now military regulated portals aptly named 'Dungeons'.

Our journey through time finally settles in on a young man on his way to enroll into his first year at the world renowned Excalibur Academy.