When they appeared, the world changed. Entire continents were ravaged and destroyed, leaving nothing but wastelands and remnants of what used to live there.
Towers seemingly appeared from thin air in all regions of the world. Strange rifts of different colors and shapes also materialized. They were called Dungeon Gates. From the Towers and Dungeon Gates, Monsters that resembled those from myths and stories flooded out. They ravaged and destroyed everything, killing a huge fraction of the world's population in a couple days. This event was called the Shatter by survivors because the sound of glass breaking could be heard when the Monsters appeared.
Those who survived the initial flood of Monsters, banded together. They were given strange abilities that helped them survive. Their abilities differed, but they each had a single thing in common. They were able to see something called a Status Window.
The Status Window was something that showed a person's Stats and Skills. The entire system of the Status Window, Stats, and Skills was nicknamed the SS System. This system gave people the power to fight back against Monsters.
Eventually, humanity was able to stabilize with the help of the SS System, however, many history records and documents were lost, and since there were continents that died completely, the world was left in a strange state.
While in that strange state, many people who were Awakened, or had the power of the SS System, turned to crime. They became known as Villains. Those who fought against the Villains became known as Heroes. While that was happening, the occupations of Hunter and Mercenary became established. Mercenaries were hired to do all kinds of jobs, from hunting Monsters, to subjugating Villains, to assassinations. Hunters were people who went into Towers and Dungeons to hunt Monsters. It was also their job to subjugate any Monster that was sighted outside of a Dungeon.
There were also Independent Hunters and Independent Mercenaries. They were people who did their jobs unbound by any guild or organizations, while all Heroes were obligated to be a part of a group.
Eventually, the population of the world slowly grew and the ratio of people who were Awakened changed. As more people were born, there were more people who weren't Awakened. That made people who were Awakened somewhat valued. Being a Hero became the dream job of many people.
People also began to start doing expeditions overseas where civilization had died, however, they had a hard time since there were way too many Monsters.
All of this is stuff that is taught in school starting from a young age. It was necessary to know this in this world where so much of society was centered around the topic of Towers, Dungeons, Monsters, Heroes, and Hunters.
It was absolutely necessary when the world could change from a single item taken out of a Dungeon. There were so many artifacts or resources that could be used to change the world. For example, the magic stones that were obtained from killing Monsters and from Towers and Dungeons were being used to power things that previously used electricity.
Heroes became celebrities. Villains became known as the scum of the earth. Hunters, who were mostly made up of relatively normal people, were just seen as unusual. After all, who would want to risk their life going into an unknown and dangerous territory when they might not even get paid well. Though, the higher ranked Hunters were greatly admired. Finally, Mercenaries were seen as people who did dirty work.
The world was greatly altered by the Towers and Dungeons, however it is also still similar to how it was before in many aspects. Anyway, students, now, it's time to have a discussion about what you just learned-
My eyes snapped open. I sat up, touching my temple.
"Did I just have a dream of when I was in high school?" I wondered aloud, "Why am I dreaming of school lectures from over 4 years ago?"
I sighed, glancing at the clock on my nightstand. It was 6:03 in the morning. I had to get to work in two hours. I got out of bed, yawning, and made my way out of my bedroom and to the bathroom. There, I took a quick shower. When I got out, I took a glance at my body and face in the mirror.
My skin was pale and traces of old wounds were visible on my body. My purple eyes looked tired and my brown hair was starting to get long. In short, I looked unpresentable despite having just taken a shower. Not only that, but my face also looked pretty average. I just sighed and wiped myself down with a towel before putting on a flexible pair of pants and a hoodie as well as a belt.
Then, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast for myself, my sister, and my dad. I got leftovers from last night's dinner out of the fridge and put it on the stove. It looked simple, but after years of cooking for myself and my family, I got good at making simple things like this taste better.
Once I finished, I smiled at my work. Then, I put the food on the dining table, grabbing a bowl of food to bring to my dad. I went to the door of my sister's room, knocking on it.
"Marie!" I shouted, "It's time to get up! Food's on the table!"
The moment I heard a groan of acknowledgement from behind the door, I went to Dad's room. After gently knocking on the door, I entered quietly. Sitting up in his bed, my father looked out the window.
"Good morning, Dad," I said with a small smile.
As always, he was unresponsive. He just continued to stare out the window, as if there was something that he was looking for. My smile became sad.
I silently sat on a chair beside Dad's bed. I held up a spoonful of food to my dad's mouth. When he didn't move at all, I gently used the spoon to open his mouth and put the food inside. Once it was in his mouth, he chewed slowly. I don't know how long it took, but my sister says that it usually takes a while to feed our dad.
Once he was done eating, I sighed, looking around the room. There were photos of Dad and his old friends when he was younger as well as some photos of us as a family. Eventually, my eyes landed on a framed picture of my dad, Marie, me, and my mom that was on his nightstand. The photo was taken a long time ago, when Marie was still a toddler. Beside the picture was my dad's wedding ring.
My lips curved into a frown. I only have a few memories together with my mom. She was always away for work, but I never knew what her job was. Then, one day, she just left without saying anything. She left right after the incident with my dad.
My frown deepened at the thoughts. Dad used to be a Hero. 4 years ago, when I was 16 years old, he got into an incident with a Villain. It caused him to lose his abilities as an Awakened. Right after that, Mom left. Then, as if losing his wife and career wasn't enough, my dad fell into a strange vegetable-like state as a side effect of losing his Awakened status.
With Mom gone and Dad in his bad state, it was up to me to take care of Marie and myself. At the time, Marie was 12, so there wasn't anything she could do. I, on the other hand, decided to take on a bunch of part-time jobs. My school life was horrible during that time. I lost my friends since I was too busy to hang out with them and my grades collapsed. I was too tired from working to pay attention at school.
After a lot of thought, I dropped out of high school. I took on more part-time jobs, learning how to cook and take care of the house and Dad. There were also times that I needed to help Marie with school stuff. It was for a couple months that I worked nonstop. Then, everything changed.
One day, I became an Awakened. I was still 16 years old at the time, almost 17. I was young, but after doing a lot of research, I found out that the pay for Awakened people was much higher than other jobs. I kept it a secret from Marie for a while, and became an Independent Hunter, using some money I saved up for a basic sword and some protective gear.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I realized that it was almost time for me to leave for work. After saying bye to Dad, I quickly walked out of the room and back into the kitchen, where I put away the bowl.
At the dining table, Marie was sitting there, eating her breakfast. Her brown hair and school uniform were both disheveled and messy. She looked at me with her purple eyes.
"Morning, Bro," she waved at me with her spoon, "You going to a Dungeon Gate today?"
"Yeah," I said, grabbing a bowl of breakfast and quickly shoveling it into my mouth, "Make sure to fix your look before you leave for school."
"Geez, why do you care?" she grumbled, "Anyway, when are you going to quit being a Hunter?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, rinsing my bowl.
"You know what I mean," she responded, staring into her bowl, "You haven't gotten stronger at all since you started. Also, you come home late every night and the dark circles under your eyes have gotten worse."
"I'm fine," I said plainly, grabbing my sword and fastening it to my belt, "You don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself. Just worry about your own stuff."
"...," she stayed silent for a moment, looking like she wanted to say something, but she never did.
I ignored it, going to the front door.
"I'm going, Marie!" I called out to her, "Don't forget to say bye to Dad on your way out!"
"Yeah," she nodded.
Then, I left the apartment, locking the door behind me.
After the Shatter, many countries and cities were given letters, colors, or random words as codenames. It made it easier for the survivors who fought against the Monsters to remember the names of different places and made communication easier. After a while, the names just stuck and people got used to them. I doubt anyone remembers the old names anyway. My apartment was located in City C, one of the cities that was renamed after a letter.
As I walked down the sidewalk, a couple people greeted me. There were students on their way to school, joggers, and even some Heroes.
"Hey Marrin!" someone called out to me.
I sighed, turning around, "My name's Marin, so say it right."
Standing there with a wide grin on his face, was a handsome man with tanned skin and blond hair who was only a little older than me. He had a suit of silver-colored armor on as well as a matching broadsword at his waist. There was a playful look in his eyes.
"You're off to work?" he asked.
"Yup," I responded, popping the P.
This man's name is Uma. He's a Hero and he always patrols around this area. The two of us have become good friends after running into each other everyday in the morning when I go to work. We even occasionally go out for some drinks after we both finish working.
"Be careful out there," he said, a genuine expression of concern on his face.
"You don't have to worry about me, Uma," I said confidently, "I've been doing this for 4 years. Besides, it's only a Green Level Dungeon, the kind that I've done hundreds of times. I may be an E-Rank Hunter with bad equipment, but I know my way around Dungeons."
"Still though…," Uma said, placing a hand on my shoulder, "This is a Dungeon we're talking about. Anything can happen in there. Haven't you heard about the cases where Dungeon Measurers mess up and misjudge the level of a Dungeon?"
"I've heard of them," I nodded, "Those barely happen though. Even if the Dungeon Measurer messes up, the difference in the Dungeon difficulty can't be that different. The worst case scenario is that the Green Dungeon becomes a Blue Dungeon, and it's not like I haven't been in a Blue Dungeon before."
"...Alright, just don't get too hurt," Uma sighed, patting my shoulder, "Remember, you promised me that we'd go drinking this Saturday."
"Of course," I nodded, "There's no way I'd miss free drinks. Not only that, but I get to hang out with you as a bonus."
"Shut up, Marrin," Uma gave a fake look of pain, "You know I only pay for you because of your situation."
"Yeah, thanks man," I said with a genuine smile.
After that, he patted me on the shoulder once more before we parted ways. As I walked towards the train station, a smile lingered on my face. Uma was my best friend, the only one that I've had since high school. Without him, I'd probably be a lot more depressed. Having someone around that you can drink with and vent to really helps.
At the train station, I boarded a train powered by magic stones that was headed towards City D, the city that was closest to City C. I sat on the train, wondering what I should prepare for dinner after work, not knowing that today wouldn't be as normal as I thought it'd be.