System of Power and Rankings
Lying motionless in his blacked-out apartment was Eun Sung, his cell phone screen lighting his pale complexion in an ethereal glow that danced across his fissured walls. His humiliation was now viral in an instant online, his name now employed in jokes by strangers who had not yet met him.
In spite of turning his mobile off, he was yet to hear their voices.
How is he alive now?
This is the weakest awakener in Korea.
Any E-rank kid should have been able to fight back better.
His stomach was in knots as his fists tightened. Naksu's beating was already receding in his memory to be supplanted by something infinitely uglier—this stifling sensation of powerlessness.
For as long as he can recollect, rising power ruled everything in life.
And he was given the most unlucky fate.
The Awakener System
The Awakener System was first revealed ten years before this, upon opening the Portals to the planet worldwide. Gates had materialized around the planet suddenly, unleashing monsters, beasts, and creatures beyond mortal imagination upon modern society.
Humanity used military power and technology to fight back, yet no firearm was powerful enough to match the power of a mystic-grade monster.
The first Awakeners appeared next.
Ordinary individuals suddenly developed the power to manipulate elemental forces to fight against the intruders. They formed the world's new heroes, ranked and categorized by potential.
This was when the Awakener Ranking System was created.
The Awakener Ranks
Each awakener was judged by two most significant factors:
Awakening Percentage – Percentage value representing an awakener's elemental affinity and magical capacity.
Skill Awakening – How many and which skills get awakened in each type: Singular, Dual, and Multi-Awakeners
The ranks were thus divided:
F-Rank (0-10%) – lowest rank, barely better than ordinary humans. Numerous F-ranks weren't even in a position to have proper elemental abilities.
E-Rank (11-30%) – Low rank awakeners with minimal element controlling capabilities. Many enrolled in secondary guilds or helped in cleanup in dungeons.
Rank-D (31-50%) – Common awakens with below-average fighting strength. All these have been summoned by rank-D guilds.
Rank C (51-70%) – Strong awakens who can join top guilds and participate in top-tier raids.
B-Rank (71-85%) – Extremely advanced fighting professionals who can lead an entire guild division
A-Rank (86-94%) – Extremely powerful awakeners who ruled over battlefield domains. Military-grade threats.
S-Rank (95-98%) – The top rank, with unparalleled elemental strength. They were nation-defending heroes who inspired fear and respect globally.
SS-Rank (99%) – Near-godlike individuals who can cause mass destruction and have continental-scale power. Only in tens in number.
SSS-Rank (100%) – Perfection in every way. Only one man in the entirety of history has achieved this: Thor, King of Lightning.
It was in control of everything—status, money, survival, power
And Eun Sung
He was at his lowest ebb.
Rank: Eun Sung: The Bottom
Eun Sung slowly got up from his bed, his bruises across his torso aching in discomfort. He picked his worn-looking Awakener ID Card by his bedside, flipping it over in his hand.
The card taunted him with its number.
Name: Eun Sung
Rank: F
Percentage Awakening: 2%
Elemental Affinity: Shadow
Skill Category: One-shot Awakening
Skill: Sacrific
A 2% awakening percentage—the lowest recorded in history.
The vast majority of F-ranks had between 5-10%, while 2% was in reality non-existent. It meant he had close to nothing in terms of mana capacity, potential, or controlling his element in the slightest.
And his only power
Sacr
The passive ability to transfer someone standing by his side to die to someone in range.
A talent that served him not to save him.
It was a completely unnecessary combat skill.
A talent that turned him into nothing short of an expendable pawn.
It was Eun Sung who had asked an Awakener Guild if they required his power. Their reaction was immediate and harsh.
It is only suitable to be employed in shields used by humans.
You're better off to market yourself to top-ranked teams as an expendable player.
The only purpose you're fit for is to die in someone else's stead.
Gritting his teeth, Eun Sung threw his ID card to the floor. It slammed against the wall with a dull thump before bouncing down to the grimy floor.
It was his reality
He was not gifted.
He was not gifted.
He had nothing.
Elemental Alignment & Why Eun Sung Was Doomed
Each awakener was bound to one of seven core elements in order of strength to weakness:
Lightning – most powerful and elusive, with unparalleled speed and destructive potential.
Fire – Second only to this in offensiveness with devastating destructive potential.
Light – most versatile to offer both combat and curing power.
Wind – All-rounded in offense and agility with strengths in agility-style combat. Earth – Excellent defense and durability, perfect for withstanding hits and area denial.
Water – Adaptable yet fluid in full command over offense, mobility, and curing
Shadow – Weakest among these three factors, behind both offense and defense.
The Shadow abilities came in short supply, not because they were powerful—because they were regarded as pointless.
Compared to the other aspects, Shadow was devoid of raw destructive potential. It neither had direct attacks, powerful defense capabilities, nor mastery over an element.
And Eun Sung received the brunt of this.
A passive skill that activated only when someone near him died.
A gift he couldn't master himself.
Most awakeners unlocked new skills as they leveled up.
But Eun Sung
Despite attempting this over years, he had not yet accessed anything beyond Sacrifice.
He was stranded.
Rank forever.
The Reality of an F-Rank Awakener
His hand went to his brow, his fingernails digging into his skin.
Though he had known this for years, each time he thought about this, it was painful to him.
For nothing seemed to go his way no matter how hard he tried
He was not to escape his fate.
F-ranks like him weren't thought to be true awakeners.
Nobody needed them in guilds. No guild needed them. No future awaited them.
The Government of Awakener was not ranking proper dungeons to an F-grade—those weren't powerful enough to have value.
The only choices available to someone like him were:
Domestic work (such as working in a coffeehouse).
Human wall to guard greater awakens
Alone to die, forgotten, valueless.
What was most painful about it?
Nothing was to be done about this by him.
No secret method
No unrealized potential.
No second chances It was just this way the world was. The powerful persevered. The vulnerable persevered. And Eun Sung was the most vulnerable among them.
He gradually rested his back against the wall while he watched the ceiling. His life was an extended series of loss. But something he was not aware That everything was about to change.
Fin of Chapter 3