A week passed after the werewolf fight.
Ji-hu worked the shop during the day. Trained with Yuna in the evenings. His body ached constantly but it was a good ache—the kind that meant he was growing.
One night, after practice, he checked his guild console.
It was a simple device, a wristband with a small screen that synced to the guild network. It showed his rank, his estimated XP, his registered skills. Every hunter had one. The National Hunter Association used them to track everything—missions, clears, growth.
Ji-hu stared at the screen.
His numbers didn't make sense.
---
Ji-hu: Yuna.
Yuna: Mm?
Ji-hu: Look at this.
She came over from where she'd been stretching. Took his wrist. Looked at the screen.
Yuna: That's your XP?
Ji-hu: According to this.
Yuna: You've only done two fights. The cave and the werewolves.
Ji-hu: I know.
Yuna: This number is twice what it should be.
She frowned. Pulled up her own console. Compared.
Yuna: When I did my first clear, I gained about this much. But I killed twice as many monsters as you did.
Ji-hu: So what does that mean?
Yuna: I don't know. Maybe the console is glitched.
Ji-hu: You think?
Yuna: No. Consoles don't glitch. They're synced to NHA servers. If there was a problem, they'd know.
She looked at him. Really looked.
Yuna: Something's different about you. I don't know what. But keep this quiet. Don't tell anyone.
Ji-hu: Not even Hana?
Yuna: Especially not Hana. If her guild finds out, they might take you for study. Figure out what makes you tick.
Ji-hu: That bad?
Yuna: That bad. Trust no one with this. Not yet.
He nodded. Started keeping his own records after that.
---
The NHA sent alerts through every hunter's console.
It was how they learned about Zones. The National Hunter Association had been formed by the government in the first year, a central body that tracked every Overlap Zone in the country. They categorized them by size:
· Area-level: A few blocks. A neighborhood. Small and manageable.
· Region-level: Several districts. A small town. Required multiple teams.
· City-level: A whole urban area. Needed guild cooperation.
· State-level: Massive. Required multiple guilds, sometimes military.
· Country-level: Unheard of so far. Hopefully never.
When a Zone appeared, the NHA sent out alerts to hunters in the vicinity. Your console would ping with coordinates, category, estimated threat level. Hunters who cleared it got credit. The NHA tracked everything.
Yuna showed Ji-hu how it worked.
Yuna: See this? Red dot means active Zone. Green means cleared. Grey means stabilized but not fully cleared.
Ji-hu: How do we know which ones to take?
Yuna: We take the ones near us. The small ones. Area-level. That's our level.
Ji-hu: And the bigger ones?
Yuna: Let the big guilds handle those. They have the ranks for it.
---
Over the next month, they responded to every Area-level alert near their district.
A goblin nest in an abandoned warehouse. Ji-hu used fire for the first time intentionally—a small burst that caught one of them by surprise. His strength surged when a bigger goblin charged him. He grabbed it and threw it into a wall.
A pack of giant rats in a sewer system. Dark and cramped. Yuna's telekinesis pushed them back while Ji-hu swung a reinforced pipe. Water answered him for the first time since the cave—a sudden spray that flooded a tunnel and drowned three of them.
A lone ogre that wandered too close to a residential street. Too big for them to handle alone. They called it in, and a B-rank team arrived within minutes. But they got credit for spotting it, for slowing it down. Small XP. But XP.
After every fight, Ji-hu checked his console.
The numbers kept climbing. Twice as fast as they should.
---
Yuna: You're using your elements better.
Ji-hu: It still comes and goes.
Yuna: But it comes more now. That's progress.
They were sitting in the dojo after a long day. Ji-hu's body was bruised and tired. Yuna looked worn too.
Yuna: How's your strength?
Ji-hu: Unpredictable. Sometimes I feel it. Sometimes I swing and nothing happens.
Yuna: That's normal for new awakened. You're still learning what triggers it.
Ji-hu: What triggers yours?
She was quiet for a moment.
Yuna: Remembering my son.
Ji-hu: I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.
Yuna: It's fine. It's true. When I think about him, about that day, something in me burns. That's when my telekinesis is strongest.
Ji-hu: So I need something like that.
Yuna: Everyone does. You just haven't found yours yet.
---
Another week passed. Another small Zone cleared. Another artifact added to their small collection.
Ji-hu's console showed him closing in on E-rank. Fast. Too fast.
He didn't tell anyone.
One night, he sat alone in the dojo and looked at his hands. Fire flickered at his fingertips. Water gathered in his palm. Strength hummed beneath his skin.
Three years of nothing. Now this.
He thought about the water. The car. The creature's blood on his hands.
Something happened in that minute. Something the guilds didn't know about. Something even he didn't understand.
But it was real.
And it was changing everything.
---
END CHAPTER 10