Chapter 1: A Hunter That Doesn’t Have Skills

"It's my first time seeing a Worker class."

The day he managed to awaken, the Seoul branch of the Hunter Administration Center experienced an uproar.

The receptionist handed him the documents while tilting her head.

"There are thirty confirmed classes. And the Worker class isn’t among them."

The twenty-year-old man, Ji-ha Yu, quickly went through the documents.

There were many popular classes like Swordsman, Spellcaster, and Rogue, among others. But no Worker class.

"Then am I the first one to awaken as a Worker?"

"Yes. But what matters are your skills and traits. What did you receive?"

The glasses of the receptionist shone, but Ji-ha couldn't reply.

After all, he hadn't received any skills.

"I haven't received anything."

The receptionist was about to write something when her hand froze.

"You haven't received any skills? Not even a trait?"

"Yes."

"How strange. Usually, people receive one or two fighting skills when they awaken... After all, you have to be able to fight when you go inside a dungeon."

"You're right."

The receptionist told Ji-ha that he was an exception.

In the end, she wrote only basic information about him on the documents.

"What happens in cases like this?"

As Ji-ha asked her that question, her pen suddenly stopped, and she smiled awkwardly.

"To be honest, I'm not sure. You know my job, right? I register and manage the hunters that have awakened. I can also register normal people. I could introduce you to a company or a guild, but Mr. Yu, you don't have any skills. So I think it will be hard."

"Is that so."

For some reason, Ji-ha remained calm.

The receptionist thought that maybe he was in shock. So she quickly added, "Should I arrange a meeting with the manager just in case?"

She was suggesting that he should meet up with a Manager-rank civil servant.

But everyone knew that skill-less hunters were useless inside a dungeon.

"It's not necessary. Then, I don't need to pay taxes, right? Because I don't have any earnings."

"For the moment, yes. After all, you need to be able to earn money to pay the hunter tax..."

"Then it's okay. Don't worry."

Ji-ha became the first skill-less hunter.

Nobody knew how to react to the birth of a hunter who was just like a normal citizen.

"Shouldn't we clap? After all, based on his eyes, he did awaken."

"What's the point of clapping at the birth of a hunter without skills? He can't even enter a dungeon..."

"He doesn't seem disappointed."

"Although he might look like that, he's probably furious on the inside... it’s better not to awaken at all than be like him. What's the point of awakening if you cannot enter a dungeon...?"

"But he can join as a part of a cleanup party. Right?"

"Joining a cleanup party as a hunter will hurt his pride."

"Poor guy. He's confirmed to be the weakest."

South Korea's weakest hunter had been born.

* * *

That day came.

Dungeons opened, and monsters poured out.

During that time, a tiny number of people managed to awaken. These people were called hunters.

Society changed quickly.

Humanity had become tired because of the war against monsters. But the different resources that came out of the dungeons brought hope to people.

People began calling the Ether Stones you obtained by hunting monsters the ‘next-generation fuel’.

Someone even said this.

"From now on, society will be divided between those who are and aren't hunters."

No one knew if things would turn out like that or not. But the people that hunted monsters inside the dungeons indeed obtained numerous benefits.

After all, they were the ones who were sustaining society ten years after the first dungeon opened.

Two hunters entered a general store located in the 7th district.

Twenty-five-year-old Ji-ha Yu was reading a book when he raised his head.

"Welcome."

"Do you sell potions?"

"He's that person. The one who awakened as a Worker."

The two hunters looked at Ji-ha's golden eyes.

Ji-ha replied to the newbie hunters with a smile, "Yes. It's a general store. We sell potions and a few other things."

"Here it is… HP potion."

There were potion bottles, scrolls inside jars, maps, and other things on the wall.

As the male hunter grabbed a potion bottle with a red liquid, the female hunter whispered in his ear.

"Will this be effective? Wouldn't it be better to wait until Hunter Ground restocks?"

"Wait for how long? We don't know when they're going to restock. Also, I've heard that despite how this place looks, the effect of the potions is okay."

"Who told you that?"

"Seongho."

"Ah."

As the name Seongho was mentioned, the female hunter closed her mouth.

She'd just become a hunter after graduating from the academy. So the words of a hunter in the top 100 rankings were as valuable as gold.

The male hunter whispered to her, "Although this place looks like this, what they sell is generally good."

"But why aren't there more people? Ah, there's ‘that’ around here."

She was talking about Hunting Ground. A shop that sold hunter equipment.

It was a large-corporation franchise with big shops that offered good services, which was why you could find them all around the country.

Because there was a big shop like that, there weren't many hunters who cared about a small general store like this one.

The two hunters grabbed a few potions while talking.

The female hunter looked at Ji-ha, who had put away the book and stood up.

A hunter who wasn't a hunter.

That was what people called the owner of this shop.

He'd managed to awaken, yet didn't receive any traits or skills.

No one knew what the Worker class meant.

In South Korea, there were 12,782 hunters, so figuring out Ji-ha's ranking was easy.

"Excuse me, do you really not have any skills?"

"I also don't have any traits."

"Then you've spent these past few years without skills? How do you hunt?"

"I cannot hunt. I obtain the resources by joining cleanup parties."

"Ah, I see."

She could more or less guess.

It seemed like he was the type of person who survived on the natural resources that came out of the dungeons.

She was about to ask something else when a loud sound could be heard outside.

VROOM-

Police vehicles and an ambulance were following an armored vehicle.

"It seems like a Category 3 dungeon has opened."

"Yes. It's been a while since I've seen an ambulance... I wish I could enter a place like that..."

"With our current abilities, we cannot even dream about it."

"Oh yeah. We're going to take this."

The male hunter gave Ji-ha the basket along with a card.

The black card that was provided to hunters was something Ji-ha could only dream about.

After they finished paying, the two hunters left the store.

A lot of resources would come from a Category 3 dungeon. But he probably wouldn't be contacted.

"There's nothing I can do about it."

Rather than someone who wasn't even considered a hunter, they would probably contact an alchemist or a pharmacist.

He smiled bitterly and returned to his place to keep reading the book.

Soon, night came.

* * *

It had been five years since Ji-ha awakened as a hunter.

He'd obtained a rare class called Worker. But it was useless because he didn't have any skills or traits.

He couldn't even dream of going to dungeons with other hunters to hunt.

He did his best as a cleanup party member.

He went inside the dungeons after a corporation or a guild had gone through everything they wanted and then picked up whatever was left. He sold what he found in his general store.

It was something no one recognized. But it was enough to cover his living expenses and hobby, which was buying old books.

Just as always, Ji-ha lay in bed after closing his shop. Then he opened the old book he'd bought in the wholesale center.

It was a book that had come out of a dungeon.

It was worn out, but that made passing through the pages even more worth it.

He was carefully going through the pages when he saw an unknown letter.

The protagonist in the illustration seemed to be pointing at a tree. But he couldn't decipher it because it wasn't written in the continent’s common language.

"How do you read this?"

Even if he kept looking at it, he wouldn't be able to decipher how to read it.

Ji-ha kept going through the content.

It seemed like the giant tree was considered a God-like being in the dungeon world.

Hours passed while he read the myths about the different tribes that were related to the giant tree.

It was already late at night.

The surroundings had become silent, and his consciousness was getting blurry.

Should I go to sleep...

He wasn't planning to go against the sweet temptation.

After all, falling asleep while reading was his daily routine.

He closed his eyes without having taken off his glasses.

A letter in the book connected to the giant tree began to shine. But he overlooked that.

It was because his consciousness had been dragged somewhere.

After a sensation of endlessly falling, he opened his eyes.

"Oof!”

When he returned to his senses, he was in the middle of a forest.