Requiem Of A Failed Hero

“Oh, is this the gate?”

Lee Se-Chul stepped out of his car and removed his fancy shades as he pocketed and walked closer to the enormous purple-colored gate rampaging its surrounding with wind torrents that formed around it preventing others from entering.

“Hunter Lee Se-Chul.”

Agent Jong-Su bowed as the S rank hunter walked closer to the gate and looked at it with his hand pocketed.

“Yes.”

Agent Jong-Su responded looking at the massive gate along with Lee Se-Chul.

“Wait, is someone inside?”

“Yes…”

“A merchant I guess.”

He smirked.

“The association has always kept the identity of merchants a secret, I can’t believe I’m going to find one out today.”

Agent Jong-Su rolled his eyes up and away from Lee Se-Chul like the ‘Give me a break’ kind of expression. The guilds have always been at the neck of the association ever since the beginning of the appearance of gates and the awakening of humans to hunters.

It is like that around the world because the association exists to limit the power of the guild. By owning the exclusive right to every dungeon that spawns in an area. Of course, the association alone cannot deal with all the dungeons so they sell the gates to guilds at auction price or the guilds can purchase gate rights to certain areas according to the forecast of gate emergence of existing areas that have surplus gates around them. Everything the guild does revolves around the association– however what if the guilds have too powerful hunters?

Among hunters, there are those that violent the common sense, yes– common sense has been violated the moment monsters started appearing and humans started having powers but these are at a different level. With tremendous power that can destroy an entire area in minutes, and abilities to turn an entire space to their favor, some even have authority over concepts, space, or gravity… it goes with diverse saying. This level of hunters is sought throughout the world and because of this they are a diamond, that anyone would pay billions of dollars to obtain.

When these kinds of people begin to go into guilds, the power balance begins to shift. It becomes impossible for the association to pressure guilds with these level of hunters.

And because of these kinds of people, the Hunters association begins to tiptoe around the guilds.

And South Korea Hunters Association was in that kind of condition. S ranks were already a lot of massive power shift, however, the only two of these special ranks that exist in South Korea belong to guilds, and one is a guild master himself.

Due to this, the Korean Association began the Merchant concept, where hunters can work for them under hidden identities and reap rewards. On the outlook it was just a scheme to instill fear in the guilds, to make them think the association has hunters that are capable of clearing high-rank gates and it was working well.

“What do we plan to do… the gate won’t let anyone in.”

“What else do we do? We have to wait. If the hunter inside has died the gate will calm down somehow. At least I will be able to enter then and retrieve the dead body for you.”

Lee Se-Chul replied with a naughty grin.

It was an obvious taunt and Jong-Su was already used to how pathetic and immature Lee Se-Chul can be sometimes so he just looked elsewhere. However, it was the truth, there was nothing they could do but wait for the moment. Anyone that neared the gate, the winds around it gets wilder and throw them away.

“Do you plan to go in alone?”

“My attack squad is on their way.”

Jong-Su’s eyes widened for a moment.

‘…The Gojo guild main attack squad…’

He gulped, his demeanor at the moment depicted the enormous respect he had for them even though he reasoned Lee Se-Chul to be immature.

***

A dark castle looms ominously, beneath the dark skies of the disguise gate, its imposing walls rising from the rocky terrain that surrounds it. The sky overhead is shrouded in thick, ominous clouds, casting the entire scene in a gloomy, foreboding light. There are no flags flying from the castle’s turrets, no sign of life within its walls.

“How moronic. You unintelligent species were pursued by a human and you dare think I will grant you shelter?”

In a dark and vast room, a few number of Orcs clumsily stood in the center, and at the far end of the room was a throne seat with its back towering over everything else.

There were no decorations on the walls, no tapestries or banners to adorn the space. The only light that came was from a single beam of moonlight that crept in through a narrow slit in the ceiling, casting a dim glow on the throne and the white-skinned man with a long horn at the center of his forehead.

The man rested his chin on his hand and was dressed in a black medieval suit, jacket, pants, boots, and shoulder cape, with his wet-grey hair cut across his neck and shoulders.

“Keweerrghk!(Human Strong)”

The man’s eyes narrowed at them with a frown, few minutes later, a thunderous sound could be heard with evident light that blinked in the sky afar.

‘That is the Orc chief’s skill… thunder smash. That stubborn bastard didn’t use that skill until he saw that his life is ending by my hands.’

The Orcs shook as they heard the sound and muttered amidst each other, causing a slight noise in the silent castle. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒆𝒕

“Shut up. First of all, the three Orcs that were supposed to be my tribute, escaped from here a few hours ago. Did you see them?”

The Orcs were silent with fear and whispering, they inquired of one another.

“With the only condition that you all will send me one Orc every six months was the only reason why I spared your Kawaek tribe. Those damn tributes for eighteen months all dare to run away from me.”

He groaned his frustration, slamming his fist on the iron arm of his throne seat.

“Kwerghk uweugh whieskk(Human kill tribute)”

The spokesman of the Orc replied, not sure if that was the case but they decided to pin it all on the human they were running away from.

“What? A human dares to touch my tribute.”

The man gritted his shark teeth with his single horn faintly glowing in the moonlight.

“That darn human…”

The man suddenly paused and stood up, walking forward slowly, and finally came to a stop.

“Looks like your Orc chief is dead.”

He said with a grin but that grin faded to a frown.

‘If he is a human that is capable of killing the Orc chief, then he cannot be underestimated. However, I am different, I am an Ogre who has received a name from the great demon lord of chaos. I have a true name, I can defeat a measly human.’

He said and looked at the Orcs who were mourning but dared not to stand carelessly in front of the named Ogre.

“But first, I will need to strengthen myself with these ones.”