Requiem Of A Failed Hero

As soon as Raith stepped into the gym, he was hit by a wall of pressure that sat upon his heart prompting him to withdraw that first step.

But Raith continued forward, however, these were clear proof to him that this room was filled with people that are strong enough to maybe even defeat him, thanks to his perception stat, he was beginning to have a perfect evaluation of himself and other people.

The air was thick with the scent of sweat and exertion but still accompanied by the subtle chill that was being emitted through the air conditioners. Raith entered the gym and paused to watch randomly for a minute– he just couldn’t help but feel a tingle of excitement run down his spine as he took in the sight before them. The gym was massive, with state-of-the-art equipment lining the walls and a full-sized boxing ring in the center of the room.

Hunters of all shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the gym, each pushing themselves in different ways. Some were lifting weights that looked like they could crush a car, while others were doing flips and spin on gymnastics equipment that seemed barely able to support their weight.

But the most impressive sight of all was the sparring ring at the far end of the gym. Two hunters were going at it, moving so quickly that Raith could barely keep up with their movements. They were throwing punches and kicks with such speed and precision that it was like watching a dance, each move perfectly timed and executed.

He thought he was on top of the world but entering the general gymnasium of the strongest guild in the country helped his eyes to open.

‘…if the general gym is like this… how is the gym for high rankers supposed to be…’ Raith said in his mind.

What set Rain guild apart from every other guild was number one Mok Jae-Hwa, but that was not all there is to this wonderful guild. Mok Jae-Hwa was not the only reason they were expected.

It was because of how hardworking his guildmembers are.

They are always pushing themselves to their limit with every chance they get and because of it, even though hunters have a fixated type of power and the only thing they can grow is their magic energy, cases of many hunters being able to surpass their limits and break into a whole new threshold are always being counted with the Rain guild, of course with several other guilds in and out of the country.

Raith gulped.

“Why did you bring me here?” He asked Mok Jae-Hwa who approached him from behind.

“You said you wanted to look around.”

“And you thought bringing me to your general gym is me looking around.”

“Sorry, my bad… I can take you to other places.”

“Take me to the special gym.”

“huh?” Mok Jae-Hwa looked dazed as he heard what Raith said but wanted to make sure he heard right.

“The special gym, the one that high rankers are in… take me there.”

Mok Jae-Hwa looked at Raith and smiled. ‘I like his attitude…’

“As much as I would love to… I don’t think I can…”

“Why not?”

“Because you have to get ready to raid a gate…” Mok Jae-Hwa replied him looking at the leather wristwatch on his wrist.

Raith clicked his tongue, irritated, and followed Mok Jae-Hwa, throwing a final glance at the people in the gym especially the two who were dancing with each other.

“I will be introducing you to the person who you will be supervising the recruits with.”

“Oh…” Raith went silent afterward and closely followed until they got into the elevator and went to a lower floor, very low, lower than the first floor.

An entirely new sight was revealed before Raith. Deep beneath the guild building, was a sprawling underground smithy that would seem more at home in a science fiction novel than a fantasy epic. This was no ordinary forge – it was a true marvel of modern engineering, built with the latest in technology and constructed to produce the finest weapons and armor known to hunters and mankind.

As Raith descend through the transparent elevator that lead to the heart of the smithy, he could see banks of high-tech computers and robots, all whirring and humming as they monitor and control the vast array of forges and workshops that make up the underground city.

The walls and floors are sleek and smooth, made of shining metals, and reinforced with state-of-the-art materials. High-powered lights beam down from the ceiling, casting a bright, sterile glow over the cavernous space.

“What the hell is this?” Raith couldn’t help the words.

Mok Jae-Hwa wore a bright smile as he saw Raith’s expression.

“Many hunters might say that The Rain guild is strong because they have a special rank hunter, or because they have three S ranks and a number of B ranks. But look at this hunter Raven.”

Mok Jae-Hwa paused as he stepped out of the elevator with Raith following him closely. He turned around and admired the magnificence of the Rain smithy before looking back to Raith.

No matter how many times Mok Jae-Hwa himself sees it, he is always awed over and over again.

“Hunter Raven, this is the heart of The Rain guild. This is why no guild in Korea can defeat us and why we will always get so much money to get all the high-rank gates.”

“You create weapons?”

“Not just weapons hunter Raith, have you ever heard of the term magic weapon.”

“Magic weapon?” Raith repeated after Mok Jae-Hwa, trying to fix the words together.

Mok Jae-Hwa began to explain anyways.

“You know crystals that are mined in gates are great resources right?”

Raith paid attention to him as he continued.

“And so, these crystals contain an amazing amount of magic energy, just like the energy inside of us. What we do is use the crystals to forge weapons and the weapons come out better than ordinary weapons. They are sharper, and more durable and some even come with skills. Some could add to the user’s strength or agility… it works in diverse ways. And these weapons are graded from common, uncommon, rare, unique, legendary, and mythic.

But mythic in particular are a no-go area, most times they are weapons found in gates.”

Raith slipped out the black sword from behind him, trying to hide the action from Mok Jae-Hwa.

He showed the sword to him.

“Like this black sword?” He asked.

‘What was that? Did he take it out from the space?’ Mok Jae-Hwa pretended not to see and stared at the black sword that was horizontal before his face. He stretched his hand to collect it but Raith pulled the sword back.

“I have a feeling that giving you will be a bad idea…” He said with squinted eyes.

Mok Jae-Hwa smiled, “It’s okay… I’ve handled worse.” Mok Jae-Hwa said and stretched his hand, and mimed him to hand over the sword.

“Okay…” Raith said but could still feel a stubbornness with the sword as he slowly proceeded to hand the sword over to Mok Jae-Hwa.

Finally, the sword successfully changed hands.

“ARRGGHHH!!”

Mok Jae-Hwa let out a loud groaning immediately as if the sword had gained a million more weight, he was finding it very hard to pull it up. All the veins in his hand began to pop out and began to turn black like the sword was sending some kind of black fluid through his veins.

“ARGH! Shhhhhiit!!” Mok Jae-Hwa groaned once more and held that arm with his second hand, trying to pull the sword up but it was to no avail.

“Bastard! What do you think you are doing?!!” A third voice came from up and a second later was a THUD right in front of Mok Jae-Hwa.

The macho man snatched the sword off Mok Jae-Hwa’s hand and stabbed it into the ground, immediately taking his hands off it.

At this point, Mok Jae-Hwa was already sweating and bleeding through his nose.

The man glared at him, “Are you a fool? What do you think you are doing with a sword like that?!”

Mok Jae-Hwa stayed silent to catch his breath before responding.

“I’m sorry, I thought I could handle it. That thing is a magic weapon, isn’t it?” Mok Jae-Hwa responded with a smile.

“What? are you a fool? Why are you smiling? You could have died?!! What the hell is funny?!!” The man inquired with a serious and irritated expression.

Mok Jae-Hwa still didn’t stop smiling, his eyes gaze shifted to Raith who was standing behind the macho man. 𝒃𝙚𝙤𝙫𝒆𝒍．𝙘𝒐𝙢

“This is Tae Dong-Hyun, the assistant guild president of The Rain guild. To be honest, I think he deserves the title of the guild master more than I do because he was the one that created all these… he is the heart of the guild.”

“Oh…” Raith’s eyes couldn’t help but emit that hostility, the way his black and red aura acts up the moment he is faced with a potential threat was way beyond him and sometimes diverse– his left eye began to glow red while his right eye wore a dark glow.

The man frowned as he turned to look at Raith.

“Why did you bring a demonic sword here?”

At that moment Raith’s eyes widened.

‘This man, he just said demonic… does he know what the sword is?’