Chapter 2

Jet black eyes curtained by an oval of straight hair that stopped above Yena's elbows greeted her from the full-length mirror of her bedroom. A cold breeze brushed against her in the black room. Her eyes blacker than the room devoid of any features gave the impression of an alien staring back at her. Yena lightly felt the skin around her eyelids absent-mindedly. It was a blessing I can still see, Yena thought remembering the awakened who had, in his haste to heal her, made a mistake resulting in these haunting eyes that would never allow her to forget that dreadful day. The day she became an orphan. The day her life was taken from her and was replaced by this.

System. She thought. A blue holographic screen appearing in front of her:

Name: Kim Yena Age:25 Class: E Level:1

Ability: Soul contract

Skills: Identity (level1) Nocturnal sight (level1)

Attributes: Strength: 32 Speed: 59 Mana: 53 (6.5/hr) Vitality: 58 Unallocated stat points: 0

Yena cursed the system, and the whole awakening phenomenon 1 of 16 people would be an awakener, but it was the status of awakener that forced her to take part in the necessary ‘awakener duties’, the lightest, which Yena could get away with, was to join the mining expedition at least once a year. Awakened. The shackles that bound her to run towards monsters, towards danger rather than away from it. Just like her mother and father had been forced to hold down the hordes of monsters whilst everyone else focused on escaping, not looking back.

A small knock on her door drove her out of depressing thoughts. Yena opened it to see a timid Jinah standing there in her polka-dot pyjamas. Quiet. A sharp contrast to how her mood was a few hours prior.

“Arthur told us that you’re going into the dungeons tomorrow.” She said in a small voice, her eyes moist with tears that she quickly blinked out.

“Of course, she has to go Jinah,” said a voice behind her, revealing her sister Jiwoo standing there, clad in matching pyjamas, her arms encircling a pillow against her chest. Her worried expression betrayed her true feelings. Yena looked at them both. The twins she had adopted five years ago had grown up from the shivering 11-year-old girls orphaned in the same attack that continued to traumatise her: but at times like these, she saw the deep scars that they had also received, normally hidden under the makeup of normality and routine. Yena made a mental note to talk to them both more about the incident after the expedition.

“It’s okay girls,” Yena said, attempting to pat their heads but realising then that they had almost caught up to her height, awkwardly dropping her arms and pulling them into a hug.

“I’m an awakened... Even if I'm just an E class. I’m much stronger than normal people.” Yena held them in her arms for a while in the dark bedroom, living the moment fully. Understanding her parents' decision to remain and fight, at that moment knowing that even if she was to come against the flaming wolves, she would follow in her parents' footsteps, defending her sisters till the end.

Yena woke up groggily at the relentless blaring from her phone. 8:30 am. She turned off her third alarm and rushed to get ready for the expedition pausing for a second, to put on the necklace that Arthur had given her yesterday.

-Necklace of protection equipped (Common)-

The system's message popped inside her sight. Yena quickly blinked it away, grabbing the lunchbox that Jiwoo had prepped, hugged them both, and ran towards her car. 8:50 am. Yena prayed that she would arrive on time. The trouble she could get in if she was late would not do her any favours.

She arrived at the Awakeners building after 40 minutes of racing through the early morning traffic, now fully awake from her nightmare-ridden sleep last night, and fortunately found herself not the last person to arrive.

“Today we are going to explore D724,” Jin, the team leader said pointing to a spot on a map,

“It’s an E class open dungeon, with an underground terrain,” He paused dramatically, “I’m sure you all know what an open dungeon is, but for first-timers, it means the dungeon has periodically opened up multiple times after completion.” Jin gauged the crowd of green-faced awakened and put on a softer tone “That means we are all prepared for a dungeon competition”. The team leader continued for a while, explaining the mission plan multiple times, and once all awakened were present, he put them in their teams.

Yena stared out the window, the countryside blurred into a mixture of different colours. While the coach marched them towards the dungeon, she read through the briefing for the fifth time. The expedition utilised four teams each of them with three people. Team A consisted of two D class awakened and the team leader a C class veteran. Team A had the hardest job, in which they would go through the main tunnel, and complete the dungeon in five hours. The remaining three teams had one D class to stand guard, and two E classes, the teams would go off in their separate directions to mine as much Sepherium as they could, before they would be teleported out upon dungeon completion.

She nodded at her fellow team miner, as she got off the bus. Clad in military gear, like Yena’s the miner curtly nodded back and began to unload the reinforced pickaxes from the truck not commenting on her eyes. Yena was glad at the lack of reaction from her mining partner; last year she had to put up with a boy who couldn’t hide his distaste and bullied her throughout the entire expedition.

Ominous energy touched Yena as soon as she neared the doors of the dungeon, sending shivers through her body. She had never understood the age-old saying of hunters -awakeners who focused solely on dungeon clearing- that a dungeon oozed an aura of wrongness until she had to enter one herself three years ago. Her fear and the sense of danger were strong, but all Yena could feel was overpowering those feelings, an impression of nature went awry. Humans setting foot into a realm totally out of their depth. Something that they were never meant to see, like a fish in space.

Yena looked around her. The entirety of the team had gone pale, a few of them involuntarily stepping away from the dungeon, their eyes glued to the imposing doors. 12-foot slabs of what seemed like darkness, seemingly absorbing all colour and life from its surroundings. They were devoid of any features, just standing there warning of the danger inside.

“Alright people,” said Jin, “I know how you feel, but trust me, we feel it more than you guys”. He nodded at the D class hunters. Yena shuddered at the thought of how much worse the experience was for those who had more mana. “No matter how bad, how unnatural, how scary the world behind that door maybe, it is up to us to step out of our comfort zones and shut down the dungeon to keep those monsters behind those doors.” He ended his speech dramatically, but it seemed to work rousing the members to get in their positions. Yena steeled her nerves and stood behind Mark, the D class hunter who would lead team C through the South-East tunnels. Her mining partner filled in behind her and adjusted his backpack one last time, one of the last people to come to terms with the dungeon's presence and the last stragglers recovered, Jin placed his hand on the door feeding his mana.

A silver light shone brightly between the doors, the ominous feeling simultaneously increasing. The previous dungeons had never felt this bad before Yena pondered, quickly brushing the thought aside once everyone began to move forward. She grasped her silver chain, and touched her Sepherium earrings, a gift from the twins, for good luck, and taking a deep breath she stepped into the light.