Before the appearance of the towers and the aretisites, Ku Sang was working man at day and a leader of a small unnamed organization that smuggled drugs at night.

Back then, no one knew Ku Sang was secretly a smuggler, but a well-respected biology professor. He deceived many with his acting skills and manipulation.

But he disbanded the organization and became a full-time professor three years ago. His organization could not go against the hunters. Even with guns, hunters could take them out easily. In the end, Ku Sang framed his friend and got out scot-free.

Then half a year ago, a tower appeared in the sea.

It made it impossible to import food, or pretty much anything to Jeju island and food became scarce. Hundreds of thousands of people became desperate for food, and the island resources were not enough to feed them all.

After months, people protested to the government to do something, but there was no permanent solution.

After losing dozens of hunter, the South Korean government could not continuously maintain the barrier, and the monsters from inside were let loose.

Eventually, the people on the island protested even harder until no one cared. They also tried to force the few hunters on the island to take care of the monsters in the sea, but it backlashed, and a riot started between them.

Hunters isolated themselves from the protester, which they can only whine for someone to fix their problem.

They decided to create a hunters organization, similar to the Korean system, Guild. However, the organization was managed by the person who founded, and they would fight over territory.

Ku Sang awakened as a 3-star hunter and created the Hwangsaechi using his experience as a former leader of an organization.

Younger people flocked to them while the older generation tried to suppress them. But in the end, those who joined lived a better life, and those who did not live in the streets.

The Huin Dong-Gali and Hwangsaechi were two of the many organizations that were formed after that event.

Then another tower raised on Jeju Island right in the town where Hwangsaechi base was located. Ku Sang was the first hunter to entered, and he did so alone.

And with his Blank Red Blue, he was able to survive the tower and explored it by cooling his body. He found a deposit of fossilized aretisites in one of the mountains, thus, making his body immune to the toxic ash. Many other hunters tried to enter, but few came back alive due to the intense heat and toxic.

When Ku Sang discovered the aretisite deposits, he slowly and secretly made his own members into hunters. At first, many died a few weeks later after activating it once.

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However, Ku Sang noticed that the symptoms were similar to that of organ rejection. So he forbid his normal members from activating the aretisite, and after 60 days, only then they can use it without a sign of rejection. Awakened hunters did not have this restriction.

However, other organization caught wind of what Ku Sang was doing and tried to stop him. Yang Seung-Joo, leader of the Huin Dong-Gali, was one of them.

But it was already too late. The Hwangsaechi outnumbered all the other organization in terms of hunters. They fought many times for the tower, but the Hwangseachi always came out on top. They even a few recruited 1-star awakened hunters.

Yet Ku Sang was paranoid. He had only 1-star hunters in his organization beside him, and that did not make him feel secure at all.

Because of that, he never left the tower after. Then a couple of weeks ago, he discovered by accident that combining five 1-star aretisite of the same kind, he was able to evolve the aretisite into a 2-star aretisite.

He had not told anybody about it and never to plan tell anybody about it.

But after weeks after weeks of refining, he could only refine three aretisites. The failure rate was too high, and many aretisites turned into dust from the process.

And then monsters started to come out from below until one came that took him and three others of his hunters just to make it go to sleep. This brought him even more pressure and stress since he had to manage it every couple of hours. He did not have time to refine anymore after that.

It was not until he saw Lyden that he devised a new plan to bring.

Ku Sang had to tell him since he had nothing else to offer Lyden. He was not willing to let go of Blank Red Blue. Thus, the information was the next best thing.

"To evolve an aretisite is a piece of valuable information," Lyden said.

"Indeed, it is. So are you willing to help me knock it down?"

"No, not yet. What if you're lying? I should test it out first."

"Indeed you're right, Lyden." Ku Sang nodded like he understands what was Lyden was coming from, but on the inside, he was boiling with rage.

'Shit, why is this guy so cautious? I thought all Americans were gullible. Even more, this guy is barely an adult.' Ku Sang did not want the information to be leak outside.

He suppressed his rage and quickly came up with a plan to have Lyden kill.

"So why don't you freeze the Blood NoseHound once more and show me personally? Let's head back to your base then." Lyden recommended.

"Wait, I can show you how to do it now. I brought some aretisite just in case, and since this matter is important to you, we can do it here. We have another hour before the Blood Nosehound wakes up." Ku Sang was speaking the truth when he said he had more aretisites. Everything else was basically lies.

He took out two pouches that contained small fossilized aretisites and showed it to Lyden.

"I have another set, so, why don't you refine together?"

Lyden knew he was up to something, but he grabbed the bag anyway.

The room dimly lit by the red veins coursing through the walls, and the sound of humming echoed from the wind. Ku Sang told Lyden to calm his mind and follow what he did.

Ku Sang took a deep, slow breath and then slowly breathe it out. He grabbed two fossilized aretisites and placed him on his left hand the three others onto the right.

Lyden copied his action.

They were all the Torso Scale Lizard aretisites, which was what Sim Chul-Soo obtained.

"When refining these kinds of aretisites, it is better to refine in high heat because it will improve the success rate. Although the chances are still low, it is still better. First, you have to connect to all of them at the same time. Then when you see the five threads, instead of plucking them, you are going to fuse into one."

Lyden did as he was told. He closed his eyes and remembered the feeling he had when he tried to assimilate with the Muscle's Muscle aretisite.