In the year 2000 AD, a powerful sound of an explosion reverberated across the face of the earth and then a colossal crack appeared above the Atlantic Ocean sky. Other smaller cracks also began to appear one by one in random places and out of them came something that could be called a nightmare creature.

They surged out of the dark fissures like leaking dam water and went about sweeping away anything in their path. Their forms vary, some look like something you'd find in a fantasy book and the rest are pure slithering nightmares.

From the colossal Cracks, the shadow giants began to crawl from the eternal darkness and began to spread terror and chaos everywhere while also making themselves a symbol of despair itself.

Humanity tried hard to fight back against this apocalypse using various means, one of which was to use all the nuclear weapons at their disposal but to no avail. Within the span of 1 year, humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction by a wave of nightmares that ruthlessly swept over them.

There was hardly any life left on this earth except for a horde of monsters that devoured everything in their path. Day by day the human population is decreasing drastically as the bunkers that were their only shelter are destroyed one by one by the monsters.

Until finally a miracle happened.

Continuous exposure to the energy coming out of the Abyssal cracks would normally kill anyone but those who survive will experience mutations and gain powers they would never have imagined before. The power they get from dark energy proves to be very effective against abyss monsters that are basically almost unkillable.

Those who received the blessing of the abyss began to call themselves the 'Kuroner' and fought to protect humanity from the monsters.

With them, humans quickly recovered and began to build their civilization little by little.

They continued to arm themselves until several decades later, the disaster reached its climax.

The appearance of a mighty creature that was greatly feared due to their legendary reputation for being wise as well as arrogant, a dragon.

A colossal black dragon that could dwarf the tallest mountain, it even destroyed it without having to struggle. It managed to find its way from the darkness of the abyss to the human world and began to spread its terror. 

With its 2 pairs of wings spanning 10 km long and 6 km high, it destroys everything around it with just a flap of its wings.  

Humans used all the resources at their disposal to defeat the dragon but it all ended in vain.

Of the many selected Kuroner sent out, none returned safely.

Yet another miracle happened once again.

A dying beast's roar shook all of humanity's hearts at that moment.

The dragon had fallen...

The only record of how the dragon fell was the appearance of two mysterious figures that slammed into the dragon just before they lost the signal from the drone they sent.

The dragon's departure had a very significant impact, the colossal crack in space finally disappeared.

Although small ones were still scattered everywhere, humans celebrated their brief victory by building a city at the location where the black dragon was defeated. The place had a very low level of abyss energy density that was almost nonexistent, making it a perfect place to quietly rebuild their civilization from scratch.

They did not care about who or what defeated the dragon.

They felt they deserved to enjoy this brief peace.

****

In a place that looks like an almost destroyed football stadium, there is a creature that looks like an oyster standing on its 4 legs that look like horse legs. The creature had a huge size, it was estimated to be 20 meters tall and about 50 meters wide.

The creature has some kind of horns that look like bull horns on its upper shell, and behind it is a trail of destruction made by it to get to this place.

Meanwhile, there were three silhouettes sitting not far from the creature, sitting on a bench that was still intact casually while waiting for something.

One was wearing a cloak that covered her entire body and all that was left were two purple lights that could be guessed if they were her eyes. Her hunched posture gave her a mysterious impression coupled with the small sharp shards surrounding her, giving off an aura of danger to those around it.

It had various shapes but most of them were shaped like karambit knives and daggers with many rune carvings on the surface.

She turned her head towards the taller figure to her left and asked in a distorted gruff voice.

"So... who are we waiting for?"

"The new member." he said in a heavy, hoarse voice.

He was about 240 cm tall as well as a stocky body that practically dwarfed the two people sitting to his right and left.

He wore some sort of gray cybernetic armor that covered his entire body making his physique look very intimidating to anyone who crossed his path.

"In other news, it looks like our new member had some sudden business that prevented him from coming today."

The one who said that was a man wearing a black tuxedo sitting to his left.

He had a well-built posture and a look that exuded a sense of professionalism to people who saw him for the first time. He had black hair in a neat buzz cut, pale white skin with a few scuffs on his fierce face.

"Is that so, Felix?" asked the man in cybernetic armor in a disappointed tone.

"That's right Mr. Hazel, he just sent a message about 10 seconds ago using email."

"Hey, I've told you how many times to stop calling me that. I'm not your boss anymore Felix, we're just comrades in arms now." he said while covering his face with his right hand because he was fed up.

"So what are we going to do with this Clam Ram? You know luring him to this place is not an easy thing you know."

"Take it easy Groove, I plan to make a nice energy drink out of this monster." he explained while holding up both thumbs.

"Wait a minute... you mean that drink?"

"Yup, that."

Ignoring his companion's puzzled expression, Hazel stretched and tried to get up from the seat that was about to collapse under his weight.

He then stood up and made himself visible to the confused Clam Ram. Clam Ram did not have eyes but they were sensitive to vibrations, sounds, as well as smells which made up for their blindness being their weakness and the sound of a broken rickety chair was more than enough to attract his attention.

Hazel stood and watched as the Clam Ram prepared to ram them because that was all a Clam Ram could do, ram its opponent to death and that was also why they named like that.

He jumped high into the air with the help of the mini jet thrusters on his back towards the giant oyster. It could be seen that his entire armor was now coated with a dense blood-red aura and his right hand turned black and the amount of energy gathered there was extremely dense.

"FOR GLORY!!!"He screamed like a madman and coupled with all the exaggerated movements he made, it added to his wild and tacky impression.

Hazel landed a devastating blow on the Clam Ram's shell and sent it bouncing away from the stadium, the fact that the shell was only slightly cracked showed how tough the monster was or, how hard the blow was. Hazel was known by the other Hunters as a walking fortress, he had high vitality and could hit very hard at the same time.

Meanwhile, his two comrades who were sitting sweetly on the stadium benches watched all of his movements very casually as if they had always experienced this every day. They just sat there until one of them finally stood up.

"You coming, Felix?"

"I don't think so, I have a lot of business at the office. Please tell Mr. Hazel about this, Groove." he said before disappearing and leaving a black mist in his place.

"No problem at all...."

Groove could only stay where she was because her friend, who had been busy playing with his communication device, suddenly excused himself and disappeared, leaving Groove alone. She felt uneasy about it. Today was an important day for her and she had to leave this place as soon as possible but she felt bad. Because today was also a very special day for Hazel.

Groove turned his head towards Hazel, he ran towards Clam Ram who was currently struggling because his body was upside down and couldn't do anything like a cockroach.

"I guess there's no harm in helping?"

At least she could help him a little so that the guilt in her heart would go away.

The shards surrounding her began to gather together, some also emerged from under her cloak and eventually they formed a giant arrow.

She aimed it toward what she thought was the most vulnerable part of the lower shell. The attack launched by Hazel first served to destroy the layer of energy lining the monster's shell and once that was destroyed, destroying the shell would become very easy.

That was easy to say, because the Clam Ram had a shell that was unbelievably hard. Hence the Clam Ram could only be conquered by a couple of experienced Hunters like them.

After aiming for a while, she directly shot her giant arrow with the same speed as a bullet. It managed to hit the bottom of the shell but did not cause any significant damage, only a small crack.

"I forgot how hard that shell is, even without its armor...."

"Thanks for the help Groove, but let me do this since it's my treat tonight!"

Groove just stood there stiffly, her attempt to help had failed completely due to her own carelessness, in the end she would just play the waiting game and prepare her heart for the last moment.

Hazel darted so fast that his figure was a blur, his right hand glowing brightly as a huge amount of energy gathered there again.

With that, Hazel hit the same spot that was previously attacked by Groove and shattered Clam Ram's shell. The energy blast from the blow was so powerful that it shattered the Clam Ram into pieces.

The shattered innards were scattered everywhere, but Hazel only took one organ that looked intact.

It was the so-called 'narcosack'.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The Clam Ram was a herbivorous monster that likes to eat giant vines that grew berries containing narcotic compounds. The compound was collected in a special organ inside the Clam Ram's body for later disposal.

Hazel lifted the yoga ball-sized organ triumphantly, a proud smile plastered on her bloodied face and bits of viscera.

"Tonight we party!!!"

"Not us, just you."

"Uh, what's up Groove. Aren't you coming to my birthday party tonight?" Hazel was a little surprised when he heard his midget partner's response.

"H-honestly, I really want to come... it's just that I have a very urgent matter tonight." he said with a nervous tone, he had prepared his heart just to say this.

At first Hazel was puzzled at the nervous demeanor of this old friend in front of him, but in an instant he figured out what he meant by 'urgent business'.

"Uh...is today the day?" he asked to confirm.

"Yes, today is the day I have to return to the laboratory. I need to recharge the batteries that power the lab so that-" before Groove could finish her sentence, Hazel stroked his head without warning.

"It's okay Groove, I understand. You need to get back there and take care of those kids right away."

"B-but it's your birthday."

"No need to feel bad about it Groove, your children and husband are more important than this old man's birthday. Now be a good mom and go greet them too, don't forget to give them my regards, now!" he instructed before he became even more unhappy with himself.

"Alright then and one more thing, Felix is also unlikely to be able to come tonight due to his busy schedule"

"I knew that from the start." he explained, his gaze looking up at the dark sky covered by black clouds.

Before Groove left, she gave Hazel a tight hug and with that she turned into a shard and went flying off in the direction of the setting sun. He swore she had just seen Groove's shadowy face blush but in the end he could only shake his head.

It's a rare moment, but somehow he feels numb. 

"Be a good parent." he muttered while enjoying the sunset

He did that for a while and started complaining to himself.

"Damn it, I'm so far behind her. Now it's just Felix and me...." he complained in a playful tone, but some emotion of sadness could be seen in his facial expression that was covered by a helmet.

After a while of gazing at the clouds, Hazel left the place and went home.

****

After a great war that lasted for 10 years, the colossal crack that was the main source of chaos was finally closed with the defeat of the black dragon. Humans are basically ignorant of the mysterious figure who defeated the dragon but some are still curious and wonder how they are doing to this day.

Hazel walked along the broken highway back to his home in the city of Brenkas, the place where all remaining human hope was gathered and rebuilt.

The distance from the football stadium to the town of Brenkas took about 5 days on foot but Hazel managed to cut the time down to just half a day. With his adequate stamina, he managed to maintain his running speed with ease and coupled with his cybernetic armor that had an automatic cooling feature, he could run for very long periods of time without resting.

After running for about 12 hours, he could finally see the giant wall in the distance. The wall was about 100m high and also had a thickness of about 10m. The wall was built with special concrete reinforced with an extremely strong alloy steel frame and was designed to deal with siege-type monsters like the Clam Ram that Hazel had defeated earlier.

The wall covered the entire 4,340 square kilometer Brenkas city area, and behind the wall were millions of human beings who took refuge from the onslaught of abyss monsters every day.

Even though it was built on a land that had a very low level of abyss energy density and almost none at all, it didn't mean that monsters wouldn't find a way to get here.

Almost every day the monsters gathered around the city and some of them managed to get over the wall and threaten the lives of the citizens living inside. Hence the Hunters were sent to clean them up efficiently.

Hunter itself is a nickname given to workers who are usually hired by a company and assigned to hunt abyss monsters. The company that assigns a hunter will usually take advantage in the form of monster corpses deposited by the hunter which will later be paid with the currency they currently use, Shard.

It was made of a special alloy infused with abyss energy and the higher the density of abyss energy on the Shard, the darker the color and higher the value. To make it easier to distinguish the value of shards, humans decided to give them different initials and colors. Basically, shards have a dull gray color for the lowest value to jet black for the highest, but even then it is still difficult to distinguish by the general public.

Now the shards were given a point value for each level of energy density inside and also for simplicity, a shard painted copper would be worth 1 point, silver 10 points, gold 100 points, and so on until the abyss shard which was jet black in color and made of a special crystal whose value depended on the level of energy density inside at that moment.

Hunters are paid in shards and the amount paid depends on how tough the mission is. This job may seem like a dream job that ordinary people can be proud of, but in reality a hunter is no different from an odd-jobber. They have to find the ideal mission for themselves and it's not always posted on the guild's mission board.

Guilds were originally formed to accommodate Kuroner who were deemed to have the potential to be trained into reliable Hunters but now it turned into a shelter for requests from large companies looking for profits at a relatively friendly cost to their wallets. Guilds take a total of 20-30% of the fee given by the company to the hunter who successfully executes their request and this is the only source of income for a guild. Therefore, guilds have to try to attract hunters to work with them and they usually provide them with some perks and benefits that look very tempting to hunters such as equipment, weapons, housing, and so on.

Hazel was getting closer to the entrance gate of Brenkas city but she saw that the gate which was just a 4x4 meter wide reinforced steel door was covered with black slime which looked very disgusting.

Hazel had left the football stadium in the afternoon and now he could see the rising sun shining on the gray walls, making him a little teary-eyed.

Being a Hunter was an extremely dangerous job. Many of them didn't make it back home every day and if they did, they came back battered. 

Hazel clicked his tongue as he saw the slime scattered everywhere, his veteran hunter himself of over 100 years knew who put the slime there or at least why. He swept his gaze over the area around the door.

He didn't find any living creatures around that location but there were many pieces of monsters' bodies scattered everywhere.

Finally after a long time of running, Hazel finally arrived at the entrance of Brenkas city. He took a good look at the surroundings before opening the gate for safety reasons.

Abyssal Screecher, they were monsters that looked like bulls with 8 giant spider legs, they were both feared and hated because they were known as destructive pests.

And he saw that there were still some of them left.

Having the ability to knock their enemies into hallucinations makes them a very difficult opponent for novice hunters to fight. They also usually eat their prey by spitting acid onto them and then slurping down the highly nutritious instant soup. Many times they were unable to finish their meal as it rotted very quickly turning into the black slime that was scattered everywhere at this time.

As it contained strong acid, it would damage the things it landed on slowly and make them more and more porous over time. Not to forget, the black slime has a very pungent odor that can even make people faint if they smell it directly.

Hazel frowned slightly as he watched the bull spider crawl towards him, it was so big yet it could walk on its 8 legs so quickly as if its size was nothing more than a joke.

"At least it's as big as a dump truck...." Hazel said his undetailed opinion while holding her chin.

Basically abyss monsters had 3 aspects that they all usually had, the first being having natural body armor, the second being a strong regeneration ability, and the last being that they could destroy your life in the blink of an eye.

The Abyssal Screecher ran faster and faster towards him, the creature's sharp spider legs viciously continuously piercing the ground and anything in its path. The creature issued a very clear killing intent to Hazel and makes a loud screeching sound that will damage the ears of those around it.

"Whoever the person in charge of this whole mess is obviously has poor eyesight. How could they miss this damn shithead?" he criticized playfully.

"Or maybe he got away somehow?" he asked while scratching his head in confusion over the answer.

While Hazel was using 100% of his tiny brain capacity to solve this almost pointless puzzle, the Abyssal Screecher's claw-like jaws began to glow.

Most Abyssal creatures had a dark, black-like coloration that basically helped them hide in the dark of the night, but the main reason for the dark coloration was none other than exposure to the energy of the abyss every day. The Abyssal Screecher itself has a dark blue color on its body and the rest is black.

It also had scales that would remind most of an anteater but this one obviously couldn't roll its body into a ball.

It only took a few more meters before it could clench its jaws on Hazel's head, he had already turned around and greeted it with a friendly uppercut. The uppercut sent the poor thing's head flying into the air along with its body.

"The real answer is the simplest one." he muttered with a slight chuckle.

"I don't know how but it looks like this one managed to secure its own ass while the others were getting slaughtered."

Hazel was an opportunist when it came to food. He did not mind scavenging through other people's trash just for a piece of bread and a bottle of cheap beer. After seeing the scene around him, he could only shake his head.

Hazel let out a long breath, he was a little disappointed with the fact that he came here a little late. The Abyssal Screecher's corpses decomposed very quickly and leaving their corpses scattered about was a grave sin.

The reason was, they were quite rare and very expensive monsters. They had meat that had the same texture and flavor as crab meat, which had all but disappeared from the face of the earth.

Some species of Abyssal monsters have meat that is safe for consumption, this is also one of the keys to human success in survival. With no existence of plants and animals, forces them to change their diet completely and mutant spider bull meat will not turn into real crab meat just because they wish for it.

He couldn't bring the corpse in whole because of its size so he would try to cut the corpse into pieces to fit it through the door. As he reached for the small bag he always carried around, he slapped himself hard on the head because his favorite gauntlet was not inside.

"Sometimes I wonder how I managed to stay alive until now...."

Hazel just stood there looking at the Abyssal Screecher's corpse that would just rot away if he kept doing this all the time. After thinking carefully, he finally decided to take only the legs with him.

"Well, what else can I do." he complained as he exhaled in disappointment.

Hazel clicked his tongue again and then began to pull out the Abyssal Screecher's legs one by one. As he pulled them out, dark blue blood began to flow from the wounds and after he finished pulling out all eight of the Abyssal Screecher's legs Hazel quickly tidied up the mess he had made.

He piled up all the Abyssal Screecher corpses and doused them with the pitch-black liquid from the bottle in his bag. He only doused the top of the pile and then it started burning and created a huge bonfire. Hazel looked at the bonfire for a moment before he finally went inside with her loot.

It was common for a Hunter like him to burn the corpses of monsters if they or the company did not need them. It was done so that the corpses would not lure other monsters to come and plus monster corpses sometimes carried diseases that were harmful to humans. Therefore, they made this a kind of good and bad habit.

Burning the corpses of monsters in the middle of nowhere is a very risky act because the smoke produced can attract bandits. Because of this, burning monster corpses like this can only be done around cities that have a high level of defense.

After closing the gate, Hazel stretched his body a little before starting his journey again.

"Oops, I almost forgot one thing."

Hazel try to slowly open his helmet carefully. He turned the 2 small plates located at his ears and pressed the button hidden at the back of his helmet and with that it came off his head. He put down the visor which now turned into a gray mask with a Y-shaped opening covered with red glass, into his bag and breathed in the fresh air from his surroundings.

"There is nothing better than the smell of a fucking rotten blood in the morning."

He combed the disheveled brown hair covering his eyes with his hand, revealing eyes with red pupils as well as gray sclera. Hazel had a face that could be considered quite handsome and the addition of his neatly chiseled jaw gave him an aura of absolute masculinity.

He was currently in a suburban area that was very sparsely populated, no one wanted to stand in front of a crowd of monsters with sausage necklaces around their necks. Only certain people dared to set foot here and stay, such people were usually people who were desperate for their lives and could only sit back and wait for death to slap them hard. There were also Hunters who were deliberately assigned to the outskirts of the city to maintain security and order there.

Hazel lived in an apartment complex that was still livable. It was a very strategic location for Hunters like him who were assigned to the suburbs and there was no denying that the rent was very affordable. The apartment was about 500m from a secret entrance gate that only a few people knew about and was in a very secluded area.

The city of Brenkas has a region shape similar to an onion, it has a parapet inside and is divided into 3 regions. The outermost region or often called Out Far was a very dangerous region and also very downtrodden, only poor people who had no hope of life lived here as well as some Hunter assigned to this region. Next is the middle region or Hope Light is the residence of those who managed to climb the caste and free themselves from poverty, most of the people who live in this region work as Hunters. Lastly, the city center of Brenkas called Sun's Grace is a luxurious place where only certain people can live there and also this region is a place where technology is developed by talented people.

Hazel walked through what used to be a housing estate built here for the underprivileged, now it was abandoned and neglected. Despite the high level of danger, Hazel could still see one or two houses that were on the verge of collapse still being lived in. Sometimes he forgot how stubborn people could be but he couldn't complain about it either since it was a natural stupidity.

"Whoever cleaned up this place really is a fucking shithead." he muttered as he saw many slash marks on the roads and walls of the houses and not to forget the monster body parts scattered everywhere. 

Hazel could only smile and laugh, as he continued his journey back to his beloved palace.

After 10 minutes of walking, he finally arrived in front of a 4-story apartment complex. Each floor of the apartment had 4 rooms and there were 16 rooms in total, Hazel lived on the top floor which was his favorite place.

"Finally...."

Hazel climbed up to the top floor through the stairs carefully while carrying his quarry, he had a little trouble carrying the large spider legs but he finally managed to carry it to the front door of his apartment. He placed all his belongings on the floor and stretched again a bit, after which he reached into his bag to retrieve the card that was the door key.

"It's going to be a lonely night, might as well go to bed after a few drinks...." he muttered with a bit of sadness and disappointment, after a while he finally found his key and was quiet for a while.

"...."

Hazel stood still at the door as if he was waiting for someone to open the door and welcome him home. A warm smile on his face, he pressed the card he was holding earlier to the doorknob of his house until a click sounded. Slowly he placed his large hand on the small doorknob and began to open it.

When he opened the door, a very bright light shone directly into his eyes which momentarily blinded him.

But he wasn't angry or feeling threatened at all.

"Whoever planned this birthday surprise is really a genius and very reliable." he said with sarcasm, he was having a hard time not smiling happily.

""Happy birthday Mr. Hazel!""

Standing in front of him at this moment were none other than his two most beloved friends, the two of them had been planning this since...yesterday.

They both felt very bad about themselves when the person they respected the most had to celebrate his own birthday alone. Therefore, Felix, who was very busy with his work as a guild branch manager, decided to escape from his work and went to contact Groove. Groove herself would usually return to her home which was located far away in the southern tip of the city of Brenkas, it was millions of kilometers away and took her a whole day to get there.

"Uh, Groove. What about your kids and husband?" he asked with concern, he was glad that his two best friends were here to celebrate his birthday but instantly felt guilty when he realized that he was keeping Groove away from her family.

"I brought them."

"Eh?"

"I brought them all here thanks to the help of Felix and his silver flying vehicle."

"Silver Eagle, it's called Silver Eagle. "Felix protested because he felt that the airplane he bought with his 10-year salary was being underestimated.

"Well, whatever."

"So... where are the others?"

Groove didn't answer his question and only gestured for him to follow her, Hazel could only be confused and decided to follow her to the dining room and leave Felix to his own business. He could sense the presence of many people there and immediately understood Groove's intention and once there, Hazel couldn't help but feel happy in his heart.

""Happy birthday uncle Hazel""

"Happy birthday mister Hazel."

Hazel focused her attention on the 3 people in front of her, the first were 2 small children who had almost the same appearance as normal humans except that they had dark gray skin with blue tattoos on their faces. The second one had the same appearance, except that he had blue horns that resembled knives growing on his head.

"Gosh... you guys even decorated this room." he muttered while marveling at how festively decorated the room was.

Lots of colorful ribbons were hung there and here also not forgetting the balloons attached to the ceiling, Hazel also laughed a little when he saw the banner that said happy birthday but there were some spelling mistakes there.

"All of you... I don't know how to repay your kindness. Therefore, I'm going to cook my special recipe tonight!" he said as he lifted the Abyssal Screecher's leg into the air but due to the size of the room, it hit the ceiling and popped a few balloons.

".... "

After a short pause of silence, expressions of joy could be seen on the faces of everyone in the room. Hazel is not very good with his own friends, but he's good at making things go awkward. 

"Oooooh, tonight we party!!!" said Felix who came into the dining room with a box of canned fruit juice.

Suddenly it made everyone cheer and while they were all busy with the juice, Hazel immediately went to the kitchen to prepare the food but he stopped. He looked back and found the two little kids holding a can of juice in their hands, one of them shyly handed over the can of juice and Hazel happily accepted it.

"Thank you, Dika." he said with a friendly smile that made the boy in front of him even more embarrassed.

"You're welcome, happy 130th birthday uncle." replied the boy, he tried his best to maintain eye contact.

Hazel opened the can of juice and took a sip, the synthetic grape flavor stung his tongue with how cheap but refreshing it was. He headed back to the kitchen and peeked back slightly to see the boy returning to his twin sister.

"Good job Dika, this way we'll get an extra portion of Uncle Hazel's cooking." she said as she stroked her brother's head with a proud look on her face.

"Hehe, I told you to leave it to me, Cika."

He could hear the sound of happy laughter coming from the dining room, he eavesdropped a little on their conversation but it was mostly about everyday problems so he lost interest and went back to his work.

Hazel, who saw this could only shake his head, it's not every year that he could celebrate his birthday like this and so he tried to make this one the most memorable for himself. .

'I hope this peace lasts a little longer'

"But, if that really happens then... I'll try to find a life partner." he muttered while preparing a large pot to boil the Abyssal Screecher's feet.

"But it seems that can never happen, not if god intervenes."