“Are you ok? You look a little stressed.” Kailan asked as he watched Director Morris rub his temples.

“Fine. Let’s continue where we left off. So basically, you’re level 1. With a focus on offensive stats and minoring in defensive and speed stats. You also possess skills that boost hand-to-hand and sword type combat as well as thunder, support, nature and curse magics. Is that about it?” Director Morris straightened himself out and adjusted his tie as he reiterated everything they had covered up until now about Kailan’s combat information.

“That’s right.”

“As for your combat style, you’re a damage dealer with support type skills for buffing and debuffing. And your weapon preference is something called a Nodachi?” The Director continued. He wasn’t familiar with what a Nodachi was but he assumed it was some type of sword.

“Exactly. A Nodachi is a large katana style blade. Typically around 150 centimeters long with a hilt of around 30 centimeters. It’s also commonly called an Odachi. It’s a large two-handed blade weapon comparable to a great sword. Although the type of Nodachi I prefer is 180 centimeters long on its blade with a 30 centimeter hilt.” Kailan explained.

“Hm. It’s a rare combat style. Most people go with a ‘pure build’, focusing on a particular aspect of combat. What combat skills do you currently have access to?”

“For martial arts Destruction Palm which is a powerful palm strike. For sword skills, Solid Thrust, which is a forward blade thrust. For Thunder Magic, I have Wrapped in Thunder, a basic enchantment skill that adds the thunder attribute to my attacks. For Nature Magic, Grasp of Vines, which is a control skill that stops an opponent. For Support Magic, Healing Hands, which can heal basic injuries. And for Curse Magic, Weaken, which reduces the physical defense of an opponent.” Kailan explained each of his basic skills in turn.

“Considering these you really do use your magic to support your melee combat.” Director Morris exclaimed in surprise. Not only did he use them to support himself, he used them to control his opponent. Who could possibly challenge him at the same level?

“So many skills… And talk about a balanced build. There’s combat support, self-recovery, control and offense. With that setup it’s no wonder Gaia labeled you as having Mortal rank power.” Eva chimed in with her own analysis.

“Well, I was trained by some of the greatest warriors in all of the realms.” Kailan just shrugged. If he had access to all of his skills he would truly be a force to be reckoned with. Maybe only half of the Hunters on Earth would be able to contend with him then.

“You don’t understand. Level 1 Hunters rarely have access to two or maybe three combat skills when they first start out. Skills aren’t something you can simply ‘learn’. Sometimes if you have years of dedicated training a skill may be generated for it, otherwise the only way to obtain new skills is to learn them from skill books or other skill transmitting media, which only drop as loot from dungeons. Even then that doesn’t guarantee that person can learn it. For you to have so many skills…” Eva continued in astonishment.

“Well, but also consider that I’ve trained for a thousand years. And my level was originally much higher. I’m only a level 1 now because I was forced to be. So mine is more of a special case.”

Kailan could understand what Eva was saying. He knew much more about how Gaia’s systems worked and it really was rare for someone to learn new skills. In general a being around level 10 might have 2-3 combat skills, plus whatever innate skills they were born with. And someone around level 30 might have 4-5 combat skills. Many level 50 creatures he met didn’t have more than 7 combat skills total.

“Well, we can safely say that you’re well rounded. What about your innate skills?” Director Morris got over his astonishment and refocused the conversation.

“I have three. Indomitable Skills, Lord of Magic and Lord of War. Indomitable Skills gives all of my skills the Indomitable modifier, making it so that they cannot be affected by outside forces like enemy debuffs. As for Lord of Magic and Lord of War, they enhance my physical and magical abilities and make it easier for me to learn magic and combat skills. All three are Demon rank.”

“Demon rank?” Everyone was stunned, but Douglas was the first to exclaim it. “How do you have Demon rank innate skills? No wait, you have God rank skills too right?” At first he couldn’t understand it, but then he thought about it for a moment and it did make sense.

“Well, yes. I have God rank skills, but all of them are sealed. My Demon rank innate skills however were my original innate skills.” Kailan explained.

“By original, you mean you possessed them before becoming God rank?” Director Morris asked contemplatively.

“That’s right. I was originally a Demon rank talent, I became God rank because of the circumstances that pulled me through to Asgard.”

Director Morris now understood that regardless of becoming a God or not, Kailan was destined for greatness. He was a Demon rank Hunter. Presently there are no Hunters with a talent rank higher than King. If Kailan had remained on Earth he would presently be the top number one Hunter in the world, making the US the top power.

“Wait. I don’t understand. I thought you trained to become a God, now you’re saying you became one when you got pulled through the rift?” Douglas didn’t know how to make heads or tails of this. There was something he was missing. A lost puzzle piece somewhere.

“Ah, I guess I didn’t really explain that well. Let me start over. When Gaia first activated in Midgard my talent rank was Demon and I had those three innate skills as well as the basic martial arts and sword passives along with Destruction Palm and Solid Thrust. I also had Thunder Magic and Support Magic along with the two related skills I mentioned earlier. I was human at the time.” Everyone was able to follow up to here.

“When the Merger occurred, somehow, a rift formed inside of my heart. Gaia activated the Dungeon Management System creating a dungeon around all of the initial rifts throughout the realm, including the one inside of me. But by that point the rift had already started to merge with my body. So when the dungeon formed it also formed around me. This created a major error in Gaia’s systems as there are protections in place in case of lifeforms being in the area of a collapsing rift that is being dungeonized.” Kailan continued his explanation.

“Wait, so a rift and a dungeon formed inside of your heart?” Douglas questioned confusedly.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Yes, and because the rift and I were merging it also drew in the dungeon merging it with my heart as well and ultimately the rift collapsed, dragging me along with it. Dropping me right in the middle of Asgard.”

“That sounds painful.” Douglas stated with a pained look.

“It was. Imagine having your body ripped apart at the cellular level, stitched together with the fabric of space and then nailed back together. Something like that.” Kailan said as he shivered, recalling the event that led to him winding up in the halls of Valhalla.

Everyone’s throat became dry and they cringed. A 14 year old boy having to go through that. Even an adult might not be able to withstand it. Director Morris, Eva and Douglas had a new found respect for Kailan.

“The safe-guards Gaia implemented played a part in preserving my life, but I still had a rift that had been dungeonized, and was collapsing and rebuilding itself inside of my heart, infinitely. Eventually a state of homeostasis occurred and my heart transformed into a Dungeon Core with the infinitely collapsing dungeon inversing into an infinitely expanding one. This also transformed my own abilities giving them the same infinite potential. And the only beings in existence that have infinite potential are the Immortals and the Gods.”

“So, because this dungeon formed inside of you, you were able to obtain infinite potential which transformed you into a God?” Director Morris was feeling a bit of a headache coming on. This whole thing was way more complicated than he had imagined.

“Sort of. My heart becoming a Dungeon Core and forming an infinitely expanding dungeon transformed my talent rank, but there is so much more to being a God. I only truly became a God after being guided and trained by the Gods themselves.”

“So do you still have that dungeon in your heart, and what does that even mean?” Eva asked. She could imagine the pain and suffering Kailan had to go through to reach this stage. But she didn’t quite understand what it meant to have a dungeon inside of one’s heart. Director Morris and Douglas were also curious on this point as well.

“Yes. My heart is a Dungeon Core and that can’t be reversed. Although it’s extremely unique among Dungeon Cores. For instance it cannot be invaded or claimed. Basically I have an eternal dungeon inside of me. It works similar to a dungeon mine, where everything is formed from concentrated Mana. There are enemies, floors, bosses and even loot. I can enter it at any time as long as I’m not in another dungeon. And the dungeon resets every day, except for the base floor which is a safe zone and the entryway into the dungeon halls.”

Eva’s eyes popped open in astonishment. “Then you don’t even need to enter dungeons to train. You can just enter your own dungeon and train whenever you want to.” This was way beyond anything she knew was possible. First Kailan was a God now he’s a living breathing Dungeon.

“Technically yes.”

Director Morris was truly beginning to understand how terrifying Kailan really was. Firstly he’s a God with power over Gaia. Secondly, his original talent was already extraordinary, and now it’s even higher. Thirdly, his list of skills are beyond any of the other Hunters in the world, even the best. And then there is this dungeon ability. Where did the limits of Kailan’s powers end exactly?

“Alright. I think that’s more than enough. Let’s just keep the dungeon heart piece between us for now. It isn’t important for what we are doing.” Director Morris was too surprised by Kailan’s latest revelation. This information was too shocking and had far too many implications of its own, so he thought it best to not let this part leak out. He didn’t even plan to add it into his report.

Eva and Douglas both nodded, understanding his meaning.

“Normally we would pit you against a member of the bureau in a spar to observe your combat skills more closely, but I don’t believe that will be necessary.” Director Morris didn’t think that it would be safe for anyone to face Kailan head on.

Kailan nodded his head in agreement.

“But we do need to talk about your talent rank. Obviously we can’t put God on it. We could go ahead and put Demon on it, but that would draw a lot of attention. The lowest we could probably pull off is King rank considering how quickly you’ll level and how strong you are. Still, there will be a lot of attention on you, it’s going to be unavoidable.” Director Morris laid out his thinking.

“He’s underestimating the growth potential of a God. Not to mention how much more powerful a God is to a King rank. Of course my leveling speed will be even faster than a normal God thanks to my Heart Dungeon.” Kailan thought to himself. It was going to be problematic no matter what he did.

“We could try lowering the rank even more but that would depend on how well you can hide your own abilities. Personally I think that we should go with King rank. You’ll have a lot of attention but that will happen eventually regardless. If we set you to Demon rank the explosiveness of such a revelation will be at least 10 times that of if we were to say you're a King rank.” Eva explained her opinion.

“Eva is right. If we place you at King rank then there will certainly be a lot of media coverage and attention on you but not anywhere near as much as if a brand new ranking came out. Basically we can hide you with the other King ranks this way. But you should know, there are only around 300 King rank Hunters in the entire world. So this will become international news. But as she suggested, if you can hide your abilities well…”

“No. Even if I hide my abilities there’s still my growth. It’ll be way too fast to rationalise. I don’t know what time table the Bureau is thinking about, but it’s more likely than not that my existence as a God will come out in at most a few years and in as little as a year. A God’s growth rate is several times faster than a mere King rank.” Kailan interrupted as he tried to impress upon everyone that their attempts to camouflage his status would be useless no matter what.

“The fact of the matter is, a new rank will be released soon. So wouldn’t it be better to start with a rank that is more reasonable to soften the blow that my God status will have later. My talent rank was originally Demon, had I remained on Earth I would still be the only Demon rank today. This would also work better to cover my fast growth rate as well as my strength since no one knows the specifics of a Demon rank.” Kailan rationalised his own opinion. It actually seemed more plausible than the Bureau’s ideas, but there was one problem.

“Kailan, up until this point the only reason you haven’t had to deal with a lot of reporters is because we have been dealing with them for you. It’s a part of the protections afforded to Returnees. However, if you go through with this, then we will only be able to mitigate some of the pressure from the media in the future. You will have to deal with them on your own on many occasions. There will also be a lot of pressure and attention from the rest of the world and even people here in the US. Not to mention the 300 plus King ranks. Some of them won’t be happy that there is a power greater than they are in the world.” Director Morris cautioned Kailan against this decision. It was risky, but it also had a lot of good points that would work better in their favor than any of the other options. Still, the downsides were obvious.

“I know. I’m not really worried about the media so much as other factors. I would rather we be able to hide my status as a God for a longer period of time over taking the risk that it could be exposed. The fallout of releasing my rank as Demon I can deal with, the fallout of letting the world know that a God lives in Broad Ripple Indiana, I presently don’t have the power to deal with.” Kailan explained his concerns.

He had thought this through thoroughly. In fact he had thought about it the day before. He knew that talent ranks were released to the public by law once Hunters completed their reviews even before his siblings had told him. Which is why he carefully considered his options and the potential consequences. It was better this way than to allow any potential holes in their story to arise. The moment there’s a hole, there will be someone there to dig it deeper.

“Very well. If you’re certain, we’ll set your talent rank to Demon on the official database. Are you absolutely sure?” Director Morris cautioned with his eyes as he once again confirmed.

“I’m sure. Let the world know, there is a Demon walking amongst them.” Kailan grinned.