Arcavion.
A planet where the influence of top Hunters now overshadowed even the laws of their nations.
The people practically worshipped them the real life heroes.
Their words held more weight for people than even the rulers of their countries.
But the world had not always been like this.
More than fifty years ago, Arcavion wasn't as modern, wasn't as technological, and certainly wasn't as human-dominated.
Back then, the elves stood at the pinnacle of all existence.
Their overwhelming affinity with mana, their naturally vast reserves, and their long lifespans placed them far above every other race. So much so that many believed:
If the elves wished to wage war against the world, they could conquer the entirety of Arcavion within a year.
Even the combined forces of humans, dwarves, and beastkin could not help but fall short to the absolute might of elves.
Where elves devoted themselves to the path of mana and magic, humans chased after them desperately—choosing to walk the path of aura and knights, hoping to prove themselves equals, as rivals.
But everything changed fifty-one years ago.
Gates appeared.
Ruptures in space, cracks in reality—
and from them poured monsters.
Not one.
Not a handful.
Dozens.
The smaller nations collapsed first.
Their armies were weak, their borders shattered.
In desperation, they begged the greater nations for aid.
But large nations did not sacrifice their own for charity.
When the smaller nations offered payment, even that was refused.
What the major powers wanted was not money—
They wanted control.
They wanted those countries as vassals.
The small nations resisted… but not for long.
As more Gates emerged and more cities fell, they realized their militaries were no match—neither in skill nor in numbers.
One by one, they bent their knees and surrendered their sovereignty.
Large nations expanded.
Empires were born.
To large nations gates were not threat, far from it. The rulers of large nations looked at gates as an opportunity.
An opportunity for expansion without waging war, a way to claim the smaller nations that dared to thinking of themselves as equals to the larger nations.
And towering above them all stood the Elven Empire—
The Yggdrasil Empire.
At its golden peak, Yggdrasil held
54% of the world's land
and
46% of its total population.
Even though four other empires existed—two human, one dwarven, one beastkin—none could rival the elves.
Infact their combined might couldn't rival elves.
Elf emperor naturally wished to expand even further, make this fellow empires into vassal of the Yggdrasil empire.
But then came the disaster that no one had foreseen.
A Gate appeared in the heart of Yggdrasil's capital.
A Gate Break.
The worst in recorded history.
It took twelve days to close that hellish rift.
Twelve days that scarred the empire forever.
The elves won, but at a cost that shattered their foundation.
Their military strength fell to one-third.
Their economy crumbled.
And worst of all—
Fear took root.
A deep, suffocating terror of Gates.
The once proud elves began ignoring army recruitment notices.
They avoided Gates entirely.
Even soldiers already in service sought excuses to escape Gate assignments.
They started seeing the gates with fear for their lifes.
They didn't care about the glory of Yggdrasil, not anymore.
The dreams of young elves to clear gates were bested by the fear left behind by that humongous monster.
And this fear spread beyond Yggdrasil.
Even the rulers of other empires could sense it. The fear in hearts of their people.
As news of the cataclysm reached other empires, their people too began to waver.
What once seemed like a pathway to glory now looked like a doorway to death.
Aspiring youths changed their dreams.
Military halls emptied.
Gate incidents soared.
To prevent total collapse, the rulers of all five empires gathered.
The Five-Empire Summit.
For the first time in history, the Elven Emperor was forced to sit at the same height as others—equal, no longer supreme.
He despised it.
But even he had seen the monster—the Behemoth that ruined his capital.
After eleven hours of bitter debate, a plan emerged.
A new force.
A completely autonomous organization tasked solely with Gate clearance and recruitment.
The Hunter Association.
The gate clearance one job of military would now be on shoulders of a new power.
A power controlled by none and soldiers replaced by Hunters.
And it changed everything.
They doubled the pay from what was previously given to soldiers.
They broadcast Gate clearances of elite Hunters, turning them into legends.
They ranked Gates based on energy levels, allowing safer distribution.
But the true spark—the one that set the world ablaze—was the Hunter Ranking System.
Hunters were classified from Rank E to Rank SSS.
The higher the rank, the greater the money, influence, fame, and privileges.
Suddenly, positions once ignored became the world's most sought-after roles.
As people started joining the ranks of hunters more and more—Guilds arose—private organizations that supported Hunters while offering far better payments than the association.
Within decades, the four major guilds grew powerful enough to rival all but the association itself.
And at the top of these guilds stood the strongest tankers.
The immovable walls of humanity.
Gate rankings followed the same scale as Hunters—E to SSS.
Infact gates rank classification was the basis of classification for hunter ranking system.
But even in history of almost fifty-one years of gates appearing in Arcavion.
only one SSS-rank Gate had ever appeared:
The Terror of Behemoth.
The very disaster that shattered the pride of the elves.
But now…
in the new age of Hunters and Gates…
someone carried a burning desire to restore what was lost.
A man who refused to let the glory of his race fade into history, stood at the entrance of hunter rank examination.
Jurion Valenhart
Second Prince of the Yggdrasil Empire.
The one who sought to reclaim the pride stolen by a monster.
Or more precisely the "Bastard prince of the Yggdrasil Empire"
---
"Hana, let's go. Or we'll be late." my voiced echoed outside Hana's room.
"Just 2 minute brother, I am almost ready"
'That's what she has been saying for previous twenty minutes.' i thought as a sigh escaped from my mouth.
⟦Girls, tend to take a bit more time to get ready~⟧
'This is not anywhere near a bit though'