The air in the Seoul Hunter Academy training hall smelled of ozone, expensive floor wax, and the metallic tang of blood. It was a scent I had grown to loathe over the last sixty days.
"Again, Jin-woo. And try to actually look like you're an Awakened this time."
I wiped a mixture of sweat and grime from my eyes, my breath coming in ragged, shallow hitches. Opposite me stood Park Taeshin, a Rank-D "Bulwark" whose ego was significantly larger than his actual talent. He wasn't even using his ability; he was just enjoying the physical advantage of being six-foot-two against my scrawny, F-Rank frame.
"I'm trying," I wheezed, pushing myself up from the blue mats. My knees shook, and the fluorescent lights above felt like they were screaming.
"Trying isn't enough in a Gate, kid," the instructor barked from the sidelines, not even looking up from his tablet. "Rank-F is basically 'Civilian Plus.' If you can't even handle a light sparring session with a D-rank, you're just expensive monster fodder."
A few of the students on the bleachers snickered. I heard the nickname again—the one that had followed me since my appraisal. The Human Thermos. My ability was technically called Thermal Equilibrium. In the grand hierarchy of fire-wielders who could melt steel or ice-mages who could freeze a lake, I was the guy who could keep his skin at exactly 36.5°C. I couldn't produce heat. I couldn't throw ice. I just... stayed lukewarm. It was the most boring, useless power in the history of the 2026 Awakening.
"Come on, Thermos," Taeshin grinned, beckoning me with a thick finger. "Show us that world-shaking power. Warm me up a bit."
I lunged, a desperate, amateurish swing. Taeshin didn't even flinch. He caught my wrist with a meaty hand, and for a second, I felt the sheer difference in our mana density. It was like a bicycle trying to ram a freight train. He twisted, and I felt my shoulder pop before I was slammed back into the mats.
The world spun. I tasted copper in my mouth.
"Session over," the instructor droned. "Jin-woo, stay behind and clean the equipment. The rest of you, dismissed."
I lay there for a long time after the hall emptied. My mother had worked three jobs to pay for the prep-courses that led me here. She thought she was investing in a future Hunter who would buy her a house in Gangnam. Instead, she was paying for me to be a punching bag for the sons of chaebols.
By the time I left the Academy, the Seoul sky was a bruised shade of purple. The humidity was 90%, the kind of weather where you feel like you're breathing through a wet cloth.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. The screen was so cracked I had to squint to see the caller ID.
"Mom?"
"Jin-woo-yah," her voice was soft, but I could hear the exhaustion in it. "Are you finished with your training?"
"Yeah, Mom. Just... a lot of cardio today," I lied, wincing as I touched the bruise forming on my ribs.
"Good, good. Listen, I know you have exams coming up, but... it's the anniversary. Your grandmother. I wanted to go up Mount Inwang to tend the grave, but my hip is acting up with the rain coming."
I looked up at the mountain looming over the city skyline. It was shrouded in mist, looking like an ancient, sleeping beast.
"I'll go, Mom. Don't worry about it. I'll head there now before the storm hits."
"Thank you, Jin-woo. She always said you were special. She used to say she saw a dragon in your eyes when you were a baby. I know the Academy is hard, but don't give up."
I hung up and let out a long, shaky breath. A dragon. If only she knew.
The climb up Mount Inwang was brutal. Because I was F-Rank, my physical stats were barely above an average office worker's. By the time I reached the upper ridges, my lungs felt like they were filled with hot coals.
The rain started as a fine mist and quickly escalated into a torrential downpour. The granite rocks became slick as ice. I reached my grandmother's grave—a simple stone marker tucked away in a quiet clearing. I spent twenty minutes pulling the thick weeds and clearing the debris. I lit a small stick of incense, shielding it from the rain with my body until the tip glowed red.
"Hey, Grandma," I whispered. "I'm still an F-Rank. Sorry about that."
As I turned to leave, a massive crack echoed through the mountain. It wasn't thunder. It was the sound of the earth splitting.
A Mana Pulse hit me like a physical wave. My ears rang, and the ground beneath my feet simply vanished. The earth, loosened by the rain and the pulse, gave way.
"Crap—!"
I lunged for a pine root, but my hand slipped on the wet bark. I felt the sickening drop in my stomach. I hit the slope hard, my shoulder screaming in pain as I bounced off a rock, and then I was falling through a curtain of thick ivy.
I didn't hit the ground. I hit water.
It was shallow, maybe three feet deep, but the impact knocked the wind out of me. I lay there, gasping. I was in a cavern. The air here was different—it didn't smell like the mountain. It smelled like ancient dust and something sweet, like burning sandalwood.
I rolled onto my side, groaning. My vision was swimming, but as I looked around, I realized the water was glowing. It was a small pool, fed by a single, jagged stalactite that looked like a dragon's tooth. The liquid wasn't clear; it was a shimmering, iridescent gold.
[Notice: Primordial 'Dragon Marrow' Holy Water detected.]
[Age: 1,240 Years.]
[Purity: Divine.]
I stared at the blue box. This wasn't the Association's standard interface. This was sharper, more ancient.
I was thirsty. My throat felt like it was filled with needles. Without thinking, I reached out and cupped the golden water. I took a deep, desperate gulp.
It didn't taste like water. It tasted like I had swallowed a star.
"AHHHHH!"
I collapsed to my knees. The heat started in my stomach and exploded outward. It felt like my veins were being filled with pressurized steam. I could hear my bones cracking—not breaking, but expanding.
My pocket suddenly sizzled. I felt a sharp heat against my thigh as my phone's battery shorted out, the ancient mana from the pool instantly frying the electronics. I barely noticed.
[Critical Awakening Initiated.]
[Analyzing Vessel...]
[Vessel Rank: F. Quality: Poor.]
[Force-Evolving Mana Circuits...]
I felt my heart stop. Then, it beat once, so hard it felt like a hammer hitting my ribs. Then again. Each beat sent a wave of golden energy through me, incinerating the "F-Rank" circuits I'd been born with.
[Old Ability 'Thermal Equilibrium' has been consumed.]
[New Origin Found: The Last Draconic Sovereign.]
[New Ability Acquired: Eternal Solar Core (Rank: SSS).]
[Passive Skill Acquired: 'Universal Deception' (Rank: EX).]
The pain faded into a hum. I lay in the shallow pool, my chest heaving. My old clothes were shredded, my skin covered in a thin layer of black impurities that the mana had pushed out of my pores.
I scrubbed the foul-smelling sludge off in the glowing water, watching as the gold liquid purified my skin until it felt as hard as marble.
I stood up, and for the first time in my life, I didn't feel small. I looked at the stone wall of the cavern. I didn't punch it; I just tapped it with my knuckle.
CRACK.
A fissure ran from the floor to the ceiling.
"Holy... grandma, what did you lead me into?"
I found a crawlspace that led back to the surface. By the time I climbed out, the moon was high. I looked down at the city of Seoul. Two months of being a "Thermos." Two months of being a joke.
My phone was a dead piece of plastic in my pocket. I had no way to call a ride, but it didn't matter. I felt like I could run back to Mapo-gu without breaking a sweat.
[New Quest: The Hidden Predator]
[Goal: Return to the Seoul Hunter Academy without being detected.]
[Reward: Dragon's Eyes (Skill - Locked).]
I smiled. It wasn't the shaky, nervous smile of an F-Ranker. It was something sharper. Something that belonged at the top of the food chain.