Solo Leveling SI-Devour Ch.2

Chapter 2

Ken-The Ghoul

For the first decade of his life, he had thought this to be an ordinary and simple world. He had thought it all a gift, an opportunity for a better life, until he had seen the entire world get turned on its head as the first ‘Gate’ appeared in the sky.

The monsters followed soon after, and as humanity found itself helpless, the Awakenings began, and ‘Hunters’ became a regular term.

It was then he realised that this world was not so simple, and neither was he.

No. This was a very dangerous world, one that faced a calamity that none could foresee.

But there was some hope, and so he, with his blessing, chose to live the best life he could. And while a hunter's powers became stagnant after his awakening, he was special for he had never truly ‘Awakened’

He had been blessed with power since birth. He would only come to learn of it later, and now, as he stood in the centre of a thousand corpses, of slain monsters, the dungeon boss looked down at him with no care at all.

A hulking beast with two horns on its head and a giant sword in its hand. His body was covered with thick scales, reminding him of a character he had seen in a comic book years ago.

“What was his name?” he whispered as he spat to the side and rubbed his chin, not caring about the scream and decimation that erupted as the dungeon boss jumped down from its throne and landed right infront of him.

BOOOM!

And he simply cracked his fingers, trying to think up the name as he processed the information he had just received from Korea.

“Korea, huh. I will need to go see my diary again. I think that was the place where it all beg....” yet before he could finish the dungeon boss was upon him and swung its giant sword at him.

BANG!

The entire upper half of his body was blown to smithereens as his torso fell down and began to bleed out, as the Dungeon Boss screamed and roared in triumph.

“ROARR!” the entire dungeon shook with his screams as blood pooled on the ground, yet as it turned around to get back to its throne, suddenly it stopped as a massive wave of mana gushed through the air.

WHOOOSH!

The ground cracked as the monster found itself unable to move at all.

CRACK!

It turned around, its red eyes gleaming with bloodlust as the sound of a crack spread across the room, and those red eyes widened as they saw the body of the hunter it had destroyed getting built right back, and as Ken felt his vision return as his eyes reformed, the smile from his face was long gone as he gripped into the monsters’ arm with all his might.

“Now, where do you think you are going so quickly?” and the beast screamed as its arms turned to mush in his hands, and it thrashed in pain, anger, and agony as it swung its weapon in rage at the Hunter.

Yet, unlike before, Ken had jumped back into the air before it could hit him, having already broken one of the Monster’s knees.

“ROAR!” the two-horned monster roared in agony as its sword cut nothing but air as Ken spun in the air above it.

“Stephen Wolf. That was the name,” he whispered as his eyes turned scarlet as he wound his fist.

The monster turned towards the source of the voice, spotting the Hunter who had just humiliated him, as it bared its fangs and gathered lightning in its sword.

“Interesting, Ken whispered, getting impressed by the power of the Dungeon boss, who somehow had access to magic.

And the beast swung its blade once more as lightning arched towards him, and Ken’s eyes narrowed, and just as the attack was about to hit him, an arm-like thing sprouted out of his back and put itself between them.

BOOOM!

Such was the force that he was swung across the room, and he hit the roof of the dungeon as he coughed up blood. His body seared in pain, and then he felt himself fall to the ground causing a crater as the monster celebrated its victory.

Yet as the dust cleared its roars stopped as Ken stood back up, his body now supported by four kagune coming out of his back, as he cracked his finger once more glaring at the monster.

CRACK!

He wiped away the blood from his mouth, as he took a step forward.

“I am going to have so much fun feasting on you, you bastard!”

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Hours later, Ken stepped out of the gate to the surprised face of a surprised government associate. His entire body was covered in blood, and the taste of that monster’s meat still lingered in his mouth as he addressed the bureaucrat.

“You will have twenty-four hours to transfer the rest of the money. I do not think I have to repeat what will happen otherwise,” he warned as the man nodded quickly.

“Yes, sir. There was a request from the Presid....” but Ken had already spent too much time on this, and wanted to know more about that new assignment they had just been offered.

“No. I have another job lined up. I will be leaving now,” and so he turned around and jumped up and away, leaving the man behind in the dust....

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A few days and a few flights later, he was back home. Or better yet, back in International waters on his yacht, which acted as his Headquarters, given that he had no legal residence for any country.

“So, what’s up, Jarvis?” he called out to his dear friend in the chair, whose eyes twitched at that name.

“I am not your fucking Jarvis,” and his name was Chris. They had been childhood friends, having met in school. Chris had always had a gift for tech, so when he had awakened and needed a manager, he had asked him to come with him, and they had been together ever since.

“My name is Chris,” he threw a soda can towards him, as he laughed and slapped it away.

“But you are my Jarvis,” and he sighed knowing that he was not going to stop.

“Whatever, you bastard!” he whispered as he plopped down on the sofa beside him.

“The money from the African job was wired. I have put it in your account,” and that was to be expected, for none of these nations would dare offend him, given that they knew that nothing could protect them from his wrath.

“Do you have any idea how much money you have?” Chris asked him, and he shrugged.

“Nope,” and Chris rolled his eyes.

“Billions. Literal Billions, yet you still continue to make more. Why do you still continue to do this? You could not lift a finger and still live a comfortable life,” and he could, but Chris did not know that a calamity was coming for them, and no one apart from him was ready for it.

“What about the guild I asked you to set up?” Forming a guild was an arduous and costly process, and so often, new and budding guilds would look to investors. He sponsored such guilds, allowing him to gain influence in Hunter circles all around the globe.

Now, he had simply merged them all into one big International guild, allowing him to gain a footing in the Hunter’s Ecosystem of all the major countries.

“Gluttony has entered the list of the top 10 International Hunter Guilds, but you cannot continue like this anymore. You will need to appoint a Guild Captain soon, because people have begun looking into them. It would be best if you revealed yourself as the man behind...” and he shook his head.

“No. I don’t want that hassle,” and Gluttony was his side project, an international Guild that had a special contract with the UN to help any and every nation in distress. Unlike regular guilds that were focused on profits, Gluttony’s main job was disaster relief.

And though they lacked an S-ranked Hunter officially, it had quite a few elite teams consisting of Hunters of various nationalities that all worked together to save as many lives as possible.

“Gluttony is becoming too massive. Only someone of S-rank or equivalent status can serve as its master, and recruiting an S-ranked Hunter is not so simple,” because most of them would never join Gluttony, because of the lack of money offered.

“You have to...”

“Tell me about the Korea job?” he asked, and Chris knew when to stop pushing as he picked up a tablet from the side and passed it to him.

“It’s a unique offer. They are planning another raid to take back Jeju Island,” Chris told him, as he read through the offer.

“Though they don’t want you to be a part of the raid. They just want you to handle a few gates and serve as backup,” and Jeju Island, he had read what little he remembered about the whole incident and it seemed like this was the third raid.

The one that was destined to fail.

They would lose many people, along with an S-ranked hunter, to this raid.

“It’s a shit offer really. I don’t think you should accept it all,” and the pay was not that great, and the Koreans were being rather cautious.

“What about that hunter I asked you to look into?” he asked as he put down the tablet, and Chris frowned.

“I don’t know why you are interested in an E-rank hunter, but I did look into it, and the thing is, I found no one by that name,” and the words made him still as Chris frowned.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes. I even hacked into the Korean Hunter Association to look into their backups,” and though he had forgotten much about this world, there were a few things he still remembered.

The Monarchs were set to raze this world to the ground.

And the only hope they had of surviving lay in the hands of an E-ranked hunter by the name of Sung Jin-Woo.

“You must have made a mistake,” he called out as Chris frowned, a bit insulted that he would make such an accusation.

“When have you ever known me to make a mistake, man? There is no one E-ranked hunter in Korea with that name. Let alone E-rank. I looked through all the ranks, and there is no hunter in Korea with the name that you gave me,” and that just complicated a lot of things.

“Fuck,” he cursed, which caused Chris to frown as his mind raced

“What happened? Why are you cursing? Was he a friend or a recruitment target?” he asked as Ken’s mind continued to race.

In the end, he opened his mouth and said only one thing.

“We are going to Korea....”

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