Chapter 1
The Age of Awakening began, and the world was rocked by a cataclysm.
Then, Gates opened around the world.
Humanity, already numbering over 7 billion and nearing its limits, saw them as a source of hope and launched a massive investigation.
In fact, the dungeons beyond the Gates were El Dorados.
They contained substances never before seen on Earth, allowing humanity to overcome barriers that science had been unable to surmount.
The most notable of these was the mana stone.
When mana stones first emerged from the Gates, magic-type Awakened said they were merely materials for making magical items and the like.
But scientists discovered that mana stones remained superconductive at room temperature as long as they contained mana.
In other words, mana stones were the famous room-temperature superconductors.
It was the first great revolution to rock the scientific community.
They gave humanity, which had long fretted over oil prices, an inexhaustible source of power in the form of room-temperature nuclear fusion, and sparked innovation across every field of electronics and electrical engineering.
Some monster byproducts were new materials that could not be synthesized with existing materials science, as well as new substances that could not be produced through chemical engineering.
What's more, unlike Earth's ecosystem, dungeons didn't require anyone to worry about extinction due to overhunting.
After a little time passed following a raid, the monsters would regenerate and fill the dungeon again.
Thus, dungeons containing monsters made up of valuable materials were managed at the national level.
Countries with numerous Gates reaped even greater benefits than the oil-producing nations of the past.
The problem was that the only things allowed into these golden lands were the humans themselves and items acquired beyond the Gates.
It was only natural that the value of Awakened capable of entering dungeons and acquiring mana stones or monster byproducts skyrocketed.
Thus began the so-called Golden Age of Hunters.
**
Statistically, Awakened made up about 1% of the population.
In other words, Awakening itself was difficult.
On top of that, the knowledge or abilities gained through Awakening were completely random.
There were countless useless abilities, and fewer than 10% of Awakened had abilities that could actually serve them in a Gate.
That meant only 0.1% of the population could become Hunters.
It was the decisive reason Hunters lived like nobles.
What's more, a person could Awaken only once in their life.
And so, there was a saying.
An unscratched lottery ticket still holds hope, but a losing ticket you've scratched is just a scrap of paper.
A non-Awakened person's life was better.
At least they could live with the hope that one day they might Awaken—something with a 1% chance—and then gain a proper ability, with a 10% chance.
But what about those who Awakened useless abilities?
In the world of Hunters, they had to live a life without even a shred of hope.
That was my story.
That's what I thought.
That is, until I learned the true worth of my ability.