32: An acquaintance

After Jin entered the portal, his body disappeared in a flash and slowly he opened his eyes, he could see himself in a very familiar place.

'I'm back at the school!'

He muttered to himself. Though his mouth was covered by his facemask, a wide smile had appeared on his face. How long has it been ever since he felt this feeling?

He looked around his surroundings and he could see students walking around and some of the students that were near his vicinity staring at him but not like a weird stare, they looked at Jin with curious eyes.

"Who's that guy?"

"I don't know, he must be a hunter."

"Looking at his attire, he might be a veteran hunter."

"Yeah, let's go take a picture."

"What? No way!"

He could hear the students talking to him with a slight admiration. This made Jin very uncomfortable so he walked at a fast pace towards the gate of the school and as he arrives at the gate, he was halted by the guard.

"Mr. Hunter, what are you doing in this school? Do you have any business here?"

The guard asked him like he was someone suspicious so Jin formally replied.

"Uhm, I was practicing my skill and I accidentally bumped here, I'm sorry if I cause a bit of ruckus."

"No worries, but what skill are you talking about?."

"This."

'[Stealth]'

"..!"

Jin instantly disappeared and the guard was shocked by this. He looked around his surroundings and saw that the mysterious person had completely disappeared.

'That guy, he's not a man but a youth? I must report this to the principal.'

••••••••

Jin hurried his pace. Right now, his ty was his mother. He didn't know what might have happened to her while he was away.

Arriving at his place, it was still the same as before, and there were some slight changes to its structure but it was still his home.

'Mom, I hope you're fine.'

Jin knocked on the door but no one answered it so he tried twisting the doorknob.

"It's locked."

No one was home at the moment and the only place Jin knew where his mother could have been was the hospital where she was confined.

'She should be there, if she's not there, I don't know what I can do anymore.'

Jin quickly fastened his pace while activating [Stealth], his attire right now made him look mysterious so it was good that he had concealment abilities, if he didn't, he might have been arrested by the police.

Upon arriving in the hospital, he needed to find her room but he couldn't ask the nurses because it would cancel his stealth so his only choice was to sneak and fiddle with the computer.

'This is gonna be hard.'

He said to himself. He slowly sneaked towards the computer in the clerk's seat and waited until the clerk was not looking.

When the clerk was checking on some files on the small wardrobe, Jin immediately typed on the keyboard the name of her mother and see if anything would appear, and fortunately, her name popped up on the computer showing her information and room number.

'Room 420.'

Jin walked away and climbed up the stairs since this would give him enough time before his duration of [Stealth] would disappear.

He arrived at the room where her mother was in and slowly opened the door. Upon entering the room, he saw her mother fast asleep with the monitor on his side checking her heartbeat.

"Mom."

Jin sat down on the side of his bed and tears drop down his eyes. He thought that his mother had passed away but luckily she was still beating normally.

She held her delicate arms crying out his heart.

"I'm sorry, I've been such a terrible son, I had never seen the efforts that you had done for me. Please, let me carry your burden..."

He said to her sobbing as he looked at her figure. She had become very thin but his beauty was still glowing. Jin touched her forehead and brushed her black hair.

"Honey, I'm back."

Suddenly, a middle-aged man entered the door, carrying a bag of food. He had brown hair, a slim figure, he wore reading glasses, a very formal attire like he had been just in a meeting.

Jin wanted to activate [Stealth] back but it was still in cooldown so he had no choice but to confront the mysterious man.

"Who are you? And what are you doing with my wife?!"

After the middle-aged man saw the mysterious man sitting beside his wife, immediately he drew out a sword from his spatial inventory pointing it towards Jin.

Jin, on the other hand, stood up gesturing on his hand to stop.

"Wait! You're her husband?"

Jin confusingly said. He was sure that the man didn't look like her former father and even if she had another husband, she had already become a single mother for many years and after she was in her coma, there was no anothepersonle besides him that took care of her while she was ill.

"Yes! Wait a minute here? Whoarmy middleeeeee-agedededed man asked Jin who was also confused about the situation? So to answer the man's doubts, Jin removed his mask showing his face to the man.

Quickly the man droppedpeddddis sword on the ground and his face was now stricken by surprise.

Tang!

"My name is-"

"Jin!"

Before Jin could say his name, the man had already known of his identity after he saw his face.

"How'd you know?"

Jin asked. See ed out of his eyes. Jin wondered why was the man crying in front of him.

"Are you okay?"

Jin asked the man but the man quickly embraced Jin, hugging him tightly as he cried out.

"I was looking for you for 30 years and finally, you are here!"

"Wait! 30 years?!"

Jin pushed away from the man as he was dumbstruck by what he had said.

"Y-you don't know? After we trained 10 years and returned rth, 20 years had already passed?"

'What the fu..'

Jin wanted to curse but eventually swallowed his words. 20 years had already passed ever since he was in the paused world, he thought that only half a year had passed after the pause phenomenon started.

Jin sat down on a chair and tried to recall what had happened in thone one time was also paused, he wasn't certain how much time passed.

"Where had you been this past year? I thought you were dead?"

"I was trapped back in the other world luckily an angel helped me escape."

"Oh really? You look slightly bigger than what your mom said."

"My mom was awake?"

"Yeah, when we were transported in the other world, I saw your mom in a very worried look, he was trying to find yoforhe past ten years and I was there to help her. In those ten years, we didn't find you no matter where we go but we shared long bonds ell in love. I proposed to her and she said yes and we could only properly get married if you would accept our decision but when we arrived back on h, his body couldn't adapt to the mana changes and was struck by an incurable illness that placed her in an endless coma. Even in the past 20 years, there had been a cure for COVID-19, HIV, Sars, Ebola, and even Cancer but this illness didn't have one, but there were rumors that there are antidotes that can cure this disease but there were only were out of wiressweresss they cost very much that is why I am leisurely doing my job as an A-rank hunter, raiding dungeons so I could save up enough money to buy the antidote before they ran out."

After the man explained the situation, Jin saw that this guy had taken care of and loved his mom for many years so he was very thankful for the guy.

"I know youknowwwwt I can see that you truly love my mom, maybe I can help buy the antidote."

"My name is Abraham."

"Abraham? I think I heard of that name before? Where was it? Oh! Are you the famous journalist?"

"Yeah? I was that famous?"

"Of course! I had looked up to you on how kind you were to give hunters pointers."

"Hehe, it was nnotnothingtalked about this and that and finally, Jin knew the many changes that happened to the earth.

After they had returned, many years, there had a riot with the unstable rules of the people. But thankfully the government had become so strict when relating with hunters so they added many rules that must be followed and thankfully the past years, everything had become okay.

Because of the power of mana flowing to everyone, the lifespan of an average person could reach up to hundreds, and depending on your level, your lifespan would increase by much. Also, those who had just been born had ved the power of mana so even if they were an infant, they are already hunters.

There were many changes in the dungeons. Giant gates would appear in every country once every year and these gates served as the hunting grounds for many hunters. Also, instant dungeon portals would pop up almost every 3 days, and they served as the most prioritized raiding place.

Dungeons had now been classified by their color. Blue is the basic type of dungeonatmdungeons most are, the bigger the portal, the stronger the monsters.

There have been newly invented things that checked the ranking of the portal from F to S ranked.

If the color of the dungeon is red, it was called locked dungeon because upon entering the dungeon, the portal would be closed and they had to defeat the boss so the portal would open or survive for weeks until the portal would eventually open similar to the portal that Jin had entered.

If the color of the dungeon is yellow it was called swarm dungeon. The name itself already gave the definition. After it would pop out, all the monsters inside would appear by wave and wreaked havoc. If the wave of monsters had been successfully hunted, in just a few minutes, another wave of monsters would appear but are stronger compared to the previous. These waves would go up to 5 rounds and in the last round of waves, the boss would finally appear.

Some portals form in a square shape that appears once every 2 years, these dungeons were called labyrinths since upon entering, they must defeat the boss on the first floor and goes up to the next floor until the last floor where bountiful rewards could be acquired.

But Labyrinths were difficult, the difficulty of every floor was multiplied by almost 3 times so only several Labyrinths that could be counted in one hand had been successfully cleared.

Also, the most crucial change was that once a hunter died, he wouldn't respawn. They would die and never return so this was very scary.

Monsters in this world didn't disappear in ashes after it was killed, their corpse would remain intact and could be used to forge different types of equipment and every monster had now power stones in their body. These power stones are used to add more power to equipment or used as an ingredient for alchemy so they can be sold at a high price depending on the rarity of the stone and what type of monster it was from.

There were now rankings for hunters. Based on your level, you would be categorized from the weakest to the strongest.

• Level 1-10= F-rank

• Level 10-20= E-rank

• Level 20-30= D-rank

• Level 30-40= C-rank

• Level 40-60= B-rank

• Level 70-80= A-rank

• Level 80-100= S-rank

• Level 100+= Lord Rank

This was the ranking system for the hunters. If your level rises by a certain level, you would be given special authority and would entirely become rich and famous.

Those who reached Lord Rank had become Kings and Queens in their countries but only 10 had been able to reach the lord rank and every lord rank was very powerful and unique.

Some quests are given by many hunters and every quest done gave specific rewards to the hunters depending on the difficulty of the quest.

Lastly, you needed Hunter's License before you can start participating in dungeon raids and fight off monsters.

But to get Hunter's License, Jin needed to finish his school first and get a diploma. Since he stopped in his 1st year, he needed to return to class.

•••••••••••••••

"Do I have to?"

"You must if you want to get Hunter's License. Don't worry, I'll take care of the paperwork but first, we need to go home and change your attire, your clothes are already arranged in your room."

"Okay, Mr. Abraham."

"Mr.Ab should be fine."

Abraham and Jin arrived back at their house. Upon entering the doorsteps, Jin was met with a familiar sensation and his body had felt home at last.

He entered his room and seeing that nothing had changed except it was more cleaner Jin immediately lay down on his bed and placed all of his equipment that he had worn back to his inventory and wore more comfortable clothes.

"Ah, I'm back."

Jin leisurely stretched his body and thought of the harsh things that he had gone through. He knew that he deserved this comfort now that he had become 50 years old.

"Jin, let's eat."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

Jin stretched his body and went to the living room. He saw many foods placed on the table looking very tasty and just right now, his body was craving for foods.

"Ooh! This looks good!"

Jin ate a mouthful of food right down his mouth. Abraham looked at Jin with a smile on his face now that he had finally seen the most precious person that her wife had been longing to find.

'Don't worry honey, he's now safe.'

They both acted on the table happily talking about what Jin would do in school and what were the changes so Abraham told him everything he knew.

"By the way Mr. Ab, what's your level now?"

"Oh me? I'm level 74 right now."

"Woah really?"

"Yeah, and how about you?"

"I'm level 101."

"Whaaa!?"