Mikael_Guerrero_3059

In a world where nearly everyone awakens to powerful abilities at the age of fourteen, Ren Kisaragi remains powerless. Scarred by the trauma of his father’s death in a dungeon collapse, his awakening never comes, leaving him to survive as a scavenger—harvesting monster corpses to support his ailing mother and little sister, Yui.
Looked down on by hunters and ignored by society, Ren bears the weight of his family’s survival with quiet determination. But everything changes the day he encounters a forgotten creature deep within a dungeon. Marked by a strange symbol, Ren unlocks a terrifying new power—not from the world of light, but from the void itself.
As dungeons grow unstable and ancient threats awaken, Ren begins a dangerous descent—not just into the depths of the earth, but into the heart of what he truly is. Guided by pain, grounded by love, and shadowed by a power that could consume him, Ren must forge his own path. Not as a hero. Not as a monster.
But as the boy who refused to break.

Dungeons Scavenger:The Boy Who Couldn’t Awaken

Pain. Searing, blinding pain. It wasn't physical—it was deeper than that, like something buried in his soul had been torn open. Ren's scream echoed through the cavern as the mark on his chest exploded in crimson light.

The creature halted mid-lunge, flinching as if struck. Its eyeless face twisted in silent agony, its chains rattling violently.

Ren collapsed to his knees, gasping. The light wrapped around his arms like bands, crawling beneath his skin, settling into his bones. Memories not his own flashed before his eyes—visions of blood-soaked dungeons, of monsters kneeling in fear, of a man cloaked in red who walked among demons like a king.

Kaede was on the ground, bleeding from a gash in her side. "Ren..." she whispered, eyes wide. "What... what are you?"

He didn't have an answer. But he stood, body trembling, hand outstretched. The creature charged—and stopped inches from his palm, frozen. Its limbs twitched, but it could not move. Ren's shadow stretched unnaturally beneath him, and from it rose dark tendrils that wrapped around the beast.

He spoke a word he didn't understand. The dungeon responded.

The creature was torn apart in an instant, its remains vanishing in a puff of ash and silence.

Ren collapsed again, breath ragged. The mark on his chest dimmed, but didn't disappear. Kaede crawled to his side.

"You shouldn't be able to do that," she said. "That wasn't magic. That wasn't any known power."

"I know," Ren whispered. "I didn't awaken."

Chapter 5: The Lock Unseals