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

Ren didn't return home that night. He sat with Kaede in the depths of the dungeon, surrounded by silence and the fading stench of death. The light from his chest had vanished, but something new pulsed beneath his skin—a dull, low throb, like a second heartbeat.

Kaede had wrapped her wound. She didn't speak for a long time. When she did, her voice was flat. "That thing obeyed you. You didn't fight it. You controlled it."

Ren shook his head. "No… I didn't control it. I devoured it."

She turned sharply. "What do you mean?"

"I felt it when it died," Ren said, eyes distant. "Like it became part of me. Not just its body—its rage, its pain. I felt it crawl into my thoughts."

Kaede stood, her blade half-drawn. "That's not an awakening. That's something else. Something wrong."

He stood with her, but the air around him had changed. It felt heavier, colder. Shadows clung to his movements. He looked at his hand and saw faint black veins twisting just under the surface.

When they reached the surface, the city had shifted again. More patrols. Streets half-emptied. News of dungeon beasts escaping the boundaries was spreading like wildfire. People were scared. And Ren could feel the fear like a scent in the air—it fed something in him.

That night, he stood alone outside his home. He watched the light in his sister's window. Listened to the sound of his mother coughing inside. The weight of their survival crushed his chest.

Instead, he wandered. The city's edge. The places where the lamplight didn't quite reach. Something followed him—always behind him, just out of sight. It whispered, not in words, but in memories.

He found a dying beast in an alley—a malformed goblin, barely clinging to life. Its eyes locked with his.

Ren felt the hunger rise again, and this time he didn't resist. He placed a hand on the goblin's head.

The creature turned to ash. The mark on his chest glowed faintly.

His voice was hollow when he spoke:

"I am not a hunter. I am not a scavenger. I am becoming something else."

Chapter 6: Hunger Beneath the Skin