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 lay in the infirmary, breathing shallow and slow. His body was wrapped in gauze and healing cloths soaked in mana-rich salves. Strange runes still faintly pulsed along his chest, but the worst of the abyssal energy had been stabilized.

The only reason he was still alive was because of Yui.

Every day for the past three weeks, she had come in and placed her trembling hands over his heart. Her awakening had grown stronger—her healing magic refined beyond her years—but each time she used it on him, it drained her to the brink.

"Big brother…" she whispered, sitting beside his bed with swollen eyes. "Please… wake up again."

When his eyes opened this time, they stayed open.

His recovery was slow. His muscles had atrophied. His voice cracked when he tried to speak. But the doctors were stunned—his body was healing faster than it should have, and yet something inside him remained… damaged.

Fragments surfaced—darkness, hunger, a scream that didn't belong to him—but when he tried to piece them together, the pain was unbearable.

"Do you remember anything?" Kaede asked him quietly one day, sitting by the window.

"I… I remember going in," Ren said. "Then… shadows. Red light. Screaming. And then—"

His eyes widened. He grabbed his head.

The room darkened. The runes on his chest flared like wildfire.

Yui ran in and immediately placed her hands on him. "Stop! Stop thinking! Just breathe!"

Her light flooded the room, golden and warm, slowly dimming the chaos.

Ren collapsed into her arms, shaking.

"I don't want to remember," he whispered. "I think if I do… I won't be me anymore."

Kaede stood still, fists clenched at her sides.

She had hoped Ren's return would bring answers. Instead, it had brought silence, shadows, and a fragile boy who had walked through something no one could understand.

And whatever had happened down there—whatever he had become—it wasn't done with him.

Chapter 11: Pieces of the Void