However, it was harder to use for those without abilities that enhanced their skill. The process involved drawing mana out of the body, giving it an element and shape.
Every god granted their followers a natural affinity for certain elements — while anyone could technically shape their mana into any element, it was far easier for someone marked by a sea god, for example, to manifest water, and so on.
What was strange, however, was that Sola felt no connection to any element at all.
The reason was obvious, too — he was marked by something unknown.
As a result, he struggled far more than other students when trying to control any element, while most only had difficulty handling the ones they weren't naturally attuned to.
The last class of the day was the training class.
Sola practiced sword and axe fighting with other students. Teacher Beth made sure they fought without awakening their marks, so everything depended solely on their weapon skills. Most of the battles Sola fought, he lost — but his technique was still impressive for someone fighting with only one hand.
Before becoming a hunter, Sola and his sisters were living very poorly.
Because of their parents' early death, both of his sisters were forced to drop out of university and work full-time so Sola could continue studying in school.
Now he received quite a lot of money just from being a student in the academy. On the other hand, he was obligated to fight the monsters if a gate opened near him.
Before, a private carriage was a luxury he couldn't afford, but now it wouldn't even leave a dent in his wallet. Still, he chose to walk there just because he felt bad spending money on those types of things when both of his sisters were working all day for him, and also, the hospital was pretty close.
He bought some flowers on his way and went to the hospital. Seeing both of them in a battered state made him feel bad. He quietly sat in front of them, thinking that he must become stronger to protect his sisters at all costs.
All of their hospital bills were covered by the government because he was a hunter, so he decided to go to the bank, which was close to the academy. He arranged it so that the monthly allowance he got from the government could be accessible to his sisters as well. It was six gold coins every month, and there would be bonuses when he fought the monsters. He was so happy to tell his sisters that they didn't have to work anymore.
After that was done, he walked towards the academy. His head was hurting badly, and he had a really bad feeling in his stomach.
Everything became clear when he heard a scream. Looking in the direction from which the sound came, Sola saw a black, purplish portal opening near someone's house, completely tearing one side of it.
The portal was getting visibly bigger, and it stopped once it was about four meters tall and the same in width. Sola told everyone nearby to contact other hunters, as he was going to go into the portal in one minute.
He knew what he had to do, even though he was scared. Monsters from the gate could easily reach the hospital and kill every human in there, including his sisters. So, about a minute later, before the monsters had any chance to come out, he went straight in.
As soon as Sola stepped in, he was enveloped by nothingness, and he heard a familiar soothing voice again.
[Welcome to the Tier III gate, Ashen Sola]
Sola found himself in the dark expanse once again, and before he could analyze what the system said, it continued.
[You must kill the dungeon guardian to conquer it.]
[Good luck!]
After a familiar blinding light, he found himself in a cave.
Summoning his axe, he started exploring the cave carefully, hoping that other hunters would enter the gate as well.
And after some time, he heard it.
[Another challenger has entered the gate.]
Whoever it was, they did not spawn where he did, so he went searching.
Everything in the cave was different from how the guy in the academy described it—there were no monsters around.
There were only their dead bodies on the ground, which was very disturbing.
After some more exploring, Sola found an entrance that had runic symbols on top of it.
Looking at it, he understood what it meant, even though he had no idea what each symbol represented.
It said that this was the section where the main monster was.
Sola had a suspicion that The Dungeon guardian was also dead so he peeked in and his theory was correct.
Seeing the huge monster dead, he entered the large section of the cave, wondering why he hadn't been teleported back if the monster was already dead.
And the monster was freshly killed as well.
[Another challenger has entered the gate.]
Sola thought that the five-minute timer was up, but he heard the voice again.
Looking around, he saw a huge rock which was covering the entrance of a small room, on top of it were the same runic symbols which said:
'Here lies the Traitor's child'
Sola tried to move the rock but to no avail, it was too big to even bulge and it felt like something magical was protecting it from moving.
As soon as he stopped, he heard a familiar voice.
"Who are you?"
It was Edric who couldn't see his face in the shadows.
"Well, the body I am in right now belonged to your friend, I assume?"
Sola said and laughed menacingly.
Edric's face darkened, and he summoned a dagger in his hand and slowly approached Sola.
Sola's expression changed.
'Did this four-eyed shithead really believed it?'