Global Awakening: Starting With Ten SSS-Rank Talents

The Beyond.

It was the name humanity had given to the vast otherworld accessible only to the Awakened through Descent.

Unlike Dungeons, which physically manifested as spatial tears directly on Earth, the Beyond was an entirely separate world, an unimaginably vast land filled with ancient ruins, dead civilizations, unexplored territories, and cosmic dangers that humanity had barely begun to comprehend.

Yet, that extreme danger was precisely what drew countless Awakened into its depths.

The Beyond possessed raw resources that simply couldn’t be harvested on Earth. Monster Cores, Evolution Crystals, legendary Relics, and monster-derived Vestiges were all scattered across its dangerous biomes, capable of entirely transforming the strength and future of any hunter lucky enough to survive the acquisition.

To navigate this hostile realm, humanity had established crude footholds known as Citadels, ancient, protected structures where monsters could not enter, serving as settlements where the Awakened could rest, trade, gather information, and heal before venturing back out into the wild.

If Dungeons were the shield where the Awakened accumulated raw mana fuel to increase their ranks, then the Beyond was the sword where they sought true runic evolution.

For anyone wishing to climb beyond the mortal limits of their Divine Rune, entering the Beyond was eventually unavoidable.

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Time passed slowly as Jet continued his trek through the dense, unforgiving terrain of The Thousand Boughs.

The initial, painful lesson he had learned from the ambush of the Black-Fang Hyena remained burned into his mind.

He moved with heightened vigilance, his white pupils continuously darting through the heavy shadows cast by the primeval canopy. He was no longer the completely blind civilian he had been an hour ago.

When two more Lesser-ranked beasts tried to jump him from the thick brush, Jet was prepared. He used his making-shift ironwood stake to aggressively parry their claws, relying on the raw physical enhancements of his active rune to drive the point through their skulls.

With every single life-or-death encounter, his practically non-existent combat experience grew at a tangible, rapid pace.

Guided by the passive effects of his Asura Physique, his mechanical efficiency and motor reflexes were developing at a visible speed.

His body was automatically learning how to breathe through the physical strain, adapting its balance to the uneven, root-choked forest floor.

But his rapid growth did not mean the journey was smooth sailing. Jet was pushed into a desperate corner multiple times. His raw combat experience was still heavily lacking compared to the native predators, and his only defensive tool was a single, splintering ironwood stake.

Walking through the quiet intervals of the forest, he deeply regretted rushing headfirst into the Beyond without purchasing a proper, factory-grade steel blade or an armored survival vest from Earth’s specialized markets.

He had been in too much of a frantic hurry to begin his progression, and now he was paying the price in blood. Several agile, insectoid monsters managed to successfully bypass his guard, inflicting deep, burning lacerations across his legs and shoulders that made him sweat bullets from the sheer exhaustion.

Every single fresh injury made Jet grit his teeth in silent regret, cursing his own lack of survival preparation before jumping blindly into this living hellhole.

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BANG!

A colossal, grotesque corpse crashed heavily against the damp earth, causing the forest floor to violently vibrate under the sudden displacement of weight.

The creature was an absolute monster, a massive, car-sized caterpillar measuring exactly four point eight meters in length. It was a grotesque abomination known to advanced rune researchers as a Spine-Backed Myriapod.

Its bloated, cylindrical body was covered in a thick, segmented exoskeleton that resembled decaying, fluid-soaked tree bark. Dozens of short, translucent yellow legs protruded from its underbelly, still twitching in post-mortem spasms.

Along its entire spine, clusters of hollow, calcified white needles bristled like defensive spears, each dripping a thick, chartreuse paralytic fluid that hissed whenever it dripped onto the mossy earth. Its bulbous, featureless head was dominated by a pair of massive, horizontal black mandibles that could easily snap an adult human’s torso cleanly in two.

[ You have killed the Spine-Backed Myriapod Caterpillar. ]

[ You have received one Lesser Monster Core. ]

Jet’s breathing was incredibly rough, his chest heaving violently as he sat heavily upon the dead, deflating torso of the giant insect.

His makes-shift ironwood spear had finally snapped cleanly into two useless pieces during the final, desperate clash, the jagged remnants lying discarded in the dirt.

Dark monster fluid and his own crimson blood were smeared across various places on his skin. His casual black clothes were thoroughly torn into tattered rags, exposing the faint outlines of his unawakened, sealed tattoos beneath.

His face was exceptionally pale from pure physical drainage, his fingers lightly fiddling with the newly materialized crimson marble in his right palm.

”This guy... was completely tough,” Jet muttered, forcing a dry smile onto his cracked lips as he lightly tapped the segmented armor of the myriapod with the heel of his boot.

The caterpillar’s hide had been like layered leather, requiring him to repeatedly bash his fists against the same joint for fifteen minutes just to crack the exterior casing and allow his broken wooden stake to pierce the central nerve cluster.

Just then, the skin on the back of Jet’s neck violently goosebumped. His white eyes dilated as a sudden, bone-chilling sensation of absolute danger ran straight down his spine, causing him to instantly break out in a wave of cold sweat.

Before his brain could even begin to process the sensory input or calculate the direction of the threat, his physical body reacted entirely on raw instinct. The Asura Physique overrode his exhaustion, forcing his muscles to contract.

Jet violently shot his body to the left, throwing his weight off the top of the car-sized insect and rolling aggressively across the dirt.

The exact millisecond his back cleared the top segment of the corpse, a silent, blindingly cold flash of silver light sliced cleanly through the air.

SPLAT!

The sharp, unseen attack landed precisely where Jet had been sitting a fraction of a second prior. The myriapod’s incredibly hard, bark-like skin was split open in a massive, straight gush.

A deep, wide fissure tore through the segments, and dark, pressurized green blood shot upward into the air like a violent fountain, soaking the surrounding ferns.

Jet scrambled back to his feet in an instant, his heavy boots skidding through the mud as he dropped low into a rigid, empty-handed combat stance. His white pupils narrowed, scanning the dense foliage with absolute intensity.

He couldn’t see the attacker. There was no growl, no rustling leaves, and no visible energy signature.

SHUCK!

Without a single sound of warning, another cold silver flash flickered abruptly from his immediate right side.

Jet’s perception tracked the faint distortion in the air. He violently sidestepped to the left, bending his torso backward at an unnatural angle. The silver flash moved with terrifying, bullet-like velocity, grazing directly past his pale cheek.

The sharp wind of the trajectory sliced a fresh, thin wound across his cheekbone, a thin line of red blood instantly trickling down his jaw.

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