When Saburo learned that he was a C-Rank, he was ecstatic. He might not have been the best of the best, but a C-Rank mage was still desirable to major guilds looking to bolster their ranks.
Before becoming a hunter, it had been difficult for him to support his wife and child with the meager income he earned as a laborer. So the idea of working in a major guild thrilled him. These guilds not only offered a steady and respectable salary but also benefits he could never have dreamed of as a laborer.
He felt that, finally, he would be able to give his family a good life.
The registration process with the guild was quick and straightforward. They were eager for more hunters, desperate to compete in the booming hunters' market in Japan. He and the other recruits were treated like royalty, especially since at the time, becoming a Hunter was still rare. He still remembered how polite and welcoming everyone in the guild had been.
But his first brutal reality check came during the A-Rank Orc Warlord dungeon.
Large guilds attempting high-level dungeons typically operated with fixed hunter teams. These teams would rotate between expeditions to ensure all members got equal combat opportunities and their talents could fully develop.
Saburo was assigned to Team B. That team had one S-Rank hunter, several A-Ranks, and the rest were mostly support hunters, ranging from B to C-Rank. Support hunters didn't fight on the frontlines. Their role was to slow enemies, buff allies, or debuff monsters. An easy job—on paper.
But this was in the early days of dungeon hunting. Protocols were still being established. Monster behavior, strengths, and weaknesses were being documented through painful trial and error. And one of those errors almost killed Saburo.
During the Orc Warlord raid, the S-Rank fought the boss while the A-Ranks dealt with the minions. As one of the orcs died, it hurled its massive battle axe toward the humans, intent on taking one of them down with it.
All Saburo heard were a few warning cries before the axe hit.
He still remembered the sensation vividly.
There was no pain at first—only confusion. The axe had landed nearby, but something felt wrong. Then he noticed a human hand stuck to the jagged edge of the weapon. Looking to his right, he saw a horrifying sight: a massive chunk of his body had been torn out. His right shoulder and arm were simply... gone. He could almost swear he saw inside his chest through the gaping hole.
He screamed, horrified—then everything went black.
When he woke up, he was slumped against a dungeon wall. Two A-Rank healers were pouring mana into him, desperately trying to reconstruct the right side of his body. The silence in the room was heavy, suffocating.
Everyone knew the guild had failed. A recruit had almost died, despite the presence of an S-Rank.
He quit shortly after.
The guild tried hard to make him stay, but he refused. The healers had saved him this time, yes—but if that axe had landed just a few inches to the left, not even the best healers in the world could've helped him.
But he still had to provide for his family. So he became a raid leader for low-rank gates. Only E and D-Ranks. Never higher. He had to enter many dungeons to make ends meet, but at least nothing inside them could threaten his life.
Whenever he suffered an anxiety attack inside a gate, haunted by memories of that day, he would let himself get injured slightly by a monster. The sight of the low-ranking monsters' weapons barely grazing his skin, leaving only a scratch, helped ground him.
It reassured him that this wasn't like back then.
Sometimes, he wondered how different his life might have been if he hadn't quit. But there was no point in such thoughts. The guild he left had shut down long ago. He had no idea what happened to the other hunters, though he remembered hearing that one of the S-Ranks had moved to the Draw Sword Guild.
His life was slow and exhausting, but it was safe.
At least every time he entered a gate, he truly believed he would return to his wife and child.
He had to return.
His wife was a frail woman with a weak constitution who fell ill easily, and their child had just turned ten. Without him, there would be no one to support them. And he didn't want his child growing up without a father.
He would push forward through whatever came his way for his family.
.
Renji watched in horror as one of Saburo's eyes popped from his skull. Loud cracks echoed in the air as the mage's head caved in under the dragon's crushing jaws.
"H-help…" was all Saburo managed to groan before the beast reduced him to a mangled mess of blood and organs.