Aaron Hunter sat on the throne in the cathedral room. The room was dim to the point where you had to squint your eyes just to make out the surroundings and had no furniture.
"How long has it been?" Aaron mumbled to himself, tapping his finger on the cold armrest of the stone throne.
Aaron was the final boss of the dark tower, also known as the Tower of Death. Before becoming the final boss he was a powerful demon, feared by the 10 Masters of the world of Tegra, but upon climbing the tower and reaching the top floor, the tower refused to let him leave and he had to fight for his life with every encounter with climbers.
"If it wasn't for this damn tower I would have reached God-tier strength...argh!" He gripped the armrest tightly and it cracked to pieces. His jaw was clenched and his expression was that of someone staring down their enemy.
The large double doors groaned open and light hit Aaron's eyes, forcing him to squint just to make out the silhouettes of the intruders.
One of the intruders — a young Korean man, at least in his late twenties — took wide steps toward the throne. He stopped at the base of the long steps leading up to it and drew his blade, pointing it at Aaron.
Aaron's smirk was full of amusement as he crossed his legs on the high throne. "No one has ever reached this point before. By any chance are you a disciple of the 10 Masters?" His expression shifted and his bloodlust was almost tangible.
They both went silent for a moment, and Aaron realized they weren't able to communicate.
"Ah... My bad." Aaron stretched out his hand and a red circle formed in the middle of his palm. He cleared his throat and locked his crimson eyes with the intruder's.
"Now then. Are you somehow related to the 10 Masters?"
"I don't know anyone called the 10 Masters," he mumbled.
Aaron rose from his hard, uncomfortable seat and took slow steps down. "I guess there's only one way to get you talking — and that's to beat the hell out of you."
Aaron's shadow gathered around his arm, slowly taking the shape of a sword with each silent step. The intruder launched forward with his sword, and Aaron followed. The clash of the two blades was ear-splitting.
Their swords met blow for blow until, finally, one of Aaron's strikes landed — a slash across the abdomen. Not fatal, but it worked like slow poison, sapping the intruder's strength.
"Is that all you've got?" Aaron's taunts hit their mark, and the climber's swordsmanship showed flaws almost everywhere.
"Heh. This is too easy." Aaron went for the opening on his right shoulder with a heavy stab. The intruder barely evaded and the blade tore his coat, leaving a bruise.
"You monster!" The invader released flame projectiles from all five fingers. "Flame Bullets!"
The bullets scattered toward Aaron, each aimed at his arms, legs, and head.
Aaron snapped the fingers of his free hand and a thick wall of shadows rose in front of him. The flame bullets collided with it and the two forces cancelled each other out.
"Nice tr—" Before he could finish, he noticed the climber's expression — an uneasy smirk spreading across his face.
Intense light and heat radiated from above. Aaron looked up to see a massive ball of flames, so bright the entire room went blinding white. It crashed into him, erupting on impact and reducing the surrounding ground to nothing but a scorched pit.
Smoke and dust filled the room, along with suffocating heat.
"So you know petty tricks?" The intruder flinched at Aaron's voice. A spell that consumed half a caster's magic power was just a petty trick to the tower's master.
"A... petty trick?" The climber was taken aback. Just as the smoke cleared, Aaron appeared behind him and with a single punch sent the climber flying across the pit, crashing into the throne.
"Cough. You...!" Blood ran from his mouth and he was covered in dirt and rubble. As the intruder struggled to breathe and gather his strength, Aaron stood on the far side of the pit, raising his arm toward the ceiling. A large ball of dark energy formed above him.
"I'll show you what true magic power looks like." The ball surged toward the intruder and upon impact left his body charred and on the verge of death.
"I held back there." Aaron leaped over the pit and grabbed the intruder by the throat, lifting him off the ground. He locked eyes with the climber and held his gaze.
"You. You're not from Tegra, are you?" Aaron said, his expression dead serious. "Tell me now and I might spare your life."
He released the intruder, who collapsed to his knees before Aaron.
"I'm Kim Suho, a hunter in the South Korean Hunter Association." Kim Suho blurted out. He had no magic power left to cast spells, nor the strength to channel his aura.
"What is this Hunter Association?" Aaron asked calmly.
"It's an organization that manages hunters. I'm not directly affiliated, but I came here on their request." Kim Suho slowly closed his hand around the dagger hidden in his boot, waiting for his moment.
"Then what world did you come from?"
"Earth," he murmured. Aaron fell into a state of confusion. What had happened to his world? What was Earth? What were hunters? None of it made sense.
Kim Suho drew the knife from his boot and glanced up at Aaron.
"I see."
A long shadow tail extended from Aaron's lower back and its tip drove through Kim Suho's heart. Aaron held his gaze as he retracted it.
"But...argh... you said you'd spare me." Blood poured from between his clenched teeth, and the wound in his chest was wide and open.
"How dare a human try to backstab me. This will be your grave."
Kim Suho fell to the ground, soaking in his own blood. A red stone slipped from his pocket and landed on the cracked and battered floor, its luminous glow both mysterious and tempting.
"What is this stone?" Aaron knelt down and picked it up. The stone glowed intensely and a system window appeared.
[Warning.]
[The Return Stone requires a human to activate.]
[If used by a non-human entity, all accumulated levels will be lost. Do you wish to proceed?]
Aaron studied the stone with suspicion. "How is a pebble supposed to get me out of the tower? And I'd have to lose all 999 levels — that's insane."
He had never seen such a stone in his system shop, so skepticism was only natural. "Analyze," he muttered, and the system window filled with information.
[A stone found in a dungeon of Earth. A rare-grade item that allows the holder to exit the tower at will, under any circumstances.]
A flicker of hope stirred in him. To leave the tower at will — but...
[One-time use.]
One use. All his power gone. That was a steep price.
But after countless uncomfortable years, he would finally be free. That was not an offer to pass up.
"Fine." He pressed the confirm button firmly. The stone erupted with blinding light until Aaron and everything around him vanished.
---
Aaron woke up in the middle of a Seoul city street, in South Korea. Before him stood a building with a sign that read: *South Korea Hunter Association.* Two system windows popped up — one his original, always displayed in red, and a new one in blue.
The key difference was this: the blue system showed ranks, where power is fixed and assigned, while Aaron's red system used levels that could be raised by defeating monsters and other means. Aaron's rank showed as simply: *Unclassified.*
Just then, a woman stepped out of the building and walked toward him.
"Sir, are you here to get your rank evaluated?" Her smile was warm.
Aaron knew nothing about ranks, but he decided to play along. "Yes," he said, his expression blank.
The woman turned and gestured for him to follow. "Right this way then. Who knows — you might even be an S-rank!" She laughed lightly.
Aaron followed, his eyes sweeping across this strange world of towering buildings and technology beyond anything he had known.
*Aaron Hunter had finally won his freedom. But what exactly had happened to his world?*
*I'll survive. That's the only thing I care about.*