I Became a Father - Chapter 1

Translator: Ayana
Editor: Effefille

—-

The lovely baby in my arms was constantly looking around.

“Are you curious?”, I asked.

“Ppa ppa ppa ppa ppa ppa ppa!”

She replied with a flutter of her body and jumped in my arms. She looked very excited.

The Initial Dungeon was unlimitedly wide.

From glaciers to deserts, from alpine mountains to caves, it had a variety of nature. But right now…

The high-tower building.

The people who are wondering about their destination and the busy cars.

The loud noise.

The breathtaking fumes and fine dust.

All of this was new, for my daughter Sehwa.

I used fantasy magic to show her the view of Earth. But no matter how high-leveled the fantasy magic was, Sehwa instinctively felt that it was only a fiction.

And I don’t feel as excited as she does.

“Kkyaa!”

Sehwa’s eyes glittered and bursted into excitement as she looked at the passing cars. It’s best to see it in person, seeing a lump of iron moving along in a set line would be amazing.

Beyond the forest of buildings, I could see a plain looking stone tower that did not fit in the big city.

With my daughter tightly in my arms, I was deeply moved.

—-

1st January, 2010

Gate, Dungeon, and Mirage appeared and the human race faced a cataclysm.

[You awakened as a Hunter.]

[Continue the tutorial.]

I was twenty-four years old. Good fortune was far from me before. But it eventually came.

The difficulty and skill here determined the basic quality of the Hunter. I desperately hoped that I would be lucky enough to be in the A-Rank, or B-Rank.

[You’ve entered <The Initial Dungeon>]

[Difficulty level: EX]

[Entrance : 1 person]

[Clear Condition: Hunting The Death Dragon.]

Wait. This wasn’t right.

—-

Every day was like hell.

The difficulty of the dungeons was divided from the lowest, the D-C-B-A Rank, to the special S-Rank, and the other rank that was EX-Rank. The tutorial was also the same.

Ten years have passed since the cataclysm. Only four people in the world have finished the S-Rank Tutorial. All of them gained the title ‘Guardians of the World’. The people who finished the A-Rank tutorial were called the Next-Generation Hero, and were treated as a huge prospect.

But even though they gathered, they couldn’t finish the EX-Rank dungeon.

And now, they wanted me to finish the EX-Rank tutorial?

[3 Special Benefits of The EX-Rank Tutorial!]

Fortunately, three benefits were given.

[1. A year in <The Initial Dungeon > is equivalent to one minute on the Earth.]

[2. You don’t age in <The Initial Dungeon>.]

Were you kidding me?

Those benefits didn’t help to comfort my mental health. It was the same as saying, don’t imagine you can die from old age here. If you want to die, then just escape.

[3. In < The Initial Dungeon >, even if you die you can resurrect without limit.]

“Blergh!”

When I saw the mockery that I could not get out of this hell even if I died of other reasons than aging, I felt nauseous.

—-

Time passed by.

Time, after time, after time again.

[Repeat Quest <Catch Goblin (100/100)> succeeded!]

[Repeat Quest <Catch Hobgoblin (10/10)> succeeded>!]

Other people should have finished after catching 10 goblins.

[All the Goblin in <The Initial Dungeon> are hostile to you.]

I couldn’t believe it!

I’ve been hostiled in The Initial Dungeon. This was too scary!

But as long as I was trapped in the tutorial, The Initial Dungeon would be my whole world.

On top of that I was hostiled by the whole world. That is the hostile message.

Originally, if one were visible to the goblins, they would attack and chase whenever one passed near their territory. The goblins have always followed me so I never thought of them as an enemy.

Though, one thing is unfair. They attacked first and I responded as a self-defense. After all, I was pushed into this by the quest. I couldn’t help it.

[Hidden Quest <Catch King Goblin (1 of 1)> succeeded!]

Let’s keep it a secret that the goblin hunt and the hidden quest were a repeated quest that I have done far too much.

But why was the message that I had been waiting for hadn’t appeared ?

“Keugh…”, the goblin groaned.

“Oh, my God! There’s someone who’s still breathing. Haha, I’m so clumsy.”

-Kkwang!

When the Hobgoblin stopped breathing, a satisfactory message came up.

[All the Goblin in the “The Initial Dungeon” has been exterminated.]

Not only the Goblin. But the Ork, Auger, Troll, LizardMan, Zombie, Skeleton, Ghost, Golem, Wyverns, the seeds of all kinds of Monsters had been exterminated. Alongside the undeads like golem that I was not sure of it’s name. I’ve exterminated them too.

“Dead! Human!”

“Huh? Who? Me?”

“There is no other human being here besides you!”

“Uwaaa, it’s sad. Dirty racial discrimination.”

Some of them were smart enough to talk to people, like the Elf, Dwarf, Vampire, Mermaid since they thought people would be afraid when they came across a monster.

“Found it! The enemy of my parent’s friend!”

“You’ve came! The son of a friend of an elf I killed!”

Some creatures tended to follow in anger, and that was the reason why they couldn’t became intelligent.

—-

“What is this?”

I’ve only met one thing that was not hostile to me, my lifesaver. Rather than being hostile to me, it was like it was also hostiled by the world. Perhaps because of its relationship with the Death Dragon as its boss. It’s a Gold Dragon, but when I first saw it, it was covered in blood. I had thought it was the Blood Dragon.

“Kkyu?”

The Gold Dragon was 30 centimeters tall and the ratio of body to head was 3:1, so it was a three body to one head figure. I gave The Gold Dragon a more refined name that suited it well.

“Nurung!”

“Kkyuuu!”

Nurung roared with delight as it opened its eyes and bit my hand. It may be small, but still, an expression of affection from the strongest creature, a dragon was still a bit violent for me.

—-

“Kkyuuu.”

Actually for a dragon, Nurung was pretty weak. I should’ve realised it when I discovered it covered in blood inside the Slime Cave. Even so, Nurung was a great help for me.

When I collapsed from dehydration, Nurung came to give me water from a lake a kilometer away. When I fought the giants, Nurung did so many things like cutting off the giant’s achilles tendons, pulling the orc and even blocking one of the giant’s nostrils. When I fought the Wyverns, Nurung helped me to avoid being tracked and we managed to counterattack.

Nurung was helpful just by being there with me. We ate together, slept together, and I put it on my head at the time we didn’t have a battle.

“Thank you.”

“Kkyu?”

“I made up my mind. I’m not going to keep you as my emergency food anymore.”

“Kkyuuuu!”

Embarrassed by my tingling comment, Nurung bit my finger again and showed off its affection.

I wish The Death Dragon was this big!

—-

I truly didn’t expect a 30 kilometer size. I played around with lots of fallen dragons. Even some of them were already over 30 meters long.

“About 30 kilometers…..”

The length from head to tail. The total size?! I didn’t even want to talk about it. Looking at the size, I wanted to retreat already.

“Kkyuuu!!”

Nurung provoked the Death Dragon. Even if it hadn’t provoked it, I already made eye contact with the dragon. We retreated and were successful. Since then, I had kept challenging the Dragon and lost all the time. Fortunately, I didn’t die, since the Death Dragon made no effort to chase me.

So when I finally killed the Death Dragon, instead of returning to Earth…

[You’ve defeated the fragments of The Death Dragon.]

[Main Quest <Destroy the Fragments of the Death Dragon! (1/100)> The content will be updated.]

This is wrong, do they know how hard it was?

Then came a voice.

-Thank you, Mr. Hyun Min Joon.

A calm woman’s voice, echoed directly in my head, calmed the excitement.

“Nurung, is that you?”

Although it was different from her usual ‘kyukyu’ noise. Instinctively I knew it was Nurung’s who was making eye contact with me. Was it a female? It was shocking news today.

-My name is Surod Zinfelkina Den Pagtriolo

“Surod Zinfelkina Den Pagtriolo de Nurung! It’s too long.”

-………..

She confessed that she didn’t like the name Nurung, I was more shocked by that.

“Okay, Sujin then.”

(T/N: SUrod ZINfelkina became Sujin)

In the end, I got the proper initials of her name. And a long story continued…

—-

“Ppya?”

Yikes! That was a long memory.

I stroked Sehwa’s head as she looked at me with her eyes wide open.

[Congratulations!]

[You have cleared the EX-Rank tutorial!]

Then a blinking message window appeared.

[Your class will be calculated!]

[Class: The First Wizard]

There was trumpet fanfare accompanied by some fact that I already knew. My ears hurt. Some unpleasant messages followed.

[The Guardians are very interested in the appearance of the finisher of the EX-Rank tutorial .]

[<The First  Wizard> appearance makes The Guardians shocked.]

The Guardians.

The voyeurists who were given a chance to go through transcendence, they appeared along with the cataclysm. Like the classic movie, the Tr*man Show or viewers watching celebrity entertainment programs that were popular in Korea in the late 2010s. They watched the hunters and patronized the ones they liked.

But I was unhappy with their support and attention, not because I was not a flasher. Their patronage was a shortcut to make a Hunter stronger and the Hunters that signed contracts reigned at the peak of the Hunter world. Their support and interest would burden me actually. I don’t need it.

But still, a human has no right to ignore them.

“Stop staring at me, you perverts.”

I waved my hands.

[Some watchers vent their anger at your words and actions.]

[Some watchers are greeted with a burst of laughter at your words and actions .]

[Some watchers apologise for your words and actions.]

[Some watchers are offended by your words and actions.]

Was it too weak? Still, it wasn’t polite to go too aggressively since it’s our first meeting.

“There are a lot of people who don’t like it. Would you like to come down? Oh, you can’t come down. You’re a contractor, so send me one, too.”

I pulled out my middle finger to be polite, then sent out my message. A Hunter can’t interfere with the system.

-Streeeetchhh!

Living in The Initial Dungeon, I had developed some miscellaneous skills. Like now, the message window trembled like an electrocuted creature. The text was crushed and the message window itself was scattered. Although the watchers were pretty good, they needed a peek hole called the system to see non-contractors in dungeons and Mirages.

I just plugged up that hole.

[<The Lifes Predator> is watching you.]

That gentleman was now digging a new hole with tenacity and grit. I’m embarrassed because I’ve been looking down. I turned my body.

[<The Lifes Predator> is unhappy with your reaction.]

Soon, I could feel the eyes tickling the top of my head.

Heuung

“Ppa, Ppa!”

“Yes, yes, I’m done talking to strange people.”

If I looked at Sehwa, Nurung… Oh no, Sujin came to mind.

Of course it is. At first glance, she looked like a normal baby who was very pretty, cute, and lovely. In addition to the short-necked limbs, a pair of tiny little wings and a short tail. There was a small horn, long as a thumb, on the head.

This child that I have to raise on my own from now on.

She was a dragon.