Code Collector

Ascension. The process where a Hunter from one of the Otherworlds get promoted into higher worlds. This process is not as complicate as everyone might think, but there is just one long and taxing job before a Hunter could ascend.

"Why on earth do we have to write a report with what happened to us since we began?" Gwen groaned as she roll around Allen's apartment floor. "This is so tiring. I wanna go home. I don't want to ascend anymore. Tell Lin that I quit."

"After taking all the Codes enough to make you ascend? I don't think she'll let you go easily," Allen chuckled. "Come on, it's not that hard. This form just wants you to tell them most of what happenened to you and your Hunter journey. It doesn't say that you have to report every single thing."

Gwen sat up and raised her finger, "Regardless! This is tiring. I was a Hunter for years. They still think that I know every single thing that had happened?"

Allen only shrugged after hearing his friend's tantrums. He wanted to help them as much as possible, but this task requires the Hunter themselves to write the report. It's impossible for him to write for them because he doesn't know all the things that had happened.

"First Code I got," Gary whispered and pursed his lips. "I think it was a skill Code that lets me aim properly. This was why I got intetested in th harnessing my talent with my role as a ranger."

"Err," Allen hummed the suddenly smiled. He remembered his first Code, a weapon that was a brittle bone of a fox. The dagger served its purpose, but since it was a weapon Code, it had its integrity. One day it just broke.

Allen still had the broken parts of the Code. It was an item that was trash to most people, but to him it was the weapon that made him start with his journey. It was the weapon that he used to kill the Snake and gain its Code, as well as the weapon he used to survive the attack of the wasps when he was nothing.

"Brings back memories, huh?" 

Allen awoke from his daydream after hearing Jeremy say. The man smiled and ruffled his hair, "Me too. This report gives me all the vibes."

"Yeah," Allen just said.

After he confessed that he was Alle, a rift was created between Jeremy and him. The two didn't speak to each other as often as before as well as they don't see each other eye to eye anymore. They both knew that there were words left unspoken, but neither of them wanted to break the fragile glass that was enclosing those words.

"Done!" Gary suddenly cheered, making everyone look at him. "If the three of you didn't daydream or whine like I did, you would have finished too."

Gwen crawled over to Gary and narrowed her eyes. "As if I believe you're already finished."

She took Gary's folder while the man stood. The woman scanned through the pages of the papers inside it and could only gasp after reading it. "Holy sh*t. He's actually done."

"That's right," Gary nodded, looking as though he was an all-knowint monk on top of a mountain. "If you really did try to answer it quickly, you'll be finished. I'm gonna go cook something for us."

Allen smirked as the man left the living room but immediately went back. "Allen, could you please stop it with the Bodies? They feel uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry," Stacey said per Allen's control. "Did I make you feel uncomfortable?"

"Knowing that it's you that's talking, yes," Gary deadpanned. "Dude, don't be creepy, please."

Allen couldn't hold his laugh at Gary's reaction. He acted like a baby even though was a huge man with large arms and muscles. His pout, his gaze, and the crossing of his arms.

"Stop," Allen said. "I'm practicing to control them. Please, don't stop me. I'm trying to master on how to control these Bodies."

"What's so hard about controlling them anyway?" Gary asked. He sat beside Allen and let Stacey do the cooking for them. After seeing the weird smile on the female Body's face, he just gave up and instead decided to join in the talk with Allen.

"In controlling the Bodies, you have to maintain the connections between the two of you," Allen said. "You have to control them as well as control yourself at the same time, kind of like having two bodies at the same time."

"Weird," Gwen whispered. "But anyway, let's and sort these reports. I need to go home and pack my things. Tomorrow, we're going the portal and I need more time to prepare myself emotionally."

The portal that Gwen was talking about was the one they are going to use to go to Paradise. There are portals in Haven that are heavily guarded by the Hunters organization, these portals would lead to higher worlds.

Although these are heavily guarded, not everyone can enter them. Only those who has actual qualification to enter Paradise can pass through these portals, the others would be blocked by an invisible barrier and if they try to force their way inside, they will be burned to crisp.

A lot of Hunters have tried to enter the portals and all of them failed at it. Most of them had died while the others were left severely injured because of the portals' rules. Of course, most of these happened at the earlier years of Hunters when nobody knew anything.

They discovered these portals, but were confused when it didn't lead back to Earth. This started the theory that there were more worlds apart from the one they were in. The Hunters tested, experimented, and tried to read the glyphs of the portals and tried to break the codes that were in them.

A few years of trying and the first Hunter to successfully enter the portal came. A German navy captain with three years of grinding in the forest, the man was named Adolphus Schmidt. He was regarded as the "First Hunter" after he entered the portal that led to another world.

Not a week later, Adolphus vanished in Paradise and no one had heard from him ever since. Nobody else could enter the portal for about two months after Adolphus, so there was no way anyone could rescue him.

After what happened to Adolphus, the Hunters who were eligible to enter the portal were grouped. This was the first initiative to create a better hunting effectivity of combining roles and the success rate for each group with the number of roles.

After more years, when humans first entered Eternity, a huge clue of the Otherworlds was debunked. It was the number of worlds there are that exists to this very day.

The portals were large stone rings, as tall as a two-story building while its width is comparable to two large buses. Inside the stone ring was a large light that is contained inside the ring like glass. It was color purple ans the light has small spiral mists inside it.

Meanwhile, on the stone ring exists texts and figures that were unknown to humans. These texts had been read and tried to be decoded by the scientists and Hunters, but they failed all the time. There was barely any clue as to where they started, that was until they saw the second portal.

Scientists were convinced that with these three portals alone, they could know most of the information regarding the Otherworlds, and this included the number of worlds that existed.

There were six of them, and in each world exists stronger and stronger beasts. On the first world, the beast could kill a number of families. On the second world, the strongest beast could destroy a village, the next world could destroy a city, and the last one could wipe out an entire planet.

These worlds were named from lowest as Haven, Paradise, Eternity, Star Nest, God's Den, and the final world was named Cradle of Life. In each of these worlds were translations of the worlds. Many believed that there's meaning behind the names, and the humans were still in Star Nest, so no one could possibly answer that question.

It was also a good thing that the beasts from higher worlds do not have a way of getting down to the lower worlds. If that was the case, the ones in the higher worlds would have come to Earth.

"Allen?" Jeremy said to Allen suddenly. "Can we talk for a bit?"

Allen gulped in nervousness. This was the monent he had been waiting for. Jeremy's words made Gwen and Gary look at them in worry. There was silent for a moment before Allen decided to nod.

"Let's go to my room," Allen said to which Jeremy agreed to.

On their way there, Allen was nerve wracked. Each time he take a step, it would feel like his body would get heavier and heavier. He had been waiting for his talk. What was he so afraid of?