Janette shoved the papers to the left, searching for the invoice she had been asked to find. She went through the unsorted mess on her table and sorted it according to the date. The mountain was divided into smaller ones; she noticed the invoice mentioned and put it into a folder. Then she sorted the rest and put it away before anyone could spot it, handing the invoice to her boss.

"Here you go," she said with a smile. The elderly woman, in her early sixties, flashed a grin before ignoring her as she returned to her desk and started sorting again. The world may have turned digitalized, but their small office was still working in prehistory with paper until they connected it to the Hunter Society intranet—something her superiors had been announcing for three years.
But nothing happened yet; there was no new connection, no new computer, and no, they worked with old 2027 fixed station computers and paper. The only thing they had gotten lately was new screens.
She put down the folder, put the now sorted papers inside, and shelved the folder back when the door opened.

"Hii. July," a bright voice greeted her, and Janette bowed.

"Mr. Kim," she said with a smile. He was one of her favorites. His name was not Kim, but he was Korean, and she couldn't pronounce his name to save her life. At some point, they both agreed that she would call him Mr. Kim and he her July since he couldn't pronounce her name either.
"Is Mr. Tanaka in?" He asked for her Japanese boss, and she smiled. He was present and in the back.

"I'd have to make a call." She said and picked up the Phone. Mr Tanaka was usually between one thing and another; he disliked interruptions even if he liked the person causing them, so it was best to ask him before sending someone up.

"Mr Tanaka, Mr. Kim is here." She said on the Phone.

"Ah, wonderful, wonderful. Please send him up," the other party said and hung up.
She smiled. "He is up in the break room."

"Perfect, wonderful." Mr. Kim waved at her and walked past. Mr. Tanaka had an office, but he vastly preferred the break room to work; hence, Janette always sent the regulars straight there. Settling down in her chair, she returned to her usual work, reviewing the many papers on her desk.

"Hey." A familiar voice interrupted her concentration, and she recognized it as one she didn't like.

"Yes, Mr. Auerbach," the Austrian; she suspected the Austrian was not her favorite person.

"Is Tanaka in?" He asked rudely, and she smiled.

"He is currently unavailable. Should I leave a message?"

"So he is here. Perfect. I will be going then," the man said and couched, walking straight past her. She felt her inner patience take a hit, so picking up the Phone, she dialed her superior on the short dial.

"Janette?"

"Mr. Auerbach..." She couldn't even finish before her boss hung up with a curse. It was not as if she could stop the man or even wanted to.
Auerbach was a hunter.

Five years ago, the world changed with hunters and dungeons. Entire new worlds opened through gates that appeared randomly, some friendly, some horrifying, and some deadly.
Those who awakened special powers alongside these dungeons were hunters. Hunters gained magic, enhanced bodies, or uncommon skills and knowledge. They were incomparable to humans and grew into modern-day celebrities overnight.

Most people continued their daily lives, but some lives also changed, like hers, with one leg in the hunter world and the other in the everyday human world.
She smiled, and then the building trembled. Walking into the back, she took out an umbrella and opened it. The spelled fabric guarded her from the falling debris.

Mr. Tanaka was not happy with Mr. Auerbach. Her boss walked to the front and sighed. "There goes our modernizing budget."

"It could be worse. They could all be like Mr. Auerbach, Mrs. Dürr."

"Indeed they could." Her Boss, Mrs. Dürr, opened her own umbrella. "I will be getting a cup of coffee. Should I bring you something as well?"

"A latte macchiato," she said and smiled. "I have to clean up later. There's no way I can leave my entrance a mess." She pointed at the debris when her umbrella deflected another piece that fell from her ceiling.

"You are right."

Unworried, her boss walked past her upstairs, and she fixed the umbrella on her office chair before returning to work.
Their small office was a branch of the hunter's community. This platform distributed information and enabled communication between hunters and the local government. However, the field of action within their small branch was rather unremarkable.
There was precisely one dungeon they handled here in the countryside, but it was not particularly dangerous either. Their biggest worry was usually people passing through who thought the dungeon was a tourist attraction. Mr. Auerbachs attempts to put his Tap from the local pub into work expenses.

Their hunters were equally unremarkable.
There were four. There was Mr. Kim, who specialized in magic. He was in his mid-forties and lived here with his wife and two children.
Mr. Auerbach, who drank more beer than was legal, hid from his ex-wife's lawyers after his divorce so he didn't have to pay his former wife any money.

Mr. Tanaka, who was actually married to Mrs. Dürr, who was like her, almost a pensionist, and last but not least, Nicola, a young mid-level swordsman, went to the local high school in an attempt to graduate. Which he was probably not going to do this year since he was failing half his classes.

The noise upstairs stopped, and she closed the umbrella with a frown when Mrs. Dürr Put the latte next to her.
This would require extensive cleaning. She could get Nicola to help sort the heavy things when he passed. She grabbed her things and started her small cleaning task.
It wasn't until a few minutes later that Nicola came in with his school stuff, which he threw onto the couch with a huff and fell into her chair.

"How was school?" she asked him, and he grumbled what sounded like,
"Just the usual."

She didn't bother asking more. There would be nothing more coming from their teenage member.

"Could you help me get that outside?" She asked, pointing at the larger piece of ceiling. "I have to ask Mr. Kim to fix it later."

"Why me? I barely sat down!" He complained, and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow until he slurped towards it, picked it up, and quickly put it outside.

Janette smiled when he slumped back onto the couch next to his backpack and took out his Phone. "Isn't there some homework you wanted to finish?" She asked him, and he glared at her.

"Nah." He kept staring at his Phone, and Janette shrugged her shoulders. Teenagers, she guessed, were the same even as hunters.
Mr. Auerbach stormed past them with a growl.

It was then that the house trembled again. Janette looked upwards and went to get her umbrella. Opening it, she looked upwards at what was wrong. The entire house shook, and suddenly, the air seemed to tremble. Everything shook. Nicola jumped on his feet, looking upwards. He is uncaring about the falling debris.

"What's going on now," Janette mumbled.

Nicola suddenly turned. "OUT!" He thundered, and everything blurred. Janette stumbled forward when Mrs. Dürr stormed past her umbrella in Hand. She was shoved outside and felt her body hit the ground.
Her sight could have been smoother. When she shouted, she gripped her umbrella, and the last thing she saw was a hazy Nicola.