'Hunter?' A familiar yet foreign word to someone like himself, it was a role that naturally came with respect and admiration from the population but a horrifying mortality rate that warded off anyone from ever wishing to pursue it themselves.

Unfortunately, those who became Hunters had little choice in the matter. If you awakened it was your sworn duty to be trained to benefit humanity and exterminate the beasts that had claimed the Earth for themselves. There, of course, were those who tried to retaliate but they were quickly subdued and 'persuaded' by the benefits that came with it.

Naturally there were those that awakened that weren't suited for fighting monsters, in fact this made up quite the majority of those who awakened and they would usually be tasked with support roles and governing roles because they awakened a talent geared towards leading.

The 'status' in his head was clear to him and it displayed itself exactly as he'd read it would be when he'd glanced at short books like 'Guide to Awakening' and 'So you want to be a Hunter' it was clean and bare-bones resembling the basic stats page of games from an older era.

[Class: Hunter]

[Level: 0]

[Talent: !?#@%]

[Strength: F]

[Intelligence: E]

[Endurance: E]

[Agility: F]

[Vitality: F]

[Mana: E]

'Why's my talent unreadable?' He started to panic as he saw this, the talent of a Hunter was their entire foundation - it was like the explosion he'd seen back on the street of the city, it was something unique to that Hunter. Someone might have a similar power but there had never been a case of someone having exactly the same talent as another, there had also to his knowledge never been a scenario where a newly awakened Hunter didn't have a talent.

Without his talent to rely on his chances of finding his way back to Mayson City from this forest had just dropped drastically, it was already staggeringly low considering he had no idea where he was to begin with but his awakening had caused him to feel some slight hope that this situation could be salvaged.

'Fine... so what if I don't have a talent? That's not gonna stop me.' He had to reassure himself, what if he hadn't awakened? He'd still have to find his way back and somehow stay alive even without a talent so what difference did it make? At least he'd unlocked his attributes, if he managed to find some weak beasts he'd be able to increase his strength easily along with his level.

Level Zero, it was the beginning foundation of all Hunters - as they level up their stats would change accordingly to match their fighting style. If you used brute strength and force to destroy enemies? You'd find your strength, endurance and vitality improving after every fight. If you played it smart and used traps and strategies? Your intelligence would go up.

Of course, the cons of only having a couple of your stats increase was that it would cause an imbalance in your body which is why the it was said that the Hunters' focused on trying to balance at least four of the six stats before they would be promoted to the next 'rank.'

Hunters' were divided simply among rankings from F to theoretically S, although no one had yet reached that rank as far as public knowledge went, based on the ratings of their stats. If they had four F ratings they would be an F Rank Hunter, if they had four E ratings they were an E Rank Hunter and so on.

If they had 1 B rating and 3 C ratings they would be a C rank hunter as the Rankings only consider your lowest rated stats. This sort of system promoted Hunters' to seek to improve themselves in an all-rounded fashion instead of becoming what was referred to by the Pre-Apocalypse Earth as a 'Glass-Cannon Build' where they were extremely strong but their Vitality was much lower because they'd neglected to care for their body.

Naturally, it was also possible to improve stat ratings without going through a level-up however it was much harder this way, for example a body-builder would naturally have a much higher starting rating in their strength statistic than your normal adult male because of their occupation but even they would be no stronger than a D rating.

Self-improvement was a definite possibility but it was a much longer, much more strenuous route to take than simply killing beasts to level-up.

Jackson took a deep breath and started to explore his surroundings, the forest around him was extremely quiet with only the rustling of bushes and leaves in the wind making itself known. He took a moment to take it all in, it was the first time in years that he'd been above ground since the beasts had invaded.

He'd almost forgotten how refreshing the feeling of natural wind and the warmth from the sun was, maybe it was due to the awakening but he didn't suffer any discomfort from not having been in the sun for so long.

Unfortunately he didn't have the time to truly enjoy it, there was nothing but endless forest in all directions his only point of orientation was the sun which was currently setting in the west but simply knowing the cardinal directions was pointless. He had no idea where he was or how far Mayson City was - or even if he was anywhere near Mayson City.

It was a commonly known fact that rifts could lead to anywhere on the planet, it was impossible to determine where he had ended up.

With this in mind Jackson simply picked a direction at random and started to walk, he moved quickly yet cautiously as he did his best to make as little sound as possible.

He was stopped suddenly by the faint rustling of a bush nearby, all of his senses went on high alert as he began to anticipate what it could be, was it a dangerous beast or a harmless animal? Jackson didn't hesitate for more than a moment as he broke into a sprint.

"Grrrrrr" a low growl came from where he was just standing, he turned his head to see a beast that resembled a pre-apocalypse panther except it was much larger. It bared its teeth as it saw him turn his head towards it, a chill went down his spine as it disappeared faster than his eyes could follow.

But he could still feel its presence... stalking him, somewhere in the forest...