Why are the Hunters called Hunters ?
The meaning of a word would normally come from what a person does and to describing what it is.
In this sense the word “Hunter” would have come from the word “Hunt” itself which is the act of tracking or pursuing a animal or creature for personal gain.
This being either by skinning and eating the flesh of the animal or removing the creature because it is a huge threat to the hunter himself or those close to him.
These days anyone who ventures out into a dungeon and makes a living off of it is called a “Hunter”.
But why a “Hunter” in particular ? While its true that hunters hunt animals for survival and personal gain they do it in the wild and chase the animal from which the name really takes its roots from.
Someone who enters a large gate and kills monsters that charge at that person haphazardly could hardly be called a “Hunter”, rather why not call this person a “Farmer” since they farm these monsters or a “Fighter” since they fight them.
Or even better what about “Dungeon Explorer” because that’s exactly what those people do when they are down there fighting monsters.
It sounds strange right ?
It may have to do with the fact that the word “Hunter” simply sounds better to the ears which is why it was adopted in the first place.
But that is not true, in reality, officially the people that venture into the dungeon gates are formally known as the “Dungeon explorers” while the public may know them as the “Hunters” it isn’t really what those people are, rather the public is simply mistaken and had adopted this term by the events that had occurred 1 year later after the dungeons appeared.
And while this word was indeed first used by a “Dungeon explorer” who called himself a “Hunter” it wasn’t for the same reason as to why the public calls the dungeon explorers as “Hunters”.
This in turn leads us to the person who had caused all of this naming dilemma to happen in the first place.
His name was Michael Ivankov, when the dungeons arrived 20 years ago he was a 34 year old Russian military lieutenant that was on his vacation with his family in the united states of south Dakota.
It was officially documented that while he was sitting in his vacation home together with his family, Ivankov had suddenly felt a very bad premonition sweep over him, his instincts were crying out to him making Ivankov restless, at time Ivankov couldn’t understand what going on, he at first thought he was just tired and imagining things and tried to distract himself by watching TV.
While watching TV he coincidentally stopped at a news channel where they were just reporting on a sudden hurricane that had been heading towards florida, seeing this piece of news it was as if a lightning bolt had struck Ivankov, something seemed to have clicked in his mind making him immediately jump out of his seat and open the windows to look outside.
It was a clear sky, with no clouds or anything obstructing his view Ivankov could only see the brightly shining sun in the sky, but even though everything seemed fine and dandy Ivankov still felt unsettled, is battle hardened instincts of a soldier were telling him that things were going to get bad real quick.
With this in his mind, Ivankov didn’t hesitate any longer, even though he understood in his mind that he may just be incredibly paranoid he still didn’t want bet with his paranoia and risk having his family hurt, because of this Ivankov immediately decided to cancel their family vacation and bring his family to a place where he could keep them safe and sheltered.
The family had their own opinions regarding his sudden decision his wife in particular but in the end she didn’t say anything against it as she trusted Ivankov and knew that he wouldn’t just casually joke about something like this.
And oh be hold not soon after they decided to find a safe place with a lot of food inside their mini-van…
The dungeons appeared.
What happened there you already know, the dungeon gates appeared and the natural disasters followed with the world immediately falling into chaos.
Soon after that ability users the “Awakened” started to pop up one after another, Samson Brooks came into the worlds view, the church of Samson had been established.
What was Ivankov doing while all of this was going on ?
He was protecting his family.
Because of the chaos world wide society was experiencing its most devastating moments in history, all production line in the world were getting stopped starting to make food an issue, while city were getting obliterated by the natural disaster while the survivors started to forms groups and perform raids to gather food and other supplies.
Ivankov amidst this chaos did his all to protect the people that were dear to him, he had gone through a lot and being a trained military man he had a immense advantage in this chaotic world, he even established his own survivor camp very quickly and trained his men through discipline making him a powerful force to be reckoned with.
His camp in particular was very open and friendly, while Ivankov wasn’t a good man he wasn’t a bad man either, he wasn’t like one of those run of the mill bandit groups that stole and killed as they pleased, Ivankov had his own sets of rules and morals and while he was fully prepared to break them when it came to it, he still mostly found the act of banditry beneath him which is why he sought the way of self-reliance more appealing then raiding.
Unfortunately this all came to an end when they appeared.
The Awakened.
One day when they were peacefully minding their own business, a group of 3 Awakened suddenly came out of nowhere inside Ivankov’s camp, how they entered the camp and how they entered so deeply into its core was unknown but it was most probably by the use of a ability by one of the awakened.
Ivankov was very surprised at the time, he immediately questioned them and their intentions, asking them what they wanted, Ivankov of course knew who they were immediately upon seeing them, he already had heard news of those people with extra ordinary abilities, he felt them to be extremely dangerous which is why he didn’t immediately start shooting them when they appeared out of nowhere.
Though in the end this decision would cost him, because the moment he decided that he wouldn’t immediately shoot them was the moment he lost everything.
One of the awakened raised his hand, not even bothering to reply towards Ivankov he simply activated his ability, the ability being earth based as it immediately caused the ground beneath their feet to shake and turn, Ivankov was surprised he didn’t even need to order his men before a hail of bullets assaulted the group of 3 Awakened.
Alas their actions was also in vain as the moment the bullets near the Awakened they stopped in front of them suspended into the air the bullets were caught inside a invisible force field.
Ivankov was just about to order them to throw explosives instead but before he could even finish his orders the shaking ground beneath their feet stopped for a moment before gigantic human sized earth spikes started to appear from the ground itself.
Blood and flesh flew into the air, his soldiers were immediately impaled by those spikes Ivankov was stunned by this unnatural phenomenon though he immediately shook it off and decisively decided that he needed to get his family and escape.
He couldn’t beat them.
His gut feeling was telling him so, and because it was his gut feeling that saved him in the first place, he would trust it again.
With those things said, Ivankov escaped.
Leaving his men behind who covered for him, Ivankov sought his family and brought them towards his mini-van, putting both of his children into the van Ivankov made sure that he would be the last to enter as he quickly pushed his wife into the passenger seat.
He was just about to succeed.
But things weren’t always that easy, fate was not that fickle.
-Look out !
Ivankov’s wife shouted and out of nowhere she immediately jumped out of the car, pushing her husband away from her, Ivankov was confused he couldn’t understand what was happening and just as his mind fell into disarray he saw a huge spike from bellow, coming from the spot he had just stood on and his wife pushed him away from.
He Immediately understood raising his head he looked at his wife’s face who was smiling at him with tears in her eyes.
It had happened so fast.
-NOOOOOOOOOO !
(Pierce!)
With a shout of unwilling sadness and a morbid piercing sound, blood was starting to flow with the body of his wife going limp as a huge hole was made through her chest, the spike that was originally aimed at Ivankov had missed its mark and instead pierced his wife who saved him at the last minute.
Ivankov still had the last moments of his wife in his mind, that smiling face and those sad tears were still deeply engraved into his eyes, the children were crying seeing their mother pierced right in front of their eyes and the people who were responsible were just 50 meters away one of them talking.
-Tsk…I missed.
It was the man with a dark coat who had spoken, his voice immediately waking Ivankov from his brief moment of grief, he remembered the face of his wife again just before she, he immediately understood what she meant with that expression, that smile.
Live on, protect our children.
He understood, and as such Ivankov didn’t continue to grief any longer, he couldn’t afford it as this was not the time, the death of his wife could not be just simply wasted like this and neither could her wish.
With those thoughts in mind Ivankov immediately raised his gun, not even looking at that man with the dark coat he shot at him across the field getting into the drivers seat.
The man or rather the awakened who could control earth immediately summoned a wall of earth to protect himself upon seeing the gun, the bullets flashed across and embedded themselves onto the surface of the earth wall, because the awakened came alone he couldn’t use the ability of the other awakened to protect himself by suspending the bullets, which is why he didn’t attack Ivankov while he was escaping since he needed to protect himself from the bullets with his own ability which couldn’t do 2 things at the same time.
This little exchange was fortunate as it still gave enough time for Ivankov to act, riding the mini-van Ivankov successful escape together with his children who were still crying by the sudden loss of their mother.
Ivankov himself didn’t feel any better, he also wanted to cry but both of his children were girls and he didn’t want to worry them with his pathetic display, which is why he held it in and simply drove in silence, letting the memory of his wife’s death repeat countless of times inside his head a very dark emotion surfacing inside his heart, something far more powerful then hatred had swallowed him like a beast.
A Place Of Legends 