D-Rank Dungeon Arc

Standing as the series' debut chapter, this arc builds the foundation that the rest of the story rests upon. Its focus falls on Sung Jinwoo, a weak E-Rank Hunter, together with the modest crew he ventures alongside in Seoul, South Korea. Wasting no effort, the narrative quickly plants the setting's central pillars: it explains what Hunters, Gates, and Dungeons are, then lays out the class divisions and the tiered ranks separating the powerful from the feeble. Once it wraps, Jinwoo has been pointed toward the road that shapes everything to come.

What is meant to be a plain D-Rank clearance turns sinister the moment a second gate is spotted hidden within the first. The team's curiosity drags them inside, and that decision proves deadly once the way out disappears and escape becomes impossible. Inside the Cartenon Temple, rows of statues enforce a brutal trial, cutting down anyone who violates its rules even slightly. Trapped together with Jinwoo are several hunters: Joo Jae-Hwan and Kang Jeongho stand among them, as do Song Chi-Yul, Park Beom-Shik, Lee Joohee, and Kim Sangshik, while the looming Statue of God watches over the entire ordeal.

Lives are lost before the trial finally releases its survivors, and Joo Jae-Hwan along with Park Beom-Shik number among the dead. Yet for Jinwoo this brush with death rewrites his fate. By completing the concealed quest known as Courage of the Weak, he is reborn as a Player, gaining entry to a leveling System that no rival Hunter can touch. An ordeal that should have buried the party's weakest link instead arms him with strength beyond anyone's reach.