Walkthrough for the Transcendental Hunter's Ruins - Chapter 1

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 1
—Ding.
The text message he’d been waiting for finally arrived.
“Sigh…”
Jeon Jae-woo opened his eyes to the tiniest sliver and checked the message with extreme caution.
‘Please… please…!’
==
Interview Results Notice
Hello, Jeon Jae-woo.
We sincerely thank you for applying to our company with your exceptional abilities, and we regret to inform you that we will be unable to move forward together. Our headquarters…
==
The message was a rejection notice—he’d failed the document screening.
“Damn it.”
Without reading further, he cursed under his breath and closed his phone.
The job market these days had to be absolute hell.
Another failure in his job search. This was his seventieth rejection—a milestone he could have done without.
Jeon Jae-woo was already twenty-six years old.
He was long past the age where youth could excuse him, yet his resume was as bare as it came—just another unemployed nobody with nothing to show.
A grown man who served no purpose except to consume food and money.
He wanted nothing more than to scream his frustration into the void.
But his apartment had terrible soundproofing, and his neighbors would immediately hurl insults back at him.
Jeon Jae-woo’s studio was equally poor in both insulation and neighborliness, so silence was the better part of valor.
It was infuriating that he couldn’t even let out a proper scream, but what could he do about it?
When you had no power, you simply endured.
Jeon Jae-woo, who had been lying there in a daze, soon pulled himself up slowly.
“…I can’t keep living like this.”
There was nowhere left to beg for help. If he couldn’t land a corporate job, he’d have to work at a logistics center warehouse and scrape together whatever money he could.
The work had gotten brutally harder than it used to be, or so he’d heard.
‘But what else am I going to do? Die trying?’
—Ding.
Just as he was steeling himself with this new resolve, another notification chimed.
Startled, he quickly picked up the phone he’d just set down.
Could it be a late acceptance after all…?
But contrary to his hope, the phone was dark.
Now that he thought about it, that chime hadn’t come from his phone at all.
“??”
Only then did Jeon Jae-woo look up and see something appear before his eyes.
[Congratulations. You have awakened a new Trait.]
“…Awakened a Trait? Me?”
If he wasn’t losing his mind, this was unmistakably a notification window that only Hunters could see—one announcing an Awakening.
His heart suddenly began to race again, as if it might burst.
‘Could I have actually obtained a Trait? Does that mean I’ve awakened as a Hunter now?’
Monsters and Gates—the backdrop of one of the most popular web novel genres.
But that backdrop had long since ceased to be fiction and become part of the real world.
Hunters slaying monsters had become as natural and mundane as traffic in modern society.
Of course, monsters were still no match for ordinary people, but the shock had long worn off.
And recently, something called Ruins had begun appearing as well.
Clear them first, and you’d gain ownership of that Ruin—a genuine goldmine that would let you live off the spoils for life.
And only Hunters who could wield Mana were permitted to enter those goldmines.
Either way, Jeon Jae-woo’s heart pounded like it might leap from his chest.
The sting of his job search rejections vanished in an instant.
This notification was worth incomparably more than an acceptance letter from some small company.
Since the great upheaval, Hunters had never ceased to be the most coveted profession.
Practically speaking, they were indispensable for the nation’s survival.
And to ordinary people, they were simultaneously objects of envy and, in essence, modern-day nobility—legally sanctioned and untouchable.
“Easy, settle down.”
Jeon Jae-woo gathered himself and took a deep breath.
He was afraid his heart might literally burst if he got any more excited.
This was undoubtedly one of the few pieces of good news he’d received in a long time.
But he couldn’t let himself expect too much.
The greater the expectation, the more proportional the disappointment tends to become.
What was he supposed to do with the backlash if, after finally Awakening, his Trait turned out to be the lowest Grade possible?
Statistically speaking, the odds of manifesting the lowest Grade Trait were actually the highest.
After all, even among those who Awakened at the lowest Grade, they made up only one tenth of the total population.
“Look. Just the fact that I’ve Awakened at all is already incredible, and honestly, whatever Trait comes out shouldn’t matter at this point.”
If a good Trait came along with the Awakening, that would be even better. If not, so be it.
Though in reality, it mattered enormously.
If he was being honest with himself, he wanted far more than an E—ideally at least B Grade, and if he was greedy, even an A Grade Trait.
‘I heard Hunters with A Grade Traits earn a minimum of 100 billion won a year…’
And so Jeon Jae-woo trembled like an aspen leaf as he opened his status window.
For a newly Awakened Hunter, the most critical piece of information was undoubtedly the Trait itself.
Because the Grade attached to the Trait was what determined a Hunter’s rank.
“……???”
The moment he confirmed his Trait, a gasp escaped him unbidden.
Jeon Jae-woo swallowed hard.
He rubbed his eyes repeatedly to make sure he wasn’t seeing things wrong.
But no matter how many times he looked, there was no mistake. The Trait that Jeon Jae-woo had Awakened was—
[Heaven’s Box (Sealed) – Transcendent]
[Ruins Currently Conquered – ]
[Number of Ruins Available to Conquer (12)]
My God. Not B Grade, not A Grade, not even S Grade—but a Transcendent Grade Trait.
Fundamentally, Hunter Traits existed in order: E, D, C, B, A, and S Grades.
However, there existed a tier beyond what Hunters’ status windows could measure.
That was the Transcendent Grade.
A supremely rare tier possessed by only the world’s greatest Hunters.
His heart pounded so violently it felt like it might burst.
A Transcendent Grade Trait. Was it really okay for a nobody like him to Awaken something like this?
Wait. Now that he’d manifested a Transcendent Grade Trait, what if he died?
Even if death seemed imminent, he had to grit his teeth and claw his way to survival.
“But… what exactly is this ability?”
He’d been too shocked to actually examine what the Trait did.
Opening his status window again, Jeon Jae-woo tilted his head in confusion.
The name of the Transcendent Trait was remarkably strange.
Of course, a Transcendent Hunter Trait being ordinary would be odd, but still—Heaven’s Box as a Trait name?
‘Does it just mean a literal box in heaven, taken at face value?’
If the Trait was called a box, perhaps it meant the ability to draw items at random from that box.
Just then, a brief description appeared below the status window.
[Heaven’s Box (Sealed) – Transcendent]
A weapon used in the great wars of ancient Earth. By inserting any material, the box amplifies and fuses the material’s properties—multiplying its performance by factors ranging from several-fold to thousands of times—and creates a new weapon.
“……??”
What kind of description was this?
Ancient wars? Clouds and mist? And the method of use was just… insert any material and make new weapons?
“Hmm. I’ll have to experiment to understand exactly what this Trait does.”
Normally, Awakened Traits were only meant to be used inside Ruins or Dungeons, except in special circumstances.
But since this seemed to be a creation-type ability rather than combat-oriented, it didn’t appear to be as dangerous.
More than anything, he couldn’t contain his curiosity about what the Trait actually did.
—Whoooosh…
Upon Awakening, the method of using the Trait came to him naturally as an instinctive sense.
‘So this is Mana that I’ve only heard about.’
Jeon Jae-woo felt the Mana coursing through his entire body for the first time.
Definitely something had changed since the Awakening.
Even though he hadn’t acquired a martial Trait, his overall physical abilities felt elevated.
Jeon Jae-woo immediately activated the Heaven’s Box Trait.
—Whirrrrr.
“……??”
And then, incredibly, a box materialized and fell to the ground at his feet.
Jeon Jae-woo stared intently at the created box.
But no matter how hard he stared, it just looked like a black box.
Aside from the black color, it was virtually indistinguishable from a large shipping carton.
“…Could that really be all there is?”
A hollow laugh escaped his lips.
A Transcendent Trait? This?
If this were truly a Transcendent Trait, then elemental magic Traits like fire, wind, and earth—which belonged to D-Rank and C-Rank—would look a hundred times better.
What, does the ability work by placing a box on a Monster’s head to show it heaven or something?
‘Did I misread the Trait’s Rank because I was too shocked?’
But even after checking his status window again, the Rank was unmistakably Transcendent.
Jeon Jae-woo took a breath, steadied himself, and read through the Trait description once more.
[(Sealed) Heaven’s Box – Transcendent]
A weapon used in the great wars of ancient Earth. When any material is placed inside, it amplifies the material’s performance by several times to several thousand times and fuses them together to create a new weapon.
So, putting any material inside creates a weapon that amplifies the material’s performance.
Which means the way to use this Trait is to insert something into the box?
“Several times to several thousand times, it says.”
If that’s true, then it really does deserve to be called a Transcendent Trait.
Since there’s no detailed explanation, it seems to be more of a random gacha system. But in any case, it’s an ability that radically amplifies a material’s performance.
But that means even if I put in the same materials, the results would be completely random, wouldn’t they?
There’s no recipe telling me what I put in produces what. I’ll have to discover it through trial and error as I use the Trait.
Heaven’s Box—though with that pitch-black interior that seems to pull things down into it, it looks more like a box of hell.
Jeon Jae-woo stared at the box in silence, thinking.
‘I wonder if I could try it with ordinary dirt?’
Without overthinking it, he went and grabbed a flowerpot from his home.
The plant he’d been growing had died long ago, leaving only the ordinary soil—which he’d never bothered to clean out.
Patter-patter-patter.
Jeon Jae-woo emptied every bit of soil from the pot into the box.
The moment all the dirt tumbled into the box.
Click.
“Oh, geez, that startled me.”
Heaven’s Box closed automatically.
[Time remaining until production complete: 23:59:57]
The fact that a timer appeared suggested the production had actually begun.
Seeing the Trait actually work was genuinely fascinating.
“Wow. This really works?”
But looking at the timer, it seemed he’d have to wait at least a full day for the production to finish.
‘I’m curious what will come out, but it’s taking longer than I expected.’
Well, since he’d only put in ordinary dirt—the kind you’d find anywhere in a household—nothing remarkable would likely emerge.
Of course, the description mentioned that if luck was on his side, it could amplify by tens of millions of times, but that was just a possibility, and the odds were low.
His first result would probably be something trivial, like a clay figurine.
“Either way, the important thing right now is that I’ve Awakened.”
Jeon Jae-woo set aside the box with the dirt and began entertaining pleasant thoughts about how to use this Trait in the future.
And exactly twenty-four hours later.
Something that should never have existed in the human world emerged.
Dungeon Conquest Methods for Transcendent-Rank Hunters
Author
: Autumn
Publication Date
: June 16, 2026
Publisher
: Acesmedia
Editor
: Acesmedia Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Acesmedia in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder,
and no content may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
This e-book is protected under copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260615033

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————