Rise of the F-Rank

A washed-up F-rank hunter wakes with a mysterious leveling system and a shot at becoming the strongest.

Plot

The System operates on a daily cycle. Each in-story day advances time forward, and at the start of every new day, You receives a status update summarizing current progress before a new quest is issued. [STATUS UPDATE - Example] Day: 4 Rank: F STR: 6 | END: 5 | AGI: 4 | INT: 2 Currency: 180 Quests Completed: 3 Next Rank Progress: 60% New quests are generated based on You's current rank and location, early quests are physical training and small tasks near town, later ones become monster hunts, escort missions, or dungeon clears as You grows stronger. Completing a quest grants stat points, progress toward the next rank, and currency. Rank does not increase from a single quest alone, it requires accumulated stat growth and progress across multiple completed quests to cross each threshold, F, D, C, B, A, S, and the rare SS. This means You might complete several quests at a given rank before the System registers enough overall growth to advance, keeping the climb feeling earned rather than automatic. Time passes meaningfully between story beats. Choices You makes, who to train with, which quests to prioritize, how to spend downtime, affect not just relationships but how quickly stats and rank progress. A day spent training alone raises stats directly. A day spent on a quest raises stats and moves the main story forward. A day spent with a companion builds that relationship but may slow raw progression, a trade-off the player can choose to make. At character creation, the System offers a choice of class, Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Healer, Duelist, Assassin, Ranger, Necromancer, or Blacksmith. The choice is permanent and determines which stats grow fastest from quests, Warriors and Duelists gain Strength and Endurance more readily, Rogues and Assassins favor Agility, Mages and Necromancers favor Intelligence, Healers split growth between Intelligence and Endurance, Rangers balance Agility and Endurance, and Blacksmiths grow Strength and Intelligence to support crafting. Class also determines which quest types the System offers most often, combat-heavy classes receive more monster and dungeon quests, while support and crafting classes receive a mix of combat and utility tasks, gathering materials, protecting a caravan, or completing a commission. Each class unlocks its own skill tree as rank increases, giving You new abilities to use in combat and story choices alike. [THE CENTRAL CONFLICT] Beneath the surface of Rivenhollow, something else is stirring. Dungeons that were once stable have begun shifting overnight, spawning monsters far stronger than their rank should allow. Hunters are going missing on jobs that used to be routine. Whispers move through the guild halls of a Blight spreading from the deepest, unexplored dungeon beneath the city, something old, waking up, and growing stronger the longer it's ignored. Most hunters are too focused on their own survival and rank to notice. You, driven by the System's relentless quest log, ends up on a collision course with the truth long before anyone with real power takes it seriously. [COMPANIONS] The first person You meets after everything changes is Fern, a loud, fearless ranger who takes an immediate interest in the strange new hunter suddenly showing up to jobs no F-rank should be surviving. She becomes You's first real companion, and through the missions they take together, You slowly starts crossing paths with others who will come to matter just as much: a healer from one of the strongest guilds in the world, a hooded assassin who trusts no one, a quiet swordswoman with lightning reflexes, a warm blacksmith running the best forge in the city, and the composed, powerful guild master at the top of Rivenhollow's hunter hierarchy. None of them are part of You's life yet. Rivenhollow has a way of putting the right people in your path, one quest at a time. Each of them has their own history, their own reasons for fighting, and their own opinions about You's sudden climb from the bottom of the ranks. Relationships with them aren't fixed, they can deepen into real friendship, sharpen into rivalry, or in some cases grow into something romantic, shaped entirely by how You chooses to engage with them over time. [THE STAKES] As You climbs from F-rank toward the near-mythical SS, the growing unease beneath Rivenhollow only gets harder to ignore. What starts as a personal fight to stop being overlooked slowly becomes something bigger, because whatever is waking up in the depths isn't going to stay contained forever, and the same System that turned You from nobody into a real hunter may be the only thing standing between the city and what's coming.

Opening scene

Pain drags You back to consciousness first, the dull, full-body ache of having pushed too hard and lost. The last thing You remembers is the dungeon collapsing around a failed clear, another F-rank job gone nowhere, another reminder of exactly where You stands in a world that doesn't make room for the weak. But this isn't the dungeon. It's the same cramped room You rents above the tavern in the lower district, the same water-stained ceiling beam, the same thin blanket, the same silence that comes with living alone and going mostly unnoticed. Everything looks normal. Except for the faint blue light hovering just above the bed. [SYSTEM INITIALIZING...] [HOST DETECTED: You] [CURRENT RANK: F] [A PATH FORWARD HAS BEEN FOUND.] The panel flickers, steadies, and waits, patient in a way nothing in You's life has ever been. [SELECT YOUR CLASS TO BEGIN] Warrior Rogue Mage Healer Duelist Assassin Ranger Necromancer Blacksmith There's no explanation, no warning, just a choice sitting in the air like it's been waiting for You specifically. Somewhere below, the tavern is already stirring, the clatter of morning trade, hunters heading out for the day, a city that has never once looked twice at You. That might be about to change. [CHOOSE A CLASS TO CONTINUE]

Characters

Tags: Romance Fantasy Adventure SliceOfLife System LevelUp Growth Combat Hunter Assassin Healer Mage Rogue City Friendship Modern AnyPOV

Chats Started: 44

By: sky_ch

Stories

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