SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 18: Gate types

Toma set his clipboard on the table and leaned forward slightly, excited about explaining something he genuinely enjoys.

"So. Gates," he started. "Most people treat this like background knowledge but honestly it’s the most important thing an Exterminator can understand, because the type of gate determines everything — how you go in, how it ends, and whether it ends at all."

He held up one finger. "There are three types of gates that commonly exist in out world."

"One-Way Gates. These are the most common and the most dangerous for civilians. They open on their own without warnings. Out of these, calamity Beasts pour out from the other side. You cannot enter them from this side. The only way to close one is to fight through the waves of monster and find the Gate Guardian and kill it. Once the Guardian is dead, the gate collapses." He paused. "These are the ones that cause urban incidents."

He moved on before Hide could react to that.

"The second type are, Loop Gates. These type of gates never close. They have a Gatekeeper instead of a Guardian, and when you kill the Gatekeeper, it regenerates over time — hours, days, depending on the gate’s rank. That’s what makes them useful." He gestured out of the cafeteria window to the five glass zones, with the swirling energy behind the glass. "Every gate zone in this facility is a Loop Gate. Exterminators use them for training because the cycle repeats. Kill the Gatekeeper, get your data, come back next week and do it again."

Hide looked at the nearest zone. The gate inside pulsed slow and dark, like a bruise with a heartbeat.

"And the third type?"

Toma’s expression shifted just slightly. Still professional, but the casual brightness dimmed a notch.

"Dungeon Gates. These are the ones you really don’t want to mishandle." He laced his fingers on the table. "Unlike the other two, Dungeon Gates connect to a Dungeon — a structured space with its own geography, its own beast population, and a Dungeon Master at its core. To close a Dungeon Gate, you go inside and kill the Dungeon Master. Straightforward in theory." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Ok, that sounds easy? So, what’s the problem?"

"In theory," Toma repeated. "The problem is the timer. You have twenty-four hours from the moment a Dungeon Gate opens to clear it. If the Dungeon Master is still alive after twenty-four hours, the gate breaks." He said the next part carefully. "The Dungeon asserts dominance over the surrounding area. The real-world space merges with the Dungeon’s internal structure and becomes part of it — permanently. We call that a Dungeon Break."

They both sat in silence for a moment. Somewhere behind them, two Exterminators were arguing about equipment load-outs.

"Has it happened?" Hide asked, curious.

"Twice," Toma said. "Two confirmed Dungeon Breaks have happened in recorded history." He picked up his pen and turned it over in his fingers without writing anything. "The first one was a five-Star. It effected an area almost as large as a whole country, in a coastal city — the buildings, the streets, the entire geography transformed into Dungeon terrain over the course of about six hours. Government response was fast but it wasn’t fast enough to stop the merge. They eventually did something..." he paused. "Creative."

"Creative?"

"They detonated the coastal infrastructure around the affected zone. Broke the land mass away from the mainland and let the current take it." He looked at Hide with a completely level expression. "It still floats. Out in the ocean somewhere. An entire country block converted into a living Dungeon, drifting on the open water. Some agency apparently has a contract to periodically keep checks on it."

Hide stared at him.

Two Dungeon Breaks in history and both happened to open near coasts. The general consensus is that this was mercy from something. Because if either of them had opened inland, in a city center, the outcome would have been catastrophic."

A beat.

"Uhh... let’s move to the next part. So, the gates are ranked by a star system, just like talents. One Star is the weakest. Then Two-Star, Three-Star, Four-Star, each step up is a significant jump in difficulty and danger. Five-Star gates are national-level response events. Every major agency coordinates." He tapped the table once. "And theoretically, the classification framework has room for a Six-Star."

He said it without drama, but something in his tone made it land like one anyway.

"None have been recorded. The researchers who study gate theory generally agree that if a Six-Star gate opens inland. We would need to redraw the map." He picked up his clipboard. "So. May whatever is up there keep its mercy going."

He flipped a page.

"Now. The beasts themselves. Calamity Beasts are ranked separately from the gates — by mana density and threat capability and they have eight levels." He started from the bottom. "G-Rank — weakest. F-Rank. E-Rank and then D-Rank."

He paused.

"After D-Rank, the naming changes."

"Yes I know that." Hide nodded. This was actually common knowledge.

"Its a great thing you know, but I still need to do my work. So, C-Rank beasts are called Lesser Calamity Lords. That title exists because C-Rank is the threshold where a Calamity Beast stops being a dangerous animal and starts being a tactical threat. A single Lesser Calamity Lord wiping a four-person squad is not a rare event."

He moved up.

"B-Rank — Higher Calamity Lords. They are not to be engaged without the presence of at least 3 S- Rank Exterminators."

"A-Rank — Supreme Calamity Lords. They are national emergency. there have been eleven recorded appearances globally. Seven were suppressed. Four resulted in—" He stopped. "Permanent changes to the area."

He looked at his clipboard for a moment before the last one.

"And S-Rank. Primordial Calamity Lords.\With only two confirmed appearance. One is theorized to have caused a tectonic shift. S-Rank is not something any facility or any Exterminator can specifically prepare for. I include it because you need to understand the shape of the world you’ve entered."

He looked at Hide directly.

"The floor has no ceiling. That’s the lesson."

Hide nodded once.

"Good," Toma said, and reached for his water. "Any quest—"

"Well, look at that. Who do we have Here."

The voice came from behind Hide, loud enough to carry across half the cafeteria, pitched precisely at the level of someone performing for an audience.

Hide recognized the voice before he turned around, it was unmistakable. It was his classmate Fuu.