An Early Morning Encounter
Early morning.
"Thanks for the meal."
"Sure. Eat up."
Seol Yun-ri was sitting at the breakfast table with Seonwoo's family.
She had trained with Seonwoo from dawn, and now they were eating breakfast together. At first, she'd been stiff and painfully awkward, but by the third day, most of that had faded.
"There's plenty, so eat as much as you want."
"Yes. Thank you."
Grandmother had taken quite a liking to Seol Yun-ri, who ate everything with such hearty appreciation.
"Unni, here's your cup."
"Thanks."
Eunseo, too, treated Seol Yun-ri with easy warmth so she wouldn't feel uncomfortable. From the very first day, she'd started calling her unni as if they'd known each other forever, and before long the two had become close.
"We're heading out."
"All right. Have a good day."
After finishing a solid breakfast, Seonwoo headed to the Seoul Hunter General Center with Seol Yun-ri.
The Seoul Hunter General Center was the institution that handled all hunter-related affairs, and the quarterly exam was held there as well.
And today was the day they were accepting applications for the upcoming test.
The place was already buzzing.
Even though they'd come fairly early to avoid the crowds, the wide open plaza in front of the center was packed. Students, guardians, and staff had gathered in such numbers it felt like even winter's chill had been pushed back.
"Hey. Look over there."
"Oh..."
Eyes turned toward Seonwoo and Seol Yun-ri as they made their way through the crowd.
It wasn't because they were famous.
It was because of Seol Yun-ri's appearance, neat and polished.
She hadn't done anything especially elaborate. She'd simply dressed cleanly and tidied her hair. But that alone was enough to draw attention—she was just that pretty.
...Thinking of how that very face had once only poured fuel on the so-called "excavation" of her past left a bitter taste in his mouth.
But nothing like that was going to happen this time.
As he strode forward with that thought in mind, other looks joined the first wave of attention.
These were of a different kind.
They came from students who knew Kim Seonwoo and Seol Yun-ri.
"What the hell?"
"Why are they here?"
Kim Seonwoo. Seol Yun-ri.
Even at Seoul Hunter Academy, the two had stood out—especially, and for all the wrong reasons.
Blots that had no business existing at the academy that represented South Korea.
At those familiar looks, filled with that all-too-familiar emotion, Seol Yun-ri shrank in on herself.
They reminded her of nearly a year of relentless torment.
It felt as though that sticky darkness from back then—the kind that had made even breathing painful—was filling her lungs all over again.
And just as it seemed ready to spill over and swallow her whole—
"Don't shrink back, Yun-ri."
Warmth seeped in.
"You're going to become the greatest spiritist of all. You can believe that without doubting it. Right?"
She saw him there at her side, smiling.
Her senior.
And that smile shone on her like the sun.
They had been in the same position once.
But one day, that senior had suddenly appeared, like sunlight breaking in, pulling her out of the dark and even handing her a bright future.
And now, here he was, shining on her again—so proud, so brilliant.
I'm okay.
"Isn't that the girl who couldn't even summon a single spirit?"
"Yeah. The legendary one who ran away and got expelled."
The whispers reached her.
They stabbed into her whole body with the sharp clarity of awls, carving her apart.
But now, while they still hurt, they no longer frightened her.
And because they no longer frightened her, she didn't cower.
She didn't need to.
You're going to become the greatest spiritist of all.
She believed that what her senior had told her was true.
She believed that future had already been decided.
That unwavering faith became the pillar that held up the heart of Seol Yun-ri, which had been on the verge of crumbling again.
"Let's go."
"Yes!"
Following her senior, Seol Yun-ri walked proudly through the crowd.
They filled out the application forms and stood before the registration window.
"You're not students, I see?"
At the slightly tired remark from the employee, a woman with her hair neatly pinned up, Seonwoo answered for both of them.
"No."
"Understood. First, please take this additional form, have your abilities measured as instructed, fill in the results, and submit it."
"Yes."
Then they moved as directed.
To take the exam, applicants first had to undergo an on-site ability measurement.
The test was conducted with those results as a reference.
"Please place your hand on it."
"All right."
The measurement didn't take long.
It wasn't complicated, either. You simply placed your hand on the crystal sphere—created through a fusion of Dwarf and Elf technology—and poured mana into it.
It couldn't read a subject's detailed information, but it could accurately identify representative talent and the current values of the so-called three major stats.
And that was enough to roughly determine an awakened person's level.
Whirrr—
A form printed out with their measured stats.
Seonwoo and Seol Yun-ri filled in everything required and submitted it back at the counter.
The employee, who had been checking the paperwork with a tired expression, looked up.
"...You're registering as hunters, not supporters?"
"Yes."
"Hmm..."
Concern joined the fatigue on her face.
Kim Seonwoo and Seol Yun-ri.
Combined with the paperwork now in her hand, she knew exactly who the two applicants were. Even if she hadn't known their faces, they were infamous enough that she'd heard what kind of awakened individuals they were.
Kim Seonwoo, who—contrary to the rumors—had at least cleared the bare minimum and had a technical stat that was respectable.
And Seol Yun-ri, whose mana stat was excellent, just as one would expect from someone once considered a promising talent at Seoul Hunter Academy.
But their documents were both still missing the one thing that mattered most.
Skill.
No skill of any kind was listed on Seonwoo's form.
Seol Yun-ri's said Spiritist, but the employee knew the truth.
Seol Yun-ri was a spiritist who could not summon spirits.
The ability-measuring crystal sphere, commonly called a scanner, scanned out the talent most representative of the subject in the form of a skill name, along with the three major stats.
Whether someone was S-grade or, conversely, F-grade, it could read that much.
But these two had effectively come up empty.
Seonwoo had nothing at all, and Seol Yun-ri's Spiritist did not function.
Even if a person had awakened, if they lacked both the minimum stats and a proper skill, it was difficult for them to work as a hunter.
A person without skills was like someone with all the bullets in the world but no gun to fire them from.
Mana was what allowed humans to wield transcendent power.
And it was skills that manifested that mana.
Without that, you couldn't properly fight monsters.
An awakened person without skills was just a human with a slightly stronger body, and that wasn't enough to kill monsters—meaning they couldn't grow, either.
Which was why awakened people with no skill, or no skill usable in combat, couldn't become hunters. At best, they became supporters—or, to put it bluntly, porters.
Unless something extraordinary changed, that was their whole life.
They'd either die in the industry as pack mules, or retire from it.
The employee studied Seonwoo and Seol Yun-ri carefully.
She remembered Seonwoo vividly from the previous exam.
Her memory was excellent, and she'd not forgotten how he'd been gasping for breath, unable to properly handle even the role of a porter.
"Huff, huff, huff."
"Aigoo. Tsk tsk."
"Hey, how the hell did a guy like that even get into Seoul Hunter Academy?"
Everyone had mocked Seonwoo as he struggled to breathe.
To begin with, someone with a stamina stat that hadn't even surpassed F-grade should have been stopped from entering a dungeon at all.
The only reason he'd been pushed through was because Seoul Hunter Academy was desperate to preserve its record of a 100% hunter pass rate.
After that, since he never formally registered, she'd assumed he'd wisely left the industry behind.
But now his physical stat had reached E-grade, and his technical stat was a remarkable 82—solidly D-grade.
He must've worked incredibly hard...
That thought came naturally, looking at those numbers.
His paperwork showed he was no longer a student, so it looked as though he'd raised his stats to this level entirely through self-training.
"May I ask, Ms. Seol Yun-ri... have you become able to summon spirits?"
When she turned and asked, Seol Yun-ri shook her head.
"No. Not yet. But I will be able to during the exam."
"Hmm..."
The pity on the employee's face deepened.
Kim Seonwoo, who seemed to have bled for every step of his progress.
And Seol Yun-ri, who had come with him.
The two failures of Seoul Hunter Academy had come here to apply for the hunter licensing exam—not as supporters, but as hunters.
That made the whole thing painfully pitiful in her eyes.
So she offered advice, even though she didn't have to.
"Taking the hunter exam without a skill is going to be hard. And dangerous. Why don't you think it over a little more?"
To put it bluntly, she was saying this:
Without skills, you two really shouldn't be taking the hunter licensing exam.
But neither Seonwoo nor Seol Yun-ri took offense.
If anything, they liked her better for it.
Even while drowning in work during exam season, she'd still taken the time to care.
This wasn't even her problem. She could've simply processed the forms and sent them on their way. Instead, she'd worried for them and offered honest advice.
So Seonwoo answered with a small smile.
"Thank you. But it's really okay. We'll pass in style."
Seeing the unshakable certainty in his voice, the employee didn't try to stop them again.
Instead, as she nodded and registered their forms, she added one more piece of advice.
"A veteran hunter will accompany the test. If things get dangerous, don't hesitate to ask for help. What's important is not getting hurt."
"Yes. Thank you."
With that, they finished registering and turned away.
"She's a nice person."
"Yeah. She is."
If there were no problems with the paperwork, she could've simply processed it and been done.
Especially in the middle of exam season, when the workload was already crushing.
But she'd gone out of her way to care, and even offered advice. That made her memorable.
"Then let's head back and..."
Train hard.
There wasn't much time left until the exam.
Seonwoo couldn't finish the sentence.
Something had caught in his senses.
They weren't in his line of sight yet, but only a few steps behind them, a group was pushing through the crowd.
And they—
made Seol Yun-ri's bright expression freeze solid.
"Hey. Fuck, this is hilarious."
A group of twelve sauntered toward the registration windows, snickering like the whole world belonged to them.
Every single one of them had the look and air of delinquents.
And in truth, that was exactly what they were.
Their party name—and at the same time, the name of their clique—was Giant Breaker.
Officially, they were a party formed so they could work together from their school days onward.
In reality, they were a gang of bullies.
It was the party that Kim Seonwoo had joined as a porter in the previous exam.
And it was also the very root of the vicious torment inflicted on Seol Yun-ri.
The gaze of the one walking at the very front—the man anyone would identify at a glance as the party's leader—landed on Seol Yun-ri.
Short-cropped hair. A square face. A height that put him a full head above most others, with the build of a bear.
And yet, more than roughness, what clung to him most was a greasy sense of unpleasantness.
His name was Ma Eun-woo.
"Oh?"
His face shifted into that of a low animal that had found prey.
Then, thud, thud.
He came closer to Seol Yun-ri.
The oily unpleasantness in the air around him grew even more blatant.
"Well, well. Look who this is. Haven't seen you in a while."
"..."
Under that gaze, crawling over her as if licking her, Seol Yun-ri couldn't answer.
The confidence and pride in her eyes clouded over, swallowed by a creeping gray.
She needed to stand tall.
She knew now that she could.
But the nearly year-long torment, and the horrific memories that had become trauma, tried to bury her light beneath an even deeper darkness.
Seonwoo wasn't disappointed in her.
He knew those wounds weren't the kind a person could overcome all at once.
Not yet able to summon spirits, Seol Yun-ri still lacked a little faith in herself—the faith she needed to fully break through it.
But even with that lacking strength—
she still fought.
Clench.
Even so, Seol Yun-ri was desperately fighting.
Fighting herself, the part of her that wanted to curl up and bow her head, refusing to let them see her give up.
And to lend a little strength to that fight she was waging—strength she lacked for now—
"Ma Eun-woo."
"...?"
Seonwoo stepped forward.
"Your senior's standing right here. Start with a greeting."