Alpha Male (3)
The number of people who register as hunters worldwide is extremely small. In Korea, it's barely a thousand per year, if that. As a result, a single branch only holds new hunter training about once every two months. Even then, they'd be grateful to get four or five recruits.
'Man, there really aren't many people.'
Of course, Park Jihun—who had been a regular civilian until just moments ago—had no way of knowing any of this. He simply thought hunters must be rare because there were only four people, including himself, sitting in the second-floor training room.
"And when entering a gate..."
The reason he was spacing out during the lecture was simple. The training was fucking boring.
They were just listing off things that every hunter obviously needed to know. Or rather, things so basic that even regular people already knew them. There was no way it could be interesting.
The hunter ranking system, divided from F-rank all the way up to S-rank. How incredibly important ranks were. How you never knew what might happen inside a gate, and how dangerous they were. How you usually entered gates one rank below your own, or at the same rank. The absolute requirement of at least a six-person raid party. And how that led to a constant shortage of manpower.
The only part that actually caught the interest of Park Jihun and the other new hunters was this:
"Magic stones and byproducts. These are what matter. They're essential for alternative energy and for making hunter equipment."
These were the items you could obtain by defeating monsters.
Magic stones—crystals filled with mana. The ultimate eco-friendly material that required no sacrifices. Depending on the grade, a single stone could supposedly supply an entire major city with electricity for a whole month.
The problem, however, was that you could only obtain magic stones by defeating the monsters inside gates. In other words, only hunters could get them. Demand was enormous, but the only supply came from hunters, so naturally they were insanely expensive.
This was the main source of income for hunters. Even an F-rank could earn a salary comparable to a major corporation's executive pay.
And then there were the byproducts—useful parts harvested from monster bodies. Depending on the item, these could sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars per kilogram. Since they were the primary materials used to craft equipment for hunters who raked in massive amounts of money, their value was only natural.
In the end, the conclusion was simple.
"Being a hunter means making money."
And the higher your hunter rank climbed, the better the magic stones and byproducts you could obtain. The money you could earn would increase exponentially.
"Hmm."
"Whoa..."
The other new hunters listening to the lecture showed intense interest at those words. They'd been half-assing it until now.
Of course, Park Jihun was interested too. But unlike the others, his reaction was a moderate 'Yeah, hunters are pretty nice.'
There was one topic that actually got a strong reaction out of him.
"Ah, and one more thing. The closer a gate monster is to a human form, the more dangerous it is. This is important."
The moment the topic of humanoid monsters came up, Park Jihun's eyes sparkled brightly.
'Humanoid? Female-type? Super hot goddess-level sexy monster?'
Could he finally hear stories about encountering beautiful female-type monsters? He waited with slight anticipation.
Of course, the senior hunter giving the lecture meant that the closer they were to human form, the higher their intelligence. They could use strategic actions like setting traps, which made them dangerous.
"Plus, because they look so similar to humans, quite a few hunters end up with trauma after combat."
Even though they were monsters, their appearance was almost human. Visually, killing them wasn't much different from killing a person. It was more than enough to cause trauma.
"Both the physical threats and the mental aspects. Let's all be as careful as possible."
With those words, the rather lengthy theoretical lecture finally came to an end.
"Next, we'll be measuring your ranks. Let's move."
And at last, the long-awaited time for rank measurement had arrived.
The method for measuring rank was simple. The Association had a magical tool that could measure a person's stat values. All you had to do was place your hand on it to learn your rank.
It was an incredibly convenient system, but it had one problem: 'skills' were excluded from the measurement.
Skills were also an important part of a hunter's combat power. Of course, if you proved your skills yourself, higher-ranked raid parties or guilds would naturally recruit you. So those with special skills often didn't obsess too much over their rank.
Besides, if you kept entering high-rank dungeons, you'd naturally get more opportunities to raise your stats, and your rank would rise accordingly.
Anyway.
Whether your rank was low or high, the rank you received here would have a massive impact on your life as a hunter going forward. It was an incredibly important moment.
'I wonder what rank I'll get? Looking at my stats... even so, it should at least be E-rank, right?'
Park Jihun's stats looked quite low, but he still held some expectations as he headed toward the rank measurement room.
F-rank.
"......"
Of course, Park Jihun received a merciless F-rank. Just as he'd expected, his stat values were low.
"Still, with these numbers, if they go up just a little, you could reach E-rank."
Whether to console him for his disappointment or not, the staff member in the measurement room said that.
Unfortunately, low-rank hunters rarely got opportunities to raise their stats. Things like discovering stat-boosting elixirs or achieving feats mostly happened in high-rank gates. It was literally just empty comfort.
"Ah, yes. Thank you!"
Watching Park Jihun answer with a bright smile, the measurement room staff felt an inexplicable sense of pity.
Of course, that was because they didn't know about his skill.
'So if I just fuck a few female monsters, I'll hit E-rank in no time?'
He had an absurd skill that raised his stats just by defeating monsters—though it was limited to females and came with some conditions.
'And since it's almost E-rank, that means if my stats double, I'll surpass E-rank, right?'
The cheat skill Alpha Male, which doubled his stats against female or female-type monsters. If it activated, even if he didn't reach D-rank, he'd probably have mid-to-upper tier stats within E-rank.
With Park Jihun's measurement finished, all four people's tests were complete.
"Oh, they're out."
"Four this time, huh."
"That's actually a lot. Four from Incheon is pretty good."
From behind them came the sound of several people murmuring. Naturally, the new hunters' gazes turned that way.
A group standing a short distance from the measurement room, chatting while observing the new hunters. Each of them wore a badge with a unique emblem on their chest.
"...They're guild scouts. They're probably here to hear the rank announcements."
They were guild scouts.
Groups of hunters were called 'guilds.' Large-scale guilds held so much power that even the Hunter Association or the government couldn't treat them lightly.
Of course, most of the scouts here belonged to small-to-medium guilds operating locally. It was extremely rare for major guilds to send scouts.
After all, high-rank hunters would come to the major guilds themselves. Or even if they belonged to another guild, the major guilds believed they could poach them anytime with a better offer.
Anyway, whenever new hunter training happened, guilds would send scouts to discover fresh talent. With real luck, they might recruit someone who started at D-rank or higher. In a true lottery win, they might even see B-rank or A-rank—the highest tiers. So it was only natural for small-to-medium guilds to send people to every single measurement.
And so, the rank measurement results they had been waiting for were announced.
Shin Jeonghun - E-rank.
Park Jihun - F-rank.
Lee Mina - E-rank.
Kang Sigyeong - C-rank... Congratulations.
Park Jihun, one man, and one woman had received E and F-ranks respectively. Naturally, the expressions of the small-to-medium guilds darkened. They figured it was another bust.
But then—
There was one man who had received a C-rank.
"Heh heh heh heh."
The man who received C-rank puffed out his chest with an excited expression. He looked extremely pleased with his high rank.
"Wow... congratulations."
"Congrats."
The other new hunters offered their congratulations, but their expressions weren't very good. After all, they hadn't received good ranks themselves.
Of course, Park Jihun just clapped without much thought. To him, who had a skill that raised his stats, reaching C-rank was only a matter of time anyway.
After the rank measurements ended, the guild scouts swarmed toward the man named Kang Sigyeong.
"Hello, Mr. Kang Sigyeong. I'm from Signature Guild..."
"If you come to our Drain Guild..."
"Hey, move over a bit!"
They introduced themselves and thrust business cards at him as if competing. C-rank. For a small guild, it was a rank that could make someone an executive. Even mid-tier guilds would offer high signing bonuses and plenty of benefits. He was talented enough that major guilds would accept him as a full member if he simply applied. It was only natural that a recruitment war would break out.
"Ah, yes, yes..."
Kang Sigyeong, who had been flustered at first, began collecting the business cards one by one, clearly enjoying it.
"Mr. Kang Sigyeong, is there anything you need?!"
"If you join our guild, we'll offer treatment like this...!!"
It looked like they might start asking for his home address if left alone, so the instructor stepped in to stop the scouts.
"The training isn't over yet, so please restrain yourselves with the scouting."
With that, the commotion seemed to settle down for now.
"......"
"......"
Perhaps because the small disturbance had shown them reality, the expressions of the other new hunters—Shin Jeonghun and Lee Mina—darkened.
'Are guilds really that important?'
Park Jihun simply watched the situation with a bored expression, like a spectator.
A guild was essentially a hunter's backing. Rank was important, but the treatment and position you received from which guild completely changed a hunter's status. Which gates you entered, when, and how often. How many benefits you could receive. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say everything was decided by your guild's influence.
Park Jihun didn't know anything about the ecology of hunters. And even if he did, he wasn't particularly interested in benefits or power, so he would have remained equally indifferent.
He loved female-type monsters and had delved extremely deep into that preference, but since he'd never imagined he would actually become a hunter, his knowledge about hunters was close to zero.
Then, one of the scouts noticed the other new hunters and slowly approached.
For a moment, Shin Jeonghun and Lee Mina held onto hope. Maybe they had a chance too?
But opportunities like this didn't come to everyone. And opportunities weren't always as good as you imagined.
"You're Lee Mina, right? Our guild is also raising some star hunters. If you're interested, please contact us."
"......"
The only one who received a business card was Lee Mina. And even that wasn't as a regular hunter, but as a star hunter... in other words, scouted as something like a 'celebrity.'
It was true that Lee Mina's appearance was quite pretty. If she took proper care of herself and dressed up, she'd probably be popular enough to appear on TV.
Since the hunter profession was so rare and carried such a good image, even low-rank hunters could attract public popularity and appear on broadcasts. The trend of 'star hunters' was growing.
"......"
Anyway, although she had been scouted, it wasn't the kind of opportunity she wanted, so Lee Mina's expression stiffened.
"......"
And among the remaining two who hadn't even received a glance, Shin Jeonghun's face looked even more rotten. As for Park Jihun...
'Hmm, she's pretty, but it's a shame. If she had long ears, blonde hair, and wore clothes made of leaves, it would've been perfect.'
As he looked at Lee Mina, he reached the very fitting conclusion that, unfortunately, she wasn't his type.