Female Hunter (2)
The meaning behind the phrase Female Hunter was simple. As long as even a single female or female-type monster remained alive in the enemy group during battle, the stat boost would continue.
Honestly, it was safe to assume that any group of living creatures would contain at least one female. Especially inside a Gate, where monsters didn't seem to divide combat roles strictly by sex, the odds were even higher. Unless the monsters were all-male or completely genderless, Jihun could enjoy double his stats at any time.
And on top of that—
“Kii, kiik…”
One of the goblins standing before him suddenly twisted its face and began to twitch violently.
Female monsters are temporarily stunned and intimidated.
The system alert was visible only to Park Jihun. And according to the gender indicator only he could see, the effect had triggered on the goblin marked with a ♀ symbol.
‘Holy shit, this is broken.’
Thanks to this, any female monster might as well be nonexistent in front of him. While the females were frozen, he could slaughter the males with his boosted stats, then finish off the trembling, cowering females at the end.
‘This is straight-up cheating.’
He had already known it was an overpowered skill, but the more he learned about it, the more absurd it seemed.
“…Hm?”
That was when Park Jihun noticed something strange.
‘Female? That one’s a female, right?’
A female goblin. A female monster. He had finally encountered the very thing he had only ever fantasized about in his dreams.
Pointed ears. Ragged clothes that barely covered the most important parts. Smooth, slightly greenish skin exposed everywhere else. And those breasts and ass that bounced with every aggressive movement, threatening to spill out at any moment…
“…They’re not there!”
It was just a regular goblin. Dull green skin and a hideous chest that might as well not exist. It wasn’t even properly covered.
‘That… that’s not a female-type monster at all!’
Of course, he had known logically that an F-rank dungeon wouldn’t spawn beautiful humanoid goblins, especially not a non-boss one. But seeing it in person like this filled him with pure rage at how cruel reality could be.
“Kill it. If I kill it and erase it, then it never existed.”
He made up his mind. He would slaughter this pathetic female goblin that refused to fulfill his fantasies. That way, he could still claim he had never truly met a female monster, and his dreams would remain intact.
Swish—!
The moment his decision was made, he shot forward. The weapon in his hand was a spear—the historically proven “beginner-friendly” weapon.
He thrust the spear ahead and charged straight at the female goblin. His stats had already reached E-rank or higher, so his explosive dash was impossible for mere goblins to stop. Especially not the female one currently frozen in place by Alpha Male.
Thud!
“Kieeeek!!”
“Die, you hideous freak!!”
Jihun’s spear pierced clean through the female goblin’s chest in a single strike. The two male goblins beside it, the instructor, and the other rookie hunters all stared in stunned silence.
In that moment, another alert appeared before Jihun’s eyes.
You have slain your first female monster.
All stats permanently increased by 1.
Obtained F-rank Low-grade Magic Stone.
He had acquired the magic stone dropped by the monster, and thanks to the Female Hunter skill, his stats had received a permanent boost.
#
Training new hunters is difficult. Even low-ranked hunters are extremely valuable assets, so they must be educated thoroughly enough to avoid dying meaningless deaths. At the same time, they can’t be given so much help that it fails to become real experience. Maintaining that delicate balance is the key.
The instructors had planned to kill just one goblin to ease the tension, then leave the remaining two for the rookies. But then—
Swish—!
One of the rookies suddenly dashed forward.
‘What the—?!’
It was far too sudden. Who the hell—?
At first, the instructor thought it was the arrogant C-rank rookie, Kang Sigyeong. He had been the most confident and held the highest rank, after all. But—
‘…Hunter Park Jihun?’
The one charging forward with his spear extended was none other than Park Jihun. The lowest-ranked hunter here, the one who had received F-rank.
But something was off.
‘That speed… is he really F-rank?’
His charge was unnaturally fast. That was easily on the quicker side even for E-rank hunters. It meant his strength and agility stats were already at that level.
‘It must be a skill!’
If an F-rank hunter like Park Jihun could display movement on the level of the next rank, there was only one answer. He must possess some kind of acceleration or charge-type skill. A combat-specialized skill. Even though he was F-rank, with a skill like that, he could still become a pretty decent hunter.
‘No, that’s not even the most impressive part.’
More than the skill, his mentality was outstanding. When everyone else—including Kang Sigyeong, who had been strutting around because he awakened at C-rank—had hesitated to step forward, Jihun had charged in alone. He had seemed to hesitate at first, but in the end, he had thrown himself at an unknown monster.
The basic mindset of a hunter was to never act recklessly inside a Gate, because anything could happen. But if you were too afraid to act, you would never clear a Gate. When the time came, you had to fight. Especially when the opponent was someone you could actually defeat.
‘…Impressive.’
Charging at a monster you had never seen before—one that was even wielding a bladed weapon—was no easy feat. And then—
Thud!
“Kieeeek!!”
“Die, you hideous freak!!”
He had killed it. Without a shred of hesitation, he had driven his spear straight through its chest and slain the near-humanoid goblin monster.
‘…He’s the one with the most talent as a hunter.’
The courage to charge in without fear when it was time to attack. The mentality to pierce a humanoid monster without flinching. A hunter was someone who entered Gates, killed monsters, and claimed their loot. The lowest-ranked F-rank hunter, Park Jihun, was displaying exactly the attitude a true hunter should have.
It was completely different from Kang Sigyeong, who had been acting so high and mighty after awakening at C-rank, only to freeze up and tremble the moment things got real.
“Kiek!”
“Keeek!”
Enraged by the death of their comrade, the two remaining goblins charged at Jihun. But Jihun was in no position to properly block their attacks.
All female monsters have been eliminated.
Stats have returned to normal.
‘…Shit! I should’ve killed the males first!’
He had been so fixated on killing the female goblin that didn’t match his ideal that he had completely lost focus. As a result, he was now surrounded by two goblins while stuck with his pathetic original F-rank stats.
He thrust his spear out and tried to keep them at bay, but he had no confidence. Even though his stats had gone up by one point each, he was still weak.
Strength, agility, stamina, mana. They had all increased by one, so he definitely felt stronger than when he wasn’t fighting, but the 2x multiplier was gone. He was much weaker than when he had charged the female goblin earlier. With no real combat experience and zero weapon technique, facing two goblins was simply too much.
At that moment—
“Fuck!”
Crunch!
One goblin’s head exploded instantly, spraying blood, bone fragments, and what looked like brain matter in every direction.
“Why the hell are you stepping in? I was gonna kill them all.”
The moment Jihun had taken one down, the tension had broken. Kang Sigyeong, now relaxed, had stepped forward. Blood was soaking his left fist. He hadn’t even drawn his sword—he had literally punched a goblin’s head to pieces with his bare hand. As expected of a C-rank.
“Ugh, fuck!”
Bang!
“Keeek!”
He followed up by smashing the head of the remaining goblin, which had been trembling and backing away. The battle was over. He had killed two of them and shown off overwhelming power.
But Kang Sigyeong’s expression was far from pleased. It seemed he couldn’t accept the fact that he had been scared of mere goblins and was furious about it.
‘And the first one to step up had to be… that guy.’
The F-rank hunter he had written off as the biggest loser. Kang Sigyeong’s pride had taken a serious hit.
Of course, Jihun couldn’t care less about any of that. He was too busy recalling the goblin’s appearance from earlier.
‘Fuck… please don’t tell me every monster is like that? At least the boss will be different, right? The boss… it’ll be different… right?!’
He prayed from the bottom of his heart that the boss wouldn’t look like that hideous goblin.
#
“Hmm.”
Jihun held up the magic stone that had dropped from the female goblin he had just killed. It was tiny, about the size of a finger joint. An F-rank Low-grade Magic Stone, the lowest tier even among F-ranks.
‘Still, one of these goes for over a hundred thousand won.’
It was incredibly small, yet it contained enough energy to power an average household’s electricity for a month. If even this tiny F-rank stone was worth that much, it made sense that C-rank and B-rank stones could easily go for hundreds of thousands or even millions of won.
‘No wonder even F-rank hunters are said to make at least corporate executive salaries.’
Even if a six-man F-rank raid party split the earnings, each person would still take home 1.5 to 2 million won per Gate. With an average of three Gates per month, that came out to 5 to 6 million won monthly. Hunters who really pushed themselves and joined multiple parties could pull in close to 10 million won a month.
Some might think that wasn’t much considering they were risking their lives, but hunters received tons of benefits from the country—including tax exemptions. In reality, it felt far more substantial than a regular office worker earning 5 to 6 million won.
Once you reached C-rank and joined a ten-man party, even splitting the loot meant earning several thousand per month as a baseline. A-rank and S-rank hunters were on another level entirely.
‘I didn’t really care about money when I thought about becoming a hunter… but seeing it like this, it does look pretty nice.’
The money he used to grind for a whole month doing part-time jobs could now be earned with a single Gate run. There was no way he wouldn’t feel good about that.
“Hmph. Getting so excited over just one. This is why F-ranks are pathetic.”
Kang Sigyeong, who had been watching from the side, snorted. As a C-rank who would soon join a guild and handle thousands or even tens of millions of won, he couldn’t help but look down on Jihun for happily staring at a stone worth less than two hundred thousand.
“……”
Of course, Jihun didn’t pay much attention to Kang Sigyeong. He was a little envious that the higher rank meant access to higher-rank Gates and therefore a higher chance of encountering female-type monsters, but—
‘Whatever. Once I grind my stats hard enough, I’ll catch up soon anyway.’
He felt no need to rush. After all, he had the rare stat-boosting skill Female Hunter.
In any case, the group continued chatting as they made their way through the forest. After the first battle, the rookies’ tension had completely melted away. They had seen the lowest-ranked F-rank hunter, Park Jihun, kill a goblin without much difficulty, and the reliable C-rank hunter, Kang Sigyeong, crush goblins with overwhelming force. There was no longer any reason to be afraid.
Thanks to that, their pace had increased dramatically. The distance they covered in the ten minutes after the first battle was nearly double what they had managed in the ten minutes before it.
The instructors were just starting to think things were getting easier when one of them noticed something odd.
“…Something feels off.”