The Third Member
"So it's just you and me, then?"
"For now."
"…You do know a guild needs a minimum of five members to establish, right? And guild wars require teams of three."
Right after Baek Seo-ha promised her full cooperation, I laid out the current situation for her.
Specifically, the fact that our guild roster currently began and ended with the two of us.
"……"
For some reason, there seemed to be a faint hint of regret mixed into the way she was looking at me.
"Don't worry. The plan's airtight."
"Hmm… fine. I'll trust you."
"That was easier to get than I expected."
"Well, you've earned it so far, haven't you?"
Baek Seo-ha's lips curled up slightly at the corners.
"I figured you'd handle it somehow."
The moment those words left her mouth, something tickled warmly in my chest.
Being trusted by someone—that was still a thoroughly unfamiliar sensation to me.
'And yet.'
It wasn't a bad feeling. Not at all.
"So? Who's the third one you're planning to bring in?"
"I've already got someone picked out. I'm bringing them in, no matter what."
"You sound awfully confident. A ranked hunter? Because the ones worth having are all already attached to guilds."
"Obviously not."
In truth, it was rare for a hunter with any name recognition to remain unaffiliated. In a world where even the untalented could be scouted for raw potential and groomed from scratch, any hunter with real skill was guaranteed to belong somewhere.
'Recruiting a high-tier hunter at this point would be too late.'
Even if I managed to land one, those pride-swollen types were a nightmare to handle.
Only slightly exaggerating, they might say, 'I'll transfer, but hand over the guild master's seat.'
'That's a non-starter.'
But then, was I supposed to just scrape together any unaffiliated hunters who met the bare minimum quota?
That would be no different from forfeiting the guild war altogether.
Teams were capped at three for a reason.
"Then who—"
"Don't worry."
Because I already knew.
"You won't be disappointed."
Someone who belonged to no one, who carried monstrous potential sleeping inside them—a future hunter of catastrophic caliber.
Though there was still time left before that potential fully bloomed.
'But I've got fertilizer.'
And not just any fertilizer.
Truth Mimic
The most exceptional premium fertilizer there was.
Seongun Guild Training Facility, Building B.
"Formation three!"
The hall was in full swing with drills for the coming guild war.
A crowd of trainees swarmed in unison to encircle a lone figure at the center.
It was a one-against-many scenario—but the advantage lay entirely with the one.
The moment he raised his mana and swept his blade, the entire encirclement was scythed down in a single pass, every one of them tagged out.
"Hmph. Boring little bugs."
"Good work out there, Sung-wook!"
The instant Yoo Sung-wook's sparring session ended, Hak Jin-cheol darted over with water and a towel.
"Another record broken! At this rate, even the Guild Master will have to be impressed!"
The expression Hak Jin-cheol wore as he gazed up at him had changed from before—it was warm now, almost doting.
Once, he'd been a time bomb with an unknown fuse.
Now he was a supernova, blazing through the guild's ranks with growth visible to the naked eye.
"Guess I've been boosting your stock too, hyung, huh?"
"Oh, shut it. People keep pestering me, asking how you ballooned like this in barely any time—want me to slip them your secret."
Yoo Sung-wook's recent trajectory was nothing short of a blitzkrieg. He'd blown past being a mere idol-star the guild was grooming, growing fast enough to operate as a frontline hunter in his own right.
"But… seriously, how did you do it?"
"Do what."
"Get that strong, that fast. Look, I'm your manager—at the very least I should—"
"Hyung."
Yoo Sung-wook's face twisted into something ugly as he flung the sweat-soaked towel into the man's face.
"You don't need to know everything. Just keep quiet and enjoy riding my coattails. Stop digging."
"I-I'm not digging, I just—"
"Tch. Awakened people, every last one of them."
Clicking his tongue, he walked off.
Yoo Sung-wook's explosive rise had begun the day he received a certain suspicious letter, left the premises, and returned.
From that day forward, he grew at an unprecedented rate, until he'd quietly become one of the three strongest in the guild.
Thanks to that, he'd earned a spot on the guild war roster.
"…Khehek!"
Walking out of the training hall, he suddenly burst out laughing.
'This is insane. Absolutely insane.'
Yoo Sung-wook pressed his palm flat against his chest.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
A heartbeat pounding with ferocious strength.
'Every time my heart beats, more power pours out!'
When he'd first heard those people's offer, he'd been skeptical.
But Yoo Sung-wook hadn't hesitated to have the Fragment transplanted into his heart.
The instant the procedure was done, he'd thrashed in agony beyond description.
But as time passed, the pain vanished—and in its place, power flooded in.
A transcendent strength unlike anything he had ever felt in his life.
"The Church of Advent… was it?"
He had no idea what they actually were. But thanks to them, he'd gained power on a silver platter—and finally, a name on the guild war roster.
"I'll crush you in front of everyone, Lee Tae-hyun. I swear it."
Yoo Sung-wook smiled, slow and venomous.
And before long—
"Kuhah…! KUHAHAHAHA!"
Lee Tae-hyun publicly announced the founding of his guild.
With his intent to enter the guild war declared alongside it.
The Hunter Academy.
Since the age of gates and awakening dawned, no educational institution had proliferated across the globe faster.
There were special facilities like Sabomun, of course—but for the most part, academies built upon standardized systems were the norm.
Naturally, Korea had its own large-scale Hunter Academy.
'The Korea Hunter Academy.'
Known colloquially as "Hunter U," it was the institution in question.
It might play second fiddle to Sabomun's prestige, but it remained a bona fide national cradle of hunters, representing the country in its own right.
Admission demanded one condition: a potential rank of B or higher.
Those who cleared that bar were then sorted into three classes.
The B-Class, made up of B-rank potentials and comprising the vast majority of the student body.
The A-Class, A-rank potentials who effectively formed the beating heart of the academy.
And then—
The golden generation that appeared only once every few years. The pinnacle class, worthy of being called the very future of Korea's hunter scene.
The S-Class.
"HUUUUEEEHHH—Look at this, Sung-chan! Ji-an ate ALL my cookies…!"
The lecture room door burst open and a petite girl came toddling in, wailing at the top of her lungs, an oversized wizard's hat swallowing her head whole.
"You ate them again, didn't you?"
"It was an honest mistake this time, really! They were so neatly packed in a basket, I thought someone had sent a gift!"
As the sword-carrying boy chided her, the long-haired girl turned her gaze away.
"Haah… fine. We can just stop by that café on the way back. Happy?"
"Yesss! Sung-chan, you're the BEST!"
The girl in the pointy hat thrust up a thumbs-up.
These three were the entirety of the current S-Class.
'Little Witch' Ah Seo-ah.
'Summoner' Yoo Ji-an.
'Sword Star' Park Sung-chan.
S-rank was not a number that appeared easily. Which was precisely why those three made up the whole of the S-Class.
"Since we're hitting the café anyway, want to make it a bet?"
"Ooh, yes! What should we wager?"
"Well, today's the day, isn't it?"
Ah Seo-ah spread her hands with a sly grin.
"The day of the 'Hunt.'"
"Oh! Right, it is."
"So last one place pays for everything again? Ugh, the pressure."
The Hunt.
Its official name was the Inter-Class Combined Field Exercise—a class where, true to its name, every student in the academy participated simultaneously, regardless of rank.
"You say that, but you've never once come in last, Sung-chan!"
"Forget last—he places first every single time…"
Park Sung-chan's languid eyes narrowed to slits.
"Same rules as always? Cockroaches are worth 1 point. Caterpillars, 3."
"Let me say my goodbyes now. Enjoy the cookies, Ji-an!"
"Fufu, I should be thanking you. Two batches of cookies in one week—what a treat."
"GYAAAH! You totally knew, didn't you?!"
Sparks—half playful, half deadly serious—crackled between the two girls.
A short while later, the combined exercise began.
"Sorry, everyone, but I have to win today!"
Ah Seo-ah declared, flame wreathing one hand and lightning crackling around the other.
"So you're saying toning down my output is a pain? Then just block it yourself!"
"S-she's firing!"
"RUN!"
The students of the other classes scrambled away, faces drained white—but the twin spells had already left her hands.
"KYAAAAAK!"
"HOT, HOT, HOT!"
"How is anyone supposed to beat that…!"
That single exchange took down five B-Class students and two from A-Class.
'Five cockroaches. Two caterpillars.'
Eleven points total.
"P-please, spare me…!"
"AAAAH! M-my arm!"
"She's steamrolling everyone!"
Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-an watched the hunt unfold in comfort from atop a golem she had summoned.
"This one's a new summon. Please, do take care of me."
A colossal golem smashed through clusters of students, while wolf- and eagle-like beasts snapped, bit, and raked at anyone left standing.
A one-sided massacre.
That, in essence, was what the S-Class represented.
Hundreds of A-Class students.
Thousands of B-Class students.
"M-monster! You absolute monster!"
None of them were worth a single S-Class.
And it was only natural law that the noble trampled the base beneath their heel.
"You took all of them on, alone…!"
"You talk too much, friend."
Park Sung-chan strolled up to the A-Class student retreating in wide-eyed terror and drove his fist into the boy's stomach.
"Kghak!"
"Now, what should I mooch off them this time… honestly, that café's cookies aren't really my taste."
"St-stop… please…"
He seized the moaning boy by the hair and slammed his face into the ground.
With a sickening crack, blood gushed freely from his nose.
"Didn't I tell you to keep quiet?"
"Uuughh…"
Trembling eyes darted across the surroundings.
A-Class and B-Class students alike lay strewn across the field, broken and wrecked.
Park Sung-chan had swept aside every single one of those aspiring hunters alone.
And without a scratch on himself.
"Cake? Yeah. Cake sounds about right…"
Violating the rules, which called only for subduing opponents, every last one of them was left with something fractured or carved deep, blood pouring out in rivers.
With demonic precision he had avoided every vital point while inflicting the maximum possible pain.
'These absolute lunatics!'
Even a casual glance made it clear these injuries were far beyond anything that could be called "subduing."
Yet the academy's response was always the same: a light warning, nothing more.
Injuries could be treated. And those three were S-ranks—creatures who belonged, by their very existence, to the category of 'nobility.'
"You son of a—!"
"Ah, enough. Get lost."
Park Sung-chan kicked the student square in the jaw.
The boy's head snapped sideways and he crumpled, unconscious.
"Hunted this much already—first place, no announcement needed."
Like a farmer surveying a finished day's labor, he stretched luxuriously and smiled with satisfaction.
"Then today it's cake and—"
That was when it happened.
From among the students he'd assumed were unconscious, a bullet of compacted stone came screaming at him.
"Oh."
A strike aimed precisely at his opening.
But Park Sung-chan tilted his head, ever so slightly, and let it pass.
"Who are you?"
"……!"
In an instant he located the student who had loosed the stone bullet and closed the distance.
"Whoa. So you were hiding over there the whole time."
Holding his breath like a sniper in wait.
A boy who had been patiently stalking his moment this entire time.
"Huh. You put up a decent fight, so I figured you for a caterpillar—but you're a cockroach, huh?"
"A… a cockroach?"
"Ahh—right, you wouldn't know."
Park Sung-chan let the words trail off as he seized Shin Min-woo by the collar and hauled him up.
"You entertained me for the first time in a while, so I'll be generous. Just one punch."
CRUNCH!
Park Sung-chan's fist, laden with every ounce of his strength, rocketed toward Shin Min-woo's eyeball.
"You won't be pulling that stunt again."
"Uuuugh!"
Shin Min-woo squeezed his eyes shut.
One second. Two seconds.
But no matter how long he waited, no impact ever landed on his face.
'Wh… what?'
He cracked one eye open a sliver.
Someone was gripping Park Sung-chan's wrist, twisted mid-swing.
"…And you are?"
"Ah, it's nothing special."
The man who had blocked the punch.
Lee Tae-hyun looked between the two of them, the corner of his mouth curling up in a grin.
"Just a hunter passing by."