The Saintess's Gift
"What on earth have you been up to?"
"Good work, everyone."
"...Good job out there."
Attention all hunters! Please assemble at Outpost 3 immediately!
Injured hunters, please remain in your current positions!
From a national perspective, an erosion dungeon meant an increase in new land and resources. Conversely, however, it was no different from a gaping hole connected to another world. Thus, the overflowing monsters had to be cleared out on a regular basis.
Even now, more than sixty years after the First Great Rift, dungeons and monsters remained incomprehensible anomalies to humanity. There was far more shrouded in mystery than what had actually been revealed.
"Sigh, now those damn goblins are carrying guns..."
"Hey, you okay? Didn't you get hit by some kind of cannon earlier?"
"Bah, I'm fine. Just spit on it and it'll heal—argh?!"
"Stop talking nonsense and get to the hospital."
"Damn it, you bitch! Is that any way to talk to your boyfriend?"
"Whatever, dumbass."
The dungeon raid party, composed of elite A-grade hunters, was busy cleaning up the aftermath after annihilating a goblin guerilla unit that had come to plunder the human world like a band of bandits.
The goblin guerillas were a special force from the Goblin Empire, ruled by the Emperor Goblin, who had invaded the human world ten years ago before vanishing.
A goblin guerilla unit typically consisted of hundreds of C to B-grade goblins. They raided the human world in irregular patterns, attacking isolated private homes to kidnap women for breeding or to steal food. Occasionally, they even raided military bases to plunder modern human weaponry.
Since the formation of the A-grade raid parties, damage from these goblin guerillas had been significantly reduced, but in the early days, many local governments across the country had suffered heavily.
Fortunately, although there were minor and major injuries in this raid as well, it had ended cleanly with zero casualties.
"Whew..."
Among the A-grade raid party was Yeonhwa, also known by her recently officialized hunter name, Icicle Nine.
"Good work, Yeonhwa."
"......Senior Ko Min-jun."
A familiar face approached Yeonhwa as she caught her breath and rested at the association's outpost.
His name was Ko Min-jun.
He was the vice guild leader of the Yeonpung Guild, one of the top ten guilds in South Korea, and a senior from the same hunter academy Yeonhwa had attended.
"Your first raid, right? You did great. You looked amazing sweeping the front line all by yourself earlier."
"....Thank you."
Min-jun sat down beside Yeonhwa and spoke to her gently.
"Hey, Yeonhwa. Do you have a moment? I have something to tell you. Could we grab coffee for a bit after the raid settlement is done?"
"If you have something to say, say it here."
"It's not really something to talk about with so many eyes watching."
"It's fine. Do it here."
She knew it would be another recruitment pitch anyway.
Even before she became an A-grade hunter, countless guilds had tried to recruit her, and the offers had only flooded in faster after she received her hunter name.
"Alright, then. I'll tell you right here."
Sighing, Ko Min-jun settled into the seat next to her.
"Your ability is definitely outstanding, Yeonhwa. But if you keep doing things alone like this, you're going to get into serious trouble one day."
"....."
Yeonhwa glared at him at his words.
She always ran dungeons alone.
To get stronger, she had lived a life where she threw her own body and safety to the wind. But fundamentally, ever since her older sister, Yeon A, died protecting her, she had developed a deep aversion to relying on or trusting others.
Because of that, group operations felt incredibly awkward to her.
Having someone watch your back was undoubtedly a good thing, but in the end, Yeonhwa had fought the goblin guerillas practically on her own.
"I'll admit, your skills are unbelievable for someone who just reached A-grade the other day. Honestly, even I was shocked."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"But monsters and dungeons aren't pushovers. Especially lately, dungeons with unique gimmicks are on the rise, and mutant monsters are appearing more frequently. Even the Goblin Empire's guerillas we fought today are learning to copy human weaponry, raising the difficulty. I know you're Lady Yeon Seo's granddaughter, but you should still take your senior's advice to heart..."
"Get to the point, please."
When Yeonhwa shot him a cold glare, the man sighed.
"...Join our guild. You can build connections as an A-grade hunter. We won't just support you in various ways; we'll also give you priority entry rights to the dungeons our guild controls."
"Thank you for the offer, but I'll pass."
"Think about it. Do you know how many other guilds are sending love calls to recruit you right now? This is a huge opportunity for you too. I realized it after seeing your performance in this raid. You're exactly the talent our guild needs, and you have nothing to lose by joining us...!"
"I have no intention of joining any guild."
As if she had expected this, Yeonhwa stood up.
The report to the association would be handled by someone else anyway, so there was no need to stay here and argue.
However, Min-jun blocked her path as she tried to leave, clearly not finished speaking.
"Come on... Sigh, I really don't get you. Most hunters bust their asses from their academy days just to get into a major guild. Why are you still refusing to join one?"
"That's none of your business, Senior."
"Whew, sure, I admit our guild stands to gain a lot by recruiting you. Since you're Lady Yeon Seo's granddaughter."
Yes, that was what they usually looked at.
As the only bloodline and granddaughter of the living legend Yeon Seo, Yeonhwa had been famous since her academy days.
Whether in a good way or a bad way, she had been a celebrity from birth. There was even a detailed timeline of her past on the Hunter Wiki that she hadn't even known about.
"But Yeonhwa, a hunter can't survive alone. Eventually, you'll hit a wall and meet your end. I'm saying this for your own sake, so join a guild."
"I'm fine. And you saw how I fought today."
"Saw what?"
"I'm not in a position to trust anyone with my back."
Yeonhwa's ability was cryokinesis.
She possessed cold energy so powerful that she had reached A-grade at a young age. At this point, there was practically no other hunter with her level of wide-area destructive capability.
The reason she had fought alone on the front lines against the goblin guerillas was partly due to her outstanding skill, but also because it was simply impossible for her to coordinate with other hunters.
Her uncontrolled frost would freeze her own allies, and a guild was, in the end, an interest group that required collective cooperation.
"I appreciate the offer, Senior. Goodbye."
"....Ha, no wonder your nickname in school was Chang—"
Crack!
In that instant, Ko Min-jun felt a shiver run down his spine as he met Yeonhwa's freezing gaze.
Frost was beginning to emanate from Yeonhwa's hand, a sign that she had momentarily lost control of her emotions.
"....I'll pretend I didn't hear that."
"....."
As Yeonhwa walked away, Ko Min-jun let out a heavy sigh.
He hadn't meant to say that...
"Sigh, fuck, I messed up..."
The life of Yeonhwa, granddaughter of the living legend and strongest hunter Yeon Seo, had not been a happy one.
She did enjoy many privileges.
The fame and wealth Yeon Seo had accumulated were unmatched in the hunter world, as she was a transcendent being.
But Yeonhwa's personal life was tragic.
Her mother, who had always been physically weak, died immediately after giving birth to her.
Her older sister, Yeon A, died protecting a trapped Yeonhwa in a dungeon during the Second Great Rift.
On the day a monster escaped in an academy accident, the teacher who shielded Yeonhwa instead of running away was severely injured.
Even the partner she had paired up with for a dungeon field trip died in a tragic accident.
Everyone who held her hand or treated her kindly met a terrible end.
As time passed, no one wanted to get close to her.
In the electric car on the way home, Yeonhwa recalled the conversation she had with her senior.
Her school nickname. Right...
It was obvious what it was.
"Changwi..."
A Changwi was a ghost bound to a tiger after being killed by it, forced to lure other victims to free itself.
In Yeonhwa's case, it was used to describe someone who acted as a lackey for evil—with the 'evil' being monsters.
To an outsider, it might have looked that way.
Even when facing life-threatening crises, Yeonhwa always managed to survive.
But in exchange, her mother, her sister, her teacher, her friend... everyone except her grandmother, Yeon Seo, had left her.
At first, she was sad and lonely.
She pushed people away out of resentment. It was hard to accept her bleak future, and eventually, Yeonhwa began to do everything alone.
She became a dungeon addict, wearing down her own body. She carved the names of the lost into her heart and did whatever it took to get stronger.
It was ironic that the result of all that was the nickname 'Changwi'.
They said a Changwi constantly searched for victims to escape the tiger's slavery, targeting family, relatives, and friends in that order. It was said that families of tiger victims would never marry or associate with anyone related to the tragedy, and Yeonhwa was in the exact same position.
Of course, no one at the academy dared to openly mock her as a 'Changwi'.
Yeonhwa's skills were far superior to her peers, and above all, she was Yeon Seo's granddaughter.
No one dared touch her, but Yeonhwa was smart enough to read the room.
It was absurd how the other kids looked at her with fear, whispering about the Changwi...
Plagued by memories she wished to forget, Yeonhwa finally arrived home.
"Welcome home, Lady Yeonhwa."
"......I'm tired, so eat dinner without me."
"Yes, Lady Yeonhwa."
Even after arriving at the Yeon estate, Yeonhwa's low mood didn't lift.
Her aloof personality was bound to bring trials to her competitors.
Yeonhwa knew she was different from others, and she had lived her life accordingly.
She was too thorny to be a delicate petal, yet not beautiful enough to be a rose.
Shaking off the melancholy thoughts, Yeonhwa lay down on her bed without even taking off her coat.
"Sigh... This sucks. I should just browse the gallery."
Surprisingly, one of Yeonhwa's hobbies was browsing online communities.
She rarely spoke to people, and ever since she received her hunter license, she had no friends.
But a human couldn't live completely cut off from all communication, so Yeonhwa naturally gravitated toward the internet—specifically, online communities.
She wasn't an active poster.
Since she was a hunter and had a deep interest in the field, she simply frequented the Genre Hunter Gallery, the largest hunter community in the country.
She still didn't understand the people who posted weird frog memes and used bizarre internet slang, but she had been lurking for several years now.
It was quite fun to watch the gallery users post ridiculous nonsense every day.
Though there were occasionally trolls who posted eye-searing content, her real-life social circle had shrunk so much that her screen time naturally increased.
As she scrolled through the popular posts, something familiar caught her eye.
".....What on earth is this..."
Why was Sia suddenly being talked about in the Genre Hunter Gallery?
As far as Yeonhwa knew, Sia had only gone to Gyeryongsan to complete a simple mission with a temporary license.
When, where, and why?
Why was Sia's name spreading like a popular hunter streamer in this den of trolls?
Yeonhwa didn't look down on hunter streamers. In fact, she respected them.
Broadcasting regularly while communicating with viewers, putting on a good fight in a life-or-death dungeon, and even banter—it required a level of diligence and stress tolerance that Yeonhwa could hardly imagine.
In fact, Yeonhwa watched hunter streams quite often, and her own grandmother, Yeon Seo, occasionally broadcasted as well.
"No, why is Sia Unni...?"
".....What is... *pfft*?!"
The moment she saw the high-definition GIF, Yeonhwa couldn't help but burst into laughter.
The GIF showed Sia with a bright smile, a smudge of Wyvern blood on her cheek, repeatedly crushing the head of an A+ rank Wyvern Leader.
Sia was beautiful. Even leaving aside her magnificent motherhood pockets, she was tall and had great style.
But seeing her wave bizarre tentacles, resurrecting a dead Wyvern only to crush its head again or fold its spine in half if it showed any sign of resistance... it was enough to make anyone lose their mind.
The community was already in complete chaos.
The Genre Hunter Gallery was a place where tens of thousands of bored users lurked all day, looking for any topic to gossip about.
Since a fresh, juicy topic had dropped, everyone who logged in was talking about Hunter Lee Sia.
"She is S-grade..."
Yeonhwa, who had been the first to witness Sia's power, was already certain she would reach S-grade in no time.
She had watched Sia beat down a Black Minotaur in an instant and grill beef brisket right in front of her. If that wasn't S-grade, what was?
Yeonhwa nodded, impressed that someone in the gallery had actually come close to the truth.
But the mystery remained.
Why was Sia, who had only gone to perform a simple task for a temporary license, getting her face plastered all over the internet as if she had broadcasted it?
'...She probably messed up the drone camera controls, right?'
Sia was terrible with technology.
Since she was a returnee who had been gone for sixty-four years, she was bound to be ignorant of modern devices. If she had accidentally turned on the broadcast while messing with a new drone camera, everything made sense.
"Well, it's not as big a deal as I thought..."
With a small smile, Yeonhwa settled onto her bed and began to browse the popular posts about Sia in earnest.
Of course, there were plenty of annoying, out-of-line posts.
There were hundreds of comments sexually harassing Sia's large chest, and baseless rumors and hateful speculations popped up here and there.
"...Annoying."
She felt a sudden urge to use the Yeon family's influence to show those trolls how harsh reality could be. But Sia wasn't even a proper streamer, and she probably didn't even know she had broadcasted anything.
Right, if those idiots crossed the line, she could help Sia sue them later.
With that thought, Yeonhwa scrolled down and saw a post showing Sia eating something with a hunter named 'Cheon A-young'.