The monsters' habitat is called a dungeon.
Those who hunt monsters are called hunters.
The lowest rank an awakened could get was rank E.
E-rank hunters weren't that different from normal humans. As people at the bottom of this social ladder, hunters did not have great strength or great skills. One E-rank hunter could deal with four strong civilians.
This was a pathetic result considering that the strongest A-rank hunters could defeat an entire unarmed army of men trained in hand-to-hand combat. And legends among hunters, those with S rank could destroy a large city. What to do against normal people?
There was such a huge gap between the E rank and the A or S rank.
E-rank hunters were weak. They did not earn much, they were the margin of this society divided into ranks, of little interest to anyone.
But if that meant being an E-rank hunter, what would it mean to be the weakest E-rank hunter?
It meant nothing less than being a laughing stock even among the weakest E-rankers.
Sung Jin-Woo was such a person. A laughing stock, a pariah, and an outcast.
"The Weakest Hunter in the World" - no matter where he went, this nickname always stayed with him.
Jin-Woo's strength was not much different from that of an average person. He could barely defeat one normal person in a fight, he was as immune to injuries as an ordinary civilian, and his senses or speed were also not above the standards accepted by ordinary people.
The only thing that made it stand out was the accelerated healing of wounds and fractures. Although even this skill, normal for all hunters, was only slightly better for him than for a civilian, and definitely worse for an average E-rank hunter.
He was stuck in the middle from the very beginning.
Stronger than man, weaker than the weakest group of hunters.
Sung Jin-Woo often suffered various injuries during dungeon raids. Sometimes more serious, sometimes not. But most often his wounds were serious, maybe not fatal, but certainly ones that would send an ordinary person to a hospital bed for many weeks.
The job was dangerous, others made fun of him, and to make matters worse, the pay was quite pitiful.
If it weren't for the medical attention provided to the Hunters by the Hunters Association on their "payroll", he would have surrendered his hunter's license, resigned, and lived his life like a normal person.
Unfortunately, someone like Sung Jin-Woo, at twenty-three years old and lacking any tangible job skills, was forced to remain a hunter if he wanted to pay for his mother's hospital bills, which ran into millions of won per month in expenses.
Would you say he had no choice in the matter?
Why, even though he didn't want to, he simply had to take part in a rally supervised by the Association.
There were actually many reasons.
***
Hunters operating in the same area knew each other quite well.
The Association gathered non-guild-affiliated, low-ranking hunters for raids around their place of residence.
They sent them information about gates within a few kilometers of their homes.
This was how Jin-Woo was going to his next raid. There were numerous patches on his face, a reminder of the last rather sad and humiliating rally.
Apart from a slight pain in the left shoulder blade, scratches on his face were the only unhealed wounds from that unfortunate outing.
His next raid was quite close to a construction site, which was completely paralyzed due to the opening of the dungeon in this area.
Hunters who arrived earlier sipped coffee distributed by an Association employee and exchanged warm greetings.
- Hey, Kim! Many years!
- Oh? Baku?! What are you doing here?! I thought you gave up being a hunter.
- I'm expecting another child, so... you understand.
- What's right is right. You won't make more money anywhere than in rallies. - Mr. Kim scratched his gray-black hair.
- By the way, why do I have the impression that the Association calls us less and less often? Has the number of gates decreased or something like that?
- Where there! This is only because the Guilds are busy clearing the gates. You know that the smaller ones will not disregard any gate because they have a harder time making money.
- Well, then, since this rally is supervised by the Association, it should be safe, right?
Baku looked around as if he was nervous.
If the Guild wasn't involved today, it meant there wasn't enough profit, and if there wasn't enough profit, it could only mean that the difficulty of this particular Gate was really at its maximum.
Apparently, this was the thinking shared by the other hunters, who looked around uncertainly.
Mr. Kim drank the rest of his coffee, avoiding answering his friend, but suddenly he noticed a certain person and raised his hand, smiling broadly.
- Hi Sung! How is it going?!
The other Hunters also showed their joy at discovering this young man, greeting him cheerfully.
It was none other than Sung Jin-Woo.
Jin-Woo gave a simple nod to the cheerful Mr. Kim and walked past.
After making sure Jin-Woo was out of earshot, Mr. Kim began to chuckle while speaking confidently.
- So Jin-Woo showed up. Then today will be fine too.
Baku's eyes widened and he hurriedly asked Kim.
- What do you mean? Is this Hunter Sung Jin-Woo really strong?
- Ah. Sure, you wouldn't know who he was. He's a hunter who started working shortly after you left. But every hunter here knows who this kid is.
- Is he really that strong? Wait, so why does he work for the Association? Why not for the Guild or as a freelancer?
Kim giggled some more before narrowing his eyes.
- Do you know this guy's name?
- How should I know? Come on, man. Just tell me already.
- The weakest hunter in the world.
- The weakest? Are you sure?
- Man, I'm pretty sure this kid is the weakest hunter in Korea. Unless actually in the world.
Baku frowned in confusion.
Why would the other Hunters greet Sung Jin-Woo so warmly and cheerfully if he was really that weak? After all, didn't they need someone strong to watch their backs?
Baku really couldn't understand the other Hunters' reactions.
When Baku's head tilted back and forth, Kim chuckled and elbowed him.
- Hey! Raids that Sung Jin-Woo competes in will have little difficulty as he is very weak. The Association would never trust him with heavy work, don't you understand? They would rather not want any hunter under their care to be killed.
Only then did Baku's expression brighten.
It makes sense!
His wife was very worried about him because it was going to be his first raid in a long time. Honestly, even he was worried too. But now, as he listened to Kim's words, he felt most of his anxiety disappear
Besides, it couldn't just be Kim's opinion since so many hunters around were so happy to see this kid.
Kim continued.
- Recently, there was a rumor that he was seriously injured in a category E gate and spent a week in hospital. Can you believe it? He was in the hospital for a week because of a stupid category E gate.
- I didn't think it was possible to suffer such injuries in a category E gate. The worst thing that happened to me in such a gate was... a seriously bruised knee.
Kim laughed good-naturedly at this anecdote.
- I know. It was quite a shock for me. No one expected the hunter to be injured during the raid on Gate E, so apparently they didn't even take the Healer! Apparently, that's why he ended up in hospital.
Unable to contain himself, Baku burst out laughing loudly.
- Oh no! I never thought I would hear about something like this. He must have tried really hard to get beaten like that!
When Baku started giggling too loudly, Kim quickly shushed him.
- Stop it, guy! Mr. Sung can hear you.
- Ajajay! I did not think about it.
Baku carefully checked Jin-Woo's reactions as he continued to giggle.
Fortunately, the distance was large enough and the young man didn't seem to hear them.
Of course, they were wrong.
- I can hear everything, old man.
A bitter smile appeared on Jin-Woo's face as he tried hard to ignore them. In times like today, he couldn't help but blame his extremely acute sense of hearing.
Probably the only sense of his that was noticeably beyond the pathetic norm.
He tried to pretend that some small part of him wasn't dying at their mockery.
Similar situations have happened hundreds of times. And yet it still hurt very much the same.
He seemed to have arrived too early and the raid had not yet begun.
Before he could take a good look around, a familiar red-haired girl appeared in front of his face seemingly out of nowhere.
-Ah! Jin-Woo, you're all beat up again! Why is your whole face injured?!