Cheon Yiryeong, the formidable guildmaster of Cheonhwa Guild, casually brushed the lingering ash from the shoulders of her robe before sinking into the plush cushions of a luxurious sofa.
“You’ve truly outdone yourself, Guildmaster. You’ve now ascended to a level far beyond Hunter Scarlet.”
“Has Scarlet still not attempted the 42nd floor?”
Hunter Scarlet, an American necromancer, had long been Cheon Yiryeong’s persistent rival.
“Indeed, it appears they are currently dedicating their efforts to the establishment of a new association.”
“Such a pointless endeavor to cling to.”
An association, she mused, was utterly useless.
As hunters grew increasingly powerful, public authority crumbled proportionally, leaving the protection of this land solely to their might.
Cheon Yiryeong found herself unable to comprehend Scarlet’s plans for managing hunters who wielded such formidable power.
“…Furthermore, the government has extended another offer, but…”
“Decline it.”
“Understood.”
The South Korean government, too, was clamoring to establish an association mirroring America’s, yet its credibility had already plummeted to rock bottom even before the Gate crisis.
In the new order, reshaped by hunters and their guilds, there was simply no place for them.
Though they belatedly attempted to recruit hunters by hastily attaching various conditions, Cheon Yiryeong remained skeptical.
‘For that to work, hunters’ expectations have soared far too high,’ she mused.
Even Cheon Yiryeong acknowledged the undeniable necessity of an association.
Guilds were springing up chaotically, leading to constant territorial disputes and inter-hunter conflicts.
The police possessed no means to curb hunters, and even if they could, no laws existed to condemn their actions.
Should hunters ever go on strike, who would possibly contend with the deluge of monsters spewing forth from the Gates?
Regardless, Cheon Yiryeong’s immediate focus was neither the association nor her long-standing adversary, Scarlet.
‘…The newbie,’ she thought.
The Tower Gallery.
What a recently emerged newbie had displayed in that online space, where she occasionally lurked, had been persistently nagging at her mind.
‘What on earth was that power?’ she wondered.
The image of the first-floor corridor, uploaded by the newbie, captivated her.
It was undeniably a mark left by fire-elemental magic or a fire-related ability, strikingly similar to her own.
‘Such immense firepower…’
Certainly, to Cheon Yiryeong, that degree of firepower was relatively minor.
The crux of the matter, however, was that the newbie had exhibited such power on the first floor.
When she had first attained such power herself, she was likely on the tenth floor, having just reached Level 5 and ascended to B-rank.
And yet, a mere newbie, who had only just stepped onto the first floor, wielded such power.
It defied belief. She speculated that with the recent advancements in AI and editing technology, such tools must have been employed to manipulate the gallery photo.
Unless…
‘I must recruit them, no matter what,’ she resolved.
An awakened individual possessing such a potent fire attribute would undoubtedly experience monumental growth.
She absolutely had to draw them into her guild, and swiftly so, for the other hunters in the gallery at the time were surely thinking the same.
The quantity and caliber of hunters directly determined a guild’s strength.
To utterly dominate the proliferation of guilds with overwhelming power, she could not afford to be complacent.
“Furthermore, there is something else you must see.”
“What is it now?” she asked, a hint of exasperation in her tone.
Lee Jaehoon, her secretary, who typically vanished after a concise report once she cleared a tower, interrupted her train of thought.
Bowing his head impassively towards Cheon Yiryeong, whose brow was furrowed with weariness, Lee Jaehoon extended a tablet.
“…A gallery?” she murmured, her fatigue momentarily forgotten.
It was a conventional gallery, not the one accessible within the Tower.
It was the Hunter Gallery, a place Cheon Yiryeong herself had browsed on occasion.
However, finding it mostly filled with trivial jokes, she had quickly dismissed it.
“Please, take a look at this post.”
Title: [Holy cow, I just saw that incredibly rare Healer for the first time!!!]
So, today, when I got the alert that a nearby Gate had been cleared, I rushed out to see the hunters, you know?
But there was this one hunter, severely injured, bleeding heavily on the ground.
Everyone stood by, muttering ‘Oh dear, what a shame,’ when suddenly, a small child—a little girl, it seemed—trotted purposefully toward the scene.
Hunters were already on edge, so I thought something terrible was about to happen and tried to call out, but then, a sudden light erupted from her hands!
[Video: A girl healing with light emanating from her hands, filmed from a distance]
That severe injury was completely healed!
Wow, healers are truly incredible. The wound vanished in an instant.
It was hilarious how all the hunters were collectively dumbfounded, but even more amusing was the ensuing chaos as they scrambled to chase after the healer, who had swiftly darted away, bumping into people and creating a complete mess.
– : [OMG, a real healer! Aren’t there only two healers in Korea?]
– : [Weren’t they supposed to awaken only as adults?]
– [Reply]: [Then isn’t that an adult? They could just be naturally small. It’s hard to tell from so far away.]
– [Reply]: [Whoa, unbelievable!]
– [Reply]: [Could you perhaps hold your breath for thirty minutes?]
– : [But the original poster just kept filming all that?]
The post continued with countless comments following these initial exchanges.
Cheon Yiryeong’s gaze remained utterly fixed on the young girl in the video.
Any lingering thoughts about the newbie had, by then, completely vanished from her mind.
“Who is this? Has their identity been confirmed?”
“They are not among any known hunters. Other guild channels are reportedly searching as well, but it appears they’ve yielded no results.”
“We absolutely must find and recruit them before anyone else. Present them with conditions equivalent to an S-rank hunter and bring them to me, by any means necessary.”
“Understood. However, with the Abyss and Narok Guilds also making their moves, it will likely prove challenging.”
“Even those bastards… For now, concentrate on locating them as our absolute top priority.”
The Abyss and Narok Guilds each boasted a single healer within their ranks.
This was precisely why the Cheonhwa Guild, despite having the S-rank Cheon Yiryeong herself and numerous A-rank hunters, found itself slightly disadvantaged in competition with them.
‘The Tower newbie and the healer… I must secure both, without fail. I can speak directly with the newbie when I next enter the Tower, so for now, my entire focus must be on the healer.’
The Tower Gallery, she knew, was inaccessible from outside the Tower.
As much as she yearned to immediately enter the Tower and await the newbie, Cheon Yiryeong, her magic completely drained, could only quell her growing frustration.
****
Coming to my senses, I found myself inexplicably wedged among the throng of hunters.
“What’s this kid doing here?!”
“We can’t sign autographs right now, so scram.”
“P-please, just a moment. Just wait for a second.”
Though flustered by the hunters’ fierce, scrutinizing gazes, I first attempted to soothe their anger while carefully observing the injured female hunter.
As I concentrated my mind, the female hunter appeared before me with an almost painterly quality.
Her form seemed to be a painting woven from pure light.
A warm, white luminescence emanated from the female hunter’s entire body, and this light was steadily draining away from her wounded area.
Was that light ‘vitality’ (生氣 (TL Note: Saenggi, a term referring to life energy or vitality))… or something similar?
With every flicker of draining light, the female hunter’s face grew increasingly pallid, her complexion steadily losing its natural flush.
“Can’t you see what’s happening right now? Get out of here!”
“That’s right, kid. It’s not safe here right now, so hurry back to your mom. It’s dangerous.”
The hunters remained agitated, and before long, they began treating me like a mere child.
It wasn’t solely for the quest; a primal instinct had drawn me here.
I had arrived with an inexplicable feeling that I could intervene, yet whether I truly could remained unknown even to myself.
Despite my intuition, nothing might actually occur.
I didn’t know.
Yet, surely the quest hadn’t manifested without purpose.
The female hunter’s faint, white light was steadily dimming.
The chilling certainty that this person would undoubtedly perish if I didn’t act now was what kept my feet firmly rooted to the spot.
“I believe I can save this person,” I declared.
“What? Kid, there’s a time and a place for jokes—!”
“H-hold on. Are you, by any chance, a healer?”
“What? That’s impossible. Not even an adult, how could—!”
Drawing.
Onto the tip of a brush, invisible to others, I gathered the blue pigment of the empty air—that azure light, likely mana.
As the cerulean light coalesced upon my hand, the eyes of the hunters who had been surrounding and scolding me widened in astonishment.
‘If this doesn’t work now, I’m in serious trouble,’ I thought.
I had severely drawn their attention, and having already used a skill, merely being treated as a strange child might no longer be the extent of it.
‘Still, I have to try everything I can.’
Trusting the quest, I plunged forward.
‘Remember that magical moment when I drew forth the flames.’
I focused on the sensation of transforming blue pigment into fire with my own power.
This light, which appeared to be vitality, would surely be no different.
There had to be a reason why the female hunter’s body appeared to me like a painting.
The large, open wound on her abdomen was a chaotic marbling of crimson blood and white light, a truly disordered canvas.
‘First, I need to transform the mana’s essence into vitality.’
Following an instinctive pull, I brought the brush tip to the female hunter’s vitality. Like mixing white light into blue pigment, the brush tip lingered for a moment, and then a purer white light blossomed upon it.
‘It’s done.’
My elation at the sacred-looking, pure white light was fleeting.
I hurriedly moved the brush, covering the wound from the intact skin inwards.
This was almost like—
[Quest Skill, [Overpaint], acquired.]
Overpaint, I thought. From my perspective, it was the perfect name.
Though it seemed an odd skill for a healer, I frantically wielded the brush as if I were an art restorer.
With each pass of the pure white light, the bleeding gradually ceased, and where the light lingered, flesh began to regenerate.
Though various exclamations of surprise and cheers erupted around me, they merely faded into the background of my intensely focused mind.
As the final touch concluded, I looked at the female hunter’s neatly healed abdomen, with only traces of blood around, and felt my strength completely give out.
An overwhelming sense of exhaustion.
It was even more draining than when I had drawn the massive flames.
This, I realized, wasn’t something I could use casually.
“Wow… they saved her, they saved her!”
“It’s a Healer! The Healer helped us!”
“Ah, a Saintess…!”
A Saintess? What ‘ess’?
Regaining my composure, I looked around to see the hunters staring at me with eyes filled with a mix of joy and near-madness.
“Ugh.”
My small body trembled under their intense gazes.
Moreover, how was I supposed to explain this now?
I couldn’t even tell them who I was.
So, I bolted, escaping into the crowd of people that had gathered around.
“Ah! Healer! Don’t go!”
“Please wait a moment!”
“M-move aside! Ugh!”
Behind me, people and hunters tangled together, creating a commotion, but I used my small frame to slip through them and disappear into the labyrinthine alleyways.
