The Three Pillars of a Hunter's Rank
“There are three main things that determine a hunter’s rank,” Yu Seong-un explained to Ji-oh inside the tightly packed Chinese restaurant.
“Occupation, aptitude skill, and level.”
“…….”
“The hunter ranks I’ve kept mentioning are assigned after a comprehensive evaluation of all three.”
“Are the ranks assessed by people, the way they grade civil service exams?”
“No. They’re evaluated by the ‘System,’ which is believed to be assisted by the Source. That’s why you sometimes get awakeners who look completely useless to the human eye but still manifest as A-rank.”
Yu Seong-un gave a small laugh.
“Back when there was no real structure and people barely understood hunters, some folks even forged their ranks. But since ranks aren’t something humans can hand out in the first place, the frauds got exposed pretty fast, and…”
“They were condemned, I assume.”
“It didn’t stop at condemnation. Hunters back then were basically untouchable power brokers. In an age when raw force was still far closer than the law, superhumans who could punch monsters flat got treated like royalty.”
They had lied about their ranks so they alone could enjoy special treatment while everyone else was struggling.
“Of course that never ended well.”
Yu Seong-un steered the conversation back on track.
“Ranks are usually written in letters of the alphabet.”
“Is there a reason for that?”
“Probably because getting every country to agree on a single system was a pain. You’d think numbers would be more universal, but it also turned out the very first awakener appeared in America, so…”
“So they just went with what Americans were used to.”
“That said, the entire System isn’t in English. Anyway, the lowest rank is F. From there it climbs D, C, B, A, and the highest is marked S.”
He rolled his eyes thoughtfully for a moment.
“…Though scholars these days think that might not be the whole scale. F-rank is already only a little tougher than a regular civilian, so people argue there’s no point going any lower. But the Great Cataclysm only happened thirty-one years ago.”
“Too early to be certain, then.”
“Exactly. There’s even a rumor that the Association President of Korea is hiding a rank higher than S.”
Even Yu Seong-un, former research team leader at the Association, didn’t know the real truth.
“Surprisingly, S-rank hunters aren’t all that rare. That’s probably why the rumors about hidden higher ranks keep circulating. When one S-rank is clearly leagues above another S-rank yet they’re written the same, people start talking.”
Those ranks also shaped public perception.
“By law, every S-rank hunter has to be officially recognized.”
“Recognized… meaning their personal information is made public?”
“Not full personal details, but they usually have to show their face or appear on TV programs. Think of them as a kind of celebrity. An S-rank could flatten an entire country if they felt like it, so society puts various restraints on them.”
“That sounds inconvenient.”
“Plenty of them actually enjoy the fame.”
Of course, just as Ji-oh said, many hunters found it a nuisance.
“That covers ranks. Want me to explain the occupations you asked about earlier?”
“So the priest and tamer that student mentioned earlier are those kinds of occupations.”
“Right.”
Yu Seong-un nodded.
“Manifesting an occupation isn’t mandatory.”
“So some people get one and some don’t?”
“Exactly. Not everyone can have one, but occupations have a pretty big effect on rank, so a culture of favoring hunters who possess one developed.”
“Fascinating.”
“An awakener with an occupation gains the power to meddle with the rules of the world. To ordinary humans, that looks incredibly attractive.”
Even aside from the rank issue, each occupation carried its own powerful image.
“There are ten occupations in total.”
“Fewer than I expected.”
“I think that’s actually a lot… any more and they’d be impossible to classify.”
Doctor, Priest, Knight, Teacher, Spy, Architect, Artist, Magician, Chef, Tamer.
“Doesn’t it sound like a lot once you hear the list?”
“Compared to every real-world job that exists, not really…”
“Fair point, but these are very different from ordinary jobs.”
“That’s true.”
“The priest and tamer you heard about earlier are both fairly rare.”
Priests used a god’s power to influence reality; tamers exerted influence over intelligent beings. Both required a contracted partner’s help before they could truly operate, which made them considered difficult occupations.
“And the praise they receive when they succeed is just as large.”
Priests especially so.
“A tamer can train almost anything if they raise their own skill high enough. A priest can’t. They simply have to wait and endure until a god decides to glance their way and bestow grace. The initiative isn’t theirs.”
“But you said a priest who doesn’t serve a god can’t properly operate at all.”
“It’s an unreasonable occupation that way. Still, when you’re talking about channeling an alien god’s power onto Earth, that frustrating bottleneck is actually lucky for humanity. Without it, you’d get catastrophe.”
Of course, the people who actually awakened as priests were left stewing.
“Even so, once you’ve manifested as a priest your divinity affinity rises. You still can’t exercise a god’s influence by proxy, but as a devotee you can use holy power.”
“Holy power.”
“That bungeoppang guy earlier mistook you for a ‘tamer who’s also a devotee,’ remember? The only occupation that lets you stroll around so openly with a monster is tamer, but holy power can be used by any faithful devotee, not just priests. That’s why he made the mistake.”
“So occupation alone isn’t everything.”
“Right. You don’t have to judge a hunter by that alone. Occupations can appear innately at awakening, but they can also be obtained through later effort, so they’re fairly flexible.”
Each of the remaining occupations had its own set of rules as well.
“Just possessing an occupation lets an awakener exert influence over the world’s rules. Put simply, a priest gains high divinity affinity, and a tamer gains affinity toward things that aren’t human.”
“It’s all affinity?”
“Unlike skills, awakening an occupation doesn’t suddenly dump brand-new abilities on you. What you get is latent potential ordinary people could never touch. Calling that ‘affinity’ seems about right.”
Yu Seong-un moved on to the next topic.
“Aptitude skills, however, are different.”
“Different in what sense?”
“These are the baseline element every awakener receives at the moment of awakening. No amount of individual effort will give you more of them. Of course proficiency rises the more you use and understand them, but…”
There were no awakeners who had zero aptitude skills, and none who had two or more.
“At least not so far. Who knows what exceptions might show up later, but even if they do, this regularity is pretty universal among awakeners.”
An aptitude skill was a bit like the first toy a baby grabs at a first-birthday ceremony. The awakener had no choice in the matter, yet that single skill let you roughly predict the shape their life would take from then on.
“Just looking at the skill tells you a fair amount about that awakener’s temperament and capabilities.”
“Can it tell you their future as well?”
“Close enough, don’t you think? Once an aptitude skill manifests, you’re stuck with it for life. There’s no way that doesn’t affect the rest of your existence.”
Most people who awakened immediately started studying their aptitude skill. An occupation was something you might luck into, but an aptitude skill became an inseparable fated partner.
“Plenty of people bawl their eyes out when the skill doesn’t match what they wanted.”
Imagine awakening only to get something like “Pick Up Trash.” How crushing would that be?
“Right?”
“…Does a skill like that actually exist?”
“It really does, and sometimes it even shows up as an aptitude skill. I hear the guy who got it is working as a city sanitation officer now. Don’t know the full story.”
“At least he put the aptitude skill to good use.”
“He’s an optimist, that’s for sure.”
For reference, skills were divided into “aptitude skills,” innate from the moment of awakening, and “general skills,” acquired through later effort. The actual content of the skills wasn’t all that different, but…
“Naturally, aptitude skills are valued more highly.”
“If the content is the same, why favor one over the other?”
“An aptitude skill is the measuring stick for that person’s soul and innate quality. Can’t be helped.”
Take two hunters, Hunter One and Hunter Two, both possessing the same skill A. For Hunter One it is an innate aptitude skill; for Hunter Two it is a general skill learned later.
“That means they started from completely different places.”
“I see.”
“More importantly, aptitude skills have no levels. From the instant they appear, you can use them at maximum proficiency. And proficiency is something that normally grows the more you use it. So even with the same skill, the difference between users can be enormous.”
And there was a petty human side to it as well.
It’s a kind of class system, but…
Was it the fact that it was purely innate that tickled a corner of people’s hearts? Awakeners who manifested high-utility or rare aptitude skills grew arrogant, and others tended to look up to them.
I’d rather not tell him that part.
Ji-oh carried an aristocratic, intimidating air, yet he still had a pure streak like a child who genuinely believed in the Santa Claus of fairy tales. Yu Seong-un didn’t want to soil that.
For the sake of humanity’s peace, it was better if Ji-oh knew a little less about human ugliness.
“You can learn general skills by applying at a center. Even an awakener with no occupation or a poor aptitude skill can still raise their rank through later effort.”
“That’s flexible of them.”
“And as I’ve been mentioning here and there, the thing that turns all of this proficiency into a visible metric is ‘level.’”
Level evaluated occupation, skills, and physical capability.
“The lowest level is 1, the highest is 10. I do wonder why they didn’t use letters for this too… but since levels can be written with decimal points, maybe they needed that finer grain.”
“They go down to decimals?”
“Yeah—2.8, 4.9, that sort of thing…”
“Is yours like that too, Seong-un?”
“Uh…”
Yu Seong-un hesitated a beat, then added,
“Rank is fine to ask about, but just so you know, ordinary people don’t usually ask for the detailed contents of someone’s System.”
“Is that so?”
“There’s a strong sense that it’s a matter of etiquette.”
“…….”
His expression remained cool and blunt, yet Yu Seong-un got the feeling Ji-oh had taken a small shock.
“…I’m sorry.”
Sure enough, an apology came at once. Ji-oh really did care about manners.
“I know nothing about these things and I’ve been rude.”
“It’s fine. You didn’t do it on purpose. Asking doesn’t put a curse on anyone.”
There was no real harm done; it was simply a cultural thing.
“Like how you don’t ask someone what color underwear they’re wearing today…”
“I’m truly sorry.”
“I went a bit overboard, so don’t go shaking Honey down for gems. Put Honey down. Hey—hey, you’re crushing him. I don’t think offering gems every time you mess up is exactly normal behavior.”
Only then did Ji-oh carefully set Honey down. The bird had already shaken free a scattering of gems and was pecking them up one by one. The whole process looked so natural it made Yu Seong-un’s head spin.
“Keep treating him like that and Honey’s going to get sulky.”
“We play like this sometimes…”
“What kind of games do you two even play?”
Apparently it hadn’t been a lie; Honey wore a thoroughly satisfied look.
Where am I even seeing satisfaction on that round little face?
Both of them were expressionless, yet their emotions came through with perfect clarity. They really did feel like parent and child. People called that a child of the heart, didn’t they? Strictly speaking this one had been born of a paintbrush, but still.
…But he’s definitely far more… human now than when he was still sealed inside the portrait.
“…Anyway, people usually don’t ask about the details of a hunter’s System. It’s a bit like prying for someone’s exact height and weight. It’s personal information, so most folks don’t just hand it out.”
“I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“Oh, well then I’m grateful.”
A cooperative existence of the Source—this was less a pleasant surprise and more a full-blown miracle. As a Gardener, Yu Seong-un felt a warm glow of contentment.
“Since you seem curious, I’ll tell you: I don’t have an occupation. My aptitude skill is Appraisal, and I’ve learned several general skills as well. The proficiency on those general skills is maxed out. Overall rank is A.”
“Are you sure it’s all right to tell me that?”
“If the person themselves is the one volunteering the information, what’s the problem?”
“I see.”
“Of course people don’t give it away lightly. Occupations are usually obvious just by looking, so that careful culture doesn’t apply, but if someone ever tells you their rank, that’s a tremendous show of goodwill.”
Roughly translated, it meant something like this:
“I trust you. You’re my friend. You’re my lover. You’re family…”
“…….”
“Something along those lines.”
“That’s romantic.”
“You like that kind of thing, huh.”
He really did have a pure streak.
“Did you tell me yours in the same spirit, Seong-un?”
“Of course. I told you about my System as a sign of goodwill and trust.”
The fact that the other party wasn’t human also made it far easier to open up. Since Ji-oh was ignorant of human culture, there was no awkwardness in revealing anything.
If anything, dealing with actual humans was the part that made his skin crawl.
“If you’re still curious about anything else, I’ll get you some books. There are textbooks used at the Awakener Education Centers. They even have ones aimed at brand-new rookies, so just say the word if you need them.”
“Thanks to your clear explanations, I think I’ll be fine.”
“Suit yourself… Hmm.”
Yu Seong-un asked,
“Thinking of heading back to the portrait soon?”
“Yes.”
Ji-oh nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Outside there are so many people, so many fun toys, so much to see and feel, but…”
“…….”
“I don’t think this is where I belong.”
Yu Seong-un understood perfectly.
Just maintaining that state for this long is already incredible.
An ordinary awakener wouldn’t have lasted a single second.
Ji-oh’s rank of existence was beyond any human comparison. A being who, at the very least inside his painting, had enjoyed godlike authority had compressed his own stature, cut off his own limbs, hung weights from his torso, and wandered the noisy human world.
It was a truly dreadful ordeal.
“Of course, I did enjoy myself.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Are you planning to watch that induction ceremony the bungeoppang kid mentioned?”
“Yes, I’d like to see it.”
“I’ll let you know when the time comes. Until then, rest inside the portrait.”
And so Ji-oh returned to the portrait.
Back at the cabin, Ji-oh slept the entire day away.
“It’s dangerous outside the blanket.”
“Kkyureureung.”
Completely drained, Ji-oh needed time to himself.