Jeong Yerin.
She was a B-rank Hunter.
She also possessed the Healer class.
A B-rank Healer was by no means a position to be taken lightly.
She was someone who could treat most injuries and raise a party's sustainability in a dungeon to its absolute limit.
That was Jeong Yerin, the B-rank Healer.
Even this alone made her far from ordinary, but what truly gave wings to her background lay elsewhere.
Namely, her guild.
The guild she belonged to was the Phoenix Guild.
A massive guild that ranked within the top five in the Republic of Korea.
A rare Healer class and a massive guild to boot.
To anyone else, it would have been a combination truly enviable and worthy of being a role model.
But Jeong Yerin herself felt these things were meaningless.
If she had been an 'ordinary' guild member, she too would have enjoyed these moments.
But.
Unfortunately, she was not simply a guild member belonging to the Phoenix Guild.
The guild master of the Phoenix Guild was her father.
And she had two older brothers above her.
Her father was the guild master.
Her eldest brother held the position of deputy guild master.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, he would probably inherit and manage the Phoenix Guild after their father.
Her second older brother was much the same.
While he didn't wield as much power as her eldest brother, he could exercise authority over the guild's dungeons and personnel affairs.
And both her father and brothers were A-rank Hunters.
There was no room for herself, a B-rank, to squeeze in.
To an outsider, they would have tilted their heads, wondering what the problem was.
If your father is the guild master and your brothers have a firm grip on the guild, isn't that a good thing?
If you just stayed still, wouldn't you end up above average?
This was the general perception people had of her.
In reality, she held the title of team leader and led a team.
But unfortunately, she was far from the happiness people imagined.
Because she and her two brothers were half-siblings with different mothers.
Of course, had they been magnanimous enough to look after Jeong Yerin despite having different mothers, things might have been different, but the world was not so forgiving.
For no other reason than having a different mother, her brothers viewed her as a thorn in their side.
An existence that had to be removed someday. That was how they viewed Jeong Yerin.
Of course, in a country where all systems were properly in place, they couldn't eliminate her openly.
So they covertly disadvantaged her and deliberately assigned her dangerous dungeons.
It was the same now.
'For there to be a Goblin Lord in the dungeon....'
A variable had appeared in the dungeon assigned to her team, of all places.
She had thought it was a simple Goblin dungeon, but an A-rank monster, the Goblin Lord, had appeared.
"Ha...."
She couldn't help but sigh.
The Goblin Lord was a leader monster that commanded all goblin-type monsters. Naturally, it was also the master of that dungeon.
Being a leader, it was a monster of a different class from ordinary goblins.
That alone was a headache, but there was a bigger problem.
Namely, it commanded countless goblins under it and acted strategically.
That was why many Hunters struggled to clear dungeons where a Goblin Lord appeared.
If only her team members had high ranks, she wouldn't have worried much.
But unfortunately, she was the highest-ranked member in the team at B-rank.
The other team members were a mix of C-rank and D-rank.
The problem was that she herself, a B-rank, was a non-combat Healer-class Hunter.
Even if she came back from the dead, defeating the Goblin Lord would be beyond her.
She had to report this to the guild and give up.
As a result of giving up, both she and her team members would face penalties, but it was better than losing their lives for nothing.
'Could they have assigned me this dungeon on purpose?'
She was well aware that her brothers viewed her as a thorn in their side.
Even so, she wanted to believe that this dungeon had been assigned to her by mere coincidence.
She hoped they weren't that despicable.
So Jeong Yerin sat in a cafe and thought about this problem.
And at that moment.
From somewhere nearby, she heard a man muttering.
"The Goblin Lord's weakness is...."
The voice reached her ears purely by chance.
'Goblin Lord?'
She hurriedly looked around.
There was a man intently holding a smartphone and doing something.
'What is he doing?'
Jeong Yerin observed the man's behavior carefully.
"To think the Goblin Lord can't use any of its power without goblins...."
The Goblin Lord couldn't use its power?
What was this supposed to mean?
Jeong Yerin continued to listen to the man's words.
And she could come to one conclusion.
'A Goblin Lord can't use any of its power without the goblins under its command!'
It was shocking, yet the first thing she felt was doubt over whether it could be true.
Honestly, it made no sense.
Given the situation until now, it was commonly believed that the Goblin Lord had no weaknesses.
It was a Goblin Lord that commanded countless goblins.
The reality was that because it acted strategically, Hunters designated it as a target that had to be eliminated as the first priority the moment it appeared.
Usually, the standard strategy was to unleash an extremely powerful area attack to create an opening, then have the strongest Hunter in the party face the Goblin Lord.
That made the words she had just heard easy to dismiss as well.
But in a corner of her heart, a hope of 'what if?' arose.
If she gave up on this dungeon, the guild would penalize her anyway.
When that happened, not only she as the team leader but also her team members would face disciplinary action.
Her position within the guild would be shaken.
It was a major problem that could soon escalate into doubts about the team leader's qualifications.
Yet going in knowing the risks was no different from walking into a deathtrap.
This was a serious problem in its own right.
'That must never happen.'
That would be exactly what her brothers wanted.
"Let's give it a try."
Jeong Yerin clenched her fist.
She had nothing to lose anyway.
If what that man said was true, she wouldn't have to force herself to eliminate the Goblin Lord from the very beginning.
Rather, it would be enough to take her time and gradually chip away at the goblins, no matter how long it took.
'If things go wrong, I can just give up.'
Naturally, assuming what she had just heard was true, it was information that could shift the paradigm of the Hunter ecosystem.
That was only under the assumption that it was all true; for now, she couldn't afford to believe it blindly.
'Let's verify it once.'
She intended to subtly feel out the other party.
Jeong Yerin immediately got up from her seat and headed toward the man.
"Excuse me."
She called out to him.
The man put down the smartphone in his hand and looked at her silently.
Jeong Yerin deliberately introduced herself while subtly handing him her business card.
It was a way of exerting pressure, letting him know she was affiliated with the Phoenix Guild.
But the man revealed his name bluntly, without any emotion.
"Ah, yes. My name is I Ganghyeon. I don't have a business card."
The other party had revealed only his name.
Jeong Yerin was slightly shocked by this.
'Ha.'
At the same time, she was dumbfounded.
Clearly, from what she had heard, the other party was definitely a Hunter as well.
But he only revealed his name?
This meant he wasn't the least bit intimidated by the Phoenix Guild's background.
'He was a bigger shot than I thought.'
See, even now.
She could glimpse both irritation and arrogance in his expression.
'To think he's at this level....'
He even exuded the confidence that he could handle any situation that came his way.
Having confirmed that much, she was relieved.
'If he's that caliber of person, the information he mentioned earlier is unlikely to be false.'
Did he say his name was I Ganghyeon?
He was undoubtedly a great Hunter.
Jeong Yerin memorized the name I Ganghyeon and got up from her seat.
Of course, she didn't forget to say thank you.
Because she planned to come find him again if she succeeded in the dungeon raid.
If his words were all true, he was a talent she absolutely could not let slip away.
Of course.
'She's a strange woman. I definitely shouldn't get close to her.'
I Ganghyeon's thoughts were completely different from Jeong Yerin's.
* * *
The Holy Knights were climbing the mountain.
"We'll stop here for a moment!"
At the shout of a man at the vanguard, the procession halted.
The man's name was Berter Leobain.
He was the second son of the Leobain Ducal House, a family with great influence even in the Karlun Empire.
"We'll resume the search after a short break! Everyone, do not lower your guard and rest!"
And currently, he also served as the deputy commander leading the Holy Knights of the White Order.
Currently, he was carrying out the vampire subjugation operation the Order was pushing forward.
It was not a dangerous mission.
From the start, their purpose was to weaken Baalcherit's forces by merely subjugating lesser vampires.
Baalcherit was a 5-star vampire.
A being capable of annihilating a city by itself—that was what a 5-star monster was.
'If only I could catch that bastard with my own hands....'
Him catching such a Baalcherit?
Taking over the Leobain ducal house would no longer be a dream.
He had been pushed out of the house's successor position solely for being the second son.
Berter was extremely dissatisfied with that point.
'To think I'm treated this way even though I'm more capable than my older brother.'
Having been removed from the successor's seat, he entered the Order immediately.
Fortunately, thanks to his skills and his family's background, he was able to serve as a Holy Knight.
Before long, he was able to assume the position of deputy commander as well.
It was a shame he wasn't the commander, but it couldn't be helped.
After all, it was unprecedented for someone not originally affiliated with the Order to rise to deputy commander of the Holy Knight Order.
"Ha...."
Berter let out a sigh.
One of the vampires had fled during the subjugation process.
The Holy Knights currently accompanying him had been brought along in excessive numbers just to catch one fleeing vampire.
They had even ended up at a mountain adjacent to the Demon Realm before they knew it.
Moreover, though it was neglected, this place was strictly the territory of the Seil Kingdom; if discovered, it would be troublesome.
"Um... Deputy Commander?"
Someone spoke to Berter.
It was one of the Holy Knights.
"Do we really need to chase it? A young vampire that's not even fully mature doesn't seem like it would cause a major problem."
The Holy Knight's words were true.
Normally, a fleeing young vampire was an existence they would simply ignore.
Catching a young vampire wasn't even worth merit.
Yet to catch that one, they had drifted to a place right next to the Demon Realm.
Moreover, this was another country's territory.
Strictly speaking, they were currently invading another country.
The Holy Knight could not understand the current situation.
But Berter snapped back.
"Protecting people in the name of the Order is the duty of us Holy Knights!"
It was a way of telling him to shut up and obey.
But.
'The sword that bastard was holding....'
Berter had seen something else in the fleeing vampire.
The single sword the young vampire had clutched while fleeing.
'It was definitely a demon sword.'
A demon sword said to grant its wielder tremendous power.
It was a sword identical in appearance to a demon sword he had seen in the Order's records.
Berter's eyes sparkled with greed.