Hunters (헌터) are humans who possess magical powers and use them to fight magic beasts and clear dungeons.

They first appeared around the same time humanity was exposed to the existence of magic. As hunters turned out to be the only ones who could kill magic beasts and close gates, a global billion-dollar industry eventually developed around them as a result. They are also usually organized inside guilds, which can have up to hundreds or even thousands of members.

Hunters are ranked by an international S-E system to show how strong they are, with E being the weakest and S being the strongest, and can possess a wide range of abilities. A hunter's rank and stats are determined at the time they receive their powers and cannot be increased. However, there are rare cases of hunters receiving a "second awakening" and climbing up in rank.

It should be noted that hunters and humans with powers are not always the same thing, as humans only become hunters when they obtain hunting licenses and participate in dungeon raids. As such, there are plenty of humans with powers who chose not to become hunters and pursue normal civilian livelihoods instead. Good examples include Yoo Soohyun, who became a famous model, and Han Song-Yi, who chose to stay in school and get her high school diploma.

• An Adventurer Is You: Hunters tend to get slotted into one of several typical RPG roles depending on what powers they got from their Awakening.
  • Assassins: Quick, highly-damaging hunters who specialize in using knives for massive critical damage. Some high-ranking assassins can even turn invisible.
  • Fighters: Frontline fighters that are beefier than Assassins, but faster and harder-hitting than Tanks.
  • Healers: Their job is to heal and buff allies to keep them on their feet and gain the upper-hand. Their combat skill usually ranges from mediocre to nonexistent, with S-tier Min Byung-Gu being comparable to an A-rank combatant, while the B-rank Lee Ju-hee is completely helpless in a fight.
  • Magicians: Powerful and versatile spellcasters who can fulfill a variety of roles, but have piddling defenses. Most focus on area damage, but some specialize in summoning minions, binding enemies in place, and so forth.
  • Tanks: Beefy Stone Walls who wear heavy armor and carry shields. Their job is to Draw Aggro away from the party's frailer members, like mages, healers and assassins. Most tanks have abilities to force enemies to focus fire on them.
  • Rangers: Backline fighters that wield bows, crossbows and other ranged weaponry with mana-infused ammunition - essentially a physical counterpart to Mages. Typically coming with enhanced senses, they're usually tasked with covering their allies' blind spots. Their physical abilities are rather lacking in comparison to other classes, making them extremely weak in close combat.
  • A "Martial Artist" class has been mentioned on occasion. Represented by a fist icon, they are presumably weaponless agility-based Hunters, like the monks of Dungeons & Dragons, but since none of them have been prominently featured in the story, their exact role remains unclear.
• Can't Catch Up:
  • A Hunter's rank is measured and quantified by measuring devices, and cannot increase without a second Awakening. While Hunters can increase their effectiveness and use of abilities with training and practice, it is accepted that no matter how skilled they become, a Hunter can't increase their rank or compete even with unskilled hunters of a higher rank.
  • They also face this in regards to the real powerhouses of the System: at best the most rarest gear and the strongest of Hunters can seem like a Physical God by human standards. Compared to a Player like Jin-Woo, however, who lacks the usual physical cap of Hunters and can seemingly continue to grow indefinitely, never mind some of the more insanely powerful top-tier monsters, the Hunters are capped at an absurdly low "level", effectively rendering them little more than Cannon Fodder in the grand scheme of things. S-ranks and especially Nationals thought they were the top of the totem pole, but end up falling to this in the end too, as other beings such as the Monarchs, Titans, and Itarim possess strength at near cosmic-levels and are shown to be vastly more powerful than even the mightiest of the hunters.
• The Chosen Many: Subverted and played straight. It's initially assumed that higher powers granted hunters magical powers to protect humanity from magic beasts, but in reality, most hunters are just human beings that managed to adapt to Earth's increasingly mana-rich environment, which will allow them to survive the upcoming war between the Monarchs and the Rulers. That being said, there are a few hunters that have been chosen explicitly to protect humanity by channeling the power of the Rulers as their vessels: the National-Level Hunters.
• A Hero to His Hometown: High-ranking hunters immediately become famous in their home countries, with A-ranks given the same regard as A-list celebrities. However, only S-ranks are guaranteed international fame, and only if they rack up a significant number of achievements. Jin-Woo, for example, starts trending in Korea almost as soon as his status as an S-rank is revealed, but the rest of the world barely paid him any attention until he cleared the Jeju Island Dungeon Break and established his credibility as a hunter.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Although extraordinarily rare (and yet to be shown in the manhwa), it is possible for Hunters to Awaken a second time and significantly increase their power. Everybody thinks this is what happened to Jin-Woo, including Jin-Woo himself at first.
• New Meat: No matter how high their rank is when they're first assessed, a hunter is considered a rookie until they have enough raiding experience under their belt. Jinwoo is most notably not a rookie at the start of the story, having four years of experience raiding lower-level dungeons before he became a Player, which greatly aids him even after he starts moving up to higher-level dungeons.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: As the only real criterion to be an S-rank is to have so much mana that the standard machine can't measure it, the power levels of S-ranks relative to each other vary radically. This means that S-ranks that would be considered middle-of-the-road or even substandard in bigger countries would be considered extremely powerful in smaller countries. For example, during the preparation for the Fourth Jeju Island Raid, Goto Ryuji (the strongest hunter of Japan) is observing the training of the South Korean S-ranks and finds most of them largely mediocre compared to the upper-tiers of his own country's S-ranks, with only Jinwoo, Hae-In, and Gun-Hee proving to meet or surpass his high standards. Yet, from the perspective of the South Korean hunters, they're all considered the epitome of strength, with Choi Jong-In in particular nicknamed the "Ultimate Weapon".
• Only in It for the Money: Because hunting is such a lucrative profession, many hunters only take up raiding for the sake of money and fame and don't really care about protecting the public from magical monsters.
• Plausible Deniability: One of the reasons hunting is such a dangerous profession is because it is impossible to survey what goes on in a dungeon beyond whatever the surviving raiding party tells the authorities. That has allowed many unscrupulous characters to commit crimes after entering a gate, knowing that there is no way they can be prosecuted without solid proof of their actions.
  "What happens in a dungeon stays in a dungeon."
• Power Levels: A hunter's rank is determined on the amount of mana they give off, with specific ranges for each rank; a hunter is declared S-rank only if their mana is immeasurable by the standard machine. For example, Jinwoo at the start of the story is an E-rank, and when he's measured after the events of the Double Dungeon, he only has a magic power level of 10. By the time he gets reevaluated again months later, the meter can no longer measure him, so every attempt to use it ends up throwing an error instead. Subsequently, if the hunter has exceptional mana control, they can manipulate their ranking by deliberately holding back their power when they're evaluated, which is what Jinho assumed Jinwoo did when he saw the latter's true strength for the first time.
• Random Power Ranking: The hunters are ranked based on power and are ranked from E (lowest) to A (the highest measurable) and the rare S (any hunter whose power is so high it can't be measured).
  • E-rank is the lowest level and is seen as a joke among hunters. While they are still noticeably stronger than the average human, they're relatively unremarkable by hunter standards, and they can only find work in the lowest-risk dungeons or in menial jobs, like joining the miner teams or collection teams. Most people who are categorized as E-rank often won't even bother to become hunters, since they can do other jobs.
  • D-Rank is the minimum level for any hunter who hopes to make a decent living. D-rank is significantly stronger than E-rank and anyone ranked at D-rank is clearly superhuman. D-ranked hunters can kill normal humans with ease. D-ranked threats that break out of dungeons are serious enough for a major military response.
  • C-ranked hunters are extremely powerful. A C-ranked mage can create destructive spells capable of major property damage, while C-ranked warriors are physically comparable to literal tanks. C-ranked monsters include creatures like a Giant Spider, giant snake, and a giant stone golem. C-rank threats are the highest threats that a nation's standard military can handle.
  • B-Ranked hunters are considered elite and drastically stronger than the other lower ranks, even C-rank. In general, it's accepted that it would take at least 10 C-ranked hunters to beat a normal B-ranked hunter. B-ranked hunters are very well off, receiving a considerable paycheck and a measure of fame. B-ranked mages can use their magic for things like controlling gravity, extreme levels of healing magic (to the point where they can regrow someone's missing limb), and summon creatures as independent fighters. B-ranked assassins can move at super speed that is unperceivable to normal people, and B-ranked warriors are strong enough to deflect artillery fire.
  • A-ranked hunters are capable of being a One-Man Army and can be equated to the military might of a small nation. A-ranked hunters are generally seen as national celebrities and are very wealthy. A-ranked hunters are the highest rank that a country's government can safely police and bring to justice should they commit any serious crimes.
  • S-ranked hunters are basically Physical God in terms of power. An S-class mage can destroy a building with a single spell easily, and it's said that a fight between two S-class hunters would erase a city or significantly change the landscape. S-class hunters tend to be the most influential people in the world, on top of being global celebrities. Aside from have a massive amount of wealth and connections, S-ranked hunters are above the law, since they're so powerful that it wouldn't be worth the cost to even attempt to bring them in for a crime. S-class threats have caused millions of deaths in the past, and any S-class monster is considered a threat to the people of an entire country.
  • National/Special-Authority Rank: Said to be even stronger than S-Rank. There are rumored to only be 5 of them in the entire world. It is stated that in order to obtain this rank, one needs to have conquered an S-Rank Gate. They are considered a nation unto themselves, and while they can choose to live and offer aid to certain countries, they are rarely always bound by the laws of those countries for this reason.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: S-rank hunters are hunters who have too much mana and magical power to be measured by the standard meter. Since that is the only qualification needed, the power levels of S-ranks vary dramatically relative to each other, while still remaining more powerful than those with lower ranks.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: S-ranked hunters are practically immune to the law because of the sheer force needed to bring one to justice. The only reason why the Korean Hunters Association can keep the South Korean guilds in line is because Go Gun-Hee, the country's first and strongest S-rank (up until Jinwoo's reevaluation), is the chairman, and the other S-ranks want to stay on his good side. After Gun-Hee's death, the KHA briefly considers bringing in another S-rank to succeed him before deciding on his righthand man, Woo Jin-Chul, in part because of his friendship with Jinwoo. In addition to that, an S-rank's host country will go out of their way to give them several privileges that even other high-ranking hunters don't have, if only to retain their services and make sure they're on hand for dangerous threats.
• The Social Darwinist: While not all hunters subscribe to a darwinistic mentality, a significant portion abuse their strength and power against those weaker than them for their own advantage. Even among the lower-ranks, this mentality is prevalent, with weaker members unable to contribute to a raid's success often left with the short-end of the stick when it comes to the loot, and told to deal with it if they make any complaint.
• Take Over the World: Downplayed and not the active variety. Basically the hunters are the only only ones who can destroy gates and kill the monsters. Normal humans and conventional weapons can barely do anything to the stronger monsters with the strongest monsters being city destroyers. The monsters are so dangerous that they must be fought inside the gates before they can break out, which takes about 7 days after a gate appears. Technology and modern weapons don't work in the gate, so the hunters are the only ones who can go in to kill the monsters and close the gates. Aside from the fact that the strongest hunters are basically Person of Mass Destruction with the ability to destroy cities, humanity has no choice but to put its well being into the hands of these new magical superhumans. While hunters and hunter guilds don't actively control the world governments, their influence is such that governments have very little control over them, and world class guilds can affect world events. Hell, if a hunter is S-Rank, it's literally impossible to hold them accountable for any crimes, as their skills are too valuable and trying to bring them in would require other S-ranked hunters and millions in collateral damage along with thousands of casualties.
• Willfully Weak: False-rankers are hunters that are gifted with exceptional mana control and deliberately hold back their power when they're officially assessed to be given a lower rank. As a high rank is more desirable due to more lucrative opportunities (including potential membership with a guild), most people cannot conceive why anyone would downplay their abilities unless they have unsavory goals, so false-rankers are rumored to be psychopaths. Notably, Jinho initially assumes Jinwoo is a false-ranker during their first raid together after he sees the latter's true power, as he can't see any reason why Jinwoo would remain an E-rank; it's not until he sees Jinwoo's ability to grow in strength that he realizes the truth.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Everyone thinks the hunters have been blessed for awakening their powers to become slayers of magic beasts, but the truth, they were actually filtered out by ancient cosmic beings in the upcoming war between the Rulers and Monarchs, which made them nothing more than ants to them.

Guilds are organized groups of Hunters that raid Gates. The leader of a guild is called the Guild Master and with the top guilds in a country, the Guild Master is typically an S-Rank Hunter.

The top guilds actively recruit high-level Hunters with large bonuses depending on rank. As a result, joining a top guild ensures access to large salaries and a higher degree of safety, since raids are well-planned and cautious. On the other hand, the lower guilds recruit just about anyone they can get their hands on and have a tendency to raid Dungeons that are tougher than they can handle. As a result, joining a lower guild is fraught with risk and comes with a significantly higher mortality rate.

• Adventure Guild: Guilds act as networks for Hunters to find work and link up with one another.
• Balance of Power: While multiple guilds are needed to cover all the Gates for a country, as hunting is a lucrative business, many guilds compete over territory for the sake of raiding more gates and getting more money and prestige. Countries therefore establish a government body to keep the guilds in check and prevent any one guild from becoming too powerful.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: Guilds are formed for the purpose of raiding Gates and fighting the monsters that emerge from them.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Guild Master is almost always the strongest Hunter in the guild, with the second strongest frequently being their Vice-Guild Master. The one exception we see is in the Hunters Guild, which has two S-rank members but is led by the less powerful (albeit more experienced) of the two because he founded it and later recruited a new S-rank hunter who, though she turned out to be more powerful than him, is content to be his Vice-Guild Master.
• Ultimate Final Exam: To get a license to become an official Guild Master, a Hunter needs to complete at least twenty raids and pass a written exam. S-ranks are the only people exempt from this exam, which is why the Guild Masters of most top guilds are S-ranks.