Kang Taeshik

Gaunt and lean, Taeshik looks to be in his late twenties. Purple hair stands in spikes above purple eyes that hold a distinctly cruel glint. His Association role keeps him in formal business dress: a black tie over a black suit, the belt of which is rigged to hold the daggers and knives he prefers.

Killing is what Taeshik lives for. A boastful psychopath, he takes far more pleasure in cutting down fellow hunters than in slaying monsters, and he holds the odd contradiction of being a serial killer who sneers at common criminals, treating them as outlets for his urges. His outlook is that of a hunter supremacist, sure that the gifted stand above human law entirely. Bloodlust, though, is not his only engine; greed runs every bit as deep, shown when he squeezes a client for an extra billion won while expecting to clean up witnesses, and when he regrets undercharging after learning Jinwoo could match his speed and strength.

Years of covert contract work turned him into a fluent liar. He spins fabrications to bury his crimes, pretends the prisoners were his only targets, and dangles false mercy to lower the guard of his cornered opponents before striking. He even readies cover stories blaming a goblin ambush and the prisoners turning on the group. For all that ruthlessness, he honors strength as a natural order; once Jinwoo lands a fatal blow, he meets death with composure and warns the younger hunter that rising power exacts a corrupting toll, sensing Jinwoo on the same dark road he had walked.

Raised by an abusive, alcoholic father who beat him relentlessly, Taeshik hit a breaking point at just six years old and killed the man. His age spared him from suspicion, and the killing launched a lifelong taste for violence. During the Dungeon and Prisoners Arc, he drew the assignment of overseeing three probational prisoners on a C-Rank raid, a stopgap born of the hunter shortage that followed the Double Dungeon disaster. What no one knew was that a grieving parent had paid him three billion won the night before to eliminate those prisoners.

After splitting off and clearing the dungeon, he murdered two prisoners and was torturing the third when Kim Sangshik and Kang Jeongho stumbled onto the scene. He killed Jeongho, gravely wounded Kim, then set an ambush. Among those he meant to catch in it were Sung Jinwoo, Lee Joohee, and Song Chi-Yul, the rest of the party who had heard the screams. His move on Joohee failed when Jinwoo saved her at the last instant. Song parried his strikes and earned grudging respect before being overwhelmed, surviving only by a desperate fire spell. As Taeshik went for the finish, Jinwoo stepped in. Realizing Jinwoo had masked his true skill, Taeshik threw everything he had into the fight, finally charging with his Stealth active, only to fall to Jinwoo's Bloodlust and take a blade through the chest.

In the timeline created by the Cup of Reincarnation, he resurfaces briefly after Jinwoo defeats Antares, arrested by his former colleague Woo Jinchul. Decades later in the Ragnarok era, Jinchul, now Director of the rebuilt Hunters Association, offers the imprisoned Taeshik freedom plus a role as a licensed bounty hunter cleared to kill escaped awakened villains threatening South Korea. Taeshik accepts, viewing it as a way to feed his bloodlust.