Gerald Baltren

Gerald Baltren is an American police officer who survives the opening Greenskin Wildlands by turning professional habits into practical raid leadership. After crossing paths with Sungjin again much later, he becomes a Chosen One whose protection, judgment, and willingness to call for help make him an anchor for less durable Hunters. (Chapters 2–6 and 129–180)

Appearance

Baltren is a muscular Black man who enters the raids wearing a police vest and badge. He initially chooses a metal club because it resembles the baton he knows from police work, then develops into a heavily equipped tank carrying a large shield. By the time he joins the Chosen Ones, he is roughly a head taller than the other members and presents the imposing silhouette of a shield-and-club vanguard. (Chapters 2–6, 129, and 135)

Personality

Baltren is cautious, cooperative, and accustomed to taking responsibility when a group lacks direction. He does not possess Sungjin's certainty in the first raid, but he spends coins on the recommended fire item, tries to stop arguments, accepts the dangerous vanguard position, and organizes the remaining Hunters rather than abandoning them. Fear can slow him, yet once he understands a workable plan he follows through and helps others do the same. (Chapters 3–6)

Later experience strengthens those habits without making him reckless. Baltren protects endangered teammates, reports emergencies instead of treating help as shameful, and evaluates suspicious behavior through observation shaped by police work. His hope of rescuing his mother, fiancée, and unborn child gives that duty a personal center; he imagines a life after the raids, but consistently treats present survival as a shared problem rather than a private contest for rewards. (Chapters 129–148, 164, and 166)

Biography

Greenskin Wildlands

Baltren enters the Greenskin Wildlands with little knowledge of contribution, hidden objectives, or the strength of its bosses. When other Hunters reject Sungjin's advice and argue over who should stand in front, Baltren tries to restore cooperation, purchases Salamander's Ash, and reluctantly takes the vanguard because the others expect a police officer to protect them. After seeing the path of corpses Sungjin leaves behind, he decides that following the younger Hunter's instructions is the party's safest option. (Chapters 3–4)

That decision lets Baltren contribute when raw strength alone would not. He coats his club in Salamander's Ash and burns the wounds of Trolls Sungjin has dismembered, preventing regeneration and ending a fight that was consuming the raid's remaining time. Sungjin then places the surviving group under Baltren's direction, and Baltren forms defensive circles, explains contribution rewards, and keeps the frightened Hunters searching and fighting instead of simply waiting for extraction. (Chapters 3–4)

Baltren's police experience also reveals the hidden encounter. He notices that one section of the wooden palisade overlaps inefficiently, comparing it to roadblocks he once placed for traffic control, and directs Sungjin to the enclosure containing Ruark. During the battle he risks moving close enough to lend Sungjin his metal club, enabling the swordsman to jam the hidden boss's chains. The completed clear replaces Baltren's initial uncertainty with practical respect, and Sungjin rewards his help by selling him Skull Romabel cheaply and finally giving the guarded name “K.” (Chapters 4–6)

Reunion as a Chosen One

When Sungjin finds Baltren again many raids later, the police officer has survived by applying lessons from their first meeting. Skull Romabel carried him through early danger, he copied Sungjin's habit of searching for hidden elements, acquired the Treasure Hunter title, and repeatedly became his party's leading contributor. Even after a teammate attacks him over that success, Baltren remains cooperative and stops once the aggressor's threat is contained, giving Sungjin evidence that his power has not displaced his restraint. (Chapters 32, 42, and 129–130)

Sungjin tests Baltren's character before offering Holy Water of Baptism. Baltren's surface thoughts and answers center on saving his mother, his pregnant fiancée, and their unborn child, while his assessment of Sungjin emphasizes humanity's need for someone capable of ending the raids. After he becomes a Chosen One, Sungjin entrusts him with Illich's extraordinarily valuable Tetracard shield on installments, treating Baltren's defensive role and sincerity as more important than immediate payment. (Chapters 130 and 135–136)

Within the growing alliance, Baltren develops from a grateful survivor into an independent anchor. He welcomes new comrades, shares briefings and meals, uses Magnetic Barrier and his shield to absorb pressure that would kill less durable Hunters, and recognizes TaeSeuk Cha's concealed dishonesty without relying entirely on Sungjin's judgment. On Barrastan he holds an overrun party together long enough to request intervention, demonstrating that calling Sungjin is part of responsible command rather than a substitute for acting. By the latest chapter, he remains one of the stable veterans around the Chosen Ones' table. (Chapters 135–149, 164–166, and 170–180)

Power progression

Relationships

• Sungjin: Baltren first fears Sungjin's severity but recognizes that his instructions save the opening party and answers that help with cooperation. Their reunion converts gratitude into partnership: Baltren accepts Baptism and alliance planning, while Sungjin trusts his motives, defensive judgment, and willingness to protect strangers. (Chapters 3–6, 129–136, and 148–164)
• His mother, fiancée, and unborn child: Baltren's mother raised him alone while working as a housemaid, and his fiancée was pregnant when the raids began. His fear for them is not a speculative explanation imposed by others; it is the commitment he expresses while Sungjin tests him, and it underlies his determination to finish the hunt. (Chapter 136)
• Franz Hosenfeld, Serin Han, and Nada: The established Chosen Ones welcome Baltren when he joins their meals. Their relationship grows through briefings, equipment exchange, and shared concern for one another's raids, placing him inside a cooperative structure unlike the distrustful party he met in the Wildlands. (Chapters 135–149 and 166–180)

Skills and abilities

Defensive tanking. Baltren fights with a shield and club, uses positioning to draw pressure away from vulnerable allies, and reacts quickly when a teammate needs cover. Magnetic Barrier and later shield abilities expand that role, but his value is not simply damage reduction: he reads the formation, chooses where to stand, and remains in place when an overwhelmed party needs time for help to arrive. (Chapters 3–6, 130, 140, 147, and 164)

Police-trained field judgment. Traffic-control experience lets Baltren recognize the malformed palisade concealing Ruark, while later investigative instincts make him independently suspicious of TaeSeuk Cha's polished answers. These observations are practical rather than supernatural. They help him identify environmental inconsistencies and human evasiveness, though Sungjin's mind-reading item provides confirmation beyond what Baltren himself can prove. (Chapters 4 and 148)

Treasure Hunter experience. Baltren learns from Sungjin's first-raid behavior that maps contain hidden elements worth seeking. He later earns the Treasure Hunter title and uses that knowledge to keep improving his rewards and equipment across otherwise separate parties. The skill locates opportunities; surviving the resulting hidden fights still depends on his defensive strength and judgment. (Chapters 4–6 and 129–130)

Equipment

• Skull Romabel: Sungjin acquires the Heroic club in the first raid and sells it to Baltren at a steep discount because the officer's help made the full clear possible. The weapon becomes a crucial early advantage and helps Baltren survive until he can replace it with higher-tier equipment. (Chapters 5–6 and 129)
• Tetracard – Enraged Lion: Taken from Illich and later sold to Baltren on installments, this shield provides exceptional physical defense, an attack-speed effect, and Shield of God, which grants a short period of magic immunity. It complements Baltren's established role as the alliance's durable vanguard. (Chapters 133, 136, and 140)
• Manmu: By the Kutan raid Baltren has acquired Manmu, a stronger club that preserves the baton-like fighting style he began with. The corpus establishes its role in his continued survival but gives less detail about its mechanics than his later shield. (Chapters 32 and 42)