Marcus Calenberry

Marcus Calenberry is the Sword Saint, an elderly independent hunter who reaches the top rank without relying on any S-rank skill. He enters the Tower after leaving a wealthy Northern European family and tries to prove that discipline and a sword can let a person rise without inherited connections. His reliance on a kill-counting skill leads him to nearly murder Kim Gong-ja, but accepting that error begins a long change from solitary judge to sparring partner, race steward, coalition elder, and protector.

Biography

An independent sword and a dangerous certainty

Marcus abandons his family wealth, connections, and outside-world position to enter the Tower alone. He refuses invitations from the major guilds because he wants the new world to demonstrate that family and national background need not determine success. That decision helps make him the foremost solo hunter, but it also limits the aid he gives Babylon during its early floor conquests. The guild leaders later accuse him of allowing avoidable casualties by withholding both his sword and outside connections, revealing that his ideal of independence carried a social cost even before his personal killings were questioned. (Chapters 7 and 26)

His rise is achieved through training rather than a single overwhelming skill. When Gong-ja copies one of Marcus's abilities after death, he finds no S-rank card among Marcus's set; the strongest available card is the A+ Sword Constellation, called Another Me by Bae Hu-ryeong. Marcus has nevertheless become number one through swordsmanship sharp enough to decapitate Gong-ja before the novice can perceive a motion. The attached Bae Hu-ryeong identifies Marcus as his pupil, explaining both Marcus's habit of appearing to talk to himself and the martial instruction behind his exceptional technique. (Chapters 7–9)

The danger comes from combining that strength with Detective's Insight. Marcus sees a number above each person indicating how many lives they have taken and uses it to detect likely assassins. Gong-ja's thousands of regressions count his suicides as kills, so Marcus reads him as a mass murderer and attacks before learning who he is. The skill provides real information but not motive, identity, or moral context; Marcus supplies those conclusions himself. His error is therefore not merely a faulty reading but a willingness to turn partial evidence into a death sentence. (Chapters 7–9 and 39)

Judgment corrected through trust and common battle

When Gong-ja next meets Marcus on the twelfth floor, the Sword Saint again attacks, and even several great guild masters struggle to restrain him. His blue aura wounds high-ranking hunters in two movements, yet the combined guild coalition establishes a practical limit: Marcus may be stronger than any one defender, but he cannot safely fight every major guild at once. Patricia's lie-detection skill then provides a different kind of evidence, confirming that Gong-ja did not kill thousands of innocent people. Faced with a direct contradiction to his assumptions, Marcus sheathes his sword, apologizes without blaming his skill, and promises never again to kill solely by that judgment. (Chapters 25–27)

That apology matters because Marcus has alternatives. He could accuse the guilds of conspiracy, hide the source of his suspicion, or insist that a skill outranks testimony. Instead, he admits that his belief nearly killed someone and asks forgiveness while frankly saying that he still wants to live and reach the Tower's summit. Gong-ja then earns a limited five-day reprieve by repeatedly regressing through Marcus's tests and demonstrating apparent prophecy. Marcus agrees to observe him with his own eyes, creating a replacement for automated judgment: sustained attention to conduct rather than instant execution based on a number. (Chapters 27 and 35)

Observation turns into battlefield trust during the campaign against the Devil King. Marcus follows Gong-ja, cuts down groups of enemies with wide blue-aura strikes, accepts tactical directions even when they require him to use a hammer instead of his lifelong sword, and fights beside Gong-ja's summoned dead despite finding them disturbing. Gong-ja's regressions refine the plan, while Marcus provides the force needed to hold and pierce enemy formations. By the end he voluntarily leaves the final confrontation to Gong-ja and expects a later conversation, showing that the suspected assassin has become a younger climber whose judgment he will follow under pressure. (Chapters 36–45)

Rival, steward, and bodyguard

Marcus and Gong-ja later train as fellow disciples of different copies of Bae Hu-ryeong. Their spars are serious enough to improve aura control yet relaxed enough to carry advice about political authority, responsibility, and public expectations. Marcus initially wins almost every bout and delights in discovering a rival who can answer his blue aura; Gong-ja eventually takes a match by combining emotional aura, an unfinished technique, and deliberate psychological misdirection. Marcus protests the method but immediately demands another round, revealing that competition now expresses affection and renewal rather than suspicion. (Chapters 152–153)

On the civilization stages Marcus chooses the Pure Race, ordinary humans whose strengths lie in records, adaptable attitudes, and shared standards rather than a fixed evolution. He later joins the guild leaders' test of Gong-ja, holding back while the younger hunter guides multiple races and resolves discrimination. Marcus frames himself as a failure: he once carried responsibility for the Tower's conquest and the purge, then withdrew from politics to atone. The Pure Race's vote for Gong-ja's leadership lets him teach a gentler conclusion—that failure is survivable when another person can call someone back into active life. (Chapters 153–154 and 274)

That lesson follows Marcus's own return. He recognizes that Gong-ja's presence keeps the guild leaders, including Marcus himself, from reverting to their harshest methods, and he warns that leadership makes Gong-ja's survival a duty to everyone who depends on him. Marcus therefore kneels and offers to become his bodyguard, converting the sword once aimed at Gong-ja into a promise to preserve his life. He also accepts a coalition division in which his outside-world stature serves diplomacy. At the end of the corpus Marcus remains alive in Babylon, where the newly embodied Bae Hu-ryeong plans to visit him and share a drink. (Chapters 272–274 and 400)

Appearance and personality

Marcus is an elderly but robust man with dark blue eyes, white eyebrows, and a physique that remains powerful beneath his shirt. He characteristically wears an expensive black suit, white shirt, plain red tie, and conspicuous bright-red sneakers while carrying a sword—an office-worker silhouette disrupted by a warrior's weapon and eccentric footwear. His eyes can appear as still as a deep ocean or bright as a night sky, and the neat clothing reinforces an initially severe, self-contained impression. (Chapters 6–8, 272, and 273)

He is proud, stubborn, emotional, and more playful than his remote reputation suggests. Marcus can make catastrophic judgments when he confuses certainty with justice, but he is also capable of an unusually direct apology and lasting behavioral change. With Gong-ja he becomes competitive, paternal, and protective, offering advice, boasting over sparring records, and taking genuine pleasure in younger hunters' growth. His development does not remove his distrust of humanity; it teaches him to treat other people as the necessary restraint that makes his own judgment humane. (Chapters 27–28, 152–154, and 272–274)

Abilities and skills

Marcus combines lifelong sword training, blue aura, Bae Hu-ryeong's A+ living-spirit instruction, Detective's Insight, and high-level battlefield experience. His skill set contains no S-rank card when Gong-ja copies from it, making his rank a product of trained interaction among several lower-ranked abilities rather than one absolute authority. The corpus does not supply a complete list of his skill cards or a formal name for his personal sword style.

Swordsmanship and blue aura

Marcus's foundational ability is swordsmanship refined enough to kill before an untrained observer can perceive movement. He can detect a weak follower, draw and strike in one motion, and produce an exact decapitation without visible preparation. In group combat he wraps his blade in blue aura, launches cutting force across a battlefield, removes the heads of roughly twenty enemies in a casual swing, and releases repeated windlike blades with enough pressure to force another high-level aura user backward. (Chapters 7–8, 25, 36, and 152)

His applications extend beyond dueling. Marcus can hold monster lines, protect allied specialists during the Devil King campaign, pierce selected structures, and channel aura through an unfamiliar anti-undead hammer for an area effect. This adaptability shows that his aura is not restricted to a particular sword, although his lifetime of sword practice makes other weapons uncomfortable. Large attacks still require aim and tactical cooperation; multiple great guild masters can deter him, and Gong-ja eventually finds an opening by forcing him to divide attention among complex emotional flames. (Chapters 25, 40, 43, and 152–153)

Marcus's latest demonstrated combat state remains among the Tower's strongest conventional hunters. Gong-ja can now contest and once defeat him in a spar, but only after dozens of losses and by exploiting surprise and a newly developed technique. Marcus continues to train, advise, and offer himself as a bodyguard rather than displaying a later transformed power. The corpus therefore supports progression in tactical flexibility and relationship to violence, not an unexplained increase beyond his established aura mastery. (Chapters 152–153 and 272–273)

Detective's Insight

Detective's Insight displays how many times a person has killed. It counts repeated deaths of the same individual separately and counts suicide as the viewer killing themself, which is why Gong-ja's thousands of regressions produce a number above four thousand. Marcus uses the skill to identify possible assassins and says it has helped him avoid crises. It detects an event count, not intent, justification, victim identity, or guilt; a high number may therefore result from circumstances entirely unlike murder. (Chapters 7–9 and 39)

The ability's decisive limitation is interpretation. Marcus mistakes its accurate count for a complete moral verdict and almost kills Gong-ja, while Patricia's lie detector shows that Gong-ja has not massacred thousands. After apologizing, Marcus stops relying on the skill to execute suspected killers and agrees to judge with his own observation. Detective's Insight remains available as information, but its practical interaction with testimony and conduct changes: it can prompt investigation, while independent evidence counters conclusions the number alone cannot support. (Chapters 26–27, 154, and 272)

Sword Constellation / Another Me

Marcus possesses the A+ Sword Constellation, also called Another Me, which attaches a living spirit of Bae Hu-ryeong to its owner. The spirit is invisible and inaudible to everyone else, cannot physically affect the world, but can advise, inspect technique, and interfere with the owner's mind. Marcus's apparent muttering is conversation with this mentor. The skill's benefit is therefore accumulated martial knowledge and continuous correction rather than automatic execution of Bae Hu-ryeong's techniques. (Chapters 7–9)

Gong-ja copies the skill without removing Marcus's original, so both hunters retain separate Bae Hu-ryeong spirits and become fellow disciples. Much later, the root Bae Hu-ryeong explains that these living spirits synchronize memories only periodically and that the Tower may filter transferred information. Marcus consequently does not possess a constant real-time link to every copy or to the root on the 99th floor. At the end of the corpus the original Bae Hu-ryeong plans a physical reunion with Marcus, but no corresponding upgrade to Marcus's skill is yet demonstrated. (Chapters 9, 152, 306, 396, and 400)

Battlefield leadership and Pure Race stewardship

Marcus has the experience to coordinate high-level combat, read dangerous intent, and serve as the stable front line while specialists attack. As Grand Master of the Aegim Empire he receives command of knights, and during the Devil King floors he yields to Gong-ja's foreknowledge without abandoning independent threat assessment. His leadership is strongest in direct battle and diplomacy; the early guild conflict shows that solitary excellence does not substitute for logistics, institutions, or broad political cooperation. (Chapters 28 and 36–45)

As guide of the Pure Race, Marcus acts through long-term stewardship rather than a personal combat buff. The race begins as adaptable ordinary humans with Rapid Attitude Shift, Legacy of Records, and Square Enthusiast; these are racial talents, not Marcus's own skills. He entrusts their final vote to them and receives a 76.19 percent result supporting Gong-ja. His latest application of authority is thus deliberate delegation: he prepares the group, sets a condition for action, and lets its members decide without coercing the result. (Chapters 153–154 and 274)

Relationships

• Kim Gong-ja: First a suspected mass murderer, then an observed ally, rival, fellow disciple, coalition leader, and the person Marcus offers to protect with his life.
• Bae Hu-ryeong: His living-spirit master and source of Sword Constellation instruction; the embodied original intends to reunite and drink with him after the ascent.
• Anastasia: A first-generation rival who condemns his solitary failures and past killings, yet joins him in testing and supporting Gong-ja's leadership.
• Nisha: A guild-master peer who once accused him of neglecting the Tower's material needs and later assigns him a diplomatic place within the shared coalition.
• Patricia: The lie-detection user whose testimony breaks his certainty about Gong-ja and enables his first decisive apology.
• Liao Fan: A fellow veteran whose injury from challenging Marcus reflects the Sword Saint's long dominance and the guild leaders' contentious shared history.

Items

• Marcus carries and maintains swords throughout the corpus and can channel aura through an anti-undead hammer when strategy demands it, but the supplied generated-item manifest assigns him no separately generated item page.