“Do you really, truly...... see potential in me?”
Kim Gyo-jun trembled at those words.
He had never heard anything like that before.
This is where you fall short. That is where you fall short. You are not going to make it.
He had heard plenty of that.
So he had assumed he had no potential.
He had thought so himself.
And now someone was saying he saw potential in him.
For a long while, he stared blankly at Yu-jun.
He simply could not believe it.
“When you say I have talent...... do you mean I can grow stronger? But I have already been notified of my release. I have to pack my things and leave in a few days.”
“You are still with Sky Guild, are you not? Then it is not too late.”
Yu-jun approached Gyo-jun with a smile.
This was not something he could do for him.
‘It only means something if he believes it himself.’
The foundation of training was trust.
If a trainee trusted his trainer, they could start from that trust.
‘If he trusts me, he’ll come to trust himself, too.’
After a brief silence, Kim Gyo-jun bowed his head.
“I want to grow stronger. If I have talent, I want to find out. I do not want it to end like this.”
He had spoken as though he had given up on everything, but he had not.
He had only given up because he had no choice. He had merely tried to run away.
The truth was, he did not want to give up.
Even if he had to go through something more miserable, he wanted to stay at Sky Guild and give it a try.
“Nothing is over yet.”
Yu-jun grinned at his resolve.
‘I can see it clearly even without the Awakened Training System.’
He was not someone who would ever give up of his own accord.
If Yu-jun set him in the right direction and guided him a little, he would naturally improve.
“Let us give it a try together. I can definitely see it in you.”
Yu-jun gazed at the blue light still glimmering around Gyo-jun’s head.
***
“I don’t know why he insists on taking the hard road.”
Team Leader Kim Do-hun shook his head.
“I think the matter with Woo Ha-na has given him a real boost in confidence. He has only just started working as a trainer. Perhaps he thinks it will be different if he takes charge?”
Team Leader Kim and the trainers were quite skeptical of Kang Yu-jun’s choice to train Kim Gyo-jun.
Of course, they knew Kang Yu-jun’s training ability was far from ordinary.
He had corrected Woo Ha-na’s problems and brought out her potential. That was certainly impressive.
But Woo Ha-na had considerable potential to begin with, and Kang Yu-jun’s methods had simply been a good match for her.
“There is no reason to keep trainee Kim Gyo-jun any longer.”
Every trainer at Sky Guild knew that from having taught him.
Kim Gyo-jun’s basic physical ability was quite poor.
That made it difficult for him to use his Awakened ability.
A vicious cycle.
That was why they understood Yu-jun’s decision even less.
Kang Yu-jun could not possibly be unaware of Kim Gyo-jun’s weakness.
They had seen him teach Woo Ha-na.
If anything, he probably understood it better than the other trainers.
This was not something he could fix easily, and failure could hurt his future career.
“He will only waste his time. Though I doubt this alone will damage Trainer Kang’s reputation much.”
Talk of Woo Ha-na was now coming from all quarters.
Following a strong appeal from the leader of Sales Team 3, a meeting was underway to decide what would happen to her.
If the meeting went well, Woo Ha-na would go straight to Sales Team 1, and the result would count entirely as Kang Yu-jun’s achievement.
“Interest in Woo Ha-na is rising, and so is interest in Trainer Kang, who trained her.”
But interest rose quickly and fell just as quickly.
A trainer had to establish his value while all eyes were on him.
To the other trainers, it was a shame to see him seemingly waste his time.
If Kang Yu-jun made a name for himself, attention would also turn to them as trainers at Sky Guild.
Team Leader Kim Do-hun gave a wry smile.
“He’s a new trainer. We can’t blame him for getting caught up in the romance of it all. You were like that too, weren’t you?”
“......We were.”
“I suppose taking the hard road is something all newcomers do.”
But they did not know.
The road Yu-jun had chosen was by no means hard.
It was a shortcut.
***
The Sky Guild training ground.
Kim Gyo-jun stood there hesitantly, while Yu-jun’s eyes shone before him.
‘Kim Gyo-jun is a lottery ticket already confirmed to be a winner.’
Of all the youth trainees at Sky Guild, Kim Gyo-jun was the only one with an A in Mind.
‘Though his other abilities are at the very bottom.’
His Awakened ability was useful.
Depending on how one approached it, it could be put to use in many ways.
‘Judged by his Overall Grade, the other trainers are right. There really is no point in training him across the board.’
According to Awakened Analysis, Kim Gyo-jun’s Overall Grade was [D-].
He was clearly not promising enough to justify investing money in him as one of Sky Guild’s youth trainees.
‘But his Mind Grade makes all those assessments meaningless. Besides, where in the world is there an Awakened who can’t benefit from training?’
An A in Mind meant he could withstand any training.
‘However hard it is, he can endure pretty much any training.’
His tolerance was high.
Someone else might lose heart after just one hour of training, but Kim Gyo-jun had the strength to hold out for two hours, or three.
‘Once that’s the case, his Body Grade is no longer a problem.’
He could keep growing stronger.
‘But I can only make that judgment because I know Kim Gyo-jun’s Mind Grade.’
Kim Gyo-jun had probably trained under several trainers. Among the many Awakened abilities, Weapon Enhancement was quite useful.
It was an ability worth at least a B Grade.
After all, anything he held in his hand could become a powerful weapon.
But Kim Gyo-jun could not use that ability properly.
The reason was mana.
‘The problem is that Kim Gyo-jun reflexively uses the mana he needs for his ability to strengthen his body. The other trainers probably had no choice but to give up when he couldn’t use his ability properly.’
He used mana to compensate for his frail body, which interfered with his ability.
But the other trainers lacked the means to identify the problem. Yu-jun had only seen it thanks to his skill.
‘So what I need to teach Kim Gyo-jun is......’
How to use mana.
“From now on, we will do repetitive training.”
Yu-jun intended to draw out all of Gyo-jun’s abilities with a curriculum tailored to him as he was now.
Repetitive training was exactly what suited him.
‘Just as he showed before.’
He would take a slightly different approach from the one he had used with Woo Ha-na.
‘I need to awaken his sense for it and imprint the way to use mana on him.’
Of course, it would be very difficult.
They would have to repeat it over and over.
But for Kim Gyo-jun, it might be easy training.
‘Another Awakened would give up quickly, but Kim Gyo-jun won’t. He can definitely endure it.’
Repetitive training, grueling training.
With an A in Mind, Kim Gyo-jun could endure as much of it as necessary.
“Um, what will happen to...... my release? I was told my contract would expire in five days.”
“I had it postponed.”
Yu-jun had already spoken to the Guild Master and asked him to delay the release itself by ten days.
He had asked to try training Gyo-jun first, then have the Guild Master decide whether to uphold or withdraw the decision to release him.
“We have been given ten days.”
Yu-jun intended to train Kim Gyo-jun thoroughly in the ten days he had been granted.
“Trainee Woo Ha-na has just been called up to Sales Team 1. I intend to make you the next ace after her, trainee Kim Gyo-jun.”
“Me...... after Ms. Woo Ha-na......?”
Woo Ha-na had already been an elite youth trainee when Kim Gyo-jun joined Sky Guild’s youth program.
He was going to make him the successor to someone like her?
Despite Kim Gyo-jun’s doubts, Yu-jun nodded with a look of conviction.
-Awakened training begins!
-Training Recipe activated!
-Training Recipe for Awakened Kim Gyo-jun!
Yu-jun grinned at the messages.
‘Ten days is enough.’
“Let us begin.”
***
“Hah...... Hah.......”
Yu-jun taught Kim Gyo-jun how to use mana while conditioning his body.
“Do not gather your mana into a mass. Do not try to make up for your lack of stamina with mana. Leave it as it is.”
Word Magic Correction passed through Kim Gyo-jun’s body.
His problem was that he tried to make up for his lack of stamina with mana.
That was why he could not keep up with conventional training.
‘He keeps diverting his mana elsewhere, so he can’t use Weapon Enhancement properly either.’
With his mana being used to compensate for his frail body, there was no way he could do anything else with it.
The behavior was practically instinctive, so neither he nor the other trainers had managed to pinpoint the problem or find a solution.
‘He can’t put his mana to proper use.’
Through repeated applications of Word Magic Correction, Yu-jun restrained Gyo-jun whenever he tried to use mana that way.
But breaking a habit he had followed reflexively for so long was no easy task.
That was why Yu-jun had chosen repetitive training.
He pushed Gyo-jun’s stamina to its limit and prevented him from using mana to compensate.
He let Gyo-jun devote all his mana to his ability, Weapon Enhancement.
“Mana circulation. Again.”
“......Yes!”
Yu-jun pushed him so hard that it would not have been surprising if he collapsed at any moment.
It had already been eight hours since training began.
Even excluding breaks, the training itself had lasted more than six hours.
SWISH-.
But Yu-jun was not worried at all.
The more he put Gyo-jun through his paces, the stronger the blue light above his head grew.
Even when he was too exhausted to lift a finger, his mind remained sharp.
‘There’s still life in his eyes.’
“I can do...... more! Please, just a little longer!”
But Gyo-jun was not the only one this training exhausted.
‘I’m getting tired.’
Yu-jun’s stamina and mana were being worn down as well.
That was only natural.
To serve as Gyo-jun’s training partner, he had a great deal to show him.
And that meant Yu-jun had to keep moving too.
‘I’ll have to invest my next Point in stamina.’
For now, he decided to end the training there.
“That is all for today’s training.”
“Thank you!”
The real work would begin tomorrow.
***
One day, two days, three days.
The intense training left dark circles under Kim Gyo-jun’s eyes.
But despite his exhausted appearance, he could feel something changing.
‘I feel light.’
His body felt light.
His movements felt different from before the training.
He no longer had trouble using his ability, which gave him confidence.
And there was one more thing he could clearly feel.
‘I’ve changed. Definitely.’
Yu-jun’s training was not all that different from the other trainers’.
But there was a definite difference he could not put into words.
‘For some reason, I can follow along.’
Unlike with his previous training, he could also make sense of it. When he listened to Yu-jun, he found himself following the training instructions without even realizing it.
Of course, it was his body that followed. He could not immediately understand it in his head.
But after repeating the training for more than ten hours a day, he could feel it gradually becoming second nature.
That repeated sense of almost grasping it had made it sink into his body, whether or not he understood it.
“We will begin today’s training.”
As Yu-jun spoke, he examined Kim Gyo-jun’s body.
He looked worn out in several ways, but the blue light still shining above his head showed how strong his mind was.
In fact, the blue light shone far more brightly than before.
And then there was something else.
‘The cracks that had spread across his whole body......’
They were fading.
They had not vanished completely, but they had grown considerably fainter.
‘We’ll keep going like this.’
***
“I hear they are training for more than ten hours.”
The Sky Guild Master’s office.
“Ten hours? Can Kim Gyo-jun endure that? And it’s well beyond the usual working hours.”
A trainer’s standard workday was six hours.
It was short, but extending it would hardly help when there was a limit to how much training an Awakened could take. Six hours was just right.
Yet Yu-jun was currently working ten hours a day.
“And there’s no overtime pay.”
Of course, he had to train Gyo-jun properly within ten days to prevent his release.
Even so, his behavior was hard to understand.
“Did Trainer Kang know Kim Gyo-jun before this? No, he didn’t. He’s just one of the trainees.”
And yet he was going this far.
“Perhaps it reminds him of the old days.”
Team Leader Kim Do-hun of the trainer team could not understand Yu-jun’s passion either.
But something from long ago suddenly came back to him.
When he had first become a trainer, he had sometimes spent a little extra time training his trainees, even without overtime pay.
When those trainees achieved results in the Tower and earned recognition within the guild, he had felt as happy as if their achievements were his own.
Sometimes he had done it simply because he wanted to hear a word of thanks.
Passion.
He could sense Yu-jun’s passion for the work of a trainer.
“Well, Trainer Kang must have been through his share of hardship. I suppose he identifies with the boy a little.”
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun could not help finding that admirable.
A trainer who gave up his own time to guide a trainee.
“Trainers like that are rather rare these days.”
“Yes, they are.”
Lately, it was rare to see trainers work like Kang Yu-jun.
Talk of romance and such had faded away long ago.
Enthusiastic new trainers tended to push Awakened into overtraining, and the Awakened did not favor that approach either.
“I’m curious to see what happens. Trainer Kang trained Woo Ha-na splendidly, but that was because she had such exceptional potential.”
Of course, Team Leader Kim remained skeptical about training Kim Gyo-jun.
Ten hours a day for ten days. By simple arithmetic, that was one hundred hours.
But he thought one hundred hours was nowhere near enough to solve Kim Gyo-jun’s problems.
“So am I.”
He did not expect much.
Trainer Kang Yu-jun would probably run up against the wall of reality too.
***
The ten days passed quickly.
At a glance, Kim Gyo-jun looked no different from before. But his posture had become subtly straighter.
The air about him had changed too.
‘Ten days of training.’
Today was the day of the internal evaluation.
The guild’s youth trainees were each assigned a score through the internal evaluation.
A high score could overturn a decision to release one of them.
‘But that isn’t the end of my goal.’
Kim Gyo-jun earning a high score in the internal evaluation and having his release canceled was only the first objective.
“Today is our last day.”
Yu-jun spoke, and their final training session began.
“Mr. Kim Gyo-jun, everyone knows your weakness.”
It was common knowledge at Sky Guild.
“So we are going to use that against them.”
They would turn the weakness everyone knew into an advantage.
“Draw them in with your frail body.”
Yu-jun clenched his fist and swung it.
“Then smash them instead.”
That day.
With ten hours of training.
“You worked hard.”
“Thank you...... Thank you so much!”
-Awakened Kim Gyo-jun trained.
-Training Score: 7/10
-Points awarded according to Training Score.
-Trainee Kim Gyo-jun’s Overall Grade has risen!
-[D-] -> [C]
-Awakened Training Trainee Roster
Kim Min-seok
Woo Ha-na
Kim Gyo-jun NEW!
His Training Score was an impressive seven.
That earned Yu-jun a full 3P.
‘All that hard work paid off.’
On top of that, Kim Gyo-jun’s Overall Grade had risen.
With results like these, a high score in the internal evaluation would be no problem.
Yu-jun smiled as he confirmed it.
‘He can get off the release list.’
The preparations were complete.
All that remained was......
“Go and show them who trained you, trainee Kim Gyo-jun.”
“Yes!”