Ten days.
Some might call it a long time, but it was far too short to train an Awakened youth trainee.
“There is nothing you can change in ten days.”
“Trainer Kang has given himself a lot of trouble by taking on trainee Kim Gyo-jun.”
“He is different from Woo Ha-na. Completely different.”
In the trainer team’s office, every trainer was saying much the same thing.
The trainee Yu-jun had chosen, Kim Gyo-jun, had far too little potential.
He might have trained to his limits for ten days, but it was hard to expect any major change.
His ability was one thing, but stamina was not something that could be raised in a short time.
“He earned such a good evaluation with Woo Ha-na. It is a shame.”
“Well, it is still early in his career. Even if trainee Kim Gyo-jun is released, Trainer Kang can still go on to great things!”
They all believed Yu-jun would be unable to prevent Kim Gyo-jun’s release.
***
Meanwhile, in the Guild Master’s office.
“Team Leader Kim.”
Ten days had passed, and the day of the internal evaluation had arrived.
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun had summoned Team Leader Kim from the trainer team. Before the evaluation, he intended to review the youth trainees with him.
“The ones we need to pay the closest attention to today are the release candidates.”
Internal evaluations were conducted without sentiment.
About one evaluation in three ended with youth trainees who had failed to meet the standard being released, and the Guild Master assessed those candidates strictly.
On several occasions, trainees released without a proper evaluation because of the guild’s own failings had seen their talent bloom at other guilds.
If all that came of it was a bitter feeling, they were lucky.
If word spread through social media or YouTube, it became a serious problem.
A guild with no eye for talent.
A guild that let promising Awakened slip away.
They could become the butt of every joke and a guild Awakened avoided, so they had to proceed as carefully as possible.
“What do you think will happen today?”
At the Guild Master’s question, Team Leader Kim looked thoughtful.
“It has only been ten days.”
“This is a completely different case from Woo Ha-na’s. She was brimming with potential, but Kim Gyo-jun...... Well, after watching him for a long time, we believe his chances of growing into an Awakened who meets the guild’s standards are vanishingly small.”
“Are you saying zero percent?”
“Close to it.”
Team Leader Kim added a qualification.
“Trainer Kang Yu-jun may have changed several things in ten days, but I doubt it will be easy to reverse the release decision.”
The chance of changing Kim Gyo-jun in a mere ten days was close to zero.
Even with a longer period of training, it was doubtful he would reach Sky Guild’s standards.
They thought highly of Kang Yu-jun’s success in training Woo Ha-na, but Kim Gyo-jun seemed unlikely to be so easy.
“If anything, it will be a good experience for Trainer Kang. It is better to encounter failure early.”
It would be his first failure as a trainer, but that was not necessarily bad. To become a better trainer, he needed to experience failure too.
“It would be much better to assign him children with a real chance. We could put Trainer Kang in charge of the ones entering this interguild youth evaluation match.”
“Let us discuss it with him after today’s internal evaluation.”
***
The internal evaluation took the form of a simulated exercise.
The trainees put on training VR equipment, entered a setting modeled on the Tower, and attempted to clear it.
They could have gone to the actual Tower for the evaluation, but there was always the possibility of an accident.
Besides, this method was much better for evaluating youth trainees.
If they held back because they knew they could not die, that too would be reflected in their scores. The trainees under evaluation had to give it everything they had.
“We will proceed in the same way as the previous internal evaluation.”
Team Leader Kim finished speaking and brought up a huge screen.
It showed the trainee undergoing the internal evaluation. The setting in the footage looked exactly like the Tower itself.
“Eliminate every monster.”
Simply eliminating them was not enough.
“Use every ability you possess. And......”
To earn a high score in the internal evaluation, they had to show everything they could do.
There was one more important factor.
“The time limit is fifteen minutes.”
The time limit.
They could not exceed those fifteen minutes.
Time mattered in real combat too.
That was why going over the limit would cost them points.
“Now, first up......”
The internal evaluation began in earnest.
“Begin!”
The trainees started demonstrating their abilities one by one.
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun and Team Leader Kim Do-hun, who were serving as judges, watched their performances with hawklike eyes.
WHOOSH—!
The monsters that appeared were goblins.
They were common in the Tower, but the goblins recreated in VR had bloodshot eyes.
They were no ordinary goblins.
“They said it would be the same as last time......”
“The monsters seem stronger.”
“But have they reduced the number?”
The monsters had grown stronger, but there were fewer of them.
“This won’t be easy......”
Sure enough, the trainees were startled by goblins unlike the ones they had seen in the Tower and allowed themselves to be hit.
But their confusion lasted only a moment.
They quickly began using their abilities to overwhelm the goblins.
“Evaluation over!”
Clear time: fourteen minutes and thirty seconds.
They had made the time limit by a narrow margin.
“Hmm......”
“Their use of their abilities was not bad.”
Lee Hyeok-jun and Kim Do-hun discussed what they had seen and gave their assessment.
“Next!”
The evaluations continued in order.
“Next trainee, come forward!”
The next turn belonged to the trainee everyone was watching.
Kim Gyo-jun.
Every eye turned to him as he stepped forward.
“He doesn’t seem to have changed much......”
“Ten days is too short.”
Team Leader Kim and the trainers shook their heads as they looked at Kim Gyo-jun.
They had heard that Yu-jun had invested a full ten days, amounting to one hundred hours, in him.
“His eyes do look different, though......”
But Kim Gyo-jun was still Kim Gyo-jun.
Outwardly, he did not seem much different.
“If he kept training like this, I think he would change, but......”
Sadly, investing that time in another trainee would be far more efficient.
If the effort spent on Kim Gyo-jun went to another trainee, that trainee would grow stronger much faster.
The other trainees also had thoughts of their own as they watched Kim Gyo-jun.
“Ms. Woo Ha-na had experience and talent, at least......”
“There’s nothing Gyo-jun can do about it, really.”
Kim Gyo-jun was the hardworking type.
Everyone knew that.
But not one of Sky Guild’s trainees failed to work hard.
In the end, talent was what separated them.
Woo Ha-na, too, had talent in abundance and worked herself to the bone.
But until she met Kang Yu-jun, she had been unable to overcome her weakness, and her standing had been deteriorating.
If even Woo Ha-na, the best among Sky Guild’s youth trainees in talent and ability alone, had struggled, there was no need to say more about Kim Gyo-jun.
“I’m next. I have to be next.”
Woo Ha-na had been reborn under Kang Yu-jun’s guidance.
The trainees who knew that wanted desperately to catch his eye.
The trainers under Team Leader Kim taught well, but compared with Kang Yu-jun’s training, theirs was all too ordinary.
“I hear Trainer Kang tailors his teaching to each person.”
“I heard he trained Gyo-jun that way too.”
“They say he even spends his own time training him.”
They wanted close, individual training.
They wondered if training under Kang Yu-jun might let them soar as well.
“Begin.”
At Team Leader Kim’s word, Kim Gyo-jun’s internal evaluation began.
SWISH-.
The monsters appeared.
Kim Gyo-jun was an Awakened with the Weapon Enhancement ability.
His fighting style centered on the sword at his waist.
SWISH—!
The monsters surged toward him.
Five goblins wielding enormous clubs charged at once.
CLANG—!
Using Weapon Enhancement, Kim Gyo-jun blocked the club of an oncoming goblin.
Team Leader Kim frowned as he watched.
Gyo-jun should not be defending now.
One of his weaknesses was that he could not maintain Weapon Enhancement for long.
Choosing to defend would consume a great deal of mana and rapidly drain his stamina as well.
He had never overcome that weakness. Ten days was too short.
Given more time, Yu-jun could have brought out his strengths instead of his weaknesses.
“At this rate, far from showing his strengths, he will not be able to show anything......”
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun nodded at Team Leader Kim’s words.
Kim Gyo-jun’s capabilities were truly dismal.
“He needs to make the most of his strengths as it is. Perhaps he could not follow Trainer Kang’s instructions.”
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun and Team Leader Kim glanced at Yu-jun with regret.
But contrary to what they expected, Yu-jun was smiling.
“Huh?”
THWACK—!
Then Kim Gyo-jun began to show them why.
He suddenly accelerated and cut straight through the goblins.
The two men sprang to their feet before they knew it.
“H-how......?”
Kim Gyo-jun’s greatest problem was his stamina.
That was not something he could fix in a short time.
Yet he was moving fiercely.
He knocked aside the goblins’ attacks, counterattacked, and brought one of them down.
THWACK—.
He had brought down a goblin faster than any trainee who had taken the internal evaluation so far.
“That’s impossible......!”
“What happened to him?”
Kim Gyo-jun had changed completely.
After bringing down one goblin, he shifted his footing.
He pressed the goblins with a swift series of attacks.
Watching him, one would think he had no stamina problem at all.
Yu-jun folded his arms as he watched.
‘I completely reworked the way he uses mana.’
Kim Gyo-jun no longer used mana to compensate for his frail body.
All his mana was focused on Weapon Enhancement—in other words, on his attack power.
‘There’s no point using mana to compensate for his frail body. Its potential is so low that even an investment won’t produce a gain.’
So Yu-jun had redirected it entirely.
‘I had him invest everything in attack power.’
In short, instead of spreading his mana around, Gyo-jun was concentrating it all in one place.
Like a candle flaring brightly.
‘Using mana to compensate for his body was ingrained in his instincts, so it would’ve been hard to change. Just telling him to stop wouldn’t have worked.’
Do not use mana to strengthen your body. Pour it into your attacks instead.
He could understand what he needed to do, yet instinctively he would still expend mana on Physical Enhancement.
But Yu-jun had a skill.
‘I have Word Magic Correction.’
On the third day of training, Kim Gyo-jun had come to trust Yu-jun completely.
That was because Yu-jun’s training had begun rapidly changing his body from the third day onward.
‘He must’ve felt it for himself.’
Now he was a single sharp sword.
Yu-jun’s training had forged him perfectly.
‘Though his durability is quite low......’
If his durability was low, he simply had to avoid being hit.
Look.
Everyone was bewildered.
Stunned.
Only ten days?
For Yu-jun, that was enough time to turn the situation around.
‘Those two must have expected it too.’
That he would leave Gyo-jun’s weaknesses alone and bring out his strengths.
But they were half right and half wrong.
WHOOSH—! WHOOSH—!
Kim Gyo-jun swung his sword like a man possessed.
The sword, empowered by Weapon Enhancement, split the goblins’ clubs clean through.
Who would think he lacked stamina from watching him now?
Yu-jun had not left his weakness alone.
He had hidden it altogether.
It looked as if it did not exist.
‘Just looking at him, they’ll think his stamina has improved through training in this short time too.’
But his stamina had only improved a little.
‘I covered his weakness with his strength.’
He had made it look convincing.
And looking convincing mattered.
‘Once an evaluation is given, it’s done.’
Even if they revised it, they would have to assess him again at the next internal evaluation. By then, Yu-jun could improve Kim Gyo-jun’s stamina.
‘Then there won’t be a problem.’
This was the power of the Awakened Training System.
‘Other trainers can’t do this.’
This rapid improvement was the result of using the Awakened Training System to its fullest.
With his insight, Yu-jun saw through an Awakened’s abilities and potential, then trained them perfectly with the Awakened Training System.
‘I can train them efficiently.’
The Awakened Yu-jun taught were not constrained by time or circumstances.
WHOOSH—! WHOOSH—!
Kim Gyo-jun slipped between the goblins in an instant and cut down the fourth one.
He was breathing hard, but he still looked as though he had energy to spare.
‘His mental strength is impressive, even seeing it again. He’s moving exactly as I trained him, without the slightest mistake.’
His A Grade Mind made it possible. Right now, he was probably so exhausted that his whole body was trembling.
Even so, he was carrying out Yu-jun’s instruction to act as though he still had some energy left.
Yu-jun smiled with satisfaction.
“Excellent, trainee Kim Gyo-jun.”
Kim Gyo-jun brought down the last goblin.
“Hah......”
He barely managed to remain standing before slowly sinking to his knees.
Nine minutes and thirty seconds.
“First place!”
It was the fastest time of any trainee evaluated so far.
At the unbelievable result, everyone turned to Yu-jun in shock.
“What on earth......”
What had happened in those ten days?
What on earth had Yu-jun done?