How much could a person change in ten days?
Kim Gyo-jun, who was receiving the training, had thought the same thing.
It was only natural.
How much training had he undergone since joining Sky Guild?
He had thrown everything into training, again and again, but nothing had changed.
He was the worst of the youth trainees.
His rate of growth and his skills were pitiful compared with the others’.
How could he think otherwise?
He could not help doubting that a mere ten days would change anything.
Of course, he trusted Kang Yu-jun, who had brought Woo Ha-na’s talent into bloom in an instant.
But he did not trust himself.
He was not Woo Ha-na. He had none of her innate talent.
In a world where what an Awakened was born with mattered most, he had been born with far too little.
But Yu-jun had told him something different.
Gyo-jun was not the one at fault.
The people who had taught him until now had simply taught him the wrong way.
They had failed to see his potential.
Gyo-jun had not believed in himself.
Even he had not placed any faith in himself.
Yet Kang Yu-jun, who had only met him a few times, believed in him.
“Haaa...... It was real. I really did have it. Even me.”
This was the result.
He had talent too, and now he could show it.
“He believed in me.”
He had succeeded.
Unlike before, he had been able to show what his ability could really do.
He had enhanced the weapon in his hand and beaten the goblins down in an instant.
The person he had been before could never have done it.
“AAAAAAAH-!”
Kim Gyo-jun roared as he forced out a ragged breath.
He was so out of breath that his head spun.
Even so, he could not stop laughing.
Whether the fifteen-minute limit had passed or he had finished sooner did not enter his mind.
“I did it.”
He had done exactly as he had trained.
He had killed all five goblins.
“I really did it.”
The internal evaluation.
His release.
For now, neither of them crossed his mind. All he could see was what he had accomplished.
He had achieved it!
As soon as the internal evaluation ended, Kim Gyo-jun went straight to Yu-jun.
He caught his breath and smiled broadly.
“I did just as you trained me! Just as you said...... I could do it!”
Everyone else had said it was impossible, but Yu-jun had said he could do it.
“I could do it too.”
All the negative feelings that had led him to assume he could not succeed came crashing down in his mind.
The attitude that had made him give up because he expected to fail disappeared. In its place came the confidence that he could succeed.
“Thank you for believing in me. Thank you so much.”
That strong belief had led him to success.
Yu-jun smiled along with Kim Gyo-jun.
“What did I tell you? Did I not say you could do it?”
***
The internal evaluation continued.
“Was this internal evaluation made easier?”
Kim Gyo-jun had displayed overwhelming skill in hunting the goblins.
But he had been last among the youth trainees.
Since the last-place trainee had put on such an extraordinary display, some of the others suspected that this internal evaluation was easier than usual.
But watching the evaluations after Kim Gyo-jun’s wiped those thoughts away.
“Ugh!”
“Gah!”
The other youth trainees struggled against the goblins’ fierce coordinated attacks.
Far from being easier, it felt much harder than the previous evaluation.
The goblins’ relentless combined assaults kept forcing the trainees back and driving them to make choices that put them at a disadvantage.
“Ngh!”
Before long, they had no choice but to admit it.
The internal evaluation had become harder than before.
Kim Gyo-jun’s skills had simply improved that dramatically.
“Hah...... Hah.......”
The youth trainees who finished their evaluations looked at Gyo-jun as they struggled to catch their breath.
“How......?”
How had he dealt with five goblins so easily?
Throughout the internal evaluation, the youth trainees focused on Kim Gyo-jun.
And there was one more person who could not take his eyes off him.
Team Leader Kim could not wipe the bewilderment from his face.
“What kind of training did he do......? How on earth did Kim Gyo-jun end up like that?”
He had thought Woo Ha-na’s improvement was possible.
She had been born with talent, after all.
But Kim Gyo-jun had no talent.
Team Leader Kim was certain of it because he had personally taught him for a long time.
What a person was born with could not be changed.
He had thought a trainer might change the qualities someone already possessed, but could not make up for what they lacked from birth.
Yet Yu-jun had changed even that.
“Even that......”
Did being a trainer mean one had to be able to change everything?
Was it not enough to develop the abilities someone possessed? Did a trainer have to be capable of creating something from nothing?
Was that the difference in ability, and in the size of the vessel that held it?
Team Leader Kim’s thoughts grew tangled.
He felt something boiling up inside him.
“Next!”
***
As soon as the internal evaluation ended, evaluation sheets were distributed to the youth trainees who had participated.
Scores were assigned during the evaluations, so it did not take long.
“Check your evaluation sheets!”
They were sent directly to each trainee’s smart pad.
Kim Gyo-jun checked his with a tense expression.
“I would ask for nothing more than to have my release rescinded.”
Yu-jun grinned at that.
“From what I saw, there was no one.”
“Pardon?”
“No trainee better than you, trainee Kim Gyo-jun.”
Still tense, Kim Gyo-jun looked at his smart pad.
-Kim Gyo-jun
-Evaluation Grade: A
-Internal Evaluation Rank: 1
-Remarks: Release rescinded
An A for his Evaluation Grade.
And first place in the internal evaluation.
Naturally, his release had been rescinded as well.
“......Th-that is impossible. I-it cannot be!”
Kim Gyo-jun had never imagined he would take first place.
His goal had been to get off the release list and have the decision to release him rescinded.
“T-Trainer Kang!”
“It is the natural result. You were the fastest. You were far faster than the other trainees, and your performance was overwhelming.”
“M-me?”
Nothing like this had ever happened to him in his life.
He had never produced such an overwhelming result or received a high grade.
That made it all the more bewildering.
“Hey, Kim Gyo-jun!”
“Gyo-jun!”
“Congratulations! I really mean it!”
The other youth trainees came over to congratulate him.
Of course, some were grinding their teeth in frustration.
But even that was deeply unfamiliar to Kim Gyo-jun.
People were frustrated because of him? Envious of him?
He had never experienced anything like it.
“Thank you......!”
Yu-jun naturally stepped aside.
‘This is his time to enjoy it.’
But this was only the beginning.
‘Seeing him today, I realized his Mind Grade has more influence than I thought.’
It was an extremely important factor in training.
‘Now I’ll leave Kim Gyo-jun to the youth trainers.’
His first goal, getting Gyo-jun’s release rescinded, had been achieved.
It was time to set his next goal.
‘Now it’s only a matter of time.’
Gyo-jun would be able to grow well even without Yu-jun teaching him.
Yu-jun already had his next step in mind.
***
“Trainer Kang. It is me, Team Leader Kim.”
“Ah, Team Leader Kim. You worked hard today.”
“No, it was nothing. More importantly......”
Team Leader Kim came straight to the point.
“You came about trainee Kim Gyo-jun, did you not?”
“Yes. There is something I would like to ask.”
“Please, have a seat first.”
Yu-jun gestured for him to sit on the sofa.
“How...... did you do it?”
Countless questions were contained in those few words.
How had he done it?
Anyone could see that Kim Gyo-jun belonged on the release list.
His potential for growth was sorely lacking, and his limits were plain to see.
Then how had Yu-jun raised him to that level?
The length of time was not the only issue.
What mattered was that Yu-jun had changed him.
Team Leader Kim had judged it impossible to train Kim Gyo-jun.
Yet that same Kim Gyo-jun had produced a real result.
“Did I not tell you? He had potential.”
“Where did you see that potential? I...... did not see it at all.”
“In his eyes.”
Yu-jun spoke with a bitter expression.
“As you know, I am a failed bastard.”
Yu-jun had been called the Golden Youth, but he had failed to Awaken and had been released.
Kim Do-hun, on the other hand, had worked as an A Grade Awakened.
“That is why I recognized it. There is no grand reason behind it. Of course, there were other factors, but the most important thing was the look in his eyes.”
“......”
Did that mean Kim Do-hun, who had known success, had failed to see it?
His feelings were complicated. He wanted to argue, but he could not bring himself to speak.
All he could do was blink.
Yu-jun was a trainer on a different level from him.
He had only just begun, yet his eye for people was already better than Kim Do-hun’s.
Team Leader Kim found that humiliating.
But then Yu-jun spoke again.
“But could you not also see things that I cannot, Team Leader Kim?”
“......”
Team Leader Kim’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.
He had never imagined Yu-jun would say that to him.
Yu-jun had succeeded at something Kim, the team leader, had given up on as impossible.
He had every reason to be a little more arrogant.
See? It worked, did it not? Did I not tell you it would?
He could even have said Kim did not deserve to be a team leader.
But Yu-jun said none of those things.
Instead, he spoke humbly.
That way of speaking left a deep impression on Team Leader Kim.
He had never expected Yu-jun to be such a skilled speaker too.
Team Leader Kim let out a small chuckle.
The feelings that had sunk deep inside him began rising again.
Yu-jun was right.
Yu-jun might see things Kim could not, and Kim might see things Yu-jun could not.
“I was fortunate this time. Now, about what you wanted to ask...... Was it the kind of training I used?”
“No, that is all right. The truth is, I did not come to ask about your training method.”
Team Leader Kim’s eyes shone as he spoke.
“Thanks to you, my eyes have been opened.”
-Awakened Kim Do-hun trained!
-Achievement completed!
-Points awarded!
-5P awarded!
‘Huh?’