“What? Who did you say it was?
“Kang Yu-jun.”
“Kang Yu-jun?”
Sky Guild headquarters.
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun frowned.
Sky Guild was a mid-sized guild ranked in the mid-sixties.
Its ranking could be called high or low, depending on how one looked at it. In many ways, it was one of the guilds stuck in the middle. That made it hungry to recruit strong Awakened.
But neither those powerful Awakened nor promising ones had any reason to join Sky Guild. Like other small and medium-sized guilds, it poured its efforts into recruiting and educating young trainees.
“Kang Yu-jun, the Golden Youth from the Promise Guild? Why is he here?”
Kang Yu-jun's name had been famous for thirteen years.
The Promise Guild.
Now ranked fifth in South Korea, it had promised to strengthen its youth system back then and gathered promising youngsters with exceptional potential.
Kang Yu-jun had been the most famous of them.
His talent was undeniable: at least S-grade, the Golden Youth, and all the rest of it.
He had stood out even among the prospects known at the time as the Promise Guild's Jewel Box.
It was said that not one of those many prospects had potential to match Kang Yu-jun's. He was an extraordinary young prospect upon whom overwhelming expectations had been placed.
That was why every guild had tried to pry Kang Yu-jun out of the Jewel Box.
But thirteen years later, Kang Yu-jun had not only failed to live up to those expectations; he had not even awakened.
There were even recent reports that the Promise Guild had expelled him.
“Yes, that is the Kang Yu-jun I mean.”
“Well, now. I heard the Promise Guild expelled him. Scout him? To our guild? If he was expelled, does that not mean he failed to awaken?”
Lee Hyeok-jun clicked his tongue.
“So who scouted this Kang Yu-jun?”
“Manager Han did.”
“Manager Han is not the sort of man to scout someone carelessly. Hmmmmm. Does Yu-jun look close to awakening?”
“That is not it. He scouted him as a trainer.”
“A trainer?”
Lee Hyeok-jun tilted his head.
Han Seok-yul was a veteran Awakened with a consistent record of success.
He was not an official scout, but he had brought in a number of Awakened through his connections.
Lee had also conducted job interviews with him, and Han's judgment had proved quite sound.
“Failing as an Awakened does not mean someone cannot succeed as a trainer, but…….”
Very few trainers had ever become truly successful in the first place.
And in Korea, there was not a single trainer who had overcome such a failure and gone on to great success.
“An unawakened person can hardly rise above C-grade as a trainer…….”
Ultimately, to understand the Awakened, one had to be Awakened oneself.
Trainers who had failed to awaken were usually dismissed as C-grade or D-grade even after changing careers. In the end, they were often pushed out of the training profession altogether.
“Ha. This makes me uneasy.”
Still, Manager Han had scouted Yu-jun personally, so Lee had little more to say.
“But then again.”
He rather liked that Yu-jun had immediately sought work instead of despairing after his expulsion.
Above all, trainers were scarce these days.
If Yu-jun fell short of expectations, they could release him early or let his contract expire. There was little downside for the guild.
“He was the Promise Guild's Golden Youth, so he must have plenty of knowledge and experience. Who knows? He might turn out to be a better recruit than I expect.”
***
The Sky Guild building in Jongno.
Three people sat in the guild master's office.
“Good day!”
“I am Lee Hyeok-jun. You are Kang Yu-jun, correct?”
“Yes, I am Kang Yu-jun. It is a pleasure to meet you, Guild Master.”
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun sat in the seat of honor, with Manager Han Seok-yul and Kang Yu-jun on either side of him.
“Welcome to Sky Guild. I have heard about you. You recently changed careers to become a trainer, did you not?”
“Yes. I believe this work suits me better.”
“Manager Han praised you highly.”
When Han Seok-yul recommended Kang Yu-jun to the guild master, he had been unstinting in his praise, calling him a remarkable talent.
The guild master knew Manager Han did not praise people lightly, so he had come to meet Yu-jun with equal parts expectation and concern.
But in person, Yu-jun looked utterly ordinary.
There was no particular aura about him, either.
“Thank you for thinking well of me.”
“Good. Let us work well together.”
After a brief exchange of greetings, they signed a formal contract.
“It is a three-month short-term contract. Given Manager Han's recommendation, I think we could offer a short-term contract with the option of becoming a regular employee. Why did you turn that down?”
“I might become a burden to you.”
Yu-jun was not joining Sky Guild as a regular employee.
He had taken a short-term contract closer to freelance work.
With Manager Han's influence, Yu-jun could easily have joined Sky Guild as a regular employee, but he had not asked for that.
There was no advantage in signing such a contract before proving his worth.
The guild master gave him a curious look, seemingly impressed by his answer.
Any risk involved in recruiting talent fell entirely on the guild.
There was no way Yu-jun did not know that.
Yu-jun was showing humility by saying a short-term contract was enough for now.
The guild master smiled, pleased by that confidence and ambition.
Now he would have to see whether Yu-jun had the skills to match his ambition.
“Then I may give you work at once?”
“Of course.”
The guild master called toward the door for someone to come in, and a person opened it and entered.
“Hello.”
The newcomer was a fairly young woman.
Guild Master Lee introduced her himself.
“This is Woo Ha-na, one of our youth trainees. She is among the trainees our guild has fairly high hopes for. Try teaching her. This is your first assignment.”
Woo Ha-na, a Sky Guild youth trainee.
She had just turned twenty-one and was a C-grade Awakened.
Woo Ha-na stared at Kang Yu-jun.
She knew who he was, too.
Only four years separated them in age, and they had interacted several times while training as youths in the same era.
Of course, Yu-jun had been such a prominent prospect across the country that he did not remember Woo Ha-na, but she remembered him.
She had never imagined that a prospect so celebrated would become a trainer.
In any case, the guild master had given the order, so she would have to learn from Yu-jun for the time being.
“I look forward to working with you.”
Woo Ha-na bowed her head.
Yu-jun caught Manager Han's expression for a moment.
He seemed to be struggling to hide his dismay.
***
After the two had left, Manager Han asked Guild Master Lee with a worried look,
“Guild Master, I did not expect you to assign Woo Ha-na to him from the start.”
“Why not? You said he was skilled, did you not? You scouted him yourself. Would it not be better to have him teach Woo Ha-na?”
“But Woo Ha-na…….”
Manager Han sighed and let his words trail off.
Woo Ha-na had exceptionally high potential even among Sky Guild's young trainees, but she had a serious flaw.
“She has that problem, does she not? No trainer has been able to correct it so far…….”
Even Sky Guild's own trainers had been unable to solve Woo Ha-na's problem.
They had kept up her training, but that one major weakness threatened to make all the money spent on her go to waste.
And they were assigning her to Kang Yu-jun, who had only just become a trainer?
“You are asking too much of him.”
“Kang Yu-jun is the talent you brought in with such confidence, is he not?”
The guild master looked at Han Seok-yul gravely.
He was not wrong. Manager Han could only trail off instead of arguing back.
“But…….”
“Yes, training Woo Ha-na properly will be quite difficult. If it were easy, she would not still have that major flaw. I do not expect Kang Yu-jun to teach her properly, either. I simply want to see what he can do.”
Manager Han had nothing more to say to the guild master.
But to him, it was a shame.
Kang Yu-jun's talent was, in his eyes, unquestionably an unpolished gem.
Yet if that gem was not cut and polished properly, it would lose its shine.
Assigning Woo Ha-na to Yu-jun now was no different from scratching the gem.
Han had wanted to shape and nurture him step by step, but Guild Master Lee seemed to have other ideas.
As he brooded, Guild Master Lee tapped him lightly on the shoulder and said,
“Do not worry so much. You brought him here yourself, did you not? I will watch him personally, too. I have no intention of expelling him just because he cannot train Woo Ha-na. His short-term contract will simply end, that is all.”
***
Sky Guild's private training room.
Yu-jun looked at Woo Ha-na and immediately used Awakened Scan.
-Using Awakened Scan!
Awakened Scan.
Everything about Woo Ha-na began to appear before Yu-jun's eyes.
-[Woo Ha-na] Overall Grade: C+
-Body: [B]
-Mind: [B]
-Awakened Ability: Acceleration
-Stats: [Strength 5/10] [Stamina 6/10] [Agility 12/15]
‘Awakened Scan has improved. I can see values that weren't there before.’
Yu-jun marveled.
Before, he had been able to see only awakened abilities and stats. Now the grades for Body and Mind appeared as well.
‘It's thanks to the Focus skill.’
He reviewed her information, gathered his thoughts for a moment, and spoke.
“First, please draw up your mana.”
He intended to check everything one step at a time, beginning with the basics.
Awakened Scan had given him her information. Next came her mana circulation.
HISSSSSSS—!
At Yu-jun's words, Woo Ha-na drew up her mana.
CRACK.
A crack appeared near her flank, spreading from the area around her heart.
The crack that had begun at her flank was about to spread through her entire body.
Yu-jun nodded when he saw it.
‘There's a problem with the way she circulates her mana.’
Because of it, she could not use her mana properly.
Then he only had to change the way she circulated it.
‘More than that, this is interesting.’
Every part of her except her flank glowed faintly.
‘Aside from the cracked area, she doesn't seem to have any real weaknesses. And she has considerable talent everywhere else.’
Her potential was extraordinary.
‘In Infinite Tower, we called a character like this god-tier.’
In that game, she would have been the kind of character a player had to keep on their roster.
With that thought, Yu-jun said to Woo Ha-na,
“There is a problem with your mana circulation. Send your mana forcefully through your flank.”
Power entered his words as he spoke.
-Using Word Magic Correction!
When Woo Ha-na drove her mana forcefully through her flank, the crack began to close.
“……!”
Woo Ha-na's eyes widened.
All she had done was follow one instruction, yet her mana was circulating distinctly differently from before.
She had received advice from many trainers over the years.
None of their approaches had brought any improvement, but Yu-jun's simple training had improved the efficiency of her mana circulation.
“Well done. Keep circulating it just like that.”
This was the greatest problem Woo Ha-na faced.
She had been unable to circulate her mana explosively.
Yet at this very moment, that weakness had been corrected.
And all it had taken was one brief instruction.
One piece of advice had solved her problem.
Woo Ha-na could only blink at the absurdity of it.
“Why…… is this working?”
She could not understand why it worked.
Kang Yu-jun was surprised that the result was even better than he had expected, but he soon steadied himself.
He had seen the value of his ability once again.
‘My power can solve every problem someone has with just a word.’
A power that could correct all kinds of problems with a single word.
It was a power any trainer would want.
“Then let us begin in earnest.”
Kang Yu-jun grinned and continued watching Woo Ha-na's mana circulation.
At his direction, she kept circulating her mana. The explosive flow felt unfamiliar at first, but she was gradually growing used to it.
Yu-jun monitored her condition while continuing to test the power of Word Magic Correction, which had just appeared.
“More forcefully.”
“Yes!”
Perhaps because she had felt the improvement for herself, Woo Ha-na readily followed his instructions.
‘Word Magic Correction. So what I sensed was right after all. It was one of the abilities included with an S-grade trainer.’
He had noticed something strange when he first corrected Min-seok, too.
‘Min-seok and Ms. Woo must both have received plenty of training from different trainers.’
Kang Yu-jun had been a Promise Guild youth trainee himself. He knew how much training the Awakened and trainees in a guild received.
In particular, trainers constantly worked with trainees like Woo Ha-na, whom the guild was determined to develop.
Other trainers would have known about her problem and offered feedback on it.
‘I know. I've been taught by plenty of famous trainers myself.’
He knew their methods well.
Their individual styles differed, but they all worked from much the same theoretical foundations.
‘They must all know what the problem is. But some things can't be solved just by knowing about them.’
And this did not apply only to trainers.
Woo Ha-na must have been well aware of her own problem.
The fact that she had not solved it yet meant that no one had found a clear way to fix it.
‘They knew there was a problem, but couldn't work out how to correct it.’
What had just happened was a perfect example.
Yu-jun had recognized that the circulation of mana placed a strain on her flank and instructed her to keep circulating it despite that strain.
Solving a problem like that required the Awakened to understand it, and most Awakened would not understand the solution.
The risk involved was considerable.
But the persuasive power of Word Magic Correction had made it possible.
It was the result of combining his knowledge and experience with the ability he had gained.
‘A single word lets them understand. The understanding is forced into them.”
A power that could correct problems with a word.
‘That is the power of Word Magic Correction.’
It could fairly be called the core ability of the Awakened Training System.
‘This power will set me apart from other trainers.’
Other trainers had to persuade their subjects through words and various actions.
Sensations were difficult to convey through words alone.
Correcting posture or the mana control involved in circulating mana was especially difficult.
They had no choice but to take a risk and channel their own mana into the other person to demonstrate it, or teach them through repeated instruction.
For Yu-jun, speaking was enough.
He could do easily and simply what other trainers could not do, or could do only with difficulty.
“Ms. Woo, that is enough. Keep that mana steady.”
HISSS—.
Powerful mana circulated through Woo Ha-na's body.
Now was the moment.
“Please use your ability.”
Woo Ha-na's ability was Acceleration.
It was an awakened technique that wrapped mana around the body to boost physical abilities for an instant. Using Acceleration well required extremely precise mana control.
But Woo Ha-na's mana control was a mess because mana had not circulated properly through her flank.
“Circulate your mana as I just instructed, and use Acceleration at the same time.”
Acceleration required an explosive surge of mana.
The mana was now circulating properly through Woo Ha-na's flank, if only temporarily, so the result would be different from before.
‘I forced the correction for now.’
It was not a complete correction. Word Magic Correction had fixed it temporarily, so the effect would not last long.
‘She'll need steady training. She has to learn that sensation for herself, without Word Magic Correction.’
If he kept helping her awaken that sensation, the problem would eventually be corrected completely.
‘So I'll make sure she feels it clearly here.’
She needed to feel how much stronger the mana circulation corrected through his training could make her.
HISSSSSSS—!
Woo Ha-na drew up her mana and used Acceleration. Surprise flashed across her face.
The mana inside her body had begun moving explosively.
Never before had she released mana this powerful.
She could not have done it even when she wanted to.
No wonder the mana surging out of her own body startled her.
Acceleration.
Then her awakened ability took effect.
WHOOSH—.
She vanished in an instant, and a fierce gust swept through the training room.
“Hah…… Hah…… M-my speed. I can move this fast…….”
When Woo Ha-na reappeared, she was panting.
Her whole body was drenched in sweat, and she looked so exhausted that a touch might make her collapse.
Yet she stared at Yu-jun as though she could not believe what had happened.
She had never moved at that speed before.
All he had done was correct the way her mana circulated. Could that alone let her run so fast?
It was the moment Woo Ha-na's weakness became a strength.
“Ms. Woo.”
Yu-jun looked at her and declared calmly,
“That is the Acceleration you possess, Ms. Woo.”