Woo Ha-na felt something swell inside her at his words.
For the first time in her life.
A feeling of freedom.
“This is my ability? Then all this time, I…….”
“You were not using it properly.”
And he had drawn it all out with his ability as a trainer.
Woo Ha-na blinked.
It felt too good to be true.
Kang Yu-jun asked her gently,
“How does it feel? This is your first time using Acceleration after training, so I can see that many things still feel unfamiliar.”
Unable to control her speed herself, she had lost her form completely. As a result, cracks were appearing in various parts of her body.
‘It must be the first time she's reached this speed.’
Perhaps that was why Yu-jun could now see so much that needed correcting.
“The training is not over. Please concentrate.”
This isn't the end?
Woo Ha-na shook her head vigorously and focused on Yu-jun at once.
“First, your posture.”
Yu-jun had watched her closely when she used Acceleration.
For only an instant, he had seen a crack.
He had always been good at spotting other people's strengths and weaknesses.
This was the result of his natural talent combined with the S-grade trainer ability he had gained.
Yu-jun made simple adjustments to her posture, focusing on the areas where he saw cracks.
Blue light began to shine from those areas.
-Awakened Woo Ha-na trained!
-New Awakened registered on the Awakened Trainer List!
-Awakened Training Trainee Roster
1. Kim Min-seok
2. Woo Ha-na NEW!
Something he had never seen before appeared.
‘A trainee roster?’
Grades were written beside the names. Kim Min-seok was D-grade, and Woo Ha-na was C-grade.
‘So I can manage my trainees efficiently.’
And he ought to be able to change their grades by correcting their problems.
-Earn points according to the grades of the Awakened you have taught.
-Upgrade Awakened trainees' grades through training!
-Earn points according to the number and grades of your trainees.
-Awakened Training System proficiency increases.
-Increased proficiency changes what you can see.
Yu-jun began to notice something else.
The blue lights that had spread across Woo Ha-na's body were going out one by one. Even the blue light that had already been there had grown faint.
‘Is she tired?’
Woo Ha-na had circulated her mana explosively for the first time and had also used Acceleration properly.
Of course she was tired.
DING—!
-Conditions met!
Woo Ha-na was a Combat Type Awakened.
Thanks to that, Yu-jun could gain a new skill.
-[Physical Enhancement] Lv.1 skill unlocked!
‘Good.’
At present, Yu-jun was little different from an unawakened person who happened to have a skill.
That was why unlocking this new skill felt like welcome rain in a drought.
‘This should solve my stamina problem.’
HISSSSS—.
Of course, Physical Enhancement was only Lv.1, so his physical abilities had not improved dramatically. Still, they were much better than before he awakened.
‘So this is what it feels like.’
Yu-jun found the sensation fascinating.
‘So Awakened are like this from the start?’
Now that he had felt it for himself, he understood why unawakened people could not enter the tower.
He also understood why there was a limit to what an unawakened person could do as a trainer.
‘But this foundational skill is the most important one.’
Even in Infinite Tower, simply raising skills along a skill tree without thought was not enough to last.
‘Build a solid foundation first.’
Yu-jun grinned.
“That will be all for today's training.”
“Thank…… you.”
It had been only thirty minutes.
Yet that short training session had let Woo Ha-na experience a completely different sensation.
Every trainer she had worked with until now had told her to pay attention to and control the circulation of mana through her flank.
But Woo Ha-na had never understood what that felt like.
Even when they injected mana directly to show her, she could not sense it. Their verbal advice had not made sense to her, either.
She needed to maintain the flow through her flank with proper mana control. She knew that doing so could make up for her weakness, but she had been unable to change it.
Now, however, she had grasped that sensation.
She could clearly feel how to control the mana circulating through her flank.
This man was different.
Kang Yu-jun was unlike any trainer she had learned from before.
“Um……!”
Woo Ha-na's heart pounded.
At first, she had privately looked down on him for failing to become an Awakened despite his talent and switching to training instead. Now she felt entirely differently.
She wanted more training.
The elation she had felt while he trained her had vanished as if it had never been there.
But the memory of it remained unmistakably clear.
If she learned from him, she could feel that sensation again.
“Thank you so much. This has been holding me back all this time. I can't believe it was so easy…… No, it wasn't easy…… It must be because you taught me so well, Trainer Kang Yu-jun! I learned so much!”
Kang Yu-jun smiled back at Woo Ha-na as she bowed in heartfelt gratitude.
“Thank you as well. It was my first training session, and I think it went smoothly because you followed my instructions so well.”
“……Pardon?”
Woo Ha-na was startled. His first training session?
“Does that mean I'm your first student, Trainer Kang?”
“……Yes. I suppose you are.”
Trainer.
Woo Ha-na's word struck Yu-jun sharply.
That was right. He was a trainer now.
He had trained Kim Min-seok, but Min-seok could not really be called his student.
‘I lacked talent as an Awakened.’
If he used Awakened Scan on himself, he would probably find himself clean, without so much as a crack.
‘But that doesn't matter.’
He would forget the days when people had treated him as a burden because he could not awaken.
From now on, Yu-jun was a trainer.
‘Because I failed.’
He had struggled countless times.
For more than ten years, he had failed, failed, and failed again.
That was why he knew better than anyone.
‘I know better than anyone how to succeed as an Awakened.’
He needed to get used to it now.
‘From this moment on, I'm an Awakened trainer.’
And he would accomplish everything he had been unable to accomplish before.
DING—!
-Awakened Woo Ha-na's training completed!
-Training Score: 5/10
-Points acquired according to Training Score.
A training score.
And points.
‘That's disappointing.’
A score of five probably meant the training had been ordinary.
Of course, that was only by Yu-jun's standards. In Infinite Tower, three was average, and five was excellent.
‘But I've got a feel for it now.’
Yu-jun checked his points first.
-[2P]
‘I should unlock a skill first.’
***
Manager Han muttered as he made his way to the training room.
“I'm worried. His skill is the real thing, but he's been given a task that's too difficult for his first assignment.”
Han had seen Kang Yu-jun's skill for himself. It was genuine.
He was so clearly capable that Han could hardly remember Yu-jun's youth trainee days.
“I should tell him he can take his time.”
Han intended to tell him that even Sky Guild's own trainers had failed to train Woo Ha-na fully.
Yu-jun need not feel undue pressure; he should simply show what he could do.
THUD—! THUD—!
But the private training room was noisy.
“Are they training?”
When Han went inside, he saw Kang Yu-jun watching intently.
“……!”
In front of him…… Woo Ha-na was moving at a frantic speed.
“What in the…….”
Manager Han knew her condition well.
She had tremendous potential, but a major weakness had prevented her from bringing it out.
“She can move…… that fast?”
Yet she was moving at an overwhelming speed Han had never seen from her before.
Kang Yu-jun stood before her, calmly instructing her.
“Circulate your mana a little faster! The faster you go, the more your posture breaks down!”
“Yes!”
“But do not focus too much on your posture. Think of yourself as flowing!”
Woo Ha-na's condition improved with each instruction Kang Yu-jun gave her.
Manager Han could only marvel at the sight.
It was perfect training.
Woo Ha-na had never before displayed such an explosive flow of mana.
More precisely, she had been unable to display it.
Because of her chronic problems with mana circulation and poor control, the guild's trainers had been unable to teach her properly.
Their teaching had not been wrong. She had simply found it difficult to understand.
Yet with a few simple words and adjustments to her posture, Kang Yu-jun had made Woo Ha-na into an entirely different Awakened.
Manager Han had watched her for quite some time, and the sight of her movement left him in awe.
“That is the Woo Ha-na we wanted to see.”
When Han had first seen her potential, he had thought she might become the face of the guild and its representative Awakened. At last, that potential had burst forth.
Overwhelmed, Manager Han looked at Kang Yu-jun.
“I thought he was an unpolished gem…….”
But he was no unpolished gem.
He was already shining on his own.
“You are here, Manager Han. I am training Awakened Woo Ha-na. Her potential truly is extraordinary.”
Yu-jun had only just noticed Han Seok-yul and spoke with a smile.
“Did you come to check on us?”
“Well, the truth is…….”
Manager Han looked embarrassed.
In fact, he had not come to inspect Woo Ha-na's training.
He had come to tell Yu-jun not to feel too much pressure, since none of the many Sky Guild trainers who had worked with Woo Ha-na had managed to correct her weakness.
But while he was on his way, her weakness had been corrected.
It had not taken days.
Just a few hours.
Within a few hours, the problem that had held Woo Ha-na back for so long had been corrected.
Manager Han wanted to ask him something else instead.
“How did you do it? Trainee Woo Ha-na had a serious weakness. And now that problem is solved!”
Manager Han blurted it out.
“None of our guild's trainers could do it. How on earth did you……?”
“I can see it.”
Yu-jun grinned as he spoke.
“How to correct it.”
***
Yu-jun's studio apartment.
After returning home, he immediately set about investing his skill points.
First Kim Min-seok, and now Woo Ha-na.
In Min-seok's case, it was difficult to call what Yu-jun had done proper training. And because it had been his first time, he had not earned any points.
With Woo Ha-na, however, he had filled in her cracks through unmistakable training.
‘And I even created more blue light.’
The Awakened Training System was similar to Infinite Tower, but it differed in some ways.
‘Things the game represented rather vaguely appear here in much greater detail. But removing a crack doesn't always turn it into blue light.’
Depending on how he corrected a problem, light seemed to appear or grow brighter.
Kim Min-seok's knee and Woo Ha-na's flank.
The light he had seen in each place had clearly differed in intensity.
“I can train them in much greater detail.”
Yu-jun's natural eye mattered, but the effect of the skill that let him see cracks and blue light could not be overlooked.
‘The Awakened Training System supports me to this extent.’
Without the skill's influence, no matter how keenly he observed someone or how well he trained them, it would not make a meaningful difference.
The answer, then, was simple.
‘I'll amplify the abilities I have.’
-[Points Held: 2P]
He currently had two points.
They were the points he had earned by training Kim Min-seok and Woo Ha-na.
-Use points to unlock or enhance linked skills.
“So I can unlock training-related skills like Word Magic Correction?”
In other words, points could unlock new skills.
“Check Lv.1 skills.”
At present, the only Lv.1 skill Yu-jun had unlocked was Awakened Scan.
-Lv.1 Skills
1. Awakened Scan
2. ??
3. ??
“Two are still locked.”
Yu-jun selected the second skill.
‘If it works the way I know, the second skill is that one.’
-1 point required to unlock skill.
“Unlock.”
-Unlocking Lv.1 skill.
-1 point spent.
-New skill learned!
-[Awakened Analysis] unlocked!
“It is unlocked.”
Yu-jun immediately tried using Awakened Analysis on himself.
But as with Awakened Scan, it did not work on him.
“As I thought. It doesn't work on me. Just like Infinite Tower.”
Awakened Analysis was a skill that activated alongside Awakened Scan.
“From now on, I can see potential too.”
***
The guild master's office at Sky Guild.
“Manager Han. I am about to inform Trainer Kang of his training fee. This amount should be fine, should it not?”
The day after signing the short-term contract, Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun set Kang Yu-jun's training fee.
Since Yu-jun was not a trainer employed by the guild, Lee could not pay him a huge sum.
“Twenty million won for the training. That is exceptional for a newcomer. I took extra care because you brought him in.”
Twenty million won was a substantial amount for a new trainer.
And Kang Yu-jun truly was a novice, with no prior experience as a trainer at all.
In that light, Guild Master Lee had been quite considerate in setting the fee.
But Manager Han Seok-yul could not simply accept it.
“I was going to report this to you today, but…….”
“Why are you hesitating? You are not about to ask me to withdraw Woo Ha-na's training assignment, are you?”
“No, that is not it.”
Manager Han denied it, but when he hesitated again, Guild Master Lee smiled bitterly and tried to persuade him.
“I know it is a difficult task. But I told you I would wait and see, did I not, Manager Han?”
“Woo Ha-na's problem has been resolved.”
“……What?”
The guild master frowned as if he had heard something strange.
“She only…… started yesterday, did she not?”
“Yes.”
“And you say it is resolved?”
It truly sounded impossible.