The guild members climbing the tower for the first time were terribly nervous. Their pounding hearts seemed to fill their ears.
Those at the vanguard, in particular, kept swallowing against dry throats.
Woo Ha-na, however, was strangely calm.
‘I just have to do what I learned.’
In her last training session, she had learned a definite way to solve the problem with her flank.
‘I know what it feels like now.’
Until then, no amount of explanation had helped her understand. Now she understood it completely.
‘Slowly at first.’
That did not mean she intended to overdo it.
She might be calm, but this was her first climb too, just like the other Awakened gathered here.
As Woo Ha-na drew up her Acceleration ability, surprise caught her off guard.
‘Huh? Why do I feel even lighter……?’
Yu-jun's words came back to her.
-Ms. Woo, try concentrating your mana around your waist when you use Acceleration.
She had done exactly that.
BOOM—!
And her body shot forward like a bullet.
She was startled for an instant, but the sense of freedom throughout her body made her cheer.
Yes. This was her ability.
‘I can go faster.’
And……
‘I can control it as much as I want!’
Woo Ha-na followed Yu-jun's instructions exactly.
It all felt so easy.
‘Was the fifth floor always this easy?’
But none of the other Awakened who had entered with her could move as naturally as she did.
“W-what? How is she moving like that?”
The leader of Sales Team 3 watched it all from behind, unable to hide his shock.
He had heard that a few recent training sessions had transformed her, but seeing it himself went beyond anything he had imagined.
He made up his mind then and there.
As soon as they got back, he would find out about that trainer.
***
Kang Yu-jun, the person who had brought out Woo Ha-na's potential, was in Sky Guild's training room reviewing his previous sessions.
“Hmmmmm.”
Over the course of several days, he had trained Sky Guild's young trainees, including Kim Gyo-jun and Woo Ha-na.
“Simply training more people doesn't earn me more points.”
Training Woo Ha-na and Kim Gyo-jun had raised his point total, but training the other Awakened had not.
‘And I got tired halfway through.’
The Awakened Training System's skills consumed mana, though not a great deal at once.
‘It's a small but constant drain.’
The amount also varied depending on whom he trained.
On top of that, Awakened Scan and Awakened Analysis consumed more mental energy than he had expected.
One or two people were manageable. Once the number passed ten, Yu-jun tired rapidly.
‘Right now I need to teach more Awakened.’
As he grew accustomed to it, he would be able to train them more efficiently.
In truth, what he had done was remarkable.
A novice trainer teaching twenty trainees would inevitably neglect some of them. Yu-jun, however, had not neglected a single one.
He could not have done so.
‘They're all desperate to improve.’
Yu-jun knew that feeling better than anyone.
They concentrated on training because they wanted to do a little better, to learn a little more.
How could he teach them carelessly?
That was why Yu-jun had to give it his all.
‘I was like that too. Though I did leave my trainers in despair.’
In the end, no trainer had managed to awaken Yu-jun.
It had clearly been a lack of talent on his part.
Several trainers had despaired over him, and some had even quit training altogether.
‘If someone has no talent, there's nothing to be done. But I have to be able to bring out the talent they do have.’
Not one of the youth trainees lacked talent.
They all had excellent abilities and the potential to bring them out.
“The power of Word Magic Correction has even more potential than I thought. I'm just not using it properly yet.”
Word Magic Correction let its target move as Yu-jun instructed.
Its true value lay in making the Awakened he trained move according to his intentions, allowing them to grasp theory at once.
Woo Ha-na, its first subject, had been smarter than Yu-jun expected.
“She just didn't know the sensation. Word Magic Correction let her feel it, and once she did, she took off in no time.”
Yu-jun had used Word Magic Correction in their second session too. As in the first, he had focused on awakening that sensation.
As a result, Woo Ha-na had made it firmly her own.
“And Awakened Analysis. The more I use it, the more impressive it is. I took it for granted in Infinite Tower, but its effect here is considerable.”
Woo Ha-na was so well balanced that comparing her to Kim Gyo-jun would have been unfair to her.
Once Yu-jun corrected her weakness, both her Body and Mind grades rose quickly.
He checked the information he had gained from training her.
-Awakened Woo Ha-na's training completed.
-Training Score: 6/10
-Points acquired according to Training Score.
He had earned no fewer than two points.
-[Points Held: 3 P]
“Six out of ten.”
His training score was one point higher than before.
That had earned him one more point than last time.
“It went from D to C.”
Just then, a new notification appeared.
DING—!
-Trainee Growth Bonus received!
-1P acquired!
“Huh?”
A Trainee Growth Bonus.
Woo Ha-na was producing results on her current tower raid, and Yu-jun had received an additional point for it.
“Do I earn extra points when a trainee achieves something?”
Every clear result one of his trainees produced could bring Yu-jun a considerable benefit.
Yu-jun smiled at the thought.
His body and mind were exhausted, but that was enough to rekindle his motivation.
“First, I should gather more points and unlock the remaining Lv.1 skill.”
He had unlocked Awakened Scan and Awakened Analysis.
Only one remained.
At that moment, the training room door opened.
“Trainer Kang Yu-jun!”
A huge, heavily bearded Awakened ran up to Yu-jun, his footsteps thudding.
“Yes? What can I do for you?”
“Woo Ha-na. Were you the trainer who worked with her?”
The man spoke with a fierce expression.
Yu-jun answered calmly, though. The man did not seem as if he meant him harm.
“Yes, I trained her. Is something the matter?”
“Woo Ha-na, whom you trained, Trainer Kang…….”
Suddenly the hulking Awakened, the leader of Sales Team 3, broke into a broad smile.
The change from his fearsome expression made quite an impression.
“How on earth did you train her? She is a different person! She cleared the fifth floor all by herself. The other Awakened did not even get to train. She did everything alone!”
The leader of Sales Team 3 laughed heartily and went on.
“Thank you. You have given us a fine recruit. I came to tell you that. Thank you very much.”
“No, I should thank you. Thank you for giving Ms. Woo an opportunity.”
It had been so long since a veteran Awakened had looked on him with approval that Yu-jun clenched his fist without realizing it.
‘This feels good.’
He felt deeply satisfied.
***
Word spread through Sky Guild.
Woo Ha-na, newly called up to Sales Team 3, had shown overwhelming skill on the tower's fifth floor.
They said she had taken the vanguard ahead of the other Awakened and defeated every monster herself.
“Woo Ha-na? What are you talking about? I thought she still had that problem.”
Everyone in the guild knew of her.
Sky Guild had continued to invest in her as a youth trainee, so of course they did.
That also meant they knew about her problem.
Despite her talent, her mana control was poor and she could not circulate mana well.
People had whispered that unless she fixed it, she would not perform well even if called up to a Sales Team.
“So she fixed it?”
Her fifth-floor climb had proved that Woo Ha-na's problem had been solved.
“That trainer they just signed worked with her, apparently.”
“A few sessions and it was fixed!”
More of Sky Guild's Awakened went without training than received it.
Most already had methods of their own, so they sought out trainers only when a problem arose or there was something they did not know.
“I need to go see him!”
They all set out to find Yu-jun.
***
The guild master's office at Sky Guild.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I think you should take a look at this.”
Guild Master Lee Hyeok-jun tilted his head at Chief Lee's excited manner.
“What is it? Woo Ha-na?”
“Trainer Kang Yu-jun…….”
“Has something happened? That cannot be right. Woo Ha-na's training went brilliantly. She still lacks experience, of course, but surely not so much that she cannot manage on Team 3?”
“That is not it. Please watch.”
Chief Lee played a video.
As Guild Master Lee watched, he thought about Kang Yu-jun.
Yu-jun had the makings of a top trainer.
That was why Lee had broken the custom against entrusting youth trainees to a freelancer and assigned him to teach them.
He had heard that Yu-jun was quite popular with the trainees, too.
His method of teaching was fresh, and the trainees were greatly satisfied to feel their movements improve immediately.
“We recorded the fifth floor. Woo Ha-na's debut.”
The fifth floor of the Tower of Clouds.
Sky Guild often recorded footage for members who were just beginning to climb the tower.
It allowed them to see how they looked from a third person's perspective.
Many Awakened thought they were moving calmly, only to watch themselves move stiffly on video and realize what they needed to improve.
“It starts here.”
The guild master focused on the video at Chief Lee's words.
Soon he was startled.
“Huh? What is going on with her movement?”
Woo Ha-na, standing at the vanguard, suddenly shot forward.
Overwhelming speed.
A pace Lee had never seen from her before.
She moved with complete freedom, as though she had made the ability wholly her own.
“Is that really Woo Ha-na? What is this? I heard she had been trained, but this is what happened?”
The guild master's jaw dropped.
She was far faster than when he had seen her in the training room.
The rate of her growth was extraordinary.
“She is faster? That makes no sense. Much faster than she was then! No matter how well the training went, this…….”
“Yes. I was just as surprised.”
Chief Lee nodded.
“Trainer Kang Yu-jun gave her another session before she went to the fifth floor.”
“Ha. Even so, she has trained only three times, has she not? You mean this happened in three sessions? Her bad habit of circulating mana incorrectly is gone, and this posture…… her posture has improved too?”
“Yes. Everything we struggled to correct for so long has been corrected. And if you look at this part…….”
Chief Lee continued explaining, but Guild Master Lee could not take his eyes off the video.
Woo Ha-na's movements in it were astonishingly elusive.
Her speed when attacking was impressive, but her posture was excellent too.
Her mana circulation was stable.
Compared with before, she moved so well that she hardly seemed the same person.
Most striking of all was her confidence.
Woo Ha-na had never been able to use her abilities properly.
Her mana circulation was one problem, but her Acceleration ability had been another.
Despite possessing such a fine ability, she had not known how to use it.
In the video, however, Woo Ha-na accelerated and decelerated at will.
She accelerated quickly when she needed to move fast, then slowed down precisely when she needed to reduce her speed.
“We told her that over and over, and she could never fix it. But now she has. Well, now…….”
Fast, then slow.
They had told her until they were sick of it that simply moving fast was not enough, yet she had shown no sign of correcting the habit.
Now even that bad habit was gone.
Guild Master Lee could only mutter to himself.
“How on earth…… did he do it?”
What kind of training had Yu-jun given Woo Ha-na to transform her like this?
The corners of the guild master's mouth twitched as he wondered.
“Ah, that is not what matters now. I need to pay him a performance bonus first.”
This was a result.
A definite result!
“And renew his contract…….”
Woo Ha-na would now rise rapidly, as if she had stepped into an elevator.
Chief Lee asked cautiously,
“……Should we?”
The knife was in Yu-jun's hand now.
He was no longer someone they could simply ask to renew. They would have to request that he agree to it.
The guild master frowned at Chief Lee's question.
The situation had turned around completely.
“I think he will turn us down, but we have to probe him with a much better offer. We must keep him. This could be Sky Guild's chance!”
Kang Yu-jun's current contract was for only three months.
That had been natural. Almost no guild would sign a long-term contract with a freelance trainer who had only just entered the profession.
Kang Yu-jun had no experience at all, and until recently he had been a failed youth trainee expelled because he could not awaken.
The guild master remembered his recent conversation with Yu-jun and smiled bitterly.
“So that is why he was so confident. That is why he refused the contract with an option to become a regular employee.”
He had even shortened the term.
Lee had been willing to offer up to six months, but at Kang Yu-jun's request, they had signed for only three.
“Let us make him an offer first.”
They would start with a large sum of money.
***
Kim Min-seok, who had introduced Yu-jun to Sky Guild, was quite worried.
-Hey, Min-seok!
“Ah, Manager Han. Have you been well? I should have called you first. How have you been?”
-I have been well! More to the point, what is going on with that friend of yours, Kang Yu-jun?
“Pardon?”
Kim Min-seok tensed at Manager Han's sudden question.
He was the one who had introduced Yu-jun to Han. In other words, if Yu-jun made a mistake, Min-seok's own reputation would suffer.
‘Did he mess something up?’
It seemed quite possible.
Yu-jun had been a guild youth trainee until recently and had only just become a trainer.
He had never even received trainer education.
Of course, there was something special about him.
If he had shown it properly, Han would have been pleased.
But this was Yu-jun's first real experience working as a trainer, so perhaps he had made all kinds of mistakes.
Min-seok apologized first.
“I am sorry. He truly is an extraordinarily talented man. He failed to awaken, but his training skills are the real…….”
-You should be sorry! You should have recommended a talent like this much sooner!
“……Pardon?”
Min-seok's expectations had been completely wrong.
There was no anger in Manager Han's voice.
-We hit the jackpot!
And it was a staggering jackpot.