Through the overwhelming power of his cudgel, Kyle ultimately achieved the result he wanted.
However, when someone failed an examination that he had expected everyone to pass without difficulty, Kyle concluded that he had trained the Rehabilitation Center trainees too leniently.
Before beginning their practical combat experience in earnest, he started putting them through even harsher training.
Meanwhile, the Mercenary Guild had practically erupted over the rumor that Kyle intended to turn people into Apprentice Mercenaries only ten days after they achieved Mana Awakening.
After the large group of Apprentice Mercenaries actually emerged, however, the atmosphere inside the guild changed completely.
“They really did all pass.”
“I heard the only one who failed came back a few hours later and earned his Apprentice Mercenary badge.”
“At least the man has grit.”
A bearded mercenary smiled, pleased that someone with genuine determination had entered the industry for the first time in a while.
His companion shook his head.
“It wasn’t his determination. Apparently, the Orphanage Director beat him until his mentality was completely reformed. The second time, instead of cowering, the bastard actually charged at the examiner.”
“Hahaha! Now that is amusing.”
They were merely Apprentice Mercenaries.
In some places, they were little more than laborers who could earn the qualification through bribery simply because they had awakened, even if they could not properly use Mana.
Even so, the position was still important in its own way.
There had been countless cases of people panicking when they encountered monsters and endangering their allies.
Even if they could not be helpful, they should at least avoid becoming a burden.
For that reason, Apprentice Mercenaries needed a minimum degree of mental fortitude and enough ability to protect themselves in an emergency.
“We’ve been somewhat short on manpower lately….”
“Don’t even dream of it.”
“Why not? Our Mercenary Company has a respectable amount of experience in this industry.”
One mercenary bristled, thinking that the other man was looking down on him.
“I’m not insulting you. I mean you won’t be able to use them as menial laborers.”
He then explained the recent rumor.
After being beaten by the Orphanage Director and passing the examination, the Apprentice Mercenaries had immediately accepted a request.
The amusing part was that, despite having only just earned their qualifications, they had asked to take on monster-extermination requests outside the city.
“So he intends to train them properly and put them to use.”
“Most likely.”
“That is unfortunate.”
The mercenary, who had been hoping to recruit some promising newcomers for the first time in a while, let out a sigh.
“Still, it isn’t entirely bad. If the Rehabilitation Center takes responsibility for these requests to gain experience, the city will become cleaner.”
“That’s true….”
At some point, mercenaries had stopped completing Low-Rank Requests.
Compared to those jobs, accepting escort missions from Trading Companies paid several times as much.
Even when no escort mission was available that day, they simply rested.
They knew they could earn considerably more by accepting a single escort mission a few days later.
There was no reason for them to take troublesome requests that lasted several days and left their entire bodies reeking.
Those requests accumulated, causing various parts of the city to rot.
The old district was living proof.
“They’re here.”
The newcomers had finally arrived for their first practical combat experience.
However, there was something unusual about their request.
“You intend to complete all of these at once?”
“Yes.”
There were seven requests in total.
For experienced mercenaries, they were manageable.
Traveling to each location would be troublesome, but the missions themselves were not particularly difficult.
But for Apprentice Mercenaries?
‘They’ll probably be exhausted after a single battle. Can they truly manage this?’
The Receptionist stared at them doubtfully.
Under ordinary circumstances, the request would never have been approved. However, there were many trainees, and the Orphanage Director would be accompanying them.
In the end, the Receptionist had no choice but to grant permission.
The mercenaries watching nearby began murmuring among themselves.
“They still won’t be able to finish every request, will they?”
Even if one powerful expert accompanied them, surely they could not complete them all.
They watched the Apprentice Mercenaries leave the guild in a large group.
Several people were curious enough to follow them.
Some High-Ranking Mercenaries quietly trailed behind, thinking that they might entrust their own Apprentice Mercenaries to Kyle if he truly proved to be such a skilled instructor.
What they found was an abandoned area outside the city.
When Kyle arrived and saw it, he covered his nose and mouth with his arm.
“They neglected it until it became this bad? What a disaster.”
Kyle frowned at the foul-smelling area.
He could understand why none of the mercenaries had wanted to accept the request.
However, a place like this was actually excellent for gaining practical experience.
A harsh environment filled with unbearable stench.
The experience gained by hunting monsters under such conditions was priceless.
Experienced mercenaries might not need such an experience, but it was essential for Apprentice Mercenaries.
“Is everyone ready?”
The Apprentice Mercenaries nodded, their faces tense.
Kyle gave them a faint smile and drew his sword.
It was a cheap weapon that neither amplified Aura nor possessed decent Aura Conductivity.
Using that worthless sword, Kyle released a wave of Aura toward the stream filled with the stench of decay.
BOOOOM!
The explosion drove the rats hiding inside out into the open.
The problem was their size.
They were enormous rats that had mutated through a combination of poison, oversaturated Mana, and their unusual environment.
The area had been neglected for so long that the bastards could even use Mana.
“The moment one of them wounds you, you’ll be poisoned. Fight as though you cannot afford to be struck even once.”
Everyone nodded at Kyle’s warning.
Normally, they would have been given cheap armor as a precaution.
Kyle did nothing of the sort.
He made them fight in nothing but ordinary cloth with a single weapon in their hands.
The rats’ poison could be neutralized with a Low-Rank Potion.
They would merely have to spend everything they had earned so far to pay for it.
“My money!”
When the rats attempted to ambush them with their usual underhanded tactics, one young man remembered the money he had worked so hard to earn aboard a ship and desperately blocked the attack.
The others were the same.
Of course, one fool attempted to fight stylishly.
Kyle corrected him with a single sentence.
“Anyone who gets hit receives special training.”
The moment they heard those words, the trainees abandoned their attempts to focus on infusing their swords with Mana.
Instead, they devoted everything to Physical Enhancement.
The rats were merely Low-Rank Monsters. With sufficient strength, even an ordinary person could inflict a fatal wound by striking their eyes or other weak points.
The trainees did not hesitate to roll across the ground.
They were not even ashamed to throw dirt into the rats’ faces.
They focused solely on killing their targets without being struck once.
“That’s right. You need that kind of desperate tenacity if you want to survive.”
Unless someone was a genius, they could not efficiently defeat an enemy from the very beginning.
Most people were clumsy and confused during their first battle.
For that reason, Kyle directed them to cast aside all pride and concentrate entirely on increasing their chances of survival.
‘As long as they survive, they can gain experience whenever they want.’
Unless they sought an exceptionally high realm, they should at least be capable of reaching the limits of their talents.
Anything beyond that would have to be entrusted to fortune.
Sometimes, geniuses became frustrated and gave up halfway.
At other times, people without talent encountered a stroke of fortune and surpassed their limits.
“Huff… huff….”
The trainees eventually succeeded in killing every rat, their faces filled with exhaustion.
Perhaps because it was their first battle, they were fortunate enough to complete it without a single person being struck.
However, the practical lesson had only just begun.
Kyle had no intention of being satisfied with a single battle.
Without allowing them time to rest, he ordered them to clean up the surrounding area.
“Did you collect everything?”
“Yes!”
After hearing everyone’s answer, Kyle nodded in satisfaction and headed toward their next destination.
No one knew how long the areas had been neglected, but habitats filled with creatures that had mutated into monsters could be found throughout the enormous port city.
Mutant rats.
Packs of mutant stray dogs.
Mutant cat habitats.
Habitats of mutant giant pigeons.
And the problem did not end there.
If Polluted Mana accumulated and eventually condensed into a Core, even a small amount could create a Labyrinth.
Such Labyrinths had already formed throughout the city.
‘There is an abnormal amount of Polluted Mana in this city.’
That meant someone somewhere in the city was doing something capable of corrupting Mana.
It was undoubtedly illegal.
Kyle’s expression darkened when he realized it.
He felt this every time he encountered another problem in the city, but in some respects, Weiden was even worse than Herse under the pretense of freedom.
As the amount of Polluted Mana increased, ordinary people would begin suffering from unidentified diseases and unexplained physical weakness.
The mercenaries who ignored the problem as though none of that mattered disgusted him as well.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Thanks to them, a foundation had been created upon which the Rehabilitation Center trainees could steadily grow.
They could earn money while becoming stronger.
What could offer two better benefits at once?
For now, Kyle had to personally supervise and teach each of them.
However, once they had developed to a certain level, he would be able to create a system that allowed them to grow on their own.
‘Once that happens, I won’t have to do everything myself anymore!’
Kyle shouted as that thought crossed his mind.
“Everyone, prepare yourselves.”
They had already reached their next destination.
The trainees nervously inspected their weapons at Kyle’s command.
“The objective remains the same. Eliminate them without being struck even once.”
Kyle released another wave of Aura.
A thunderous explosion erupted, and a large number of Mutant Cats that had been sleeping peacefully rushed out.
Some were half the size of a person.
The creature that appeared to be their leader was as large as a grown man.
“You need to respond differently this time. They’re agile, so form a defensive formation and move cautiously.”
Before the battle began, Kyle explained how they needed to move.
They had practiced the basic formation every day, albeit for only a few days.
The trainees formed it and began responding to the enraged group of Mutant Cats.
Perhaps because the creatures were so agile, the trainees began suffering minor injuries one after another.
Even so, Kyle did not intervene.
It was the same at the next location.
He watched without taking action and merely advised them on how they should move.
By the time they completed every request, all the Apprentice Mercenaries were half dead and gasping for breath.
Their bodies were covered in injuries.
Their once-clean clothing had been torn in numerous places, leaving them looking like beggars.
However, not one of the mercenaries watching from a distance could laugh at them.
The creatures had been Lesser Monsters that barely deserved to be called monsters at all.
Nevertheless, the efforts of the Apprentice Mercenaries, who had risked their lives and pushed themselves to their limits, deserved respect in their own right.
At the same time, Kyle himself was astonishing for having driven them so thoroughly to their limits.
There was only one thing left for the observing mercenaries to do.
The moment they returned to the Mercenary Guild, they hurriedly summoned their subordinates.
“Find every useful Low-Ranking Mercenary we have and bring them here immediately!”
“We’re going first! Summon every Apprentice Mercenary who shows even a trace of talent!”
The Veteran Mercenaries moved quickly, each determined to have their people accepted before anyone else.
“Why all of a sudden…?”
“Don’t ask questions! Just summon them!”
The junior mercenary hurried away at his senior’s shout.
The other mercenaries who had gone to watch and entered the guild afterward reacted in exactly the same way.
They moved quickly to gather the mercenaries who existed merely to maintain the numbers of their Mercenary Companies and send them to the Rehabilitation Center.
The Rehabilitation Center would never accept them for nothing, so the mercenaries intended to offer generous payments as well.
Each of them prepared a heavy money pouch before heading back toward the old district.
At first glance, the amount of money appeared excessive.
To the mercenaries heading toward the old district, however, it was nothing of the sort.
‘This is an investment in the future!’
The cost of removing useless dead weight who merely filled their numbers, combined with the investment required to have them transformed into useful people and sent back.
Considering those benefits, it was unquestionably profitable.
“How did he teach them to provoke a reaction like that?”
“I don’t know exactly what happened, but it seems the Orphanage Director is a far better instructor than we expected.”
“Then could the rumor that the teacher named Maron was genuinely capable be true as well?”
The public’s evaluation of Haynes Orphanage began soaring once again after witnessing the mercenaries’ commotion.
A large crowd gathered, murmuring among themselves about Haynes Orphanage.
At that moment, one of the Guild Employees tilted his head with a puzzled expression.
“Judging only by the rumors we’re hearing, doesn’t it feel less like an orphanage or Rehabilitation Center now?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“It doesn’t sound as though they’re simply raising people. It sounds as though they’re professionally training them. At this point, couldn’t we simply call the place an academy?”
“A Mercenary Academy… perhaps?”
The Guild Master chuckled.
He muttered that perhaps they should make a donation to Haynes Orphanage, since it was training so many useful mercenaries.
The moment he said that, the murmuring mercenaries all fell silent.
They stared at the Guild Master before hurriedly springing into action.