How to Beat Aegis in the Joint Training (1)

Has he lost his mind? How can anyone smile through this training?

It was only training — but from the very start, the instructor had made it clear this was as good as real combat.

Of course, every cohort had its problem children.

Instructor Yong Hooncheol's special guerrilla drills. Ideal training for efficiently forging an Awakener's body. Despite a face that looked stubbornly classical and set in its ways, Yong Hooncheol was an open-minded instructor who always embraced the latest theory. Even so, plenty of cadets still hated the current regimen for how brutally it worked them over.

Don't tell me this is defiance.

But the timing was wrong. Ordinary troublemakers started flouting the instructor's orders from the first minute — sneering that his methods were outdated from the jump. And the more of those cadets there were, the better for Yong Hooncheol; they made excellent prey for an even harsher thrashing.

But three hours have already passed.

That kind of bravado usually evaporated after three hours of being ground into the dirt. Even the High Class cadets were trembling so hard their bodies shook. So if someone like Lee Junwoo was still smiling, there were only two possible answers.

Either the merciless training had driven him insane — or his mental fortitude was strong enough to laugh off even this hellish regimen.

Yong Hooncheol checked Lee Junwoo's profile again. Bottom rank in physical ability tests for all three years of high school academy. His physical stats barely matched those of an ordinary athlete.

With specs like that, this training would be more than enough to break anyone's mind.

That was why, once Hell Week ended, the nuns of the Goddess Religion ran mandatory psychiatric sessions. With physical specs that abysmal, it would have been far more natural for his mind to collapse on the very first course of those four days of hell.

Hmm?

But in that exact moment, Instructor Yong Hooncheol looked again into Lee Junwoo's eyes — and flinched right where he stood.

Wait. Those eyes…

The gaze he saw this time was startlingly clear. Not the eyes of a madman. They belonged to someone who was genuinely enjoying this hellish training.

Then… is his mental strength truly that absurdly high?

Checking the profile and grades again, Yong Hooncheol noted that while practical scores were poor, theoretical scores were excellent. That meant that despite ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his disastrous physical ability, the cadet had at least refused to fold — and had cultivated his own strengths instead.

I did that cadet a disservice. If anything… his heart may be stronger than mine as an instructor.

By now, collapsing wouldn't have been strange at all.

"Awakened Guerrilla Calisthenics, number eight! Thirty reps continuous! Have you lost your minds?! Do it properly!"

One by one, cadets from the High Class started dropping. And still Lee Junwoo held on.

Remarkable… mental strength.

His body began to shake harder, like an aspen in the wind. But Lee Junwoo kept smiling as he pushed through the drills. In short, even in the extreme situations an Awakener might face, this Lee Junwoo could stay calm. A steel heart, in the truest sense. In a way, it really was a kind of madness.

No wonder Instructors Seong Junhyeok and Lee Suyeon rate this cadet so highly.

Thud—

In the end, Lee Junwoo blacked out. But Instructor Yong Hooncheol had already finished his evaluation in his mind.

First training course. First place goes to Lee Junwoo.

Hell Week, however, was only just beginning. Yong Hooncheol found himself quietly looking forward to seeing just how far that Lee Junwoo could hold out.

I opened my eyes.

An unfamiliar ceiling. Apparently I'd fainted and come to.

This is…

It looked like the training ground's small auditorium. I was lying on a mat. I slowly pieced together the moments right before I'd blacked out, then let out a breath of relief.

"Good. No stat loss, then."

It had been a viciously hard training session. Bare-handed guerrilla calisthenics — but a special punishment regimen cooked up by the infamous Yong Hooncheol. The movements were close to torture. Yet for all his brutish looks, Yong Hooncheol was a leading scholar of Awakened physiology.

My whole body is screaming…

That was why I'd pushed the first training course — the one that twisted every joint in my body — right up to my absolute limit. This wasn't ordinary training. Instructor Yong Hooncheol's methods were optimized for Awakeners. It only felt like torture; what he'd actually demonstrated was a systematic, deeply considered approach to strength conditioning.

His training method was especially optimized for body balance — in other words, for raising the Balance of the body.

It went up by three?

That was huge. Strength had risen by a full three points. It wasn't a bonus I could allocate myself, so I hadn't been able to choose — but the stat I needed most had gone up.

So of course I couldn't help smiling. My ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whole body felt like it was being torn apart, but my Mental stat was 90. I could endure it just fine. If anything, thinking about the stat rewards waiting at the end of this high-level training made a laugh rise up that was almost deliriously joyful.

Looks like I'm not the only one who fainted.

Other cadets were sleeping it off in the auditorium with me. It really had been a filthy hard session.

And I'm going to have to survive more of this training going forward.

Night of day three. To squeeze the maximum reward out of the villain raid, I needed to land the finishing blow myself. Even in the original quest, when you played alongside High Class cadets, the party was recognized — but the difference in rewards between personally killing the villain and not doing so was enormous.

But as I am now, it's not enough.

Which was why, in the Free Major Department, I'd been preparing something. Skill evolution.

I checked the skills that could evolve.

Sacred Strike — the main skill I used most as a Paladin. Evolving it required two stats.

Balance and Spell Duration. Mixing Light and Fire meant the body needed the Balance to withstand the attribute clash — and the duration to maintain Fire-attribute mana.

My Balance was already at 8. If I just survived the remaining schedule, I could push it to 10 without much trouble. And starting tomorrow, I'd be hunting monsters with my party members.

Same as in Instructor Lee Suyeon's training…

Actively using Fire mana stones would raise Spell Duration to some degree ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as well. Factoring in the climb of my Authority level in the meantime, I could just barely forge a new enhanced skill.

A Rare skill — different from ordinary ones.

Which meant I wouldn't have to yield the villain to the three of Aegis. I could take it myself. If things went well, I might even receive an item for acquiring a new Authority — so I had no intention of conceding a single thing to those three.

Casually checking on their current status was also necessary. To reach my goal, the protagonist party still needed to put in a certain amount of work. Their final objective — when An Yumin closed in on it, I would be the one to snatch it away.

If my mental fortitude had still been what it once was, even that hypocrisy for my own gain would have been agonizing.

I probably couldn't have pulled off that act.

But now, I felt nothing. As an avenger, taking everything from those three felt only natural. My head was as cold as ever. Even staying in the same building as An Yumin, I felt not a flicker of emotion toward her.

And Ha Yeeun. She's going to suffer a bit.

Outside, the sun was setting — dinner time soon. But this Hell Week had traps the instructors had laid in advance. And that trap would hurt Ha Yeeun most of all.

"We'll be distributing dinner and snacks! Stop loafing and get up, all of you!"

Instructor Yong Hooncheol's assistant instructors woke the cadets who'd been out cold. And in that moment—

Aegis. Jeong Ungyeong is with them now, too.

True to the Yoho tribe, her mind was razor-sharp. High Class and Middle Class were competitors in this Hell Week — so I had no intention of sharing the trap only I knew about with the High Class.

Someone like Jeong Ungyeong might quietly snoop around the Middle Class side.

Which meant I needed to stay wary.

Evening came, and I rejoined my Middle Class party members.

"You really held out that long and you're fine?"

Lim Jaeho stared at me like he'd seen a ghost.

Day one of Hell Week. The hour had already slid into night.

The daytime training had been murderously hard — but Jeong Ungyeong, no, Jeong Soso, was a proud woman of the Yoho tribe. She would never show weakness in front of her fellow Aegis members.

Even so, I really almost died.

In the end, not a single person in the High Class had managed to swallow their pain-choked groans. Not An Yumin. Not Song Sia. Even Ha Yeeun, with her holy power that naturally healed the body, had rolled her eyes back and fainted.

Which only made Jeong Soso's spine run colder.

That man. What is he?

Lee Junwoo. Jeong Soso's predecessor. From what Ha Yeeun had told her, he was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the worthless man the public made him out to be — but the remaining Aegis activity logs, especially the ones Lee Junwoo had organized himself, had left Jeong Soso deeply unsettled.

What? How can a cadet have handled this much?

Jeong Soso's ambitions ran deep. She held a claim to succession as the next head of her clan — but her rank was a mere thirteenth. With that ranking, ordinary achievements would never be enough to become the next head.

So when she'd stepped into the vacant Operator seat of Aegis, she'd been burning with drive.

But… how could someone who did this much of the work—!

The man called Lee Junwoo seemed, by all accounts, completely unhinged. Aegis's pack mule. An Yumin's personal trainer. Ha Yeeun's stream manager, all at once. Ha Yeeun had dismissed him as nothing but a porter — but after reviewing every record, Jeong Soso was certain.

He's a genius Operator. Without Lee Junwoo, Aegis couldn't have existed in the first place.

The countless records he'd left behind rose in her mind. At first she hadn't been able to believe them. But today — during that Awakened guerrilla training — Jeong Soso had felt it in her bones.

In that nightmarish drill that had nearly made even her black out, Lee Junwoo had been smiling.

He's insane.

It wasn't a curse. It was the instinctive fear of a demi-human. Instructor Yong Hooncheol's training looked crude at a glance, but it was ruthlessly efficient. And so that Lee Junwoo had looked like he was enjoying the training even as he suffered through it.

A truly meticulous man.

And of all people, the one who'd become that man's successor was Jeong Soso herself. Her first assignment: supporting Aegis's three from within the High Class. But after seeing Lee Junwoo's madness-tinged smile today, Jeong Soso couldn't settle her heart.

I need to see for myself exactly what kind of man he is.

She'd eaten enough at dinner. Given how much energy they'd burned, the other cadets were treating snack time as rest — but Jeong Soso wanted to dig into Lee Junwoo first. Tomorrow's party training might even let her overhear Middle Class strategy.

Whoosh—

She used a traditional Yoho tribe spell and vanished completely into the dark. Pure concealment alone put it far above an Assassin-class skill.

Lee Junwoo. From now on, you're a primary surveillance target.

She slipped toward the lodging assigned to the Middle Class. Through the window, she could see cadets in the middle of a meeting.

All right then — where's Lee Junwoo… hm?

In that exact instant, goosebumps raced over her entire body. Instinct flooded her skull with alarm.

Danger! Wh-what is—

But Jeong Soso couldn't run. Someone whispered, low and close.

"What are you doing here?"

"Kyaaang!!!"

Jeong Soso nearly jumped out of her skin. She whipped her head around — and Lee Junwoo was standing right there.