Effort Over Talent
Go Cheolmin sat on the toilet in the bathroom, fiddling with his phone as he pondered deeply.
Why hasn't there been any word after a whole day? I thought Min-su hyung had some guts... Well, if he were in his right mind, he'd ignore that kind of nonsense. And as the pillar of Cheonhondan, he'd have to consider his comrades' positions too.
As he finished up and was about to leave, he realized there was no toilet paper.
Irritation surged through him.
This wasn't the guildhouse. It was Yoo Min-jeong's home—and Yoo Wan-seop's.
Go Cheolmin called Kim Jun.
"It's me. I'm in the bathroom, no toilet paper. Yeah, bring some."
Moments later, he heard footsteps approaching.
He cracked the door open to grab the paper, but Kim Jun just stood there without handing it over.
"What're you doing? Give it here."
"If you promise to teach me Mokhon Gong starting today, I'll give you the toilet paper."
"...What?"
Go Cheolmin was flabbergasted.
"Right now, it's just me and Min-jeong at home. Everyone else is out on errands. Well, if you don't want to promise, call Min-jeong instead."
Kim Jun started walking away.
"Hey! You really gonna do this? I've told you a dozen times we'd start after you're fully recovered."
"I'm already recovered."
Kim Jun sounded utterly confident.
Go Cheolmin knew exactly why Kim Jun was pushing this hard. Word had gotten out to Yeon Ga that he wielded the Cheonroegeom. Just like they'd targeted Choi Muhyun, they'd be eyeing Kim Jun's family now.
In a situation like this, all Kim Jun could do was get stronger. Become more like a Raider.
He couldn't ignore that burning desire.
"Fine. If the doc clears you, we start today."
"For real?"
"I don't make empty promises."
"Got it."
Kim Jun shoved the toilet paper through the crack in the door.
Go Cheolmin grabbed it, utterly dumbfounded. It wasn't a fresh, thick roll. It was half-used.
"You... did you take the toilet paper out on purpose?"
No response from Kim Jun.
Guild doctor O Won-jin was discovering for the first time that a person could do seventy push-ups while doing a handstand.
Kim Jun, face beet-red, whispered through gritted teeth. His clothes were soaked with sweat.
"...Seventy-one."
"You really gotta hit a hundred?"
"Th-that's what it takes for you to clear me, Doc. Seventy-two."
His arms trembled violently, but Kim Jun kept pushing through the push-ups doggedly.
"Does it have to be today? What about tomorrow or the day after?"
"...Gotta be today. Seventy-three."
"Why?"
"No talent? Then I gotta make up for it with effort. Seventy-four."
"......"
O Won-jin was speechless.
Kim Jun's voice counted slowly and steadily. After eighty, it slowed dramatically, and past ninety, each rep took over five seconds—bending and extending his arms.
Finally hitting a hundred, Kim Jun's body shook. O Won-jin grabbed him firmly and laid him down safely.
"......Doc?"
Gasping for breath, Kim Jun looked up at the guild doctor.
"You're cleared."
"Yes!"
Kim Jun staggered to his feet and went off in search of Master Go Cheolmin.
O Won-jin shook his head and jotted a brief note in his log about what had just happened. As guild doctor, even minor details needed recording for accurate medical judgment.
"That kid."
His determination was impressive.
In Uramata Guild, it was rare—master and fellow Raiders alike acknowledged Kim Jun. But the fact remained: he was a carrier.
Those words captured exactly how Kim Jun must feel living day to day.
"No talent, so effort it is? Sounds just like something I'd say."
O Won-jin pulled out the thick tome Raider Medicine by the renowned dungeon sickness expert, Dr. Shim Gyeong-mo.
In the center of the underground training room, Kim Jun's eyes sparkled.
"We're really starting Mokhon Gong today?"
"You wanted it so bad—changed your mind?"
"No way!"
Kim Jun clenched his fist in excitement, letting out a cheer.
"You're the first to learn Mokhon Gong without passing the awakening test. You'll have to work twice as hard to keep up."
"Understood, Master."
"First, you need to know what Mokhon Gong is."
Go Cheolmin began explaining Mokhon Gong to Kim Jun.
Mokhon Gong was a martial art from the wood element among yin-yang and five phases, mimicking plants—specifically, the form and abilities of trees that form forests.
Go Cheolmin knew Kim Jun wouldn't be satisfied with mere words. He exhaled a faint stream of inner energy, forming an intangible forest of tiny bonsai-like trees.
As expected, Kim Jun sensed the energy forest and his eyes went wide.
"Th-there's a little forest here!"
"Reach the second stage, Yumok, and you can do this too."
Go Cheolmin slowly absorbed the energy back into his body, then continued.
"Absorbing wood energy is the first stage, Heumok. Master Heumok to reach Yumok, and master Yumok to unlock Jomok."
"What's Jomok?"
"This."
Go Cheolmin unleashed Mokhonbo, dashing along the training room's edge. He started at normal speed, but as Jomok kicked in, he accelerated astonishingly.
Even at sprinter speeds, his turns were fluid.
Kim Jun was speechless.
His... legs...
Two legs were visible.
Transparent, tentacle-like protrusions extended from them, forming and vanishing repeatedly. They were clumps of wood energy.
"...Get used to it, and you can do this."
Breathing harder now, Go Cheolmin ran straight up the wall.
Kim Jun could feel multiple tentacle-like extensions shooting from Go Cheolmin's legs, sucking onto the wall like suction cups before releasing.
Finishing the demonstration, Go Cheolmin panted.
If not for dungeon sickness, this would've been a breeze.
"Master, that's incredible!"
"Incredible? Mokhonbo belongs to the Five Phases arts, but don't forget—it's fundamentally a Mokhon Gong skill."
"What's the Five Phases arts?"
Kim Jun's ears perked up, eyes gleaming.
"The Dungeon Association collects representative martial arts from fire, water, wood, metal, and earth elements and calls them the Five Phases arts."
"Ah!"
Kim Jun marveled even at trivial knowledge.
"To learn Mokhon Gong, first sense wood energy. You can do that."
"Yes."
"The problem comes next. You have to absorb the sensed energy into your body and store it as inner energy in your dantian."
Go Cheolmin picked up one of two potted plants he'd prepared.
"Watch closely."
He held his palm just shy of the cactus's sharp spines.
Moments later, the cactus visibly wilted and dried up fast. A vibrant plant that could've lasted a month or two without water twisted dead in under five minutes.
"Feel it?"
"...Yes."
Kim Jun knew Go Cheolmin's palm had sucked out every bit of wood energy from the cactus.
"Absorb the wood energy from that cactus. You have one day."
"I can sense energy, but I can't move it."
"Can't do that? Then no Mokhon Gong, no martial art, no magic for you."
"How do you move energy, Master?"
"Just do."
That simple answer was shared by Go Cheolmin and every awakened Raider.
Some born to Raider parents, drilled in every awakening prep method, lived ordinarily. Others, raised in orphanages, suddenly levitated a spoon one day and tested as Raiders.
"Got it."
Kim Jun asked no more. Go Cheolmin wouldn't have a better answer anyway.
Think positive. I'm the first among billions not born as Raiders to sense qi and mana—at least as far as I know. I beat insane odds there; moving it? No one but me could do it.
Power welled up inside him.
As Go Cheolmin left the training room, Kim Jun approached the potted cactus.
Kim Jun calmed his mind.
Qi existed everywhere.
Broadly, yin-yang and the seven types of five phases qi filled the world.
This training room teemed with all seven.
Sparkling light specks, cold heavy darkness specks, hot fire specks, cool flowing water-like specks, woody-scented specks, hard metallic specks, earthy-smelling specks.
Too tiny to notice normally. Only in a soundproofed space, focusing intently, could he detect contact with those specks.
Definitely more active wood qi around the cactus.
Cool specks flowed through his cupped palm around it. Tiny rice-grain specks slipped between fingers or passed straight through his skin.
Grabbing yielded nothing—they flowed freely.
He fanned his hand like a fan. Maybe the breeze would draw them? Modern science couldn't explain these specks; air currents didn't faze them.
Qi vanished into the cactus or popped out from its surface.
He pressed his face close and inhaled deeply. He'd heard breathing could absorb qi to build inner energy.
Same result.
Excitement faded.
Dreadful anxiety set in.
Figure out absorbing qi in a day. Good thing no one said no help allowed.
Leaving the cactus in the training room center, Kim Jun headed upstairs.
"Just do it."
Skyla, half-reclined on the sofa meticulously reading Daily Raiders, turned her head to Kim Jun and answered.
"...Be more specific."
"Hmm, maybe this helps. See this finger? How do you move it? Just think, and it happens. Sure, brain's motor cortex signals nerves to muscles, bending the joint smoothly—but I don't know that process. I just think."
Skyla wiggled her raised index finger as she spoke.
Kim Jun sighed and turned away.
Yoo Min-jeong and Yeom Sang-taek gave the same answer.
Just do it!
A question innate awakeners never even considered.
"Gotta find another way."
Kim Jun headed back to the training hall.
Seated ramrod straight in the training hall's center, Kim Jun glared at the cactus.
Its single red bloom looked tiny in the vast space.
Two hours gone. Twenty-two left to crack it.
One's not enough.
Kim Jun shot to his feet and went upstairs.
A fleet of trucks from local flower shops and delivery services pulled up.
Workers hauled large and small potted cacti through the open garage door, into the training hall.
Yoo Min-jeong eyed Kim Jun, who was helping with arms crossed, but the culprit himself sweated away without a care.
Soon the training room was packed floor-to-ceiling with cacti pots—hundreds, worth millions, footed by Master Go Cheolmin.
"You knew?"
Yeom Sang-taek whispered to Yoo Min-jeong.
"...Yeah."
She sighed.
Said he'd order a few more pots. That's hundreds!
But she couldn't snap at Kim Jun. Go Cheolmin had told her what he was up to—pouring everything into learning Mokhon Gong.
Kim Jun didn't even glance her way, heading back down like a kid with a new toy.