Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Wrong Expectations
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‘Yeah, it was wrong to expect anything.’
Seo Woo-jin clutched his head with his hand and let out a sigh before looking at Lee Ji-ah.
“So, do you know how hard I worked yesterday to clean up that mess?”
She never knew how to shut her mouth.
That tiny mouth of hers chattered on endlessly, to the point where it was exasperating.
‘She didn’t live in LA as a kid or anything, did she?’
Some baseball player popped into his mind for some reason, but he shook it off.
“Um, Ji-ah.”
Seo Woo-jin raised his hand to cut her off.
Normally, he would have just let her go on.
She was a bit noisy, but cute enough that it was tolerable.
But right now, it was a problem.
“Can I do some training?”
From the day the subjugation ended until now.
Seo Woo-jin hadn’t skipped training even for a single day.
Even when Testaron’s sword had pierced his side and blood was gushing out, he’d gritted his teeth and sharpened his blade.
It had been the same after arriving at the Empire.
He’d come out before breakfast to work up a sweat...
But somehow Lee Ji-ah had found out and started chatting away in the training grounds.
“Training? Aren’t you doing it right now? And swinging your sword every morning like that? Weird. We get stronger without even trying. Oh, is it because you’re D-grade, mister?”
His ears were ringing.
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m weak, so I can’t afford to skip training.”
“Ah! Sorry. Am I bothering you?”
Her sheepish grin was pretty cute.
Fortunately, Lee Ji-ah got the hint and stepped back a bit.
“Phew-”
Seo Woo-jin refocused and raised his sword again.
First, a simple downward slash.
It was a basic motion, but far from easy.
Ban Slaine had always emphasized the fundamentals.
Thanks to that, Seo Woo-jin never swung his sword carelessly, not even once.
He poured all his focus, strength, and mana into every swing.
So of course it was exhausting.
Even though he hadn’t reached ten swings, sweat was beading on his forehead.
For someone who’d hit level 10 and gained the power of an advanced knight, struggling this much was incomprehensible.
That’s how much he was putting into each and every strike.
His arms trembled, sweat poured like rain.
He desperately wanted to drop the sword and collapse.
But Seo Woo-jin only sheathed it after completing exactly a hundred swings.
He forced his ragged breathing under control.
He’d heard enough from Ailin during his first battle about how crucial breathing was.
After a few seconds, it got a little easier.
“Haah-!”
He exhaled the pent-up breath and wiped away the sweat.
Refreshing.
A sensation the old Seo Woo-jin from Earth would never have known.
To feel refreshed after pushing his body to exhaustion.
He was starting to understand why all those gym rats on Earth were so obsessed with working out.
“Wow, mister! You looked like a real knight just now.”
As soon as the training session ended, Lee Ji-ah came running over like she’d been waiting.
He couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
“I saw knights in Lennistant doing the same thing. They wore these tacky red armors, and one named Mika swung the hardest.”
She was talking about the Red Wind Knights he’d seen before.
They’d looked pretty cool to him...
“But that Mika guy’s sword had these flashing lights coming out of it. I thought it was a fluorescent lamp, not a sword! Isn’t that hilarious?”
‘Fluorescent lamp?’
It was probably aura she was describing.
Calling that destructive energy a fluorescent lamp...
“Can you do that, mister? Most of the other heroes who use swords seemed to be able to. Is it because your level’s still low?”
She had a real knack for stabbing people in the heart without meaning to.
“Aura, huh?”
Not just swordsmen, but most heroes who wielded cold weapons could use ‘aura.’
Though it was a bit different from what knights in this world used.
Knights manifested aura through enlightenment after endless training.
That’s why only a tiny fraction ever reached that level.
But heroes could use it thanks to the convenient, overpowered system called skills.
No training or enlightenment required.
Just pure destruction.
For heroes, ‘aura’ was merely a tool to kill enemies more easily.
‘Same for me.’
Seo Woo-jin had indeed undergone brutal training for a year and gained plenty of knowledge.
But it was still far from awakening true aura.
‘Aura.’
As he activated the skill, his sword burst into flames with a whoosh.
“That’s it! Wow, you can do it too, mister. I thought you couldn’t yet.”
Aura manifested through a skill.
‘That’s why heroes are cheats.’
They could wield this power just by hunting monsters.
No wonder knights were jealous.
‘Someday, I will too.’
He wanted to ignite aura with his own power, not a skill.
It was a distant goal, but with effort, maybe one day.
Testaron would probably laugh his ass off if he heard that.
“Mister, training’s over, so let’s go eat. I barely got to eat anything at the welcome banquet yesterday because it ended so abruptly, and I’m starving.”
Lee Ji-ah grabbed Seo Woo-jin’s arm and whined.
He gave a wry smile.
Honestly, he wanted to loosen up a bit more.
But since the banquet had gone to hell partly because of him, he decided to call it here.
“Alright. Let’s go eat.”
“Yay! Breakfast, breakfast!”
Thrilled, Lee Ji-ah dashed off toward the dining hall with a patter of footsteps.
Seo Woo-jin smirked and started to follow when a man suddenly appeared, blocking his path.
“Seo Woo-jin?”
Not a hero.
Too foreign-looking to be Korean.
The heroes were all Korean kids in their teens or twenties, so this guy seemed like a local.
“Who are you?”
Seo Woo-jin tilted his head.
“Someone wants to see you. If it’s alright, would you come with me?”
His tone was polite.
The vibe felt friendly too.
‘Doesn’t seem like trouble.’
Seo Woo-jin glanced behind the man.
Lee Ji-ah, already forgetting about him, was heading into the dining hall without looking back.
‘She’ll be fine on her own. She’s a social butterfly.’
“Any idea who?”
Someone from this world seeking him out first thing in the morning.
He had no clue.
“It’s not my place to say... but they mean you no harm.”
No reason to refuse, then.
He was curious, too.
Seo Woo-jin started to nod, then paused.
“Uh, I’m really sweaty right now.”
It felt awkward to show up drenched in sweat to wherever this polite invitation was leading, especially not the dining hall.
“No problem. Just a moment...”
The man smiled and began whispering softly.
‘Magic?’
He couldn’t make out the words, but recognizing it as a spell incantation wasn’t hard.
After the brief chant, Seo Woo-jin’s body began to glow faintly.
Then, just like that, he was fresh as if he’d just showered.
“Whoa-”
Seo Woo-jin was impressed.
Not by the magic’s wonder.
He’d seen magic a few times in Sion.
From the perspective of someone who leveled up and used skills, magic wasn’t that mysterious.
What impressed him was something else.
‘Who the hell uses a mage as an errand boy?’
Mages were rare, obviously.
And treated as such.
Mid-level and above could even receive noble titles, depending on ability.
And this guy was just a messenger?
He was getting more and more curious about who’d summoned him.
“Now you’re good to go.”
“Thank you.”
Seo Woo-jin bowed slightly to the mage and followed him out of the training grounds.
* * *
“How’s the heroes’ growth coming along?”
The woman asked.
Buried in stacks of documents, her disheveled hair matched her fatigued expression.
“They’ve reached an average of level 25.”
“Hm, slower than I expected.”
“With so many summoned, our support has its limits.”
When there were fewer than ten heroes, full backing was possible.
But a hundred? No way.
“Still, the five S-grade and above have all broken level 30. The ‘Saintess’ is at 40, and the ‘Sword God’ over 50.”
“That’s good news.”
Higher grades grew faster, naturally.
Plus their personal efforts widened the gap.
“Even so, it’s not enough. Raise the other heroes’ average levels as fast as possible.”
“The Empire’s full resources are committed. By the Demon King’s descent, we’ll hit our targets.”
“Good.”
The woman looked satisfied with the report.
“But I heard there was a commotion yesterday.”
“Oh, nothing serious. Just some squabble between heroes.”
Young and full of vigor, conflicts were inevitable.
Just a fistfight—nothing major, as he said.
But the woman didn’t see it that way.
“A D-grade at level 10 unilaterally beat them down, and it’s ‘nothing serious’?”
Her voice turned icy.
The room’s temperature seemed to drop with it.
No, it wasn’t an illusion.
Her surging mana actually chilled the air enough for visible breath.
“T-That’s...”
The man bowed in panic.
“Go verify it. He might be hiding his strength, so investigate thoroughly. Visit Sion if needed.”
“Understood!”
He bolted from the room.
“Hm...”
The woman picked up a document.
“‘Sword Soldier,’ huh...”
It was Seo Woo-jin’s file.
Basic info: grade, level, class, and his Massive Guardian subjugation.
Even that was sketchy.
“After the Massive Guardian subjugation, he’s just been training?”
With Ban Slaine, no less.
That name alone was enough to draw her attention.
But nothing special stood out.
If anything, he seemed pathetically lacking compared to other heroes.
Her fingers drummed the desk.
“No need for me to worry about him.”
She had mountains of other matters, even without some D-grade Sword Soldier trash.
The Empire’s Secret Intelligence Agency, Crusiel.
Director Agna slammed a big stamp on Seo Woo-jin’s file.
[9th Grade Monitoring Target.]