Waiting Room (3)
The overbearing group finally withdrew, and for a brief while, peace returned to the waiting room. I kept to my own room. They seemed to be taking turns resting in the rooms they’d half-coerced out of others. Somehow, I’d ended up on bad terms with everyone except myself… It wasn’t that I wasn’t worried. Maybe I’d pushed the bluff too far. But there was no helping it. Give a needle thief an inch and he’ll take a mile. Once people like that start getting something from you, they treat it like their natural right and keep demanding more. Since they’d already tried to take my room this time, it was obvious they’d come asking for points next. Their demands would only grow bigger and bigger until, eventually, they might shove a knife to my throat and tell me to hand over my life. It might sound like an exaggeration, but in this place, it could actually happen. They’d backed off for now, but I was certain they’d come again soon.
Luniel had already drawn a firm line: no free meals. Everything had to be bought with points. That meant the people who’d died early would have no points left. They’d have to borrow from someone, and who would that someone be? Naturally, the top rankers who still had some points to spare. On top of that, while I might have shared rooms, I had zero intention of sharing points. So something was bound to happen. Just like starving beasts will do anything for food, humans were no different.
— Attention, all Hero Candidates. Please gather in the lobby.
At Luniel’s voice, I got up from the bed where I’d been resting and headed for the lobby. My sword hung naturally at my waist, and people’s eyes naturally drifted toward it. I ignored their stares without a care and took a spot in one corner of the lobby, waiting for Luniel to speak.
It didn’t take long for the stares to shift. A man appeared, stealing every gaze that had been fixed on me.
“What the fuck are you looking at, you bastards? Surprised I’m still alive?”
Everyone was visibly shocked by the sight of Choi Kyung-seok, who looked perfectly fine. I’d heard he’d been beaten nearly to death. Even the overbearing leader and his crew who had done the beating looked stunned. If he wasn’t half-dead, there was no way he should look this healthy.
“Hero Candidate Choi Kyung-seok. Refrain from unnecessary comments and return to your position.”
“Got it.”
At Luniel’s words, the truck driver meekly returned to his spot. His attitude toward her was far more respectful than before, which told me everything I needed to know about what had happened. Still, I didn’t understand why they’d healed him. Whatever. Even angels must have their own circumstances. If I were a regressor, I might know, but I was just a possessor with zero prior knowledge. All I could do was guess.
Anyway, things are getting interesting.
The truck driver I thought I’d killed had returned completely fine. I was curious how the others would react now.
“It seems you’ve all rested sufficiently. Before explaining the second tutorial, we will conduct a Talent Measurement.”
Talent measurement. So they were finally giving us something. Up until now I’d honestly wondered how we were supposed to kill the Demon King, but it looked like our growth path would be decided here.
“The method is simple…”
The explanation wasn’t complicated. Touch the device Luniel had just installed, and your talents would appear on a screen like the shop interface. Among the countless talents, choose the ones with the highest compatibility and open them using points. Upon opening a talent, you would gain basic proficiency—roughly equivalent to six months of diligent training, according to Luniel.
At first glance, it seemed like a kind gesture to awaken our talents so we wouldn’t have to fight the Demon King bare-handed. The problem was…
“Five hundred points? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Everyone let out hollow laughs at the price of 500 points. It made sense. Even I, who had earned the most points so far, could only open it twice. Everyone else could only do it once at most. Some might not even open a single talent by the end of all three tutorials.
“Wait! What are people without points supposed to do?!”
“You can earn them during the next two tutorials.”
“That’s easy for you to say…”
No one could easily recover from the shock of that huge number. If points were only spent on talents, they might have held onto some hope. But they also needed to buy food and equipment, so the future looked bleak.
Well, not for me.
While everyone else was panicking over how to earn 500 points, I stepped forward confidently. I currently had 1010 points. I could open two talents right now, but I needed to save some for food, so I decided on just one.
“Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo. Will you open a talent?”
“Of course.”
“Then please place your hand on the device.”
Following Luniel’s guidance, I placed my hand on the machine that reached about waist height. A tingling sensation like a mild electric current ran through me, and a window appeared before my eyes. Thanks to the shop, I was no longer surprised by this kind of system. What did surprise me was the sheer variety of talents available.
“Why the hell is ‘Threading a Needle’ even a talent?”
What annoyed me more was that it had the highest compatibility and sat at the very top. ‘High’ was the second-highest rank out of seven (Supreme → High → Upper Medium → Medium → Lower Medium → Low → Lowest), and it was the best match among all my talents.
“It is a somewhat useful talent, but I do not recommend it.”
“Yeah, I know that much.”
I wasn’t sure if she was teasing me or giving sincere advice. Either way, I filtered out the useless ones and looked at what remained.
Weapon Skill: One-Handed Sword (Upper Medium)
Weapon Skill: Two-Handed Axe (Medium)
Body Training (Medium)
Aura Utilization (Lower Medium)
There were no High-rank talents, and everything was awkwardly clustered around ‘Medium.’ It was a little disappointing.
So I’m not the protagonist after all.
I’d cleared the first tutorial so easily that I’d briefly wondered if I might be some kind of chosen one. Apparently not. The talent list brought me back to reality.
“If I choose Aura Utilization, can I use aura right away?”
I had a rough idea of what the others would be like once opened, but this one was unclear. I was familiar with the term from web novels and webtoons, but since I had no actual experience with the concept, I had no idea what level I’d reach after six months of training.
“The difference depends on compatibility, but unless it is at the Lowest rank, you will be able to use it immediately.”
“Really?”
“Additionally, opening a talent grants growth acceleration proportional to its compatibility. Please keep that in mind as well.”
Hmm. I thought for a moment, but the answer was already clear.
“I’ll open Aura Utilization (Lower Medium).”
In my opinion, this was the right choice. Weapon skills and body training were important, but what would give me immediate power was aura. I could already imitate swordsmanship to some degree from my kendo training, and choosing body training wouldn’t change anything right away. On the other hand, aura would provide instant strength the moment it was opened, so I could use it starting from the next tutorial. Plus, after looking into it, Aura Utilization had good versatility among aura-related talents. It didn’t seem like a bad pick in my current situation where I knew nothing.
“Understood.”
At Luniel’s short reply, light flowed from the machine, wrapped around my body for a brief moment, and then vanished. The process was so short that I wondered if it had actually worked.
“That’s it?”
“Check for yourself. You should now have knowledge regarding Aura Utilization in your mind.”
“Okay.”
At her confirmation, I recalled information about Aura Utilization. Sure enough, knowledge I had never known in my life flooded into my head. Just as expected from information given by our Goddess, it was neatly organized. Among it, I immediately tested the method to sense aura inside my body.
“Ohh.”
A warm sensation bloomed near my lower abdomen, and I couldn’t help but let out a sound of admiration. It seemed that along with the knowledge, aura had been created inside me. I could feel it right away. Excited by this strange new sensation, I played with the aura like a child with a new toy. I sent it to my arms, then to my legs, moving it around in every direction for quite a while to test its effects.
“Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo. Please conduct your experiments later. I must now explain the second tutorial.”
Luniel, apparently unable to watch any longer, told me to return to my spot. I swallowed my disappointment and went back, still moving the aura around. The people around me watched with eyes full of envy. If this had been a few hours ago, some might have come over to ask how I did it. But after what had happened earlier, no one dared approach.
“Now, I will explain the second tutorial.”
At the words ‘second tutorial,’ the people tensed up again. Even I, who had been happily playing with my aura, stopped and listened carefully.
“The name of the second tutorial is Defense of Delmore Invasion.”
Defense of Delmore Invasion. Just from the name, I could tell what kind of tutorial it would be. It probably meant monsters or demons would invade a place called Delmore, and we had to defend it.
“As some of you may have guessed from the name, this is a simple tutorial where you must stop the monsters invading Delmore. For more details, please refer to the video I am about to show you.”
Snap.
When Luniel flicked her fingers, a video appeared behind her large wings. The quality looked like an old film reel, but it was clear enough to understand. The content was straightforward. A peaceful village was invaded by an enormous number of goblins. The residents and Hero Candidates joined forces to stop them. It was simple and nothing special. The problem was—
“Uweeegh!”
The video was uncensored 19+ gore. Blood sprayed, people died, and on top of that, there were explicit scenes of goblins raping men, women, and children of all ages before devouring them. Even I, who had grown used to killing, found it nauseating. If it was this hard for me, there was no way people in their early twenties could handle it. As expected, all the women watching started dry-heaving, and many of the men looked sick as well.
“W-will… will we end up like that too…?”
“Of course. This video was recorded from events that actually happened to previous Hero Candidates. It can happen at any time. Therefore—”
Luniel paused, her cold eyes sweeping over the crowd.
“Please do whatever it takes to survive. Especially those who have already died once should understand. If you die in all three tutorials, you will be stripped of your Hero Candidate qualification. Take extra care to ensure that does not happen.”
With those words, Luniel disappeared. In the spot where she had suddenly appeared and suddenly vanished, only a timer announcing the start of the next tutorial remained, heightening the tension.
Time remaining: 10 hours.
In ten hours, the next tutorial would begin.