The Trainer's Reputation Soars
The Sky Guild training grounds hummed with focused energy.
Awakened trained!
3P acquired!
Awakened trained!
4P acquired!
“Whoa… it really is different.”
“The pain was always there… but now it’s completely gone.”
“No way. Just by investing in this part of the skill tree, my destructive power…”
Kang Yujun had quickly corrected the issues plaguing three awakened hunters. This is more effective than I expected.
The training speed increase skill he had used inside the Infinite Tower had never felt particularly dramatic in the moment. Still, mastering it early had proven to be the right choice. Now that he was applying it in the real world, the results far exceeded his expectations. The difference is night and day.
Yujun had spent the day instructing Sky Guild’s first-team awakened. Sangcheol, Injun, and Junbeom. Each of them carried unique bad habits that had gradually broken down their form, twisted their mana roads, and disrupted their circuits. He had fixed all of it.
I used the VR machine for the process.
Sky Guild’s VR machine was several grades below the one at Lightning Guild, so its baseline efficiency was lower. That was where the training speed increase skill had truly shined, compensating for the equipment’s limitations and delivering outstanding results.
“I only trained for five hours, but it feels like I’ve been at it for days.”
“Thank you so much, Trainer!”
Five hours of training that delivered several times the usual benefit meant Yujun had earned a full ten points in a single day.
“Hooo…”
He was exhausted, but the smile on his face refused to fade. I needed a proper break after that. Still, the fatigue couldn’t dampen the quiet joy blooming in his chest. This ability is genuinely fun.
People actively sought out his training. So this is what it feels like to be useful. It was a sensation he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
“Wow… does this even make sense?”
“He was the same with Ojung.”
“I had no idea training could be this easy.”
Yujun swept his gaze across every first-team awakened present in the training room. They all have problems. Flawed habits. Incorrect movements. Suboptimal skill tree choices. Each hunter had been growing in their own way, yet every path contained critical missteps.
I can see those missteps so clearly.
Perhaps this path had been his destiny from the beginning. But he didn’t regret the years of hardship. If I had walked this road from the start, I probably would have struggled anyway.
Only after countless failures, after being driven to the edge of a cliff, had this talent finally revealed itself. All those painful experiences, every wrong movement and bad habit he had internalized, had given him the complete picture of how to guide others onto the right path. Only now had this ability truly been completed.
Of course, I’m still far from perfect.
Every awakened was different. Correcting and improving their individual flaws demanded constant effort and study. Even so…
This is enjoyable.
Yujun was having the time of his life.
“Thank you, Trainer!”
“It’s getting late today, so…”
“Next, please step forward.”
Yujun looked at the cluster of awakened waiting their turn. “We’ll finish everyone today.” Training wasn’t something that happened overnight. A trainee’s condition mattered, but so did the trainer’s. Still, I understand how desperate they are.
“So show me everything.”
At Yujun’s words, the awakened immediately began demonstrating their abilities.
Every guild had its share of circulating rumors. Stories about tower raids, which awakened had been injured where, tales designed to trigger dopamine hits. Lately, however, only one name dominated every conversation.
“Trainer Kang Yujun is no joke. I’ll be honest, I completely dismissed him at first.”
Yujun was the former promising prospect who had been expelled from Promise Guild. Once called the Golden Youth, his flashy past now stood in stark contrast to his complete lack of awakening or accomplishments. When he first arrived at Sky Guild as a freelance trainer, everyone had naturally viewed him with suspicion.
“But he’s seriously incredible. His training is incredibly systematic. You learn it once and the correction sticks immediately.”
“When I tried doing it alone, I couldn’t get it right. But after three or four sessions with him, the problems disappeared completely. Damn… his skill is on another level.”
Sky Guild’s professional trainers had unintentionally been given time off. Everyone wanted to learn from Yujun instead, so there was nothing they could do about it.
“What exactly is so special about him?”
“The youth trainers who mainly handle the prospects watched Trainer Kang Yujun and were left speechless. They said they’d never seen training like it.”
The first-team trainers of Sky Guild had begun observing Yujun’s sessions with keen interest.
“He’s grasping the mana flow… with perfect precision.”
Though he held a cane in his hand, most of his corrections came through verbal instruction. “It looks like classic training.”
Direct posture correction had fallen out of favor in recent years. After all, every awakened eventually found the stance most comfortable for them, and since that comfort varied from person to person, forcing a universal correction seemed pointless.
“To correct posture properly, you’d need to instantly identify each awakened’s unique characteristics and adjust accordingly.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s too difficult. I’ve got five years of experience and I wouldn’t even attempt it. Right, Team Leader?”
“Exactly.”
Even the team leader found that level of precise correction daunting. It required perfect analysis of abilities, characteristics, and mana roads, followed by either direct training or detailed VR machine measurements.
“But when he does it like that…”
The awakened who received Yujun’s training were visibly improving. Their harmful habits in particular were disappearing at a remarkable rate.
Unless someone received elite education from the very beginning, most awakened developed unique habits as they grew. Good or bad, these habits formed inevitably, and sometimes they created serious problems.
For example, the tendency to explosively release mana flow in an instant. That habit could cause mana to stagnate, leading to inflammation or dangerous delays. Such issues couldn’t be fixed through simple posture correction.
Yet Yujun’s training was doing exactly that.
“Just by correcting their posture… he can achieve this?”
“Wait, can posture correction even work like that in the first place?”
The first-team trainers were genuinely impressed.
“There’s no point in trying to compete with him.”
“We should be the ones learning from this.”
“Ahem!”
The first-team leader cleared his throat loudly. The trainers quickly straightened.
“Sorry, sir.”
“You should be sorry. There’s an order to these things. Shouldn’t I be the first one to learn this technique?”
“……”
The first-team leader was truly astonished. That talent was no ordinary thing. Trainers possessed exceptionally sharp eyes for recognizing talent, and that applied to fellow trainers as well.
“He probably won’t stay with our guild for long anyway.”
With that level of skill, any guild would treat him like royalty. He’ll move on to a bigger guild.
Sky Guild training grounds.
Guild Leader Lee Hyeokjun had come to the training area for the first time in a while.
“There’s our ace!”
Awakened Lee Suyeon. She was Lee Hyeokjun’s niece and a promising talent who had just returned from studying abroad. After spending a year gaining experience with overseas guilds, she had finally come home.
“Is my niece here?”
“Uncle!”
Lee Suyeon was indeed Lee Hyeokjun’s niece, the daughter of his older brother. Her father currently worked as a public official at the Awakened Management Association, often shortened to the Association.
She had long hair and cat-like eyes. At first glance she appeared to be a speed-type awakened, but in reality she possessed a very different kind of power.
Iron Wall. The ability to create an incredibly powerful barrier that could nullify any attack. She had used that power to fulfill various roles while abroad.
“How was it overseas?”
“It was completely different. The biggest difference was the trainers…”
Their methods were systematic yet flexible. A truly paradoxical style of training had been the norm. “It’s nothing like Korea.”
“Really? We’re actually in the middle of training right now. Want to watch for a bit?”
“I need to return to Neverland soon.”
“Take a quick look before you go. Besides, you know the situation at Neverland, don’t you?”
The guild she belonged to, Neverland, was currently suffering from significant problems.
“The number of injured awakened has already exceeded seventy percent. They’ve essentially lost their proper fighting force.”
“…How did it get that bad?”
“I’m not sure myself.”
“What? Uncle! Then what about Jena?”
Yu Jena. She was Neverland Guild’s only S-class awakened.
“I heard Jena isn’t in great condition either. Though she’s still better off than the others.”
“What in the world happened while I was gone?”
Lee Hyeokjun had tried to uncover what was happening at Neverland, the guild his niece belonged to. His older brother had asked him multiple times to look after her. Even without that request, he adored his only niece and had kept a close eye on Neverland’s affairs. Despite that, he still couldn’t get a clear picture of the situation.
“It seems their internal matters are quite complicated. Go see for yourself. And if you need any help, contact your uncle immediately.”
“I understand, Uncle. I guess I’ll have to go there to find out. If even you don’t know what’s going on, it must be something serious.”
Neverland Guild ranked slightly higher than Sky Guild. For a guild of that caliber to be unable to operate normally meant a truly grave problem had arisen.
“I was planning to teach you the new training methods I learned while studying abroad.”
She frowned. “So who am I supposed to watch before I leave, Uncle?”
“Our new freelance trainer.”
“A new freelance trainer?”
Why bring up a freelance trainer all of a sudden?
“We already have plenty of excellent trainers in Sky Guild. Why a freelancer?”
“You know Woo Hana, right?”
“Of course I do.”
Woo Hana was two years younger than her. Since Lee Suyeon had also started as a youth in Sky Guild, she was close with Woo Hana.
“Hana has been promoted to the first team.”
“…How?”
She looked genuinely puzzled. Having been close to Woo Hana, she knew all about her friend’s fatal weakness.
“I thought she couldn’t control her acceleration properly.”
“That freelance trainer fixed it.”
“…What are you saying, Uncle? Hasn’t the freelancer only been here a short time?”
“That’s correct.”
Lee Hyeokjun nodded. “The moment he arrived, he solved Woo Hana’s problem. That’s the kind of trainer he is.”
“That’s incredible!”
Now she was even more curious to meet him. The reason Lee Hyeokjun had sent his niece abroad was because he had seen tremendous potential in her. However, she also possessed a difficult flaw.
If Woo Hana had been afraid of her own acceleration because she couldn’t control her power properly, Lee Suyeon’s problem was the complete opposite.
“Hello.”
At that moment, Yujun entered the training room.
Huh?
Something astonishing caught Yujun’s eye.