The Trainer's True Value
The rehabilitation treatment for all the injured, including Oh Yunseok, was now complete.
All the mana roads have been stabilized.
Yujun had swung his staff to restore every damaged section for each awakened hunter, returning them to their original state.
The swollen mana roads wouldn't snap back to normal immediately, of course.
But a single day would be enough.
"It's all done. You'll feel much better by tomorrow."
At Yujun's words, every face in the room brightened, including the guild leader's.
The awakened who had received direct treatment were especially pleased by their bodies' immediate response.
The pain hadn't vanished entirely, but it was now so faint it was barely noticeable compared to before.
The constant discomfort they'd lived with had finally returned to normal, shifting their overall condition so dramatically they could actually feel themselves healing.
"Thank you!"
"Go straight home after work and get some sleep. And whatever you do, don't drink."
As he spoke, Yujun glanced at the guild leader.
"Guild Leader."
Formal orders weren't his place to give.
"Everyone's dismissed!"
At the guild leader's command, they all left with bright, joyful expressions.
Only the trainers, the guild leader, and Lee Suyeon remained.
"Let's talk privately," the guild leader told the trainers.
"Yes, Guild Leader."
"And Trainer Kang Yujun, you've worked incredibly hard."
In this unbelievable situation, the guild leader had been stunned at first, but a wide smile soon spread across his face.
Everything was resolved.
And at the center of that resolution stood Kang Yujun.
"You've truly worked so hard. Thank you."
The way the guild leader looked at Kang Yujun had completely changed from before.
The training room now stood empty.
Everyone had gone home, leaving only Oh Yunseok, Lee Suyeon, and the Neverland trainers.
The trainers wore dazed expressions, still struggling to collect their thoughts.
"......"
The past hours had swept over them like a storm.
Yujun had appeared out of nowhere and healed every injured Neverland Guild member.
Oh Yunseok felt it more strongly than anyone.
His body had returned to its former peak condition.
That was exactly why he was so desperate to understand.
"Suyeon, please explain what the hell just happened. Who is that guy? Is he really the Kang Yujun we know?"
He needed to know how any of this was possible.
"Did the guild leader personally bring Trainer Kang Yujun?"
Yujun had mentioned receiving a formal request from the guild leader.
He'd signed on as an external contractor for short-term rehabilitation training, but that story didn't add up.
After all, they'd only begun to fully grasp the scale of the crisis recently.
The guild leader had been debating whether to contact the mercenary guild at all.
And then, suddenly, Kang Yujun?
"Yes, that's right. It's the same Kang Yujun that Senior Yunseok knows!"
"So it really is him."
Honestly, it had been hard to believe.
"The guild leader didn't seek him out himself. Right now, Trainer Kang is working with the Sky Guild."
Lee Suyeon gave a quick explanation of how she'd met Kang Yujun.
"He fixed my fainting problem in an instant."
That was where the real questions began.
"That's amazing, but why did he come here?"
"In exchange for fixing my condition, he asked to be introduced to Jena unnie."
"To Jena?"
Yu Jena, the S-class ace of the Neverland Guild.
She was the unintentional catalyst behind this entire incident.
In truth, it wasn't really her fault.
Everyone had copied her training method and ended up like this.
But Yu Jena carried an overwhelming sense of responsibility.
Because of her, Neverland's awakened had been hurt.
This was all her fault.
So she had to take responsibility.
With that mindset, she'd been tackling towers almost obsessively since that day.
Not just the towers where Neverland held exclusive rights, but unexplored ones as well.
She'd even attempted a solo tower run recently.
Even for an S-class like Yu Jena, that was extremely dangerous.
"She's going to be incredibly sensitive right now. Why would he want to meet her?"
The question puzzled them deeply.
"Maybe he has some training request for her? That would be the worst outcome."
The current training method had been developed through consultation with Neverland's trainers.
That was exactly why the crisis had exploded, and now a trainer like Kang Yujun wanted to meet and talk with Yu Jena?
She would never agree to it.
"If you asked her, Jena would probably meet him even if she didn't want to."
The chances of everything going terribly wrong were high.
Lee Suyeon let out a long sigh.
"That's exactly what worries me. But that new training method Jena unnie created. Wasn't it supposed to solve the original problem?"
"It was. That's why she seemed to have shed some of her worries lately."
"But it turned out to be far too dangerous, didn't it?"
"Looking back, yes. Though it does seem effective for Jena herself."
"That might just be because unnie is strong enough to endure it."
Lee Suyeon wore a deeply concerned expression.
That was why, when Kang Yujun had said he wanted to meet Yu Jena, she'd actually felt relieved.
She had been worried about her friend even before leaving for her studies in England.
If anyone could do something for her, it was Kang Yujun.
"Hmm. But does Trainer Kang Yujun already know Jena?"
"Doesn't seem like it. But his eyes..."
Lee Suyeon recalled Yujun's expression.
"They looked full of ambition."
"...Then this might not be good."
"I feel the same way."
Yet beneath the worry, there was a strange spark of anticipation.
"I have a feeling that if it's Trainer Kang Yujun, things will turn out differently."
"He's a genius."
"A real genius. How is that even possible? In all my years as a trainer, I've never seen training ability like that!"
"Wait, to begin with, shouldn't he be unable to diagnose mana? He never awakened, so he shouldn't have any mana at all!"
"So how did he diagnose anything... and how did he fix it so easily..."
"You don't think he awakened, do you?"
"If he had, he wouldn't have been expelled."
"I still can't believe it. It's unreal."
In the trainer's lounge, the Neverland trainers were practically foaming at the mouth with praise for Yujun's overwhelming skill.
He had treated forty-five awakened hunters in just five hours, alone.
What they couldn't fix no matter how hard they tried, he had identified and healed in moments.
And on top of that, he'd even corrected their underlying issues.
"Honestly, I still can't wrap my head around it. How did he even do that..."
"Every case was different, right? Same root cause but completely unique symptoms, yet he handled them all so quickly."
"He's not just a genius. He's a monster."
Jealousy only existed when there was a comparable level of skill to be jealous of.
How could anyone be jealous of a trainer type that had never existed before?
All they could feel was pure awe.
Knock, knock.
The guild leader's secretary entered the waiting room.
"Head Team Leader, the guild leader would like to see you."
Guild Leader's Office.
"You've arrived?"
Lee Shinjun, the Neverland Guild Leader, was beaming.
Of course he was smiling. Just days ago, his head had felt like it would split open from the stress.
He hadn't been able to see a single path forward, yet the entire crisis had been resolved in one decisive stroke.
What's more, he was told all the injured would be able to return to duty tomorrow.
It was the perfect scenario Kang Yujun had delivered.
The head team leader carefully read the guild leader's mood. With the situation improved so dramatically, now was the time to speak.
"Guild Leader, I'm sorry. For you to have to clean up the mess we made... Even though things have gotten better, we will still accept our punishment. This was our failure to conduct proper training."
The head team leader was sharp.
He made sure to credit the entire resolution to the guild leader.
"No, no. I think I was too harsh with my words as well."
Having regained his composure, the guild leader accepted the apology graciously.
Until now, Neverland's trainers had performed their duties exceptionally well.
The guild's smooth operation owed much to their influence.
The youths had been taught properly and the main force awakened had grown admirably precisely because the trainers had done their jobs right.
There had been fault on his own side for immediately talking about compensation over a single mistake.
Of course the situation had been dire enough to justify it, but since it had ended well, there was no need to dwell on blame.
"Besides, I didn't contribute anything to this resolution."
The guild leader continued.
While he had made the final call, the credit belonged to someone else.
"This entire matter is thanks to Lee Suyeon. She was the one who brought Trainer Kang Yujun."
The guild leader planned to reward her with a generous bonus.
Without her bringing Kang Yujun, his head really would have exploded.
They would have been forced to resolve everything through the mercenary guild.
In the worst case, the awakened might have suffered their injuries for so long that even the mercenaries couldn't have fixed them.
"Which brings me to my question. What do you think of Trainer Kang Yujun?"
"We must recruit him at all costs."
The head team leader answered without hesitation.
The ability he had displayed went far beyond common sense.
"He's a genius. No, he's surpassed genius. I've never seen a trainer like him. I even heard he doesn't have an official license yet."
"That's the most puzzling part."
Not having an official license meant he had only recently started working as a trainer.
"With that level of skill, he should have been working steadily as a trainer long before his expulsion. But would someone about to be expelled even have time to prepare for a career change?"
In other words, it made sense that he had discovered this new talent only after being expelled.
"And yet he's already at this level. It means he's still growing..."
"Exactly. To be completely honest, if Trainer Kang Yujun took my position right now, he'd handle it perfectly."
At the head team leader's candid admission, the guild leader stroked his chin.
To think his head trainer would acknowledge someone to this degree.
"Resolving a crisis like this in less than a day proves his talent is extraordinary."
Even the guild leader found it hard to believe.
He had provided an answer to a problem everyone thought unsolvable.
"It's that level of talent. If we manage to work with Trainer Kang Yujun..."
Neverland could rise to become a top-tier guild.
"We would have at least three S-class awakened."
"......"
It wasn't an exaggeration.
With the existing S-class Yu Jena, both Lee Suyeon and Oh Yunseok would reach S-class as well.
If Kang Yujun joined them.
"After watching him rehabilitate every injured hunter in just five hours, I became certain."
"Seeing it in person must have made it even more convincing."
When he'd only heard the story, he couldn't picture it.
But the head team leader and the other trainers had witnessed it firsthand. Their assessment was only natural.
"However... it will probably be difficult."
They needed to bring him in somehow, but there was a reason it wouldn't be easy.
"Trainer Kang Yujun understands his own value perfectly."
"...He's sharp?"
"Yes."
The head team leader nodded.
He knew exactly what he was worth.
"Hoooo..."
Guild Leader Lee Shinjun lightly slammed his desk and stood up.
"Then how about offering him an external director position!"
Kang Yujun, who had only just become a trainer, would obtain his license soon.
To get that license, he would need a guild or awakened to vouch for him.
"If we provide that guarantee..."
"We can build and maintain a strong relationship."
By offering him an external director seat with no real responsibility but plenty of benefits, they could secure a favorable connection with Kang Yujun in advance.
When the head team leader agreed, the guild leader immediately reached out to Lee Suyeon.
He needed Kang Yujun's contact information so he could discuss the terms himself.
"I'll handle it."
"No, that's not necessary."
This was the moment to show sincerity.
"I should do it myself."