Full-Scale Training (1)
With the national team roster officially announced, the very first thing Yoo Jia did was, unsurprisingly, register the guild.
SKY!
Baek Jinwoo took the Guild Master seat; the Vice Master position was left vacant for the time being.
Ten guild members in total! The national team roster had become the guild roster, one to one.
Founding the guild taught them a great deal, most notably how guild assets were gathered and managed. First of all, summons did indeed belong to the individual player. But runes, items, materials, and the like all had to be brought to the guild the moment a player earned them. In exchange, the guild provided its players with an annual salary, various services, and benefits.
In SKY's case, the official salary was 10 billion won. Considering what Yubaek pulled in, 100 billion won a year was easily affordable — pocket change, even. If anything, you could call it stingy.
Hence the unofficial salary. When guild activity ran smoothly and the materials or runes members brought in were worth a lot, bonuses got stacked on top!
And that wasn't all. As promised, homes in YooBaek City had been parceled out — and housing for the members' immediate families, too. The towers had been built so tall and sprawling that rooms were still left over even after all that.
The guild members were, naturally, thrilled. Truth be told, they'd have come even for a salary of zero. Because the single greatest perk of wearing the SKY name was Baek Jinwoo's consulting.
Of course, like the original four disciples, every member had signed a contract vowing unconditional obedience to the Guild Master's orders.
And if they didn't obey? Out of the guild — and they'd have to cough up every rune they'd been given on the way out, penalty fee included.
Even so, they signed without a flicker of hesitation.
"Heheheh, we meet again, everyone. Let's get loose, shall we?"
"Jinwoo— no, wait, Guild Master now! Everyone grab a spot and warm up before the Guild Master gets here."
"This training ground is really nice."
"Have you seen the apartments? Our old places weren't bad, but these are seriously top-tier. The view is to die for."
Hahaha, hehehe. The guild members had gathered into a lively cluster, chattering away as they loosened up.
It was only natural. Look at the roster: every one of them was a former national team member and a graduate of Baek Jinwoo's training. They all knew one another already, having grown close over shared training sessions and meals.
All except one.
"……"
Only Song Yeonhee stood rooted to the spot, her face stiff with nerves. She was neither a national team member nor a graduate of some major guild. Just a ranker — sixtieth in the rankings, affiliated with headquarters.
Everyone here is so close with each other.
Even Hwang Jiwoo, who'd been selected as an unranked player, seemed perfectly at ease with them.
The first to approach her was Hwang Juwon. Eldest present, he'd taken it upon himself to break the ice.
"Heheh, this is our first time meeting, isn't it? Song Yeonhee, was it?"
"Ah, yes!"
"You know, watching the scene these days, summoning talent seems to scale directly with beauty. Hong Ari's like that, and now Song Yeonhee here too — why is everyone so pretty?"
Hers was an entirely different image from red-haired Hong Ari. Silken black hair and brows, snow-white skin in perfect contrast, and large, utterly clear eyes to match. There was jest in the old man's flattery, but a kernel of sincerity too.
Hong Ari, Song Yeonhee, Oh Seon-young, Hwang Jiwoo — four women each radiating her own distinct charm. He'd wager they'd be pulling in serious popularity once this World League came to a close.
These days, in fact, players were far more popular than girl groups or actors. All thanks to the national-prestige buff.
"Haha, no, sir."
"Come on, hyung-nim, why would you put her on the spot like that!"
The atmosphere was just beginning to thaw—
Clunk!
The training ground's main door swung open.
"Huh?"
"The Guild Master's here."
Every head snapped around, and Hong Ari and the four other original disciples squared up into crisp attention at once.
Baek Jinwoo's training was famously brutal. He usually wore a gentle, benevolent smile — but never during training. Catch his eye the wrong way, and your day would begin with conditioning and end with conditioning. Plain and simple: the gates of hell swung open.
"Heheh, why's everyone so tense..."
Hwang Juwon's chuckle died as he clamped his mouth shut.
Hong Ari, Oh Seon-young, Ki Jaehyeok, Kang Jiho, Hwang Jiwoo. All five were standing bolt upright, frozen at attention.
Thud. Thud.
Baek Jinwoo, in a plain white T-shirt, walked in first. Half a step behind him and to the right, the armored Hungyo swept a razor-sharp gaze across the guild members.
The day of their first official training.
"Welcome, everyone."
Baek Jinwoo flashed a smile.
"Some of you have run in this training ground with me before. Some of you haven't."
Clap!
Baek Jinwoo clapped his hands.
"First — the three hyungs?"
He meant Kang Geonho, Hwang Juwon, and Ahn Gijeong.
"Yes."
"Ye-yes..."
"Yes."
Overwhelmed by the mood? Or was it the title of Guild Master? All three had instinctively slipped into formal speech.
"And Song Yeonhee?"
"YES, SIR!"
"I like a crisp answer."
Baek Jinwoo's eyes swept over the four of them.
As expected — one look and I can tell their stamina is trash.
It couldn't be helped. It would be the same in any country on Earth. Every spare hour went into raising summons, not working out.
But not here.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
The corner of Baek Jinwoo's mouth curled upward.
"Starting now, exactly one month."
"……"
"For one month, we do nothing but physical conditioning. Until every last one of you clears the minimum benchmark."
C-conditioning?
The four new guild members wore expressions that plainly asked, what is he talking about? The members who'd already survived his conditioning simply grinned — the grin of veterans saying, just you wait, you'll get yours too.
"Fail to clear that benchmark, and there will be no consulting. World League or otherwise — I have no intention of handing my know-how to players who haven't mastered the basics."
Swish. Clank.
Baek Jinwoo strapped slabs of steel onto both wrists and both ankles.
The original disciples knew exactly what those were.
Twenty kilos apiece.
A monster...
Nearly eighty kilos on his body and he still runs faster than us — is that even human?
And even as they thought it, they were cinching heavy tires around their own waists. Only the first-timers could do nothing but stare, round-eyed.
He's going to run wearing that?
Running empty-handed sounds hard enough already...
And the training ground was anything but cramped. It sprawled wide enough to pass for a track-and-field stadium.
"Right, then."
With a soft exhale, Baek Jinwoo's foot struck the ground first.
"Let's run!"
"Hup! Hup-hup-hup!"
Watching the original members fall in behind him as naturally as breathing, the new members surged after them in a wave.
They couldn't possibly have imagined... that they would keep running just like that for three straight hours.
This was the start of their true initiation.
"Haaah! Hah!"
"Hrk— hah! Hah!"
One hour into the run. The oldest man present, Hwang Juwon, felt his legs give out beneath him, and down he went.
"Oof!"
The floor scraped his skin raw, but here's what Hwang Juwon was thinking: Ahh. Should've fallen ages ago. Who knew lying flat on the ground could feel this heavenly.
But then—
"And what, exactly, do you think you are doing."
Slowly, a shadow crept over him from behind. The shadow of an armored figure. Hungyo.
Crouching before Hwang Juwon, he murmured, eyes glinting.
"If you wish to give up, by all means. But when the others push ahead, you will remain exactly where you lie. If that is your aim, why bother training at all? You are well aware that countless players would give anything for that spot."
"Hah... hah..."
"Do you not see them over there?"
Hungyo pointed ahead. There went Ahn Gijeong and Song Yeonhee — pace ground down to a crawl, yet running on, refusing to quit.
Hwang Juwon felt it was unjust. Those two at least were young!
I'm fifty-three!
"If you intend to plead your age, why not simply retire? I am told the national team selects the players who perform best within a nation. If age renders you unable to perform, should you not yield your place to those younger?"
What the— who even says that! Is that thing seriously a summon? Why is it beating me half to death with words?!
Worse, it read the depths of his heart with unnerving precision and gouged right into them — sparking a pride he hadn't even known he had. And the most infuriating part? Not a word of it was wrong.
Fuck.
Gritting his teeth, Hwang Juwon pushed himself up.
That's right. What had it cost me to climb to this seat! To face the acquaintances and reporters who would inevitably ask why he'd failed to make the national team, and answer, my stamina gave out? That would wound his pride far too deeply.
"HRAAAAAH! Let's go! Here I gooooo!"
Back on his feet, Hwang Juwon threw himself back into the run.
And Baek Jinwoo watched it all, running alongside.
Good.
Baek Jinwoo's smile deepened. They wouldn't understand it now. Later, they would feel it in their bones. Stamina, strength, breathing, senses, mentality — those hair-thin margins were what forged exquisite summon control, and seized victory.
That said.
Baek Jinwoo's gaze drifted to Song Yeonhee this time. In her self-introduction she'd stated, quite clearly, that she had never once exercised in her life. And yet her tenacity was remarkable. Her pace was right on par with Hwang Jiwoo's, too — and Hwang Jiwoo had spent a solid month building her stamina.
So this is the Heavenly Heart Body and the Limitless Body?
Not bad at all. One day, her control was bound to be nothing short of astonishing. And as it happened, he knew a summon that suited her perfectly — the kind nobody used because it was so punishingly difficult to control, yet devastating in the hands of a master.
Baek Jinwoo's mind turned its gears as he ran.
Yes. Let them all keep at it, forging those fine bodies of theirs. Nine disciples to raise in earnest.
And I'll build every one of your summons for you.
First.
Kang Geonho's main summon was the Paladin (A-rank). A warrior with built-in healing, the Paladin delivered a rock-solid balance of damage and durability. That made it especially strong against assassins, dark-attribute summons, and the undead.
Its weakness, though? Against every other attribute, it was frustratingly mediocre!
To shore that up...
He needs the other A-rank — the Black Knight.
Paladin and Black Knight. Deploy them as a two-pronged core, then plug the remaining slots with buffs and healing. Handle the control well, and wouldn't that be a genuinely frightening setup? Rough estimate: around 20 billion won.
Next, Hong Ari.
She was still running a B-rank firebird. Why would a top earner like her settle for that? Simple: A-ranks were astronomically expensive and almost never surfaced on the market. For Hong Ari in particular, the perfect match was the A-rank Phoenix — but when he'd checked the market, there wasn't a single listing, and the asking price sat at 50 billion won. Truly a case of worth whatever the seller dares to ask.
But, well. Each national team member was receiving 1 trillion won in support anyway. Money wasn't the problem. Supply was. He'd have Baek Ajin keep watching that market for now.
Oh Seon-young is perfect.
The A-rank Fenrir! Plus her pack of B-rank wolves — the Shadow Wolf, the Blood Wolf, and more. And they'd already agreed to fit her with the Howling (Rare) rune, hadn't they? That alone would carry her well into the world rankings' upper echelon.
Next, Ki Jaehyeok... the goblin devotee.
He ran two B-rank goblins, and one of them needed upgrading to A-rank. The ideal pick was the Goblin Master (A-rank) — but no listing for that had appeared yet, either.
And so it went. Summon by summon, Baek Jinwoo began drafting a plan for each guild member's roster and working with Baek Ajin to hunt the pieces down.
As if he had become the national team's head coach.