Chapter 13 …
How much could a person really change in just ten days?
Kim Gyojun, the one receiving the training, thought the same.
It was only natural.
How much training had he already gone through after joining the Sky Guild?
He had thrown everything into training again and again, yet nothing had changed.
He was the worst among the youths.
Compared to the others, his growth rate and skill were miserable.
So he couldn’t help but think that way.
What could possibly change in just ten days?
Of course, he trusted Kang Yujun, who had awakened Woo Hana in an instant.
But he didn’t trust himself.
He wasn’t Woo Hana. He didn’t have her innate talent.
In the world of Awakeners, natural talent accounted for the biggest factor — and he had far too little of it.
But Yujun had said:
The one who was wrong wasn’t Gyojun.
It was the people who had taught him.
They simply hadn’t seen his potential.
Gyojun didn’t believe in himself.
Even he couldn’t trust himself.
And yet Kang Yujun — someone who had only met him a few times — believed in him.
“Haah… It was real. It really was there. In me too.”
This was the result.
He had talent too — and now he could finally show it.
“He believed in me.”
He succeeded.
Unlike before, he was able to properly display his ability.
He reinforced the weapon in his hand and knocked down the goblins in an instant.
The old him would never have been able to do this.
GRAAAAAAH—!”
Kim Gyojun roared as he gasped for breath.
His lungs were burning and his head felt dizzy.
Even so, laughter kept spilling out.
Whether the 15-minute time limit had passed or not — he didn’t care.
“I did it.”
He did exactly as he was trained.
He defeated five goblins.
“I did it.”
The internal evaluation…
The possible expulsion…
None of that came to mind right now.
All he could see was what he had achieved.
He had accomplished it!
As soon as the evaluation ended, Kim Gyojun immediately approached Yujun.
After catching his breath, he broke into a wide smile.
“I did exactly as you trained me to! Just like you said… I could do it!”
Everyone else had said it was impossible.
But Yujun had said it was possible.
“I could do it too.”
The negative thoughts that had long convinced him he couldn’t do it all collapsed at once.
The mindset that had made him give up was gone — replaced by confidence.
“Thank you for believing in me. Truly, thank you.”
That strong faith had led him to success.
Seeing Gyojun’s smile, Yujun smiled as well.
“Didn’t I tell you? I said it would work.”
The internal evaluation continued.
“Was this evaluation easier than usual?”
Kim Gyojun had shown an overwhelming performance while hunting goblins.
But he had been the very last among the youths.
Since the lowest-ranked trainee had shown such incredible results, some began to suspect the evaluation difficulty had been lowered.
However, after watching the evaluations that followed Gyojun’s…
Those thoughts vanished completely.
“Ugh!”
“Urgh!”
The other youths struggled against the goblins’ fierce coordinated attacks.
Far from being easier, it felt much harder than the previous evaluation.
The goblins’ aggressive teamwork kept pushing the youths back and forcing them into bad decisions.
“Ghk!”
They had no choice but to admit it.
The internal evaluation had become harder than before.
Simply put—
Kim Gyojun’s skills had skyrocketed.
“Huff… huff…”
After finishing, the youths panted heavily as they looked at Gyojun.
“How…?”
How had he handled five goblins so easily?
Throughout the evaluation, the youths kept their eyes on Kim Gyojun.
And there was one more person—
Team Leader Kim couldn’t hide his confusion.
“What kind of training did he do…? Just how did Kim Gyojun become like that?”
With Woo Hana, he could understand.
She had natural talent.
But Kim Gyojun didn’t.
He was certain — he had personally trained him for a long time.
You couldn’t change what someone was born with.
You could refine what they had, but you couldn’t compensate for innate limits.
But Yujun had changed even that.
“Even that…”
Was a true trainer supposed to be able to change everything?
Not just enhance existing ability…
But create something from nothing?
Was that the difference in capability — and in caliber?
Team Leader Kim’s mind grew complicated.
Something inside him felt like it was boiling.
“Next!”
As soon as the internal evaluation ended, the trainees received their evaluation reports.
Since scoring was done in real time, it didn’t take long.
“Check your evaluation sheets!”
The reports were immediately sent to each trainee’s smart pad.
Kim Gyojun checked his with a tense expression.
“If my expulsion is just revoked, I’ll have no greater wish.”
Yujun grinned.
“As far as I could see, there was no one.”
“…Pardon?”
“No trainee better than you, Kim Gyojun.”
Gyojun checked the smart pad with trembling eyes.
— Kim Gyojun
— Evaluation Grade: A
— Internal Evaluation Rank: 1
— Note: Expulsion Revoked
Grade A.
And first place in the internal evaluation.
Of course, the expulsion was revoked as well.
“…Th-this can’t be. Th-this can’t be real!”
Kim Gyojun had never imagined he would take first place.
His goal had only been to escape the expulsion list.
“T-Trainer Kang!”
“It’s the natural result. You were the fastest. Far faster and more overwhelming than the others.”
“M-me?”
Never in his life had this happened.
He had never produced such overwhelming results, nor received a high grade.
That made it all the more surreal.
“Hey, Kim Gyojun!”
“Gyojun!”
“Congrats! Seriously, congrats!”
His fellow trainees approached and congratulated him.
Of course, some were grinding their teeth in frustration.
But even that was unfamiliar to Gyojun.
People envying him?
Resenting him?
It was a first.
“Thank you…!”
Yujun quietly stepped away.
‘Now’s the time for him to enjoy it.’
But this was only the beginning.
‘From what I saw today, this Mental Strength rating has more impact than I thought.’
It was an extremely important factor in training.
‘I’ll leave Kim Gyojun to the youth trainers now.’
The first goal — revoking the expulsion — had been achieved.
It was time to set the next objective.
‘From here, it’s just a matter of time.’
Even without his direct teaching, Gyojun would grow well.
Yujun had already planned the next step.
“Trainer Kang. It’s me, Team Leader Kim.”
“Ah, Team Leader Kim. You worked hard.”
“Oh, not at all. More importantly…”
Team Leader Kim got straight to the point.
“You came because of trainee Kim Gyojun, right?”
“Yes. I have something I want to ask.”
“Please, have a seat.”
Yujun gestured toward the sofa.
“How… did you do it?”
Countless questions were compressed into that single sentence.
How did you do it?
By anyone’s judgment, Kim Gyojun was a trainee destined for expulsion.
His potential seemed minimal.
His limits were obvious.
So how had Yujun raised him that far?
It wasn’t about the short time.
It was the fact that he had changed him at all.
Team Leader Kim had concluded that training Gyojun properly was impossible.
And yet—
Gyojun had produced real results.
“Didn’t I tell you? He had potential.”
“Where did you see that potential? I… couldn’t see it at all.”
“In his eyes.”
Yujun spoke with a faintly bitter expression.
“As you know, I’m someone who failed.”
Yujun had once been called a Golden Youth but was expelled for failing to awaken.
Meanwhile, Kim Dohun had been active as an A-rank Awakener.
“That’s why I recognized it. There’s no grand reason. Of course there were other factors, but the most important thing… was his eyes.”
“…”
So someone who had experienced success still couldn’t see it?
Kim Dohun felt complicated emotions.
He wanted to argue back somehow, but no words came out.
He could only blink.
This trainer was on a different level.
Even though he had just started, his eye for people already surpassed his own.
To Team Leader Kim, that felt humiliating.
But then—
“But conversely, aren’t there things you can see that I can’t, Team Leader Kim?”
“…!”
Team Leader Kim’s eyes widened.
He never expected to hear that.
Yujun had accomplished what he himself had given up on.
If anything, Yujun had every right to be arrogant.
To say: See? I told you it was possible.
He could even have questioned Kim’s qualifications as team leader.
But Yujun didn’t.
Instead, he lowered himself.
That way of speaking left a deep impression on Team Leader Kim.
To think he even had this kind of tact…
Kim let out a small chuckle.
What had sunk down inside him began to rise again.
Yujun was right.
What one person could see, another might not — and vice versa.
“This time, I was just lucky. Now then, if what you’re curious about is what kind of training I gave—”
“No, it’s fine. Actually, that’s not why I came.”
Team Leader Kim’s eyes shone.
“Thanks to you… my eyes have been opened.”
— You have trained Awakener Kim Dohun!
— Achievement accomplished!
— You have earned points!
— You gained 5P!
‘Huh?’
