Field Training

‘Still, I need to make him at least a little usable before the field training. Why is he so damn frail?’

The passage they had to enter was the C-rank passage <The Marsh Where Wailing Echoes>.
A C-rank passage required three to five raiders of the same rank to clear, so with Cheon Su-ho, Lee Ro-un, and Joo Hee-jun all being at least C-rank, they already met the minimum number.
Of course, Ro-un, a healer, had once cleared the C-rank passage <The Melting Forest> by himself, but that was only because it had been extremely compatible with him, and because the boss in the center of the passage had more or less obediently let itself be beaten by him.

‘If that tree hadn’t sat there and taken my skills so obediently, it would’ve taken me quite a while too.’

This passage too was highly compatible with Ro-un, but Joo Hee-jun was such a weakling that it was questionable whether he could even enter it at all.
A skinny body, a hollow face from never seeing sunlight, a hunched back.

‘He looks like he’d drop from a single hit.’

At that rate, would he even still be standing by the end of the raid?
Shouldn’t he at least have enough stamina to march until they reached the boss?
Ro-un looked at Joo Hee-jun in clear displeasure.

“What? Why again? Why are you looking at me like that… sir.”
“Haaah.”
“What is it now? We agreed I’d be the flashlight… sir.”

Joo Hee-jun’s eyes darted about uneasily.
Ro-un turned his head away from Joo Hee-jun’s anxious gaze.

“Cheon Su-ho.”
“What is it?”
“Let’s train him a little.”
“Understood. Hm. If we focus only on basic conditioning from now on, I think we can make him at least somewhat usable before the field training.”
“Good.”

The two of them, understanding each other without needing to say more, decided Joo Hee-jun’s fate.

“What?! Why me?! Why?!”

At the sight of those two deciding his fate on their own, Joo Hee-jun sprang up and started flailing.
Even so, he had already handed himself over to Ro-un.
As Joo Hee-jun’s owner, Ro-un ignored his protests and left the conditioning in Cheon Su-ho’s hands.

“No! I hate running! And why would a mage need conditioning?!”
“Why else? Because you’re too weak. You’re glass-bodied. In a passage, mages, healers, and supporters all need stamina.”
“Mages are supposed to be physically weak in the first place!”
“I’m a healer. We’re supposed to be even weaker.”
“You’re a monster!”

What kind of healer goes around beating up problem students with his fists while claiming to reform them?!
That’s not even a healer!
Joo Hee-jun looked at Lee Ro-un with exhausted eyes.
The way his eyes rolled about made it seem like he would bolt from the place the instant he saw an opening.

“Hahahaha! Even research requires stamina!”
“Ack! Let go! Muscles are killing people!”

Joo Hee-jun’s rebellion was quickly suppressed by Cheon Su-ho.
Lee Ro-un looked at Joo Hee-jun as if he were pathetic.

‘If not for his <Mana Disability>, Cheon Su-ho would’ve been one of the most remarkable Awakeners in the entire school. Trying to run from his grasp takes some nerve.’

Even without mana, he was the kind of guy who could beat most of the students at this academy.
Looking at the black hood gripped in Cheon Su-ho’s solid hand, Ro-un spoke calmly.

“Cheon Su-ho. Build his stamina up enough to handle a C-rank passage.”
“I got it, Lee Ro-un.”
“Ack! What the hell is that supposed to mean?! Where are you dragging me off tooooo?!”

Kicking and struggling, Joo Hee-jun still couldn’t escape Cheon Su-ho’s grip and was dragged right out.

“Let’s see. Once the training is done, I’ll need to have him do circuit design too. Had Joo Hee-jun taken any subjects related to magic circuit design?”

Ro-un checked Joo Hee-jun’s course registration record.
Even if he hadn’t, a chaebol family would’ve given him early education in it anyway.

The day Lee Ro-un acquired ownership of Joo Hee-jun was the day the special training began.
Cheon Su-ho brought out a blocky red cap and a red whistle from who knew where and blew it.

“Piiiiiik! Is that all you’ve got?! One more lap!”
“Haaak, huff. Wh, ah. Why, huff. Whyyyy!”
“It’s fine. If you collapse, I’ll fix you.”
“Y-you, hihk, you deeemooon!”
“Good. Trainee Joo Hee-jun. Tighten your core and put strength all the way down to the toes of the foot you step with!”
“Aaaaargh!”

Shouting something that was halfway between a battle cry and a scream, Joo Hee-jun ran around the field.
Tsk, tsk. At that level of frailty, he wouldn’t even be useful as a research slave right away.
From the shade, Ro-un watched Joo Hee-jun panting as he ran around the field.
Beside him, Cheon Su-ho, wearing a red cap and biting down on a red whistle, ran alongside him with an utterly relaxed expression.

‘As expected of Cheon Su-ho. He’s really good at squeezing someone right to their limit. He knows a person’s limits exactly.’

From what he had observed over the past few days, Cheon Su-ho squeezed every drop of stamina out of Joo Hee-jun with uncanny precision.
Once they started repeating the cycle of scraping him right down to empty and then having Lee Ro-un restore him, Joo Hee-jun’s complexion improved noticeably within just a few days, and even his bent back straightened.

‘If not for <Mana Disability>, Cheon Su-ho would’ve been the sort of talent that major guild scouts kept an eye on.’

Cheon Su-ho was an Awakener with zero mana, no, with Mana Disability, but his physical condition was easily on par with an A-rank Awakener’s.
His combat sense too was, in Lee Ro-un’s view, good enough to confidently call professional-level.

‘If that weren’t the case, no matter how much Cheon Su-ho whined, I never would’ve considered going with just the two of us. It’s looking more manageable than I thought. And thanks to Joo Hee-jun, we’ve even saved on items.’

Lee Ro-un carried around <Human Distrust>, but that didn’t mean he had any intention of underestimating another person’s ability.
Cheon Su-ho and Joo Hee-jun.
If he took those two with him, Lee Ro-un could be more than eighty percent certain of clearing it.

‘If I fix Joo Hee-jun’s trait, the odds would go up even further. The problem is that there isn’t enough time before this field training.’

Even so, there had been gains on the circuit design side thanks to his improved stamina.
Lee Ro-un found himself looking forward to the design session that evening.

“That’s enough for today!”
“Huuuh. Huff. Huuuff. Hek.”

Joo Hee-jun lay collapsed on the ground, too exhausted to speak, doing nothing but breathing.

“Now then, don’t just lie there. You need to stretch!”
“Kkyaaaak!”

As Cheon Su-ho grabbed him and forced him through stretching, Joo Hee-jun curled up like a squid on a hot grill.
This was why his posture had straightened out in only a few days.
With someone stretching him out by force like that, there was no way fragile little Joo Hee-jun’s body could resist straightening.

“Cheon Su-ho. Once the stretching is done, bring him to my dorm.”
“I got it, Lee Ro-un.”
“Kyaaaah! Just kill meeeeeee!”
“Hahahahaha. Lee Ro-un isn’t going to kill you. This is necessary to fix your trait, so move, Joo Hee-jun.”
“Kyaaaaaak!”

Behind Ro-un, Joo Hee-jun’s scream rang out at length.
By day, Cheon Su-ho ran him ragged, and by night, Ro-un took over and did the same.

“Your problem is that you think too much. If I make you do repetitive labor, all those useless thoughts should disappear.”
“That sounds like an excuse. Is doing circuit design here really supposed to fix my trait?”
“Cheon Su-ho.”
“Understood.”
“Kyaaaak!”

After Cheon Su-ho’s patting-down suppressed the complaints, Lee Ro-un looked over the circuitry in peace.
Joo Hee-jun definitely had talent as a mage.

“I didn’t expect you to be able to draw circuits this cleanly without any tools.”
“Ahem. Hm. I had an exceptionally good early education, after all. Basic circuits are easy enough to do with my eyes closed.”

At that quiet muttered praise, Joo Hee-jun puffed right up with pride.
That brat, honestly. You couldn’t praise him even once without this happening.
Watching Joo Hee-jun move his hands even faster, eager to show off his skill, Lee Ro-un let out a small snort.

‘Guess I can praise him from time to time.’

Seeing how much his work efficiency rose from a single word of praise, Lee Ro-un decided he ought to throw Joo Hee-jun the occasional compliment.
Cheon Su-ho came over to Ro-un’s side and spoke in a small voice.

“But Lee Ro-un. If we do this, can Joo Hee-jun’s trait really be fixed?”
“No? How would circuit design fix a trait?”
“Then does that mean you can’t fix Joo Hee-jun’s trait?”
“Shh. Keep your voice down.”

Ro-un snapped at Cheon Su-ho.
Cheon Su-ho clamped his mouth shut with his eyes wide and round.

“Lee Ro-un. Don’t tell me that was a lie?”

Like a dog just scolded by its owner, he drooped his eyes and kept sneaking glances at Ro-un’s expression.

“No. Joo Hee-jun’s trait can be fixed.”

Ro-un said it with certainty.
It was not a lie.
Because traits with the modifier ‘unstable’ were traits that could indeed be fixed.
Ro-un remembered very clearly the case that would occur one year later, when a Russian Awakener bearing the modifier ‘unstable’ overcame it and evolved into an SS-rank trait.
The event of someone overcoming an unstable trait had been big enough to make global news, but because Russia treated all information regarding Awakeners as top secret, the method by which that Awakener had overcome the trait only became known much later.

‘If that fact had become known earlier, Joo Hee-jun might also have overcome his unstable trait and become an SS-rank Awakener.’

At the badly mismatched timing of it all, Ro-un looked at Joo Hee-jun with a slightly regretful expression.

“What? What is it? Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t tell me you’re about to make me do something else?! That’s it, isn’t it?!”
“…Just hurry up and finish the basic design.”
“Why does that feel like you’re changing the subject?”
“Cheon Su-ho.”
“So should I take him out for more basic conditioning?”
“Ack! No! I’ll work hard!”

For Joo Hee-jun, exercise was more terrifying than repetitive work, so he immediately got back to it.
Cheon Su-ho hovered over Joo Hee-jun’s work like a guard dog, urging him on.

“I’ll go put in a supply request.”

Because Joo Hee-jun was working so quickly, they needed more boards to engrave the circuits onto.
Seeing that supplies came out the moment he requested them, Ro-un thought that at times like this, it was fortunate he was the student council president.

‘No. What the hell am I thinking? Compared to what I donated, this is barely a drop in the bucket, so what exactly is there to be grateful for?’

To begin with, boards for engraving circuits didn’t bring in much money, so that was clearly why they hadn’t yet been pilfered away.
It was not because he was receiving some special treatment as the student council president.
Having once again thought like a fool and a slave, Ro-un shook his head and threw off the slave mentality.

And time passed quickly, and the day of the field training drew near.

The students who had applied for field training gathered on the field before heading to their assigned passages.
The head of student affairs, who oversaw second-year passage field training, stood on the platform and addressed them from above.

“…As Awakeners, clearing otherworld passages is a proper duty. The field training process exists so that duty can be carried out. Of course, there will be Association staff on site to guide your field training. Don’t cause any trouble, and return safely after completing it. That is all!”

The long speech finally ended.
The students, who had gone stiff from standing through the long speech, loosened up and headed toward the buses that would take them to their training sites in little groups.

“Hey. The byproducts we bring back from clearing the passage are ours to dispose of, right?”
“That’s right. What should we do with them?”
“What would even come out of a lousy D-rank passage? Just think of it as making bus fare money.”
“Hey! Still, if the boss drops a crystal stone, that’s at least allowance money.”
“Are you not counting the cost of the consumables we brought?”
“Is that so?”
“And we have to report it to the school anyway, so it’s not like much money actually ends up in our hands.”
“Even so, hiiik!”
“What, what is it?”

The students, far more interested in the scraps they might earn from clearing the passage than in the actual danger of the field training, recoiled in horror and scattered away from the figure walking past them.
As he passed by, Ro-un cast an indifferent glance at the students who had been talking nonsense.
Feeling guilty for no reason, the students avoided Ro-un’s gaze and immediately reversed everything they had just been saying.

“Le-let’s be careful.”
“Yeah. Safety comes first in field training.”
“We should turn all the byproducts straight over to the academy!”
“Right!”

The students boarded the bus while reaffirming the importance of safety.
Lee Ro-un, who had gotten on the bus first, sat down beside Cheon Su-ho and Joo Hee-jun.
The moment Ro-un sat down, Cheon Su-ho held out a snack.

“Lee Ro-un! Eat this. It’s good.”
“Do you think we’re going on a picnic?”
“I’ll eat it. Repeating all that circuit engraving made my blood sugar crash.”
“You need to sleep early before field training if you want to perform at your best.”
“I’m naturally nocturnal.”

Joo Hee-jun said this while grabbing a fistful of the snacks Cheon Su-ho had brought.
Most people who did research really were nocturnal.

‘That’s probably one reason magic-type Awakeners have no stamina.’

Ro-un examined Joo Hee-jun, who looked a little less gaunt than when they had first met.
Seeing Joo Hee-jun’s large bag, Ro-un asked,

“What’s that?”
“What do you mean, what? You said raiding is a war of stamina, so I packed some food.”
“Even taking that into account, that still seems like too much.”

Anyone looking at it would think they were going in for five nights and six days.

“You weren’t asleep during the briefing, were you? The passage we’re heading to is a very short, straight-linear one. It’s a place where you just go straight ahead in one line, so it won’t even take a full day.”
“Even so, you never know what might happen to people.”
“Don’t tell me you’re actually planning to eat everything in that bag.”
“I am. The items needed for the raid can all go into the inventory anyway.”
“Idiot. Other than food specially processed for passage use, you can’t bring food into a passage.”

At Ro-un’s words, Joo Hee-jun’s mouth dropped open in shock.
So he had thought about putting the items into the inventory, but not the food?
Turning his gaze away from Joo Hee-jun in exasperation, Ro-un was met with Cheon Su-ho laughing heartily as he tried to smooth things over.

“Hahahaha! Then he can just eat it on the way there.”
“Overeating before a passage raid is not a good idea.”
“Don’t say things like that. Just eat, Lee Ro-un.”
“No.”

Ro-un said no, but Cheon Su-ho opened Joo Hee-jun’s bag anyway and forcefully shoved food toward Ro-un’s mouth.
Even Joo Hee-jun, who had been sulking, soon joined in with an excited face, pulling out the mountain of food he had packed and helping stuff Ro-un with it.
The other students on the bus kept sneaking glances at the three of them.

‘The president… had that kind of personality?’
‘That looks tasty.’
‘They look pretty close.’
‘When did those three get so close?’

They kept stealing curious looks at Ro-un, who was being forcibly fed while pinned in place by Cheon Su-ho.

“Then we’ll be in your care.”
“Yes. Jiri Academy second years Cheon Su-ho, Lee Ro-un, Joo Hee-jun. Confirmed.”
“Thank you for your hard work!”

Once the handoff was complete, the homeroom teacher hurried back onto the bus.
He moved with remarkable speed, probably because he still had to take the other students to the passages they had applied for.
An Association employee with a warm, easygoing smile came over to the three of them.

“You may enter the passage starting now. We’ll be accompanying you, and you’ve memorized the emergency evacuation manual, correct?”
“Yes. If we judge that the passage cannot be cleared, we must retreat to the entrance.”
“That’s correct.”

The employee looked warmly at Lee Ro-un, who had given the textbook answer, and went over the precautions.
For some reason, he seemed especially kind to Lee Ro-un.

‘What is it? Do I know him?’

Since he was an Association employee, maybe Ro-un had run into him before while coming and going.
In any case, the Association employee made sure the three of them fully understood what to do if an emergency arose inside the passage.
He emphasized several times that since there was no knowing what kind of emergency might arise inside a passage, securing a retreat route was the highest priority in any raid.

‘This too is only a viable response until the end of this year.’

Unlike now, when passage entrances remained permanently open, things would change after the major incident at the end of this year, the Calamity. Once a raid team entered a passage, the entrance would close, making outside entry impossible until the raid was complete and the exit reopened.
Because of that, many casualties had occurred when raiders who returned to the entrance found they could no longer evacuate through it.

‘I really need to hurry up with the item development.’

Staring at the violet-glowing entrance, Ro-un half-listened to the employee’s explanation.

“Then we will be entering now.”
“Yes.”
“At last, we’re going in!”
“…Seriously.”

With Ro-un standing in the middle, the three of them entered the passage behind the Association employee.

Tu-ung, tung, tu-uuung, tung!

A ripple spread through the entrance each time one of the four stepped through.
Once all four, including the employee, vanished into the passage, Baek Ho-yeon appeared naturally out of thin air.

“Shall I go in too?”

The white tiger followed the four of them in, his yellow eyes gleaming.
Not a single one of the staff guarding the passage tried to stop Baek Ho-yeon.