First of all, Haseong had always wanted to work together with that blond S-rank Hunter, so there was no reason for him to refuse the offer.
Still, one question continued to linger in his mind.
“Excuse me, but may I ask why you suddenly changed your mind?”
Last winter, hadn’t Kim Giryeo rejected the top-ranked hunter’s proposal to work together with these very words?
“Thank you for the offer, but wouldn’t that be difficult? It seems like there’s too much of a gap in our levels...”
Of course, by now Kim Giryeo was well aware of how badly his careless remark had been misunderstood.
What he had meant by “a gap in our levels” was that his own abilities were far beneath Jung Haseong’s, yet somehow everyone had interpreted it in exactly the opposite way.
But at this point, insisting that wasn’t what he had meant would only make things worse.
To explain the truth behind that slip of the tongue, he would first have to reveal that he was a fraud.
‘That would be difficult.’
At times like this, it was better to reverse his way of thinking.
Giryeo decided to make use of the misunderstanding that had arisen back then.
“...Why did I change my mind? That’s a little awkward to answer when you put it like that.”
“Yes?”
“Sorry, but I haven’t actually changed my mind. I still think your skills are lacking.”
Jung Haseong visibly flinched at those words.
“But if there’s one thing that has changed... After thinking about it over the winter, I realized I’d been far too fixated on that point for no real reason.”
“Ah.”
“If your skills are lacking, then you simply have to work hard and improve them. Sorry. I didn’t think it through properly.”
Giryeo explained in a gentle tone as he sipped his barley green tea.
It was shameless behavior for someone of his caliber—a bottom-tier weakling pretending to be an S-class Hunter—but if he wanted to run a con on someone as important as Jung Haseong, this much nerve was absolutely necessary.
“So today, I came to make you a proposal...”
Giryeo took another sip of tea, then immediately presented the bait he had prepared.
“Haseong-ah, if there were a way to make your awakened ability much stronger, what would you do?”
For anyone standing at the forefront of evolution, it was an irresistible temptation.
“As I told you before, you’re not even using half of your own power right now. And I can solve that problem for you.”
That was right.
The archmage had come to Garion today in search of a new disciple.
***
The archmage’s proposal was simple.
If Jung Haseong mastered the secret technique he would teach him and raised his control over his awakened ability to a certain level, only then would Giryeo agree to become his teammate.
“If you become strong enough for me to acknowledge you, I’ll gladly team up with you.”
For Jung Haseong, it was an offer that killed two birds with one stone.
He could improve his skills and fulfill a wish he had held onto for a long time.
“But even I can’t provide this kind of training for free. I still need money for food and travel expenses, you know.”
There was, however, a small price attached.
“So let’s start by setting the fee at just 3 billion won.”
“In cash?”
“Yeah. In cash.”
Giryeo currently needed an astronomical sum of money to purchase new magic tools.
He was short by 3.48 billion won.
It was an amount so enormous that an average person could work for an entire lifetime and never come close to earning it.
‘Damn it. In some households, a few hundred million won isn’t even worth mentioning.’
Until now, Giryeo had avoided using his knowledge to earn money whenever possible.
But with an unknown summoner appearing out of nowhere, he had decided he could no longer afford to be picky about his methods.
And so he finally brought out the strategy he had been keeping in reserve.
Magical education.
By limiting the number of disciples, he could control how much information leaked out.
On top of that, there was another benefit.
‘Back when I had only just reincarnated, I had to tread carefully around Ahn Yoonseung, so I couldn’t even casually bring up money. But now I’ve developed at least some sense of how finances work here, and with the status of an S-rank Hunter, charging a teaching fee isn’t strange at all...’
It wasn’t exactly the sort of work he preferred.
But trapped inside an F-rank body, his available options were limited.
He needed money, and no one understood better than him that achieving a goal sometimes required a certain degree of flexibility.
That was why he had come all the way here.
“Hmm.”
Giryeo raised his head and looked at the young man seated before him.
South Korea’s number-one Hunter.
A national hero who had firmly maintained his position at the very top.
For personal reasons, the reincarnated being from another world needed to minimize the number of people to whom he passed on his knowledge.
If he became famous for giving magic lessons, the kidnapping scenario he had worried about for so long might actually become reality.
‘People of Earth, please just leave that part alone...’
Considering all the circumstances, this extraterrestrial had no choice but to target only the planet’s very strongest hunters as his prey.
They were capable of producing the greatest rewards all on their own.
Furthermore, the plan he had drawn up from the beginning already included improving the abilities of South Korea’s S-classes.
Giryeo continued speaking as he recalled the value of the pyromancer sitting in front of him.
“By the way, if you accept my offer, you’ll need to make sure you can set aside time twice a week.”
“Do you mean I have to clear two entire days?”
“That’s right. And I expect it’ll take about three months of steady training, without skipping sessions, before you see any noticeable changes.”
Sssk.
He raised his index, middle, and ring fingers in a simple gesture.
“And you do understand that the 3 billion won tuition fee is paid monthly, right?”
Rent, tuition, electricity bills.
On this planet, paying for things by the month was perfectly ordinary.
The strange part wasn’t the payment interval.
It was the amount.
“Three billion per month?”
He had just said it would take approximately three months to master the technique.
In other words, learning to control his ability would cost an astonishing 9 billion won.
‘Rounded up, that’s practically 10 billion.’
No matter how wealthy an S-rank Hunter might be, hearing such a figure was enough to make anyone’s thoughts come to a temporary halt.
“And besides... how is someone with a defense-type awakened ability supposed to teach someone like me, whose attribute is fire...?”
Jung Haseong couldn’t help harboring doubts.
Of course, Giryeo was also an S-rank—at least, that was what Haseong believed—so the chances of him running an outright scam were exceedingly low.
Even so, this had come completely out of nowhere.
Wasn’t the proposal itself somewhat ridiculous?
“Why? Is it too expensive?”
Yet for some reason, Kim Giryeo remained strangely composed throughout the entire conversation.
“It’s not exactly that it’s too expensive... It just feels difficult to believe.”
“Then spend one month pretending you’ve been fooled and learn from me. If you aren’t satisfied, I’ll refund the full amount afterward.”
“Yes?”
“Honestly, this is my first time teaching an S-rank, so I’m not completely sure how things will turn out either. I was prepared to offer a refund from the beginning.”
The man, who had been crushing an empty paper cup in one hand, slowly leaned forward.
“But if you see even the slightest result within that first month, you’ll probably be the one begging to keep paying me afterward.”
And Haseong’s answer to that was...
***
A few days later.
Wednesday again.
“Hello.”
I found myself standing face-to-face with the country’s number-one Hunter inside a certain gym in Seoul.
To get straight to the point, Haseong had accepted my proposal.
After securing a written pledge that the details of the training would remain confidential, I had successfully acquired a new source of income...
No.
A valuable disciple.
The first training period would last about three months.
And the tuition fee was an incredible 3 billion won per month!
Just as expected.
That top-ranked Hunter had wanted to work alongside Korea’s fourth S-rank, the possessor of an unknown ability, for quite some time.
If I deliberately pressed on that desire, there was very little chance he would refuse.
‘Right. There’s no way someone powerful enough to be an S-rank would give up on his goal over a little money. Good! Let’s start with a three-month trial period, then raise the tuition later.’
Heh heh heh.
Anyway, even if this amounted to scamming S-ranks, I was still going to become rich.
If things went my way, I could even rope Esther into it later and make a fortune from group lessons.
As I mentioned before, this was my first time teaching an S-rank.
And come to think of it, I barely had any teaching experience at all.
That meant I was relatively poor at dealing with unexpected variables.
So for now, I shouldn’t get too greedy.
It would be better to take things slowly and use Jung Haseong as an experiment to properly learn how to teach.
I concealed my sinister intentions and glanced around.
Before me stretched an enormous space, so wide that it was difficult to take in at a glance.
The walls had been reinforced with yellowish stone reminiscent of dungeon material, making the purpose of the facility immediately obvious.
“It’s wider than I expected.”
We were currently standing inside an indoor training ground reserved exclusively for Hunters.
####################
Gym Facility Rules
Article 1. These rules are intended to regulate matters necessary for membership registration and facility use of the Awakener-exclusive Gymnasium.
####################
That was why I had recently visited the Hunter Association and printed out the relevant regulations.
Since I would be training with Jung Haseong on a regular basis, choosing a dungeon as our training location would have caused the arrangement to fall under a different contract.
“Honestly, reporting every little thing to Kang Changho would be too much of a hassle.”
Of course, training outside a dungeon meant rumors would inevitably begin spreading.
But that didn’t matter.
If anyone asked why Jung Haseong and I met every week, I could simply make up some harmless excuse, such as saying that we sparred together as Hunters.
“Still, having a high rank really is convenient. Since the reservation is under Haseong’s name, a place like this gets rented out immediately.”
“Ah, yes...”
I took a breath and quickly moved on to the training.
“Anyway, since it’s the first day, why don’t we begin by lightly testing your limits?”
“My limits?”
“Hunter Jung Haseong. From now on, use the skill you rely on most often at full power. Aim upward.”
But Jung Haseong’s reaction was far from enthusiastic.
After hearing my instructions, he hesitated noticeably.
“The skill I use most often?”
“Hmm.”
“Wouldn’t it be possible to use it more gently?”
“No. You have to go all out.”
“...If I do that, the ceiling will collapse.”
His black eyes—similar in color to those of this body, though with a different gleam—shook violently.
“The Association can handle that much with all the items you’ve collected and donated.”
I ignored Haseong’s reaction and let a bored expression settle over my face.
Eventually, unable to withstand the pressure I was putting on him, he quietly began gathering mana.
Reluctantly, he prepared his skill.
–Whoosh.
The temperature in the area began to rise.
A tremendous amount of fire-attribute mana, powerful enough to scorch a person merely from the process of casting, spread through the surroundings and heated the air.
“...To be precise, this is one of the basic skills I use most often.”
Whoosh!
A moment later, a pillar of flame erupted upward.
The firestorm unleashed by Jung Haseong roared violently through the training ground, reducing everything it touched to ash almost instantly.
Crack, thud!
Even the ceiling, reinforced with dungeon materials and protected by a barrier powered by an infinite-energy core, failed to withstand the impact.
It collapsed miserably.
And yet I felt not the slightest trace of admiration.
‘Compared to the amount of mana he has stored, the actual output is still far too low.’
In fact, that was Jung Haseong’s greatest problem.
The magician was so tightly restrained by his own power that he couldn’t even stretch his limbs properly.
‘As expected, teaching him how to control his power has to come first.’
Tak, tak.
Soon, the only sound left was the faint crackling of something still burning.
With that noise in the background, I began reviewing the schedule in my head.
Then another sound suddenly came from across the training ground.
It was Haseong’s voice.
“I...”
He looked strangely flustered.
“Excuse me, but may I ask you something?”
“Ask whatever you want.”
A moment later, he voiced a fairly obvious question.
“Could your hand have been injured because of the skill I just used...?”
In that brief instant, I had suffered a second-degree burn.
“Yeah. I thought it would be fine since we were standing fairly far apart, but when the wind changed direction, it caught me.”
I showed Haseong the injury caused by the flying sparks.
A red burn ran across the back of my hand.
As a fellow awakened individual, he would understand better than anyone what that meant.
“You... were burned by embers that weak?”
I only learned this later, but apparently the proposal Jung Haseong had made last winter—asking me to join his guild—had carried implications far beyond anything I had imagined.
The company he had founded had a fairly demanding requirement for Hunters who wished to join.
“They have to be able to withstand the heat generated by the guild leader’s skills.”
I had no idea how he had reached that conclusion.
Perhaps Jung Haseong had mistaken me for an awakened individual strong enough to endure his abilities.
That was probably why he had so readily begged me to work with him.
But now, how absurd must this sight appear to him?
A Hunter he had believed worthy of such recognition had been burned merely by being grazed by a few sparks.
“Hunter-nim, I’ve been wondering about this for a while now, but why don’t you restore your awakened level to its original state?”
Haseong soon asked another question.
If you’re an S-rank, something like this shouldn’t affect you.
Why are you still suppressing your strength as though you were still an F-rank?
“There aren’t any ordinary people here, so why don’t you stop doing that?”
I fell silent for a moment after hearing his words.
Of course, I had already prepared an excuse.
But saying it out loud somehow made my conscience hurt a little...
Still, I couldn’t afford to become soft-hearted now.
Without the ruthlessness required to deceive other people, there was no way an F-grade body like mine would ever get its hands on such an enormous sum of money.
“Jung Haseong.”
Having steeled my resolve, I drew in a breath and spoke in a cold voice.
“You still don’t understand my intentions.”
——Hah!
I stiffened my neck and began to scold him.