Chapter 256. To Become Stronger (3)

Time pa.s.sed. The sun set, and dusk began to settle. As the city started its preparations for the night, people from the area began to return to their homes one by one. But they all soon stood in the yard to stare at a young man swinging his club crazily while being soaked in sweat. Ever since the mysterious woman named Byeok came and instructed him, Chi-Woo had been swinging his ghost-busting club for several hours now. He swung up, down, left, right, and forward, but didn’t appear satisfied with any of his attempts.

Hmp! Hmp!

He simply sliced through the air meaninglessly and felt nothing but the wind’s resistance against his palms. After that one time, he hadn’t gotten the sensation of splitting the air again.

‘Why won’t it work?’ He tried to replicate the same stance as before, but it was hopeless. Chi-Woo knew there was surely something else he needed to do, but he didn’t know what that was.

‘How many times did I swing?’ Chi-Woo had given up on counting since he was told to swing not just a thousand times, but a meaningful thousand times. But he probably pa.s.sed the thousandth mark on swing count alone. Chi-Woo felt a bit drained. If Byeok had given him a count every time he swung properly, he would’ve at least been encouraged to meet his goal, but Byeok remained silent. She didn’t even glance at him and simply flipped through doc.u.ments while lying on the porch. He felt lost as if he was struggling in a vast, open sea.

‘What do I need to do…?’ Chi-Woo had actually asked Byeok once because he couldn’t figure it out no matter what. And this was what Byeok told him.

[Why must I repeat what I said before?]

[I told you precisely and even let you experience it yourself.]

[Didn’t you understand what I said and felt it?]

[So that means you already understood in your head. Do you think anything significant would change just because you hear my explanation and experience the technique once more?]

Not a word out of Byeok’s mouth was false. Chi-Woo knew full well what he needed to do, but the problem was he couldn’t carry these thoughts into action.

“Hm. When did so much time pa.s.s…?” Byeok moved. She pushed herself up and sat on the edge of the porch. “I’m starting to get hungry.”

“…”

“Let’s go eat.”

Chi-Woo thought Byeok was going to tell him something now and was at a loss for words. Seeing his response, Byeok tilted her head.

“Why do you respond like that? Did I say something I shouldn’t have?”

“…I’m not done yet though.”

“So?” Byeok retorted, and Chi-Woo was stunned.

“Did you really plan on continuing without eating anything?”

“I can eat?”

Byeok was astounded by Chi-Woo’s question. She asked in bafflement, “Were you planning on going on without eating or sleeping?”

“But since I’m in the process of…”

“Are you stubborn or stupid? I just told you that you needed to reach the required swing count before I finished reading all these.” In other words, it was fine for Chi-Woo to eat, sleep, and meet other people as long as he swung a proper thousand swings before the deadline.

“Of course, I like how you’re pa.s.sionate enough to willingly forgo food and sleep in favor of training, but…” Byeok got up from her seat and shook her head. “You should know that there were more than one or two people who died from being overzealous.” Byeok then asked where she could have a good meal because she was hungry. Chi-Woo slowly put down his club.

***

After finis.h.i.+ng their meals, Chi-Woo returned to his training again and stared at Byeok as she lay on the porch. After hesitating a bit, he asked, “How many proper swings have I made until now?”

“Don’t you already know the answer to that question?”

Chi-Woo had guessed as much, but knowing it for sure was a different story.

“If you have the energy to cling onto your swing count, focus harder on your training,” Byeok said. Then she added while tapping on her lips, “If you are having a hard time focusing, why don’t you sleep a bit? I am also starting to feel a bit sleepy after eating.”

Chi-Woo licked his lips and said, “I will do a bit more.”

“Suit yourself.” Byeok shrugged and rested her head on the pillow that the quick-witted Evelyn had laid down for her.

“…But what if I make a proper swing while you are sleeping?” Chi-Woo asked, irked when he saw Byeok ready to turn in.

“Don’t look down on me, kid.” She snorted. “The moment you swing properly, even the sound will be different. Not like those meaningless, soft sounds you’ve been making.”

“…”

“If you have any complaints, you should make at least the first proper swing before you say anything.” In other words, Chi-Woo hadn’t even made one of the thousand he needed to do. With that, she closed her eyes, and Chi-Woo began swinging his club again. As sweat dripped down all over him, he gritted his teeth.

***

The next day, the sky was bright. Byeok got up from the edge of her porch and looked around her. She was about to suggest to Chi-Woo to get breakfast when she saw him collapsed on the ground with the club clenched tightly in his grip. It seemed he had lost consciousness after overexerting himself all night. The traces on the ground showed that he couldn’t bear the frustration of it all and let his mana explode from time to time.

“Tch, tch…to go that far…” Byeok clicked her tongue and shook her head. Then she pa.s.sed Chi-Woo and headed outside. She went to the office building where Chi-Hyun resided and got a meal from him. Then she spent her break time after the meal with him.

“I came after seeing Chi-Woo,” Byeok said. Chi-Hyun’s hands stopped while pouring tea.

“You met him this early in the morning?”

“I’ve been with him since yesterday. I went to see him immediately after your request,” Byeok said calmly.

“…Your personality is the same as usual, ma’am,” Chi-Hyun said, looking a bit startled. “So, how was he?”

“He grew up well. It seemed like yesterday when he was just a baby.”

Chi-Hyun stared intently at her, and Byeok made a bitter smile. They both knew he wasn’t asking about those things.

“I don’t know anything else since I haven"t seen his user information yet. But…” Byeok trailed off and clicked her tongue. “Things are going too slow.”

Chi-Hyun’s face darkened. Though she put it in quite a roundabout way, he knew what she was saying. Speed was a talent—it was what he always said.

“Is it that severe?”

“It’s not a situation where you can talk about whether it’s good, bad, or okay. I read through the reports you gave me yesterday, but I didn’t think it would be this much of a mess.”

They were involved in a galaxy-scale event right now, and events of this scale had almost never occurred before.

“But it’s an environment where speed is very important,” Byeok continued. Consider person A who could only run 1 km in an hour but 1,000 km in total; and then consider person B who could run 10 km in an hour but 100 km in total. In this example, speed represented one’s talent, while the total distance a person could traverse was their potential. If time was limitless, person A would naturally outrun person B. They might lag behind in the beginning, but in the end, they would make it ten times farther than person B—but that was only the case if there was no time constraint.

The problem was that time was finite on Liber, and there were other restrictions. Their enemies were also progressing and wouldn’t wait patiently as their opponents grew. Following the same a.n.a.logy, person A would only make it to the 5 km mark given five hours, while person B would be able to go 50 km. In this case, it was thus more efficient to raise person B rather than person A despite their potential.

“But since it was your request, I lowered my standards as much as possible. I was going to order him to swing 10,000 times, but lowered it to 1,000 times. I also gave him plenty of time, but he still couldn’t do that much…hmph, hmph,” Byeok stopped herself, thinking she had talked Chi-Woo down too much. In consideration of who she was speaking to, she added, “…I understand since he has been living as an ordinary person until now. If he started out as a hero, he wouldn’t have been at this level. Why…”

In short, Byeok was saying that Chi-Woo shouldn’t have come to Liber in the first place. Chi-Hyun full-heartedly agreed. But there was no turning back now, and they needed to use all means possible to turn things around. Chi-Hyun knew better than anyone else of Chi-Woo’s condition. He even tried teaching Chi-Woo, but after that experience, Chi-Hyun realized that it was difficult to even figure out what to do. Even he couldn’t rashly try to change his brother’s condition. Thus, he trusted the person in front of him to do the work.

“Still…” Chi-Hyun began, but closed his mouth again. Byeok wasn’t someone he could just plead with. She granted his request yesterday and today considering Chi-Hyun’s position and the attachment she felt for Chi-Woo when he was a baby, but that would be the end of that. Given her disposition to prioritize maximum efficiency and perfection, she would never turn back around once she judged the situation to be hopeless. And there would never be a second chance.

“Well…since there’s still some time before the deadline, let’s see how things turn out.”

“…I understand.” Knowing that even those words were spoken in consideration of him, Chi-Hyun had no choice but to accept her response.

***

Splas.h.!.+

Chi-Woo felt coldness sweep and soak through his entire body and opened his eyes in shock. He saw Evelyn holding a bucket over him.

“Lady E-Evelyn?”

“We have a guest. How long are you going to stay asleep?” Evelyn said in a low voice. As she said, there was someone waiting for him in the yard with a slightly taken aback expression on her face: a lady with ivory-colored hair, Noel Freya. Chi-Woo hurriedly got up and told Noel to come inside. But Noel said she was fine where she was since she needed to leave soon and sat on the porch.

“No. I didn’t think you would come…” Chi-Woo hastily washed his face with the water already there. When he saw Philip look at him pitifully, Chi-Woo realized it was meaningless to try to look presentable now.

“By the way, how is your condition…?” Chi-Woo asked.

“Perfect.” Noel smiled brightly and raised one arm. “I feel like I could fly. I feel even better than before.” And she praised to the heavens how it was all thanks to Lord Chi-Hyun’s great care. Hearing this depressed Chi-Woo further. He remembered how his brother had promised to heal Noel, which made him realize that his brother always kept his promises. He didn’t break a single one of them unlike…

Noel soon noticed Chi-Woo’s mood. And she cut her praise of Chi-Hyun short, which would’ve normally lasted over 30 more minutes.

“I know…you’re having a hard time,” Noel said cautiously.

“I can’t say things are good.” Chi-Woo smiled bitterly, and Noel looked more worried. Chi-Hyun and Chi-Woo were tied by blood, and this connection was deeper than most realized. They should’ve been existences that could turn to one another no matter what happened. Thus, it was neither in Chi-Hyun’s nor Chi-Woo’s favor that they were drifting farther apart.

“Then…what are you going to do, young master?”

“…I don’t know.” Chi-Woo lowered his head and sighed. He looked worried-sick. Noel thought she knew what Chi-Woo was feeling. Chi-Woo was a good sibling who came to Liber for the sole purpose of helping his older brother out. It was natural that he would feel so conflicted when his relations.h.i.+p with his brother was worsening now. Perhaps he even lost his purpose of coming to Liber.

“…But,” Chi-Woo started and fell into deep thought.

[What….can I do… to make you listen to me?]

Chi-Woo still couldn’t forget his brother’s answer when he asked this question. His brother’s words kept circling in his mind.

Thus, Chi-Woo continued, “I have the desire to become stronger.”

Noel lowered her chin slightly. She was a little relieved that his condition didn’t appear as severe as she thought. Chi-Woo still had a will that could turn the current situation in a more positive direction.

“How are you going to become stronger?” Noel asked with hope and added, “If it’s alright with you…could I give you some help?”

“Help?”

“Yes, did you know that the ninth recruits came to Liber recently?”

Chi-Woo nodded.

“There’s a great lady I would like to introduce to you,” Noel said. Chi-Woo was surprised to hear her address another person formally when she considered everyone besides his older brother as low-lives.

‘Who in the world…ah,’ Chi-Woo thought and said in realization, “Are you perhaps talking about Ms. Byeok?”

Noel’s eyes widened. “Oh my. You already know her?”

“She already came to see me and left.”

“What?” Noel’s voice rose. It sounded like she couldn’t believe it. Then she murmured to herself, “I see…she already came before I requested…”

But seeing her response, Chi-Woo’s curiosity shot up. It definitely seemed like there was something going on. “Who is this hero named Byeok?”

After thinking about his question for a bit, Noel spoke, “Hm~ Rather than a hero, she is…a gardener? Someone who blooms talent. In short, you can consider her someone who fosters people.”

Chi-Woo looked confused by Noel’s explanation. He asked, “Um…aren’t celestial heroes recruited from many planets?”

“That’s true,” Noel said. “I should have specified that she fosters not ordinary people, but heroes.” Then she continued, “She fosters special heroes and cultivates them even further.” Noel explained that not all heroes were the same. From an ordinary person’s point-of-view, everyone could be a splendid hero, but there existed differences between heroes. These differences were clearly shown by the scale and danger level of the stages the heroes acted on. Heroes chose where they fulfilled their duties according to their abilities. Some decided to resolve planet-scale events, while others took on those at the stellar-system scale. The greater the heroes’ abilities, the greater the scale of their stages.

Evidently, the heroes didn’t choose their own standards and scales. The person who a.s.sessed whether a hero could work beyond a planet scale to a stellar system scale was Byeok. Thus, if a hero wanted to work on a greater stage, they needed to seek out Byeok first, receive proper education, and pa.s.s a test to receive a certification. Only then could they go on to the next step. In short, Byeok was someone who gave out celestial examinations.

“For your information, those who completed her training account for less than 10 percent.” A hero could only take the examination once they completed their training, and they could only take the examination within a specific time frame. Should they fail, they would need to go through the training all over again.

“Furthermore, less than 3 percent complete the examination and receive a certificate,” Noel added.

“…That’s insane.” Chi-Woo’s mouth gaped open hearing the low success rate. Besides that, he was surprised by how important Byeok was.

“She really is an incredible figure. There are many complaints about her, but she shows clear results.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not all heroes who had made a mark in Celestial Realm’s history were her disciples, but there’s not a single one of her disciples who didn’t spread their names throughout history. That’s why even the Celestial Lights can’t complain given the results she got. And though it was a very special case, there was also a time when she taught Lord Chi-Hyun.”

In other words, Byeok was Chi-Hyun’s master and the one who had made the current legend. It was then Chi-Woo realized why Philip had told him to follow Byeok’s command the moment he saw her inflict a blow.