Doing Good Deeds Will Bring Blessings¿

And then a week passed.

…If only time could be skipped over with a single line like that.

“Haah, huff…”

In the end, I collapsed flat onto the cold floor. Normally, I wouldn’t even imagine lying down on a filthy floor like this, but all the strength had completely drained from my arms and legs, leaving me no choice. The stench of sweat hit me in a wave, nauseating enough that I cast a small spell to stir up a faint breeze. The fact that it had only been five hours since training started was downright despair-inducing.

…Damn it.

But what was truly the most despairing thing was…

It does seem effective.

After experiencing it firsthand, I had to admit that it really was a program Han Jaeyeong had every right to brag about.

Mages possess tremendous magical firepower, but because casting takes time, they absolutely require a tank to buy them that time. And since that’s such common knowledge, opponents often aim for the opening of the mage positioned in the rear. Even outside of PvP, monsters with a high level of intelligence at least have the instinct to strike the enemy’s weak point first. That was why mages, too, needed to know at least the minimum level of self-defense against surprise attacks; this was the core of the training.

To that end, what the HP Guild developed was a VR-based training program. The basic scenario was dodging the attacks of virtual monsters that ambushed you while you were in the middle of casting a spell. An impressive variety of monster types had been prepared.

Low-tier monsters are one thing, but they even prepared up to A-rank…

It seemed designed for those situations where you knew, in your head, that you had to dodge, but your body simply wouldn’t move. Training evasive maneuvers like this in advance really does increase the success rate in sudden situations.

And once your evasion rate exceeded 70%, the program even incorporated follow-up actions, adding physical attacks against the monsters. Of course, since it was designed for mages, the goal wasn’t landing decisive blows, but creating time and distance.

In the end, what matters for a mage is securing enough leeway to cast spells.

And because all of this was recreated so vividly through VR, and with such a wide range of monsters…

It was like forcibly imprinting proper bodily reactions, so that even if your mind froze in a crisis, your body would still move first. At the beginning I’d been utterly clumsy, but even I could clearly feel that my evasion rate was rising significantly.

(Temporary) Guild Member: Jeong Daon

Your name has been entered into the Hall of Fame!

Thanks to that, I’d achieved a meaningful result within the VR program.

I really haven’t used my body at all since being born as Jeong Daon.

In my previous life, swordsmanship had been a sort of compulsory liberal-arts subject, you learned it whether you liked it or not. And since I’d always had a naturally sharp mind, I knew how to improve efficiently, with tricks and shortcuts. With that kind of experience, it was only natural that my rate of adaptation to training would be fast. But still, no matter how efficient it was…

I stared up at the ceiling. I really do prefer magic…

Magic research let you sit calmly in one place and just work your brain. Why did physical training require actually moving your body? With something like the system around, couldn’t it just raise my stats like a game and make my body naturally move faster…?

The system provides the user with the optimal guide for survival.

In other words, guidance was just guidance. No matter how good your physical specs were, if you didn’t know how to use them, it was all worthless. Damn bastard.

Bzzt. Just then, the phone I’d left on the table vibrated. It was a call from Jeong Dajeong. His flustered voice came through the speaker.

“I just got off work; where are you? Leo’s hissing at me!”

“Yeah, just leave him.”

For the record, Leo hadn’t been staying at home. On my orders, he’d spent the entire day lingering around Jeong Dajeong. Now that his charge was finally home, he’d been released from guard duty, and seeing the person who’d made him suffer all day probably put him in a foul mood.

“And I’m at the HP Guild. Didn’t I text you?”

“Oh, maybe I missed it, I was busy. What are you doing at the guild?”

“Stamina training.”

The moment I said that, Jeong Dajeong’s voice brightened noticeably. “That’s a good idea. Daon, you really need to exercise. You always skipped PE at school, too. A healthy body makes a healthy mind—”

“You never even enlisted, Brother. Be quiet.”

“Uh… then will you be late? What about dinner?”

“I’ll eat here. The cafeteria’s free.” Since I’d poured almost all of the advance payment I got from Han Jaeyeong into defensive magic for the house, saving on food expenses was still important.

“Oh, then should I feed Leo? What should I give him? What does he like?”

“He doesn’t need to eat.”

“H-hey, Daon. I think Leo’s getting even more worked up after hearing your voice? I-I’ll hang up, okay? Hanging up!”

After saying that, Jeong Dajeong really did hang up in a hurry.

I had a feeling Leo, excited after hearing my voice, probably started running around like crazy and clawing at Jeong Dajeong’s phone, trying to snatch it away. I was a little curious why he disliked Jeong Dajeong so much. The problem was that Leo was in the form of an animal, so he couldn’t properly explain his own feelings.

“Phew…”

With the call ended, the realization that my break time was over finally set in. Did I really have to exercise again?

This is hopeless…

For ordinary people, resting after exercise would be appropriate for muscle growth, but Hunters were different. Just taking a light fatigue-recovery potion would restore the body almost immediately, which meant they could train for far longer than normal people and still get efficient results.

…Or so the training program explained.

“Shortest time, maximum efficiency!”

“You have to push yourself hard now if you want more time for magic research later!”

It wasn’t wrong. If it had to be done anyway, it was better to get it all over with at once. Yeah, my body had cooled down enough. I’d just suffer through this one week.

Just as I made up my mind and tried to stand up again…

“Ah.”

My legs wobbled. It was probably because of the hours of training I’d just gone through…

“Whoa!”

Right before I fell forward, someone grabbed me from behind with surprising strength. Startled, I raised my elbow to strike the person who’d caught me, but—

“It’s me, it’s me.”

The hands supporting my shoulders quickly withdrew, and they stepped back, creating distance. My sharply thrust elbow only cut through empty air.

When I turned around, I saw a familiar face. And yet, an unexpected one.

“Yu Hanul? Why are you here?”

"Ahaha." Yu Hanul, who had instantly put some distance between us, scratched his cheek awkwardly. “I feel like I came at the wrong time. Why’d you suddenly try to start close combat?”

After hours of combat training in the VR program, my hands had moved on reflex before I even thought about it. That was kind of the point of the training, but… as a mage, it was still an embarrassing situation, so I cleared my throat.

Still, Yu Hanul showing up out of nowhere was genuinely surprising.

“Did Han Jaeyeong call you?”

“Yeah. We were on the phone about something, and they mentioned you were suffering through stamina training. I happened to be passing nearby, so I thought I’d help out a bit.”

“You’re that free?”

Of course, I was valuable enough that you couldn’t just brush it off with potential S-rank, but objectively speaking, this level of basic stamina training didn’t warrant Yu Hanul’s personal help. He was, by all accounts, the greatest swordsman in South Korea. We’d gotten entangled often by coincidence, but under normal circumstances, he wasn’t someone you could meet this easily.

“In a way, yeah. I’ve got about three hours free in my schedule.”

“Wouldn’t most people call that busy?”

I frowned. When we’d gone together to the Central Management Office before, I’d thought Yu Hanul was simply showing human kindness toward a minor, but if he went this far, suspicion crept in no matter how much I tried to avoid it.

“Do you have some kind of personal interest in me? If so, I’ll refuse in advance.”

“Wow, that’s harsh. I haven’t felt this wronged in a while.” Yu Hanul replied jokingly, shrugging his shoulders, “I know perfectly well that you’re not interested in me.”

“Fine, then. If you know that, why are you being so pushy?”

“Honestly? Because I find you suspicious.”

I froze for a moment because I didn’t expect him to come out with it so bluntly.

That Yu Hanul suspected me wasn’t strange in itself. He was in a situation where he’d been given a quest to find the “Enemy of Humanity.” And then, right in front of him, a mage appeared who could use incantation magic immediately upon awakening. On top of that, Dungeon Breaks kept occurring around that mage. To anyone, wouldn’t I look like a prime candidate for that “Enemy of Humanity”?

Not to mention the traces of my mana lingering in his subconscious. That was probably why Yu Hanul had shown up so abruptly late that night before. Still, that made his straightforward admission of suspicion even more puzzling.

“Whatever it is you’re suspicious of,” I spoke carefully. “If you suspect me, why tell me directly?”

“I talked to Choi Miyeon today, the survivor from the Truelight Sect incident.”

…So this was how I’d pay for not checking my phone all day because of training.

What exactly had she said? I didn’t think Choi Miyeon would have opened up to Yu Hanul that easily, but…

“What did you hear?”

“She said you saved her.”

I frowned. “So?”

“Well, honestly, the fact that you could use incantation magic right after awakening, and that you were so calm even though it must’ve been your first time facing monsters… all of that was pretty suspicious.”

Every one of those points was, admittedly, grounds for suspicion.

“And you also felt kind of familiar. Like I’d seen you somewhere before.”

That part was the system’s fault, constantly stirring up Yu Hanul’s memories.

“But I’m going to stop suspecting you now.”

"Why?"

“Because you don’t seem like someone evil enough to destroy the world.”

I fell silent for a moment, then let out a sigh. Those were words that would make the system recoil in horror. “Are you an idiot?”

“I hear that surprisingly often… but I do have my reasons. Want to hear them?”

“I don’t.”

“People say that instincts show in moments of crisis, right? I’ve seen it three times already, how you put other people’s lives ahead of your own.”

“…”

I said I didn’t want to hear it, and yet he kept talking.

Saving the shop owner and the reporters who got caught up in the Eunpyeong Dungeon Break. Saving the children at the Gwanghwamun Central Management Office. And finally, Choi Miyeon’s testimony from the Truelight Sect incident. From my perspective, none of those actions were done out of pure goodwill… but from Yu Hanul’s point of view, that was how they looked? That I was a good person?

It wasn’t exactly a bad thing for me if it got me out of Yu Hanul’s suspicion, but still…

“So, partly to make up for doubting you, and partly because I had time, I came to help.”

Looking at Yu Hanul’s smiling face made irritation bubble up inside me.

This guy’s unbelievably naive.

Still as foolish as ever, our hero. People are harder to understand than the depths of the sea, yet he was already sorting me into black and white, trusting me enough to say things like that. Throwing away one’s life three times to earn a hero’s trust? For a truly great villain, that wouldn’t even be difficult.

Not that I, a former Demon Lord who couldn’t afford to let the hero learn my true identity, had much room to talk.

The system requests User Jeong Daon to assist with the “SAVE THE WORLD” quest.

Was this…not a request for combat support, but for me to protect an easily deceived hero?

Unaware of the system’s intentions, the hero kept talking. “Of course, you might be hiding things from me, but everyone has secrets.”

I really wanted to punch him. The hero I needed to use as my shield couldn’t afford to be this easy to fool.

Swallowing my rising frustration, I asked, “Then, Yu Hanul, do you trust Han Jaeyeong?”

“Hm?

“At first I thought you two didn’t get along, but seeing you come all the way into their guild, you seem closer than I expected.”

“Hmm, close? Among the S-ranks, we’ve just done dungeon raids together the most often… but when it comes to signing contracts with Han Jaeyeong, you should think long and hard. They’re extremely shrewd.” That, at least, matched my own impression. Yu Hanul’s eyes quickly filled with concern. “But you’ve already signed, right? Are you consulting a lawyer or something? I could introduce you to someone I know.”

“If you’re asking that, doesn’t that mean you don’t really trust them?”

“Uhh…” Yu Hanul laughed awkwardly. “But they’re not a bad person, either.”

…This won’t do. My plan to keep a careful distance, neither too close nor too far, from Yu Hanul hadn’t changed. But as for Han Jaeyeong, I’d need to verify exactly what kind of person they were.