Seol-Hwi opened his closet. The downside of the military outfit was that it was rather conspicuous except in the dead of night.
He changed into casual clothes and settled into bed.
<Do you want to save?> □ Year 95 of the Heavenly Calendar, Chapter 2-1: Three Choices from the Earth Demon. ■ Year 97 of the Heavenly Calendar, Chapter 4-5: Gain Favorability with the Members. □ Year 95 of the Heavenly Calendar, [Became a Core Warrior] First Bonus Story.
As usual, he saved in the second slot.
■ Year 97 of the Heavenly Calendar, Chapter 5-3. The Essence of the Supreme Pavilion Lord. <Saved>
The essence… It hadn’t been long since the Earth Demon had insulted the Supreme Pavilion Lord. For him to be brought up again suggested that Seol-Hwi hadn’t seen the last of him.
Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now.
Seol-Hwi closed his eyes and wondered what messages the system would present him tomorrow. What would his schedule be like? What instructions would he give his subordinates?
He decided that he’d save every month from now on.
Oh, I need to change slots. He wanted to leave the Three Choices alone, so that left the third slot.
With that done, Seol-Hwi lay down and fell asleep.
Seol-Hwi went to the door as soon as he woke up, eager to see what had changed.
<Please set a schedule for month 4 of year 97. (20/36)> ▶ Perform Missions with Team [Receive the Earth Demon’s mission] (New) ▷ Schedule for Subordinates (New) ▷ Take a Mission ▷ Warrior Training
It’s changed completely! “Teaching” and “Walk Around” had been replaced. When he thought about it, there wouldn’t be a point to them now that favorability had been maximized. Since the team mission was apparently one he already had, the only new addition was setting his subordinates’ schedules.
Let’s take a look.
▶ Perform Missions with Team [Receive the Earth Demon’s mission] (New) <Caution! If you choose to take the Earth Demon’s mission, 17 months of the remaining time will be consumed and you will be moved to the main story.> <Do you want to proceed>
Wait! He thought there would be a sub-option.
Seol-Hwi paused to check. 17 months would cut off all of his remaining time; in that case, he’d lose his chance to build up skills and increase his performance. It would be a waste of almost a year and a half.
▷ Schedule for Subordinates (New) <Which mission would you like to give them?> ▶ Closed Training ▷ Direct Teaching ▷ Acquire Personal Weapons (Must be done safely.) ▷ Target Attack
…Oh. He wanted to try all of them at least once. Should I start with closed training? There was a lot he wanted to do, but he had to work within the time given. He had to pay attention to raising his subordinates’ skills as well as his own.
<Seol-Hwi instructed his subordinates to perform “Closed Training.”>
Evidently, he couldn’t separate his own schedule.
[Yorim]
“Once in a while, I get the urge to sharpen my skills. I’ll show good results.”
[Jeok Seong]
“I think this is also part of the mission. To fight against stronger enemies, I need to get the basics down.”
[Yongjin]
“I think it’s a good chance. We will definitely show you how much we’ve grown.”
[Seo Ryeong]
“I could never find time for personal training. I’ll use this time to review my shortcomings.”
Each of them responded positively. Imugi, however, was different.
[Imugi]
“My master gave me closed training after returning to the sect. To be honest, I don’t know how much this is going to help.
Seol-Hwi could understand; for Imugi’s skills to increase so much over the last year, he had to have suffered a lot.
Everything went black, and then information began to blink in front of him.
[Day 1: Subordinates’ stats increase.] [Day 2: Subordinates’ stats increase.] [Day 3: Subordinates’ stats increase.] … …
The only difference from his personal training was that his subordinates stats were increasing, not his.
<Displaying one month closed training results.> Yorim [Command Unit 1st Member] Body: Normal Master Health: 1.50 million/1.53 million (↑30k) Internal Energy: 1.4 million/1.4 million (↑50k) Combat Power: 3.05 million (↑5k) (+Sense) Jeok Seong [Command Unit 2nd Member] Body: Normal Master Health: 2.62 million/2.65 million (↑30k) Internal Energy: 1.40 million/1.44 million (↑40k) Combat Power: 3.25 million (↑5k) (+Sense) Yong Jin [Command Unit 3rd Member] Body: Normal Master Health: 1.52 million/1.57 million (↑50k) Internal Energy: 1.30 million/1.33 million (↑30k) Combat Power: 2.96 million (↑6k) (+Sense) Seo Ryeong [Command Unit 4th Member] Body: Normal Master Coins: Love+3 Health: 700k/800k (↑10k) Internal Energy: 1.50 million/1.65 million (↑15k) Combat Power: 1.65 million (↑100k) (+Sense)
So this is the result of closed-room training, Seol-Hwi thought. They’d all greatly improved their stats. Now, everyone except for Seo Ryeong were around 3 million combat power.
It was different from then on.
Imugi [First Disciple of Seol-Hwi] Health: 1.40 million/1.41 million (↑10k) Internal Energy: 1.20 million/1.21 million (↑10k) Master Combat Power: 2.49 million (↑10k) <+Multiplication>
He noticed that Imugi hadn’t applied himself to the training because he didn’t want to do it in the first place. It didn’t matter, though—his stats were good enough.
<Please set a schedule for month 5 of year 97.>
Oh? Already? He didn’t have any idle time this month. Seol-Hwi didn’t worry about it for long, though.
Wouldn’t it be best to keep increasing their abilities for the time being?
More time passed.
This is…
Something changed in the third month of training. By the second month of closed training, there were signs that his peoples’ abilities weren’t increasing. By the third month, it had stopped entirely.
So that’s as far as we go.
<Please set a schedule for month 7 of year 97. (22/36)> <Which mission would you like to give them?> ▷ Closed Training ▶ Direct Teaching ▷ Acquire Personal Weapons (Must be done safely.) ▷ Target Attack
Seol-Hwi decided he’d teach this time.
<Which subordinate will you teach?> ▶ Yorim ▷ Jeok Seong ▷ Yongjin ▷ Seo Ryeong ▷ Imugi
First up was Yorim.
[Yorim]
“I’m very excited for the captain to teach me directly. I will definitely try my best!”
[Day 1: Yorim’s combat power increases.] [Day 2: Yorim’s combat power increases.] [Day 3: Yorim’s combat power increases.] … …
Unlike during their closed training, time didn’t stop for Seol-Hwi. Yorim would ask him questions or mumble in agony.
The last day arrived, and Seol-Hwi was presented with the results.
[Day 30: All of Yorim’s stats increase.] <Teaching complete.>
“It really helped me a lot.”
[Yorim’s combat power increased by 100k.]
Oh! Seol-Hwi had expected an increase, but not this large of one. So this happens…
A pleasant surprise, and one he intended to capitalize on to increase his subordinates’ levels.
Next, Seol-Hwi chose Jeok Seong.
Four months passed. Everyone’s combat power went up by a hundred thousand, except for Seo Ryeong whose increase was smaller.
<Please set a schedule for month 12 of year 97. (27/36)>
Teaching, again? Seol-Hwi decided to look at a different option. He went for “Acquire Personal Weapons,” something he’d been curious about for a while.
[Yorim]
“There’s a piece of equipment in the Salt Lake at the moment. It’ll take us a month, but we can get it.”
[Jeok Seong]
“I also felt the absence while I was practicing. At this point, a weapon would be helpful.”
[Yongjin]
“I like what I have now, but I feel like I need a secondary weapon. At this point, I think I should look around on my own.”
[Seo Ryeong]
“Needles and daggers need the right kind of gloves. Now that I have the chance, I need to find a suitable pair.”
[Imugi]
“Haha, I’ve been waiting. Don’t worry; there are some weapons I found in the field the other time. If we can afford it, I can get some. You’ll like it.”
Everyone seemed happy. Seol-Hwi was puzzled, but curious.
What should I do?
As always, he waited for time to pass.
[Day 1: Subordinates train safely.] [Day 2: Subordinates train safely.] [Day 3: Subordinates train safely.] … …
Oh? On the 23rd day, time stopped.
[Seo Ryeong has returned.]
She had a bright smile on her face.
“Captain! I found something useful. It might be helpful for our missions.”
[Seo Ryeong has obtained the Heavenly Gauntlet.] [Seo Ryeong’s combat power increased by 15%.]
Woah! That was a huge increase in combat power.
That wasn’t all. Yongjin was back on the 26th day.
“I got what I wanted.”
[Yongjin has obtained the Ink Cloud Ax.] [Yongjin’s combat power has increased by 18%.]
Their combat power has massively increased. It was obvious to Seol-Hwi how important it was for them to have the right weapon.
