Though it had been less than 10 years since the abilities of non-combat ability users began to develop, various developments had been made including all kinds of potions and artifacts, weapons for dealing with monsters, communication devices within dungeons, Esper watches, improvements to Guide substitute medicine, and more.
The special guns issued to field Guides were also one of those results. Unlike weapons that only Espers could use, these were weapons that allowed ordinary people to face monsters.
However, because the main materials used were difficult to obtain and the production costs were considerable, and the bullets were also expensive magic stones, they couldn’t be mass-produced and were only used as weapons for some soldiers and field Guides.
Even that had only been introduced for 5 years.
“Don’t tell me I’m practicing with this?”
“I’ll use it a few times for testing, and there’s a separate one for practice.”
Jiwon, who had felt burdened about using magic stones freely for practice, stroked his chest in relief. Woojin, who had been giggling at such a Jiwon, moved to one spot on the shooting training line.
“Stand over here.”
When he stood according to the designated line, a target appeared in front automatically.
Woojin carefully explained everything from how to grip the KG-3.2 to maintenance methods before and after use, then showed a demonstration himself from the side.
“Don’t I need earmuffs?”
“Nope. This doesn’t make much sound. The recoil is also different from regular pistols, so one-handed shooting is much easier too. Just watch for now.”
Pa-kang!
Though a sharp firing sound occurred, the decibel level was low, so as Woojin said, it wasn’t enough to need earmuffs.
“Now you try shooting.”
As Jiwon clumsily took position, Woojin corrected him from the side.
At the sight of Jiwon glaring forward with quite serious eyes, Woojin watched with hopeful anticipation.
Jiwon slowly breathed in and out, then stopped breathing.
Calmness in the tense air.
Pa-kang!
The firing sound rang out once more in the quiet training ground.
“…Kik, pfft.”
And laughter burst out.
At the result that had completely missed the target, Jiwon hung his head.
“Either laugh freely or stop laughing.”
“Pf, puhahaha.”
He glared at Woojin, who was annoying as he laughed bending over at the waist.
“Good grief, what… You acted like you’d hit 10 points. Your expression alone is that of a sharpshooter, a sharpshooter indeed.”
“It’s because it’s my first time!”
“Kuk, wow~! Looking at the position, if the power was on, you would have hit the target in the next lane?”
Though he could see Jiwon pouting his lips and fuming, he couldn’t stop laughing at the gap between the plausible shooting stance and the not-so-plausible score.
Too much. Jiwon glared at Woojin with a sullen expression.
Woojin tried belatedly to appease Jiwon, who seemed to have turned his head away in offense while holding the special gun, but when he discovered the white cheek puffed out in furious indignation, he bent over at the waist and laughed again.
“Sorry. I’ll stop laughing. Whew.”
Woojin finally calmed his laughter and took a deep breath.
“It’s too late. You already laughed…”
“I really won’t laugh anymore! Now! Take your stance again.”
Jiwon took his stance again.
He shot a total of 10 rounds, but more than half missed the target and half barely hit the edges.
“You’ll definitely need a lot of practice. I’ll switch it to the practice one for now.”
After switching the special gun with magic stones to the practice version, Jiwon continued training.
An hour later, Jiwon, who finished training, could only hang his head at the disastrous results.
“How did you not get inside the 5-point line even once…”
“Urk…”
“At this rate, if you can’t pass the standard score, you’ll fail the field license.”
“Ugh…”
“Jiwon. Hyung’s being serious. It seems you have no talent for anything physical.”
“S-stop the verbal violence! Stop it.”
“They say you’re so good at Guiding. Well, a Guide just needs to be good at Guiding.”
The harsh evaluation stabbed at Jiwon’s heart, thud, thud.
If his outstanding Guiding skills and newly awakened cooking talent had raised his self-esteem, his lacking stamina and practical training dropped that self-esteem to the ground.
This is bad.
It really was a big problem. His plan to get the field license as quickly as possible had been put on hold.
He’d already expected the practical part to be a stumbling block, but reality was more serious.
“Hmm. Do you really have to get the field license?”
“…Yes. I have to do it until I succeed.”
“As things stand now, it really won’t be easy.”
“I know.”
Though it was a somewhat difficult path, he hadn’t even thought of giving up in the first place.
Someone might wonder why he’d go that far, thinking he was struggling needlessly after manifesting as a Guide that everyone envied.
No one was giving him hints or forcing him, and Esper Seo Gangwoo hadn’t recommended he get a field license either. Rather, though he didn’t actively discourage it, he seemed to prefer Jiwon not go to the field for safety reasons.
Just living in the same house as now and Guiding Seo Gangwoo every time he returned from completing a mission would be no problem at all for Jiwon.
He was sufficiently fulfilling his duty as a pair Guide, and the Center and headquarters would praise him saying he was doing well compared to the previous pair, Choi Hyerin.
Like many Guides did, he could work comfortably, live satisfied while showing off the envied profession of being a Guide.
But Jiwon abandoned that option.
Separately from having grown up as the youngest child who was loved and indulged by his family due to circumstances, he was originally stubborn and had a strong sense of responsibility.
He’d lived a life completely unrelated to ability users and had come this far due to sudden manifestation.
It wasn’t a profession he’d chosen himself, nor had he dreamed of being a Guide.
Jiwon, whose only proper social life experience was just a few years of school life, was just a common citizen who had lived grateful to enjoy an ordinary daily life like other people.
But it was already a world he’d stepped into.
Unless there were very special cases such as mental issues or a rank that was too low, ability users automatically became national civil servants upon manifestation, and Espers had to carry out missions or raids, while Guides had to perform Guiding.
This was now his workplace and the space where he lived. The surrounding ability users were his coworkers.
There were those who needed him, and someone he wanted to stay close to and protect had appeared.
He didn’t want to do it half-heartedly. Since he had this profession anyway, he wanted to do it properly.
Fortunately, he was quite good at Guiding.
Because he was high-rank, his Guiding amount was also large, his recovery was fast, and he’d quickly learned direct Guiding, which others said was difficult even after years, and could actually use it.
He was worried about Seo Gangwoo, who had developed resistance to Guide substitute medicine, and to better utilize his own abilities, being a field Guide was the answer.
Though his stamina was lacking even compared to the average ordinary person and he had no innate athletic ability, his body had become healthy now, so he wanted to be greedy.
Jiwon resolved to do it until he succeeded.
“Right. If you’re going to do it, what can I say. Let’s do it.”
At Jiwon’s appearance of not wavering even at his own words, Woojin changed his mind too.
Field Guides were already scarce, so it was right to help since a Guide full of willingness to do this had appeared.
“Yes!”
“Good! We have a long way to go. Let’s go exercise for now. I’ll have to reorganize your practical training schedule. Be prepared!”
“Hup…”
Like this, Jiwon flinched and increased the distance at the sight of Woojin’s back burning with motivation, determined to properly create one talented person.
“Let’s hurry. There’s a lot to do! If I work you hard, something will work out~!”
Just as headquarters worked the technical research team hard, if he worked Jiwon hard too, he’d see good results. Having organized his thoughts alone in an instant like that, Woojin left the shooting training ground. Then, at the voice of him shouting “Aren’t you following?” at the emptiness behind him, Jiwon finally ran over hurriedly while trembling at the creeping sensation.
I’ll be okay… right…?
* * *
After that, Woojin further subdivided Jiwon’s practical education curriculum.
After even consulting with Guide Bae Hyeonji who taught theory classes to organize the schedule, he increased the time for building basic stamina and distributed muscle training for each body part in between. Even after that, Woojin, who pondered over the schedule for a long time, even added Pilates to build flexibility and core.
He lightly ignored Jiwon’s protest asking when on earth he’d gotten his Pilates certification. To Woojin, who was serious about exercise, that level was like basic cultivation.
Besides that, special firearms training was done 3 days a week, and swimming lessons were conducted for 2 days.
It was the first time in his life that Jiwon had devoted this much time to exercise. Even after his health improved, exercise at most meant light walks.
He used to be scared in advance that his health might deteriorate again from unnecessary strain, so he’d talk about it beforehand and skip even during physical education class.
But after manifesting as a Guide, he didn’t need to worry about that. Guides who possessed energy close to the nature of purification were free from illness.
Being faithfully worked according to the schedule Woojin made every day, Jiwon could feel his body becoming healthier.
Though it was inevitable that muscles that had atrophied from 22 years of disuse screamed in shock at the intense exercise amount.
Woojin’s lessons, which were burdensome even to follow along with, were accompanied by exquisite carrots and sticks in between, so Jiwon also desperately endured with mental strength.
Focusing on stamina classes like that, the steering wheel returned to Seo Gangwoo again.
When he arrived home having been obediently loaded into the car, as soon as the car door opened, he was embraced by Seo Gangwoo who approached and was set down on the living room sofa.
