The Support Ate it All

I contacted Shin Byeong-cheol on the way to the training center.

Since he had contributed to the Black Death dungeon raid, it was only fair for him to have a chance as well.

[Kim Ho: Been a while]

[Shin Byeong-cheol: Where are you, hyung-nim?]

[Kim Ho: Training center]

[Shin Byeong-cheol: I’ll be there right away, hyung-nim!]

True to his word, Shin Byeong-cheol came running at full speed.

“Ah, thank you so much for calling me.”

“I promised, didn’t I?”

“Of course! A man’s got to live by keeping his promises, after all.”

I glanced at Jang Moo-geuk and silently asked for his opinion. He gave a slight nod of his chin in response.

It seemed he had already called Wang Cheon-sam.

We reserved a spacious training room at the training center.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, I began setting things up one by one.

As I operated the training room terminal, a square-shaped stage appeared.

It looked very similar to the one-person training area I had seen in the Bamboo Forest.

Next, I retrieved the statues of the demons and goblins from my inventory and arranged them around the stage.

To recreate the Illusion Demon’s formation, the placement of each statue had to be precisely accurate, without even a millimeter of deviation.

Fortunately, this setup didn’t require any special skills or knowledge related to formations.

As long as you memorize everything.

There weren’t many statues; there were barely around ten. So memorizing their positions wasn’t much of a challenge.

A goblin at the eastern corner, a demon opposite it in the western corner, another demon at the next edge…

I carefully considered the placement and orientation of each statue and positioned them one by one.

Hissssss.

Fog began to spread gradually across the square stage, and the statues of the goblins and demons started to grow larger.

Dang Gyu-young who seemed to be interested reached out and lightly touched one of the statues.

“This feels like a balloon. I get that it’s an illusion formation.”

The fact that we could see the illusions meant that the formation was functioning correctly.

It also meant I was doing it right.

So I continued arranging the statues, and by the time I was finishing up, their sizes had grown larger than a person.

When I turned my back to the stage, Dang Gyu-young asked,

“Is it done?”

“Yes, would you like to go first?”

“Sure.”

Dang Gyu-young stepped onto the stage and positioned herself in the dead center.

Immediately, the fog thickened and swallowed her completely.

Only her silhouette remained faintly visible.

“……”

“……”

Curious about how the Illusion Demon’s trial was conducted, everyone focused their attention on the fog and strained their eyes to see.

But Dang Gyu-young’s silhouette remained motionless in the same spot.

The trial wasn’t taking place on the stage but within the illusion.

Before long, the fog rapidly cleared to reveal Dang Gyu-young.

“Ah!”

She flinched before regaining her composure, though her expression didn’t look great. It seemed like she had failed.

She probably ended up getting beaten up by the statues, which brought the trial to an abrupt end.

When Dang Gyu-young stepped off the stage, I asked her,

“Do you want to take a break before trying again?”

“No, I’ve got the hang of it now. I should finish it while I’m in the zone.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

I nodded my head in agreement, and she returned to the center of the square stage.

The second attempt took considerably longer.

When the fog finally lifted, Dang Gyu-young let out a long sigh, but a small smile began to form at the corners of her lips.

She glanced to the side briefly; she was likely reading a notification message.

“I got it.”

“You finished quickly.”

“Two tries were enough.”

She smiled triumphantly.

As someone with a thief class, she probably had confidence in her ability to evade, though I had expected it might take her three attempts.

Managing it in just two meant Dang Gyu-young had more talent than I thought.

Next up was Chae Da-bin.

This time, my prediction was spot on. It took her three attempts to clear the Illusion Demon’s trial.

While her magic engineering skills were exceptional, she seemed to lack proficiency in other areas.

That’s why she’s a spiked hexagon on a stat graph.

If she were to face a promising first-year, she might hold her own, but it’d be close?

While I was lost in thought, Dang Gyu-young approached and asked,

“So we’re done now, right? Is there anything else to do?”

“No, nothing. You’re free to go.”

Both of them had already learned Ghost Dance, and since the trial took place within the Illusion Formation, there wasn’t much to oversee.

It was more productive to move on to other tasks.

“Rest well over the weekend~”

Dang Gyu-young waved her hand playfully in farewell and left the training room with Chae Da-bin.

Next, I turned my gaze to Shin Byeong-cheol and Go Hyeon-woo, and shifted my eyes between the two.

“Who’s going first?”

“I don’t mind taking my time.”

When Go Hyeon-woo gave in, Shin Byeong-cheol smirked and raised the corners of his mouth.

“Hmph, finally, it’s my turn.”

With confident strides, he climbed onto the stage and declared,

“I don’t need two or three tries. I’ll finish this in one go.”

“What’s with the confidence?”

Soon, the fog engulfed Shin Byeong-cheol, marking the start of the Ghost Dance trial.

It didn’t take long before—

“Urgh.”

A deflating groan escaped him as he stumbled backward.

It seemed like a goblin statue had landed a solid blow to his abdomen.

Even so, he didn’t lose his composure.

“I let my guard down. But this time, it’ll be different.”

Without hesitation, he jumped into his second attempt.

Of course, the result wasn’t much different.

The third attempt? The same outcome.

“Urgh.”

“……”

Neither I, Go Hyeon-woo, Jang Moo-geuk, nor Wang Cheon-sam said a word, but an unspoken understanding formed between us.

Our thoughts were likely the same.

Better not get cocky.

There was always a chance they could end up in the same situation, so keeping quiet was the wisest choice.

Shin Byeong-cheol who was now preparing for his fourth attempt said confidently,

“Ah, I’ve got it this time. I’m just going to learn Ghost Dance now.”

“Hold up, stop.”

But I stopped him and said,

“You’ve failed three times already, so wait until everyone else has gone once, then try again.”

“Do we really need to take turns? Wouldn’t it be cleaner if each person kept trying until they got it?”

“It might be cleaner, but there’s a limit to the number of attempts.”

Crack!

As soon as I said these words, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the room.

When we turned to look toward the stage, we saw that a few of the statues had fractured with faint cracks spreading across them.

“……!”

Everyone’s expressions stiffened slightly.

They had realized that failing too many times could cause them to lose their chance entirely.

Shin Byeong-cheol’s once-inflated confidence deflated in an instant.

“……Hyung-nim? I can still try again, right?”

“Who knows?”

It would likely depend on how many attempts the others used.

After glancing at Shin Byeong-cheol’s anxious face, I turned my attention to Go Hyeon-woo.

“It’s your turn now.”

With light steps, Go Hyeon-woo ascended the stage to face the Illusion Demon’s trial.

As expected, he didn’t let me down.

When the fog cleared after his second attempt, a satisfied smile spread across his lips.

“I’ve done it.”

“Well done.”

He wasn’t lacking in talent either.

Next up were the two assassins.

“It’s my turn now.”

Unlike Shin Byeong-cheol, Jang Moo-geuk didn’t boldly declare a one-try victory. Still, just before stepping onto the stage, he shot a competitive glance at Go Hyeon-woo; his eyes were brimming with determination.

It was clear he intended to finish in two attempts as well.

And he had the skill and talent to make it happen.

When the fog covered the stage twice and then cleared, a smile identical to Go Hyeon-woo’s was on Jang Moo-geuk’s lips.

“Jang-hyung finished in two attempts as well.”

“One failure is more than enough.”

Jang Moo-geuk replied nonchalantly.

Next, Wang Cheon-sam stepped forward to take on the challenge.

Like the two martial artists before him, he also seemed determined to clear it in two tries. Unfortunately, his skills were somewhat lacking in comparison.

“…Hmm.”

As a result, he failed twice in a row.

Before he could attempt a third time, I stopped him for a moment.

I lowered my voice and reminded him of an important fact.

“Cheon-sam, if you fail again, you’ll end up like Byeong-cheol over there.”

“……!”

“You’ll even have to change your name to Wang Byeong-cheol then.”

“That can’t happen. I’ll succeed no matter what.”

With a determined expression on his face, Wang Cheon-sam steeled himself for his third attempt at the Illusion Demon’s trial.

Soon, the fog lifted.

“…Whew.”

A sigh of relief escaped from Wang Cheon-sam.

Somehow, he seemed more relieved that he hadn’t become “Wang Byeong-cheol” than over successfully learning the Ghost Dance.

The two assassins approached me. They each offered a word of thanks.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I’ve finally obtained the fortuitous opportunity I’ve been searching for all this time.”

“You kept your promise, so we’ll keep ours.”

With that, they handed me a few finely crafted wooden boxes.

The reward Jang Moo-geuk earned by joining this raid as a mercenary was simply a “priority in trade”.

The trade itself was a separate matter.

Now that they had acquired the Ghost Dance, they were fulfilling their promised payment.

I decided to inspect the contents later.

After storing the wooden boxes in my inventory, I said,

“You’ve all done well. You can head out now.”

“Will do. Thanks again.”

As Jang Moo-geuk and Wang Chun-sam were about to leave, they paused for a few seconds to glance at Shin Byeong-cheol.

He was still the only one who hadn’t obtained the Ghost Dance.

Whatever crossed their minds, they casually turned away and without a word,

Swish—

Swish, swish—

They actually demonstrated the Ghost Dance as they exited the training room.

As he watched their backs, Shin Byeong-cheol put his hand to his forehead with a deep sense of frustration rising in him.

“No, seriously, this is just—wow.”

“Let it go. If you fight them, you’ll lose.”

“I mean, sure, but—argh, come on.”

Shin Byeong-cheol seemed to agree with my words and quickly worked to calm his anger.

Or rather, he redirected it.

“Fine. Out of sheer spite, I’ll succeed no matter what.”

Shin Byeong-cheol strode up to the stage with determined steps to take his trial.

…After two more attempts, he finally succeeded in acquiring the Ghost Dance technique.

Although the process had its ups and downs, the fact remained that he had obtained a high-performance skill in the end. This made Shin Byeong-cheol look visibly satisfied.

Once Shin Byeong-cheol had departed, only Go Hyeon-woo and I remained in the training room.

“Thankfully, everyone managed to succeed. I was worried we might run out of attempts before they did.”

“It was close. There’s really not much left now. At most, two or three more tries?”

Unlike when the formation was first set up, the statues now appeared weathered, as though they had aged significantly over time.

Not only were cracks visible in various places, but some parts had even broken off.

Still, they weren’t completely destroyed, and the formation was functioning well enough, so it could still be used for the time being.

Since it was a high-level formation, it could have been passed on to Jegal So-so as research material but—

I’ll use it to its fullest before handing it over.

In fact, I had already sent a message for that earlier.

[Kim Ho: knock knock]

[Kim Ho: (cat knocking on door emoji)]

[Kim Ho: (cat knocking on door emoji)]

[Kim Ho: Wake up, please.]

[Seo Ye-in: (sleepy cat emoji)]

[Seo Ye-in: ?]

[Seo Ye-in: (rolling cat emoji)]

[Kim Ho: I’ve got something to show you.]

[Kim Ho: (shy cat emoji)]

[Seo Ye-in: (tilted head cat emoji)]

[Seo Ye-in: ????]

[Kim Ho: Come to the training center.]

Before long, I sensed someone’s presence and turned my head to see Seo Ye-in standing at the door of the training room.

She looked just as disheveled as the cat emoji she had sent earlier.

As usual, it seemed she had just woken up from a deep sleep.

“……?”

Seo Ye-in stared at me blankly.

Her gaze seemed to ask, “What is it you want to show me?”

I took a step forward and adjusted my stance.

“Watch closely.”

“?”

Swish

Then I activated the Ghost Dance and my body started gliding forward as though I was sliding effortlessly.

“……!”

Her gray eyes sparkled brightly.

It was the look she always had when she found something she wanted.