Thank you to those who are reading, and for those who are not... well not like you gonna see this. HAHAHA. Anyways, I'm doing this for fun, I'll try to get updates out as quick as possible, please make sure to check the authors notes... idk if you guys are or not. I tend to leave my thought process there and if you think I'm fudging something up, check there before you flame. First time writing... first time thinking about all the nuisances, so give me a slight break. I will come back and fix thing... if I do I will let you know with updates in the authors notes. :)
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Tiger Guild
After being intimidated, Jin-Woo was a bit more receptive to what Ahn had to say. Ahn didn't want Jin-Woo to waste precious time before the invasion of this planet by the Monarchs figuring out his path to power and all that nonsense. So he gave him an ultimatum, Jin-Woo could either chose to become a subordinate to Ahn, who would in turn help him grow into an ultimate hunter. Or he could chose to go on his own, in which case Ahn would reveal his abilities to the world basically turning Jin-Woo into a lab rat for those giant guilds and associations with vested interest. Either ways it was no sweat off Ahn's back since he had the protection of the Tiger Guild currently so no one would try to kidnap him for science without a legit fight.
And that is how they all ended up inside the Tiger Guild's training facility, with a little push here and there Ahn was able to get Jin-Woo discharged early.
The Tiger Guild's reputation definitely precedes it.
Although it would be counter productive as someone trying to leave the WTG(White Tiger Guild) to sign his new subordinate to the guild itself, there was a work around. By positioning Jin-Woo as a possible candidate for recruitment, he could have him join groups that would clear gates. This would help him level up as quickly as possible compared to when he was just starting out himself. Ahn wasn't sure how much was left out of the manhwa and the real life he was living, but he wasn't going to leave it to chance to have his ultimate hound become an absolute beast.
"Remember to use good form while doing those push-ups or they won't count Jin-Woo."
Ahn told him as he was also on the ground doing his daily task of 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 5 mile run. Instead of forcing him to do them all at once, they had broken it down to 20 of each exercise followed by a mile run.
While it wasn't uncommon to see department heads exercising, considering that some of them were awakened, some of the hunters that were in the training facility were looking at the duo like they were crazy. Everyone knew that basic workouts did nothing for hunters, that's why joining bigger guilds was worth the overhead. The type of equipment needed to stimulate any type of growth for a hunter costed well into the hundreds of thousands, and that was just one piece of equipment, imagine what a whole gym setup would cost; millions.
So watching a hunter with, what they knew him to be, a civilian doing basic workouts made them almost laugh out loud. It was crazy to think that there was a hunter doing the same workouts that a civilian could accomplish. But some of the more observant noticed that the hunter's muscles were almost visibly growing with each set, either he was low level enough that even this could hike up his physique or there was something about the exercise routine that was applying the effect.
"Ahn Sangmin, I heard you found us a new recruit?"
A sudden boisterous voice carried across the gym. There was only one person in the whole guild who was both that loud and uncaring when it came to common etiquette; Baek.
"Guild Master, it really seems like I can't keep anything away from you, huh"
Ahn said jokingly, although he was only the department head for the Second Division, that didn't mean that he didn't have a good relationship with the guild master. The fact that he brought the guild master an S rank and several other hunters from B to A rank that became part of the main attack force, was enough to have a voice at the table when it came to certain guild decisions. If it wasn't for the fact his career grew in the Second Division and the crew held his loyalty, he would be the Chief if not the Deputy Chief of the first Division that takes care of the main attack force.
"Hahaha, there are no secrets in the WTG from me Ahn, you know this."
A boisterous laugh came from Baek.
"So, who is this new fellow that you have with you? Is he another candidate for the main force?"
Gosh these territorial S ranks, especially this guy with his beast affiliation will be a headache for me for a while.... just wait till I can knock you out as a solution
"Not necessarily, he is kind of a side project for me at the moment. I just want to see what he is capable of, right now he has potential as a good porter, but maybe he will show promise later, no guarantees with this talent."
Ahn knew what to say and what not to say to keep his boss from interfering too much, although Baek was sensitive to deception and trickery, it didn't mean that he was immune to such things or that he was all knowing when it came down to it. Ahn was praying that his skills were high enough to pass this check point on his road to the easy life later on.
"Well, if you say so. But do give me updates on his progress if he shows more talent than that."
Luckily Ahn had previously recruited excavators and porters, since they tended to be hunters as well, though just on the weaker side. Even though the same porters and excavators were used between the three forces of WTG, they were managed by the Second Division, putting the fact of hiring and overseeing them in his jurisdiction, just not handled by him as often as the hunters who go into the gates.
"You know I will Guild Lead"
That man is too sensitive to what's going on... though luckily he's also a bit naive at times.
"Okay, lets wrap this up as quickly as possible then Jin"
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Since the time that Jin-Woo joined up with Ahn's team things were pretty much the same, they spent the mornings learning, in Ahn's case relearning, monster patterns and how to recognize dungeon types once inside, followed by a round of exercising. That was when Ahn would leave Jin-Woo up to his own devices while he would go and actually do his job while looking to head hunt some talent for when he would start their own guild. Ahn new that rushing into dungeons was the right move to power level Jin-Woo, but with how weak they both were at the moment, that was not an advisable decision.
Ahn knew that the only reason that Jin-Woo was even as strong as he was later on was because he took time in the hospital to level up his body first, the leveling system was designed to level up everything in preparation to host the Monarchs soul, but mostly the body of the host needed to be at a certain level. Only with a strong body can the soul be able to get more powerful without combustion, like what happened with some hosts for the fragments of brilliant light.
Over the past week there was a noticeable difference in both Jin-Woo and Ahn in terms of their physique, both were now looking less like civilians pretending to be hunters and more like pro hunters should with chiseled features and an aura of might. Jin-Woo had a slightly more aesthetic build as compared to Ahn who had focused more on a brutish build, looking almost like a berserker instead of a mage.
"Hey Ahn, I got a gift from my system that is pointing at a dungeon, do you think I should go check it out or do I still need to train some more?"
Ahhh its that mission already, I didn't think he would have gotten it this fast, but considering that I have basically been working him to the bone it would make sense
"Yea, you should take that mission, see what it can provide you with. Just remember not to go overboard and since it will be your first dungeon, do try and level up as much as possible."
Both Ahn and Jin-Woo were sitting at level one currently, but for Ahn it didn't mean that he was weak. Over the past weak Ahn had been studying and trying to understand other mages for inspiration to make his own brand of magic. Through restless afternoons and nights, he had finally cracked the block on him being able to utilize magic. The first thing he did was just try and find the source of his mana, this was what took the longest to figure out. There was almost no one that knew where their mana came from and the books also did not do any in-depth explanation. So Ahn just utilized a trial and error method, taking time to meditate to sense his mana, over time he was able to finally grasp something from his meditations that led to him finding his 'core' so to speak.
After finding his 'core,' everything else became a lot easier. From there he just followed the branches that left his 'core' to figure out the pathways that allowed him to perform magic as a mage. Once both of these achievements were recorded by the Akashic Record skill, he no longer had to consciously move his mana to perform magic. From here was the challenge of figuring out what type of magic he wanted to delve into, there were all types that he had studied in his course to uncover his 'core' ranging from basic fire magic to summoning magic that hunters utilized. Although it was also recoded in his Akashic skill, it didn't mean that he wanted to focus on these schools of magic just yet.
[Host, why not combine your skills earned through Akashic Record into one skill]
Because then I wouldn't be able to make sure that the magic type I want high level to be high level, if I combine them into one skill, that skill will be a whole lot harder to level up. It's better to have several weaker skills initially that I can then level up to get a freeform version of later, than combine things now and end up suffering later on...
[Huh... Host can be logical.. continue to ignore this System then Host]
Over the past week Ahn had ignored all notifications from the system as almost anything he did efficiently would turn into a skill. That left only the times when the system wanted to talk to him to get through his little mental block on the notifications.
From all the different magics that Ahn had looked into and studied over the past week, he had not found anyone that utilized spatial magics. For Ahn, this was both a blessing and a curse, this meant that when he did showcase his abilities later on, their would be no one that could stop him or challenge him outside of the Monarchs and the Rulers who had a certain affinity towards spatial magic. So for the past two days, this little project of trying to understand spatial laws and rules to uncover spatial magic was what he was focusing on.
"Before I get going Ahn, will you need anything from me?"
His deputy asked him.
"....hmmm, oh.. no no. You can head home now Hyun"
Ahn said distractedly.
Ever since he brough Jin-Woo on, Boss has been busy either studying hunters or working out. More so then usual.... Boss is so coool...
With no one else around to watch Ahn he started circulating his mana faster through his body as he tried to sense the space around him while thinking about the different elements that held the fabric of the universe together. Like when he learned to make his fire magic burn hotter by combusting different elements instead of just oxygen, Ahn tried to understand what held the universe together, like gravity. For this reason he had become an avid reader of some of the top scientists and quantum physicists of their time, and he knew he was on the cusp of getting the achievement of spatial mage.
[Ding!]
[Host, you did it.. you are now a Spatial Mage..]
"Ahh... did you have to do the 'ding' that loud you half baked system..."
Ahn's concentration was broken suddenly and loudly by the notification of the system. He had a love hate relationship with whatever AI was involved with the system.. if it was an AI and not some poor soul trapped by whatever being brought him here...
Although I have some guesses, I would rather not be dissapointed if I am wrong...
[Spatial Magic: Ability to manipulate space, gravity, and some aspects of time through gravity and spatial manipulation}
Testing out his new ability, Ahn tried to condense the space between himself and his pen, with a bit of mana expenditure and effort, Ahn was able to grab his pen that was about a foot away from his hand. Once the pen was in his hands, Ahn let the space expand back to its original state, almost as if there was no influence upon the area. With just this Ahn already devised a bunch of ways to use his spatial magic to crush just about any monster.
Quickly firing his computer back up, Ahn looked for any recent dungeon breaks that occurred in the remote areas that the HA was not able to dispatch hunters too in time. These areas were put on their website for anyone that wanted to hunt these monsters. They were given classification in terms of difficulty, but usually were low level gate breaks that even some civilians with hunter gear could take out. For hunters this was not something that even qualified as money being made, in fact it could be seen as money lost since it was a bit outside of Seoul and transportation cost for both the hunter and the resources collected far out scaled the money that was made. But for Ahn this was exactly what he needed.
Concentrating on the areas that were posted on the HA website, Ahn drew a circle in the air, expending about half his MP in the process, Ahn was able to make a gate way to the first of five potential hunting spots he sourced.
"Well... looks like its time to grind"