The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 27. Breaking Through the Dojo

After taking some time to explain that Competence wasn’t a doping drug, Seol headed to the training hall on the third floor.
Agnes had stopped appearing at some point, but it didn’t matter. Even without her management, he maintained his diet and training regimen with meticulous discipline.
Once he finished physical conditioning, he would rest in his quarters while practicing Mana Application. Truth be told, Seol was human after all, and no matter how much he pushed himself daily, he never grew accustomed to it—meditation, done while sitting still, was twice as easy and far more enjoyable than grueling barbell squats.
The more he practiced Mana Application, the more the strangeness faded and the speed of flow quickened. Since moving it had posed no problem from the start, he focused on accepting the energy as if it were part of his body and adjusting it with precision.
Once meditation ended, the afternoon had already passed noon.
Seol descended to the first floor. It was time for Job-specific training.
Though it was the final training that crowned his day, it was also the time he most anticipated and enjoyed. As he swung his spear in a state of thoughtless bliss, time seemed to vanish entirely.
For this training, he had even purchased a Dedicated Spear from the shop. He’d paid a steep 580 Survival Points for it.
There was a Standard Training Spear provided during Job-specific training sessions, but Seol found it slightly too short for his use. More than anything, the fact that he couldn’t take it outside was the deciding factor. Since he would need to use one later, it was better to familiarize himself with it in advance.
Seol had mastered a total of three Basic Spear Techniques.
Thrust, Strike, Slash.
There were more available, but Seol refused to expand beyond these three.
Piercing, striking, slicing—he remembered his dream-self felling countless enemies with just these three combinations alone.
During Job-specific training, Seol imposed four rules upon himself.
First: he would never use Mana, exactly as Agnes had instructed.
Second: he would not count a repetition unless it achieved the exact posture he desired.
Third: each time he practiced a Basic Spear Technique, he would complete at least 1,250 repetitions before leaving.
Fourth: he would not skip meals or rest, even during training.
The reason he settled on exactly 1,250 repetitions was due to a special Competence. Since it boosted efficiency eightfold, he could achieve the same effect as ten thousand repetitions in a single day.
After completing that, the clock on his mobile phone would display the time past midnight. Only then was his day’s training truly finished.
Though he always returned to his quarters utterly exhausted, Seol’s expression remained bright.

[Personal Status Window]
[1. Information]
Summoning Date · Month · Day: 2017. 03. 16
Mark Grade: Gold
Gender · Age: Male · 26
Height · Weight: 180.5cm · 72.8kg
Condition: Excellent
Job: LV 1. Warrior
Nationality: South Korea (Area 1)
Organization: —
Alias: First Rank

[2. Characteristics]
① Disposition
Impatience (tends toward hasty judgment), Perseverance (endures suffering and hardship)
② Aptitude
Ordinary (possesses nothing exceptional or distinctive)

[3. Physical Stats]
Strength: Lower-Upper ↑2
Endurance: Lower-Upper ↑3
Agility: Middle-Lower ↑2
Stamina: Lower-Upper ↑2
Mana: Middle-Upper
Luck: Middle-Lower
One remaining stat point available.

[4. Abilities]
① Innate Abilities (2)
Future Premonition (Unranked)
Nine Eyes (Unranked)
② Job Abilities (2)
Mana Application (Intermediate)
Basic Spear Technique: Thrust (Upper-Intermediate), Strike (Intermediate), Slash (Intermediate)
③Other Abilities (0)

[5. Consciousness Level]
Moderate (thoughts and actions are sensible and sound) / Yearning / Chaos (everything tangled together, impossible to find footing)

Seol felt a quiet satisfaction as he studied the Status Window. His Physical Stats had risen by a full nine tiers across the board. The effect was equivalent to consuming nine Elemental Pills through training alone—when converted to Survival Points, that totaled a staggering 270,000 points.
“Ah, ow, ow, ow….”
In the midst of examining it, a sharp sting shot through his hands, and he winced. There was no need to look—his skin had torn again, fresh blood beading at the wounds.
When he rinsed them in running water, his teeth chattered from the chill.
‘Damn it, and I’ve already got calluses….’
Though he complained, even this much was remarkable progress. On the first day, his skin had been shredded raw and blood had streamed freely—he’d been too much in pain to sleep without groaning through the night.
‘Should I wash up first, or just go to bed as is?’
As Seol deliberated, a knock sounded at his door. Tap, tap.
“Who is it?”
Seol’s eyes widened as he opened the door.
Behind her glasses gleamed eyes sharp and cold. Her slender frame was crowned with hair pinned up neatly. A woman in a maid’s uniform, hands folded respectfully before her.
“Agnes?”
“It has been some time since we last met.”
“What brings you at such a late hour….”
“There is something I wished to tell you.”
“Yes, yes. Please, come in.”
She bowed politely, thanking him, and entered with dignified, measured steps.
“Oh, that’s right, Agnes.”
As Seol showed her inside, a thought suddenly struck him, and he turned back to face her.
“Yes?”
“How is Gomsoon doing these days?”
A fist shot out like a flash of light, striking him squarely in the solar plexus. Seol doubled over, coughing violently.
“Gack—!”
“That blasted Gomsoon!”
Agnes rarely raised her voice, but now she was fuming.
“I can’t… can’t breathe….”
“You cursed thing, do you have any idea what appeared as my alias in the Status Window because of you?”
“B-but hitting someone in the solar plexus….”
Heat was rising in Agnes’s chest just thinking about it, and she raised her elbow to strike again—but then she noticed him crouched down, clutching his stomach, and she hesitated.
His hands weren’t balled into fists but pressed flat against his abdomen. Only then did she see the state of his palms—torn to shreds.
“…You haven’t had those wounds treated?”
Seol lifted his head with difficulty, making a sound of discomfort. Agnes let out a long sigh through her nose and shook her head.
“Still as foolish as ever, I see. You should at least receive basic treatment.”
Without another word, Agnes led him over and sat him on the bed, then retrieved disinfectant, salve, and bandages from the storage cabinet—items Seol hadn’t even known existed.
“Give me your hands.”
Seol obediently extended both palms. Agnes knelt down before him.
“Restoration arts aid recovery, but they have limited effect on wound treatment. If you had at least bathed with the bath salts I recommended….”
She murmured ceaselessly as she uncapped the disinfectant, applied it carefully, then wrapped the wounds with practiced efficiency. Watching her work, a faint smile crossed Seol’s lips.
He was happy. It was an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time. The simple pleasure of being absorbed in something all day long, and knowing that someone cared enough to tend to him—it felt unexpectedly warm and peaceful.
He had changed. When he was caught up in gambling, his nerves were always on edge. Victim’s resentment made him quick to flare up, and even when he was at fault, he would lash out defensively. It happened more often than not.
But living in the Neutral Zone, Seol had transformed day by day.
No—rather, the old version of himself that Yu Seon-hwa had fallen for was returning. The downside was that his old playful habits were also making a comeback.
As Agnes concentrated on wrapping his hands, Seol suddenly asked her a question.
“By the way, how old are you, Agnes?”
“Twenty-seven.”
Agnes answered offhandedly as the treatment neared completion.
“So you’re a year older than me.”
“…What?”
“I’m twenty-six.”
Agnes’s smile froze abruptly. Her expression shifted to shock, and she looked up at him with a confused, bewildered face. The word “older sister” sounded startlingly odd to her.
“Uh….”
Seol scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“It’s nothing, really. Just—if you don’t mind, I’d like to call you older sister from now on.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Agnes hastily blurted it out, then caught herself and covered her mouth.
“…training, you said?”
“Yes, yes—I bit my tongue. I meant training.”
Agnes cleared her throat with a soft cough and corrected herself.
“Oh, training?”
At the word training, Seol’s eyes brightened. Agnes felt a quiet relief wash over her. She couldn’t say why, exactly.
She’d successfully redirected the conversation, yet inwardly she resented him for it. Her heart was already turbulent these days—why compound her confusion with thoughtless remarks?
Agnes opened her mouth.
“I’ve given this a great deal of thought.”
She hadn’t stepped back from Seol’s training at all. Quite the opposite. She’d simply had nothing more to offer.
“Is this finally new training?”
There’d been no real reason to invest such care in his instruction from the start.
And yet she’d guided him—thirty percent out of duty as an instructor, twenty percent because she’d risen to Sian’s provocation.
“…Well, I suppose you could call it new training, in a manner of speaking.”
The remaining fifty percent was pure personal desire. The kind of fervent wish any Earthling might harbor once in their life.
Perhaps she’d wanted vicarious satisfaction. If she’d done this differently in the Neutral Zone, if she’d tried that instead. She’d poured out her longing for an ideal born from her own failures, yearning she could never fulfill herself.
“In a manner of speaking…?”
Once his Job had been determined, she’d watched him train alone for an entire month.
Seeing him discipline himself without guidance stirred something in her—envy mixed with something else entirely.
“…Yes.”
Gratitude.
Gratitude that he’d been given a chance. Gratitude that he’d endured missions of genuine difficulty. Gratitude that he hadn’t surrendered halfway, that he’d followed her without complaint.
This young man gave her more than the mere satisfaction of unfulfilled ambition—he gave her the fulfillment of an instructor’s pride.
And perhaps that’s why she’d stopped conflating him with Sung Si-hyun.
This man was his own person. That man was someone else.
The Seol she knew was a survivor who’d climbed the Neutral Zone’s ladder with a textbook precision that few could match. That was all he was.
And that ladder was beginning to show its end.
“In any case, I believe your training is complete.”
If she were to compare her role thus far, she’d been the steering wheel and transmission of a car. Now came the moment to return control to its true owner.
“You’ve done beautifully. Truly, you’ve persevered splendidly. I mean that sincerely.”
The vehicle’s chassis had been reinforced with a sturdy frame.
“But now comes the time for experience.”
The engine had always been high-performance.
The smile faded from Seol’s face.
“You mean…”
A quiet murmur trailed off.
Agnes pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
What remained
“is to begin your missions.”
was simply the autobahn ahead.

(To be continued in the next installment)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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