Chapter 43: Moving On

The next morning.

Hyun-Jun Kim was waiting near the guard post of the Special Missions Unit.

He was there to wait for the vehicle coming to pick him up from the Flying Dragon Unit.

‘It wrapped up nicely.’

The villain response training schedule had ended smoothly.

As proof, there was an insignia attached to the upper part of his left arm.

It was a mark showing that he had completed the training successfully.

‘The Fourth Squad guys are probably going to have it rough for a while. Is that because of me?’

The training being smooth applied only to Hyun-Jun Kim.

On the day he restrained the villain’s permitted arm, the soldiers of Fourth Squad were put through punishment drills by Second Lieutenant Park A-Young under the pretense of training.

Rolling on dirt ground with full gear was brutal, even compared to the Flying Dragon Unit’s punishment standards.

‘I do feel bad for them. Who would have expected a level five villain to suddenly appear?’

No matter how elite the unit was, it would have been unreasonable for a level two Private or a level three Private First Class to face that thing.

Even so, they were members of the Special Missions Unit.

They were expected to complete any mission assigned, no matter the situation.

‘Hmm. Maybe special forces really aren’t for just anyone.’

Thinking about it again, special forces clearly were not something anyone could do.

“Hyun-Jun.”

When he turned his head, it looked like Private First Class Park Ye-Rin had also finished preparing to return to her unit.

Like him, she was carrying a bag… no, not a duffel bag, but a high-end military bag.

It was obviously privately purchased.

And an expensive one at that.

‘With a father who’s a two-star general, that’s basically nothing.’

He decided not to point it out.

The Flying Dragon Unit was strict, but the Black Horse Unit might be more relaxed about private gear.

Since there was still some time before the transport arrived, he struck up a conversation with her.

“Well, um… if it’s okay….”

She hesitated, as if there was something she wanted to say, then asked for his contact information with a look of resolve.

“My number? I already have the number you gave me.”

“I know that, but… I’ve never contacted you first.”

What followed was that she wanted to be friends.

Caught completely off guard, Hyun-Jun blurted out reflexively.

“Ye-Rin, have you never made friends before?”

“How would you— I mean, I have.”

“Usually, people don’t ask to be friends when they’re already this close.”

She pressed her lips together, as if his words had hit the mark.

He was right.

Private First Class Park Ye-Rin did not have a single friend.

First, she had awakened at a young age and never lived a normal life.

Second, her family background was far from ordinary, and her cold, blunt personality didn’t help.

‘Wait. That was real? She seriously has no friends, with that face?’

He had spoken jokingly, but her reaction made it seem true.

“We’re already friends. You don’t need to say something like that. What I said just now was a joke.”

Teasing someone for being ugly is wrong.

Maybe what he had just said was that kind of thing.

Feeling oddly apologetic, Hyun-Jun gave her his contact information.

Telling her she could contact him anytime.

“Salute! Corporal Kim Hyun-Jun reporting back after completing villain response training!”

“Salute. You little punk. Good work.”

Returning to the unit after seven days, he was greeted by Second Lieutenant Kim Dong-Woo, his platoon leader, who gave his shoulder a firm pat.

“I sent you to training, and you end up soloing a level five villain? Proud of you.”

As expected, reports about the villain had already gone up the chain.

If the platoon leader knew, then the rest of the unit probably knew as well.

“At the time, the situation was what it was.”

“I know. Were you confident back then?”

“Yes, sir.”

The answer came without a single second of hesitation.

Second Lieutenant Kim Dong-Woo chuckled and told him not to feel pressured, since a one-on-one meeting with the battalion commander was scheduled for the next day.

“The battalion commander seems to be in a good mood lately. It won’t be anything bad.”

“Yes, sir.”

An ordinary enlisted soldier.

And not just that, but a Corporal.

How often would someone like that have a one-on-one meeting with the battalion commander?

Even before his regression, he had never had such a meeting, not even as a Staff Sergeant.

‘Maybe I’ll get a reward leave.’

With that thought, he headed toward the barracks.

“Salute. Corporal Kim Hyun-Jun—”

“Hey! Our squad ace is back!”

The moment he opened the door, his squadmates greeted him enthusiastically.

As expected, the news that he had captured a villain had already spread.

“This guy caught a villain last time, and now he did it again?”

“Hyun-Jun, shouldn’t you have joined special forces instead?”

They were so happy because he had knocked the special missions soldiers down a peg.

Most of the senior enlisted had applied to special units at least once and had been looked down on every time.

When you thought about how those guys had treated regular hunter soldiers, it made sense.

So he gave them the answer they wanted.

“They got punished on the parade ground yesterday.”

“Idiots. Serves them right.”

“Man, that’s refreshing.”

At the mention of rolling around in full gear, the squadmates looked thoroughly satisfied.

They looked like someone had scratched an itch for them.

“At this rate, this guy might make Sergeant faster than us.”

“We should start buttering him up now.”

They joked while looking at the training completion insignia attached to his arm.

Hyun-Jun replied that, no matter what, promotion from Corporal to Sergeant wasn’t easy.

‘That’s only for normal soldiers.’

Of course, that was just a polite response.

No matter how hard special promotion was, if things like this kept piling up, wouldn’t a path eventually open?

During his service, it was rare to even see a villain once, yet he had encountered two and subdued both.

At this rate, he would probably make Sergeant faster than the other Corporals in the barracks.

“Where did Corporal Kang Cheol-Su go?”

“Don’t you know? He heard you were coming back and ran off.”

“That guy’s jealousy really knows no bounds.”

Their tone was indifferent.

Corporal Kang Cheol-Su was now ignored even by his own squad.

‘I wanted to tease Kang Cheol-Su with this fresh insignia.’

That was a bit of a shame.

“By the way, Hyun-Jun. I heard Park Ye-Rin was there for training too?”

“You, sure, but how did a Private First Class like her get into that place?”

“Did she use her dad’s connections?”

He had wondered why they hadn’t brought up women yet, but of course, they eventually did.

The squad showed immediate interest in Private First Class Park Ye-Rin.

Hyun-Jun replied that they had gotten close and decided to be friends.

“She asked for my number this morning, so I gave it to her.”

“…Are you messing with us?”

“Did I say something wrong?”

“Hey! Get him!”

The squad suddenly snarled and rushed at him.

Hyun-Jun quickly dodged them and slipped out of the barracks.

“I’m going to train.”

He had just made a friend. Why were they so angry?

Maybe he should treat them to something frozen once the villain bounty came in.

‘Anyway. Today’s finally the day I test it.’

On the way to the training facility, Hyun-Jun summoned his skill window with eager eyes.

[Footsteps of the Spear Mage]

Infuses the feet with special mana to enhance mobility.

The enhancement effect increases according to the user’s proficiency.

Usage requirement: Possession of the Spear Mage’s Mana Hall.

A simple effect that increased movement speed.

It looked unimpressive, but it wasn’t.

Sometimes, nothing was scarier than something simple.

The skill was useful for closing distance with an enemy, and just as useful when retreating.

It was also effective against sudden ambushes.

Even just thinking about it, there were this many uses.

That meant its versatility was extremely high.

“There’s a reason movement skills are expensive.”

If there was one drawback, it was that there were usage restrictions.

If he hadn’t completed the hidden mission earlier, it would have been completely out of reach.

Thankfully, everything had lined up, and that misfortune had been avoided.

“For this skill, it’d be nice to have an archer or a mage.”

One person immediately came to mind.

When he sent a message asking for help with training, a reply came back within seconds, agreeing.

The shared training facility.

A facility that could be used by both men and women without access restrictions.

It was old and worn down, so it wasn’t very popular.

‘As long as it’s spacious, that’s enough.’

For Hyun-Jun, fewer people was actually better.

It was the perfect place to experiment with Ye-Na Jeong and his skill.

The personal training rooms were too cramped to test movement-type skills.

“Corporal Kim Hyun-Juuuun!”

As he was warming up, Private First Class Jeong Ye-Na came running toward him from the entrance, waving her hand.

She seemed even faster than last time.

“Salute. Didn’t you miss me for the whole week?”

Now she didn’t even read the room and just charged in.

Hyun-Jun caught her head-first tackle and shook his head.

“You little punk. You messaged me every day, so I muted notifications.”

“That’s cruel. I only sent one message a day.”

Like the Third Squad members, she showered him with praise about how amazing it was that he had captured a villain.

“I’ve got a good eye, don’t I?”

He didn’t know why she looked so smug, but she really did have a good eye.

“More importantly, don’t you look fitter? Training hard?”

“Oh. You noticed?”

She said her stats had gone up pretty well recently.

Thanks to the Goblin Archer Essence, her archery had improved a lot too.

“I can now perfectly infuse mana into my arrows. I can only fire about ten like that for now, though….”

That was excellent for a Private First Class.

It was skill worthy of challenging a Corporal.

Compared to before his regression, she had definitely grown stronger as well.

“So what do you need me to help with?”

After finishing their casual chat, Ye-Na asked what she should do.

Hyun-Jun asked her to aim at him with a training bow.

“All of a sudden? Even if it’s training equipment, it’ll hurt if it hits.”

“I recently got a new skill. To test it, your arrows are perfect.”

“A skill? Wow… I only have one….”

She looked at him with envy, then threatened to put some real power into it since she was jealous.

Of course, it wasn’t actually scary.

“Here I go!”

They separated by a suitable distance.

Ye-Na drew the bowstring.

The distance between them was roughly one hundred meters.

A rubber arrow flew through the air.

‘She said her skills improved, and yeah, it’s definitely faster.’

This level of attack was now easy for him to track with his eyes and dodge.

That was something only he could do.

Stats: Strength [16] Endurance [17] Agility [14] Mana [11] Spear Technique [14]

Through consistent training, those stats had become—

Stats: Strength [18] Endurance [19] Agility [16] Mana [14] Spear Technique [17]

Before he knew it, he had grown this much.

Purely by stats alone, he had far surpassed the level of a Sergeant.

‘If someone at the same Private First Class rank faced that attack, dodging would be tough. Even a Corporal would need to stay sharp.’

Ye-Na’s arrows were that fast.

And that wasn’t all.

After dodging one arrow, the next was already right in front of him.

She was using a rapid-fire skill.

‘Dodging continuously without a spear isn’t easy.’

Hyun-Jun was deliberately not holding his training spear.

Rather than deflecting attacks with a weapon, he was preparing for situations where he would have to evade.

‘There’s no guarantee those situations won’t happen.’

Even the ogres that appeared in B-rank dungeons were a good example.

Their strength was overwhelming, so the basic strategy was to avoid direct confrontation.

If he could properly utilize Footsteps of the Spear Mage in such situations, it would definitely be a huge help.

There would be many other situations where it could be applied as well.

As time passed, rubber arrows began to graze past him one by one.

‘Footsteps of the Spear Mage.’

Hyun-Jun spoke the activation phrase.

Immediately, a hot sensation gathered beneath his feet.

Sticky, black mana wrapped around his feet.

It looked as if he were wearing oversized boots.

“Oh.”

What happened next was astonishing.

His speed visibly increased.