Junhyuk went to the training grounds accompanied by Aditya. He checked out the items they had a.s.signed to the champion. Because Aditya had initially registered as an expert, his armor was weaker than Bebe’s basic ones. It was a simple leather armor that increased his defense by a little bit.

Since Aditya was a champion now, they had to a.s.sign him better items.

Suddenly, Aditya clapped his hands together, and his eyes beamed. Looking at his eyes, Junhyuk wasn’t very impressed. His eyes had not changed much aside from having enlarged pupils.

“These are falcon eyes. I can see anything within a twenty-kilometer radius with them. They last for ten seconds,” Aditya said.

After some thought, Junhyuk asked, “Is this your new power?”

“Yes.”

“When you use it in the Dimensional Battlefield, can you see into the reed fields?”

Aditya smiled and answered, “Yes, and I can share the power with my allies.”

His allies would welcome his power of sight. They would be able to inspect the reed fields without going into it.

The battlefield had changed since the Valley of Death, and his power suited those changes.

“What about its cooldown?”

“One minute.”

Every minute, the allies could have eyes on their enemies. If their enemies disappeared from view, they would be able to calculate the distance between them.

By reading their enemies’ movements, the allies would gain a significant advantage. Aditya was a champion, not a hero, but his power was revolutionary. However, Junhyuk didn’t know if the power would be useful on Earth. He thought about it a bit, but simply shrugged.

“OK. Can I see your other powers?”

Junhyuk had been busy lately, so he hadn’t been training people. However, he had time to spar with those recently powered to teach them how to fight more effectively.

Aditya extended his arms with his palms up and raised his head with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, his pupils looked different from before. His eyes looked like a cat’s. The champion stomped the ground and jumped, displaying a speed similar to Junhyuk’s acceleration.

Junhyuk accelerated and moved toward Aditya. He did not hit the champion for fear of killing him, but he watched as Aditya attacked him.

The champion was holding a short spear made out of the Wolf Warlord’s claw. Aditya was skilled with it. Because he had triggered his animalistic power of the jaguar, even without a short spear, Aditya would’ve been lethal.

Junhyuk dodged, but soon, he had to unsheathe his sword. With it, he blocked every attack until Aditya’s power ran out. It had lasted for twenty seconds.

“You’re fast.”

Aditya stared at him and said, “You have a force field and teleportation powers. On top of that, you have that strange sword. And you can suck everything within a certain range to one spot.”

“You know a lot about me.”

“After joining Guardians, I watched a lot of videos of your fights. You are extremely efficient in fighting monsters, so I’m using the videos to study you.”

Junhyuk said, “Some of my powers can only be used on Earth.”

“You can move at that speed on Earth?!”

He nodded, and Aditya clicked his tongue.

“That’s shocking.” The champion pounded his fists together and declared, “Then, I’ll show you my last power.”

His eyes became different again. His muscle ma.s.s increased, but not enough to tear the leather armor. Still, Aditya was about 1.5 times bigger than his normal self, and his skin had turned gray.

Junhyuk realized what that power was immediately.

Aditya ran toward him while swinging his short spear.

Clang!

It was a strong hit, five times stronger than his previous attacks, but it didn’t really affect Junhyuk. Junhyuk carried runestones of the highest quality.

Junhyuk stared at Aditya’s gray body. Not only had his defense increase, but so had his damage. Once he gave Aditya the right weapons, the champion would be of great help.

Aditya’s bear strength lasted for twenty seconds, and Junhyuk blocked all of his attacks.

“That’s a useful power.”

“I didn’t realize you’d block everything.”

Junhyuk shook his head and said, “That’s only because of the runestones I carry. You don’t have a lot of items, but when you get more, you’ll help out big time.” Smiling, Junhyuk added, “Get the items they a.s.sign champions and train with them. If you want to learn new martial arts, that will also help you.”

Aditya was skilled with the short spear, but Guardians had masters of martial arts at their disposal.

The champion smirked and asked, “Can I spar with you whenever you have time?”

Junhyuk thought about it. He should be friendly to the champions and he was also curious about Aditya’s skills with the short spear.

“Sure.”

He walked out with Aditya and told him where to get the items for champions. After that, he went to see Lucy.

Lucy walked out of the Strategic Planning Room and greeted him. He checked out her reports. Officially, there were nine champions. Unofficially, there were ten.

Elise was a champion now, but he was keeping that fact a secret. She would be able to help as a champion, yes, but as a researcher, she was invaluable.

The champions had been divided into two teams: one of four and one of five.

“Will the team of four join me?”

“Yes.”

The champions with highest health and defensive powers had been a.s.signed to Sarang. She could kill almost everything with a single attack. Meanwhile, Junhyuk had been teamed up with long range strikers.

“This is the set up for wyvern attacks, but if a dragon appears, everyone will become a single team.”

“Yes.”

“Give Aditya a flying drone and train him on it.”

“That’s the first step of their training regimen, flight training.”

Champions were a.s.signed magitek armor. Because of that, injuries or death due to flying drone accidents were not possible. Vertigo and other alt.i.tude-related issues could arise, but there were flight experts there to train them.

Junhyuk was thinking that Aditya would definitely help.

“Get Aditya with the other champions. I’ll spar with them.”

“Is that OK?”

“I can always dodge, so sure.”

The champions still lacked enough strength to hurt him. Junhyuk couldn’t attack like a dragon, but he had Aksha’s Longsword, and the training would benefit them.

“I’ll let you know once they are ready.”

“Please.”

He left Lucy in command. Junhyuk had already checked out the new champion’s powers, so now, he had to spar with all of them. It wouldn’t be hard to kill them, but not hurting them with Aksha’s Longsword would require more training and restraint from him.

It wasn’t important to simply use Aksha’s Longsword, he needed to know how it flowed and how to control that flow.

If a champion was in danger, he needed to be able to cancel his attack.

Junhyuk wanted to reach his limit, so he went training again.

After the wyverns, time pa.s.sed slowly and calmly. Junhyuk liked that stillness, but it also made him more nervous. He focused on his training. Not having enough time to spar with the champions, he focused only on learning Aksha’s swordsmanship.

At the end of a session, Junhyuk had sweat all over his body. He exhaled deeply, unable to remember the last time he had been drenched like that.

He had learned about a fifth of Askha’s swordsmanship techniques. It was taking him longer than he had expected.

“I’ve learned a few things.”

Sarang often learned more about her powers while casting other spells. By practicing Aksha’s swordsmanship, Junhyuk had learned how to make better use of his mana.

He had been able to spend and replenish more mana faster than ever thanks to the core. He was absorbing and retaining more mana within his body as well. Right now, he thought he could deal with any S-ranked monster they threw at him.

Junhyuk walked out of the training facility and teleported. He hadn’t really focused on his teleportation power, but since his body had more mana within it, the distance of his teleportations had increased to four hundred meters.

Seeing that, he wondered if the distance in the Dimensional Battlefield had also increased. Junhyuk teleported again, took off his clothes and went into his bathroom for a cold shower.

The next day, he would be summoned.

His team had advanced, so they would meet new enemies. When he had been part of Artlan’s team and that had happened, the enemies he had met had been significantly stronger than the previous ones.

Junhyuk was excited to meet new enemies. Strong enemies meant strong items. The important thing for him was not to die.

After showering, he pulled a brand new set of clothes from his Spatial bag and walked outside. Elise was sitting on his bed with her legs crossed. When she saw him walk out, she clicked her tongue.

“When you take a shower, you’re supposed to come out of the bathroom wearing a towel. Then, you should do something clumsy and lose the tower.”

Junhyuk laughed and said, “I’m here to protect you. I can sense you anywhere.”

“I have to make something to nullify that spatial sense.” She pulled out a pair of boots and said, “I’ve finished another item for the set.”