The Castle that Doesn’t Collapse (2)

“Don’t worry. I saw that this sports stadium has become quite the fortress. I would appreciate it if you would allow all of us to stay here and do our part.”

Goodwill and safety was more important for now as compared to bargaining, since we might be on the shorter end of the stick if we had tried to strike a deal with the unusual old man with the supplies we had brought along. In that sense, what Kwon Min-Sung said was pretty good judgment.

“Let’s put you guys up in a zone where no one is occupying tonight. I think we should discuss manpower allocations in detail tomorrow…” Choi Woo-Do hesitated for a bit. “I’m curious… as to what you’ve seen on the way here…. How many of you had died en route?”

“We had no casualties.”

Choi Woo-Do changed into surprise at the reply. It was rare for the old man who had experienced all sorts of things in life to show his feelings in plain sight.

“Not one?”

“Yes. Not one.”

“How… Didn’t you cross the bridge when coming from H-Mart?”

He seemed to have heard the news from Park Soo-Yil. He could not hide his surprised look and put on his worn-out glasses. He then laid out a relatively used map on the table. In this situation, the distance we had traveled was far enough.

“Uh…”

Kwon Min-Sung stole a peek at me as he wondered if it was alright to speak the truth.

Did it look like I was hiding my real identity since I wasn’t a student from the academy, nor was I an aspiring hunter?

Kwon Min-Sung took the hint when I lightly shrugged without words.

“We have some people who have unique skills, and one of them had Reconnaissance, so we were able to avoid the monsters on several occasions.”

“Ho. ‘Reconnaissance.’ We have two people with that skill here too.”

Those two people could be the twins.  It was an essential, specialized skill for assassins and rangers.

“You’ve got several talents in this group…”

Choi Woo-Do spoke in a satisfied tone. As a natural strategist, he was the type of person whose true nature would reveal itself as long as he had received more benefits in the long run. This also meant that the stadium had more talents than before, which further reduces the probability of this gym collapsing.

…I hope for the same.

The Choi Woo-Do from before… was not a survivor of this gate. He had died amid internal strife, and the sports stadium then lost its foundation and that was why the twins had to survive on their own.

Though the indoor sports stadium was a fortress that would not collapse, its name was somewhat sarcastic.

The building was the only thing that did not collapse, but every human inside and outside the building had died.

***

Unlike the future that had yet to come, or rather, the future that might not come, the indoor sports stadium right at this point was an ideal fortress. Led by a wise strategist, they had trained potential awakeners with great care. I, too, had spent my training days here, so I knew how capable Choi Woo-Do was in training and fostering talents.

It was better for Kim Tae-Byeong and Seol Min-Joon to stay here and work on their skills.

Since they each had a unique characteristic of different specialists, it would be helpful if they were trained well.

Since Song Da-Jung had the characteristics of a blacksmith… I’m not sure if she could train herself here.

Song Da-Jung could be trained as a sub-par tank at first glance with her high stamina and strength. That would not be a bad choice if there was a lack of talents, but it would be a waste as blacksmiths are rarer talents compared to tanks.

Since Kwon Min-Sung isn’t a specialized character but had naturally high stats overall, it might be better for him to develop under the teachings of Choi Woo-Do.

Jack of all trades might be better initially, but as time went by, specialized classes had the upper-hand. Kwon Min-Sung had a natural flair for leadership, negotiation skills, and critical skills compared to his physical stats. Thus he might be more suited for support instead of being in combat.