"First off, your mechanics are better than mine."
"Haha. If you think that, I'm grateful."
After finishing two one-on-ones, the coach gave his evaluation quickly.
"Other than that, though, I don't think there's anything where your peak is higher than mine. You're basically a blank slate."
"Well… yeah."
There was no reason to deny it. It was true that I was lacking, and all I had to do was acknowledge it.
Learning always starts with admitting what you're missing. If you can't admit that, you won't be able to learn anything properly.
So there was no need to deny it.
"You've barely handled the Esper dagger skills, right?"
"Yes. The first time I tried was in scrims."
Even when I practiced in the training grounds, I didn't practice the skills. I focused solely on training to handle the dagger properly.
So the first time I really used the skills was today's scrims. Naturally, my proficiency was low. It wasn't just low proficiency—using them felt clumsy overall.
I could learn the usage once I picked it up, and I already understood the mechanics to some extent from what the coach told me earlier. The problem was that understanding and executing were completely different things.
"Let's start over from the skill descriptions."
"Understood."
The dagger's three routes were these.
[Dagger Exchange]
Swap positions with your dagger.
[Vidoseul] (Flying Dagger Technique)
Fight while keeping your dagger floating in the air.
[Acrobatic Dagger]
Handle the dagger like an acrobatics act.
They were skill routes that really screamed "Esper."
A survival tool, a ranged attack option, and a melee attack option. On paper, it looked like a nicely balanced mix, but in reality it was different.
To use Dagger Exchange, you had to throw away your only weapon. Vidoseul left you defenseless while it was active. Acrobatic Dagger was trash too.
Sure, handling the dagger like an acrobatic act to throw off the opponent sounded nice, but its power was extremely low.
If you use it well, the ceiling could be high, but the problem is that using it that well is the hard part.
And that wasn't just my opinion.
"Well, if you look at each skill on its own, no matter how you slice it, it's trash. You only really understand the strengths of the Pierrot tree when you can harmonize them properly."
"Is that so?"
"It'd be better to show you than keep talking, right?"
The coach said that and immediately moved the dagger first. He used Vidoseul to lift the dagger into the air. And while the dagger was moving in midair, he suddenly swapped positions with it.
Then, with the dagger now far away due to the swap, he instantly called it back into his hand and dropped down.
"Whoa."
If you didn't react to that, you'd have to be emotionally dried up. It was the kind of scene that made an exclamation come out naturally. And the viewers were the same.
He's insanely good
How does he use Vidoseul to bring the dagger back the instant he moves?
Why doesn't it look like that when I do it?
Is he hacking?
Holy crap, that was insane
The viewers were amazed by the coach too.
After showing the example, the coach walked back over to where I was.
"If you look at it in a simple way, it's like this."
"That's simple?"
"Well, in real combat you don't finish it in one go—you have to use Dagger Exchange and Vidoseul over and over. And right now, you've only learned one point in each skill, so it's even more brutal."
"Ha."
I let out a hollow laugh at what he said. He was talking as if it were obvious, but I knew very well how absurd that was.
To link skills like that, you needed insane concentration.
"Still, once your understanding of the skills rises, it's absolutely something you can do too, Pilgong."
"Is it…?"
I didn't want to doubt him, but after seeing what he just did, it wasn't easy to believe.
With hyung's mechanics, it might be possible
Definitely has potential
Our hyung's mechanics are on another level, so it's totally possible
If hyung can handle it like Kang Chan, he'll crush everyone
Unlike my negative thoughts, the viewers were taking the coach's words more positively.
"Anyway, before we get to that, let's train some basic skill usage first."
As he said that, the coach gestured at me with his eyes. It was a signal to start ending the stream. At the beginning, it was just simple talk, so it didn't matter if the stream was on. But from here, it was tied to strategy.
There was nothing good about exposing strategy on stream, so he was telling me to turn it off.
"Alright, everyone. I need to start training seriously, so I'm going to end today's stream here."
Ah, what a shame
Can't help it if strategy could get exposed
Pilbye
Good work on today's stream too
Bye bye
Donation from "KimchiMandu" - 10,000 won!
Good work on the scrims.
Donation from "BeastMan" - 10,000 won!
I'll be back tomorrow.
"Thank you for the donations, KimchiMandu and BeastMan. Alright, I'm heading out!"
I said that and manipulated the broadcast window to turn off the stream. Now I could train in earnest to prepare for the tournament.
"Esper dagger. Also known as the Pierrot tree. What do you think is the most important skill in it?"
"Hmm…"
At the coach's question, I recalled what Kang Chan had shown earlier. He used Vidoseul to float the dagger, swapped positions with the dagger, then called it back with Vidoseul.
Looking at that sequence, the most important skill seemed to be Vidoseul.
If you can't move the dagger, you can't do what he just did.
So I answered confidently.
"Vidoseul."
"No."
But the coach rejected it immediately. The fact that he denied it without even thinking meant Vidoseul was absolutely not the answer.
Then there was only one skill left to consider.
"Then… Dagger Exchange?"
"That's not it either."
That left only one skill.
Acrobatic Dagger. Even from the earlier example, it had seemed like it wasn't very useful. I couldn't understand how a skill like that could be the most important one in the Pierrot tree.
And that confusion must have shown on my face.
"Well, it's natural not to get it just from hearing it, so I'll explain."
After that, the coach explained the importance of Acrobatic Dagger, and the more I listened, the more I understood why it was the most important skill in the Pierrot tree.
Simply put, Acrobatic Dagger was like oil. It was the skill that made the other two skills—Vidoseul and Dagger Exchange—link together smoothly.
Thinking back, there were parts of the coach's example that had felt hard to believe. The way the dagger moved under Vidoseul, and the hand motion used to catch the returning dagger.
Normally, that kind of technique would be impossible.
But Kang Chan did it so easily.
If that was Acrobatic Dagger's effect, then it made a lot of sense.
"The effect of Acrobatic Dagger isn't just being able to handle the dagger like an acrobatics act. It's that you can handle it delicately. Those two are very different."
The description written on the skill said you could handle the dagger like an acrobatics act, but the real effect was slightly different. It wasn't that you automatically handled it like acrobatics—it made it so you could handle it like acrobatics.
In other words, you gained the dexterity to handle a dagger like an acrobat.
"Of course, even if you recognize that, it takes a lot of effort to handle it like I do."
"That's what I assumed."
And with that, I began training to make the Acrobatic Dagger skill feel natural in my hands.
"This is insane."
Watching Pilgong focus on training, Kang Chan muttered under his breath. From the initial fight with no skills, he had already known Pilgong's mechanics were good.
But he hadn't expected him to pick up Acrobatic Dagger this fast.
It's so fast it almost makes my own time investment feel pointless.
Fast enough to give Kang Chan a sense of relative deprivation, Pilgong was getting the feel for Acrobatic Dagger at an incredible speed. How much effort had it taken to truly internalize that skill?
So much effort that Kang Chan couldn't even explain it all in words.
This is giving me a pretty intense sense of deprivation.
While watching the training, a call came in. Kang Chan manipulated the window and answered.
-Chan. How's the training going?
"Why is a monster like that only SSR?"
-Heh. Hearing you say that, I guess he's training properly.
"Yeah. He's working extremely hard."
The caller was Coach Fisher. He was calling because it was about time to finish individual training and gather for a strategy meeting.
"When I first heard the strategy you suggested, I thought it was some ridiculous plan, but after seeing him, my mind completely changed."
-I told you I wasn't talking nonsense. Oh, and did you exchange contact info with him yet?
"…Not yet."
-Seriously, watching you do this, you really are hopeless.
"Shut up."
Kang Chan's face had turned bright red as they talked. It wasn't a look you'd expect from a middle-aged avatar.
It looked like the face of a student meeting their favorite singer.
-I brought you in on purpose since you said you were a fan, so why can't you just say you're a fan? Tsk tsk.
"I'll handle it."
The two bickered over the phone, and in the meantime Pilgong, who had been focused on training, had finished concentrating and was looking at Kang Chan.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Ah. Fisher says it's about time to gather."
"Oh. Then you should've told me sooner."
Maybe he felt awkward about training alone the whole time—Pilgong scratched his head as he said that. Seeing it, Kang Chan let out a small laugh.
"Then let's go to the strategy meeting."
"Yes."
And with that, the two turned off the game and moved straight over to the Quasdae channel.
"Looks like everyone's here, so let's hear how training went. If needed, we might have to swap positions."
Once everyone had gathered, the coach spoke first. Since it was a team game, each person had a role, and if someone didn't fit, they might need to be switched.
But that didn't apply to me, so Kang Chan and I just listened.
"Yeonju's briefing ability seems fine. Her voice has impact too, so calls should carry well."
For Yeonju, it sounded like she could lock in her role as is.
The problem was the two low-tier players. Minchojoa and Sohyeop. Their roles were sub-damage dealer and healer, respectively. Yoo Jina and Gohaedal, who had coached them, gave these evaluations.
"For a sub-damage dealer, the reaction speed is too slow."
"His temperament is too much of a brawler, so he doesn't fit a support role."
Complaints had come from both roles. But swapping the two was very difficult.
Minchojoa had good enough aim to be a sub-damage dealer, but unfortunately his reaction speed was slow. Sohyeop had average reaction speed, but his aim wasn't good.
And because he was such a brawler, he often forgot he was supposed to be a support. So they couldn't give Sohyeop the sub-damage role.
In the end, they decided on Sohyeop as healer and Minchojoa, who had originally been the healer, as sub-damage dealer—but Minchojoa, now sub-damage dealer, wasn't performing well.
Still, switching their positions back again felt extremely awkward.
If I became the sub-damage dealer, it might be different, but with the current strategy as the fundamental premise, it would be impossible.
So one way or another, sub-damage dealer and healer had to be decided within those four.
"Could we change it through training…?"
"Coach. There are people in this world who can change through training, and people who can't. And those two are the kind who can't."
At the coach's blunt words, the two involved made awkward expressions. The coach thought for a moment, and in the end, he approved switching their positions.
If training couldn't fix it, it meant they truly had no talent for that role. Keeping them there would only waste time.
If they could at least fix Sohyeop's habits through training, it would still lead to a solid outcome.
"I'll make him at least act like a person."
"You're dead."
The two coaches looked delighted as they stared at their new training target.
With that, the position swap was settled quickly, and all that remained was to reconfirm the strategy. They adjusted it slightly to fit the two who had switched.
When the strategy meeting ended, the coach said to us,
"You know that tomorrow too, we have to place fourth in every match, right?"