Talent Store - Chapter 2

10,000 Hours of Effort (1)

Sage Edmund said:

‘If you spend 10,000 hours, you can succeed in one field.’

Many people lived with hope in this once-fashionable word.

It was so nice to hear that even if you don’t have innate talent, you can succeed with effort. However, Edmund’s words had a fatal contradiction.

If everyone in the world put 10,000 hours of effort, could they all succeed? If there is a difference between success or failure, what will you choose?

The answer to that was clear.

Talent.

The difference is having a little or no talent.

After all, it’s a talent.

* * *

Evan remembered his childhood by the hot sweats of his poor male friends.

When they sweated, the sour sweat tickled the nose, but Evan didn’t care. Evan, who was fascinated by the feast of excellent swordsmanship striking the air, was willing to smell even the smell of sweat.

Evan thought that the sword was the most perfect and beautiful thing in the world.

So, despite being young, he visited the knights’ haze every morning. It may be difficult to move his short legs, but his soul that was fascinated by the sword was always full of strength.

Robert, the father of Evan from the Cloud family, said with a smirk that he was looking at Evan to take over the family line.

Earl of the Cloud, although now weakened a lot, was once famous as a swordmaster.

Despite being a family member of the frontier, he exerted considerable influence in the kingdom of Rhodes.

The Cloud family was thoroughly trampled by defeat in the conflict with the Marquis family. Because of this, they barely managed to maintain their reputation, but people in the family still did not forget the pride of being a swordmaster.

So even though Bob was starving, the family’s haze was always crowded. In such an environment, it was probably natural for Evan to hold the sword.

Evan began to master the sword in earnest when he was 10 years old, and Evan had an older brother named Astin, who is six years older than him.

Astin, like Evan, began to master the sword at the age of 10. It became a hot topic by showing off the talents of Aura (the intangible energy that makes the sword strong) six months after the sword was mastered.

Robert believed in Austin’s potential and provided full support for their salvation. Based on him, Astin’s swordsmanship has evolved over time.

The retired knight who was teaching Austin was a great talent.

When Astin was 16 years old, the retired knight decided that he could no longer teach Astin by his skills and pursued his admission to the Rhodes Academy.

Rhodes Academy was a prestigious school that teaches various fields such as swordsmanship and magic.

Because of the expensive tuition fees, he wasn’t thinking about entering, but Robert’s heart was shaken by an article saying that admission would be possible for someone as good as Astin.

Robert was forced to raise the tuition fees for Astin because they were poor. Fortunately, as stated by the article, Astin was granted early admission.

On the contrary, if the students are at this level, the school also welcomed them. They also agreed to support the scholarship to some extent.

Even with support, it was a huge burden with the circumstances of the Cloud family. Still, Robert sacrificed, with the idea that Austin was the future of the Cloud family.

If Astin succeeded, he thought the Cloud family could regain the glory of the past.

People’s expectations for Astin were not wrong. Austin’s talent was real.

Astin, who has grown into a young man at the age of 22 after entering the Rhodes Academy, has achieved tremendous results as a senior graduate of the Rhodes Academy’s Knights Faculty.

Festivals took place in Cloud Manor, and everyone blessed what Astin did.

But Evan could not sincerely rejoice. Astin gifted with a gift of talent made significant progress in six years, but Evan was still stuck in place.

* * *

Whether he was in a haze for a long time, Evan was drenched in sweat. Evan exhaled and looked down at his hand.

Until the time he first trained with the sword, his hand had been rough and calloused. It was unusually gray and dyed, but Evan was proud of his hand. Evan bit his teeth and wielded the sword in his childhood, it was painful to hold the sword because he had small blisters.

Evan, who had a strong temperament since childhood, was a person who knew how to work harder than anyone else.

Evan blistered and practiced with a bandage on his hand, even with multiple blisters in his hand. The thought was that he had to take this pain to become what he wanted.

After that time, Evan’s hand made no more pain while wielding the sword.

Even if he wielded the sword for a long time, he was proud that his blisters were so hard that he could not have any blisters anymore.

“Ha, what’s the use of all of this?”

However, it has not been all over now. You indeed have to work hard to succeed.

Evan also thought, hasn’t he been making his best effort for six years?

He engraved the ‘The Law of 10,000 Hours’ that Sage Edmund said in his heart, and he thought he would be rewarded for his efforts later.

Nothing changed. Efforts without talent are useless here.

“It’s been six years already. If your Aura hasn’t shown for six years, you have no hope as a swordsman.”

Aura’s talent was the most essential factor in determining his potential as a swordsman. Since the power of the sword varies depending on whether or not the Aura is used, people identified the Aura’s talents in developing the sword.

Aura’s talent refers to the use of Aura, but it is said that showing talent does not mean that you can show Aura with skill, but at least it has opened the way as a sword fighter.

Someone is usually called a genius if he shows the talent of Aura within one year of learning the sword, and a beacon if it is seen within three years. However, when it showed after 4 years, he was called Dunjae, and from that point onward, he was not recommended as a sword fighter.

No matter how hard you try, you are extremely unlikely to succeed, like how criminals can never be prosecutors no matter how hard they try.

Evan was right to give up the sword if you haven’t shown any of Aura’s talents for the past six years.

In fact, at first, Evan’s tremendous efforts made his family look forward to his success.

He was expected to be a genius like Astin, but now Evan is nothing but disappointment.

However, he wasn’t the only disappointment in the Cloud family, a family of swordsmen.

Evan made great efforts to fulfill his dream as a sword fighter and to meet their expectations, but nothing changed.

“Damn it.”

It was shocking for Evan to see Astin graduate from the Academy and return with gold. Thanks to his genius brother, Astin, Evan recognized the difference of having a talent and realized the reality.

He hadn’t even reached the point where Astin was when he was 10 years old, and he felt his self-confidence crumbling at the thought that the cost of his six-year effort was a bitter failure.

So he went to the dance hall as if he were running away without attending the Austin welcome party. He prayed to the heavens to make him feel the Aura today, but prayer alone did not solve anything.

“Is there really no talent coming for me?”

Evan was at the crossroads of his life. Evan loved the sword and thought it was his calling.

At sixteen, for six years, almost half of his life was spent in sword practice. He was scared to think of finally giving up.

He had no confidence to throw away the sword, but he had no idea what to do other than sword fighting.

“Ah… … .”

Caen!

He dropped the training sword on the floor. Evan could not move, looking at the sword falling to the ground with a cheerful sound. He was just looking down at the sword.

“The Law of 10,000 Hours.”

Being a sage, he believed firmly, but not anymore.

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If the wise man was right, Evan should have been successful. Since he was continually trying every day, he invested more than 10,000 hours in his sword.

Hence, the words of the sage no longer came as hope to Evan.

Deep despair settled down in Evan’s mind.

“The wise man was wrong.”

Evan no longer dared to stand up with a sword. Evan finally stared at the sword and set out to dance.