Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: First Time (2)
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Ian set foot on the guild's third floor for the first time, climbing the stairs.
Unlike the noisy first and second floors, a quiet and chilly atmosphere hung over the third floor.
Ian had received Rebecca's summons through a guild messenger who visited the inn early that morning. He had come to the guild, bringing what she had requested.
He had heard she would call him later...
But he hadn't expected her to summon him now, when she must be busy herself. He had assumed it was for some personal matter.
The reason wasn't written, but there could only be one at a time like this.
Guided by a staff member, Ian arrived at a room on the third floor and knocked. The door opened with a voice inviting him in. He entered the meeting room.
The few people inside turned their gazes toward Ian.
A few familiar faces. And a few strangers.
Rebecca, meeting Ian's eyes, grinned and gave a small wave.
It didn't seem to be in the middle of a meeting; there weren't many people, and the atmosphere was relaxed.
Ian, entering the room, gave a simple greeting to those looking at him.
"D-rank, Ian of the Ian Mercenary Corps."
"Right. I'm Kael, the vice guild master here."
The vice guild master of the mercenary guild, Kael's gaze slowly scanned Ian from head to toe before flicking toward Rebecca.
"I heard from Rebecca that you have something to show?"
"Did you bring it?"
Rebecca gestured toward Ian.
The only thing tying Ian to Rebecca was that. Ian quietly pulled out the underground sewer map and spread it open.
The vice guild master looked down silently at the map laid before him, then pulled out one of the papers stacked beside his desk.
It was the guild's map of the underground sewer.
"You drew this yourself."
"Yes. During the mission."
Gazes darted quickly back and forth between the two maps several times.
The scales were slightly different, but everyone could tell the two maps depicted the exact same terrain.
In truth, it was less about precise proportions...
And more about the tactical sense revealed in the map.
What information was emphasized and recorded.
From that, one could roughly guess the drawer's tendencies.
Kael now understood why Rebecca was interested in Ian.
Most mercenaries were clueless about large-scale strategy and tactics.
Talented ones occasionally appeared, but such exceptional individuals inevitably chose regular armies over mercenary life.
The mercenary guild's command structure was always short on talent.
To the point where, if potential showed, they reached out regardless of D-rank or E-rank.
Nodding, the vice guild master suddenly pushed the map toward Ian and said,
"How about drawing up a defense plan?"
"...Pardon?"
As Ian asked back with a slightly flustered look, one of the staff watching from the side spoke to the vice guild master.
"Don't throw that at a newbie right away. That's why they all run off."
Ian glanced over to check the man's face.
The investigator, right?
He vaguely remembered the hair color, but since he wasn't a major NPC, Ian didn't recall the exact name or position. Just that he was guild staff.
Even after hearing that, the vice guild master's fingertip silently tapped the map.
"...How many troops for deployment?"
"Guard 2nd Company. Enemies: slimes... as many as you can imagine. Budget: do as much as possible for now."
On one edge of the meeting room's large table, numerous types of markers for placing on the map were lined up.
They looked like incomprehensible symbols at a glance, but all were familiar to Ian.
Deployment icons used on the map during monster invasions.
'...Didn't expect to do this already.'
Ian looked down at the blank map.
For low-rank mercenary corps, it ended with dispatching to a desired sector and earning contribution proportional to combat power.
But with high fame, you could take 'defense commission' missions and directly command sector defense.
Where to erect barricades,
where to install defenses.
Which troops to place where,
and what supplies to provide.
It was a screen you'd see ad nauseam if you played this game.
Unlike normal missions where you could retreat and retry on failure, or give up if too hard.
Failing invasion defense damaged city facilities, reducing durability, halting development, and paralyzing functions.
Allowing even one major damage reduced overall power, weakening subsequent waves.
Accumulated damage like that eventually made the final wave impossible to stop.
"Speak if you need explanations."
"I'm fine."
Ian's hand lifted a marker for barricades and carefully placed them one by one on the map.
The underground sewer map's feature was its many complex paths, making efficient movement routes difficult.
Blocking every visible path without a plan would exceed the defense budget alone.
'Slimes... flame emitter traps.'
Next, selecting means to damage monsters.
Since slime numbers were more persistent than expected, choosing defenses required care.
Building a defensive line with simple AoE without considering sustainability meant overkilling trash mobs, then getting overwhelmed by endless slime follow-ups.
Under Ian's hand, the complex sewer paths were blocked one by one, slowly transforming into spaces for hunting monsters.
This defense planning was akin to tower defense.
Monsters from the labyrinth had mostly fixed routes based on race and attack priorities.
Guiding paths with obstacles and monster tendencies, leading precisely to prepared kill zones.
And dispersing them into numbers each defense point could handle.
That was the core of this defense plan design.
This defense plan was the content that stumped first-time novice players the most.
Creating a so-called 'guidebook'—just follow the facility placements without high-level mercenary corps to clear.
It was also the Ian wrote that made him most sick of it.
With Ian's hand moving the final marker, the underground sewer defense layout was complete.
"......"
All eyes in the meeting room quietly turned to the map.
The vice guild master's hand, silently looking down, pointed to one spot.
It was the barricade blocking the most critical path in the defensive line.
"If this barricade is destroyed?"
"Slimes can't break it."
"If it is destroyed?"
"...This path..."
He wouldn't ask if he didn't know they couldn't break it.
But contingencies don't always go as planned.
It was to see how he'd handle sudden emergencies.
Even against the vice guild master's contrived variables and scenarios, Ian calmly adjusted placements to counter.
If a key path's barricade was destroyed, the backup barricade behind naturally guided monsters back to the original path.
Traps at concentration points steadily thinned enemy numbers.
The rearguard troops would probably face... nothing.
No monster could pass this structure to the end. That was the vice guild master's gut from experience.
"...Step out and wait a moment?"
To discuss among guild members excluding Ian, the vice guild master sent him out of the meeting room temporarily.
The staff who had silently watched Ian until then swarmed the map as he left.
"...Looks solid as is?"
"Better to station mercenaries with that money."
"Where's a C-rank taking that pay..."
Everyone added their two cents while examining the plan.
"Installing it is work too; what if it doesn't go as planned?"
"Theoretically... looks problem-free."
"Haha. Never seen desk-jockey theory work once."
The vice guild master looked at Rebecca, who gave a wry smile and shook her head, admitting she hadn't expected this much.
His gaze, checking the map once more, went to the troop deployment chart.
Universal military markers, but ordinary citizens never exposed wouldn't know what unit types or roles the symbols represented.
Ian's deployments had each unit forming standard defensive formations per their organization, textbook perfect.
"...You've handled soldiers before. Where from?"
The investigator, raising his head at the vice guild master's question, shook it and replied.
"Who knows... Not in the registry, so not from the capital."
"Jin Kingdom? Heard there was a rebellion recently."
"Doesn't look it."
The evaluation talk soon shifted to Ian's background.
"Could be Adriana. They send all siblings to the gallows on ascension, right?"
"That was three years ago."
"Hiding since."
When big events happened somewhere, displaced people hiding identities flowed into the labyrinth inevitably.
As they tossed around remembered incidents, Rebecca briefly met the vice guild master's eyes.
Of course, a highly intriguing topic...
But as the talk heated up on Ian, Rebecca quietly tapped the desk to draw attention.
Were there only one or two mercenaries in this city with suspicious pasts?
"For? Against?"
At Rebecca's question, everyone quietly extended hands with their votes.