The Tanker's Interview

First things first: I set up a meeting with Yeonji, who'd applied to our recruitment posting. Fortunately she lived in Seoul as well, so we were able to arrange something near my place. Until the appointed day, Sujin and I threw ourselves into training.

Our training came in two flavors. One was actual ability training. The other was sex. Personally, I much preferred the latter.

Thanks to the Power of Sex ability, even just having sex grew our stats. Of course, putting those boosted stats to actual use still required training we couldn't skip. Outside of training hours, Sujin and I were practically glued together, rutting like animals. Without the Pregnancy Control skill, we'd already have popped out a whole litter of kids. The results, at least, were excellent.

Strength and Agility had jumped by a huge margin. Intelligence and Luck hadn't grown nearly as much, but the numbers still weren't bad.

That bastard Luck, though — I couldn't feel the increase at all. My Luck had started at 12. The stat had more than tenfolded, and I still couldn't tell the difference. It had to be one of two things. Either the Luck stat here was equivalent to a game's Luck stat — and as far as I knew, no game on earth ever made gacha pulls better just because your Luck was high. Usually it just tweaked crit rates or evasion. Or maybe Luck scaled logarithmically.

A little disappointing, maybe, but our growth was still going smoothly. Bonus Points had blown past 600, and Credits had topped a hundred thousand. Just looking at those numbers was reassuring. And it wasn't just me — Sujin had grown quite a bit too.

Her Agility was a little lacking, but that high Intelligence more than made up for it. For Sujin, who wasn't a melee fighter, Intelligence mattered far more than Strength or Agility. It was a shame her ability was still locked. Unlock that, and her combat power would skyrocket.

The problem was, I still had no idea how to unlock it. For all I knew, it might take Credits.

And then the appointed day arrived. The meeting place was a café near the house. Sujin and I dressed in clean, presentable clothes and headed over ten minutes early. We ordered two drinks at a decent-looking café and settled in to wait. Our counterpart arrived in less than five minutes.

"Hello. Would you happen to be… Jaeseong?"

Yeonji was a tall, slender woman. She had to be a full 180 centimeters. Frustratingly, she was a bit taller than me.

"Ah, yes. A pleasure. I'm Baek Jaeseong. This is my girlfriend, Shin Sujin. She's also a party member."

"Please take good care of me. I'm Noh Yeonji."

She bowed her head politely as she introduced herself. The ponytail she'd tied her hair into swished behind her like a horse's tail. Ah. So that's why they called it a ponytail.

I gestured her toward a seat. Sujin and I sat on one side; Yeonji sat across from us. She took her place. She'd been a little taller than me standing up, but her seated height was actually shorter — long legs, excellent proportions. She'd look great as a model.

"Order whatever you'd like to drink."

"Ah, I'm fine. I'm not much of a coffee person."

We got straight down to business.

"The dungeon we'll be exploring, Emerald Riverside, looks to be on the easier side. I checked the Hunter fatality rates — not a single death in the past two years. That doesn't mean we can let our guard down completely, of course, but it seems like the kind of place we can walk into without tensing our shoulders."

"I've never been there myself, but I've heard of it a few times. If you don't mind my asking — which dungeons have you and Sujin explored so far?"

Yeonji's sudden question made Sujin and me glance at each other and smile wryly. It was a sharp question, and a perfectly reasonable one — but it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was also a question that put us at a disadvantage. Lying, though, would have been a worse choice. It was the kind of lie that would fall apart in no time anyway.

"We just graduated from the training center. So far, the only dungeon we've explored is Rounded Nest."

"Ah… I see. Wait a moment — if you just graduated from the training center, then that news story…"

The training center incident had made the news, of course. A fatality during training was the first in ten years. Yeonji had apparently seen the coverage. Dungeon Hunters were sensitive to that kind of information.

"Yes, that's right. The class in that news story was ours. Embarrassingly enough."

"No. I don't think that's anything to be embarrassed about. I, um… I heard a Siren appeared there."

"Yes. We got lucky and managed to kill it."

"Wow! That's amazing! Killing a Siren! I couldn't do that yet myself."

Yeonji was Rank 9. Typically, a Siren was a monster that only Dungeon Hunters of 8-Rank or higher could hunt. Of course, the fact that we'd been able to kill one at all was thanks to several strokes of luck lining up.

"We got lucky."

Saying it out loud, I wondered if my high Luck stat had actually influenced the hunt. Then again, running into a Siren in the first place had been colossally unlucky. Our tank had died because of it.

"Seizing luck is a skill too."

Yeonji smiled as she said it. With her blowing smoke up my ass like this, I couldn't help puffing up a little. I gave her a brief rundown of what had happened there. The Association hadn't told us to keep it secret, so it was probably fine.

"Ahem. Anyway, back to the main point. I'm thinking the expedition will run about three days. Yeonji as the tank, myself as the healer, and Sujin as the DPS. A three-person party."

"Your ability was Light Control, wasn't it?"

"Yes. I'm a little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠embarrassed to admit it, but I also took the accelerated DPS and tank courses at the training center. As long as we prepare thoroughly, Emerald Riverside shouldn't be a problem."

Gauging a party's level to predict the odds of a successful expedition — that was the most basic procedure in dungeon exploration. Running parallel to it was the projected-earnings calculation.

"The monsters that appear there are Ghost Flies, Skeletons, Demon Flowers, and the like. The byproducts aren't particularly expensive, and the spawn counts don't seem that high either."

There were several methods for calculating projected earnings. We'd learned them during training, and honestly, it had been the most boring class of the lot. Math was a headache. Anything involving money especially so. I liked money. I just didn't understand why handling it had to be this hard.

I scribbled calculations on a tablet PC. Yeonji, who'd already explored other dungeons, helped me work the numbers.

"Total projected earnings come to about thirty-five million won. Subtract shared expenses and split it three ways, and each of us should walk away with around ten million."

Ten million won for three days.

And that was in one of the lowest-level dungeons. This was exactly why Dungeon Hunter was a profession that sat on a pile of money. It also helped that Emerald Riverside was a dungeon with decent profitability.

In the Dungeon Hunter industry, profitability meant return relative to hours worked. High-profitability dungeons were popular; low-profitability ones weren't. Of course, dungeon exploration had a luck element to it, like a gacha pull, so profitability was never an absolute metric.

Emerald Riverside's profitability sat a little above average. I'd heard that if you picked the wrong dungeon, you could walk out without a single won to show for it. Naturally, you filtered those out in advance.

"That sounds good."

Yeonji nodded. Fortunately, the terms seemed to sit well with her too.

"Great. Then I'll go ahead and file the dungeon expedition application."

"Ah. Would it be possible to meet one more time before the expedition? I'd like to properly confirm each of our abilities and try syncing up."

"Of course. If we want to practice coordinating, we should rent a training facility."

Yeonji was a thoroughly careful person. In dungeon exploration, thoroughness was a tremendous virtue. In fact, I'd been planning to bring it up myself even if she hadn't. It would cost ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a bit, but if that money bought us a safe expedition, I wouldn't begrudge a single won. We set a date for the next meeting and parted ways. She seemed like a decent person, which was a relief. The fact that she was a beauty made it an even bigger relief.

The day of the second meeting arrived. Sujin and I headed to a training facility about an hour from the house — a specialized facility for Hunters, with a rental fee of a hundred thousand won per hour. A business aimed at Dungeon Hunters who raked in money by the fistful had no reason to be merciful with its prices. And this was the cheapest training facility of the bunch.

"Hello~"

We met Yeonji out front. She was dressed far more comfortably than last time. Before, she'd worn a beige jacket over a nude V-neck with jeans; today she'd shown up in a cap, an oversized hoodie, and leggings. The kind of outfit a volleyball player might wear in the off-season.

Those long legs of hers and the black leggings clinging to them suited her ridiculously well. We'd dressed just as casually.

Since we'd reserved in advance, we went straight into the training hall. The room we'd booked was a square about ten meters on each side. It reminded me of the Hunter Association room where I'd taken the exam for my Dungeon Hunter certification.

The room was empty. We'd only booked the basic option, after all. You could add all kinds of training equipment, but the price ballooned exponentially. Thieving bastards, the lot of them. We'd come to sync our abilities, so it was a relief we didn't need any extra gear.

"Let's start by demonstrating our abilities. I'll go first."

I used Light Control. I formed orbs of light, then ran through Holy Arrow, Light Cure, Light Heal, and the rest. Holy Arrow was an offensive ability; Light Cure was a buff that treated status ailments; Light Heal was exactly what it sounded like — a heal. My technique was still crude enough that the effects weren't spectacular, but they were serviceable enough.

"This one's an irregular technique. You steal the opponent's vision with a burst of light, like setting off a flashbang."

I also demonstrated the trick that had come in handy at Rounded Nest. It was a pretty solid technique against multiple enemies. Once I'd shown my abilities, it was Sujin's turn.

Sujin demonstrated Water Arrow and Water Wall. She could summon up to six Water Arrows at once now, and the power was outstanding — she was more than qualified as a DPS.

After we'd shown our abilities, it was Yeonji's turn. The moment it was, she suddenly pulled off her hoodie. Underneath, she was wearing a running tank. What was she doing all of a sudden?

"Hmm! My ability is a physical type. Um… Jaeseong."