Class (1)
I am not a philanthropist.
In fact, I’m the sort of person who’s the complete opposite. Someone much like Lee Jihye, standing there in front of me with a smirk on her face.
Carrying spears and swords, they’d joined us here like heroes straight out of a comeback story, and a few of the bastards looked over this way and nodded, as if pleased by the sight.
This isn’t good...
At this rate, I was going to end up as human meat shield duty.
“I made it sound like a grand tour, but there’s really nothing much to show you. The only difference is that the women’s living quarters and the men’s living quarters are separate.”
“Well, that’s more than enough.”
“You say that, and now I feel weirdly grateful. I was a little worried, honestly...”
“No reason to worry. I’m just thankful you invited us.”
“You’re very kind. Hehe. Can I call you Deokgu oppa?”
“Uh... sure... if you want.”
“You really are dependable.”
The naive Park Deokgu was already half-hooked by Lee Jihye. He seemed downright pleased to be called oppa by a woman six years older than he was.
“And you, Kiyoung, is that all right?”
“Titles don’t matter. Call me whatever’s comfortable.”
It was also hard not to notice that she barely glanced at Jung Hayan.
“Then I’ll call you Kiyoung oppa. Hehe. Ah! Hayan, could you come this way? There aren’t any strict rules for living here, but Guild Master Kim Hyunsung will explain the details to you. As for you, Hayan, I’ll teach you a few things myself. For today, just rest.”
“Ah... yes! I-I’ll see you in a bit, Kiyoung. Thank you for bringing me this far.”
“Yes. We’ll speak again in a little while.”
“Yes!”
Jung Hayan lowered her head in a polite bow, then disappeared into the women’s quarters with Lee Jihye.
She’d probably be getting a whole lecture on the rules and whatnot, but to be honest, I couldn’t care less about their business.
What I cared about was how I was supposed to act from here on out.
“Hyung, doesn’t this place look a little livable?”
“It does, but...”
“What’s the problem?”
“It’s nothing major. Just...”
“Just what?”
“Nothing.”
“Man, you’re killing me here...”
I frowned a little at the thought that I might be stuck as the meat shield protecting this supposedly safe shelter, but if I stepped back and looked at it properly, it wasn’t a bad trade.
All I need is to get what I can get.
There were endless things to gain here.
Safe hunting with Kim Hyunsung, earning a class through that hunting, bringing Jung Hayan over to our side.
There would probably be a few problems along the way, but of course that wasn’t my concern.
Sure enough, the next morning Kim Hyunsung called for Park Deokgu and me.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Thanks to you, yes.”
Park Deokgu gave him a short reply.
When it had just been the two of us, I hadn’t even been able to sleep properly. Compared to the scraps of rest we’d managed in shifts, it had been a luxurious break.
I had a rough idea what he wanted to talk about today. He’d been hovering around for a while before finally appearing in view, so I decided to get ahead of him and speak first.
“There don’t seem to be many people who can actually fight. Most of them are women, or injured people. Otherwise, they’re the sort with no intention of fighting at all.”
“Yes. It’s embarrassing, but that’s the truth.”
“How is this place even being maintained?”
I asked bluntly, because I was genuinely curious.
Kim Hyunsung hesitated for a moment, then slowly began again.
“To be honest, the situation isn’t all that good.”
Just as I’d expected.
Rubbing my chin, I continued for him.
“No food or drinking water. No people who can fight. And yet you still have to take care of thirty children. Or maybe even more. That number will only keep growing, won’t it?”
“......”
“You’ve been getting by with the food and water you stocked up beforehand, but the supplies you gathered in advance have run out faster than you expected, and now it’s time to find another answer. Isn’t that it? As for the resources scattered around the Start Points, it’s impossible to collect them all right now. You can barely clear out the monsters right in front of you, and yet the number of people who can’t fight keeps increasing.”
“They are not burdens.”
“Maybe they won’t be burdens later. But right now, they are.”
Kim Hyunsung didn’t respond. He might have been admitting it to some extent.
“If I’m being honest, given the current situation, leaving this place might actually be the better option.”
“Leave, hyung?”
I shook my head at Park Deokgu’s words and answered.
“No. What I mean is that even if we stay here and hold out, we won’t gain much from it.”
“Ah...”
“Hyunsung, I’m not some amazing person, and neither is this friend of mine. He might be a help, but I might not be. In truth, all I do is stand around with a spear in my hands.”
“......”
“Still, we can fight alongside you and help carry the load. This friend of mine too, of course.”
“Thank you.”
He was trying to act like it was nothing, but this had probably been weighing on him heavily.
He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and may well have been reaching his limit.
However little he wanted to admit it, our arrival must have felt like a godsend.
“I’m not a volunteer worker.”
“Ah...”
“I think I can guess what you’re thinking, Hyunsung. You probably want everyone to survive and get out of here together. I can understand and respect that. But I’m not like you. I’m not the sort who sacrifices himself for others, and I’m not all that interested in the idea of everyone going together. You could call me selfish, and I wouldn’t have much to say in response.”
“No. I can understand that. Surely there’s something you want.”
Things were going more smoothly than I’d expected.
I’d been afraid he might whip out a sword and accuse me of being unprincipled, so having him respond like this was rather appreciated.
“Then I’ll tell you. First, ownership of some of the resources discovered from here on out.”
He gave a small nod.
He probably thought that much was no big deal.
“And...”
“......”
“We’d like to get a foot in the door of whatever plans you have going forward, Hyunsung.”
Kim Hyunsung’s expression stiffened slightly.
After a moment, he looked at me with a strange expression. Surprised, perhaps.
But at the end of that surprise, a faint smile gradually began to form.
“So you knew.”
“The strange woman at the Start Point clearly gave us two choices: clearing the dungeon or surviving. Personally, I don’t think the second option is possible. Well, if a few people monopolize a lot of resources, maybe it is. But I don’t remember being told exactly how long we’re supposed to survive, or how long we’re supposed to stay alive.”
“......”
“If the goal really has to be survival, then gathering up survivors is hardly the smartest choice. If the monsters don’t eat them, they’ll just starve to death anyway. It’s a conclusion anyone could reach.”
It was nothing more than me stitching together deductions I could make because I knew he was a regressor.
But Kim Hyunsung seemed almost impressed by how my delusion connected the tiniest fragments into a whole story.
In fact, he even lowered his head slightly toward me.
My delusion had hit the mark.
“Then please, I look forward to working with you.”
“The feeling is mutual...”
I took Kim Hyunsung’s hand. There was a strange trust in his eyes.
He probably knew I wasn’t strong.
And yet in his mind, I may have come across as a useful kind of person.
Something like a strategist, or an administrator.
“Hyung!”
“I know.”
After Kim Hyunsung joined us, hunting became a little simpler.
Not only that, but my faith in the Mind's Eye—the status windows I was seeing through my trait—became even firmer.
“Deokgu!”
“I’m going.”
The way he used a sword certainly looked familiar.
Maybe he wanted to hide the fact that he was this skilled, because he’d occasionally make deliberate mistakes, but whenever I or Park Deokgu were in danger, his reactions were hard to mistake for those of someone encountering a sword for the first time.
Good.
While Park Deokgu held down a few monsters, Kim Hyunsung and I dealt with the ones in sight.
It was the simple method of striking a shield against the monsters sensitive to sound, drawing their aggro, and then clearing them out fast while they were distracted.
My spear still trembled a little, as though I hadn’t fully adapted yet.
I drove the spear into a monster charging at Park Deokgu, and the creature was impaled and knocked sprawling.
In the same instant, Park Deokgu brought his shield down on it.
“Hup!”
“Looks like a few more are coming. I’ll hold them for a moment. In the meantime...”
“Got it. Deokgu, grab the food.”
“I’m already on it, Kiyoung hyung. Did that bastard learn kendo or something back on Earth?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he did some similar kind of training. Or maybe it’s because he already got a class.”
“Damn. He’s fighting like a man possessed.”
Using his high agility, he dodged and cut.
It looked simple, but he was doing something far from simple.
Park Deokgu also knew Kim Hyunsung was already far ahead, because Kim Hyunsung himself had said he already had a class.
After that, Deokgu looked a little restless.
He was clearly stressed by the fact that the class he’d been waiting for with such desperate longing still hadn’t opened.
“Hup!”
By the time I finished off the last one, Park Deokgu was quietly nodding.
He looked positively stunned.
“Damn, this Start Point doesn’t seem to have as many monster bastards as I thought.”
“Hyunsung probably cleared out this area in advance.”
“You mean Kim Hyunsung?”
“Most likely. There’s plenty of food. No survivors, though... or rather, if there were survivors, there wouldn’t be any food left.”
“Seriously, I never thought the three of us would actually manage to scrounge up the supplies from the Start Point.”
“You were a big help.”
“Honestly, what did I even do? It’s all that man’s work.”
“That’s not true. Without you, we wouldn’t have been able to get this far.”
That wasn’t just empty consolation.
It was simply true that Park Deokgu had made it possible for us to come here. No matter how strong Kim Hyunsung was, there was a limit to how many monsters surging in from every direction he could keep pushing back on his own.
He was still in the process of growing, and having a dependable vanguard shielding the front must have eased his burden considerably.
I was checking my status window for any increased stats when—
“Huh? Hyung.”
Park Deokgu sounded startled, and at the same time something began to appear in my own field of vision.
Several classes have been unlocked. Please select the class you deem necessary.
Good.
It was faster than I’d expected. It seemed to have noticed that Kim Hyunsung and I were clearing the area quickly.
Available classes:
Warrior — Normal Grade
Archer — Normal Grade
Wizard — Normal Grade
Commander — Rare Grade
One class in particular caught my eye.