Dungeon Raid
Her soft lips brushed against mine, and a sweet breath tickled the tip of my nose.
I caught Cheonghwa's moist, springy lips between my own, savoring their warmth and sweetness.
"Mmm..."
As we kissed, I studied her face. Both eyes squeezed shut, her body gone rigid as she poured every ounce of her attention into her lips — she looked utterly adorable.
I flicked my tongue. The moment I slipped it between her lips, Cheonghwa's closed eyes flew wide open and locked with mine. I gave her tongue — as stiff as the rest of her frozen body — a gentle nudge, coaxing a response.
"Nngh..."
Cheonghwa averted her gaze, embarrassed, but contrary to her bashfulness, her tongue began to move, tentatively twining with mine.
It was awkward — and that was exactly what made it so sweetly innocent. This kiss, sharing each other's breath and warmth, confirming our love — it was impossibly sweet.
A soft gasp escaped as our lips parted after several seconds, a silver thread stretching between us. Cheonghwa looked at me with both cheeks flushed crimson — less a fierce, boyish girl and more a lovestruck teenager who'd lost her mind in a single instant.
"You're cute."
I chuckled and offered her my honest impression.
"Wh-what?!"
Cheonghwa's whole body trembled, her cheeks flushing even redder.
"If you're cute, I call you cute. What else am I supposed to say?"
I stretched both of her cheeks, still dazed from the lingering kiss.
"Mmph... stooop..."
Cheonghwa mumbled, weakly batting my arms away, and I snickered at the sight. After filling my vision with adorable Cheonghwa, I smiled in satisfaction, patted the sword at my hip, and walked toward the training dummy.
"H-huh? That's it?"
Her feeble voice drifted from behind me.
"Hmm? What else were you expecting?"
I turned around with a sly grin, and Cheonghwa started spinning her eyes in panic, rambling.
"This can't be right...? The vice president told me if I just tempted you a little, you'd pounce right away, and then you'd use your hands to..."
Cheonghwa's hand made a grabbing motion, like she was squeezing something. Watching that clumsy gesture from someone who'd clearly never held a man's member before, my crotch instinctively tensed.
"Everyone else is training. We can't be doing dirty stuff in here."
"Ugh..."
Cheonghwa's cheeks twitched and her eyes trembled, like she'd short-circuited.
"Hmm? Cheonghwa, did you want to do dirty things in the training hall?"
Truth is, I'm the one who did dirty things in this training hall. And it was a perfectly executed dirty act, a collaboration between the student council president and vice president. Just thinking about it still made my crotch twitch. Sucking on the president's breasts while getting a handjob from the vice president — that broken combo had been genuinely thrilling.
"Shut up! Jeong Jojun! You bastard, stop teasing me!"
Apparently I'd teased her too much — Cheonghwa bellowed and lightning erupted from her body with a rumble. I naturally deflected the lightning that came at me and replied with a smug look.
"I'm a Nature-type, so that won't hurt me~"
Zzt. Black lightning flickered across Cheonghwa's body, as if to say, How about this?
"I'm sorry."
Even I couldn't block that. Knowing that power better than anyone, I immediately bent at the waist and apologized.
Cheonghwa glared at me for a while, snickering, then hurled the black lightning at the training dummy.
KABOOM—!
A tremendous explosion erupted behind me.
"Next time I'll do it properly, so you'd better be ready."
Leaving me with those words, Cheonghwa huffed a snort and walked past me.
Hmm... next time, huh. I sure hoped that next time came soon. Watching Cheonghwa repeat those bizarre hand motions in the air like she was practicing something, I smiled contentedly.
Afternoon at the Great Demon Subjugation Academy.
Unlike usual, the students of Class 1-5 were gathered in the classroom, clustered into groups of four, discussing intently. And I, too, was part of one of those groups of four.
"A-are you sure it's really okay for me to join...?"
Standing across from me, Maya — a classmate with fluffy-looking brown hair — asked in an uncertain tone.
"Of course. We'd be grateful to have you."
Today was the day to submit our dungeon raid members. Alice, Violet, and I had been looking for a fourth, and the girl we'd chosen was standing right in front of me: Maya.
The reason I'd picked Maya, whom I'd first encountered during the ranking match, was simple. Today, the day teams were due, I'd seen her sitting alone, fidgeting with her fingers and groaning — anyone could tell she hadn't found a group. I felt sorry for her, so I brought her into ours.
"Well, it's a good choice. We definitely needed someone to take the back line in our composition."
Violet tilted her head beside me, apparently pleased with my choice, and voiced her agreement. Honestly, I hadn't thought much when I picked Maya, but if Violet was happy with it, then it was fine.
"Eeeh~ I'll do my best~"
Maya bowed her head and greeted us.
"Come on, we're classmates. No need to be so formal."
"B-but still~ the people in this group are all so stacked~"
Well, looking at our members, it was an extreme combination — first, second, and third place from the ranking match all bunched together.
"It's fine! It's fine! Then we'll submit it like this!"
Alice's eyes sparkled like a cat's as she snatched the dungeon raid application form off the desk.
"Okaaay~"
At Maya's feeble reply, Alice bounced over and submitted the form to the teacher. A short while later, after collecting every application from our class, the teacher rapped the podium to get our attention.
"Alright, everyone's finished selecting their team members. As I mentioned before, this afternoon's class will be held in the Virtual Training Combat Building."
From today until the dungeon raid, some afternoon classes would no longer be taught by dispatched hunters. Instead, the focus would shift to coordinating with teammates by hunting virtual demons in the combat training building. The class would proceed with us coordinating in dozens of virtual combat rooms located underground, while the teacher came in to offer critiques.
"Alright then, everyone head to the combat training building."
The teacher slung her faculty notebook over her shoulder, chewing on a ballpoint pen, and left the classroom. We all filed out in a herd and followed her to the Virtual Training Combat Building.
"Alright, go into your rooms on your own, form your formations, and start training. I'll come around sequentially in an hour."
The teacher let out a long yawn and flopped onto the sofa beside the stairs. She was putting on a full show of being annoyed, but from what I'd seen so far, she'd still get up like clockwork after exactly one hour to come instruct us. She wasn't exactly warm, but our homeroom teacher was a pretty decent person.
"Let's go to that room."
I pointed to the room I always trained in and led my teammates there.
Ahh... this room had quite the history. It was where I'd done the deed with the president and vice president on day one, where the spirit had done a striptease, and where I'd shared that sweet first kiss with Cheonghwa. By now, this room had accumulated so many memories that it was more than just a room to me — it was a precious place.
Once everyone was inside, Violet was the first to speak.
"So, for formation — you take the front line, Alice and I take the mid line, and Maya takes the back. That should work, right?"
Violet naturally took the lead in the conversation and sought our opinions.
"Yeah. Let's do that."
Everyone, myself included, nodded in agreement. Unlike the class ranking match, this four-person composition required me to stay on the front line. Not the slow-advancing front line of a tank and a shotgun-armed shooter — I planned to run a radical front line that only I could pull off, stylishly parrying enemy attacks while dealing damage at the same time.
"So I just need to give buffs from the back...?"
Maya timidly raised her hand, seeking our input with no confidence whatsoever. Maya, who'd be taking our back line this time, was a rather unique case among ability users. She possessed a Nature-type water ability, and at the same time used that water to apply buffs and healing — a rare, highly versatile ability user in this world. Since she handled both at once, she wasn't as outstanding as a dedicated buffer, but the advantage of having multiple options couldn't be ignored.
"No. You don't just give buffs — depending on the situation, you'll need to heal and deal damage as well."
"Eeeeh~"
At Violet's razor-sharp reply, Maya wilted with a lack of confidence.
"Alright, let's run a light simulation first and get our coordination down."
At times like this, moving our bodies once was faster than talking about it a hundred times.
"Form up."
Alice stepped back behind me and pulled her Uzi from her subspace, while Violet took a pose like she was gripping something in midair. After confirming that even Maya, far in the back, had floated water into the air and assumed a ready stance, I operated the panel and summoned a demon.
THUD—!
A massive black figure dropped onto the pure white tiles. With a clattering of metal scraping against metal, a colossal suit of armor was revealed, and from within the helmet, a pair of piercing blue eyes gleamed.
"Eeeeh?"
Maya's dazed voice rang out. The demon I'd summoned this time was a Death Knight, belonging to simulation stage twelve.
"H-how are we supposed to beat this~?!"
Along with Maya's despair-filled cry, the Death Knight's massive frame began to move. Despite its enormous bulk, it kicked off the ground without a sound and glided through the air toward us. I charged out to meet it. I had to close the distance as much as possible and keep the Death Knight away from the mid line. Above all, the front line's role was to secure the mid line's safety.
WHOOSH—!
The Death Knight swung the enormous greatsword in its right hand at me. To stop a strike that combined monstrous bulk with devastating speed, I drew the sword at my hip and twisted the blade.
Steel screamed against steel. What I lacked in weight, I made up for with rotational force. The overwhelming power, I redirected with technique. And I didn't just redirect it — I wove in the principles of Swiftness at every instant, drawing out the Death Knight's power.
Having received that strike, the Death Knight stumbled, its sword crashing to the floor, leaving it completely exposed. Naturally, our mid-line DPS didn't miss that opening.
CRACK—!
A sonic boom erupted in midair as a telekinetic whip slammed into the Death Knight's body, and with the sound of a magazine being chewed through, mana rounds poured into the Death Knight's helmet. I didn't miss the opening either, driving my sword into a faint gap between the armor plates.
"GRAAAAH—!"
The Death Knight shrieked and twisted its body. It tried to swing its sword through the air in a convulsive frenzy.
Swift Sword Rampage
Five slashes, their power soaring according to the principles of Swiftness. I drove every last one of those slashes into a single point on the Death Knight's wrist — the wrist it had concentrated all its power into to swing its sword.
"GRAAAAH—!"
And even in that brief instant, our DPS didn't miss the opening, pouring out damage with relentless persistence. In the end, the Death Knight let its sword slip from its grasp, its form gradually fading from the training hall.
Hmm. Having coordinated once in the hidden dungeon before, Violet and Alice had an uncanny sense for when to deal damage.
"Uhhh~?"
Maya's dazed voice rang out once more.
"We... we actually beat it~?"
Her hollow, incredulous voice captured her current state of mind perfectly.
"Don't worry, Maya. You'll get used to it soon enough."
Alice grinned and patted Maya's shoulder.
"That's right. Stick around this guy long enough and even this will start to feel normal."
Violet patted Maya's shoulder as well, as if she fully agreed with Alice.
"Eeeeh~?"
And once again, Maya's dazed cry filled the combat training hall.