Team Venus
Sejong Academy's curriculum was built around repetition and regular live combat.
"As you all know, this month we have the dungeon practical evaluation."
One of the many training grounds on academy grounds. The instructor's face was a mask of exhaustion, but the moment those words left his mouth, the students who had just finished mock combat lit up like lanterns.
"Judging by those faces, you're already fantasizing about the loot…."
He wasn't wrong. The dungeon practicals held every two months were hands-down the students' favorite class—and their favorite event.
The reason was simple.
Except in special cases, the academy handed over every last scrap of harvest from a cleared dungeon to the party that took it down.
"Tsk tsk. Kids these days, already blinded by the gold dust."
Even the instructor's grumpy old-man muttering couldn't kill the grins blooming across every face.
All the tedious paperwork, the priority-raid bidding, the red tape that normally came with dungeon clearance—the academy handled every bit of it. All the students had to do was dive in, rack up real combat experience, and walk away with a tidy side income. It would have been stranger not to be excited.
"That's it for today's class. Use the remaining time to prepare properly… Tae-hoon, stay behind a moment. The rest of you are dismissed."
"Yes, sir!"
The students answered in unison. I alone stayed put, completely in the dark about why I'd been singled out. Once the last of them had filed out and only the two of us remained, the instructor spoke.
"Sorry for holding you up, Tae-hoon."
"It's fine, sir. But why did you ask me to stay?"
"It's about this dungeon practical. There's something I need to discuss separately."
"Just with me?"
"Well… I want you to hear it and pass it along to your team."
Dungeons were ranked and managed by threat level, from the highest S down to the lowest F. From D-Class upward, solo clears were nearly impossible, so hunters inevitably formed parties. Academy students, whose curriculum included dungeon practicals, all had teams of their own—and I happened to be the leader of mine.
"You've heard that Glory Academy students cleared a B-Class dungeon among themselves, right?"
I nodded.
Glory Academy was the top hunter training institution in the United States—and Sejong Academy's longtime rival. I already had a pretty good idea where this was going.
"So our academy is talking about clearing a B-Class dungeon too?"
"Exactly. Word is India and China are gearing up for the same thing, so the competition's on."
"And you're asking our team to take on a B-Class?"
"…Both the academy and the government have promised full support."
"Hmm."
It wasn't empty talk. Despite its small population, Korea had poured enormous effort into building a reputation as a hunter powerhouse that could stand toe-to-toe with the US, China, and India in both training and operations.
This time will be no different.
Right now, among all the student teams at Sejong Academy, only one was capable of clearing a B-Class dungeon: the one I belonged to—Venus.
"Honestly, Tae-hoon, your team has had the skill to clear a B-Class for a while now."
Can't exactly deny that.
Team Venus was a dream squad—promising talents from every year group, each rated as having the potential to become A-Class or higher. Until now we'd prioritized safety and stuck to C-Class and below, but plenty of people had already analyzed that Venus could handle a B-Class with room to spare.
I didn't like saying it out loud, but even I, the team leader, was being talked about as someone who would eventually surpass A-Class and reach S.
"And this is confidential, but… the Dean said that if you accept, he'll give you a personal reward."
"The Dean?"
"Yeah. I don't know exactly what, but it'll probably be an item."
By "item," the instructor meant those mysterious objects infused with power that hunters obtained from clearing dungeons. Sejong Academy's Dean was retired now, but he had once been an active S-Class hunter. A man of that caliber wasn't about to hand out junk as a reward….
"I'll need to hear what the team thinks first."
"Of course. They'll probably set up a separate meeting to go over the details with you."
From the way he talked, the instructor had just been sounding me out.
"I'll let you know as soon as we decide, sir."
After finishing with the instructor, I stopped by the market for a few groceries and headed home.
I lived in a roughly 1,400-square-foot apartment about a fifteen-minute drive from the academy.
"Ah! Hoonie's home!"
The moment I stepped through the front door, Bo-yeon came scampering over and threw herself into my arms.
The other housemates were already back as well. Right behind Bo-yeon appeared a stunning white woman—one of them.
"Darling. Welcome home."
She had eye-catching silver hair cut into a sharp bob that fell just so, and she slipped her arm through mine with easy affection. Even so, her face stayed perfectly blank—a poker face that never cracked. The foreign woman's name was Anika Belmont, a hunter exchange student from Germany.
Pulled inside by Bo-yeon and Anika, I found yet another housemate sprawled face-down on the living-room sofa, idly kicking a pair of long, healthy, beautifully toned legs and plump thighs.
"Hye-ji, I'm home."
"Oh. The shrimp's back?"
Short gold-dyed hair, coffee-brown skin, and a fierce look that gave her a vaguely delinquent air—Hwang Hye-ji greeted me with that peculiar nickname, twisting only her upper body and head just enough to flash a sheepish grin.
"Hoonie, want help putting the groceries away?"
"I'll help too, darling."
"It's fine. I only bought stuff for dinner—no need to put anything away."
"Then set it down and come here."
I left the bags on the dining table and sat on the sofa. Hye-ji, still lying on her stomach, wrapped those long legs around my waist. On the other side, Anika rested her head against my left shoulder.
Bo-yeon—my girlfriend—watched the two women drape themselves over me without the slightest hint of jealousy. And that wasn't strange at all.
"Darling. Why were you late today?"
"Seriously. You've got three gorgeous girlfriends waiting at home, and this shrimp's completely whipped."
Of course they didn't mind. Anika and Hye-ji were my girlfriends too.
"I got held up talking with the instructor."
"Hoonie, straighten up so I can sit on your lap."
"Like this? Mm… you're a little heavy."
I said it as a joke the moment Bo-yeon settled onto my knees—and got an immediate pinch in the side for my trouble.
"You wanna die? I'm light as a feather."
"Ow… it was obviously a joke."
Honestly, feather was a stretch—there was real weight there—but it was the pleasant heaviness of a pretty girl's generous hips, and I could take as much of that as she wanted to give.
Yeah… this is the good life.
Coming home to three beautiful girlfriends and melting into cozy closeness the second I walked through the door. How I'd ended up in a relationship this complicated—and this happy—would take a while to explain, but the short version was that I was dating all of them with marriage as the end goal.
At first I'd honestly wondered if it was even possible. Then I felt firsthand the status hunters held in modern society, and I started thinking maybe it wasn't so far-fetched after all.
We'd already talked marriage through thoroughly. Whether it meant exploiting a legal loophole or emigrating to a country that allowed polygamy, I had sworn I would take responsibility for my girlfriends for the rest of my life.
Ideally we'd stay in Korea, of course.
Fortunately, there was promising news on that front. A recent study by a well-known research institute had found that children born between hunters had a far higher awakening rate than the average. Talk of legalizing polygamy among hunters had started circulating, and if that day ever came, we wouldn't need to leave the country at all.
Something to watch, at least….
But I had something else to tell them today, and I waited for the right moment to bring it up.
"Hey. I've got something to talk about regarding the team."
Bo-yeon, Hye-ji, and Anika weren't only my girlfriends—they were also the core members of Team Venus.
"We've been asked whether Venus can clear a B-Class dungeon this time."
All three women immediately grew serious and listened carefully to everything I had brought home.
The next day.
After finishing academy classes as usual, I decided to drop by a club I'd only ever put my name on.
A club at a hunter-training academy. It might sound odd, but aside from the fact that the curriculum focused on combat and survival skills, the place wasn't all that different from a regular university.
If anything, the funding's better than most colleges, so the clubs are more varied and the activities run deeper.
Among the many clubs on campus, the one I visited today was the fitness club—founded to support physical conditioning for hunters who operated from the rear line.
They'd taken over an entire building that had been sitting half-abandoned, packed with exercise equipment nobody used. The moment I stepped inside, someone greeted me.
"Well, look who it is. Tae-hoon's here."
I was 171 centimeters and skinny for a guy. He, by contrast, stood well over 190 centimeters, every inch of him packed with muscle, radiating an overwhelming presence.
"Hello, Kang-in hyung."
"Don't 'hello' me, you punk."
Han Kang-in, president of the fitness club, came over and clapped me on the shoulder.
He was a good-looking guy with a masculine, open face, but his everyday behavior was pure second-year senior—a little rough around the edges. With me, though, he was always kind, so I called him hyung and got along with him well.
"Why's it been so long?"
"Hyung, you only asked me to put my name down when you started the club."
"Bo-yeon did the same thing, and her attendance is great. Look—she's working out over there right now."
Sure enough, off in the distance I could see Bo-yeon using one of the machines, dressed in a T-shirt and leggings, actively participating in club activities unlike ghost-member me.
"I just came to see your face for once. And I've got something to talk about regarding the team."
Team Venus had five members total.
Me, Bo-yeon, Hye-ji, Anika—and the last one was Kang-in hyung.
I relayed everything the instructor had told me the day before.
"A B-Class dungeon… I'm down. Honestly, C-Class was getting boring for us."
"Same opinion as the others, then."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. Let's clear a B-Class this time."
With the whole team in agreement, I immediately texted the permanently exhausted-looking instructor.
"Oh, and they said support for this clear is going to be generous. Hyung, you need anything special?"
"You and Hye-ji handle the logistics. I'm the muscle type."
"That's right, Hoonie. Talking to this old man about that stuff will just frustrate you."
Bo-yeon had wandered over at some point. The second she casually roasted him, Kang-in hyung bristled.
"Hey, brat. Who are you calling 'old man' to your senior?"
"Don't call me brat!"
"Aww, but I don't wanna~ Right, little brat?"
"…So annoying."
I was laughing at the two of them bickering in front of me when Kang-in hyung suddenly looked like he'd remembered something.
"Right. Tae-hoon, the club members are grabbing drinks tonight for the first time in a while."
"Drinks?"
"Yeah. So… is it okay if Bo-yeon comes too?"
"Ah…."
I froze for a second, caught off guard.
Kang-in hyung asking whether my girlfriend Bo-yeon could join the drinking party.
……That was a signal we'd established between us.
"Not okay?"
"No. If Bo-yeon's fine with it…."
As I answered, I glanced sideways. My pretty little girlfriend was watching me through narrowed eyes.
Then a strange little smile curved her lips.
"Hoonie, you can come too, you know."
"……Sorry. I've got something else to take care of."
"Hnn…."
Bo-yeon kept her eyes narrowed on me for a moment longer.
"Fine. I get it. I'm gonna go wash up, so you two talk."
She said it in a faintly sulky voice and disappeared into the locker room.
Kang-in hyung, left behind with me, spoke up.
"It'd be nice if you came too. Shame."
I snorted inwardly at that.
There wasn't a trace of actual regret anywhere on Kang-in hyung's face.