Training Team 2 (1)
Kang-jun arrived at the Hero branch by van at 5:45 in the morning. He passed through the main gate and headed straight for the audiovisual room in the main building. About twenty people sat scattered around the place that still reeked faintly of rat droppings.
A couple more heroes filed in after him, and soon the supervisor entered. She was a different person from the one during new recruit training—a somewhat petite, sharp-featured middle-aged woman this time. She stepped up onto the platform and quickly scanned the roster in her hand.
"We'll start by confirming the roster."
Names were called one by one. The heroes answered or raised a hand slightly. After confirming every name—two B-class, four C-class, and fourteen D-class—the orientation began.
Unlike civilian teams, the heroes' dungeon teams were not formed to chase profit. That was why there was no porter position. The investigation team's mission was to survey and assess conditions inside the dungeon and report back to the organization. If civilian teams' exploration frequency dropped low enough for monsters to proliferate beyond the threshold, they would also form a separate extermination team and carry out culling operations in parallel.
In any case, the supervisor laid out various reasons for forming the heroes' dungeon teams, emphasizing once more that heroes existed for the safety of civilians.
"There will be people here who've worked on dungeon teams before. But our purpose is fundamentally different from theirs. That's why this training is mandatory."
The training would be conducted by actually descending into a Rank 3 dungeon, lasting a total of four nights and five days. The D-class personnel were appropriately divided into Team 1 and Team 2 by position, with each team assigned one B-class team leader and two C-class assistants.
"All right, then. Dismiss to your assigned teams."
At the dismissal order, the heroes left the audiovisual room and split into the Team 1 and Team 2 meeting rooms. As Kang-jun entered the meeting room, he first checked the Team 2 leader sitting in the seat of honor, then scanned the team members. He took a seat in a reasonably empty spot.
The last person in slammed the door shut. A strange silence briefly filled the meeting room. There were familiar faces and unfamiliar ones. The genders were fairly evenly mixed, not skewed one way or the other.
The Team 2 leader was a fairly large, muscular man. He looked like he'd just entered his forties. His features were quite fierce, probably made more so by the scars dotted across his face. Kang-jun gave him a once-over and roughly figured the man was a Guard.
"For the next four nights and five days, like it or not, I'll be your team leader. Karl Weber. Position: Guard."
A half-hearted round of applause from the team members followed briefly. After that, the two C-class assistants introduced themselves as well.
A man with narrow eyes who looked sly as a rat spoke first, followed by a sexy-looking woman with a beauty mark dotted beside her lips.
"C-class, Yoshilo. Position: Healer."
"C-class, Laura. Position: Dealer."
The team leader told the blankly staring D-class personnel to take time introducing themselves and getting to know each other. Each was given an awkward self-introduction turn.
One by one, the seven D-class personnel introduced themselves. Three men, four women. Most were people he'd seen during the group training, but two faces were completely unfamiliar. Kang-jun quietly asked the colleague who'd been Number 5 during the previous group training, leaning toward his ear.
"Who are those two?"
"Heroes Challenge. The ones selected from there."
"...Ah."
Two from the winning team of that variety show dressed up as a documentary. The man introduced himself first.
"I'm Ken. Dealer position."
Number 5 said that guy had been the team leader of the winning team. Next to him, a woman smiling brightly like an idiot introduced herself next.
"I'm Lexy! Nice to meet you! Oh, and I'm a Dealer too!"
Her appearance and mannerisms seemed somehow closer to an idol than a hero.
Whether those two were physical types who beat enemies with force, or magic types who used magic or superpowers, still wasn't clear.
Anyway, once the rough introductions were done, the Team 2 leader told everyone to head outside the main building. Training Team 2 saw the luggage bags lined up across the cement floor. The team members took them in order and boarded the van. Kang-jun was fourth. Luckily, he got a window seat.
The C-class hero named Yoshilo plopped into the driver's seat. After confirming the team leader climbing into the passenger seat last, he revved the engine.
"We're heading out."
Team 1 and Team 2 had different destinations, so the moment they left the entrance they split in opposite directions. Team 1 left, Team 2 right.
Team 2's original plan had been the dungeon in Zone 48, but after the mana wave incident caused chaos, they'd hastily switched to the Zone 47 dungeon. This wasn't a dungeon under the Hero Association's management, but it was the only Rank 3 dungeon in the vicinity.
In fact, the Zone 47 dungeon had originally been Rank 2 before dropping to Rank 3. At first, the monsters within the seven-day line had averaged near level 180, but for the past few years that had dropped below 170. Having been demoted for barely failing to meet the criteria, it was on the difficult side for a Rank 3.
"As you all know, you can never guarantee what will happen in a dungeon. Especially this place—it used to be a Rank 2 dungeon. So you need to be far more careful. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Even during travel time, try to learn about the dungeon as much as possible. ...Everything requires effort. I don't particularly like guys who just coast on talent and act cocky."
Everyone seemed to think he was talking about them. Having heard "you're talented" drilled into their ears until they were sick of it, it was an understandable misunderstanding.
The branch and the dungeon weren't far, so they arrived near the entrance in almost thirty minutes. It was just short of 7:30 AM.
"Everyone check inside your bags. If anything's missing, speak up."
Kang-jun opened his bag as well. There was enough gear to last about a week if conserved carefully. So the bag was fairly heavy. But for people whose Strength and Stamina stats basically exceeded 20, it wasn't enough to be a real hindrance.
"Formation while moving is Guard, Dealer, Healer, Dealer, Guard. Line up properly."
The D-class personnel divided accordingly. The very front and very back were taken by Team 2 leader the Guard and Laura the Dealer. Then the D-class personnel were placed in the middle. Though a C-class hero, the vulnerable Healer Yoshilo went into the center.
They stood in two lines. Kang-jun's partner in the rear Dealer position was Dealer Lexy. She offered a pure, innocent smile and lightly shook his hand. Looking forward to working with you, Lee Kang-jun. It was like watching a dog wagging its tail because it liked people.
...But Kang-jun didn't overlook the sharp poison needle that might hide behind that innocent smile. This was a world where smiling people were more dangerous than those who didn't smile.
Training Team 2 slowly entered the dungeon. At the final waiting area inside the dungeon, the civilian teams watched them enter in formation with curious eyes. Seeing a hero team wasn't exactly a common occurrence.
Everyone had changed into their team uniforms, but the unique killing intent and cold of the dungeon pierced even the special fabric and licked sharply at their skin. The silver lining was that it was a muggy summer day outside, so it wasn't cold enough from the start to turn their lips blue.
As expected, even the killing intent is different. ...Is it because of the levels?
Though demoted to Rank 3, this place that had been Rank 2 until a few years ago was already different starting from the level of its killing intent. Of course Kang-jun could smile and make comparisons, but most of the D-class personnel already wore clearly tense expressions. With a B-class and C-classes standing firm, nothing major would happen—yet it seemed hard to erase the fear welling up from deep inside.
Lexy's earlier smile had vanished without a trace, her expression considerably stiffened. He'd heard the TV program had content about them entering dungeons and performing well, but sure enough it had all been a show. Or the dungeons they'd gone to had been pathetic.
The Team 2 leader didn't seem intent on working them hard from day one, giving quite a few rest breaks. The clear intention was to have them gradually adapt to the dungeon this way. Of course, even called rest, unless it was a major rest, it was just sitting on mats while maintaining formation and sipping energy bars or water.
As with nearly every dungeon, monsters weren't easy to spot within day-trip distance here either. Of course, since dungeon investigation teams focused on assessing the dungeon's internal condition, they didn't deliberately seek out monsters like civilian teams. If they could avoid them, they preferred to.
"You holding up okay?"
Lexy often struck up conversation with her partner Kang-jun. He answered when asked, but never initiated conversation himself.
"Well, so far."
"Is your weapon a sword? I've barely seen anyone who uses a sword. You handle it well?"
"Well enough to protect myself."
The short rest ended right there. They got up and started walking again. Still, Kang-jun was in the position of just following when the team leader gave orders, so he had nothing particular to think about and it was comfortable. He got a slight sense of the weight a team leader carried.
They went to Zone 4 and unloaded their gear for now. It was 1 PM. The Team 2 leader said they'd camp here for the night. Once the major rest ended, it seemed proper training time would begin in earnest.
Kang-jun finished a simple lunch and flopped down on his mat. A chilling cold rose from the floor and poked at his lower back. Still, lying down was more comfortable than sitting.
The D-classes gathered around Ken, the team leader of the Heroes Challenge winning team, forming a clique. He definitely had leadership, and his level was a bit higher than his peers. His looks were decent too, so he was popular with the women.
Lexy was particularly warm toward Kang-jun. To others it might look like she was just looking after her partner a bit more, but the person in question didn't feel that way. With countless experiences like this, Kang-jun quickly understood her true intentions. ...And since Kang-jun's motto was to use people as much as possible whenever he could, he began harboring ulterior motives from that point.
Just answering questions well and treating them kindly was usually enough for women to come over smiling on their own. He couldn't deny it was all thanks to his handsome face. And he knew well how to fully exploit his outstanding advantages.
Pointlessly insisting on fair competition through pure ability was something protagonists of shonen manga or overpowered novels did—it didn't apply to Kang-jun.
Anyway, once the plan to use Lexy took shape, Kang-jun's coupon-obsessed nature came bursting out. He immediately shouted into the chat window asking if any of the living-room hyungs had a mission.
In the 3rd playthrough he'd kept things somewhat restrained, but from the 4th playthrough he solicited completely blatantly. He just openly threw a fit demanding missions. ...That was how he earned the nickname Coupon Fiend.
Whoever's going to give will give anyway.
Still, through multiple playthroughs, Kang-jun had figured out these damn bastards to some degree. If he carefully made them restless, there were ones who couldn't hold back and would eventually cough up coupons.... Especially ones who went crazy for these bright, cheerful idiots. Gods who loved corruption.
In that regard, Lexy was a fairly excellent sacrifice. A hero with a decently pretty face... and especially stupid. Whether the stupidity was real or an act he couldn't yet be sure, but either way it didn't particularly matter. If the former, she was fun to play with; if the latter, there was the pleasure of smashing the mask. Either way, extracting coupons was possible.
"If you're done eating, everyone gather."
The Team 2 leader finished preparing for the lesson and called the D-class personnel together. They huddled together like chicks and looked up at Team Leader Karl.
Soon the boring training began. Kang-jun barely held back a huge yawn. The training ended around 3 PM.
After training ended, the Team 2 leader gave the D-class personnel time to build camaraderie. He emphasized that for investigation teams or extermination teams, while the mission was of course important, they needed to demonstrate teamwork with each other for that mission.
The seven sat in a wide circle with a single lamp in the middle. Conversation was led, as expected, by the popular guy Ken. Perhaps with a bit of competitive spirit, this son of a bitch made a slightly over-the-line comment questioning Kang-jun's skills.
"But if you're the top graduate, why do you use a sword? Magic and superpowers are stronger and more versatile."
In short, it was a kind of roundabout dig implying he didn't have much talent for combat. Judging by the vibe, it was probably because of Lexy, who seemed to have a slight interest in him. He was displeased that she was showing interest in Kang-jun.
Fuck, why is this story so cliché. The writer who wrote this worthless smut and the readers who read it seemed to be about the same level. Kang-jun let out a slight hollow laugh at this worn-out cliché. If he got a bit angry here, the guy would probably go, You think you're so good at fighting? Follow me outside, and throw a fit? ...King-level logical god-certainty.
"The sword just suited me better."
Instead of the cliché story, Kang-jun took a slight side path. Honestly, he just couldn't be bothered creating conflict elements. That was something you did as a newbie in the 1st or 2nd playthrough, getting angry and swinging swords—by the 4th playthrough it had changed to just please let me pass the dungeon smoothly. Stepping on these bastards a bit didn't change anything.
...Of course, yielding once was enough. If the guy climbed any higher, he had no intention of staying quiet either. A mere creation daring to challenge the great author?
Fortunately the guy had some sense and didn't provoke him further. However, the displeased look in his eyes still hadn't disappeared.
Half-assed bastards were the real problem with this kind of thing. Getting propped up with "you're great, you're great," then fretting because they couldn't tear down someone better than them when one appeared. If they were truly outstanding, they'd accurately gauge the opponent's level so that kind of thing rarely happened. It was because they were half-assed that they pulled this shit.
...Kang-jun had a premonition that he was going to end up in a somewhat uncomfortable relationship with this Ken guy.