Week 8 Mentoring, Capture Battle (2)

The Dungeon Hall.

Dang Gyu-young lined up her four mentees in front of her and began the briefing.

"You've heard everything else already, so let's just cover the arbitrary rules and get started."

"First up, the [Melee Combat] rule. I'm not invoking it this time."

That rule had originally existed for one purpose: forcing aspiring all-rounder mages into close-quarters fighting. They were all mages, so ranged combat already came naturally — and if they kept clinging only to what was comfortable, their close-range skills would never grow.

But the opponent this time was an ogre. Rule or no rule, the battle was bound to revolve around melee anyway. With its overwhelming physical abilities, the thing would come charging in before anyone knew it, and the distance would close in a heartbeat. On top of that, the crystal had to be charged, so no one could stray too far beyond the sanctuary's radius either. In other words, the run was already plastered with constraints as it was.

"So for the arbitrary rule, I'll pick one that works in your favor for a change."

As expected, she hadn't unleashed the ogre at its base specs; through the [Enfeeblement] rule, she'd knocked its rank down a full step. Thanks to that, instead of a destiny of being pummeled breathless by the thing, the fight had become one where they could at least catch their stride.

"......!"

The first-year chicks gazed at Dang Gyu-young with newfound reverence. Judging from everything they'd been through, she was the raise-them-brutal type — the kind of mentor who drove her charges to the brink and made them adapt or break. They'd half expected her to send the ogre at them in full plate mail this time around too, and instead she'd cast [Enfeeblement] to make it weaker. To their eyes, she practically glowed like an angel.

'Kids, you're being played.'

Other mentors considered Enfeeblement the bare baseline and stacked two or three extra favorable rules on top of it — quicker crystal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠charging, say, or a wider sanctuary radius. Ours ended at one measly Enfeeblement and nothing more. But with no other mentors around to compare notes against, discovering that particular betrayal would have to wait for another day.

Dang Gyu-young carried on.

"We'll shake up the pairings, too. Kim Ho with Gwak Ji-cheol. Song Cheon-hye with Hong Yeon-hwa."

"......"

Uneasy glances flew back and forth across the group. Over the mentoring period, my relationship with Hong Yeon-hwa had improved — by a hair — but everything else stood more or less exactly where it had started. Song Cheon-hye and Hong Yeon-hwa were rivals at best, and Gwak Ji-cheol held the proud record ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of getting hammered into the dirt by me in a duel. However you sliced it, no pairing here was a happy one.

Setting the emotional baggage aside, something apparently still bothered her, because Song Cheon-hye raised a question.

"With pairings like these, doesn't the balance fall apart?"

"So what? It's not like you're competing against each other."

Dang Gyu-young couldn't have cared less. In fairness, she was simply following the manual — having mentees experience the practical evaluation across a variety of combinations was one of the Academy's own requirements.

Faced with a mentor's most invincible of arguments — 'because I feel like it' — Song Cheon-hye ran out of words.

"Then first up: Kim Ho, Gwak Ji-cheol, get in there."

Dang Gyu-young stepped through the teleport portal and vanished into the dungeon. Gwak Ji-cheol and I exchanged glances carrying roughly zero goodwill apiece. But bound as a pair, cooperation was the only option on the table.

I stepped up to the teleport portal first.

"Let's head in, us too."

"......Fine."

The next instant, we stood in the middle of a forest. And at the edge of our view, a massive cave waited with its maw stretched wide open. Right on cue, a band of goblins came shuffling out of it and spotted us.

"Kerruk?"

"Keruk!"

Startled, a few of them lunged straight at us while the rest turned to scurry back inside — and that we couldn't allow, because anything that made it in would raise the alarm that intruders had appeared. I cast Wind Force, and fwoooosh—

"Keugh."

A head-on gale laced with raw physical force sent the goblins tumbling across the ground like dead leaves, where the volley of earthen bullets raining down right behind them finished the job. In less time than it takes to swallow a mouthful of water, every last goblin was dealt with.

"......"

We stared at the cave in silence. There was no question we had to go in — goblins, the ogre, all of it would be waiting within. But the central rule of this capture battle was the crystal, which meant our first order of business was finding the crystals we needed to charge.

"Wouldn't they be outside?"

"Hmm. Fair point."

Gwak Ji-cheol dipped his head in a small nod. If our starting point was the forest rather than the cave's interior, the crystals-outside hypothesis gained a little more weight. And in reality, outside was exactly where they were. But sweeping a forest this size would eat up precious time, so I simply pointed to the spot where a crystal seemed most likely to sit. Hard-earned wisdom, distilled from a grizzled veteran's thousand runs.

"I'll take this way, so you go dig around over there."

"Understood."

Parting ways with Gwak Ji-cheol and striding along at a brisk clip, I found — exactly as expected — a makeshift altar standing not far off. An ambushing goblin popped out to greet me; I punted it lightly out of the way and retrieved the red crystal. Back at the starting point I waited a short while, and Gwak Ji-cheol soon returned from the direction I'd sent him — a blue crystal in one hand. I'd half worried that some reflexive contrariness would send him rummaging everywhere except where I'd pointed, but apparently he wasn't quite that difficult.

The values on the scoreboard tracked our two health bars and the crystals' charge levels. How much health we could conserve until both crystals reached full charge would be the grading standard. And though the sub-quest's maximum completion was never spelled out anywhere, I knew it to be an average between the two of us holding at ninety percent or better. Of course, with this being practice mode, that was a problem for later me.

"Then shall we head in?"

"Let's."

Gwak Ji-cheol and I started walking into the cave. Inside, the stalactites gave off a faint glow, so it wasn't especially dark. But clear visibility cut both ways.

"Kerruk."

"Kek! Kek!"

After all, the goblins could see us just as clearly. The things came boiling out in a wriggling tide to give us a warm welcome — the front rank charging in with short weapons like rusted daggers and chipped hand-axes, the rear rank hurling whatever their hands could grab. Sharpened wooden stakes, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stones, and all manner of projectiles came whistling our way. I slipped past them with little tilts of my body, but—

Thok.

One stone cracked off Gwak Ji-cheol's head and bounced away.

"You got hit by that?"

"......Shut it."

"Sounded pretty loud. Didn't hurt, though?"

"Something that size doesn't even itch."

But for all his bravado, Gwak Ji-cheol was visibly fuming. He thrust his staff forward, and the emerald set in it flared with a fierce green light.

Rrrrrrumble......

A heartbeat later the entire cave seemed to be shaking itself apart — and then the ceiling gave way, stalactites crashing down in a deadly rain. The majority of the swarming goblins vanished beneath the collapse.

"Did we need to dodge that too?"

"......Shut it."

Gwak Ji-cheol and I alike had to scramble a good distance back to escape the falling stone. He'd clearly loosed it in a fit of temper, and clearly couldn't control it once he had. By the time the trembling subsided, I offered him a word of advice.

"Let's file that one under 'never again.'"

"......Noted."

That said, he'd wiped out goblins by the heaping pile in a single stroke, so the road ahead was easier going. Survivors sprang at us from every corner,

"Keruk!"

"Kerruk."

Ratatatat!

Gwak Ji-cheol answered with earthen bullets while I flicked chunks of fallen stalactite around with Wind Force, batting the creatures clean out of the air. I clubbed down the goblins that slipped in close with Root, ran the stragglers through with the shamanic dagger at its tip, and kept pressing forward. And then—

Thud. Thud.

A colossal footfall rolled out from the deeper reaches of the cave. Gwak Ji-cheol and I traded a look.

"Sounds like it's coming to us, no?"

"It would seem so."

The owner of those footsteps needed no introduction: the ogre. It normally kept to the area around the sanctuary, but perhaps because Gwak Ji-cheol had shaken the whole cave with earth magic, the thing appeared to be coming to us personally. We fell into a hasty war council.

"Split in two and run for it?"

"And whoever pulls its aggro?"

"Runs their heart out, that's what. In exchange, the one it doesn't chase keeps the checks coming."

"Good. Let's do it."

Thud. Thud.

The footsteps kept closing in even as we talked, until at last the ogre revealed itself.

"Guoooooh......"

Its colossal frame nearly brushed the cave ceiling, and one hand gripped a club as thick as a human torso. We stole one last glance at each other — then split to either side and broke into a run.

"Guoo?"

The ogre's head swiveled left, then right, deliberating for a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brief moment before it wheeled around and came after me.

"Talk about bad luck."

That was supposed to be Gwak Ji-cheol's job. I sprinted hard, and the instant the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, I jumped sideways—

CRUNCH!

The club came down square on the path I'd been running a heartbeat before. The ogre wrenched it free at once and surged after me. True to a monster built entirely around physical ability, its acceleration was frightening; the gap between us shrank with every stride.

Grrrmmble—

A thick wall of packed earth suddenly erupted beside the ogre's legs. Gwak Ji-cheol's check. The thing smashed through the wall at full sprint with a resounding boom, but the impact cost it its balance — it staggered, and its speed dropped off a cliff.

"Beautiful check, by the way."

Trip a sprinting man's legs — outstanding judgment. When it came to checks, the dirtier the play, the higher the score. That was simply the rule of the game.

"Guoooo......!"

Apparently convinced that I was the one who'd raised the wall, the ogre worked itself into an even greater fury and kept up the chase. The thudding at my back gained on me at a terrifying pace, and just as the whump of the club cleaving the air rang out—

"A nice light hop, and—dodged."

I sprang clear, and the club swept past, scraping along the floor. I touched down soft as snowfall and kept running.

"Kerruk."

"Kekek!"

Goblins came popping out of every nook of the cave, daggers stabbing at my flanks. I slipped past them, snagged each one by whatever it was wearing, and hurled them wholesale at the ogre. Waving both hands as if brushing off a nuisance, the thing batted them away — straight into the ceiling and walls.

"Urk......"

Gwak Ji-cheol, meanwhile, looked to have his hands very full — matching pace on the run, checking the ogre, fending off the goblins springing out of the dark, all at once. Even so, he seemed determined to cover me, straining to aim spell after spell my way.

Grrrmmble......

Another earthen wall surged up beneath the ogre's feet. It kicked this one apart as well, but this time it seemed to keep its balance reasonably well — and its speed hardly suffered at all.

'Still, we're nearly there.'

The way the passage ahead grew brighter and brighter made it certain. I slipped past one more descending club and kept running, and at last the sanctuary came into view. The light pouring from a great stone pillar had turned the chamber bright as high noon.

And as I drew a little closer—

Weeeeng—

A column of light burst from the pillar and converged on me. Little by little, radiance began filling the red crystal.

"Guoooooh......"

The ogre burst out of the passage behind me. Catching sight of me bathed in the sanctuary's spotlight, it radiated pure, concentrated hostility. I stopped for a beat and met its glare head-on. The link to the sanctuary was live now — which meant, from here on out......

"Time to start running in earnest."

[141] The Support Ate It All