No. 471 Daeeung Escort Mission (1)
"Should I really keep going down the all-rounder path?"
"Career troubles, huh."
"Yeah."
"Whether to go all-rounder, or artillery-type?"
"Yeah......"
A worry about her future path. With each passing week of mentoring, Hong Yeon-hwa had begun to nurse a small doubt — somehow, she always seemed to shine brighter when she planted herself in place as artillery than when she fought on the move as an all-rounder.
In the defense raid, for one, she had chain-cast nothing but fire magic until the main gate was buried under flame. And in the Crystal PvP match against Bukgung Han-seol, once she'd taken her position she had hardly moved an inch.
So rather than spreading her investment across the all-rounder build, wouldn't it be better to pour everything into artillery-type skills and traits? Or even so, was it still worth pushing through as an all-rounder regardless? Such were the questions weighing on Hong Yeon-hwa.
"First, one thing I want to ask — why did you sign up for mentoring as an all-rounder? Weren't you always closer to artillery-type?"
Even back at the Placement Exam she hadn't moved once throughout the entire match, and in the two-on-two PvP she'd kept Baek Jun-seok out front while she set up as artillery. In the sweep raid she had engaged the twin trolls up close, true — but only because I'd ordered her to, and in the end she still finished things off with a Fire Pillar.
"Th-that's......"
At my question, Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes wandered off into empty air for a moment, as though she'd been handed something she'd rather not answer.
"Why I applied as an... all-rounder...... was because......?"
I didn't press. I simply waited in silence.
Before long, Hong Yeon-hwa turned her gaze aside and, fiddling with her coffee cup, answered in fits and starts.
"I'm... good at whatever I do, so? The all-rounder thing too? I figured I'd be... good at it......?"
And the more she spoke, the redder her face grew, until it nearly matched the color of her hair.
In a word: she'd signed up on nothing but baseless confidence.
Still, if I threw that out point-blank, her face looked likely to go from red to outright combusting. If I wanted to keep the conversation flowing, it would be wiser to breeze right past that part as though I hadn't heard it.
"So in other words, you didn't pick all-rounder for any particular reason."
"Yeah."
Hong Yeon-hwa gave a small nod, and I served up the textbook answer first.
"Nine times out of ten, you're better off building around your strengths. What are you most confident in?"
"......Casting speed?"
It was true enough — Hong Yeon-hwa's casting speed was absurd. Where an ordinary mage needed tens of seconds just to bring a Fire Pillar down, she managed it in ten at the outside. On top of that, having recently refined the spell into a downsized form, she could now lay down a new magic circle mere seconds apart.
I gave a slow nod.
"Then all that's left is to compare — is that casting speed put to better use as an all-rounder, or as artillery-type?"
"Yeah......"
Hong Yeon-hwa lowered her gaze and mulled it over for a spell, then ventured a question as carefully as she could.
"......What do you think?"
Artillery-type. It wasn't even a question.
There was already a precedent — the Master of the Ruby Magic Tower herself, raised along the artillery path all the way to S-Rank. And in Hong Yeon-hwa I could glimpse potential beyond even hers.
But our trust hadn't yet been built to the point of my saying as much, so I kept it to myself.
"Honestly, you'd be better off asking someone other than me."
There was her own sister, Hong Ye-hwa, for starters — not to mention the tower's other senior mages, or her mentor, Dang Gyu-young. Coming from seniors, it would carry far more weight than the opinion of a first-year like me.
But Hong Yeon-hwa, it seemed, saw things a little differently.
"Still...... I want to hear it......"
"Why? With all those seniors of yours around?"
"The feedback you gave me last time, too...... It helped a lot, so......"
Meaning my advice had been the biggest help to her so far, and she wanted to hear from me first this time around as well.
Well — if she was asking this earnestly, one more word couldn't hurt.
I picked my phrasing for a moment, then opened my mouth.
"Casting speed is a huge strength no matter which path you choose. That said, I'd say artillery-type is where it pays off most."
"Why's that......?"
"An all-rounder has a lot more to juggle than just casting."
All-rounders had to shuttle between close and mid range as the situation demanded, evade incoming attacks, hold their spacing, watch for openings. With attention inevitably split that many ways, no caster on earth could chain spells back-to-back without a breath — casting speed be damned.
An artillery-type mage, on the other hand—
"The rest of the party covers every other role for you."
With no need to spare a thought for anything else, all she had to do was set up safely in the back and pour on the firepower.
"......!"
Hong Yeon-hwa's expression turned to one of dawning realization. Her heart had probably tipped a fair way toward the artillery path by now — but at this point, I decided to tap the brakes once.
"That said, don't rush into anything."
Even if she did, in the end, walk the artillery mage's road, there was no need to hurry the decision along before its time. A newbie has a newbie's own pace, after all.
"You're only a first-year. You've got plenty of time. Try this and that, ask around, mull it over properly — then decide."
"......Okay. I will."
Hong Yeon-hwa looked considerably lighter around the eyes.
Wednesday.
The moment mentoring let out, Go Hyeon-woo, Shin Byung-cheol, and I gathered in front of the Dungeon Hall. Naturally, with the intent of descending into the underground floors.
The objective of the linked dungeon we were about to enter was an escort run — guarding cargo, in other words — and escort runs took far longer to clear than ordinary dungeons. That held true even allowing for the fact that time flowed differently inside a dungeon than out.
Which meant that one careless miscalculation, and—
We might end up missing class.
And that would hand the academy a most excellent pretext for digging into us. I could practically hear Lee Sudok's voice at my ear.
"Why were you absent from class?"
"What were you doing while you were gone?"
"And yet I hear there was one unauthorized raid during precisely those hours......"
To steer clear of a disaster like that, we absolutely could not miss a single class. Which was why we normally timed our runs for the dead of night, when the odds of running into another soul were practically nil — but today, we were knowingly gambling, gathering while it was still shy of evening.
Shin Byung-cheol handed out the supplies.
"Here you go, here you go — take this, and this as well."
Second-year tie pins, and Anonymous Badges. After much pleading and bartering with the Thief Club seniors, he'd managed to procure ones inscribed with a stronger recognition-obscuring spell.
There was a nervous edge to Shin Byung-cheol's voice as he spoke.
"Though this is our first time heading down while the sun's still up. You sure we won't get flagged?"
"Haha. We have only to place our faith in Brother Shin's skill, that is all."
"And if we do get caught?"
"What worse fate awaits us than a few extra penalty points?"
Go Hyeon-woo, positively radiant with optimism, as ever.
Shin Byung-cheol and Go Hyeon-woo both turned to look at me, and I gave a slight bob of the chin in agreement. Then I added one thing more.
"Guide us well, and who knows. I might just throw in a random box."
"......Just leave it all to me, honored customers."
And with that, Shin Byung-cheol struck out ahead at a springy, energetic pace.
The underground floors looked much the same as always. Afternoon or midnight on the surface, no sunlight ever made it down here regardless. The one truly glaring difference was the sheer number of students climbing up and down the spiral stairs. Like echoes rolling through a cavern, the low murmur of voices rippled up and down the shaft.
Seniors and juniors trading easy greetings—
"Hello, senior!"
"Mm. Where are you lot headed?"
"We're going to give a D-Rank a try today."
"Right. Good luck in there."
A second-year party looking in sorry shape, perhaps off a failed raid — and another party that flinched visibly at the sight of them.
"Hold on, didn't you guys go down just now? How are you back already?"
"Ugh. We botched it. Completely."
"No way — what happened?"
"Misread the boss pattern."
"Hey, since you botched it anyway, share the replay. We're headed there ourselves before long."
"Points first."
And a party strolling out fresh off a clear, cackling away in high spirits.
"Man, today was a jackpot."
"How did the rewards come out this good?"
"Tell me about it!"
For our part, we played second-year to the hilt, our conduct matched to the color of the tie pins we'd swapped in. When we happened to cross eyes with a group of third-years climbing up from the opposite direction, we dipped our heads in a bow.
"Good day, seniors."
"Oh. Yeah."
The third-years accepted the greeting out of reflex, registered that ours were faces they didn't know, and drifted on past without a second look. It was the second-year parties we kept running into mid-descent that posed the real danger. A few of them studied the three of our faces with openly suspicious eyes, as though racking their memories — Have there been guys like that in our year?
Every time it happened, we either blew past without so much as a glance, following Shin Byung-cheol's lead, or swerved course the instant we confirmed the oncoming party was second-year. None of them ever bothered chasing after us — whether that was down to the enhanced Anonymous Badges earning their keep, or simply because their noses weren't that long, we had no way of knowing.
[No. 471] [Daeeung Escort Mission]
At length we stood before the dungeon, and Shin Byung-cheol asked:
"So when do I come back, then?"
In a dungeon where a clear could swallow the better part of a day, ordering him to wait out front through the night would have been an unreasonable demand.
"We'll be done by morning. Come back then."
"Splendid. Till morning, then, gentlemen."
Leaving Shin Byung-cheol's send-off behind us, we stepped through the teleport portal.
My vision drowned in black, then slowly brightened. The sounds that had reached me only faintly at the rim of my hearing swelled, sharpening into clarity.
"...woo..."
"Kim..."
"Kim A-woo! Kim A-woo!"
Jwidori and Eoguri were right beside me, calling my name. I finished taking stock of the situation in an instant and replied.
"Yes, brothers."
"What are you standing there gawking for?"
"My mind wandered for a moment. My apologies, brothers."
"Tsk tsk. Get your head back on straight."
Scolding me though they were, the two ronin turned their gazes away carrying a faint air of relief — they had confirmed, at least, that my wits hadn't gone entirely to porridge.
These two included, nobody seemed to find it particularly strange that Kim Ho and Go Hyeon-woo had simply materialized among them.
Well, of course — we hadn't materialized.
A dungeon was nothing more than a puppet show repeating on an endless loop, and all we had done was replace a few of its puppets. And because this was a linked dungeon, which puppets we replaced had been decided according to our performance at the Daeeung Escort Bureau. By way of example: my entering this dungeon meant that a certain 'ronin escort B' had become a man who never existed.
Go Hyeon-woo, likewise aware that he had become 'Escort Captain Go,' was slowly taking in his surroundings. A touch of confusion showed on his face, but having been given a heads-up through the strategy guide in advance, he was settling in quickly.
To sum up the current situation: the caravan had long since set out and was making good time toward its destination. In scale it was modest — no more than a handful of carriages. The escort, on the other hand, was oversized to the point of excess: escort captains and guards hand-picked by the Daeeung Escort Bureau, and on top of them, temporary guards drawn from the ranks of the ronin.
Which could only mean one thing.
There was going to be an ambush. No two ways about it.
Unless they were ten chances in ten certain that a battle would break out, the Bureau would never have assembled the caravan in so inefficient a fashion. It was a truth plain to even the slowest mind, and so the atmosphere had hung heavy and grim from start to finish — which was exactly why, with me standing there woolgathering, Jwidori and Eoguri had seen fit to rap my knuckles.
I turned my gaze unhurriedly toward the front of the column.
There were three passes in total for the caravan to cross — and the one we were climbing now was the first.
Any moment now, then.
As if my thoughts had been overheard, there, dead ahead in the path the carriages were following, a single figure stood waiting for us. The escort captain who spotted him narrowed his eyes to a sliver.
"Halt!"
[152] The Support Ate It All