Chapter 19
The moment we passed through the dungeon gate, what appeared before us was a place that looked like a mixture of a dense forest and a jungle.
Since the original story also said they had been dropped somewhere resembling a forest, it seemed the exam location had not changed.
I felt slightly dizzy as soon as we passed through the gate, but that was probably a characteristic of transfer-type gates.
“Aah, ugh….”
“Are you okay, Cha Eun-joo?”
“U-uh, yeah…. I’m a little dizzy, but….”
She staggered slightly while clutching my hand tightly, then soon regained her senses and looked around.
She was visibly tense after realizing that she had been thrown into the middle of a forest without warning.
“I-it’s really inside a dungeon…. We really made it inside….”
“I’ll put a buff on you first. If a monster suddenly appears while we’re walking around, we might not have time to do it.”
“Ah, okay…!”
After giving Cha Eun-joo the ‘potion that grants courage,’ she reflexively leaned her head toward me, and I explored the forest for a while without any particular destination.
According to the original story, Kim Isabel probably wouldn’t pass through the gate until near the end, so I needed to check the surrounding terrain as much as possible before then.
-Rustle.
“……!”
“…….”
After we had been walking for a few minutes, we heard something rustling behind the trees, and two goblins, each holding a wooden club in one hand, soon jumped out right in front of Cha Eun-joo.
‘Kerrrk!’
‘Kehhek, kehehek!’
“A-r-real monster….”
“Don’t be nervous. Just do what you’ve been doing.”
“……Yeah.”
Although she was clearly frightened because these were real monsters rather than holograms, putting my hands on her shoulders seemed to calm her down somewhat.
Just as they were about to charge at us, the dark magic Cha Eun-joo had created flew toward the monsters.
“Sh-shadow Ball!”
-Thud, thud!
‘Kehhek….’
The pair of goblins collapsed after being struck in the face by Shadow Balls, letting out nothing more than faint death rattles.
Even though this was probably her first time facing real monsters, Cha Eun-joo had overcome her fear and successfully defeated them.
“Haa, haa, haa….”
“Good job, Eun-joo.”
“D-did I really kill them…? Real monsters…?”
“Yeah. You did well.”
“N-no…. It probably would have been difficult without the buff you gave me, Seonho….”
Of course, that was probably true. Even so, the fact that she could use magic this skillfully after receiving nothing more than ‘courage’ meant that Cha Eun-joo’s abilities were simply that good.
Mediocre extras would probably need several additional suggestions added to a ‘potion that grants courage’ just to pull their own weight.
“I feel reassured with you by my side, Eun-joo.”
“L-leave it to me! No matter what kind of monster appears, I’ll protect you, Seonho! W-whether it’s a goblin or an orc, or e-even a troll….”
She looked like someone who ought to be protected by someone else, yet here she was saying she would protect me.
Even so, her abilities were reliable, making her the ally I could depend on most at this point.
“Where should we go now…? The forest is dangerous because monsters can suddenly jump out at us, so shouldn’t we get out of the forest first…?”
“That’s true, but let’s deal with these first before we go.”
“…Huh?”
Leaving Cha Eun-joo to wonder about my approach to the fallen monsters for the moment, I took out the monster-materials pouches and the pocketknife for self-defense that we had received before entering the dungeon.
This practical exam was not judged solely on ‘defeating monsters.’
The criteria included hunting real monsters without being afraid of them and collecting the monsters’ most valuable parts to earn profits as a ‘professional hunter.’
The announcement did not explain things that clearly and merely said ‘defeating real monsters,’ but the moment they handed out pocketknives and monster-materials pouches, quick-witted students would already have figured out the evaluation criteria for this practical test.
“Judging by the fact that the academy even provided monster-materials pouches, it seems that collecting materials after defeating the monsters is part of the evaluation too.”
“Ah, I-I see…!”
“Give me your materials pouch too, Eun-joo. I’ll process the materials and put them inside.”
“Th-then I’ll do it myself….”
“Just give it to me. I can’t even kill monsters, so I should at least do this.”
“……”
She looked as though she wanted to object to my saying that I should at least do this, but since I was the one who had said it, she seemed reluctant to get angry like before.
I placed a ‘goblin heart’ into the materials pouch Cha Eun-joo handed me with a conflicted expression.
[1/10]
The number displayed on the outside of the pouch increased by one as soon as I put in a single material.
Not only did each individual’s contribution to hunting the monsters matter, but the total value of the materials collected after defeating monsters in this dungeon also had a major influence on the final ranking of the practical exam.
[1/10]
After storing a goblin heart in Cha Eun-joo’s pouch, I stored one in my own as well and stood up.
I did not bother collecting the remaining materials, such as ears, teeth, and hide.
“Let’s go now. We should look for other monsters too.”
“W-what about the ears…? I heard that goblin ears are proof of a kill, so you’re supposed to take them when defeating goblins….”
“The heart counts as proof of the kill. Besides, the materials pouch only has ten slots.”
“Mm……?”
“If we’re going to collect materials from the goblins we defeat anyway, I think we’ll get the highest score by collecting only hearts instead of various miscellaneous materials.”
“Th-that might be true….”
“Don’t think of it as having to fill all ten slots in the materials pouch somehow. Think of it as having only ten slots. You know that a goblin’s heart is the most valuable material you can obtain from its corpse, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I think my partner can easily kill around twenty goblins. Am I asking too much of you?”
“Ah, n-no! Of course I can do it! Yeah!”
“Right. I knew you’d say that, Eun-joo.”
She had already killed as many as thirty hologram monsters in a single day, so she probably wouldn’t collapse from exhaustion after killing only twenty.
As a result, though, I probably wouldn’t end up killing ‘only’ goblins.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“Why did you have to say something like that and make things awkward? Seo Woojin, you’re such an idiot!”
“…It’s not like I said anything wrong.”
“Who asked whether you said something wrong?! There are things you should and shouldn’t say to someone’s face.”
“……”
“We might keep seeing each other after enrolling in the academy. Did you really have to ruin the mood already? Huh?”
“…I don’t know. I didn’t even want to talk to her in the first place. She was the one who started talking to me.”
“Haa, seriously….”
Han Sora and Seo Woojin entered the dungeon not long after Lee Seonho and Cha Eun-joo passed through the gate.
Perhaps because of what had happened in the waiting room earlier, Han Sora was scolding Seo Woojin rather sharply.
“H-honestly, Sora, you’d find it frustrating too if you hung out with people from the Support Department. If you’re unnecessarily nice to them, they think they’re actually helpful and start acting cocky….”
“You haven’t even entered the academy yet. How would you know that?”
“B-because that’s what everyone says online. They say Support students act arrogant after becoming even a little friendly with someone because they think they can pull their own weight, so it’s best not to get close to them in the first place….”
“Haa, are you bringing up the internet again? Please come to your senses, Seo Woojin!”
“……”
“And what about you? Do you think you can even pull your own weight? Yesterday, you barely managed to kill five goblins in an hour at the training grounds. Are you really in any position to criticize anyone else?”
“W-what can I do? My ability hasn’t properly begun showing its effects yet…. And even so, it’s true that I fight better than Support students….”
“You always say your ability hasn’t properly taken effect yet and use that as an excuse. What exactly is your ability, anyway? Tell me so I can help you if I know what it is. Don’t keep your mouth shut and play dumb for years.”
“I-I can’t…. I can’t tell you….”
“…Haa, this is so frustrating.”
Why on earth was she childhood friends with someone like him?
Although he was lacking in ability, she had thought he was kind at heart. But after seeing him say something so strange even to someone he had met for the first time today, Han Sora was a little disappointed in Seo Woojin.
She could not understand either why he had never revealed his awakening ability, which seemed to be related to physical enhancement, or why he spoke so strangely about things he had read online as though he had experienced them himself.
“……”
…But she could not bring herself to cast him aside just like that, because of the bond they had built over the years.
Unable to do one thing or the other, she continued dragging the burdensome Seo Woojin along out of the bond they shared as childhood friends.
“Enough. Hurry up and come over. We need to figure out where we are first.”
“W-what if a monster comes out while we’re wandering around recklessly…?”
“Then we’ll kill it! That’s why we came in here! And how can you be slower than me when you’re the vanguard and I’m the rear guard?”
“Y-you’re stronger than me anyway, Sora….”
“You need to buy me time so I can shoot my bow! Now hurry up and come here, Seo Woojin!”
“…Fine. Stop yelling….”
The two of them had somehow entered the dungeon together, but they had already gotten off to a rocky start.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
The practical-exam waiting room gradually emptied as most of the applicants chose either to enter through the dungeon gate or to give up.
The last two female students remaining in the waiting room cautiously discussed whether they should enter in front of the dungeon gate.
“Will it be okay, Ye-won? They’re real monsters, no matter how you look at it….”
“We’re going in together anyway. With my spear and Isabel’s healing, any monster will go down in one hit.”
“What if we get separated inside the dungeon…?”
“Why would I let us get separated, Isabel? Honestly, you worry too much.”
“……”
Min Ye-won, a Spear and Support applicant, and Kim Isabel, a Healing and Support applicant.
This pair’s turn to enter had been delayed because they had been discussing whether or not to enter the dungeon gate.
As a Healing student, Kim Isabel had no way to protect herself if she became separated from Min Ye-won inside the dungeon.
It was true that her healing ability was superior to that of other students her age, but no matter how good it was, she could not defeat monsters with healing abilities alone.
However, her partner, Min Ye-won, kept urging her to enter together, so she eventually steeled herself and decided to go through the gate with her.
If she gave up the ‘first practical exam’ here, it would be no different from causing trouble for her partner, Min Ye-won.
They had only known each other for about three days, but that was no reason to burden Ye-won.
“All right, Ye-won. I’ll go in.”
“Good. You made the right choice.”
Some fear still remained, but with a combat-type companion beside her, she would probably manage somehow.
Even so, Kim Isabel entered the dungeon gate, still somewhat afraid.
-Tug.
‘……Huh?’
She was startled when Min Ye-won suddenly let go of her hand the moment she passed through the dungeon gate.
-Snap!
Just as she sensed something was wrong and tried to get back out, the dungeon gate swallowed Kim Isabel’s body whole.
“Eek, aaah! Isabel!”
“…Stay calm, applicant. If you enter the gate right now, you probably won’t be sent too far from her….”
“W-what should I do?! Isabel’s a Healing student, so she can’t do anything by herself against monsters! What should I do?!”
“It’s all right. The dungeon is managed by Cheonmu Hunter Academy… no, anyway, nothing will happen just because a Healing student is stranded alone.”
“W-what do I do…? Should I go in even now…? B-but I’m not confident enough to face monsters alone….”
“…Phew.”
Min Ye-won crouched down in front of the gate attendant, clutching her head and sighing as though troubled.
…Although she muttered to herself in apparent fluster, a faint, inexplicable smile curled at the corners of her lips.