Chapter 16
The rumor that I’d acquired the 【Hero】 Job seemed to spread throughout the academy that very day.
“Hey, Hero-kun, why don’t you join our party?!”
“Wait! We were recruiting him first! Don’t cut in!”
“Now, now, calm down. We, the 〈Wolf’s Blade〉 Guild, will take him in—gah!”
“Could you shut up for a second?!”
“Hero-kun, Hero-kun, come join our 〈Hana no Senka〉. It’s a guild for girls only, so you can build a harem, you know?”
“You there! That’s unfair!”
“Wahahaha! Why not join my 〈Muscles Are the Strongest〉 Guild? I can teach you the wonders of muscle!”
“Ugh! It’s the leader of the Musclers! I can’t believe a high-ranking guild came to recruit him!”
Parties and guilds kept swarming over to recruit me, and the path was in utter chaos.
Fawned over, fawned over.
Cheers all around.
I didn’t even have time to turn them down.
But I am interested in that harem guild.
Man, being famous is tough.
Seeing everyone clamoring for me put me in a very good mood.
Actually, the girls are strong. All the guys are either getting turned away or can’t even get close.
I guess nobody can resist a bargain sale, no matter where you are.
The only one who managed to cut in was a huge man whose muscles looked ready to burst out of him.
Wait, did you just say your guild was called 〈Muscles Are the Strongest〉? Are you the one who tried to recruit Hannah into the world of muscle?!
Grr! I can’t move with all these girls surrounding me! Somebody take that guy down!
That recruitment battle—or rather, the fight over me—came to an end when the academy guards arrived.
Ah, the wonderful time I spent surrounded by girls is over.
I glared resentfully at the guards, but they quickly looked away.
Damn you.
However, the recruiting hadn’t actually stopped. They kept their distance from me, watching for an opening to approach, so a few guards ended up assigned to escort me for the day.
When they told me there was a chance I might get kidnapped, I had no choice but to accept.
Even though I’d become a 【Hero】, I was still Level 0, and my abilities hadn’t gone up at all.
If an upperclassman attacked me, it’d be difficult for me to fight back in my current state.
Looking around, all I saw were girls with gleaming eyes.
It’s a secret that I kind of wanted to get kidnapped.
They said the dorms weren’t safe, so I ended up staying in the Nobles’ Residence, which had excellent security.
Actually, the recruitment battle probably won’t end anytime soon, so I’ll likely be staying here for a while.
They said the academy would bring all my belongings over tomorrow. Well, the staff must be busy today, so I suppose it can’t be helped.
“I don’t plan on joining a party or guild, so I might be stuck like this until I start a guild of my own.”
I murmured as I sank into the plush bed for nobles in the dormitory.
Incidentally, a party means a group that explores dungeons together.
In 〈Dan-Katsu〉, the game is designed for parties of five to take on dungeons.
A guild is a little different. It’s more like a team with a lot of members.
A guild has a minimum of five members and a maximum of fifty, and guilds focus on dungeon exploration, too.
The world of this game, 〈Dungeon Job-Hunting Guide〉, is overflowing with dungeons.
Civilization is supported by dungeon resources, and the economy runs on them.
That’s why, when boys and girls turn sixteen and become old enough to acquire a Job, they first get one at the academy, then get involved with dungeons as they consider their futures.
There are nearly eighty dungeons at the academy. The academy manages them and uses them to help its students grow.
What’s more, this world is governed by levels.
The higher your level, the higher your basic abilities. That’s only natural, but in this world, it affects your everyday life.
Take job hunting, for example. A Level 2 person and a Level 10 person both apply for a job. Which one do you hire?
If you were asked that, of course you’d hire the Level 10 person.
Because they have better abilities.
Naturally, the higher your level, the easier it is to find a job, the higher your status and salary, and the more likely you are to enjoy a comfortable life.
A world where effort is rewarded—that sounds nice. But it’s also a world where, if you slack off, a life as a loser awaits you before long.
That’s why students are so eager to explore dungeons while they’re at the academy.
It’s all to improve themselves.
And if your party had a member with a Job like 【Hero】, your dungeon exploration would advance by leaps and bounds.
It’s obvious that you’d level up faster, too. That’s why so many people are trying to recruit me right now.
But I have no intention of joining them.
I want to start a guild of my own.
There are several reasons, but the biggest is that it’ll be more fun.
Joining a high-level guild, power-leveling with the other members, and jumping straight into high-rank dungeons wouldn’t be fun at all. There’d be no excitement.
〈Dan-Katsu〉 is a character-building game.
You raise your Job’s level and conquer dungeons. There are 1,021 different Jobs.
You can’t raise them all, so it’s fun to figure out which ones to choose and develop, then put your plans into practice.
Besides, gathering allies from Level 0 and exploring dungeons together feels exciting, like I’m really playing a game.
“There’s still a lot I need before I can form a guild. I should start working on that tomorrow. Oh, but in the game, after you chose your Job, it skipped ahead a month. Do I have to wait that long in real life?”
In the game, once you acquired a Job, time skipped ahead to the deadline for the new students to choose theirs. Then the tutorial started, unlocking guild formation, quest acceptance, dungeon exploration, member recruitment, and more.
It occurred to me that I might not be able to enter a dungeon for a whole month, and I frowned.
“I should ask about that tomorrow.”
As I picked out the important things I needed to know to plan what came next, the day drew to a close.