Chapter 17
"Before you can enter a dungeon, you'll first have to undergo combat training. You never know what might happen in a dungeon... Also, for your practical training, a teacher has to accompany you the first time. Once you're approved, you'll be allowed to enter dungeons on your own or with a party."
The next day, now that I'd finally acquired a Job, I asked if I could head straight to a dungeon to level up. This was the answer I got.
By the way, the person I was asking was the female teacher who'd been in charge of my Job assessment yesterday.
Apparently, her name was Phyllis-sensei.
She was a beautiful teacher with a youthful air, though she was nearly a grown woman. She still looked a little like she was being swallowed up by her suit.
She was apparently the representative of the people who'd gone out of their way that morning to bring my things from the dorm to the Nobles' Residence, where I was staying.
I was impressed by how capable she seemed, despite looking only about twenty.
Since I had her there, I decided to ask about a few other things I'd been wondering about.
"But that's after classes officially start next month, right? Is there no way I can enter a dungeon right now?"
All the new students were supposed to acquire their Jobs first, then start classes together.
Honestly, I couldn't wait that long.
"You can, if you apply. Students who acquire the Jobs they're aiming for early would otherwise have to waste time, so whenever someone applies, an available teacher will supervise them."
That was great news.
I immediately asked Phyllis-sensei to arrange the application for me.
She said there was a teacher available that morning, so I was allowed to join their session.
Man, I was lucky things were going so smoothly.
At least, that's what I thought at the time.
Now I deeply regret it.
"All right, that's a million laps around the perimeter! You can raise your Level in no time with enough training! Just follow me!"
The one spouting this nonsense was Instructor Davidef, a major in the Kingdom's army.
In this world, it wasn't unusual for military personnel to be assigned to the academy as temporary instructors as part of their service. Instructor Davidef had apparently been assigned to the 〈Dungeon Strategy Major〉's 〈Combat Course〉 starting this year.
"No, no, no! That's impossible, both time-wise and physically!"
"Gahahaha! Nothing is impossible for a human being. Keep training and your Level will follow naturally! Now, let's run together!"
You may have noticed, but Instructor Davidef was a true-born 【Muscle Warrior】.
Dark skin, a glistening body, and bulging muscles ready to burst.
Now that's muscle.
Instructor Davidef had a muscle-bound physique, and he seemed to genuinely believe that muscle was the strongest thing in the world.
This was bad.
Seriously, this was bad.
He looked completely ready to drown me in muscle, too.
Should I run?
No, I couldn't. They'd gone to the trouble of making time for me, so I couldn't just back out now.
It looked like I'd have to go through with the training today.
Wait, you're kidding, right?
And so, my day of hellish training was set in stone.
...
....
.....
In the end, I gave up after ten laps.
No way. Just how big is this academy, anyway?
After spending the whole day training, I'd gained just one Level.
I can't put up with this kind of training!
I'm going to level up!
―――――――――――
Let's start with the obvious.
The reason I was doing this combat training (though we hadn't even gotten to the combat part) was to level up.
For example, in online games, you sometimes get experience points as a reward for completing quests. The combat training in 〈Dan-Katsu〉 worked in a similar way.
In 〈Dan-Katsu〉, you could gain a little experience and raise your Level by doing combat training if you had a combat Job, or by making things if you had a production Job—even without leveling up by defeating monsters in dungeons.
In 〈Dan-Katsu〉, once you acquired a Job, time advanced to May and your Level automatically rose to 5. From there, the story had you head to a tutorial dungeon, acquire Skills and allocate your stats before setting out to explore dungeons for real.
Then, after clearing the tutorial dungeon a few times, you'd reach Level 10.
The next dungeon, a lower-tier beginner dungeon, had an entry requirement of LV10, so that's how the story progressed.
So, I looked it up, and the tutorial dungeon's entry requirement was LV5 or higher.
I hadn't known because 〈Dan-Katsu〉 never went into that much detail. My Level had gone up automatically. If anything, the game started me at LV5.
In other words, that ridiculous combat training was meant to get me to Level 5. So if I'd already reached Level 5, there was no reason for me to undergo it. That's the conclusion I came to.
Damn it. I wanted to slap my past self for not realizing that sooner.
I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow...
Anyway, I'm going to level up!
I'll reach Level 5 without entering a dungeon or doing combat training.
Was there actually a way to do that? Of course there was, right nearby!
And so...
"So that's why you called me?"
"That's right. We're about to start the Slime Respawn Marathon. Help me out."
"Well, all right..."
I called Hannah over.
The purpose was obvious: to use 【Alchemy】 to endlessly respawn Slimes and level up.
I'd sold a lot of the Slime Jelly in a town we'd stopped at on the way to the academy, but I'd kept doing Slime Respawn in the carriage for the rest of the journey, so I had plenty left. I'd had all the time in the world.
Slimes were incredibly low-tier monsters and gave out only a tiny amount of experience, but I should still be able to reach Level 5.
In 〈Dan-Katsu〉, the greater the gap between your Level and a monster's, the less experience you gained for defeating it.
Slimes were Level 1, so once my Level reached 6 or higher, they wouldn't give me any experience. But if all I wanted was to reach Level 5, they'd be more than enough.
Hannah had seemed uncomfortable and bewildered when she was summoned to the Nobles' Residence, but she'd gotten hooked on the Slime Respawn Marathon and quickly perked up.
From Hannah's perspective, it was like magic that made money, so no wonder she was hooked.
We moved to get the other ingredient we needed: muddy water.