Hell Mode: Volume 3, page 7
Battle with the Demon Lord Army did not rage twenty-four seven, and the fortresses were not besieged at every moment of every day. Recently, perhaps thanks to the Hero’s efforts, assaults on Alliance fortifications had gone down from two or three times a year to only one.
Really makes one wonder just how many monsters the Hero’s killed...
That Hero and the man said to be Ratash’s most powerful fighter were coming to the Academy. Thanks to the convenience of the magic ships, the Hero could now make the trip every year to give the first-year students direct instruction.
Who knows, maybe he’s just doing it to drum up a reputation as someone who cares about the students. In any case, good thing I get to drop by any afternoon class I want. I’ll try taking his.
As there were no classes specifically for Summoners, Allen was allowed to attend any of the practical classes. Just as he was happily mulling over the welcome news from Rifol, Carlova entered the classroom. Homeroom began as usual.
“I’ve got news, so listen up.” With the brusqueness of a gym teacher, Carlova went through several announcements. Then he asked, “So, it’s been a month since school started. Y’all gettin’ along well?”
The students exchanged glances, puzzled as to where he was going with the question.
“Some of you might already know this, but over summer break, you’re gonna hafta clear a dungeon.”
Wait, huh?
“Any dungeon will do,” Carlova continued, “but those who don’t will be expelled.”
One girl’s soft exclamation of “What?!” reverberated louder than expected within the stunned silence.
“Here are the conditions for the dungeon clearing. You hafta do it in groups of eight max. You can invite first-years from the other classes, but no one from the upper grades. And no hiring non-school personnel like adventurers. If you cheat, it’ll go on your adventurer record and you’ll be expelled.”
The room became abuzz with furious whispering. The calmer students had likely already heard this information ahead of time.
“Oh, and just saying, but last year about twenty students died in the dungeons for this assignment. Make sure to do your research before going.”
Cries of despair filled the classroom. Carlova did not give a single detail about how the dungeons worked or how dangerous they were. It was clear that he wanted the students to do all the work themselves, starting from forming their own parties.
I see, so that’s how it is. This is to help nobles find commoners who’d go along with them to the battlefield.
Allen had suspected this might have been the intention when he first heard Carlova forbidding the usage of titles among the students when the school year first began. After effectively getting rid of social class differences, the school was then forcing the students to cooperate on achieving a clear-cut yet challenging objective and hopefully form close bonds in the process.
Once they all learned about Demon Lord history next year, the commoners and serfs—who would not be obligated to fight against the Demon Lord Army—would find out that their comrades in arms were being sent to the battlefield where they had a high chance of dying. This was clearly the Alliance’s attempt to bolster the number of Talented individuals heading to the battlefield.
“HAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” a brawny male student shouted as he leaped to his feet, interrupting Allen’s thoughts. Everyone looked his way in surprise. “My name is Hector! I’m looking for friends to go dungeon delving with! Are there any Swordsmen, Spear Users, or Ax Users interested?! I’m only looking for seven more people!”
“Heck yeah, count me in!” one of their classmates replied.
Seeing that, another person stood up as well and began recruiting party members. Carlova watched all this with his arms crossed, showing no intention of stepping in.
They’re recruiting for pickup groups. That’s literally what this is.
The sight of some people shouting for party members and others looking to join those parties invoked a strong sense of déjà vu in Allen. He had seen this happen more times than he could count in his previous life.
Most of the games that he had played had a friends list feature, and most players often partied with those friends. Sometimes, however, a much larger group of players was needed, such as for taking on large-scale dungeons or repeatedly killing bosses for specific items. Those times called for so-called “pickup groups”—PUGs for short—which referred to groups of players teaming up for a short period of time. Allen had no shortage of memories tirelessly typing “LFP” and “LFM”—“looking for party” and “looking for member,” respectively—in the in-game chat. And this was exactly what was taking place before him now.
Hah, what noobs! I’ll show you how a pro who’s spent two hours shouting for PUGs every day does it. Feast your eyes on this!
Allen stood up. Krena and Dogora looked his way, wondering what he was planning.
“Are you going to gather party members?” Cecil asked from her seat behind Allen’s.
“Mm-hm,” Allen nodded. “I’m gonna use this opportunity to find us a Cleric.”
If I were to do this in game chat, it’d probably be something like, “Demon Lord raid PT LF Cleric. Have Summoner, Sword Lord, Wizardess, Ax User. First-timers OK.” Though I guess that’s for the future. We’re only recruiting for a dungeon party right now.
Allen inhaled deeply, then shouted at the top of his lungs, “EVERYONE, PLEASE LISTEN UP! I’M RECRUITING MEMBERS FOR DUNGEON DELVING!” Once he saw that he had the room’s attention, he continued. “Take a look at this! This is a Rank D adventurer card. My party only has four people, but we’ve already cleared one Rank C dungeon. This here is proof!”
He took out his adventurer card from Storage and held it up. Then he passed it to a nearby student, who examined it and confirmed, “I-It’s true. It really is a Rank D adventurer card.”
Now everyone in the class was totally focused on Allen, including Carlova, who still had his arms crossed.
“My party has been going to dungeons twice a week since the start of the school year! Within the past month, we’ve finished clearing two Rank C dungeons!”
The class buzzed once more with surprise at Allen’s revelation.
“We are currently looking for a Cleric or someone with a healing Talent! The requirement is the ability to dedicate at least one day each week to going dungeon delving with us!”
Someone mumbled, “Are you serious? That’s once every single week, then.”
Allen honestly wanted someone who could go both days, but he was willing to let one day be the minimum. It was basic courtesy to be up-front about hard requirements.
“Although the dungeon is indeed dangerous, you can rest easy. We have a Sword Lord and a Wizardess in our party. I can’t completely guarantee your safety, but you can rest assured that you’ll be joining a really stacked party of Talents.”
Including information that would alleviate any worries of danger was also an important aspect of recruiting.
“All items and boss rewards we pick up in the dungeons will be split evenly! With only five people in the party, you’d get quite a significant share!”
Naturally, Allen also made sure to mention the benefits. No one would join a party where they stood to gain nothing. Having said his piece, Allen sat down and looked around to study his classmates’ reactions. Although everyone still had their attention on him, no one raised their hand.
Well, I guess it isn’t gonna be that easy.
Most children Appraised with a healing Talent were taken in by the Church. Allen remembered this happening to one serf child on the day of his own Ceremony. Given this, he had suspected that it would be difficult to find someone who fit the bill here in the Academy.
Clerics were never in want of work postgraduation; there was no end of nobles who would want to hire them. Even if one did join Allen’s party now, the chances of that person being willing to stick with them to fight the Demon Lord Army were even slimmer.
Of course, Allen had a backup plan in case he could not find a healer within the student body: hiring an adventurer. If the No-life Gamers earned enough from the dungeons, they could afford to have a capable one on retainer. However, such a person would be coming from a different place than the rest of the party. Since the group was looking for someone to become an ally they could entrust their backs to, even in the face of the Demon Lord Army, another student attending the same school and sharing the same experiences as them would be much more preferable.
“That was impressive,” Rifol commented from his seat in front of Allen’s. He sounded surprised.
“Thank you,” Allen replied. “Although we’re not recruiting a Swordsman at the moment, if you ever need help with the dungeons, feel free to ask me. I’ll see what I can do.”
We can dispatch our Sword Lord. Our Ax User would even come along as a set.
Rifol’s eyes lit up with delight. “Really? I just might take you up on your offer!” He probably had yet to figure out how he would go about clearing this assignment. Coming from a noble family, he absolutely had to graduate. He was surely feeling the pressure of living up to being the son of a general.
That afternoon, just as Allen’s group was about to head to the cafeteria, they were approached by a slender student slightly taller than Allen. He had spiky blond hair that, paired with his menacing eyes, gave him the impression of a delinquent.
“Are you Allen?”
“Yes, that’s me. Were you looking to join our party?”
“My name’s Keel. You still looking for a healer?”
Ohhhhh! A healer’s come!
“Yes, we are. No one else has approached us yet, so the spot’s still free. Are you a healer?”
“I am. Can I hear more about your offer?”
“Of course. Come join us for lunch.”
The cafeteria at the Academy was buffet-style, with admission price being a steal at two coppers. It was now customary for Krena and Dogora to eat a mountain of food every day. This day, too, Krena grabbed a plate and immediately headed toward the food without sparing a single glance for anything else. Allen followed suit before eventually coming back to their table, his own plate of food in hand. There, he found Keel waiting for them, nursing a single cup of water. A short while later, Krena and Dogora showed up with their loaded plates.
Seeing how Keel was staring at all their food, Allen said, “Sorry for making you wait. Feel free to go get your own lunch now. We’ll keep your seat.”
Keel started. “Huh? Oh, uh, I’m good, thanks. I don’t eat lunch.”
Does he have a small appetite? He looks hungry, though, Allen thought before insisting, “With this being our first meeting and all, please, let me treat you.”
“Huh? Nah, I can’t—”
“There’s no need to be reserved. I said we’ll talk over lunch, right?”
When Allen pressed two coppers into Keel’s hand, the other boy mumbled, “Sorry. And thanks,” before heading to the buffet.
Although he seemed somewhat hesitant about eating on the coin of someone he’d just met, when he got back, his hands held plates loaded with just as much food as Krena’s and Dogora’s, indicating that he must have been ravenous.
Allen nodded with satisfaction before starting off the talk. “Once again, I’m Allen. These are my friends: Cecil, Krena, and Dogora.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Cecil said courteously, while Krena cheerfully went, “Hi!” and Dogora nodded with a “How you doing?”
Keel lowered his head and said to the group, “Thanks for sparing your time. I’m Keel.”
“So,” Allen said, “you’re interested in joining our party?”
“Yep. My Talent’s Cleric. Can you tell me more specifically what this party is doing?”
Heck, yeah! A Cleric! Though he doesn’t look like one at all.
After the tongue-in-cheek mental comment, Allen proceeded to explain how the No-life Gamers were a party of four who had come from the same fiefdom and were focusing on clearing dungeons together. He once again went over how they had been heading to the dungeons twice a week and that he expected the new member to also accompany them on at least one of those days. Trying to not scare Keel away, he refrained from mentioning living together in the house or the daily dungeon boss fights.
“I see.” Keel nodded thoughtfully. “How about the money? Do you earn a lot?”
Oh? Is it the money that he cares about?
Allen changed the topic to accommodate Keel’s question. “We earn a reasonable amount. When you kill monsters, they drop magic stones. And when you kill the boss at the lowest level of a dungeon, it is guaranteed to drop a treasure chest. The items from a Rank C dungeon boss’s chest usually go for one or two gold.”
“W-Wow, that’s twenty to forty silver each among five people. Can I join you guys once as a trial?”
“Of course! We’d be glad to have you.”
In this way, Keel, the boy with the Cleric Talent, decided to join Allen’s group for dungeon delving.
＊ ＊ ＊
Although it was as yet a trial period, the healer that Allen had been awaiting all this time had finally joined his group. As it turned out, not only did Keel have no experience entering a dungeon, he had never even fought a monster before. The reason he had approached Allen was, in all likelihood, money.
Unfortunately, one could not teleport to a floor they had not visited before. Unlike the No-life Gamers, Keel would have to start from the very first floor. The three Rank C dungeons closest to the base had four, five, and six floors. The third one that Allen’s group was just about to begin challenging was the one with four floors, so they expected to finish it within the next two weeks.
Allen told Keel that they would not be able to get much of an income until they cleared the dungeon and asked him if that was all right with him; the boy confirmed it was fine if it was only for two weeks. Furthermore, he said that he wished to accompany the party when they visited the dungeons each week on both days.
With the discussion finalized, the weekend soon rolled around. Allen led his group—now a total of five—to the building housing a dungeon entrance. He made sure to double- and triple-check that Keel, despite not being officially part of the No-life Gamers, could still enter the same dungeon instance as them. The General Dungeon Operating System confirmed that those entering the dungeon at the same time from the same room would end up in the same instance even if they were not partied together.
“And there you have it, Keel,” Allen said. “It looks like you will be able to join us just fine.”
“Do we enter from here?” Keel asked, somewhat bewildered.
Allen nodded. “We do.” At the moment, Allen was still speaking courteously and formally with Keel. He believed that it was only common courtesy to treat pickup party members with respect, so he was prioritizing his own values over the school rules.
The five of them then teleported into the dungeon. After a whole month of dungeon delving, everyone in the No-life Gamers had leveled up quite significantly. The Rank E monsters that appeared in their way no longer posed a threat. In order to protect Keel, Krena and Dogora stood in front, Cecil stood beside him in the middle, and Allen brought up the rear.
“Keel, I’m now going to bring out the ‘large allies’ that I told you about before,” Allen warned.
“Large al— WHAT THE?!”
Even though he had been briefed beforehand, Keel inadvertently yelped in surprise. Allen had Summoned two Brons and made them walk on either side of Cecil and Keel for protection’s sake. What surprised Keel the most, though, was how no one else seemed shocked.
“This is my Talent,” Allen said.
“I...I see. This...really is incredible.”
Although Allen had no intention of showing Keel the full extent of his powers just yet, he could not have the boy believe him a powerless member only there to boss everyone around. Furthermore, he had hoped that this display of power would reassure Keel and convince him to join the No-life Gamers.
“Speaking of powers, do you already know how to use yours, Keel?” Allen took the opportunity to inquire about Keel’s abilities after having revealed his own. Since enrolling in the Academy, Allen had learned that just because someone possessed a Talent, it did not necessarily mean they knew how to use their skills.
“Huh? Oh, yes, I do.”
So he can. I was willing to accept him even if he couldn’t, so this is a nice surprise.
Both Krena and Dogora were still unable to use their skills. The most important thing in using skills was creating the mental image; not being able to visualize the skill meant not being able to use it.
In this regard, Cecil had taken lessons from a tutor at the Granvelle mansion who had also shown her how he cast magic. There could not have been a better environment to learn how to use magic skills.
Meanwhile, Allen had been able to use Summoning ever since he turned one year old. In all likelihood, the deities had probably drawn the images of mice, bears, and birds from his own memory to make it easier for him to conjure them up in his mind. Cards floating in midair were also a common motif in games he had played before.
“Where did you learn how to use your magic?” Allen asked, continuing the conversation.
“From the Church. They said they’d pay me if I learned it.”
Keel went on to explain that he was told he would be given a daily stipend of ten silver if he would expend all his MP each day healing patients. He would also be fed during the learning period. He signed up and spent two months mastering the ability.
Two months is pretty fast. Maybe seeing other clergy using the skill in person made it easier for him to grasp how to do it.
If Keel could earn ten silver on each of the two days he had off every week, over five weeks that came to a monthly salary of one gold. Someone who could earn twelve gold a year was generally considered well-off.
During his four years as a manservant, Allen had learned that jobs paying a monthly salary of one gold or higher were actually hard to come by. The average apprentice at a merchant’s store only earned around half that amount.
Really makes one wonder just how many monsters the Hero’s killed...
That Hero and the man said to be Ratash’s most powerful fighter were coming to the Academy. Thanks to the convenience of the magic ships, the Hero could now make the trip every year to give the first-year students direct instruction.
Who knows, maybe he’s just doing it to drum up a reputation as someone who cares about the students. In any case, good thing I get to drop by any afternoon class I want. I’ll try taking his.
As there were no classes specifically for Summoners, Allen was allowed to attend any of the practical classes. Just as he was happily mulling over the welcome news from Rifol, Carlova entered the classroom. Homeroom began as usual.
“I’ve got news, so listen up.” With the brusqueness of a gym teacher, Carlova went through several announcements. Then he asked, “So, it’s been a month since school started. Y’all gettin’ along well?”
The students exchanged glances, puzzled as to where he was going with the question.
“Some of you might already know this, but over summer break, you’re gonna hafta clear a dungeon.”
Wait, huh?
“Any dungeon will do,” Carlova continued, “but those who don’t will be expelled.”
One girl’s soft exclamation of “What?!” reverberated louder than expected within the stunned silence.
“Here are the conditions for the dungeon clearing. You hafta do it in groups of eight max. You can invite first-years from the other classes, but no one from the upper grades. And no hiring non-school personnel like adventurers. If you cheat, it’ll go on your adventurer record and you’ll be expelled.”
The room became abuzz with furious whispering. The calmer students had likely already heard this information ahead of time.
“Oh, and just saying, but last year about twenty students died in the dungeons for this assignment. Make sure to do your research before going.”
Cries of despair filled the classroom. Carlova did not give a single detail about how the dungeons worked or how dangerous they were. It was clear that he wanted the students to do all the work themselves, starting from forming their own parties.
I see, so that’s how it is. This is to help nobles find commoners who’d go along with them to the battlefield.
Allen had suspected this might have been the intention when he first heard Carlova forbidding the usage of titles among the students when the school year first began. After effectively getting rid of social class differences, the school was then forcing the students to cooperate on achieving a clear-cut yet challenging objective and hopefully form close bonds in the process.
Once they all learned about Demon Lord history next year, the commoners and serfs—who would not be obligated to fight against the Demon Lord Army—would find out that their comrades in arms were being sent to the battlefield where they had a high chance of dying. This was clearly the Alliance’s attempt to bolster the number of Talented individuals heading to the battlefield.
“HAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” a brawny male student shouted as he leaped to his feet, interrupting Allen’s thoughts. Everyone looked his way in surprise. “My name is Hector! I’m looking for friends to go dungeon delving with! Are there any Swordsmen, Spear Users, or Ax Users interested?! I’m only looking for seven more people!”
“Heck yeah, count me in!” one of their classmates replied.
Seeing that, another person stood up as well and began recruiting party members. Carlova watched all this with his arms crossed, showing no intention of stepping in.
They’re recruiting for pickup groups. That’s literally what this is.
The sight of some people shouting for party members and others looking to join those parties invoked a strong sense of déjà vu in Allen. He had seen this happen more times than he could count in his previous life.
Most of the games that he had played had a friends list feature, and most players often partied with those friends. Sometimes, however, a much larger group of players was needed, such as for taking on large-scale dungeons or repeatedly killing bosses for specific items. Those times called for so-called “pickup groups”—PUGs for short—which referred to groups of players teaming up for a short period of time. Allen had no shortage of memories tirelessly typing “LFP” and “LFM”—“looking for party” and “looking for member,” respectively—in the in-game chat. And this was exactly what was taking place before him now.
Hah, what noobs! I’ll show you how a pro who’s spent two hours shouting for PUGs every day does it. Feast your eyes on this!
Allen stood up. Krena and Dogora looked his way, wondering what he was planning.
“Are you going to gather party members?” Cecil asked from her seat behind Allen’s.
“Mm-hm,” Allen nodded. “I’m gonna use this opportunity to find us a Cleric.”
If I were to do this in game chat, it’d probably be something like, “Demon Lord raid PT LF Cleric. Have Summoner, Sword Lord, Wizardess, Ax User. First-timers OK.” Though I guess that’s for the future. We’re only recruiting for a dungeon party right now.
Allen inhaled deeply, then shouted at the top of his lungs, “EVERYONE, PLEASE LISTEN UP! I’M RECRUITING MEMBERS FOR DUNGEON DELVING!” Once he saw that he had the room’s attention, he continued. “Take a look at this! This is a Rank D adventurer card. My party only has four people, but we’ve already cleared one Rank C dungeon. This here is proof!”
He took out his adventurer card from Storage and held it up. Then he passed it to a nearby student, who examined it and confirmed, “I-It’s true. It really is a Rank D adventurer card.”
Now everyone in the class was totally focused on Allen, including Carlova, who still had his arms crossed.
“My party has been going to dungeons twice a week since the start of the school year! Within the past month, we’ve finished clearing two Rank C dungeons!”
The class buzzed once more with surprise at Allen’s revelation.
“We are currently looking for a Cleric or someone with a healing Talent! The requirement is the ability to dedicate at least one day each week to going dungeon delving with us!”
Someone mumbled, “Are you serious? That’s once every single week, then.”
Allen honestly wanted someone who could go both days, but he was willing to let one day be the minimum. It was basic courtesy to be up-front about hard requirements.
“Although the dungeon is indeed dangerous, you can rest easy. We have a Sword Lord and a Wizardess in our party. I can’t completely guarantee your safety, but you can rest assured that you’ll be joining a really stacked party of Talents.”
Including information that would alleviate any worries of danger was also an important aspect of recruiting.
“All items and boss rewards we pick up in the dungeons will be split evenly! With only five people in the party, you’d get quite a significant share!”
Naturally, Allen also made sure to mention the benefits. No one would join a party where they stood to gain nothing. Having said his piece, Allen sat down and looked around to study his classmates’ reactions. Although everyone still had their attention on him, no one raised their hand.
Well, I guess it isn’t gonna be that easy.
Most children Appraised with a healing Talent were taken in by the Church. Allen remembered this happening to one serf child on the day of his own Ceremony. Given this, he had suspected that it would be difficult to find someone who fit the bill here in the Academy.
Clerics were never in want of work postgraduation; there was no end of nobles who would want to hire them. Even if one did join Allen’s party now, the chances of that person being willing to stick with them to fight the Demon Lord Army were even slimmer.
Of course, Allen had a backup plan in case he could not find a healer within the student body: hiring an adventurer. If the No-life Gamers earned enough from the dungeons, they could afford to have a capable one on retainer. However, such a person would be coming from a different place than the rest of the party. Since the group was looking for someone to become an ally they could entrust their backs to, even in the face of the Demon Lord Army, another student attending the same school and sharing the same experiences as them would be much more preferable.
“That was impressive,” Rifol commented from his seat in front of Allen’s. He sounded surprised.
“Thank you,” Allen replied. “Although we’re not recruiting a Swordsman at the moment, if you ever need help with the dungeons, feel free to ask me. I’ll see what I can do.”
We can dispatch our Sword Lord. Our Ax User would even come along as a set.
Rifol’s eyes lit up with delight. “Really? I just might take you up on your offer!” He probably had yet to figure out how he would go about clearing this assignment. Coming from a noble family, he absolutely had to graduate. He was surely feeling the pressure of living up to being the son of a general.
That afternoon, just as Allen’s group was about to head to the cafeteria, they were approached by a slender student slightly taller than Allen. He had spiky blond hair that, paired with his menacing eyes, gave him the impression of a delinquent.
“Are you Allen?”
“Yes, that’s me. Were you looking to join our party?”
“My name’s Keel. You still looking for a healer?”
Ohhhhh! A healer’s come!
“Yes, we are. No one else has approached us yet, so the spot’s still free. Are you a healer?”
“I am. Can I hear more about your offer?”
“Of course. Come join us for lunch.”
The cafeteria at the Academy was buffet-style, with admission price being a steal at two coppers. It was now customary for Krena and Dogora to eat a mountain of food every day. This day, too, Krena grabbed a plate and immediately headed toward the food without sparing a single glance for anything else. Allen followed suit before eventually coming back to their table, his own plate of food in hand. There, he found Keel waiting for them, nursing a single cup of water. A short while later, Krena and Dogora showed up with their loaded plates.
Seeing how Keel was staring at all their food, Allen said, “Sorry for making you wait. Feel free to go get your own lunch now. We’ll keep your seat.”
Keel started. “Huh? Oh, uh, I’m good, thanks. I don’t eat lunch.”
Does he have a small appetite? He looks hungry, though, Allen thought before insisting, “With this being our first meeting and all, please, let me treat you.”
“Huh? Nah, I can’t—”
“There’s no need to be reserved. I said we’ll talk over lunch, right?”
When Allen pressed two coppers into Keel’s hand, the other boy mumbled, “Sorry. And thanks,” before heading to the buffet.
Although he seemed somewhat hesitant about eating on the coin of someone he’d just met, when he got back, his hands held plates loaded with just as much food as Krena’s and Dogora’s, indicating that he must have been ravenous.
Allen nodded with satisfaction before starting off the talk. “Once again, I’m Allen. These are my friends: Cecil, Krena, and Dogora.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Cecil said courteously, while Krena cheerfully went, “Hi!” and Dogora nodded with a “How you doing?”
Keel lowered his head and said to the group, “Thanks for sparing your time. I’m Keel.”
“So,” Allen said, “you’re interested in joining our party?”
“Yep. My Talent’s Cleric. Can you tell me more specifically what this party is doing?”
Heck, yeah! A Cleric! Though he doesn’t look like one at all.
After the tongue-in-cheek mental comment, Allen proceeded to explain how the No-life Gamers were a party of four who had come from the same fiefdom and were focusing on clearing dungeons together. He once again went over how they had been heading to the dungeons twice a week and that he expected the new member to also accompany them on at least one of those days. Trying to not scare Keel away, he refrained from mentioning living together in the house or the daily dungeon boss fights.
“I see.” Keel nodded thoughtfully. “How about the money? Do you earn a lot?”
Oh? Is it the money that he cares about?
Allen changed the topic to accommodate Keel’s question. “We earn a reasonable amount. When you kill monsters, they drop magic stones. And when you kill the boss at the lowest level of a dungeon, it is guaranteed to drop a treasure chest. The items from a Rank C dungeon boss’s chest usually go for one or two gold.”
“W-Wow, that’s twenty to forty silver each among five people. Can I join you guys once as a trial?”
“Of course! We’d be glad to have you.”
In this way, Keel, the boy with the Cleric Talent, decided to join Allen’s group for dungeon delving.
＊ ＊ ＊
Although it was as yet a trial period, the healer that Allen had been awaiting all this time had finally joined his group. As it turned out, not only did Keel have no experience entering a dungeon, he had never even fought a monster before. The reason he had approached Allen was, in all likelihood, money.
Unfortunately, one could not teleport to a floor they had not visited before. Unlike the No-life Gamers, Keel would have to start from the very first floor. The three Rank C dungeons closest to the base had four, five, and six floors. The third one that Allen’s group was just about to begin challenging was the one with four floors, so they expected to finish it within the next two weeks.
Allen told Keel that they would not be able to get much of an income until they cleared the dungeon and asked him if that was all right with him; the boy confirmed it was fine if it was only for two weeks. Furthermore, he said that he wished to accompany the party when they visited the dungeons each week on both days.
With the discussion finalized, the weekend soon rolled around. Allen led his group—now a total of five—to the building housing a dungeon entrance. He made sure to double- and triple-check that Keel, despite not being officially part of the No-life Gamers, could still enter the same dungeon instance as them. The General Dungeon Operating System confirmed that those entering the dungeon at the same time from the same room would end up in the same instance even if they were not partied together.
“And there you have it, Keel,” Allen said. “It looks like you will be able to join us just fine.”
“Do we enter from here?” Keel asked, somewhat bewildered.
Allen nodded. “We do.” At the moment, Allen was still speaking courteously and formally with Keel. He believed that it was only common courtesy to treat pickup party members with respect, so he was prioritizing his own values over the school rules.
The five of them then teleported into the dungeon. After a whole month of dungeon delving, everyone in the No-life Gamers had leveled up quite significantly. The Rank E monsters that appeared in their way no longer posed a threat. In order to protect Keel, Krena and Dogora stood in front, Cecil stood beside him in the middle, and Allen brought up the rear.
“Keel, I’m now going to bring out the ‘large allies’ that I told you about before,” Allen warned.
“Large al— WHAT THE?!”
Even though he had been briefed beforehand, Keel inadvertently yelped in surprise. Allen had Summoned two Brons and made them walk on either side of Cecil and Keel for protection’s sake. What surprised Keel the most, though, was how no one else seemed shocked.
“This is my Talent,” Allen said.
“I...I see. This...really is incredible.”
Although Allen had no intention of showing Keel the full extent of his powers just yet, he could not have the boy believe him a powerless member only there to boss everyone around. Furthermore, he had hoped that this display of power would reassure Keel and convince him to join the No-life Gamers.
“Speaking of powers, do you already know how to use yours, Keel?” Allen took the opportunity to inquire about Keel’s abilities after having revealed his own. Since enrolling in the Academy, Allen had learned that just because someone possessed a Talent, it did not necessarily mean they knew how to use their skills.
“Huh? Oh, yes, I do.”
So he can. I was willing to accept him even if he couldn’t, so this is a nice surprise.
Both Krena and Dogora were still unable to use their skills. The most important thing in using skills was creating the mental image; not being able to visualize the skill meant not being able to use it.
In this regard, Cecil had taken lessons from a tutor at the Granvelle mansion who had also shown her how he cast magic. There could not have been a better environment to learn how to use magic skills.
Meanwhile, Allen had been able to use Summoning ever since he turned one year old. In all likelihood, the deities had probably drawn the images of mice, bears, and birds from his own memory to make it easier for him to conjure them up in his mind. Cards floating in midair were also a common motif in games he had played before.
“Where did you learn how to use your magic?” Allen asked, continuing the conversation.
“From the Church. They said they’d pay me if I learned it.”
Keel went on to explain that he was told he would be given a daily stipend of ten silver if he would expend all his MP each day healing patients. He would also be fed during the learning period. He signed up and spent two months mastering the ability.
Two months is pretty fast. Maybe seeing other clergy using the skill in person made it easier for him to grasp how to do it.
If Keel could earn ten silver on each of the two days he had off every week, over five weeks that came to a monthly salary of one gold. Someone who could earn twelve gold a year was generally considered well-off.
During his four years as a manservant, Allen had learned that jobs paying a monthly salary of one gold or higher were actually hard to come by. The average apprentice at a merchant’s store only earned around half that amount.
