Vol. 5 - Chapter 266 - Crowded ‹Beginner Dungeon›, far away level 10?
The talk with Dean was over and I and Rina headed to the beginner dungeon from there.
The whole ordeal had been quite time consuming.
Rina too has finally regained her level-headedness.
As we were walking down on the road, Rina asked me after confirming there was no one nearby us.
"Zephyr-san, it's about what you said earlier, do you mean Eden has some secret tricks it has been hiding?"
As ‹Master-Planner Princess›, she must be quite curious about it.
She was so proactive in negotiation earlier because she isn't aware of our methods. We may have gotten a terrifying strategist to join our rank.
"Yeah. I have been going to tell you soon. However as Dean had said too一一"
"Not letting any soul know about it, is it?"
"Yes, this also includes the manifestation condition for ‹Master-Planner Princess›."
"So that's why Eden is full of high-ranking jobs. Does that mean the research institute who had suddenly published a part of the manifestation condition of a high-ranking job case is also..."
"You're sharp. Just as you have suggested, I leaked it."
"My..."
Rina covered her lips with her hand. Though she didn't look surprised at all.
It should have been quite an explosive revelation, I assume Rina might have already guessed things to a certain extent. She's a strategist afterall.
Wait, maybe she is just numbed from all the shocking development in such a short timeframe.
However I'm not sure if it was just me imagining things but I felt like there was a kind of fervor in her gaze for some reason.
"I am saying it again but I hope you don't let anyone know whatever you will hear in Eden. It is that pandora box bound to cause chaos if revealed to the public."
"I'm aware. There's that warning from Dean too after all."
Sure enough, I was spot on, taking his words as a reminder.
Well conversely speaking, this also means he will continue to look over silently as long as the academy isn't thrown into chaos.
Indeed, and while he didn't mention anything about me assuming the provisional lecturer role, I have to be careful about what kind of information I'm revealing.
We arrived at the beginner dungeon as I was speaking about Eden to Rina.
We passed through the gate of ‹Beginner Dungeon› and entered together.
All in all, Rina had decided to aim for Lv10 in today's time under my plan and persuasion.
The person herself was unsure and said “do we really have the spare time to do so?” until a while ago but I was able to push in saying there's no problem.
Rina... She's quite easy to push around.
"So you use a magic gun as your weapon?"
"Yes. I know I'm not good at upfront battles, long-range position suits me best."
Rina was holding a small-scale big gun. It's ironic how it's a big gun even though labelled small-scale.
It was designed to look like a slightly bigger gun appearance-wise. It resembled that thing which pirates had used when they made their entrance on a certain sky castle. (*Not sure which one series it might be referring)
‹Master-Planner Princess› was basically a buffer job commanding their ally. They mainly use magic guns since commands used loud sounds. In short, they do things like firing blank shots at their allies to encourage them, give them instructions etc.
By the way, magic gun comes into the gun category which deals magic damage in the ‹Dungeon Activity› so they rely on DEX.
If Shizu was a physical shooter, then Rina was a magical shooter. The difference was that while Shizu physical shots rely on DEX, Rina magical shots rely on INT and DEX.
The only thing I was a bit worried about was her magic gun doesn't seem like it could do much. It looked too plain in comparison to other ‹Princess› jobs equipment.
"Actually, my family was about to send a big battle-axe when I had acquired the ‹Captain› job but soon after, I transferred the job so the arrangement couldn't keep up with the changes."
Now that she spoke, I almost forgot. Rina's home was quite faraway so she shouldn't have any equipment prepared. The magic gun she was holding was a drop from beginner mid dungeon.
"Oh, don't worry. We can just use it until beg-mid, how about you show what you can do now?"
"Okay!"
I turned to look at the direction my ‹Intuition› rang and saw mochiko appearing. Let it be the first target.
"First, try your attack on that."
"Umm, I have always been wondering but is that really a monster? I feel like I shouldn't attack it."
"That's the mascot for you."
Afterall, our guild have large-size ‹Mochiko› plushie. So girls should have adverse reaction to attack such mascot characters because how cute it looks.
Except Rika and Karua who unhesitatingly cut that down. That sure was one heck of difference in treatment between the real one and plushie.
"It's fine. It will swell up once again even if you attack. So you can show your skills without any worry."
"Ugh. Forgive me, Mochiko-san. This too is for the sake of leveling up... ‹Magic Sphere›!"
Spherical magic bullet fired from Rina's magic gun struck a hopping mochiko.
It popped up in an instant and after that, only mochi rice was left. 『Mochi Rice Get!』
"Your aim was spot-on. Splendid."
"Oh god, why. I wonder why I'm feeling as if I have done something I shouldn't have."
Rina shivered looking at mochi rice.
In this rhythm, she defeated rabbits at the 2nd floor, advanced through 3rd and 4th floor and as Rina reached Lv9 on the way, the experience amount was reduced. Now she just needs to defeat a regular goblin and the experience would be enough to reach Lv10 and so we arrived at 5th floor.
"There are too many people here."
"It's so crowded."
This was our reaction when we arrived at the 5th floor.
We saw a congested lower floor of ‹Beginner Dungeon›. Just counting how many people there was tiresome but there were around 50 people. They all were waiting in line for the boss room.
"Next please. There isn't much free space so return back immediately once you have defeated the opponent."
"Hmm? You guys, don't stick out like that, line-up behind them."
There we found an instructor from some other department guiding around. With so many people occupying the 5th floor, someone who could guide was also necessary after all.
Since when did this place become an attraction? Reality never ceases to amaze me. I never had to wait in the game for my turn so this was also a novel feeling.
We joined the end of line just as the guide had pointed out. The opponent is just a regular goblin so it wouldn't take that much longer for our turn, or so I thought, but I was naive.
Everyone lining here was a complete amateur. Furthermore, everyone here were those who have failed to reach level 10 even when half a month has passed.
In short, there were a lot of students who got cold feet and were unable to fight even when the opponent was just a regular goblin.
They might have felt they could charge right away with the HP but they have led a no HP life until now so they apparently were still unable to get rid of common sense like [Being attacked by monster] = [Serious injury].
I thought as I looked at this spectacle. Those students who still circle around the beginner dungeon even after becoming sophomore were none other than them. This was one another piece of information that satisfied my thirst for knowledge.
Ultimately, it had taken more than one hour before our turn came so we attacked the regular goblin like crazy as if to vent out our frustration, defeating it instantly and returning back.
Rina and mine battle time was 14 seconds. With this, Rina had safely reached Lv10.
Come to think of it, wouldn't it have been faster to raise the level by defeating the monsters along the way?