<Saturday Morning 11 AM>
‘Sigh…’ Ethan sighed to himself as he started walking to the entrance of the academy. The last week had been fairly stressful for him since he watched the footage of the monsters running rampant in Nexoria City after the attack.
‘How strong those monsters were….Even that amount of hunters was not enough to stop them.’ Watching the footage, he understood one simple thing. Being a hunter and awakened was a blessing.
He saw non-awakened people getting massacred by the monsters until the hunters helped. They were completely helpless and couldn’t do anything against the strong.
However, being awakened didn’t mean Hunters were unbeatable. No, rather than that, he saw hunters on the verge of dying countless times, and at that moment, he understood why her father and her siblings would always say being a hunter was not as easy and cool as it looked.
‘Without the effort and strength, being awakened is meaningless.’
He himself had recently awakened, and he knew how hard it was to go against those monsters as a normal person. He saw the students in one of the most prestigious academies struggling against monsters.
‘I should get stronger soon. I can’t stay the weak me as before.’ He wanted to help others, clearing gates. Just like his father, the one he looked up to, he wanted to be a hero.
That was one of the two reasons why he accepted Emily’s request. First, he wanted to have more experience, but he didn’t want to request it from his family. He wanted to stand on his own; you may call it his pride as a man.
Secondly, he wanted to help the girl. After hearing about Emily’s condition, he wanted to help her. It was his innate desire.
And here, he was on his way to his second real dungeon exploration.
“Hey, Ethan. Where are you going?” At that moment, he heard the familiar sound of his best friend.
Lucas called out as he spotted Ethan striding through the academy grounds.
“I have something to do,” Ethan replied.
“Ah… Is it about that dungeon? Heeeeeh… You’ve been invited?” Lucas teased, a playful grin on his face.
“Tch. Shut up,” Ethan muttered, clearly not in the mood for teasing.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. When are you coming back?” Lucas asked, genuinely curious.
“I don’t know, maybe around evening?” Ethan replied, his thoughts still focused on his upcoming dungeon expedition with Emily.
“I see. Then, let’s hang out sometime later. It’s been a while. I want to call some girls,” Lucas suggested, nudging Ethan.
Ethan hesitated for a moment before relenting. “You know I don’t like hanging out with girls.”
“Come on. Give it a chance, huh? We won’t stay as students for long anyway,” Lucas reasoned.
“Fine, fine. I’ll come,” Ethan agreed, albeit reluctantly.
“Promise,” Lucas said, holding out his pinky finger. Looking at his friend behaving childishly, he couldn’t help but shake his head. Lucas was always like that, but he was glad Lucas was the way he was.
Ethan sighed but hooked his own pinky around Lucas’s. “I can’t. You know dungeons can be unpredictable.” Though he still wanted to leave leverage for himself.
Lucas chuckled. “Hmm… Then, call me when you need help.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow. “You think I’ll need your help?”
Lucas grinned mischievously. “You bastard. Did you forget you awakened later than us? Do you want me to beat you?” 𝞸𝒱xt.𝗰𝚘𝑚
Ethan rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but crack a small smile. “Sigh… Okay, I’ll give you a call later.”
“Then, I will be waiting for your call.”
After that, he left, waving his hands leaving Lucas back there. Ethan continued on his way to the meeting point for the dungeon expedition. He took a lift, and he reached there after 30 minutes of the ride.
As he arrived at the designated location, he spotted Emily and the other members of the expedition.
“Ah, Ethan. You are here.” Seeing Ethan arrive, Emily came to him immediately, reaching at him with a smile.
The place he was in right now was the building of a guild, but Ethan could see how different it was from his family’s.
The difference between classes was showing itself from the design and fashion alone, but even then, he could see the building was clearly neglected.
Even though this guild hall seemed neglected, he could sense the determination and hope in Emily’s eyes.
“We are waiting for the last member to arrive, and then we are ready to go.” Just as Emily was about to speak, suddenly she saw the person they had been waiting for.
“Ah, he is here.” Saying that her eyes turned to the newcomer, and there they could see him walking–black pants, a black t-shirt, and a jacket with a hood over his head.
“Astron?”
And cold purple-eyes.
****
After the message came from the Azure Crest Guild, I immediately started preparing myself.
Since, according to my profile, I didn’t have any experience as a Hunter, they probably waited for other people to reach out to them.
But, from the start, I already knew this position would be empty. Since, in the game, there were no archers at the party, and the healer was the demon-contractor.
Therefore, I had already finished my preparations.
‘Silencer.’
The first one was to order a specific silencer for my gun. Since this one was not a brand product but rather a specific one from a blacksmith, the silencer needed to be made specifically, and it took a while.
‘Bunch of potions, antidotes, and light-attribute bullets.
Aside from that, those three were also necessary for the incoming expedition.
‘And lastly, food and water supply for one month, high-quality tent, and a lot of magazines.’
These whole things almost made my real spatial bracelet filled to the brim, but they were all necessary.
After everything was ready, I made my way to the meeting point. It wasn’t hard to find the place, since the address was already sent to me by them.
And, here we were.
“Astron?” In front of our dumb-looking protagonist and the girl with a slightly scorn expression on her face, I reached my destination.
“I thought it may be someone else, but it was you, huh?” Emily said, her gaze sweeping me.
“…..” I didn’t reply and overlooked her scorn. It was something I was expecting anyway. If I was in her place, I would also get slightly mad when the weakest of the academy participated in the dungeon exploration that was going to determine the future of her guild.
“Sigh….Sorry. I am under a lot of pressure nowadays.” Realizing that causing a scene and antagonizing me randomly would clearly be a wrong action, Emily sighed and apologized.
‘She is clearly befitting to be a leader.’ Comparing her reaction to another girl, I could see the differences between them clearly.
“Come, we will start our briefing.” Emily gestured for us to follow her as she entered the guild hall. The scene was the same as in the game. At the start, this place was showing clear signs of being neglected, but it was rather because of their low budget.
‘Though this will change in the future.’
Remembering how this place transformed after only two years, I could clearly see the potential they had.
Emily led us into a room where they would discuss their strategies for the dungeon exploration.
CREAK
As the door opened, it revealed four people inside, three women and one man. Immediately, the woman at the front came to our side, looking at us with clear, shining eyes.
‘Anya Guzzman.’
I immediately remembered her from the game.
“Wow, you really are handsome.”
As she would welcome the player with those words immediately. Considering Ethan’s face, it was pretty normal since he would become a model and live his life without swinging his weapon once if he wanted.
“… Thank you?”
Ethan clearly looked perplexed at the sudden behavior of the woman.’ Certainly, in the game, he also gave the same reaction since he was such a guy.
BONK
“Sigh….Sister Anya, please calm down. We are not here to play.” Emily bonked the head of the woman as she turned her attention to the people inside.
“He is Ethan, the one I had talked about. And, this is Astron, the Archer of our party.”
“Oh….This one is not that bad either.” Anya said, coming at me. Though before he could come at me, she was bonked at her head.
“What did I tell you now?”
“Okay, okay.”
After she introduced us, Emily wasted no time and gestured for us to sit at the table.
“No need to be stiff… Here are the rest of the party members.”
Gesturing her hand to the inside of the room, she said, and the others started introducing themselves one by one.
“I am Faye Barnes. Nice to meet you.”
“Hari Fulton, nice to meet you.”
Looking at the others waving their hands, Ethan responded with a smile as he threw a questioning gaze at me, filled with curiosity. It seemed he was wondering why I was here, but he would probably come to his answers on his own.
Just like that, we went nearside to the other two sitting on the chairs.
Thinking that, I started looking at the girls in front of me.
Recalling this event from the game, I remembered their names.
‘Faye Barnes. She is 18 years old, and her future is not that bright. A sword user and the vanguard of the group. She is using a claymore; what a weird choice for someone this petite.’
I thought while observing her bodily features.
She was a girl with bob pink hair, purple eyes, and petite features, but her muscles certainly looked strong. At least stronger than me.
In the game, she didn’t have a bright future since she wouldn’t be able to advance further as a Hunter and would stay as she was.
After that, I turned my head to the next person.
‘Hari Fulton. She is 19 years old. She is a self-educated hunter and has never attended any academy. For a self-taught, she is pretty talented with her two curved swords. She has a medium-fire affinity, and she is also proficient with fire magic. She joined the Azure guild one year ago.”
Long yellow hair with ocean-clear blue eyes and a slender body. She is beautiful, but not as much as the main cast.
Thirdly, our captain.
‘Anya Guzzman. She is 20 years old. However, she started training late since she was sick at the beginning. She graduated from a small Hunter Academy after two years of attending one year ago and has been working with Azure Crest Guild since then. She is a spear and shield user. She is also an earth attributed user, so she will be the tank of our group.’
Observing her body, I mused to myself.
‘As expected, her body had already adapted to using shields. Her muscles on her back and core are well developed, but her legs are the strongest place of hers. The exposed scars on her body show she liked her job as a Hunter.
I thought, looking at the slightly open top she was wearing. From her exposed tanned skin, you can see the muscles and her toned body. Coupled with her brown hair and brown eyes, she had a weird aura around her, making me remember a certain type of warrior-woman-filled race of the past.
And lastly, the young man with black hair standing on the backside. He had an amicable and easy-going expression on his face, but they did little to hide the fact that something about him was different.
‘Fred Nilsen. Aka, Thousand-Faced.’
He was the target of today’s expedition.
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You can check my discord if you want. You can see the illustrations of characters there.
The link to the discord server is in the description of the book.