Among them, the Thief glanced around the group and cracked a joke in a low voice.
"Did we agree on a dress code or something?"
It wasn't even planned, but every single one of them had shown up draped in dark cloaks or robes, with even their heads covered. Since their outfits were practically identical, they had no choice but to tell each other apart by their builds.
The most petite was the Puppeteer. She was female, and it seemed she had set her character's height to the absolute minimum.
Next were the Thief and the Bard. The Thief was lean and muscular, just enough to stay agile, while the Bard was tall but skinny, looking like a beanpole.
The Paladin was a young man with a muscular, reliable physique that perfectly suited his class.
And as for the Fighter? That went without saying. He was a giant, comparable in size to Belsus, and the only one who hadn't bothered to cover himself with a cloak.
"Mr. Bard, you managed to get an instrument?"
At those words, the Bard looked down at the instrument in his hands. It was a rather small mandolin.
"Persephone bought it for me."
Judging by his voice, if one were to pull back his robe, there would likely be a middle-aged man underneath.
Persephone was the Bard's partner character; both were minstrels. Since she was a famous theater singer from Caseria, the Island of Art, she certainly had the financial means to buy an instrument with her own money.
The Bard stroked his instrument with a pleased smile, but since his face was hidden beneath his robe, no one saw it.
[Hunt the monsters spawning on the field until the Boss appears.]
"Should we all split up?" the Thief suggested cautiously.
It was true, they weren't in a situation to happily chat away.
Only one of them could win. Plus, they needed to hunt even just one more monster right now to level up. There was no time to dawdle.
The Bard shook his head.
"No. It's a bit too dangerous to be alone. Calain is out there somewhere."
"Ah..."
They all immediately pictured the crazy royal knight who was hell-bent on killing Hunters to farm experience points.
'Right. We can't just blindly compete with the people right in front of us.'
The rankers gathered here, who had left their partner characters outside and entered alone, seemed to be on relatively equal footing, for now.
However, Calain, with his ridiculously overpowered abilities, was the exception. If they wandered alone, they could be targeted by him at any moment.
Even if it was true that Calain hadn't actually killed Belsus...
"Then how about we move in pairs? If too many of us stick together, the number of monsters per person will be too low."
"We do have an odd number, though. Should we split into a group of two and a group of three...?"
As the Thief trailed off, something suddenly flashed in his mind.
"Wait, hold on! Stop right there!"
The Thief quickly called out, stopping a mercenary character who was just about to walk away.
Belsus looked puzzled when a strange Hunter called out to him. He cautiously walked over.
While he was approaching, the rankers quickly wrapped up their discussion.
"We have to protect Belsus, too."
"That's right. Calain might come after him as well."
"Since Belsus makes us exactly six people, we can easily pair up now, right?"
"Then who goes with Belsus...?"
True to their Korean roots, they decided on their teams at lightning speed. They threw Rock, Paper, Scissors simultaneously. If two people threw the same hand, they were a team. Whoever was the odd one out would partner with Belsus.
The teams were formed in a flash:
The Thief and the Puppeteer.
The Bard and the Paladin.
The Fighter and Belsus.
Only then did they get a close look at Belsus. They gasped and frantically hushed each other.
"Is he holding a scythe...?"
"Don't tell me he brought that thinking it's a weapon?"
On top of that, a musty odor drifted from Belsus's worn-out clothes. His hair was a disheveled mess. His frame didn't seem terribly skinny... but he had thrown on his clothes so haphazardly that it was hard to tell.
The Thief covered his mouth, looking utterly heartbroken. The Fighter felt a sudden surge of pity.
"To think he brought a scythe because he doesn't have a weapon."
"He looks like he's starving, right...? Should I give him my bread?"
They never even imagined the scythe was an enchanced weapon. They didn't know that a lunatic existed in this world who would upgrade a farming scythe, accidentally succeed in getting it to +6, and hand it to his character to use as a weapon.
Even giving them the benefit of the doubt, the most highly upgraded weapon among them was the Puppeteer's +3 weapon.
And there was absolutely no way they could have guessed that Belsus's vagabond-like clothes were a disguise, deliberately put on him by his landlord to hide his identity.
"Should we ask him how he survived?"
"But he won't know how we know him, right?"
There was an absolute unwritten rule: Belsus must never find out that they were transmigrators.
They had to watch what they said, treating Belsus like a fragile child.
"Then... how about some small talk?"
The highly sociable Thief and the Puppeteer, who looked harmless due to her small size, teamed up. They cautiously approached Belsus.
"Would you like to partner up and travel in pairs?"
"It's fate that we met, so it'd be a shame if you just dropped dead all of a sudden. Dying in a dungeon is the saddest thing."
Belsus, who had been about to decline, clamped his mouth shut. Seeing the Thief and Puppeteer pleading with him with tearful puppy-dog eyes triggered his soft spot.
The rankers scattered.
Even though the Fighter followed him out, Belsus ignored him and went his own way, silently pushing through the dense, jungle-like forest.
Armed with a profound sense of duty, the Fighter clenched his knuckle-duster-clad fists, hardening his resolve.
'I'll protect Belsus. The poor bastard.'
The Fighter rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a thoroughly squished piece of hard bread.
"Do you want to eat this bread?"
Belsus thought to himself: 'It looks tough and tasteless.'
But he didn't say it out loud, afraid of hurting the Fighter's feelings.
Monsters crawled through the jungle foliage. The Fighter swiftly pummeled the monster Belsus was about to kill, snatching the kill with his knuckles, and then acted oblivious.
"Hehehe..."
When Belsus made eye contact with him, the Fighter just giggled sheepishly and avoided his gaze.
Unable to say anything, Belsus sullenly went to find another monster. After that, the same situation repeated itself just when Belsus thought it wouldn't.
In reality, Heean was also inside this dungeon.
And the Archer, having been blackmailed by Heean, was accompanying him to protect him.
Several kilometers away from where the rankers were, Heean suddenly snapped his head up and frowned.
"Hey, do you hear that? Sounds like someone is stealing our kid's kills."
"What are you talking about?"
No matter how hard the Archer strained his ears, he could only hear the sounds of monsters.
Just wait. Heean vowed revenge against the rankers who were undoubtedly tricking Belsus somewhere out there.
---
[The Boss Monster will appear on the field in 10 minutes.]
[Experience points will be awarded in proportion to the damage dealt to the Boss Monster.]
[Additionally, the single person who lands the final attack on the Boss Monster will acquire a massive amount of experience points.]
The rule of the first dungeon was incredibly simple: the person who landed the so-called "last hit" would hit the EXP jackpot.
Soon, the boss's spawn location popped up.
There was no reason for the scattered transmigrators not to go. They naturally converged back together. While they agreed to a joint attack for now, they waited with a hidden, simmering sense of competition.
"It's a raid. What we always do."
The Thief grinned, seemingly enjoying the thrill of it. A snaggletooth peeked through his thin lips.
"So right now, it's a 5-man... no, a 6-man raid including Belsus? Let's look at our team composition... Ah."
The Thief suddenly let out a groan. With a slightly stiffened face, he scanned them one by one.
There was a common thread among the classes that had transmigrated here.
They were all pure DPS.
In other words, they didn't have a single Tank to step out front, taunt the enemy, and take the hits, nor did they have a Healer to treat their wounds and cast buffs.
At that moment, every single ranker had the exact same thought.
'This team comp is absolute trash.'
...It couldn't be helped. Without a Tank or a Healer, the only option was for the most sacrificial class among them to throw themselves into the fray.
But who could have guessed that Belsus would step up right then?
"I will draw the monster's attention from the front."
The five of them, excluding Belsus, had been gathered in a circle. When Belsus interjected from behind, the Thief and Paladin freaked out.
"No, no way."
"Please stay in the back. It's too dangerous for you."
The Thief shook his head vigorously, and the Paladin actually used his body to gently push Belsus backward.
'Do you want us to have to clean up a corpse?'
Everyone thought the exact same thing about Belsus. They could only picture the gruesome image of Belsus being crushed to death by the boss.
The Paladin stepped forward.
"I will take on the role of the Tank."
"Will you be alright?"
"I look like I have the sturdiest build here. Besides, being close to the enemy increases my chances of landing the last hit."
The Paladin willingly took on the danger with honest eyes. Furthermore, by frankly stating the advantage, he slightly eased the burden on the others.
"Uh, I'll tank in the front too."
The Fighter, who had been listening, raised his hand high.
"My body is better than the Paladin's, right? Isn't it? Look. My chest is wider, right? I bet my arms and thighs are thicker, too."
Feeling a sense of competition over something completely useless, the Fighter flexed his arms tightly to show off his shoulders and thrust out his thighs to make his case.
"Yes..."
"You're right."
The kind-hearted rankers played along.
With the Fighter joining in, they decided the two of them would draw the boss's aggro from the front. The plan was for the other two melee damage dealers, the Thief and Belsus, to attack the boss from the flanks, while the ranged damage dealers, the Puppeteer and the Bard, attacked from a slight distance.
Belsus subtly tried to step up to the front line as well, but the Thief grabbed his arm and stopped him. Left with no choice, he had to remain standing in the rear.
Comments Box