Episode 11 – Lecture
After dropping the healing potion off at home, Nada headed for the academy.
He had class today.
The lecture for the day was about monsters.
There are countless types of monsters in dungeons—some say that if you categorize them finely, the number surpasses a thousand. Each one has its own weaknesses and ways to deal with them. Students need to know as much monster information as possible so they don’t die inside the dungeon.
Nada sat at the edge of the classroom and flipped through several thick textbooks filled with monster information as a form of review. While he was doing so, he overheard the conversations around him.
“Kuuri-kun, what’s wrong? You look kind of pale…”
“Hm? Oh, Anri. Well… I got a letter recently. Looks like my dad back home got sick… He was perfectly fine when he saw me off from the village, though…”
“Your home was pretty far away, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. And apparently, it’s been a bad harvest lately, so their crops aren’t doing well. I want to go back but… look, even if I go, it’s not like there’s anything I can actually do, right?”
“It costs money too.”
“Exactly, Chihaya. Students like us who don’t get money sent from home are always on the edge, right? I've gotten better at controlling my Ability lately, so I earn a bit more than before, but still…”
“Even if your control of ‘Escarache Rebellion has gotten better, it’s still rough.”
“You still alter the dungeon terrain when you use it.”
“Give me a break. I really am doing my best, but controlling that thing is pretty hard.”
“It’s powerful, though. I’m jealous.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m the one jealous of you, Anri. Your ‘Porta has such high versatility. I wish I had an ability like that.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Well, Anri… you still get invited by all sorts of parties, right? And obviously, they’re offering better conditions than ours.”
“I’m staying here, you know?”
“That makes me happy, sure. It’s just… if I got scouted like that, I don’t think I could turn it down.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to send money home. And at times like this, I’d like to go see my family’s faces.”
“So, are you dissatisfied with our party?”
“No, that’s not it. I trust everyone here, and I think it’s the best party I could ask for. It’s just… once in a while, I wouldn’t mind joining another party to make a little extra money. My dream is to make life easier for my family.”
The bestiary Nada was reading contained detailed information on monsters unique to each dungeon.
Even dungeons in the same city—Podie and Toro—were drastically different.
Podie had mainly beast-type monsters. They didn’t breathe fire or lightning—it was mostly brute force with fangs and claws. Some monsters carried weapons, but compared to what adventurers used, those weapons were fragile and broke easily. As long as you had straightforward firepower, you could break through, making it an easy dungeon and a good place to learn the basics. That might be why the academy was built around this dungeon.
Toro, on the other hand, was filled with unusual monsters. Their base forms were similar to the animals in Podie, but their flesh had rotted away. Their bones were exposed, and their eyes no longer sat in their skulls. Weapons often didn’t work well against creatures made mostly of bone, so it was considered normal to rely on Abilities and Gifts to progress.
Nada waited for class to start while continuing to read, knowing that the teacher—a retired adventurer—would share knowledge not found in the books.
“Is that so? Fufu. In that case, this might be a bit early, but we have a gift for you. Actually, this was Anri’s idea.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We collected money!”
“Collected… money?”
“That’s right. You see, everyone thinks of you as a friend, Kuuri-kun, so we all pitched in. You should go home on the next break!”
“No, come on, I can’t accept something like—”
“It’s fine. Anri provided most of it anyway.”
“My family is noble, so we have plenty to spare.”
“And besides, we didn’t collect it just now—you’ve been saying for a while that you wanted to go home, right? Since your birthday is coming up soon, I asked people in our class and the underclassmen! It’s a little early, but—happy birthday!”
“I owe Kuuri a lot as well. Consider this my thanks.”
“Everyone… thank you! You all went out of your way for me…!”
With those words, the entire class gathered around the beautiful blond young man.
Of course, everyone except Nada.
Many boys and girls alike approached the blond young man. He had manifested a capable Ability early on, and by the time he was in his first year, he was already gaining attention as a promising newcomer. Since Nada was in the same year, he had heard that name countless times.
“Mm-hmm! Kuuri-kun was always working so hard! Even though you grew up on a farm and never got any real schooling, you stayed late every day to study!”
“Well, Anri, you taught me too, didn’t you?”
“Even then, studying every day is tough. Not something you can just imitate easily. And you also have to dive into the dungeon to earn your tuition, plus you need to learn martial skills, right? Doing all of that at once is something I could never do!”
Everyone agreed with the words of the beautiful girl with golden hair.
Nada didn’t glance at the scene, even from the corner of his eye—his gaze stayed fixed on the book placed on his desk. His hand turning the pages was slow, absorbing each piece of information as if desperately drinking it in.
Nada didn’t have much confidence in his memory. Even things he had seen many times before, he would end up forgetting. Without monster information, he would fall behind in dealing with them, so he repeatedly reviewed the same entries, forcing them into his head.
“Haha, you’re exaggerating.”
“No way! Right, Akito?”
“That’s right, that’s right. Unlike you, we still don’t study at all.”
“I think you should, though. But still—thanks, Akito, Masamune. I’ll definitely repay this favor someday!”
“Don’t worry about it, seriously!”
The entire classroom was wrapped in a bright, cheerful atmosphere.
That was when the blond young man noticed Nada.
“By the way, I should thank him too, right?”
As the blond young man tried to push through the crowd to approach Nada, the golden-haired girl stopped him awkwardly.
Nada never once looked in their direction.
“Well… we didn’t ask him to join the pool. When we started collecting, he wasn’t in the classroom… and besides, we gathered more than enough money without needing to ask him…”
“I see.”
The blond young man let out a voice that was hard to interpret—neither positive nor negative—just as the school bell rang.
Right on cue, a strict middle-aged man stepped into the classroom, and everyone hurried to their seats. Nada finally pulled his eyes away from the book and looked toward the teacher standing at the lectern.
Class proceeded as usual, and that afternoon, Nada was once again diving into the dungeon.
Naturally, by himself.
The only person he spoke to was the cute receptionist girl with short, light brown hair, who handled the entry procedures for adventurers.
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