A Veteran Teaches Very Well

part 26

First-rate adventurers earn salaries that far surpass those of professors and are active in the guild.

Professors were nothing to scoff at.

“I’ll put on a spectacular show.”

Fire was indeed the best against beast-like monsters.

Moreover, with the forest as the backdrop, it was an even more favorable situation for fire magic.

When the team had finished gathering to some extent, Song Seok-hwan prepared himself.

The area magic that a rookie like Seo Da-yoon couldn’t even dream of using.

“Inferno!”

A massive fireball began to form above Song Seok-hwan’s head.

With this one blow, it would all be over.

Song Seok-hwan grinned at the thought of receiving the highest score.

But reality did not unfold as he wished.

“Uh, uh?”

“What’s wrong with them?”

The monkeys, which had been herded with great effort, began to scatter.

The team members, flustered, tried to intimidate the monkeys again, but they had already crossed a point of no return.

“What the…!”

The less vibrant monkey forest was not a dungeon that freshmen could challenge.

It was a high-difficulty dungeon typically tackled by third-year students or, more commonly, fourth-years for practical training.

Because of this background, there was one fact that even the top experts in Korea, part of the emergency guild, were unaware of.

The monsters here were slightly sensitive to mana.

If their sensitivity had been extreme, that trait would have spread easily.

However, because it was only slightly sensitive, if a wizard had learned ‘Mana Control’ in their second year, they could easily deceive their senses.

Until now, there had been almost no wizards who entered this place without knowing ‘Mana Control,’ so the only one with such data was Cha Eun-woo, who had accumulated data within the game.

Song Seok-hwan had learned far more than others before enrollment and had reached a high level.

But that was only in flashy and powerful spells, including elemental magic; his proficiency in the basics, the smaller details, was not very high.

In other words, Song Seok-hwan had not learned Mana Control.

The monkeys easily sensed his mana.

A massive, malevolent mass destruction spell was approaching.

The monkeys hurriedly scattered, trying to survive as much as possible.

“What on earth is going on?”

“This is strange… It can’t be like this!”

Clearly, Song Seok-hwan’s party had executed their tactics correctly.

‘So why has it come to this?’

A grinding sound came from Song Seok-hwan’s clenched jaw.

There was still a chance. The fact that the monsters were not yet hostile and remained still was proof of that.

Song Seok-hwan quickly made a judgment and issued a command.

“Let’s start over from the beginning! Quickly herd them to one place….”

But then, at that moment, one of the team members, flustered by the unexpected situation, made a mistake.

One of the wildly thrashing monkeys swung its arm and struck him, prompting an instinctive counterattack.

Swoosh!

The sound of flesh being sliced.

In that moment, every team member had the same thought.

Ah, it’s over now.

─Kieeeek!

Having struck first, Team A was no longer just unwelcome guests to the monsters.

They were clearly recognized as enemies.

Song Seok-hwan had no choice but to shout.

“Damn it! Just fight! Kill them all!”

The battle began.

* * *

Team C.

As Seo Da-yoon was preparing a powerful spell to sweep away the monsters, an unexpected change occurred. The monsters’ movements shifted.

“Those b*stards are scattering?”

“W-why!”

Everyone was flustered.

At this rate, it would be impossible to wipe them out. This would delay the clear time far beyond what they had anticipated.

Then, achieving the highest score would be impossible.

An Se-ri had to make a choice.

“Should I give Da-yoon the order to attack now? But that would yield too little gain. Yet if I drag this out….”

An Se-ri instinctively realized that this was a gamble.

If she issued the attack order now, they could secure at least a B+. With their best efforts, maybe even an A.

However, an A+ would be forever out of reach.

On the other hand, if she chose to gamble, they could aim for an A+.

But the repercussions of failure could drop them to a B or lower.

Perhaps even a C+ or below…

The stakes were her own, and the grades of all her teammates.

She had to choose.

A sure B+, or an uncertain A+…

What broke her contemplation was a gentle voice.

“Sister, please act according to your conviction. The other brothers and sisters will follow you as well.”

“Abraham…”

“Yeah. We trust Seri.”

Abraham and Seo Da-yoon said beside me.

Right.

An Seri had an obligation to repay their faith.

Let’s do this my way.

“Hey Joo, Mi-seong! Buy us a little more time!”

“Okay!”

This is not a disaster that struck suddenly.

The one who chose this testing ground was the professor.

The professor must have anticipated this situation.

That means…

He must have left some hints as well.

An Seri calmly recalled the lessons.

‘Theoretically, if we deal with area magic, we can easily handle multiple enemies.’

‘However, not every magician is a grand magician whose magic reaches throughout the city. So, another party member needs to play the role of a bait in advance.’

‘That’s why baiting is important. It’s not something that has a fixed manual. It’s fluid and irregular depending on the situation, the dungeon, and the monsters.’

‘Still, there are general principles. One is to use taunt skills or status-altering magic to restrict the movements of the monsters.’

‘Two is to force their movement path and then induce their actions by applying pressure.’

The initial Group C’s simple threat was an effective bait.

But it lacked coercion.

That means, if there is enough coercion, if we apply a stronger threat…!

“Da-yoon, can you use magic twice?”

“Yeah. I’ll give it a try.”

“Good. Use it in the direction I point. Over there, and over there.”

Flames began to ignite in both of Seo Da-yoon’s hands.

It was magic she had prepared diligently for today.

A massive fireball.

It roared, ready to engulf the forest.

“Fireball!”

Kwang!

“Ah….”

The team members sighed in despair.

The flames blazed as if to consume everything, but the monsters, sensing the mana in advance, fled the scene.

The fire, lost in direction, only burned the innocent trees.

Nam Hye-joo murmured softly.

“Are we… done for?”

“No. Look closely.”

Is the team leader out of his mind?

The monsters had all run away, and the magic we had prepared was only setting the forest ablaze; what was there to see…?

“Wait, what?”

The flames were spreading in a strange manner.

Normally, the monkeys would have scattered throughout the forest.

But with the fire blocking left and right, they became trapped, gathering in the center where the flames had not yet spread.

It was truly an ideal encirclement.

Abraham clapped his knees and said.

“I see… If those creatures had shown hostility, they wouldn’t fear burning themselves, but since they have no intention to fight right now, they’re avoiding the flames!”

“Should I prepare the finishing blow then?”

At Seo Da-yoon’s question, An Se-ri replied.

“No. While a wide-area attack might favor a wizard…”

Drawing her bow, she nocked an arrow.

“Penetration power is the archer’s strong suit, you know? If they’re huddled together, I should be able to take them out in one shot.”

Eeeing—

The tip of the arrow glowed a brilliant blue.

The blue light spread rapidly across the arrow. The immense mana felt almost playful compared to Seo Da-yoon’s magic.

—Kkiik…

—Ukkik!

Feeling the threat to their lives, the monsters tried to flee into the flames, but An Se-ri’s arrow was much faster.

Ping—

The moment the arrow left the bowstring, the blue mana enveloping it began to expand even further.

Finally, the long mass of mana spread a pair of wings, resembling the form of a bird.

Boom—!

A tremendous roar echoed.

The explosion created a strong current, causing the team members to stagger momentarily, unable to steady themselves.

Only Anseri stood tall from beginning to end.

As the dust settled, all that remained was a hollow ruin.

The team members gaped, each sharing their thoughts.

“Wow. Incredible…”

“Insane… So powerful. I think I might actually fall for it.”

“This is the true essence of the top 5 in our grade…”

“Truly impressive.”

Anseri offered a brief reflection.

“Why be surprised by this? There’s still a lot more to show. Let’s go.”

* * *

The dungeon is a peculiar place made up of several regions (stages) or layers (floors).

Each stage has its own distinct characteristics.

This serves as a factor that makes conquering the dungeon even more challenging.

Typically, a dungeon has a single concept that all stages adhere to.

However, some dungeons are chaotically constructed, with the entrance revealing a sea and the back leading to a desert, lacking any coherent theme.

Though it may seem like a trivial detail, the stages cause countless commanders to struggle with party formations.

Some stages are unfavorable for mages but advantageous for archers.

Some stages are unfavorable for archers but favorable for assassins.

In some stages.

In some stages…

As an extreme example, the Nest of the Dragon Slayer, dubbed the worst dungeon in human history, consists of 19 stages.

Each stage is constructed in a maddeningly complex manner, with the performance of classes varying drastically from stage to stage.

Ultimately, the Nest of the Dragon Slayer saw more than half of the S-rank heroes that humanity could mobilize deployed, and it only ended after half of them were killed or severely injured.

The testing ground, the Less Verdant Monkey Forest, is a dungeon composed of three stages.

The concept here revolves around monkeys and the forest.

The first stage was a circular forest filled with countless monkeys.

The second stage was a narrow forest path, straight and lined.

There weren’t as many monsters as in the first stage.

In fact, there were only three monsters.

However, the area was several times larger than the first stage, and the trees were dense.

In some ways, it was the place where the most research had been conducted by all the teams.

To clear Stage 2, they had to find the three monkeys hiding in this place.

Team B of the Snow White group was struggling with this.

“Over there, get it!”

The less green monkey forest was a dungeon frequented by many novice heroes.

So many heroes had tackled it, and countless strategies were known; it was a stage that required only wisdom to pass through easily.

But it wasn’t as easy as Team B had thought.

“It was just here a moment ago…”

“Uh, uh-oh?”

They missed it again.

According to the strategy, those creatures moved in a certain pattern.

The problem was that they were different from the minions in the first stage.

They were too fast.

It was impossible to tell where they would move next.

They knew the strategy, but executing it was infuriatingly difficult.

“Gah, huff…”

“Damn, they’re so fast!”

“Oh, it’s coming!”

─Screech!

A monkey zipped by like the wind, dropping something.

It was that damned sphere again.

The size and shape reminded one of a triangular rice ball, a black object.

But its true nature was something far more sinister than a rice ball.

“Everyone, dodge!”

Someone shouted, but it was already too late.

With a whoosh, it exploded in mid-air, releasing a thick cloud of sky-blue powder.

“Ugh, this is so annoying!”

“That crazy b*stard….”

The sky-blue powder is an item that inflicts the status effect ‘confusion.’

In Florian Rhapsody, it simply scrambled the shortcut keys, but this was reality.

The members of Group B felt an unpleasant sensation enveloping their bodies.

“Ugh… my body feels strange. It doesn’t feel like my body anymore…”

“Damn it! How are we supposed to catch anything in this state…?”

The group members had no choice but to sit down in despair.

─Ukkik! Kikik!

The sound of a monkey’s laughter echoed mockingly in their ears, but they had to endure it.

They couldn’t catch anything in a normal state, and moving like this would only lead to disaster.

“Isn’t this supposed to wear off after a minute?”

“Probably…”

Five minutes had passed since they entered the second stage, but there was no progress.

If it were Baeksulhwa, she could have tracked their movements, but she had already dashed off on her own.

While the remaining members were stuck in indecision, Baeksulhwa returned.

“I caught one. How about you guys?”

“W-We….”

Im Hansol was the vice-captain of Baeksulhwa’s team.

While Baeksulhwa moved alone, he led the group. In reality, despite his title, the other members viewed him as the captain.

Im Hansol found himself at a crossroads.

The main team was in a situation where they couldn’t do anything.

They needed Baeksulhwa’s help.

But he worried that it might only hinder her mobility.

If the remaining members couldn’t reciprocate the support Baeksulhwa provided, it would be the worst decision.

‘Ah, I don’t know anymore.’

In the end, Im Hansol decided to give up on making a judgment and entrusted it to Baeksulhwa.

“Hey, Seolhwa. The situation isn’t good. The monster’s movements are too fast, and we can’t pinpoint its location.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, yeah. So I can’t read its patterns at all… um, um… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Im Han-sol opened his mouth confidently, but soon his voice faltered and he ended up apologizing.

That cold face seemed to scold him and the rest of the group.

He must be disappointed.

He entrusted us with his faith, yet we turned out to be utterly useless…

Baek Seol-hwa felt equally troubled.

Here we go again.

Im Han-sol’s face turned pale with fear as he began to apologize repeatedly.

In his frustration, he glanced at the other group members, but they all wore the same expression.

Baek Seol-hwa let out a sigh.

“I-I’m sorry! We’re just so incompetent…”

That wasn’t the reason she sighed.

She wanted to clarify, but Baek Seol-hwa simply kept her mouth shut.

In the past, whenever she defended herself, things never turned out well.

Everyone interpreted it as sarcasm, as if they were angry.

Very few saw Baek Seol-hwa without prejudice.

‘I miss the professor.’

Strangely enough, thinking of the professor brought her some comfort.

And at the same time, the lecture content came to mind.

‘What do you think is the most common reason for a party to give up on a dungeon?’

‘Isn’t it the boss fight?’

‘No. Most dungeons are designed so that the party can allocate their strength appropriately, so that’s rare.’

‘According to statistics released by the Hero Association, it’s because the party doesn’t include enough assassins or archers.’

‘Most focus heavily on combat, especially firepower, when forming a party.’

‘So it’s easy to neglect secondary elements like trap disarming or enemy scouting.’

‘You all are also likely to encounter such situations. So let me tell you how to address the absence of archers or assassins.’

There were two monkeys left.

It was clear that, in their current state, the group members were of little help.

But Baek Seol-hwa couldn’t just run around tracking things down. It would take too long.

The only thing she could rely on was the professor’s teachings.

“Know your enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster. Understanding the enemy’s capabilities is the priority.”

Three monkeys.

The white one is the fastest.