Retire 374

374 Group Project (3)

Our questions about the guild Dantes were answered by the police officer who guided us.

“There are a lot of large guilds in this area.”

He didn’t bother to lower his voice, even though Hunters from Dantes could easily hear him.

What a mess.

It’s not that the police should be afraid of Hunters, but the fact that the police knew the internal workings of the guild and the guild didn’t even bother to deny it.

Is this the European average? Or is it just here?

“Like anywhere else, people work together, but there’s always bees and butterflies buzzing around…”

“Yes. I see. And?”

Fortunately, his explanation leaned toward the latter. Not that it made me feel any better.

“Generally, a Hunter’s child becomes a Hunter. There were all sorts of rumors, but in the end, they gathered kids of similar age and made a guild for them.”

He didn’t say who “they” were, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. In fact, it couldn’t be simpler.

It’s a kind of early Hunter education. In Korea, where the Hunter Academy system is established, this kind of guild is rare, but in Europe or the US, it’s common. They’re usually called “child guilds,” made up of the children of parent guild members. Under the guidance of veteran Hunters dispatched from the parent guild, they build up experience and learn the ropes.

It’s like the one-on-one or family-based training of mages, but expanded to a guild.

…Wait a minute. This kind of system doesn’t really become established until at least ten years from now. Not that there weren’t similar things before, but right now, I didn’t see a single veteran Hunter around. If there were, I wouldn’t be so dumbfounded.

“It’s basically just to keep them from causing trouble. Easier to manage that way.”

“……”

“Other than Robinson and Lambert, most of them are D-rank Hunters. The only dungeon they manage is the one that just broke.”

I looked up at the sky. The weather was peaceful, but the monster was not. Now that we were closer, I could see the clumps of mold more clearly.

“What about those two? What’s their rank?”

“They’re both C-rank.”

“……”

“Yeah, I know. That’s below the standard for a C-rank dungeon’s managing guild. But it’s not something we can do anything about.”

An implication of outside pressure.

I pressed my fingers to my temples.

“Just to check, does this guild have any actual raid experience?”

The officer gave a crooked smile.

“Of course not.”

---

Now I finally understood the name “Dantes.”

In Marseille, there’s a prison where Edmond Dantès, the protagonist of Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, was unjustly imprisoned. For Hunters deemed troublemakers or lacking talent by their parents, being sent here must have felt like being sent to prison.

Do I pity them?

Not a chance.

All the guild members, including Eva Robinson, wore high-end gear that didn’t match their rank. At least their parents weren’t trying to get them killed.

They probably even got extra support. The fact that a guild with no raid experience was managing a C-rank dungeon was proof enough.

If they really wanted to compare themselves to Edmond Dantès, they should at least try half as hard as he did for revenge, instead of goofing off like this.

“Marie, looks like that guy’s going to do everything for us.”

“Honestly, it looked so gross I didn’t want to get close anyway.”

“I’ve never seen so many mages gathered in one place!”

“Shh, they’ll hear you!”

“Is he really an S-rank Hunter? Why would someone like that clear a C-rank dungeon?”

They tried to lower their voices, but there was no way I couldn’t hear.

Maybe I shouldn’t have followed Kim Chaemin. I should have stayed in Korea. What kind of glory did I think I’d find here?

Because I wanted to see Noah Michel? She would have found me eventually.

Honestly, I was tempted to forget all this, clear the dungeon break as fast as possible, and just collapse into bed.

I approached Robinson and Lambert.

“You two.”

If it had just been Eva Robinson, I might have left it at that.

“I heard you’re both C-rank Hunters. Is that right?”

“Yes!”

“…Yes.”

But Marie Lambert wasn’t someone I could dismiss so easily.

I didn’t know what happened to lead Lambert to work under Noah Michel, but at least I knew it hadn’t happened yet. As Michel’s head of security, Marie Lambert was an unknown Awakened, but not someone to take lightly.

…As long as she remembered she had other options before choosing Michel, that was enough.

“Normally, you wouldn’t get to see this up close with a dungeon monster right in front of you. Consider yourself lucky.”

“Huh?”

“Are there any other C-rank Hunters in your guild?”

A couple more members exchanged glances and raised their hands.

A large guild with nearly fifty members! And I could count the C-rank Hunters on one hand! Now I understood why the Anchor of Toulon’s master’s nephew cursed the French government.

“Follow me.”

“…Where to?”

“I’ll show you how to deal with this. If you want to keep being Hunters, watch and learn.”

“Uh…”

Eva Robinson blinked in confusion, but Marie Lambert’s eyes sharpened.

I led the Hunters who followed me over to Kim Chaemin.

“Ms. Kim.”

She turned from reading the monster’s magic flow to look at me.

“I’m going to collect a sample. What about the mages?”

“I still don’t like them, but I don’t want to let them off easy.”

I nodded.

“It’ll be sunset soon… If it stops photosynthesizing, will it stop growing?”

“Probably. Look, it’s already slowed down a lot. I think this is as far as it’ll get with sunlight.”

“Sunlight, huh.”

“We also need to see how it reacts to water. Luckily, the weather’s clear and there aren’t any big lakes nearby…”

“What about the sea?”

Kim Chaemin frowned.

“It seems to avoid that direction, so maybe it doesn’t like salt. But we should check. Since it came out of a dungeon, we can’t just burn it without knowing how it’ll react.”

The dungeon had been in a national park, so there hadn’t been immediate casualties. The area wasn’t heavily trafficked.

But the rapidly growing monster was now spreading from the park into the city. There was no guarantee it would stay put. The sooner we dealt with it, the better.

“Robinson. Do you know the dungeon’s location?”

“Yes! I’ve even been inside.”

“Lead the way.”

Robinson looked nervously at Lambert, but Lambert just nodded. That seemed to be enough; Robinson relaxed and led the way.

I spoke slowly. In the past, I might have snapped at the mages the way Kim Chaemin had, but seeing their tense shoulders, I didn’t feel like it. Maybe it was their young faces—barely older than my students at Yangseong High.

“Monsters like this often behave differently outside the dungeon.”

“Huh?”

“Even now, hasn’t it grown explosively compared to inside? Luckily, it’s not attacking first, so we have time to study it.”

“Oh…”

“Fungal monsters are weak to fire, but if it’s grown this much, it might have resistance. Not every mage’s flame is strong enough to burn everything in one go. We need to test things one by one.”

The Dantes guild members quickly realized how generous I was being. Dungeon raid techniques weren’t public knowledge yet—they were a guild’s lifeblood.

The mages who’d never cared about dungeons realized it too. For all their arrogance, their thirst for knowledge was real, and there was no harm in learning something useful.

That was fine. If even one Hunter or mage here remembered this and used it when it mattered—

Maybe one more person could be saved.

“This isn’t just for monsters like this. Any monster outside a dungeon is different from the ones inside.”

“Even if its traits don’t change?”

“Yes.”

I looked at Lambert. She seemed surprised by her own question, but quickly paid attention to my answer.

Anyone willing to learn is always welcome.

“A dungeon is a closed space. Once something escapes, its behavior will change completely. That’s why we have to adapt, too.”

“Ah…”

“That’s the difference between a dungeon raid and a dungeon break. Attack and defense are reversed. When attacking, there’s no need to rush—the core isn’t going anywhere. You can take your time and be safe. But when we’re defending…”

“The best defense is a good offense.”

Kim Chaemin chimed in.

“…Not wrong. We have to minimize civilian casualties. That means we have to kill the monster as quickly as possible, so we’re in the opposite position from a raid. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“So always observe monsters first in a dungeon. And keep records.”

“So you can use them if you see a similar monster again?”

“Exactly.”

I smiled at Lambert.

She blushed at the praise. She really was still a young Hunter. As Michel’s head of security, she’d seemed unflappable, but now…

“Why do you think the Association publishes monster and dungeon guides every year?”

“I figured it was to make up for charging us for licenses.”

“Eva!”

“Just kidding! Of course not… right?”

“It’s for information sharing. Registered Hunters can download them for free. That alone should be helpful.”

I shrugged.

“They don’t charge license fees for nothing.”

Then I turned to the mages.

“The same information is available to mages. In fact, mages helped compile it.”

“Ugh. Mages too?”

“Mages do dungeon raids, too.”

Kim Chaemin replied in a sing-song voice.

“I work hard at dungeon raids myself. Hmm, let’s not get too deep into this—let’s try it right here.”

She pointed at the black dust clump. It was too big to call it just a dust clump.

The mold, as big as a human head, was breathing. The faintly trembling fuzz was viscerally unpleasant.

We couldn’t start with the main body. One of the smaller clumps would do.

“Fire group! Just one of you, come up!”

“Put up a barrier first. We don’t know how it’ll react.”

“I know. Water? Give me some water.”

“You’re not going to use magic?”

“Why use magic when there’s water?”

I handed her a bottle of mineral water. Kim Chaemin used magic to form a barrier around us, just in case the monster reacted.

“What should we do first?”

She looked to me.

“Pour water on it.”

She opened the bottle, dipped her finger in, and let drops fall onto the mold.

The droplets touched the fungus.

I grabbed Kim Chaemin and pulled her back. I felt like I’d done something similar before.

I held her firmly to keep her from going closer. She twisted, trying to get free, then gave up. But I couldn’t stop her from observing the mold.

I looked at Robinson and Lambert.

“Did you ever give this monster water inside the dungeon?”

They shook their heads vigorously.

“This is exactly why you have to study monsters. If you don’t investigate properly inside the dungeon, it’s hard to know what’s normal.”

I pointed at the mold, which had sprouted black roots.

“And… Ms. Kim?”

No, it wasn’t mold, more like…

“This looks less like a fungus and more like a seed.”