ALL NOVEL Chapter 40: Recruitment Drive
“I thought you had studied.” Nico said in dismay as he looked over the results of Charles’ placement exams.
“I did. I made sure to study enough material to get past the first year in all subjects.” Charles replied.
“You did, but…” Nico bit his lip.
Charles had gotten 2nd or 3th year on all of his academic placement exams, while Garci had gotten 5th year pretty much across the board, and Scarlet had graduated from academic studies entirely.
While anything above a 1st year was functional to get out of classes until the next placement exam, for the heir of high nobility to score so low was… embarrassing.
“Charles, I know that you are focused on your training, but you need to remember that you have other obligations.” Nico said. “I’m going to have to report to your father about this.”
“...Okay.” Charles replied weakly, suddenly seeming a lot more ashamed.
Despite admiring his mother and father for their governing skills, Charles was more like his grandfather, a man who had been the fourth son and never planned on ruling over any territory at all, and who ran away from school with Edmar, after the pair could no longer pass the exams, in order to go adventuring across the world.
While very confident in his blade, and knowing all the bylaws that all nobles must follow, he had never so much as touched an accounting book. So when his elder siblings died in battle against the monster that destroyed the capital, he had been completely at a loss for what to do, resulting in him having to depend on his wife and later his child for it all.
Sighing, Nico reached up and ruffled Charles’ hair a bit. “I’ll study with you next time. Alright?”
“Right. Next time.” Charles mumbled his agreement, though he didn’t seem that happy about having his head patted.
Nico was the oldest of the group, taken in by Duke Bryce shortly after Charles’ birth, when Nico was discarded by his family because of his embarrassing Bond, Banana the slug.
He’d watched Charles and the others grow up, and while he understood that he was already the weakest of the group, and that the gap was only going to continue to get wider in the future, he wanted to do everything he could to support them, his younger brothers and sisters.
“Good morning everyone!” Scarlet said, cheerful as can be as she left her room with a massive backpack on her shoulders. And considering it was probably enchanted to be more spacious inside, Nico didn’t want to know just how much she had shoved into that thing. “Is everyone ready to go to the Labyrinth?”
“Ah… Scarlet, I know you are excited, but… the Labyrinth won’t be opened until after the Elective Recruitment Drive.” Sidney said nervously, not sure how the girl would take the news that they won’t be heading right in.
“Elective Recruitment Drive?” Scarlet said, confused.
“You can think of them like mandatory clubs that meet every Friday instead of normal classes. You are required to take at least one of them and you can’t test out of them.” Nico explained.
“Huh!?! But that means we can’t be in the Labyrinth for more than six days at a time!” Scarlet shouted in dismay. “How are we supposed to get to the bottom levels with that type of time crunch!?”
“Students were never expected to go that deep. Multiple day expeditions are actually pretty rare.” Nico said before dropping the real bomb on her. “Actually… we are finding it difficult to find additional party members who are willing to go deeper than level 10. None of our old party members are willing to take the risk and without another healer, we won’t be allowed into the Labyrinth at all.”
“But… But… Level 10 should only have monsters up to level 80. That’s way too low for us to train against. It would take forever to grow levels.” Scarlet complained. If they stuck to level 10, it would take them the rest of the school year just to reach the next Class Tier. That was simply too slow. “Is there somewhere we can post a recruitment notice? Surely someone wants to go to the lower levels.”
“...There is. But I won’t get your hopes up. We’re the neutral faction. Most people who would do something like that already belong to a faction and would want nothing to do with us.” Sidney replied with a shake of the head.
“If no one steps forward, then I’ll just have to blackmail someone into being our third healer.” Scarlet mumbled angrily.
“We are not doing that!” Nico shouted, not sure if the girl was serious or not.
With Scarlet, it was sometimes hard to tell.
|
Party Recruitment |
|
Looking for eligible persons who are willing to explore up to level 20 of the Labyrinth.
If interested, meet Charles Colestar de Dalhurst at the lunch hall after the seventh bell. |
“I suppose now we have to wait.” Scarlet said as they pinned the recruitment notice up on the board.
She wanted to go deeper than just level 20, but she supposed baby steps were necessary. After winning people’s confidence and boosting themselves up to Tier 5, they would be able to handle the level 125 monsters down at level 40 no problem. Which was why they were casting their net as wide as possible to get as many participants as they could involved before venturing deeper in and scaring people off. Surely one of them would be willing to stay on board.
“No time to worry about it now. Let’s start looking through the elective classes before seats fill up.” Nico said, calling Scarlet away from the board so that they could walk through the long main hall, past a bunch of stalls that had been set up to advertise the different elective classes, as if it was some kind of club recruitment drive from an anime.
...Wait, that was exactly what this was, wasn’t it?
Well, it wasn’t like Scarlet was interested in… A blacksmithing class huh? She’d never actually tried blacksmithing, since setting up a forge in her underground sanctuary would be a pain and threads had worked better for her thus far. But sooner or later, threads were going to reach their limit and metal would become necessary for durability's sake.
Maybe taking a class on it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
The map making class probably wasn’t a bad idea either. Well drawn maps could help navigate in the dungeon without having to be overly reliant on [True Sight], in the case that something down there jammed her skills.
Oh! They have a monster taming class! She would get to raise her own baby Timber Wolf! She’d have to fork over the money to pay for the puppy herself, but who cares, she wanted one!
Scarlet looked around from one station to another, trying to decide which ones she would go for, while Charles went from one governing related class to another, signing up for four of them before he was finished, under the watchful eye of Nico.
“Potion making?” Scarlet said as she found the admittedly unpopular class. Though it didn’t seem like the person manning it was doing much to draw attention.
“That’s right.” The man said, looking up at Scarlet with the kind of sunken eyes that seemed oddly familiar to the girl. “We don’t get many students, since potion making is considered inferior to enchanting, but we can make a thing or two.”
“Is that so?” Scarlet hummed, scratching her chin.
She had written off potion making as being pretty useless, since unlike enchanting, the things you make are single use. Why make a mana potion that could restore 1000 mana once when you could make a belt that restores 1 mana per second forever for a fraction of the cost.
She also didn’t place much faith in its effectiveness as a medicine, as it seemed like just normal medicine infused with arcane power… so even less predictable and with even worse side effects.
Scarlet had been bit in the ass multiple times in her previous life when it came to psychiatric drug trials that didn’t work out. The most memorable one being an antidepressant that made her start to hear and see things that weren’t there. That had really scared the living shit out of her, and resulted in her refusing to ever take any sort of psychiatric medication again, which led her to using absurd amount of meditation as her solution to her PTSD induced insomnia.
But she had just been thinking that she needed a way to deal with her constant hunger problems. Maybe she could figure out how to brew some kind of energy drink or something.
“When’s the class?” Scarlet asked, looking over the time sheet. The guy seemed surprised that she was willing, but signed her up anyway without complaint. “Alright, so we have Blacksmithing in the early morning, followed by Monster Taming, then a gap in the schedule until after lunch. Then there is Potion Making and Map Making.”
“A pretty full schedule. Especially since you were annoyed that you were even required to sign up for one of these classes.” Branwen said from Scarlet’s shoulder as she looked down at the schedule she’d been filling out.
“Hey, if I have to be here anyways, I might as well.” Scarlet said defensively. “And it looks like if I really wanted to, I could squeeze in one more.” She said before looking up and seeing the face of Professor Hamlie grinning at her from behind a stall for an ‘advanced magical theory’ class. “...On second thought, four is enough.”
“Wait, please don’t go!” Professor Hamlie shouted, attempting to jump at Scarlet, only to be blocked by a semi transparent shield of magical energy, his face smashing into it, flattening like a pancake.
“I’m not interested in joining your class.” Scarlet said sharply. She was really getting annoyed by the professor’s pushiness.
“But… But it isn’t my class.” Professor Hamlie whimpered as he rubbed his nose. “It’s your class.”
“That’s even worse! Don’t set those kinds of things up without permission!” Scarlet shouted before starting to run away from the man.
“Please, just think about it!”
“I did and the answer is no!”
“Charles, could your father help me get a restraining order?” Scarlet grumbled as she sat down to dinner with her friends.
“I believe so. Yes.” Charles replied. “But that would be in the case of Scarlet, since they are our ward, as decreed by the King. For Bran, it would be more difficult.”
“Please try. I don’t know how much more of that man I can take.” She whimpered.
“I know this might sound harsh but… please man up a little. If you keep acting like this, people will start to talk.” Nico whispered to the girl.
“Sorry, but I don’t like being stalked. It’s creepy.” Scarlet said, a shiver going up her spine. “By the way… why hasn’t anyone shown up yet? Shouldn’t we have a line of people wanting to join our expedition group? People aren’t that scared of level 20, are they?”
Admittedly, the gap between a level 79 monster that might be encountered on floors 1-10 and an 80+ monster that can be encountered below that was a pretty big gap. But for people with a Tier 5+ Class, it shouldn’t be a problem if they stick in a group.
So why wasn’t anyone stepping forward?
“It’s because of your little scuffle with Alexander.” Chad, the 8th-year who had tested Charles, said as he walked up to them and decided to take a seat. “You’ll find that at the Academy, seniority counts for a lot, and Alexander is basically the head honcho of the 8th-years. So, not many people want to go against him, and you really pissed him off.”
“I figured it would be something like that.” Nico said with a sigh.
“He was the one who made things personal by refusing to test me.” Scarlet grumbled.
“Well, I can’t always be there, since I still have one of my core classes left, but any time you are hiding down into the Labyrinth, just give me a call.” Chad said with a grin.
“That would be a huge help. Thank you.” Charles said with a grateful smile. “Now we will have the three 7th-year or above practical magic students needed to enter the Labyrinth.”
“Ah… about that. Remember the one course I’m still not finished with.” Chad said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry. I’m not so great with magic.”
“That’s alright. It isn’t my specialty either.” Charles said with a dignified sigh. Many of the guys around the table nodded in agreement, while Scarlet stuffed her face with food to stop herself from making an annoyed comment. “If I knew this was coming, I would have spent enough time with [Conjuration Magic] to let me get healing early, instead of focusing on [Evocation Magic] for [Elemental Weapon Arts].”
“I’ll try to see if I can get one of my buddies to help us our, but most of my friends graduated last year so…” Chad said a little weakly, but was then interrupted.
“Are you still recruiting members for the Labyrinth?” Prince Isaka asked as he walked up behind them, his two attendants standing at either side of him.
“Yes! Of course we are!” Scarlet half shouted in delight, forgetting her place as an attendant in front of a prince.
It wasn’t like Isaka minded. “That’s good. My mother would have been upset with me if I didn’t party with the two of you.” Isaka said, sitting down next to Scarlet on the long bench. “Also, my family has a debt to repay to Bran. It is my duty to settle it.”
“A debt? What debt?” Scarlet asked, not sure what he was talking about.
“Our debt for what you did for Racheal.”
“...Oh! That.” Scarlet said, realizing he was talking about the modified awakening ceremony she had performed using Charles’ blood. “You don’t need to thank me. I was glad to do it.”
“...I don’t think you understand just how much what you did means to my family. To all Half-Elves. It gave us hope for the future.” Isaka said dramatically. “Even if you do not recognize it as such, we are indebted to you, and I will do whatever it takes to repay that debt.”
“I’m sorry Your Highness, but you should just give up on that idea.” Charles said with a sigh. “Trust me when I say that you will never find a way to pay off your debts with this one, and the more you try the higher they will keep stacking.”
“You don’t owe me any debts.” Scarlet said.
“I owe you more debts than I care to count.” Charles replied.
“If you really feel that way, then either of you can just get me a restraining order against Professor Hamlie and we’ll call it all even.” Scarlet said with a bit of a pout.
“That can be arranged.” Isaka replied with a small smile. “However, I still wish to explore the Labyrinth with the rest of you.”
“Well, it isn’t like we were ever going to say no.” Scarlet said, cheerful after being told that her problems with the Professor would soon be dealt with for her, promising herself she wouldn’t ever make that mistake again. “You are taking the gambit too, right? What is your current Class?”
“...I am a Tier 2 Twin Sword.” Isaka admitted. “I have reached the level requirement for Tier 3, but training ones Class Skills takes time. I should reach the next milestone within a week.”
“I see… Can I have a look at your mana regeneration equipment?” Scarlet asked.
“Certainly.” Isaka said, holding out his arms to reveal a pair of bracelets on his rests.
“Tier 5 Life Mana regeneration. +1 units every two seconds each. Not bad.” Scarlet said after just a glance.
“They were my grandmother’s.” Isaka said with a small smile.
“They are of a pretty good quality, but what else do you have?” Scarlet asked.
“...What else?” Isaka asked in confusion.
“Bran, for most people, it is nearly impossible to get your hands on non-arcane mana regenerating equipment. Even for Royalty.” Nico explained to the girl. “Duke Bryce only had a singular pendant to give to Charles. Even among the Elves they aren’t so plentiful that someone of the Queen’s background would have stores of them. Amazing as she is, the Queen was a commoner by birth.”
“...You’re kidding, right?” Scarlet said, thinking over the materials and skills required to make one.
An [Enchanting] of 100 is high, but it was still only around the top 1% of all enchanters, so it wasn’t that unreasonable. There were probably a good five hundred of them. [Magic Stone Fabrication] at 50. A little more steep because of the material costs, but there were still a few dozen across the Kingdom who practiced it.
…[Evocation Magic] above level 100 and either [Healing Magic] or [Holy Magic] above 100.
Yeah that would probably be the killer among those who had already spent their talent points training [Enchanting] and [Magic Stone Fabrication].
“Alright then, here. Take these and spend tonight training up your Class Skills.” Scarlet said, reaching into her pouch and starting to pull out several magic regeneration pendants, belts and gloves, each with a large crystal inside of them. She also brought out the self-restoring mana storage crystals. “Just scatter these around your room and they will charge themselves after a few days. Oh, and I guess your friends will be needing some too. And until you guys are up to Tier 4, you’re all on crossbow duty, so take these.”
The Prince, his two lackeys and Chad looked over the equipment that Scarlet dumped onto the table and struggled to find the right words. Chad was the first one to take a stab at being articulate.
“Ugh?” He asked.
“Do you need some too? If so, just ask. We’ll all be in the same party, so one of us being stronger is good for all of us. You use a broadsword, right?” Scarlet asked, starting to dig through her bag, retrieving a black sword with a strange weave-like pattern and glowing red lines, several small magic crystals embedded inside of its guard.
“Still think you’d ever be able to repay your debts?” Charles said with a raised eyebrow at the Prince. Able to visibly see the numbers running through the tiny boy’s eyes as he struggled to calculate just how much the items he had been given were worth.
Since Isaka had been able to pass the practical magic requirement himself, they now had everything they needed to enter into the Labyrinth, and were making arrangements for when they would meet for their first dive, when someone else ran up to the table.
“Excuse me. Are you still recruiting?” Both Charles and Isaka were astonished to see Lloyd standing there, holding out the paper they had put up that morning on the notice board and looking as though he had sprinted from there as soon as he found it. “I would like to join, if that would be alright.”
The Prince and Charles exchanged glances before nodding as one, and before Scarlet could welcome him aboard, Isaka spoke up. “While we won’t be turning strong people away, perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private.”
“Indeed.” Charles nodded his agreement as he stood up. “We can take an empty classroom.”
“Of course. Lead the way.” Lloyd said with a sigh of relief, seeming to have been worried that he would be turned away from the start.
Scarlet didn’t understand what this was about, but followed along regardless.
She hoped that whatever it was won’t take too long. She needed to make more mana storage crystals to replace the ones she had given away.