I closed my eyes and breathed in once.

Okay. I can do this. Just begin with self-derision. That's easy.

"Heh. It's true, it is easy", I mused to myself, feeling my less-insane smile coming back.

I returned to the raid party wearing that softer smile.

"Haha, sorry sorry, I came up with some ideas to test back in Hawaii. Mai tais and sunsets really are amazing for creativity. Thanks Angela, I was holding everyone up. That's why we pay you the big bucks!"

The raid group was a mix of incredulousness and admiration at my quick clear of the mobs. Yeonhwa was certainly in the latter group. Well, the best way to deal with regenerating monsters was to simply kill them outright, after all.. Thankfully, Angela knew my telltale signs and could prevent me from being too much of an idiot in public. She had stopped me before the group could tell the strangeness of my actions for certain. Jack was unsurprisingly sighing like he was watching a kid's tantrum. Jack, did I raise you so wrongly? Still, I had full faith he would have done the same as Angela in a couple more hundred milliseconds.

"Did reality show you my coolness again?", I teased while patting him on the shoulder.

"Hah, why don-", he began before a voice interrupted.

"Ahh! Blacklight in person!!", Yeonhwa squealed. "It's literally black light! Waaa!!"

Holy shit, girl. Can you fucking not!

Despite my internal worries, the raid erupted in laughter at her terminal case of fangirling, breaking up any other tension in the air, to Yeonhwa's complete embarassment.

Wow, never mind, keep doing you! I should hire you as my PR manager! But, it's not 'literally' black light, though?

Theresa looked at Yeonhwa with a wide grin. "To be honest, it's my second time seeing it, but it's still pretty mesmerizing! Don't be embarassed, haha! Good work, Blacklight!"

Hmm, I quite like the leadership capabilities... maybe Chariot is actually even better than I thought? Or maybe I just liked Theresa…

'I like all sorts of HR violations,' I replied with pride.

With that, we continued through the cavern. I had blown off some steam and showed the raid that I wasn't just a slacker. The inner dungeon mobs seemed to grow in toughness as expected, so I fired off some lasers or bolts every now and then, targeting either tankier targets or annoying shamans. With the amount of B-rankers here – and myself – the difficulty and danger were more like a training course, but I'm not sure if the frontliners felt that way as well.

"Angela. Thanks, you were exactly on time. Err, maybe one more cut though?"

"What are you, a child asking for 5 more minutes? Let's not do anything too ugly, especially in front of Chariot, or rather, especially in front of Yeonhwa", she replied.

"Yeonhwa?", I asked. "And, what do you mean especially?"

"Haaah, maybe I'm being overly protective as her senior. I interviewed her, and I think you already know but she essentially joined Nightless because of you."

"Tsk. But I mean, weren't you and Jack like that as well?"

"It's been nearly two years since then. She, on the other hand, has been dreaming for all that time. How could you compared?", Angela shot back.

"Ugh. You're right", I replied in semi-mock repentance. "In fact, I'm disappointed I even asked that question seriously."

"...You were serious?", Angela responded with slight surprise.

I sighed. Yes. I was typically someone who strove to understand people decently. And yet, I had asked such an obvious question with seriousness.

"Well, okay. You've just got back from Hawaii and now it's time to readjust to the game, right? Don't worry about it. I've got you. Both Jack and I."

She smiled warmly. Looking at her soothing eyes, I cough out a half-laugh in slight self-derision. Just slight.

"Thanks, boo. It's why we pay you the big bucks", I smile back.

"Pfft. Big bucks? Who are you talking to? Couldn't be me."

"Though I do have to ask… can't I just be not-nice? Wouldn't it be better to jade the unjaded faster? Fuck happy people, right? I don't have to deal with that?"

"..."

…Couldn't be me.

***

I couldn't tell if it was fortunate or unfortunate. The dungeon terminated in a core-infused boss. It was a massive troll, and somehow not the internet kind, although it did 'troll' us out of extra money since the 'correct' response was to immediately subjugate it.

"Okay, everyone knows what to do. The core is fused with a certain Big Ugly. It's our job to free our little Princess Core from it", Theresa said, her tone light yet strong.

It really was that simple. Kill the troll. Free the Prin– core. Core. Well, no, we destroy the core with the troll, there was no such freeing. That would be good money though.

Yes, gates with inert cores were better for the wallet. I sighed. But the power of a core was an investment in oneself! This was the time for self-delusion!

And so, the raiding party began, well, raiding the 'final boss'.

As before, I mostly observed the group, supporting from the rear and paying close attention to Yeonhwa.

'Airi, what do you think of her?'

'Tsk. Airi.'

'Heh. And you left this out at first, why?'

'Yeah, what about my DICK?!'

This fucking trash! At the very least, I had objective measures for that!

'...For?'

'...It's only been one dungeon and I'm in the back. Tsk. Are you?'

I mildly envisioned an image of my brain giving birth, its two hemispheres being parted like –

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

No. No.

"Angela." I called to the mage next to me. She was actually putting in effort, unlike me, who was just having Airi fire off my magic for me.

"Yes?", she replied immediately, despite being busy. How cute… Huh, should I just date my own subordinate? No, I would have to make her my secretary first. Ugh. That was the rule of dating employees, after all, right?

"Evaluate Yeonhwa. I'll output more firepower to cover."

"Eval...? Oh, okay, um...", she sputtered. But she was diligent, and of course she would do it.

It wasn't too hard of a battle, despite the surprisingly large number of mobs surrounding the boss. Theresa even knew some healing magic, and B-rank healing magic was quite the capable utility. Angela could observe in relative quiet.

"She... is good, possibly a bit better than the typical low C-ranker. Um... Err..."

"Her style."

"Her style has... a bit of your… uh, flair."

"Yeah, that's going to hurt like ass."

"Huh? Hurt?"

"One. It's embarassing as fuck, Angela. I'm dying. My habits aren't even good. Who the hell fights like a noob nowadays?"

"Ahahaha, the great Blacklight is dying of embarassment? You must still Nullify the Night!", she laughed at my pain. "Okay, and two?"

"Two. Considering her magic aptitude, I'm wondering if it could be a good thing in the long run."

It was true that I was more of a mage than a warrior, although seeing the reactions of my enemies being dissected alive was quite the thrill. Okay, actual vivisection was possibly more brutal than I would want, but it was fine to have a smidge of fun, right? Just... a pinch.

"I see. You must really like fangirls", Angela spoke, looking at me pitifully. "If you're so thirsty, I do have water for you..."

"Don't I have the beautiful Miss Angela already?", I smirked back.

"You dare to cheat on Airi?"

Haaaaaaaaaaaaa.

'Airi, can I cheat on you?'

Argh!

"I just asked, and she said it was fine", I choked back my frustration.

"Tsk. Imagine if you had the balls to date a real girl. Oh wait, if you could imagine, you'd have had balls already! Ahaha!"

Shit! I should just read manga instead!

Back to 1D. Back. Back, I say!

'Airi, my spirit is bleeding out. Please...'

'...'

It was a cute voice. It was imaginary. Or at least, it was in my head. But still.

'Ohhhhh, fuck yes!!'

This was the true dream!

My spirit instantly healed and I snapped back into the reality of blood and battle.

"Angela. We'll be teaching Yeonhwa the Blacklight system," I stated while trying to look serious.

"Hmm. Immediately…? Okay, let's make sure she doesn't get mutilated first. And, wow, Airi really is an amazing girl isn't she?"

Why mention it! How did you know I was talking with her! I was slightly annoyed at having told Angela about Airi. But of course, I was cursed with honesty.

Ugh.

'Gungnir. Let's just finish.'

The spell casts, regardless of Airi's dumbass commentary, while I giggle with teenage laughter in my head.

A small black orb appears in front of my forehead, where the stereotypical 3rd eye would be. For a moment, our surroundings flicker and brighten, as if it were a digital scene and the artist simply changed the saturation. The black orb simple crackles slightly with electric-ish arcs. A sort of sound thumps out, merely a single rumble, and the orb has suddenly became a rod, connecting its original position into the mouth of the giant troll boss, and beyond. Who knows where it ended.

The beam – which was actually a paraboloid with a small curve if we're being mathematically honest – started angling up, erasing the head of the troll where it they intersected. As if someone erased the flesh in Paint 3D or something. Not that I've ever used that application...

In any case, after the beam fired, it took a couple hundred milliseconds to move to the top of the enemy's head before dissipating. It was a bit slow, especially adding in the slight charging delay. Sigh. And the mana consumption was already higher than acceptable. Forcibly speeding the spell up would... be horrendous. Fuck… sometimes it was really annoying being the only usable lab rat for my own research team.

I felt the weariness spread through my body and spirit. That was massive speed of mana usage, and the mild drunkeness of mana fatigue hit me. Technically, it was called mana 'flux' fatigue, yada yada. Shit, not the time to be unfocused.

My raid group was actually still fighting, since the boss had essentially simply dropped dead out of nowhere. With the number of remaining mobs, the dungeon core's mana tendrils had yet to form.

"...Kai, are you okay?" Angela was the first to notice an anomaly. Ahhh, why is she so good at observing? She needs a bonus!

"Slightly drunk."

"That serious? It was a single spell, wasn't it?"

"Ah, I haven't shown it to you before. Hmm. You can say it's a version of it with not-great efficiency."

"Still, that's kind of insane. Why use it here?"

"It's exactly because it's safe that we should experiment, no?"

"This large of a raid group is 'safe'?"

"Ah, well it's already November. The gloves are off, probably forever."

"...Mmm. Okay."

The battlefield was already clamoring. The remaining trash mobs, even if they were "elites", were dying as if the mere air were killing them, due to losing the power of the core.

Theresa caught on pretty fast, asking if the sudden yet anticlimatic ending was my doing.

"Yeah, I needed to experiment with something. Not going to lie, slightly tipsy right now, haha."

"Oh, so that's what it was! There was some rumble, right? I thought I saw something like the room light up."

Mmm, I'm surprised she didn't catch the black beam. Huh, did I overestimate the duration of the spell?

"But you just saved us valuable effort, so I'm glad it paid off!", she continued. "I wish I could have seen exactly what it was. Next time!"

"Aha, I'll let you know next time. I hope you don't say something like, 'oh... that's a bit small'!" I joked.

It was true. Battles are battles, and every moment was a gamble with death, or at least injury. Even if I were acting leisurely, I was looking out for the group as well. I was still responsible, both for the people around me, and for my actions as the cofounder and vice-leader of Nightless, a 'world-class' guild. In a mid-C gate like this, I should at least try a bit to make the chance of serious injury go to zero.

Despite the growing peace, there were no congratulations yet. One must always be ready, especially at the end of a raid.

The main tank stepped forward to ward off any surprises, with the off tanks covering him.

After several seconds, tendrils of mana started escaping the giant carcass, the sign that the core had been destroyed and that the troll was truly dead. Finally, cheers were in order, and the raiding party joined together once more.

"Kai, you dumb showoff, how are you feeling?", Jack smirked at me.

"Pssh. Listen, sometimes you have to show the newbie what's what", I said, winking at Yeonhwa.

"That really was you? The boss was dead before we even knew it!", Yeonhwa responded with sparkles in her eyes.

Tsk, if only this girl could blush.

'Hush, you. Actually, maybe later, it's not a bad idea.'

"Yeah, I was experimenting with something. Anyway, Yeonhwa, good work this raid. You too, Jack. It was incredible seeing how you had a skill other than just sitting around."

I had the habit of spreading my own suffering. It's called sharing, which is, in fact, caring.

"If you wanted to get drunk, we could have done it back at the guild", he replied. Was it obvious, or did he just randomly say it?

"Drunk?", Yeonhwa asked with mild confusion.

"Tsk, don't confuse my fangirl. Don't worry, I'll explain it later."

"Fan...fangirl?"

Yeonhwa blushed and slightly averted her eyes. Fuck yeah, that's what we're talking about!

"Anyways, let's just get our loot and get the hell out."

Angela wasn't going to simply let me bully the newbie.

The mana tendrils began to be absorbed by the hunters of the group. Not surprisingly, a large chunk of them were absorbed by myself. Something like experience point distribution, although not particularly perfect nor particularly flawed. It wasn't a huge amount of reward considering the power of the gate core itself, but it was a permanent increase to our abilities, without any additional training. Still, a large enough group always had its fair share of immature idiots, and I got a couple of disapproving glances. Was it my fault that it was a simple monster with an obvious weak spot?

Although most of monster flesh would dissipate into god knows where, some of their pieces still remained, with a portion of them even being useful. We threw those into inventories, somewhat splitting it well. It was a normal process by now. Theresa carried a large portion of the materials which weren't easily split. We would first exit the dungeon, then deal with it. The gate thankfully didn't just trap you there if the exit closed with people inside – the inside simply ceased to exist, and the hunters would be thrown back into 'reality' within the vicinity of the gate.

Of course, this "thrown" was exceptionally arbitrary, very annoying, and nauseating. Any sane person would just run back to the mouth of the core, since we had tens of minutes to spare.

And so we did.