The following evening, Vincent arrived at Training Ground 1B. There were already dozens of people waiting around when he arrived. When he studied everyone there, they were also doing the same. Many recognized him as the top first-year and immediately felt hostile towards him; he did blow them off during the welcoming ceremony after all.
Not too far off, a group consisting of the leaders of the Dungeon Exploration Society were busy explaining the process of the event and signing up new members. A large banner was erected with the prizes of the event; the top spot was a 100 CP for the group that obtains the most points.
“They aren’t here yet?” Vincent looked around the area for the three stooges, but couldn’t find them.
At another end of the waiting area, William and his party also gathered. Sophia was a second-year student, but since she never participated in any of the Dungeon Exploration Society’s events, she was thrown into the first-year group. She kept a positive attitude when she heard about the event even though she wasn’t much for crawling through monster-infested labyrinths.
“Are you sure there’s no danger?” She asked for the twentieth time.
“It’s only a beginner level practice dungeon; there shouldn’t be anything dangerous. Even if there are, you got me here. I’ll protect you.” William confidently replied and struck his chest.
“Yo! I’ve got our lot. We’ll be the 14th group to go, so we got some time to kill.” A handsome youth called out as he joined William’s group of three. The fourth person was a dainty red-haired girl off to the side.
“Thanks, Alec.” Alec rubbed his head innocently as he kept his eyes trained on Sophia. “Sophia, don’t worry. I’ll also be there to protect you if anything were to happen.” Sophia felt some discomfort when she saw his honest and direct intentions, but chose to remain silent.
Suddenly, off to the side, she saw a familiar youth with silver hair and an aloof aura. Sophia’s eyes brighten a little as the corners of her mouth arced up ambiguously. However, when she saw him walk over to a particular girl with a mole under her eye, she felt her chest ache.
“What are you looking at?” asked William.
“Nothing.” Sophia bitterly turned around and stormed off.
“Do you think she’s still worried?” Alec asked with concern.
“I’m not sure either. Why don’t you go check on her?” answered William.
Since the three stooges haven’t arrived yet, he decided to approach Aya and get the registration procedures over with. When he approached, she was still surrounded by plenty of infatuated men trying to monopolize her attention.
“Hey,” Vincent called out. Aya’s head perked up at his voice, and she began to search around for him. When their eyes met, Aya broke out in a happy smile, eliciting a couple gasps from the crowd.
“Did you manage to find a party?” She asked as she made her way over. The men surrounding her parted like the Red Sea before Vincent and Aya.
“Yes, I have.” Vincent ignored the various hostile looks shot his way, his demeanor calm and steady like a natural gigolo.
Aya made a playful show of peeking behind him before asking, “Where are they? It can’t be that they ran off after taking your money?” She giggled and patted his shoulder.
“You’re real funny.” Vincent replied back, “But it’s my old friends.” Just as he was saying so, Lionel and his group swaggered on over.
“Hey, Playboy! I came just like I said I would.” Lionel made a show as he patted Vincent’s shoulder like a subordinate. When he saw the woman in front of Vincent, his eyes flashed like lightning.
“Good, you made it on time,” said Vincent. “I was starting to think I’ve been let down.”
“No problem, Playboy. We’re brothers, if you’re ever in need of help, we’ll always be here for you. Right guys?” Lionel turned over to Karl and Samson.
“Y-yes, Lionel.”
“*Nom* Where’s the food?”
“Here.” Vincent took out a packed lunch and handed the largest pack to Karl, who immediately opened it and began feasting.
Aya was left dumbfounded staring at the eccentric group assembled before her eyes. One of them looked cold, lazy, and aloof. Another was proud, arrogant, and domineering. The smallest in the group looked cowardly, paranoid, and jittery. Finally, the last one looked carefree, obedient, and hungry. It was strange to see four people with such different personalities gathered together.
“This is your group?” Aya asked Vincent, not knowing whether or not she should laugh. Vincent was about to answer, but Lionel interrupted.
“*Cough* It might be Playboy that invited us, but I am more fit to be the leader of our group.”
Aya’s brow perked up at Lionel’s reply as she asked Vincent one more time, “Really?”
Vincent really didn’t care, so he shrugged. He was just interested to see how the MC’s party turned out. Everything seemed normal and according to the script. William has already met Alec Lennings and Faris Nightingale, these two people made up the core members of William’s group along with Sophia. With his curiosity satisfied, he was only there to enjoy himself.
Aya felt disappointed at his noncommittal answer but chose to move on to a different topic. “Since you’re all here, then here you go.” She handed Vincent a pamphlet and also a lot, they were in the 15th position to go through the beginner practice dungeon.
“Ha! Something like this, we don’t need it.” Lionel scoffed as he looked over Vincent’s shoulder at the pamphlet.
“I suggest you read it; it could provide some useful information.” Aya looked at Vincent’s aloof expression one more time before going over to help another group that just arrived.
Now that they were by themselves, Lionel finally had time to ask Vincent a few things.
“Who’s that girl? Is she yours? Did you two already do it?” Lionel shot a handful of questions in Vincent’s way.
Vincent grew a bit irritated and answered, “No. Her name is Aya Hana, and she’s not an object that belongs to anyone. I also suggest you stay away from her; it’s for your own good.”
Lionel felt like he was threatened and stubbornly puffed up his chest, “And what if I don’t do as you say?”
“Then start digging out your grave, because you won’t know how you’ll die,” Vincent warned. Aya may look like an easy girl, but everything surrounding her was like smoke and mirrors.
“Sheesh, calm down, Playboy. Since when did you get so attached to a girl?” Lionel backed off after seeing such a side of Vincent. “So how are we going to tackle this dungeon?”
“I thought you said we don’t need the guiding pamphlet?”
“Naturally, because we got you, we don’t need the pamphlet.” Lionel shot back.
Vincent let out a sigh before saying, “Just go gather the two that wandered off while I look over the pamphlet.”
Not long later they all gathered again. Samson was the first to speak once they regrouped.
“Vincent, I checked with the gambling bookie for this small event, and it looks like the odds are 5:1 of us winning first place,” Samson said through an excited voice. “The odds for other parties were in the 1.4:1 range. I don’t think anyone expects us to place first.” Samson was usually a cowardly person, but when it came to money, he always spoke with confidence.
“Don’t tell me…” Lionel began to say.
“Samson…” Even Vincent felt a bit frustrated.
“I bet 25 CP on us taking first place!” said Samson gleefully. Vincent and Lionel smacked their foreheads. Samson might act confident when it came to money, but he was a well-known gambling addict. He lost more times than he had won.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Vincent shot back before continuing, “Since we’re at this point, we’ll decide on roles for each of us.”
“Roles?”
“Yes, in dungeon exploration, each person has a designated role in the party. It’s to streamline the activities of the people in an expedition. The Dungeon Exploration Society taught these kinds of things to train prospective adventurers. The pamphlet has all this information. Now there are four of us here, so I’ll give each of us a role.”
“Why do you get to decide our roles? Isn’t it up to me, the leader, to decide your roles?” Lionel furrowed his brow.
“Hear me out, if you don’t like the roles I gave each of us, you can change it,” Vincent said. After hearing no arguments, he continued, “Samson, you’ll be in charge of mapping out the dungeon. You’re taking a course in cartography right?”
“R-right. I’ll do it.”
“Karl.” Vincent turned to Karl, he was off to the side nibbling on a jerky. “You’re in charge of our supplies. Make sure to protect it along with our food.”
“I’ll protect food with my life.” Karl stood up and at attention upon hearing the severity of his task.
“Finally, Lionel. You are our leader, so you can’t do any of the minor stuff. For you, I’ve delegated the most important role.”
Lionel’s ears perked up and asked, “That’s what I like to hear. What’s my role?”
“You will be our vanguard. You will be our first line of defense along with being tasked to protect Samson and Karl. Do you like it?”
“Hahaha! Good job, Playboy. That’s exactly like how I pictured it. A strong and proud warrior like me protecting the weak by fighting in the frontlines. As the leader of our group, I commend you.” Lionel patted Vincent’s shoulder, bellowing with cheerful laughter. He didn’t notice that Vincent had a villainous smile on his face since Vincent had bent over.
“Finally, I’ll take over the role of scouting. It’s a dangerous task, but someone has to do it.” Vincent shrugged and played it off as if he had no other choice.
Since they sorted out their roles and prepped for it, they lined up. By this time, many groups have already gone through the dungeon and came out on the other side. The leaders of the Dungeon Exploration Society withheld the points each party obtained were waiting until everyone has gone through before tallying up the points.
Since they were lined up, Lionel’s party was next to William’s party. William’s party were going through the motions of their roles when they explore the practice dungeon when they saw Vincent and his party walk on over.
“Isn’t that William? The guy that lost to you in the rankings?” Lionel’s loud mouth couldn’t rest one second as he incited William’s attention and anger as soon as they came closer.
“We won’t know how long Vincent will maintain his top ranked position. I’ll let you show it off for now, but don’t get too comfortable.” William derisively said as he got his group and entered the dungeon.
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“Damn, Playboy. Does everybody hate your guts?”
“…” No one would think you’re mute if you don’t speak. Vincent wanted to smack the loudmouth, but remained still.
“How well do you think you’ll do?” Aya asked as she approached.
“Not too bad.” Vincent wasn’t confident.
“What the hell? We’re going to beat everyone. Have more confidence in me.” Lionel intruded in their conversation.
“See?” Vincent grimaced, eliciting a look of pity from Aya.
“Ah! It looks like it’s your turn. Good luck!” Aya clapped her hand and started pushing them toward the door. “Try to at least beat the average time of 15 minutes!”
As soon as they entered the mock dungeon, the entrance closed behind them. For this practice trial, they were handed a few equipments by the club. For starters, they were given lamps that could be lit. They weren’t anything fancy, they just used oil as fuel. The fancier ones would use a light shard as an energy source.
Since it’s just a short dungeon, aside from a lamp, they were made to carry standard gear that they would utilize in a real situation; Karl also had to carry an extra 40kg of weight to act as the supply carrier, to which he could hardly notice with his bulky frame. Samson was also issued a paper and writing utensils to draw a map.
“Okay, I’ll take the lead. You guys follow about 10 meters behind me.” Vincent’s demeanor changed at the drop of a dime. His usual aloof and cold nature swapped into a calculative and alert attitude.
“Just because you’re a scout doesn’t mean we’ll have to listen to your commands.” Lionel was the first rebut as he pointed in a different direction. “Let’s go down that way. That’s the right direction.” The path split up in two directions.
“Does it really matter which direction we take?” Vincent asked.
“It does. Just trust me, my intuition is usually right.” Lionel confidently went on ahead.
“Lionel! W-wait!” Samson seemed to notice something and was speaking up when the floor dropped out from underneath Lionel.
“Wahhhh~!”
*Splash!*
Everyone ran over and peered over the edge.
“You okay down there?” asked Vincent with an amused smirk on his face. Vincent had noticed the trap as soon as they stepped into the corridor. There was a pressure plate hidden underneath the stone tile. Down below a sputtering youth crawled out of the waist-high water and climbed back up.
“Pu! Pu! They should change the water at the very least!” complained Lionel. The stale stench of the water reeked as he tried hard not to gag. “Why are you just standing there? Pull me up!”
“Now that you’ve had your fun, just let me do my job.” Vincent harshly reprimanded and started leading the way. This time, Lionel didn’t argue and just silently fumed as he followed.
With Vincent leading the way, they didn’t have many troubles. One time they came upon a small trap that blocked off the path behind them as soon as they opened a door. The trap’s intention was the separate the group, but with Vincent’s timely help and expertise they were quickly able to retreat before they were separated. Another instance, Vincent pulled back Karl who had unknowingly fell for a booby-trapped cake.
The traps weren’t deadly nor did they differentiate much from each other. There was only so much the club leaders could do to set up harmless traps; otherwise they would scare away potential club members after their first event of the year. Not long later, Vincent and his motley group of eccentric individuals exited from the other end of the dungeon.
“Good going back there, Samson. If you didn’t tell me about the dead end earlier, we would’ve wasted another couple minutes backtracking.” Vincent praised Samson generously; out of the trio, Samson was the most useful.
“I helped too,” muttered Lionel while kicking away a pebble by his foot.
“Your time was 14 minutes and 34 seconds.” A club member called out as Vincent’s group walked by. They went over to the table and handed over their map.
“Wow, who was the person that drew this map?” A student asked, looking at Vincent. The excited youth drew the attention of the surrounding club members, so they came over and also looked at the map.
“Brad, can you pull out the blueprint?” A leader-like club member asked another.
“Right away.” The student in question then rummaged around a few files and pulled out a neat map nearly identical to Samson’s map.
“Amazing… It’s nearly a perfect copy.” The club leader complimented the attention to detail that Samson paid to trap placement on the map. “It says here, ‘Karl ate all our food.’ Why would you write this?”
“T-that’s because…” Samson paused and hesitated before continuing, “Once Karl runs out of food, he starts throwing a tantrum.”
The club leader still didn’t understand, which was very obvious just from looking at his confused expression. Vincent mentally facepalmed and began to explain the meaning behind Samson’s words.
“When Karl throw’s a food tantrum, it’s tough to get him to do what we say. In this case, he ran off in a different direction in the dungeon and somehow found some cake in the dungeon.”
“Oh! The cake! Haha!” The leader snapped back in laughter, “Did you like our little present?”
Vincent didn’t find it as amusing as everyone else and frowned. “Putting itching powder on the cake was a disgusting idea.”
“””Hahahaha~!””” Everyone gathered there started laughing.
“The itching powder only made Karl hungrier.”
*GROWWWL~!*
“…”
“…”
“Can I go get food now?” Karl complained.
“Go! Just go!” Lionel started shoving Karl away from the crowd, his ears red from embarrassment.
“Hehe…” The club leader scratched his head awkwardly, not knowing whether to be impressed or scared of Karl’s stomach. “Why don’t you guys get some rest, we’ll announce the scores after the rest have gone through.”
“Understood.” Vincent nodded and walked off and rested nearby. Samson also nervously came over and stood near Vincent. Since Lionel went off with Karl to look for a food stall, Samson was stuck in an awkward position with Vincent.
One year passed since the last time Vincent talked with any of them. In that one year, Samson felt that Vincent had changed into a different person. The Vincent of the past often leered at women lasciviously his lustful intent very apparent on his face. Now, Vincent became very cold and distant. This distant attitude felt arrogant, but this was a different kind of arrogance compared to Lionel; it was like Vincent always had his eyes staring far off into the horizon. This change made Samson unsure of what was going through Vincent’s mind, and this unknown caused Samson to be wary and respectful of the new Vincent.
“How… Do you think we d-did?” Samson began to speak, he placed a lot on them winning.
Vincent stayed quiet for a bit longer before answering, “Does it matter how well we did?”
“…” Samson didn’t understand Vincent’s words.
“Right now, you three could hardly be considered to compete alongside everyone else. What you should be asking yourself is: ‘How well did I think I did?’.”
“So you mean?” Samson’s eyes widened. “You did this for us?”
“You can take it however you like.” Vincent shrugged and turned away.
Samson felt his heartbeat quicken as a feeling of camaraderie blossomed within him. Since Vincent had changed, he had thought Vincent no longer cared about them, but now…
“We’re back.” Lionel yelled out as they came over. Karl was following behind with a handful of candied snacks. “How did we do?”
“We’re about to find out,” replied Vincent.
“Everyone gather around!” The club leader from earlier began shouting, calling everyone in the surrounding to go over to the table. The other club leaders and club members also gathered. Aya was amongst the crowd as she stood up front beside and other club leaders.
“First of all, I would like to thank everyone here for taking time out of their lives to attend out Dungeon Exploration Society’s small event.” Everyone clapped. “Furthermore, we have tallied up every parties’ scores and came to a consensus on the three winners of the event. Fourth-year Aya Hana will reveal the top three groups. Everyone, give her a hand!”
*Clap Clap Clap*
“Thank you, everyone.” Aya waited for a long while until the cat-calling and whistling quieted down before continuing, “First, I’d like to explain our scoring system for this event to clarify any confusion that everyone might have. If you’ve looked through the handouts that were passed around you may already know them.”
“The scoring system was in the pamphlet? Why didn’t you tell us?” Lionel frowned and asked Vincent.
“You said you didn’t need it.” Vincent shrugged and ignored the rest of Lionel’s complaints.
“There are three categories that we used to score each group: time, trap detection, and mapping. For time, it’s out of 100 points, with the fastest time scoring 100 and any time slower than that being a percentage of the fastest time. Trap detection is a bit different. Points were given depending on actions taken for traps that groups encountered. If a group disabled a trap, they earned 5 points. If a trap was set off on purpose, they earned 3 points. If a trap was found and circumvented, 2 points. Finally, if a trap was triggered, they earn 1 point.”
“Why would we earn points for triggering a trap?” A person in the crowd wondered.
“I can answer that.” A leader stepped out. “What we look for is for our members to earn experience dealing with traps. Even if a trap was triggered by someone and they ended up in an embarrassing state, they still have their lives since this was a training session. We want our members to embrace the knowledge that they learned by making a mistake, but at the same time remembering not to commit the same mistake for next time. So we encourage everyone to encounter as many different types of traps as they can during training. Does that answer your question?”
“...” The crowd remained silent. Everyone was silent in deference to the leader’s foresight.
“Well, another reason was that it was amusing watching everyone falling for gag traps.”
“Hey!”
“Asshole!”
“So that’s the real reason behind it! Give us our goodwill back!”
“Now~ everyone calm down.” Aya calmed the crowd after their outburst. “Moving on. Our third criteria for scoring everyone was in the ability of the map that each group managed to make. The more detailed the map, the higher the score. Now that everyone knows our grading criteria let’s move on to our top three groups!”
*Clap Clap Clap*
“In third place we have… Group 4! With a total of 188 points” Everyone started clapping while a handsome youth got walked up and shook hands with the leaders. “Third place will receive a free tutoring session with our leaders on dungeon exploring. They will also be given the opportunity to join in with alumni from the academy in a tour through a conquered dungeon.”
“How envious.” Samson whined, “Think of all the things they may find in a real dungeon. How much do you think it’ll sell for?”
“Pfft! It’s just a conquered dungeon, the most it could have are just weakened beasts to kill. How much could you earn from a slime?” Lionel brushed it off and snorted derisively.
“Next we have our second place winner! They scored a whopping 244 points out of a possible 300 points. They also clocked in the fastest time of 12 minutes and 10 seconds. Everyone, welcome Group 14 to the front!”
Vincent looked disturbed as he saw William awkwardly stood up and went up to Aya. William reached out and shook her hand, his gaze trained on her peerless face as he refused to let go.
“Student William, you can let go now.” Aya politely reminded as every man leered at William with malicious intentions.
“Ah, sorry about that.” William grew flustered and released her hand and shook the other leader’s hands.
“For our second place winner, they will also be receiving the rewards that Group 4 got along with an additional prize of five meal tickets each to use at any academy cafeteria.”
“What?! What a great prize.” Karl mumbled as his eyes grew serious. He turned to Vincent and said, “We gotta try harder next time.” Vincent was speechless since Karl was the one who held them back the most.
“Ooo~… This isn’t looking too good…” Samson nervously nibbled on his nails, he could see his 25 CP bet flying away right before his eyes.
“Finally, our first place winner.” Aya showed a mischievous smile as she looked over at Vincent. “With a total of 252 points, this group barely clinched first place. Let’s all welcome Group 15!” Vincent was about to walk up, but then Lionel held him back.
“What are you doing? I’m the party leader. Remember?”
“Oh, that’s right.” Vincent coldly smiled and looked back at Aya; she was confused when Vincent stepped back.
Lionel strut over to the desk much to the disapproval of everyone present.
“Why the hell is he here?”
“Lionel and his cronies got first place? Was it rigged?”
“Most likely, the son of Baron Richard, Lionel Richard was rumored to have bought out an apparel store just to burn their clothes saying that the clothes were trash.”
“Hmph! You’re all just envious of my magnificence.” Lionel harrumphed, inciting the ire of everyone there. Vincent breathed out a tired sigh while Samson was dazed from winning his gamble.
“*Cough* Student Lionel, please accept your reward.” Aya held out her hand.
“Naturally.” Lionel fixed his collar and grabbed her hand and gave it a kiss.
“…”
“How presumptuous!”
“Trying to one-up all of us single men? Do you dare to face the consequences?”
Vincent unexpectedly furrowed his brow. Lionel paid no attention as he straightened up and asked, “I give you my permission to go out with me.”
“Damn, this man got guts.” Vincent coldly chuckled. He didn’t know why he was irritated. The other men in the crowd started swearing and calling for Lionel’s head. How dare he act so snobbish in front of their goddess?
“I would have to decline, Student Lionel.” Aya glanced at Vincent before turning back and adding, “There’s already someone else I have in mind.”
“OHHHH!”
“What?!”
“Is this true, Goddess?! Who is it? I promise I won’t kill him!”
Lionel was also stunned and felt bitter resentment at the lucky guy that Aya fell for. Since he was a handsome man, there are more girls out there willing to throw themselves at his feet, so he didn’t feel too bad and just laughed.
“I understand, you love someone else. People make mistakes sometimes, but let me warn you. I won’t wait for you.” Lionel coolly recovered from his rejection and incited even more disdain, something that came naturally to him.
“Anyways, for our first place winner, they will receive all the previous reward along with a whopping 100 CP split amongst them!” Aya could feel the mood dropping so she quickly concluded the event and bid everyone a good night.
Lionel returned to everyone with his rewards in hand. After splitting up the 100 CP, everyone received their portion of the prize and got ready to leave. Samson also cheerfully danced circles around the group while checking the CP he earned from his well-placed bet on his ID badge.
“How did it feel to be rejected by a beauty?” asked Vincent with a smirk.
“I wasn’t rejected. I never asked her out in the first place. I gave her the chance to ask ME out. Too bad she doesn’t know what’s best for her.” Lionel haughtily shrugged.
“Whatever you say.” Vincent felt a sense of relief and also went back to his residence.
Off to the side, William was glaring at Vincent.
“Why do I keep losing to him? He’s just trash that takes advantage of his position.” He mumbled angrily to himself. He didn’t know when, but he had already started seeing Vincent as a rival that he refused to lose to. He wanted to show that a person doesn’t need status to rise up in the world. Just because Vincent was born into a higher starting point in life didn’t mean he couldn’t be surpassed by someone less fortunate.
“It’s okay, William.” Alec comforted his pal, “He might’ve just gotten lucky. Anyways, something like this won’t tell us much about whether he’ll succeed in an actual dungeon.”
“…” William breathed deeply and calmed down, “You’re right. Thanks, Alec.”
“Oh right, I heard that Vincent has been ditching class since day 1. What do you think he has been doing in that time?”
“He’s not going to classes?” William’s curiosity was aroused.
“Yea. Do you think he’s spending these few days messing with women outside?” Alec’s tone grew sinister like a resentful woman who chanced upon a juicy piece of gossip.
“If he thinks just because he’s ranked first, that he could take it easy, then I’m disappointed in him.” William shook his head in disgust and left.
“Right? You shouldn’t care about trash like that. Just focus on yourself.” Alec chuckled and left with him.