You need gear to explore a dungeon.
Thanks to Professor Hephaestus from the Production Department, I’d gotten my hands on a pair of protective gloves,
but I still needed to gather the rest of my equipment on my own.
‘Good thing Uncle gave me that allowance… I shouldn’t need to worry about money.’
If I hadn’t received that, I would’ve had to dive into a dungeon without proper gear.
Feeling grateful to Kaisel, I headed toward the weekend market district.
There was a pretty large ranger equipment shop there.
But the moment I stepped inside…
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s my line.”
I locked eyes with Helios, who was tidying up the shelves.
He wasn’t wearing his usual school uniform. His clothes clearly marked him as a store clerk.
“You working part-time here or something?”
“…”
Helios scowled at my question.
“Us commoners have to earn not just our tuition but our living expenses too. Unlike you nobles who get everything handed to you.”
“I don’t get a single coin from home.”
“What?”
“My family went bankrupt.”
“…”
“My dad messed up some investments. I don’t even have a home to go back to.”
Helios’s eyes flickered for a moment.
Then, with an awkward expression, he turned his head.
“R-really? I had no idea…”
That reaction was unexpected.
Maybe he’s got a decent heart under that prickly exterior?
“I’m not hurting for money though. I’ve got plenty of scholarships.”
“You little…!”
Helios glared at me like he was ready to explode.
“So what are you doing here, huh? Came to pick a fight?”
“It’s a ranger gear shop. Obviously, I came to buy ranger gear.”
“You? Why?”
“Because I’ve got temporary ranger certification now.”
“…!”
That’s right.
As of yesterday, I officially had my ranger qualifications.
Now I could enter and exit dungeons freely.
“Wait… did you get Professor Kaisel’s endorsement?”
“Yep.”
“Of course you did…”
Helios sighed and scratched his head.
“Fine. So what do you need?”
“Honestly? I’m not sure. I was planning to ask the clerk.”
Just like how you can’t truly master magic just by reading books, you can’t fully grasp ranger know-how through reading either.
A lot of knowledge was passed down directly between rangers in the field.
“All right, then. I’ll help you out.”
“You will?”
“My family’s been rangers for generations. I’ve already got my ranger certification too.”
“Huh. I didn’t know that.”
I didn’t expect any freshmen to already be certified rangers.
“First of all, you need basic protective gear before you go into a dungeon. But you can actually use our school uniform for that.”
“Our school uniform’s good enough?”
“It’s a high-quality piece made by the Production Department, designed for a variety of situations. It’s more effective than most standard protective gear.”
“In that case…”
“Next most important thing is your footwear. You’ll need shoes that can handle all kinds of terrain.”
Surprisingly, Helios was thorough and helpful.
He showed me various pieces of gear—shoes and beyond—and explained in detail why each was necessary.
He really was a textbook example of a ranger family kid.
“This should be enough to get you started. Given your budget, buy the most important stuff first.”
“Then I’ll buy everything you recommended.”
“I said buy the essentials first!”
“It’s fine. I’ve got money right now.”
“Didn’t you say your family went bankrupt? How are you—scholarships alone can’t cover this.”
“My uncle gave me some allowance recently.”
“…You brat…”
Helios gave me a death glare but ended up sighing and slumping his shoulders.
“Whatever. You’re a paying customer—I can’t say anything more.”
“Do you work around this time often? I kinda want to come back when you’re here.”
“Don’t!”
Grumbling, Helios rang up the purchases.
“But wait—you’ve got ranger qualifications too. Why not just go into a dungeon and earn money that way?”
“Don’t have anyone to go in with.”
“You need a partner?”
“The rule is, you have to go in as a team of at least two. Rookies like us get stopped at the entrance if we try to go in alone.”
“Huh, I didn’t know that.”
“Dungeons are full of unpredictable situations. You need at least one partner to cover your back.”
“Hm…”
“Once you’re proven to be competent, they’ll let you do solo explorations. But not in the beginning.”
Now that I thought about it, the novel I’d read also had the protagonist enter dungeons with companions at first.
“I think in one scene from a novel I read, the main character broke his leg and had to lean on a teammate to escape the dungeon.”
“Exactly. And if there’s only two of you in that kind of situation, the whole party gets paralyzed. That’s why having at least three is ideal.”
So, basically, I couldn’t go into a dungeon without at least one partner.
“Hey, Helios.”
“What?”
“When do you get off work?”
“Why do you wanna know?”
Helios narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
And I made a suggestion.
“How about exploring a dungeon with me?”
“No way!”
He turned me down without hesitation.
“Damn it… Why am I stuck with a guy like you.”
Helios grumbled beside me.
Though he initially refused, I eventually managed to persuade him to come into the Labyrinth with me.
As a financially struggling student, he couldn’t afford to pass up the chance to earn money in a dungeon.
“You don’t know any other Rangers besides me anyway.”
“Isn’t that the same for you?”
“Exactly. That’s why we should be partners and go in together.”
“This sucks…”
He kept grumbling, but Helios never said he was backing out of the party.
“Eriol, just so you know—I don’t like you.”
“I figured.”
“It’s that attitude that makes me dislike you even more.”
I didn’t really care to be on Helios’s good side either.
He was the one who started with hostility in the first place.
Right now, I was only teaming up with him because it was the smart thing to do.
“Anyway, let’s get our entry registered first.”
Helios entered the management office near the entrance of the Labyrinth.
He submitted his credentials and went through the procedures for entry approval.
“You’ll find requests from mages posted on that board over there.”
“Like ‘collect these materials by a certain date’ and that sort of thing?”
“Yeah, you’ve done your homework.”
The bulletin board was plastered with request slips from top to bottom.
“A lot of the materials mages need for their research are rare and hard to find in regular markets. They usually have to be gathered from dungeons, but they often can’t go themselves. So they hire Rangers like us instead.”
“I’ve heard there are mages who are so busy they practically live in their labs.”
“There are monster extermination and map-making requests too, but the basic ones are usually resource collection like this.”
Helios reached out his hand as he spoke.
“Out of the requests here, one that’s suitable for your level would be… this one.”
He pointed to a slip.
It was a request to collect 20 Amethyst Flowers.
“Requests for Amethyst Flowers are pretty common. That’s because…”
“They wither quickly, so you have to collect them fresh from the dungeon whenever they’re needed.”
“You really did your homework.”
I remembered reading about them in the botany manual.
“They grow all over the dungeon, so they should be easy to find. It’s a good request to gain experience with. Let’s take this one today.”
“All I have to do is write my Ranger ID on the request slip, right?”
“Yeah, once you do, it’s officially assigned to us.”
We used the special pen attached to the board and wrote in our IDs.
The paper flashed, signaling that no one else could now take on the request.
“All right, let’s head in. You’ve got your gear, right?”
“Exactly how you packed it for me.”
“Damn, can’t believe a rookie like you has better gear than me…”
Still grumbling, Helios took the lead and guided me forward.
He might actually be the type to look out for others more than he lets on.
The entrance we took was different from the one I used last time with Professor Klein.
After passing through a damp cave with groundwater running along the floor, a grassy field opened up before us.
“Seems like we’re in a low-monster zone. Still, don’t let your guard down.”
Helios kept a sharp eye on our surroundings.
“Eriol, you haven’t had any real combat experience yet, have you?”
“Besides the mock battle last time, none.”
“Just so you know, real fights with monsters are nothing like simulations. And I doubt you’ve gone through full combat training yet. If a monster shows up, we’re going to run.”
“But you’ve got real experience, right? So we don’t necessarily have to run.”
“I’m adjusting for your sake.”
He said that and started walking ahead again.
“Hey, Helios. I want to ask something.”
“What?”
“We don’t have to register the request in advance, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, even if we don’t register before entering, we can still fulfill a request by just bringing back the item, right?”
“What are you—?”
“I thought I saw something like that on the board earlier.”
As Helios gave me a puzzled look, I raised my hand.
And pointed toward a certain insect peeking out from the bushes.
“I think there was a request for a mantis foreleg or something.”
“…!”
A massive mantis was lurking in the bushes, clearly watching us.
It was about the size of a person, with yellow stripes—exactly like the Deadly Mantis I’d seen in the monster encyclopedia.
“Damn it, fall back!”
Helios clicked his tongue and stepped back quickly.
The Deadly Mantis was a carnivorous monster that hunted other smaller creatures with its saw-like forelegs. It even preyed on humans, so the safest response upon encountering one was to flee.
“Hey, Helios.”
But I grabbed his arm.
“Why should we run?”
“Didn’t you hear me earlier? If a monster shows up, we run!”
“I never actually agreed to that plan.”
“What?”
“You’ve got the top-ranked freshman and the second-ranked freshman here. You think we need to run from one monster?”
“…!”
Helios stared at me, visibly shaken.
“Helios, you’ve got the experience, so I’ll leave the judgment to you.”
“Eriol, you…”
“You think the two of us can’t take down one mantis?”
“…”
While we were talking, the Deadly Mantis slowly crept out of the bushes.
It looked like it had given up on ambushing us and was switching to a full frontal assault.
“Seriously… You’re such a pain.”
But Helios didn’t even glance at the Mantis.
He just scowled at me.
“Hey, Eriol.”
At that moment—
Sparks crackled from Helios’s fingertips.
“I’m not responsible if you die.”
“Don’t worry.”
I responded as I began casting my spell.
Drawing power from the element of fire, I prepared elemental magic.
“I’ll take care of my own life.”
“Show-off…”
As the Deadly Mantis charged at us with its sharp, insectoid movements—
Helios’s lightning magic and my fire spell erupted at the same time.
