Among them, the Thief looked around at everyone in a low voice and threw out a joke.
“Did we have a dress code?”
Even though it wasn’t planned, everyone had come wearing dark-colored cloaks or robes. They even covered their heads. Since the clothes were all similar, they had no choice but to distinguish each other by physique.
The smallest was the Puppeteer. Female, and seemed to have set her height to the minimum.
Next were the Thief and Bard. The Thief had a muscular build just toned enough to not be dull, and the Bard was tall but skinny like a beanpole.
The Paladin was a muscular, reliable-looking young man perfect for that profession.
What’s there to say about the Brawler? He was a giant rivaling Belsus and the only one not covering his body with a cloak.
“Bard-nim, you got an instrument?”
At those words, the Bard looked down at the instrument in his hand. It was a mandolin, not very large.
“Persephone bought it for me.”
Judging by his voice, if you pulled back the Bard’s robe, there would likely be a middle-aged man.
Persephone was the Bard’s partner character, and both were bards. As a famous theater troupe singer from Caseria, the island of arts, she would have the wealth to buy an instrument with her own money.
The Bard stroked the instrument with a pleased smile, but since he was covered by his robe, no one saw that expression.
[Hunt the monsters spawning in the field until the boss appears.]
“Should we all split up?”
The Thief cautiously spoke up.
Right, they weren’t in a situation to have a friendly chat.
Only one of them could win. And they needed to catch even one more monster right away to level up. There was no time to idle around.
The Bard shook his head.
“No. It’s a bit dangerous to be alone. Kaline is somewhere around, after all.”
“Ah…”
They all recalled the crazy royal knight obsessed with killing Hunters to gain experience points.
‘I see. We can’t just compete with whoever’s in front of us.’
The rankers gathered here, who had come alone leaving their characters outside, all seemed ‘for now’ roughly equal.
But Kaline with his cheat-like ability was an exception. If they were alone, they could be targeted by Kaline at any time.
Even though the truth was that Kaline hadn’t killed Belsus…
“Then shall we go in pairs? If we cluster together too much, there’ll be too few monsters per person.”
“We are an odd number though. Should we divide into groups of two and three…”
The Thief, trailing off, suddenly remembered something.
“Oh, wait! Hey, wait there!”
The Thief verbally stopped the mercenary character who was about to leave.
Belsus wondered why an unfamiliar Hunter was calling him. He cautiously moved his steps for now.
While Belsus approached, the rankers quickly finished their discussion.
“We need to protect Belsus too.”
“Right. Kaline might target Belsus too.”
“If Belsus joins us, that makes exactly six people so we can divide up, right?”
“Then who goes with Belsus…?”
Being Korean, they decided on groups very quickly. They’d simultaneously throw out rock, paper, scissors, and if two people threw the same thing, those two would be a team, and if someone was alone, that person would go with Belsus.
Groups were decided in a flash.
Thief, Puppeteer.
Bard, Paladin.
Brawler, Belsus.
Only then did they see Belsus up close and made hushing sounds while gasping.
“He’s holding a sickle…?”
“Don’t tell me he brought that as a weapon?”
Moreover, Belsus’s shabby clothes gave off a musty smell. His hair was disheveled too. His build didn’t seem that thin… but he wore his clothes so haphazardly that it wasn’t clear.
The Thief covered his mouth as if heartbroken. The Brawler was overwhelmed with emotion and felt sorry.
“To bring a sickle because he has no weapon.”
“He looks really starved, right…? Should I give him the bread I have?”
They never even thought the sickle was an enhanced weapon. They didn’t know there existed in this world a crazy person who would enhance a sickle and, by chance, succeed at +6 enhancement and give it to a character as a weapon.
The weapon with the highest enhancement level was, at best, the Puppeteer’s +3 weapon.
There was no way they could figure out that Belsus’s vagrant-like clothes were deliberately dirty clothes his landlord had dressed him in to hide his identity.
“Should we ask how he survived?”
“But he won’t know how we know him, right?”
There was an absolute unspoken rule. Belsus must not find out that they were possessors.
They had to be careful with their words around Belsus as if dealing with a child.
“Then… how about small talk?”
The sociable Thief and the Puppeteer, who could seem harmless thanks to her small build, joined forces. They cautiously approached Belsus.
“Want to go around with us in pairs?”
“This is fate too, and it’d be bad if you suddenly drop dead. Dying in a dungeon is the saddest.”
Belsus, who was about to refuse, clamped his mouth shut. His pushover instinct activated at the Thief and Puppeteer pleading with round, sparkling eyes.
The rankers scattered in all directions.
Even when the Brawler followed him out, Belsus left him be and went his own way. He silently pushed through the jungle-like dense forest.
The Brawler, with a great sense of mission, clenched his knuckle-wearing fists tightly and steeled his resolve.
‘I’ll protect Belsus. Poor bastard.’
The Brawler rummaged through his pocket and pulled out heavily crumpled dried bread.
“Want this bread?”
Belsus thought to himself.
‘It looks rough and tasteless.’
But he didn’t say it in case the Brawler got hurt.
Monsters crawled between the jungle forest. The Brawler smoothly snatched and beat the monster Belsus was about to kill with his knuckles, then pretended not to notice.
“Ehehe…”
When their eyes met, he giggled and evaded.
Belsus couldn’t say anything and sullenly looked for another monster. The same situation repeated whenever he’d forgotten about it.
Actually, Hian was together with them in this dungeon.
And Archer was accompanying him, threatened by Hian into protecting him.
Several kilometers away from where the rankers were. Hian suddenly raised his head and frowned.
“Hey, don’t you hear the sound of someone stealing our kid’s kills?”
“What are you talking about?”
No matter how hard Archer listened, he only heard monster sounds.
Just wait and see. Hian vowed revenge toward the rankers who were definitely somewhere deceiving Belsus.
* * *
[The boss monster will appear in the field in 10 minutes.]
[You will gain experience points proportional to the damage dealt to the boss monster.]
[Additionally, the 1 person who lands the final attack on the boss monster will gain a large amount of experience points.]
The rule of the first dungeon was simple and straightforward: the person who landed the so-called ‘last hit’ would win the experience points lottery.
Soon the boss’s spawn location appeared.
The possessors who had split into two groups had no reason not to go. They naturally merged back together and waited with subtle competitive spirit, though their stance was to attack cooperatively for now.
“It’s a raid. What we always did.”
The Thief grinned as if even finding it fun. His protruding tooth peeked slightly between his thinned lips.
“So now it’s a 5-person… no, with Belsus, a 6-person raid? The composition… Ah.”
The Thief suddenly let out a single groan. With a slightly stiffened face, he scanned each person one by one.
The jobs that had possessed people here had something in common.
All pure dealers.
In other words, there wasn’t a single tank to step forward and taunt enemies and take hits for them, or a healer to heal allies and cast buffs.
At that moment, all the rankers had the same thought.
‘Trash composition.’
…It couldn’t be helped. Without a tank or healer, the most self-sacrificing job among those remaining had no choice but to throw themselves out there.
But who could have known Belsus would suddenly step forward here?
“I’ll draw the monster’s attention from the front.”
The five were gathered in a circle excluding Belsus, and when Belsus interjected from behind, the Thief and Paladin were startled.
“No. No way.”
“Stay in the back. It’s too dangerous for you.”
The Thief shook his head vigorously, and the Paladin actually used his body to gently push Belsus back.
‘Need to deal with a corpse?’
Everyone thought the same thing about Belsus. They could only imagine the horrible scene of Belsus being crushed to death by the boss.
The Paladin stepped forward.
“I’ll take the tank role instead.”
“Will you be alright?”
“I also look the sturdiest. And being close to the enemy increases the possibility of landing the final attack.”
The Paladin willingly took on the danger with honest eyes. Moreover, by honestly stating the advantage, he also slightly relieved others’ burden.
“Oh, I’ll tank from the front too.”
The Brawler, who had been listening, raised his hand high.
“I have a better body than Paladin-nim, right? Right? No? Look, look. My chest is bigger, right? My arms and thighs are probably thicker too?”
The Brawler, feeling competitive in a useless area, appealed by flexing his arms to show off his shoulders and even thrusting out his thighs.
“Yes…”
“I suppose so.”
The kind rankers played along.
With the Brawler joining, two people would draw the boss’s aggro from the front. The other two melee dealers, the Thief and Belsus, would attack the boss from the sides, and the ranged dealers, the Puppeteer and Bard, would attack from a bit further away—that was the strategy.
Belsus tried to subtly step forward himself, but the Thief grabbed his arm to stop him. He had no choice but to keep standing in the rear.
