Chapter 21

Arriving at the lodging and resting, everyone seemed to have complicated thoughts, slowly starting to speak.

“Ha… damn, how is the situation even rolling? Are we not in a situation to fight monsters right now?”

At Kang I-seo’s question, Seo Yoo-ju, perhaps wanting to explain what she knew, slowly began to speak.

“…. From what I’ve heard, this seems to be a facility for training newcomers like us. Probably, we’ll receive training here for three months and then join the clans that offer us positions.”

Hyeon-jin, seemingly finding the situation complicated, frowned and said.

“Ugh… So, does that mean we’ll all scatter after three months?”

I was curious about Seo Yoo-ju’s thoughts, so I watched her reaction.

“…. There might be cases where we scatter, but it seems there are also cases where we receive offers and join the same clan together.”

Everyone had a complicated expression. Still, having gone through life-and-death crises together, the idea of parting ways and going our separate paths didn’t sit well with anyone.

‘If this is the reaction… I actually like it.’

From my perspective, the group’s reaction was very welcome. Judging by the status window, I was at high risk of being abandoned.

The more emotionally attached the group is, the higher the chance I have of joining the same clan.

‘With Seo Yoo-ju… I must definitely go together.’

Facing unknown dangers, separating from the Returner would be insane.

No matter what, I had to stick close to Seo Yoo-ju, who knows the future. From her reactions so far, it didn’t seem like she would abandon me, but nothing in the world is 100% certain.

I wanted to at least roughly know Seo Yoo-ju’s thoughts, so I asked her.

“Yoo-ju… what are you thinking? Do you have any rough ideas…?”

Everyone seemed to be waiting for Seo Yoo-ju’s answer. Implicitly, she was the leader of the group.

‘Right… you won’t abandon me, will you? Huh? We have the bond from the first round, after all… right?’

I trust our Returner. No, I had no choice but to trust her.

“I… regardless of which clan I join… I think it would be good if we all stayed together.”

Her answer was the best possible for me. The anxiety in my heart began to ease.

‘Me from the first round. Thank you so much.’

It seemed others were also satisfied with her answer, as their expressions brightened.

“By the way… those guys who just hid during the tutorial, they’re not treated well here, huh…”

Certainly, the treatment we received for clearing the dungeon was different from those who did nothing.

That Kang Seong-jun we saw earlier must be one of the top-tier strongmen by this continent’s standards. The fact that he personally guided us shows how much attention we’re getting from above.

On the other hand, from their perspective, there’s no value in being kind to those who gave up fighting and just hid during the tutorial.

At Kang I-seo’s words, Mr. Ho-won spoke up.

“Don’t worry too much. They’re just paying the price for having it easy until now.”

No one could deny that. While they were eating rations and sleeping without worrying about fighting monsters, we were risking our lives in battle.

“… I know, old man. It’s just… so, are we getting better treatment?”

This time, Seo Yoo-ju answered.

“Probably, they won’t disappoint us. They’ll want to recruit us no matter what.”

“Uh… we did clear the dungeon, but isn’t the treatment a bit too much?”

At Kang I-seo’s question, I answered this time.

“It’s probably because we cleared it much faster than the average time.”

Hearing my answer, she made a puzzled face and asked.

“How do you know that?”

I calmly began to explain to her.

“Lee Seo. Think about when they first saw us. Didn’t they look at us like they couldn’t trust us? How could they be talking like this in less than a month.”

“Yoon Seong is right. Probably… we passed the tutorial much faster than average. That’s why I think we’re getting this kind of treatment. They must be eyeing us.”

Here, I have one question for Seo Yoo-ju. What was her intention in clearing the tutorial so quickly?

‘Does she want to stand out? It didn’t seem like it.’

She could have led us slowly, clearing the dungeon in the average time. But I don’t understand why she cleared it so quickly.

‘Is there some reason? Maybe she needs the fame of clearing the tutorial in the shortest time.’

After some time, not someone else, but Kang Seong-jun, who had guided us earlier, came back.

“How is it, are you feeling better?”

Seo Yoo-ju answered him politely.

“Yes. Thanks to you, I feel a bit relieved. Thank you.”

“Haha…! No problem. I’m glad you rested well.”

‘…. What’s this?’

He’s being overly friendly.

I definitely thought Kang Seong-jun would send someone else to guide us, not come himself. Actually, until just now, it didn’t seem like Kang Seong-jun had any intention of guiding us again.

“Just follow me. There’s a large auditorium where we’ll explain the overall education plan. Ah! The other newcomers are already in the auditorium.”

‘…. Heard about it?’

The fact that he’s already gathered the other guys from the tutorial means he probably heard roughly about our actions during the tutorial.

‘I get why this guy came back personally.’

We… no, to be precise, it was Seo Yoo-ju alone at first, but anyway… he must have heard the story of how our group turned the starting building into a camp, gathered people, and cleared the tutorial.

‘I fully understand why this guy is doing this.’



From their perspective, it must have been ridiculous. During the tutorial, they were usually too busy trying to save their own lives, but we cleared it in the shortest time possible.

And then, to top it off, we even took care of others.

I wonder how we must have looked to them.

Sure enough, Kang Seong-jun started talking to us.

“I’ve heard a bit from the others… I heard that during the tutorial, you gathered survivors, found food to share, and even protected them from monsters. Was that…?”

Yoo Ju responded to Kang Seong-jun’s words.

“Ah… yes. That’s right.”

She seemed quite surprised by her own answer.

Earlier, while guiding us, he looked at us like we were precious gems, but now he was staring at us as if we were monsters.

‘…A strong person like him is looking at us as if we’re monsters…’

It felt really strange.

Suddenly, Ahn Tae-woo opened his mouth to Kang Seong-jun, as if he had something to say.

“…To be precise… Yoo Ju did everything at first. As soon as the tutorial started and the monsters appeared, Yoo Ju picked up her spear, gave orders, and protected everyone from the monsters in the building.”

“…You’re saying she protected everyone from the monsters in the building at the very beginning?”

It seems he only heard bits and pieces from others and didn’t know the details.

Now that he realized Yoo Ju’s value, I could feel him glancing at her intently.

‘He’s probably reevaluating Yoo Ju in his mind.’

“That’s not all. Yoo Ju essentially took on the role of leader, and if it weren’t for her during the fight with the Boss Monster, several people would have died.”

Yoo Ju seemed quite burdened by Ahn Tae-woo’s words. She didn’t expect him to praise her this much and looked very flustered.

“T-Tae-woo?! Uh… that’s a bit…!”

Kang Seong-jun seemed to have a question and asked us.

“What…? Excuse me, but it sounds like no one died in the dungeon…?”

Ahn Tae-woo seemed flustered by Kang Seong-jun’s question. Well, none of us died, after all.

“Ah…? Yes. Thankfully, everyone made it out safely.”

Kang Seong-jun glanced at Yoo Ju and spoke.

“Truly… amazing.”

Kang Seong-jun seemed at a loss for words. He still couldn’t believe what he had heard.

‘…I guess it’s normal for at least a few people to die in a dungeon.’

Well, the difficulty of the dungeon was absolutely insane, so it made sense.

From my experience clearing the dungeon, it felt like the difficulty was adjusted so that at least half of the participants would die while clearing it.

“…We’ll be arriving at the auditorium soon, so I’ll give you a heads-up. After listening to the speech in the auditorium, the next day will be dedicated to identifying your jobs. You’ll all be able to open your status windows, but here, you must not carelessly reveal your status window to others.”

Yoo Rim asked Kang Seong-jun.

“Is there a special reason for that?”

“Hmm… not a special reason, but an obvious one. Revealing your job or traits to others is like exposing your weaknesses.”

What Kang Seong-jun said perfectly captured the reason why I couldn’t reveal my unique traits to others.

‘Who would let someone who can casually open their status window roam free…? It’s exposing your weaknesses.’

This is the decisive reason why I’m worried about being abandoned by the group at the training facility. Aside from my unique traits, I’m a useless bug with no abilities.

Since I can’t reveal my abilities, I’ll gradually look like a useless idiot in the eyes of others.

“Anyway, that’s why there will be a time for you to write down your jobs, but you don’t need to write everything down. Just writing the role of your job is enough. For example… swordsman, priest, archer—just writing that is fine. Oh! I’d like to give you one tip.”

“What’s that?”

“If you write down your job’s grade, it’ll give you an advantage when receiving offers from clans. Usually, the grade of a job indicates its performance. However, you must not falsify it. After all, once you join a clan, they’ll check your job accurately.”

Certainly… the clan executives aren’t fools, so they wouldn’t just ignore checking if someone falsified their job.

“Alternatively… you can accurately record your job name and grade but hide your unique traits. Usually, just the job name alone doesn’t reveal the exact abilities. This way, you can hide your weaknesses while still receiving offers from good clans.”

Seeing how detailed his explanation was, Kang Seong-jun didn’t seem like a bad person.

No, honestly, he seemed quite sincere.

‘…If it were me, I wouldn’t have explained it this thoroughly.’

Since there’s no guarantee we’ll join his clan, Kang Seong-jun didn’t need to share this information with us in case we joined another clan.

‘Or maybe he’s trying to show us how good of a person he is. Honestly, this is more likely.’

“We’ve arrived at the auditorium while talking. Please take a seat in the empty seats up front. I’ll take my leave now. As the head instructor, I have to give a speech.”