For I Am A Side Character - 123: The Dungeon Reservation Event - Part 1

As early did the Jessica woke up.

She found that just as what Soril promised her last night, he returned to the camp like nothing happened.

With him acting as his usual self, a lot of eyes were on him, especially the people who were rowdy in the comments of the drone’s live stream.

“Neh, Soril…Someone’s asking when you arrived at the camp?” asked Kenji as he was monitoring the live comments sent by the stream

“Only about a moment ago.” he said as he was prepping for their breakfast.

“Really? And how did you get here? I’m pretty sure that a guy went out to kill you…so how did you survive?” asked Kenji.

“Hmm, I just got lucky in a way…”

“You got lucky from a manhunt?”

“…Well, it would be pretty rude to say that I killed the guy.” said Soril as he smiled at Kenji, warning him to back away with the question.

“…!!?” and Kenji took that warning to heart. He smiled awkwardly and walked away.

“What matters now is that I’m back…now, just leave the drone by itself and help me with the breakfast.” said Soril to Kenji.

“F-fine.” being threatened, Kenji decided to step away from the drone and help Soril.

As they prepped for making their own breakfast, out of nowhere, Jessica came and embraced Soril from behind as he was mixing a bowl of pancake batter.

“You really came back.” she said as she whispered to his ear.

“Hmm~ Yeah, like I promised.” from then on, Soril gently kissed Jessica’s forehead, showing his affection for her even in front of the drone.

That alone served as a show of drama that riled up a few of the viewers in the stream.

“O-oy…don’t get so chummy in front of the drone, you’re making me lose my appetite.” said Kenji as he was annoyed about this show of love from the two.

Being annoyed, Jessica pouted and slightly jabbed Kenji on his sides.

“Ow.” said Kenji.

And from there, Jessica separated from Soril and started helping out as well in making the breakfast.

Usually at this event, the students were responsible in making their own meals from breakfast to dinner. With a limited amount of rations given by the academy, each class were made to use their own skills well enough to last them an entire week.

But their rations right now would only last them two days…with this day being the second day. Meaning that the students barely had enough rations to last them for tomorrow.

This entire event revolved around being a survival event. Meaning that students had to work for themselves to survive.

But seeing as how not a lot of them were worried about their own sense of rationing, it meant that the students were confident that they could survive as a group in this forest.

They could always go out and hunt for meat or fish…the forest was filled with all sorts of food for them to take. All they need now was the skill to actually take those resources.

“Hmm? Soril, you made it back.” said Sgt. O’riley as he came into their camp’s kitchen base. Unlike the rest, he wasn’t really surprised about Soril’s arrival, seeing as how they kept in contact with one another.

“I did…Now, how will today’s event go?” asked Soril as he was curious about the second event.

“Hmm, Ms. Sera went out to claim the information at the main camp. She’ll be back later, so for now, we can just rest and ready ourselves for the event.” said Sgt. O’riley.

***

I already know what was going to happen today, so its expected that any moment now, Ms. Sera would come with the same information I know from the novel.

“Listen up, the first real event is starting now.”

Ms. Sera showed up to the kitchen base carrying nothing but a piece of map that showed certain locations designated to each class group.

“Here is our objective for the day.” said Ms. Sera as she pointed to the map with a circled mark.

“…What’s over there?” asked Kenji.

“This is a B-ranked dungeon…although it’s monsters are mostly filled with C-ranked levels, the only issue why it was categorized at such a high level is because of the boss monster waiting inside.” said Ms. Sera.

“What kind of monsters are inside?” asked Jessica.

“…You’re going to hate this, but apparently, this dungeon is filled with flying types. And the boss waiting for you at the end is a Wyvern reaching its peak at a B-ranked level.”

“Peak B-rank!? that’s technically an A-rank monster if anything. Are you sure we should go and face something this dangerous?” asked Marilyn as she was nervous about hearing the description of the monster.

“The best most of us can handle is a C-ranked monster…how can you expect us to deal with something of that calibre.” said Zelisha.

“Hmm, based off of your records, the only people who can face this level is Soril, Thors, Jessica and Tony…that much alone should be enough for you to handle the boss monster if you fight in a coordinated manner.” said Sgt. O’riley.

“Okay…hang on. Before we go any further than this, what are you trying to make us do in this event? Is it like what you said before? Are we just going to conquer the dungeon by subjugating the boss monster?” I asked.

“Yes, exactly. The information I’ve said before hasn’t changed. You will subjugate the monster all to a point that he doesn’t perish, but instead is knocked unconscious enough to put a seal around his body. Once the monster is sealed, we will have secured the dungeon.” said Ms. Sera.

“By using the device given to you at the start of the event, you will only have one chance to place the seal. If you fail in claiming ownership over the dungeon, you will fail the event.” said Sgt. O’riley.

“I’m sure all of you can manage handling this level of a dungeon. Despite the difficulty of it being a cluster of flying types, flying type monsters usually have only one weaknesses. Does anyone know what it is?” asked Sgt. O’riley.

“…Fire, bird-like monsters and bat-like monsters are weak to fire.” said Zelisha.

“That’s right. So do your best and use anything you can to claim this dungeon.”

“Question, um…are the other class groups also taking this level of difficulty?” asked Jessica.

“Oh…umm No.” said Ms. Sera.

““What?”” everyone was taken aback by this.

“I choose the difficulty.”

“.…What?”

“Yeah, we were tasked in choosing what kind of monsters were favored to be handled. And I chose an B-ranked dungeon with flying types.” she said.

“Are you crazy!?” shouted Zelisha as she was overly against the idea.

“No, I am not. Look, its not like I’m sending you guys out there to die. I have the confidence to say that you can handle it.” said Ms. Sera as she didn’t show any slight sign of arrogance or indecisiveness in her words.

“But why? Aren’t there any other dungeons out there that could work well with our group?” asked Kenji as he sounded worried.

”Okay, let me summarize it well for you on what kind of dungeons the other guild leaders chose for their groups. For Class-A, they chose a dark-themed dungeon where in the same case as ours, they are going up against a B-ranked boss monster. For Class-B, it’s the same kind of level, but their enemies are the Ruined Dryad Tribe Dungeon. Their going to fight a bunch of trees.”

“The Only ones who got a less difficult dungeons were for Class-D and Class-E. They chose dungeons that were only around a C-ranked level because the guild leaders assigned to them were not confident that they could take on such a task.”

“Does choosing a more difficult dungeon make any sort of difference to the points we gain?” asked Marilyn.

“Yes, the more difficult a dungeon we conquer, the more points we gain. It isn’t just one point, but if we are to succeed in raiding a B-ranked dungeon, we get an automatic ten points.”

“Does time matter in gaining these points?” asked Kenji.

“No, it doesn’t matter how much time you spent in this dungeon raid, as long as you finish it by the end of the day, you gain ten points for your group.”

“And Remember, for this entire week, we aren’t just going to go against a single event. In total, the academy has set up three events for this week. So by tomorrow, another event will be set up.” said Sgt. O’riley.

“Yes, and with what the sergeant has said, it matters how you come out of this event. If you were to get severely injured, it will affect the group’s management towards the difficulty for the upcoming event. So I’ll say this like I would with any other dungeon raid, be careful.”

***

Just as what our guild leader said about this first event, we had to be careful.

We were now making our way to the designated dungeon. Its better that the earlier we finish this, the faster we can rest for tomorrow’s other event.

But on our way there, we came together with another group. More specifically, Class-A’s group.

‘Hmm, strange…this was never mentioned in the novel.’ I thought as I was walking behind my group as the rear guard.

Based off of what I knew, Class-C never took the option to fight a B-ranked dungeon. Instead, they were assigned the same C-ranked level as the others.

It must have been changed by Ms. Sera knowing how much change has been applied to our group. More specifically, she must have the confidence to throw as a B-ranked dungeon because of my involvement.

“…Say, don’t you think it’s a bit awkward?” asked Kenji as he whispered to me while he was looking at Class-A’s group.

‘…’ I can tell that they were tense. Especially Jason who was keeping his guard up around me…

“Just focus up, we’re getting close to our dungeon.” I said to Kenji.

“O-okay.” said Kenji, as he stepped forward away from me.

And in exchange, Jessica then turned her way to me. She joined in and walked by my side as we made our way to the dungeon.

“…So it’s really about them?” she asked.

“Them?” I asked as I was a bit confused by what she meant by that.

“You know…Jason being the main character for the whole story you read…is it really them?” she asked.

“Oh, umm…yeah. But remember, I’ve said this before, don’t get involved in their lives. If you do something that wasn’t told in the original plot line, it might cause some disruptions to the upcoming events.”

“Got it, I’ll keep my distance.”

“Good.”

“Still, don’t you think their a bit on edge lately? Normally they would have been more chummy than this, so what happened?” she asked.

“…I did something horrible.” I said in a quiet whisper.

“What?”

“I’ll tell you the details later…for now, we need to keep our head in the game.”

“O-okay.”

***

As Class-C and Class-A continued their way making to their respected dungeon, Jessabelle, in the corner of her eye…she kept watching Soril and Jessica as they said whispered words to one another.

Although she couldn’t hear it, she find that moment to be quite intimate.

Despite what happened in the last event with Soril defeating everyone in her class all but too easily, her emotions then didn’t change. In fact, she was only more attracted by it.

A person like Soril…hiding his abilities from the world…

It might seem suspicious to some, but it felt so attracting to Jessabelle.

Her curiosity towards him only grew larger then…

And her jealousy towards Jessica only grew ever much now.

She couldn’t help but grind her teeth in anger…

‘It should have been me that standing by his side…not her!’

Meanwhile, as Jessabelle was keeping her anger at bay, Jason on the other hand was simply nervous around Soril.

Despite his calm outlook…Soril felt even more terrifying now than ever before in Jason’s perspective.

Ever since their fight, Jason would always flinch out of fear from Soril’s simple stance.

He didn’t want to be in fear…but the damage inflicted by Soril took more than he could have handled.

In the last moments of their fight, he promised that he would get stronger…

But so little time has passed since then and now, looking at Soril, he could tell something about him has changed.

It was as if Soril became a more menacing individual overnight. Despite the seals placed on his body, Jason could tell that Soril was more dangerous than ever before.

He didn’t feel this way towards anyone else…

Not from his S-ranked teachers of even some of the S-ranked hunters he had the gaace of meeting, no…Soril was more than that in his eyes.

All of Jason’s senses were telling him not to engage in any bouts. If he were, Soril could have easily torn him to pieces…

His gaze said it all.

It was filled with confidence.

Not a linger of fear was placed in his eyes.

To see Soril in such a high light, Jason was only ever curious as to how he attained such a level.

But for now, despite this confusing admiration, Jason had to focus all his attention in the event.

Moments later, the two classes seperated. With Class-A making their way to a more denser path in the forest and Class-C making their way into a more gloomier environment.

The forest around them grew darker as they neared the dungeon’s entrance. The trees seemed to stretch higher, their branches twisting like claws, blocking out most of the sunlight. Soril could feel the faint hum of magic in the air, a sign of the dungeon’s proximity. Flying types, they said. He had faced worse, but the mention of a peak B-ranked Wyvern lingered in his thoughts. It wouldn’t be easy. His group had strength, but this wasn’t a battle they could take lightly.

As of now, it was only the students who were walking in this deep forest. No teachers, no guide…only their own instincts that rellied in the prospects of survival.

‘Hmm…true to their word, we’re the only one’s here.’ thought Soril.

Not a single teacher was sensed near the area…

Soril and his classmates were all alone.