Subject Runes - V1 Chapter 6

After school, the five of us headed to the Dungeon Club.

When we invited Cain, he said it sounded interesting, and that was how he ended up joining with us. By the time we stepped into the clubroom, all the other new members had already arrived, so we wasted no time and headed straight for guild registration.

For the record, there were five other new members besides us, and every last one of them was a guy. I guess that fit the whole Dungeon Club image well enough. It attracted the kind of guys who liked adventure. The place smelled like a boys’ club, but honestly, that had its own charm. So everyone was male except Marl… ah, right, Neon was technically a girl too.

The upperclassmen assigned to lead us to the guild were Selene and Sasha. The problem was that Selene had been completely surrounded by those five new male members, so there was no real chance to talk to her.

From behind me, Sasha leaned in and said, “Those five definitely joined because they’re after Selene. There are even upper-class students mixed in with them. She’s beautiful, and her magic power is strong, so there are a lot of guys in the upper classes who have their eyes on her too.”

Among the upper-class students, there were some whose magical power was too weak, so they had already been dropped from consideration as heir candidates. Since their engagements still hadn’t been settled, they came to the academy looking for lower-ranking nobles with strong magical power to marry.

“So those bastards didn’t join because they actually wanted to explore dungeons?”

“Pretty much. It was the same last year too. A bunch of boys joined just to hit on Selene, and the second they realized they had no shot, they quit the club and fucked off.”

I watched Selene standing there, boxed in by those guys, and felt a nasty, hard-to-name irritation twisting around in my chest.

The guild stood in the busiest part of the city center, and even in broad daylight it was packed with adventurers and merchants. Since adventurers blew the money they earned on taverns, item shops, and all kinds of stores, the shopping district naturally grew around the guild. We walked straight into the middle of that bustle.

The first thing that caught my eye inside was the tavern. Several adventuring parties were already drinking at the tables and getting properly rowdy. We passed by them and headed to the reception desk at the very back, where a line of receptionists stood waiting behind the counter. This was where guild registration was handled.

We lined up at one of the queues, and before long it was my turn.

“You’re a student from the Knight Academy too, I see. In that case, please hand over your academy examination results.”

I gave the receptionist the physical assessment results from the swordsmanship practical we had taken earlier that day.

Normally, when an adventurer registered, they had to take a test inside the guild to determine their rank. There were seven ranks in total—S, A, B, C, D, E, and F—and the quests you could accept depended on that ranking. But students from the Knight Academy were exempt from that guild test as long as they submitted the academy’s assessment results. They automatically started at Rank D.

“All students from the Knight Academy are nobles, and there are plenty of valuable mages among you, so you’re very welcome here. Welcome to the Adventurers’ Guild.”

I accepted my Rank D guild card from the receptionist.

“Looks like everyone’s done registering.”

Sasha gathered all the new members together. “Next week we’ve got the freshman welcome dungeon event, but since we’re already here at the guild, why don’t we try taking a simple quest first?”

A quest, huh. That sounded pretty damn fun.

We moved to the notice board set up beside the counter and looked for something manageable. There were a few monster-subjugation requests among the Rank D quests, but most of them required traveling far away and spending several days on the job. Since there were only so many quests we could finish after school and still return the same day, the options were limited, and the choice came pretty easily.

“Subjugation of kobolds in the forest along the Blomark Highway (Rank D).”

“How about this one?”

“No objections.”

We brought the request form to the counter and were getting the explanation from the receptionist when Selene came over.

“So you picked the kobold extermination quest. You should be fine with that, but for a first quest, an upperclassman is supposed to accompany you. I’ll go with you.”

Selene had just offered when one of that same five-man group shoved himself in from the side.

“Lady Selene, we’ve accepted a medicinal herb gathering quest, so we would be honored if you would accompany us instead.”

Acting as the group’s spokesman, one of the male students extended a hand with all the smug, affected flair of a complete jackass. “Even if monsters attack, we will protect you properly, Lady Selene. You have nothing to fear.”

“Wait a second, I—”

Before Selene could refuse, the five of them dragged her off by force. We just stood there staring after them like idiots, and then Sasha let out a helpless little smile.

“Honestly, those people are a pain in the ass. Fine, I’ll accompany your group instead.”

“This is the area.”

We followed the Blomark Highway east from the castle town in Blomark territory, and after a while the forest came into view. Today’s quest was to exterminate the kobolds living there. Kobolds were dangerous magical beasts with strong breeding instincts, and they attacked travelers in groups, so it was necessary to keep their numbers down on a regular basis. In other words, kobold extermination was one of those standard guild quests that was always available.

Under Sasha’s guidance, our first real quest finally began.

“Before we enter the forest, let’s confirm everyone’s role in the party.”

Cain: Frontline physical attacker
Dan: Frontline physical attacker / magic attack (water)
Azoth: Rearline magic attack (fire, earth)
Neon: Rearline magic attack (fire, earth)
Marl: Rearline healing magic (light)
Sasha: Rearline magic attack (water, wind)

“Hmm. Two frontliners and the rest are all backline casters. That balance is pretty rough, so could either Azoth or Neon take a frontline role?”

“In that case, I’ll do it.”

With everyone’s roles settled, we stepped into the forest to hunt kobolds.

Even though it was called a forest, it was more like a stretch of woodland with a decent amount of space between the trees. Here and there, there were even open clearings with no trees at all. As we pressed deeper inside, we spotted a pack of kobolds roughly a hundred meters ahead. They noticed us too and immediately charged.

“I’ll focus on support, so for now try fighting them on your own first.”

The moment Sasha said that, I gave orders to the others. “Got it. First, Neon and I hit them with fire magic for a surprise attack. That should cut their numbers down. After that, the three frontliners rush in. Marl, heal as needed.”

After hearing my plan, Sasha muttered, “Wait… won’t the kobolds reach us while you’re still chanting?” But the next instant, two bursts of flame slammed into the front of the kobold pack and dealt massive damage, and her eyes went wide.

“What the hell? H-how?”

“Nice, direct hit on the first shot! Azoth, let’s fire again!”

Neon was the most fired up out of all of us.

【Burn to Ashes】Fire

The second pair of fire spells shot out and crashed into the middle of the confused kobold pack, sending flames roaring upward. There had probably been around twenty kobolds in total, and most of them got swallowed by the flames from those four fire spells and rolled around screaming in agony.

Unlike at the academy, there was no magical defensive shield deployed in the forest, so once the spells activated, the fire was real and it burned just fine. On the other hand, while I had left the magical offense to Neon and rushed forward with Dan and Cain, the battle was practically over before we even reached the kobolds, so the three of us stopped running halfway there.

Cain planted both hands on his hips and said in exasperation, “Hey, don’t wipe them all out. Leave some for the rest of us, would you?”

“My bad. Neon got a little too carried away.”

Dan looked uneasy. “More importantly, isn’t this kind of bad?”

He had a point. The flames had started spreading to the surrounding trees, and smoke was already billowing upward.
Yeah… this might be a little bad.

Dan hurriedly started chanting water magic, but right after that, a huge mass of water flew over our heads and began putting out the flames spreading through the trees.

Sasha’s magic.

“We overdid it. Sorry. We’ll help put it out now, so hang on.”

Using Earth Magic: Wall, I created chunks of soil and threw them over the burning areas to smother the flames.

Somehow, we managed to get the fire under control, and after that we collected the kobolds’ right ears as proof of subjugation. Great. First quest, and we’re already causing everyone trouble.

“Sorry. We didn’t know how hard to hold back.”

Neon and I apologized, but Sasha didn’t look angry at all. If anything, her eyes were practically shining when she asked, “Hey, how did you do that spell just now? It looked almost completely chantless.”

I explained to her the same thing I had told Dan and the others the day before.

“It’s hard to believe, but shortening chant time that much is a huge advantage. Do you think I could do it too?”

“Yeah. The pronunciation’s tricky, but if you practice, probably. That said, the faster the spell activates, the easier it is to get carried away and rapid-fire them until you burn through your magic power in no time.”

That was what I said, but I already knew from my previous life that when foreigners spoke Japanese, there was almost always something slightly off about the intonation. Selene and Neon had practiced since childhood, so they could chant in clean, natural Japanese, but with Sasha and Dan, there was no telling how good their pronunciation would get if they started studying only now.

Thinking about it that way, if some announcer from one of those ultra-formal public broadcasters had been reincarnated into this world, they’d probably be able to use even stronger magic than I could.

In the end, between the first two fire spells and the earth magic I used to put out the flames afterward, I had already burned through most of my MP.

So for the rest of the day, I decided I’d conserve magic as much as possible and fight as a physical frontliner instead.