CH 218

The following day after receiving enjoyable hands-on experiences.

Today's Saturday, in other words, the dungeon day!

I quickly headed to the guild room and exchanged light greetings as I opened the door.

"Good morning everyone! Are you ready for blissful dungeon day!?"

"Of course! I'm gonna give them a Kapow, defeat them and loot a gold chest!"

Yay

Lana looked just as excited as me as we exchanged high-five.

It seems like the two day of dungeon absence made Lana suffocate since we used to dive in dungeons daily and why Lana's so overflowing with high spirit.

"So lively huh, both of you. But keep your greeting more normal at least"

"Fufu, isn't it fine though, Sierra-san? I'm also looking forward to dungeon"

"... Well, maybe. However Hannah-san has to be more careful. Especially more so when you're asked to be the role model to students, am I right?"

"Buuut~~, I still don't want to be treated as top grade students"

Oops, our excessive liveliness received a glare from Sierra. To be honest, I quite like that stern glare of her. What a lucky day it is!

Another thing, it seems like Hannah, as she's in top of his grade, is still receiving a lot of attention from teachers. Do your best, Hannah.

I can see Ester, Shizu, Pamela and Celestine when I look around after calming down. Celia, Lulu, Rika and Karua have yet to come.

I called out to Sierra after confirming that.

"Can I have a minute with you, Sierra? Everyone's skills are gradually improving, so I'm thinking it's about time to implement our next plan but what do you think?"

"I don't mind"

Said Sierra as I sat down on the seat next to her.

"Thank you. As for the next step, I would like to aim for intermediate lower grade dungeon as our goal for time being"

It's all the beginning level dungeons we have cleared. In other words, we still haven't yet passed the beginner phase.

Difficulty spikes up from intermediate dungeons at once and exploration generally changes from party based to guild based. I may have mentioned it before but it's difficult to explore with just a fixed party.

So it becomes necessary to have a different member composition matching the dungeon type. Members who have a bad affinity with certain dungeons are replaced with others. In addition, the number of intermediate dungeons are simply incomparable to beginner ones. They numbered as high as 30 with each grade from intermediate low, mid and high having 10 dungeons respectively in the academy.

By the way, one can graduate from an intermediate dungeon to a higher dungeon if they can clear three dungeons of each level of difficulty.

There are three prerequisite one had to clear before they can challenge them and they are 一 Job to be at Lv40 or higher, have cleared beginner-high grade dungeon and are affiliated to E-rank or higher guild.

So far, it's only me, Hannah, Lana, Ester and Sierra who have fulfilled these conditions. You can say there's only us five who can challenge the intermediate dungeon If you look at whole <Eden> or even the whole first year students body.

That's why I was focusing on training the other members last week rather than stepping up our exploration to higher dungeons since I wouldn't have the option available to change the members if need arises.

Between, the one closest to completing these conditions is Karua for now, with only 4 levels behind.

However I want to challenge the intermediate dungeons already, for they are so fun.

That's why this time discussion is about revising the plan and setting the goal to do our best in the intermediate dungeon.

"Sigh"

Albeit my passionate speech met with a sigh from Sierra.

"It's fine if you want to pull in other members but my opinion is to let them practice their skills and magic for a bit more. All I see is they have yet to fully familiarise with them, perhaps because of quick leveling. I don't think you will be able to achieve any kind of promising achievement by taking them to Intermediate dungeons just by raising the level"

"... I see"

Indeed, Sierra has a point. It's especially valid for new members who reached Lv30 just a day after reaching Lv20. They aren't fluid in their movement or usage in skill at all.

Sierra's advice is to deal with bigger problems first and get them used to their jobs.

I was deeply convinced with her reasoning.

After all, everything was controlled by players in the game manually or sometimes, semi-auto. However the proficiency level was high in either option. In short, new party members don't even need to practice by default.

However proficiency level depends on an individual's practice in reality, so one might be as good as a piece of wood despite their high level or a good job.

It's called something like assist leveling in game terminology. The so-called side effect of power leveling where performance doesn't match with the high level.

I gotta concede here.

"So, we have to focus first on raising everyone's ability that matches their corresponding level, is what you're saying?"

"That's right. Eden is aiming for the S-rank after all, you naturally can't do so without having adequate ability."

"Right. I'm glad I discussed with you first, Sierra"

"... I see. Well, that's just a suggestion but I think it would be better if there's someone who could give commands and order on par with you beside them. It's all thanks to your command and instructions that we, the member of vanguard team, are able to become so strong smoothly. So having one or not changed things by a great margin"

According to Sierra, the difference between the vanguard and rearguard team is my presence.

I was there for them from beginning to guide and correct for why vanguard team abilities are high. I didn't expect her to hold me in high regard. Though It's kind of embarrassing for it to come out of Sierra's mouth.

However,

"Someone who can be like me to guide and correct them...... "

There's no one with the same level of game knowledge in this world. But I just can't outright deny on that basis. Even if their knowledge isn't as good as mine, there are people who are better at strategizing than me.

Maybe I should search for them.

T/N : Dungeons are basically Beginner>Intermediate>High>Top grade. I will shorten Beginner to Beg and intermediate to Int in future given I have to mention which level difficulty repeatedly.

Assist leveling - I can't seem to find what the original direct translation called in english so I'm going with my own understanding. Between, It basically means a higher level player helping a low level player and a bit different from power leveling given how the author mentioned it later but not before.

Vanguard/Rearguard team - Vanguard team mainly consists of beginning five members and Rearguard basically encompasses every other guild member beside those five.