Vol. 7 - Ch. 354 - Beginning of Interview and Disappointing Boys!

To be frank, I seemed to have underestimated the recruitment process a bit.There were two ways to recruit new characters in the game. First was to create a character, and second was to scout a character who already had a job.

In later cases, it involves recruiting through bulletin boards or similar methods. It typically displayed a list of characters with jobs players had specified, from where one can select the character of their liking. There was also an option to select if you want your character to be level 0 or level 20 but can allocate status by yourself.

In both cases, scouting was mainly done by players.

Why am I recalling all this? It's because a completely opposite situation is being played in front of me.

"Zephyr-san, here is the list of 14 people who are to be interviewed today. Tomorrow, there will be 16."

"Hold on for a moment."

Misato's words completely baffled me.

It makes me recall the scene of Karua's joining.

It was natural for the players, who are looking for new recruits, to make an effort to scout members, or so it should have been, yet I saw Karua promoting herself hard to join in the guild. It was so surprising that I still vividly remember how intrigued I was about her.

Now, a similar situation is playing in front of me.

There are unexpectedly high numbers of students who are trying hard to promote themselves... I mean, applying for <Eden>. The list of interviews Misato gave me has over 60 names written on it. What's more, it is just one-fifth of the original count.

It means there were approx 300 applicants to begin with. I really don't know how Misato managed to spread the word around or gathered so many applicants, but either way, it seems like there are too many who wish to join <Eden>.

It wasn't like any of them are applying just to ride into the flow, many of them are talented in fact, carefully screened by Misato before finally making it to the list.

Well it seems like this is going to cost me quite a good chunk of my time though. I am going to take interviews everyday till thursday.

But that's quite a dilemma, we only have 5 spots available and Misato has left the selection to me. It's going to be hard deciding on them.

It's currently Monday after classes, and the interview starts today. All of this is happening so suddenly I still haven't caught up with things.

It was just this morning when Misato consulted me about the interview, and just a few hours later, she came to me and told me she had finalized the candidate to interview.

I mean, it has just been two days since she herself has joined us formally but here we are, she has managed to gather so many applicants in a matter of hours.

Haa, not good. The more I think about it, the more I am getting confused. For now, I should just focus on the students who have gathered.

A total of 10 students have come today for interview, of which 4 are boys and 6 are girls. All are first-years students.

According to their profile, they all are members of different guilds but they are planning to leave the guild if they manage to get into <Eden>. Furthermore, all of them have high-ranking jobs. Hmm, quite impressive for first-years.

The venue for today's interview I have chosen is the <Training Ground> of <Combat Department>, instead of the usual lounge. It's the best place to check their skills.

My mind is still confused, but oh well, gotta do it. I took a deep breath, and then turned my attention to the students standing in front of me.

"Exhale, alright, we will now begin the interview. Think of the targets we have prepared as monsters and show us how you deal with them. You can use any means."

"M, May I ask a question!?"

A Raccoon-kin girl raised her hand as soon as I finished speaking, her cute raccoon ears perched atop her head.

She looks familiar. If my memory serves me right, she is one of the students who has been coming to my class from the start. I also remember getting to talk to her while clearing one of the Beginning-mid dungeons before. Lacritte-chan was her name I think.

I nodded and urged her to continue.

"Go ahead."

"Err, I am mainly a tank so I can't say I am that good on offense."

"I, too, am not confident in it."

Since I said to treat the targets as monsters, Raccoon-kin girl expresses her concern over her lack of firepower. Following her, the girl next to her also raised her hand to express the same.

I remember her taking my classes too. She was wearing the <Baron> symbol for females, a choker with a mic design on it, so she has my attention since then.

She is Noel, in the same party as Lecritta.

My <Dungeon Activity> intellect is telling me they should be in the elite class, <Combat Department Year-1 Class-8>, that's why I remember these two distinctively.

No wait, aren't all girls here students who have attended my classes?

I was so preoccupied with the situation that I didn't even realize the lined up girls were certainly familiar faces.

Oops, now is not the time to get lost in my thoughts.

"No need to worry. We don't need you to destroy the target. Just use any style you want, all I want to see is how you will deal with the target in front of you."

"I, I see. Got it!"

"If it is just that, then I am on the board."

"If there's no more questions, then start your performance from the person on my right. Let's first start with boys."

After addressing a few more questions, the interview kicked off.

It starts with one of the boys. He was from the <Wolfkin> category and his preferred choice of weapon was a claymore.

A swordsman category huh. Let's see, his job is <Killer Wolf> in the list. Oh, It is a high-ranking job available to <Wolfkin> category which puts emphasis on the power of single blows. A High-ranking mid tier job to be more precise.

It seems like he is in the <Combat Department Year-1 Class-21> student. Though why is he stealing glances towards Misato for a while

He turned to face the target, took a stance with his claymore and swung it down with a short sprint.

"<Buster Wolf Sword>!!"

What seemed to be his powerful strike struck the target and... or I should say but couldn't destroy the target.

"W, What the hell!?"

"This is an undestroyable target you see, so you can go as wild as you want."

Seeing a surprised look on first year <Killer Wolf>, I explained.

That being said, it's a big no-no to stop their movement out of surprise though.

That target is a dungeon-made. Emphasize on made, not production. It's an artifact that can be made soft or hard at will. Speaking of which, I wonder what kind of target it is?

It was a common phenomenon for the target to not take any damage and become indestructible with respect to increase in difficulty setting in the game.

Well, even in case it gets damaged, it would be back in its original shape. Truly a mysterious object.

For now, the target is indestructible, so they can use any type of attack they want.

The first year <Killer Wolf>, although paused for a moment in surprise, didn't let it faze him as it immediately regained his spirit and started attacking the target once again.

However, something is off. It feels like he is trying to show off unnecessarily. I guess his desire to showcase his strength and make an impression is working overtime huh. Also, he is glancing at Misato way too often.

"Alright, that's enough. Switch with the next person."

I signaled for the next candidate to change place as the <Wolfkin Boy> hammered in a few more of his skills. He first needs to figure out who he should be showcasing the strength.

I turned to look at the next male student's turn. He, too, desperately launched his offensive in an attempt to destroy the target...... didn't I just say that the target is indestructible? Good grief, I immediately signaled for the next student to switch places.

Why in the world was he trying to destroy it, I really don't get it.

Afterwards, the interview of male students continued and to sum it up, the result was disappointing.

They were all way too focused on the girls, which made them incredibly nervous. Uh-uh, this is not going to fly in <Eden>, which is filled with beautiful girls! Sᴇaʀᴄh the ɴovᴇlꜰirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The boy's turn came to an end, and now, it was time for the girl's turn.

"I-It's my turn! Lacritta, departing!"

The first to step forward was Lacritta of <Raccoon-kin> category.

To be honest, I have great expectations from her!