How To Use Regressors

41 – A New Beginning (4)

A week had passed, and the day when our party set out on their first expedition was approaching.

“Hyeonjin. Have you packed everything? Don’t forget your rations and camping gear.”

“I’ve got everything, sir.”

Kang Iseo gave me an exasperated look from beside me.

“Hey, why are you preparing so meticulously? Isn’t it a bit… excessive?”

“Don’t speak so lightly. Do you know what can happen during an expedition? If you don’t have the necessary items, there’s no way to acquire them.”

“Well… that’s true, but…”

“Hey, hold on. Did you bring spare clothes and cold weather gear?”

“What?”

“Damn it, are you trying to freeze? Who’s supposed to be camping with this kind of clothing?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Damn it, did you pack only useless things in your bag? You need to prepare what’s necessary.”

“Ugh…”

“We’re not using carriages for transportation this time. We’ll be walking to intensify the rookie training.”

“… Okay.”

“So, when we’re camping or resting, you need to recover your strength as much as possible. Understand?”

“……”

“Yurim… Where are you hiding so quietly behind? Come here with your bag.”

“…. Oppa.”

“Sigh… Put these and these away. Make sure you pack thick clothes for your travel expenses too.”

“…. I understand.”

“Yuhyun.”

“….. Yes.”

Yuhyun, who was gradually sneaking away, heard me calling and slowly approached while hesitating.

“The bag.”

“…. Here.”

“…. You packed your clothes well. But where did you put the magic potions?”

“…. I don’t know. I’m sorry…”

“Sigh… Yuhyun, you know that preserving your magic is the most important thing, right? Having remaining magic to use for a protective shield is really crucial.”

“……”

“I have spare magic recovery potions, so fill your bag with them.”

“Thank you, Hyung.”

“Phew… Shit.”

When I checked the party members’ readiness, it was a mess. Except for Seo Yooju and Mr. Ho Won, it seemed like everyone thought we were going on a picnic.

For some reason, Seo Yooju was looking at me with a satisfied expression, just like a wife watching her husband when he sends their children off to school.

Fortunately, I had managed to get the party members up an hour earlier than the usual time they were supposed to wake up. If I had to deal with this nonsense on time, we would undoubtedly have missed the departure time.

After checking Ha Eun’s readiness one last time, I spoke to Seo Yooju.

“Phew… We’re all set, Yooju.”

“Hehe… Great. Let’s head down to the first floor, then.”

As we descended to the first floor, one of the clan members going on the expedition with us was waiting.

“Hello. Nice to meet you. Please take care of us.”

I greeted the man and opened his status window.

[Name: Lee Jaehyo]

[Age: 35]

From Noble mtl dot com

[Occupation: High-level Spear Master (Hero Grade)]

[Titles: Diligent, Participant in the Matters Gorge War]

[Unique Traits]

Cultivation Addiction (Hero-grade) – The longer the cultivation time, the more effective the results of cultivation become.

Flexible Movement (Hero-grade) – Able to move the body more flexibly. Agility permanently increases by 8.

[Abilities]

Synchronized Spear and Illusion (Legendary-grade) – Understanding of spear technique greatly increases.

Master of Martial Arts (Hero-grade) – Understanding of martial arts significantly increases.

[Attributes]

Strength – 84 Agility – 87

Endurance – 85 Luck – 70

Mana – 81 Resistance – 83

“The status window is quite unusual.”

He was a superior version of a regular spearman and had no particularly special characteristics, but his remarkably high attributes caught my attention.

“Indeed, perhaps the title of ‘hardworking’ is for a reason.”

After receiving our greetings, the man began introducing himself.

“Nice to meet you, new clan members. I’ve heard a lot about you. My name is Lee Jae-hyo, and I am the leader of Party 6.”

‘Officer…’

The term “6th Party Leader” meant one of the clan’s officers.

The man’s appearance was generally ordinary except for the fact that he wore armor, and the distinctive features were his silver hair and a scar on his eye.

“Anyway, now that everyone is ready, let’s depart.”

And so, following Lee Jaehyo, we began to move outside the city.

******

After walking outside the city and transitioning from daytime to evening, I had a question, so I asked Lee Jaehyo.

“I have a question. May I ask?”

“Of course. Feel free to ask. Ultimately, you are the protagonists of this expedition. Consider me as a bodyguard to prevent any unforeseen circumstances.”

“Understood. It’s just that I heard we’ll be entering the dungeon with the Hwasin Clan members. Will we meet them inside the dungeon?”

“Oh, not inside the dungeon… Specifically, we agreed to meet at the entrance to the dungeon. It’s not that far from here, so we should arrive by tomorrow, most likely.”

“I see.”

“We’ll need to camp halfway through. Just in case… did everyone bring camping gear?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then there shouldn’t be any major issues. Just a heads up… from here, monsters might appear occasionally, so please be careful. Despite being a frontier area, there are monsters that occasionally stray from their packs.”

“Yes, understood.”

As if to prove it, after about 30 minutes of further movement, a grotesque creature, slightly larger in stature than a person, with large eyeballs embedded in its face, appeared.

Everyone except Lee Jaehyo and Seo Yooju was shocked by the appearance of the creature they were seeing for the first time.

Not only was it larger in size than a person, but its overall appearance was grotesque.

“What the hell is this?! This crazy…!”

Profanities burst out of Kang Isuh’s mouth as he marveled at the monstrous appearance.

Seeing that the creature was just standing there, Lee Jaehyo seemed to have no intention of intervening unless it was a dangerous situation.

I couldn’t afford to disappoint the Clan’s executives who were watching. I immediately regained my composure and shouted to everyone.

“Everyone, snap out of it! Mr. Howon has already blocked the frontline with his shield, so everyone take your positions!”

Take positions in the basic frontline, midline, and backline formations. We needed to understand the monster’s behavior patterns as it was the first time we were encountering it.

Glancing at Seo Yooju, it seemed like she had no intention of taking direct action either. She seemed to want to see how we would perform in actual combat.

It was clear that if Seo Yooju started to participate in the battle, it would become too easy. It would definitely be more helpful for us to grow in this regard.

“It only has one eye.”

Furthermore, its eye was extremely large, almost taking up the entire face.

“Let’s start by taking away its sight! Kang Isuh!”

As soon as Kang Isuh heard my words, he shot an arrow, but the monster raised its hands and blocked the arrow.

Compared to the monsters in the tutorial, the monsters here seem to have a basic sense of defense.

Whether it was instinct or something else, they seemed to know how to block threatening attacks.

Perhaps everyone thought that they should prevent the monster from using its arms, as Hwanyoun, Hyunjin, and Yurim emerged from behind Mr. Howon and attacked the monster from the left and right respectively.

“…. Hup!”

As soon as Yurim thrust her dagger into the monster’s right arm, Hyunjin immediately slashed the monster’s left arm with his sword.

Swoosh ㅡ

“Koo-oo-oo-oo-oo ㅡ!”

“Damn, this monster. It’s not only its appearance, but also its fucking weird howl.”

I agreed with Kang Isuh’s words. At the same time he spoke, I shot an arrow into the vacant eyes of the monster.

The monster, with the arrow stuck in its eye, grabbed its face with both hands, writhed on the ground, and when Mr. Howon brought down his shield, it couldn’t avoid it and its eye burst, resulting in instant death.

“Hoo…”

While everyone was catching their breath after the battle, Ijaehyo approached and spoke.

“Well… You guys are quite skilled for newcomers. Especially the quick judgment to identify the weakness and shoot an arrow into the eye was a very good decision.”

Although the monster blocked the arrow, Ijaehyo seemed to evaluate the judgment itself as not bad.

“Especially, Mr. Howon took charge right away as soon as the monster appeared.”

Certainly, apart from Seoyuju, Mr. Howon seems to be the most experienced in combat among us.

“Overall, everyone did great. Of course, there were some weak points in this monster, but Mr. Yoonsung, who quickly regained his composure and took a steady stance, did well too.”

“….Thank you.”

“To be honest, for a rookie, there doesn’t seem to be a need to be so worried at this level. I understand why the Clan Master recruited all of you and liked you so much.”

Honestly, I didn’t expect to receive so much praise, so I felt a bit burdened by it.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean you should become complacent. This monster is called an Evil Eye… it’s a very weak monster. Going into the dungeon will be different from this situation, so I hope you won’t let your guard down too much.”

“Of course.”

“Very well. Let’s continue moving.”

While moving, I asked Jae-hyo.

“Is it possible that the monster we just encountered, the Evil Eye, will appear in the dungeon we’re heading to?”

“We can’t say for sure, but it’s likely that not only the Evil Eye, but also stronger monsters will appear. The Evil Eye is a common monster outside the city.”

Somehow, even while facing it, it seemed excessively weak. Of course, it may be because we have grown stronger, but it felt slightly stronger than the monsters we faced during the tutorial.

“The dungeon we’re heading to is of the normal grade. At most, it’s probably a rare grade dungeon.”

“Do you not know the exact grade of the dungeon?”

“I usually judge the grade of a dungeon by the monsters that come out from the entrance or the beginning. It’s not about knowing the dungeon grade for sure and speaking it out, but rather the players estimate and rank the grade themselves.”

“……”

“Don’t worry too much. The reason why I mentioned that it’s a dungeon of rare grade is because even if there is an error in the players’ estimation of the dungeon grade, it is still within one grade of error.”

I understood what he meant. If players estimate a dungeon to be of rare grade, then even with some margin of error, it means it is considered a dungeon of hero grade at the highest.

After hearing Je Jaehyo’s words, it seemed like I knew why there was a disparity between large clans and other clans.

If a large clan decides to conquer a hero-grade dungeon, they would also prepare for a legendary-grade dungeon, one grade higher, and deploy a workforce accordingly.

On the other hand, small clans that do not have the resources would only strive to conquer dungeons suitable for hero-grade with the appropriate personnel.

“Well, it doesn’t concern us.”

We had moved quite a distance, and suddenly it was getting close to nightfall. It seemed like Je Jaehyo was thinking about setting up camp as he approached us.

“We should start looking for a place to camp now. From my memory, there should be a spacious clearing a little further ahead where we can camp.”

“Yes, understood.”

As Je Jaehyo said, as we moved a little further, a wide clearing appeared. It seemed like he had already investigated the path we would pass during our expedition and found a place to camp in advance.

“…No wonder they sing songs about large clans, large clans.”

From the beginning, it was different from the others. While others had to grow by risking their lives and walking on a tightrope, we, on the other hand, could grow according to the guidelines with almost all risks excluded.

“Since everyone has brought camping supplies, we will set up camp here and camp. The order of night watch is…”

Interrupting Lee Jae-hyo’s speech, I opened my mouth.

“Since I have mastered the alarm magic, wouldn’t it be unnecessary for everyone to take turns on night watch?”

Perhaps it never occurred to him that a dark wizard like me would have mastered alarm magic, Lee Jae-hyo asked me back.

“…You have mastered alarm magic?”

“Yes. I thought it would be necessary for camping… Frankly, in terms of combat abilities, other party members take care of that, so I wanted to contribute by mastering alarm magic.”

I had to score at times like this. I had to let them know that I’m not just someone who only thinks for himself, but someone who thinks broadly for the party or clan.

Sure enough, I could tell from his expression that the evaluation of me had risen a step.

Even the party members seemed surprised, as if they had never thought that I would have mastered alarm magic.

‘You little… I did it for you guys. Aren’t you grateful, bro?’

“Very well. If you have mastered alarm magic, there is no need for night watch. Let’s continue camping like this.”