Episode 4: To Start Over (3)

Within a quiet room on the top floor of a tall building, a blue-haired woman dressed in a black suit could be seen sitting in silence behind a desk. There, it could be noted that she was holding onto a folder titled "Recruitment".

"...hmm. There are only a few prominent hunters, huh?" Slowly flipping through each page within the folder, the woman fell into deep thought. "Let's see... Ally, Tasha, Killian..." As she read through the details of each hunter listed in the files, a sudden knock resounded through the room, interrupting her thoughts. "Come in."

Turning her head over towards the front door of her office, she noted that a black-haired woman entered the room, with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Are you still looking at the hunter files from the license exam?" Bowing her head to greet the woman, she began making her way to the side of her desk, soon setting down a cup of coffee on the table. "Will you be taking anyone into our guild, Selene?"

"Well, I do have a few people in mind." Taking a sip from the freshly brewed coffee, Selene pointed her finger over towards a hunter named 'Killian' in the files. "But... Trying to recruit them sure is a lot harder thanks to the association."

"Oh, why's that?" The woman tilted her head. "Did they not provide any contact details?"

"That is unfortunately the case," she helplessly shook her head. "Though, I can understand why. The privacy of the rookies is important after all. But, it does cause quite some problems for the guilds. I could barely approach a few people before everyone went home."

"Hmm... That indeed is troublesome..." she sighed. "Should I give a suggestion to the association to give a time slot where recruiters can approach promising hunters?"

"That would be great," Selene nodded her head. "Could you also add the suggestion to lower the matches to two instead of three? There are quite a lot of things that need to be sorted out. The format change is quite rough."

"Indeed. I've heard Ray complained about it too." The black-haired woman—Mia, added. "I'll go ahead and make a list of suggestions for the association. As for the ones you couldn't contact... What should we do about them?"

"Well, it'd be a wasted opportunity if anything else," Selene thought to herself. "If possible, could you please look into finding out how to contact them? I'll handle the rest myself."

"Of course!" Mia smiled, receiving the list of hunters from her guild leader.

"Thank you," she nodded her head. "I'll leave it into your capable hands."

Following her words, the black-haired woman bowed once again to Selene, excusing herself as she left the office.

"Alright... With that out of the way..." Selene stretched her arms, soon turning her head over to her desktop the next second. "Let's see the rest of my schedule for today."

...

The morning sun shone brightly in the sky as a giant blue portal could be spotted out in the open of a park. Surrounding it, were many barricades and armed military men on high alert to prevent any intruders from trespassing.

In the middle of the barricaded area, a blonde-haired man could be seen walking back and forth, looking at his phone in worry. "...I told him to be here at 10 AM, right? Ugh... It's long past that time!"

"Chill, Landon. Why are you so worried?" A brown-haired man beside the anxious Landon called out to him. "It's only been about 20 minutes."

"...that is precisely why I'm worried, Derek!" Landon cried out. "It's been 20 minutes! What if he decided not to come after all? That would be bad!"

"Then we go in without him. What's the problem?" A girl replied in turn. "That Synergist guy you invited gives me a bad feeling. So it's good that he's not coming."

"Hah? Good? What do you know!" he frowned. "He has great accuracy that any Marksman strives to have! It'd be a shame if we don't get him on board our team!"

"A shame...?" she blinked at Landon. "Did you drink last night?"

"What? Obviously not!" he furrowed his brows. "Why would I drink the night before our first dungeon?!"

"Then tell me. Where the hell do you see 'great accuracy' in a guy who just stood there and did nothing throughout all three matches of the exam?" The girl glared at him. "That's a bad sign if you ask me. He's also 20 minutes late, might I add. If anything, you're dodging a bullet here!"

"What do you know? He could have woken up late or got lost or something!" Landon rolled his eyes. "This isn't a high-ranked gate anyways. So we can take our time on it!"

"...and if it was? Just saying, there's no excuse for him to be late," she scoffed. "Besides, what good do you see in that guy anyway? For one, he's an F-ranked Hunter. If he was that great, he wouldn't have gotten such a rank."

"That rank is bogus," he clicked his tongue. "Just believe me for this one. You'll see his performance during the dungeon run."

"Hah... Whatever. You're the party leader anyway. What say do I have?" she shook her head disappointedly. "I'm just saying, don't put so much trust in a guy you just met. For all we know, he could've tried to sabotage your rank, or is after your money."

"Why would he?!" Landon frowned.

"P-Penelope, maybe take it easy on the accusations?" As the argument between the two grew heated, Derek attempted to intervene. "I mean, it's not my place to say this, but, maybe we should just cool down a bit? If Landon invited him, there should be some truth behind his words."

"Yes. Put some more faith in him." Approaching the three people, an old man could be noted in full armour. "And, Master Landon, you should calm down. I know it's your first dungeon, but you shouldn't be so stressed."

"Sigh... Right, right. Thanks, Toriq." Landon took a deep breath, soon slapping his face with both his hands the next moment. "We just need to wait for Jace and we can go into the dungeon."

"Tch... It's not accusations if I'm stating facts here." Penelope folded her arms, scoffing.

"Seriously, just trust me!" Landon firmly said. "He's a good guy!"

At his words, a black-haired man in the distance could be seen right outside of the barricades, slowly approaching the military men. Then, after a few minutes of talking with them, he was let in, his eyes soon falling upon four people ahead of him.

"Sorry, I had trouble finding this place." Walking up towards the group, Jace awkwardly scratched his head, seemingly tired. "I wasn't expecting there to be two parks with similar names."

"Lazy Eyes!" At Jace's appearance, Landon's expression brightened up. "See, Penelope? He came after all!"

"...?" Jace tilted his head, glancing around the other three people who were staring at him.

"Whatever," Penelope rolled her eyes. "Now that he's here, let's go into the dungeon. No more wasting time."

"Hey, wait! I still need to introduce you guys to Jace!" Landon cried out.

"Do it in the dungeon," she scoffed. "He'll have all the time in the world to do nothing in there."

"Hey, Penelope!" Landon frowned. "Just what's your..." As he was about to argue with her, he was immediately interrupted by Jace.

"It's fine, I don't need any introductions." Shaking his head at his words, he turned to look at the angered Penelope. "We can go into the dungeon. I'm already prepared."

Jace had woken up an hour before the initial meeting time. He had thought that he'd be able to arrive in a timely manner, however, things took a turn when he arrived at the wrong park. In the end, he ended up 20 minutes late due to how far apart the parks were.

For Jace, though he was mostly lazy the entire time, he didn't like the feeling of coming in late.

"Hey, Lazy Eyes! Just don't mind her!" Landon rolled his eyes. "Are you sure you don't want any introduction?"

"There's no need. We can go in."

"Sigh. Fine, if you say so..." Landon glared at Penelope. "This is an F-ranked dungeon, and Toriq has already scouted the entrance, so we're good to go."

"Great." Jace nodded his head, soon facing the giant blue portal before him. "You said that this was a forest environment dungeon, right?"

"Yep!"

"I see..."

As his eyes met with the portal, he felt a sense of nostalgia. It had been a long time since he entered an F-ranked gate. After all, what reason would he have to enter such gates as an S-ranker back then? The last time he did was when dungeons first appeared all throughout the world during The Great Awakening.

But now, he stood before it not as a veteran hunter, but as a completely new one.

"Alright, everyone!" Toriq shouted out. "Although this is an F-ranked gate, I would like to remind everyone to not let their guard down. Please ensure that you're safe. I'll do my best to protect you all if needed."

"Are we ready everyone?" As the group approached the gate more closely, they felt as if they were slowly being sucked in. The blue swirling portal was no joke. It was dangerous. "Let's go clear our first dungeon!"

Taking a step foot into the gate, the space around them slowly faded out.