Kenji stood at the front of his classroom, filled to the brim with bright-eyed youths and veteran adventurers who couldn't be trusted to represent the Hero Guild in new lands.
He did like teaching, but every day without news grated at his soul. How long would it be until someone finally tracked down these gangsters with web tattoos, or werewolves being sold in some faraway market? How long would it be, before he could make his mistakes right?
For now, he shook his head of the matter -a girl and her party threw the doors open, descending quickly they snatched the last few seats.
"Ellie, please come on time if your planning to attend," Kenji said, noticing her dirtied clothes and the new blade hilt that sat snug in her belt. "Although," Kenji added before she could speak, "I do applaud you coming straight from a quest. I do hope that kind of enthusiasm is something we can all emulate in future, to grind at every spare moment towards greater strength should be the goal of us all."
Ellie smiled brightly, receiving a spattering of claps from her counterparts. Kenji lightly clapped too, then begun his lesson.
He once again gave the definition of a Tank, a Damage Dealer, a Healer, and a Leader.
Once they had recited the core roles of a good Adventurer party, Kenji drilled deeper. A crafter, a Farmer, someone to repair equipment and someone who could enchant existing equipment to be more powerful.
These were the cores to a successful chapter, or Raid team. Kenji's own Raid team consisted of too few. For all of Almanac, Hartog, and Violet's strength it was just not enough to fully fill the needs of what might one day become a 48 person raid team.
"And that's why I will begin auditioning for new members. I have my own Party, Almanac's of the Golden Goose, Hartog of the Headless Horsemen and if he comes back from searching... Caster of Warden Company. But we could use up to three more parties, favouring those who fill a role our current party's do not, and who display an excellent level of coordination."
Kenji nodded, allowing the youths and veterans to murmur a while.
"For that, I will be using a magic key to unlock a dungeon. I and the current members of my Raid team have entered the space and found it...interesting. It is a Forrest environment akin to the Far King's realm, and yet is endlessly assaulted by a demonic army. Some parts of the dungeon are controlled by one faction or the other, or are otherwise contested."
"A war?" a boy with a spear said, his eyes growing round. Apprehension spread like a plague, too many still trying to grow passed the horrors of the Siege of Tariak.
"A war," Kenji said simply. "No one is forced to go, only those prove of heart and hard of mind will even be allowed. But did I mention the rewards?"
Perhaps his instruction was starting to rub off on them, because the students grinned wide and shining. A fierce whispering slithered around the hall, and Kenji chuckled as he brought their attention back to him.
"In this strange dungeon, creatures have an...artificial flavours to them. As if even the living beings are constructs made by another. Defeating a boss will always summon a treasure chest with equipment, expendables or other rewards to match it's difficulty, although the exact rewards themselves seem rather random."
Indicating to his right, Kenji had the Sun Elf butlers bring in a table covered in goods. Demonic cores, giant wasp stingers, potions vials filled with sap and gemstone eyes lay in many bowls. Then some adventurers brought int the good stuff: Insectoid weapons, Razer sharp cleaver and a Morningstar with crystals for spikes.
"These are what my party found with a quick overlook of the dungeons first few levels, and here's what we found on the fifth," from a side room appeared Arti, the little Furbolg becoming the quick sources of strained necks. Cooing and awws filled the crowd who seemed not to appreciate how powerful the little bear creature was.
Raising one of its spotted laws, Arti held up a green crystal overflowing with healing energy.
"This crystal increases the efficiency of casting healing spells," Arti said. "We had to defeat a forest Nymph and her centaurs for it, a difficult battle. I do not reccomend approaching the third floor until the previous feel like child's play."
"How is this possible?" said a rather loud girl from the back, "why does this dungeon just...GIVE us stuff?"
"A fair question," Kenji replied. "I have consulted with Almanac, and he says that while extremely rare, most major kingdoms have these keys. They always have the same rules too, although their layout and 'theme' is different. It is commonly believed that the gods are the creators of these dungeons, or perhaps Great Spirits of a bygone age. For our purposes, we will use this as a chance to train, and we most optimise our approaches to receive the maximum number of healing crystals possible. For now, the Furbolg druids are our only healers, but both the Leader of the Furbolg, Arti, and the greatest magical crafter in the land, Almanac, has assured me that with more of these crystals we could provide certain adventurers with a healing skill or two."
In that room filled with bright faces, Kenji caught one snoring.
"Ellie, did you have time to sleep since you started your quest?" Kenji said, the elf in her party having to jostle her awake and repeat the question.
"Eh, two more hours- EH!" Slowly blinking, she peered around nervously at a room staring at her, "Sorry, I would have slept, but I ran out of time but wanted to come and..."Ellie's voice fell away as she began poking her fingertips against each other. "Sorry, I shouldn't be here, I don't belong-"
"Ellie, would you allow the ambassador to the Furbolg and Bearfolk into your party?" Kenji said warmly, Ellie freezing halfway out of her seat.
"Me?" she wheezed, finding all eyes in the room on her.
"You," Kenji smiled, feeling a little guilty.
"Sure," Ellie sat back down, and Kenji indicated that Arti could go join her. While brave, Arti showed signs of stress as he waded into the many creatures watching and accepted an offered seat from the elf beside Ellie. The butler elf seemingly preferred to stand anyway, a rag over one arm and a tray produced from somewhere as he stood at rigid attention.
Sighing, Kenji looked out the window and found it a bright sunny day.
"How about we take the rest of the lessons outside for today?" Kenji said, a rather popular idea as it turned out.
"And run through some drills!
A less popular one.