After the roasted eggs and honey water mukbang.
The eagerly awaited training camp began.
"Today, you all will be participating in various events by party!"
Surveying the heroes gathered by party, I announced the rules.
"Each event will be scored, and after performing in several events, the scores will be tallied. The party with the highest score... will receive a very special prize! Look forward to it!"
"Ohhhh...!"
Of course, the prizes given at training camps are usually nothing special. But it's always best to inflate expectations.
Unaware of this, the naive heroes let out exclamations of excitement. I chuckled with my arms crossed.
This inflated expectation shrinking into disappointment is also one of the delights of the training camp.
"Alright, the first event is..."
I pointed to a long rope prepared on the platform and shouted.
"Tug-of-war!"
Everyone blinked in confusion.
"As a team?"
"Tug-of-war...?"
"What is that, Your Highness?"
"You'll understand as soon as you see it. Let's go! Demonstration team! Volunteers, step forward!"
But no one stepped forward...
I clicked my tongue and added,
"The demonstration team will receive a hundred points."
"Me, me!"
"We'll do it!"
"Get lost! We'll do it!"
As soon as points were mentioned, volunteers surged forward.
Eventually, the Penal Squad was chosen as the demonstration team. The Penal Squad members stepped forward noisily, but Kuilan alone followed behind with a gloomy face.
"..."
Kuilan kept glancing worriedly at Yun lying among the female priests on the other side.
Ignoring them, I grabbed one end of the rope, and Aider took the other.
"Tug-of-war is simple. Just rotate the rope like this, and when it comes under your feet... jump to avoid it at the same time!"
Swoosh!
As Aider and I rotated the rope, the rest of the Penal Squad members jumped over it in unison... except Kuilan, who was a beat late and got whipped by the rope on his ankle.
"Kyaaak!"
In pain, Kuilan hopped on his opposite foot, and then the rope, having rotated half a turn more, wrapped around his face. It was because Kuilan was too tall. Swoosh!
"Gyaak!"
Kuilan, clutching one hand around his ankle and the other around his face, fell to the ground with a thud. He's currently in his beast mode, so why does he look so clumsy?
"Darn, beast king, you! Can't you focus on the tug-of-war!"
"Ugh, I'm so distracted, I can't concentrate on such a game..."
"Go! This tug-of-war will help in the upcoming Black Dragon subjugation battle! Better not regret it later and get your act together!"
Kuilan made a face as if it was the world's injustice, unable to understand how such a game could help in the Black Dragon subjugation battle.
Anyway, since tug-of-war is quite an intuitive event, everyone quickly grasped the rules.
However, understanding the intuitive rules and... performing them simultaneously as a group were two different matters.
"Waaaah!"
"Ouch!"
As the main event began, parties that had underestimated the group tug-of-war quickly fell one after another.
Everyone was getting caught by the ankles, wrists, and necks; it was chaos.
If five people didn't jump as one, they'd be knocked out quickly. That was the essence of group tug-of-war.
Given that it was everyone's first time playing this game, we applied the rules leniently, giving each party three lives.
Yet, they fell like leaves in the wind.
Of course, not everyone fell just because they were bad. Some parties did quite well.
"Ahahaha!"
"So fun!"
Hannibal and the elf children laughed childishly, jumping up in the air, and everyone watched them with warm smiles.
And in the end, the longest-lasting party was the Holy Grail Seekers. They managed nearly 100 counts.
"Huhuhu..."
A smile finally appeared on Verdandi's face, which had been gloomy until then.
"It's a game we often played in my hometown. Especially when I was young, Urd, Skuld, and I used to play it together often..."
Oops.
Mid-sentence, Verdandi face-planted into the wall. Just when I thought I had pulled her out of the shadows, she crawled back in...
Anyway, the winner of the group tug-of-war was the Holy Grail Seekers, and I declared,
"Holy Grail Seekers, 1,000 points!"
"Waaaa!"
Except for Verdandi, the other elves raised their hands in joy.
The Penal Squad, quietly listening to the score allocation, muttered in despair.
"What? A thousand points...?"
"Then the hundred points we earned for being the demonstration team..."
Ignoring their comments, I gestured towards Aider.
"Alright, next up!"
What Aider brought next were... three artifacts that shot water. I had hastily ordered them from Crossroad.
"It's dodge the water cannon!"
I explained the rules while setting up the three artifacts side by side on the platform.
"Three water cannons will shoot water in turns! You just need to stand on this platform and dodge the water for as long as possible!"
"That sounds super easy?"
Evangeline, who scoffed, soon after,
"Gwaaack!"
Screamed terribly and tumbled down the platform after being hit by the water cannon.
Evangeline's party members, including the shield knights, also screamed and were swept away.
With three shooting paths alternating water shots, finding the safe space and continuously dodging was the challenge. Not as easy as it looks!
"Blub blub, blub blub!"
"Ah! I just bathed and now I'm wet again!"
"Just bathe again, it's a hot spring anyway."
While everyone failed to handle it properly and got soaked by the water bombs.
Unexpectedly, the first place went to Kellibey and the dwarf party. They agilely rolled around with their round bodies, dodging the water bombs with ease.
After winning, Kellibey muttered gloomily,
"Now that I think about it, I never got to play in the water with Kellison..."
"Ah, there he goes again, really."
Despite their successful rolls, Kellibey remained gloomy, while the rest of the dwarves clapped and cheered. I announced the score.
"Kellibey's party, 5,000 points!"
"Woooah!"
"Why are the scores increasing so suddenly...?"
Evangeline wondered, but this is the unwritten rule of training camps!
The scores experience cataclysmic inflation as we progress! The later you earn points, the better!
"Then what's the point of the earlier games?"
"From my point of view, as the person overseeing this, the goal is to get you focused on the games at hand, so I really don't mind! It's not like I'm getting any of the prizes!"
"What kind of organization is this!"
However, since there were more parties that hadn't earned points than those that had, the majority actually welcomed the inflation. Let's go, let's go, hyperinflation here we come~
A variety of games followed. Horseback riding, five-legged race, relay race, balloon popping...
The heroes, freshly washed earlier, now sweated profusely as they competed eagerly by party, and the scores skyrocketed into the billions.
"Heck! Heck! It's fun, but, Your Highness."
After winning the balloon popping with [Far-Sight].
Damien, the representative of the sniper party, cautiously asked me.
"Among all the games out there, is there a special reason you're only choosing ones that require parties to move together?"
"Good point, Damien."
I smiled slyly and provided the answer.
"The games we played today are exactly the movements needed to defeat the 'Black Dragon Legion.'"
"...!"
A bolt of realization struck the faces of the heroes.
Yes. The events held at today's training camp weren't chosen just for fun.
'The battle with the Black Dragon Legion is similar to a classic MMORPG dragon raid.'
Floor mechanics!
Sweeping breath attacks!
Defense gimmicks activated throughout the map!
Destroying parts within a limited time!
All of these were sampled through various games.
'Against the indiscriminate attacks of dragonkind armed with area-wide weapons, one must respond flawlessly with practiced tactics. A single mistake means death.'
In MMORPGs, if a raid wipes, you can just resurrect, regroup, and retry.
But this is reality. A single mistake by an individual can lead to the party's annihilation, and a mistake by the party can lead to the raid's destruction.
Acquiring dragon slayer weapons is secondary to establishing defense tactics after undergoing this training.
So, we started off lightly with the format of a training camp, making everyone start with a laugh...
"Five people must move as one."
Today's training camp was not mere play.
It was a serious rehearsal of tactics to be mastered for the subjugation of the Black Dragon Legion.
The expressions of those who had been gloomy and half-hearted about the games changed. They straightened up urgently and pricked up their ears, waiting for the next game I would announce.
I grinned.
Though this was one of the purposes, wanting to have fun with you all was my priority...
"Now! For the grand final event! It's... sandcastle building!"
This has absolutely nothing to do with the Black Dragon subjugation!
But the heroes, unaware of my true intentions, looked seriously at the sand Aider was hauling over.
Aider brought a cart full of sand and piled it in a corner of the communal hall. There was plenty of sand since the sand baths were part of the spa facilities.
"Alright, the party that builds the most magnificent sandcastle... will get a trillion points!"
"Ah, come on, ease up on the score inflation-!"
Even as they protested, Evangeline and the others rushed to the mountain of sand, screaming and shouting.
Discussing what to build, the heroes started earnestly on their sandcastles, sweating profusely.
Even those who had been gloomy were now fully engaged.
I watched them, hands clasped behind my back, smiling.
Yes. Run, sweat, ponder, live.
That's it. Then...
***
After the sandcastle contest.
I walked around, evaluating and praising the sandcastles everyone had diligently built, and then announced the final scores.
"Everyone who enjoyed themselves today... we're all winners. A thousand trillion points to every team!"
Wowwww!
Applause all around!
Everyone clapped with moved expressions, except for Evangeline.
"Are you all really okay with this?! Something's off! Both the standards and the scores are weird, this isn't right!"
"Oh, by the way, I'll distribute prizes to everyone. When we head back to Crossroad, stop by the lord's mansion to collect them."
Wowwww!
Everyone got up in excitement. Evangeline just threw up her hands, resigned to anything now.
'Seems like this hastily arranged training camp is wrapping up.'
I leisurely observed Podong playing on the sandcastles like it was an attraction, and the heroes cheering him on.
'...Originally, I had planned a time for lighting candles and reminiscing about family.'
I thought about employing the K-drama tearjerker technique at this K-training camp to instantly obliterate the tear ducts of the defenseless and weak.
But I decided to skip it since it looked like the already gloomy heroes might actually start bawling. Shame... This was supposed to be the highlight of the training camp...
"Before we return, one last announcement."
I made eye contact with everyone and slowly began to speak.
It was about the future schedule.
"In 3 weeks, at the Crossroad autumn festival, a martial arts tournament will be held. This tournament will be by party participation, testing both party combat strength and... the teamwork we've practiced in the games."
Then, I dropped a bombshell.
"And the results of this tournament will be used to select the parties for the Black Dragon subjugation battle."
"...?!"
"You all have three weeks until the martial arts tournament. Use this time freely for rest and training, as you see fit."
I curled my lips into a smirk.
"It's up to you. If you're scared of Night Bringer, you can slack off in preparing for the tournament. You don't even have to participate. But if you want to land a solid punch on that dragon's jaw..."
I scanned the heroes.
"For the monster front's hero party to emerge as the strongest, you'd best prepare thoroughly for this martial arts tournament, right?"