Published: September 10, 2025
“What a crowd.”
After parting ways with Jel of the Great Shield, we soon arrived at that white building—the West Explorer's Guild.
Everywhere here was packed with people. Just the number of people here seemed like at least twice the population of our village.
We lined up behind a group of kids aspiring to become explorers who were walking ahead.
“Is this really the registration line?”
“This has to be it. Zaki, you worry too much.”
“But look, the people at the front of the line—”
“There’s blood on their clothes. They must be people returning from the labyrinth.”
After I pointed that out, Gon and Zaki exchanged glances and said, “We’ll go ask,” then ran up to the front of the line.
“They said the new registration line is over there.”
“Eh? Then what was this line for?”
“This line is for applying to the new explorer training course.”
I had heard of that training course before.
My sister insisted I absolutely had to take it.
“Let’s go, Sharon.”
“Wait, I want to try the training.”
“Hey, we came here to become explorers, right? Training is just studying. That’s something the village chief’s son or an apothecary apprentice should do.”
Gon said that and roughly pulled me along.
“That’s not true, Gau.”
We were startled by the sudden voice and jumped back.
Turning around, there stood a massive dog humanoid wearing a blue cloak.
“Hey, look at that.”
“A blue cloak—that’s Pandora!”
“That’s Gaugal of the Stormwind Sword. Look, over there is Usasa of the Gale Killing Blade and Labibi of the Demonic Bow.”
“The first-generation members all gathered, huh.”
“They took down the Area Masters alone as a party, right?”
“Seriously? That’s amazing—even their minions were tough, but they went for the Area Masters too!”
Veteran explorers in the guild murmured excitedly.
“They’re pretty noisy, huh. Anyway, you have to take the new explorer training for sure. It’ll increase your chances of survival.”
The dog humanoid said that and walked toward the group of people in blue cloaks.
Beyond them, the entrance grew noisier.
“That’s ‘Fangs of the Inferno.’”
The well-built explorers parted left and right in fear, revealing sturdy men.
“That’s Zarigon, the leader.”
“All the main forces of ‘Fangs of the Inferno’ are here.”
A human man called Zarigon headed toward the blue cloaks.
I later learned that the leader was the highest-ranking coordinator among explorers. The previous leader, named Asaku or Yaseku or something, retired, and Zarigon took over.
“Thanks for coming, Usasa.”
“Since Zarigon invited me, I couldn’t refuse.”
Zarigon lightly bumped fists with a rabbit humanoid with a cheek scar.
“Listen up!”
Zarigon put his arm around the rabbit humanoid and shouted to the guild members.
“We, ‘Fangs of the Inferno,’ along with ‘Pandora’ led by Usasa—”
“Hereby declare the start of the hunt for the Floor Masters!”
As they declared this, the guild members stomped their feet, raised their fists, and cheered.
Probably me and the other newcomers were caught up in the excitement, shouting along without fully understanding what was going on.
As the explorers’ roar swelled, a roaring sound was followed by flying flames.
Apparently, a fireball exploded near the guild’s high ceiling.
All eyes turned to the elderly woman who must have cast the fireball.
“Ugh, the guild master.”
“That old lady’s still as formidable as ever.”
The veteran explorers looked at the old woman with a mix of amazement and exasperation.
“You noisy lot, geez.”
“You’re overdoing it. What if the fire spreads?”
“Do you think I’d make such a careless mistake?”
A delicate girl emerged behind the old woman.
The veteran explorers around whispered, “Oh no, even Sevelkea-sama is here,” and hurriedly fled, saying, “Run! Sevelkea-sama’s punishments are no joke.”
I was a little curious about the girl who was feared more than the crazy old woman who cast fireballs inside the building, but like my sister, she was probably a “dangerous to touch” type, so I decided not to approach carelessly.