5 - Chapter 3: Practical Training
When I walked into the staff room, the instructor in charge was buried in paperwork.
As I stepped up to his desk, my shadow fell across him. Sensing my presence from the shadow and the sound of my footsteps, the instructor looked up from his monitor.
"I was starting to think you weren't going to show up today, but look who finally decided to grace us with his presence."
I gave a half-hearted nod. He asked me the exact same thing Jin Seo-yun had.
"So? What's your excuse for being late?"
"On my way here, some crazy bitch sexually harassed me on the subway, dragged me into the restroom, and raped me. That's why I'm late."
"...Right. Sure. Next time you're late, at least try to come up with a believable excuse."
I was too lazy to make up a lie, so I just told him the flat-out truth. I figured he wouldn't believe me anyway and would just let it slide.
"Whatever. Just get out there and do your field training. You can still make it if you hurry."
The hunter industry was currently facing a severe labor shortage.
Which is why, under the guise of 'field training,' they threw kids who hadn't even gotten their official licenses yet straight into the field.
To keep people from complaining, the training stipend was actually pretty lucrative. And since most aspiring hunters were dirt-poor losers desperate for cash, they usually kept their mouths shut and took the money.
I was no exception, of course.
Once the instructor handed over the details of my assignment, I left the staff room and headed for the locker room.
I swapped my street clothes for activewear. As I stepped out, I ran into Seo-yun. She was just coming out of the girls' locker room, having changed out of her blood-stained gear and back into her regular clothes.
We walked down the hallway together, and Seo-yun asked,
"What did the instructor say?"
"Told me to get out there and do my field training anyway."
She nodded, then casually tossed out a question as we walked.
"Want me to come with you?"
I shook my head without a second thought.
"No thanks. I want to keep the whole stipend for myself."
It was half-joke, half-truth. Seo-yun let out a soft chuckle.
"You know I wouldn't take your money, right?"
"You need to rest, too. Don't push yourself so hard—you've got to look out for yourself. You know what they say about hunters: 'A hero of humanity when they're recruiting you, a burden on society when you're injured, and a nobody once you're dead.'"
"Huh. I guess that's true."
We reached the end of the hallway, and I pointed toward the stairs.
"Well, I'm off."
"Oh, right. Stay safe out there."
I headed down the stairs toward the armory, while Seo-yun turned down another corridor to head back to class.
I grabbed my school-issued gear from the armory and headed outside.
Walking down the street with an assault rifle slung over my shoulder drew a few looks. But a kid carrying a gun was a common sight around Hunter High School, so nobody batted an eye.
My assignment today was an E-rank Gate that had just opened up earlier this morning.
At that level, even a D-rank cadet could clear it solo without much trouble.
Usually.
When I reached the coordinates, a dimensional gate was hovering in midair, guarded by an agent from the Gate Management Department.
The agent spotted me and called out.
"Here for field training? Let me see your student ID."
"Sure."
I gave a lazy nod and pulled my ID from my pocket.
"You're good to go. Head on in."
With the quick check out of the way, I stepped into the blue portal hovering just off the ground.
Passing through a gate felt like wading through water you could somehow breathe in.
With a single step, the world completely changed. The concrete jungle vanished, replaced by the damp, dark expanse of a rocky cavern.
The blue portal behind me vanished, its job done. It wouldn't reappear until I cleared the dungeon.
Keeping that in mind, I pulled a tactical flashlight from my pack and mounted it to my rifle.
I clicked it on and swept the beam across the darkness. Nothing hostile was in sight.
"Hmm."
Time to get moving.
Honestly, there was no reason to be tense. A low-rank cave dungeon was about as basic as it got.
At worst, I'd run into some goblins, kobolds, or maybe—if I was really unlucky—a small pack of orcs.
I started down the path, keeping my eyes peeled for traps.
Actually, I hope I run into a trap soon. That'll tell me exactly what kind of nasty bastards are nesting in here.
Even the crudest trap can tell you a lot.
For instance, if it's incredibly primitive but smeared with shit to infect the wounds, it's goblins.
If it's a bit more sophisticated, using tripwires and metal parts, you're dealing with kobolds.
And if there aren't any traps at all, no matter how deep you go, it means male orcs are nesting inside.
And...
"Whoops."
I swept my light upward and spotted a massive axe suspended from the ceiling.
It was too dark to make out the exact mechanism, but tracing the beam down revealed a thin rope. A classic deadfall trap.
The axe itself was far too well-crafted to be goblin or kobold work, and way too heavy for them to even lift.
It would be unwieldy even for a human, let alone those runts.
In an E-rank cave dungeon, there was only one species from my textbooks that would set up a trap this heavy-handed.
Female orcs.
Male orcs are prideful, muscle-brained meatheads. They'd never stoop to something as underhanded as setting traps.
But female orcs, who have to protect their young and lack the overwhelming physical strength of the males, are far more pragmatic.
They have absolutely no qualms about playing dirty if it gets the job done.
Now, what's the play?
Having identified the threat, I carefully sidestepped the trap and weighed my options.
Honestly, there was no shame in backing out and calling for backup.
The lock on the portal only prevented me from leaving; people from the outside could still enter.
If I ripped the emergency distress scroll in my pack right now, the agent outside would immediately call in a rescue team.
After all, expecting a single D-rank cadet to handle a pack of orcs—no matter how small—was pushing it.
But it's not like this is unwinnable.
Especially since they were females, not males. That changed the math in a lot of ways.
Plus, if I cleared it myself, I'd qualify for hazard pay.
Deciding the risk was worth the reward, I pressed deeper into the cavern, easily bypassing the female orcs' crude but heavy traps.
I kept my guard up as I walked. How long had it been?
Huh?
From somewhere ahead, I heard the distinct, trickling sound of splashing liquid.
Wondering if there was an underground stream, I aimed my rifle and swept the flashlight toward the noise.
"?!"
The beam illuminated a female orc, squatting with her panties pulled down, in the middle of taking a piss.
"...."
A heavy silence fell over us.
Even in the dead quiet, the steady stream of her piss echoed loudly.
Blinded by the sudden glare of my flashlight, the female orc just blinked, her eyes wide with shock.
Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger,
a massive impact slammed into my back.
"Ugh!"
The blow rattled my brain. I dropped my rifle and went rolling across the stone floor.
If my backpack hadn't cushioned the blow and I hadn't reinforced my body with mana, I would have been knocked out cold on the spot.
I forced my head up and looked back to see what had hit me.
She stood around six feet tall. Green skin, black hair, and a fierce yet surprisingly pretty face. Her body was incredibly muscular, but her massive breasts, wide hips, and narrow waist gave her an undeniably feminine silhouette.
Standing over me, looking down with a smug grin, was another female orc clad in bikini armor.
"Ah."
These bitches were hunting in pairs?
As I struggled to sit up and leaned my back against the cavern wall, the one who had kicked me barked out an order.
The first orc, finally finished with her business, stood up and pulled her metal-plated panties back up.
Within seconds, two more female orcs emerged from the shadows.
Just like that, I was surrounded by four of them. To human eyes, they all looked practically identical, save for their hairstyles.
Even with the odds stacked against me, I didn't panic.
Orcs are cruel, sadistic creatures. A lot like cats.
When they catch something weaker than them, they like to play with their food first.
But if there's one difference between them and cats...
...it's that orcs are horny bastards three hundred and sixty-five days a year, and they'll try to fuck literally anything that moves.
Sure enough, instead of hacking me to pieces with their axes, the female orcs squatted down around me, giggling as they began to inspect their new toy.