"Don't worry! It's just a Ratman! It's the weakest monster in the labyrinth! Just swing your swords, smash it, and you can kill it!"
When the entire class froze, completely paralyzed by the sudden, terrifying appearance of their very first monster, Captain Meld tried to calmly reassure them. He barked orders, insisting the creature they faced was the absolute weakest of the weak, and they had absolutely no reason to panic.
Yet, the problem was obvious: even if it was technically the "weakest," it was still deeply horrifying!
Even Kouki, the designated Hero, wasn't immune. Like the rest of the class, his boots were practically rooted to the stone floor as he stared at the disgusting creature.
Back on Earth, a tiny sewer rat was enough to make half the class scream and jump on a chair. So how were they supposed to stay calm when faced with a giant, hyper-muscular rat standing six feet tall on its hind legs?
It had glowing, blood-red eyes and coarse, matted dark fur covering everything except its sickly, pale chest and abdomen.
"Listen to me!" Meld shouted over their panicked gasps. "It might have high agility, but it is severely lacking in power and durability. It can be dispatched easily by any skilled warrior. You are all powerful beings chosen from another world. You will be completely fine—"
Before Meld could finish his sentence, the Ratman hissed and lunged forward.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
"IT'S MOVING!"
"HURRY UP AND KILL IT!"
The students in the rear vanguard completely lost their composure, screaming and begging the frontline fighters to kill the monster immediately. But the boys with the heavy combat classes were completely frozen in fear. They hadn't expected the monster to look so visceral, so incredibly real.
Kouki felt his hearing grow muffled. His chest tightened in panic, exacerbated by the thin, stale oxygen of the dungeon. But he knew he was the Hero! He had to do something! He had to fight this monster! He had to save the world!
Kouki gripped his glowing sword, fully intending to let out a heroic battle cry.
But before he could even open his mouth, a sharp, black-and-orange blur shot past his ear from the backline.
Thwack.
"Ah...?"
The Ratman froze. A simple, perfectly balanced throwing dagger was buried entirely to the hilt directly between its glowing red eyes. The massive monster swayed for a second before collapsing dead onto the cold stone floor.
"...."
The entire cavern went dead silent.
Dozens of heads slowly turned toward the back of the formation. They saw Suzuki standing calmly, his arm still slightly raised from the perfect, clinical throw. He completely ignored their stunned, wide-eyed stares and immediately began barking orders.
"Focus!" Suzuki's voice was a cold, sharp whip that instantly snapped them out of their panic. "There are more monsters emerging from the shadows! Barrier Master, raise your shields immediately! Vanguard, tighten your formation!"
Driven by the sheer, commanding authority in his voice, the stunned students instinctively obeyed, scrambling into their defensive positions.
"Amanogawa. End the stragglers," Suzuki ordered smoothly.
Kouki violently flinched, finally snapping out of his daze, and rushed forward to slash a second Ratman that had just leapt from the darkness.
"Good. Now, focus on the next target. Calm down, breathe, and follow my instructions."
For the next ten minutes, that was exactly what they did. Suzuki became the absolute anchor of the raid. He flawlessly guided their movements, tracking the flow of the battle from the rear and calling out targets. Under his hyper-optimized leadership, the chaotic skirmish felt incredibly easy. They didn't have to think; they just had to execute his perfect instructions.
More importantly, it completely shattered their worldview. Suzuki, who was officially just a Merchant, had effortlessly secured the very first kill with a terrifyingly precise dagger throw. If a Merchant was that deadly, what excuse did the heavy combatants have?
If Suzuki knew what they were thinking, he would have rolled his eyes. Officially, he was a Merchant. But unofficially, thanks to his hostile takeovers, he possessed the [Assassin], [Synergist], and [Muse] classes, all running simultaneously under the hyper-optimized processing power of his [Manager] skill. He was the deadliest fighter in the room.
But after throwing that single dagger to break their panic, Suzuki completely stepped back. He didn't fight anymore. Instead, he casually strolled behind the vanguard, using his [Absolute Storage] to vacuum up all the valuable monster cores and loot they dropped, fully intending to sell it all at a massive markup later.
"Come on, everyone! We can do it! Follow me!"
Kouki had forcefully taken over the group's leadership again, screaming loudly and swinging his sword. Suzuki didn't mind in the slightest. Playing the inspiring, charismatic leader was utterly exhausting. If Kouki wanted the troublesome job of being the morale booster, Suzuki was more than happy to let him sweat.
"He really is so childish, isn't he?"
Suzuki glanced to his right. Nana Miyazaki, the class's Ice Mage, had quietly slipped back from the middle vanguard to stand beside him.
Despite having an ice-based class, Nana was famously warm, energetic, and heavily flirtatious. She was undeniably beautiful, with a slender figure, long light-brown hair tied into a cute side ponytail, and bright blue eyes.
If there was one "flaw" according to the immature boys in the class, it was her chest. She was a solid AA cup, matching Suzu Taniguchi as the smallest in their grade. But she made up for it with sheer, unrelenting charm.
"You shouldn't just blurt out exactly what you're thinking," Suzuki murmured, keeping his eyes on the battle. "What if Amanogawa hears you? It might cause unnecessary drama."
"Eh? It'll be completely fine," Nana giggled, stepping entirely too close and bumping her shoulder against his arm. "Amanogawa-kun is so simple. He has a massive hero complex. Even if he hears a girl talking about him, he'll just laugh it off, especially when the girl is as cute as I am."
"...Don't you have monsters to fight, Miyazaki-san?"
"Just call me Nana, Suzuki-kun. It's way more comfortable that way~"
"I am currently very uncomfortable," Suzuki sighed dryly. "Especially since my actual girlfriend is currently fighting for her life on the frontlines, while I am standing entirely too close to another girl."
Unlike Suzuki, who had safely claimed the backline, Shizuku was deep in the vanguard, beautifully and ruthlessly slicing through monsters with her Yaegashi-style swordsmanship.
"Sorry, but I can't help it. It's so scary up there..." Nana pouted, holding her magical staff tightly to her small chest. She looked up at him through her eyelashes, her voice dripping with an alluring, needy vulnerability. "By the way... do you have any strategic recommendations for me? Should I just freeze everything?"
"Yes, but be smart about it," Suzuki instructed, slipping seamlessly back into his Manager persona. "Don't waste mana freezing a monster that Kouki or Shizuku are already engaging. Instead, aim for the stragglers trying to sneak-attack our flanks. Stop them in their tracks so the vanguard has a breather. For example... that one creeping up on the left."
"Okay! I'll freeze it!"
Nana quickly raised her staff, her eyes glowing faintly as she cast a rapid Ice Bind. The creeping Ratman instantly froze solid. A second later, one of the heavy warriors stepped up and violently smashed the frozen monster to pieces.
"Thank you, Miyazaki-san!" the boy yelled back, his face flushing slightly. He clearly had a massive crush on her.
But Nana completely ignored him.
"Thank you, Suzuki-kun!"
Nana spun around and threw her arms tightly around Suzuki's neck, pressing her slender body completely flush against his chest in a deeply enthusiastic, highly inappropriate hug.
"...I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you need to let me go right now," Suzuki muttered, gently but firmly trying to pry her off. "Shizuku is actively glaring at me while beheading a rat."
It wasn't just Shizuku. Kaori was also shooting daggers at him from the healer's line. Suzuki let out a heavy sigh. Why did it suddenly feel like every single girl in the class was violently attracted to him?
Was it the passive charm effect of his stolen [Muse] job? Or was the [Manager] skill subtly manipulating their psychological dependency on him?
Honestly, it was a volatile mix of both. But Suzuki was also acutely aware that he simply looked exponentially better than anyone else in the dungeon.
While the rest of the class had eagerly dressed up in cheap, clunky RPG armor—especially Kouki, who looked ridiculous in his shining, overly gaudy gold chest plate—Suzuki had refused to play dress-up.
Instead, he was currently wearing a bespoke, midnight-black three-piece suit, paired with a crisp white dress shirt and a dark silk tie.
To the naked eye, he looked like a wealthy young CEO who had taken a wrong turn into a dungeon. But thanks to his [Synergist] class, the suit was a terrifying piece of engineering.
The base fabric was woven entirely from the silk of a high-tier labyrinth spider monster. It possessed ten times the tensile strength of Kevlar, making the suit completely bulletproof and highly resistant to piercing claws.
More importantly, he had used his vast, embezzled wealth to purchase Azantium—the hardest, most unbreakable metal in Tortus. He had transmuted the raw metal into microscopic, highly flexible threads and interwoven them directly into the spider silk. The suit draped flawlessly over his broad shoulders, but if a monster tried to slash his arm, it would snap its own claws in half.
Even his sleek, polished Oxford shoes were heavily reinforced. The soles and steel toes were compressed with high-density Shtar Ore, meaning he could casually crush a monster's skull with a single, well-placed kick.
Kouki might have possessed the "best" armor the Kingdom could forge, but it was absolute garbage compared to Suzuki's tailored, billion-gold-coin suit.
If I can eventually acquire Ancient Creation Magic... the industrial applications will be insane, Suzuki thought, his mind racing with massive corporate blueprints as he stared deeper into the dark labyrinth.
But before he could conquer the dungeon, the first day of their raid was officially over. It was time to return to the surface inn.
And before he could analyze any more monster loot, he had a massive, potentially explosive personal crisis to handle.
As soon as they were alone in his room later that evening, Suzuki sat down across from Shizuku and Kaori, took a deep breath, and decided to employ the ultimate corporate strategy: absolute, brutal honesty.
"I slept with Kaori last night. I take full responsibility. I am deeply sorry."
Yup. That was definitely the fastest way to rip the band-aid off.