Holfort was founded on the blood, sweat, and tears of Adventurers. The profession was ingrained into the society as much as the Samurai were in Japan. As such, all Academy students, regardless of status, were registered with the Adventurer's Guild. The intention was so that even the children of nobility would be able to experience a bit of what their ancestors once did. Children of lower nobility actually took advantage of the certification to gain extra funds from Adventuring. It was apparently very common for male students to go out and accrue cash by doing this during holidays or the weekends. Tea Parties weren't cheap after all.

I didn't have to register with the guild as I was already an active adventurer in the system. I was actually super excited when we were told that there would be Adventuring classes where we would delve into the dungeon inside the Capital. I didn't actually get a proper dungeon dive when I found the Saotome Research Lab as it wasn't even a dungeon to begin with.

When Control found out what this particular class was all about, the AI immediately went and put together equipment for me to use. Everything was manufactured in the Nagare and was delivered to me via my family a few days ago.

The first thing I got was my armor, but really, it was supposed to be my official pilot suit for Black Getter. Control had apparently already been designing it for a while now and just expedited the creation process. It was a full body suit that covered me from neck to toe. Form fitting but incredibly comfy and was apparently fully weather insulated. Most of it was colored black but had grey lines that zig-zagged from my shoulders to my knees. There was a big green racing stripe that went from my sternum, then around my shoulders, and down the sides of my arms. The boots and gauntlets had some sort of plating protecting them. It was sort of like ceramic but I was sure it was probably something stronger. Around my waist was a metal belt that had electromagnetic points on the sides and rear. In the middle of my upper chest was a small stylized silhouette of Black Getter's head, sans scarf. The logo, guess. Completing the look was a scarf that was black on the outside and red on the inside.

When I asked Control if the scarf was really necessary, the Drone broke stealth and went right up to my face before answering in the most serious tone I had ever heard from them.

Yes. It is a sacred tradition.

Control also assured me that the suit itself would be more than capable of protecting my body despite the lack of visible armoring around vital areas.

The reactive material of the suit will detect if you are about to be exposed to physical trauma and will harden as needed. It is how it protects you should you be exposed to extreme forces while piloting.

I asked how the suit could do that and Control started an exhaustive explanation. When they realized that I understood none of the science behind it, the AI just sighed and told me not to worry about it.

But of course, something had to bring my mood down. My success had once again bitten me in the ass considering the people I was accompanying in this particular expedition.

I looked at a nervous looking Olivia at my side. She was wearing a much more traditional looking set of adventuring armor, at my recommendation. She wore leather clothing under plates of armor that covered her chest, arms, and shins. It emphasized protecting critical parts while being flexible enough to run with. Unfortunately, the rest of our peers seemed to prioritize looking good over actually having protection.

"I'm sorry you had to be here, but Miss Angelica was insistent that you come with us." The 'us' that Olivia was talking about was what can be considered as the Upper Crust of our year. There looked to be around thirty students all in all, including the two of us. The most notable members of our Raid Group were Angelica, Prince Julius, and the rest of the love interests.

I took a glance at the remaining two that I hadn't encountered yet.

One was tall and slender, notable for having light blue hair and matching eyes. His glasses only enhanced his image as a stern individual. He had a sword strapped to the waist of his stylish outfit. Chris Fia Arclight, the son of Holfort's Sword Saint and the game's tryhard swordmaster type.

The other one was a complete contrast to Chris. Greg Fou Seberg looked like the ideal rugged type of guy. Short red hair with matching eyes. He was quite muscular, which was demonstrated by his rolled up sleeves that exposed his large arms. A well crafted spear was propped up on his shoulder.

The two infighters amongst the love interests. Both are pretty reliable in a scrap, but that was all they were good for. Together with Julius, Jilk, and Brad, the five of them exuded charisma regular guys like me couldn't hope to come close to.

So, why the hell were Olivia and I among this group of super elites?

Olivia was a unique existence for being the first and only Special Scholarship Student. On the other hand, I was already an established adventurer and that apparently meant that I could be counted on to act as a bodyguard to Prince Julius. Olivia said that Angelica was the one who recommended me for the position.

I still hadn't expected that the girl Olivia gave her gift to as tribute was Angelica. At least she told me that their meeting was pretty amicable. A sharp contrast to their relationship in the game.

Regardless, such a thing should be unnecessary. We were only going through the first level of the beginner floors. So up to Floor Three at most. Our sheer numbers alone would guarantee that any monsters that showed up would just get dogpiled on immediately.

We were instructed to split up into teams and make our way to the third floor as I predicted. The teachers will be down there to confirm our accomplishment as well as prevent idiots from trying to go deeper. We all split off into five teams of six, though we all just moved together anyway. The only difference was that Prince Julius' group was in the middle because he couldn't afford to be harmed. My group was acting as a vanguard, because of course we were. It was me, Olivia, and four randos I didn't really care about.

People were finalizing their groupings when Angelica's furious shrieking echoed through the caverns. What the hell?

I took a look at the developing situation and saw someone I should have also expected. Marie was hiding behind Julius while Angelica was understandably trying to get the other girl away from her betrothed.

"What is happening? Why is Miss Angelica so angry?" Olivia fretted at my side. That's what I wanted to know! This was supposed to be an event where Olivia was protected by Julius from Angelica!

It got even worse when the rest of the love interests started stepping up to stand between Marie and Angelica. The confrontation quickly ended after that. When I glanced at Marie and saw her victorious smirk, it all clicked.

She was going to try to replace Olivia as the main protagonist!

The teachers had us proceed through the dungeons before anything else happened between the students. I looked at Angelica's frustration as she ignored her followers, then to Marie's joyous face as she basked in the attention of the love interests, then finally to Olivia's nervousness as she walked alongside me. I concluded that the whole situation was nuts.

All in all, the walk through the dungeon was pretty boring. The environment was basically an abandoned mine with wide tunnels and passageways that led all over the place. The advantage we had as the vanguard was that we basically had first pick on any treasure chests and resource points that showed up.

"But why are there treasure chests appearing out of nowhere?" Olivia asked as she pulled out a chunk of iron straight out of the wall. It wasn't even ore, it was already refined. "Even these minerals, it all seems too convenient."

"Who knows?" I answered with a shrug as I gathered my own resources. This was more in line with what I was expecting a dungeon dive would be like.

Olivia pouted at my flippancy. "Aren't you even a bit curious?"

The girl definitely showed her lack of experience with those questions. Actual Adventurers didn't care at all and just wanted the loot from dungeons.

Olivia and I ended up taking point in our team, making us walk way ahead of the main group itself. We didn't really click with any of the other people so we just gravitated to each other again. After a bit more walking, I noticed movement from further down the passageway.

"Speaking of things in the dungeon that inexplicably appear out of nowhere." I spoke out while deliberately stepping in front of Olivia. The girl curiously looked past me and gasped. Three dog sized ants skittered their way towards us.

My hands went to my waist as I gripped the handles of the weapons Control made for me, the electromagnets in my belt that kept them in place turning off. I had originally intended to come down here with my regular rifle and sword combination, but was vetoed by the AI. Instead, I held in each hand a pair of hand clubs that had each had an axe head sticking out the side.

Control called them Tomahawks, but I was pretty sure that actual tomahawks didn't look like these things. When I asked why the tip of the club was so wide and heavy, Control just said that it made it easier to throw them.

I decided to test that out on one of the giant ants. Once they got close enough, I pulled my arm back and threw the tomahawk in my right hand. It spun in the air, end over end, before bisecting the ant and lodging itself on the ground by the axe blade. These things were sharper than I thought. The giant insect carapace didn't even slow it down by even a bit.

The remaining two ants continued their advance towards us, not even bothering to acknowledge the death of their companion. I switched my remaining tomahawk to my right hand and prepared to intercept. Their jaws opened up and looked to be targeting my legs, though I doubt they would have been able to bite through my boots. They were almost in range when a shot rang out from behind me and hit the ground right in front of one of the ants. Olivia yelped as the recoil from the magic handgun that Angelica apparently lent her made her take a step back. I wasn't about to complain about the support as her attack still made one of the ants hesitate, letting me have a go at them one at a time.

Quickly side stepping away from the lead ant, I raised my tomahawk and brought it down on its body before it could keep going and attack Olivia. Surprisingly, it still moved but was quickly dealt with by a shot to the head by Olivia. At that range, she didn't miss. I pulled out my weapon from the dissolving corpse and, in one motion, smashed the head of the third ant right as it got close to me.

"That was so scary!" Olivia exclaimed, her voice trembling. She had her handgun in a deathgrip, though it was pointed at the ground thankfully. "Are there even more of those monsters down here?"

"Well yeah, it's a dungeon." I answered with a shrug. Honestly, the ants were jokes compared to the monsters we had in the wilderness back home. I took another glance at Olivia and her gun. "You'll want to put in more practice with that thing."

The girl nodded and regarded the weapon in her hands. "I know. One of Miss Angelica's friends showed me how to use it but firing it against moving things is much harder than a target."

I hummed in response and walked over to the tomahawk that I threw. Just then, a shape shot out from the darkness and went for my head. I was barely able to raise my left arm to block it. The screeching of a monkey-like monster echoed as it reached out and clawed at my face, making me wince when the sharp nails dug into my cheek.

"Leon!" I ignored Olivia's cries due to the monkey snapping its jaws at my face.

"That's enough of that." I snarled while angling the tomahawk in my hand against its neck. A swift slice later, the monster's head and body separated and fell to the ground. I touched my cheek and winced, my fingers coming away with blood. That's what I got for being overconfident.

"Leon, you're hurt!" Olivia reached up and checked my wound. I was about to say that it was fine when I saw a faint white light coming from her hands. The stinging pain on my face was quickly replaced by warmth and relief. Ah, right. The main protagonist was special because of her Healing Magic, something that was rare in the setting.

Olivia proceeded to give me a smile that made my heart race. "All healed up. Does it still hurt?"

"No, it's perfect." I mumbled. "Thank you, Olivia."

I picked up the tomahawk on the ground and secured both of them back on my waist. Olivia and I turned back to the direction where the rest of the group was when we heard the familiar shrieks of monsters.

"There must be monsters that are coming in from the side tunnels." I mused. I looked at Olivia when she pulled on my arm.

"Should we go back and help them?" She asked worriedly. Normally, that would be the right thing to do.

"They'll be fine. There are too many of us to be actually threatened by the types of monsters that are at this level." Not to mention that the love interests along with Angelica should be able to deal with it. "Plus they have Greg, who has already gone through a few dungeons himself."

"We're the vanguard, so we need to make sure that at least they don't have to worry about any monsters coming from the front." I reasoned. But really, I just didn't want to bother walking back to help in a fight that I probably wasn't needed in.

Olivia seemed to take my advice to heart and gave a determined nod.

We continued through the dungeon and got through the second floor. Olivia still had some difficulty hitting moving targets but the distractions made it easy for me to get better positioning. Fighting like this was way better than the turn based system that the game had. I didn't need to wait for my enemies to act on their turn!

"Well, what do you know." I commented as one of the ants that Olivia shot and killed suddenly glowed bright and turned into a treasure chest. "Congratulations, Olivia. You got a treasure chest."

"But why?" She asked in confusion. Yeah, seeing something like that happen before your eyes was probably pretty weird the first time.

"Who cares? Come on, open it up." I urged and got a surprised look.

"Me? But you're the one who has been doing most of the fighting." She pointed out, but I just waved her off and gestured to the chest.

"It was your kill that turned into a chest, so the contents belong to you." That and any treasure drops from monsters this weak wouldn't be anything good anyway.

With one more concerned glance towards me, Olivia proceeded to open the chest. Her eyes widened and her face split into a big smile. Reaching into the chest, she pulled out a bundle of plants.

"Leon, look! These are healing herbs!" As expected, they were pretty common drops. "How much should I keep?"

I blinked at her question. "What do you mean?"

"Huh? I mean, how much of this do you want as your portion?" Ah, now I understand. I shook my head and smiled at her.

"We have been working together, but that kill was all you. This is your accomplishment, so that is your reward." I explained one of the basic rules of Adventuring. Olivia looked between me and the herbs in her hands.

"Mine?" I nodded and her eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, this is my reward."

Tears formed in her eyes and Olivia started laughing. I blinked in confusion and just waited for her to calm down. She took a deep breath and gave me another heartfelt smile.

"Thank you, Leon."

Ba-dump

Ah. The charisma of an Otome Protagonist is pretty scary.