Overqualified

In the outside world, the Zeus guild members were calling the family members of all the hunters inside the red gate to tell them that their loved ones may not return home. One such call was to the vice master of the Zeus guild himself.

In the guild headquarters there sat a man under thirty years old in a big armchair. He had short black hair, stubble, and unnaturally reddish-brown eyes.

The doors opened and a young woman wearing a suit came inside.

"Mr. Young, the C-rank raid team number 7 has been trapped inside a red gate."

"Thank you, Amy. Tell me when they come out." he waved it off as if it was nothing important.

"Ehm, Lucas Wright is on the raid team. Aren´t you afraid of losing the runestone you gave him?" the secretary asked in wonder.

"The team is extremely overqualified. With some casualties, they should be able to clear even an A-rank gate.

"I apologize, but I don´t understand how is that possible. It´s a C-rank team. There are only 2 B-rank hunters inside."

"Do you think that an A-rank hunter can´t defeat an S-rank?"

"Yes, sir."

"You are wrong, then."

"Can you please explain?"

"How much stronger are S-rank hunters compared to A-ranks?"

"Approximately 5-10 times with some exceptions."

"Are they five times faster as well?"

"No sir, the difference between reaction speed is negligible most of the time and the speed of their attacks would be at best twice as fast."

"Alright, then what other factors affect hunter´s strength?"

"That would be experience, natural talent, genetic predisposition, training, and skills."

"Then you should understand that C-rank team number 7 is extremely overqualified. Except for Lucas all the members have more or less 4 years of experience, they are all extremely talented and even armed with unique skills. The whole group received the best training they could. This team has no chance of failure."

[Inside the gate]

The team had already prepared the firepit and stacked wood inside.

"Agnes, light it." Evelyn commanded.

"At your service!" she saluted with a grin.

"Can I do it instead?" Mark chimed in.

Evelyn didn´t seem to find a problem in that so she responded. "If you want."

'Page 12, Sunstrike'

Mark fired off the locator at the pieces of wood and then a construct appeared several meters above the group. It was at least five meters in diameter and made out of countless mirror and lens-like barriers.

The construct focused the rays from the sun into a single spot in the firepit.

In not even a second the wood was set ablaze.

'It´s not finished, but in practice, it could work pretty well.'

The hunters all sat around the fire pit and started grilling the meat on a big stone.

"How does horse meat taste like?" Arthur asked.

"Not bad. It´s very similar to beef." responded Owen watching the flickering flame.

"I´m pretty sure that this mossy swamp ass horse-thing won´t taste like beef at all." said Agnes.

"Ahh, we don´t have any salt it will taste like shit!" Arthur complained.

"Stop whining." said Evelyn.

"I could hypothetically make salt." said Mark.

"Really?" Arthur asked with high hopes.

"Only hypothetically, I don´t remember the whole periodic table so I would have to experiment with a whole lot of compounds which is not very safe nor time-efficient."

"Don´t bait me like that!"

Since the food was cooking Evelyn decided to explain her plan of getting out.

"This place will be our camp for now. I´ll try to get us out as quickly as possible but I don´t know how long it will take us. Be cautious and don´t you dare to die. Arthur, appraise everything you see. We need as much information as possible."

"Yes, ma´am!"

"Over the night we need have someone watch over the camp. There are ten of us so split up into four shifts. I´ll be the first one and Lucas the last one. We´ll switch roughly every two hours. Don´t forget to keep the fire burning."

She then looked at the sky. "It should be around 5 PM. My shift starts at 8. Tomorrow we will go explore this place and hopefully find the boss. This gate is only a B-rank so you should be able to hold your ground in 1v1 against a monster. Don´t wander far off into the woods and so on. Just don´t be dumb in general."

"Does that mean that we are free to do whatever?" asked Arthur.

"Until 8 yes, but the food will be done in a minute."

"Woohoo! Let´s go on a walk!" Arthur cheered.

"Don´t forget to put on the free food sign too." said Agnes.

"I was joking, alright? I´m not that dumb."

"I doubt that." Mark said not looking away from his grimoire.

Arthur grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking Mark. "I met you five hours ago and you´re already making fun of me, you little twat? Didn´t your parents teach you to respect your elders?"

"You´re like six years older than me." said Mark who was still being shaken.

"And with the mental maturity of a six grader." added Agnes.

"This is bullying."

"Maybe, but it´s the good bullying. We´re motivating you to improve." said Agnes.

"That´s not how that works." rebutted Arthur.

"Stop crying like a little bitch." said the raid leader while she was adding wood to the fire.