Roles and Headstart

Entering the Labyrinth with nervous expressions, the group entered the first floor of the labyrinth.

"The labyrinth's first few floors are just a warm-up but still, don't let your guard down." Meld said and the students listened eagerly as they became serious and looked at their surroundings. The labyrinth was like a cave with a few ores that are giving light to the entire floor.

"We are still at the door of the labyrinth so there's no immediate danger yet. Its better to discuss your positions and teamwork now since you won't have the leisure to do so later." Meld said and the parties gathered with one another.

"So, leader, what's the plan?" Nana asked Vergil for his plans for the party.

"I'm a Shadow Samurai so I can go to the front. Have you played RPG games before?" Vergil asked and the girls looked at each other before shaking their heads. Only Hajime became lively when this became the main topic of the conversation.

"I have. You're the front line which means Vergil's going to be our main tank, what are your classes?" Hajime asked and the three girls looked at their leader first who nodded at them.

"I'm an acrobat." Yuka said making Hajime kind of interested on the class skills.

"I'm a whip master." Taeko said her class which is kind of obvious with the whip on her waist.

"As for me I'm a cryomancer, you know dealing with ice magic?" Nana said with her lively voice.

"As for me, I'm a synergist. My main forte is controlling earth." Hajime said his class and the group finally learned about their classes.

"It seems that only Vergil can go to the front and most of us are on the back line." Hajime said after serious pondering.

"Don't worry about the front, no one's getting past by me." Vergil said which made Nana chuckle.

"Are you our Knight in Shining Armor?" Nana said making Taeko stunned and immediately reprimanded her friend.

"Nana! Why are you saying such things? He is our leader, not a knight in shining armor." Taeko said making Yuka sigh at her friends.

"What can I say? Leader was just too cool when he said that." Nana said while Vergil smiled at her compliments.

"No, I'm not a knight in shining armor like our hero over there. I'm just a classmate wanting to level up and get stronger like the others." Vergil said making Hajime laugh like a child.

"But you sound like one of them though... you know... like those protag-" Hajime didn't get to finish what he's saying when Vergil knocked on his head.

"What crap are you spouting now?" Vergil said as Hajime shook his head rapidly, Vergil's knock on his head rattled his brain so much that he felt like he was shaken from the core.

"As I was saying, in RPG games there are several roles that needs to be addressed, the role of DPS, the role of controller, and the role of Support. Taeko, as a whip master you are our DPS, if you put something like a poison on your whip's end, when you hit your enemy they will be poisoned, your role is to deal as much damage as you can to the enemies.

As for the role of the controller, Nana would use her skills to slow down or freeze enemies to a standstill so that our backline DPS can defeat enemies with ease. If you determined that no one's in immediate danger that needs help, you can use your skills to damage enemies. Don't worry about messing up, we'll cover for you.

Yuka, you are our second DPS, a long range damager, Taeko will be a mid-range damager. You're weapon is throwing knives, snipe out those frozen solid by Nana. You guys know each other so I assume that timing-wise, you won't mess up badly.

Lastly, Hajime, you're the support. You can control earth, you are our second controller. Use your skills to bind them with earth to stop them from moving. Also, help out Yuka to retrieve her throwing knives, we don't have the leisure to waste her ammunition.

Our positioning is really simple, I won't make it complicated. I will be at the front, with Taeko and Hajime at my back, Nana and Yuka's positioning will be at the very back." Vergil explained their roles in the party and their positioning and Yuka questioned their positioning.

"Why is Hajime in the middle? Isn't he a controller like Nana?" Yuka asked to which Vergil replied.

"With Hajime at the center, he should be able to support both sides. We don't know what monsters are there in the Labyrinth. If there's some sneaky monsters and attacked you guys at the back by surprise, Hajime could react if Nana was slow enough to control the surprise attacker." Vergil said making them think of their position.

After talking with his party members about coordinating their skills, Vergil left his party members and walked towards Meld. Seing Vergil approaching him, Meld stopped what he's doing and looked at Vergil.

"Is there anything you need?" Meld asked Vergil.

"I think my party members are pretty much ready to dive in. Can we go in ahead of others?" Vergil asked and Meld's eyes went wide after hearing Vergil's words.

"Why? Don't you want to wait for the hero party? We have strength in numbers." Meld explained but Vergil shook his head in response.

"I think my members are already prepared. Also if three parties were to go down simultaneously, the amount of exp we'll all get will be miniscule. With us out of the way, it will only be the Hero Party and Hiyama's party who will fight for the exp." Vergil explained his own thought process. Although he said Hiyama's party will fight for exp, in truth they will mostly leech to the Hero Party.

"Are you confident? Your party member's lives are at stake here. I'm not going to let you guys go if you're not confident in bringing your members back safe and sound." Meld said with seriousness written all over his face. In response to his question, Vergil just smiled.

"I'll bring them back. As long as I'm with them, nothing's going to happen to my party members." Vergil said before turning his heels and went back to his party members.

"What're you talking about just now, Mr. Meld?" Kouki asked after seeing Vergil's party packing up.

"Well... they didn't want to fight for experience with you guys so they will be going down first." Meld said and Kouki was surprised when he heard about it.

"Isn't it going to be dangerous? They don't have a healer too." Kouki asked Meld about his worries.

"I, too, want to stop him, but he promised that he will bring back his party members safe and sound. I can't help but think that he will make that a reality." Meld said and Kouki turned to look at Vergil's party who just finished packing up.

*

"Leader, are you really sure about this?" Nana asked their leader who carried the biggest bag in the group containing food, medicine, and water.

"Why? Are you feeling cold feet now?" Vergil asked her with a chuckle.

"Nope, just wondering why you want us to go ahead of the others." Nana said and her friends were interested about it too.

"One of the reasons why we're going early is to hone our teamwork. We won't be getting the experience we needed as most of us will be lax because of the strength in numbers and we won't be able to train our teamwork seriously if we're with them. We severely lack space in this labyrinth and if we crowded the floor, we won't be able to maneuver easily across the battlefield." Vergil explained to them but only Yuka and Hajime listened to his words seriously.

Since his members are already finished, he gave Meld one last look who nodded to him. Without minding about their classmate's gazes, Vergil stepped forward with his party members. His party members didn't say anything and just followed their leader while keeping the rules of their party into their hearts.

To return alive.

*

Shizuku stared at his figure who was slowly getting farther away from her sight. Her eyes held complicated feelings as she watched them head deeper into the dungeon.

"Shizuku?" Kaori asked Shizuku who returned to herself and looked at her best friend calling for her.

"He just left but you already miss him?" Kaori's playful eyes looked at Shizuku who brushed her question away. She closed her eyes and meditated, hoping to get one more second of training.