Party of Recruits

The part of recruits was surprised at first for someone to appear out of nowhere and aid them against the gigantic monster. They lowered their heads after hearing his words while the young lady who had an arcana stepped forward and explained their situation.

"We obviously weren't planning to hunt such a gigantic monster. The monster simply ambushed us out of nowhere using the Kryftis as bait."

Dante furrowed his eyebrows upon hearing her since a question emerged within his mind. "Why would you be hunting Kryftis to begin with?"

"Besides, shouldn't be a group as powerful as yours easily pass the dark forest? You should have reached the second checkpoint by now."

He was confused as to why the recruits were staying in the dark forest and hunting Kryftis. They should have passed the second checkpoint and continued on to the third checkpoint without wasting time.

The young lady hearing him sighed to herself and replied.

"That was what I wanted to do if not for the toll pass."

"Toll pass?" He raised an eyebrow, curious about what it meant.

The young lady lightly nodded and continued her explanation regarding the circumstances they were in.

"It seems that you haven't reach the second checkpoint."

"But isn't as easy as the first one since it requires a toll pass to open the gates of the other side. Without the toll pass, recruits will be stuck in the dark forest or the second checkpoint."

Her explanation was concise, and Dante immediately understood the situation. He nodded in understanding before uttering with a calm tone.

"So the hunting of Kryftis have a connection with the toll pass."

The young lady nodded and said. "Yes, that is correct."

"What we need from the Kryftis are all of its main fangs."

"The Kryftis only has 4 main fangs which aren't even identical to one another. The nurse in the second checkpoint explained that for one recruit 4 main fangs must be given."

"In conclusion, a single recruit must kill one Kryftis before they can go to the other side."

Dante kept nodding with each of the words that escaped her mouth. It looks like the marathon test was far more complicated than he had ever imagined. He never thought that a toll pass would be required to enter the third biome.

"That would take a while, especially with your numbers."

He stated while looking at the recruits around him. They seemed to have formed an alliance rather than going alone. It's an excellent plan to have, but having too many numbers would be quite heavy, especially for the one leading the entire group.

"Well, it will take a while but we will pass the second checkpoint."

"How about you, though?"

"Is it okay for that strange mons- Pet, to be handling the monster by itself?"

The young lady questioned while Dante smiled and calmly replied.

"Roshan's a fast hunter. That slow gigantic monster shouldn't be able to touch a single skin of him."

He was confident of Roshan's capabilities. While the gigantic monster was incredibly strong. Its speed was slower than the Gigantis Kryftis. Though this does beg the question, how did it kill many Kryftis in a short amount of time?

"So Roshan is it name, huh."

"I never expected someone to tame a Kryftis in this forest. Though, I guess they are useful in terms of navigating within it since they have the perception and senses completely adapted to the dark forest."

The young lady muttered to herself and continued to step forward, arriving before Dante's front.

"My name is Xandra, a recruit from the training regiment 42."

"It's nice to meet you, Hmm…." Xandra couldn't continue speaking because the young, slightly fat man before him never introduced himself, so she didn't have the chance to know his name.

The edges of Dante's lips rose as he introduced himself.

"I'll have to introduce myself."

"My name is Dante Regent Astarte, a recruit from the training regiment 69."

With such words echoing from his mouth, numerous gasps sounded one after another after realizing the identity of their savior. The name Dante, the third son of Astarte, wasn't unheard of. There was a reason why he was considered the king of assholes.

Even a bit higher in terms of infamous ranking compared to the crown prince.

They couldn't believe what they had heard. Even Xandra wanted to cough her confusion out, but sadly, this was the truth. There was nothing they could do about it.

"The third son of Astarte?"

"Isn't he the silver pig?"

"Why is he here?"

"I thought he would be fatter than his current appearance."

"I expected for him to bribe the training officers and return to the dorms."

"The recruits from the training regiment 69 must be unlucky."

Quiet mumbles and mutters escaped from the mouths of the recruits around them.

Xandra hearing their words furrowed her eyebrows and gave a simple warning to them. "It's not good to condemn your savior because of baseless and unvalidated rumors. Please stop uttering such words, or else."

While she was aware of the rumors regarding the third son of Astarte, Xandra didn't like condemning anyone with rumors that seemed to not picture the reality. It was rather annoying since it toys the minds of people, giving them images of people they didn't even personally meet.

"You are a good person, Xandra. But being an asshole is truthful and not baseless."

Dante said with a smile since he understood that he wasn't the one that controlled the body beforehand. At the moment, it was still his. The burdens of this body, its sins, and many more will have to be passed on.

Otherwise, does Dante even own this body? Would he separate himself from his new body in this new reality? Instead of blaming the old owner, it was better to handle the problems on his own.

'It might be annoying to handle crimes not of my own.'

'But for a good path, I'll have to personally solve them.'

He thought to himself, understanding that it was time for him to own up to this body. The hallway of memories does the integration, this body makes the adaptation, and this world does the harmonization.

Hearing the words of Dante, the other recruits had their words louder than ever before.

Xandra frowned and replied in disagreement.

"An asshole wouldn't act like this."

"If it was the truth, then you must have changed and plan to become someone better."

"To acknowledge your faults and to work on solving them is better than someone without anything other than pretentious kindness."

"It isn't wrong to know you have faults."

"Though, it is wrong to not change while knowing your faults."

Xandra's family taught her to look past the baseless rumors and precognitive images of people. It was better to know them personally than judge them from the distorted thoughts of the people.

Whether such distorted thoughts may be correct or not doesn't matter.

"That was a good speech. As expected of someone leading a part of recruits, you have quite an intellect and capability to act as a leader."

"But that will be tested since Roshan is about to return."

Dante said while smiling at the part of recruits behind Xandra.