"Alright, students, welcome to your first General Education class. We'll be holding two hour sessions every weekday, make sure to pay attention.
You'll be tested every three months, so four exams total, and you will need an aggregate score of over fifty percent across all exams to graduate at the end of the year.
For our first session, I'll be discussing the basics of what you need to know about the Dungeons," Remarked Ellyse Marsh, the instructor for the General Education classes.
Today's the 2nd of January, 2168, the first day of classes at the Hunters Academy. After the sparring bouts against Glenn Inglis yesterday, we were given a tour of the building and given a breakdown of what to expect from our classes.
We have classes from Monday to Friday, for six hours everyday, starting at 10 AM and ending at 4 PM. General Education classes go from 10 AM to 12 PM, then a one hour lunch break.
The Academy has its own cafeteria with several meal set options, each student can get one set for free, though we have to pay if we want to get more food beyond that. We're also free to leave the Academy and eat out somewhere else, if we want to.
After that, from 1 PM to 4 PM, are our Practical Training classes.
I think I'll take it easy during the General Education classes, I've already learned most of what I need to know as far as Hunters are concerned, so I shouldn't have any trouble passing the exams even if don't pay much attention in class.
And, well, if I do struggle with any of the exams, I can always just use Ai to cheat and get the answers.
Hey, I can hear the judgement in your tone.
Yeah, yeah, I'll try.
"Alright, let's get started, shall we? To kick things off, I'll begin with what causes the Dungeons to appear. The planet has a vast network of underground energy streams running through it, what we call Mana Currents.
But these currents aren't evenly spread out, and in areas where multiple Mana Currents overlap, pools of Magical energy are formed. Rifts open over these pools, and the Dungeons rise up through these rifts," Explained Ellyse.
"Excuse me, ma'am, did these Mana Currents always exist, or did they only come into existence when the Dungeons and Monsters appeared?" Inquired Ariella curiously.
"Good question, but we don't know the answer to that. The Mana Currents were only discovered a few decades after the appearance of the Dungeons and Monsters, so we have no way of knowing whether or not they existed before then."
Hey, do you know, Ai?
Hey, don't patronize me, I'm not a kid, you know.
Cool, thanks.
"Alright, to continue, once a method to detect Mana Currents was created, it was discovered that there was a direct correlation between the concentration of the Mana Currents and the appearance of Dungeons. Dungeons would only rise up in areas where there were heavily concentrated underground pools of Mana.
Conversely, no Dungeons appeared in areas where there were fewer or no Mana Currents, and such locations were selected for the Sanctuary Project.
So, it's highly improbable that a Dungeon would appear within the bounds of any of the eight Sanctuaries, though it's not completely impossible, at least on paper. We have had a small handful of cases of Dungeons appearing in areas with relatively lower concentrations of Mana."
Huh, if that does happen, it could prove to be a good opportunity. If a Dungeon appeared in Sanctuary Theta, where I am, maybe I could sneak in and try to boost my stats...
You're such a wet blanket sometimes, you know that?
"When a Dungeon first rises, the entrance is sealed with a barrier. Humans can pass through it and enter the Dungeon, but Monsters can't breach the barrier, they're trapped inside the Dungeon until the barrier fades, which generally occurs about a week after the Dungeon first appears.
The main job of Hunters is to raid and conquer Dungeons within that timeframe, they are tasked with killing all the Monsters inside the Dungeon before the barrier fades. If they fail, the result is what we call a Stampede, where the Monsters swarm out of the Dungeon.
Thanks to everything we've learned over the several decades since the Dungeons first appeared, Hunters have become more effective and efficient in conquering Dungeons, and as a result, it's been over twenty years since the last Stampede."
"Wouldn't it be easier to let a Stampede happen and fight the Monsters out in the open instead of venturing into their territory?" One of the other students asked her.
"Yeah, what if a bunch of Hunters surround the entrance and then just blast the Monsters when they try to leave?"
"Actually, that method was considered and utilized a while back, but it was quickly abandoned. All the Monsters swarm out at the same time, it would be extremely difficult to ensure that none of them manage to slip away.
Additionally, there's the number of Monsters to consider. You can encounter anywhere between two to thirty-five Monsters in each floor of a Dungeon, which can amount to a total of several hundred in the larger, higher-ranked Dungeons."
Yeah, makes sense. Assuming an average of, say, twenty Monsters per floor in a Dungeon with around fifty floors, that's a thousand Monsters.
If I had to choose between fighting fifty groups of twenty or a thousand all at once...yeah, I'd choose the former in a heartbeat.
"Thus, that method of allowing a Stampede to occur would be ill-advised in such Dungeons, to take on that many Monsters all at once is far too risky. It is more feasible with lower-ranked Dungeons, since the Monsters are weaker and fewer in number.
But based on past results, venturing in and eliminating the Monsters floor by floor has proven to be a lot more effective, and statistically results in less casualties among Hunters. And speaking of venturing into the Dungeons, let me explain what the inside of the Dungeons are like..."