Three days had passed since Daughter went to take the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam with Hino-san’s daughter. I found an envelope from the Dungeon Association in our mailbox. It was addressed to her, so it was likely the official notice of her results.
Before dinner, Daughter began to open it, her expression and hands stiff with extreme tension.
"Hey, no matter how nervous you get, the results inside won't change, you know? Just open it quickly. Go on."
"Dad, stop it! I think I did well enough, but I'm still allowed to be nervous!"
When I grew impatient with how long she was taking and urged her to hurry, Daughter shot me a sharp look filled with reproach.
"Haha, sorry, sorry. So, what’s the result?"
"Honestly... okay...!"
She let out a sigh as she finally made up her mind, tore open the envelope, and pulled out the documents to look them over.
After her eyes stopped at a certain point, her expression shifted into a mix of shock and pure joy.
"I did it! I passed!"
"Oh, is that so? Congratulations. All that hard work paid off."
"Yeah!"
Daughter held the passing notice tight and threw both hands in the air, her whole body radiating the joy of passing the exam.
I only knew about the short period after she’d finally come clean just before her talk with the Seniors, but it seemed she and her friends had been working toward this goal long before then. The sense of accomplishment must have been immense.
"Even though you'd been practicing on your own for a while, it’s impressive you passed on your first try. I’d heard rumors that the tests were relatively simple, but people still fail them. I suppose asking the Seniors to train you was the right call after all."
"Ah, yeah... The Seniors' training definitely made the test feel incredibly easy."
As I recalled the dependable figures of the Seniors, who carried themselves like veteran explorers, Daughter’s face twitched slightly as if she were remembering something unpleasant.
They had certainly mentioned they would provide rigorous training to ensure the girls passed the qualification exam, but was it really the kind of training that would make her face cramp up like that?
"Was the Seniors' training really that grueling? I recall them saying they’d focus on training that would be useful for actual combat in the dungeon while keeping the qualification exam in mind..."
"Oh, yeah, they’re really great people. It's true that we couldn't even start without passing the qualification exam, but if you could clear their training, passing the exam was a given. The content was mainly about how to move effectively inside a dungeon."
"Is that so?...If it was the kind of training where passing was a 'given,' what kind of training were you doing on a regular basis?"
"It was normal training. Totally normal... though I guess I should add the disclaimer: 'by the Seniors' standards.'"
Daughter closed her eyes with a somewhat philosophical expression, her shoulders trembling slightly.
Just what on earth had they been putting those girls through? I knew it would be somewhat strict, given that it was predicated on operating in dungeons where traps and monsters appear, but judging by Daughter's reaction, the training had apparently been far more severe than I imagined.
"The training for improving basic physical strength and muscle power was a given, along with swinging mock weapons and basic practice of forms. Then there was sparring intended for human and monster combat, and training to acquire enemy search skills like the basics of stealth and Presence Detection..."
"Wait, wait, wait. Something sounds very wrong here. Especially that last part..."
"What are you talking about, Dad? That's the training we always do with the Seniors."
"Always!?"
This was different from the training I had envisioned. I had asked them to train the girls, but I had imagined something more along the lines of an extension of an after-school club.
The first half was understandable if you considered it explorer practice, but was the second half really necessary?
"Yeah. The Seniors said that even if you know how to fight, you won't last long if you don't know how to avoid encountering enemy monsters beforehand. They said it's exhausting both physically and in terms of supplies if you're always stumbling into enemies and reacting on the fly. If you can detect an enemy's presence in advance, you can choose whether to fight or avoid them based on your situation. Even if you do fight, you can make a plan beforehand, and if you know what the enemy is, you can hit their weaknesses. That's why even a newcomer explorer in the low-level brackets needs to have at least a minimum level of enemy search skills."
"...The explanation makes sense, but are those really skills you can pick up in such a short period of time?"
Seeing Daughter calmly explain the necessity of the training I had questioned helped me regain my composure. Her explanation made it seem like a necessary skill, but I didn't think it was something that could be acquired so easily.
However, that doubt was immediately cleared up when Daughter, looking a bit pale, told me the details of the training they used to acquire those skills.
"We played tag with the Seniors."
"Tag?"
"Yeah. The Seniors were 'it,' and the four of us had to run."
It was just a feeling, but as she began to describe the training, Daughter's complexion seemed to worsen and her shoulders shook even more.
"The play area was the entire school, and it was a game of tag with the standard rule that the Seniors would start searching after a short delay."
"...And you can pick up enemy search skills from that?"
"You can. I did. The Seniors would hunt us down while pinpointing us and using intimidation with their presence. No matter where we ran or where we hid, they were always exerting pressure from a constant distance. Sometimes I'd think their presence had vanished, only for them to suddenly appear right next to me. When they'd tap my shoulder and speak to me with a smile, I’d literally scream and jump away. Thanks to that, I think I picked up at least the minimum level of enemy search skills in about three days."
"...Good grief."
What kind of game of tag teaches you enemy search skills in three days, even if it is just the minimum?
Judging by Daughter's pale face, it sounded like a hellish ordeal that was "tag" in name only...
"Lately, I’ve started to understand which way people around me are going to move based on the movement of their presence, and I can tell the density of a presence, too. Actually, during the explorer exam the other day, the Exam Proctor’s presence suddenly grew thin, which surprised me so much I instinctively went on guard. If we were in the middle of a game of tag with the Seniors, a presence vanishing or thinning out means an ambush is coming."
"I-Is that so? So the skills you learned in tag were useful right away."
"I never expected cheating to happen during the exam, and I didn't think an Exam Proctor's presence would just vanish, so it was dangerous. If I had stood up and looked around to stay on guard at that moment, we would have been the ones accused of cheating. The Seniors kept nagging us not to let our guard down because you never know what might happen... I wonder if they were imagining that kind of situation too?"
"I don't think they went that far. But still, to think there are people with those kinds of skills even among the proctors..."
I was genuinely surprised by Daughter’s story. To think that skills honed in the dungeon were useful in that way. Perhaps it's currently limited to the Dungeon Association, but eventually, a time might come when people with such skills are active in general companies too.
Wait? If that’s the case, could this have a major impact not just on the highly publicized field of sports, but also on office workers like myself?
"Yeah. They walked up slowly to the person who was cheating and tapped them on the shoulder. None of the other examinees seemed to notice, so I can see why the Seniors recommended we learn it. If the exam hall had been inside a dungeon and the Exam Proctor had been a monster, all the examinees except for us would have taken the first hit completely defenseless. I just didn't think I’d realize that before even stepping into a dungeon..."
"I suppose so. Though, for my part, I think it was better for you to realize your growth before you actually went into the dungeon."
As Daughter grumbled with a somewhat lost look about the results of her training, I advised her that it was better than realizing it for the first time during the main event in a dungeon. When people suddenly realize they've grown, they sometimes mistakenly believe they can do more and end up acting recklessly.
It would be dangerous for that to happen in a life-or-death situation like a dungeon.
After listening to her joy over passing and her complaints about the Seniors' training for a while, Daughter left her seat to go report her results to everyone. I thought it could wait until tomorrow, but since it was good news, she probably wanted to share it immediately.
While Daughter was away, Harumi and I shared a small sigh while looking at the passing notice documents Daughter had left behind.
"She passed, didn't she?"
"Yeah, she really passed."
While I was genuinely happy that Daughter’s efforts toward her dream had borne fruit, a tiny part of me had secretly hoped she might fail. If she had failed, she might not have given up, but it would have at least bought some time.
After all, it had only been about a month since we asked the Seniors—who were supposedly veteran explorers—to train her. Just one month. As a parent, I would have felt more at ease if she had devoted herself to training for at least three months, or even half a year, before attempting the qualification exam.
"To think she'd pass so easily after less than a month of training and be on the verge of her explorer debut..."
"It just goes to show how seriously she took it, and how effective the Seniors' teaching methods were. Thinking about the training I just heard her complain about, it makes sense that she could pass something like the explorer qualification exam, which is said to be easy by public standards."
"At first, she used to come home looking completely exhausted, but lately she's been coming back looking fairly energetic. I suppose that's proof that the results of that rigorous training have taken root."
"That’s true. I don't know how to put it, but ever since we asked them to train her, she's been developing a sort of fighting spirit... an air of dignity, day by day."
Daughter, who until recently had the typical aura of a high school student, had started to exude a faint, slightly unusual atmosphere that set her apart from ordinary people. I thought it was the same quality that the Seniors and her friends radiated.
"That's true....Oh, what's this?"
"What is it?"
Harumi pulled one sheet out from the documents Daughter had left and looked at it with a puzzled expression.
"No, it's this..."
"Regarding the Dungeon Association commissioned explorer system?"
As I looked over the document Harumi handed me, I saw an explanation for a system where the Dungeon Association directly requests work from those active as explorers.
It seemed that for explorers who were not part of a dungeon-related company or similar corporate affiliation, the Dungeon Association would act as an intermediary for work based on their track record.
"Examples of mediation include technical staff for Association or private dungeon-related events, collection requests for specific items designated by the Association, and limited-time dispatch work, and so on."
"Even though they're called explorers, they don't just fight monsters in dungeons, do they?"
"It seems so. I guess the explorers you occasionally see at dungeon-related events were introduced to the work this way."
"I had no idea they gathered people through this kind of mechanism."
Indeed, since not everyone can continue diving into dungeons and fighting monsters indefinitely, it makes sense that there would be this kind of relief measure or life-line system.
If Daughter's personality turned out to be ill-suited for being an active explorer, it might be good for her to pursue a path like this before she gets seriously injured.
"But wouldn't a system like this be for people who have already been active in dungeons and built up a track record? Isn't it a bit premature to explain this to a newcomer who just got their qualification?"
"That's true. Since it says 'according to track record,' there shouldn't be any problem with introducing it once an explorer reaches the required standard."
"In that case, why was this mixed in with our daughter's papers?"
"...Ah, look here. It says 'Early distribution to those with excellent qualification exam results.'"
In other words, they want to scout the top talent. Since it's for those without corporate affiliation, they must be trying to get a head start on those with future potential... It looks like my daughter is one of the noteworthy candidates.
She said she felt like she did well, but were her results high enough to be marked as a noteworthy candidate by the Dungeon Association?
"Well, whatever path she chooses is up to her, but now that she has her qualification, she’ll probably head to a dungeon right away."
"True. It's worrying, but I want her to do her best without getting hurt."
"Yeah. For a while, she'll have those veteran explorers, the Seniors, accompanying her."
While it wasn't a case of the child being unaware of the parents' feelings, I truly hoped she would be careful and do her best.
And as expected, Daughter had her Explorer Card issued the very next day and made her official debut as an explorer. Furthermore, she was set to dive into a dungeon as early as this weekend... Isn't that a bit too soon?