A few days later, in the morning.
The faces of the 3rd Squad members as they prepared for their daily routine were more troubled than usual.
“Sergeant Yoon Seong-jin. Shouldn’t we be going out to provide support for this?”
It was because of the dungeon break that occurred two days ago.
A pack of monsters that appeared in the Goseong-gun area of Gangwon-do had been destroying private houses.
They were monsters that had escaped from a dungeon scheduled for a raid.
Although a nearby Hunter military unit was dispatched quickly and no one was seriously injured, the problem was what happened after that.
The damage to the private houses was significant.
There were many things to clean up, such as broken building debris and monster carcasses.
“I heard a request for support came into our unit as well because they’re short-handed….”
“With our seniority, do you think we’d go out for civilian support? It’s already exhausting enough these days.”
The Hunter military often took care of the cleanup in areas where monsters appeared.
If they called a private company and they were harmed by monsters, it would be a truly embarrassing situation for the Hunter military.
In other words.
In that situation, civilian support meant going to do heavy labor.
“But don’t they give out sweet performance points for civilian support? Even though it’s hard.”
“If it’s hard, you go instead of me. There’s nothing given even if you accumulate a lot of those.”
“That’s true. Even if you exceed the performance points, it only affects special promotions… and how usually difficult is that.”
The soldiers, who were grumbling while putting on their uniforms, were intrigued by another rumor.
“Come to think of it, there’s a rumor that Private Park Ye-rin from the Black Horse Unit is also coming.”
“The one who’s the division commander’s daughter and is really pretty?”
“Would she come out for civilian support? Her father is the division commander.”
“…Now that I think about it, I don’t think she’ll come.”
Of course, since it was a rumor that didn’t make sense when thought about, everyone just let it slide.
‘I wish they would call me.’
Meanwhile.
Apart from the seniors who were full of complaints, Kim Hyun-jun wanted to go for civilian support.
Whether it was a lot or a little, it didn’t matter as long as he could accumulate performance.
He wanted to be promoted even a day sooner.
Even though he had received special treatment and promoted to Private quickly, it couldn’t be helped.
Since he was a Staff Sergeant before the regression.
‘Special promotions are difficult, indeed. But there was a monster who managed to pull off that difficult feat several times in a row.’
Special promotion.
It is tricky, but not impossible.
Before the regression, Captain Park Ye-rin, who was called the Ice Princess, was exactly that case.
She was promoted and promoted again by producing result after result, and at some point, she was wearing diamonds.
‘If it were me back then, I would have just brushed it off as if it were a different world, but it’s different now.’
He didn’t know how outstanding Private Park Ye-rin was currently.
However, he could be certain that he had enough skill to aim for a special promotion like her.
Hadn’t he already beaten her starting from the previous promotion exam?
He was getting stronger steadily, if not quickly, and not long ago, a special ability was instilled in his mana, and one more skill was created.
‘Who knows. Maybe a monster will appear if I’m lucky while out for civilian support.’
While he was putting on his uniform with those thoughts,
Ziiiik.
Noise flowed out of the speaker.
“Hey. Be quiet.”
Everyone shut their mouths at Sergeant Yoon Seong-jin’s words.
After a while, along with the sound of tapping the microphone, the voice of the officer on duty flowed out.
― Since there will be emergency civilian support in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do today, one person from each dormitory should gather in front of the training ground. For Dormitory 3, Private Kim Hyun-jun is to come.
Just as the soldiers had mentioned earlier, the Flying Dragon Unit was also going to provide civilian support.
“If you think it’s you, get out there!”
“If your seniority is low, you have to work your ass off.”
Voices mocking Privates or Privates Second Class from other dormitories could be heard all the way here.
Even if they awakened or grew older, it seemed inevitable that soldiers were childish.
‘But why am I the only one being called specifically?’
It was a thought that suddenly occurred to Kim Hyun-jun as he was about to head out to the training ground.
Why did they specifically pick him out and call him?
‘It’s fine as long as they called me.’
It was a good thing anyway since he wanted to go for civilian support.
***
Deep inside Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do.
A deuce-and-a-half is rattling along the road.
“It’s been so long since I felt the air of society.”
Kim Hyun-jun took in the surrounding scenery while feeling a long-awaited moment of leisure.
Although there were many farmlands and building debris devastated here and there by monsters, he didn’t care much.
The ranks of the soldiers sitting in the back of the deuce-and-a-half ranged from Private Second Class to Private.
In the dormitory, he was the youngest even after being promoted to Private, but here he was at least in the middle, so he felt a bit strange.
‘I’m just unlucky, I guess.’
He felt like he wanted to quickly resolve the sorrow of a twisted military serial number.
“Ugh.”
“Uaa… do we have to clean all that up?”
As time passed, the soldiers got off the deuce-and-a-half that had gone deep inside one by one.
Whether they were Privates Second Class or Privates, everyone let out a sigh.
It was understandable.
Private houses were broken here and there as if a war had broken out.
There were also many places where the ground was deeply gouged, perhaps because monsters had dug up the earth.
There were even monster bloodstains stuck here and there, all of which were tasks the soldiers had to handle.
“Did everyone pack their equipment well?”
“Yes!”
“Just because there are no monsters doesn’t mean you should relax. Make sure you carry your weapons at all times.”
“Understood!”
“And if I catch you chatting with soldiers from other units, you’re dead to me.”
The officer in charge, who got off the deuce-and-a-half, relayed instructions to the soldiers and then sent them to places where support was needed.
It seemed the scale of damage was significant, as three units had come to provide support.
‘Did they say a pack of Black-horned Boars swept through? Of all things, those mindless things had to pop out.’
In Kim Hyun-jun’s eyes, the scale made him wonder if restoration would even be possible in a day or two.
Despite being monsters, Black-horned Boars have a habit of liking agricultural crops.
Since there happened to be a string of farms near where the dungeon break occurred, the damage was bound to be great.
‘I wish I could pick up a stray item.’
While riding the deuce-and-a-half, he thought back to his memories before the regression….
He didn’t have any particular memory of something being here.
Even if there was, there were many soldiers around; wouldn’t they have swiped it?
Soldiers wearing masks, spraying chemicals and performing purification work here and there.
Soldiers shoveling out soil contaminated by monsters.
Even soldiers clearing away the debris of broken buildings.
Even at a rough count, there seemed to be more than 50 people.
‘Let’s just get the performance points.’
He had monopolized a boss monster just a little while ago, so it would be greedy to expect something here too.
“Kim Hyun-jun.”
As he was thinking that and about to go to the support location with a shovel, the officer in charge stopped him.
“Private Kim Hyun-jun!”
“It hasn’t been long since you raided a dungeon, right? Is your body okay?”
“Yes! I’m fine.”
“Is that so? Then that’s enough.”
He even tells him to speak up separately if it’s hard.
It was rare for an officer in charge, who wasn’t even a platoon leader, to care about a single soldier.
‘What is it. Did someone high up tell him to look after me?’
Of course, that wouldn’t be the case.
How great could a mere Private be?
He headed to the work site with his spear slung over his back.
Pook! Pook!
There, soldiers were shoveling away farmland contaminated by monsters.
‘They’re complete babies.’
Seeing the soldiers shoveling clumsily made him feel a bit strange.
‘Watch closely. This is how you shovel.’
As if to show off, Kim Hyun-jun rolled up his sleeves and began shoveling.
How many drainage ditches had he dug with a shovel before his regression?
Even the way he held the shovel was different from other soldiers.
Kim Hyun-jun, moving quickly like a well-oiled machine, looked as if one were watching an ace at a construction site.
As a result, it was a natural phenomenon for other soldiers’ eyes to be focused on him.
‘At that speed, when will you ever finish. Move aside.’
Kim Hyun-jun also helped with the work that other soldiers had to do.
He continued working with his eyes fixed on the ground like that, when someone spoke to him.
“I’m supposed to do this part.”
A strangely familiar face and a familiar way of speaking.
When he looked up, snowy white hair and a face came into view.
It was Private Park Ye-rin, who had previously competed for first place in the promotion exam.
‘What. That rumor was true?’
There was talk about whether the division commander’s daughter would come out for civilian support or not, but she actually did.
‘Even so, it wouldn’t be easy to run into each other like this.’
It was a place wide enough for three units to be mobilized, so if this was a coincidence, it was indeed one.
Private Park Ye-rin also seemed to recognize him, as she wore a slightly puzzled expression.
“Yes. Please go ahead.”
Kim Hyun-jun soon moved out of the way.
Since she said she would do her own work, was there a need to take it away?
Pook! Pook!
…For that to happen, the shoveling was too terrible.
Whether it was because she had been raised delicately, Private Park Ye-rin didn’t know how to handle a shovel.
It seemed as if she was holding a shovel for the first time.
Not only was her posture awkward, but the ground wasn’t even being dug properly.
‘Why did she even pick up a shovel?’
The thought occurred to him for a moment.
Still, she did seem to be trying her best in her own way.
“Don’t try to do it with just strength, try stepping on the shovel with your right foot. Try holding the handle part near the head of the shovel. Like that.”
So he taught her some tips moderately….
Pook! Pook!
Nothing particularly improved.
Indeed.
Even Private Park Ye-rin, who was called an elite, was human.
She was called a genius magically, but she couldn’t even shovel properly.
When that thought occurred to him, a chuckle escaped.
“Why are you laughing?”
“You’re excellent as a magic soldier, but it’s fascinating because you’re clumsy at basic tasks. I’m not mocking you.”
“I can do it well.”
Private Park Ye-rin took hold of the shovel again with a slightly pouting expression.
If it were anyone else, she wouldn’t have even pretended to listen, but since Kim Hyun-jun said it, she somehow felt a sense of stubbornness.
“If you do it like that, you won’t finish even if you stay up all night. I’ll do this part. The ground is a bit hard.”
Kim Hyun-jun helped her with the work until the end despite her saying it was fine.
In that way, the damage restoration work proceeded smoothly, and before long, it was break time.
“Why did you help me?”
When Kim Hyun-jun went to a suitable spot and sat down, Private Park Ye-rin approached him.
Even members of her own unit tended to avoid her.
It was partly because her father was the division commander, but it was also due to the cold atmosphere and personality she exuded.
However, since Kim Hyun-jun approached her as if it were no big deal, she couldn’t help but be curious.
“Do I need a reason to help a comrade?”
“That’s true, but….”
“I helped other comrades besides you, Park Ye-rin.”
When he abruptly pushed a logical argument, Private Park Ye-rin was left with nothing to say.
In fact, there was a separate reason why she had come here and picked up an unfamiliar shovel.
― I heard a rumor that there’s an item a mage might like near the Goseong area in Gangwon-do... Ahem. You shouldn’t say that your dad told you.
It was because of the information her father had slipped to her not long ago.
It was troublesome that Kim Hyun-jun was attached to the process of obtaining that item.
Since it was receiving help from her father, it wasn’t an honorable action.
‘No. It wouldn’t have worked even if I were alone.’
Shoveling was much more difficult than she had thought.
She could have found the item by digging the ground using basic magic... but if she did that, it would stand out too much.
It was because there were no magic soldiers currently digging the ground with magic.
It was because the work efficiency was not good compared to the amount of mana consumed.
‘Let’s find it next time. No one will discover it easily.’
In that way, she cleanly gave up on finding the item.
She decided to stop by Goseong, Gangwon-do, when she went on leave later.
And yet….
“What’s this.”
Kim Hyun-jun, who continued working, ended up finding the item in question.
At first glance, it looked like a small pebble, but if you looked closely, runes were engraved on it.
It was an item called a Runestone that amplified a mage’s magical abilities.
Whether he knew the identity of the item or not, Kim Hyun-jun kept glancing around.
As he was about to carefully put the Runestone into his fatigue pocket, he made eye contact with Private Park Ye-rin.
“Did you see?”
“Yes.”
Watching Kim Hyun-jun make a face as if it were a waste, she momentarily swallowed the words she was about to spit out.
‘Why are you the one who thinks it’s a waste…….’
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