What they had seen on the big screen seemed more like a leisure stroll through a forest than the conquering of a dangerous dungeon; it almost made them feel cheated.


    Then there were the inexperienced, low-level adventurers, clearly the target audience of this last submission. Those didn’t share that sentiment. They were thrilled.


    People their own level, if not lower, had just cleared a whole dungeon. In record time. And they made it look easy. No, they didn’t just made it look easy. With the right approach, it was easy.


    Compared to all the other previous instructional videos, this one was on a whole different level.


    But knowing an enemy’s attack patterns, their timings, and weak points and actually being able to remember and exploit those, in the midst of combat, were two very different things.


    That wasn’t to say it was impossible, but why take the risk when now there was a safe and easy alternative?


    It was withing this group that a great divide revealed itself after the broadcast, splitting the audience into effectively two major camps.


    The trivialization of a whole dungeon bore a very real danger, claimed the first of those groups, one that would ultimately lead to the demise of a whole generation of new adventurers.


    After all, they argued, it was the bronze stage which was the most important and would decide their future. It was during that time that adventurers learned the ropes of the trade. Becoming familiar with their own abilities. Learning how to coordinate with other people. Learning how to dealing with danger. And with the mental stress that came with it. Being a bronze rank was all about learning what it meant to be an adventurer. It was about getting to know oneself and one’s limits.


    In an environment that was still comparatively risk free.


    Taking shortcuts during this formative stage would not just be negligent, but straight up inviting death. To themselves, but also to their future group members who would entrust them with their own lives.


    People who took the easy way out and advanced their rank with cheap tricks like this would be no different from people who straight-up faked their rank, they argued.


    That didn’t mean they denied there was some truth to those arguments, but they argued it very unlikely that anyone relying solely on such a strategy would ever make it beyond the bronze rank in the first place.


    Instead, they praised the creativity and adaptability these newbies displayed, characteristics which were important for any adventurer, but which were often times neglected exactly because many chose to mindlessly follow the footsteps of their predecessors. A deviation from that pattern should be lauded, not condemned.


    Stolen story; please report.


    If anything, he was grateful for the delay. Any interruption bought him just that much more time before he had to reopen his store and resume business as usual.


    With otherwise no particularly vested interest in the matter, Severin soon took to observing his surroundings and the reactions of the people closest to him.


    Severin dismissed the feeling as a fragment of his imagination and kept observing.


    Also, it was a very specific, niche type of content. Much more so than the previous guides. The only people who would actually appreciate this contribution were naturally fellow [Berserkers], which, in the grand scheme of things, still only made up a fraction of the audience. Amongst the [Berserkers] present, however, the young woman’s explanations were very well appreciated. And to the woman, that was all that counted. Following the screening of her submission, the female [Berserker] sitting in the audience was very pleased with herself. The smile that adorned her face was big, confident, and content.


    “


    The young man, however, wasn’t fazed in the slightest. Timothy was beaming as if he had just won the whole of the event. A stark contrast to Miriam sitting next to him, whose expression in a matter of minutes, had twisted into an unsightly grimace.