Hello, Carol

I can refer you to DRT dungeoneering trainers, but there's a newly awakened esper I know who was with the DRT when he awakened. Super late awakening. If you want, I can ask him if he'd be interested in training another new esper who's interested in dungeon ops.

Cheers,
Abel

Abel,

That would be fantastic!  You're the best.  Let me know what he says.

Sincerely,
Carol

Then Sinkhole will receive an email.

Sinkhole,

I am interested in helping train your partner in dungeon operations, and my commander has also given the go-ahead. I can go to where you are if you have training facilities; otherwise you can come to the Idaho Military Division in Boise.

V/R,
Conrad Ferrer
Specialist, Boise Dungeon Rescue Teams

Conrad,

If it wouldn't be an imposition, we'd like to use your facility.  It would help my partner familiarize himself with how other facilities are laid out.  The dates that would work best for us...

The rest of the email chain is dedicated to arranging dates, times, visitor's passes as necessary and assorted other logistics.

Western espers who want to get into dungeoneering typically get customized training programs set up for their agencies that accommodate their powers, but the DRT offers their dungeoneering training and resources to espers, too. It's in their interests to maximize the number and effectiveness of dungeoneering espers, after all.

Conrad will efficiently arrange the logistics and meet them at the gate.

Then soon enough, Conrad will be greeting a properly-papered and visitor-passed young man wearing a what appear to be black slacks and a burnt orange t-shirt with a plaid jacket over it.  Accompanied by him is -

His partner.  They're holding hands, because why wouldn't you.  Her clothing style matches his, although her style is snow-pattern camouflage pants and shirt.  No jacket on her, she's enjoying the summer sunshine.  Glance at the soldier's chest for his namebadge - yep, that's Ferrer.  "Specialist Ferrer?"  As if I can't read, but.  Social noises.  Tim's always talking about first impressions, maybe he'll learn how to give a confident one someday.  Maybe after his first core kill.

Why would you wear snow-pattern in summer????? Whatever. They are guests and don't have to wear uniforms.

"Yes. Good morning, Sinkhole," he says, offering a handshake. And does her partner have a name or a code name?

Unbeknownst to Conrad, she recently ran a white dungeon and does not, actually, want to sneak around a military base.  Also she thinks the pattern is pretty in this color.

Handshake!  Ooh.  Good compatibility.  Little smile with a chin-jerk indicating the handshake, then let go.  "It's good to meet you, Specialist.  This is my partner, Aumento.  Or if you prefer, I'm Carol and he's Tim.  Tim just manifested a few weeks ago and wants to learn the craft."  Of killing things.

Good compatibility on his side too! Not as good as with James, but he's definitely noting that. "Better to call me Ferrer, since Specialist is a common rank."

"Aumento," he says, and also offers a handshake.

"Ferrer, then."  Seems kind of impersonal but he is a soldier after all.  Firm handshake - and compatible!  Not quite as good as Carol, but pretty good overall.  "It's good to meet you, sir."

Better than with Carol. Huh. Does that make them a potential triangle guiding relationship?

"Oh, I'm not an officer. You don't have to call me sir. Or, I suppose I am...in terms of being a DRT officer — whatever. Please clip these visitor passes on you and I can escort you in."

"Yess-.  Er.  Yes."  Maman I know you raised me to be polite but that's going to be a had habit to be in.  Tim is happy to clip on a pass and Carol will as well.  Tim tugs on it slightly to make sure it won't come off, Carol doesn't bother.

In they go. Conrad starts explaining the layout and where some of the important places are, like the range, the obstacle courses, the mess hall, etc. "Please don't go off wandering and exploring on your own — you might inadvertently trespass. If you need to go somewhere or get anything, you can just call me."

He's going to lead them to a silo, which is laid out basically like a hotel room. "This is the silo that has been prepared for you. You can leave your stuff here." And then he's going to give them keycards to it.

"Got it.  Don't worry, I'm not going to be sneaking anywhere in this."  Carol tugs playfully at her completely inappropriate-for-the-purpose-in-this-time-of-year camo."

Tim nods along as well.  He's been absolutely drinking the place in with his eyes.  Hopefully I won't need to have this memorized, but you never know.  "We'll be careful, Ferrer."  Okay, great job, didn't 'sir' the not-an-officer-even-though-he's-an-officer.  Seriously, who comes up with this stuff?  Military etiquette is insane.

Okay, great. He nods.

"Let's go to the armory and I can check out equipment for us to use. Aumento, Sinkhole, what weapons training do you have?"

“Mostly a thirty-aught six.  Er, hunting rifle.  Shotgun for birds, and I carried a pistol for coyotes, but.  Mostly the rifle.”

“Opposite of Aumento.  I carry a .50 pistol in dungeons.  I’m rated for Melee, so a rifle doesn’t really march my skillset.  I can shoot one okay, though.”

"I see. We also mostly use rifles but we have pistols and shotguns here too. Though weapons training only comprises a part of dungeoneering training. Are you licensed?" He's assuming Sinkhole is but doesn't know about Aumento.

“Yes, I am.  Expires next October.” What, he thinks I’m going hunting without a license?

Carol simply nods twice.  Dungeon esper, of course she is.

Okay, great! He will lead them to the armory whereupon he will check out two M4A1 rifles for him and Aumento and a Sig Sauer M17 for Sinkhole, plus ammo. They'll need to sign these boxes.

"Have you used electronic hearing protection before?" He holds up chunky looking headphones with a flexible microphone attachment and a cord with plug.

“I haven’t.  Is it much different than normal noise-canceling earmuffs?”

"Yes, these are heavier duty. The way they work is that they cut you off from all sound — or as much sound as they can — and then add sound back in through speakers, amplifying quiet sounds and suppressing loud ones. It also means that you don't need to yell, because it can connect to the radio and microphone system." Anyway, he can help them put them on — the fit has to be adjusted to make sure it actually suppresses sound — and connect them so that they're all in the same frequency.

Tim is capable of wearing fancy heavy-duty earmuffs!  They’re really not that bad overall.  Just kinda bulky.  And finicky.

Carol’s worn ‘em before.  Hers are self-fitted within forty-five seconds.

Great! In that case, they can go to the range to get their zeros and so that they can familiarize themselves with the weapon. And to test the earmuffs.

Conrad will start teaching the basic dungeoneering sign language. Stuff like 'stop', 'go ahead', 'follow me', and so on. There's variation between countries but it's generally standardized worldwide because, while DRT officers and support staff are local, espers often travel, especially during confluences. What he understands of the history is that the international mixing caused the military and by extension dungeoneering sign to converge. He will tell them these Fun History Facts Speculations if they seem interested.

Tim is interested!!  He also pulls up a “cheat sheet” for signs online and asks if they’re correct before he bothers saving it.

He looks it over. "Yes, this is fine."

After spending some time with the weapons, he will lead them back to the armory.

"It's typical to wear body armor including face protection even for mundane dungeons for the sake of safety. It's not absolutely required since I don't plan to do any mock combat where you get hit — only target shooting. Still, if you want to get the full DRT experience, I recommend it." He can help them put it on, if so. He himself will do so. It consists of a kevlar vest and helmet with transparent visor, and reinforced boots. There are also arm and leg sleeves in the case they're wearing less than full coverage clothing.

“Er.  Is that easily replaceable?  I have enhanced strength and I don’t want to startle and accidentally break something.”

Helmet is fine, boots are fine, vest is on net probably fine?

Carol is perfectly happy to wear armor!  Some of the fittings are a little different, and she’s happy to get an assist in tightening everything up.

"Hm, my understanding was that you wanted to learn and experience the DRT dungeoneering experience. So it seems like it would be better if you refrain from power use. They aren't fragile — they're armor, after all — and they aren't that expensive but if they break I'll have explaining to do." Pursed lips.

"It's kind of hypocritical for me to say that, though, ha. I have my power on right now but it gives me enhanced durability, not strength. I still wear armor though, because it's smart. Saves on backlash."

Conrad will help Sinkhole put on armor in a brisk and efficient manner!

“I uh.  I don’t mean to, sometimes.  Accidents happen?”  He smiles a little weakly.

“Thank you, Ferrer.  P, ah, Tim, don’t worry about it too much.  Just don’t secure everything as tightly as normal, we’re not getting shot at today.”

Okay, sure. He can help put it on and strike a balance between "not so tight it rips if Aumento moves" and "not so loose that it falls off or rattles".

Additionally, he's going to take out three action cameras plus one camera on a stick.

"We use action cameras to record ourselves. Like police bodycams. It keeps us honest. And in the event there are...disagreements or complains...from rescuees afterward, it's good to have documentation. It also lets us look at our past performance so we can improve. We'll do this later. Not to worry, I'll delete any footage after our training concludes." Unless there are objections, he'll put these on each of their helmets.

No objections, your honor.  It’s not like he’s about to hit on his DRT instructor doing him a favor or something.

They can finally go to the main training area! It has obstacle courses and various movable barriers and platforms to mimic dungeon conditions.

"The first thing in a dungeon response is actually knowing that a dungeon is there. Once we get a call, we note its location and whatever other information we can get from it from the caller. Dungeon size and strength tends to correlate with the portal size, so we try to know that too. Then, we assemble a DRT team and a support team to go to the area.

Once we actually get there, the first step is getting a first look at the dungeon. We use cameras on a stick to look at the dungeon without actually having to enter it. Let me demonstrate." The camera on a stick is basically one of the action cameras they have on their heads, just on a stick, which he will stick  into the fake dungeon portal (it's a large plastic hoop with an opaque curtain covering the interior) and then take back out.

"The most important part of DRT operations is minimizing risk to ourselves. It's not actually about rescuing people, though that is very close in importance. I say that because, if you go into a dungeon heedless of the danger and get hurt, then you yourself will become one of the dungeon victims that need to be rescued. If the dungeon seems too dangerous or if we are unprepared with our current equipment to deal with it, then we stop and call for relevant esper backup.

In this case, the dungeon seems safe enough, so we can enter." He goes through the hoop!

A lot of this is pretty familiar to Tim!  It generalizes from his paramedic certs, which include “don’t become the next victim!” as part of the coursework.  He can dutifully pay attention to the camera onna stick, though.

And then they can hop through!  It’s easy. Almost as easy as tuning out the parts of the training she’s heard eighty times before.

"These action cameras have the full sensor suite so they have air, temperature, and radiation sensors too. It's important to check those too and not just look at the video feed before entering — just because the video doesn't show lava doesn't mean it's not hot inside, for example. It also has a light, by the way." He demonstrates by pressing a button, causing an LED light to activate, then turns it off.

"Now that we have entered, we have another opportunity to abort. Areas around the dungeon entrance are typically safe, but best not to assume. There might be some psychic phenomena that the camera didn't capture and which we could be subject to, now.

You should do one last check on your gear and equipment and your physical and mental state. Do you feel unusually tired, antsy, angry, sad, or just weird in general? Dungeons can exert these effects on people. I'll give you the official checklist for dungeon conditions that warrant retreating and calling in appropriate esper support later for you to memorize."

Do I feel antsy.  Or angry.  Hah.  Hahahahhaha. Carol gives a cheeky smile and shake of the head while she pats down her kit for issues.

Tim takes it more seriously.  He takes a breath, holds.  Lets it go. How do I feel?  Nervous.  Not unusually nervous, though.  That’s pretty much it. “I think I feel good about this dungeon.”

He will teach some more dungeon sign including 'all clear'. He makes that sign and asks everyone to repeat it before continuing.

"You should remember that dungeons are inherently hostile places. Even if the dungeon seems outwardly safe, like, if it looks like a bouncy castle or something, you should remember that dungeons kidnap people. Don't let your guard down while inside. Don't joke, don't get distracted, don't play. Lives are on the line.

That being said, don't take your performance on this training too seriously. The purpose of training is to allow error without consequence. Better to get all the mistakes out of your system now rather than in a real life situation."

All clear!  He’s good!  “Sweat in here, so we don’t bleed out there.  Got it.”

"One of the simplest hazards in a dungeon is getting lost. A dungeon with shifting layout is one that will require sensor esper support, but dungeons don't necessarily show off this ability immediately. And even in a regular dungeon, its layout can just simply be confusing in a regular way so as to disorient. Like with dungeon sign, there's a mostly-but-imperfectly standardized scheme for giving directions to the exit within a dungeon.

Often we use spray paint for this but it's harder to remove, so right now, we have chalk."

Conrad will write the symbols on the floor and have Aumento copy.

"For each room we go to, I'll ask you to write the correct note on the wall of each one. Don't worry, for today you can freely refer to this."

Tim is reasonably capable of graffiti-ing.  He does take a few seconds for each to see if he can make up a funny mnemonic for each symbol, but most of them he can’t.  Still, graffiti!  Successfully written!

He's doing well. Probably he should express that. For encouragement.

"You're doing well. If the marking fails for some reason — it doesn't have to be anything like the dungeon shifting, it could just be you making a mistake or the chalk or paint getting washed away — a fallback is your camera. You can play it in reverse and backtrack."

Next, he will explain room-clearing techniques. It functions similar to how it is in the military. The principle is to maximize the area 'covered by their guns' and to sweep the entire area of the room with them, coordinating with the squad to do so. Supposing that the entrance to the room is in the middle of the wall, for example. The first man could turn to the right, go to the right corner, and as they do so, turn to the left, thus allowing their area to sweep the entire room. The second man could do the same for the left corner, and so on. You almost always want to be next to a wall because it maximizes the area you cover. He can demonstrate this by entering the next room! Then Aumento can go second and Sinkhole third.

Tim gets a little flustered about being second, because he’s overly concerned about putting Ferrer in his line of fire.  Can he do this once more as first, then a second time as second in line again?

Sure! Conrad assures him: he has his durability power right now, so even if Tim shot him, he'd be fine. Also, they aren't doing target practice right now, so his safety should be on.

His gun isn’t even loaded!  And Yet.

After he takes point and sweeps the room without sweeping his teammates, he manages much better.

Good work. And now, Aumento can draw the appropriate chalk diagram now that they've moved a room. He says that it's good practice to number the diagrams that you make, so that in the event a dungeon layout shift happens, it's more apparent.

Tim will chalk appropriately after sneaking a glance at his cheat sheet.

While Carol takes a moment to observe that if it’s not SOP for the rest of the squad to cover the person diagramming, it should be.

(She makes this comment after going into a ‘covering’ position out of habit.)

"It is SOP, yes, thank you! You want to have at least one person just guarding even when the room is cleared because monsters can pop up from trapdoors or hidden compartments or the like. Tomorrow, we can have Aumento try this when we do target shooting."

Brisk nod of approval!

“Looking forward to it.  Okay, got this one marked and numbered.”

They can practice doing that a few more times with differently shaped rooms.

"Do you have any experience with wrestling or any kind of grappling martial art?"

“Yess.  Er.”  It’s clear from context that this is Tim strangling off an incipient ‘yessir’.  “Brown belt in BJJ.  Came second in the state competition two years ago, third last year.  I did wrestling in high school but I didn’t love it so much.”

"I mostly did wrestling with some judo. Not that judo is very applicable here. I ask because it can be useful with dealing with vics.

Now, normally, people you find in a dungeon will be very cooperative in getting out. But sometimes they're having a breakdown, or unconscious, or something, and you need to get them out yourself. It is DRT policy to get everyone out of a dungeon even if they say they don't want to leave — someone refusing is considered similarly to like, a suicidal person being involuntarily committed. Some people will be reluctant to leave until they've found their family member or other relation, and in those cases you'll want to get a description from them and then have them leave, still. Put your own oxygen mask first, as they say. It's not their job to find people, it's yours. Their job is to leave."

He'll explain the typical procedure for interaction which is to announce the fact that you're from the DRT and are here to rescue them. You remove any bindings or restrictions on them, and help them up if they want. You gather up all the people in a room and have a couple of people escort them to the portal and then ask them to go through, at which point the support teams will handle them.

"You should minimize physical contact with people unless absolutely necessary. So, don't carry or grapple unless they can't move on their own or if they're in an altered state of mind."

Conrad will ask Aumento to practice repeating these set phrases to him before he explains the typical procedure for noncooperatives.

Tim is capable of repeating phrases!  Occasionally he’ll flub a word or add a line, but he can overcome this limitation later with notecards and spare time.

That's alright. Okay, they can practice carrying.

There's a training dummy here that weighs 150lb, can Aumento carry it? Fireman carry is preferred. Conrad wants him to walk with the dummy on all the way to the portal.

If Tim can’t carry a 150-lb training dummy, he’s been doing something VERY wrong for the past two years.  This one’s easy, even with no cheating! Finally, something he can get on the first try Tim you are here to learn.  If you could already do this stuff, why bother coming?

"You should keep in mind that what you're carrying isn't like. A box. You have to be gentle when carrying people, especially when picking them up and putting them down, or they'll get bruised. Spread out the places where you grip them and don't grip too hard in any one spot. Also make sure that they don't bob up and down too much when you step. You have to be more attentive when doing it to an unconscious person because they can't respond when you're putting them in an uncomfortable position."

“Right.  I was a certified EMT before, you know, this.  We preferred two-man lifts on a board, but sometimes you have to make do.  Especially in tight staircases.”

"Oh, that's great! Yes, stretchers are often impractical in dungeons. Not that they're never useful, but. Alright, now to demonstrate control holds..."

This is kind of a controversial part of dungeoneering and some people think that we should leave people behind who refuse to go along — Conrad is not one of them. He can show Aumento a kata of a suppression hold that transitions into pulling someone upward into a fireman carry, taking hold of their wrists and legs so they can't strike you. If you're strong and big, which Aumento is, this is viable. He'll ask him to do this on him. Aumento should be careful not to drop him, obviously, but he shouldn't worry overmuch if he does, because Conrad has his power on. So he'll be fine.

He'll also demonstrate the more typical two person version with Sinkhole and Aumento carrying him — she is probably familiar? 

This works!  Tim gets this transition broadly correct the first time, although he’s not quite satisfied with his wrist control on the first live run.  After the fourth attempt, he’s pretty satisfied he can execute the move well enough to practice.  

Sinkhole is faintly embarrassed to admit it.  But…. “I actually haven’t done this one before.  I’m not really specced for rescue, I’m almost always a spearhead or boss-killer.”  Her level of embarrassment is noticeable by her partner.  Ferrer may or may not pick up on it.

Conrad doesn't pick up on it! "Do you want me to teach you or would you rather I bring in one of my squad who's free to demo for Aumento?"

“Show me, please.  I’m sure you’ll be able to teach us with no issue.”  She gives he smirking partner a very mild evil glare for his impudence.

Smirking?  Tim?  He’s never smirked a day in his life.  He’s very definitely Not Smirking.  You’d only be able to pick up on a smirk from him if you’d been spending six plus hours with him for the last month.  Surely nobody present can pick up on anything smirk-related.

"No problem." And he demonstrates both parts on the dummy. Afterward, the both of them can copy the movements on it. He is both patient and very detailed with instructions and prompts, so hopefully he will indeed be able to to teach them with no issue.

How hard can picking someone up be?  It turns out if you have Esper Muscle, not very.  It takes her two tries to perfect it to her satisfaction, but she does five “reps” on the theory that she’s not specced for rescue, so she needs the extra practice more.

Yeah, esper strength is great!! Conrad loves it so much!! He will absolutely not stop her from wanting to do it several times.

They can also try the two-person version out on him, if they want to get practice on someone actually resisting.

Yeah he does!!!  This is great, he wants to do it a few times without any resistance, then with increasing levels.  Arguably they should do this in a bouncy room or something but powers are bullshit about safety.  Tim is aware he needs to be recalibrated on what is ‘safe’.

They can do that! And Conrad can calibrate Tim because his power means he can resist damage and can tell when his body otherwise would be, because he's able to tell if his durability is used up.

“Being able to tell when someone’s hurt is a lot better than being able to fix it afterward.”

"Yes, indeed. Your power lets you sense damage, right?"

“Yeah, a little bit?  It’s really obvious if someone broke a bone or something.”

Ah, he thought it was more fine than that. Oh well.

The next topic he covers is identifying safe places to step on. Floor traps are rather common in dungeons, even if it's as simple as 'a stone that you trip over'. Conrad is of the opinion that people overly focus on obstacle courses and going through them really fast, when the more dangerous part is failing to detect an area that isn't safe to step on. He feels that obstacle courses promote the bad habit of mind of thinking that everything in a dungeon is as it seems, when they are often more tricksy than that.

Dungeons do typically stick to naturalism in their design, though, so unsafe places to step in real life will usually map to unsafe places to step in dungeons. Don't step in thick mud, cracked floors, suspicious raised or lowered platforms, et cetera. If you're unsure, avoid it, tap at it with your foot, or call for a stop to re-evaluate. Many people only look to their front — also make sure you are looking down!

Oh no but what if he has to look at Not Someone’s Face Or At Most Shoulder okay this is not actually a social situation.  Think of it as a tournament, not a conversation. Really why would you even think of this as social, that doesn’t make sense.

Aaaand that framing does the trick.  “So treat it like you’re hiking someplace unfamiliar, where terrain might be out to get you.  Like a snow-covered “field” that might actually have an iced over swamp underneath.”

Carol, meanwhile, stands behind Tim.  She cocks an eyebrow at the instructor and dungeon-signs him.  Check ceiling question?

"That's right! I didn't know you liked hiking too."

Then, to Carol, "Tomorrow." He smiles.

????

Now it is Carol’s turn to smirk at Tim.

Smirk!!

Anyway, despite what he said earlier, he's still going to ask Aumento to go through an obstacle course, now. Except the course has a variety of surfaces that are meant to look like slippery ice or sticky mud or the like. He wants Tim to go through it as fast as possible, but, if he ever rests his weight on any of the no-no surfaces, that will be considered a failure and he'll ask him to restart.

Okay, that’s easy! Wait.  No powers.

… this may be slightly harder than anticipated.

He visibly takes a minute to pick out a route.  It goes mostly as planned but he does lose a few seconds by intentionally sprawling over so as to not land in “mud”.  Does that count as a fail?

"You followed the parameters of the mission, so it's not a fail. But doing that isn't something that will be very good in a dungeon."

If Tim wants to repeat this course, he can do that! Otherwise, they can move on. It's actually near lunch time, so Conrad proposes taking a break for now. Especially since some stuff for later will require preparation.

One more try!!!  Then, lunch.  What’s cookin’?  Anything good?

It's army food. Conrad doesn't have much to say about it.

There's mac and cheese, rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob, green beans, toast, battered catfish, baked potatoes. It's decent.

Tim takes some of the fish and regrets it.  He soldiers on, but is visibly happier about the green beans and potatoes.

Carol takes an R strategy of getting a small serving of everything.  She wordlessly swaps trays with Tim long enough to save him from mediocre fish - he can have her chicken instead.

Conrad takes green beans, potatoes, and chicken. Yeah, the fish is. Not good here. He really should have told them about it beforehand but he forgot. He's just going to refrain from saying anything about it.

Once they get back to the training center, Conrad kindly asks Aumento to blindfold himself. For testing reasons.

Sinkhole is mature and professional enough to not giggle.

Tim is also mature enough to not giggle and if he puts the blindfold on fast enough nobody can see him blushing. Damn this pale skin, Maman never has this problem.  Or maybe she just never gets embarrassed.  Definitely one of those.

Conrad will then take several minutes to rearrange the layout of the training dungeon (the walls are slidable or rollable for this purpose) then mark each one with the appropriate diagram.

Then, he will carry Aumento to a certain location inside it, unless Sinkhole would prefer to do so.

“My partner, I’ll take responsibility for him.”  She swiftly moves through the ‘pick up a panicky civvy’ hold and follows Ferrer.

Whispered: “Sinkhole!”

“Sorry, Aumento.  I didn’t realize I pinched your wrist there.” Oh, that was not a wrist.

He is going to Look Away from the............guiding activity............and focus on the training. Anyway, once they reach their destination, Conrad will unblindfold Aumento.

"Using the markings, figure out the way to the dungeon entrance." He will really need to know the markings this time, because one of them points to a false wall that you have to push on to reveal the correct way through. Also, he laid it out specifically to defeat the common 'follow the right wall' technique by not making the maze simply connected and by having the dungeon exit not be on the outside edge. Well, the training hall's exit is on the outside edge, but the fake dungeon exit isn't.

Okay.  Tim is fine.  He does take a second to get his head in the game and his other head out of it.  But he’s good.  It turns out that if you try to distract yourself from mediocre cod with dungeon sign flashcards on an app, you can successfully navigate a dungeon!  He almost overshoots one sign, but he successfully gets the ‘secret door’ without too much trouble.

"You have a good memory and good spatial awareness. Great work."

Now, Conrad will take out his phone. The DRT maintains an app to keep track of dungeons and espers — there are a bunch of different systems and apps that do the same thing, but they mostly have interoperability with each other because these need to be able to manage international espers and dungeons.

All these apps have at least some form of mapping software. Sometimes, dungeon layouts are simple enough that explicit mapping isn't necessary. But many dungeons are large or labyrinthine enough, or have some sort of complication, like being dark, such that it's necessary. And it's especially necessary if a single squad can't clear it in one go and has to do a handover. Conrad can show Tim how to operate it to mark the basic layout, dangers, secret doors, monster locations (though that isn't relevant now), dangerous terrain, Z-level changes, landmarks, and so on. The convention in dungeon maps is that the direction the entrance points to is always "north", and that the entrance is at the bottom of the map.

He'll ask Tim to input the path from the place they were at to the dungeon exit. He can traverse the path again if he likes to make sure it's correct.

That one is a lot harder.  He manages it until about halfway through, accidentally interprets a left as a right, and it all falls apart after that.

Yes, he definitely would like to traverse it again!!  And then is a little disappointed when he realizes he got the map wrong.

No problem! He's free to traverse it again and to use the previous markings as guides. It's better to do it all in one go, since this minimizes the time and attention you need to spend on mapping, but typically people stop every so often to update it. Conrad has the route memorized but that's in significant part because he's had four years of experience doing this.

Conrad will not point out the place where he made a mistake unless Tim requests a hint.

Right.  Once more, with feeling. This time he realizes the mistake he made, but that’s using scuff marks on top of the display.  Cool.  This is a really good training course, Tim can tell by how bad he is at this version of orienteering.

Conrad will check his work and pronounce his approval. "Great work. You're learning quickly! And this is your first time receiving any formal dungeoneering training?" He looks at Aumento and then at Sinkhole.

"At this rate, I'm going to have to come up with more things to test you on to fill up the time — I had planned a very stripped down, only-the-very-basics curriculum."

Carol is very proud of her puppy and more than a little smug.  “I’ve been working with him for about a month now.  I’ve been teaching him my style of dungeoneering for a little bit, but he could stand a little formal polish.”  Tim gets a little hair-ruffle.

Tim responds by gently attempting to armlock his partner and ruffle her hair in turn.  The conversation carries on like they aren’t roughhousing casually.  He’s used to it by now.  “Sinkhole’s pretty good at what she does, but she’s specialized.  I’m probably going to be a bodyguard, so I need to fit into all kinds of compositions, and I’ll probably have a DRT or SWAT team sometime as well.  So I need to learn to interface with them.”

This is certainly one of the guiding dynamics of all time.

"Teaching that is a little more difficult because, even though there's SOP, teams naturally get into dynamics." He looks at his watch. It's late afternoon.

"I'm going to teach you one last thing which is very important, and then we can end for the day."

And Conrad will proceed to teach Aumento about dungeon bureaucracy! Yes, even mighty fearsome espers must still do it, even more so if you're just a regular DRT officer. It differs based on jurisdiction, obviously, and Conrad will teach him the American forms, but basically all countries have variations on these.

There's a huge list of boxes in the forms, though some of them are optional. The map is one of these things.

You add tags on the dungeon based on its parameters, like its size and specific dangers (monsters, psychic ability, environmental hazards, shifting layout, etc.). Determination of rank is determined by central command and not field operatives, but you can make recommendations about what rank it ought to have.

If you abort the mission due to danger, you can suggest which espers you think should be fielded — the app contains an esper database of those who have registered to help out the US DRT.

You also write down the number of kidnappees, injuries and fatalities among those and among your own crew.

You also write down what you yourself actually did. Where you went, what your role was. 

There are also additional forms that sometimes pop up that ask you certain weird questions — these are basically from dungeon researchers who want to obtain data. They can pull from action camera recordings — by the way, there is a place to upload that in the form — but sometimes they want to ask about your impression of the dungeon, or your feelings, so on and so forth. Technically, filling out those questions isn't required, but it's strongly encouraged because it's for the sake of Dungeon Science. 

oh no

Carol to the rescue!  Her take on these, is that you don’t actually need most of the form on any given dungeon.  She has a personal system that involves throwing out the parts of the form she doesn’t need, so it’s less scary than it looks at first glance.

For example, her last dungeon had major monsters, tons of traversals, but no environmental hazards other than falling.  So she only needed these sections…

That's a very good system! The form has actually has collapsible sections — Conrad forgot to show that functionality. Just be sure to put "not applicable" or "none significant" and not leave it empty. He will attempt to impress upon Aumento that the value of spending all this time writing is both to communicate information for people who will take over from you, and to provide data for your future self and researchers to improve dungeoneering in the future. You need to feed the statisticians good data! The future matters just as much as clearing dungeons in the present.

Conrad can either wait for Tim to fill it out, or he can take it to their silo as 'homework' and send it to Conrad before they meet again tomorrow.

Can he have three of these to do for homework, actually?  He can pretend he’s Sinkhole’s secretary and take notes on some of her dungeons for practice.  And then show them to Ferrer tomorrow, time permitting.

"Hm...I had only planned for you to do one for each day, but today you can do a form for the obstacle course with dangerous terrain, and this maze dungeon. Feel free to refer to the dungeon cameras to refresh your memory — we do this, too."

“Okay, that makes sense.  I appreciate it - I just really have to study to make sure this kind if thing sticks, you know?”

Carol smoothly takes a half step behind him and rolls her eyes at Ferrer.  Dungeon signs false at him where Tim can’t see her hand.

Conrad is confused??? Is Sinkhole trying to say that Aumento doesn't actually appreciate it? Did he feel...pressured...somehow, by Conrad? Both Sinkhole and Aumento are looking at him, though, so he can't sign back without Aumento seeing.

"I'm only strictly asking you to do the maze dungeon one. No need to do the other — I'm going to give you more practice in the coming days, anyway."

He looks a little off-put, did I say something wrong?  “I definitely want to do a few, so I know I’m getting it done correctly.  But if I’m getting the opportunity to do several anyway, maybe I don’t need to do extra.”

Great, I put my foot in it.  Hand in it.  Whatever.  “Timothy, you need to give yourself some credit, here.  You’ll have tons of opportunities to write these.  Hundreds or thousands of them.  It’s just a multiple choice quiz with an essay section and you can’t get it wrong.  Just report what you saw and call it good.”  She steps back in front of him and gives him a gentle-ish hip-bump of solidarity.

Given Ferrer’s Judo training, he might recognize that hip-bump as a potential start of a hip throw, if she’d bothered to follow through with it.

"Yes. For all that I talked up the importance of filling out the form correctly — which is true! — this is one of the few components of DRT life that won't lead to you getting injured or killed if you mess it up."

Conrad does recognize it but he doesn't comment on it, because they clearly have a very touchy dynamic going on. Which, like, he kind of gets it. Touching a compatible esper feels good. It's kind of awkward to look at, though.

He gives a somewhat reassured nod.  “Sounds good.  We’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

If Tim knew they were making Ferrer uncomfortable he would make Carol cut it out, but since he has no idea he won’t stop her!  Alas, preference expression is a difficult art.

"Do you want me to escort you to the mess hall or your silo or do you want to do so on your own?" Technically speaking it is his duty to escort them, but he has to do cleanup here and it seems like they both aren't liable to get lost or liable to get snoopy. It's extremely irresponsible of him, but. He is feeling kind of lazy and tired today.

“I think we can make it back on our own.  It’ll be part of my orienteering training, in case I ever get into a military base dungeon, right?  I mean, you can come with if you want to.  But.  You don’t have to?”

"Alright. Either of you can text me if you get lost. I'm going to begin cleaning up now and setting up the space for tomorrow."

“Sounds good!  We’ll see you later, then.”

A little while later, Ferrer receives a text from Sinkhole.

sry about earlier.  he slept in the day God handed out self confidence and nevr manages to hold onto any he finds

ty for everything today.  rly appreciat it.

No problem, see you tomorrow! Is there anything else you think I could do/change for his training?

Maybe Aumento's backlash has an undisclosed component that has to do with self-confidence? Or maybe he's just like that, he guesses.

He's just like that, Carol would reply if she could.

He likes repetition of any drill you give him.  If yuo can, make sure that each thing youre teaching him can be done 2-3 times, a slightly diferent way each time.  He's also smarter than he gives himself credit for, when he tells you he's not smart you cant believe him.  I think yuo're doing great though!