I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths!

I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! (Aランクパーティを離脱した俺は、元教え子たちと迷宮深部を目指す。, A-Rank Party o Ridatsu Shita Ore wa, Moto Oshiego-tachi to Meikyū Shinbu o Mezasu) is a Light Novel written by Kousuke Unagi and illustrated by Super Zombie. It was first released as a Web Serial Novel on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website in 2020, until it was acquired by Kodansha and published as a series of Light Novels in 2022. A manga adaptation drawn by Yuuri was released on June 25, 2021. An anime adaptation by Bandai Namco Pictures was announced on September 4, 2024 and was set to air on Nippon Television and other affiliates beginning January 11, 2025.

Yuke Feldio has been having some trouble with his A-Rank party, Thunder Pike. They aren't giving him a fair share of the pay for quests and aren't reimbursing him for all of the potions and items he uses to help them, causing him to start losing money with each quest instead of earning it. When he brings this up, he's ridiculed and derided for being a weak Red Mage who can't fight as well as the rest of the party and his support efforts aren't even recognized at all. Fed up, he yells "FUCK YOU! I Quit!"

Unfortunately, being The Red Mage going solo leaves him without any prospects, as no one is willing to hire a member of his class by themselves and he's beginning to resign himself to fruitless efforts to join another party that likely won't be any better than his previous party. Then he happens to run into a trio of girls (Marina, Silk, and Rain) who he had previously mentored as adventurers and are more than thrilled to have him join.

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Tropes found in the work include:

• Ability Mixing: Yuke's ultimate spell, Prismic Missile, inflicts a target with every negative status effect.
• Always Chaotic Evil: There are no good orcs in this setting. They kill and eat the men and turn the women into Breeding Slaves to maintain their numbers, and that's all there is to them.
• Big Brother Mentor: Yuke to the girls previously and, in many respects, still. He's very patient and knowledgeable about all aspects of adventuring and chock full of great advice.
• Bowdlerise: The anime left out some of the most harsh content in the novel and manga, such as the final fate of Simon's companions (except Jamie).
• Didn't Think This Through: Simon, leader of Yuke's former party, Thunder Pike, attempts to discredit Clover by goading Yuke into attacking him while the camera is broadcasting live by insulting Silk, the dark elf member of Clover, with racist and sexist remarks. As a result, Simon's party ends up being the one in trouble. How much trouble? Well, they apparently forgot that A-Rank parties like themselves are officially recognized by the king, allowing them to act as representatives of the crown, meaning that their publicly broadcast overtly racist comments have sparked an international incident and have put them on the line for punishments up to and including banishment.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The main drive behind Yuke leaving Thunder Pike. Not only did he not get any thanks, recognition, or a fair share of the treasure, despite all his hard-working efforts, but when he brings this up, the party tears into him and treat him like he's useless because of his minor combat skills. This leads him to his Rage Breaking Point and leaving the party. Fortunately, the members of Clover treat him much more fairly, and then some.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Nene shows up in the anime credits four episodes before she actually debuts.
• Guilt-Tripping: In a failed attempt at guilt-tripping, Simon tries to point out that Thunder Pike keeps failing at dungeon expeditions and quests because Yuke left them. Yuke, however, stands his ground and counters that Thunder Pike kept treating him like crap and their failures are their own responsibility, despite their claims otherwise, and he is under no legal or moral obligation to return to a party that did nothing but belittle and abuse him and never paid him his fair share of the earnings for everything he did for them.
• Harem Genre: All three (later four) female members of Clover are head over heels for Yuke. He's the only one that doesn't know.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In order to get Clover to escape Persephone's grasp, Yuke allows the latter to mark him, which will rip his soul from the cycle of reincarnation.
  • Jamie tackles Simon to force him to let Rain go, even with the knowledge that she'll likely be unable to escape with Clover.
• Hoarding the Profits: One of the reasons Yuke left Thunder Pike was because he was sick of his fellow party members hoarding the earnings from their activities for themselves without even compensating him for his expenses in helping the party get to where they are, leaving him in the red. His new party, Clover, rewards his contributions much more fairly and achieves quick success and fame under Yuke's leadership while Thunder Pike keeps losing prestige and their hired replacements for Yuke leave because they were asking them to do all the work Yuke did without fair compensation.
• Humiliation Conga: Life does not treat Yuke's former party, Thunder Pike, well after he leaves. Even better, Yuke himself has nothing to do with it beyond his absence. Some highlights:
  • Because Yuke took care of everything not related to combat, his former party is hopelessly inept at even basic adventuring logistics. The amount of work Yuke did behind the scenes is so great that everyone they try to hire to replace him quits after one day from sheer frustration.
  • Since Yuke's support magic was greatly strengthening the party, they go from regularly challenging the 10th floor of an elite dungeon to struggling on the 4th floor, leading to at least one instance where they had to flee with one member greatly injured.
  • Their lack of success also causes their popularity to plummet, losing viewers to their broadcasts as well as sponsors, which means a hefty financial loss.
  • Failure to plan and prepare properly leads to repeated failed quests, causing them to be threatened with having their party's rank lowered.
  • The leader, Simon, attempts to pressure Yuke into joining them on a one-time basis, which Yuke refuses, enraging the leader and causing him to confront Yuke publicly over it in the middle of the guild. Yuke gives him a very calm and targeted "The Reason You Suck" Speech regarding his horrible leadership skills, turning him into an immediate laughingstock for all of the adventurers present.
  • This is all before Simon's Didn't Think This Through moment and because of the said moment, the party's popularity plummets even further due to an international incident and it fatally destroys its reputation.
  • Not learning his lesson, Simon goes after Yuke in the dungeon again and takes his female party members hostage, trying to force Yuke into signing over his accomplishments with a magical contract. The dungeon doesn't agree with Simon's antics and comes at him, cue a graphic Cruel and Unusual Death.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: The entire premise of the series is basically Yuke getting fed up with being this and getting no recognition for it.
• Instant Web Hit: There is a magic item that can record adventurer actions like a drone camera and even broadcast live. Yuke decides to use one for Clover party's first boss fight versus the "Novice Slayer" and the video goes viral when he accidentally one-shots it with support magic.
• Never My Fault: A Fatal Flaw for the titular A-Rank party, Thunder Pike. Despite their popularity and power of being A-Rank adventurers, they relied on Yuke to handle everything involving inventory and party management, on top of combat support as a Red Mage and streaming, and they give him little pay and recognition for it. When he leaves, they become less efficient and failure prone and expects newly recruited adventurers to pick up the slack. The newbies are blamed for the main party's lack of preparation and foresight and end up leaving out of frustration. Instead of taking responsibility or admitting that he mistreated his childhood friend, Simon's thinks that they wouldn't be in danger of demotion if Yuke hadn't "selfishly abandoned them".
• Noob Cave: The Abandoned Mine Labyrinth Paintal, a low-level 10-floor dungeon, is apparently the first one most adventurers enter.
• Polyamory: Not official yet, but all three of the girls in Clover are smitten with Yuke, none of them seem jealous or competitive with each other, and, at one point, Silk casually mentions that polygamy is legal where she is from. Yuke thinks she's only teasing him.
• Precision F-Strike: How Yuke quits his former party, Thunder Pike.
• Randomly Generated Levels: Non-videogame example with the Eternal Darkness dungeon, as everything beyond the first floor is never the same. Yuke deduces that the dungeon's stairs actually connect different realities, and the adventurers' desires (subconscious or not) link each party to a reality that aligns with said desires. This allows Clover to find Jamie when she stays at the dungeon to keep Simon from attacking them, as they all concentrate on finding her.
• The Red Mage: A very versatile class in this universe that mostly casts support magic and doesn't have direct attack options.
• Removing the Crucial Teammate: Played with in that Yuke removes himself from the party rather than being kicked out of it. Nonetheless, while the party laughs it off, they quickly learn how essential Yuke was to their success due to his taking care of all the non-combat duties.
• Rescue Romance: The day after Nene joins the party, the girls all ask if she is, or might become, in love with Yuke as well. Nene says she has no interest in love in general and walks off. Immediately afterwards, she trips on some stairs and Yuke catches her, causing her to fall in love with him immediately.
• Schmuck Bait: When Clover explores the Eternal Darkness dungeon, they find one floor looking like the outside, with the only outstanding place being a house inhabited by an old lady that invites them to tea and pie. Yuke, who was already feeling it was off, attempts to have the team leave - with good reason, because the "old lady" is actually Persephone, Goddess of Death, and stepping into the "house" would have left them at her mercy.
• Spit Take: Marina, Silk, and Rain have a synchronized one when Yuke mentions his dream of reaching the bottom level of the Colorless Darkness Dungeon.
• Spotting the Thread: When the girls mention they went to Ordan Forest a couple of months before, he realizes that the magic beast must have already been there back then when they mention they didn't hear any animals then.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In Episode 9, when Yuke comes back from the Guild, all the girls comment on his face and realize he's found a nice quest. Using the same words, even.
• Support Party Member: The Red Mage class in this universe, which Yuke takes to amazing levels, having mastered a very diverse range of skills to make the rest of his party's efforts easier and more effective. The other members of Clover are absolutely starry-eyed at how much easier quests become with his support.
• Take This Job and Shove It: Without getting his fair share of quest proceeds from the party, getting reimbursement for supplies (especially potions and other items) used in each quest the party undertakes, as well as being taken for granted by them as a whole, Yuke tells them "I quit!" and cuts his losses. Clover makes it up to Yuke to where Simon's attempts to get him back fail miserably and bring Thunder Pike to the desperation of having to team up with a rich evil mastermind to ruin Clover and Yuke especially.
• Villainous Rescue: After Thunder Pike captures Clover while they were resting in a safety zone in the Achromatic Darkness dungeon, Simon has them tied up and forces Yuke to sign a contract that would basically make him a member again, as well as taking all the blame for the racist remarks Thunder Pike made towards Silk while they were being livestreamed. Yuke was about to sign the contract until the dungeon suddenly starts to collapse the room they were in.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • An Informed Attribute since Yuke one-shots it by accident, but the Steel Crab on the 5th floor of the Abandoned Mine didn't get the alias "Novice Slayer" for nothing.
  • A more straight example of this is when Clover runs into a Stealth Stalker in the Aion Ruins Dungeon. Even Yuke has only heard stories about it, and unlike their earlier battles, this creature proves to be much more challenging, as most of their attacks completely miss due to its speed. Clover has to really go all out against it to defeat it.

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