#003_The Forbidden Study (3)
A message appeared along with the answer.
At the same time, flick—my vision went completely dark.
And a moment later, what greeted my returning sight was a rock sitting alone in the middle of a desert, and a man lying atop it, stretching a withered hand straight up to block the sunlight.
The man, evoking the image of a starving beggar from some distant land, had long, stiff hair whipping in the glittering, stinging sandstorm. Despite his beggar-like appearance and complexion, he wore numerous accessories—clattering and dazzlingly ornate.
Just the bracelets on both wrists numbered well over twenty, rings claimed every finger, several necklaces layered on a single neck, and small stone plaques and dolls were tucked into pockets everywhere.
This adornment, completely asymmetrical with his tattered, ragged clothes, was almost grotesque in a way.
It was then.
From near the man lying comfortably, rumble—! A vibration suddenly began.
The vibration intensified into something like an earthquake in an instant, kugugugu—! Then, directly in front of the rock where the man lay, puhwaak—!! Sand erupted high like a fountain.
As the sand dust settled, what appeared was a giant snake, a monster resembling a dragon, whose revealed form looked capable of effortlessly swallowing a small apartment building.
But the man showed no intention of getting up even at that sight.
He remained lying down, pulled a small stone plaque from his waist, and threw it like a shuriken, planting it in the sandy ground beside the monster.
Thud—
The stone plaque pierced the soft sand and embedded lightly.
Smaller than a palm, it looked almost like a makeshift gravestone a child might craft in play.
…And it became a real gravestone.
Ssshh—in the same instant that a faint ripple spread outward from the stone plaque like a wave—
Toooong—!
A heavy vibration spread, and sand dust billowed up greatly.
At its center was, of course, the monster snake that had just burst forth.
However, its appearance was in extreme contrast to just moments before.
Milky-white rolled-back eyes and a faintly trembling body were the quintessential symbols of death.
Without a single cry or wound, that great and monstrous beast died just like that.
And the man, still lying down, stared at the completely fallen creature with only a sidelong glance.
After watching its motionless form for a long while, he suddenly swept—raised his body, slowly approached, and stretched out his hand.
At that, the corpse fsssh—decomposed in an instant, soon vanishing and leaving behind only a single blue mass.
The man stowed the blue mass in his bag, retrieved the stone plaque as well, lay back down on the hot sand where heat shimmers rose, and once again blocked the sun with his hand stretched straight up as before.
And as he did, he smirked—a sharp, sinister smile as if mocking something.
And as if in answer to that, the sky shook unsteadily.
Expanding, the sun blazed even larger and redder for an instant, and a heat storm thick enough to be seen with the naked eye fell from the firmament and surged down like a massive blade.
That which pierced down in one breath was a calamity of obvious destruction.
But the man paid it no heed. This time, he took out a rather strangely shaped doll, placed it on the ground, and pulled a book and a pen from his bag.
The dark purple book was exactly the one I had used.
Still lying down, the man opened the book to its last page and calmly recorded a line.
[Selfish Sun, the god of our Kakan fears this power of mine.]
[You who open this record again someday, overcome His will which exists solely to scorch the world to death.]
And when he closed the book and placed it before the doll, the doll hugged the book, passed over the nearby rock like a mirage, and slipped—into it, vanishing.
At the same time, kwagwagwagwa—!! A heat wave that shattered the world.
Flick—
And with it, my vision flickered out once more.
*
[Viewing complete.]
“…Hm?”
It was called viewing, but since what I had seen was only a brief image, nothing was properly understood.
But there was no need to worry about it.
As the viewing ended, the book turned to powder of light and scattered widely. In its place, information in a familiar format… new messages and system windows appeared.
[A [Special] tab is added to the status window.]
[[Tehimata-style Shamanic Talisman] acquired.]
Name: Kim Heeseong
Rank: F
Unique: [Curse Immunity] [Kashulien-style Deciphering Method]
Special: [Tehimata-style Shamanic Talisman]
[Current Rank F.]
[The functions of [Tehimata-style Shamanic Talisman] are restricted.]
[Talisman transfer unavailable.]
[Currently, a maximum of 1 talisman can be activated simultaneously.]
[Tehimata-style Shamanic Talisman]
-Rank F Curse-Warding Talisman
-Rank F Strength Talisman
-Rank F Swiftness Talisman
…….
I briefly glanced over the unremarkable entries at the front and focused on the list that appeared at the end.
A typical recipe list.
“So it’s a crafting ability.”
When I tapped one of the entries, brief information and the materials needed for crafting appeared.
[Rank F Swiftness Talisman]
Upon activation, the user’s movement speed increases.
-Rank F Essence × 10
-Rank F Shamanic Medium
Essence, Shamanic Medium… I had never heard of these types before, but thinking of the scene I had just witnessed, I could roughly guess.
“Essence… They mean that blue thing.”
The blue mass the man in the scene had taken after killing the monster.
[Essence can be extracted with a certain probability from a life form that has been dead for less than 1 minute.]
The message that appeared like an answer to my muttering seemed correct.
“Shamanic Medium… I think this refers to those accessories or stone tablets.”
[If Essence extraction succeeds, a Shamanic Medium will additionally form with a certain probability.]
However, reading through those messages, I noticed a problem.
“I guess I have to gather the materials myself….”
Since they said extraction was only possible from an enemy dead for less than a minute, it practically meant I had to fight myself.
In other words, I had to enter a dungeon anyway…
“Would there even be a place for me?”
That was the hard part.
For starters, the two unique abilities I had were completely unusable in dungeons.
Same with this [Tehimata-style Shamanic Talisman] I had just obtained.
Since it was a crafting ability, until I succeeded in crafting, it was practically equivalent to having no ability at all.
Even in a party full of F-rank newbie hunters, there was no reason to take someone like me when there were other hunters with proper abilities.
Moreover, if I extracted Essence, the monster corpses would scatter into particles of light just like in the scene.
Monster corpses were a major source of income for normal hunters, so if I gathered materials, not only would I be a burden to them, I would cause them losses.
“Solo would be… even more impossible.”
Once you enter a dungeon, you can’t get out until you clear it.
Additional personnel can enter through the entrance, but the exit only appears if the clear conditions are met.
But with the Dungeon Reservation System active now, unless one was a Black Hunter or a dungeon robber, cases of additional people entering an already-occupied dungeon were rare.
In other words, once I entered alone, I would basically have to finish clearing it before coming out…
“That’s impossible.”
Maybe one or two normal monsters, but with specs that couldn’t even get a spot in an N-way split party, I couldn’t handle hundreds of them, not to mention a dungeon boss far stronger than them, alone.
I could extract Essence and craft inside the dungeon to raise my specs, but trusting an ability whose performance was unknown and entering a dungeon I couldn’t freely exit from alone was out of the question.
“Hmm….”
The additional awakening was good, but the future was darker than expected.
A crafting ability that demanded combat… In the current situation, I couldn’t see any good breakthrough.
Hoping there might be more benefits I hadn’t seen yet, I wandered around the study, pitch dark with all the lanterns out.
[Current Rank F.]
[Bookshelves of E-rank danger level worlds are unavailable.]
But, as expected, nothing more came out.
The unlit bookshelves didn’t even allow my hand to touch them, and of the usable bookshelves there was only one, but after using the single book it had, it was completely emptied, leaving no other variables.
It was then.
While carefully examining every corner of the study, too blocked by darkness to wander further, thud—! A weak vibration suddenly rang from the floor.
“Hm?”
I turned to see a fallen tree a couple of steps behind.
A tree that had been lushly green as decoration had, for some reason, completely withered, cracked deeply like firewood about to split.
Since I had been searching right beside it just seconds ago for clues, it was in exact contrast to its appearance moments before.
“…What the?”
A mysterious situation.
But discerning the cause wasn’t difficult.
Flickering openly right beside it—
[[Depletion], a very powerful curse is harming you!]
[It removes your vitality and special resources!]
[Curse Immunity active.]
[[Depletion], the very powerful curse has failed to achieve its target.]
[[Depletion], the very powerful curse is lingering around the designated target.]
Moreover, since it was still spamming messages wildly, I couldn’t not know.
“It’s still here…. Doesn’t this go away?”
[It is a very powerful curse.]
[It will not lose its will until it harms the designated target.]
It seemed to mean roughly that it would only end when I died.
“Ha….”
All this trouble just for opening a wrong book…
It was then.
With my blood pressure already starting to rise from the awkward situation compounded by strange occurrences, a different thought suddenly came to me.
“This effect….”
I rummaged through my recent memories, recalling shortly after I had entered the study.
I had come down the stairs, entered the study, all the lights were out, and I had approached near this bookshelf.
The warning message that had appeared then.
-This zone is under the influence of the curse, [Depletion]!
-It removes vitality and special resources within the area!
I looked again at the fallen ornamental tree.
Despite being a fairly thick and large tree, it couldn’t endure even the few seconds since I had brushed past it nearby, withering and dying like this.
It hadn’t received the curse directly; merely lingering near me had reduced it to this state.
Thinking that a warning had appeared for me too, this effect probably didn’t apply only to plants.
“This… could work?”
I saw a way out.
. . .
I immediately found a nearby F-rank dungeon.
Through the ‘Dungeon Map,’ which aggregates and displays the locations of dungeons worldwide in real time, I could easily find a dungeon that had appeared in a nearby alley.
“Good thing it’s a foreign one.”
The ‘Dungeon Map’ and ‘Dungeon Reservation System’ are services based on and thoroughly dependent on the unique ability of the ‘Seated Observer,’ who had appeared in Egypt 17 years ago.
As such, these two are exclusive services that only the company D&M, which he established, can provide. Yet D&M manages all information, including users’ personal information and dungeon occurrence and disappearance records, with strict secrecy to an almost strange degree.
To the extent that they don’t provide a shred of information even to their own Egyptian government.
Thus, unless caught by other surveillance networks, one need not worry about prying eyes when using dungeons themselves.
Thanks to that, I could focus solely on the immediate situation before my first dungeon entry.
“Whew… I think it’ll work, but….”
I was somewhat confident.
But still, being nervous was unavoidable.
A newly awakened F-rank hunter, and one who had awakened an ability he couldn’t even use right now at that, challenging an F-rank dungeon solo from the start was truly insane.
But I had no other choice right now.
“Let’s go.”
As always, I would do what I could do today.
I collected myself and walked straight to the dungeon entrance.
The crimson that symbolizes dungeons.
I pushed my foot into the center of that red vortex.
Vertigo—
The moment my toes touched it, my vision shook.
A powerful gravitational pull felt simultaneously.
As if someone were pulling a drunken body, I was sucked straight in—whoosh—
And flash—when my vision flickered, an entirely changed background soon surrounded me.
A gloomy, unpleasant cave so humid one could feel it just by breathing, with dim light that naturally made one furrow their brows.
Only the blue luminescent stones embedded here and there, casting light downward, helped maintain visibility.
But what was more important than them was undoubtedly the master of this cave.
[F-rank Dungeon: Cave of Avablin]
-Defeat the chieftain at the end of the cave.
Avablin.
In terms of appearance, since they were simply goblins with blue skin, they were monsters more commonly called ‘Blue Goblins.’
The ones immediately visible, around five or six of them, witnessed my appearance and, the moment they grasped the situation—kieeeh!!—let out bizarre screams and charged.
With sharply jutting claws and upper and lower fangs protruding enough to cover their lips as threatening weapons, individually each was slightly weaker than me.
But the ones charging at me now numbered roughly five or six just from what was visible.
Alone as I was now, clashing head-on was beyond my ability.
“Hup!”
So, I had no choice but to evade.
Tapat—! Dodging at a suitable distance—
Kwak—! Kwakwak—!
Attacks that pierced and tore at the ground and air.
Numerous bodies stronger than a fairly well-trained person gathered together, making it difficult to find an opening for a counterattack alone.
-Kieeeh!
-Kyek! Kyek!
As if they knew this too, the creatures escalated their attacks with bizarre shouts like battle cries.
At this rate, within mere seconds, I would be driven to the cave wall behind me and become their food.
The Blue Goblins too bared their saliva-soaked fangs in anticipation of that moment.
But regrettably for them, that time never came.
Thud—
Once again, the one at the forefront who had been stabbing at me with sharp claws collapsed in an instant.
The one that simply thud—lay down on the floor couldn’t get back up, not a twitch of movement.
The other Blue Goblins, witnessing that, seemed to intuit that something was wrong—
-Ki, kyek?
-Kieeeh…
They tried to pull back, but it was already too late.
Thud—thud—
The ones retreating couldn’t take even a few steps before dropping in their tracks, thump thump.
The monsters had collapsed even though I had merely evaded once and hadn’t lifted a finger otherwise.
Above those creatures was a ripple centered on me.
[[Depletion], a very powerful curse is lingering around the designated target.]
“The performance is solid.”
This… seems like I’ve obtained quite a decent weapon.