#004_Forbidden Study (4)
Though I hadn’t laid a single finger on them, the blue goblins had died with their vitality completely drained.
Just like the ornamental trees in the study, they were all grotesquely withered, shriveled up as if they had become mummies.
I reached my hand out toward the blue goblins strewn across the floor—now nothing but blue lumps—exactly as the man from the vision had done.
I didn’t know the extraction method, but as soon as I brought my hand near, a message popped up.
[Target eligible for essence extraction.]
[Extract essence?]
When I answered affirmatively in my mind, the next process began immediately.
The corpse suffused with light.
The withered blue goblin corpse transformed into light and scattered, just like the giant monster serpent from the vision.
However, unlike back then, no blue lump remained behind.
[Current Rank: F.]
[Essence extraction probability decreases.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
…So that’s how it is.
[Essence extraction failed.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
The remaining five were all the same.
The blue essence I had seen in the vision was nowhere to be found; all I could see were scattered flakes of white light, like cremated bone powder—which too vanished completely before long.
“F-Rank really knows how to screw you over.”
From using the study to using abilities, rank restrictions left no corner untouched.
And the severity of those restrictions was always extreme.
Failing six times in a row meant that even a simple calculation put the probability at less than 20%… It seemed like a more hopeful number than expected, but that was only because I had only killed six so far, and it was going to drop further from here.
Considering the study, where all but one book was locked, it was right to assume the probability was much lower than that.
Still, if there was one thing to be grateful for—
“Well, I just have to do it a lot.”
—that all the monsters in this dungeon were mine.
As they say, if the probability drops, you make up for it with quantity.
“Then, well… let’s crunch some numbers.”
.
.
.
I broke through the cave in one go and roughly organized the situation.
First, the curse’s range was roughly around 2 meters.
-Kieee!
-Kyek! Kyeek!
The blue goblins charging vigorously changed expressions the moment they entered that exact distance.
Also, from that point it took about 3 seconds for them to die, but when they got within 1 meter, it took about 1.5 seconds—twice as fast.
Just as I had received stronger warning notifications the closer I got to the bookshelves in the study, the curse seemed to grow stronger the closer one got to me, its center.
Therefore, I kept at least 2 meters between us.
I had to maintain a distance they could close in an instant with just a leap or two.
It was a considerably threatening gap, but fortunately, I never allowed them to attack.
“I’m reaping the benefits of those bastards after all.”
The past three years.
As a promising talent slated to become a Double Core Hunter, the education and training I had received from Cheonhye were certainly helping.
For three years while unable to awaken, all I could do and had done was physical conditioning and martial arts; unlike the back-and-forth combat I had learned then, what I had to do now was solely evade.
Even when outnumbered, they were merely F-Rank monsters—blue goblins.
With low intelligence, their movements were simple and repetitive; they couldn’t easily catch me when I was focused solely on evasion.
Thanks to that, breaking through this den crawling with them wasn’t very difficult.
Swish-! Thud-!
If I just dodged, the monsters dried up and died one by one from the aftereffects of the curse swirling around me.
But separate from that, the harvest was poor.
[Essence extraction failed.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
[Essence extraction failed.]
…….
I had already killed dozens, yet I hadn’t succeeded in essence extraction even once.
“…Are you telling me to use this ability or not?”
It takes 10 essences just to make one charm.
And a sorcery medium only drops probabilistically when essence extraction succeeds.
“Ha… cutting it close.”
That was when it happened.
When I had attempted extraction on nearly the hundredth one, a different message finally appeared.
[Essence extraction successful.]
[Sorcery medium formation failed.]
And a fist-sized lump of blue light fell to the floor.
I picked it up immediately.
[F-Rank Essence]
-Material required for F-Rank sorcery manifestation.
“Looks like the probability’s about 1%.”
A simple calculation put it at roughly that.
Did that mean I had to hunt at least a thousand…?
Compared to the instant noodles I usually boiled and ate for barely a thousand won, that number felt impossibly distant.
But there was no need to worry quite that much.
“Just one dungeon…”
Typically, the number of monsters distributed in a single dungeon was around that.
“If I clear it all, it’ll be just right.”
.
.
.
Evasion, extraction, failure, and the very occasional success, but inevitably failed sorcery medium formation.
After repeating that almost fixed pattern for about an hour, I finally reached the end of the dungeon.
Before me lay a door bearing ornate patterns, the symbol of the boss room, and behind me, the cave was cleanly emptied without a single blue goblin remaining, glowing softly under the light of the luminous stones.
And in my bag, essence that had increased to nine with eight added along the way filled it with blue light.
“Couldn’t get that last one until the very end.”
I had gathered a lot, but to make the charm I still needed one more essence and one more sorcery medium.
At this rate, I would have no choice but to run another dungeon too.
It wouldn’t be a huge burden, but I had wanted to finish in one go and see the result as quickly as possible, so it was a bit of a shame.
However, it wasn’t over yet.
There was still one monster left in this dungeon.
“The boss.”
The strongest one in the dungeon.
One usually stronger than ordinary monsters of the next rank always inspired tension, but also gave hope for rewards befitting that special status.
Perhaps I might even obtain a sorcery medium, which hadn’t dropped even once until now.
“Let’s not rest.”
My stamina had dropped a bit, but my senses were at their sharpest after fighting with focus for an hour; now was the best condition for battle.
And besides, the fight wouldn’t take that long anyway.
I immediately grabbed the ornate door’s handle—tak—and pushed it straight open.
The door swung open smoothly, without resistance.
Behind it, in a wide cavern, a blue goblin stood proudly alone… except, unlike the ones until now, which had been slightly small and bare-handed, this one stood holding a short dagger.
[Entering Boss Room!]
[The Avablin Leader is hostile to you!]
-Kirrr…
The one who met my eyes stood still for a moment, then—in an instant—reversed its grip on its dagger and charged at me with a rough roar.
The distance, which had been quite far, closed in an instant—proof of its speed.
Pwak—!
Through an instantaneous leap, its momentum was maximized.
However, merely being fast, its obvious and simple trajectory couldn’t reach me.
“Hup!”
Timing it to the moment it would strike, I quickly twisted my body away and let the fierce blade slide past me.
Ssk—!
The blade aiming precisely for my throat drew a clean straight line, slicing through empty air.
At the same time, its back was completely exposed.
I extended my leg and lightly kicked its clearly open rear.
Puk—!
A solid impact.
Losing its balance in mid-air, it soon landed unstably and tumbled straight to the floor, rolling.
-Kyeeeeee!!
Perhaps enraged, the boss howled loudly while sprawled on the ground.
Then it sprang up from where it had fallen and—hwing—changed the direction of its dagger grip.
From reverse grip to standard grip.
It meant it would fight at close quarters now.
But nothing changed.
Shhik—!
Though the form had changed, the simple and obvious movements remained the same.
Attacks whose trajectories were clearly visible from the preparatory motions before thrusting and slashing couldn’t touch me.
Ssk-! Sassak-! Sswak-!
Attacks that came only straight-on, and from only one opponent at that, were easier to evade than when I had faced the previous horde of monsters.
Also, while fighting in close proximity to me, its vitality rapidly decreased from the curse, [Depletion], and before long even its stamina hit rock bottom.
Ssuk—!
Each time it moved, its stamina dropped sharply.
Ssussuk—!
That was clearly visible.
-Keh… eeeh…
Before it could even swing its blade thirty times, its movements had drastically slowed.
Now emaciated like a sick old man, its limbs barely holding on and moving.
Despite being a dungeon boss, this Avablin Leader was now far weaker than me.
In other words, the fight was over.
Tak—
I lightly snatched the dagger from it.
The blade came easily, following my will.
I reversed my grip on it and immediately plunged it deep into the back of its neck—puwuk!
-Kerek…!
Letting out even its final scream weakly, the thing collapsed as if crumbling.
“Takes quite a while since it’s a boss.”
While the others died in 3-second intervals, I had to spend nearly 20 seconds on this one.
Had I not had a trained body, that much time was enough to have taken several hits from those fast knife strikes.
“Definitely… I need to be more careful with bosses.”
The curse was certainly a powerful and convenient means of attack, but it was by no means invincible.
Having reaffirmed my caution, I reached my hand out to the fallen one without fail.
This time, however, positive news arrived.
[Target eligible for essence extraction.]
[Extract essence?]
[Current Rank: F.]
[Essence extraction probability decreases.]
[Special target.]
[Essence extraction probability corrected to 100%.]
[Sorcery medium formation probability corrected to 100%.]
“Oh, giving me everything?”
It seemed probabilities were corrected for bosses.
Thanks to that, I could fill exactly the one-each shortage of materials.
As I extracted, the corpse scattered, and the now somewhat familiar essence and something like a common string bracelet appeared.
[F-Rank Sorcery Medium]
-Material required for F-Rank sorcery manifestation.
-A medium in bracelet form.
I had thought there were only things like stone tablets or dolls, but it seemed bracelets could be sorcery mediums too.
Come to think of it, the man from the vision had been wearing lots of bracelets too.
So those had all been charms.
I gathered the dropped materials into my bag and, the moment the boss died, took the exit that had opened in the corner of the boss room and left the dungeon.
Though it was the same shape as the entrance, if I entrusted my body to the swirl bearing a stable green color opposite to the anxious red, my vision would sway—just like when I had entered—and soon the original location would appear.
“No one would come here, right?”
An alley deep within the hillside slum, where people didn’t usually wander and where many houses now stood empty.
Looking at the dungeon map, no other dungeons had appeared nearby.
So I opened the crafting window right where I stood.
[Tehimata-style Sorcery Charm]
-F-Rank Curse-Warding Charm
-F-Rank Strength Charm
-F-Rank Swiftness Charm
…….
The list of F-Rank charms popped up one after another.
I roughly skimmed through the nearly hundred of them and picked what I needed most right now.
[F-Rank Swiftness Charm]
Upon activation, the user’s movement speed increases.
-F-Rank Essence x 10
-F-Rank Sorcery Medium
“This would be the best for now.”
My current battle pattern relied entirely on the curse.
For now, the best strategy was to evade safely.
Also, to control the effective range of the curse, raising my speed was advantageous.
“Craft.”
When I spoke the activation word, a message soon returned with the answer.
[Crafting F-Rank Swiftness Charm.]
[Consuming 10 F-Rank Essences.]
[Consuming 1 F-Rank Sorcery Medium.]
At the same time, the materials disappeared from my bag.
And shortly after, something shaped exactly like the bracelet I had obtained earlier fell from the air.
I held out my palm and caught it immediately.
[F-Rank Swiftness Charm—Tehimata]
-Upon activation, the user’s movement speed increases.
-Activation state can be freely toggled.
-Treated as external to artifacts.
“Oh, nice.”
Setting everything else aside, just being treated as external to artifacts was excellent.
Originally, the artifacts a hunter could use were limited to six: helmet, top, bottom, gloves, shoes, weapon… Ignoring that meant I could exceed the usual specs.
Even disregarding that, the performance was sufficient.
[Activating [F-Rank Swiftness Charm—Tehimata].]
After putting on the bracelet and activating it, when I walked, my movement accelerated as if a fairly strong wind were blowing at my back.
Numerically, it was easily about 10–20%.
For F-Rank, and for an artifact that guaranteed over-spec performance, it was a considerably high-tier option.
“It’d definitely be nice to use several.”
But being F-Rank now, restrictions meant I could only use one.
That made what I had to do next abundantly clear.
“I need to raise my rank first.”
Not just charms, but the study and material extraction rates too were affected by rank.
So raising my rank was the most urgent priority.
And there was only one thing I could do for that.
“Any dungeons nearby?”
I just had to diligently run dungeons.