Episode 5: The Forbidden Library (5)
The curse attached to me, [Depletion], was an incredibly broken power.
For one thing, I didn’t have to activate it myself, and despite being constantly active, it consumed no Ether whatsoever.
And yet, it possessed power comparable to a top-tier area-of-effect skill, capable of melting a two-meter radius in just three seconds.
By F-rank standards, it was safe to say that its specs were overwhelmingly superior to any Unique Ability revealed to date.
Thanks to that, clearing dungeons in succession had been incredibly smooth, just like the first time.
All I had to do was dodge appropriately and make my way through the dungeon, and the enemies dropped dead on their own.
And so, five hours after my first dungeon.
I had managed to clear exactly three more dungeons.
Swirl—
I rode the green vortex out and returned to where I started.
My vision spun back into focus on some alley in downtown Myeongdong, littered with quite a few cigarette butts.
Unlike the first dungeon in the quiet alley near my house, this place was packed with people, foreigners gathered among them.
Considering my curse, it would be right to avoid such places, but thanks to the talisman I had made after clearing dungeons near my house in succession after the first one, there was no need.
[F-rank Curse-Catching Talisman—Tehimata]
\-When activated, it can contain F-rank or lower curses wandering nearby.
\-When deactivated, the contained curse is released again.
\-Treated as an external artifact.
It was all thanks to this bracelet talisman, the second one I had made after the [Talisman of Swiftness].
I could use it like an on-off switch for my curse; after catching the boss, I’d deactivate the [Talisman of Swiftness] and activate this, so I could stay among people without any issues.
Of course, since I had to release the curse when entering a dungeon, forming a party was still out of the question, but since I could clear dungeons alone more than twice as fast as others in a group, I didn’t particularly regret it.
“Phew… Let’s take a quick break.”
I left the alley, found a suitable spot to sit, and opened my bag to check my spoils.
Inside, glowing with a bluish light, were an F-rank sorcery medium shaped like a bracelet and a small stone tablet, along with twenty-one F-rank Essences.
“I guess there’s no need to make more.”
I had enough to make two more talismans, but since I could only activate one at a time, I didn’t really need anything else.
For now, the [Talisman of Swiftness] and the [Curse-Catching Talisman] were enough.
There were many types of sorcery talismans, so it seemed better to make the appropriate one later when the need arose.
“Still, I’m a bit more tired than I thought.”
No matter how comfortably I ran them, they were still dungeons.
And I was completely alone.
Effectively, one slip-up meant death, so the toll on me, both mentally and physically, was steep.
Excluding the travel time spent searching for F-rank dungeons, I had spent just over four hours inside them, but my stamina was already hitting rock bottom.
“Well, maybe just one more.”
But I couldn’t rest just yet.
I had to do my best as long as I could.
Only then could I grow faster—whether to pay off the 30 billion won debt within three years, or to take revenge on those damn Cheonhye bastards.
“Ha… Just thinking about it makes me dizzy.”
To be honest, when I first gained my ability, I hadn’t entirely dismissed the thought of returning to Cheonhye.
My pride would take a hit, but the amount was a staggering 30 billion won, and they were the indisputable number one guild in Korea.
Not an enemy I could face alone.
Any sensible person would want to bow their head and go back in to earn recognition.
But thinking about it even a little, there was no more foolish choice than that.
“If I go back… they’ll kill me this time.”
If my new ability had been limited to something like a Double Core Hunter, as it seemed at first, that would be one thing, but the value of the library created beneath my house far surpassed that level.
Right now, I was only using the [Tehimata-style Sorcery Talisman], but as the library expanded, the number of books I could use would keep increasing.
Just the [Sorcery Talisman] available at F-rank was worth a decent Unique Ability, which meant I would eventually possess several Unique Abilities, and they might even surpass the level of standard Unique Abilities.
And if that happened… I would undoubtedly become a burdensome existence to Cheonhye.
From the perspective of Cheonhye, who had abandoned and tormented me, I was like a blade whose edge could turn against them at any moment, should I grow far stronger than them.
Before I grew too powerful for them to control, they would surely try to eliminate me.
Thus, I only had one choice available to me.
“This time, I strike first.”
A preemptive strike.
Right now, while they think I’m nothing and don’t even pay me any mind.
I had to crouch as low as possible and grow stronger, only revealing myself when hiding was no longer possible—when they could no longer touch me carelessly.
“And if I can take that bastard down too, I will.”
And if it came to that, someday when I had grown even stronger.
I’d be able to land a hit on that guild leader bastard who had lied to my face as well.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear—right on the electronic billboard above, that damned face was showing.
—Cheonhye protects you.
A handsome man in his mid-twenties with a friendly smile like a politician on an election poster.
Guild leader of Cheonhye, Korea’s number one guild; Korea’s rank one; world rank three; the nation’s most beloved and respected person; Korea’s first and only EX-rank Hunter… A symbol of the new era adorned with nothing but glorious titles.
The man more commonly known by his epithet, “the Bard”—Nam Cheon-u.
—Korea, together with Cheonhye. Safe today as well.
Looking at that hypocritical face, I felt my blood pressure spike instantly.
“I’m definitely going to take that bastard down.”
The wall between him and me was immense, but I didn’t think it was impossible to overcome.
If I climbed even an inch at a time, even a cliff had an end.
.
.
.
After a suitable rest, I opened the map to find the next dungeon.
Because dungeons occurred in proportion to the population, Seoul was basically dotted with them at intervals you could see just by turning your head.
I applied a filter to show only F-rank ones and found a suitable spot.
“This one’s the closest.”
A red dot nearby.
But when I checked the dungeon information, there was some good news this time.
[F-rank Dungeon / High-grade / Jung-gu]
The “high-grade” marker attached after the rank info.
“Oh, a high-grade gate.”
Just as gaps occurred between Hunters of the same rank based on experience or Unique Abilities, dungeons with the same displayed letter weren’t all exactly the same level either.
Even among F-rank dungeons, there was a clear difference in difficulty and rewards between high-grade and low-grade ones.
Of course, since they were grouped under the same F-rank, it wasn’t a huge difference, but it was definitely noticeable.
But to me, they were all similar.
“It’s not like I’ll be fighting, so it doesn’t matter.”
I was just dodging anyway, and the curse handled all the attacking.
In that sense, if I was going to run a dungeon anyway, it was far more profitable to do a high-grade one that gave more experience.
The price was a bit higher, but the total experience was similar when calculated, so it was better in terms of saving time.
“I wonder if the extraction rate goes up in high-grade ones too.”
I hadn’t tried it, so I didn’t know, but I had a feeling it might.
[Payment of 500,000 won complete.]
[Dungeon reserved.]
[Failure to reach the vicinity with the designated device within 1 hour will result in cancellation and only a partial refund.]
I reserved the dungeon and immediately headed toward it.
.
.
.
This dungeon had appeared on Namsan.
It was a mountain bare of leaves and subtly dusted with snow, befitting January, so the conspicuous red vortex stood out and was easy to spot even from quite far off the path.
“Phew… Let’s go.”
I caught my slightly ragged breath from running and entered right away.
As always, the moment I stuck my head in, my vision warped like a stone-skipped water surface, and soon a cave filled with the musty smell typical of F-rank dungeons appeared.
And the brief guide message that popped up.
[F-rank Dungeon: Ddangddang Spider’s Cave]
—Slay the leader at the end of the cave.
I looked at it and briefly recalled the monster’s information.
Ddangddang Spider.
As its name implied, with “ground” repeated twice, it was a monster that moved sticking close to the ground.
Its characteristics were an armored carapace despite being called a spider, and very short legs.
Thus, its mobility was low, but its physical defense and close-quarters attack power were high.
In short, to me it was nothing but a sandbag.
“Easy enough.”
This time, it seemed I could clear the dungeon especially comfortably.
“But… where is everything?”
However, contrary to such optimistic expectations, there was nothing to be seen in the dungeon.
I walked a bit deeper, but it was the same.
By now, the monsters that should have appeared hadn’t shown themselves at all.
“Ah… don’t tell me it’s an empty dungeon.”
An empty dungeon where only the exit existed in the boss room.
I had heard such cases occurred from time to time.
“And here I was getting my hopes up.”
I had been a little excited at the thought of an easy ride, having luckily found a high-grade dungeon with a favorable matchup, so it was rather disappointing.
“I should get out quickly and find another one.”
I walked straight to the boss room to escape.
Though it was an empty dungeon, it had all the proper fixtures, including an ornate gate with elaborate patterns at the end of the cave.
I opened it immediately.
But what lay beyond the door wasn’t the green exit I had expected—it was the boss monster.
[Entering the boss room!]
[The Ddangddang Spider leader is hostile to you!]
However, it wasn’t alone.
The boss was heavily injured, on the verge of death, discarded in one corner, and some men were facing off across several fallen corpses.
Masked men on one side, unmasked on the other.
At a glance, the unmasked side was at a disadvantage; that was the situation.
The men pointing weapons at each other all turned their gazes toward me upon my entrance.
“…….”
An unexpected situation.
I racked my brain as fast as I could.
‘I definitely made a reservation… right?’
I clearly remembered receiving the reservation confirmation alert.
If so, there were two variables I could think of.
One: the dungeon reservation server had malfunctioned.
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
But the probability of that was near zero.
It had taken over thirty minutes to get here; it was impossible that it hadn’t been corrected in that time.
Then the identity of these guys was…
‘Trespassers.’
It wasn’t particularly strange.
Since even F-rank dungeons cost several hundred thousand won per use, trespassers appeared fairly often.
Especially in the lower-rank brackets where clear times were fast and collisions were rare.
However, seeing two groups openly fighting like this, it seemed there was more to it this time… but there was no need to deduce that far.
Before I could even finish thinking, one of the unmasked men shouted loudly.
“You came alone… Y-you’re E-rank, right! H-help us! These bastards are Black Hunters!”
Black Hunters.
It wasn’t the name of a specific organization, but a term for Hunters who committed, and continued to commit, violent crimes.
“So they’re E-rank?”
Except in very special cases, Hunters could not enter a dungeon if they were more than two ranks above it.
So I had heard that Black Hunters invaded dungeons exactly one rank lower to avoid meeting higher-ranked Hunters and operate safely.
“You know your stuff. So what are you going to do?”
In other words, those masked bastards were probably all E-rank.
With different ranks, each of them was far stronger than me.
On the other hand, the losing side… from what I could see, with some dead and others wounded, they were all F-rank.
Completely outmatched.
There was nothing I could solve by stepping into this situation.
“What do you mean, what am I going to do.”
Above all, I was an upstanding citizen.
“Obviously, I’m on this side.”
I swore allegiance to the strong, not the just.
I strode proudly to stand right in the middle of the masked Black Hunters.
“Wh-what…!”
“I have to survive too. And anyway, you guys are trespassers too.”
“Th-they’re murderers!”
“One crime or another, a crime’s a crime.”
“Wh-what kind of nonsense…!”
“Enough. Just accept it.”
Thanks to that, the expressions of the men who were now even more thoroughly outmatched hardened completely, and the Black Hunters smiled happily, looking pleased.
“Puhahaha! This kid knows how the world works!”
“Yeah, that’s how you survive in this world! The young punk learned well!”
“Then let’s wrap this up.”
However, that didn’t last very long.
“Hm? What?”
“What’s with the noise all of a sudden?”
The Black Hunters approaching them suddenly reacted and tilted their heads.
From the way they furrowed their brows and stared into empty space, they seemed to be seeing somewhat unfamiliar messages.
“K-kck…!”
“Urk… wh-what’s… th…”
Then, they suddenly clutched their hearts and made wheezing sounds.
And soon they knelt, touching the ground and gasping.
“About six or seven seconds to get to this point….”
But I was different.
“So this is how it works on E-ranks. Does it work even better on people?”
Instead, I read a completely different message from what they must have seen.
[Deactivating [F-rank Curse-Catching Talisman—Tehimata].]
[[Depletion], a very powerful curse attacks you!]
[Removes your life force and special resources.]
[Curse immunity.]
[[Depletion], a very powerful curse failed to achieve its target.]
[[Depletion], a very powerful curse is wandering around the designated target.]
Standing perfectly fine while the fallen Black Hunters around me looked up.
“Y-you, that color….”
“F-fuck… what the h-hell….”
Seeing them start cursing immediately, they had finally caught on.
Feeling wronged, were they?
But it was far too late now.
“Bros, I learned something important today after going through a lot.”
I kindly sneered at the men showing signs of impending death.
“You don’t trust people so easily.”
And around the time they could no longer see my face, a warning message rang out.
[The curse, [Depletion], has harmed a target similar to the designated target!]
[F-rank curse, [Depletion], grows into an E-rank curse!]