My Skill Book My Way - Chapter 36
Chapter 36
On a certain day, while spending my time off from quests and raids blowing through the money I'd saved on wish-fulfillment and stress relief, Seono said he had something to tell me.
"Why? Did you need something?"
"No, it's not that……."
Seono hesitated, fumbling over his words, then spoke in a cautious tone.
"Hyung, I want to work at the workshop."
"The workshop? You mean the Atlas Guild's workshop?"
Seono nodded.
"Grandfather said if I'm going to learn the trade at the workshop, I should get your permission first……."
"I see."
I fell into thought.
'He'd been going to the guild workshop and helping the owner out for a while now……. Certainly, Seono's [Dexterity] skill suits this kind of work better than fighting monsters.'
But I had to make sure Seono truly wanted to work at the workshop.
Right now, I had a Smelting skill. Even without a skill, if Seono raised his stats, he should be able to handle the kind of work a B-rank Hunter did.
"Seono. If it became possible for you to grow strong enough to fight monsters, would you still choose the workshop?"
Seono's eyes wavered.
"If I could get stronger?"
"Yeah."
A troubled look came over Seono's face.
"For instance, if your stats suddenly shot up, and you gained skills that could be used for attack or defense instead of just [Dexterity], becoming strong enough to fight monsters and win."
I looked straight into Seono's eyes and said.
"Would you still work at the workshop even then?"
A few months ago, I had been a D-rank Hunter with nothing but a single non-combat skill called [Record].
Unable to bear the thought of falling further, I barely scraped by on the first floor of dungeons by hunting weak monsters and selling the materials they dropped.
'If only I had an offensive skill like everyone else, I wouldn't have lived this kind of life.' I couldn't count how many times I had thought that.
That was why I wanted to know Seono's true feelings.
Because I now had a way to make Seono strong.
Seono, who had been lost in thought, slowly opened his mouth.
"I think listening to Grandfather's stories at the workshop, or making things, is more fun than going into dungeons and fighting monsters."
"Is that so. Understood."
I got up from my chair and patted Seono's head.
"Let's go to the workshop together tomorrow."
"Yes!"
Seono answered energetically and broke into a grin.
The next day, I took Seono to the workshop near the guild.
When I greeted the workshop owner and asked him to take good care of Seono, he nodded.
"Very well. If that's what his guardian wishes, wonderful. Seono has a talent for this line of work, even without the [Dexterity] skill."
"Is that so?"
"If he studies hard, he'll become a fine artisan. Hunters are much better suited for handling monster materials than ordinary folk, after all. Quite a few artisans are former Hunters."
Having seen the workshop owner effortlessly lift an axe made of monster materials before, I wanted to ask if he might also be a former Hunter.
Though judging by the heat-resistant suit he wore when melting materials in the blast furnace, he probably wasn't.
"Now then, since we've finished talking about Seono……. Hwajin, there's something I'd like to ask of you."
"A request?"
The moment I heard those words, the memory of sweating profusely while helping forge equipment came rushing back, and I broke out in a cold sweat.
Fortunately(?), the workshop owner's request wasn't to help with equipment production.
"There are a few items I'd like you to get for me."
"Items?"
The workshop owner nodded.
"There's something called a Flame Stone used in the blast furnace to melt monster materials. You've seen it before, right?"
I nodded. I had seen it firsthand while helping the workshop owner not long ago.
"And another is an axe called the Hongyeombu. A dungeon boss drops it, and I want to melt it down to make new equipment."
"Understood. Leave it to me."
I readily accepted.
It was a chance to repay the debt for the free equipment I'd received before taking the S-rank exam.
***
The ajusshi and Hyeri, who had received equipment with me, had also decided to go to the dungeon together.
"What kind of place is that 6-star dungeon?"
As we headed to the dungeon by taxi, the ajusshi asked from the back seat.
"As you'd expect from a place where Flame Stones appear, it's extremely hot," Hyeri answered. "It's so hot that your HP drops by 3 every minute."
"Really!?"
The ajusshi shouted in surprise.
Hyeri continued the explanation.
She said the dungeon's nickname was "Scorching Hell," named after one of the Buddhist hells.
"A dungeon that deals damage just from being inside it. How terrible."
"We don't need to worry," I said, turning around from the passenger seat. "Because I have a Fire Resistance skill."
"Right, you do. Thank goodness for that."
The ajusshi let out a hearty laugh.
The Scorching Hell dungeon was located in a place that had been ruined by a previous Overflow.
High-rank dungeons frequently become uninhabited areas when an Overflow occurs because the damage is catastrophic.
The roads had all been destroyed by monsters and were impossible to repair, so there was a limit to how far the taxi could approach.
We got out as close to the dungeon as possible and started walking.
"But isn't this too hot even for summer?"
The ajusshi said, wiping sweat.
It certainly was strangely hot.
It wasn't the sensation of harsh sunlight or sweltering humidity, but rather a feeling of heat radiating directly from the ground.
The mystery of the heat was solved before long.
"What the hell is this?"
The ajusshi muttered.
Before our eyes spread red ponds bubbling and boiling. An immense heat radiated from the pools dotting the area.
"Why are the lava ponds of the Scorching Hell dungeon in our world……?"
Hyeri made an expression of disbelief.
I took out my staff and cast Fire Resistance on all of us. The heat, which had been intense enough to be painful, was no longer noticeable.
"Let's get to the dungeon's portal first."
As we walked between the lava ponds, I sensed a strange presence up ahead.
The ponds boiled violently, and fireballs shot up into the air. The fireballs that had soared upward fell to the ground and sprouted arms and legs.
'Monsters!'
I pulled Jain's axe-spear from my inventory. The ajusshi and Hyeri also drew their weapons and prepared for battle.
"They're fire goblins. They shoot flames, so be careful."
I attacked the monsters with the electric current of [Lightning Spear]. The flames wreathing the monsters swept by the golden current died down.
The ajusshi finished off the paralyzed monsters with his axe.
The fire goblins were rather weak for monsters of a 6-star dungeon.
"I think an Overflow has occurred."
After annihilating the monsters that had leaped from the ponds, I said to the two of them.
"But this is the first time I've seen a case like this. Overflows are when dungeon monsters come outside, but this is as if the world inside the dungeon is overlapping with our world……. I have a bad feeling about this."
Hyeri said, looking at the lava ponds.
"What should we do? Go a bit further, or turn back?"
At the ajusshi's question, I fell into thought for a moment.
I had promised the workshop owner I'd get him Flame Stones and the Hongyeombu, so returning empty-handed would be difficult.
And the fact that it was an Overflow of a type I'd never seen before piqued my interest.
'If it really gets dangerous, we can just run.'
[A new objective has been assigned.]
A voice rang out at that moment.
I summoned my book and checked the objective-setting page.
--------------------
- Objective Setting -
[Sub] Investigation
- Investigate the Overflow of the Scorching Hell dungeon.
--------------------
'For some reason, it seems like objectives keep getting assigned regarding Overflow incidents.'
I dispelled the book from my hand.
"I'd like to go a bit further. Even if the boss drop item, the Hongyeombu, is too much, I think we should at least gather some Flame Stones."
"Yeah. I think so too. We have to pay back the workshop master."
"I agree."
Hearing the ajusshi and Hyeri's answers, I took the lead.
Defeating the monsters that occasionally appeared from the lava ponds and collecting the rarely dropped Flame Stones, we advanced.
"Wait a moment."
I, who had been walking in front, reached back with my hand.
'What is that?'
On an island surrounded by crimson lava ponds, there was a portal.
Near the portal was a watchtower that also served as an entrance checkpoint, mostly burned away, and right beside it were charred corpses.
"Damn."
The ajusshi let out a groan-like sound.
"Could those bodies…… be the soldiers who were monitoring the dungeon?"
"They probably are."
Just then, monsters poured out of the portal in droves. I quickly hid us with [Perfect Invisibility].
Among the monsters was one noticeably larger than the rest.
It was a beastman-type monster with flames rising from various parts of its body and large horns growing from its head—the head of a bull and the body of a human.
In its hand was an axe made of bright red metal.
'The Hongyeombu. So that's the boss.'
The monsters went into the nearby lava ponds.
"It'll be troublesome if they all attack at once. Too bad, but let's head back."
The moment I said that to the two of them, a nearby pond began to boil.
'No. Surely not…….'
The ominous premonition proved true.
A massive monster leaped out of the lava pond. It was the boss.
"Rakutum!"
The boss roared and began charging toward us alone.
It was moving at such a considerable speed that it reminded me of [Charge] from before my Strength stat had increased.
'Damn it.'
[Perfect Invisibility] doesn't work on those with a Sense stat of 18 or higher.
'So even in a 6-star dungeon, a boss is a boss, huh.'
At that speed, maybe the ajusshi with his high Strength could get away, but Hyeri wouldn't be able to run.
In this situation, I had to finish things as quickly as possible and get out.
I immediately sprang up and ran.
"Hwajin!?"
The ajusshi shouted, but I didn't have the luxury to look back.
'[Drop Enhancement]!'
When I used the skill, two types of magic stones and the Hongyeombu came to mind.
I chose the Hongyeombu, then put away my staff and drew my spear.
And while running, I calculated the distance to the boss.
'[Lightning Spear]!'
The moment it entered my range, I immediately used a [Charge] and [Single Flash] combo.
Boom!
The sensation transmitted through the spear was different from usual.
Looking back, the boss stood there having lost one arm.
'It dodged a fatal blow at the last instant.'
Its high Sense seemed to give it outstanding crisis perception.
I used my bracelet to charge my mana to full, then swung [Single Flash] once more.
Boom!
This time, the spear delivered a solid feeling.
[You have acquired 850 Exp.]
Thanks to having used [Drop Enhancement], the Hongyeombu remained where the boss's body had disappeared.
I quickly put the Hongyeombu in my inventory and tried to return to where the two were.
Bang!
Turning around at the sudden loud noise, I saw monsters identical to the boss I had just defeated emerging from the lava ponds everywhere.
Moreover, Elites poured out all at once, and in an instant, the area around the island with the portal was filled with monsters.
There were fifteen bosses, and too many Elites to count.
But that wasn't the end.
"Hwajin! The portal is strange!"
At Hyeri's shout, I looked at the portal.
The color of the portal leading to the dungeon had changed to purple.
It gave me nothing but a bad feeling.
Sure enough, the portal expanded enormously, and a monster began to emerge.
"A fire dragon……."
Hyeri muttered.
What emerged from the portal was a massive, elongated dragon covered in red flames.
The fire dragon was even larger than the Mad Armadillo and the Giant Golem.
I put on my monocle and looked at the fire dragon.
It was radiating a red aura more intense than any monster I had seen before.
I forcibly shook off my dizzying dread and shouted.
"Hyeri, excuse me for a moment!"
"Huh? Ah!"
I hoisted Hyeri over my shoulder.
"Ajusshi! Run at full speed!"
"A-alright!"
The ajusshi and I ran back the way we came.
[Nart]
From behind, a sound like the atmosphere churning violently rang out.
"Ugh!"
I came to a sudden halt.
"Damn it all."
The ajusshi also stopped and cursed.
The lava ponds surrounding the path we had taken were merging at a terrifying speed.
The lava moved as if it were alive, and we found ourselves trapped on a small island.
Turning around, I saw the fire dragon hovering in the air, looking down at us.
'Could that be the fire dragon's doing?'
The lava ponds gradually swallowed the island, reducing the ground we could stand on.
"We're in big trouble."
I could see beads of sweat trickling down the ajusshi's face.
"What do we do, Hwajin?"
"……It's do or die. Both of you, hold onto me tight."
I put my weapon into my inventory and wrapped my arms around their waists.
They both grabbed hold of my body.
"[Earth Shrink]!"
The moment I shouted the skill, my surroundings blurred.