Chapter 10
It looked as if someone had inserted CG effects or special effects into reality.
“Wow……”
The mage momentarily lost himself in admiration.
If this weren’t such a serious situation, I might have admired this scenery too.
Flowers bloomed in every direction around me.
Not only the ground, but even the ceiling was covered with shining flowers of various colours.
It felt as if the cave itself had been transformed into a flower garden.
“My wounds……”
Of course, flowers weren’t the only ability of this skill.
The melee dealer’s deep wounds completely recovered, and even the large and small injuries on the tank and leader disappeared without a trace.
And unexpectedly, there was one more ally affected by this skill.
“The plants are holding down all the skeletons and the Dullahan. Leader, let’s finish this while we can!”
Every time the plants were torn apart or cut, they regenerated and continued wrapping around the bodies of the Dullahan and skeletons.
The party members, who were much faster at judging situations than me, immediately moved.
“Flames, rise!”
The mage, who had barely recovered enough mana, created fire.
The leader swung his broken shield and attacked the back of the Dullahan’s knee, disrupting its posture.
The tank also struck the Dullahan’s upper body with his gauntlet-covered fist, completely knocking it down.
The final blow belonged to the melee dealer.
He shook off my hand and jumped toward the Dullahan.
He pulled out the spare sword hanging from his waist and stabbed the core inside the empty armour of the Dullahan.
Ding—
Then the same notification sound rang in all of our ears.
[The surprise boss of ‘Shadow Dungeon’ has been defeated.]
[Restoring dungeon normalisation.]
[Normalisation progress: 2%]
[Calculating dungeon rewards.]
[Your contribution ranking is 1st place.]
Notifications poured out and covered my vision.
Fortunately, my eyesight didn’t matter anymore, so I dropped down and collapsed onto the ground.
“It’s over…… right?”
“Yes, it is. Now we just need to leave through the exit.”
The leader approached me and held out his hand.
I awkwardly smiled and grabbed his hand.
“By the way, your hair colour is really flashy. Silver hair?”
Oh, damn. I almost slapped his hand away.
The leader took out the items obtained from the dungeon and looked troubled.
“The rewards aren’t very good considering what we went through.”
Everyone nodded as if they already knew.
Actually, I could understand why our rewards were small.
‘It feels like the skeletons and Wraiths defeated more monsters than we did.’
We only defeated a few monsters we encountered.
But the skeletons, Wraiths, and Dullahan had slaughtered the Shadow Cats and Shadow Bats like an army.
So there was no way our rewards would be plentiful.
I swallowed my sigh and decided to be satisfied that we survived.
The others probably felt the same.
“Let’s organize the rewards first.”
The first reward was magic stones.
“These are magic stones from Shadow Cats and Shadow Bats. They are D-rank and C-rank respectively. There are ten and seven.”
“There are also skeleton bones, leader. Since they can be used for curse magic, I think they’re probably materials for magic users. There are thirteen.”
And the final reward was a sword.
The sword that the Dullahan had wielded.
“This name is really simple. It’s called ‘Sword Dropped by a Knight’. It’s B-rank, and it increases attack power by 100% when fighting undead.”
I pulled the sword that had been set aside toward me.
The party members’ eyes widened when they heard the effect.
Even though it only applied against undead, an increase of 100% attack power was impressive.
“We should distribute this……”
The leader seemed to think for a moment, then handed the sword directly to me.
“I think it’s right for the healer to take this sword. Without the healer, we would have been wiped out.”
Was it really okay to give a sword to a healer like me?
When I looked around awkwardly, everyone else nodded as if they had no objections.
“Uh, really? Me? But the person whose sword broke……”
“When someone saved our lives, what does a sword matter? I’ll just buy a new sword.”
The melee dealer smiled and waved his hand.
The mage and tank turned their gazes away as if they had no interest in the sword.
“Everyone can take two D-rank magic stones, and for the C-rank magic stones, everyone takes one. The remaining two……”
Would I have to take them again?
I quickly raised my hand.
“Wouldn’t it be better if the people whose weapons were damaged took them?”
“Then the tank and melee dealer should take them.”
The leader handed over the magic stones, and the two accepted them without complaint.
I worried whether it was really okay for someone acting as the leader to give away everything without taking anything, but since nobody said anything, I stayed quiet too.
“The skeleton bones should also be distributed two each, and the remaining three should go to the mage. They’re magic materials, so while we would just sell them, the mage can actually use them.”
“Ah, thank you.”
The mage also took the five bones given to him.
They were only D-rank materials, but he seemed quite pleased as he carefully placed them into his belongings.
“This dungeon clear is complete. The saturation rate has also decreased.”
We looked up and checked the saturation rate displayed above the dungeon entrance.
[Dungeon Saturation]
12%
Rather than us solving it, it seemed more like the undead had killed the monsters, but since the saturation rate had decreased, it was still a good ending.
The leader shook his messy hair and muttered in an exhausted voice.
“Let’s disband now.”
I held the rewards given to me and scratched my head.
There was still something I wanted to ask, so I carefully raised my hand.
The leader immediately noticed me and kindly gave me a chance to speak.
“Healer? Do you have something to say?”
“Since everyone already knows I’m a beginner, I wanted to ask……”
I awkwardly lowered my hand and spoke.
“Um…… this item. I don’t think I’ll use it, so I was wondering if there’s some way to deal with it.”
And at that moment, silence filled the party.
At the edge of my vision, the synchronization rate flashed randomly.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
20%
It was obvious that it had been a stupid question.
I put on one of the strongest social skills I had: a thick skin.
They couldn’t spit on a smiling face.
‘They can still think I’m an idiot, though.’
On a beach shining under bright sunlight, someone was looking at a phone.
The internet didn’t work, but he could still look through previous conversations.
Inside his eyes, a golden light resembling lightning flickered.
Crunch.
Someone grabbed his ankle.
With an emotionless expression, he stopped looking at the chat window and looked down.
A person pierced by a metal stake struggled and questioned him.
“Suppor…… support……”
He casually brushed away the person’s hand.
“Lies aren’t something only you people tell.”
He stepped on the contract item lying on the ground and twisted it.
The item called the ‘Book of Oath’ slowly tore apart beneath his foot.
The words written on it, no different from a slave contract, scattered away.
“This always has the same contents.”
Human trafficking targeting people with special skills was always common.
No matter how many times he crushed them, they never seemed to disappear.
“This time too, and last time too……”
He muttered to himself, then suddenly became surprised and touched his own lips.
The flickering golden eyes briefly became clear black.
“What did I just say?”
Soon, he picked up the phone again and checked the chat room.
Ah, yes. I didn’t know beginners weren’t allowed. Sorry. Goodbye.
A reply filled with irritation.
Yet strangely, he kept staring at it.
Why did I enter this chat room?
Why did I remove this person from here?
Realising he had shown inexplicable kindness toward someone he had never even spoken to, his head began to ache.
He slowly searched through his memories.
Awakening his ability and checking his skill……
‘Why did I install the app? Why didn’t I go to the association first…… why?’
The memories existed, but they weren’t clear.
Although he remembered what happened, he couldn’t clearly recall the thoughts and emotions he had at the time.
He held his forehead with one hand and groaned softly.
A fallen hunter took advantage of his confusion.
The hunter carefully stood up and quickly began running away across the beach.
The man instinctively stretched out his hand.
His eyes, now glowing yellow again, shimmered with hostility.
“This time too…… you people shouldn’t meet that person.”
He moved his fingers slightly.
The sand on the beach rose all at once and dragged the person deep inside.
“AAAAAH……!”
The scream was short.
The remaining people also slowly sank into the sand one by one.
The yellow flickering eyes finally settled back into black.
Then an error message flashed above the skill window.
[Skill]
―■■ Manipulation―
The skill that clearly existed began cracking.
[Skill]
■■ Manipulation
Currently unavailable.
―Metal Manipulation―
Can manipulate metal.
Proficiency is determined by understanding and familiarity with the material.
