DNSG CH 11

In truth, Myojin’s instincts from her days as a ranker were boiling over. Whenever there was a monster in front of her, her playstyle had always been to charge at it before anyone else.

Back then, even if my HP dropped to zero, I would come back to life.

But this wasn’t a game anymore. If she died once, it was over.

“It’s insane. You know that, right?”

Hikari snapped at her in a low voice.

She knew.

But she couldn’t pretend not to see someone in danger.

“If we leave Uncle Jang like that, he’ll die.”

Myojin answered with a determined expression.

Hikari tightened his grip around her wrist.

“I’ll lure it away.”

“No. I’ll be the bait. You rescue Uncle Jang while I keep it occupied.”

“But……”

Hikari trailed off, biting his lip hard.

He didn’t want to send her out as bait, but he had no argument against her plan. Going down to rescue Jang, who had fallen beneath the cliff, was dangerous too.

If anything, Hikari, with his superior balance and agility, had a higher chance of succeeding if he went.

“Don’t worry. I’m slower than you, but I’m skilled enough to buy us time until the mission ends.”

She wasn’t saying it without a plan. A unique skill was already activating before her eyes.

★ Unique Skill <Unofficial Setting Guide> Activated

[Searching for the optimal escape route…….]

“I’ll come back safely. Rescue Uncle Jang and hide somewhere safe.”

With those words, Myojin turned around and jumped down the rocky mountain.

The slope continued at an angle dangerous enough to cause a terrible accident if she made even one wrong move.

But Myojin calmly and precisely found places to plant her feet and landed safely.

[Due to accumulated knowledge, dungeon information-gathering ability is amplified.]

The moment she extended her foot, a route window unfolded before her eyes.

She could clearly see which terrain was unstable and which route she needed to take to create distance, as if navigation were guiding her.

On top of that, the skills she had honed while roaming through countless dungeons remained ingrained in her instincts.

Tap! Tatadat, tap!

Her fingertips found cracks between the rocks, while her feet moved nimbly without losing their balance.

She could feel a golden gaze following her from behind.

He looks ready to jump in if anything goes wrong.

By the time she had descended to the halfway point, she clenched both fists and took a deep breath.

“Hey!! I’m over here!!”

Her voice echoed between the cliffs, striking the rocks before returning as a resounding echo.

Grrrrrrr……!

King Slime stopped moving.

Its bubbling, translucent body tilted to one side before changing direction. Its dark crimson eyes, flickering like flames, fixed themselves precisely on Myojin.

[The Slime’s target has changed.]

The aggro had shifted.

“P-Please save me. Please……!”

A desperate voice came from not far away.

Hikari had reached Jang, who was precariously hanging onto the edge of the cliff.

Good.

Now all she had to do was buy them enough time to escape to a safe place.

There were roughly three minutes remaining.

“It’s going berserk again!”

Hikari’s shout became the signal.

King Slime leaped high into the sky and landed directly in front of Myojin in an instant.

BOOM―!

The ground shook as though it were about to collapse, and cracks spread in every direction.

Myojin momentarily lost her balance and desperately grabbed onto the rock wall to steady herself.

Time Remaining Until Mission Ends: 00:01:31

The moment Myojin gritted her teeth and got back on her feet, she began sprinting at full speed.

“Uncle Jang! If you want to live, run as fast as you can!”

A tremendous roar that shook the earth came chasing after them at an incredible speed.

Boom.

Boom boom boom!

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The entire ground trembled and roared.

Myojin kept running and running until her breath rose to the back of her throat and it felt as though her lungs were tearing apart.

★ Unique Skill <Unofficial Setting Guide> Activated

[Danger of foothold erosion.]

[Detour recommended.]

[Beware of slippery terrain!]

[Danger of falling!]

Following the route indicated by the skill, Myojin narrowly managed to shake off King Slime’s pursuit.

Time Remaining Until Mission Ends

00:01:17

00:00:58

00:00:32

Her heart was pounding like crazy.

There was truly very little time left.

00:00:10

00:00:04

Boom. Boom. Boom!

……….

Then, in an instant, it was as if the world had stopped.

Every sound disappeared.

It wasn’t just the noise.

The vibrations that had been shaking the earth had vanished as well.

An alert window flashed into existence.

[King Slime’s aggro will reset once it leaves a certain range.]

Myojin’s gray eyes widened.

In that instant, she remembered a game mechanic she had temporarily forgotten.

Every monster had an activity range.

As long as someone remained within that monster’s activity range, they would draw its aggro and become its target. But the moment they left that range, the aggro would reset.

“……This is bad.”

She saw King Slime change direction.

Toward the place where Hikari and Jang were.

“No.”

In the blink of an eye, the enormous mass shot into the air.

Myojin ran toward them with every ounce of strength she had.

“Run, Hikari!!”

Time Remaining

00:00:01

KWA-AAAAANG!

A deafening explosion swallowed Myojin’s scream and reverberated throughout the rocky cliffs.

Team 3.

Apprentice Examination Complete.

Seven Days After the Apprentice Examination Ended

Rumors spread throughout the Training Center about the apprentice who had remained unconscious ever since.

“That girl from Team 3… she still hasn’t woken up?”

“How could an apprentice possibly control an S-rank combat monster? Of course she ended up unconscious.”

“Tsk. What a shame. If she’d survived, they would’ve called her an ace.”

Everyone clicked their tongues sadly at the unfortunate news.

Those who had been whispering outside the recovery room soon left one by one.

Inside the quiet recovery room, where only the steady beeping of medical equipment could occasionally be heard—

The slender fingertips of Myojin, who lay completely motionless on the bed, twitched.

“……Ugh.”

With great difficulty, she lifted her eyelids, which felt as heavy as if stones had been placed on them.

Letters appeared across the white ceiling.

📍 Second Floor of the World Tree’s Roots – Recovery Room

The sharp smell of disinfectant stung her nose.

What happened?

She searched through her fragmented memories.

The scene of chasing King Slime.

The scene of the rocky cliffs collapsing all around her.

And the cracks that had swallowed her whole…….

Like fragments of a broken film, pieces of memories flashed through her mind.

Did I pass the examination? What about Hikari and Uncle Jang?

Judging by the fact that she was still alive and breathing, she had clearly avoided elimination.

Suddenly, she felt someone watching her.

Across from her, she met the eyes of a white cat curled up in the corner of another bed.

Its faded golden eyes were unfocused.

“……Hikari?”

“I hurt you again, didn’t I?”

His muttered words sounded eerie.

Myojin struggled to sit up and leaned her back against the headboard.

From beneath the bed, dark crimson threads writhed like snakes and began crawling upward.

This is…….

They were extending from Hikari.

He was already covered in the dark crimson snakes.

Something was terribly wrong.

“I almost died. Because of me. Anyone who stays beside me will die. Everyone will die. You will too, won’t you? I almost killed you. I’ll do it again, just like back then…….”

The more he blamed himself, the larger the dark crimson snakes became.

One of the snakes bit down hard on the back of Hikari’s neck.

This wasn’t merely guilt.

ミ★ [NPC] Hikari

>>> Trauma has been activated.

Magic control ability is temporarily reduced.

Damn it.

Her ominous suspicion had been correct.

The true identity of the dark crimson snakes that had swallowed Hikari was his unstable magic leaking out.

Hikari’s magic, long and snake-like, was tangled in several places.

The magic pulsed at regular intervals, swelling as though it were about to burst at the knotted sections before subsiding again.

If something goes wrong, it’ll go completely berserk.

Magic extended like a long thread in a complex structure, and its shape differed from person to person, so it was something that should never be touched carelessly.

[Danger of death detected.]

★ Unique Skill – <Unofficial Setting Guide> Activated

[Information-gathering ability for survival has been activated.]

Countless lines of text poured before her eyes.

ミ★ [NPC] Hikari

>>> If the unstable state persists, it may lead to a second rampage…… [View More]

View More.

View More

View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More. View More.

View More.

The grotesquely distorted letters poured down like a waterfall over the dark crimson knots.

A chill ran down her spine.

“Hikari, wait……”

A pressure she hadn’t felt in a long time weighed heavily on both her shoulders.

[An abnormal status change has been detected in ‘Hikari’.]

[Status Abnormality: Shadow of Death – ACTIVATED]

※ DANGER ※

※ Warning ※

※ 危険 ※

※ きけん ※

!!!! WARNING !!!!