Chapter 23. Fall’s New Students (5)

Because it was the first time I saw a monster outside of the dungeon, I tensed up for a second. But because the monster looked exactly like a pigeon, I relaxed. Of course, I knew better than to let my guard down around a monster, regardless of its looks.

As I made this mental note, my body shook. I thought I had received a KaTalk, but it turned out Su Ye-Eun was shaking like a vibrating cellphone.

“M-Monster.”

“... Oy? Ability user, oy.”

“S-S-S-Scary.”

“Aren’t you an ability user?”

“I-I c-can’t do a-anything with my a-ability.”

“Not with that a-a-a-attitude.”

The people nearby were already running away screaming. With that size, it probably couldn’t chase us underground. I took the frozen Su Ye-Eun by her arm and began running.

“Snap out of it! We’re running!”

“N-N-N-No, scary. W-We’re going to die.”

“Come on, what happened to the person cornering me asking me if I was an ability user!?”

Fortunately, Su Ye-Eun was light, so it was not too hard running while dragging her. However, it seemed that pigeon was coming after us. Before we could reach the underground road, the pigeon flapped its wings and landed in front of us, completely blocking the way. I clicked my tongue and began running towards the opposite direction.

“Did you plaster yourself with honey? Why is it chasing us!?”

“I-I-I don’t know! I’m scared, save me!”

“Just don’t open your mouth! Screw it, I’m holding you.”

“H-H-Holding me?”

In an instant, I lifted her legs and put her in a princess carry. Feeling that my arm had gotten lighter, I continued to run. I was much faster running while carrying her than while dragging her along.

Should I go to where lots of people are? No, that would only make it dangerous for others. Was that the only underground road entrance? No, but the others were already filled with evacuees. I couldn’t bring the pigeon there. Then do I continue running until either Guardian or Freedom Wing showed up? That would be announcing that I’m an ability user. Then...!

“Ugh, Su Ye-Eun, you’re making this so much harder for me!”

“M-M-Me? Why?”

“Stop shaking!”

I changed my direction to a deserted alleyway. Would others think of me as a hero leading the monster away from others? Or would they just think I’m a fool? When I reached the alleyway, people watching from the windows screamed and shut their windows. Looking around, I found security cameras installed nearby.

‘Not here.’ I continued running. Buildings became sparse. It seemed I was at a construction site, as building materials were stacked nearby.

‘Alright, perfect.’ It was crucial that I was in a place where no security cameras could watch me.

I glanced back. The pigeon flew past my head and landed at the construction site. I first let Su Ye-Eun down. She shouted with teary eyes, “W-Why did you come here? Why did you bring me too!?”

“Hey, Su Ye-Eun.”

“What!?”

“You better keep this a secret.”

“...?”

I picked up an iron pipe from nearby. It was 2 meters long with the ideal thickness and weight. Although it bothered me that it had a dull end, I couldn’t do anything about it now.

Seeing me pick up the iron pipe by my strength, Su Ye-Eun’s eyes opened wide.

“Y-You’re an ability user!”

“It’s a secret. Keep it.”

I held the iron pipe with both hands and glared at the pigeon. It was hard to understand why it was targeting us. Was it targeting me or Su Ye-Eun? Although I wanted to know the answer, with no way of talking to it, I could only kill it.

The pigeon began to flap its wings. Before it could fly up, I switched the iron pipe to one hand and threw it forward. White light spiraled around the entire pipe. It was my mana, one that caused other dungeon explorers to call me a Hero.

Boom!

That was it. The iron pipe penetrated the pigeon, pinning it to the wall. Mm, although its size was big, it was incredibly weak. Now I just had to get rid of all the evidence.

I checked around one more time for security cameras or anyone watching. Then, I put my hand on the bleeding carcass and stuffed it in my inventory. My inventory expanded by 10 slots each time I leveled up, so I now had 190 slots.

“So it actually goes in.”

“Kyaaaak!”

I ignored Su Ye-Eun’s scream completely and stuffed the bloodied iron pipe into my inventory. Now, I only had to clean the pigeon’s blood. As for the carcass, it would come in useful one day. For example, when father registered as an ability user, he could turn it in for money. It was the perfect crime!

“Su Ye-Eun, let’s go.”

“Y-You...”

She still seemed unable to calm down as she trembled with her mouth opened wide. I sighed and held her hand, dragging her.

“Let’s go. We’re going to get found out otherwise.”

“A-Ability user... You lied.”

“I’m not an ability user.”

I refuted her in anger. Then, with a face full of pride, I told her, “I’m a dungeon explorer.”

“... What’s that?”

Of course, I regretted it immediately. It seemed I needed to raise my intelligence stat more.

*

19th floor of the dungeon. Along with the past three floors, it was a place filled with lizardmen, humanoid lizards with hard scales.

Strangely, these guys wielded spears. Although I battled them at first thinking I could learn something from them, I soon found out they could only stab with brute strength.

However, because they attacked simultaneously in groups, their attacks were difficult to dodge. Of course, that was for ordinary dungeon explorers, not me. My training wasn’t so soft that they were a match for me.

“Shwik, attack the scraggy human!”

“He looks flavorless.”

“Mind your own business!”

With a spirited shout, I swung my Orc Lord’s Glaive and shook away the approaching spears. I then lowered my center of mass and charged straight at them. Because the lizardmen’s spears were 3 meters long, there was a huge opening once they missed their attacks.

Even now, they couldn’t take a counter offensive stance as they watched me rush towards them.

“Shwik, dodge him!”

“Too late!”

With a short curse, the glaive I struck out pierced through a lizardman’s neck. However, there was more than just one lizardman. I hastily took out the glaive and confirmed my next target.

“Avenge our brethren!”

“Shwik, avenge him!”

“They’re coming like bees.”

I imbued mana into my glaive, once again swinging and striking down their spear attacks. I tightly gripped my glaive and, in a sequence of fast and elaborate moves, pierced the necks of the lizardmen one by one. Of course, having fought the lizardmen for over a month, I knew their movement patterns in and out, making it easy.

The only problem was my mana. Because of the lizardmen’s hard leather, it was impossible to kill them in one blow without using mana. As a result, my hunting speed naturally slowed down and it took over a month to climb to the 19th floor.

Of course, when I told Ellos about it, he bitterly said, “You bugged bastard!” In truth, I wanted to encounter a real bug. Apparently, Ellos had found one on the 22nd floor and obtained a Unique-grade sword. I was dying of jealousy.

“Kuaaak! Strong human!”

“Call for reinforcement!”

“Reinforcement, called!”

“Reinforcement coming! Kruna coming!”

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

‘Hm?’

When I began to quickly dwindle their numbers, they began to spout something different. It was the first time something like this happened since I entered the dungeon.

Kruna. If I understood correctly, it did not mean reinforcement. It was a name. I had heard of it before. Normally, monsters from dungeon floors did not have names. However, it seemed a named monster appeared with an extremely low chance.

These named monsters were much stronger than normal monsters and could even use skills. In exchange, they had a low chance of dropping a rare item. Most of the time, however, it ended in disappointment.

‘A named monster on the 19th floor. Curse my luck.’

Why did it have to be a named monster and not a bug? I complained as I fixed my grip on the glaive. Although I had been repairing it at the Floor Shop, I started to want a new spear. Since all the lizardmen were carrying spears, I expected the 20th Floor Master would as well. No, I sincerely hoped so.

I leisurely hunted down the lizardmen, when suddenly, I felt a sharp presence. I backed off a little. When I laid my eyes on the presence, I was dumbfounded.

“There was a female!? Shouldn’t you be called a lizardwoman then?”

“Human, don’t stare! You, not my type!”

How did I know? For one, there was a light pink ribbon on her smooth, scaly head. Unlike the lizardmen who were carrying spears, this guy... or rather, gal, was wearing a fancy robe and carrying a wooden staff. But wait, what did she just say?

“Heroic Strike!”

“Shashak, kkueek!”

Angered by her words, I instantly imbued all my energy in my spear and threw it. It was no doubt the Heroic Strike. Without even a chance to react, Kruna screamed and perished when the spear penetrated Kruna’s abdomen.

Until now, I had to spend dozens of seconds to concentrate the energy in my body on the spear. However, I had just succeeded in activating the skill in an instant. If possible, I didn’t want it to happen this way!

[You defeated the named monster, Kruna. You obtained the reward, ‘Headband of Wisdom.]

[High-rank Spear Technique became level 4! Your insight into the Way of the Spear increases. The amount of mana required for High-rank Spear Technique decreases slightly. You can display your full strength with any spear.]

[You created the skill Heroic Strike! It concentrates the body’s energy and mana into one point and strikes out. It uses the HP and MP of the user proportional to the charging time. This skill may only be used by its creator. The skill level is adjusted to lower-rank level 7.]

[You created a skill! Heroic Strike is a skill that never existed elsewhere. Created with the most exquisite combination of energy and mana, this skill is a feat which must be passed down to future generations. You obtained 1 skill point as reward. Current skill points: 3]

“Eh...?”

Wait, what’s this? Creating a skill?

I could not understand why Heroic Strike had suddenly been systematically recognized as a ‘skill.’ Regardless, an extra skill point was always appreciated. Not to mention, becoming a skill meant that its might was guaranteed. All in all, it was nothing but good news.

At this unexpected gain, I grew excited and even forgot about the disgust I felt from Kruna. As I was about to check the skill, I finally noticed the lizardmen growling and surrounding me.

“Ah.”

“He killed Kruna!”

“Male killed pretty female!”

“Kill Human!”

“Pretty? What is? The ribbon?”

At my inquiry of sincere curiosity, the lizardmen reacted sensitively.

“Shaaaak!”

“Killed precious female! Kill male!”

“Shwik, we cut it!”

“C-Cut what? Y-You bastards! Don’t get near me!”

Taken by surprise, I couldn’t help but stutter. Only after I blew them away with Tempest did I find my calm.

“Don’t be so harsh. You wouldn’t be able to tell she’s female without the ribbon anyways!”

“Shwiik! Kill Human!”

“Human insult dead Kruna!”

“Kill Human!”

[You created the skill, ‘Provoke.’ Shouting out with a bit of mana, it draws the nearby enemies toward you. A skill suited for a warrior of noble mindset that wishes to protect his weak allies by means of self-sacrifice, it requires 10 MP per use.]

“W-What?”

Something was strange. I had not gained any new skills since Spirit Mastery, but I just created Heroic Strike and Provoke out of the blue. But was it me or was this skill description trying to make fun of me?

“Alright, fine! All of you, come at me! I’ll reach the 20th floor today!”

[You used the skill, Provoke! You draw nearby enemies toward you!]

“Die!”

“Kill Human!”

“Shwik, avenge Kruna!”

“Human meat!”

“Meat down there!”

“Down where? Where do you think you’re aiming!?”

After that, I ran around so much gathering up lizardmen that blisters formed and popped.

Killing the gathered up lizardmen with Heroic Strike was much more efficient. The downside was that I paid too big a price to find out. It seemed I needed to raise my intelligence more.