🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 10
“AAAAH!”
My legs lifted off the ground. I flailed around, letting out another strange scream.
“Calm down. You’re safe.”
“…I’m not a child. I’m fine.”
“My mother was afraid of insects. She used to say that age had nothing to do with being afraid of something.”
Seeing how hard he was trying to speak as gently as possible, I gradually became embarrassed.
And then I became sad.
Ruizel was a good kid.
So much so that I wondered if the Ruizel I remembered from before my regression had simply been a misunderstanding on my part.
How had Ruizel ended up becoming like that?
Could he have had some enormous penalty like my fate of Unavoidable Misfortune?
I was quietly staring at Ruizel’s back and thinking about this when—
[The skill <King’s Eye> has been activated by fulfilling the conditions.]
[The skill <King’s Eye> is being used.]
[Accessing the user information of ‘Ruizel Tritan’.]
―――
Name: Ruizel Tritan
Lineage/Class: Transcendent/Swordmaster (Hidden) (Unique) (Mythic)
Class Skills: [Selflessness], [Azure Sky Sword Thunder] (Inactive), [Shadow Sword Blossom] (Inactive)
Bound Skill: [Dragon Vein]
- Auxiliary Skill: [Abyssal Secret Art]
Grade: Mythic
Titles: Last Guardian, Candidate for the King’s Knight
Strength: Legendary (1582)
Agility: Legendary (3319)
Vitality: Legendary (966/2982)
Mana: Legendary (943/2731)
Karma: 7810
He is a Candidate for the King’s Knight. You can view all of the status information visible to ‘Ruizel Tritan’.
―――
What was this…?!
When my body jerked, Ruizel held me more firmly and patted my back.
He had no idea that I was secretly looking through his user information.
Naturally, a hunter’s user information could normally only be viewed by the hunter themselves.
If other people could see something as important and confidential as a hunter’s user information, there would have been absolute chaos.
This had to be an incredibly rare skill.
If someone else had possessed something like this, the Empire wouldn’t have needed to torture and interrogate me so thoroughly back then.
Just thinking about that torture made my head throb and my body tremble.
I calmly controlled my breathing and opened my own status window, which I hadn’t been able to properly examine earlier.
―――
Name: Harmonia Ju Elorang
Lineage/Class: Chosen/King (Hidden) (Unique) (Mythic)
Class Skills: [King’s Eye], [King’s Sanctuary] (Inactive), [King’s Knight] (Inactive)
Bound Skill: [Harmonia’s Necklace]
- Auxiliary Skill: [Five-Color Candy]
Grade: Mythic
Title: Young King of Elorang
Strength: Normal (1)
Agility: Normal (5)
Vitality: Normal (1/4)
Mana: Legendary (205/3282)
Karma: 0
Your proficiency is insufficient! Some parts of the skill are locked/hidden.
―――
The previously inactive [King’s Eye] skill had now changed to active.
First, I checked the skill’s detailed description.
[King’s Eye: A unique class skill of the Chosen King. Your eyesight improves. You can see more. As a king, you can view the status information of members of your own kind. The more someone is a King’s Knight, loyal to the king, or favorably disposed toward the king, the more information you can see.]
Activating a skill required some kind of realization.
[King’s Eye] had activated when I looked at Ruizel with genuine curiosity about him.
Could I have activated this skill because of Ruizel’s title, Candidate for the King’s Knight?
If so, what exactly was [King’s Knight]?
Since inactive skills couldn’t have their detailed descriptions checked, I couldn’t learn anything more about it.
I could only guess that it might also be related to Ruizel.
There was no doubt that Ruizel was my benefactor.
After all, I had immediately gained access to a class skill that was normally much more difficult to activate than a bound skill.
I looked at him with satisfaction for a moment and patted his shoulder.
“Thank you, Ruizel.”
You really are a lucky charm!
“Whatever.”
Because I was wearing rose-colored glasses, even his curt tone sounded adorable.
I chuckled and slipped out of his arms, standing upright.
By then, the trembling in my body had subsided as well.
“By the way, how do we get out of here?”
We were standing on a small patch of land.
Dark fog surrounded us on all sides, making it look like an island enveloped by mist.
The area was so small that perhaps ten adults could barely lie down on it, yet the ground was covered in lush green grass.
[You have conquered the final floor of the hidden dungeon.]
[You have fulfilled the clear conditions of the hidden dungeon.]
[Hidden Dungeon Cleared!]
The System recognized conquering the final floor as clearing the dungeon.
[The System is calculating the achievements and contribution accumulated throughout the dungeon conquest.]
[You have conquered a dungeon whose difficulty has been drastically! Drastically! Drastically! Drastically! reduced!]
[The System has already awarded part of the dungeon conquest rewards.]
[The remaining rewards will be compensated in Karma.]
―――
1st: Harmonia Ju Elorang (77,000 Karma)
2nd: Ruizel Tritan (33,000 Karma)
―――
The System calculated our achievements up to the hidden dungeon clear at 110,000 Karma.
If we had cleared a Mythic-grade hidden dungeon and received only 110,000 Karma, it would have been incredibly stingy.
But the dungeon’s difficulty had been reduced so much that it could hardly be called Mythic-grade anymore, and the System had also said that part of the rewards had already been distributed.
‘Were the skills I obtained the reward? Or was it the key?’
The System was generally quite fair.
The value of 110,000 Karma must have been calculated precisely.
A single Normal-grade dungeon was known to provide around 1,000–5,000 Karma.
Hero-grade dungeons provided around 100,000 Karma, while Legendary-grade dungeons provided around 10 million Karma.
Of course, those figures represented the total Karma.
The rewards were distributed according to the number of members in the conquest party and their individual contributions, so one person couldn’t simply receive the entire amount.
Every time the grade increased by one level, there was roughly a hundredfold difference.
That meant the gap between each grade was so enormous that it was practically impossible to overcome through ordinary means.
Considering that the System had calculated our dungeon reward as 110,000 Karma, it meant that what we had earned through our own strength was roughly equivalent to a Hero-grade conquest.
Perhaps lowering the difficulty of a Mythic-grade dungeon to around Hero-grade was itself part of the System’s reward.
I could accept the value of 110,000 Karma.
Considering that only two people had conquered it in less than a day, it was actually quite generous.
It seemed that the fact that we had been the first to discover the hidden dungeon, as well as everything we had gone through to find it, had been taken into consideration.
Still, it was surprising that my contribution was higher.
Was it because I had been the only one to experience the trial on the 99th floor?
It was pathetic that despite possessing a Mythic-grade bound skill, I had almost given up, even if only for a moment, because I couldn’t overcome something like that.
I wondered whether Ruizel would be dissatisfied because he knew nothing about the trial on the final floor.
But his expression didn’t show anything like that.
“33,000 Karma…?”
His face was flushed like a child who had just received an enormous gift, and his gaze remained fixed on the air in front of him.
His eyes trembled as he reread the number several times, repeatedly lingering on the same spot.
I was a king, after all, so there were certain things about the world that I was ignorant of.
I knew that earning Karma was difficult, but because I had almost no dungeon experience, I found it hard to truly understand how valuable it was.
Ruizel, on the other hand, already possessed more than 7,000 Karma.
It seemed that he had dungeon experience despite his young age.
“Open Karma Shop.”
Ruizel stared at the System window for a long time and only opened the shop after the window disappeared.
I was slightly surprised to see him open the shop in front of me after pretending to be so cautious.
Unlike user information, the Karma Shop could be viewed by other people, allowing them to see what someone was purchasing.
Furthermore, depending on the shop’s level, it was possible to estimate the other person’s financial situation in terms of Karma and the general extent of their abilities.
Karma could only be used by its owner, but it wasn’t an item.
Some raiders even forced their opponents to open their shops before killing them, making them purchase whatever items they wanted.
For various reasons, opening one’s shop in front of someone else was something people generally avoided unless they were extremely close companions.
It was also a sign of trust that he was allowing me to see his shop.
“Raise the shop level to 3.”
[10,000 Karma will be consumed to raise ‘Ruizel Tritan’s’ Karma Shop from Level 2 to Level 3.]
Without hesitation, Ruizel spent 10,000 Karma.
Then he spent another 3,000 points.
What he bought was a Low-Grade Healing Potion.
‘He’s buying a potion now?’
The wounds Ruizel had suffered while fighting the Dragon Soldiers had all been healed by my skill, so he looked perfectly fine.
I was staring at him in confusion when he suddenly held the potion out to me.
“……?”
Why was he showing me the potion?
When I merely tilted my head, he spoke with his ears turning red.
“Use this to heal… Your wrists… I’m sorry…”
“……”
I was rendered speechless, my mouth falling open.
My lips remained parted as my breathing gradually became heavier.
What a waste! Why would you do that?! Did you forget that I have a healing skill?
I wanted to shout that at him, but I was so dumbfounded that no words came out.
“You’re out of mana. You won’t be able to use that skill for a while.”
Huh?
Out of mana?
When I merely stared at him with wide eyes, Ruizel narrowed his eyes as if wondering how I could not know even that.
“Check your status window. Your mana should have fallen below 10%.”
He was right.
I had barely more than 6% of my mana remaining.
