Chapter 9

As the effect of adrenaline rush worn off, my breathing became heavy and I feel like I was about to faint.

"What was that?"

Recalling the moment before, I felt a sharp pain in my head.

I stuck my sword to the ground to support me from collapsing.

"No, not yet"

I put my remaining strength and use"Crescent Slash"at the body of the skeleton warrior.

The wind shockwave is far weaker due to my low mana, but still has enough force to break the body into pieces.

Whooosh.

Seeing the body was blasted away into pieces, I finally felt relieved.

I did this to make sure this bastard would not revive. What if due to my carelessness this guy rearranged itself and was revived.

It happened a lot in the story, where the boss that was supposed to die revived itself and went into the second phase. If possible I would like to use fire magic to burn it into ashes, but unfortunately I could not use elemental magic.

I didn't picked up the rusty axe or salvage the corpses and just walked toward the corridor and went into the deepest part of the room.

At the end, there are 3 treasure chest, a magic crystal floating in the air and stairs leading to the 6th floor.

I let out a wry smile as I saw the crystal.

Back in the game, using the crystal will let the player to save and load the game. It can also be used to return to the dungeon entrance.

Normally, you can save or load the game whenever you want, but inside the dungeon save and load function can only be accessed after defeating the boss.

That is to say, no matter how much grinding you did, it will be pointless if you died inside the dungeon as your progress was reset to your last save point.

This is what makes this game hard to clear, you can save and load when exploring the map or reading the story, but you cannot save or load when grinding inside the dungeon unless you beat the boss.

I opened the treasure chests and felt relieved after seeing my rewards.

The left chest contains 5 high-grade healing potions and 3 high-grade mana potions.

Potions in the game are divided into 3 grades, low, medium and high. A low potion heal 150 HP, a medium potion heal 450 HP and a high potion heal 1000 HP.

There are 2 kinds of potion back in the game, recovery and buff potions. As the name suggest, recovery can recover HP or MP, and buff can raise AGI, STR and INT.

However, after coming into this world, I found a third type of potion. Enchant potion that strengthen the 5 sense. The ear-potion and the eye-potion that I used before fell into this category.

This fact let me know that the information about the game that I know about items is not absolute. For example, a healing potion can heal instantly in the game, but now it heals over time until the effect is gone.

This is why I felt relieved when I saw my rewards because it's the same from my memories, although the effect might be different.

The right chest contains a ring. My eyes shone when I saw it.

A silver ring with red crystal embedded on it.

〈Ring of Strength〉

A powerful ring that gives enermous strength to it's wearer.

STR + 15

Even without status windows, I still remembered it's description and effect just by seeing it's appearance.

Leveling up in the game gives 5 points to raise the stats freely. This means, I gained 3 levels worth of stats just by wearing this ring.

The great thing about this dungeon is the items and weapons from the treasure chests in this dungeon doesn't have level restriction, unlike the rewards from the normal dungeon and it has great rewards to ease the early stage up to the 30th floor.

The treasure chest in the middle contains a book.

〈Book : Mana Drain〉

A book containing the secret skill to steal mana.

Back in the game, the greatest reward for clearing this floor is the ring. Although the book is actually good for learning skill, but the skill is pretty much useless. "Mana Drain" is a single-target skill that let the user steal mana from the enemy.

In the game, this skill is useless because you can recover mana using mana potion. But now, this is an essential skill for me. The game is turned-based system, so the player can defeat the enemy as long as they can hold on.

However, there is no turn in a real fight. The opponent would not give me time to drink potion or recover, so I need skill that can be used to maintain my condition while fighting.

"Mana Drain"is a great skill survival skill. I can imbued my sword with mana and use "Mana Drain"to steal a part of their mana. It doesn't matter how much mana they have, as long as I can hold on and doesn't let my enemy recover I can win the fight.

Not to mention I have small mana pool, unlike Ash and Irina who was gifted with enormous mana. Even after training my magic control everyday until I exhausted my mana, I can only use"Crescent Slash"5 times before I ran out of mana. I can use it a few more times if I lower the power, but it won't be more than 10 times.

A fight is not about the strong and the weak. It's about who survive and who die. The strong is not always a winner. But the one who survive until the bitter end is the winner.

And so I decided to learn skills that helps me win instead of pursuing ultimate strength.

∆ ∆ ∆

Inside the tavern, Orland and Bruce were sitting in the corner.

"It's been 2 weeks, huh. We have been asking the adventurers going to the forest, but we haven't heard any news about him. Orland, do you think the kid is dead?"

"Hey, you can't say such a thing! He might be a kid, but he is still a Scarlet"

"But, you know how lazy he usually is. Even though Ash-sama has been training him, he doesn't have experience when it comes to real fight"

"I have been paying attention to the kid this since the past month. Sure, he might be lazy like always, but the look in his eyes has changed. I can't say it for sure, but something feels different about him"

"Well, it might be due to hormons. He's 16 now, right? It's the age where a kid having trouble controlling their needs. Hahaha"

"You scoundrel"

Orland smirked at Bruce joke.

"But, I have never seen the kid harassing the maids nor I have seen him sneaking out to the town"

"Well, he had been spending more time with Lady Irina, so I guess his interest in woman is slowly awakens"

"I guess so. The kid might be usually lazy and arrogant, but he is still much better than some brats of the nobility. At least he didn't waste his time on women and alcohol"

Orland smiled and sipped his rum.

"The kid likes to read books, so he should be smart, right?"

"I don't think so"

"Why?"

"From what I know, his grade is average and the kind of books he usually read are story books and those adventure journals instead of academic books"

"Damn! Is it okay for us to be drinking here instead of looking for him, then?"

"It's fine. The news of the youngest son of the Scarlet family went into the forest to gain experience is well known. Not to mention, from what I heard from Ash-sama, he is strong enough to last 20 rounds against him before losing his rhythm"

"Wow! Really 20 rounds? Did Ash-sama held back or something?"

"No. I heard he fought him seriously without any handicap. I'm more worried he couldn't stand the wild life. Unlike us who usually went to expedition and exterminating bandits. A noble is particularly strict about hygiene. it won't be surprising if he is crying about toilet etc"

"Hahaha! You're right. I guess that's the only thing we need to worry about. Now, let's drink!"

"Cheers!"

The two of them raised their glass and cheers. Unbeknownst to the two of them, the lazy kid they were talking about was currently fighting the boss on the 10th floor one-sidedly.