acquiring talent in a dungeon

Chapter 14 - Day 4, 4th Floor

The thrown bottle hit him exactly in the middle of the face.

“Kuoh?” A noise that wasn’t human emerged from his mouth. He sounded like a pig had inhaled helium.

“That...!”

Kung.

He knelt down, dropping the knife as he covered his face with his hands.

“Kuwaaaaah!” A tremendous roar assailed my ears. I turned Limiter Release off and ran forward to punch him in the face.

Crunch.

The sound came from my fist hitting his face. It was obviously the correct posture for a punch but electricity was transmitted through my wrist. He was hard as a brick. Maybe even harder than that.

"Guah!” He swung his arm. The back of his hand hit my belly and it felt like my stomach and intestines had been turned upside down. I literally bounced back.

“Kuooh... Kuoh...” I shook my head and got up. There was blood pouring down his face. Nevertheless, his body wasn’t paralyzed. I needed more poison.

I started searching. Despite the pendant, my field of view was smaller because my eyes were narrowed. I took careful footsteps and was able to find Yang Su-jin.

She was alive. Her eyes were closed and her mouth shut as she surprisingly endured the pain of having her upper body cut off. Indeed, this was her regeneration ability. From her severed upper body, a new lower body could be seen growing. Still, it was quite strange to see the legs of a 5~6 year old growing out of her.

...Well. It was an urgent situation so I approached Yang Su-jin. She breathed out and said.

“I’m okay.”

“Ah...” Her eyes were touched as she stared into my eyes. ...I wouldn’t talk about coming to get the drugs. Instead I used my hands to open her mouth and took out a medicine bottle. I was pouring the second bottle in her mouth when Yang Su-jin suddenly turned pale.

I looked up before Yang Su-jin could speak. That person was towering above us, on the verge of throwing a punch. I reflexively kicked Yang Su-jin out of the way.

A fist hit my left shoulder. All sensations in my shoulders disappeared.

“...Uck!” I staggered and tried to grab a bottle, but his other hand grabbed my neck. I was lifted up by my throat. In that state, he grabbed my shoulder. It was the side where I had lost all sensations. No, it was my misunderstanding that I lost all sensations.

Jiik, jiiiik.

“Aaaaack!” My shoulder was being pulled, just like one would remove a chicken leg from a chicken. I was barely able to retain consciousness. I threw the bottle in my hand with all my strength but...

“Kik.”

He moved his head slightly and the bottle fell to the ground behind him.

"Kiaaaahahah.” Was it laughter? He put my torn arm in his mouth and started chewing. No, he wasn’t chewing but just pushing it in. He was eating my arm.

No, now wasn’t the time to worry about that. He swallowed from my hand to my shoulder in an instant and smacked his lips like he was satisfied. Then he swapped hands with the one holding my neck.

He wanted to tear the rest of my limbs off like I was a chicken.

I felt like I was dying as the pain of having my limbs pulled off engulfed me. My vision became blurry as I slowly lost consciousness…

Jaengurang.

Suddenly, there was the sound of something breaking and I was dropped. After dropping me, the guy looked back to see that he was soaked due to the bottle that hit him.

"A-Are you okay?” I couldn’t see it but it was Yang Su-jin who threw the bottle.

An additional two or three bottles flew through the darkness and hit his chest. No. The location was wrong. Although he was groaning, he was still moving at his fastest speed.

It had to be in the middle of the face or directly on the body… I lifted myself up.

[Current Balance: 54/140]

My hand touched something on the ground. It was the bottle that missed before. I grabbed it while still feeling the agony of my missing limb. The bottle was a little cracked but the contents were still fine.

“Kyak!”

I could hear Yang Su-jin’s scream from outside my field of vision. And at that moment. Kung. A sound.

Kung.Kung.Kung.

I held the bottle in my mouth and moved forward. I could see his back. He was hitting the ground with his fist. It was the sound of the guy hitting Yang Su-jin’s flesh. I gritted my teeth as I was reminded of my one-armed state, almost breaking the bottle.

One step. Two steps. I put as much weight as possible into my leg as I kicked between his legs.

“...!!!” There was no screaming, but I could definitely feel the response in his body. Also, his genitals weren’t as hard as his face.

One step again. My hand hit his genitals. I hit him so hard that my HP was reduced by 14 points.

“Kiiiiik!” The guy stumbled and slipped on the pieces of Yang Su-jin’s body. His head literally slammed against the ground. Yang Su-jin, nice assist!

The bottles that Yang Su-jin held were scattered on the ground. I grabbed as many as I could hold in one hand, along with the one in my mouth.

The guy’s hands were holding his groin. I opened his mouth and poured the bottles in my hand down his throat.

“Keok..!” A hand was raised and he threw me away. I was thrown back but all the bottles in my hand were already gone. In fact, I didn’t have a hand at all. I had shoved my hand with the bottles down his mouth, and the tightening of his throat was so strong that it tore my wrist off.

However, all the drugs had definitely entered him. The drug was immediately effective.

“Keok! Ukukuk! Uck!” He never got up again.

A tremendous amount of blood poured out from his eyes, nose, mouth and even genitals. It poured out so much that it almost seemed like a broken pipe.

[Unique talent has been acquired.]

[Unique Talent - No.005. Atlas: Your body will become stronger, leading to a desire to oppress others through violence.]

[But always keep this in mind. The more power you have, the greater the weight your body will have to carry.]

[Increases the growth rate of physical talents by four times. The effects of Talent - Suppression are being recalibrated.]

[Muscle strength has exceeded the limit.]

[Health has exceeded the limit.]

[Reflexes has exceeded the limit.]

[Muscle strength: 11]

[Health: 11]

[Reflexes: 12]

I didn’t gain any other talents apart from Kitchen Knife’s unique one.

I guess... It was because he was no longer human. At the beginning of the fight, words had surfaced stating that he was a monster. I looked at the corpse that shrank like a popped balloon and turned away.

Yang Su-jin was finely chopped. Every part of her body, including her arms and legs, looked like they had gone through a blender. Her regeneration ability could be called the best. Even so, it was impossible for her to survive such a horrible thing.

“...Thank you.”

I bowed to her remains. Her talents didn’t allow her to fight, but I wouldn’t have been able to win this without her.

Duk.

Um? There was the sound of something rolling around outside my field of view.

I took one step.. Oh my god. It was a head. Her eyes were closed but new flesh was growing from her neck. This caused the head to move and make sounds.

I sat down next to Yang Su-jin’s head. As her neck and clavicles regenerated, her eyes opened. Was it to look at me? The mouth moved but there was no sound because she didn’t have any lungs.

"Good job.”

“...” She was a little dazed. Then Yang Su-jin smiled brightly. I frowned.

"Don’t smile, you look terrible right now.”

◎

We moved a little more and a space with pillars emerged. There were warm lamps above our heads. The pillars were spaced at intervals of 10 metres.

Yang Su-jin’s lighter played an active role here. By walking around a few pillars, we could light up the entire space.

“...”

It was an unbelievable sight. The overall area was similar to the third floor hallway without the stairs. But there were no goblins. There were dozens of tents lined up, as well as wood and stone structures. Everything was soaked with blood from the bodies of goblins.

"Wow, that guy did all of this...” Yang Su-jin muttered as she examined the corpses. There were at least eight huge goblins. However, none of them had their potions. At some point, that guy only become filled with the desire to drink more potions.

“It seems like he couldn’t find what he was looking for. So he made a mess...” Yang Su-jin stared at me.

[Current Balance: 121/170]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 5 every minute.]

Blood was dripping from my missing arm and wrist, as the wounds weren’t easy to heal. I had medicine to recover my health, but I couldn’t stay longer.

As we continued to light the pillars, all areas of the space became visible. The staircase was on the far end of the room. The goblins had built a small altar-like structure on the wall behind the stairs.

[Stairs. Goes to the 5th floor.]

[Relaxation/Exchange is available at the next staircase.]

"It doesn’t state how many people we can meet.” Yang Su-jin mentioned a pretty important point but I was looking a bit upwards. There was a decorated altar behind the stairs.

Light was leaking from the small house shape at the top. Lamp? But the light was a little different. I kicked the altar. There was a loud sound and the identity of the light was revealed.

Alphabet... I had that thought, but the letters had different shapes.

[Talent - Goblin: Runes containing the essence of the goblin species. Explorers who touch the runes will obtain various characteristics that could be called the identity of the species. There are no limitations on the type of runes that can coexist with each other and there are runes with advantages and disadvantages. However, once a rune is taken, it can’t be removed by ordinary means.]

[There will be a 20% compensation effect on the subtlety, concentration and dexterity abilities.]

[There is a 20% compensation effect on the talents Hidden Weapon Technique and Stealth.]

[The success rate of manufacturing various chemicals and high quality products will increase.]

[There is a 10% reduction in physical strength and health.]

I read the words carefully and looked at Yang Su-jin. "Uh, what i...s it?”

“You should take this.” Yang Su-jin reacted with surprise because she hadn’t been expecting it.

“Really? Why should I take this? Really?” It wouldn’t hurt to have more subtlety and concentration, but the 10% reduction in physical strength and health was quite a bit. This was a tool of the goblins, but I didn’t need to throw it away.

Yang Su-jin touched the runes while I stood closer to the wreckage of the collapsed towards. I hadn’t realized when the altar was still standing. There was something engraved on the wall behind the altar. I kicked the debris in order to see more of the wall.

Rattle.

The wall moved.

[Welcome!]

“Kyak!”

"Heok!”

[Depadora Salesman - V023 Type Golem. Rank C.]

[The Depadora sales golem that sets up various branches in famous dungeons to sell miscellaneous goods to adventurers.]

[It doesn’t have much strength itself, but the protective magic of the store is hard to pierce.]

In short, it was a dummy made of stone. The voice seemed to be coming from a speaker-like device attached to the neck, not the mouth.

[This is the 427th store of the Depadora Commerce Company...]

Even without the prattling on, I was able to understand that the space inside the wall was a store. The area was approximately five pyeong wide and the shelves were practically barren.

[I am sorry to tell you that this branch has not received payment for our products for 14 years and 32 days. There are hardly any items remaining.]

There were just four items.

[An Introduction to the Old Language of Tellan. A book item. Rank F.]

[Introduces the official language of Tellan. It looks quite old.]

It was a decrepit book.

[Old Explorer’s Cloth Bag (Small). Equipment item. Rank F.]

[Made for explorers. Although it is a handmade product, the quality isn’t that good. It seems like the durability had weakened considerably over many years.]

[Outside of the dungeon, you can put things in the bag, place the bag in your inventory and bring it into the dungeon.]

There were two of the similarly worn bags. And then there was one small ring with a red jewel embedded in it.

[Salamander’s Ring. Equipment item. Rank D.]

[An item created to support non-magical warriors, the power of fire is sealed within the ruby.]

[You can cast the Fireball spell 35~40 times without any fire magic. Be careful not to damage the ruby.]

I pulled out all the coins that I had. After going through this floor, I had 20 silver coins and 325 copper ones. Since one silver coin was equal to 20 copper, that was 36 silver?

"How much is the ring?”

[The ring is 35 silver! Ah, I can give you each bag for five silver and the book for one silver!]

In fact, there was no need for the bags. Even if I could bring things in from outside world, the emergency medicines found here were better. I didn’t know where I could get a gun even if I could bring it in. Even if it was D rank, a ring that could shoot fire was much better.

"Then the ring and the book...”

...Wait.

[Yes! Then pay...]

"No, wait. Wait a minute! Please wait.” I thought for a moment before changing my words. "Give me the book and two bags.”

"Aren’t you buying the ring? It looks great...” Yang Su-jin asked but I had already finished paying. I had almost made a crucial mistake. The reason I continued to explore the dungeon wasn’t to fight to survive.

No, it was to ultimately succeed in reality. These bags could be the answer.

[4th floor cleared.]

◎

I headed straight for the library.

Chapter 14 - Day 4, 4th Floor

The thrown bottle hit him exactly in the middle of the face.

“Kuoh?” A noise that wasn’t human emerged from his mouth. He sounded like a pig had inhaled helium.

“That...!”

Kung.

He knelt down, dropping the knife as he covered his face with his hands.

“Kuwaaaaah!” A tremendous roar assailed my ears. I turned Limiter Release off and ran forward to punch him in the face.

Crunch.

The sound came from my fist hitting his face. It was obviously the correct posture for a punch but electricity was transmitted through my wrist. He was hard as a brick. Maybe even harder than that.

"Guah!” He swung his arm. The back of his hand hit my belly and it felt like my stomach and intestines had been turned upside down. I literally bounced back.

“Kuooh... Kuoh...” I shook my head and got up. There was blood pouring down his face. Nevertheless, his body wasn’t paralyzed. I needed more poison.

I started searching. Despite the pendant, my field of view was smaller because my eyes were narrowed. I took careful footsteps and was able to find Yang Su-jin.

She was alive. Her eyes were closed and her mouth shut as she surprisingly endured the pain of having her upper body cut off. Indeed, this was her regeneration ability. From her severed upper body, a new lower body could be seen growing. Still, it was quite strange to see the legs of a 5~6 year old growing out of her.

...Well. It was an urgent situation so I approached Yang Su-jin. She breathed out and said.

“I’m okay.”

“Ah...” Her eyes were touched as she stared into my eyes. ...I wouldn’t talk about coming to get the drugs. Instead I used my hands to open her mouth and took out a medicine bottle. I was pouring the second bottle in her mouth when Yang Su-jin suddenly turned pale.

I looked up before Yang Su-jin could speak. That person was towering above us, on the verge of throwing a punch. I reflexively kicked Yang Su-jin out of the way.

A fist hit my left shoulder. All sensations in my shoulders disappeared.

“...Uck!” I staggered and tried to grab a bottle, but his other hand grabbed my neck. I was lifted up by my throat. In that state, he grabbed my shoulder. It was the side where I had lost all sensations. No, it was my misunderstanding that I lost all sensations.

Jiik, jiiiik.

“Aaaaack!” My shoulder was being pulled, just like one would remove a chicken leg from a chicken. I was barely able to retain consciousness. I threw the bottle in my hand with all my strength but...

“Kik.”

He moved his head slightly and the bottle fell to the ground behind him.

"Kiaaaahahah.” Was it laughter? He put my torn arm in his mouth and started chewing. No, he wasn’t chewing but just pushing it in. He was eating my arm.

No, now wasn’t the time to worry about that. He swallowed from my hand to my shoulder in an instant and smacked his lips like he was satisfied. Then he swapped hands with the one holding my neck.

He wanted to tear the rest of my limbs off like I was a chicken.

I felt like I was dying as the pain of having my limbs pulled off engulfed me. My vision became blurry as I slowly lost consciousness…

Jaengurang.

Suddenly, there was the sound of something breaking and I was dropped. After dropping me, the guy looked back to see that he was soaked due to the bottle that hit him.

"A-Are you okay?” I couldn’t see it but it was Yang Su-jin who threw the bottle.

An additional two or three bottles flew through the darkness and hit his chest. No. The location was wrong. Although he was groaning, he was still moving at his fastest speed.

It had to be in the middle of the face or directly on the body… I lifted myself up.

[Current Balance: 54/140]

My hand touched something on the ground. It was the bottle that missed before. I grabbed it while still feeling the agony of my missing limb. The bottle was a little cracked but the contents were still fine.

“Kyak!”

I could hear Yang Su-jin’s scream from outside my field of vision. And at that moment. Kung. A sound.

Kung.Kung.Kung.

I held the bottle in my mouth and moved forward. I could see his back. He was hitting the ground with his fist. It was the sound of the guy hitting Yang Su-jin’s flesh. I gritted my teeth as I was reminded of my one-armed state, almost breaking the bottle.

One step. Two steps. I put as much weight as possible into my leg as I kicked between his legs.

“...!!!” There was no screaming, but I could definitely feel the response in his body. Also, his genitals weren’t as hard as his face.

One step again. My hand hit his genitals. I hit him so hard that my HP was reduced by 14 points.

“Kiiiiik!” The guy stumbled and slipped on the pieces of Yang Su-jin’s body. His head literally slammed against the ground. Yang Su-jin, nice assist!

The bottles that Yang Su-jin held were scattered on the ground. I grabbed as many as I could hold in one hand, along with the one in my mouth.

The guy’s hands were holding his groin. I opened his mouth and poured the bottles in my hand down his throat.

“Keok..!” A hand was raised and he threw me away. I was thrown back but all the bottles in my hand were already gone. In fact, I didn’t have a hand at all. I had shoved my hand with the bottles down his mouth, and the tightening of his throat was so strong that it tore my wrist off.

However, all the drugs had definitely entered him. The drug was immediately effective.

“Keok! Ukukuk! Uck!” He never got up again.

A tremendous amount of blood poured out from his eyes, nose, mouth and even genitals. It poured out so much that it almost seemed like a broken pipe.

[Unique talent has been acquired.]

[Unique Talent - No.005. Atlas: Your body will become stronger, leading to a desire to oppress others through violence.]

[But always keep this in mind. The more power you have, the greater the weight your body will have to carry.]

[Increases the growth rate of physical talents by four times. The effects of Talent - Suppression are being recalibrated.]

[Muscle strength has exceeded the limit.]

[Health has exceeded the limit.]

[Reflexes has exceeded the limit.]

[Muscle strength: 11]

[Health: 11]

[Reflexes: 12]

I didn’t gain any other talents apart from Kitchen Knife’s unique one.

I guess... It was because he was no longer human. At the beginning of the fight, words had surfaced stating that he was a monster. I looked at the corpse that shrank like a popped balloon and turned away.

Yang Su-jin was finely chopped. Every part of her body, including her arms and legs, looked like they had gone through a blender. Her regeneration ability could be called the best. Even so, it was impossible for her to survive such a horrible thing.

“...Thank you.”

I bowed to her remains. Her talents didn’t allow her to fight, but I wouldn’t have been able to win this without her.

Duk.

Um? There was the sound of something rolling around outside my field of view.

I took one step.. Oh my god. It was a head. Her eyes were closed but new flesh was growing from her neck. This caused the head to move and make sounds.

I sat down next to Yang Su-jin’s head. As her neck and clavicles regenerated, her eyes opened. Was it to look at me? The mouth moved but there was no sound because she didn’t have any lungs.

"Good job.”

“...” She was a little dazed. Then Yang Su-jin smiled brightly. I frowned.

"Don’t smile, you look terrible right now.”

◎

We moved a little more and a space with pillars emerged. There were warm lamps above our heads. The pillars were spaced at intervals of 10 metres.

Yang Su-jin’s lighter played an active role here. By walking around a few pillars, we could light up the entire space.

“...”

It was an unbelievable sight. The overall area was similar to the third floor hallway without the stairs. But there were no goblins. There were dozens of tents lined up, as well as wood and stone structures. Everything was soaked with blood from the bodies of goblins.

"Wow, that guy did all of this...” Yang Su-jin muttered as she examined the corpses. There were at least eight huge goblins. However, none of them had their potions. At some point, that guy only become filled with the desire to drink more potions.

“It seems like he couldn’t find what he was looking for. So he made a mess...” Yang Su-jin stared at me.

[Current Balance: 121/170]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 5 every minute.]

Blood was dripping from my missing arm and wrist, as the wounds weren’t easy to heal. I had medicine to recover my health, but I couldn’t stay longer.

As we continued to light the pillars, all areas of the space became visible. The staircase was on the far end of the room. The goblins had built a small altar-like structure on the wall behind the stairs.

[Stairs. Goes to the 5th floor.]

[Relaxation/Exchange is available at the next staircase.]

"It doesn’t state how many people we can meet.” Yang Su-jin mentioned a pretty important point but I was looking a bit upwards. There was a decorated altar behind the stairs.

Light was leaking from the small house shape at the top. Lamp? But the light was a little different. I kicked the altar. There was a loud sound and the identity of the light was revealed.

Alphabet... I had that thought, but the letters had different shapes.

[Talent - Goblin: Runes containing the essence of the goblin species. Explorers who touch the runes will obtain various characteristics that could be called the identity of the species. There are no limitations on the type of runes that can coexist with each other and there are runes with advantages and disadvantages. However, once a rune is taken, it can’t be removed by ordinary means.]

[There will be a 20% compensation effect on the subtlety, concentration and dexterity abilities.]

[There is a 20% compensation effect on the talents Hidden Weapon Technique and Stealth.]

[The success rate of manufacturing various chemicals and high quality products will increase.]

[There is a 10% reduction in physical strength and health.]

I read the words carefully and looked at Yang Su-jin. "Uh, what i...s it?”

“You should take this.” Yang Su-jin reacted with surprise because she hadn’t been expecting it.

“Really? Why should I take this? Really?” It wouldn’t hurt to have more subtlety and concentration, but the 10% reduction in physical strength and health was quite a bit. This was a tool of the goblins, but I didn’t need to throw it away.

Yang Su-jin touched the runes while I stood closer to the wreckage of the collapsed towards. I hadn’t realized when the altar was still standing. There was something engraved on the wall behind the altar. I kicked the debris in order to see more of the wall.

Rattle.

The wall moved.

[Welcome!]

“Kyak!”

"Heok!”

[Depadora Salesman - V023 Type Golem. Rank C.]

[The Depadora sales golem that sets up various branches in famous dungeons to sell miscellaneous goods to adventurers.]

[It doesn’t have much strength itself, but the protective magic of the store is hard to pierce.]

In short, it was a dummy made of stone. The voice seemed to be coming from a speaker-like device attached to the neck, not the mouth.

[This is the 427th store of the Depadora Commerce Company...]

Even without the prattling on, I was able to understand that the space inside the wall was a store. The area was approximately five pyeong wide and the shelves were practically barren.

[I am sorry to tell you that this branch has not received payment for our products for 14 years and 32 days. There are hardly any items remaining.]

There were just four items.

[An Introduction to the Old Language of Tellan. A book item. Rank F.]

[Introduces the official language of Tellan. It looks quite old.]

It was a decrepit book.

[Old Explorer’s Cloth Bag (Small). Equipment item. Rank F.]

[Made for explorers. Although it is a handmade product, the quality isn’t that good. It seems like the durability had weakened considerably over many years.]

[Outside of the dungeon, you can put things in the bag, place the bag in your inventory and bring it into the dungeon.]

There were two of the similarly worn bags. And then there was one small ring with a red jewel embedded in it.

[Salamander’s Ring. Equipment item. Rank D.]

[An item created to support non-magical warriors, the power of fire is sealed within the ruby.]

[You can cast the Fireball spell 35~40 times without any fire magic. Be careful not to damage the ruby.]

I pulled out all the coins that I had. After going through this floor, I had 20 silver coins and 325 copper ones. Since one silver coin was equal to 20 copper, that was 36 silver?

"How much is the ring?”

[The ring is 35 silver! Ah, I can give you each bag for five silver and the book for one silver!]

In fact, there was no need for the bags. Even if I could bring things in from outside world, the emergency medicines found here were better. I didn’t know where I could get a gun even if I could bring it in. Even if it was D rank, a ring that could shoot fire was much better.

"Then the ring and the book...”

...Wait.

[Yes! Then pay...]

"No, wait. Wait a minute! Please wait.” I thought for a moment before changing my words. "Give me the book and two bags.”

"Aren’t you buying the ring? It looks great...” Yang Su-jin asked but I had already finished paying. I had almost made a crucial mistake. The reason I continued to explore the dungeon wasn’t to fight to survive.

No, it was to ultimately succeed in reality. These bags could be the answer.

[4th floor cleared.]

◎

I headed straight for the library.