Chapter 13 - Day 4, 4th Floor Monster (1/2)
Chapter 13 - Day 4, 4th Floor Monster
Her name was Yang Su-jin.
Technique - Healing Factor.
This was the technique she gained from defeating the ‘Regeneration Tree’ on the second floor and eating its fruit. ”It was a dry tree so I wondered if it would work but...”
She took out a lighter from her pocket. A high school girl was smoking-- it was amazing. “The speed is slow but if my head is fine, I won’t die...”
The problem was that there was even more. If she was overpowered, the regeneration would proceed at a slower rate. She wouldn’t die, but she wouldn’t gain any additional strength.
After fighting and being defeated, she’d revived and the goblins became deeply interested in her. They had dragged her back to the tent where she was hung on the pulley and the goblin pharmacist poured all types of drugs into her mouth.
”I didn’t think it was too painful while I was being force-fed... I discovered a new talent. ‘Identification of ingredients’... If I eat or apply anything then I will know the exact ingredients.”
”Stop there. What’s your conclusion?” The more she spoke, the more it sounded like she was saying ‘kill me because I have this.’
“My regeneration is not a talent but a technique.”
“...So?”
“Eh... Therefore you can’t absorb the technique if you kill me.” How did she know that? Yang Su-jin looked at me with glowing eyes. ...Of course, the only things that popped up in the message were ‘talents and experience.’ The only person I killed was Scratchy. I didn’t know what type of techniques he had.
”How do you know?”
“... Both people I killed on the previous floors had techniques.” She spoke in a somewhat depressed voice.
”They were cheap even when dying... Well, I don’t care what you think. Anyway... I will definitely be useful. Especially when it comes to drugs.” ... a.s.suming that the story she told me was 100% true, her words weren’t wrong.
The poison inflicted on me by the goblin warden had caused pain. What if I was poisoned and had no antidotes? Or there was an antidote, but I needed to actually ‘eat’ it for it to work. In order to do that, resilience was needed-- the ability to recover from even the most harmful drugs.
”If you don’t believe me, I’ll give you whatever drugs or items are found. I will leave you my share of monsters as well. Just let me follow behind you.”
”What for?”
”You saved me. I want to do this.”
”I didn’t save you. I tried to kill you with my own hands.”
”It doesn't matter.” Yang Su-jin put down the pile of drugs I didn’t take and folded her hands together. “... Anyway, you didn’t do anything to me and tried to get me ‘out’. Even if I die here, I won’t actually die...”
“...?”
What? I barely refrained from reacting to the information that popped out of her mouth.
”Oppa... Ah, you’re older than me... Can I call you Oppa? Oppa, I’m not garbage.”
”It is a good idea, but I’m not a guardian you can hide behind.”
”Once again, I don’t care if you kill me.” She took a step towards me.
”I don’t want a guardian. If you have any unknown medicine then you can feed it to me. If I can’t die, then can’t you use me as a s.h.i.+eld or something? As mentioned earlier, you can have as many items and monsters as you like. This dungeon, a lot of things can be acquired just by wandering around.”
“...”
I thought for a moment and then spoke. ”I want to ask you one thing-- you’re fine right now. You might be helpful to me or you might be trash...”
But the fundamental question still remained: why didn’t she kill me? After all, it would be enough if she took my talents and went through the dungeon alone. Was she thanking me for trying to save her from endless pain? Or saying that she wasn’t garbage?
It was a pessimistic view of the world, but I believed it despite her youth. In the first place, she was a person who framed me for rape.
“...I am scared.”
“The dungeon?”
”The experiences here... To be honest, I’m not afraid to fight with monsters or get hurt anymore. No matter how deep it is... It isn’t as severe as what I’ve experienced.” Her eyes became nervous. “But... Meeting other people here, and what I did to Oppa... I don’t want to keep suffering like this.”
”Your suffering won’t stop just because you follow me.”
”I-I don’t want to be alone. When I am alone, my actions when encountering others ... I want to become a better person in here... I really feel like if I go with you...” She was crying as she talked.
I didn’t question her anymore-- there was no need to. I fully understood her story. In short, it was for the sake of her psychological stability. She had killed two people on the previous floors. I didn’t know what happened but it was double the number of people I murdered. The psychological burden was large...
It was a story I could sympathize with. To summarize... If she wanted to keep exploring the dungeon, then bad actions would be required. This would continue into the future, but there was a psychological burden that came with being alone. Maybe she was being selfish. To me though, it gave her more credibility than before.
”Sure.”
“Huh?”
”You will keep the potions, but you will need to take care of me with the antidotes. The monsters and items are all mine.”
“...!” Her teary face brightened. ”I-I will. Do you want the items and coins that I have? I have a talent...”
She stopped speaking for a moment. “... Excuse me, are you pitying me?”
“No? Why are you asking?”
“Ah... Just now, I got a new talent…”
“What was it?”
”I-Induce Pity... My charm and eloquence have slightly increased...”
“...”
◎
[Far Vision Pendant. Equipment item. Rank D.]
[A required equipment for the Leng Plateau hunters, it has a spell that enhances vision. It is difficult to reveal its function in a dark dungeon, but the darkness seems to have lightened a little bit.]
[When worn, vision +1. Your field of vision in the dungeon will increase by 1.5 metres.]
In addition, there were five silver and 107 copper coins. There were six of the goblin’s medicines, as well as various detoxifying drugs, including the antidote to the ‘Grey Malice’ drug that the goblin pharmacist tried to kill me with.
These were the items I received from Yang Su-jin. She proved it by eating the ‘Grey Malice’ and then its antidote. It was the same for the other detoxifying drugs. I hadn’t experienced it myself so it was still an unknown potion, but once I tasted it, I recognized it as the same potion she’d fed me earlier.
”Hum, hum hum hum.” Yang Su-jin hummed as she hopped between the goblin tents. I was gathering all types of miscellaneous things from them, empty vials, tongs, pliers...