< One Night’s Curse and Poison Dragon (1) >
Before I came into the dungeon, I had even taken off the earring, so my equipment was just one knife. It was the knife I used last time in the F-Rank dungeon to take out magic stones, and it was thin and similar to a jungle knife[1], and closer to an assistance tool than a weapon.
I didn’t know if it was limited to three this time, but to make room for error, I decided to leave one out. The equipment were all integer increase anyways, so if a situation where I absolutely had to use an item occurred, potion types would be better. To use just in case, I brought one vitality potion that I had received.
-Gigigik
Between the noctilica’s lights, long antennae moved. Then, at the huge insect showing itself, my forehead wrinkled on its own.
An E-Rank dungeon with a good location, low level of difficulty, and even okay rewards, that was avoided. A.k.a. ‘Roach Nest’.
The monsters that appeared weren’t real roaches, but they looked similar to cockroaches. It was a dungeon I hadn’t been to before the regression. Ah, I really hated it.
This time, who cared about the magic stones, I should just quickly attack and flee.
-Giririk
“Fuck, don’t come here. Get lost.”
I didn’t even want to use tentacles, so I made it faint with Thorn Trap.
[° ⌓ ° И|€Ҽ₩ºЯδ₴ Թº└|ԵҼ₩ºЯδ₴ ˆ ‿ˆ][2]
…You get lost, too. Don’t you have things to do? What was with the ‘nice words’ nagging.
This dungeon’s usual monster, the Black Flat-Back Bug, was low in intelligence and strong in gluttony. On top of that, they were stupider than cockroaches, so they gobbled up well the food I openly poisoned. At the same time, the fact that they were strong in poison resistance was an annoying point.
Even so, they were normal E-Rank monsters. They were guys that couldn’t have handled Blackie’s normal poison, so if I sprayed that quadrupled, they would dissolve.
I took out a chunk of monster meat that was for Peace, that I had brought with me. This might count as an item, but even if it did, it was the second one. I had purposely brought the biggest chunk. It was fresh meat that was still soaked with blood.
“For cockroaches, it really would be insect bait.”
I cut off about 1/3 of the meat chunk and put it in the middle of the road, and then I circled around it while spreading Sticky Poison. I applied it thoroughly on, of course the floor and walls, but even the ceiling using the tentacles.
-Gigikgi
Rustle rustle rustle
Ugh, they’re coming, they’re coming. The group of black bugs crawled over as they moved their long antennae from side to side. When I stepped back, they rushed at the meat without even any hesitation, and,
-Giik!
-Kkik!
They stepped on the poison and fell over backwards. Whether their fellows died and fell or not, the giant roaches made the corpses into a bridge and stepped on them to cross over to the meat and bite into it. Because obviously I had spread poison on the meat, they also fell over backwards and shook their feet.
And the meat that wasn’t that big also disappeared in an instant.
-Gigigik
Eujuk, kwadeuk, kwajik
Fuck, they were tearing into their same species’ corpses to eat. I did know they were like that, but seeing it personally really was disgusting. The poisoned corpses made more corpses and stacked up on each other.
From time to time there were guys that tried to lunge at me too, but I made them faint with Thorn Trap.
‘If I make about two more traps, they would probably be quickly exterminated.’
I should quickly end it and go home and wash.
Shit, really gross[3]! Why would you lay eggs while you die! And why did the babies hatch out immediately! And in that chaos, they were eating each other again! On top of that, the babies were exactly the size of cockroaches, but the numbers were enormous, so eurgh[4].
‘I really get why people avoid this place.’
To think that you have to, fuck, sit in that crevice to find magic stones. Really, I hated the bug types the most among monsters. They really were disgusting, but also their secretions were dirty, there was poison at the drop of a hat, parasites jumped out, and even their reproduction was fast.
I really shouldn’t even look at something like a bug’s nest ever again. Who cared about that title thing, sob[5].
‘The boss was spiders, right?’
It was written that they did have poison, but that it was as weak as E-Rank, and to be careful of the spiderwebs. The number that made an appearance was three to four, and sometimes babies also came out.
Please let there be no babies, let there be no babies.
I begged inside my head as I went into the innermost part of the cave.
The smell of moss from the damp walls was thick. A dim light seeped through a crack in the high ceiling. Under that, there were giant spiderwebs and three giant spiders and.
Baby spiders swarming around.
‘Ah, shit damn.’
There were really a lot. Incredibly a lot. Red and black stripes were were slowly crowding around. I should have brought a lighter at least. To just set it all on fire. Though normal fire probably wouldn’t work…
Suddenly, I wanted to see my younger brother. A flame skill for me too…… Or if Yerim at least was here. To freeze all of them. Guys who had wide-range attack skills had it good.
Grumbling, I circled the entrance coating it with poison. First off, I blocked off the escape route, but because of the spiders’ characteristics, they rarely came out of the spiderwebs.
I picked up a rock that had fallen on the ground, spread poison on it, and then threw it with all my strength at the spiderweb.
‘I probably don’t have enough mana to use Thorn Trap on the babies as well.’
Did I have to kill all the baby spiders to clear it? I guessed I should…… use Wall Lizard and get close… get close… and spray poison or step on them or something. I sighed once and used the Wall Lizard skill. The king spider that was lurking in the middle of the spiderweb and scrutinizing me, was taken aback, its eight eyes darting around.
-Siii
The other two spiders also searched the surroundings. I walked toward the giant white tangled and entwined spiderweb, as I used Thorn Trap one by one on those three guys.
-Sik!
-Siik!
The spiders caught in the curse writhed and were wrapped firmly in the spiderwebs they themselves had hit. The surprised baby spiders scattered like a spray of water. A few of those were stepped on.
Pat, pajik
The exploding feeling made goosebumps rise up. I stretched the tentacles and pierced the shells of the big spiders and injected poison. The spiders that were trembling soon became still. Magic stones fell from the dissolving belly of one of them, so I picked them up with a tentacle. Maybe thanks to the Miracle title, there were two.
Please, achievement window pop up, escape gate come out, please……
“……It’s not popping up. Do I have to kill the baby spiders too…”
[٦ (· ▾·)┘☆₲└★][6]
I was thinking they were being quiet, but they popped up again. I really couldn’t say anything outloud.
“If you don’t have anything to do, why don’t you elaborate on the worthless[7] skill explanation windows? Instead of following me around like a stalker.”
[crey……][8]
……What were they saying.
I swallowed down curses and killed the baby spiders running away here and there. Yoohyun, Yerim, I miss you[9]. They would be able to finish it in one blow.
Thankfully, maybe I didn’t need to kill all of them, because when the appearance of the baby spiders became rare, the escape gate appeared. Then.
[Surprising achievement! With stat F, attack skills less than F, using less than five items, you have successfully attacked an E-Rank dungeon by yourself!]
So this time it was limited to five items, huh.
[S-Rank title ‘Veteran[10] F-Rank’ granted!]
‘Veteran F-Rank’, it was a title I didn’t like. In the first place, no matter how much experience an F-Rank had, there was no way they would be able to solo attack an E-Rank dungeon with barely any equipment.
The me before the regression was a completely worn down F-Rank, but… no, nevermind. Even if I grumbled about something that had disappeared, what would happen? I opened the status window instead.
[Veteran F-Rank(S)
Extremely experienced superman as an F-Rank Hunter.
Attack type skills that you have doubled]
……Wow, really, really, seriously, really.
For a while I stared at the sky, no the cave ceiling.
Fuck, I! Don’t! Have! A single! Attack skill!
The number of baubles became two.
‘No really, it is good… both Miracle and Veteran were effect worthy of S-Rank, but……’
Why was it like this?
Double the effect of attack type skills. Doubled dungeon awards was great, but this was really, even if it was B-Rank, it would be a scam. If it was S-Rank, it was to the extent of asking if it wouldn’t ruin the balance.
The SS-Rank skill Lauchtas’ Natural Enemy was curse and poison dragon type restriction skill effect doubled, but this didn’t even have a target limit. Maybe it was an S-Rank title because only F-Ranks could get it; if there wasn’t a limit on acquiring it, wouldn’t it have be about L-Rank?
Still, it was useless to me.
I had about ten skills but they were only assistance and resistance! Wow! If Veteran and Miracle counted as one skill each, then it would be twelve, hahaha.
‘‘That I have’ – since it had that kind of condition, it wouldn’t apply to equipment skills. Would it be useless when Last Repayment is applied?’
To check, I took out the tentacles. The length was, hm. It definitely passed way over 4 meters. Then did that mean I was over A-Rank in terms of skills?
‘For the C-Rank Sticky Poison, unless they have an S-Rank poison resistance skill or item, even S-Ranks wouldn’t be able to handle it. Thorn Trap is D-Rank, so would it not work well?’
I would be able to directly incapacitate up to A-Ranks unless they had a high curse resistance. Even though my stats were a little lacking, if it was this much, I would be able to easily win in even a head-on match with an A-Rank combat Hunter.
Though there was only about two days left.
Since I was only going to apply the keyword to A-Rank and higher Hunters and monsters if possible, did that mean on the rare occasion that an accident occured, it would be like ‘for 7 days, you can become invincible~’.
‘…Of course, it’s not that there are absolutely no methods……’
If I decided to be heartless, it was a title I would be able to use effectively.
If I raised reasonably ranked monsters and applied the keyword, and afterwards, killed them every 7 days. Especially if they were curse and poison dragon type monsters like Blackie, I would be able to become higher than A-Rank using a C-Rank, like now.
It was like that, but.
‘If doing that was possible for me, I wouldn’t have even regressed.’
Curse and poison dragon types weren’t common, and if it were normal monsters, I would soothe them and coax them and feed them and give a love ballad for days and days, and then stab and, fuck, each time I would have to see a ‘thank you for the magic stones you fed me’ remembrance record, so was that something a person should do?
If I could do that without a problem, with that little brother dying, I would have prayed a couple times for his soul and then have become the strongest through the wish stone and lived well.
It might have been different if there wasn’t the memory display at least; since it was something that caused a psychiatric hospital ending, let’s just cleanly give up on it.
I sighed and then checked the attack reward items.
‘Oh, high rank vitality potions.’
And it was revised to double, so there were two. Usually you could only see them in A-Rank dungeons and higher, and sometimes they came out in B-Rank dungeons as a first attack reward. An elixir wouldn’t pop out as a D-Rank solo attack reward, right?
‘If it was this level of awards for anyone instead of an F-Rank Hunter, it would be worth solo attacking.’
If it was at the level of this dungeon, even a C-Rank with okay attack skills could beat it on their own. But for some reason, it seemed like it went into an F-Rank Hunter’s awards revision. It was too good for simply a solo attack reward.
Besides that, the items were also at the level of a C~B-Rank dungeon. Of course, it was doubled. I didn’t pick up a single magic stone, but it was profitable. There were two C-Rank equipment too, and through the embellishment, four came out. The Miracle title really was pretty good. If only I could go through a high rank dungeon, it would be completely jackpot. It felt like a waste, anew.
‘But these titles seem to be a doubling series?’
The F-Rank was doubled rewards, and the E-Rank was doubled attack skill effects. Would the D-Rank be stats doubled? Though even if it was doubled, it wouldn’t have a big effect on the normal me. Instead of stats, if an assistance skill effect doubling came out, it would be great. Then raising the monsters would get two times faster, and I would be able to optimally Awaken people twice a month. And applying the keyword would get twice as easy too.
Please, assistance skill doubling for the D-Rank achievement title, I implore you. Let’s fish out at least one properly.
“When did you go out?”
When I returned home, Myeongwoo asked, surprised. I raised the bag that I was holding in my hand to show him.
“Went to the convenience store for a bit. You didn’t hear me go out?”
To get a definite alibi, I let go of Wall Lizard in front of the door, went back out again, and went to the 1st floor convenience store with the Hunter guarding the entrance.
“I didn’t know at all. What did you buy?”
“…Cockroach killer.”
“What? There’s cockroaches in the house?!”
“No, it’s not that there are any. Just for my peace of mind.”
As soon as my eyes landed on a sale stand’s cockroach killer, I grabbed it as if bewitched. And it said that it also had an effect on spiders. Insecticides were the best.
I went straight to the bathroom and took a shower. I hadn’t heard of catching germs from a E-Rank dungeon monster, but still I used the body wash as if I would make it run out. If it were up to me, I would have doused myself with disinfectant.
After washing and coming out, I took Peace and Chirpie and prepared the kids’ dinner.
“Chirpie, I told you this isn’t for you to eat.”
-Chirp!
I forcefully pulled Chirpie off the bottle containing C-Rank magic stone power that Chirpie was sticking to. Why did that tiny thing have such a large greed for magic stones? When I gave it F-Rank magic stones, it cheeped, dissatisfied, but it did take them and ate well. I had happened to pick up E-Rank magic stones; should I try giving it some?
“Here, Chirpie.”
-Chirp chirp chirp!!
It really liked it. When I split the E-Rank boss monster’s magic stone into thin pieces for it, it seemed like it would break out dancing. Peace ate exactly a certain amount, and then if there were any left, didn’t have any interest, but this one was a bit unusual. It wolfed down the two E-Rank magic stones and then pulled the C-Rank magic stone powder bottle over with its wings.
-Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep
“I said it’s not yours.”
Did I have to give it higher rank magic stones? It seemed like up to E-Rank was okay, and I should bring over some D-Rank magic stones tomorrow.
‘……What is it?’
I had to go into a dungeon again tomorrow, so I went to bed early, but while asleep, I suddenly felt The Weak’s Premonition being roused. Did Yerim come to rob the kitchen again… stat S-Rank, and poison skill… hm? Curse skill? What?
My eyes shot open. At the same time, I saw a message window open.
[While against the Dio Valshesis[11], all skill effects are increased by 2 times!]
Crazy? Doubled? Curse and poison dragon? S-Rank? Did an S-Rank dungeon or something burst open in my bedroom? For something like that, it was too quiet? I was startled inside my mind, but perhaps thanks to the fear resistance, my body didn’t freeze or anything.
As soon as my mind was clear, The Weak’s Premonition pushed out the information. The premonition skill that had its effect doubled, figured out the opponent’s location before my eyes did.
I jumped down from my bed, and used Thorn Trap right away.
“Hell- ugh!”[12]
……Why did a person collapse?
[1] idk if they’re called this in eng but they’re basically long and curved knife/sword things that u used to cut your way through a jungle
[2] in case it’s hard to read: ‘nice words polite words’. It actually says lit. ‘nice words pretty words’, but it means to not use swear words and such, and eng doesn’t use ‘pretty’ like that. Also, fun fact, instead of writing out ‘word/speech’ (말, pronounced ‘mal’), they used the hanja/chn character for horse 馬, also pronounced 말 in krn. I couldn’t do an eng equiv of that tho 🙁
[3] he actually says ‘I hate it’ but that’s used a little more versatile-y in kr. As in, in krn, it makes sense in this kind of situation, but in eng, ppl would normally say things abt the situation/why they hate it (which u also do in krn, I just mean that in eng it’s usually this rather than either), rather than just that they hate it. So I changed it to ‘it’s gross’ since that’s obviously yj’s complaint here
[4] lit. ‘eu-we-ek’, it’s a vomiting sound
[5] lit. crying noises (‘heukheukeuk’, which came up before) but I thought this would make more sense in eng? It still sounds a little sarcastic, but not as much as ‘boohoo’, and it’s supposed to sound funny/lighthearted anyways
[6] alsdkfjasld I couldn’t figure this out for the LONGEST time I swear I spent the most time on this anything in this whole novel as of yet. Like literally an hr in total spent thinking abt it, but longer than that bc I kept on moving on and coming back to it. It was ‘π∈┃○’ and I kept on reading it as ‘ㅈ팅’ (esp bc π was used as ㅈ already in a prev ch) which I thought had to be slang if anything bc ㅈ is a single letter not a syllable, but I couldn’t find anything. But then while I was editing the ch it hit me that it might be w reading the greek letter as is, as ‘π팅’ (pi-ting), aka ‘fighting’ (there’s no f sound in krn so it’s pronounced pah-ee-ting), the konglish equiv to ‘good luck’ or ‘do your best’. Jesus… anyways I tl’d it as ‘GL’ short for good luck
[7] lit. ‘like a beggar’ but used colloq to mean worthless :/
[8] they wrote 롬곡 which doesn’t mean anything on its own (which is why yj is confused) but if you rotate 180 deg, it becomes 눈물 which means ‘tear(s)’. Often used on the internet, esp twitter
[9] lit. ‘I want to see you’ but it makes more sense to say ‘I miss you’ in eng, hence. Ik I tl’d it as lit. as ‘want to see’ just a few sent before, but idk it felt esp weird to keep it that way here
[10] in eng transliterated to krn
[11] idk if this is supposed to be some foreign word or a made up one. I’m like 100% sure abt the ‘dio’ but I just did whatever seemed the closest w the 2nd one. It’s ‘dee-oh bal-sweh-shi-seu’.
[12] in case it’s not clear, they’re about to say ‘hello’, not ‘hell’