Failed Dungeon Quest: Hunting the Relic (Part 8)
People often talk about something called “game allowance.”
Even if it doesn’t match the world setting, it simply means balancing the game’s fun, convenience, and features by tweaking performance to make it more enjoyable as a game.
For example, a legendary weapon that slices through mountains in the story setting might end up with ridiculously weak stats in the game because of balance adjustments.
In the RTS game War of the Stars, a 1.2-kilometer battleship appears so powerless that five marines with rifles can shoot it down.
So, world setting and in-game performance aren’t proportional at all.
Even the best world setting gets performance slashed hard just to keep the game balanced.
But what if the world inside the game became real?
Would the items that appeared in Romance Hero Academy follow their in-world descriptions?
Or the game settings?
Well, no point in thinking about it.
Of course it would follow the world setting.
Game allowance exists to make the game itself fun.
But once the world inside the game turns real, following the world setting makes sense.
Back in the day, I already checked online and saw that every relic’s stats matched the world setting, not the game ones.
So the relic I’m looking for should be the same.
Quick, quick… where the hell is it?
Relics.
They exist in this world.
In an RPG game they’re the special items with unknown origins and mysterious powers.
Because their source is unknown, so few relics have ever been found.
Even if you find one, you can’t tell if it’s real or just junk by looking.
Many also have strict activation conditions, making them even harder to use.
In real South Korea, the number of heroes and villains using relics can be counted on one hand.
They have to be here. They have to.
Finding a relic won’t always let you beat anyone, but at least it will buy time until the other heroes arrive.
So I have to grab it and hand it back to Yu Seolhyeon right away.
Yu Seolhyeon… how long can she hold on…? She probably thinks I ran away…
No, actually, that’s not wrong.
Technically I did run.
I left without telling her anything.
But I had my reasons.
If I had gone to her and said, “I’ll find the relic that will defeat that snake girl. Just wait here for me, okay?” she probably wouldn’t have nodded so easily.
It might have sounded like I was using her as bait to escape.
That’s why I didn’t say a word to her.
I’ll explain everything later.
Right now I just needed to put out the fire.
I searched the lab from top to bottom for a bit.
According to my memory, the relic should be around here somewhere.
Nowhere… oh!
In a blink, my eyes landed on a single sword.
I rushed over and examined it closely.
It looked like it had been left lying around for a long time, but there was no rust, and the edge felt sharp and dangerous.
Found it. It was right here.
It belonged to the man once called the Vigilante.
At first glance it looked ordinary, but it was actually a pretty decent blade.
Still, the relic I wanted was the small gem embedded on the flat of this sword—the Tears of the Moon.
As a weapon-attachment relic, it followed the world rule of absorbing and releasing mana.
It was one of the early farmable legendary relics, useful until the mid-game.
The mana absorption and release in the game had been heavily nerfed for balance, but this wasn’t the game anymore.
That meant I could use the power exactly as the world setting described.
Of course, I should test it first.
Let me see…
I calmed my mind a little and placed my hand on the hilt.
I gripped it tight, but nothing unusual happened.
Touching the Tears of the Moon itself felt the same—nothing at all.
That made sense.
Because this relic had conditions too.
You had to form a contract with it.
The contract broke if the owner died or if you got too far away.
The condition was simple.
Just some blood.
Its previous owner is dead, so let’s try.
I slowly moved my hand and made a tiny cut on my fingertip.
Drops of blood fell.
I hurried and dripped them onto the relic.
The relic shivered.
It reacted.
Good. It looks like the contract is formed.
It felt like some kind of secret power rising inside me.
Now, how to use it.
According to my memory, I should… inject mana into it like this…?
“Ugh?!”
Sudden.
The relic started sucking in the little mana I had sent it.
Startled, I swung the sword wildly.
Purple mana exploded outward.
Just like sword qi.
Hah… this is tougher than I thought…?
It seemed to drain quite a bit of stamina, just like the setting said.
Even one use left me out of breath.
Using it continuously might be impossible.
And because I used my own mana, the power is also pathetic.
It flew toward the wall like sword qi, but it only left a few cracks.
Not as powerful as what Siwoo had shown me.
Slightly disappointing, but still fine.
The way to use this relic wasn’t like that anyway.
Then I’ll head back quickly.
I gripped the sword and stepped away.
Toward where Yu Seolhyeon was.
“U-uh… ugh… so sticky…!”
“……”
“What? You finally collapsed? Tsk, annoying.”
“……”
Yu Seolhyeon lay half-dead on the ground.
Her torn clothes were rags.
White skin was covered in bloody burns, and her collarbone was cracked while her right leg was broken.
……I have to move, but I can’t move at all.
My body had stopped responding.
Exhausted to the limit, it no longer listened to her commands.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move an inch.
She wasn’t even sure she was breathing properly.
Her eyes barely opened.
……uh, ugh.
Her consciousness was fading.
If she relaxed, she would pass out instantly.
The only thing Yu Seolhyeon could do now was silently accept her coming death.
“I’ll burn you to a crisp, really.”
Kate opened her snake-like mouth.
Instantly, an enormous amount of mana swirled inside her mouth.
It gathered and condensed into a fireball.
……Is that a breath?
One of Kate’s techniques she had used several times.
Unlike before, there was no way Yu Seolhyeon’s body could dodge it now.
Soon the fireball would engulf her completely.
She had barely survived the academy a few weeks ago.
Who would have thought she would face this deadly danger again so soon?
Back then Jinhyuk had saved her with an arrow.
But now… hah.
Yu Seolhyeon laughed bitterly inside.
Jinhyuk.
I never imagined he would run away alone.
Still, I thought he was a decent guy.
Always confident and producing amazing results.
I thought it was fine to build a positive relationship later.
But he was backstabbing me like this?
Not the worst action for a hero aspirant.
Running away and abandoning comrades?
How ridiculous.
……Yeah, in the end, self-preservation is the most important.
No matter if you’re a hero or not.
In the end, Yu Seolhyeon closed her eyes tightly and accepted her fate.
She had no way to escape, so she chose to die.
But.
“Hoo… thank goodness.”
A familiar male voice made Yu Seolhyeon slowly lift her heavy eyelids and roll her eyes.
In front of her stood a man’s back.
It was Jinhyuk.
……He didn’t die, just fainted?
Leaving his muttering behind, Yu Seolhyeon fell into thought.
……Didn’t you run away? Why are you back?
I have no idea how he got here, but Jinhyuk stood in front of the collapsed Yu Seolhyeon like a shield.
He held his sword quietly and stared at Kate.
But… a sword?
Jinhyuk was a bow user. Why was he carrying a sword?
Yu Seolhyeon had thought he was bringing it as a sidearm.
But what could he even do with a sword?
Originally, a bow-wielding Jinhyuk pretending to be a swordsman was ridiculous.
If he had just stayed back and shot arrows while fighting, he might have had a tiny chance of victory.
Why did he stand in front of Kate with a sword in hand?
“……Why, come here? Hoo… hoo.”
Kate muttered while clenching a thick flame breath in her mouth.
Soon she would exhale the flame breath.
Jinhyuk had no way to block it.
So why was he standing there quietly waiting?
“……Puh, you too get burned to ashes!”
Finally, a long flame breath roared out.
Ah, it’s over.
Yu Seolhyeon thought.
Even professional heroes would have trouble blocking that directly.
But a mere hero aspirant like Jinhyuk—what was he thinking, standing in front of that fire?
Did he have some clever trick?
But with his abilities, there was no way he could block that flame… wait?
Whoosh! The sword moved toward Kate.
A plain swing with no mana at all.
It would surely be swallowed by the fire.
He couldn’t cut the fire with a sword anyway.
But.
Fwoosh! The flame breath split right in half the moment it met the sword and crumbled away.
Yes, it had been cut.
By the sword.
The flame breath.