25. Care
The enemy front line consisted of zombies, which could revive after insufficient attacks.
But my cantrip True Strike could change an attack's damage type to radiant, which was a zombie's weakness.
Swish. Thud.
A zombie's head split off in one blow and its body collapsed.
But the next zombie soon pushed forward.
Behind them, the enemy rear line—skeletons—aimed at me with shortbows.
That was the habit of undead: targeting the nearest enemy first. It would actually be more effective to aim for the rear.
I held my longsword in a high guard and focused on defense.
Neither the zombies' flailing hands nor the skeletons' arrows could touch me, protected as I was by the two spells Mage Armor and Blur.
While fending off attacks, I shouted to the teacher and Choi Da-in.
"Attack the monster next to me!"
"O-okay."
"Ah, ugh."
The two of them attacked clumsily but earnestly and brought down a zombie.
Relieved a little at the sight, I shouted toward the rear this time.
"Son Yu-ju!"
"S-sorry."
Son Yu-ju apologized first, then began reciting a spell.
"Hex!"
It was a curse spell that marked a target on an enemy and increased damage against it. A follow-up attack came immediately after.
"Eldritch Blast!"
A white ray flew out and pierced the head of the skeleton marked by the curse.
"All right, everyone, pull yourselves together and focus on your own roles!"
I gradually focused on evading attacks.
Partly because if I killed too many enemies, the three lower-level people's share would drop,
and partly because I had reached level 4, so offering low-level enemies as sacrifices had no effect.
Of course, I was collecting the payment for that from Kwon Chae-a, and it wasn't for your sake—I was doing it because I felt sorry for Kwon Chae-a and Lee Se-rin's party.
Like that, the three barely pulled themselves together, and the battle ended.
The three collapsed on the spot as the tension left them.
"Let's offer the sacrifices and rest for a bit."
The three were startled by the experience points they received.
"A-a hundred?!"
"The experience we earned hunting all day in the grassland was 50!"
"But the temple is dangerous. Don't get too excited."
Roughly calculating, it seemed my share of the experience had come to 250.
I had blocked all the attacks from the front and dealt with monsters too, so I had more than earned that amount.
"Now you understand why I told you to try gaining experience, right?"
The experience gained per unit of time increased dramatically if you accepted even a little risk.
Kwon Chae-a and Choi Da-in had been exposed to a few attacks, but they blocked, dodged, or let their HP absorb the hits.
"We'll rest for an hour, and next time I'll let a few more monsters slip through. You also need to learn how to recover while fighting."
At those words, Kwon Chae-a hesitated slightly before answering.
"Let's do that."
But even though this was the first time I had given instructions like this, they followed along better than expected.
Was this also the power of charm?
『Not only that, my lord is skilled in intimidation.』
No wonder I had a sense of how to do it whenever I shouted something.
Anyway, we finished the first battle safely and rested for an hour. If I used my ability, a single kiss could provide the effect of a short rest, but the only person here who could receive that was Kwon Chae-a.
Choi Da-in and Son Yu-ju still had things to talk about, since they occasionally chatted with each other.
"I never got to finish that webtoon."
"You were better off not watching it. The ending was a nuclear explosion ending."
Son Yu-ju had apparently watched it to the end.
"Nuclear? What the hell do you have to do to get an ending like that?"
"But it was really good up until the last episode."
Choi Da-in tried to defend it somehow.
"What's the point? It's a nuclear ending."
Son Yu-ju apparently really didn't like the ending.
I had worried that my shouting earlier might have hurt their feelings, but when I approached first, the two opened up and chattered away, and I felt relieved.
After resting for an hour like that and receiving the effect of a short rest, we found monsters for the next battle.
Thanks to Kwon Chae-a's Guide Boon, finding monster groups was quick.
"Choi Da-in! Front!"
"O-okay!"
"Son Yu-ju! Aim your spells properly!"
"Sorry!"
"Teacher! Finish off the monsters that slip through!"
"Leave it to me."
One difference between the temple and the cave was that the cave had passages running for dozens of meters with only occasional forks, while the temple constantly presented branches and intersections.
So unlike the cave, where we could fire from dozens of meters away, here we often faced enemies that burst out from beyond a branching path and started combat within 10 meters.
I needed to give feedback suited to that as well.
"Here you'll often fight monsters up close, but it'll be different in the grassland. Then it's better to prepare long-range attack methods first."
I told the three, who had slumped down after the battle ended, but did they actually listen? I'd check next time we came.
"And Choi Da-in, you kept looking at me during battle. What's that about?"
"Uh, oh, that, I was trying to listen to your instructions."
"You just need to keep your ears open."
"S-sorry. Did it bother you?"
She stuttered during battle and feedback, but when resting she spoke perfectly fine again. Why was she doing this?
"You'll get hurt doing that. You've been fine so far, but still."
I decided to leave it at that for now. Her constantly looking at me was a problem, but she'd only come to her senses after actually getting hurt because of it—except she carried out my instructions so absurdly well that she never got hurt.
After saying that much, I asked Kwon Chae-a this time.
"Teacher, I have a question. Can't your Perk be used in combat?"
"My Perk? It only has the ability to find paths, so......"
When I first declared that I would scout monster groups, Kwon Chae-a had immediately revealed her Perk.
Something had been itching at me ever since then.
"Then is this kind of application impossible? Like finding a monster's weakness, or finding a route you can attack through."
"Huh? I've never thought of it that way. Huh? Wait? I feel strange."
Click. I felt something falling into place.
And as if that had been the correct answer, an Achievement window greeted me.
［Achievement］Sage's Advice
Reward: You can strengthen another person's Perk with advice imbued with Wisdom of the Night.
"Teacher, would you like to check your status window?"
"Huh? Sure."
The teacher, who had been concentrating for a moment, shouted in surprise.
"My Perk changed!"
At those words, I looked into the teacher's status window too.
［Boon+］Guide II
▶Sense of Direction
You can always know which way is north.
▶Tracking
Choose a target or destination you know.
You can supernaturally know the way toward the target or destination.
▶Weakness Tracking
You can designate one target within sight and track its weakness.
You can immediately know the damage type the target is vulnerable to, and while tracking, you have advantage on attacks against the target.
This feature can change targets after finishing a short or long rest.
A new feature called Weakness Tracking had been added.
In my status window, it still remained as the pre-strengthening Perk. I'd update it today while collecting tomorrow's payment from the teacher.
So that was what the itching feeling had been. Wisdom of the Night might be a more incredible Perk than I thought.
Seeing the teacher happy that it would now be more helpful in battle, my heart felt pleased too.
We exchanged conversation like that and rested for another hour.
In the third battle that followed, unlike the first, they showed reasonably organized movement.
"Good! Keep pushing like that!"
"O-okay!"
"Son Yu-ju! Don't target the nearest enemy just because you're scared—target the distant enemies that can attack at range first!"
"B-but."
"Trust the person blocking in front of you!"
"Okay......."
"Teacher, fall back now and shoot your bow!"
"Will do!"
The three performed their roles so well that I only needed to catch details during battle.
My plan to torment them under the pretext of training collapsed immediately.
They were good enough to make me wonder why they hadn't been doing this all along.
Choi Da-in in particular was outstanding—she carried out my commands immediately and never forgot anything I had told her once.
Like that, the third battle also ended.
The total experience the three earned that day was 900. That was 300 per person,
"W-we reached level 3."
"Kyaa! Now we can earn money too, right?"
"Everyone, calm down. There's still a lot to learn."
The three had gathered 600 experience by yesterday—that is, up to day 12—which was exactly the right amount to reach level 3.
I clapped to draw their attention, then spoke.
"Today, you were probably able to fight more comfortably because I was here."
At those words, the three's expressions stiffened slightly.
Were they thinking about what to do tomorrow without me?
Right. They needed to struggle a bit even without me around to understand at least a little of how Lee Se-rin's party felt.
"So tomorrow, go a bit deeper into the grassland and check yourselves."
"O-okay."
"Do we really have to? I heard once you reach level 3, you can earn money comfortably."
I gave Son Yu-ju a firm answer when she challenged me.
"That easy way to earn money is going deep into the grassland and raiding wolf packs or goblin groups."
Son Yu-ju wilted at those words.
They seemed to be forgetting something important, so I added another point.
"Besides, we have to return to Earth, right? We can't set our goal as a life where we barely earn our daily living expenses."
"Then can't we just save a little more Contribution Points for returning on top of living expenses? Do we really need to fight so hard?"
"We were in a falling bus. If we don't get stronger, we'll die the moment we return, won't we?"
"Can't we survive that if we use a spell?"
I asked Son Yu-ju, who asked that, what spell she meant.
"Feather Fall. It's 1st circle, and it makes up to five falling targets descend slowly like feathers, eliminating falling damage."
She said she couldn't use it herself because she was a Warlock, but there were five students with classes that could use it.
So she had figured out all the students' classes. Even though I could look into status windows, I didn't really know the male students' classes.
But I pointed out the problem with this plan.
"That target thing—objects aren't included, right?"
"Right. The target has to be alive, or something that can act like it's alive."
"Then what about the bus?"
Just because our bodies fell slowly didn't mean the bus's falling speed would slow down.
Unless we could get out of the bus while it was falling, we'd still be flattened when the bus hit the ground.
"Oh, that problem!"
"So we have no choice but to raise our levels more. So we can escape safely."
Son Yu-ju clicked her tongue as if disappointed. She had probably been thinking of returning while still level 3.
From what Eira had told me, a way for all of us to return safely wouldn't exist until much higher levels.
After wrapping up the conversation like that, I asked Kwon Chae-a this time.
"Teacher, everyone can fight well, so why have you all been acting so complacently until now?"
"I'm sorry, Do-hyeon. I think I worried too much and couldn't trust the students."
Apparently, Kwon Chae-a had simply been worrying too much.
Kwon Chae-a, Son Yu-ju, and I talked about various things.
From recommended equipment to future plans.
"Da-in, what's wrong?"
Son Yu-ju said that and nudged Choi Da-in lightly.
Choi Da-in had definitely been left out of the flow of this conversation.
"I-I have something to think about."
"Heh, is that so?"
Son Yu-ju narrowed her eyes and looked at Choi Da-in, and Choi Da-in didn't know what to do.
Before the atmosphere got weird, I decided to do an overall review.
"How was today?"
"I think today was more comfortable than hunting in the grassland?"
"Right, there we had to search for prey all day long."
Compared to the safe life in the grassland, where you had to keep finding, chasing, and catching prey, it seemed fighting intensely for a short time and resting for an hour with only light vigilance was more comfortable.
"You'd better not enjoy it too much. Monsters can pop out even while you're resting."
"Ugh. What's that."
"Really?"
"That's why I told you not to forget to stay on guard even while resting."
Leaving the two of them deflated, I asked Kwon Chae-a as well.
"How was it for you, teacher?"
"At this level, I think I could leave Ji-yu's group to you as well."
It seemed to be a satisfactory result.
Lastly, I looked at Choi Da-in. When our eyes met, she smiled. She was definitely suspicious.
Especially once combat started, she kept glancing my way—there was no way I wouldn't notice. She was definitely interested in me.
I had grounds.
［Achievement］Virgin Hunter (2/10)
Reward: It becomes easier to seduce inexperienced partners.
［Achievement］Virgin Hunter (3/10)
Reward: The probability of sexual activity with an inexperienced partner increases.
These were the rewards I'd obtained when I took Eira's and Kwon Chae-a's virginity. The synergy between them probably made Choi Da-in more likely to become interested in me.
On the other hand, if you asked why she was like that only during battle, wasn't it the suspension bridge effect?
Entering battle, she mistook her pounding heart for affection toward the nearest man—me.
Wasn't that plausible enough grounds?
So what should I do with this ripening fruit?