Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Beating Salik at the Dungeon Entrance
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I asked the guards stationed at the village entrance for directions before heading out.
"Bordeaux Dungeon? It's close from here. Just follow this road straight ahead. Should take about an hour."
An hour? That's close?
In a world without developed public transportation, their sense of distance is totally different from mine.
"Ah! I remember you. You passed through here a little while ago, right? Looks like you've become a real adventurer."
One of the guards stared at me for a moment before speaking.
"Yes. No rank yet, though."
"Everyone starts out that way. Here, take this."
The guard handed me a map with detailed drawings of the local geography.
It was crude compared to modern maps, but it had plenty of useful information written on it.
For example, info on appearing monsters—their weaknesses and recommended tools to bring along.
It felt like a list of essentials prepared by adventurers.
"A map?"
"Yeah, they sell it at the general store for 5 silver. Essential item for newbie adventurers. Didn't know?"
"No, first I've heard of it."
Maybe I should've swung by the general store one more time?
I'd gotten so many scam items from the goddess that I figured I didn't need anything else.
But the map looked way more useful than I'd imagined.
"Thanks. I'll definitely repay the favor later."
"Forget about repaying me. It was just a spare. Just don't get yourself hurt."
The unexpected kindness lifted my spirits.
Even though my fellow adventurers had been too busy eyeing me warily.
"Fire Arrow!"
No sooner had I stepped outside than goblins came into view.
At this point, it was like spotting cockroaches in my room. I cast the spell right away to kill them.
The red flames took the shape of an arrow, shot toward the goblin, and exploded.
Once Fire Arrow reached ★ proficiency, it became reliable for one-shotting goblins.
Not always an instant kill, but it had a high chance of leaving embers that burned through their bodies.
"Ah, the soul stone."
Almost forgot.
I pulled the soul stone out of my inventory, then approached. White light flowed out from the goblin's body and into the gem.
So that's how you collect them.
As I put the soul stone back,
I realized there was one more item I still didn't know how to use.
〈Focusing Bracelet〉
I'd forgotten about it because of how light it felt when worn. What the heck did it do?
I decided to test it out for real.
I roamed the plains hunting down hidden goblins to verify the Focusing Bracelet's effects.
First, I took it off...
"Fire Arrow!"
"Kek!"
Cast time and power were unchanged.
I put it back on and fired again—same result. One thing clear: I hadn't benefited from the bracelet at all so far.
Did 〈Focusing〉 mean gathering something together?
I cast Fire Arrow twice in rapid succession.
If you try casting a second Fire Arrow while the first is already activating, the mana cost skyrockets several times over.
Way too inefficient.
And it didn't seem like the bracelet made it possible, either.
I wanted to test more, but the goblins on the plains ran out fast.
No helping it. I'd experiment with the rest on the way to the dungeon.
(Fatigue has recovered.)
(MP has recovered.)
I drank from the goddess's water bottle and kept walking.
The destination felt close now. No sign of the dungeon itself, but I spotted people in adventurer gear gathering here and there.
They looked like parties assembled to explore the Bordeaux Dungeon.
Salik was there, too.
Once I arrived, I learned the dungeon entrance led underground.
I was the only one who'd come solo, so I unintentionally drew everyone's attention.
"Isn't that the guild newbie?"
"He'll die going in alone."
Sure enough, Salik came striding over toward me.
He'd come himself, just as expected.
"You still haven't learned."
Salik took one look at me and spat out.
"Who knows. Mind backing off?"
"From the way you're talking, sounds like you didn't just get lost herb gathering. Right?"
Salik's buddies snickered.
"Yeah, I took an official quest."
"Dungeon explorations have a minimum entry rank requirement for quests. Know what that means?
It means the difficulty ramps up the deeper you go—and that's entirely on the adventurers."
"Move."
"And if I don't? Gonna run cry to mommy?"
"You'll regret what you do today for the rest of your life."
"Heard that? Gonna regret it! Haha."
"Ooh, so scary."
Snap.
I snapped my fingers.
The other parties were watching from a distance, so only Salik and his two buddies fell into a trance.
"Salik and you two ragtags—you won't interfere at all with what I'm about to do."
"..."
"Salik, you 「get terrified by even the slightest pain」"
Clap.
I clapped my hands to snap them out of it.
Then, before Salik could fully recover, I smashed my fist into his face.
"Urk!?"
"Oh! That punk hit Salik first!"
One of Salik's buddies started yelling up a storm.
"You wanna get beat to death or what?"
I struck a casual pose and taunted him.
"Yeah, let's fight. I'll even use my bare hands—come at me."
It was time for punishment.
I punched Salik in the gut.
"Hurk!"
Salik recoiled backward with an exaggerated flinch.
"What's wrong?"
I beat the stiffened Salik mercilessly, treating him like a sandbag.
In a real fight, you have to put massive power into every hit to take someone down. But I tapped away lightly, like casually practicing on a real sandbag, nice and breezy.
"Hurk! Guh! Kraa!"
But thanks to the suggestion, Salik was paralyzed by fear, unable to think straight, and took a one-sided beating.
"Hey! Salik! What's the deal? No faking it—that's no fun!"
"Take that guy down!"
As Salik started eating punches, the crowd of onlookers grew.
I confidently wailed on Salik wildly. Why? Because I knew he couldn't fight back.
Like some perfectly choreographed movie or drama action scene. The suggestion had Salik so gripped by fear that he sold every hit perfectly.
His head snapped back when I hit his face, he hunched over when I struck his stomach,
He even rolled around on the ground taking hits from me.
"Salik's getting totally one-sidedly wrecked?"
"He's not even a match."
"Kinda pathetic."
I wasn't hitting hard enough to actually knock him out, so it was like doing light jump rope—enough to get me a bit winded, and I was having a blast.
Salik took mental damage with every hit.
It had to be humiliating, getting pummeled senseless by me.
But the fear overrode even that, leaving him unable to control his own body.
"Hurk! Hurk! Stop!"
I grabbed Salik's hair as he panicked, then slapped his cheek hard.
"Who says so? You started this."
Terrified, Salik covered his face with his arms and trembled.
"Why's no one stopping this? 'Cause you brought it on yourself."
"Hic! My bad... please... just stop hitting me!"
Salik's pants grew wet. He'd pissed himself from the beating.
"Ugh."
I tossed Salik aside like trash and turned to his buddies.
"What're you waiting for? Aren't you gonna take your leader?"
"......"
With those words alone, I'd completely shattered Salik's party.