Dungeon Practical (6)

I pulled up the system window and a cascade of messages scrolled into view.

I set them aside for the moment and focused on what Yeon Hajin was saying first.

"For real?"

"Yeah. As a reward, they're even opening up the academy vault."

Inatium Academy did have a kind of treasure vault where all sorts of rare items were stored.

In the original novel, the cult had cleaned it out.

"Who are the main contributors?"

At my question, Yeon Hajin pointed at three people in turn.

"Me, you, and him."

Himself, me, and Baek Woohyun, in that order.

"Huh? Me too?"

"…If not you, then who the hell would count as a contributor?"

Yeon Hajin looked at me like I was an idiot.

"You took down the boss, didn't you?"

"And the academy just believes that?"

That a healer solo-killed a B-rank boss?

"What else are they supposed to do if they don't believe it? There's no other way to explain what happened."

Yeon Hajin said it with a cynical little smile.

…So not everyone was buying it, then.

Still, this was more than good enough.

Whether other people believed it or not, the academy had already recognized me as a contributor.

What actually bothered me wasn't that side of things at all.

"Then what about the others?"

My gaze moved in turn to Han Yeoreum, Lee Hayun, and Yoon Chaea.

"Yujeong didn't really do much, sure, but what about Chaea? She held off that weird monster alone and protected her teammates. Same for Yeoreum and Hayun."

"Hey, I did plenty too, you know?"

I ignored Chae Yujeong's indignant outburst and looked at Han Yeoreum. She smiled softly and answered.

"We're getting prize money at least, so don't worry too much."

When I looked at Chaea, she nodded in agreement as well.

"…Prize money is enough?"

"Better to get a solid cash payout than some half-assed item they slap together."

Even Lee Hayun chimed in like that, so I had no choice but to accept it.

It wasn't like the academy was broke. They'd take care of them properly, right?

Lee Hayun and the others didn't seem particularly dissatisfied, so I relaxed a little and changed the subject.

"What happened to the terrorists?"

"Everyone except the one who died got subdued. They're probably being interrogated right now."

"Ah."

Hearing Lee Hayun's answer, something suddenly occurred to me.

"…Is Baek Woohyun even allowed to just sit around here like this?"

Whatever else you said, Baek Woohyun had killed someone.

And officially, that someone had been Kang Hyun, an academy student.

Of course, unlike the other spies, Kang Hyun had been high enough up to run an entire operation on his own, so capturing him alive would have been tough.

But that was something only we knew. The academy side had no idea.

"Don't worry about it. He already went through the investigation and got a self-defense ruling."

…He was good at this stuff, wasn't he?

He'd killed a student and still gotten self-defense—and on top of that, been named a major contributor.

Considering the incident hadn't even been a full day ago, I couldn't begin to guess what kind of strings he'd pulled.

Baek Woohyun wore an indifferent expression, as if none of it mattered.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gave up trying to understand him and asked about something else I was curious about.

"When do we get the rewards?"

"Probably next week? We won't know exactly what they're giving until then either."

Listening to Yeon Hajin's answer, I ran through the original novel's timeline in my head.

This dungeon practical had wrapped up safely, so the next cult attack I needed to prepare for was the Daejeon Gate Break the week after next.

That incident required preparation time on the cult's side too, so the schedule probably wouldn't shift much. Just getting the rewards next week would be a solid help.

But before that…

"So are we still going to Pyongyang tomorrow?"

"Ah, that."

Yeon Hajin looked a little awkward.

Probably because Pyongyang as a destination didn't match his original plan.

"The academy's closed tomorrow, but clubs that already booked external schedules can still go ahead at the supervising teacher's discretion."

"Oh. Who's our supervising teacher again?"

In the original novel, the club supervising teacher system had been basically decorative.

When the school got wrecked, who had time to care about that?

Just not dissolving the club had been lucky enough.

"Teacher Park Jincheol."

"…Who's that?"

Yeon Hajin stared at me like I was hopeless.

"…He's our history teacher."

"Ah."

…For some reason, the only memories I had of history class were of getting called out.

"Um…"

Was he going to refuse to approve the external activity because of me…?

"Pfft, Yu Haneul's gonna get us canceled."

Chae Yujeong chimed in from the side as if she'd read my mind.

Lee Hayun and Han Yeoreum snickered along with her.

"…I don't know, I don't know. Unni Haryang will handle everything. I trust Unni Haryang."

She was the Archaeology Club president, so she had to be on decent terms with the history teacher, right?

Yeon Hajin answered my words.

"Senior Haryang said to come to the club room by ten tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"I think she wants us to go with her when she gets the approval."

"…Tell her I'll be a little late because I'm sick."

If I tagged along, it'd probably just backfire, wouldn't it?

"You're sick?!"

Chae Yujeong freaked out at the excuse I'd tossed out without thinking.

"I just said it, okay? Why are you like this?"

I frowned as I answered, and Chae Yujeong got mad right back.

"Hey. If it was you and your friend collapsed, you wouldn't worry?"

That made me snort with laughter.

"So you do think of me as a friend?"

"…Of course I do, duh. Friend. What else."

Uncharacteristically stumbling over her words, Chae Yujeong's face went a little red.

"Pfft."

She was being cute again.

I grabbed the arm of the Yujeong who was trying to avoid my eyes and pulled her into a sudden hug…

"Aww, my friend Yujeong. Were you so worried because Unni collapsed~?"

"Wh-what are you doing?!"

Chae Yujeong freaked out and shoved me away like she was having a fit.

"And who the hell is Unni, you crazy bitch?!"

"That's what bothered you the most right then?"

I giggled at her, and her face got redder and redder.

"…Ugh, whatever. I hate you."

Completely scarlet, Chae Yujeong shot to her feet and fled the hospital room.

"Should we head out too?"

Watching her go, I got up as well.

I wasn't badly hurt. There was no real need to stay admitted.

Besides, we had to go to Pyongyang tomorrow.

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine~"

I answered Han Yeoreum, who was worrying about me, packed my things, and got ready to head back to the dorm.

A few hours later, I lay on my dorm bed in pajamas, fiddling with the system window.

Messages were piled up in a long, dense scroll.

The first thing that caught my eye was the side effect of drawing on the Ice Dragon's mana.

The pain and chills that had been lingering in my body since earlier were because of this.

Even Purification couldn't clear it, so for a full week I was stuck as a sickly pretty girl.

Of course, it wasn't all downside.

Until now, I'd been able to solve things that would normally take multiple skill uses with a single Amplifying Shot-enhanced cast, so mana had never really been an issue.

Thanks to that, I'd also been able to brute-force the chronic healer problem—skills used on yourself having drastically reduced effect—by just spamming the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cast count with spare mana.

But from here on, it was a different story.

As skill ranks rose, their effects went up—and so did their mana costs.

The ratio of mana cost increase when a skill ranked up was higher than the mana you gained from pure level-ups, so I needed to pad my mana pool early if I wanted to keep using skills freely later.

In that sense, losing 30 vitality for seven days in exchange for a permanent +50 mana was still a net win.

Even if the process itself had been ridiculously painful.

The Essence of Scorching Heat that came as the boss-kill reward turned out, when I checked the info, to be a material item usable for equipment.

I'd been needing a bit of serious cash anyway, so this worked out.

As a B-rank rare material, it would sell for a pretty good price.

Next was the dungeon clear reward.

Nothing particularly special—aside from mana stones and byproducts, it was mostly status points and experience.

Adding the boss-kill exp from earlier to the dungeon clear exp, my current level was…

I'd jumped a full four levels in one go and hit level 24.

The reinforced Mana Heal and Purification skills.

"Hmm…"

I'd checked pretty much everything I needed to check. Maybe I should poke at the cursed items a little with the upgraded Purification skill?

Bang—! Ba-bang—!

I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wrecked my sniper rifle in the dungeon, so I tried purifying with a handgun instead. Only two items successfully had their curses lifted.

A pair of earrings and one ring.

The Ring of Strength didn't really suit me, so I could just sell it for cash…

But the earrings were a little more ambiguous.

Growth-type equipment.

Gear that rose in rank when certain conditions were met. Rare enough that it traded for a fairly high price.

"Hmm…"

Honestly, if an item was usable, keeping it for myself was usually more efficient than selling it.

…Should I at least unlock the latent potential first?

I poured mana into the Orthodox Cross Earrings. Rippling golden mana was sucked in instantly and absorbed by the earrings.

Even that wasn't enough—they kept drinking, scraping every last drop of my mana.

A moment later, the earrings finished absorbing and released a bright light. A system window rose above them.

"Oh…"

Reading the description, the effect returned overheal as mana.

Of course, at D-rank the conversion rate wouldn't be a full 100%…

But still. That was huge.

…I was keeping these.

The next day, when I arrived at the club room, everyone was already gathered.

"You're here?"

"Yep yep. Did we get permission for Pyongyang?"

"No? We were just about to go get it."

"…What?"

Current time: 10:32 a.m.

I'd used being sick as an excuse to show up about thirty minutes late, and Min Haryang had kindly waited for me anyway.

"They said you'd be a little late, so I waited."

"Ah…"

I glared at Yeon Hajin sitting behind Min Haryang…

He shook his head vigorously, insisting he was innocent.

"Ahaha…. You really didn't have to…"

"Still, he's our supervising teacher. We should all go greet him while we're at it."

At those words, one of Min Haryang's settings from the original novel suddenly surfaced in my mind.

Ah, right.

This person was a stickler for rules.