Meeting Sane
After parting ways with Liana, I returned to the dormitory and fell straight into bed.
The next day, I slept until noon. Upon waking, I stared at the potion Liana had given me, lost in thought.
Should I drink it or not…?
What if it kills me?
I knew from the game that the potion inflicted damage as backlash, but there was no guarantee it would work the same way in reality.
Still, I have the necklace… Ah, whatever!
I downed the potion in one gulp. A burning pain shot down my throat as it went in.
Then power surged through my entire body. My senses sharpened so much that I could even track flies buzzing around me.
Status window.
This is insane…
The Transcendence Potion raised a person's stats to their absolute limit. That meant characters with low limits gained almost nothing from it.
Luden's limits must have been higher than I thought.
Magic seems to be at its max, and Luck probably doesn't get boosted at all…
What really stood out was my Constitution.
With this Constitution, Goliath's Shield, and that spear…
The synergy would be unimaginable.
As the potion's duration ticked down, my body began to feel the strain. It was like the exhaustion after an all-out 100-meter sprint.
I took a ragged breath and activated Invincibility.
The crushing fatigue vanished instantly.
…Then the potion's effect ended.
As expected, Invincibility nullifies the backlash.
While I was still marveling at the success, the skill's duration ran out.
An overwhelming wave of pain crashed over me. Every muscle fiber felt like it was tearing apart.
Ghh… So the backlash finally hits…
I blacked out under the torrent of agony.
.
.
.
The pain flooding my body woke me up.
The window showed the sun already setting.
"I'm… still alive?"
Thankfully, I was. Just to be sure, I checked the necklace—it still glowed with its radiant light.
So my body just couldn't handle that kind of overload…
Since it hadn't developed enough to withstand those stats, the pain had been brutal.
I'll have to save this as a last resort…
Grumble.
My stomach let out a loud protest. Luckily, today was a holiday—no academy classes.
I still have money.
I rummaged through my pockets.
There was still some of the money I'd extorted from Luden, though it wouldn't last long.
Extorting more would weigh on my conscience.
I needed to find a way to earn money. I also had to earn enough to keep sponsoring Liana.
Dungeons it is, then…
Without family support, my options for making money were limited.
I started thinking of nearby dungeons that could turn a profit.
Hmm… The Wolf Den doesn't sound bad…
To enter a registered dungeon, you either had to sneak in or register through the academy's administration with the Adventurer's Guild.
Registering sounds like a hassle…
I decided to sneak in. With my failing grades, the administration probably wouldn't approve me anyway.
In the game, low academy scores also blocked access to external dungeons.
Guess I'll go at night.
First, I needed to fill my stomach. I left the dormitory.
.
.
.
When night fell, I slipped out of the academy.
Many villages outside the academy lacked mana lamps, so the darkness was thick.
Goliath's Shield and Melek's Spear were strapped to my back.
The sky is beautiful…
The night sky here was nothing like the one from my old reality. It made my heart race with excitement.
I had thrown on a robe I'd bought from a random clothing shop, hood pulled low. Being spotted would only cause trouble.
My destination was the Wolf Den.
It was a popular spot for low-rank adventurers because the magic stones from the Alberin wolves fetched a decent price.
I passed through the village and reached the cave entrance.
Weapon fragments and bloodstains littered the ground—clear signs that many had come and gone.
…Where do these monsters even come from?
In the game, cleared dungeons would respawn after a few in-game days. I wondered if the same rule applied here.
They probably do respawn… Maybe there's some kind of gate that spawns the mobs?
Mulling it over, I stepped into the Wolf Den.
.
.
.
The moment I entered, glowing eyes lit up in the darkness. I activated a light artifact and saw wolves tearing into the corpse of what looked like an adventurer.
Urgh…
The wolves spotted me and charged.
I raised my shield and began slaughtering them with the spear.
Kuwoooar!
They kept coming. I calmly knocked them aside with the shield and drove the spear through each one.
After a while, the wolves around me lay still and cold.
The metallic scent of blood filled the cave.
I used the dagger I'd brought to extract the magic stones and tucked them into my pouch.
I must've killed over twenty, but no level-up…
The level gap between me and the wolves was just too wide.
I pressed deeper into the cave.
Shunk. Every thrust of the spear ended another wolf's life. Before long, my pouch was full of stones.
By now I should have seen the alpha wolf, yet it still hadn't appeared.
Did I not go deep enough…? Or maybe someone already killed it.
Perhaps a previous adventurer had already taken out the boss.
I was about to leave when I heard footsteps and voices.
"Which bastard wiped out all the wolves?!"
"The blood's still fresh. They can't have gone far…"
A group was approaching, grumbling.
One man with a sword, another carrying a bow, and a woman in a black suit holding daggers.
…Wait. A suit?
There had been an assassin character in the game who wore a black suit… What was her name again?
She wasn't a student at the academy, but a member of the Demon Countermeasures Division.
I was disappointed she wasn't playable…
I checked her status window.
Traits
• Ambush (Rank: A) — Damage increased by 200% when attacking unaware targets.
• Faint Presence (Rank: A) — Reduces chance of being detected by magic or other means.
Right. Her name was Sane… But why is she here?
Thanks to her high Agility and traits, Sane specialized in assassination. Though officially part of the Demon Countermeasures Division, most of her work involved eliminating people connected to demons.
If she's here… does it have something to do with demons? Maybe because of Melek?
"Hey! Sane! Stop standing around and do something! You said you could track footprints!"
The swordsman barked at her.
"Y-yes! Understood! The footprints… continue further ahead. No signs of anyone leaving…"
"Then we'll just have to beat that guy up and take the magic stones back. Heh heh…"
The way he claimed my hard-earned stones as his own was ridiculous, but the fact that he was ordering Sane around was even more shocking.
They're bossing around the Executioner Sane…?
His stats were nothing special. That could only mean one thing.
…She's hiding her identity.
For some reason, Sane was concealing who she really was.
Eventually, they spotted me sitting atop the alpha wolf's corpse.
"Hey… Isn't that the magic stone thief?"
"Looks like it…"
.
.
.
"…Finally found you."
"Huh? What did you just say, Sane?"
"Shut up."
The moment she spoke, a cold smile spread across her face.
Thwack!
A dagger buried itself in the archer's chest.
"Y-you bastard!"
The swordsman lunged at her, but his throat was slit in an instant.
"Ghk… ghh…"
He died without even a scream.
"Haha… Those disgusting bastards who only ever thought about using me. Feels good to finally get that off my chest."
Sane turned to me with a bright smile.
"Nice to meet you. First time, right?"