Butterfly (2)

The ship that had been gliding across the starlit waves finally came to a stop upon reaching land.

Crunch.

The moment my feet touched the rough, gritty earth…

「The character has entered a special area.」
「Field Effect – Dragonbone Mountain has been applied.」

I could feel the change in my body immediately..

「Status condition [Dragon’s Curse] has been applied.」
「Physical resistance reduced by 50%.」

It felt like my skin, which had been hard as steel, had softened to the consistency of stone.

And the effects didn’t end there.

「A random Essence has been sealed.」

Ugh… My stats have taken a hit.

I felt as if one of my stat essences had been taken from me.

It was the kind of emptiness that would haunt any explorer.

While I was getting used to the new debuffs, Lee Baek-ho gave instructions to everyone.

“Before we move on, check yourselves! Everyone, use your essences!”

Following that order, everyone used whatever skills they had to check which essence had been sealed. But I didn’t need to — I had figured mine out on the first try.

‘Eye of the Storm.’

The grappling skill that I usually linked with Transcendence wouldn’t activate.

“Huh? You already checked, Baron?”

“I got lucky.”

I said, but that was pretty much what I expected.

Among my essences, the only one with both Strength and Agility stats was Storm Gush.

So the moment we got off the boat, I knew.

‘Anyway, Isn’t this the best case scenario?’

Last time I came through here, my Bellarios essence got sealed, leaving me defenseless against magic.

But I had planned to replace Storm Gush eventually anyway. Losing it won’t affect me much.

Unlike Baek-ho.

“Ah, damn it……!!!”

“Baek-ho, what’s wrong?”

“Why, why did it have to be the floor lord’s essence out of all of them!!”

In Baek-ho’s case, his highest-value essence was sealed.

Since he had probably set up his other essences to supplement the floor lord’s essence, the loss of combat power would be even greater.

“…Ah, that’s a problem”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go back and come again later?”

“Ah, forget it! The Essence seal takes ten days to reset. I’m not going to sit around for that long just because of this. Unless everyone’s rolls were absolute disasters, it’s not worth it.”

He waved his hand like an annoyed old man, then leaned in and lowered his voice.

“So… how’d the rest of you do? Did you get a good roll?”

“Uh… mine’s better than before. I did lose a combat-related one, but it won’t affect my role much.”

“Mine’s good!”

“What about you, Baron…?”

“Same here. The one that got sealed doesn’t matter much.”

“Oh… that so…?”

He looked around awkwardly. It seemed he hadn’t expected everyone else to be okay with their seals.

Still, he took it in a positive light. “Fine, whatever. I got screwed, so that just means the rest of you will carry harder. I’ll just be a bot.”

“Baek-ho… what’s a bot?”

“Don’t worry about it. There are just these annoying bastards who sit around waiting for their entire team to babysit them.”

“Babysit…?”

Listening to their exchange, at least one thing became clear.

Yep. This bastard is 100% a Top Laner.

For the record, I was a Jungler.

Not that it matters right now.

“Anyway, if everyone’s done checking, let’s head out.”

And with that, the real exploration began.

Crunch, crunch.

We were in a grey field where tiny bone fragments covered the ground like grains of sand.

As expected of a swarm zone, monsters showed up almost right away.

Squish, step, crunch.

「Skeleton Kinghelm has been defeated」

「Lich has been defeated.」

「Zombie Lord has been defeated.」
「Bone Drake has been defeated.」
「Dark Knight has been defea…….」

They came every five minutes.

This was the biggest characteristic of Dragon Bone Mountain.

If your stats are lacking, hunting is impossible, but the peak difficulty was relatively lower than that of the surrounding fields.

Except for one particular case.

Yeah… let’s not think about that. Bad luck invites bad luck.

Either way, we continued circling around the areas we still needed to fill in on the map.

The fights weren’t difficult, but if I had to point out a disappointment, it was the Priest’s class.

If she were a proper Priest instead of “Karui’s Priestess,” she would have been much more useful against the undead.

But still—considering how much she’s contributing, I can’t really complain.

Besides, she does have one skill that’s somewhat useful against undead.

「Jayna Flyer has summoned [Lord of the Undead]」

「Control over all undead monsters of Level 5 or lower within the radius has been obtained.」

Jayna Flyer

‘She’s a bit strange too.’

But seriously, where on earth did he find a Karui priest of her calibre? The sacrifices needed to raise her level must be enormous.

“Let’s take a 10-minute break. Everyone, rest up.”

I took the chance to approach Jayna.

“…?”

She acted like I was about to do something bad to her.

“What is it?”

“Nothing big. Just a question. It’s not personal, so don’t worry.’

“Go ahead.”

“Is he… quiet?”

Her brows furrowed more.

“I mean him. Karui.”

Thinking she might not have understood, I mentioned him by name, but her expression didn’t change.

“I get it. I just didn’t understand why you’d say it’s not a personal question, only to ask something like that.”

“As I said, this is for the party’s safety. If there’s a possible variable, I need to be aware of it.”

“…So what exactly are you worried about?”

“Literally that. Is Karui quiet right now? You haven’t offered any sacrifices since leaving the walls, right?”

‘Offerings’ refer to human sacrifices.

Karui always demands offerings in exchange for great power, and to make these offerings, priests must periodically enter the labyrinth and kill innocent people.

And perhaps she somewhat understood my concern about this.

“…You don’t have to worry. That’s all.”

“Can you be more specific? If you want me to truly not be concerned, that is.”

She hesitated for a moment, then answered.

“Once we left the city walls, I stopped hearing Karui’s voice. Naturally, I have no reason to make offerings anymore.”

“Is there no reason to make them? Or can you not make them?”

“………I can’t make them.”

Oh, interesting.

So she can’t use skills that require offerings, right?

“I think break time’s over.”

“Right. Everyone, get up.”

I wanted to ask more, but we resumed our search.

Even so, one question stuck with me.

“…Why does Karui’s connection break outside the walls?”

He’s one of the beings referred to as ‘gods’, isn’t this a bit strange?
***

BOOOOM—!!

Another meteor fell, shattering the mound of bone shards completely. And then—

Rustle.

From the center of the crater created by the meteor, a massive black monster rose to its feet.

[Grrrrrrrr…….]

Its appearance vaguely resembled a skeleton.

However, the differences were that the color of its bones was black.

The thickness and shape of the bones were different.

And most notably—

That black iron mace in its hand.

No. 687 Siege Slaughterer.

Although it was a ‘regular monster’, this rank 3 monster always spawned with the numbered item.

“Vandemon! It’s Vandemon!”

Vandemons only appeared on Dragon Bone Mountain during rainstorms when a meteor fell. I never expected to encounter one outside the city walls.

“Combat prepar—.”

Just as I was about to tell everyone to get ready for combat, GM—who’d been waiting in the back—suddenly shouted

“Wait! Please wait a moment!”

“…What?”

“Regarding Vandemon, there is very reliable information that if three people defeat it, you can definitely obtain an Essence!”

Huh…

Uh… wasn’t that something I shared at the Round Table?

Judging by what he’s saying, he must have gotten it from there.

“If we start the fight now, we’ll miss the chance for the essence! We should first—”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“…Pardon, What?”

“You want just the three of us to fight it? All that for one rank-three essence?”

Baek-ho directed his usual cynical tone at the GM.

“To get the essence, we’d need to use Distortion. And if Distortion fails?”

“Ah…”

“You’re a mage but you didn’t think that far? Or are you just dying to show off what you know?”

“Th-that’s not it, I just wanted to present various options—.”

“Yeah, and none of them make sense. Why would we go for the essence here? If we just kill it normally, it drops a Numbered Item. Guaranteed.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Honestly, aside from Lee Baek-ho’s rude way of explaining, I had the same thought.
Usually, you hunt Vandemon after casting ‘Distortion’.

The value of the byproducts is one thing, but if the ‘Distortion’ magic is successful, you can obtain the Numbers item.

And…

‘This is outside the city walls, where the rules are the opposite of the labyrinth.’

Unlike the labyrinth, here, if you cast ‘Distortion’, the corpse disappears and you get a chance for an Essence drop. Conversely, if you just kill it, the corpse remains preserved.

Put simply, if you kill it, you can loot the Numbers item that Vandemon carries.

I had no time to consider which option was more rational, so I let out a battle cry and charged towards the Vandemon.

「Vandemon uses [Sorrowfull Strike]」

I shuddered at the sight of its iron mace glowing with a fierce light. Even I wouldn’t walk away unscathed if I took a direct hit from that.

If I took that hit directly, something in my body would break.

This monster wasn’t called the Tank Slayer for nothing.

In terms of pure power, it’s on par with or even exceeds an Ogre…

And now, with our physical resistance halved by the field effect—

Normally, the strategy for Vandemon is agility tanks dodging every hit by hairline margins.

Unless the tank’s proficiency level was overwhelmingly high, that is.

「Defense Successful.」

「Aegis’s Barrier absorbs all damage.」

Just hold up my shield and block. Easy.

[Grruk……?]

…Why do you look confused?

Why do you think I built around Giantization, even though it was only a rank 5 skill?

By linking Aegis’s Barrier with Gigantification, I can block attacks that wouldn’t normally register as ‘Defence Successful’ at my original size.

“What are you all doing! Attack!”

The moment its aggro shifted to me, the real hunt began.

Since we were outside the city walls, the aggro sometimes bounced around, but there was no major danger.

It’s not like he has great mobility to begin with.

「Leyton Bright uses: Aimed Stance.」

「Next ranged attack gains special effects proportional to the time spent aiming]

The Vamdemon couldn’t move fast enough to break free from my grip, and in the end, it took the hit straight to the face without ever getting close to the others.

BOOOOM—!

Unlike monsters inside the labyrinth, its corpse did not dissolve into light.

“What’s up, Gramps? Anything else we should be looting besides that?”

“Remove the eyes and spine. The rest isn’t worth hauling.”

“Ooh, got it.”

Once the byproducts were collected, Baek-ho grabbed the mace that Vandemon had dropped.

“Holy crap—this thing is heavy—”

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, I was about to store it in my subspace.”

“No. Why is that going into your subspace?”

I grabbed Baek-ho’s wrist with one hand and put the other on the ‘Siege Slaughterer’. Lee Baek-ho pulled a face, as if wondering what this was about, then chuckled.

“Ahaha. Right. The Baron isn’t in our party.”

“This is something we should settle properly.”

“But didn’t I give you that imprint material for free last time?”

“And I recall giving you other byproducts in return since then?”

“Yeah, but if we’re being strict, doesn’t the ratio seem unfair? There are five of us and only two of you, Baron?”

Since we were both explorers, the moment money was mentioned, Baek-ho’s tone sharpened as well.

However, it wasn’t an uncomfortable situation.

How many years have I been an explorer now? I’ve run into situations like this countless times since the Blood Tinted Castle incident with the dwarf and Raven.

Well, it’s probably the same for him too.

“Parties have been wiped because of loot disputes. Let’s settle this cleanly.” Unable to simply sit and watch, Ruin Gramps stepped forward and held out two dice in his hand.

“…I’m fine with that.”

But Baek-ho didn’t look satisfied.

“…Do we really have to? You could just let us have it once.”

“Do I have any reason to?”

“I mean—I’m not even going to use it myself. I just thought our Warrior could use it as a swap weapon.”

“Aww, Baek-ho! I didn’t know you thought of me so—”

“Shut up. Not the time.”

The awkward silence that followed was almost funny.

“…….”

“…….”

He stared at me, like waiting for me to back down.

I didn’t.

So finally—

“…Fine. Let’s roll. Each person gets one roll. You guys have five, you two get two. Highest total takes it. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Just as we finished agreeing, the GM raised his hand hesitantly.

“Um… may I roll separately? If I win, I keep it to myself…”

Good Lord! Greedy demons are everywhere!

“You can talk that over with the Baron later… For now, we’ll roll first, okay? Hey, I’ll roll for all of you, alright?”

“Uh… Baek-ho? Shouldn’t each person roll for themselves?”

“You don’t trust me?”

“That’s not what I meant—”

“Good. Then shut up.”

He began rolling.

After wrapping things up like a dictator, Lee Baek-ho started rolling the dice. I swallowed nervously as I watched the results.

And…

‘2’

In the process, I learned one new fact.

‘3’

This bastard…

2.

…is actually terrible at rolling dice.

4.

The numbers were low, especially considering they were the combined totals of two six-sided dice. But the number of attempts saved him.

“9…?”

“It’s… 9.”

“That’s it! I win!!”

GM rolled next, hoping for a miracle.

“…8.”

“So then it’s just the Baron left. And just so we’re clear—since we’re rolling for it, you don’t get credit for being generous if you lose.”

“………”

“If you’d just given it to us, I would’ve returned the favor later, you know.”

“Be quiet. I’m concentrating.”

I closed my hand around the dice.

Feeling the weight. The surface. The air. The timing.

And then—

Shff—

I released them across the board.

Time always slows in moments like these.

clatter, clatter, roll…

And finally—

As always, a moment was enough to decide the outcome.

Tumble tumble.

The rolling dice soon stopped, revealing the result.

“……Huh.”

“……It’s 12?”

“It’s 12.”

The highest possible result achievable with two dice.

“Son of a— you didn’t cheat, right?!”

“Baek-ho, there was no cheating.”

“I’m telling you, his luck is just ridiculous.”

After announcing he’d honor the results, Baekho turned away from the Siege Slaughterer lying on the ground.

“Ha… What are you doing? Aren’t you going to take it quickly?”

“Uh……”

The current situation was all too clear.

I had ‘luckily’ won the dice roll and obtained the most valuable loot from this expedition.

This should undoubtedly be a cause for great joy.

But…

Badump, Badump, Badump-!

Why, of all things…

‘I… won the dice roll…?’

Why does my heart keep racing like this?

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