“Oh, where did you two go?”
“Ah. This one carelessly spilled something, so I took her aside to scold her.”
“Y-Yes, thadth right…….”
Leia answered while avoiding Yu Danyeong’s eyes with a face so pale that anyone could see something had happened.
“What is wrong? You seem very ‘unnatural.’”
“N-No, I am a natural person—no, I am acting naturally. There is no problem.”
Her acting was so awkward that anyone could see it simply by writing down the conversation, but I decided not to correct her.
It was pleasant to watch.
As for why that fool had become like that……
***
“Um, I thought the sign at the entrance was written in Dungeon Language. Did it say, ‘B-Rank Dungeon, Lava Desert,’ or was I imagining it?”
“That is right.”
“Did you not tell her it was an E-Rank ore-mining dungeon?”
“That is right.”
Leia blinked in stunned silence, then her expression became serious.
“If it were C-Rank, perhaps. But in a B-Rank Dungeon, I cannot protect you two while fighting. It is not too late. Let us leave immediately.”
“No. It has to be here. I need to meet a ‘condition.’”
“I told you that I cannot help you here. It is a lava region, so even my ice-type Skills will be useless……”
I did not intend to refute her point by point. Time was precious, so I interrupted her.
“Come to think of it, I heard something like that. The Winter God of Snowfield had a cherished porcelain vessel, but there was an incident that made it unusable.”
“……Pardon?”
“And the Fairy of Blessings kept her distance from the Winter God for a while, only lingering around his room. I heard that a conversation with their daughter had caused it.”
“W-Wait a moment.”
“Ah. I almost forgot. I am certain that, in the center of the corridor of the Winter God’s temple, there was an extremely explicit, adults-only novel—”
“S-STOP ITTTT!!”
Leia threw herself flat before me.
I had stopped expecting any goddess-like dignity from her around the fourth iteration, but she looked newly pathetic every time I saw her.
Good heavens. A daughter who broke the porcelain vessel where she had hidden an erotic novel, then falsely told her mother that her father owned the novel, was a goddess. The world was ending.
“Please stop, waaah……. I do not know how you know that, but they were all mistakes I made as a child……”
“That makes it worse, does it not? You read those books before you were even an adult, dropped one, and got caught. I think the female lead was wearing a dog collar and……”
“This is a mining dungeon! No matter what happens, I will do my best to protect you, so please stop! I—I bit my tongue! I will do my best, so please stop talking!”
Ah. The corners of my mouth rose on their own.
She should have behaved like that from the beginning. Why did she add unnecessary arguments and make me dig into her embarrassing past?
***
And that brought us back to the present.
“Um……. M-Mr. Kang Seon.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“I heard this was an E-Rank dungeon for mining…….”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“It seems very dangerous here…….”
I turned my head and looked around.
Lava bubbled like an adolescent consumed by bashful first love.
Lizardmen screamed—no, sang high notes—as though they wanted to sing the most beautiful song they could.
Hell Camels enjoyed an energetic dance party.
“It is lively. It looks nice.”
“Pardon?”
“It is fine, it is fine. We came here to mine, right? Let us accomplish our purpose and leave. You brought the contract, right?”
“I-I did bring it…….”
A smile spread across my face. Ah, it had been a long time since I had done something like this. It was surprisingly exciting.
Just in case, I took out the contract again and read through it.
=====
(D)
Party A: Kang Seon / Party B: Yu Danyeong
This contract is absolute. Whoever violates it shall lose the rights to a portion of their body.
(1) Party A shall transfer all ores gathered in the Dungeon to Party B.
(2) Party B must receive one Skill from Party A. Party A shall decide the type of Skill and the moment it is received.
(3) Party A may use on Party B once.
However, while Party A may freely determine the content of the command, it may be carried out only when Party A’s intent is to benefit Party B.
No command intended to disadvantage Party B shall be permitted.
(4) After leaving the Dungeon, Party A shall pay Party B 100,000 Coins in cash.
(5) Party A and Party B shall not harm one another during the Dungeon clear or for one month afterward.
=====
It was a cheap contract, but one sheet was more than enough to establish simple conditions like these.
If I had needed an effective leash for an entire Guild, or for a Ranker whose overall rank was S or higher, I would have spent a full 100 million Coins to prepare an S-Rank contract.
[Ability 「Rapid Reading」(D) has been used.]
[Rapidly reading ‘Yu Danyeong’s’ ‘rank.’]
=====
Name: Yu Danyeong
Rank: F (EF)
=====
Physical Rank E. Mana Rank F.
A contract’s effects and a person’s Physical Rank influenced each other to a degree, so a D-Rank contract was just right for an E-Rank person like Yu Danyeong.
“B-But…… what mineral are we supposed to mine in a lava region like this?”
“Good question. Granite?”
“Pardon?”
Yu Danyeong’s gaze grew increasingly suspicious.
I should have thought of a plausible mineral beforehand.
“It is fine. You saw my rank, right? Physical Rank D, Mana Rank D, and Overall Rank D. What trick could someone like that possibly pull? You have heard plenty of stories about people becoming disabled after violating contracts, right?”
“……That is true.”
The lost body part was random, but there could not possibly be an idiot in this world who would risk becoming disabled just to trap an F-Rank Awakened……
No, there was probably exactly one.
Yu Danyeong seemed convinced by that and followed without further complaint. After we had walked for some time—
‘The destination should appear soon.’
“Um……. H-How much longer……?”
Ah, there was her, too.
[Leia has used the Skill 「Ice Bullet」(B).]
[Leia has used the Skill 「Ice Bullet」(B).]
[Leia has used the Skill 「Ice Bullet」(B).]
Whenever Leia extended her hand, Ice Bullets flew out and shot down the Lizardmen and Fire Spirits charging toward us.
“We are almost there. Why are you so impatient?”
“We have been inside for two hours!!”
Did that imitation goddess know that, thanks to me, a Dungeon that would normally take more than thirty hours to clear was nearing its end in only two hours? I wanted to make her follow the proper route and watch her beg for forgiveness, but this was my final iteration.
She should consider herself lucky.
Because this was my final iteration.
Final iteration……
“Ah, you are smiling like a pervert again…….”
“Once we leave the Dungeon, earn money for your own food and buy it yourself.”
“That is such a charming smile, Benefactor!”
Ignoring Leia, I turned around.
I did not care if that useless goddess collapsed from exhaustion or stopped breathing, but Yu Danyeong was different.
“Are you all right? We have walked quite a distance.”
“I-I am fine……! I have grown sick of walking.”
Ah, come to think of it, Yu Danyeong……
“Did you do physical labor?”
“Rather than physical labor, I did all kinds of work. My younger sibling is very ill. Our parents saw that our ranks were low and ran away……. Only my sibling and I were left, but my sibling came down with a rare disease.”
If my memory was right, it was probably the Curse of Gluttony.
A disease that afflicted approximately 0.3 percent of the world.
Its symptoms included coma, monstrous transformation, multiple personalities, rampage, and re-Awakening. Yu Danyeong’s younger sibling had likely fallen into a coma.
“I worked part-time jobs, lied about my age to work on monster-hunting boats, and now I am even selling Skills.”
“It is something you often see among low-ranked people.”
“Right? So sometimes I think about this. Would things have been better if my rank had been higher? If I were high-ranked, if there were more ways to earn money, if I could earn a lot at once…… would I have been a little happier?”
It was a common story, and the kind of pain people could easily imagine.
“S-Sorry. I said something too gloomy, did I not? Do not worry about it, Mr. Kang Seon. Like you said, it is something that happens often.”
But that did not mean it was light pain.
At least for the person enduring it, every day must have felt like the pain of having their bones ground away.
“Yu Danyeong.”
“Y-Yes?”
“It is time for the contract.”
“Pardon?”
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of empathizing with her pain.
The first reason was that I was someone who had trouble even taking care of my own path ahead.
[Clause 2 of the contract takes effect.]
[Party B, ‘Yu Danyeong,’ receives a Skill transferred by Party A, ‘Kang Seon.’]
[Skill 「Snowman」(E) is transferred.]
【ROAAAAAR!!】
A massive monster rose from the enormous lava pool in front of us and roared.
A body composed of countless rocks, with viscous lava binding the gaps between them together.
And two red jewels embedded where its eyes should have been, clearly fixed on us.
It was the boss of this place, the ‘Volcanic Golem.’
“Ah, it must be the Dungeon boss. You know, right? Every Dungeon has something called a boss, and we need to defeat it to leave.”
“I-I know that, but…… more than ninety percent of the bosses in E-Rank mining dungeons are Stone Spirits……. Am I wrong……?”
“Hmm, then I suppose this is one of the less-than-ten-percent cases. Right? Buy a lottery ticket once we go back. It must be your lucky day.”
“Is-Is-Isn’t it the opposite……?”
No, I was telling you that it was a day to buy a lottery ticket.
“I will use Absolute Command Authority now.”
“Pardon? W-What should I do?”
“Use your Ability on the Snowman Skill I gave you and the Infusion Skill you possess.”
Before Yu Danyeong could ask another question, the contract began working first.
[Clause 3 of the contract takes effect.]
“M-My Ability is truly useless……!”
“I told you, it is fine.”
[Yu Danyeong has used the Ability 「Patchwork」(F).]
[Skill 「Snowman」(E) and 「Infusion」(F) are joined together.]
I had stopped explaining this earlier, but—
The second reason why I had no intention of empathizing with Yu Danyeong’s pain.
[Ability 「Patchwork」(F) has met its conditions and evolved!]
[Ability 「Patchwork」(F) has evolved into 「Hephaestus of Human Love」(SSS)!]
[Skills 「Snowman」 and 「Infusion」 have been consumed!]
This person was about to awaken an Ability powerful enough to erase her own pain for the rest of her life.
[Skill 「Frostwind」(C) has been created!]
I draped an arm over Yu Danyeong’s shoulders as she stood blankly, seemingly staring at the Skill window floating before her, and grinned.
“What are you doing?”
Then I pointed at the Volcanic Golem.
“Shoot it.”