I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 8
The firelight conjured by the Mage cast the intruder’s form in wavering shadow.
Creak, creak.
At first glance it resembled a bat, but even hunched as it was, its body towered well above an adult’s waist.
“What kind of Magical Beast is that…?”
“They’re called Dark Wing Bats. Healer, get down.”
The Leader and Tanker raised their Shields overhead, shielding the rest of the party.
Flap, flap.
A shriek tore through the air.
The two of them had made an excellent call.
Suddenly, a swarm of bat-like Magical Beasts came flooding into the Crossroads.
They snatched up the last of the Shadow Cats and began tearing into it.
True to their bat-like nature, they seemed to hunt in packs.
The Leader raised his index finger to silence us all, then switched off the Flashlight.
“Dark Wing Bats have poor eyesight. If we’re careful, we might slip past them without being noticed.”
I peered carefully at the Dark Wing Bats through the overlapped Shields.
Their membranes looked like tough leather armor, and the claws beneath them were as formidable as any raptor’s talons.
Yet something about that flawless appearance struck me as wrong.
“Why do they have so many wounds?”
At my murmur, the party members looked up in confusion.
I lowered myself further to keep their sightlines clear and pointed toward the Dark Wing Bats.
“There are wounds all over the bats’ bodies.”
Had we not been overwhelmed by the sight of them tearing into the Shadow Cat, I would have noticed sooner.
The Dark Wing Bats were all badly injured.
Most had torn wings or deep scars running across their bodies.
Half the blood pooled on the floor likely came from those bats themselves.
“These look like wounds made by swords or spears,” the Tanker said, reaching his judgment quickly. The only problem with that assessment was that this dungeon was supposed to spawn only bestial Magical Beasts.
“Damn. It’s a Breakout.”
The Leader ground the words between his teeth.
I had no idea what Breakout meant, but the others’ faces went deathly serious.
I fell in with them and adopted the same grave expression.
Then, almost at once, something truly grave happened.
Clatter, clack, clatter.
From the entrance came the sharp sound of hard bones striking against one another.
Soon they drew close enough to enter our field of vision.
“Skeletons.”
The Mage went pallid and breathed the word.
Dozens of armed Skeletons were blocking the entrance.
The sound I’d taken for clacking wood was the clatter of bone on bone as the Skeletons moved.
Clack, clatter, clack-clack-clack.
Shrieeek, eeeek.
At the sound of the Skeletons, the Dark Wing Bats spread their wings and took a defensive stance.
We found ourselves caught between the Skeletons and the Dark Wing Bats.
The Skeletons’ numbers were hard to gauge, but here and there among them I glimpsed ghostly forms—Specters, perhaps.
“Wraiths. They’re B-Rank…”
As the Leader muttered this, one of the ghostly forms whipped its head toward us and locked eyes.
The moment I thought our eyes had met, the Leader bellowed so loud the cavern shook.
“Run deeper inside!”
Shrieeeeek!!
The Leader’s shout was like a starting signal. The Skeletons and Dark Wing Bats collided with each other.
The Leader and Tanker knocked away the incoming Dark Wing Bats, carving a path through.
“Healer, stay ready to cast buffs at any moment. Everyone else, keep your guard up—this is a Breakout with Undead, so enemies could appear from anywhere at any time!”
“Yes!”
Even as chaos erupted, the Leader issued orders with precision and ran straight ahead.
A few arrows fired by Skeletons grazed past the Mage and me.
I must have been bleeding somewhere, but I felt no pain at all.
The only mercy was that despite running like this, I wasn’t out of breath—thanks to the Awakening, perhaps.
“What exactly is a Breakout?”
I asked the Mage beside me, and she raised her eyebrows as if to say I should already know.

That gaze was so sharp I found myself fumbling for an excuse.
“This is my first time dealing with something like this…….”
The Mage let out a heavy sigh at my excuse.
It must seem strange to her.
‘I’m sorry…….’
Along with swallowing my pride, my Synchronization Rate climbed to 40%.
“It’s a phenomenon where the Magical Beasts that normally spawn in a dungeon are replaced by different creatures entirely. Often you encounter Magical Beasts ranked about two tiers higher than the dungeon’s normal inhabitants.”
“But the skeletons…….”
“Skeletons are numerous and use weapons, making them difficult to handle. And the critical part is that Wraiths were mixed in among them. Wraiths are quite high-ranked even by classification standards.”
The Mage explained it carefully, as if thinking I needed to understand the situation properly since I was the Healer.
Even as I ran, I drank in every word.
“The problem with Breakouts isn’t just that higher-ranked creatures appear—it’s that they appear in ways that are difficult to deal with. Undead and ghosts are inherently the most troublesome enemies within the same rank tier.”
“Ah, I understand now. Thank you.”
“And don’t you dare show that naive, hapless side of yours. Act like that and you’ll get stabbed in the back.”
“What……?”
“I’m telling you not to act that way. You know this is an Anonymous Dungeon Party, right? If you get betrayed in a dungeon party, it’s not fraud—it’s murder. Don’t let on that you’re new and don’t know what you’re doing.”
The Mage muttered to himself, ‘At least this group doesn’t seem like those types. Thank goodness.’
At those words, I glanced at my Synchronization Rate.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
45%
Wait—could this rise in my Synchronization Rate have come from acting naively?
Call it innocence if you’re being kind, but acting foolishly, and then having my rate climb because of it—that stung a little.
While I wallowed in that disappointment, we completely left the battle zone where the skeletons and Shadow Wraiths clashed.
“Halt.”
At the Leader’s command, the party’s wild sprint finally ceased.
Only after stopping did the party members feel the aftereffects of their tension.
Hearts pounded, and ragged breathing echoed loudly.
But no one collapsed or lowered their guard.
They gripped their weapons firmly, stood watch over their surroundings, and steadied their breathing.
“What rank were the Magical Beasts originally in this area?”
“Most Magical Beasts were E-rank like the Shadow Cats, the Shadow Wraiths were specially D-rank, and the Boss was C-rank.”
This party’s purpose was to hunt the Boss and secure the clear rewards before leaving.
Which meant C-rank was the limit of what they could handle.
And Breakouts typically spawned creatures two tiers higher than that.
It was far beyond what the party could manage.
“I think we should leave, Leader.”
The Melee DPS touched his sword and turned to the Leader.
The Leader gave a short nod, as if agreeing with him.
“But the exit’s blocked, isn’t it?”
A pointed reminder of how we’d ventured inward trying to avoid the skeletons and Shadow Wraiths.
“The Shadow Cave has complex interior geography. We might be able to find a path that leads outward from deeper inside.”
The Leader spoke hopefully while gazing back at the path we’d taken.
“Mage, could you collapse this passage and seal it off?”
“I could, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The cave could collapse on us and kill us all. Plus, since fire is my specialty, I’m inefficient at bringing down stone, and it would make too much noise.”
The Mage flatly refused the Leader’s request.
Hearing the Mage’s words, the Leader’s mind shifted and he reluctantly let go of the idea with a disappointed expression.
I looked at the moss and sparse weeds struggling to grow around us.
“Then we have no choice but to leave. As stealthily as possible…….”
“Um, Leader.”
The Leader’s eyes widened as he looked at me.
“Would it be all right if I tried to block it?”
“Do you have such a skill?”
“No, but I think I could adapt something. Whether it works or not, I’ll only know if I try.”
The Leader pondered for a moment, then nodded. It was permission.
I approached the weeds and reached out to place my hand against the wall.
I steadied my breathing, calling to mind what I wanted.
Then I lowered my voice and whispered. A bright, forceful tone would have to wait—I couldn’t afford that.
“Flowers, block this path for me.”
As I activated the Incantation, I felt the faintest stirring from within the cave wall.
Soon, vines and plants sprouted through the stone, one after another, blocking the passage.
Yet it was oddly thin. The undergrowth was so sparse that the far side was barely visible through it.
It seemed as though one swing of a skeleton’s blade would cut it down helplessly.
It wasn’t just my own impression—the Mage approached from behind.
And he lowered his voice to whisper to me.
“Since this is your first time, the incantations aren’t familiar yet, are they?”
I flinched in surprise and turned to look at him.
The Mage lowered his voice even further and continued.
“At first it takes some adjustment, but magic skills often vary in efficiency depending on the incantation you use.”
It was content that had been clearly outlined in the guide window.
The brighter and more forcefully you speak, the greater the power becomes.
But the Mage offered further explanation, as though there were rules beyond that.
“Particularly, incantations gain efficiency when they’re more poetic or archaic, and when spoken louder. Since lives are on the line, make sure to pay attention to that.”
A moment of embarrassment was nothing compared to a matter of life and death.
The Mage looked at me with that understanding in his eyes.
I belatedly realized that entering a dungeon was not a light thing.
This wasn’t simply testing my abilities.
We had entered the dungeon risking our very lives to conquer it.
I opened my mouth once more. My clarified mind recalled the incantation as if it were the lyrics of a song.
“Blossoms, awaken. Weave a forest to hold back those who would do us harm.”
I felt a different movement than before.
Was it only I who felt it, or did everyone sense it?
I couldn’t say for certain, but what was clear was that the movement swelled to something immense.
Crunch-crunch. Snap-snap.
Moss carpeted the floor, weeds shot upward, and vegetation grew from floor to ceiling, from ceiling to floor, and wall to wall.
“Wow.”
Soon after, all the growth around us blocked the path densely.
“Done!”
I smiled brightly and withdrew my hand from the wall.
“It’s done, Leader!”
“So dense… that’s impressive.”
The party members gaped in surprise as one.
I forced my lips down to hide my satisfaction.
“I only grew them with the skill—they’re ordinary plants. Because they’re so thick, they can block the path, but if the enemy tries to cut through and push past, they can make it through. It’s better to evade quickly.”
The Leader accepted my assessment.
“We’ll put distance between ourselves and the enemy. Melee DPS, each time we come to a crossroads, mark the way for us.”
“Understood.”
The Melee DPS tapped the dagger hanging at his waist.
Though our objective had shifted from defeating the boss to escaping the breakout dungeon, no one wavered.
* * *
We moved carefully, gauging the number of magical beasts.
How many times did we repeat passing by when their numbers were high, and killing them when they were few?
Light flickered at the end of the cave.
“Is that the exit?”
“Since we haven’t encountered other undead on the way here, it’s more likely to be the exit than the boss’s domain.”
The Melee DPS muttered.
Until now, we’d only faced armed skeletons.
The magical beasts of the Shadow Cave had nearly vanished from sight.
Without a word passing between us, we all broke into a run toward the exit.
Just past that light…!
Just past it!
In the moment I thought the light was within reach, a bone-chilling coldness swept down my spine.
“Everyone, stop! Stop!!”
The Leader drove his shield into the ground and shouted with all his might.
The Mage and I collided with the Leader’s back and tumbled backward to a halt, but the Melee DPS and Tanker couldn’t stop in time.
Crunch-crunch-crunch!
“Aaaaagh!”
“Kgh!”
The Melee DPS’s scream echoed through the cave.
The Tanker barely managed to raise his shield in defense, but the arm and shoulder sections of his heavy armor were torn clean away.
Clang—
And the figure who had made that scream slowly approached the exit.
Armed skeletons clattered in its wake, circling us in a closing net.
The Mage and I rose awkwardly to our feet, and I checked the Melee DPS’s condition first.
Since the Tanker, mercifully less injured, had reached the Melee DPS and brought them over, assessing the damage was straightforward.
Light armor offered little protection—blood streamed freely from deep gashes running from shoulder to mid-thigh.
The sight of exposed flesh made my breath catch; I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to stifle a cry.
“Dullahan…… it was the Dullahan. The boss.”
“Dullahan, you mean…….”
The headless knight of death.
The most fearsome of the ghost-type Magical Beasts that deal physical damage.
While I was turning this over in my mind, the Mage tapped my shoulder gently.
“Heal the Melee DPS first, please.”
“Yes, of course!”
I shifted my focus and checked my Synchronization Rate.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
48%
Thankfully, I could still use Honey Potion—a skill that granted both buffs and healing.
I steadied my breath, pressed my palms together, and spoke the skill’s name aloud.
“Honey Potion.”
Golden light bloomed upward from the ground, bubbling softly.
What rose in a perfect sphere was indeed the color and shape of honey itself.
The skill orbited us like droplets before sinking into the wounds, seeping in like water into cloth.
“This skill…….”
The Leader’s astonished voice reached me, but I had no chance to respond.
Before my eyes, a window flickered to life with radiant light.
[Cooldown]
00:29:59

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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