Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 110

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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15. A Story Jin Hali Doesn’t Know (2)

Choi Ji-hyeong looked at me and glanced at Hong So-yeong, who was making a disgusted expression at him for the third time.

Unlike himself, who had built his reputation relatively easily thanks to his wide-ranging care abilities as a support-type hunter, Hong So-yeong was a legendary figure who had climbed to that position with just her sensory disruption ability.

Even though they were both A-rank, the pasts they had experienced were bound to be quite different.

Therefore, Hong So-yeong was his opposite in many ways.

She extremely hated discriminating against people based on rank, actively responded to online reactions, and so on.

Still, it was peculiar that she didn’t dislike him, but that was all. Hong So-yeong making disgusted expressions when looking at Choi Ji-hyeong could be called her daily routine. Goodwill and adaptation were separate things.

‘But today it’s noticeably less.’

Since entering the dungeon, capturing subtle changes and recording them one by one was taking twice as long as originally expected.

During all that long time, Hong So-yeong had only sent such glances at Choi Ji-hyeong a mere three times.

‘This has become troublesome.’

A colleague with a strong sense of justice is bothersome.

The kind of person you want to just applaud from afar.

Especially for someone like Choi Ji-hyeong, she was incompatible. Not that he disliked her, but she was someone he didn’t want to be around.

Originally, she would have felt the same way about him.

But volunteering for today’s work seemed to suit Hong So-yeong’s taste too well.

“Hey, Teacher Choi! Come over here and eat with us!”

Since Choi Ji-hyeong was the youngest here both in age and experience, he had no choice but to respond more politely than usual.

In the midst of this, that person had developed a sense of familiarity, making things very tiresome.

Like now.

“What are you going to do alone if monsters appear? In this situation, it would be safer to keep watch while eating, don’t you think?”

He could feel her observing his mood changes while saying this. That gaze made him even more uncomfortable, so Choi Ji-hyeong just nodded.

Her words were actually correct too.

Choi Ji-hyeong moved toward where the first-year homeroom teachers had gathered without complaint—though there was no response either—while casually taking in his surroundings.

Up until reaching the central plaza, there was nothing different from what he knew.

But from when they started inspecting the plaza, monsters between D-rank and C-rank began appearing little by little, and dungeons completely different from the old strategy guides they had been briefed on began welcoming them.

From mischievous goblin monsters that would change equipment positions and make you drop items you were holding when you heard laughter, to vengeful spirits that would cling to your back and absorb your stamina.

After confirming that their eerie laughter and sighing sounds couldn’t be heard.

“Have you taken your potion?”

As he sat down and asked, Hong So-yeong answered with a half-reluctant expression.

“Ah, I was trying to save it. I only have one.”

She meant, if you’re going to sell them so stingily, why not sell all you have instead of just one.

He knew it was just idle complaint. Choi Ji-hyeong didn’t even pretend to listen and spoke again.

“I think you should take it.”

“…What? Why?”

“Teacher Choi, what’s wrong?”

“Hold it in your mouth and swallow it when the mist comes.”

As soon as those words ended, night instantly fell within the dungeon.

And one, two… in the blink of an eye, blue flames appeared floating all around them, making everyone wonder if they were beasts and guard in all directions, but no presence could be felt.

“They’re night-light spirits.”

Since support-type hunters generally had extensive monster knowledge, everyone didn’t doubt Choi Ji-hyeong’s words.

“Night-light spirits are tracking types, aren’t they?”

Night-light spirits that moved following light were monsters that only appeared at night, resembling will-o’-the-wisps but completely different monsters.

The source of will-o’-the-wisps’ power was goblins, but the source of night-light spirits’ power was fire.

Low-level monsters that only appeared at night yet became weak in darkness.

The problem was that these monsters were the advance guard of a ghost army.

“Swallow it when you feel cold.”

With Choi Ji-hyeong’s cold words, the battle began.

The fight between the night-light spirits that brought sudden night and the teachers.

And in that battle, they learned a fact that Class 8 had grown accustomed to accepting: that the potions Jin Hali made were effective in special situations even though they weren’t special potions.

Along with a major common element regarding the changes in the festival dungeon.

***

A bright moonlit night.

After using up all three of today’s heals and recording the results, I couldn’t sleep so I came out for a walk.

Actually, I was planning to visit the Baridegi Dungeon that Erich had mentioned again while taking a walk.

[Finally going!]

Erich’s excited voice was so absurd that I could only laugh.

‘Erich, did you become friends with those bosses by any chance?’

[How could I do such a thing?]

‘Then why are you so happy?’

I do need to stop by once, so I’m going.

Honestly, my wariness is still greater.

Erich’s reaction contributed to that wariness too.

‘I might get consumed by the dungeon.’

[You were worried about that? There’s no way that would happen to you.]

Huh?

I stopped walking.

“How can you guarantee that?”

When I unconsciously asked aloud, Erich answered bluntly.

[Because I won’t let that happen. I made a contract with you first, you little one.]

‘Little one? That sounds like you’re calling me a kid.’

[Well, aren’t you young? Do you know how many years I’ve lived?]

‘How many years have you lived?’

[I’ve easily lived over a thousand years!]

‘Why do you speak like you’re guessing when talking about your own age?’

[…Because I don’t know.]

Erich was silent for a moment, then spoke again.

[My memories aren’t very clear either. Still, if I calculate excluding the years I was sealed, I would be about 1,100 years old.]

You’ve lived for over a century?

Although I had possessed someone’s body, what I saw after possessing were all humans, and while I knew about the circumstances of dungeon bosses, I hadn’t formed friendships with them, so Erich was the first such existence for me.

‘You’re like a different race from novels. Living that long must be very boring.’

As I spoke, feeling a sense of distance from Erich’s age anew, Erich snorted.

[To attach such a trivial expression to the great me.]

He’s not denying it though.

While chatting like this, I had arrived at the place where we had cleared the Baridegi Dungeon.

Back then, all my friends were together, but now I stood there alone in tranquility.

‘I don’t see anything.’

[…Huh? What. You came looking for the disappeared entrance after saying you’d enter the dungeon?]

‘That’s right…?’

[You did something pointless. Didn’t I tell you before? That you could also summon it. And if you want to go, you can enter that dungeon from anywhere.]

People were very disappointed when the lucky gold coin dungeon disappeared.

If it becomes known that this dungeon belongs to me, there will probably be people who ask me for gold coins, right?

While thinking such thoughts, I followed Erich’s words and stomped my foot to tap the ground.

According to Erich, all ground becomes an entrance to the Baridegi Dungeon?

‘Having the dungeon bosses inside that dungeon makes me feel more at ease than bringing dungeon bosses into my living area.’

An entrance opened.

A completely different entrance from when I entered to clear it.

[Welcome, Master.]

“…Ah!”

[I have been waiting for you.]

Though it was a small entrance, I felt certain I could walk through to the other side.

Beyond the entrance, I could see a front gate with golden tiger patterns carved on a black background.

A hazy figure in black robes standing beside the gate bowed slightly to greet me.

Then it opened the gate and looked at me with narrowed eyes.

[That wicked thing normally wouldn’t qualify as a guest, but if it’s an existence subordinate to you, Master, then it’s entirely possible.]

[What did you just say?]

Erich vibrated furiously in anger, but the figure didn’t even pretend to listen and spoke while gazing only at me.

[You need only take one step. Please come this way, Master.]

“…Wo, ow.”

A belated exclamation burst out.

I couldn’t just pass by this figure.

“By, by any chance… Eerie Shadow? Is that right?”

Amidst all the black, pale white skin and completely black eyes without whites narrowed again. Even though its appearance was only half-borrowed from human form, it was strangely alluring.

But at the same time, I felt a distant emptiness that couldn’t be explained by such words alone.

There was a cold dampness dissolved in the air somewhere, while simultaneously wrapping me gently in tranquil peace.

I had felt this sensation before.

[You recognize me.]

That restful mist that guarded the paths of Baridegi Dungeon.

Eerie Shadow.

“So this was your original form.”

[I have no fixed form. The size and nature of the forms I can take depend on my master. Now that my master has changed, my appearance must change as well.]

“Aha!”

I nodded. Having resolved my curiosity to some degree, I was able to calm down.

“It’s magnificent.”

Even if he belonged to a dungeon that was trying to devour me, he was magnificent nonetheless.

As I muttered and took one step forward, starting with Eerie Shadow’s black eyes coloring with joy, the surroundings began to pass by swiftly.

And when I opened my eyes.

I was sitting inside the Austere Subterranean Palace.

…In the seat where King Yama should be sitting.

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