Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 18

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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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3. Baridegi’s Domain (1)

[The Mental Barrier Potion might be better for you to drink.]

“I see. That’s good. Um, and it’s just as you heard.”

I shrugged my shoulders slightly.

“Since I’m weak, I have to work harder. To be less of a hindrance.”

Yu Hee stared at me intently for a moment.

With eyes that wavered just a little.

It was only for a brief moment though.

When I brought up being weak first, I felt like her sharp atmosphere suddenly broke and crumbled.

“Hali.”

Hee spoke quietly.

“Do you really think that way?”

“Yeah.”

I spoke sincerely.

“Everyone in the world knows I’m weak. So I thought if I could at least make useful potions, it might help. I’m really so happy that you said it was good.”

Though the biggest reason is that I like not being dragged into dungeons.

But there’s no one at this school who would understand that. Dungeons are profitable to enter, and it’s also an honor.

There’s no need to mention it anyway.

‘It would only interfere with business.’

Hee looked at my face for a long time.

As if trying to read something inside my expression.

As if we had originally been close and had watched each other for a long time.

‘In reality, it’s only been a few days.’

The current atmosphere was quite good, enough to make that fact feel surprising.

I thought that later, after Yuhan Seong safely saves the world, if I need to make a potion contract with someone, it would be nice if I could do it with Yu Hee.

Out of fandom.

“Hali.”

Hee suddenly grabbed my wrist lightly.

There was almost no strength, but it felt like she was deliberately being careful.

“…This won’t do.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t stay alone. Even when practicing, it would be better to take some kind of precaution.”

Suddenly?

But I answered gently on the surface.

“I’m fine being alone.”

“I don’t think you’ll be fine.”

Hee cut off my words very quietly.

“Why do you say that?”

“I can only see a future where you get taken advantage of…”

“Hm?”

She muttered too quietly for me to understand properly.

At that moment, I heard Erich sigh once, and the grumbling he’d been muttering all along stopped.

Now I should be able to hear clearly.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. I just have that feeling. I think it would be better if you weren’t alone.”

A feeling?

More than that, we’re not even close friends but she’s being really meddlesome…

As I tilted my head blankly with that thought, she spent a long time gently persuading me even after finishing her drink.

She even told me to at least draw a barrier at the entrance of the Manufacturing Room to block troublemakers.

I think I listened with bewildered but pure enjoyment for up to 30 minutes, but after that I just nodded mechanically.

‘I think I saw somewhere that Yu Hee was described as a torture expert. Was this the kind of torture…’

No, that’s not right. That wasn’t it.

Only after I repeated nodding three times did Yu Hee stand up with a strangely refreshed face.

Then she escorted me to the front of the old school building since I was going to the Manufacturing Room, left me with cheerful encouragement, and departed.

***

Surprisingly, when it became the second week of frantically rolling around.

I asked Erich, who had been making his earring sparkle while becoming less talkative lately.

“Erich, could it be that I wasn’t actually clumsy?”

[What nonsense are you talking?]

“No, I mean. My success rate for D-grade potions has already improved quite a bit, right?”

It was a speed that couldn’t be called ordinary F-grade. No, even healers of other grades would be shocked at this speed.

Maybe it’s because I can practice endlessly thanks to Erich.

“It’s faster than expected. Then I should start doing something more serious soon.”

After raising the potion manufacturing success rate to some degree, I need to start preparing for the first dungeon.

To make the Mental Barrier Potion needed then, as well as several special potions.

“I need materials!”

[Special potions cost money but you won’t be able to charge proper prices for them, will you?]

“Still. Since I don’t have them, I’ll regret it more in emergency situations.”

[Huh.]

Hearing Erich’s strange sigh, I clenched my fist tightly.

Thinking that it was now time to clear ‘that dungeon’.

In the original work, there was one dungeon that Yuhan Seong didn’t know about.

Every time I recall that fact, I smile a little.

That dungeon became known when a certain supporting character who miraculously survived discovered it.

The fact that only one person returned alive explained everything about that dungeon.

And what that one person left behind was.

‘Just what choices the dungeon forces, what kills you and what lets you survive, and then he died.’

It was said to be a peaceful death as if sleeping.

As if he had briefly postponed death just to convey that information.

Anyway, according to what that sage-like survivor left behind, that dungeon irregularly appeared at a specific location only during dim moonlit nights.

Not complete night, nor when the sun had completely disappeared.

The door only opened during times when light and darkness overlapped, unable to push each other away.

And when day broke, it would disappear as if nothing had happened, dropping three gold coins.

It was always three coins, and that number had never changed once for a long time.

So people called that dungeon the lucky dungeon.

Because you could get gold coins without entering.

But at the same time, rumors followed that you would die if you entered that dungeon.

Because except for one person, no one who entered had come out.

And that one person spoke first about what you shouldn’t do, rather than what he saw in the dungeon.

‘There’s a path that leads straight to hell, a path that guides you to higher-grade dungeon entrances, and a path where you die in the middle of a maze while sleeping.’

He said you must not turn your head when you hear flute sounds, and you must not entrust your body to the black, cozy fog.

He added that the dungeon felt more like a place that willingly wanted to take care of something, rather than trying to steal something.

That’s why it was more dangerous.

The only person who returned alive summarized it like this at the end.

‘A dungeon where you can only reach the reward room and escape by staying alert and making wishes while searching for the exit.’

Those words were both a warning and a hint.

In the original story, Yuhan Seong had only heard that story in passing.

Because at that time, it was too distant a story for Yuhan Seong.

But strangely enough, for something like that, the original story described the rewards in quite detail.

What kind of rewards they were, and why those rewards seemed useless.

And one of those rewards was perfect for my current situation.

I had prepared a mental fortitude potion to avoid being enchanted by the calming mist.

Though it was only E-grade.

But the original story clearly stated that if you knew the identity of what was enchanting you, its effect would drop exponentially.

I already knew.

What this dungeon used to pull people in, what it used to soften their hearts.

So I judged that E-grade would be sufficient.

Still, to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances, I prepared one more device.

Before going near the place where the dungeon would appear, I spoke to the person who always sat next to me.

“Hello.”

“…?”

“I’m Jin Hali. You’re Hyun I-seo, right? We’ve been sitting next to each other but I’m only greeting you now.”

What followed was a battle between my chatter and his occasionally annoyed responses. Hyun I-seo was the very embodiment of a reclusive loner even in the original story, so this was expected.

Fortunately though, while he frowned several times during my talking, he didn’t leave his seat until the end.

I was making this effort because I knew from the original story that he was neutral and tight-lipped.

And today, Hyun I-seo was rewardingly here with me at this place.

I pointed to the rope tied around my waist and made a request.

“If I go in and don’t come out even right before dawn breaks, could you pull this rope from outside the dungeon?”

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

“Didn’t you say it was a dungeon where you could die?”

“Still, I want to try. There’s something I want here.”

He took a deep breath and wrapped the end of the rope around his hand.

“If there’s no response before dawn breaks, I’ll pull immediately.”

“Got it. Thanks!”

As the moon grew dim, the air changed.

The presence of a dungeon with no killing intent slowly filled the space.

There was no threatening pressure, no roar of monsters.

There was only the sensation of reality’s boundaries growing thin.

Black mist gathered to form an entrance.

It looked cozy and warm.

That’s exactly why I had to be more cautious.

I immediately drank the mental fortitude potion.

And while checking my clearing mental state, I repeated my wish to myself.

‘I want to become a great potion maker.’

The most direct goal for entering this dungeon.

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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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