༺ An Error is Added ༻
“How?
My mind racing, I questioned how she could have [Return by Death].
That wasn’t important right now.
‘How can she have other high-ranking skills besides [Return by Death]?
The skill [Return by Death] I knew was more like a shackle.
Not only could you not possess any skills above the D-rank, but your level couldn’t go above 1.
But I could see her status window, where a plethora of other skills existed. I couldn’t check her level, but I could be sure that she had other S-rank skills besides [Return by Death].
One of her skills was likely the reason why Ha-eun’s skill casting had been terminated.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Hmm? Haven’t you figured that out yet? Or are you expecting me to tell you directly?”
“…!”
She pointed at my eyes as she spoke, seemingly knowing about my possession of the [Eye of Greed].
‘I can’t use my skills.’
Perhaps due to a skill the girl had activated, I was unable to activate any of my combat-related skills, including the B-rank [Large Explosion] and A-rank [Mana Control].
Seeing that the [Skill Restraint] skill in her status window was S-rank, it was likely that only S-rank skills could be activated.
And because the only S-rank skills I had were [Ability Copy] and [Magi Manipulation], I had very few skills I could use.
“Shouldn’t you be thanking me? If I wasn’t here, you would’ve been attacked.”
“Stop talking. If that was true, you wouldn’t have stopped us from leaving by canceling that skill.”
“Hey, I couldn’t help it. What if you got hurt? I wanted to remove any variables.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Me, get hurt?
The whole reason I came to this trap was to capture that dragon and get information from it.
The presence of that girl only made the situation more dangerous than it originally was. What was she even talking about, pretending to be worried about my safety?
“This is what I mean.”
She instantly disappeared from my sight.
Despite not even using an instantaneous movement skill, I couldn’t follow her with my eyes.
“Seo-ah?!”
Passing by me in a flash, she moved toward Seo-ah.
Before she could even react, Mane struck.
-Crunch!
Along with the sound of something breaking, blood flowed. Mane merely pushed Seo-ah with her hand, but not only did the blade Seo-ah was holding shatter, she was flung against the wall.
I moved immediately after that.
Using my boosted physical abilities from [Magi Manipulation], I dashed toward the girl and swung my blade, attempting to stop her.
“That won’t be enough.”
However, it was as though she expected everything.
With a graceful twist of her body, Mane dodged the attack.
Assuming she would counterattack, I took a defensive stance, but my expectations were misplaced.
“Yawn~.”
She simply yawned lightly.
Rather than attacking me, she approached Seo-ah, who was already unconscious from the first attack.
At that moment, she struck again.
-Crash!
A thunderous roar echoed as the walls of the dungeon were being destroyed.
“Oh dear… Why would you do that?”
“Why else, you bitch? Cough…”
Managing to step between Seo-ah and Mane just in time, I blocked the attack.
I was barely able to defend with [Magi Manipulation]. If Seo-ah had been hit directly by that, she would have died instantly.
“Hyun!”
I called out to Hyun-a desperately, as Ha-eun would only be a burden.
At least Lee Hyun-a used his swordsmanship rather than only utilizing his skills, but he didn’t respond.
“Gah…”
I didn’t know what was wrong with that bastard, but similar to the third exam, he was shaking in trepidation, seemingly rooted in place.
‘Why is this bastard still acting like this?’
“Wake up, you bastard!”
I continued to call for Hyun-a, but he remained unresponsive. In addition, Mane persistently continued to target Seo-ah instead of me.
I was doing my absolute best to stop her, but even the physical abilities boosted by [Magi Manipulation] were insufficient.
Strangely, it felt as though I was weaker than usual.
‘Something’s wrong.’
As our blades clashed, it became increasingly clear that something was off.
Mane was clearly holding back.
As if me getting hurt was an issue for her, she continued to stop before landing a decisive blow.
“No way.”
‘No…’
I was sure that ominous feeling was right.
She was using the same combat method I had used in the past.
“How many times have you regressed so far?”
“Hehe. Who knows?”
By intentionally dying, she was able to view alternate futures and learn how I fought.
In other words, she had already regressed several times during this fight.
‘Fuck, that damn skill is so overpowered.’
[Return by Death] was a completely overpowered skill.
A skill that prevented one from dying and turned back the world’s clock.
That was why the skill had limitations, such as always being Level 1, and not being able to unlock higher-rank skills.
But for Mane, those restrictions didn’t even seem to apply.
Can I even kill her?
Even if I did, [Return by Death] would invert time, and she would return.
‘At this rate, she’ll break through.’
I wasn’t sure what Mane’s main goal was, but one of the minor ones was definitely to kill Seo-ah.
I was at a huge disadvantage in this situation, as even if I managed to kill her, time would be rewound, making the situation worse.
The real nightmare was that I would never even realize it had happened.
“How about giving up, Owner?
“What kind of bullshit are you saying?!”
She continued to speak nonsense.
I was sure, though.
Rather than prioritizing killing Seo-ah, she was toying with me.
But if I let my guard down in the slightest, she would kill her.
“Since you don’t seem to remember anything, I’ll give you a little hint.”
“Stop telling me things that only you know about!”
“Be honest. It’s strange, isn’t it? Currently, you’re a 2nd stage Awakener, and yet you managed to defeat a 4th stage Awakener?”
I couldn’t concentrate on her words because I was worrying about whether she would go after Ha-eun or Lee Hyun-a next.
Lee Hyun-a remained frozen in place, shaking, and Ha-eun seemed to be attempting something but clearly wasn’t having much success.
I tried to respond to her words as gently as possible, but I couldn’t help but grimace at the worsening situation.
“You should know that there are many different monsters in a dungeon.”
“…”
“But where do those monsters come from? Do they spawn naturally?”
“What are you trying to get at?”
“Wouldn’t it be sensible to say that those monsters come from a different dimension?”
“More nonsense?”
No matter how many times I replayed her words in my head, I couldn’t make sense of them. She wasn’t even sure, but she was trying to convince me of her theory’s plausibility?
I could only laugh. I could have made something like that up too.
“If they lived in that different dimension, wouldn’t the beings inside have their own unique traits? For example, struggling to survive normally or needing magi to survive. I believe those beings are called devils.”
“…?”
“You don’t have to believe me, but devils usually travel alone. It’s a trait of their race that they become stronger when not in the presence of others. Isn’t that fairly interesting?”
“Stop with the nonsense.”
Mane continued to blabber, but I tuned it out. Why would I need to think about the traits of demons?
‘Right now, I have to figure out a way to cancel out her [Return by Death].’
While she was still playing around with me, I needed to find a strategy that would work against her.
“You don’t have time to play house with these people. You might think time has gone backward, but it hasn’t. In other words, you don’t have any time left to plan anything.”
With those words, a large amount of magi spread around the area.
I was safe due to my skill, but knowing it would be poisonous to the others, I used [Magi Manipulation] in an attempt to stop its flow, but it failed.
I couldn’t understand what the tooltip was supposed to mean.
At that moment, when I realized controlling it would be impossible, it happened.
‘Again?’
The room, which had been filled with magi, began to vanish at a quick rate.
Like a vacuum, it was sucked up somewhere.
“…Ah?”
As if Mane hadn’t expected this at all, she showed a dumbfounded look on her face for the first time.
And at the center of that confusion was him.
“…”
Maintaining his silence, Hyun-a flawlessly blocked Mane’s attack, a black aura enveloping his body.
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