Reverse Dungeon

Ding!

[Skill] Sacrifice

Your blood and flesh become bread and wine, enriching others.

'Right. This.'

Ian gripped the rosary.

Like many items, its attached skill was more valuable than the item's actual performance.

was a party buff skill. It wasn't quite top tier on the skill rankings, but it was close enough to sit comfortably in the tier just below.

Naturally, the true top tier was .

The effect of was simple.

'Restores health to all party members except the caster, removes mental curses, removes physical curses, and reduces all skill cooldown recovery times by 10%.' frёeωebɳovel.com

In exchange, the caster lost half of their maximum health.

In other words, if someone used it carelessly while below fifty percent health, it was an immediate game over.

Not that Ian had ever done anything that stupid.

"Wait, no, are you an idiot?! Damn it! Cancel the skill! Cancel the skill!"

Ian erased the sudden voice from his memory.

Surely that lunatic who had been absurdly obsessed with the game couldn't have been him.

Anyway, the skill required delicate control.

'Which means I keep it.'

Just as Ian was about to tuck the rosary away, Keith asked,

"A rosary. Is it mine?"

'...?’

"No. It's mine."

"...?"

Apparently Keith was wondering what someone like Ian needed a rosary for, so Ian improvised an explanation.

"I've wanted to pray to God for a long time. And now a rosary appears before me. Isn't that the will of heaven?"

"Ian... one does not necessarily require a rosary to pray."

"Then why do you have one?"

"..."

Keith looked as though he had many things to say, but ultimately kept his mouth shut.

A wise decision.

Where exactly did this bastard think he had the right to complain?

Ian's anger still hadn't faded.

Keith wisely chose silence, but there was an elf who lacked that sense.

"So Ian is the sort of person who keeps all the treasures his subordinates work hard to obtain..."

"Be quiet."

The elf merchant wasn't the type to back down after a single warning.

"But how did you know there would be treasure here?"

'You're still wondering about that?'

Turning the rosary through his fingers, Ian answered solemnly.

"God informed me."

"Ah..."

Unlike the elf merchant, the rest of the group had no interest in questioning why Ian seemed to know everything in the world.

They discussed something more important.

"You said an observer would arrive around the afternoon. Shouldn't we head back to the village soon?"

"Ian. Is there anything left for you to do here?"

"No."

The biggest reason Ian had been forced to start making excuses wasn't reacting at all, which left him oddly dissatisfied.

'Is this really okay?'

Shouldn't a fanatic be watching him like a hawk to determine whether he was truly devout?

Regardless, they turned their horses and headed for the village.

Since the horses were doing the actual moving, Ian was free to occupy himself with other matters.

'Level up!'

The enormous amount of experience from the linked quest poured in, notification windows ringing one after another.

Ian immediately opened Keith's status window.

At the end of the long skill list, shining skill points waited for him.

It was beautiful.

Feeling much better, Ian asked,

"Keith."

"Yes, Ian."

"In recent battles, have you felt lacking in any area? Something you'd like to improve?"

Keith gazed into the distance with a face that looked picturesque even when he was doing absolutely nothing.

"I suppose... there is."

"What is it?"

'A mood problem.'

That was what Ian intended to raise first.

Unlike when he played the game, he couldn't micromanage party members directly anymore. Listening to the opinions of the people actually using the skills was important.

With a serious expression, Keith replied,

"It is troubling that I cannot stop you when you push yourself too far, Ian. I suspect it is due to my own inadequacy."

"Yeah. Then stop me."

Ian's anger immediately resurfaced.

The fact that this bastard was faintly smiling while saying it only made it more infuriating.

'All into Agility.'

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

The sounds of skill level-ups rang cheerfully.

Ian turned toward Louise.

"Louise?"

"Yes, Ian."

"Anything you'd like to improve?"

"Yes."

'What a good kid.'

Unlike certain people, Louise grew steadily even when left alone, so Ian had expectations for his answer.

"Personally, I think it would be good to learn Swordsmanship or defensive techniques."

'Did he eat poison?'

Ian checked Louise's status window, but there were no abnormalities.

"Right... you can handle that yourself. Want this?"

"...?"

Ian pulled a skill book created from Louise's experience and handed it over.

Louise accepted it with a puzzled look.

"Learn it."

The title on the book was:

<Genius Physician's Poison That Functions as Both Poison and Medicine>

'Then why did you ask me that...?'

It didn't seem like Ian wanted him learning sword techniques at all...

After linking a poison-healing branch onto Louise's skill tree, Ian looked around.

Sema was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Sema?"

"Ba-back there."

"Come here."

Looking miserable, Sema urged his horse forward.

Though there had been no need whatsoever, Louise politely moved aside, allowing Sema to take the position on Ian's left.

He had hidden because he somehow felt his turn [N O V E L I G H T] would come next...

Ian asked,

"What do you think your weakness is in battle?"

'Is this a test? It has to be a test.'

After watching the previous examinees submit one wrong answer after another, Sema answered cautiously.

"Everything?"

Ian stared at him in disbelief.

"You don't even know your own weaknesses?"

'I thought it was everything...'

Wasn't it?

Sema thought hard.

He was weak at all forms of magic, but if he had to choose the weakest aspect...

His eyes suddenly brightened.

"Attack power?!"

"That is... technically correct."

Sema nearly celebrated, but the atmosphere didn't seem appropriate, so he stayed quiet.

Then Ian's voice suddenly became gentler.

"I've watched you for a long time. Your problem isn't that you lack attack power. You lack an attacking mindset."

A chill ran down Sema's spine.

Why was Ian acting like this?

Then again, if he listened carefully, the content itself sounded perfectly normal for Ian. freewebnσvel.cѳm

'Is he saying my mentality is the problem?'

To be fair, Sema already knew that.

He asked sincerely,

"What should I do, Ian?"

"You should... just become a specialist."

"...?"

Ian often said things Sema didn't fully understand.

Ian made no attempt to explain.

Instead, he simply improved Sema's utility abilities.

Ding!

Ding!

Along with the clear, pleasant chimes, Sema's only high-level skill, , reached maximum level.

A deep sense of satisfaction rose within Ian.

A mage whose skills missed seventy percent of the time had become a master of one of them.

Wasn't that a triumph of humanity?

Though, in Sema's case, most failures stemmed from lack of confidence and concentration.

Ordinary three-star mages certainly didn't miss seventy percent of their casts.

Even after raising the proficiency of , its power had remained disappointing.

It seemed he simply lacked the desire to harm others.

"Why are you firing it over there?!"

"I-I don't know?!"

Watching him squeeze his eyes shut and launch Water Balls randomly while ignoring obvious weak points like a mamool's giant eyeball made Ian's blood pressure rise.

'If a four-star mage had appeared halfway through, I'd have replaced him immediately.'

Unfortunately, that never happened.

Sema remained the dungeon's greatest mage.

The thought struck Ian anew.

'That guy is the dungeon's greatest mage...'

Can this dungeon really survive?

While Ian was contemplating this grim reality, the elf merchant interrupted.

"What about me? What am I lacking?"

"You're supposed to evaluate yourself, not ask me."

'Not that I can touch this guy's stats anyway.'

Ian swallowed his disappointment.

He had checked the party management window.

He had checked the status window.

He had checked everything.

There was nothing he could do for the elf.

Already irritated because it felt like sour grapes, Ian listened as the shameless elf continued.

"I think my problem is that my heart is too soft."

Keith answered before Ian could.

"So that's why you ran away whenever danger appeared."

"I didn't run away! I withdrew so I wouldn't get in your way!"

"It seems your greatest strength is the remarkably round shape of your conscience."

"Hm? Thank you."

"I meant you don't feel guilty."

"Oh, that was an insult. Well, even if my conscience is round, my heart is delicate."

The elf placed a hand over his chest.

Keith ignored him.

'They get along surprisingly well.'

While Ian was busy being angry at Keith, Keith and the elf merchant had somehow become strangely familiar with each other.

Despite his kind personality, Keith had never had friends.

Likely because he lacked social skills.

He didn't seem to have had any friends in the Vatican either, so perhaps it was simply his nature.

The elf merchant was the complete opposite.

He possessed far too much sociability.

He opened his heart completely to people he had just met and immediately adopted an attitude of "we're friends now."

How many times had Ian watched this idiot get scammed because of that?

Anyway, the growing amount of conversation between the two left Ian oddly uneasy.

It felt as though two substances that should never be mixed were somehow combining in midair.

"My heart hurts, Ian. What do you think? Your knight keeps attacking me."

"Good. So what's your primary skill?"

Ian pushed the strange feeling aside.

There was something more important.

Why hadn't this bugged status window been fixed yet?

How was he supposed to make effective use of this guy without knowing his skills?

"Me? I'm good at everything."

'Useless bastard.'