TEOCH 39

[Your level has increased by 2.]

[Rikiel’s level has increased by 2.]

[Tristan’s level has increased by 2.]

[Rehas’s level has increased by 2.]

[Damian’s level has increased by 2.]

[Due to the level-up effect, all health and mana have been restored.]

[Congratulations! The performance of the ‘Purification’ skill has been significantly enhanced. Your comrades can now endure longer with the purifying energy you’ve infused into them.]

As soon as the queen spider’s life ended, the subordinate spiders rushing toward me scattered and fled somewhere in an instant.

I sat down on the spot, catching my breath for a moment. I could stand if I tried, but even with the level-up, the tension and dizziness gripping my body didn’t fade. Since my physical fatigue should have been fully restored, the exhaustion I felt now was surely mental.

An overwhelming sense of depletion made it hard to even keep my eyes open, and I wanted to collapse right then and there. But there was still work to be done. As I rubbed my gritty eyes and steadied my breathing, the level-up message vanished, replaced by a new message. It was the clear reward.

[Congratulations! You have defeated the queen spider, the guardian of the tutorial stage. You can now proceed to full-fledged battles. Enjoy the thrilling world of adventure!]

[The queen spider’s mana is absorbed into you. New skills are granted to you and your comrades!]

As a white aura flowed from the queen spider’s corpse and was absorbed into my body, I immediately opened my status window to check my current mana. My maximum mana, which had been around 180 before, surged to 500 in an instant. Even accounting for the increase from two level-ups, an additional 250 mana had been added. The thought that I could now use return magic more frequently brought a slight sense of relief.

After waiting a bit longer, a dark red aura emanated from the queen spider’s lifeless eyes. Unlike before, this aura didn’t immediately absorb into me. Instead, it coalesced into five small orbs, each moving separately to enter me and my comrades. If the previous mana boost was a reward just for me, this skill reward was granted to all my comrades.

Since boss clear rewards often included useful skills, I was secretly excited. In my case, I should have received either ‘Return’ or ‘Stronghold Creation,’ but since I already had both, a different skill would likely be generated.

I opened my skill window right away. My skill window, which had only three skills listed, shimmered briefly before a new entry was etched at the bottom in radiant golden light. It was a skill I had never seen before.

[Passive Skill – Gallows’ Luck: Have you ever tried hanging yourself with a rope to end your life? If you’ve repeated tens of thousands of lives and deaths, you might have tried it once or twice, but as you know, dying by hanging is an incredibly painful affair. If your neck snaps instantly and you die immediately, that’s fortunate, but if you don’t die right away, the agony is so intense you’d wish for a quicker death.

But don’t worry, with this skill, you’ll never die from suffocation! Even if your throat is constricted or you’re submerged in water and can’t breathe, if you enter a ‘suffocation’ status abnormality, you’ll become invincible for 5 seconds. During that time, you won’t feel any pain, so you can cut the rope or escape the water, taking appropriate action.

Even if the 5-second time limit passes, don’t worry. As long as you have this skill, you’ll never die from suffocation. Of course, once the invincibility ends, you’ll feel the pain of suffocation as it is, but surviving alone is something, right? If you’re genuinely intent on suicide, this might be unfortunate, but I recommend finding a different method than hanging yourself!]

The more I read the skill description, the stiffer my facial muscles became. It’s definitely not a bad skill. It seems incredibly useful for fighting tentacle-type monsters or when things go wrong in an underwater stage…

But something feels off. The skill description feels laced with malice—am I imagining it? In the second playthrough on hard difficulty, even the skill descriptions are absurd.

“I won’t die, and I’m not suicidal, no matter how dirty it gets!”

Well, the anti-suffocation feature itself is pretty useful, so I’ll let it slide for now. I forced my expression to relax and checked my comrades’ skills. Thankfully, their skills seemed relatively normal.

Rikiel’s ‘Emergency Situation’ skill nullified a single attack when his armor broke, and as the name suggests, it was extremely useful in dangerous situations.

Rehas’s skill, ‘Spider’s Eye,’ allowed him to unconditionally detect traps set by monsters with malicious intent. It couldn’t detect naturally formed danger zones, but its minimal mana cost made it well worth it.

Damian’s skill was ‘Blink,’ a teleportation spell that allowed free movement in any direction within a 5-meter range. The distance limit was a slight drawback, but for Damian, with his low physical abilities, it was a truly necessary skill.

And finally, Tristan… wait, why are this guy’s skills always like this?!

[UNDEFINED: Error 404 Character not found.]

I stared at Tristan’s skill window, dumbfounded. Rikiel, having regained his strength, was bringing the others down one by one, but I couldn’t focus on that right now.

Even with Tristan’s purification ability, this is a bit much, isn’t it? His second skill being sealed was already frustrating enough, and now a bug? What the hell is this bug?!

“Rohan, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just… a bit dizzy.”

I sighed and glanced at Tristan’s expression. He looked at me with concern, completely unaware, but I couldn’t help feeling utterly exasperated.

We went through all that to defeat the boss, and he doesn’t get a skill? I rubbed my eyes and reread the skill. A bug in a skill, of all things—in a third-rate game, no less. Just as I thought that, the text melted away, and a new sentence appeared.

[Active Skill – Pure World: Tristan’s divine blessing has now been further enhanced. When you become incapacitated, and only then, Tristan can create a 10-meter radius barrier for a set duration that purifies the demonic atmosphere. Monsters cannot enter the barrier.]

What, was it a loading error? I tilted my head and read the skill. It only activates when I’m knocked out, and monsters can’t enter the barrier… It seems like a skill for escaping in emergencies.

I wasn’t sure how often it would be used, but it was reassuring that the party wouldn’t face annihilation just because I got knocked out. I definitely wanted to avoid a situation where, despite being in a winnable fight, my comrades suffocate because I’m unconscious.

Having something like this is better than having no skill at all. I don’t know what that error was, but since it’s fixed now, it doesn’t matter much. If a bug occurs when using the skill later, that could be a problem, but I’ll deal with that when it comes.

After checking all the skills, I stood up. My comrades, having landed on the webbing, approached me with relieved expressions. I first checked on Damian’s condition. The level-up should have healed minor injuries, but I couldn’t help worrying.

“Damian, are your wounds okay? Has your right arm fully regenerated?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine now. It still aches a bit, but I think it’s pretty much healed.”

Damian smiled, showing off his restored forearm. His armor hadn’t fully regenerated, leaving his right shoulder exposed, but outwardly, his arm looked exactly like it used to. I sighed in relief. To think he could smile like that after experiencing his arm being torn off—he’s got some serious guts.

“But what’s the parasite in my arm? My mana suddenly surged like crazy, and I was shocked. I don’t know what it is, but it feels pretty powerful.”

“…You’re not even fazed by a parasite in your arm?”

“Well, it’s better than dying or being one-armed, right? Anyway, I’m healed now.”

Rehas clicked his tongue, looking at Damian with exasperation, and I let out a small laugh. That guy probably doesn’t even mind that his entire right arm is made of a parasite.

It’s not that he’s oblivious to reality—it’s just his personality. He came to the demon world, faced danger, and brushed it off with a laugh, saying, “It can’t be helped,” always trying to focus on the positive. Sometimes I felt sorry for him, but honestly, Damian’s personality often comforted me.

“Ahem, well, anyway… Damian, the parasite in your right arm doesn’t always restore mana. It only activates under specific conditions.”

“Oh, is that so? I don’t know what the conditions are, but it’s impressive, right? To recover that much mana so quickly. It filled up enough to cast large-scale magic even when my mana was completely drained…”

“It worked out well this time because we got lucky, but normally, you can’t expect that much mana recovery. It’s, uh… kind چه

of risky.”

Damian tilted his head, and I gave an awkward smile. When I first checked the name of this parasite, I felt pretty uneasy. The effect isn’t bad, and if used well, it can be quite effective, but the game’s naming sense is just… weird.

I cleared my throat lightly and spoke up. Since Damian is pretty innocent in this regard, he’ll probably just let it slide if I explain vaguely…

“Let me explain… This parasite is called a ‘Masochism’ parasite.”

“Huh? What’s masochism?”

“To put it in simpler terms, it’s called masochism, but it’s not important, so let’s move on… Rehas.”

“Pfft, pffft…!”

“Mr. Rehas? Do you know what that word means? I have no idea.”

Pfft, Rehas burst out laughing, and Damian tilted his head again. It seems this old guy knows more than you’d expect for his age. I tried to keep a straight face and explain calmly.

Thankfully, among my comrades, only Rehas seemed to understand the meaning of the word I’d used. Rikiel frowned slightly, apparently displeased by Rehas’s reaction (as far as I know, Rikiel doesn’t know what the word means either), while Tristan, like Damian, just looked puzzled, tilting his head.

Good, he’s still innocent. I let out a sigh of relief while Tristan wasn’t looking.

“Well, if you don’t know, that’s fine. Anyway, this parasite works by recharging your mana whenever you feel pain in your right arm…”

“Pfft, hahaha, ahahaha…!”

“Rehas? What’s so funny? Is Rohan saying something hilarious?”

“…Don’t pay attention to him, Your Majesty. Rehas, if you’re going to laugh, go do it over there. Don’t interrupt someone trying to explain.”

“Pfft, haha, but…”

“It’s just the name of the parasite, the name! It doesn’t mean it’s actually like that!”

“Who came up with that name… pfft, haha…!”

“It wasn’t me!”

I shouted at Rehas, who was trembling, trying to stifle his laughter. His laughing makes me keep interpreting it in a weird way! The image of Damian tied up in a leather vest kept popping into my head, making me shudder. Meanwhile, Rehas kept teasing Damian.

“Damian, did it feel good when your mana was recharging earlier? Huh?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? It hurt like hell! Though, the feeling of my mana recharging was kind of nice…”

“Pfft, hahaha, ahahaha!”

“Hey, Rehas, can’t you at least explain why you’re laughing?”

“If I explain, I’ll hang you up at the top of the spider nest and leave you there. Anyway, Damian, like all parasites, overusing that one is bad. There are side effects, but if you use it too much… you might awaken to something weird.”

“…?”

To be honest, I couldn’t laugh too innocently either, having used that parasite multiple times myself. Seriously, if you use it too often, you might accidentally awaken to some strange tendencies! It doesn’t cost much in terms of calories, and it restores more mana than you’d expect, so you end up using it a lot!

I cleared my throat lightly and shut my mouth. Thankfully, my comrades didn’t seem to understand why Rehas was laughing so hard. It’s better if they don’t know. I really hope they don’t. With that thought, I stood up and looked around.

Where there had been no exits before, two doors had appeared on the cave wall. One was filled with bright light, and the other was shrouded in pitch-black darkness. The bright door led to the next stage, while the dark one led back to the tutorial stage.

Normally, I’d head to the next stage without hesitation, but not now. We’d left quite a bit of our gear back at the cave we’d been using as a temporary base. There was no need to rush to the next stage and abandon our stuff, so we’d need to return to the base soon to collect everything. But…

“Rohan, look over there! The spiders…!”

While I was lost in thought, Tristan suddenly shouted in alarm. Was it already time? I calmly raised my head and saw countless spiders swarming from the ceiling.

There were too many to count, but based on the number of spiders we’d fought so far, I estimated around 1,500. I lowered my head and walked toward the dark door.

“It’s fine, everyone, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? What are you going to do if those spiders come for us?”

“No, Rikiel. Those spiders aren’t trying to kill us. They’re just… here to retrieve their mother.”

Rikiel tilted his head with a worried expression. As I stepped toward the dark door, my comrades followed, though they were visibly anxious. I silently drew a ‘Stronghold Creation’ magic circle on the tunnel floor, and it seamlessly sank into the ground without issue. Feeling my breathing ease, I sat down and watched the spiders. It was an unsettling event to witness, but there was no helping it now.

Kiiii, the spiders gathered around the queen spider’s body, crying weakly. Despite her having lost more than half her legs and her head being split open, they didn’t seem to care.

Some of them crawled across the webbing, collecting the queen spider’s remains, while others brought her five severed legs and tried to reattach them to her side. Of course, the legs didn’t reattach, so after struggling for a while, the spiders gave up and sat beside her.

They let out mournful cries for quite some time. After a while, the white spiders began weaving webs among themselves, bustling between the queen spider’s body and the ceiling. Once they’d wrapped her body tightly enough to keep it from falling, the cave spiders climbed to the ceiling, pulling the webs with them.

The queen spider’s corpse was hoisted to the ceiling, entangled in the webbing. It looked precarious, but with over a thousand spiders pulling, the body was quickly lifted and disappeared from sight. After fully raising the queen spider, the spiders all climbed into the ceiling holes, and the cave, which had been filled with the chaos of battle just minutes ago, fell into sudden silence.

My comrades looked bitter, but I felt the accumulated mental fatigue crashing over me all at once. Come to think of it, I hadn’t slept in a long time. Even with my stamina restored by the level-up, it was about time I started feeling sleepy…

“I’m going to sleep for a bit. You guys rest too.”

With those brief words, I leaned against the cave wall and closed my eyes. Sleep came rushing in instantly.