Chapter 44: The Forgotten Dungeon [4]

"Phew... ... ."

Kamian sat down, catching his breath. It seemed like the unfamiliar life-or-death struggle had taken more of a toll on him than he expected.

"Ugh, ugh... ... ."

Annette was breathing even harder. This was understandable since physical work was not her specialty.

On the other hand, I was fine. Knowing the monsters' weaknesses from the beginning allowed me to easily defeat them, and more importantly, I had received vitality injections from Hiresia beforehand.

It was natural for me. It had always been my belief that preparation must be thorough.

Thanks to that, my overflowing energy kept fatigue at bay. Kamian and Annette, unaware of the situation, stared at me with expressions of confusion.

Of course, it made sense. They had probably only heard rumors about me being just a problem child with no special abilities, yet here I was, better at defeating monsters than they were and not showing any signs of exhaustion.

It was clear their minds were in turmoil.

"... Senior, thank you for what you did earlier."

Annette, who had been observing, finally expressed her gratitude. Her view of me had clearly changed a lot. This is why people need to show their abilities.

"What? I helped you because it looked like you were about to die."

"Huh? I-I wasn't that close to dying..."

"Let me tell you one thing."

"Yes?"

"On the battlefield, the weak may or may not die. But the weak-minded will surely die. You're too weak-minded."

I spat out something I'd heard somewhere, trying to sound wise. Even so, it was true that my words hit the mark.

"... "

Annette lowered her head and fell silent, as if realizing something. Then she bit her lips and said,

"All right."

"Okay, then. Just keep that in mind."

She would later become a famous healer known as the 'Song of Healing.' Though she had a naturally good heart, she was never one to possess a weak spirit.

I was confident that my advice would help her grow.

"That was amazing," Kamian finally said, though it seemed like he still instinctively disliked me.

I already expected that it would be difficult to narrow the gap between us easily; we were polar opposites in charm and personality.

But even so, Kamian accepted me begrudgingly. He might hate it, but he had to admit it. As expected, he was a manly guy.

"How did you know the weakness?" Kamian asked.

"I went monster hunting a few times when I was at home."

"...."

Kamian fell silent for a moment, then opened his mouth again.

"Monster hunting. Honestly, it's surprisingly fitting."

"What?"

"I thought you were far from that kind of person."

"Haha, really? Then what did you think of me?" I asked with a forced hearty laugh.

"A hopeless problem child. That's what everyone says." Kamian said without holding back.

"Hoo, hoo..."

I, too, sat down and caught my breath.

Honestly, I just wanted to lie down and rest like them, but my pride as a senior wouldn't allow me to do that.

Even if I'm a troublemaker, a senior is still a senior.

"It's almost finished now."

I thought to myself as I drew the dungeon map in my head.

All that remained were the locations of artifacts and boss monsters.

With this combination of three that looked obviously unstable, they somehow succeeded in cleaning up the monsters.

"It was definitely a lack of experience."

As a main character and key protagonist, his skills are not bad for his age.

However, it was not possible to properly demonstrate this in actual combat.

It was something that developed as it gained combat experience.

At first, I had to explicitly teach them their weaknesses, but later they realized on their own how to defeat their enemies more easily without having to be told.

Of course, they weren't the only ones who grew up.

I've grown up too.

There's a world of difference between training and actual combat.

The skill gained from shooting arrows and swinging swords at monsters in real combat was incomparable to the skill gained from training.

Because of that, my rank had already gone up by one level to "Swordsmanship E+, Archery E."

The skill proficiency of the Imperial 8th type, which started at 30%, has also exceeded 50%.

"It's so rock bottom that it keeps going up."

I burst out laughing.

Then I got up from my seat, as I had recovered some of my energy.

"Let's get up."

"Ugh, ugh."

"Haa, haa."

They closed their eyes and breathed heavily as if they didn't want to hear it.

To raise them up, I said, clicking my tongue.

"That's why first-year students can't fight. How weak, how weak. Tsk tsk."

If they hear something like this from a senior who is nothing special, they can't help but get upset.

"Who said I was weak..."

"... I'm not weak."

Kamian and Annette mustered all their strength to get up. As expected, it worked.

I said, chuckling to myself.

"Really? Then prove it."

So I started walking ahead towards where the boss monster was.

Now only boss monster left remains for us