Chapter 97: Chapter 97 (EN: Ok guys, I know youâre confused. Â This is rather choppy, confused and the narrative \n[Hate (Skill)\n
Effect: The Target cannot distinguish between friend or foe.
Class: F(0)
Reusable Time: 5 Minutes]
It was an attack skill, not only against monsters. This was why I had avoided hunters with psychic skills like her.
âEven a healer needs to attack sometimes.â
The system was not pitiless in everything. (EN: Yep, Sun at times anthropomorphizes the system, something heâs condemned the Virtues and Evils for. ^_^ )
âCongratulations. You now have something you can fight with, just in case.â
**
Even as we were surrounded by darkness, this place was comfortable due to the waterhole. However, it became a disgusting place not long after our arrival, as it became littered with Graf corpses. Worse, the corpses of the Grafs appeared to be staring at us. We decided it was time for us to move. We each took a backpack covered with blood. This was our second day here, and we had fought against nearly thirty Infant Grafs after they swarmed us. The result was not bad. However, the sudden sharp, stabbing pains in our head and body cut our exploration short, and prevented us from relocating further into the dungeon. I had to carry Yeonhee back to the waterholeâŠ
My ring and Yeonheeâs Hate skill had enabled us to control two Grafs. We managed to beat the thirty infant Grafs without using the Man Who Overcame Adversity. We thought we had not been seriously poisoned, but by the next day, we were lying on the ground, moaning in pain.
It was freezing, and my body shook out of control. Yeonhee and I hugged each other, and the problem was not only the cold. I could smell a disgusting odor because I could not control my bodily functions. Fortunately, my senses were faintly alive despite being poisoned. We were surrounded by Graf corpses, and due to my pain, I was not able to keep track of the number of corpses around us, or even muster the minimal concentration needed to simply recount the bodies. Some instinct had alerted me, and I began to suspect that one of the corpses was missing, and that one had been playing dead, and disappeared back to the herd on the second day. Unfortunately, the poison left me too debilitated to take any action on my suspicions.\n
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I heard a moan from Yeonhee, and the painkillers were wearing off. She was in a worse state than I was, which meant she was barely alive. It was by sheer luck that her limbs were whole. I groped around to find the pills. Yeonhee buried her face in my chest to scream as the opiates would not nullify all the pain. She could not sleep even if she wanted to.
The fourth day was sheer hell, as my head flashed between cold and heat. I felt like I was being bitten by Grafs and hoped they were hallucinations. We became better after the fifth day and were released from hell on the sixth. We were now detoxified, and my suspicion that the âmissingâ Graf had led the rest of the swarm to attack us was confirmed. I saw with pain-free, clear eyes that corpses were everywhere, far more than the original thirty, and not one of them was whole. I must have cut off their legs and heads, which should have been an impossible feat with my current stats. It seemed like ALL the monsters nearby had swarmed us. I could not move a step without stepping on a corpse, and I could not understand how we had survived here for the past few days. Moreover, I found strange wounds that were way above the level of damage I could do. Some corpses had exploded like bombs had gone off inside of them.
I tried to remember the fight. I remembered that I tried to behead one, and sparks flew out of my dagger as I stabbed it. The Foolâs Dagger had activated then as I was splashed in the Grafâs blood and shell pieces. I shouted to Yeonhee as the Man Who Overcame Adversity activated and saw to my despair that there were too many. She used Bravery on me, and I used Deviâs Knife desperately. I then used EarthquakeâŠ
I remembered flashes but could not remember the events in consecutive order. My memories were shattered, as if a video tape had been thrown into a shredder and the tape spliced back together. The Deviâs Knife would have increased in rank after the Man Who Overcame Adversity activated, but I did not know how it could inflict the decapitations and amputations, much less the internal explosions I saw in the Grafs. I could only assume that I went berserk, fighting on pure instinct, the adrenaline flooding my body clearing my head. Yeonheeâs Bravery skill might have been what kept the poison from overwhelming me, which would have left me helpless under the maws of the Grafs. I could not think of any other explanation for our survival.
We went back to a waterhole I had discovered while carrying Yeonhee when we first felt the poison hit us, and it was bigger than the one we found on the first day. We made a fire using Graf chitin as firewood. She relaxed after a while despite the smell.
ââŠWhat happened?â
âThere were more than a hundred of them. Iâm sorry. I must have missed a scout.â
It seemed Yeonhee was healing, despite the severe bite wounds on her chest and legs.
âWait here.â
âAre you going alone?â\nâThere had been no scouts the past few days, and if one comesâŠâ
I placed the Rulerâs Ring in Yeonheeâs hand.
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âIâm not talking about that. Going alone is dangerous.â
âDonât worry. I will only finish the One-on-One quest.â
âWhat if you go down the wrong path? We have not seen branches in the passageways yet, but it may happen.â
âYouâre not wrong. I will come back if that happens.â
Yeonhee looked worried despite the fact she resembled a corpse.
âYou need to worry more about yourself.â
**
The passageway was straight, and no Grafs came rushing at me. The cave was narrowing slowly, and I found a bottleneck. I saw that the space spread out beyond the narrowed hole, and I saw the bottom of a stone statue and two dungeon boxes. I felt that the One-on-One quest was near. I do not know what the space was used for, as it may be a shrine or a weapon warehouse. I only knew that the statue would wake up the moment I entered that area. Those statues with their concealed âsurpriseâ had been common in E class Graf dungeons. I had no reason to hesitate since it was an easy quest. I went in.
\nIt was a sickening sight, and I grabbed its head and pulled it with all my strength, pulling the armor segment off that was protecting the neck. I then punched through its nerve center with my other dagger.
[You have exterminated a Middle Graf.]
[You have earned six points.]
[You have completed the âHibernationâ Quest. Please decide who is in first place.]
That was easy.
(EN: Ok guys, I know youâre confused. This chapter is rather choppy, confused and the narrative seems disjointed. However, thatâs how the author wrote it. Hereâs what I think is happening. During a time when Sun and Yeonhee had been poisoned during an encounter, they got ambushed by around a hundred baby Grafs. Somehow, Sun, with Yeonheeâs help, fought them off.
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As soon as heâs better, Sun does what he always does. He observes and analyzes the events. My takeaway from this part is that Sun is freaking out inside, and heâs doing his routines to hold it in, so he doesnât grab Yeonhee and run back to the entrance. Itâs pretty obvious from s that Sun is a person obsessed with planning and control and the author was excellent at Showing that and not simply Telling the readers. So heâs analyzing things to keep from having hysterics, which anyone else would do in his situation. He also doesnât like the partial memory loss, and the fact he must have gone berserk, losing his control, in order to win against impossible odds. Yep, Iâm sure Iâm not the only person who thinks that Sun has OCD.
This finally explains his solo battle with the medium-sized Graf. He doesnât even go in with Yeonhee once heâs identified the room with the One-on-One quest. Yeonhee could heal him from range, and even if it fails the quest, it would save his life in case things went wrong. However, the encounter with the medium-sized Graf WENT EXACTLY AS SUN PREDICTED. Sun is in complete control of this encounter. And thatâs how Sun recenters himself, and gets back the feeling heâs in control. ^_^ )