Survive the labyrinth with EX-grade traits

I sat down for a moment, feeling drained, and looked at the corpse of Grilops.

Gray and black.

The former is probably the trait, and the latter is probably the item.

… Haa.

The black color made me sigh involuntarily.

‘Bad luck. I made things difficult by forcing it to come back to life after it was already caught. What? What’s the deal with the chaos attribute?’

There’s a limit to how much trouble you can cause.

The first time, it dropped me somewhere on the third floor instead of the first.

This time, the guy with a sword stuck in his heart, due to the chaos attribute’s effect on the robust body, gained some kind of realization from it?

I wonder what situation it will trigger next.

‘Chaos, how much stronger do I have to get before the bad luck item disappears from my traits? The side effect of blood is inappropriate for my level, so how do I match my level?’

[Chaos says there’s nothing to do but keep growing and achieve feats in the dungeon.]

That’s too obvious of an answer.

In the end, it’s telling me to keep working hard and consistently enter the dungeon, right?

Catching Grilops is an achievement, isn’t it?

[Chaos apologizes for not being able to provide a clear solution and feels gloomy.]

‘It can’t be helped. Complaining and feeling wronged won’t change anything. Chaos, you’re more suited to being bright than gloomy. So, why don’t you smile and encourage me instead?’

[Chaos smiles and says she’s always cheering for me.]

Yeriel, who had run over from afar and was examining me, opened her mouth with a worried expression.

“Hau, look at your armor! It’s all damaged! Are you okay? I did heal you earlier, but… I have a few potions left, so it’s okay to drink one, right?”

“Nah. It looks bad on the outside, but I’m fine. Thanks to the C-grade potion I drank earlier and the good armor, I guess. Don’t worry too much.”

“Then it’s good… Phew, what’s going on here?”

I just shrugged.

“It’s good that no one got hurt. Let’s finish looting and get out of this cave.”

Lumia suggested that we start searching from this hidden space where we were standing.

“I agree. Let’s search this place first, open the treasure chest outside, and then follow the engraved mark to get out.”

“Okay. I’ll search over there.”

“Then, I’ll go there!”

Yeriel and Lumia moved in different directions to search for anything they could find.

“Um, sir. Should I go and help?”

‘Why do you keep calling me sir when we’re about the same age?’

I asked, looking at Jacob.

“Why do you keep calling me sir? …No, regardless of age, we’re not the kind of people who would call each other brother and sister and have a friendly conversation.”

This guy calls me brother even though I tried to let him die.

“Why don’t you just call me by my name?”

“Um, haha. Does age matter? Even though our first meeting was terrible, we’ve been through life and death together!”

Jacob smiled awkwardly and rubbed his nose.

“You probably don’t know how impressed I was when I saw you fighting that crazy monster! It was just fucking cool!”

I scratched my cheek awkwardly.

If I let you bring the golem and put us in danger, and if I let you die and then saved you for the sake of profit, what does that make me…?

I felt bad for Jacob, who was smiling slyly for no reason.

“Okay. I let you speak informally from the beginning, and if that’s what you prefer, then go ahead.”

“Hehe. Yes! I’ll go and help over there.”

Jacob nodded and crossed over.

Since everyone else is doing their part, I can’t just stand here.

First, the trait.

‘Absorb.’

Woom.

[The power is activated.]

[Acquired trait ‘Mana Affinity’.]

───

[Mana Affinity (B)] [P]

The trait acquired by the memory devourer Grillops by eating the memories of an adventurer’s corpse, containing knowledge and experience.

Becomes more adept at controlling the flow of mana, increasing the speed of operation and improving regenerative abilities.

A simple yet outstanding trait.

Can be grown by consistently handling mana.

──Receives a bonus when controlling the flow of mana within the body, becoming more adept.

──Receives a bonus when operating mana, allowing for slightly faster follow-up actions.

──Weakly increases mana regeneration.

──Weakly increases affinity with mana lifeforms.

───

“!!”

Damn. Wow.

‘B-rank?

If I recall correctly, there were adventurers with B-rank or higher traits in the lower floors.

I apologize for constantly recalling the dead, but… Scarlet’s trait was also B-rank.

I don’t know which adventurer Grilops devoured to acquire this trait, but it’s a great opportunity for me.

I had so many traits that I couldn’t predict what would come out.

Out of the eleven positive traits, this one comes out.

It’s a good thing that memory devouring, which is obviously disgusting in terms of usage conditions, or crouching, which doesn’t fit my combat style and looks bad, didn’t come out.

‘Definitely, something’s different.’

As soon as I acquired the trait, I could feel something changing from within my body.

It felt like a blocked meridian had been cleared.

Of course, my body had already been optimized by the The dragon hearth trait skill.

It just feels like something is refreshing, and the flow of mana has changed for the better.

Hwaak!

One more thing. The color of mana has changed. No, I should say that its true color has been revealed due to the trait.

‘Gray…’

It was usually colorless and invisible, but when I used too much mana, it would briefly glow blue.

When I focused on my hand, a mana that was half black and half white, which looked gray at a glance, flashed and disappeared.

Is it gray because my body has changed due to Chaos Eye and the dragon hearth trait?

Well, the regeneration enhancement option is meaningless, but it’s good to have it.

“Now, only the item is left.”

I placed my hand directly on the black light.

‘A book?’

As the light faded, a book with a black cover was revealed.

It was a little different from the magic book of Terra, which was written on a parchment with gold letters.

───

[Book of Dark Arts of Desire] (C)

A quirky goblin, Grillops, who acquired the forbidden knowledge of memory devouring through a parchment with gold letters.

A very intelligent variant, he touched the principles of darkness, light, and chaos before his death due to some interference.

He, who was just in a hurry to survive as a weakling, and could only devour shallow knowledge and experience from corpses, yearned for the light and struggled, but the only outcome he met was a miserable death.

In the end, the darkness that mixed with the light and the despair and desire of Grillops who couldn’t mix with the light took the form of a book of dark arts.

It is protected by mystery and cannot be damaged.

──When the book is first opened, if the owner’s mana is below C-rank, it will increase by two ranks once.

──When held, a small increase in attack power is applied to all offensive dark magic.

──When held, the duration of all curse-type dark magic is slightly increased.

──When held, the unique dark magic ‘Wavering Darkness’ and ‘Desiring Darkness’ can be used.

───

After reading the description, I thought.

‘This is definitely for Lumia.’

Our party only has three members, so maybe that’s why, or maybe it’s because the circumstances that brought us together were a bit special.

After escaping the dungeon, we divide the earnings equally, but we haven’t set any rules for distributing dropped items.

The same goes for the intermediate potion and the gauntlet we obtained this time.

Whatever it is, I’ll store it in the space bag on my back, use the consumables when needed, and the equipment will go to the appropriate person?

‘If an equipment or item goes to someone, they pay a certain amount of money to the other party members, or they hold an auction within the party to decide… Hmm.’

Unless our party grows rapidly, I think our current method is just right for us.

I should give this to Lumia right away.

I called Lumia and handed her the book.

She received it with a blank expression.

Before she could even express her doubts, I started explaining about the equipment.

“Here you go! That’s the end of the explanation. How does it look?”

“That’s true, but… Can I use it? I didn’t have much of a role in this battle, and I don’t think I was that helpful to deserve such a precious item.”

Lumia was quite flustered, although it wasn’t very noticeable on her face.

“Instead of just me receiving something, wouldn’t it be better to sell it and split the money among all of us? It’ll be quite expensive because of the one-time option.”

“Aish! In times like this, you should just say thank you and that you’ll use it well. Right, Ahren?”

“Yes. It’s better to smile and end things on a warm note than to refuse!”

“Why are you butting in? You’re so natural that I thought you were part of our party for a moment.”

“Haha, but I did help in catching that monster. Don’t I have the right to speak up? Since we’re going to the portal together anyway, just consider me a temporary party member.”

“Ugh. You’re so smooth.”

Yeriel and Jacob, who had returned, tried to persuade Lumia not to refuse.

After the banter, Lumia seemed to have understood.

“Did you hear that? Don’t refuse, and instead, use it to become stronger and stay with the party from now on.”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll take it. Thank you.”

“What’s going on with you two? Are you dating?”

Jolt.

“You…”

“I’ll shut up.”

Jacob made a zipping motion with his lips.

Now, the most important thing is done.

“Did you guys find anything?”

“Unfortunately, there was nothing on this side.”

“The same goes for me.”

“I found one. Here.”

Lumia held out a black stone.

───

[Dark Stone] (D)

A crystal formed from the darkness that slowly gathers from the depths of the cave.

Its high purity allows for the addition of random dark magic options when used in the creation of weapons.

───

Is a mere mineral crystal worth a D-rank?

While Yeriel is equipped with a low-level priest’s full set supported by Ebelin, Lumia has a special outfit but a plain staff.

I can use this as a material to create a weapon for her. Lumia is getting lucky.

Now that we’re done here, let’s… Ah!

I looked at the golem in a hurry.

“Oh no! I almost forgot the most important thing.”

The golem picked up the orb that it cherished so much.

I hadn’t had a chance to examine the information due to the urgency of the situation.

‘What is this that it guarded so desperately? Let’s take a look.’

───

[Obsucritas]

It is sealed.

───

“…”

Is that it?

‘Huh, well. It’s a bit anticlimactic. But since it’s sealed, it’s better to keep it for now.’

I shrugged and put it in my backpack.

Now, is there only one thing left?

I put the corpse of Grilops into my backpack with difficulty.

As for the golem… I can’t take all of it.

Crack. Thud.

I severed a few parts with my sword infused with mana and put them in the bag.

Then I collected the core, which was still crackling and slightly smaller.

“Okay, let’s get out of here. Let’s quickly open the last treasure chest and get out of this cave.”

Everyone agreed and nodded.

Grrr…

“Whoa, you scared me.”

As we all came out, the space automatically closed since there were no life forms inside.

I was startled for a moment, but I shook it off and we all approached the last treasure chest.

“Shall we open it?”

I looked around at everyone and opened the box.

Clunk.

“Oh.”

Inside were an intermediate potion, the Earth’s Firmness that we drank to fight Grilops, and finally, a scroll. There were three items in total.

───

[Palm of Destruction] (D)

The usage method is to tear the scroll in half after designating a location within 5 meters.

When used correctly, a giant of the earth will appear in the form of mana and strike the designated location with both palms.

The power is enough to shake the earth’s axis for a moment.(wtf earth’s axis? I don’t think the author know how much force is that, it would be like at least 1000 tsar bomb)

──Enemies directly hit by the palm’s form will be stunned for a short time if their durability is D-rank or lower.

──When the palm’s form strikes the ground, nearby life forms will be stunned for a short time due to the shockwave.

───

This will come in handy someday.

I put everything in my backpack and thought.

I collected the orb and the corpse.

I also checked the light floating above Grilops’ body, and we completed the space search and checked the contents of the chest.

‘Finally, it’s time to get out of this annoying cave!’

After enjoying a brief rest next to the open chest pile,

I found the mark that I had consistently engraved on the wall and made my way to the cave entrance with the others.