episode_0098

While gathering the corpses of the Shadow Clan descendants, I thought to myself.

Blood Stone.

An item that amplifies vitality, created when dark mages obtain demon corpses.

It drastically enhances physical abilities,

but it continuously pumps in so much life force that the body explodes within 5 to 10 minutes, killing the user.

‘In Sophia’s case, her ability to control life force removed the explosion penalty, but…’

Anyway.

That was all I knew.

But.

While turning the supersonic jet into a Blood Stone, I discovered something new.

‘You can extract skills and abilities too!’

For low-ranking demons, only their physical abilities are enhanced.

Since they don’t have proper skills or abilities, only ordinary Blood Stones were produced.

But for high-ranking demons like the Four Heavenly Kings—

beings with not just physical prowess but also proper skills and abilities—

what emerged wasn’t an ordinary Blood Stone,

but a special Blood Stone with additional skill or ability options.

It’s practically like getting a Skill Crystal.

So then?

Couldn’t human skills be extracted too?

…That was the hypothesis I came up with.

‘It might not work, but…’

It was worth testing.

So I tried it.

“Chalice of Sacrifice—ON!”

Sluurp!

Focusing on extracting skills or abilities from the corpse, I shaped it into a crystal form.

I tested it on a weakling first.

Tuk!

An item in the form of a crystal appeared.

“Let’s see.”

I used Appraisal to check the item’s information.

[Skill Crystal (Cooking)] Grade: D Effect: Grants the skill Cooking (D) upon use.

“YEEEEEEES!!!”

A resounding success!

I confirmed that skills can be extracted from human bodies!

That’s great and all, but—

“Why cooking?”

If I extracted a skill from an assassin’s body, shouldn’t it have been something like Stealth or Ambush?

“Don’t tell me…”

Is it a random selection of one skill from all they possess?

“Ugh… That’s not ideal…”

Randomness sucks.

It means even grinding an A-rank character could give a D-rank skill.

But.

That just makes it more thrilling.

“Hahahaha! I survived the rigged gacha rates of K-games! You think this’ll break me?!”

[10 Minutes Later]

“……”

Total disaster.

[Skill Crystal (Cooking)] Grade: A Effect: Grants the skill Cooking (A) upon use.

[Skill Crystal (Perfect Dexterity)] Grade: A Effect: Grants the skill Perfect Dexterity (A) upon use.

[Skill Crystal (Flourishing Handwork)] Grade: A Effect: Grants the skill Flourishing Handwork (A) upon use.

‘I got three A-rank skills, but…’

All of them are life skills.

‘Cooking goes without saying…’

[Perfect Dexterity] Increases success rate for all hand-based techniques and improves the quality of all handcrafted items.

A passive life skill that upgrades all crafting-related abilities— cooking, gathering, production, construction, butchery, farming, etc.

It also applies to weapon skills like swords, spears, daggers, bows, and axes, but since it’s a life skill, the combat effect is minimal.

[Flourishing Handwork] Increases speed for all hand-based techniques and boosts production speed for all handcrafted items.

If Perfect Dexterity enhances quality, Flourishing Handwork enhances speed.

It slightly boosts attack speed too, but the effect is negligible.

“At this point, was he just destined to be a chef…?”

Cooking skill. Cooking quality boost. Cooking speed boost.

With three A-rank cooking-related skills, he was the ultimate chef.

This felt less like luck and more like divine intervention telling him to quit fighting and just cook.

“……Divine intervention?”

I glanced at Hayang.

Her face was expressionless, but her tail was wagging like crazy.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Hm?”

“Did you rig the probabilities to only drop cooking skills?”

“Ehh~ I’m not a god or anything~ How could I do that~”

“Hmm… Hayang?”

“What?”

“Your lips curl up every time you talk.”

“You’re seeing things.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

“If you don’t confess, no dinner tonight.”

“N-No dinner?! How could you say something so cruel?!”

“If you want to eat, tell the truth.”

“……”

“Don’t wanna talk? No food?”

“A-Ahh!… That’s not it… I-I mean…”

“Yeah?”

“I… might’ve prayed for cooking skills to drop…”

“Prayed?”

“B-But probability manipulation doesn’t work like that! The celestial realm is blocked, so I can’t even use my powers anyway!”

She’s right.

Serena can’t use her powers right now.

She can move around in her dog puppet form, but directly interfering with the Chalice of Sacrifice to rig skill drops is impossible.

…Logically, that makes sense.

“THEN WHY’D YOU PRAY FOR THAT?!”

“Eeeek!”

The fact that she prayed for my downfall was enough to make me pinch her cheeks.

“Sigh…”

“Ehehe…”

After about a minute of pinching, I checked the skill crystals again.

‘Well… At least it’s not a total loss.’

I got crystals that boosted stats like Strength (C), Agility (C), Magic (C), and Endurance (C), as well as combat skills like Swordsmanship (C), Magic (C), Stealth (C), and Ambush (C).

‘The problem is they’re all C-rank…’

Not bad, though.

Just evolving from D-rank adventurer Cain to C-rank adventurer Cain is a huge leap.

‘It’s a big deal, but…’

If luck had been better, I could’ve gotten A-rank.

Ending up with C-rank instead—

That’s the disappointing part.

…As I thought this, I glanced at the prisoners.

“Uwaah…”

They were all trembling.

“?”

Not because they feared the Shadow Clan descendants—

They were afraid of me.

Why?

“You really don’t know?”

“Huh?”

“You just showed them how you grind corpses into crystals. Wouldn’t anyone assume you’re a dark mage?”

“Ah…”

Now that I think about it, yeah.

Corpse manipulation is a dark mage’s specialty.

…That aside,

watching someone turn corpses into items would be terrifying.

But.

I don’t care if they’re scared.

“I’m no hero.”

If I were a hero, I’d reassure them and escort them home safely.

But I won’t.

“Weren’t you the guy who saves everyone?”

“I only save people I like.”

I’m not some hero who rescues the whole world.

I’m just a guy who saves those I care about.

‘If someone right in front of me was about to die, I’d help, but…’

This isn’t that situation.

The villains are dead, and the cave walls are broken—they can escape anytime.

“There’s a village nearby, right?”

“Yes. About 3–4 hours on foot.”

“Then we’re done here.”

They can leave on their own, and they can flee to the village on their own.

…That’s what I told them.

“But there are monsters outside…”

“Figure that out yourselves.”

Some are C-rank, some are D-rank.

Most have zero combat ability, but a few know how to fight.

So.

Work it out among yourselves.

“We don’t have weapons…”

“Me neither…”

“……”

Now that I looked, none of them were armed.

‘Were they all confiscated?’

In my case, I stored everything in my Dimensional Bag, so nothing was taken.

They didn’t even take the bag itself.

It’s a legendary-tier magical item, but it looks like a worn-out sack, so the kidnappers probably didn’t bother.

…That’s why I still have all my gear.

The others weren’t so lucky.

Some had weapons taken, others lost their armor.

“Hmm…”

I searched the hideout, thinking they might’ve stored the confiscated items somewhere, but there was no stash of stolen weapons.

‘Did they dump the weapons on the ground when kidnapping?’

Weight affects teleportation the most, so they probably ditched heavy swords and armor and only took the people.

‘Finding the weapons is practically impossible.’

So then?

Am I the only one who can escort them?

‘Hmm…’

Honestly, I could escort them if asked.

I need to reach the village to regroup with the others anyway, so I’ll be heading there regardless.

And traveling together is safer than going alone.

So it’d be better to go as a group.

…Logically, that makes sense.

‘But I’m specced for escape.’

If we encounter monsters, my build is optimized for defense, evasion, and mobility—not fighting.

As a result, my attack power is bottom-tier.

Physical attack? On par with a farmer swinging a hoe. Magic attack? Equivalent to throwing firecrackers.

Basically, E-rank.

My defense is C-rank, but with E-rank offense, protecting others is nearly impossible.

Escort mission?

I can run away just fine on my own, but protecting everyone? No way.

‘They seem to think I’m some powerhouse…’

Misunderstanding.

If monsters show up, I’ll be the first to flee.

Huh?

Why not fight using Serena?

Nope.

‘She runs on batteries.’

At full charge, her firepower is insane, but when low, she’s just a dog.

She expended a lot of divine energy wiping out the hideout, so her reserves must be nearly empty.

Fighting with Serena is off the table.

She could handle a few monsters, but against a horde, running is the only option.

So I refused.

I also needed to search the hideout for the Shadow Arts Manual and other items.

‘And failing would be embarrassing.’

Declaring “I’ll never get kidnapped” only to get kidnapped was already humiliating.

If I boldly promised to escort them and then failed? The shame would be unbearable.

So.

This escort mission is a no.

…Or so I thought.

“Master!!!”

“Cain!!!”

“My love!!!”

My group arrived.

Ah.

This changes everything.