It was an F-class Kciphos Corp’s dungeon, and the boss monster was called the Trainer.

[You have completed the quest ‘Painful Whipping.’]

[You have received 1500 points.]

[You have obtained a ‘gold box’ for being the first one to complete the quest.]

[The Forerunner has been increased by 71.]

Woo Yeon-Hee was wandering around the bodies of the monsters to thrust daggers into their third eyes if they were still alive. The pitiful whimpers of pain and snarling defiance filled the dungeon.

[You have been distributed 0.5 points.]

…

[You have distributed 0.5 points.]

It was easier to handle Kciphos compared to other monsters as they weren’t poisonous and their only combat tactic was to attack in giant groups. This conquest meant a lot to us even though the guys in the past would sarcastically tell me not to brag. I was able to conquer it within only three days without activating the Man Who Overcomes Adversity. We were feisty as Woo Yeon-Hee had done the work of ten people. We could’ve done it in one day if we had not opened dungeon boxes and waited out the cooldowns for our skills.

The fact that I still had a protective barrier created by the Deva King’s Protective Gloves was the proof. The item created layers of barriers like an onion. When I activated the item, the barrier first released an A-class colorful light, then peeled off in order from brilliant diamond, gorgeous platinum, and clear gold… After I defeated the boss monster, the barrier was turned into a silver light.

Woo Yeon-Hee’s support had been amazing. When I conquered it by myself, I needed to use up all my barriers and activate the Man Who Overcomes Adversity.

[You have completed every quest.]

[You have obtained 1500 points.]

[You have obtained a ‘gold box’ for being the first one to complete the quest.]

[The Gifted has increased by 52.]

I was happier that I had nurtured Woo Yeon-Hee up to this point than the notification messages and boxes. F-class dungeons were no longer to be feared. Instead, they were mere prey that would give us rewards. That was why I smirked unconsciously.

“Here it is,” I said while picking up the severed arm of the Trainer among the piles of corpses. I could take the whip from its hand after I broke all its fingers.

[Kciphos Trainer’s Whip (Item)

Effect: Slightly increases the user’s physical attack.

Class: F]

Other effects of the items would not appear until I upgraded my Night Eyes to D-class. For instance, the Deva King’s Protective Gloves could absorb more than ten thousand units of power altogether, but I could only guess its current protection effect by the color of the barrier.

Anyway, this was the first drop item I had received from an F-class dungeon. The whip flew out like a snake and returned after lashing the target. It was probably useful in an F-class dungeon if used in conjunction with Odin’s Wrath.

Then, Woo Yeon-Hee approached, and blood dripped from her dagger and her hair. We were soaked in monsters’ blood again, and this time, we were not injured at all. She had retrieved our backpacks from the boss room entrance where we had left them, and she handed me a bottle of water. We wiped the blood from our faces with leftover water.

“I received points for a skill from a gold box and I also got a new skill, D-class ‘Frenzy.’ It’s similar to the effects of Bravery but has increased mana resistance,” Woo Yeon-Hee said.

“That’s a dud,” I replied.

“Right? The System keeps saying to remove one skill,” she responded.

“Erase it.”

“I did.”

She answered as she grudgingly got rid of it.

“You should keep your current skill set for now. If there’s a clearly better skill that has the same effects but higher potential, you may change it. Don’t feel disappointed if that’s not the case,” I said.

“Points would be better than items and insignias, right?” she asked.

The problem was that it solely depended on our luck, but there was no need to be impatient. We still had more than twenty dungeons we could use.

However, if I fully use my memory palace…

***

There was no need to be concerned about the duration and consequences of losing consciousness as I didn’t end up activating the Man Who Overcomes Adversity. I was sitting on the boss monster and staring at its hideous face. I had told Woo Yeon-Hee not to interrupt me.

In the past, I had placed information on financial history, stock trends, dungeon locations in the world, and the contents of dungeon boxes into my memory palace. That was why I could still remember important issues now.

The origins of the memory palace stemmed from the ancient Roman period when people committed classical plays and epic poems to memory for performances. This wasn’t a skill that was only available to select geniuses. In fact, anyone who trained at this could build their own memory palace. It worked by imagining a specific place, bringing it into focus, and associating the place with the memory the user wanted to recall. People started by applying this skill to a small and familiar place.

For example, I was a boarding student at the University of London when I first learned about this memory skill. I first started with my dorm room, and it still has a place in my memory palace. In the beginning, I was at a rudimentary step where I had to place the memory of each object, such as a door, computer, desk, chair, bed, curtain, window, poster and CD players one by one. As I became more familiar with the skill, I was able to put a bookcase and textbooks in my memory. Then, I could expand to a palace filled with knowledge and memories.

However, this method had its limits, and I had to regularly review the memories to retain them and decide on what detail I should remove if an entry got too long. It was similar to how I could only possess eight traits, skills, insignias and items at once.

I closed my eyes and tried to bring back my memory palace.

At first, people trained themselves to recall memories in one direction, but once they mastered it, they could roam around the palace as much as they wanted. However, the starting point was always the same. It was up to the user how to set up the place as it could be a dormitory building for some and an apartment complex for others. For me, it was a palace gate.

I opened a huge gate and went in and saw a staircase in the center. There were eleven floors and seven rooms on each floor until the tenth floor. The eleventh floor was no longer needed as it had been created after Father had passed away in my past life. I went up to the sixth floor and saw a fancy hallway with a marble floor and a number of room doors. While the building was shaped like a Persian palace, each room resembled my London dorm room.

The sixth floor was used during my guild leader days, and I had used the first room to place my memories regarding F-class dungeons, so the room was called ‘F-class.’ Therefore, the bookshelves were filled with F-class dungeon maps for each continent and country instead of  university textbooks.

「F-class dungeon (South Korea)」

「F-class dungeon (Japan)」

「F-class dungeon (China)」

…

「F-class dungeon (Germany)」

「F-class dungeon (France)」

The titles were the same as they were too simple to forget. I opened the South Korea version, but it was blank as I had not been back here after my guild had been broken down by the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues. Since then, I had not taken care of this room, and it just disappeared from my memories. Woo Yeon-Hee could access my faded memories if she upgraded to a higher class, but that day was far away.

I needed to recreate the memories in these blank books by chasing after those that remained somewhere in my unconsciousness. However, my mind kept returning to the Kciphos. I could recall some things, but couldn’t remember the locations of dungeons. I re-entered the palace and looked at the numerous books on the sixth floor while staring at the Trainer’s face again. I repeated the process over and over again, and time passed by.

Then, a sentence appeared in the book that held information about dungeons in Japan.

「(Kciphos Corp) Nagano ??? Prefectures of ???」

A word here and there started to appear slowly. The information about the monster tribes that I defeated since I went back in time began showing up in the book. Declans, Grafs, Madukas… I saw the locations of their dungeons and detailed maps I had placed here before. I went to the E-class room, then the D-class room. I began remembering things in the B-class room, too. There was no need to check A-class and S-class as I always remembered them. The only thing left to do now was to buy the places that were now visible in my head.

***

Woo Yeon-Hee was sitting outside the boss room since I had taken some time to focus on my memory palace. She must have been bored, and she had fallen asleep while leaning against the wall.

She felt my presence and opened her eyes instantly. It took only a few seconds for her to prepare herself to be on full alert by clutching a dagger.

“It’s me,” I said and showed myself, which made her relax.

“I was trying not to disturb you, but…I slept a lot, didn’t I?” she asked.

I replied, “About six hours.”

“That long?” Her eyes widened.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Other than the fact that I’m sleep deprived, I’m in the best condition I have ever been. We didn’t get injured at all,” she said in surprise.

“Let’s go and get some sleep first,” I said.

My memory palace would gradually regain its glory of the past as time passed by. I would remember more dungeons we could go to, which meant we could secure more points. This sounded impossible, but it happened.

“Next time, we’ll conquer one dungeon a day,” I said.

It was time to monopolize the dungeons like never before.