I put on the ring, and my visibility immediately expanded. While I couldn’t see every corner of the room, this item was ideal to make it easier to see in the F-class dungeon. Now, it was Woo Yeon-Hee’s turn. I asked what rewards she received for completing the Declan Extermination and One-on-One Battle quests, and she replied that she got silver boxes for both.

“I got 18 points for mentality, and the other was a skill named ‘Bravery’,” she explained.

[Bravery (Skill)

Effect: Slightly increases the target’s will to fight. This skill cannot be used on oneself.

Class: F (0)

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown Time: 6 hours]

“You had four skills, right?” I asked.

“A-class Mary’s Hand, F-class Anxiety and Physical Healing, and this skill. So, yes. It’s four in total,” she said in a sad voice.

“Bravery is what I need, but I can’t use it on myself. I don’t think it would be useful for you if the will to fight is what I thought it meant,” she continued.

The will to fight was a strong desire to join the battle and overcome one’s fear, and I wondered whether this was a buff skill or not. Fear wasn’t always negative as it was like pain. It was a sense of survival that alerted us of possible injury. When I used the Man Who Overcomes Adversity, the pain became dull, so I could fight fiercely but it left me in agony afterward.

In my previous life, if someone with this skill joined the team with malicious intentions, bloody slaughter would happen during boss fights. The Second Evil was the only one who possessed mentality-related skills among the Eight Evils and the Eight Virtues. The reason why she grew faster and stronger was likely due to these skills, and she was even known as a damage dealer. I suspected that she would’ve taken all the spoils after the rest of her party died of wounds sustained in suicide attacks. Thinking of it made me shudder. It was distasteful that someone could control my mind. A monster was terrible enough to deal with.

Meanwhile, Woo Yeon-Hee became very quiet, and I felt uncomfortable with her staring up at me. She lowered her head, but she had already felt pity for me. She spoke as if she was making excuses, but probably to break the awkwardness.

“It won’t help, right?”

“We have time to test it out as we have to wait for five days,” I responded.

Until the Man Who Overcomes Adversity recharged again.

“Open the status window,” I said.

I didn’t need to tell her to write down what she saw since Woo Yeon-Hee had already taken out her notebook and filled it with her small handwriting.

[Name: Woo Yeon-Hee

Health: F (2), Mentality: F (40)

Total points: 1102

Trait(2) Skill(4)]

Her stats were so simple, and she could only put Health on her list by doing her best before entering the dungeon. Her total points warranted one silver box or three bronze boxes. It was totally up to me to help her out.

“Let’s open the bronze box. You have enough skills, so you need to increase your Health. You remember why, right?” I asked.

“It increases regeneration, lowers the degree of injury, and raises basic stamina,” she replied.

“It’s essential to increase your Health to reduce the risk of Mary’s Hand applied to you,” I said.

She suddenly asked an unexpected question, “Why are the rewards random?”

It was a natural question, and the Eight Virtues who were fanatics of the System had mentioned this: The Absolute Being has given us strength, the will and the environment to confront evil. This has made us not forget about his blessings.

They even placed this sentence at the end of every contract. They made the hunters pray to the Absolute Being when opening boxes as it reminded them of his powerful existence. It sounded ridiculous. The people in the past had no choice but to wonder where the power and the System came from, but nothing good came from being obsessed over these questions. It only created fanatics like the Eight Virtues. If I had to choose between Eight Evils or Virtues, I would’ve stood with the Eight Evils who rejected the System.

“Do you know the only good thing about the random rewards?” I questioned.

“Huh?”

“Getting something you want makes you try more. Getting something you don’t want makes you angry and want to try again. It makes you try to get more boxes,” I explained.

“It means the System knows how to manipulate us, which is bad,” she responded.

I nodded. “So don’t try to find something noble here. As you said, this shitty System knows what human beings want and tries to mess with us somehow.”

We were talking more than usual. There was zero probability that Woo Yeon-Hee would encounter either the Eight Evils or Eight Virtues because they didn’t exist yet. I was hoping that everything I did would prevent their rise.

“Start, Woo Yeon-Hee,” I said.

She began to look in the air, then her gaze slowly shifted to her chest. The reward must be an insignia. My expectations began to rise and I wondered what kind of insignia it was. Before long, a message quickly popped up.

[Woo Yeon-Hee has given you an insignia “Blockade.”]

She must have carried out the contract without knowing its effect.

[Blockade (Insignia)

Class: F

Effect: Blocks a designated area.

Duration: 5 minutes]

Wow. It was an insignia used exclusively to interdict monster attacks and was second to the Escape Insignia in terms of importance. It usually appeared from the dungeon boxes, but often came out from the regular boxes like this. I said while suppressing my urge to stroke Woo Yeon-Hee’s head, “It’s not Health, but it’s very useful. Next box.”

Her focus followed the air and came back to me.

“In a bronze box, the range of stat increases was from one to ten, right?” She asked.

“Yes?” I questioned.

“My Agility has increased by ten,” she replied.

We were both disappointed that it wasn’t Health.

“But it’s still F(0),” she said.

“Now you’re in a cycle. Regular humans can have a maximum Agility of ten, and the status window only displays stats that have reached superhuman levels. What about achievement?” I asked.

Woo Yeon-Hee shook her head.

“I’m going to open the last box, and is there any way to increase the probability of getting what we want?” She questioned.

She began to react nervously by wiggling her fingers before opening the last box. Every hunter had their own ritual before opening high-class boxes. Some looked at the family picture for a long time, and some shouted what they wanted. There was a psychopath who attacked me, saying that he needed human blood to bring what he wanted. However, it was all useless as the boxes were random. My silence was enough of an answer, and she focused on the air again.

“Oh my gosh!”

Woo Yeon-Hee started jumping and waved her arms as if she was too happy to control them. Then, she hugged me and looked up at me with bright eyes.

“It’s ten, ten! My Health!”

This rookie healer was learning the joy of opening a box for the first time. She was calm even when she acquired the skill from a master box, but now her smile was brighter than ever at just getting ten points of Health. She slowly looked away from me and said, “This is why…”

***

This time, our goal was to completely destroy the dungeon instead of just earning points. We would complete the final quest and defeat the boss. It was common sense to challenge the new quest after completing the extermination and one-on-one quests as hunting monsters for points outside of the quest had more risks over benefits.

I had a considerable conversation with Woo Yeon-Hee during the five days we waited, and she mainly told me about her life as I was in a position to listen. That was how I found out that she took photographs of those she tried to help because of quests. She didn’t know how to open her status window, but a quest message appeared when she succeeded in helping them.

“You were the last one. The System didn’t tell me which person to help, but I could feel it. I knew you needed help at first glance,” she said.

“Life quests are the best. If I’m the last, why don’t you complete the quest? Your reward is right in front of you,” I responded.

Then, a flash of thought crossed my mind, and my voice grew cold.

“So, you’re on a quest right now?” I asked.

Woo Yeon-Hee shook her head.

“I did it to live. That was the only way I could keep myself from getting crazy. It sounds weird, but my quests were important to me,” she replied.

“...”

“I was doing it to hold onto my sanity, but why would I continue it here? That’s a contradiction. I came here, risking my life, for lots of money,” she continued.

“What should I do to finish the quest? Should I thank you?” I questioned.

“No, it’s not like that. The terms of achievement are ambiguous since the quest only says that ‘I should be helpful,’ and nothing else,” she answered.

“...”

Woo Yeon-Hee was a great help to me but considering that she had not achieved yet meant the System was making fun of her. I had heard of such quests, and we weren’t supposed to be attached to them. I told her firmly not to worry about it.