Past Life Returner

Chapter 72

I wore the ring, and I immediately could see further. While I could not see everywhere, this item was ideal for an F class maze. Now, it was Yeonhee Woo’s turn. I asked what her second-place reward was for the Declan Extermination quest and the One-on-One Combat quest, and she said that they had been both Silver Boxes.

“I got 18 Intelligence points, and the other was a skill named ‘Bravery.’”

She explained further.

[Bravery (Skill)

Effect: The target’s Will to Fight increases by a little. This skill cannot be used on the user.

Class: F(0)

Usable Time: 5 minutes

Cooldown Time: 6 Hours]

Yeonhee Woo spoke in a sad voice.

“While I’m the one who needs this skill, I cannot use it on myself. I don’t think this is useful for you if the will to fight means what I think it means.”

The will to fight is overcoming fear to fight, and I wondered whether this was meant to be a buff skill or not. Fear was not always negative, as it was like pain. Pain was a survival instinct that notified us of injury. Fear warned us of danger. When I used the Man Who Overcame Adversity, I did not feel pain, which let me fight hard but left me in agony afterward.

If someone with this skill joined a team with ill intentions, there would be bloodshed during boss fights. The Second Evil, who had been an attacker, had probably become strong so fast due to skills like these. She would have taken all the prizes, after the rest of her party died of wounds sustained in suicide attacks. It was distasteful that someone could control my mind.

Yeonhee Woo was quiet, and her gaze towards me made me uncomfortable. She lowered her eyes, but I could read the pity in them. She spoke to me in an awkward voice.

“It won’t help, right?”

“There is time to test it out. We need to wait for at least five days.”

I needed to use the Man Who Overcame Adversity again.

“Open your status window.”

I did not need to tell her she should write what she sees for me.

[Name: Yeonhee Woo

Stamina: F(2) Intelligence: F(40)

Accumulated Points: 1102

Traits(2) Skills(4)]

Her stat list was short, and her accumulated points warranted one Silver Box or three Bronze Boxes. It was up to me to help her out.

“Open Bronze Boxes. Let’s hope that your stamina will increase. You remember why, right?”

“It increases regeneration and lowers injuries. Also, it raises basic stamina.”

“You need the stats to decrease the risk for using Marie’s Hand.”

Yeonhee Woo asked a sudden question.

“Why are the rewards random?”

It was a natural question, and the Eight Virtues, who had been fanatics of the system, had said something like this.

-The Absolute Being has given us the strength, the will, and the weapons to fight evil and not forget his blessings.

They would write this at the end of their contracts, which meant that they made their party members pray to the Absolute Being when opening boxes. It was laughable. The people in my past life had been curious about where our powers and the system had come from, but nothing good had come from obsessing over these questions. It only brought out fanatics like the Eight Virtues.

“Do you know what happens with random rewards?”

“Yes?”

“Getting something good makes you want more, and not getting something good makes you want to try again. It makes you try to get more boxes.”

“It’s like the system knows how to manipulate us, which is not good.”

“So, don’t try to place meaning in the system. The [email protected] system knows what human beings want, and tries to mess with us.”

I was speaking more than usual. I was hoping my attitude became widespread, to try to prevent the rise of the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues this time.

“Start.”

She started looking in the air, and the first reward seemed to be an insignia. I immediately received a message.

[Yeonhee Woo has given you an insignia ‘Blockade’]

She seemed to have given it to me without knowing what the effect was.

[Blockade(Insignia)

Class: F

Effect: Seals off a designated area.

Usable Time: 5 minutes]

It was an insignia used to interdict monster attacks and was second to the Escape Insignia in terms of importance. It usually came out of dungeon boxes but also came out of normal boxes like this. I spoke while suppressing the urge to stroke her head.

“It was a good draw. Next.”

Her eyes followed the air and came back to me.

“I got 10 agility points.”

We were a bit disappointed that it had not been stamina.

“However, the agility level is F(0).”

“Regular humans have a max agility of 10, and your status window only displays stats that have reached superhuman levels. Any achievements?” (EN: Apparently her normal human agility is 0. Yep, she is clumsy. ^_^ )

Yeonhee Woo shook her head.

“I’ll be opening the last box. Is there a way to increase the possibility of getting what we want?”

Yeonhee Woo seemed nervous before opening the third box. Hunters had rituals before opening boxes, like looking at family pictures or shouting what they wanted. There had been a psychopath who said human blood would bring what he wanted. However, boxes were random, and my silence seemed to have answered her question.

It was then Yeonhee Woo shouted in joy. She hugged herself and looked at me with bright eyes.

“I got 10 stamina points!”

She was learning what it meant to get the reward she wanted from a box. Her smile was brighter at getting ten points of stamina, than when she had opened a Master Box. Yeonhee Woo looked away from her status screen with the same smile.

“So, this was why…”

***

This time, our goal was to clear all the dungeon quests and destroy the dungeon. Hunting monsters for points, outside of a quest did not give enough rewards compared to the risk, and it was common to embark on the next quest prepared by the dungeon after completing the extermination and the one-on-one quests. I often talked with Yeonhee Woo during the five days, and she spoke of her past after her nerves calmed down. I listened to her and realized that she had taken photographs of those she tried to help because of quests.

She had not known how to open her status screen at the time, but she had done so because a quest message would pop up when she succeeded in helping them.

“You were the last. I did not get the names of those I should help but knew at a glance.”

“If I’m the last, did you receive a quest completion notification?”

I then thought of something, and my voice grew cold.

“Are you doing a quest now?”

Yeonhee Woo shook her head.

“I did quests to survive. It was the only way I could convince myself I wasn’t crazy. My quests were important to me, it helped me hold on to myself.”

“……”

“I was doing the quest to s hold on to my sanity. I came here, risking my life, for the money.”

“How does your quest end? Do I have to say thank you to complete your quest?”

“No, the quest says that ‘I should help’ and nothing else.”

“……”

Yeonhee Woo was a big help to me, but not having achieved the quest meant something unknown was in play. I heard of such quests that would often result in nothing. I told her she shouldn’t worry about it.

Edited by Userunfriendly. (EN: Who besides me thinks this unknown quest is a flag? ^_^ )