I made my way home, cradling my injured left arm. Since I didn't have any healing potions, I wrapped it tightly with a strip of cloth to at least provide some basic first aid. "Elerate… I’m really sorry." And there I was, crying as I apologized to my little sister, my only family. "I got kicked out of the party. At a rate like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to make any money…" I couldn’t think of any job that would hire someone like me—a minor with no family to rely on. Being an adventurer was my only way to earn some money, but that hope had vanished now that I’d been kicked out of the party. "I swore I’d support you with the money I earned…" I’m talking to my sister like this, but she doesn’t say a word. That’s because she’s in a coma. Until a year ago, the three of us—my sister, my father, and I—lived in this house. It was a perfect life. But one day, my father died. My father was an adventurer too. It seems he lost his life while clearing a dungeo

Even though the dungeon is considered a dungeon for beginners, that doesn't mean the boss is weak at all. The general standard for defeating the boss (the werewolf) is six level 8 adventurers. In other words, there is absolutely no way I can defeat the boss. In the end, I'm just a level 1 adventurer. "Gwaaaaaah!" The werewolf let out a growl and lunged at me. "Gwaaaaaaaaaah!" I screamed and moved my body. To my surprise, I managed to dodge the attack. Seeing this, the werewolf swiped with its long claws, attempting a follow-up strike. I dodged it with all my might. Okay, stay calm. I'm able to keep track of its attacks with my eyes because of my high agility. At this rate, I should be able to keep dodging its attacks! Even though I don't have any way to attack, I can't defeat it. So I just kept dodging the werewolf's relentless onslaught. My defense is only 50. With defense like this, even a single hit could very well mean certain death. "Haaa, haaa, haaa…

The next day, I couldn’t decide what to do for the whole day. Since I still had money left over from yesterday, there wasn’t any sense of urgency. But if I kept spending, it would eventually run out. Before that happened, I needed to take some kind of action. “First of all, why was I able to pass through the wall? I should figure that out.” If I just wanted quick money, I could dive into a dungeon and search for treasure chests. But in the long run, solving the mystery of passing through walls was far more important. If I could freely pass through walls, that would become a huge weapon for me. Though honestly, I couldn’t really imagine how exactly I’d use it. “Let’s try it on the wall at home first.” The walls at home are thinner than dungeon walls, so maybe it would be easier to pass through them. “〈Evasion〉.” I said it out loud, but nothing happened. Well, I didn’t really expect it to work so easily. If passing through walls was that simple, I would have noticed

“Wh-why…?” That was the first thing I asked. Why was Guillermo standing right in front of me? “I hear you’ve been going in and out of exchange counters all over the place lately.” Guillermo grinned as he said this. I knew that exchanging the 〈Sword of Departure〉—which was supposed to be a first-clear reward—over and over would look suspicious. That’s why I had been careful to use a different exchange counter each time… “Hey, why don’t you show me what you were planning to exchange with me, huh?” Guillermo said this as he stepped closer. I—I have to run! I turned around to flee, but— “Dom, you can’t escape.” Behind me were several adventurers from Guillermo’s party. Before I realized it, his cronies had surrounded me. “Hey, how did you even get the 〈Sword of Departure〉?” At some point Guillermo had moved right in front of me, staring at the sword I was holding. “I cleared the Fassil Dungeon and got it…” “Did you hear that? Dom says he c

As usual, the reward area contained a teleportation circle for leaving the dungeon and a treasure chest. «"I seriously don't feel like I made it out alive..."» The moment I reached the reward area, I dropped heavily onto the floor. If I'd failed to lure the Black Orc's attack properly, if I'd misjudged the angle I was sent flying, if I'd mistimed 〈Evasion〉... any one of those mistakes would have cost me my life. It's honestly amazing that I managed to pull it off without making a single mistake. Even so... It was worth going through all of that. Thinking that, I reached out and placed my hand on the treasure chest. «"So this is the Spiral Dungeon's first-clear reward..."» Inside was a single book. I already knew its effect from my research, but I checked its status just to be sure. ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ 〈Book of Mastery〉 Raises the user's highest stat by 10. (Applies to the entire party.) (Cannot be traded.) ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ Yep. Just as I'd researched. The 〈Book of Mastery〉 was