Chương 27: The Price of a Skill Book

Before anyone else could react, Tyren had already rushed forward ahead of the rest. Serin, standing off to the side, was just about to speak when Asar reached out and gently pressed a hand against her oak staff. Serin turned to him in confusion, only to meet Asar's helpless smile. The two of them exchanged a glance, and in the end, both of them laughed softly. Rayne stood nearby with both hands on his hips. His shoulders sagged completely, and he laughed as he let out a sigh.

To everyone's surprise, Tyren did not open the treasure chest right away. First, he circled the dark treasure chest once, confirming that there were no obvious signs of a trap. Only then did he crouch down, grab the bottom of the chest with both hands, and begin dragging it out little by little. The treasure chest scraped against the stone floor, producing a dull, heavy sound. Tyren dragged it very seriously. And very slowly. Barton watched for a few seconds, then simply set down his greatshield and walked forward.

"Move a little." Tyren looked up. Before he could speak, Barton had already reached down and grabbed the other side of the chest. Together, the two of them hauled the heavy chest out from the hidden compartment. The treasure chest landed heavily in front of everyone, kicking up a cloud of dust. Serin coughed twice from the dust.

"Why not just open it where it was?" Tyren scratched his nose awkwardly and gave a silly grin.

"Opening a treasure chest is something everyone should do together! That's what makes it feel right!" After saying that, he crouched down and pressed both hands against the lid, still muttering under his breath.

"Please! Give me something good! A shortbow even better than Boss's longsword!" The next second, he yanked the lid open. Several items lay quietly inside the treasure chest. Tyren stared at them for a long while, then scratched the back of his head.

"This... this is the boss chest?" His expression gradually turned complicated.

"Isn't this a little too shabby?" Barton's low voice came from the side at once.

"Your fault." Tyren whipped his head around and stared at him with wide eyes.

"What does that have to do with me? Do I get to decide what comes out of the chest?" Barton did not bother answering him. He only shrugged, then silently picked his greatshield back up. Tyren took the items out of the chest one by one. A [Lovenhill Shortbow], a roll of bandages, several large magic crystals, and a handful of scattered coins. Those coins did not look like the style commonly seen in Blackstone Town. Strange patterns had been carved across their surfaces.

However, Tyren had no attention to spare for those things that looked, to him, like bits of scrap metal. He picked up the shortbow and muttered under his breath.

"Why is this the same as the chests outside? We worked so hard to defeat the boss..." Inside the Core Chamber, Owen froze the moment Tyren opened the treasure chest. He looked at the shortbow on the screen, then looked at Tyren's complicated expression. Silence. A long silence. The next moment, a burst of barely restrained laughter exploded through the Core Chamber.

"What the hell!" Owen laughed so hard his entire core shook.

"I put the Lovenhill Campaign Shortbow in there, and you still managed to draw the lower version? Hahahahaha!" If Owen had a body right now, he would definitely have fallen to the floor laughing and rolled around until tears came out. As it was, he came pretty close. Along with that wild laughter, his shabby rock-like core trembled slightly, and a small amount of dust actually shook loose from its outer shell. Owen laughed for quite a while before he finally managed to stop.

"Tyren, oh Tyren." His voice was full of barely suppressed smug delight.

"I was already biased this much, and you still managed to pull this."

"That has to count as a kind of talent, right?" That said, Tyren still put the shortbow away with satisfaction in the end. But when he stood up, for some reason, a shiver suddenly ran through him. Tyren paused, then subconsciously looked around. There was clearly nothing in the prison. And yet, he kept feeling as if someone was hiding somewhere unseen, secretly laughing at him. Serin's startled voice soon pulled his attention back.

After giving Rayne and the others some simple treatment for their wounds, she took the roll of bandages from Tyren. It looked like an ordinary roll of bandages, even a rather plain one. But most things Blackstone Dungeon produced could not be judged by appearance alone. Without realizing it, Serin found herself growing a little expectant too. Sure enough, when the pale-blue description screen popped up, she immediately let out a small cry of surprise. [Healing Bandage] [A blessed special bandage. After being wrapped around a wound, it can speed up healing and restore a very small amount of lost stamina.]"What is it?" This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Everyone quickly gathered around. Serin soon explained the bandage's effects. Rayne's and Greer's expressions shifted slightly at the same time, and they exchanged a glance. This was a valuable item. Inside a dungeon, quickly treating wounds mostly depended on the cleric in the party.

But a cleric's magic power was limited. It was impossible to treat every single wound immediately. Because of that, most adventurers often waited until injuries had accumulated to a certain degree before letting the cleric heal them all at once. But in a truly dangerous battle, many times, it was those small wounds that had been delayed for just a little too long that would eventually become fatal openings. This roll of bandages was different. It did not require a cleric to spend magic power.

It did not require any preparation for casting. As long as it was wrapped around the wound, it could speed up healing and even restore a tiny amount of stamina. The only questions were how strong the effect really was and whether Blackstone Dungeon could produce this type of bandage consistently. If the supply was sufficient, then for adventurers, this would absolutely be a practical item that could change the way dungeon expeditions were carried out.

But if the quantity was too low, then it would probably become another expensive consumable that only wealthy people and large parties could fight over. Serin quickly cut off a small section and gently wrapped it around the wound on Asar's arm. Then she took out ordinary bandages and carefully secured them around the outside.

"How is it? What does it feel like?" Tyren asked anxiously from the side, only to be chased away by Serin a moment later. Asar closed his eyes and carefully felt it for a while. The pain in his arm was slowly fading. In its place came the faint itching sensation of a wound gradually healing. As for the stamina recovery mentioned in the description, he did not feel anything obvious.

"The effect is pretty good." Asar opened his eyes and moved his arm a little.

"It's much slower than Serin's Prayer of the Pure White Star, but it has a pain-relieving effect. For a shallow wound like this, it is already very practical." He looked again at the bandage in Serin's hand.

"If it is only used to handle small wounds of this level, one roll should last quite a while." Asar paused for a moment, and his tone became a little more serious.

"If this item can be produced consistently, then future expeditions into other dungeons will be much safer too." Just then, however, Greer suddenly coughed lightly. Everyone's attention was immediately drawn over. Greer did not continue looking at the Healing Bandage. Instead, he turned toward the black book in Rayne's hand.

"Deal with that first." His voice was light, but the atmosphere in the prison quieted at once.

"Do not delay. And do not even think about taking it outside to discuss it slowly." Greer looked at Rayne, his gaze lowering slightly.

"I do not want to receive death reports for the lot of you in a few days." Rayne subconsciously lowered his head and looked at the [Hundred-Tempered Swordsmanship] in his hand. The mood that had relaxed slightly because of the treasure chest and Healing Bandage sank again at that moment. Tyren blinked, leaned closer, and lowered his voice.

"Is it really that serious?" Greer gave him a calm look.

"You can try bringing the news outside." Tyren immediately shut his mouth and retreated behind Serin, earning himself a helpless glare from her. Only then did Greer withdraw his gaze. His cane tapped lightly against the floor.

"A Skill Book is not the kind of trophy you can show off right now." He paused for a moment.

"It is something that brings trouble." Rayne lowered his head and opened the Skill Book. Soon, a pale-blue description screen appeared before him. He read it carefully, and his expression slowly grew serious.

"This is a Skill Book related to swordsmanship." Rayne lifted his head and looked at everyone.

"It lets the user improve their swordsmanship through continuous combat, and it also increases the speed of their sword strikes." The moment those words fell, everyone sank into silence. Serin and Tyren each took a step back. One was a cleric, and the other was an archer. No matter how they looked at it, neither of them had any use for this Skill Book. That left only Barton, Asar, and Rayne. The three of them looked at one another.

Barton was the first to raise the greatshield in his hand and speak in a muffled voice.

"I don't need it." After saying that, he fell silent again. Rayne and Asar exchanged a glance, then both looked toward Greer at the same time.

"What are you looking at me for? Don't tell me you want these old bones of mine to charge through blades and fire with you." Rayne and Asar let out dry laughs and finally looked away. Rayne lowered his head and stared at the Skill Book in his hand. His fingers tightened slightly around the book. To say he did not want it would be impossible.

Honestly, when Greer explained the value of a Skill Book, there had indeed been a brief instant when Rayne wanted to use his authority as party leader to decide that he would use it himself. But that thought only appeared for a single instant before he pressed it down. Greed had not clouded his mind. More importantly, that was not how he did things. Rayne raised his head and looked at Asar. This quiet young man had long since taken an important place within the party.

He was calm in a crisis, solid with a sword, and in battle, he often managed to land a beautiful strike at the key moment. If the Skill Book was given to him, perhaps he would be able to go even farther in the future than Rayne himself. Rayne's throat moved.

"Asar—" He had only just opened his mouth when Asar had already raised a hand. That hand pressed against Rayne's hand holding the Skill Book and pushed it back toward Rayne's chest.

"Captain, you should use it." Asar's voice was very steady.

"You are always the one standing at the very front. You're the best fit for it." Rayne froze in place and fell silent for a long while. Only when Asar patted his shoulder did Rayne finally come back to himself.

"Thank you..." His voice was a little dry. Asar only smiled.

"Mainly because I still have my family's inheritance to learn from." He glanced at the Skill Book in Rayne's hand.

"You need it more than I do."

"That's not how I see it." Rayne shook his head. He lowered his gaze to the Skill Book in his hand, and his fingers tightened again. A moment later, he raised his head, his eyes sweeping over everyone.

"I've decided." His voice was not loud, but it was firm.

"From today on, after every expedition, I will take half of my own earnings and split it equally among the four of you." Tyren froze. Serin paused as well. Rayne did not look away.

"Until I have paid back the value of this Skill Book." Greer's soft laugh came from the side.

"If you really calculate it according to market price, you might have to work unpaid for ten years." Rayne's expression stiffened slightly. Greer, however, did not continue teasing him. On that wrinkled face, a truly cheerful smile appeared for once.

"But for your party, this is good." He nodded lightly.

"Truly good." Everyone looked at one another. No one knew who laughed first. Then the heavy atmosphere that had lingered in the prison for so long finally loosened, and everyone started laughing. ◆ ◆ ◆ Inside the Core Chamber, silence fell. Owen stared blankly at Rayne and the others on the screen. For some reason, at that moment, he felt as if his entire core had been gently touched by something. A little warm. And a little empty.

"That's nice..." He murmured without thinking. If he could stand there too, if he could laugh with them, what would that feel like? The Core Chamber remained quiet for a moment. The next second, Owen seemed to suddenly snap back to himself and hurriedly threw that thought aside.

"Ahem!" He deliberately made an exaggerated dry cough.

"Good. This is exactly the effect I wanted!" The blue core flashed in the darkness, as if trying to find an excuse for that brief moment of distraction.

"Unity, trust, and reasonable distribution of loot."

"Now that is what a normal adventurer party should look like!" At that point, he could not help letting out a snort.

"Way better than those greedy jerks from before." ◆ ◆ ◆ After the laughter in the prison slowly faded, Rayne lowered his head and looked at the Skill Book in his hand. This time, he did not hesitate again. Pale-blue light rose from the surface of the book. As if being pulled by some invisible force, it slowly sank into his palm. Rayne closed his eyes, and his breathing grew slightly heavier. After a few breaths, the black book turned into motes of light in his hand and dispersed. He opened his eyes again.

There was no earth-shaking change. Nor did any dazzling power suddenly burst out. But when Rayne gripped the hilt of his sword, he faintly sensed something different. The weight of the longsword had not changed. What had changed was not the sword, but his hand. Or perhaps, his sense of the sword. The sword tip, which had originally required force to control, now seemed much clearer to him.

The sword's center of balance, the angle of his wrist, even the tiny deviations that appeared when he struck, all became easier for him to feel than before. Rayne lowered his head and looked at the sword in his hand, his fingers slowly tightening around the hilt. Rather than making him stronger outright, it felt more like it allowed him to swing his longsword closer to his intent. Tyren immediately ran over from the side.

"Boss, did anything change?" Tyren asked eagerly.

"Can you use a Combat Art now? Why does it look so unimpressive?" Rayne raised a hand and rubbed his head.

"Didn't I already say it? It improves my swordsmanship, and it will continue improving through battle." As he said that, a smile rose on Rayne's face.

"Paired with Blackstone Dungeon, it is practically perfect for me." He lowered his head and glanced at the longsword in his hand.

"I am starting to wonder if the dungeon did this on purpose." In the shadowy corner of the Core Chamber, a certain shabby little rock quietly trembled. After everyone recovered a little from the shock brought by the loot, they rested in place for a while longer. Serin checked everyone's injuries again. Asar moved the arm wrapped in bandages a few times, while Barton silently inspected the cut marks on his shield. Once everyone finished preparing, Rayne finally stood up.

He took out the three Prisoner's Tokens and lowered his head to look at them. Faint blue light still flowed across the surfaces of the tokens, as if silently urging them toward the next place. Rayne raised his head and looked at everyone.

"Since the loot has been divided, next..." He tightened his grip around the tokens.

"It is time for us to see what happens when we hand these three tokens over to the gatekeeper."