"Guh…!"
I pulled out the arrow lodged in my thigh, biting down on a piece of cloth stuffed in my mouth.
A searing pain followed, as if I were being subjected to the brutal torture by fire that had been favored by the Joseon Dynasty's investigative agencies.
If the arrow had merely pierced my flesh, I could have carefully extracted it, but the situation changed drastically when the arrowhead penetrated all the way through.
I had to break the arrow in half and then push the arrowhead section through my body to pull it out.
As a result, I felt myself losing consciousness little by little.
"…Poison?"
The increasing pain in the wound area made me wonder if this was normal when an arrow pierced the flesh. But something felt wrong.
Anyway, if I left the wound as it was, I might be forced to choose one of three options: poisoning, excessive bleeding, or tetanus.
Reluctantly, I opened the app and entered the store.
I desperately hoped they were selling something useful.
[The store's items have been reset.]
[Low-Grade Antidote: 200 Coins]
[Sweet Apple: 250 Coins]
[Imperial Army's Magic Sword: 400 Coins]
[Book of Etiquette for Elegant Ladies: 540 Coins]
[High-Grade Random Scroll: 600 Coins]
·
·
·
Fortunately, the store had reset and an antidote had appeared.
I didn't know when it had reset, but it was definitely a stroke of good luck.
'But the low-grade health and mana potions were 600 coins each, but this is only 200 coins. Isn't it too cheap?'
I was puzzled for a moment, but I could understand the price setting after reading the item description.
[Low-Grade Antidote]
[Grade: Normal]
[Relieves minor symptoms of poisoning.]
It wasn't a potion that completely cured simple poisoning symptoms, but merely relieved them.
Looking at it this way, even 200 coins seemed expensive.
I sighed, but I was the one in urgent need, so I had no choice but to buy it.
[You have purchased a Low-Grade Antidote.]
I roughly drank the antidote and checked my remaining balance.
I had 400 coins left.
I thought that the two Kobold Warriors I had just dealt with wouldn't give me a separate reward because they weren't first kills, but surprisingly, they each gave me 50 coins.
'Still, it's not enough.'
There's a limit to catching monsters. A first kill of a D+ grade monster gives 100 coins, and a duplicate kill gives 50 coins.
Of course, if the day comes when I can catch D+ grade monsters as easily as catching ants, the coins they give as rewards are quite generous.
However, there was no guarantee that the value of 50 coins or 100 coins now would be the same then.
"After all, the settlement I got after matching with Iris gave me the most."
Excluding the special situation of the starter pack, the matching gave me 300 coins in just over half a day.
I'd probably get even more coins when I return after this matching ends.
Thinking that way, the answer came quickly.
I should try a new matching when this one ends.
It wasn't just about the coins. Just as I became a magician in this world, I might be able to gain knowledge or items that would help me grow in other worlds.
"It's decided."
While I was sitting and pondering, the poison seemed to have subsided quite a bit.
My body was still heavy, but my mana had recovered to some extent, so it was time to explore the dungeon again.
"Let's just fill it up to 1,000 coins."
I had 8 hours left.
The goal was to collect 1,000 coins in that time, combining the first kill reward and the duplicate kill reward, and then return.
And with a sweet settlement reward, I set the framework for my plans for the time being by rolling a new matching.
***
The dungeon was still vast, and the monsters and traps were as numerous as one could get tired of.
[You have defeated a Skeleton Warrior.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
[You have defeated a Skeleton Warrior.]
[Duplicate Kill Reward: 50 Coins]
[You have defeated a Skeleton Archer.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
Sometimes, three skeletons appeared at the same time.
[You have defeated a Death Ghoul.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
I also faced a giant ghoul whose size was comparable to a C-grade monster.
[You have defeated a Tentacle Clipper.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
A bizarre creature with multiple tentacles that seemed to have come straight out of an erotica game also appeared, and this was when Weakness Detection came in handy.
I struggled for a while because it recovered quickly no matter where I attacked, but thanks to Weakness Detection, I was able to find the core in its solar plexus.
[You have defeated a Devil Snake.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
When a snake the size of a mid-sized sedan with a length of 10 meters appeared, I just laughed.
[You have defeated a Blade Wolf.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
To put it simply, that son of a bitch was just annoying.
As a wolf, it was faster than a Kobold Warrior, and its steel claws were more powerful than a Poison Spider's forelegs, so I used at least 2.5 times more mana on the barrier than when catching other guys.
Fortunately, it had a very low magic resistance, so I pretended to make a mistake and shot a Thunderbolt into its mouth, turning it into an electric grill.
They make all dog meat into stew, but this guy was an electric grill.
If I sold it in a food truck, certain groups would foam at the mouth.
[You have defeated a Kobold Warrior.]
[Duplicate Kill Reward: 50 Coins]
[You have defeated Poison Spider x2.]
[Duplicate Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
[You have defeated a Skeleton Warrior.]
[Duplicate Kill Reward: 50 Coins]
I had already defeated some monsters, and they often reappeared and aimed for my neck.
My barrier was broken dozens of times, and I continued to move forward, burning monsters with fire and blowing them up with lightning.
Now, I couldn't even tell if the blood clots all over my body were my blood or monster blood.
"Haa…"
I was out of breath, and I was on the verge of collapsing from mana exhaustion due to my heart running dry.
After drinking the antidote, I fought in a way that minimized the mana consumption of magic every moment to reduce time wasted.
In particular, I actively adopted the modified barrier that I had learned when fighting two Kobold Warriors to reduce the mana consumption of the barrier and continued the battle.
Thanks to this, I was able to reduce the number of meditations and drastically reduce mana consumption, but the fatigue of the brain continued to accumulate. It was crazy for a rear-guard magician to accurately create a barrier of the minimum size only at the point of impact to block it.
If I had made even a slight miscalculation in the point of impact, a sword or arrow would have been embedded in my body. Even thinking about it now, it wasn't something I could do with a clear head, so why did I do it?
Still, I somehow got used to it, and later I was able to block it with almost no error.
Although I had cuts all over my body and an ear that was half cut off, it was a pretty good result. If I go to church later and pay an offering, they'll fix it.
I was able to learn dual casting, which allows me to use two spells at the same time, so this injury was cheap.
"I finally collected it all."
[Remaining Coins: 1,250 Coins]
With this, I can buy the most expensive item in the store.
Of course, the items currently on sale aren't great, so I'll have to wait until next time, but it's still a good thing.
In addition, I collected the magic stones that came out of the bodies of the 15 monsters I caught so far. Since it's a D+ grade monster's magic stone, it should sell for a good price, right?
Except that the process of collecting it was nauseatingly dirty and miserable.
[Remaining Matching Time: 01:15:49]
Now there's really not much time left, but fortunately, I reached the target value before that.
"Should I say goodbye to Iris and go back?"
It was a difficult decision to make.
But in the end, I leaned towards not saying goodbye.
It would be too tight with only an hour left to get to where Iris is from this point.
There's also no guarantee that monsters won't appear on the way back.
Anyway, if I go back to Earth, the time in this world will stop, so there's no need to be obsessed with saying goodbye.
"Should I look for the door to the 2nd floor during the remaining time?"
And collect coins along the way.
Even if I reached the target value, the more coins, the better.
Besides, if it really seems like I can't fight, I can just end the matching.
With that decided, I first went into meditation for 30 minutes to solve the depleted mana. As soon as I allowed it, I absorbed the mana that came to me with joy, refined it, and stored it in my heart.
Feeling the mana gradually filling up, I took out the last chicken breast salad and ate it.
'I bought this to give to Iris too, but I couldn't give her anything but medicine.'
Leaving the regret behind, I decided to hit the road.
Considering the time left, there was no time to dawdle.
The way to go was still a familiar passage.
The only difference was that the forks that used to come out so often didn't come out as much as before.
Thanks to this, mapping became much easier, but the sudden change made me feel strange.
Besides, there were no monsters or traps.
Of course, it had only been 30 minutes, so it was understandable that there were no monsters. There were no traps either… Well, I could just think I was lucky.
The discomfort made me feel uneasy, but now there were only 15 minutes left.
There was no more time to worry or explore.
Was it too greedy to find the door to the 2nd floor from the first exploration?
Just when I was about to end the matching around here,
Whoosh!
"?!"
Something was flying quickly from far away, beyond the darkness.
It was incomparably faster than the arrows of the Kobold Warrior I had fought before.
Thinking that I couldn't make it in time to put up a barrier around my whole body, I calculated the point of impact and deployed a modified barrier there.
Kwaaaang!!!
"Keuk?!"
It was a barrier that I had invested half of my remaining mana in, just in case.
Nevertheless, the barrier shattered as it blocked the attack.
Fortunately, the trajectory of the attack was diverted, so I wasn't injured, but the impact was so great that my body flew back several meters.
I barely managed to support myself and stood up.
What was stuck in the ground in front of me was a spear.
"To have this much power with a javelin throw from a distance of over 50m…"
I had a bad feeling.
The heaviness of the approaching mana was making my survival instincts scream at me to end the matching right now.
I remembered what the World Tree had told me before entering this place.
[Be careful, as there is a guardian who guards the door to the next floor.]
"…Putting aside being careful, that's…"
What emerged from the darkness was a Lizardman with scales covering his entire body and muscles that were incomparably stronger than a Kobold Warrior.
It was a Lizard Warrior, an elite individual among the C-grade Lizardmen.
He was a different class of opponent than the Kobold Warriors.
Unlike the Kobold Warriors who simply filled the front line, that guy was the strongest warrior of the tribe, recognized among the Lizardmen who live in tribal societies.
His intelligence was also known to be incomparably higher than that of a Kobold.
'The reason he threw the javelin was because he had two spears.'
I couldn't find even a small gap in the guy who exuded a terrifying sense of pressure and took out the spear he was carrying on his back.
Weakness Detection sometimes tells me the opponent's gaps, but I couldn't see anything now.
He wasn't a stupid monster who acted recklessly on his physical abilities, but a true warrior.
Krrr…
He was at least a C+.
I can somehow catch up to C-, but that's really not it.
"Still, it's worth it just to know that you're the guardian."
I gave the guy who was releasing infinite animosity and murderous intent towards me while growling a middle finger.
"I'll be back soon, so wait for me."
[Do you want to end the matching?]
[Y/N]
[Y]