Darkness surrounded me.
For a while, there was nothing. No sound, no sensation, not even the dull ache that usually followed a battle.
Then, slowly, something began to form inside that darkness.
A scene.
It was strangely familiar.
The same road.
The same time of day.
The same people walking around me.
I recognized it immediately.
It was the first day of my high school life.
The street in front of the school was crowded, filled with students in uniforms and the constant noise of passing vehicles. I was walking across the crossroad with a bag over my shoulder, half distracted by the thought of how tedious the day ahead would be.
The traffic signal was red.
Which meant every vehicle was supposed to stop.
Except one.
A car was racing down the road at full speed, ignoring both the red light and the fact that it was a school zone.
I noticed it immediately.
From where I was standing, I could have easily stepped back and avoided it.
There was enough time.
More than enough.
But then I saw something else.
Another student was walking across the road from the opposite side, earphones plugged in, completely unaware of the car speeding toward the intersection.
For a brief second, my mind froze.
Then my body moved.
Without thinking, I leaped forward and pushed the student out of the way.
And in doing so, I placed myself directly in front of the car.
There was no time left to dodge.
The impact came instantly.
A loud crash.
Then darkness.
Death on the spot.
Even now, I do not know why I did that.
Perhaps it was instinct.
Perhaps it was stupidity.
Or perhaps it was simply the kind of decision a person makes without thinking when faced with a moment that cannot be taken back.
The scene faded.
The sounds disappeared.
And the darkness returned once again.
But this time, something else followed.
A faint warmth.
A soft sensation beneath my head.
And a gentle fragrance that reminded me strangely of flowers.
Slowly, my eyes began to open.
For a brief moment after I regained consciousness, I was convinced that I had died and somehow ended up in heaven.
Not because of any divine revelation, but because the first thing I saw was long strands of purple hair swaying gently above me, followed by a pair of calm blue eyes looking down at me.
Then the realization struck me.
My head was resting on someone's lap.
For several seconds I simply stared upward, allowing my mind to process the situation.
A beautiful girl with fair skin, long purple hair flowing down her shoulders, and a white robe far too clean for a dungeon was looking down at me.
Yes.
This was definitely heaven.
"Well," I muttered weakly, staring up at her face, "if this is heaven, then I must admit the angels here are quite beautiful."
Her expression immediately changed.
"I am not an angel," she said flatly.
"And you should stop mocking me."
Mocking?
I blinked slowly.
"I assure you," I replied in the most serious voice I could manage while lying on her lap, "this is the highest form of appreciation I am capable of at the moment."
Her eyes narrowed further.
"I saved your life," she said flatly.
"The least you could do is behave normally."
That sentence cleared the remaining fog in my mind.
Saved my life?
Which meant one thing.
I was not dead.
That was mildly disappointing considering how comfortable heaven had felt for the past few seconds.
Carefully pushing myself up, I lifted my head from her lap and sat upright.
The cold stone floor of the dungeon greeted me again, and the familiar flickering torchlight illuminated the corridor.
Several meters away lay the twisted corpse of the mutated human I had barely managed to kill earlier.
So the fight had not been a hallucination.
My gaze returned to the girl sitting beside me.
"You saved me?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied calmly.
"How?"
"I possess healing magic."
That answer made perfect sense.
Healing magic was rare, but not unheard of. Even low level healers were considered extremely valuable by adventurer guilds.
Which meant the girl sitting beside me was someone important.
Or someone extremely dangerous.
Either way, basic manners came first.
I straightened my posture and bowed my head slightly.
"Thank you," I said sincerely. "You saved my life."
She observed me quietly for a moment before giving a small nod.
Then I reached into the inner pocket of my coat and pulled out a small glass vial filled with dark blue liquid.
Without hesitation, I removed the cork and drank it in one motion.
The bitter taste spread across my tongue immediately.
The girl tilted her head slightly.
"What was that?"
"Antidote," I replied, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
Her brows furrowed slightly.
"But I already healed your wounds."
"Yes," I said calmly. "However powerful healing magic may be, the effects of poison remain inside the body unless the toxin itself is neutralized."
Healing magic could repair damaged flesh, but it could not remove poison already circulating through the bloodstream.
Without an antidote, the toxin would simply continue spreading.
Her expression showed a hint of surprise.
"You know quite a lot," she said.
"Ten years of dungeon experience tends to teach useful things," I replied.
Just as the conversation ended, a faint flicker appeared in front of my eyes.
Then the familiar transparent window formed once again.
The system.
It seemed that whatever strange mechanism had activated earlier had not disappeared.
The status window slowly appeared in front of me.
Name : Leomord
Age : 15
Race : Human
MP : 60 / 100
HP : 20 / 100
Element : Water
Skills :
Swordsmanship (Level 2)
Water Splash (Level 3)
Duplicate Skill (Level 1)
??????
Buff : None
Nerf : Poison (Level 2)
Some things have changed.
But the most unique one was the skill update, with an addition of a skill named duplicate skills.
Is it what I think it is?
I have to use it as soon as possible.
Then another window appeared in front of me.
_______________________________________
Race : Mutated Human
Skills :
Healing Magic (Level 1)
______________________________________
Task 1 : Appoint her as your party member
______________________________________
The window vanished a moment later.
So that was her information.
The system had shown me her race and her skill.
Mutated Human.
That alone was enough to spark my curiosity. The creature I had just fought had also been a mutated human, yet the girl sitting in front of me looked completely normal.
No deformities.
No monstrous features.
Just a quiet girl with purple hair and healing magic.
Then there was the task.
Appoint her as your party member.
Which meant the system clearly wanted me to recruit her.
I glanced at her again.
She was sitting calmly on the stone floor, her expression neutral as if none of this concerned her.
"Can I ask you something?" I said.
She looked at me.
"What?"
"Who are you?" I asked. "And how did you end up inside this dungeon?"
Her gaze remained steady for a moment.
Then she looked away.
"I would prefer not to answer that."
Direct.
Clear.
And not negotiable.
I studied her expression briefly, but it was obvious she had no intention of explaining anything.
So I changed the subject.
"Then what are you planning to do now?" I asked.
Silence.
She did not answer that either.
Which meant she either did not know or simply did not trust me enough to say it.
Fair enough.
Trust was not something people handed out freely inside a dungeon.
I stretched my arms slightly, testing the strength returning to my body.
The antidote had begun doing its job. The dizziness was fading slowly.
"Well," I said, standing up, "I was planning to leave this dungeon for today."
My HP was still at twenty. Continuing deeper in this condition would be suicide.
I turned to her.
"If you do not have anywhere specific to go," I continued, "you could travel with me for now."
She looked up at me again.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because it would be inefficient otherwise," I replied honestly. "You saved my life, and I would prefer not to leave someone with healing magic alone inside a dungeon."
That was only half the truth.
The other half was standing right in front of my eyes.
Duplicate Skill.
If the skill truly allowed me to duplicate abilities, then the healing magic she possessed might become far more valuable than she realized.
But that was something I would confirm later.
For now, the offer was simple.
She remained silent for a few seconds.
Then she slowly stood up.
"…Alright," she said quietly.
That was it.
No conditions.
No arguments.
Just a simple agreement.
Together, we walked toward the dungeon exit.
The corridor was quiet now, the flickering torches casting long shadows along the walls as we made our way back through the path I had taken earlier.
After several minutes, the faint light from the dungeon entrance came into view.
Two guards were still standing there.
The same ones from earlier.
As we stepped outside, their eyes briefly shifted toward us.
They looked at me.
Then at the girl walking beside me.
For a moment I thought they might say something.
Instead, they simply looked away again.
They did not question us.
They did not stop us.
They simply ignored us.
Which was… a little strange.
But I did not bother asking.
Standing around a dungeon entrance while injured was not a wise decision.
Without wasting time, I began walking down the forest path toward the town.
The evening air felt refreshing after the suffocating atmosphere of the dungeon.
For a while we walked in silence.
The girl followed quietly behind me, her footsteps light against the dirt road.
I glanced back once.
She was still there.
Purple hair swaying gently in the wind, white robe catching the fading sunlight of the evening.
A healer.
A mutated human.
And now, apparently—
My first companion.
I looked forward again, a faint smile forming on my face.
Perhaps this dungeon expedition had turned out more interesting than I had expected.
*********************