Chapter 49. Picking Glowing Mushrooms (3)
Gusto Zebro felt a strange sensation and looked back.
For some reason, he felt a chill.
'Is it because I'm inside a dungeon?'
A place where monsters are constantly generated.
A dungeon was a place where no one knew by what principle they were created.
He often went into dungeons during training, but it was never that enjoyable.
Pyoong!
Gusto turned his gaze forward again.
The place was a scene of slaughter.
Leon summoned several large ice spears and floated them in the air, then sent them flying towards the monsters' heads.
Thwack!
The monsters were impaled by the ice spears, their heads bursting, or they were frozen on the spot.
Then, a wind blade that flew from somewhere shattered the frozen monsters to pieces.
Clang!
Leon was handling the monsters as soon as he saw them, using both wind and ice magic simultaneously.
It was truly overwhelming skill.
In fact, besides Radel, Leon was the only one who had passed almost all the evaluation assignments.
He hadn't gone to hunt the Swamp Serpent yet because he couldn't make the Detoxification Potion in the alchemy class, but in Gusto's view, it was only a matter of time.
'Prince Radel is truly a great person.'
It was impossible for anyone in the Empire not to know that the 9th Prince Leon's Ability was the Dragon's Blessing.
It was an amazing ability, to the point of being said to be loved by magic.
Seeing Leon use element magic with an endless stream of magic power, he could feel the power of the Ability.
At the same time, he felt that Radel, a being that even Leon couldn't defeat, was even greater.
'And he had never even learned magic before.'
Perhaps this was all included in the reason why Leon kept wanting to get rid of Radel, Gusto guessed.
'Even so, it doesn't give him a reason to bother His Highness.'
Thinking that, Gusto went on defeating the monsters.
The two of them silently cleared the dungeon.
Even after discovering the glowing mushrooms, the two of them just picked their own mushrooms and didn't exchange any opinions.
It was only when they were about to leave the dungeon that Leon said a word.
"Can I assume the Supreme Deity Order has sided with that guy?"
Gusto answered without any change in expression.
"I personally follow Prince Radel, but my actions do not represent the Supreme Deity Order."
"And you expect me to believe that?"
"That is the truth."
It was a moment when a cold wind blew between the two.
After that, the two left the dungeon without another word.
Professor Lilian, who was waiting outside, greeted the two of them.
"You two came out really fast. It's a new record!"
Professor Lilian took the glowing mushrooms from Gusto and Leon and wrote down the record on a piece of paper.
Then, she tilted her head as if she didn't understand.
"But it's strange. Why aren't student Radel and student Edward, who went in before you two, coming out?"
At Professor Lilian's words, Gusto's face hardened.
"Did you happen to see them on your way out?"
"……I did not."
Gusto wondered if the strange feeling he had felt in the dungeon earlier was this.
"I will go back in."
"No. I'll go, so everyone wait here."
Professor Lilian said firmly, stopping Gusto.
A serious light shone on Professor Lilian's face as she took out her staff.
Just as Professor Lilian was about to enter the dungeon, someone was seen coming out of the dungeon with difficult steps.
It was Edward Paradik, who had gone in with Radel.
He was carrying someone on his back, and so much blood had flowed from that body that Edward's body was also covered in dark red blood.
"Your Highness!"
Gusto spotted the person Edward was carrying and ran up to him at once.
An unconscious Radel was being carried limply on Edward's back.
"No, what happened?"
Professor Lilian quickly checked Radel's condition.
There was no way he could be safe after shedding this much blood.
Edward laid Radel on the ground and shed tears.
Seeing this, Edward's friends looked at each other in surprise.
"Pr-professor. The Prince, trying to save me, he, he."
Edward began to sob, wailing.
"Th-the Prince, he's not breathing, the Prince, because of me……!"
There was a hole in Radel's chest that looked like it was caused by a monster.
He had to cast Heal first to keep him alive.
However, Gusto was already casting Heal countless times.
Of course, it didn't work on Radel.
"Move!"
At that moment, someone who had jumped out from among the freshmen pushed Gusto aside.
It was Armandy with an urgent expression.
He poured a potion on Radel's wound.
Troll's Heart or not, seeing the fallen Radel, Armandy was about to explode.
He said he would be careful, so what is this!
This seemed to have some effect, as Radel's face seemed to have more color than before.
Gusto put his finger to Radel's nose. A thin, thread-like breath was there.
Only then did Gusto let out a sigh of relief.
* * *
It was a peaceful afternoon.
Radel opened his eyes because he was thirsty.
Instinctively fumbling on the bedside table, he was relieved to finally find what he was looking for.
"……This is it."
The water pitcher fit perfectly in Radel's hand.
He was only able to come to his senses after drinking the water.
"The Treatment Room again."
Well, it was understandable that he had collapsed.
He had gotten his chest pierced by a monster in a hidden boss room of all places.
Radel, for some reason, placed the water pitcher, which gave him a sense of security, back down carefully and checked his status window.
[Troll's Heart (C)]
The ability to regenerate any wound.
However, it regenerates at a normal speed. (Additional ability activation: Health 60)
When the trait is activated, it is accompanied by strong pain.
The pain that cannot kill me only makes me stronger. (Health +1 upon recovery from a near-death state)
Regenerates at a normal speed.
He felt that the Troll's Heart was finally becoming somewhat useful.
Radel checked the system window once more.
'Hidden Boss Clear Reward?'
The system window informed him that there was a reward for defeating the queen spider.
Radel pressed the message.
Ding.
[Skill: Superhuman Intuition]
[Condition: Clear Hidden Boss Room]
[Do you want to learn the skill? (Y/N)]
It was a reward he had obtained by defeating a hidden boss, so it didn't seem like it would be a trivial skill.
[Superhuman Intuition (F)]
Superhuman intuition is activated.
Sometimes, danger is sensed in advance without any warning.
???(0/1)
It was a strange skill.
But since the advancement condition was marked with question marks, he would have to wait and see.
In any case, when he touched his chest, the recovery was quite fast for having a hole pierced through it.
It seemed to be thanks to the Troll's Heart having gone up a level.
It was then.
Screech!
The door of the Treatment Room opened and someone came in.
"How are you feeling?"
The person who came to visit Radel was none other than Professor Lilian Merchent.
"Hello, Professor."
Radel was bewildered as to how Professor Lilian had come to visit at such a good time, not long after he had woken up.
"But how did you know I had woken up……?"
Professor Lilian smiled shyly.
"There are ways of knowing."
However, Radel did not miss Professor Lilian's eyes turning towards the window.
It seemed she had been watching with a flying golem.
"I was worried since you were injured during the Combat Magic evaluation assignment. I heard from student Edward. He said it happened while fighting a hidden boss."
"Yes. Fortunately, I was able to defeat it."
"I'm sure you were. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to get out of the dungeon."
Professor Lilian smiled brightly and offered her congratulations to Radel.
"Congratulations. Student Radel, you have finished the evaluation assignments for all five subjects before anyone else during the freshman adaptation period. In other words, you're in first place!"
"Wow, that's great."
Although he said it was great, Radel's expression was calm.
What's so great about being in first place?
As if she knew Radel's thoughts, Professor Lilian added.
"Of course, there will be a reward for that. You can look forward to it."
If there was a reward, that was a different story.
Radel was a person who knew how social life worked.
"Yes, I will look forward to it."
"Good. Oh, and by the way……."
Professor Lilian stood by Radel's bed for a moment and fumbled in her pocket.
Then she unfolded what she had found and showed it to Radel.
'This is?'
It was the slip of paper Radel had written on randomly when Lilian had asked them to write down the name of the opponent they wanted to fight.
On it was written Professor Lilian Merchent's name.
Professor Lilian said to Radel with an interested expression.
"To write my name. You either want to major in Combat Magic, or you want to fight me. I can assume it's one of the two, right?"
Actually, Radel thought that fighting a professor would be much more helpful than fighting a fellow freshman.
It was also true that he was curious about the skills of Professor Lilian, who had terrifying magic power.
But now that he had finished the evaluation assignment, Radel didn't particularly want to fight the professor.
"I am still too lacking to receive your teachings, Professor……."
"Hmm."
Lilian looked Radel up and down as if assessing his condition, then nodded.
"Well, you are still recovering. Let's talk about it next time. Take care of yourself and rest well until the weekend."
After Professor Lilian left, Radel stroked his chest in relief.
According to Professor Lilian, since he had finished all the evaluation assignments, it seemed there was no problem even if he rested for a few days.
Radel thought about playing around a bit this time.
Thanks to encountering the hidden boss, he was getting pampered in the Treatment Room.
Thinking positively, Radel recalled the memory of defeating the queen spider.
Come to think of it, he seemed to have heard something incomprehensible just before he lost consciousness.
"……I think it was something about a master?"
He thought he might have misheard, but for some reason, he couldn't just let it go.
It was a moment when Radel was feeling frustrated with his own memory.
Knock, knock.
This time, a knock was heard on the door of the Treatment Room.
Seeing that they knocked, it didn't seem to be Professor Lilian who had just left.
"Yes."
"……Your Highness, I'm coming in."
Someone hesitantly entered the Treatment Room.
It was Edward, who had cleared the hidden boss room with Radel.
"I heard from Professor Lilian that Your Highness had woken up."
Radel felt a sense of welcome.
"Edward, I was just wondering. How are you? Are you okay?"
"Thanks to Your Highness, nothing happened to me."
Edward, perhaps feeling awkward about coming to visit empty-handed, held out a bundle.
"Uh, I heard you like this."
Did I particularly like anything?
Radel opened Edward's gift.
What was in the bundle was none other than potatoes.
"Uh…… thank you."
It was the first time he had received something like this as a get-well gift, but he could feel Edward's sincerity.
Seeing that his Affinity had risen then, it seemed he was very grateful that Radel had saved him.
"It must have been hard to get, but you've managed to bring this much. This is different from the sausages we ate then. Want to grill them together later?"
Radel asked Edward, thinking nothing of it.
But it wasn't the reaction Radel had expected.
Edward couldn't bring himself to look at Radel and was looking down at his toes with his head bowed.
"Edward?"
Actually, Radel didn't know because he had only just woken up, but Edward had been visiting the Treatment Room every single day without fail.
It was to the point where Edward's friends were surprised.
It seemed that he had felt a lot while carrying the dying Radel out.
However, Radel, who didn't know the circumstances, wondered why this guy was acting like this.
'He must be sorry.'
He probably thought it was his fault that they had fallen into the hidden boss room by stepping on a trap.
But a dungeon was a place where it was originally difficult to predict what would happen.
"It's all good as long as we both came out alive. Isn't it?"
As Radel spoke brightly, Edward, who had been unable to speak for a long time, hesitated and then opened his mouth.
"I have been thinking wrongly about Your Highness all this time."
A familiar phrase, a familiar situation was unfolding.
He could now even predict what would come next.
Radel sighed inwardly.
Why did things like this only happen when he came to the Treatment Room?