Chapter 88.1

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88 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 88

Let’s Learn About The Treatment Method!

“… Would you be willing to retire as an adventurer?”

“… What?”

Haruki failed to understand what Akane had said for a moment.

— Retire… as an adventurer?

— Me…?

When he finally understood the meaning of Akane’s words, Haruki’s blood began to rise to his head.

“What are you talking about? You’re joking, right? There’s no way I would quit being an adventurer!”

“I’m not joking.”

“Then why are you talking about that all of a sudden?”

“Because I’ve heard about this condition of yours.”

Akane was looking straight at him.

She didn’t seem to be joking or asking him out of whim. She was serious about it.

However, no matter how serious she was, there was no room for consideration.

Haruki had just become an adventurer last spring.

Only three short months had passed since he had fulfilled his long-sought wish of becoming an adventurer.

His level was rising steadily, and his skills were getting considerably stronger.

Without any information, he had tackled the garage dungeon and reached all the way down to the middle floors.

He had just gotten started being an adventurer.

There was still so much more he could do.

The endless road was completely clear to Haruki’s eyes.

There was no way he could consider quitting at this point.

“I have absolutely no intention to quit.”

“Even if you’re no longer human?”

“… Huh?”

Akane’s words fell on him like a splash of cold water.

The blood that had risen to his head cooled down and started to recede.

“What do you mean?”

“I only have a bit of information about it, but it seems to be a side effect of leveling up. If they keep on leveling up rapidly, normal creatures can turn into monsters.”

“…”

Both Haruki and Karen’s faces stiffened after hearing Akane’s words.

The general public had a tendency to shirk adventurers, who could obtain physical abilities that are far beyond the average human being.

Some ordinary people who hate adventurers would even think that adventurers are nothing but some kind of wannabe army of mere criminals.

Five years had passed since the first Stampede.

Unfortunately, the world had yet to fully accept adventurers.

Leveling up could turn him into a monster.

Haruki could easily imagine that if this rumor were to be leaked to the outside, adventurers would be in a dangerous position.

Especially since so little is known about this condition.

Akane sighed and sat back on her chair. What did she think about Karen and Haruki’s faces?

“If you defeat the monsters that appear in a dungeon, you will feel that your body is getting stronger, unlike defeating ordinary animals, right?. That’s how much the monsters in the dungeon are capable of strengthening your body. I don’t know what that is yet, but I think it’s some kind of life energy.

Defeating a monster actually strengthens your body. Then, what if you defeat a lot of monsters and strengthen your body a lot? In animal experiments, there have been results when their bodies themselves had changed. Ordinary animals have become monsters. In other words–”

Akane made a short pause and furrowed her brow.

“It is very likely that the change in your body is the same phenomenon those animals experienced. The energy obtained by defeating monsters is accumulated without being taken into your body, so your body itself changes. And that’s why your body hurts.”

“I’m… going to turn into a monster?”

Haruki scraped those words together out of his dry throat.

It was a dreadfully shrill voice.

“That’s possible. That’s why I’d advise you to retire now, because the best way to avoid turning into a monster is to stop taking energy from monsters into your body altogether.”

“Are there any other adventurers with this condition?”

“There are, but only a few. Maybe this only happens when the rate of energy getting accumulated exceeds the rate of its absorption into the body.”

Akane then shrugged her shoulders, saying “People who level up really fast like you are more likely to get this condition”.

“But why only Karaboshi…?”

“It may not be just him.”

“So could I have this condition as well?”

“If Air has it, then it’s possible you have it too.”

“I… I see…”

Akane and Karen exchanged a few words.

Haruki was dumbfounded by their conversation.

Haruki and Karen formed a team in order to tackle the dungeon.

They were almost the same level, but so far only Haruki had shown to have any symptoms.

— Damn it!

Haruki clicked his tongue and put his hand on his forehead.

There was no mistaking the reason why he was leveling up so fast. It was his Growth Acceleration skill.

He had never expected that skill to be such a pitfall.

“There’s no medicine to cure it, right?”

“No. And there’s no medicine that can alleviate the symptoms either.”

“I… I can’t believe this…”

— It can’t be cured?

He couldn’t find the words to finish what he was trying to say. The future before him seemed bleak.

“We adventurers have this universal medicine we could use, right? Wouldn’t that help somehow?”

“It won’t. This is not a disease.”

“…”

Karen put her hands together in front of her chest as if praying.