Chapter 107.1

107 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 107

Let’s Enhance The Masked Man!

“I’ll enhance the Masked Man himself!!”

Haruki’s joyful voice echoed through the 10th floor, where the boss had been defeated.

“Are you going to enhance your mask?”

Unlike Haruki, who was trembling with joy, Karen’s expression instantly turned cloudy.

“Do you think it will be okay to enhance your mask, Karaboshi?”

“Yeah, it should be okay. It’s appearance didn’t change.”

“Wait, have you already enhanced it!?”

“Of course! This mask… No, this godly mask is something I should have enhanced before anything else, don’t you think!?”

To increase Haruki’s presence.

When he was equipped with that mask, Haruki’s presence was recognized by all living things.

But without the mask, Haruki’s face would go unnoticed by everyone!

There was no item in Haruki’s possession that helped him increase his presence like that mask.

This was surely some kind of graceful item that a nameless god with a strong presence had given to Haruki to help him with his pitiful presence!

Only Haruki saw it that way, though.

For Haruki, that mask was a godly item.

The only unfortunate thing was that the mask’s appearance made people mistake Haruki for some kind of suspicious person.

However, that was yet another issue that would be solved eventually.

When equipped with the mask, people would recognize Haruki’s presence.

If his presence continued to be recognized, word about him would spread out and everyone would eventually understand that the Masked Man is a “friend”, and not some suspicious guy.

Just by having a presence, he could change people’s impressions on him.

— How amazing!

— Not only it can increase my presence, but it also has the potential to change people’s thoughts about me!

— This mask is truly a godsend!

A surge of dopamine flowed through Haruki’s brain.

Haruki seemed extremely pleased in his own delusions.

“So, how is it!?”

“How is what?”

“Has your presence increased?”

“…”

Karen squinted as she asked Haruki that question.

Then she stared at him and started to groan.

“I… think my presence is just the same as before?”

“Wait, wait. You’ve spent 2000 points on enhancing that mask! It must have done something, right!?”

“I’m sorry…”

Haruki apologetically bowed at Karen.

— That was a lot of points to spend in one go…

— Damn it! What a let-down!!

Haruki was deeply disappointed that the mask didn’t seem to have changed at all like he expected.

“Ah… But even if its appearance didn’t change, maybe its performance did!”

“Its performance? Is there anything besides increasing my presence?”

“No no, there must be something else! Increased defensive power, improved breathing, something like that!”

“Ah… Now that you mention it, there are a few things here…”

Haruki, who had gone pale, started to recover his color after hearing Karen’s words.

Haruki’s mask’s abilities weren’t limited to increasing his presence.

Even though there didn’t seem to be any holes in the mask, he could see through it, and it didn’t make it difficult to breathe at all. There was no harm done by keeping it on at all times.

If he were to stick it to his face with glue, he could feel as if he wasn’t wearing anything at all.

That feeling had caused Haruki to sometimes go to bed with his mask on.

Were there any other changes on the mask’s basic abilities?

Haruki took off his mask, touched it with his hand, and then put it back on to check on its condition.

“It feels a bit different…”

First of all, the mask’s texture was slightly different.

It used to feel like carved wood, but now it felt harder than wood.

“So your defense has improved then!”

“Hmm. Yeah, looks like it…”

True, his defense might have increased.

But Haruki didn’t ask for defense when spending 2000 points to enhance the mask.

It was presence.

What Haruki wanted was a stronger presence!

*sigh*

However, the mask still had two more enhancement levels left.

There was still a chance it could gain a presence-increasing ability as it leveled up.

Haruki’s bright future had just been postponed a little.

All he needed to do was to get more points and keep enhancing the mask.

— Just you wait, dungeons.

— I’ll absorb every last bit of energy you have!

Thinking about that filled Haruki with determination.

“Ah, Karen. There’s something else.”

“Something else… Is it another change on the mask?”

“Maybe.”

There was something he could see only when wearing the mask.

“I can see a strange light coming out of your body.”

When seen through the mask, there seemed to be a thin layer of light around Karen’s body.

It was colorless and transparent, like water.

However, the outline was clearly visible, so he was sure it was there.

It wasn’t just Karen. Haruki also had a thin layer of light around him.

Rhea and Chep had it as well.

But theirs were too thin compared to the one Karen had.

The difference in thickness was similar to that between a hard-cover book and a tissue paper.

Haruki and the others weren’t the only ones covered by this transparent aura.

The ground, walls, and even the dead Giant Dark Tree. The entire dungeon was covered with this aura-like thing.

“Could it be… Can you now see it too, Karaboshi?”

“Uh, huh? Can you see it, Karen?”

“Yes. That aura is the source of magic.”

“Magic…”

Certainly, if this was the source of magic — namely, MP–, that would explain why only Karen’s aura was thicker than everyone else’s.

“So I wasn’t able to see this until now because I didn’t have any ability for magic?”

“Maybe that’s not it… But I can’t tell for sure.”

Haruki wondered why Karen had never told him about this before.

Though Haruki had never told Karen about the light he saw whenever he used Weakness Exploit.

It was risky to speak of things no one other than Karen or Haruki could see.

It was always best to not speak of those things until they knew there was going to be something to back them up.

Like an employee of a large company who has the ability to do a “detailed appraisal” and reveal information about an item’s properties.