Chapter 137.1

137 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 137

Let’s Absorb Energy From The Core!

“…Oh, I almost forgot!”

After finishing their report of the request’s completion and parting ways with Kagemitsu and others, Haruki went back to the Mt. Hakodate Dungeon.

He had initially thought about taking Karen along, but he ended up going on his own. She had decided to wait at the hotel.

The reason why Haruki had returned to the dungeon was to get enhancement points from the dungeon’s core.

When he came to defeat the Dungeon Lord, all he could think of was to enjoy some delicious lumpfish broth, so he had completely forgotten about the core.

Besides, the Self-Defense Force had been there as well.

In any case, he couldn’t go touch the core back then.

“So, which one’s the core…?”

Haruki looked around, searching for anything that looked like the core.

Immediately, he noticed that there was a core-like object at the back of the 100-meters wide Boss Room.

The core was a stone about the size of a chest of drawers, smaller than the one in Asahikawa.

The stone still looked like it was artificially processed. This seemed to be a common feature of all dungeon cores.

Haruki reached out and touched the core.

As he did that, the core gradually started to become darker from the top.

After confirming that the entire core went completely dark, Haruki took out the Skill Board.

<<Received energy from the dungeon’s core>>

<<All of the core’s energy has been absorbed>>

<<Core’s activity temporarily stopped>>

<<Next Stampede outbreak time has been delayed>>

Just like before, there was a log showing that the energy was removed from the core.

And…

“Hmm…?”

<<Prerequisites for Demo Graph update have been fulfilled>>

<<Starting update…>>

A text about prerequisites having been fulfilled appeared.

“Ooh!”

The log was pretty recent. So the prerequisites having been fulfilled were directly related to Haruki’s actions.

Haruki had touched the core and taken out its energy, so it was expected that this would be the key.

But it wasn’t just once that he had drawn energy from a core.

“Maybe it needs to happen several times?”

If the conditions for this upgrade would be achieved after several occurrences of him touching a core… Could the same core be used, or did it have to be each core in each different dungeon?

Or maybe it  would be achieved after getting over a certain amount of enhancement points.

In any case, there was no doubt that the condition was achieved after touching this core.

“Well, let’s see… Are there going to be any changes?”

Haruki held his breath as he stood watch.

After a brief moment, the following entry appeared on the log:

<<Update complete>>

<<Safety device has been disabled>>

“B-Wha–!?”

Haruki involuntarily breathed out after feeling a sense of danger brought up by the log’s warning about a safety device being disabled.

The first thing that came to Haruki’s mind when he thought of a “safety device” was the self-destruct device at a research facility.

A red button and a transparent lid over it.

Had he done something irreparable?

Cold sweat ran down Haruki’s temples.

Then, the last log was displayed as the pale Haruki watched over.

<<You can now use the Energy Tree>>

“…Phew.”

After reading the log, Haruki put his hand on his chest and exhaled.

He thought that he had evoked a dangerous system hidden in the Skill Board, but apparently it wasn’t as threatening as he expected.

“Still, finally…”

The Skill Board displayed muscle mass, stamina, agility and immunity.

However, the “cooking” skill had yet to appear in the tree.

It was strange that this particular ability wasn’t displayed as a skill because Haruki was confident in his cooking skills.

However, the Skill Board would most likely be displaying only abilities related to defeating dungeons. Or if it regarded a certain skill as a basic ability that can be applied to a number of other, more developed abilities, it would be somewhat coherent to display it as well.

Until now, the board did not display the power that was used when performing energy attacks or power attacks.

Haruki had been a little confused as to why they weren’t being displayed.

However, from the words “Safety device disabled” and “You can now use the Energy tree”, he could understand why he couldn’t see it until now.

“Is the Energy tree a higher-level category than other trees?”

Haruki already thought that the Skill Board was quite amazing since it let him strengthen basic skills.

However, the Energy skills would seem to have more effect than that.

In fact, Haruki’s energy attack had been completely out of reach for him.

The fact that it was out of reach scared him.

It scared him because he had no control over it.

It was a kind of power that humans didn’t normally have.

That’s how scary it was for Haruki to have the power to send his energy flying as an attack.

If he could mess around with the energy tree back when he first got his Skill Board, he would have been able to use his power attacks as a new adventurer.

It would have been like giving a pistol to a baby.

He wouldn’t have been able to control it, and he would have most likely ended up hurting someone else or even himself.

Even Haruki, who had turned into an intermediate adventurer and had become aware of his energy, was still far from controlling it perfectly.

If he weren’t aware of it, his energy would run wild, leak out into his Magic Sword and mask without his permission.

Uncontrolled power doesn’t lead to prosperity, but to destruction.

It wasn’t unreasonable at all for the appearance of the Energy tree to be locked behind certain conditions.

Haruki looked away from the log, and turned to his Skill tree.

Karaboshi Haruki (27)　Gender: Male

Skill Points: 5 → 9

Class: Hidden Sword King

Divine Protection: Overthrowing God <Medjed>

He had gained Skill Points due to having defeated the Dungeon Lord.

It seemed that defeating a rare species of the Dungeon Lord was worth only 1 more point than defeating its normal variant.

(So if it were a rare species of a Dungeon Lord who also caused a Stampede, would I get a total of 6 points…?)

“So where is that Energy tree…? Huh? What’s this!?”

Haruki’s eyes opened wide when he saw the Energy tree.

－Strength ＜－＞

└ Strength 5

－Energy ＜－＞　NEW

├ Energy Power 2

├ Energy Compatibility 5

├ Energy Manipulation 1

└ Exhaustion Resistance MAX

－Agility ＜+ 2＞

├ Quickness 6

└ Dexterity 5

First of all, Energy Compatibility.

It was already at level 5 even though it had just appeared on his Skill tree. It was an exceptionally high level for a skill that hadn’t been touched at all.