Levelling Up In An Exclusive Dungeon - Chapter 16

Lucia noticed a slight leak of aura from Jinhyuk’s hand.

The truth is, it was too faint of a haze to even call it an aura, but it seemed like it.

‘I knew he was talented, but he got used to it quicker than I expected.’

It’s true that clerics were more likely to learn aura than regular humans.

Clerics sort of skip 3 or 4 steps in learning aura by borrowing divine power instead of his own mana.

However, the conditions doesn’t necessarily mean that all clerics could learn it.

If all clerics were capable of learning aura, Lucia’s world would’ve been flooded with holy knights.

‘If his belief was strong enough, he would’ve figured this out on his own.’

But of course, Lucia was sure that that’s impossible.

In Kang Jinhyuk’s world, there was no place to live in to practice belief with a unique reverence.

If Jinhyuk didn’t use his holy shield skill, Lucia wouldn’t have known that he was a cleric.

“Sigh, we won’t have time to investigate now.”

His progress was unexpectedly quick, so the plan on investigating the magic spells need to be pushed.

But Lucia has no regrets at all.

Even if she were able to interpret the magic spells, it was still impossible to return to her own dimension using just her own magic.

It was simple greed to want to investigate it.

Lucia thought that it was better to help Jinhyuk progress rather than satiating her own curiosity. 

She knows how important guidance is in Jinhyuk’s process of learning.

Or maybe it’s something else.

Kang Jinhyuk, who learned a new skill, was showing full motivation.

“I can’t believe there’s another way to obtain skills other than the ones given by my specialty….!”

Jinhyuk checked the information on his new passive skill

[Divine Power – Level 1]

In addition to certain skills, divine power can be used arbitrarily.

Current Level: F

<Skill Effect>

When used, holy power is attributed.

Increased attack and defense in proportion to consumed MP.

Jinhyuk saw something he was curious about.

“I can use divine power on top of certain skills?”

It can be interpreted that the divine power could be used for skills other than those specialized for clerics, but he has no way to confirm that.

“I don’t have non-cleric skills…”

It’s a shame that he couldn’t experiment with his new skill.

Still, it wasn’t disappointing at all because he still has a lot to learn.

The corners of Jinhyuk’s mouth were curved pleasantly as Lucia approached him.

“What are you grinning about?”

“I got a new passive skill.”

“Passive… what?”

When Lucia’s response made it seem like it’s her first time hearing of it, Jinhyuk felt strange.

“You don’t know passive skills? You know, that thing that activates even if you don’t say the name of the skill.”

“I dunno that. What’s a skill in the first place?”

Jinhyuk was embarrassed because he doesn’t know how to answer that question.

“You know that thing that I used recently, the holy shield. That’s a skill.”

Lucia spoke as if she understood.

“So you guys call sacred magic as ‘skill’.”

Jinhyuk felt a strong sense of incompatibility at the moment.

As Lucia said before, there’s more than just a difference of language used between them.

Jinhyuk asked her a question to confirm it.

“Do you know what ‘stats’ are?”

“What’s that again? I think you’re talking about magic when you refer to something similar to skill.”

“Why is that… When you think about it in your head, there’s something like a window that comes to mind with a lot of information. It’s the abilities displayed in that place.”

Lucia snooped her head, asking what the heck he was talking about.

“Where is that place?”

She seems to have no idea about the abilities and stats window that appears in front of people.

Jinhyuk realized that there was nothing like that in her world after continuing to answer Lucia’s questions.

In Lucia’s world, training only strengthens the body or increases mana.

They didn’t have to raise their level with a game-like concept in Jinhyuk’s world.

Mana was used manually to activate magic, not by just saying the skill name.

“Our world’s method has the advantage of being simple, but the disadvantage is that it’s difficult to apply.”

Fortunately, application of skills, although difficult, is not impossible.

He just learned a new passive skill after using the same one over and over.

He knows that now, so Jinhyuk believed that the method used in Lucia’s world could also work on his.

He’s sure that he’ll get more skills if he follows her training.

Knowing that, Jinhyuk couldn’t stay still at all.

“Teach me your method. How do I use the aura that was leaking out of my hand?”

“I was just about to tell you.”

Lucia was also excited about it.

Skipping the process and just saying the ‘skill name’ to use magic wasn’t a thing in her world.

What would happen if Jinhyuk’s abilities and knowledge combined with hers? Lucia became very curious.

‘This one’s more fun than investigating something with no promise of reward.’

Filled with an adventurer’s thirst for inquiry in a long time, Lucia earnestly wanted to help Jinhyuk.

* * *

With her sudden enthusiasm and sincerity towards teaching, Lucia was a bit harsh.

Jinhyuk had to train aura until he used up all his body and MP.

When he asked Lucia why he has to move his body so much when learning aura, she replied that it was all for his sake.

“If you do well, you might even get the skills of a warrior.

“Fxxk….! That’s not even a certain thing. You don’t know it for sure!”

“Why are you complaining so much? Even if you don’t get the skill, a healthy body and a healthy mind should help you.”

“There’s also a term for that in our world.”

Even if their place of origin was different, there seems to be a lot of similarities between them.

Although it makes sense, it just sounded like nagging for Jinhyuk given that his mind and body were both exhausted.

“Now, now. Stop complaining and try it again. How long are you going to sit around there for?”

Jinhyuk reluctantly raised his body when he saw Lucia taunt him with her fingers.

He swung his baseball bat towards her without any preparation.

The action was excessive given that he was against a slender woman, but Jinhyuk had no hesitation at all.

He was expecting her to avoid it just like she has been for the past few minutes.

“That scared me.”

After stepping back and avoiding the surprise attack, Lucia spoke to Jinhyuk with a sly look.

“That surprised me. Why did you swing at me suddenly?”

“You say that but I only managed to graze the tip of your hair.”

“Hahahaha! Of course, you did! I’m a platinum-rank adventurer. How can I be beaten by a novice like you?”

“Heh, well then I’m sorry for being such a novice.”

Lucia explained that she had to go through lots of battles to gain practical experience. For Jinhyuk, it just sounded like a bunch of suicide missions.

No matter the angle you look at it, Lucia just seems to enjoy bullying the newbie.

“I’m going to injure my shoulders at this point.”

Jinhyuk felt like his arms were about to fall off because of the repeated full on swings.

“Isn’t it much better to practice on monsters?”

Lucia thought for a moment.

Of course, while she was deep in thought, she didn’t forget to avoid Jinhyuk’s sneaky attacks.

“Right, you said that catching monsters improve your skills, right?”

“I ‘level up’ to be exact.”

“What do you mean level…? It’s amazing that you can be stronger with that.”

For Lucia, levelling up by catching monsters was similar to saying that catching cows and pigs would make someone stronger.

Even if she thought that it was ridiculous, she had no choice but to accept that it was common knowledge in Jinhyuk’s world.

“Then let’s try to hunt as many monsters as we can so you can train your aura. You might be able to use your new skill while doing so.”

“I haven’t practiced it yet, how will I be able to do that?”

Although he gained a new passive skill, Jinhyuk’s aura has only been activated for 0.1 seconds at best.

In addition, the effect of the passive skill was not certain because it was so insignificant that it might as well not even be there.

Although Lucia was well aware of that fact, unlike Jinhyuk, she didn’t think of it as a problem.

“You just have to get the timing right.”

The contact time between the bat and a monster was short too, so there’s no problem with that.

That’s why Lucia thinks that it’s theoretically possible.

“Aren’t you applying your standards too much?”

Jinhyuk wasn’t confident that he’s capable of applying such precise control.

He thinks that it’s too much to ask for a child who had just learned how to walk.

“No one succeeds in just one try. You have to do it until you get it.”

There are a lot of monsters in the dungeon anyway, so that’s not going to be a problem.

There are enough objects and locations for him to practice on, the only thing left is his action.

Jinhyuk intuitively sensed that a hell-like time would soon come.

“Y-you really think it’s possible? You’re serious?”

“Why? You’re not going to back out now, are you? You’re the one who asked me to teach you how to use aura.”

“No… it’s not that. It’s just we’ve already done a lot today, so I think it’s better to save it for another day.”

Jinhyuk added that training with an exhausted body would be counterproductive.

However, Lucia has no intention of doing that.

She slowly approached Jinhyuk and put her arm around his shoulder.

“Once you start making progress, you have to keep moving forward. If you plan on doing it like this, you’re not gonna see much fruit of your hard work.”

It was ingrained in Lucia’s personality. Once she set her mind on a certain goal, she can’t stop working on it until it was over with.

As long as her mind is set on earnestly teaching Jinhyuk, she planned to push him until just before he’s completely exhausted.

Lucia mustered a smile at Jinhyuk’s gloomy face.

“Don’t be so cowardly. It’s not like you’re gonna die.”

“Does this mean you’ll only let me go once I’m almost dead?”

“…Alright, shall we start now?”

“Hey, answer me.”

Jinhyuk regretted that the moment it came out impulsively.

He can already sense the hard times he’s going to go through, so he just sighed for a few seconds.

“Relax~ you should be honored that a platinum-rank adventurer is training you.”

Jinhyuk doesn’t understand why this woman suddenly showed so much excitement.

He thought that she was supposed to teach him during their free time from investigating the magic spells.

What kind of oxygen did she suddenly breathe for her to become such a passionate teacher.

“…Alright. Let’s try it.”

Jinhyuk was determined to get what he wanted too.

If Lucia is able to teach him even half of the power that she displayed against the boss monster, he’ll be an A-rank hunter in no time.