Chapter 9

Infinite Skill Copying with EX-Grade Interpretation Chapter 9

“Th-this... fuuuck. Ah, uh...”

─Thud.

“Ha. This is driving me crazy.”

Seeing the woman curse through tears before passing out almost made me burst out laughing.

I had no idea who these people were, but.

‘If I don’t do something, they’re both going to die.’

Passing out inside the labyrinth was practically the same as death.

Moreover.

‘Both of them are seriously injured.’

The woman who had been supporting him also had enough wounds that she passed out with her face drained white.

But the man’s condition was literally critical.

The flesh across his chest had been cut so badly that much of it was practically gone.

It looked like they had wrapped bandages around him as emergency treatment, but he was bleeding so heavily that even that couldn’t stop it...

It wouldn’t be strange if he died at any moment.

Rather, this worked out well.

“I needed to test this anyway.”

─Pop!

I took out the green potion.

The elves’ special elixir.

It was a recipe I had never seen before, and even though I had made it myself, it had also been my first time brewing one.

And if it was an elven recipe, there was no telling how it would affect humans...

Anyway, being able to test its effects like this was pretty convenient.

For me, and for these people.

‘I can only hope it works well.’

A cheap potion wouldn’t even be enough to keep him alive, so this was the only option.

“All right. Let’s start with this one.”

I applied the potion to the man who was on the verge of death.

The potion slowly seeped into the deep wound.

Soon.

“Ghhhhhh...!!”

He screamed while still unconscious.

Apparently it hurt.

Well, no matter how much pain-relieving effect the potion had, the wound was far too deep.

But.

─Hissssss...!

The effect was unmistakable.

The wound closed at an astonishing speed, releasing white steam.

The blood that had continued to pour out soon stopped, and the large hole began filling in.

‘At this rate, he should be fine for a while.’

If I took the time to use more potion, I might even be able to heal him completely.

I was amazed by how much stronger its effects were than I had expected.

‘This is insane. At this level, it’s at least intermediate-grade... No, maybe it’s comparable to a high-grade potion.’

Something with effects comparable to a high-grade potion, which could cost hundreds of millions of won per bottle.

Even I could only be amazed.

So this was an elven elixir?

I shifted my gaze from the man whose bleeding had stopped and moved on.

There was no time to hesitate.

He wasn’t the only patient.

When I poured the potion over the woman as well, her exposed wounds similarly closed in an instant.

With this, they wouldn’t die from infection or blood loss.

Even so, lying around in a place crawling with monsters while reeking of blood was practically the same as asking to be eaten.

But bringing complete strangers into my shelter was also a little...

‘Hmm.’

I seriously considered it.

Should I just ignore them?

Or should I gamble on the possibility of hitting the jackpot?

I reached a conclusion quickly.

“Let’s verify them first.”

I activated my ability on the two unconscious hunters.

They were both seriously injured and unconscious, so naturally the difference in level should...

─Crackle!

[Interpretation failed.]

[There is a large difference in level between you and the target.]

“What? One more time.”

─Crackle!

[Interpretation failed.]

The result was the same.

No, they were lying here unconscious and seriously wounded, yet there was still that much of a difference in level?

And that wasn’t all.

[The skill ‘Crude Mana’ is reacting.]

‘What is this energy?’

I could sense an overwhelming amount of mana from the woman lying there, far beyond anything I could measure.

The sensation of mana, something I never would have even been able to feel before, left me completely bewildered.

[Interpreting the immense flow of mana.]

[Skill proficiency is accumulating.]

[The skill ‘Crude Mana (E)’ changes to ‘Crude Mana (D).’]

‘It grew just from looking at it? What the hell are these people?’

Without realizing it, I had interpreted that overwhelming flow of mana and absorbed a little of it.

And that alone had caused my skill to grow.

Amid that confusion, something caught my eye.

─Rustle.

“Hmm?”

The unconscious woman’s arm shifted slightly, revealing a pattern that had been hidden.

A small sword emblem drawn on her robe.

It was too distinctive to simply be decoration on ordinary clothing.

No, I knew this emblem.

A guild whose name anyone in the city would have heard at least once.

“The Scabbard Guild?”

A place rumored to have many of the city’s strongest hunters.

I couldn’t help being surprised at the name of one of the largest guilds in the city.

‘Why would people from the Scabbard Guild...’

And veteran hunters whom I couldn’t even interpret at that, be lying unconscious with severe injuries on the tenth floor?

More importantly, those wounds.

If monsters had caused them, their arms or skin itself would have been torn away.

But the wounds these people had suffered were much sharper.

Anyone could tell they had been inflicted by weapons.

In that case.

Something had happened.

And it had happened against a massive organization like the Scabbard Guild.

‘Did some kind of guild war break out?’

If something serious enough to involve a major guild had happened, the only thing that came to mind was a war between guilds of similar size.

In that case.

‘Their pursuers must still be following them.’

I looked around.

There was nothing here right now.

But there soon would be.

In that case.

“Should I take a gamble?”

I quietly sent the spirit out around the area and grabbed the two people by their legs.

If this were just some minor dispute, maybe things would be different, but if it was something on the scale of a war between guilds, leaving this spot wouldn’t change much anyway.

No, it might actually become an opportunity.

A connection with a major guild that someone like me would normally never even be able to approach had practically fallen into my lap.

“All right, let’s do this.”

Buy low.

______________

After laying the two unconscious people down in one room, I sat on a chair to rest for a moment.

“I already used another bottle of potion, so they shouldn’t need any further treatment. With wounds like those, it’ll probably take them quite a while to wake up anyway...”

I figured I might as well make more potions with the spare time.

I had used two bottles, so I took out the cauldron and poured water into it, thinking I might as well make another with the herbs.

Just like before, finely chop them, use high heat...

─!!

“Right... I figured it was about time you showed up.”

The spirit glowed red.

Yeah, I expected pursuers to come, but they were later than I thought.

There was nothing to worry about.

This place where I was hiding couldn’t be found without a spirit.

Moreover.

‘I erased the traces beforehand.’

I had cleaned up all the blood and potion left behind by the two of them, so the chance of the pursuers suspecting this place was practically zero.

What remained now was.

“What do I do from here...”

Borrowing the spirit’s vision, I could see that the pursuers had completely lost it.

[Find them quickly...! You bastards.]

[We have to deal with them before Scabbard Guild headquarters finds out.]

[Send out more men! As long as we block the exit so they can’t escape, they won’t be able to leave the Tower.]

Seeing them search through clenched teeth, I instinctively realized that a conventional approach wouldn’t work.

They would probably take shifts standing guard and completely lock down the Tower.

In that case.

“I need a different method...”

Even if I healed those two, could they handle that many people?

More importantly, could we avoid them all the way down to the first floor?

No matter how strong they were, there was still such a thing as physical limits.

But if we dragged things out for too long...

‘We’ll dry up and die without food.’

No matter which method I chose, it didn’t seem like things would end well.

In that case, perhaps...

“Should I check the passage?”

When I first discovered this shelter.

I remembered the tunnel the elves had dug.

A tunnel so deep that I couldn’t even estimate how far it extended.

I didn’t know where it led, but I remembered that it headed downward.

‘Maybe it leads to a lower floor?’

It was connected to the shelter, and furthermore, it had been made by elves.

No matter how I thought about it, it felt less like an ordinary tunnel and more like an emergency escape route.

“Spirit, could you scout the passage for me?”

─!!

─Nod.

At my request, the white spirit dove deep into the passage.

While sharing its vision and examining the connected tunnels.

What the hell.

“Why are there so many paths?”

Calling it a tunnel hardly did it justice. It stretched on endlessly, gradually widening inside until it became tangled like a maze.

Even the spirit exploring it couldn’t reach the end, eventually growing restless and slowly returning.

It was far too vast, too deep, and too tangled.

Because of that, I became half-convinced.

If the tunnels stretched that far, there was no way there wouldn’t be a passage leading downward.

When I shared the spirit’s senses, I had felt something like a breeze, so I was almost certain it was connected to a lower floor.

Go down as far as possible, fight only the minimum necessary battles, and leave the Tower.

As even those bastards knew, the moment we left the Tower there would be too many witnesses around for them to keep attacking us.

The objective was set.

What I had to do was simple.

‘Once I finish one last verification...’

Those two had lost far too much blood, so it would take quite a while before they woke up.

So I would use the remaining time to finish checking everything and complete the plan.

That was the conclusion I reached.

_____________

I squeezed my body into the narrow passage of the shelter.

As I slowly moved forward half a step at a time, the passage gradually widened into a proper path.

“It’s cleaner inside than I expected.”

How should I describe the passage?

It felt strangely familiar.

‘Feels like walking through the back alleys.’

Every step I took revealed something I had never seen before.

I had no idea what might be here, but at least the filthy air felt remarkably similar to the back alleys.

The one fortunate thing was that, thanks to the spirit, there was no chance of monsters spotting me first.

‘The Scabbard Guild... Never thought the day would come when I’d get involved with a guild.’

As I walked, I gradually sank into thought.

How long had I assumed I would live and die as a scavenger?

Now I had passed the tenth floor of the Tower and was beginning to get involved with guilds.

It was truly a moving moment.

And then.

─Grab.

I braced my hand against the narrow entrance and climbed over it, revealing an enormous cavernous space ahead.

“Whoa...”

Dense vegetation grew inside the cavern.

Throughout the massive cave, glowing stones and mushrooms were scattered around, illuminating the surroundings.

Fireflies and butterflies fluttered around the dense vegetation, creating a mysterious atmosphere.

‘Would it feel like this if the ninth and tenth floors were mixed together?’

A new floor that seemed like an even blend of the cave-like ninth floor and the forested tenth floor.

If I were to give it a temporary name, calling it Floor 9.5 wouldn’t be strange.

And that wasn’t all.

A cool breeze was blowing toward me, making me strongly feel that the outside was nearby.

A massive lake stood in the center.

I found myself admiring the countless leaves growing around it, before eventually reaching out my hand.

It didn’t take long to realize that all the plants scattered around were medicinal herbs.

And that wasn’t all.

“Fruit... This is fruit.”

There were also fruits scattered around that I had never once seen in the city.

‘These seem edible.’

I picked one and let some juice touch my skin, but there was no reaction, and it also gave off a sweet fragrance.

The elves seemed to have enjoyed eating these too, so they were probably edible.

As expected.

“So this was a cultivation area.”

For a moment, a reasonable theory crossed my mind.

Since I knew this was a passage made by elves, perhaps they had cultivated these things for their own use.

They had built a shelter, so it wasn’t strange for them to have a cultivation area like this.

─Crunch.

I took a bite of the sweet fruit and started walking again.

If the passage didn’t lead outside, this place would still be useful if we had to settle in for a prolonged stay.

Or...

‘It tastes good enough. Maybe I could sell these outside.’

Unfamiliar fruit made money.

That was one of the most basic truths of a capitalist society.

─Tap.

“Is this it...”

The many branching paths I had seen through the spirit’s eyes.

What appeared before me now was a three-way fork.

Even if I went deep into these paths, they would split again... and some of them looked like traps.

It was so vast that even the spirit hadn’t been able to check everything, so it seemed the real verification started now.

“Let’s start with the center...”

I sent the spirit into the strange-feeling central path to scout ahead.

The long passage stretched onward.

The path gradually sloped upward, eventually reaching some enormous chamber.

A huge body walked around inside the equally huge room.

It held something like a club in its hand, and it had only one eye, which meant it was...

[Cyclops]

─The boss guarding the nineteenth floor.

─Although it has only one eye, it possesses a field of vision capable of detecting enemies in every direction.

─It respawned five minutes ago.

‘A Cyclops...’

A high-floor boss I had only heard about in rumors was waiting there.

“Fuck, if I’d just walked in there, I almost would’ve died.”