The Hero’s Party Members Treat Me Well for Some Reason chapter 7

7 – I will not write this for the rest of my life.

Of course, I only think about it internally.

I have never put that into action.

Because that’s a real shortcut to human destruction. It’s not a lie, it really leads to ruining everything.

Not suffering by withdrawing from the hero party is only a matter of a few years or decades, ultimately it’s the same as being killed by the Demon King’s army.

If I keep dying in one way or another, I should at least put up some resistance.

That’s why I couldn’t leave the hero party today either.

“Oh, my destiny…”

Thanks to that, today I was once again in the role of a dismantler.

The item to be dismantled today is the Poison Worm.

It is a fresh item that our noble party members just killed a few minutes ago.

The main point is the appearance of its skin bursting and green juice flowing everywhere. It’s truly disgustingly grotesque.

“Ugh, if it’s a bug, it’s truly disgusting! Even just looking at it gives me chills.”

“It’s definitely gross…”

“But we have to adapt. According to the Imperial records, it seems that there will be more insect-type monsters as we progress.”

“Sigh… I’m already getting depressed.”

Our party members taking a break were also sharing their impressions of the Poison Worm.

Especially someone like the Holy Swordswoman, Yuris, who hates bugs, was going so far as to start a fight.

Seeing that, I let out a bitter smile.

“If she’s like this already, it’s going to be tough…”

The place we are heading to at the moment is where one of the Four Thousand Kings resides.

We were on our way to subjugate the Insect King, Balkan. Even the name sounds like bugs crawling.

Naturally, as we approached the castle, the number of bugs increased.

We haven’t even reached the early stages of the castle, but it’s already like this. I couldn’t help but feel how difficult the future would be.

“Will we be able to defeat it…”

For a moment, I felt uneasy, but I quickly pushed those thoughts aside in my mind.

It was still a distant future. There would be no use thinking about it now.

It would be better to dismantle at least one monster instead of wasting time with useless thoughts.

“Phew…I can’t do it. It’s making me dizzy. I’ll go into the tent first and rest.”

“Huh? Yeah. That’s a good idea. You look really pale right now.”

“That sight earlier must’ve been quite a shock. I understand, so rest comfortably.”

“Yeah… I think I need to get some sleep.”

Listening to my party members’ chatter like background music, I slowly began my work.

The only thing that was profitable from this monster was its skin. Everything else was useless waste that needed to be removed.

Holding my dagger, I cut through the tough skin of the Poison Worm.

Then, the green juices and slimy organs that filled its insides started to flow out.

I have to scrape all of this out and wash it off in order to obtain the intact skin.

From Noble mtl dot com

With each scrape of the knife, thick liquids dirty my hands.

The sticky liquids did not seem to let go of my hand.

In an instant, an impression was formed.

“f*ck.”

Indeed, internal organs were always an object that never seemed to get used to.

Slimey, greasy, and to make matters worse, a pungent odor started to spread.

But what was more annoying was that the creature’s bodily fluids and internal organs contained toxins.

And it wasn’t even a comfortable type like a paralysis toxin, but an acidic poison that stung the skin.

Tsk!

As I continued the task, I gradually started to feel a burning pain coming from my skin.

I had put on leather gloves for safety reasons, but it seemed like they were pierced as well.

Well, even though their bodily fluids were weak acids, over time, they would probably penetrate the leather gloves.

Although the sharp and itchy feeling had invaded my hand, I continued the task without caring.

It was not only the party members who had to adapt.

Now that this place had become reality, I too had to adapt to pain.

The upcoming battles would not be safe, as the system had stated, so I couldn’t afford to be unprepared.

Every day, wounds appeared on my body and monster claws tore through my skin, becoming part of my daily life.

To adapt to that, I couldn’t be fussy about this level of pain.

And indeed, I was getting used to it.

It was when I had finished about half of the dismantling.

Suddenly, ding! Two alarm windows appeared in front of me.

[Poison Resistance level has increased!]

[Pain Resistance level has increased!]

“Aha.”

At this moment, I could also smile slightly. Regardless of everything, growing stronger was a fun thing.

And now that my Poison Resistance and Pain Resistance had both increased, the pain in my hands had decreased a little.

There was no reason not to be happy.

When I offered my fate as a sacrifice, it was not just the title of a hero that I gained as a result of leveling up.

Although curses had attached themselves to my body, I had undoubtedly become stronger.

Not only did my stats increase through leveling up, but I also gained skills that I hadn’t been able to confirm at that time.

Considering the price I had paid, something had been given to me.

“Should I give it a try while I’m thinking about it?”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t looked at my status window recently. Given all the hardships I’d been through, my skill level must have certainly risen.

With that thought in mind, I quietly muttered to myself, “Status window.”

At that moment, a translucent blue window appeared before my eyes.

Just like before, it displayed only my name, level, and skill slots.

———-

Name: Luke

Lv: 74

[Skills]

Mastery of Sacrifice Lv.MAX, Mana Control Lv.1, Mana Blade Lv.3, Heavenly Martial Body Lv.MAX, Noble Sacrifice Lv.MAX, Pain Resistance Lv.5, Poison Resistance Lv.3, Disassembly Lv.3, Bright Ryu Swordsmanship Lv.2…

———-

However, many things had changed compared to the past.

Of course, it was natural for my level to have increased, and the skill window was now filled with various skills and attributes.

I already knew about the Mastery of Sacrifice, so I skipped it.

As a result, I had gained a total of four skills on the day I made that fateful connection.

First up was Mana Control.

+

[Mana Control Lv.1]

Your control over magic is enhanced when you use it.

It increases the efficiency and power of your magic.

+

As the name suggests, it wasn’t an especially unique ability. It simply fine-tuned your magic when you used it.

It had no distinctive features, but it was a versatile skill without any drawbacks, of course.

“The problem is that I haven’t learned magic yet…”

Thanks to that, it was still at level 1.

But I would tackle that gradually.

Next was Mana Blade.

+

[Mana Blade Lv.3]

I breathe magic into the weapon of the subject.

Cutting power and attack power increase.

+

At first glance, it may seem like an incredible skill from a fantasy novel, like Sword Aura, but unfortunately, it did not possess that level of power.

Unlike imbuing a blade with a sword aura, this skill simply involves infusing magic into a weapon.

It is a basic skill related to magic control and enhances the basic attacks, like a rice dish.

Fortunately, anyone could swing a sword, so the level of this skill could be increased relatively quickly.

However, it remained nothing more than a basic skill.

Above all, it was a skill that prioritized versatility and seemed like a service, saying “Take this at least”.

These are simply beginner’s attributes that do not go beyond the basics.

In fact, it could be said that the true skills given by the system were just these.

+

[Heavenly Martial Body]

Unbelievable!

You possess a body that appears only once every thousand years. Truly, it is a gift bestowed by the heavens.

Whatever the technique or magic, you can quickly learn and master them.

If it were common, you could save the world with your talent to unify the realms.

※ The speed of acquiring the subject’s skills greatly increases!

※ Maximizes the subject’s growth potential!

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Heavenly Martial Body.

Gift bestowed by the heavens.

What the system gave me was neither an invincible shield nor a spear that could pierce anything.

It gave me the ability to learn anything quickly. Truly, it gave me a talent of unprecedented level.

It was somewhat amazing that even talent could be given as a characteristic.

Anyway, I could accurately understand the intention the guy was talking about with this.

‘Grow on your own.’

Two highly versatile active skills and a high growth buff.

Even those two active skills are separate skills, distinguished by sword and magic.

Since no specific direction was given, it meant to explore the tech tree skillfully.

Whether you specialize in magic and become a wizard or learn combat skills and become a warrior.

Or, you can also learn miscellaneous skills like enchantments to act like a versatile character.

Honestly, it was very good news for me.

“Just following my built, I have quite a few options.”

Among the numerous professions, I knew particularly efficient ones.

No matter what anyone says, I was an experienced old user who had been playing this game for nearly 6 years.

Just thinking about it, there were almost dozens.

Starting from an elemental mage specializing in fire magic.

A spear master who primarily used polearm techniques and lightning magic.

A shield knight based on endurance, and a shaman who used totems and enchantments, and so on.

Anything would definitely pay off well. I could excel in any direction.

If the opportunity arises, I might choose a more efficient profession than those.

“It still seems like a distant future, but…”

Well, I could see that my future was promising.

Right now, although most of the stats were invested in growth, and I was relatively weak compared to my level… This problem would be solved soon enough as time passed.

Maybe by then, we wouldn’t hear as much of the ‘useless guy’ comments about our knight, Camilla.

I continued to think with that hopeful thought in mind.

“Skip poison resistance, pain resistance, and Bright Style Swordsmanship…”

Those were skills I acquired through six months of hard work, in addition to the help of the Cheonmuji technique.

Just hearing their names, you could predict their effects, so I skipped them.

Bright Style Swordsmanship, too, I only learned by watching her in combat. I didn’t learn it separately from her.

It wasn’t just any talent that you could learn the family’s Vision Swordsmanship just by watching it from the side.

Anyway, as I observed the status window that had changed in this way, the disassembly work was already finished without me realizing.

There were quite a few, and it was already done. It seemed like about 3-4 hours had passed in terms of time.

As expected, time passes quickly when you’re lost in thought.

I roughly cleaned up the skin of the poison worms whose entrails had completely disappeared, and then I looked at my hands for a moment.

Hmm, fortunately, the skin didn’t completely come off.

There were some areas where the skin was peeling, but this was within the expected range.

Chyawak!

I sprinkled a little potion into my hand and stood up from my seat.

I’d like to be healed by the saint if possible, but from the story I heard earlier, it seems she went into the tent to rest.

And to be honest, it didn’t seem like she’d heal me even if she were awake. There were more than a few instances of her avoiding the sanctuary when her divine power was depleted.

“Come to think of it, it’s quite annoying.”

As I walked like that, I could now see the party members emerging from the tent.

They were Camilla, Adele, and Lily.

“Huh?”

“Hmm?”

They all seemed to be looking at each other with serious expressions, as if something had happened.

Is Yuris still sleeping? Today’s battle wasn’t that intense.

As I stood there absentmindedly, Camilla suddenly started ranting at me out of nowhere.

“What the hell did you do to Yuris?”

“What?”

What is she talking about all of a sudden? I was just disassembling those disgusting little larvae a moment ago.

Suddenly hearing such words out of nowhere, it made me feel uneasy, even for me.

I knew they harbored an unconditional enmity towards me, but to nitpick like this.

“Wait a minute. It doesn’t seem like the hero did anything. I don’t sense any magic nearby. Most importantly, he was disassembling monsters until just now.”

Fortunately, Lily, who was beside me, stepped in to vouch for me.

“Oh.”

I couldn’t help but feel amazed. She usually tried to belittle me in some way, but to engage in such serious deduction.

It seems like something real happened.

I was slightly curious, but I was just as tired as before, so I decided to let it go.

There weren’t any particularly dangerous elements in this area anyway.

Maybe her bug phobia triggered an overreaction.

Thinking like that, I passed by them.

I could hear them discussing something behind my back.

“Well, isn’t that strange? Nothing happened, but he suddenly acted like that.”

“Indeed… He asked where all the bugs around went and if we were all still alive. It’s a bit strange, but…”

“Could it be that the monster from earlier also had hallucinogenic poison in addition to the acid poison?”

I had no idea what they were talking about, so I let it pass.

I am currently focused on something else as well.

With that in mind, I looked at the status window again.

There was still one skill that I hadn’t talked about.

It was the last skill among the four skills given as a gift by the system.

It had the most unpleasant name and was fixed at the maximum level.

I opened it.

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[Noble Sacrifice]

For centuries, dedicating one’s life has been the most enormous and noble law.

Especially when it comes to the life of a warrior like you.

The day your life is extinguished, miracles will happen in the world.

※ This skill automatically activates when the person dies!

※ The value of your life increases significantly!

※ Your life has absolute value, regardless of its lifespan!

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Is it the most unpleasant skill that also has special effects?

From Noble mtl dot com

Among the skills I possess, it is the one that shines the brightest. A golden aura spread around the system window.

Honestly, it looked quite splendid on the surface, but it didn’t give me a good feeling at all.

I didn’t even know what the skill effect was, and I absolutely didn’t want to use it.

I grumbled in complaint.

“So, where am I supposed to use this useless thing…”

It activates when I die.

What’s the point of that? I didn’t like the fact that it was given to me in the first place, assuming I would die.

“Tsk, instead of giving me this kind of thing, they should have given me another skill.”

Thanks to that, I could say it easily.

I will never use this skill in my lifetime.

Never!!!

“For now, let’s just leave it alone… Yuris seems to be confused as well.”

“Hmph, what kind of silly dream did she have?”

With my companions’ voices as background music, I entered my private tent.