NOVEL NEXT chapter 189
“Uuuuwaaah!”
Guru’s body slipped through the gate and zipped down a slide—splash!—straight into a ball pit.
Panting and gasping as she climbed out, Guru looked around the dungeon interior and let out an awed exclamation.
“Owaaa…!”
Unlike other dungeons, this kids dungeon felt like Santa’s gift factory run by elves.
Boing! Boing!
The slimes bouncing joyfully through the factory had ribbons tied to their heads. So cute!
Boing-boing!
The ribbons swayed back and forth, practically begging little kids to come untie them.
'Pwesents?!'
Guru dashed forward and poked a slime with her fork—poke!
Pook!
“Gueeck!”
(X_X)
Like pudding, the slime popped—revealing a small gift box.
'Pwesent!'
Guru immediately opened it.
[Blank Scroll (A)]
A scroll that can hold a skill.
Oh—an A-Rank Blank Scroll?
An item that could even hold an A-Rank skill.
'Dani Oppaw said dis one super expewnsive...'
In a world where skills were power, the ability to store them in scroll form was a huge advantage. Naturally, blank scrolls came with a high price.
So basically...
'Supweme Hewo Gwuu got a weawwy big loot!'
BA-BAM!
Guru held the scroll up like a national flag, grinning with pride.
Just then, she heard a sniffle—a whimper coming from nearby. Whoever it was seemed to be trying hard not to cry. Then a tiny voice mumbled:
“Why did dis happen...”
That voice?
“Hwiyeoni?”
Sniff, hic, snort—the sounds paused just as her name was called.
“G-Gwuu…?”
“Hwiyeona!”
Hwiyeon was curled up beneath the factory’s conveyor belt, hiding.
Guru ran straight to her and shoved her face down into hers.
Hwiyeon lifted her teary face.
“G-Gwuuya. Sniff! Hic! Gwuuyaaaaang…”
Maybe she was relieved to see someone she knew—her tears started spilling like someone turned on a faucet.
“Why you hewe?”
“D-Dunnooo… I jus’ ran an’ den I ended up heweee...”
It seemed Hwiyeon hadn’t realized a dungeon had opened—she’d run in by accident.
“But… t-thewe’s somethin’ scawy... sniff!”
“Somethin’ scawy?”
Suddenly, Guru sensed a huge presence behind her.
It landed with a massive bounce, jiggling like a big ol’ pudding as it approached Guru.
Booiiing—! THUMP!
All the hairs on Guru’s body stood up.
'A boss...!'
Sixteen little slimes bounced alongside the boss slime.
They were still about Guru’s size—even if they were “little.”
“T-That one…”
Hwiyeon whispered, barely audible, trying not to make a sound.
“We gotta hide. Come hewe.”
She shifted to the side, making space.
Then she pulled Guru in close, her lips trembling as she clenched them, sucking up her sniffles.
“W-We hide ‘til da grown-ups come... Dey’ll know we disappeawed soon... den my daddy will come save us...”
But even as she said it, her face was full of dread.
And Guru knew why.
Only kids under seven allowed.
That was the dungeon’s rule.
This kids dungeon wouldn’t allow grown-ups.
'So we gotta get thwough dis by ouwselves...'
Hwiyeon had mana compatibility but hadn’t awakened yet. Meaning she couldn’t do anything.
Boooiiing—! THUUUMP!
The boss slime slammed into the ground again, shaking everything.
'It’s wight in fwont of us!'
The boss slime was now close enough to swallow Guru and Hwiyeon whole.
Hwiyeon covered her mouth to keep from screaming.
Then a small slime bounced over and its eye rolled to the floor.
And then—it locked eyes with Hwiyeon.
She couldn’t help it.
“Hyaaaaack—!”
BOUNCE! BOUNCE! BOUNCE!
As if it had found prey, the little slime started bouncing and signaled the boss.
Hwiyeon shut her eyes tight, convinced it was over.
But then—
A gentle voice whispered by her ear.
“It’s okay, Hwiyeona—”
Guru, who’d already stepped out in front, gripped her fork with determination.
With the boss slime looming behind her, Guru squatted down and gave Hwiyeon a big smile.
“–Gwuu gonna pwotect yoo.”
Hwiyeon’s eyes trembled.
The boss slime inhaled sharply—HOOOP!—and began to swell larger and larger.
Already huge, it grew to nearly the size of a one-story building.
Guru pressed a hand to her pounding chest.
'Dis is what a huntew do!'
These days, dungeon appearances were highly predictable, so accidents involving civilians almost never happened.
But when they did, it was the Hunter’s job to save civilians—always.
And Guru was a Hunter too. Stuff like this would happen more often from now on.
She wouldn’t just ride the bus forever.
'Gwuu gonna defeat it hewsewf! An’ do hew best to save Hwiyeoni!'
She stowed her fork and pulled out her duck tongs—then gripped a snow duck tight in her hand.
'Kids dungeon is Fwostblood Cwan’s territory!'
First, hit it with a snow duck to reduce its defense!
Guru launched the ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) snow duck in a perfect arc.
Splat!
(X_X)
The boss slime’s eyes turned into X’s from the debuff, and the nearby mini-slimes raised their brows like they were pissed.
“Hoong!”
Guru summoned her fork again and jabbed it into one of the pudding-like slimes.
Pook!
The slime popped, and another gift box fell out.
Easy.
Then she swung her fork wide—and five slimes were taken out at once.
Clatter! Thump-thump-thump!
Gift boxes poured down like rain.
A total power difference.
The boss slime instinctively panicked and hopped backward.
Guru, eyes glowing with madness, wiped slime goo from her hand with a cold grin.
“Wetchyoo back!”
***
Guru caught her breath, exhaling deeply.
“Hoooooo—”
Below her, heaps of goo—what had once been slimes—piled up like jelly. The toy factory was now a battlefield.
On top of the giant boss slime’s remains, Guru lifted her prize high.
[Blank Scroll (S)]
'Supweme Gwuu defeated 17:1!'
Then what about her level?
When she checked her status window, her stagnant level in the 10s had skyrocketed to 30.
Name: On Guru
Level: LV. 30
Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■ (Access Denied)
Strength: 2
Health: 2 (+14)
Agility: 2
Defense: 2 (+88)
Mana: 32
Stats don’t display decimals in the status window, so everything that used to be 1 had now grown to 2 through leveling!
All stat points from leveling had been dumped into Mana, and all skill points went into Crafty-Crafty.
Skill ranks progress as follows:
Basic < Intermediate < Skilled < Advanced < Supreme
Her Crafty-Crafty skill had now surpassed Advanced—into Supreme!
Once you go beyond Supreme, the skill grade itself upgrades.
Since her Crafty-Crafty was originally E-Rank, surpassing Supreme meant she could now use D-Rank Crafty-Crafty.
And with Mana rising all the way to 32!
'Gwuu is gwowing into Supweme!'
If she got just a wittle bit stwongew, she might even be able to pull off a “Move ovew, Amakusa!”
As she beamed with satisfaction at the thought of her lofty goals—
Ding—
[Measuring Contribution...]
[new half-built-bear mk.1 has entered the Top 500 Rankings.]