Only I Am A Reader
chapter-496

'It's the worst-case scenario for him.'

The man who essentially died due to Leo's addition to the team was the weakest of the punch. Compared to him, the rest of the scammers actually had good abilities, it was just that their use conditions downgraded their usefulness too much.

Leo couldn't even bring himself to recall the unfortunate man's name. His ability had its own interesting details as well, but at the core of it all, it was just a mediocre body-strengthening ability, something that only qualified him to be the team's porter.

Without the additional life-risking tasks that Cassian had to accept in the past, proper porters weren't truly necessary as their job could be split between the rest of the hunters.

However, just like the rest of the team, the unfortunate man forced himself into the team through the Heroic Spirit that Aurora could never refuse.

In a way, the man's brutal death was something that he had coming, but Leo really wanted to clear this Gate without any casualties. He wasn't infected by the Aurora virus, rather, he just didn't believe death to be the answer.

If things had gone according to plan, the unfortunate man might have even found that to be worse than his current fate. Though Leo could never tell now.

At the same time, being the initial cause behind that guy's fate gave him a lot of conflicted thought, but the way the accompanying girl behaved occupied his mind more…

"What happened here, Clara?"

Slipping back into his Ray disguise, Leo walked right into the cave with a befuddled expression, one that partially conveyed his real feelings.

The girl in question was the blonde who sided with Ken against Leo earlier, but one could hardly tell that she was the same person.

"S-someone is here? Please help! I…"

Finally releasing the porter's bag and the calorie bars that were lined within, Clara finally lifted her gaze from the ground as she looked around with panic. Her face was a complete mess.

"It's… Ray, right?"

Even as Leo stood very close to the creature, the lion-faced monster still ignored him completely. This was yet another feature that hadn't been shown in the novel.

For some reason, this mid-boss could only focus on hunting one target at a time, and it didn't seem to be able to change that target once it chose one! At least that was the situation as it is.

"Please help me. I'm sorry for being stupid before, your sword was very strong. You can definitely beat this monster!"

Surprisingly, the very first thing that Clara did was apologize for her belittling behavior. Considering everything he knew about her, Leo didn't think that the fear of death had made her a better person. In fact, he had a different idea in mind.

"You still didn't tell me what happened. How did he end up like this and not inside the barrier with you?"

When it came to squishy non-combatant Heroes who had slow reaction speed, ending up with a focused monster like this basically spelled imminent death.

Even if they could avoid a few attacks or run away from it for some time, their fate was sealed if they couldn't fight back.

However, in Clara's case, she didn't have to fight back. Her ability made it so there was only a single option, and as limited as that was, it was the perfect option to buy time!

Impenetrable Bubble. This was the Special Ability that allowed Clara to form a bubble made of Enigma that was very close to the state of Absolute Defense.

As long as the threat remained outside the bubble, practically nothing could touch Clara, and that was practically what left Leo perplexed.

"I panicked! It's not my fault, he ran faster than me so I couldn't use the bubble to cover us both fast enough. I had to do it as quickly as I could, and I couldn't open it back for him again…"

Naturally, while this ability was almost as strong as a protagonist's cheat, it had a few major problems that reduced its user to a mere scammer in a defective team.

Clara could only establish the bubble once before having to completely recharge her Enigma from the zero.

The ability itself didn't consume her entire Enigma. However, the bubble remained connected with Clara's Enigma at all times in order to maintain its existence. Once the bubble burst, the rest of the Enigma leaked out no matter how much of it remained unused.

'How could that make any sense?'

Even then, none of Clara's excuses made any sense. It was one thing for a normal human to panic in such a situation, but for a Hero who followed along the clearing of dozens of Gates, Clara's decision-making ability didn't track.

Her glaring shortcoming should have made it so she used her ability as soon as possible. The unfortunate porter also wasn't stupid enough to speed ahead and leave an absolute shield behind…

"Is that so?"

Leo had only been introduced to the team on the way to the Gate, so he really didn't have any obvious reason to question the man's fate other than being humane, but the panicked Clara was too focused on a certain task to refute that point.

"Yes! Please, the bubble doesn't last forever!"

Even as a bubble of Absolute Defense, receiving the monster's claws didn't come without a cost. The stronger the attacks, the more Enigma was consumed.

As such, while the bubble's Enigma efficiency was great, it was bound to be torn open in a few hours if the lion-faced monster stayed focused!

"Alright, let me help."

At this point, the puzzle in Leo's mind only lacked one more piece to be completed. He didn't have the novel's help, but he could already imagine what happened between this pair once they arrived at this stage.

"Hey, you."

Picking up a stone from the ground, he confidently threw it at the mid-boss. As for the monster's response…

"Rawwwwr!"

The big cat turned around, opening its huge mouth to scream at Leo, and just like that, the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.

'The aggro can be switched after all.'