The Author's POV
chapter-34

-klank!

Arriving at the entrance of the vault, a compartment opened up.

-Place the skill inside of the box

Soon, a cold voice rang in my ears, to which I followed as ordered and placed the book inside the compartment.

Looking at the book which was inside of the compartment, I couldn't help but look at it carefully. It had lumpy leather bindings, and its pages were of golden color. The cover of the leather book was empty, with no title nor pictures on it. Although it looked like a book, when I tried opening it, I couldn't. No matter how much force I exerted, the book wouldn't budge.

...Fascinating

-Krrrrrr

After placing the skill book inside of the compartment, the vault door rumbled, slowly opening up. Waiting for me on the other side of the door was Thomas accompanied by the two red-clad individuals.

"All good?"

Walking up to me, Thomas took a quick peek at the vault.

Seeing that everything was alright, he urged me to follow him, and we were soon back in the waiting room.

"Wait here while I'll go and check if everything is alright"

"hm"

Nodding my head, I watched Thomas leave. Ignoring the fact that I was once again alone in the room that felt like millions of eyes were watching, I excitedly thought of my soon-to-be skill.

Now that I thought about it, this skill was basically tailored-made for me.

As someone who was not exposed to a society where superpowers and no morals existed, a skill like this was what I needed to help me adapt against situations that would require me to do things I wouldn't have otherwise ever thought of doing back in my previous world.

Things such as killing or witnessing gore were not something I could get used to immediately. This was partly one of the main reasons I was so overwhelmed by Baron of Everblood's presence before. Had it been Kevin or any of the other protagonists, such a thing wouldn't have impacted them as hard as much it did me.

As I was deep in my thoughts, with a complicated expression, Thomas walked back into the room. Soon, with my skill book in his hands, Thomas arrived in front of me and asked

"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive"

Lightly smiling, I nodded and took the skill book from his hands.

"...alright, suit yourself"

Although it seemed like he wanted to say something, Thomas stopped himself midway and just waved his hand in resignation.

Not noticing his reaction as I was too engrossed looking at the skill book, I immediately placed my hand on top of the book and circulated my mana.

Soon a white glow enveloped me, and the book magically disappeared.

Closing my eyes, a flood of information instantly transmitted itself in my mind. It took me a total of five minutes to digest all the information. Opening my eyes, a satisfied smile appeared on my face.

Checking my status, I was pleasantly surprised by its changes.

===Status===

Name : Ren Dover

Rank : F -

Strength : F

Agility : F -

Stamina : F -

Intelligence : F -

Mana capacity : G +

Luck : E

Charm : G

--> Profession :

[Swordsmanship lvl.1]

--> Martial Manual :

[★★★★★ Keiki style]

Sword art created by Grandmaster Toshimoto Keiki. A five-star module that focused primarily on reaching the apex of swordsmanship and speed. Upon mastery, the sword art becomes so fast that before an opponent could even think about their next move, their heads would already be rolling on the ground.

--> Skills :

[[G] Monarch's indifference]

A skill that enables users to erase all emotions, and act as a supreme monarch that only calculates the best option regardless of circumstance.

Surprisingly, my rank increased from G + to F -

I did not notice it before because I was busy recovering, but it seems like my stats had shot up a notch. I had not suffered in vain.

I think that all the time I spent killing monsters and nearly dying against Baron of Everblood had helped me finally rank up.

Satisfied, my smile which wouldn't leave my face, deepened.

"...kid wipe that smile off your face, it's creepy"

"hehehe"

Ignoring Thomas who was looking at me with a disgusted face, I went through the information that had just entered my mind.

I really wanted to use the skill right here and right now, but I knew that it was inappropriate. Moreover, with my current mana capacity, I could only use the skill for approximately thirty minutes. Though it was not long, thirty minutes should be enough, as my stamina was about that much anyways.

Also, as long as I improved my mana capacity the time at which I could utilize the skill would also increase.

"Alright, let's go..."

Sighing, Thomas left the room we were in. Soon we were at the entrance of the storage space.

"Here"

"?"

Stopping Thomas looked back at me and handed me a small card. Taking the card, I looked at it in confusion. Soon I understood.

"Yup, this is your last reward. You've been promoted to VIP"

"R-really?"

"Yea, since you only chose a G rank skill I felt a bit compelled to give you this"

"...Thanks"

Looking at the shining black card with a golden VIP sign engraved on it, I couldn't help but feel my already good mood become even better.

The VIP card not only granted me access to the black market without the need to go through the hassle of remembering the password, but it also allowed me to get priority on all dungeons as well as the fact that I wouldn't need to pay a deposit in the case of emergencies.

This alone was enough for me to become happy...yet the VIP card had one other feature that made all the other perks seem like nothing.

It allowed me to have access to any dungeon available. Yes. Be it C rank, B rank, A rank, I could enter any dungeon I wanted.

...yes, although going to dungeons of D rank and above was almost like asking to be killed, they had their perks. They were a great way to help me train my mentality. Although I wouldn't do any killing inside of a D rank dungeon, just being there could help me adapt myself to the pressure exerted by D rank creatures. This was extremely advantageous as it would help me not panic once I encountered a stronger enemy.

From what I learned when fighting against Baron of Everblood, in a fight, 90% of it was the mentality and 10% was actual skills.

If your mentality crumbled even before the fight started, then you were as good as done. However, if even in the face of a stronger foe, you managed to retain your composure, the likelihood of you winning would increase drastically. That's why true experts tended to be colder than other people.

No skill nor potions could train your mentality. Only when you were in the face of true danger would you be able to train your mentality.

Fortunately, I had acquired a really good skill to help me with regard to mentality, but I couldn't be too reliant on it.

If I relied too much on a skill then when the time that my skill no longer worked came, either because I was out of mana or for some other reason, I would instantly crumble under the pressure.

"Alright, I've said enough."

Taking out a cigarette from his pocket, Thomas put his sunglasses back on and waved goodbye,

"I've left my number on the back of the card, contact me if you need help with anything"

"Sure, thanks!"

After parting ways with Thomas, I quickly collected all my loot that was very nicely dismantled by [Dungeon seekers] and went to Smallsnake. Although no core was found, I managed to make a whooping 100,000U. 50k U from my loot, and 50k U as a fee to keep everything that had happened a secret.

For obvious reasons, if news spread out about the incident, [Dungeon seekers] reputation would crumble. In this accident apart from me and a couple of people, a total of 39 people had died. Five of which were the ones that I had previously met.

Although I was a bit sad about the fact that no one would ever know how these people disappeared, I could only sign it as refusing wasn't really an option.

In this world where people would constantly disappear without someone ever knowing how...the death of these 39 people wouldn't have that much of an impact on society. I just felt bad for their family...Imagine never finding out how your loved one disappeared.

I could only lament at the fact that this world's morals had completely twisted since the appearance of the demons and superpowers.

Dialing smallsnake's number, I quickly made an appointment with him. Though I almost died, this experience was more frutious than I had expected. With the money I had to acquire I could double the amount I had originally planned to invest.

Now all I had to do was wait a month's time before money would rain into my pockets.

...

After parting ways with Ren, Thomas walked back to [Dungeon seekers]

Throughout his journey back, Thomas's thoughts couldn't help wonder back to Ren.

To say that Thomas wasn't confused would be a lie. Typically youngsters would always choose the flashiest and strongest skill they could find. Since Thomas had granted Ren access to all skills from F to G rank, he had expected him to choose one of the strongest F rank skills. But contrary to his expectations, he chose a G rank skill that focused on mentality rather than being flashy.

This came as a pleasant surprise and made him look at Ren in a better light. Had he chosen a flashy F ranked skill, Thomas would've just treated him as one of the many passersby of his life...but now...now things were different.

This kid seemed to be different from most hot-blooded youths who only thought about being strong without thinking about the process. He seemed rational, which was unusual for someone of his age.

Even though there was evidence that showed that Ren had fought against a Baron-ranked demon, Thomas didn't put too much thought into it.

Although the Demon was Baron ranked, at the end of the day it was just a clone. It was definitely surprising that Ren had managed to defeat it, but it wasn't something that would make him pay close attention to him.

But now, seeing how he did not let greed overtake his rationality, Thomas started thinking that perhaps, just maybe, he had found a hidden gem.

'I'll have to ask someone to check and send me his files..'

Being an accomplished A rank Hero, not many things interested Thomas. He had seen every prodigy that there was out there. Recently there had been rumors of a new prodigy popping up in the Lock.

He had originally intended to do some research, but now, someone else had caught his interest.

After getting someone to transfer all of the information about Ren, Thomas took a quick look at his data.

He was quite surprised by what was shown in the information.

"Talent assessment D? Rank 1750?"

At first, he found it ridiculous, but seeing his exam results he could tell the data was not wrong.

"...was I wrong?"

Thinking back at what had transpired in the dungeon, although he hadn't seen firsthand how Ren fought, Thomas knew that the exam results were wrong.

Having seen a lot of prodigies in his life, Thomas could instantly tell when one was talented. It wasn't so much about their data, it was more about their demeanor.

Ubeknowst to Ren, after he had come back from the dungeon, he was a completely different person. The air around him had changed.

Remembering back when he had first met Ren, although Thomas couldn't see his face, he could see that he was a bit unique.

He had the air of a...tourist?

The first impression that Thomas got regarding Ren was that he looked like a tourist. He looked at everything like it was something new and exciting. He didn't look like someone who was just about to enter a danger filled space. It felt as if he was going on a holiday.

Thomas didn't point this fact out to Ren in the beginning because he had seen lots of similar people throughout his life. It wasn't his responsibility to warn people about the dangers that were within a dungeon.

However, after the incident, Thomas noticed Ren change. If before he looked like a tourist, now he looked like an immigrant. He had something that he previously didn't have.

Resolve.

It now seemed that whatever he went through inside of the dungeon had caused him to grow and finally realize how dangerous the world was.

He had a similar demeanor to top-class heroes. One that looked at the bigger picture.

...though he still was not comparable to them, Ren was in the right direction, and Thomas felt that if given time Ren's name would spread across the globe.

Well...his prediction could be wrong, but there was no harm in believing in him.

Lightly smiling, Thomas slumped down on his comfy chair.

"Let's observe a bit more, I feel like he will soon give me a pleasant surprise"