Acquiring Talent in a Dungeon

Chapter 3 - Day 1, 1st Floor Completion

Did I say I was familiar with it? I was more familiar with being betrayed by patience. Life wasn’t a neat give and take. However, it wasn’t the case this time.

[Talent - Pain Tolerance: The ability to endure pain will depend on the level. Willpower, concentration and mental resistance will slightly increase.]

[Currently it is LV 1. Benefits will open at LV 5.]

“It is great to see.”

I could feel the sweat running down my face, but I smiled as I saw the words. Patience, willpower and concentration. It was gratifying to see these friends. Mental resistance was slightly weaker.

[Use the command prompt ‘check talent’ to show the list of talents that you currently possess.]

[Use the command prompt ‘check ability’ to show the current capabilities of your abilities.]

“Check talent.” Then the words ‘Cartography’ and ‘Pain Tolerance’ appeared. Next. "Check ability.”

To be honest, I was anticipating it a little bit. It was a numerical measure of my abilities, usually called stats in games. I could check my ability level through objective metrics. How much would my own abilities be? Anyone would want to see it at least once.

[Endurance: 11 (Decimal points are omitted)]

[Willpower: 11 (Decimal points are omitted)]

...Eung?

"Check ability.”

[Endurance: 11 (Decimal points are omitted)]

[Willpower: 11 (Decimal points are omitted)]

Why were there only two?

[The number of human abilities capable of being represented is almost infinite.]

[For the above reason, the abilities that have a value of 10 or less are omitted.]

It meant that the only abilities that exceeded 10 was endurance and willpower. “10... What degree of ability is 10?” I received an answer.

[For the current human race, the adult standard of abilities is between 6-10.]

[Abilities increase in small quantities of units below a decimal point. A change to the left of the decimal place is rarely observed outside the dungeon. This is referred to as ‘breaking through the limits.]

“Ha.”

I couldn’t help laughing. I had been a little bit confident.

I struggled alone in an unfamiliar environment, entered a good university and was able to achieve my own results. Frankly, it would be a lie if I said I wasn’t complacent. I'm obviously not a genius.

But I still thought I was a little more special than ordinary people. I had thought like that. "Special. Hah, how ridiculous.”

If this had been a normal situation then the mental blow might have been worse. No, I wouldn’t have even known this fact if these were normal circumstances. But now I was here. Talent. This strange dungeon would give me access to what I didn’t have before.

If I didn’t have it, then I could get it.

Kuk.

I put strength into the hand holding my bleeding wrist. Endurance and willpower. Those were my two advantages. Yes. I could look at it in another manner: I could put my hands on everything.

I stared at the section of wrist that was cut off.

[Pain Tolerance. LV 1. 39/100]

The pain hadn’t disappeared. Rather, it seemed to be getting worse than before. However, the feeling returned to other parts of my body. If you were hit hard in the stomach, you couldn’t think about anything else and other parts of your body couldn’t move properly.

That was before I received Pain Tolerance.

Now, I still suffered the pain but their sensations in the other parts of my body were different. My body seemed to be able to move more easily than usual. The shaking had also stopped to a certain extent. This was how I was able to think about raising my stats.

[Pain Tolerance. LV 1. 51/100]

Maybe I went crazy due to the pain. Only a short time had passed, yet the rise in ability was enormous. My HP Bar was almost unchanged. It seemed like the bleeding wasn’t as severe as I thought.

‘There is no feeling of death.’ Then I can endure. I can withstand it.

[The level of a talent has risen.]

[Pain Tolerance LV 1 -> LV 2. Related abilities have increased.]

That’s right.

[Concentration limit exceeded.]

[Concentration: 11 (Decimal points are omitted)]

Concentration? The increase in ability indicated that it was just a little bit below the decimal point. Moreover, the concentration increase from Pain Tolerance levelling up had the label ‘slightly’ attached.

Then my original concentration must’ve been around 10 or so. Maybe the decimal point was 10.99... Well, either way it was in the late 10’s.

"Yes, let's just focus on it.”

I still had 86 health remaining. Level two required 100 points while level 3 needed 200. I had that thought and opened my eyes.

[Pain Tolerance. LV 2. 14/200]

Wasn’t it rising more slowly than before?

It might be due to the level up. But I didn’t feel like Cartography became slower after reaching level two. The limit had been raised from 100 to 200 so it wasn’t right that the rate should reduced.

Perhaps… Although it had been very painful awhile ago, I had now grown accustomed to the sensation. Did the experience slow down because the pain I felt was lessened? I looked up at the HP Bar. My HP was still reducing at a rate of two points per minute.

"..."

The solution was clear. I just didn’t know if I could put it into action. I raised my body, standing slowly.

I turned and faced the wall that I had been leaning against. I took one step back with my left foot, while my right foot was half a step forward.

I lifted both arms, well one healthy hand holding a wrist with no hand. My shoulders were in the proper position and I prepared to throw a punch. Ah. My cut wrist couldn’t form a fist. Truly.

“... Hah.”

Anyone who heard it would be terrified. I honestly admitted it. Yes. I was completely ruined. Were my legs shaking? This was the craziest thing I would ever do. That time when I rode my dad’s bike up a high hill and closed my eyes as I went down? Well. I didn’t think it was so crazy now.

I laughed and punched the wall.

“Ack!”

◎

I briefly lost consciousness.

[Pain Tolerance. LV 4. 792/800]

“Yes... Eu... Ai... g...”

My mouth could barely form sounds. I used every last strength to raise my head.

I was stretched out on the ground. When I looked up, my HP Bar was almost empty.

[Current Balance: 5/121]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 2 every minute.]

I had less than three minutes left.

It was dangerous. I had to go down the stairs. There was no strength in my legs. My belly was damp. Blood? It was the smell of urine. There was also a lot of it. I gritted my teeth and turned over. I could see both arms in front of me as I crawled.

Let’s say there was a tree branch. If it was cut with a knife then the section was very neat.

Then it was given to an active child. The child played with it, used it to draw pictures in the sand and took it to a playground. It was used to kill some ants, maybe a few earthworms or mantises as well.

Now, think about that cut section again. The end of my right arm looked similar. There was no sensation anymore. That’s why I stopped gaining experience. How many times had I hit the wall? I remembered exactly two times.

No. I didn’t want to think about it.

I didn’t want to think about it.

I hated thinking about it.

I wouldn’t think about it.

Go to the stairs quickly. I used the cut off section of my wrist as a cane and crawled forward slowly. This way was faster. I didn’t have any sensations anyway.

[Current Balance: 4/121]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 2 every minute.]

As I moved forward little by little, I seemed like a bug. A bug with no wings or legs. What would it do in the future? What was I talking about? My hand would grow again.

[Current Balance: 3/121]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 2 every minute.]

Really? Yes.

[Current Balance: 2/121]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 2 every minute.]

What did someone tell me? I didn’t know. I couldn’t remember. Mother. Why don’t we have any money?

[Current Balance: 1/121]

[A bleeding state. Health will decrease by 2 every minute.]

My arm didn’t touch the ground, but the air. My upper body tilted forward and I rolled down the stairs.

[1st floor cleared.]

[Unique talent has awakened.]

◎

The first thing I did when I opened my eyes was to touch my right hand. My hand was intact. It was like it had never been severed in the first place.

“Ah...”

I spent two hours just touching my hands. The right hand was still attached. It was an obvious fact. But I felt so pleased and thankful as I finally realized the value of it.

I belatedly realized that I was crying. I dried off my tears and looked at the clock. 8:18 am. That meant I had awakened around 6 a.m.

I got up from the bed and stretched to loosen my tense muscles. Everything was the same as it had been before I went to sleep. Not only my right hand, but the small scrapes on my body and the dirt and urine on my clothes were all cleaned.

Was it cleaned? Or had I even been dirty in the first place?

The windows opened very easily. The morning scenery spread out, telling me that this moment was reality. How could I tell if last night was real?

It was as simple as opening a window. I opened my mouth.

"Check ability.”