I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 48

Chapter 48

‘As expected.’

I looked at the Rock Centipede, which had died miserably without even showing a few proper patterns, with satisfaction. The pieces of rock that were once its head were covered in ice and rolled around on the floor.

Leaving the finishing blow to the Knight Commanders was definitely the right choice. They dealt with it much faster, safer, and more efficiently than I could have.

If it were me, I would have had to roll and hit it repeatedly for a long time.

“It was nothing but a big oaf. Just like you said, rookie, it was slow and easy to catch.”

Rize said as she walked towards me. The ice that had covered her silver armor melted away. When she took off her helmet, her blue hair was revealed.

“Indeed. I could have easily caught it even if I had fought it alone.”

Erika also took off her helmet. Her hair, tied up in a bun at the back of her head, stood out even more. *Clank*, the sound of Erika sheathing her katana echoed.

“Is this the end, rookie?”

“That’s right. How could it possibly come back to life in that state?”

“…I once dealt with a monster that could regenerate even if its body was cut into pieces, so I was just wondering.”

“That’s not simply being cut into pieces, is it?”

I pointed at the Rock Centipede’s corpse. Its head had frozen and shattered, and below that, it had melted and scorched by flames. The rest of it was broken into pieces.

It was definitely not something that could be described with a single word.

“That’s true.”

Iris chuckled. It seemed like her words were closer to a joke from the beginning.

‘I roughly understand what you’re talking about.’

The monster mentioned just now, the one that could regenerate even if its body was cut into pieces, was referring to one of the mid-game bosses.

It was a boss that could cut its body into pieces at will and then reattach them, which often resulted in the boss fight dragging on and turning into a game of hide-and-seek, so its evaluation wasn’t very good.

It wasn’t on the level of the Rock Centipede, though.

A few years ago, Iris fought it but retreated without finishing it off, so if you show her the proof of its subjugation, she’ll be very happy and praise the protagonist profusely.

“Rookie. It’s your turn now. You know what to do, right?”

Erika glanced back. Her gaze landed on a green glowing Rune Stele.

The stele that provided the rune disappeared and reappeared somewhere else, and its location and timing were completely random. It could reappear in a few days, or it could take decades to reappear.

This was a fact that could be confirmed in the writings of a scholar who dedicated his life to researching the regularity of its random appearance and failed, screaming in frustration. It was also one of the few comedic scenes in Brightest Darkness 4.

I approached the stele, which emitted a faint green light. I could see the incomprehensible ancient characters engraved on the stone. I could feel three pairs of hot gazes on my back.

“I’ll begin.”

I placed my hand on it. The swirling green light inside the stele began to transfer to me. It felt like the wind was blowing vigorously along my blood vessels inside my body.

I closed my eyes and chose the location for the rune tattoo. It was possible to engrave it anywhere on the body, but the most common place was the back of the hand.

As I focused my mind as if I were manipulating the UI in the game, the wind that was running through my body soon gathered on the back of my left hand. My hand trembled uncontrollably for a moment, and then a hot sensation rose.

The heat soon subsided. I opened my eyes and checked the back of my hand. I could see a uniquely shaped tattoo. It was a tattoo that signified the Vitality Enhancement rune.

‘I don’t really feel it.’

It might be because my stamina isn’t depleted right now, and there’s no real stamina consumption unless I roll four or five times in a row.

‘There were guys who chose female characters and engraved this on their lower abdomen.’

Although the original meaning wasn’t obscene at all, looking at it kept reminding me of the guys who used it for strange purposes. For example, giving female characters vulva tattoos.

The most representative examples were users who deliberately chose female characters, customized them to be sexy, dressed them in obscene clothes, and combined runes to create something resembling a vulva in the shape of a heart.

‘Those guys are geniuses.’

Those users often created heart shapes or vulva shapes using combinations that no one else could think of. Or they would simply change the shape of the tattoo itself through modding.

While I was having these useless thoughts, the rune transfer was complete. The green light had completely seeped into my body. The stele that had given me the rune lost its light and crumbled into an ordinary pile of rocks.

Now it would reappear in a dungeon somewhere else in the world.

Of course, that’s just the setting. Even if the rune reappeared, there was never a case where a player acquired the same rune again in the same playthrough.

It’s just a device to add plausibility to why players can acquire all the runes.

“Is it done, rookie?”

“Here, the rune tattoo. I’ve definitely absorbed it.”

“What’s the effect of the rune?”

‘…Huh?’

My mind went blank for a moment at Iris’s question. Come to think of it, how do you check the rune’s effect?

In the game, you could just press Esc and open the character status window to check it there, but now there’s no status window or stat window. There was no way to immediately confirm the rune’s effect.

I do remember the effect of the Vitality Enhancement rune itself. It increases the character’s natural stamina recovery rate by a certain amount. But there’s no way to actually confirm it, whether through text or anything else.

“…”

“…?”

Iris looked at me with a puzzled expression as I stood there blankly.

“Isn’t something coming to mind? That’s the effect of the rune.”

‘Ah, so that’s how it is.’

It seems that in this world, when you acquire a rune, information about it immediately comes to mind. I already knew about the Vitality Enhancement rune, so nothing particularly came to mind.

There was no need to worry about whether the Knight Commander knew the concept of stamina. I had checked the names of all the stats in the ability confirmation orb.

“Uh… it says it increases natural stamina recovery speed?”

“That’s a pretty useful effect. You’re quite lucky. Congratulations, rookie.”

As I expected, Iris understood its meaning immediately. It was an effect that didn’t matter to me, but it wasn’t a bad effect to have.

“With this, we’ve achieved our goal of entering the dungeon. Now all that’s left is to get out…”

Erika looked around.

“I don’t see a passage leading outside. We might have to go back the way we came.”

Rize grimaced at the mention of having to go back the way we came. We had walked down for a good hour and a half. It was only natural for her to react like that if we had to walk all the way back up.

It’s okay. A wall will collapse once we get the rune anyway.

“Still, it won’t take too long since there are no monsters, so it shouldn’t be a problemㅡ”

*Rumble*, before Iris could finish her sentence, the wall right behind where the rune had been collapsed, revealing a path.

“…I won’t lose.”

“It seems that part of the wall collapses when you acquire the rune. I’ll make a note of this in the report later.”

“Do that. Rookie, is there anything else you need to do here?”

I shook my head from side to side. Once I acquired the rune, there was no need to come back here again. There were no other items, and nothing else to gain.

Even if there was a reason to come back, I wouldn’t. Damn Rock Centipede.

“Alright. Everyone, prepare to leave.”

The way out was quick. Erika and Iris wondered about the structure of the dungeon, and Rize, as always, stuck to my side and chattered.

Outside, darkness that couldn’t be seen an inch ahead had fallen. It felt like several hours had passed.

Considering that rune acquisition dungeons usually take around 20 minutes to clear in the game, it really took a damn long time. Moreover, most of that time was spent on the Rock Centipede gimmick.

Even considering that everything had been transformed to a more realistic scale than in the game, Iris and Erika also said that it was a considerably large dungeon, so it was true that it took a long time.

‘Anyway, with this, all the rune slots are unlocked.’

Now I just need to go to another dungeon and get the rune that allows me to ignore the Battle Fatigue debuff, and then I can gradually level up and continue the main story.

‘…Wait a minute. But how far is it to that place?’

As I recalled the location of the next dungeon, I paused my thoughts at an unexpected fact.

Even in the game, the distance between the city where the Silver Dawn Knights were located and the dungeon where the rune that negated the Battle Fatigue debuff was located was quite far.

Now that everything had been expanded to a real-world scale, it was obvious how far the distance between the two would be.

Just think about how long we had to run to reach the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman’s boss field, which would have taken only a few minutes on horseback.

‘…’

It would take at least three weeks, no matter how little I estimated.

“What are you doing, rookie? We’re leaving now.”

“Ah, I had something to think about. Sorry. I’ll be right there.”

Iris, who had retrieved the jewels around her horse and mounted it, urged me on. Rize and Erika were also waiting for me. I apologized briefly and mounted my horse.

“It’s late, so let’s hurry back.”

Iris immediately spurred her horse and galloped off. Erika followed closely behind. Rize and I followed a little further behind.

“Wait a minute. I have something to say.”

“…?”

After we had ridden for a while, Rize, who was riding next to me, spoke in a serious voice.

“What is it?”

“You seem to have something on your mind, rookie. I wanted to ask what’s going on.”

“Wait, was it that obvious?”

“You had an expression that was impossible to miss.”

“…”

Well, it was a rather serious matter I was thinking about. I knew the surrounding terrain and approximate location, but I couldn’t just set off blindly based on that.

It’s not just a few days, but nearly three weeks. I wasn’t sure if I could find my way there properly.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but it won’t do you any good to worry about it alone. I know you’re worried about us, but we’re worried about you too. It might be better to think about it together rather than you agonizing over it alone.”

“…What’s with the serious talk all of a sudden?”

“I can read the mood too, you know?”

Rize chuckled.

It would have been perfect comfort if she hadn’t immediately teased me by saying, “I heard that men’s worries are usually solved by touching a woman’s breasts. Are you interested?”

‘Well, there’s no reason for me to worry alone.’

It was time to reveal that my stats had increased, and it was time to start providing information that would be helpful to the Silver Dawn Knights.

It was time to pull out the Almighty Shield once again.