Past Life Returner

The last Graf remaining started crawling to me as fast as it could. Its remaining three legs were wading through the blood of its fellows as it crawled over the other Graf corpses and red drops flew everywhere. It was trying to kill me as I had been sitting and leaning against another corpse. I was paralyzed, and the Graf must have noticed that this was a chance to kill me.

[You have used the Ring of Flames.]

The flame shot straight to the Graf, and the monster rolled into itself, like a pillbug, before the flame could hit it. The flame dissipated hitting the shell, and it uncurled itself like nothing had happened. It would have come to me, but it suddenly stopped to look around with its twitching antennae. Yeonhee must have used the Confusion skill.

“I’ll take care of that.”

I heard the voice from above me. Yeonhee looked down on me standing on top of a pile of Graf corpses, and after that cool line, she jumped down to rush the Graf. She kept her balance despite the floor which looked like an abattoir, Graf blood splashed everywhere. The Graf only responded after she reached knife range. However, the Graf was too late as Yeonhee had cut off its antennae by the time it could respond.

Yeonhee then immediately retreated. Several antennae crawled up to her, as those of other Grafs who were still breathing, yet had lost most or all their limbs, were searching for her instinctively. The only attack the antennae could do by themselves was to choke people, but it was long enough to be dangerous in numbers.

Yeonhee calmly severed each and every antennae before carefully approaching the confused Graf. She climbed on its back like I did on the Middle-sized Graf and stabbed it several times at the neck.

The Graf’s head fell to the floor, and she only returned after confirming that every Graf nearby had been killed.

[Yeonhee Woo used Physical Healing.]

I managed to stand up, and my body felt like a ton. I could not raise my head, and the Man Who Overcame Adversity seemed to be laughing at me, as it had not activated.

“Let’s move.”

Yeonhee spoke as she supported me. We had taken care of over sixty Grafs, and I had killed most of them.

**

After three days of hell, I was finally myself again. I had been senseless for the past few days and suffered through nightmares. I saw the Graf I had seen in an A class dungeon in my past life, and that one had been called the Ruler Graf.

It had a pale face and two suns for eyes, and anyone who had seen them would freeze in fear. Maybe because I had seen such a creature in my dreams, I felt less pressure against the F class boss monster. It might be possible I could do better than my estimates, as I was fighting like an E class hunter now.

We finished cleaning up and moved back to the left passage at the intersection in the tunnels. No Graf attacked us, and it seemed we had taken care of them all. We had arrived at a place where four dungeon boxes lay. My suspicions were thus confirmed, and Yeonhee seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“It’s the boss fight soon, right?”

The tunnels were narrowing again, and like where the Middle Graf had been, the boss monster would be waiting for us at the end of this road.

“We haven’t needed our Escape Insignias yet.”

Yeonhee looked happy at our growth compared to our first dungeon, and her face was filled with tension and satisfaction.

“Let’s get ready here.”

Yeonhee did not know why I had chosen this place until she also saw the dungeon boxes and smiled. We rested for two days, because two boxes had curses, and we had to wait out Heal Fear’s cooldown. On the third day, we started moving again.

[You have gained 9 Devi’s Knife points.]

[Devi’s Knife: F(9)]

“It’s all right. I am opening the next box.”

[You have gained 10 stamina points.]

[Stamina: F(50).]

Dungeon boxes could give you necessary stats like this or give two consecutive curses in a row. I signaled that I was all right to Yeonhee and checked my Status before moving on to the final boxes, which turned out to be consecutive curses.

**

The cave was now a path wide enough for six people to walk side by side, and I saw a long row of stone statues on each side. I had not expected a long corridor before the boss room, unlike anything I had seen before in my previous life. Yeonhee did not recognize the statues because each one was a Middle Graf.

Damn. I began to sense what the boss fight may be like. In my past life, hunters would give up before boss fights because of situations like this. What could one do when a herd of Middle Grafs came to life, all at the same time? We would be crushed to death.

“Step back.”

I had Yeonhee retreat from where the rows of statues began and hit the bottom of a statue using Odin’s Wrath. However, it did not move. The statues only looked like stone but were much stronger.

I knew that we would be way better off if we could take care of these statues in advance, and one at a time. However, all I got was a hurt hand.

The boss monster must depend on these statues, and that meant it was higher up in the Graf hierarchy than I expected, than I hoped. I thought it likely that the boss monster was a Graf Patriarch and knew that Graf Patriarch itself was not that dangerous. It was the subordinate Grafs it controlled that was truly dangerous.

Yeonhee was looking at the statue in disbelief as it was without a crack after that loud bang I made. Her face was ashen as I spoke to her.

“I think I need to use the Man Who Overcame Adversity.”

Yeonhee’s face grew rigid as I pointed at the dagger she was holding. The Man Who Overcame Adversity did not activate if I harmed myself. It may be a flaw that I had to be attacked by another being to use it. Yeonhee asked with her eyes if I was really going to do this, and I pointed to my stomach.

Yeonhee’s hand did not shake this time as she stabbed me in the designated spot. It was different this time, as the dagger’s effect increased the pain. I sat down, holding my stomach, as the blood glistened on my shirt. I waited until I lost enough blood to see the message.

[You have activated the Man Who Overcame Adversity.]

[Your wounds are healed a little.]

[You temporarily forget the pain.]

[The Man Who Overcame Adversity Activation Time: 0 hours 10 minutes]

The messages came quickly about how all of my skills and stats increased by a level. I then knew the secret of Devi’s Knife.

[Devi’s Knife (Skill)

Effect: A sharp aura attack is shot. The User can change it to Shiva’s Knife.

Class: E(0)

Cooldown Time: 5 minutes]

It was a simple sentence, but I had not seen the word change in the system before. Shiva’s Knife? I remembered the battle earlier in this dungeon. The corpses that had exploded would have been due to this skill. Also, I could not hide a laugh at how the First Virtue, the owner of Devi’s Knife in my past life, would have viewed the Seventh Evil with disdain. The Seventh Evil had been called Shiva the Destroyer as his main skill had been Shiva’s Knife.

So, Devi’s Knife could change to another skill with each class increase, and I remembered some with a sharp grin. To think that this skill could change to another divine class skill…how amazing was that?! (EN: Considering how horrible this dungeon has been, Sun deserves some shinys. ^_^ )