Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 21 – Death Experience
“Let’s stop here today,” Zwei said to Alyssa, who had just completed her meditation. “Stay safe on your way back.”
Sneaking a few glances at Zwei’s face, the little girl seemed to want to say something. Eventually, she bit her lip and asked softly, “Teacher, is something worrying you?”
Taken aback by Alyssa’s question, Zwei asked, “Why would you say that?”
“Because you’ve had a stern expression all day long, Teacher,” the little girl answered earnestly.
Zwei touched his face. “Uh, is it that obvious?”
In response, the little girl hurriedly nodded her head, her golden pigtails bouncing along, as though she was saying, “Yes, it’s very obvious!”
“Don’t worry. I’m just thinking about some minor matters.” Looking at his student’s cute appearance, Zwei smiled and rubbed Alyssa’s head.
“But…” Alyssa wanted to say something but was stopped by Zwei’s smile.
“Relax, I’m your teacher. Nothing can stump me.” At this moment, Zwei’s smile appeared more confident.
However, after Zwei sent his worried student out of the mage tower and saw her back disappear along the mountain path, his expression collapsed.
“Though, that’s easier said than done…”
Sighing, Zwei sat on the wooden bed he used for meditation.
Just as he was about to shut his eyes, the sight of the terrifying maw appeared in his mind once more. He simply couldn’t calm down and meditate at all.
While staring blankly at the snow-white ceiling, Zwei recalled the incident that happened some time ago.
“I…seem to have died, right?”
Back then, although he had activated Lesser Fireball out of reflex, his attack didn’t damage his opponent by much. Meanwhile, his memory inside the dungeon ended with the maw moving increasingly closer to him. He had no recollection of what happened afterward. However, judging by the development up to that point, his opponent should’ve bitten his head off and ended his life.
“I never thought that the Boss wouldn’t actually be an evolution of the sickle crab but a sea hound instead.”
The sea hound was a Level 8 monster. Appearance-wise, it looked like a giant dog with the tail of a fish. Although Zwei had no evidence proving that the sea hound was related to the weak ocean slime, like the ocean slime, the sea hound possessed a translucent body that could blend in with the seawater.
The sea hound was a monster without any talent for magic. It was solely because of its ability to launch sneak attacks in the water that it gained a hunting level of Level 8.
“The Dye Ball must’ve been prepared for that guy.” So long as he dyed the sea hound with color, the monster would lose its special camouflage. At that time, it would be nothing more than an ordinary beast with a slightly large body.
Truthfully, Zwei didn’t care too much about his death.
He had come across many life-threatening situations during his dungeon raids. From these experiences, he knew that if not for his overwhelming firepower, raiding dungeons wouldn’t be a smooth-sailing endeavor at all. In fact, it would be a miracle if he could continue progressing safely and securely. After all, he could very well die in a dungeon just from stumbling once. However, he had never expected death to come so quickly.
Although experiencing death was incredible, what concerned Zwei now wasn’t just his death in the dungeon but also the effects it would have on his body in the real world and to the mysterious Magic Academy System.
His greatest worry was that dying in the dungeon meant dying in the real world. Fortunately, such an abrupt ending had not occurred. Not to mention, even if it really did happen, it wouldn’t be something he could be concerned about.
With that worry out of the way, Zwei looked at the tattoo on the back of his right hand.
Despite less than a month having gone by since the tattoo’s pattern last changed, the pointer, which was previously pointing at the sector representing “1,” was already pointing at “2.”
This change suggested that his lifespan would be reduced by one month for every death he suffered in the dungeons. Aside from this penalty, Zwei hadn’t noticed any other changes for the time being.
“However, regardless if there are any other side effects or not, dying isn’t a good thing. I should always plan ahead when raiding dungeons in the future,” Zwei mumbled as he opened the Magic Academy System’s interface to see if it had any changes.
The sole quest he had before was still listed under the Quest System. The quest did not get removed just because he died once.
The Academy Resources panel also remained unchanged. Zwei had not suffered the death penalty commonly implemented in games—the loss of half or all of a player’s resources. He also felt very fortunate about this situation. After all, although the Dean’s Mage Tower had cost a lot of resources to construct, it barely used any of his Money resources. On the off chance his Money resources zeroed out because of his death, he would most likely have a heart attack and spit blood all over the panel.
Everything also remained unchanged on the Magic Book panel. However, as Zwei looked at the scant few icons representing a learned skill on the panel, he felt inexplicably depressed. If even first-circle magic was so difficult to acquire, what would happen once he progressed to second- and third-circle magic?
The Trial Gate’s panel had no changes, either. He did not gain access to additional dungeons because of his death. He also didn’t lose access to any dungeons. However, as he had already used up his raid chance for today, he would have to spend achievement points if he wished to enter a dungeon again. When he tried entering one of the accessible dungeons, the system even thoughtfully displayed how many achievement points it cost to enter.
Next was the Academy Construction panel. Likewise, no changes occurred here. The Dean’s Mage Tower remained standing alone in the middle of the 3D layout.
“Speaking of which, I might as well spend my Money to buy blueprints to avoid any accidents.”
Maybe because resources were required to construct the buildings, the construction blueprints sold in the Academy Construction panel were relatively cheap. Purchasing the blueprints for the Teaching Block and Mana Lake cost Zwei only 70 Money resources. Of course, even if he purchased the blueprints, he still lacked the resources to construct either facility.
Afterward, while mumbling that “student IDs are useless and incredibly expensive,” Zwei decisively spent 10 points of Money to purchase an ID for Alyssa.
Once done with the Construction panel, he moved on to the Achievement panel. The contents on that panel dumbfounded him. After all, not only did the achievement points displayed not decrease, but they had even increased.
…
Achievement: Death Experience
Achievement Level: Bronze Medal
Unlocking Condition: Die once in the Trial Gate.
Achievement Points: 20
…
…Even death is an achievement?
When Zwei saw the new cyan medal that appeared beside the black medal from before, mixed emotions filled his heart.