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Chapter 106: Curse of Sanke (2)

Through the hallway of the second floor, the group was led by Rustly through it as they headed to the room which Madam Ru pointed towards. While they walked, Shinto and his party members were discussing the contents of the discussion held earlier.

"...so the rats were actually harmless?!" Frey shouted out.

"Apparently so," Shinto nodded his head. "They were affected by Sanke's magic which in turn drove them to madness."

"Just who the heck is this guy?" Kon pondered. "For him to go out of his way to curse everything, what does he want?"

"I'm as clueless as you are," he sighed. "I didn't pry too much and just got the sufficient information needed to base around a theory."

"Eh? Why didn't you just ask for the facts directly?" Kon tilted his head.

"The facts that I do want to know seems to be extremely confidential," Shinto stated. "I doubt that the slime at the counter would tell me. And, this slime in front of us seems to have really limited info seeing the way he explained things without much detail."

"Then what about that man you were asking about earlier?" Ethaniel asked. "Did you get a clear answer? Well... with how that slime acted, I guess a no?"

"Not too clear. But I did get info that he's around here," Shinto said. "Though... it seems that he's affected by the curse too."

"Tch, how annoying. Then what do we do?" Ethaniel frowned. "We know that there's a curse and that if not stopped; the slimes will go bat shit crazy. But why does this concern us?"

"They're forcing their concerns on us through Raina..." Frey sighed. "Why specifically her, though?"

"It's likely because, out of all of us, she's the most eligible," Shinto reasoned. "It's either that or... it's because she threw a fireball at that slime earlier that triggered such reaction."

"Eh? All because of that?"

"So... You're saying if I threw my flames at the slime, would I get the same reaction?" Kon tilted his head.

"Most likely," Shinto nodded his head. "Raina's a low levelled mage and her spells so far are mostly invested in fire. So in the end... it's no brainer that the slimes would go head over heels on her, especially when there aren't any other mages around here."

"Hmm, wasn't this place a high levelled dungeon?" Frey questioned. "So wouldn't the spells that are taught be high levelled? Then if so... wouldn't there be some restrictions or something?"

"This is an instance dungeon unlocked through your S-Ranked quest. So restrictions of quest rewards and the like shouldn't matter," he explained. "Well, maybe the issue of mana usage would be the problem, but that's still a low barrier of entry."

"Huh. If there are no restrictions on getting a skill in the dungeon, then would that mean I can learn a new skill!?" Frey's eyes lit in excitement.

"Cough... Skills like that aren't that easy to come by. Even in an instance dungeon," Shinto shook his head. "If you can manage to stumble upon a quest that gives a new skill and manage to clear it, then sure, you get the skill."

Although the entire party was low levelled against the dungeon, when it came to instances such as this one, the conditions to unlock certain abilities or items through quests that are specifically within this dungeon aren't as prevalent. This was due to how one could access the dungeon without limit, and to earn these rewards; it was based on strength and endurance to clear its trials.

For the case of Raina, the conditions of unlocking such a quest on her side seemed to stem from her throwing a fireball at the slime, in turn, making the slime drag Raina all the way to the slimes retreat making her learn the 'Flames of Etheral'.

"Stumbling upon a quest like that... that's going to be a pain," Frey sighed.

"Yeah. But, I do think that we might be getting more quests relating to skills or equipment in this dungeon," Shinto estimated. "In any case, on the topic of items, my question of why this necklace was cursed was completely evaded." 

"Was it really completely evaded, or was it just lost in the sea of questions?" Ethaniel inquired.

"Hmm... probably both," he said. "But I can already guess as to why this item was cursedSince this was a treasure by the slimes, Sanke cursed the item. It's either that or... he wore the item once and then proceeded to curse it."

"Can't you just ask the damn slime instead of theorizing on it?" Ethaniel clicked his tongue.

"Sigh... Fine," Shinto sighed as he turned towards Rustly. Moments later, he called out to him. "Hey, Rustly, was it? Why was the necklace cursed by Sanke?"

"The necklace? Ah, the one you're wearing," Rustly turned around. "Well, to put it simply, this necklace was a treasure beloved by us since it allowed for communication between the Sleras and Humans."

"Mhm. So, Sanke cursed it to prevent communication?"

"Not exactly. This necklace actually has some special protection spells, but... with the curse, it lost its meaning." The slime whimpered. "All it has now is the ability to communicate with us."

"A-Ah...?" Shinto blinked at Rustly's explanation.

"So? What did this guy say?" Ethaniel glared at Shinto. "Seeing you dumbfoundedly like that, it must have been a totally different reason from your theory, right?"

"...I should have asked earlier," he sighed.

"Tch. Told you," Ethaniel scoffed. "Now, tell me the real reason why you didn't ask before."

"...It kind of went over my head until just now," Shinto laughed awkwardly.

"Sigh, you..." Ethaniel helplessly sighed at Shinto. "Whatever. Anyway, what's the call now? Do we just wait around for Raina to be done or something? Or do we look for that old man."

"Well... for the time being, there's really nothing we can do," Shinto stated. "Seeing as how Raina just started learning the new skill, it might take days or even weeks."

"So, we're basically sitting ducks?" he clicked his tongue. "How nice."

"Yeah... With how things are, it'll be good to just explore the premise," he reasoned. "Which is what I'm going to do now."

"And, we're here! We've arrived in the room!" Rustly said as he quickly headed inside.

"Huh? So we're going out again?" Frey blinked at Shinto's statement. "But we just got here!"

"You two don't have to follow me. You can just do whatever you want. Same with Kon," he said. "For me, I'll go and see if I can get an audience with the king myself."

"You know that's going to be hopeless, right?" Ethaniel scoffed.

"Hey, are you guys going to come in-" Rustly walked out of the room whilst impatiently asking for the group to come inside. However, the moment he did so, he was quickly lifted up from the floor.

"Well it's better to try," Shinto shrugged whilst holding the slime in his hand. "And what's more to have this slime with me as company to maybe get a higher chance at having an audience."

"Eh?! Hey! Human! Let go of me!" The slime struggled in his arms.

"You're going to leave us here alone??" Frey still couldn't comprehend Shinto's words.

"You can come if you want, but it's better not to since it might bring suspicion on us if you do," he said as he began to move whilst gesturing his hand goodbye from the back. "I'll be back soon. So have fun."

"Oi! You're our translator for this whole slime language, you know that right?!" Ethaniel cried out.

"Yeah, but you'll be fine..." he said without looking back.

"OI!!!" Ethaniel cried out in anger, helplessly watching Shinto walk away.