Chapter 35

“You could still use it with healing skills, couldn’t you? Double the effect in critical moments.”

“Sure, but in a world like this, offense matters more than defense. It’s better to wipe out threats before they can even hurt us.”

With that, Ethan pushed the skill book toward him again, his intentions clear—this wasn’t charity; it was logic.

“…Thanks.”

“No need to thank me. It was yours from the start, anyway. Just take it.”

A faint warmth stirred in Justin’s chest. He nodded silently, ready to learn the skill immediately.

That’s when Derek suddenly interjected.
“Uh, hey.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me if I want it?”

“…”

Both Justin and Ethan turned toward him, joined by a baffled Nathan.

After several seconds of stunned silence, they spoke in unison:
“Are you serious, Derek?”

“You really think you deserve a share of this?”

“Derek, do you want us to start talking down to you from now on?”

“…”

Faced with a chorus of disbelief, Derek shrank back, the weight of their scorn crashing down on him.

The audacity to claim a reward you had no part in earning? Ridiculous.

As soon as Justin received the skill book, he wasted no time and opened it.

The pages were filled with strange symbols—letters and markings he had never seen before. Before he could even begin to decipher them, the book suddenly emitted a brilliant flash of light.

《You have used the Skill Book. You have learned the skill [Dual Enhancement].》
《The consumable item has been used and will now disintegrate.》

With the final message, the book crumbled into dust in his hands.

Opening his status screen to confirm, he found that Dual Enhancement had indeed been added to his list of skills.

“Now, most enemies won’t stand a chance.”

In a fight against humans, especially, there was barely anyone who could match him now. An attack spell empowered by Dual Enhancement would be nearly impossible to block, even with a shield. And if someone managed to block it cleanly? Well, avoiding a broken arm would be considered lucky.

Suppressing a satisfied smile, he closed the screen.
“Alright, we’ve got our treasure—let’s move forward a little more.”

The rest of the team nodded in agreement. Even factoring in the time it would take to return, it was still too early to call it a day.

They pushed onward.

After about 30 more minutes and three additional battles, they stumbled upon something unexpected.

“…A field?”

The dense forest suddenly gave way to an expansive open field. The sudden change in scenery made everyone pause, scanning their surroundings with wary eyes.

“Hey, look over there. Something’s moving.”

Derek pointed toward the far side of the field. There was a shadow—humanoid in shape, but with a hunched posture and an oddly fur-covered body. It was clear this was no human.

Narrowing his eyes, Justin focused on the creature’s distant movements.
“Gnolls.”

“Gnolls?”

“Hyena-like beasts that walk on two legs. They don’t carry much in terms of weapons, but they’re bigger and stronger than hobgoblins.”

Even hunched over, they were nearly as tall as an average human, and their muscular frames suggested raw physical power that would surpass any ordinary man.

Ethan squinted toward the gnoll as well.
“Looks like we’ve found the boundary. The forest was hobgoblin territory—this field belongs to the gnolls.”

“So the difficulty spikes here.”

“And the rewards will probably increase too,” Derek added.

A brief silence followed as the group weighed their options. Should they push forward for exploration’s sake or turn back while they were ahead?

The decision didn’t take long.
“Let’s head back. It’d be risky to continue without everyone being at least level 10.”

“I was thinking the same. This isn’t a game.”

If this had been a game, they might have gone scouting without a second thought. Even if the enemies proved stronger than expected, the worst consequence would be losing some health points.

But this wasn’t a game—it was reality. One serious injury could ruin their chances of survival altogether.

“Even if we can heal wounds, the fear that follows would slow everyone down. It’s better to level up until we’re strong enough to take them down without injury.”

With the decision made, they withdrew from the gnoll-infested plains. It was a little disappointing, but the information gained about the monsters’ territorial boundaries was valuable in itself.

“Once we level up, we’ll know exactly where to go for better hunts.”

For now, Justin led the group back into the forest, returning to hunting hobgoblins. Their current priority was clear: completing the quests at hand before moving on to bigger challenges.

“Whew, I’m exhausted.”
“Finally, a chance to rest.”

Roughly two hours later, they reached a designated safe zone, all of them worn out. It hadn’t been a long expedition time-wise, but the relentless stream of battles had left everyone drained.

“Still, all that effort paid off.”

The most significant progress was Ethan finally reaching Level 10. Unfortunately, no new skills were unlocked at this milestone—but there was an even greater reward.

His valuable healing spell, Lesser Heal, had evolved into Intermediate Heal.

“Now I can patch up pretty much anything!”

According to the skill description, he could now mend broken bones and torn muscles—an upgrade just as vital as Dual Enhancement was for offense.

“Once Nathan hits Level 3, we’ll be ready to start hunting gnolls.”

Speaking of Nathan, he had reached Level 2 during the hunt. At this pace, he would likely hit Level 3 by the next day—and at worst, the day after.

The thought made Justin chuckle.
“We were planning to take things slow, but we’re climbing levels at a frightening pace.”

It wasn’t a bad thing, of course.

Resting on the ground, Nathan blinked up at him, curious.
“Hey, Bro, something good happened? Why are you smiling?”

“We collected a lot of magic stones today. That’s something to be happy about.”

“Ah, the stones!”

The mention of their haul brightened the expressions of everyone around. They had gathered an impressive 48 stones—an incredible number considering this was their first official team outing.

“Think we can collect over 50 tomorrow?”

“Probably. We moved slower today since we were still getting used to working together.”

“At this rate, we’ll have someone completing their quest every day.”