Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

Chapter 33: Acquiring a New Skill and Testing Patience

Justin immediately opened the skill book after receiving it. Inside the book were strange symbols, packed densely, that he had never seen before. Before he could examine them closely, the skill book suddenly emitted a bright light.

"Ding! You have used the skill book. You have acquired the skill [Dual Enhancement]."

"Ding! Since you used a consumable item, it has automatically disintegrated."

After the system messages ended, the skill book crumbled away into dust. Justin opened his status window for confirmation, and there it was—the [Dual Enhancement] skill had been added.

'Now, most enemies won't be a problem.'

At least in battles against humans, this would make him nearly unbeatable. An attack spell using Dual Enhancement would be powerful enough that even a shield wouldn't be able to block it easily. And even if they did block it, it would be a miracle if they didn't end up with broken bones.

Suppressing a satisfied smile, Justin closed his status window.

"Alright, now that we've got our treasure, let's keep going a bit longer," he said.

The rest of the team nodded in agreement. It was still too early to head back, considering the time it would take to return.

They moved forward again, fighting three more battles over the course of about thirty more minutes.

"...A field?" Justin muttered.

At some point, the trees had disappeared, and a wide field stretched before them. The sudden openness of the view made them all pause and look around.

"Hey, look over there. There's something," Derek said, pointing towards one side of the field.

There was a humanoid silhouette, similar to a hobgoblin. But from its hunched posture and the strange amount of hair covering its body, it was clearly not human.

Justin narrowed his eyes, focusing on the distant figure. "A gnoll."

"A gnoll?" Nathan asked, confused.

"A hyena-like bipedal creature. It doesn't have much in the way of weapons, but it's bigger and stronger than a hobgoblin," Justin explained.

Despite moving with a hunch, the gnoll was nearly as tall as a human. Its bulk was comparable to an adult male, suggesting that its physical strength was even greater.

Standing beside Justin, Cooper observed the gnoll and muttered, "This must be the border. The forest is where hobgoblins live, and starting from this field, it's the gnolls' territory."

Thinking about this made Justin smile. Just earlier, he'd thought about taking things one step at a time, yet here they were making rapid progress.

'Not that that's a bad thing, of course.'

Nathan, who was catching his breath while sitting on the ground, blinked up at Justin. "Brother, is something good happening? Why are you smiling?"

"We collected a lot of mana stones today. That's why I'm happy," Justin said.

"Oh, mana stones," Nathan nodded.

The rest of the team brightened at Justin's response. They had gathered as many as 48 mana stones today—a remarkable result for their first team activity.

"Do you think we could gather over 50 tomorrow?" Nathan asked.

"Probably. Today we were a bit slow since we were getting used to working together," Justin replied.

"If we keep going like this, one person will complete the quest each day," Cooper noted.

"If we're lucky, all four of us could complete it within three days. Once one of us gets the automatic collection skill, Nathan won't need to do the collecting anymore," Justin added.

"Then I can join the combat team too?" Nathan asked eagerly.

"Of course. But we need to decide what class you'll take," Justin replied.

As they discussed their impressive progress, the mood was light and excited.

"Nathan!" someone suddenly called out.

A man came running towards them from a distance, and Nathan's face turned pale as he recognized him.

"B-brother!" Nathan stammered.

"Where have you been!? Mom and Dad are on the verge of collapsing looking for you!" his brother shouted.

"Well, I..."

"Wait a second. What's that on your hands? Blood!?"