I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 41

Cha Jin-Hyeok almost stabbed her the moment he saw her face. If she was at a higher Level, she would have read his movement, but luckily she did not seem to notice anything amiss.

“I see that you have a Thief Job.”

“You can see that?”

Her Player name was Angel Girl, but he already knew her real name. Song Ha-Young and Jin-Hyeok had a pretty bad history.

Back in his previous life, he was once assigned the task of escorting the corpses of monsters that the government had acquired. At the time, a number of thief-class Players were targeting the convoy, and one of them was Angel Girl. In that timeline, she was a major Player in Korea.

It was almost impossible to find a ranker who had not been attacked by her.

Fortunately, Jin-Hyeok had never been attacked by her, but on that day, that was about to change.

Jin-Hyeok honestly did not even know when she stole it. On the spot where the monsters’ corpses lay, there was a note with Angel Girl’s signature note saying, ‘I gotchu~’.

‘Should I just kill her now?’

Because of her, he was criticized so much by the public. The media wrote articles about how they were the NSS Players who got played by Thieves, and they became the butt of many jokes.

‘Even just thinking about it makes my blood boil.’

In Jin-Hyeok’s defense, convoying was not his strong suit, and he even asked the government to recruit some excellent thief-class Players if he were the one doing the job. He was rebuffed, of course, because the government did not want to recruit Thieves for their state work. Those higher-ups did not recognize the Thief Job as a real Job.

In this world, there was no one who was a jack of all trades. If Jin-Hyeok fought with a sword, he could beat them every time, but he could not beat Thieves in their field.

He did not have what it took to thwart their tricks. It would be easier just to kill them.

“Excuse me? You did not just fall in love with me right?”

“......”

Jin-Hyeok suddenly had the urge to punch her. However, she looked like she could die from just a single punch.

She was short and skinny, and her hair was dyed a fiery yellow color.

‘Just from the looks, she looks pretty cute. So cute that I want to punch her in the fa—No… I shouldn’t do that…’

“What’s the advantage of raiding with a thief-class Player?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

The thief-class Players were not particularly favored in raids. There were not many instances where the abilities of a Thief were required in raids.

“Are you saying I’m weak? Thieves are just as strong. I’m also at a very high Level!”

“...Well, if you say so.”

She was not wrong. She was still in the low-Level area, so she should be able to pull her weight.

Something interesting caught his Broadcaster’s Truesight.

[Player Angel Girl had used the Skill 「Search for Goods」.]

The information was much more detailed and specific than when Lilia, the Succubus, used her Skill. She was much weaker than Lilia, so he thought that was the reason why.

It was even underlined.

[Search for Goods]

[Allows the caster to peek inside anything in the form of storage, including the opponent’s inventory.

*However, in the case of inventory, the caster must be at a higher Level than the opponent.

*For jewelry and other valuable items, the Skill, Search of Goods, is maximized. (The caster can look through the inventory of a Player with up to +10 Levels of the caster.)]

Lately, Jin-Hyeok had been thinking about how special his Broadcaster's Truesight was.

‘I don’t remember the Search for Goods Skill to be this good.’

Then he saw Angel Girl giggling. It was for a very brief moment, but he clearly saw it.

‘She must have seen the gold bars in my inventory.’

She was probably thinking about stealing them.

He could see all of her Skills. In addition to Search for Goods, she also had the Skill, Touch of the Great Rogue.

He could also see what she was currently thinking about.

[#How much is that? #GIve me some of that gold. #Many thanks♡.]

She seemed pretty serious about stealing. She even put a heart at the end.

“Okay. Let’s raid together. It’ll be nice to have more Players. Do you guys agree?”

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Before the big raid, Jin-Hyeok decided to give a very sensible warning.

“Just in case,” Jin-Hyeok said, “don’t take this the wrong way.”

“Yeah, you can tell me.”

“You better not be stealing our stuff.”

Angel Girl was startled, but she immediately smiled.

“What do you mean? Are you discriminating against Thieves?”

“...”

“As long as we are working together, I would never do something like that. Isn’t that right, guys?”

Angel Girl looked around at her party members. Her teammates nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Okay. Well, I am relieved to hear you say that.”

It would be a terrible mistake on Angel Girl’s part if she actually tried to steal their things. Her Skill, Touch of the Great Rogue, was a high-risk, high-return Skill. The perk of successfully stealing was that she would get nearly twice as much loot, but she also took nearly twice as much damage if she failed.

To be precise, she would have to pay the person she was stealing from twice as much.

‘I think the gold I have is worth about five hundred million won.’

That meant that she would have to pay him about a billion won for a failed Skill. At her current Level, that kind of damage would be disastrous.

“Trust me,” she said.

[#Hey, everyone! #I am now rich! #Wipe the slate clean.]

She smiled in a way that looked cute to others.

“Then, Jae-Hyeon, you enter first.”

Mok Jae-Hyeon took a step forward, looking terrified.

The other party members followed him.

[You have entered the boss room, 「Golden Toad Spawning Grounds」.]

“This looks like a typical boss room. The floor is muddy and I can see a few Horned Toads roaming around, but I don’t think they are much of a threat.”

The Seo sisters hid in their own ways.

“It would be better for the Thieves to hide and wait for now.”

“That’s a good idea.”

As soon as he said this, Angel Girl ducked into hiding as if she had been waiting.

Kim Jeong-Hyeon walked up to Jin-Hyeok and said, “The water… is filling up… little by little.”

“I can see that. The water is filling up.”

The floor was a swamp, but the water was filling up little by little.

“Maybe it’s the kind of room that fills up and you drown after a certain amount of time.”

Jin-Hyeok did not really panic, because he already knew that. The other party members were a little startled, though.

“It’s a boss room, but I do not see any bosses. I feel like I need to fulfill some kind of condition for the boss to appear.”

He looked around with his Broadcaster’s Truesight.

‘Hm?’

[LV1/Golden Toad Egg]

There were Golden Toad Eggs everywhere.

‘Wow~ I can see all this with the Skill?’

The first mission when entering the boss room was to find the Golden Toad Eggs hidden in the room. If there was no good Navigator or Explorer, it would take a long time to find them.

That was what Jin-Hyeok was planning on doing.

‘This is becoming a bit scary.’

His Broadcaster’s Truesight was strangely overpowered. It was a little too good to be true, even for him.

“Luckily, I have found the clue to clear the boss room.”

He instructed the party members to find the Golden Toad Eggs that were hidden all over the place. Since they were now fairly well-coordinated, they did a good job following his instructions.

“Oppa! I found one!”

“Me… me too!”

“I found one too!”

“Hyung! I found three at once!”

The fastest one was Seo Ji-Ah. She did not make a big deal about it like the others, she just came up to Jin-Hyeok and gave him the eggs.

She found seventeen of them.

Including the ones that were clumped together, he estimated the number of eggs to be around three thousand.

“We have found many eggs but nothing is changing. I also see that the eggs have levels.”

That meant that the eggs were also considered monsters.

“I am going to take a stab at it.”

Jin-Hyeok stabbed the Golden Toad Egg with his dagger. It popped like a water balloon.

A lot of green, foul-smelling venom sprayed out, but it was only Level 1 venom.

“My party, what are you doing just standing there?”

They had thousands of eggs to break. The party paused for a moment.

Jin-Hyeok did not know why they were pausing, especially when this was such an easy task.

“Oppa… But I’m just a Healer…”

“It’s only Level 1 venom. You’re going to be fine.”

“I guess you’re right. Haha.”

Cha Jin-Sol closed her eyes and cracked open the toad egg.

Poof!

Poisonous liquid splashed out, but she was still unharmed.

“Ew…”

Jin-Sol held her nose.

“What’s wrong?” Jin-Hyeak asked.

“The smell is so disgusting…”

‘Wow. This is making her nauseous? I am going to have to bring her along to some sewer Dungeons.’

He never even thought about this. The reason the team hesitated had to have been because of the smell.

“Today’s best performer is our beloved Seo Ji-Ah. She is the fastest and has the most dexterous hands. She is showing what a damage dealer can do!”

There was so much green venom splattering that it was hard to see her face. The green venom was in the form of a sticky oil that clung to her body.

Seeing her sister getting praised, Seo Ji-Soo was starting to pick up her pace.

“Ji-Soo promised to show me what she was made of, and she is finally fulfilling that promise.”

Jin-Hyeok felt unnecessarily proud to see them doing so well.

And the Thieves were still in hiding. He glanced over and saw that they were hesitant to do anything.

“Why don’t you guys help us instead of just standing there?”

The Thieves wore disgruntled expressions.

They reluctantly started to break open the eggs. They were much more squeamish than Jin-Hyeok’s party members.

Even Angel Girl ended up throwing up.

‘Well, that’s disgusting.’

“If you’re going to throw up, please go somewhere far away or do it in a plastic bag. Show some manners…”

“Blech!”

“Blarg!”

The Thieves were all vomiting. However, Jin-Hyeok’s party was still doing a great job.

He was a little proud of that. Angel Girl, on the other hand, seemed a bit dissatisfied.

“Hey, why are you standing still?”

“Oh, I’m just a Streamer, and Streamers don’t usually participate in raids.”

“Excuse me? Just a second ago, you were so passiona—Blech!”

She mumbled something, but he decided to just ignore her. He did not even know what she was saying from all that vomiting.

[The condition for spawning the boss monster has been met.]

[The boss monster, 「Angry Golden Horned Toad」, has appeared.]

In the distance, a whirlpool began to form to one side. The mud of the swamp was being sucked into it, and a crimson light leaked out. The boss monster was not even Level 50, but its entrance was very ostentatious.

A toad the size of a bull jumped out.

[LV47/Golden Horned Toad/Skills]

Every time the Golden Horned Toad breathed, a purple smoke-like substance puffed out from its back.

“Hm… I think that smoke is poisonous.”

It was indeed poisonous smoke. It was the kind that got sprayed into the air and became more concentrated over time. At first, it did not affect people, but as the concentration increased, it gradually damaged their lungs.

“Let’s try to fight that thing. Jae-Hyeon will take the lead.”

Jae-Hyeon looked at him with an expression that said, ‘Again?’

However, he obeyed Jin-Hyeok's orders well, so he immediately unleashed his Wood Fortress and approached the Golden Horned Toad.

“It seems like Jae-Hyeon has got the boss monster’s attention. Now it’s time for the Seo sisters to attack.”

The party worked well together. The Seo sisters and Jeong-Hyeon worked together to attack the Golden Horned Toad.

“It seems that its defense is solid and the attacks are not effective. This is a big problem.”

The Golden Horned Toad shot out its long tongue. The tongue split into dozens of prongs and turned into a vine, covering the entirety of the Wood Fortress.

Tss…

Smoke billowed out, dissolving the Wood Fortress little by little.

“Its attack is quite powerful.”

Through the cracks of the Wood Fortress, Jae-Hyeon’s panicked face could be seen.

‘There is no need to panic like that.’

There was no way it could use such a powerful attack twice in a row in a low-Level area with controlled difficulty.

Just then, Ji-Ah stabbed her dagger into the Golden Horned Toad’s back.

Stab!

Green blood splashed out.

“Looks like Ji-Ah’s attack worked. Oh, it seems like the blood is also toxic. She is now slightly burned. I think this might be a crisis.”

It was time to give Choi Gap-Soo a shout-out.

“I have prepared something just in case.”

Jin-Hyeok pulled an item out of his inventory. He lifted the potion bottle to his eye level so that it was clearly visible for the livestream. He covered the back of the vial with his palm so that the name was clearly visible.

[MoneyShower’s Toad Killer]

“I am going to use this. I don’t know how well it will work.”

‘Hm...’

The party looked busy. They were all doing their jobs and did not have time to take the potion from him. He didn’t blame them. Boss monsters were hard to defeat.

“It seems like they don’t have time for me right now. So I am going to attack with the potion.”

He didn’t do it because it looked fun.

He did it out of necessity.