RD | Chapter 16

Ian didn’t waste travel time either.

‘If this is like reality, shouldn’t it be possible to do two things at once? As soon as he thought of this, he decided to test it out.

“Louise, teach me archery.”

“Me? How dare I teach you, Lord Ian…”

“I should learn from you. It’s better than learning from Sema.”

With Louise standing beside him, Ian began to relearn how to hold a bow.

Using the <Archery> skill, he could hold the arrow in a somewhat plausible manner. The problem was that he didn’t know how to shoot after that.

‘Maybe I can’t shoot because I don’t understand why I have to hold the bow this way?’

Ian wasn’t a top student in school, but he knew about learning principles. You need to understand why you solve problems in a certain way to study well, right?

Archery might be similar. You need to understand why you shoot like this to shoot properly.

Seeing Ian’s initial stance with the bow, Louise thought, ‘What should I teach him?’

Ian was clearly adept at archery. His stance was excellent. Louise felt it was presumptuous for him, just a hunter, to teach a royal who had been trained in archery from childhood.

After Ian shot his first arrow, Louise thought again, ‘…What should I teach him?’

Ian was clueless about the basics of archery. The arrow he shot took a bizarre spin in the air before falling to the ground.

“Oops,” Ian stepped back to dodge the arrow. If he hadn’t, it would have pierced his foot.

‘……’

Louise tried to look at the situation positively.

“Ian, your reflexes are incredibly sharp.”

“Will that help with archery?” Ian asked. Louise pretended not to hear and began his lecture. “First, let me explain why your arrows aren’t flying straight…”

‘Looks like it’s not much help.’ Ian realized.

In the end, Ian’s experiment was successful. Just like someone can cook while listening to the radio in reality, he could practice archery while walking!

Ding!

[The level of the skill <Archery> has increased.]
[Archery LV.1 → LV.2]

“I’ll prepare the rabbit Lord Ian caught.” Louise said.

‘Ian caught the rabbit?’

Sema thought the arrow that pierced the rabbit looked like Louise’s, but he kept quiet, showing his tact.

Of course, even without him saying it, Ian knew.

‘Wow… this really isn’t a broken character.’

His efficiency in training was terrible. He spent days shooting arrows, and his Level 1 skill only went up to Level 2.

Ian thought as he lay down and ate the rabbit Louise had made.

Anyway, he was in a much better situation than his original Ian route. He could practice while walking, which is something that would have necessitated a difficulty patch in a game. Practicing while moving is really cheating. The only downside was that the user was Ian, making it feel less like cheating.

Moreover, he had an incredibly powerful card: the combination of playable character stories.

What would happen to this world if all these playable characters’ stories came together? Every player of <Reverse Dungeon> must have wondered this at least once. The world’s crisis would accelerate, more tragedies would occur. Struggling to survive in a crumbling world, how exciting!

…With these thoughts, Ian pulled the blanket over himself.

‘No, no, it’s not like that.’

More playable routes mean more paths to clear the game, right? Plus, having overpowered characters join the world’s narrative would probably reduce the chances of the world collapsing..

Some characters might even clear the game for you. Like Keith, who could defeat the Demon King single-handedly if well-developed late in the game.

Ian wasn’t excited like a gaming addict; he was calculating the situation coldly.

Or so he told himself.

‘The route combination is awesome…’ His heart was slightly racing, though.

Looking at the stars filling the night sky, Ian exhaled lightly.

‘Can I go home if I kill the Demon King?’

He had no intention of killing the Demon King himself. He didn’t like getting hurt. Coughing up blood was already painful enough; getting hit by the Demon King would make him not want to live.

The best scenario was for someone else to grow strong enough to kill the Demon King while he concentrated on building up the dungeon and playing defense games.

Ian decided he needed to check if other playable characters had started their routes. One should be prepared for when this world might end, shouldn’t they?

If growth was too slow, he might need to help with that…

He took Louise along not just because he was strong, but also to share experience points with him.

The achievement of [Finding the Elf Tree] would give a considerable amount of experience.

Anyway, while diligently practicing archery, Ian arrived at the Elf Village.

The village was in ruins. The once glorious civilization had crumbled, leaving only traces behind.

‘As expected.’ Ian touched a half-collapsed marble column.

The rebuilding of this village would only happen in the late game if you played the playable Elf character route.

Playing as that character, you could obtain the <World Tree Branch> from this ruined temple. Ian came here for that.

‘And while at it, borrow some seeds the elves stored…’

“Is this really the place, Ian? It doesn’t look like a place where we can borrow seeds!” Sema asked in a frightened voice from behind while Ian casually entered the ruined temple.

“Yeah, it is.”

“But, Ian, even if it’s an Elf temple, it’s still a temple. Isn’t it wrong for us to just barge in like this…?”

“It’s fine.”

“……”

Sema had nothing more to say.

“If there’s a curse, I’ll take it instead. Don’t worry, Lord Ian.” Louise said loyally.

“We won’t be cursed. What temple curses those who enter?”

“It looks like it would curse us…” Sema muttered.

In any case, since Ian was leading the way, there was no way they wouldn’t follow.

As if escorting him, they positioned themselves on either side of Ian, stepping into the depths of the temple, disappearing into the darkness.

Ian looked at the dust-covered floor and the cobweb-laden ceiling.

‘Wasn’t it like this even when the Elf character came in?’

He didn’t know how far the Elf route had progressed. But then, he heard strange sounds.

Click, click!

Sounds of something hard clashing together. And the sound of something like leather dragging on the floor.

These sounds were coming from outside.

“Lord Ian!” Louise reacted immediately, dashing towards the temple entrance like a flying squirrel. “Come this way! You need to get out!”

Ian was looking at something else.

Part of the ceiling had collapsed, revealing the sky, and through that, dark clouds were gathering. Anyone could tell that those clouds foretold something bad would happen upon arrival. And Ian knew exactly what that bad thing was…

He touched his forehead.

‘Why is this happening now…?’

It wasn’t a curse like Sema’s nonsense. But this temple did have defenses against intruders. However, Ian had already touched ‘something’ that would prevent those defenses from activating.

The fallen column.

Originally, there was a statue of the temple’s goddess on it. The setting was that by placing your hands there and praying, you wouldn’t incur the wrath of the Elf Goddess…

‘I prayed!’

The system window clearly appeared.

[Would you like to pray?]

He definitely clicked [Yes].

‘Are you kidding me?’

Ian gritted his teeth and grabbed Sema by the back of the neck.

“Run!”

“Aaaaaah!”

Sema ran without understanding why. But the entrance was already surrounded. A horde of skeletons, accompanied by the clouds, blocked their way.

These skeletons looked slightly different from those made from human corpses. Their attire was unique too. These were skeletons made from the bodies of elves.

The master of this temple was the goddess of death.

These skeletons were priests who served the goddess even in death.

‘Damn this…’

Click, click!

Clack, clack…

The weapons they held made strange sounds as they hit their bones. There was the smell of rotting old flesh and odd dust. The oppressive feeling from hundreds of skeletons was indescribable.

“Lord Ian, get out first! I’ll make a path!” Louise drew his arrow.

“I, I will too…!” Sema gripped his staff with both hands. A <Water Ball> failed from his staff.

Boom!

‘Useless…’

Here, only Louise was combat-effective. However, the number he could handle would be around several tens, and not all at once. That was the estimated number he could take down before being overwhelmed.

‘Bad matchup.’

Skeletons are bones.

Arrows wouldn’t work well, and they were completely immune to poison. This was a totally different issue from the <Deadly Poison> skill’s specialty.

In the end, Ian also drew his bow.

“Make way!”

No choice then. Ian and Louise began shooting arrows in the same direction.