Chapter 79: Gift with Every Unboxing

Siloque drew his Greatsword, gripping it with both hands across his chest.

“Dimension Rift!”

He swung down.

This move could easily slice open a subspace, creating a spatial rift that sucked in everything around it.

Siloque held his pose after the swing.

Silence.

He heard the rustling of grass in the wind, and from the corner of his eye, he could see his sister’s expectant gaze.

Unfortunately, aside from slicing through carbon dioxide, there was no other reaction.

A bit awkward…

So Siloque changed his stance.

“Hah!”

He jumped vertically, twisting his body in midair, channeling power into his weapon.

As he landed, the stored energy should have exploded into a deep crimson light, swirling like a tornado—

But nothing happened.

Attack angle—360°, powerful area attack skill .

Siloque landed, both feet pressing into the soft, resilient turf.

Still quiet.

Hill clapped lightly, finding it amusing.

If Siloque hadn’t been testing skills, his earlier moves could have earned high scores in figure skating.

“Destruction Meteor Sword Rain!”

“Frozen World.”

“Golden Death Curse.”

“Tralk’s Lava!”

…All produced no effect.

“Pure black…”

Forget it, no need to try this one.

As Siloque finished his pose, the gathered magic reached a critical point. His muscles tensed with a surge of neural energy.

He barely managed to cut off the casting process, nearly firing it off by accident.

“Ugh…”

The aftereffects of forcibly stopping the spell left him feeling uncomfortable.

Siloque simply gave up and flopped onto the grass, limbs spread wide.

“Hill, there’s no need to activate your talent. The test is over.”

“Eh? Already? That was fast, big brother.”

Tsk.

Siloque turned his head, clicking his tongue in resignation.

Hill emerged from her hiding spot, pulled out a Potion to recover MP from her bracelet, and drank it.

Maintaining her talent had drained quite a bit of blue energy.

She squatted next to Siloque, poking his soft cheeks playfully.

From this angle, Hill’s plump thighs filled his view, causing his slightly gloomy mood to waver.

“If you want to laugh, go ahead. It’s true, I can’t unleash any powerful skills.”

“Not at all! Watching big brother jump around was a lot of fun for Hill!”

…So Hill was just enjoying the show the whole time…

Now I can completely give up the idea of using second-cycle skills.

One less card in my hand.

The principle is unclear, but the only one I can use is .

Given my and Hill’s situation, I need to think about synergy.

Our talents—mine is lifestyle-based, Hill’s leans toward defense…

She developed an enchantment method to harden her fists, but it’s still mainly defensive.

Skill-wise, both of us are defense-oriented.

Hill hasn’t learned any skills.

Currently, I have three skill slots.

One is , another is hidden, and the last one, unlocked after leveling up, is still empty.

“Hill, what time is it now?”

“Mm?… 1:32.”

“Afternoon, huh. Are you tired? We can end today’s exploration here if you want.”

“No, Hill thinks it’s really fun, just like playing a game.”

Well, I can tell from how cheerful you look.

“Our skills are both defense-focused. I want to go somewhere and get an attack-type skill. It’s still on the first floor…”

“Let’s go together, big brother! Hill isn’t tired at all, hehe…”

Hill played with her slightly long bangs, twisting her smooth hair into different shapes.

“Alright, let’s go get that skill, and wrap up before dinner.”

Siloque gathered himself and sprang to his feet.

The journey so far had been smooth.

That’s because I put all my gaming knowledge to use and prepared as best I could.

But deciding to go get that skill would lead me into the “worst” possible scenario.

***

The skill is called .

Its initial power is low, and the magic’s range is short.

But its advantages are rapid firing, wide coverage, low mana cost, and it even deals percentage-based HP damage.

Don’t be fooled by the mere 1% Poison Flame damage over 10 minutes.

Once hit, the target suffers debuffs like slowed movement and pain.

As the LV rises, this percentage damage stacks higher, making it a decent attack skill up to three layers.

Letting Hill equip this skill would let her debuff enemies—making close combat much safer for her.

The skill was located in the Fass Mountain Corridor of the first floor’s C Zone, in a chamber behind a cluster of toad archers.

Siloque thought someone might have already taken the skill, but he wasn’t hopeful.

Before the day of the Caas Duel, he could still take his sister to wander the first floor, searching for better skills.

As for Hill’s weapon.

Since she genuinely seemed to love the feeling of punching, he decided to let her use the Tower Shield and Silver Fist Gauntlet they bought earlier.

“Big brother, look at that! A square thing!”

Crossing a patch of hills, three Treasure Chests came into view.

Three unlocked Treasure Chests lay quietly in the underbrush. If sunlight hadn’t reflected off the metallic trim, they would have been hard to spot.

Hill was about to approach, but remembered her brother’s advice, picked up a stone, and threw it.

Then she quietly released magic, probing for a response—nothing.

She looked at Siloque.

“Big brother, there are three Treasure Chests in front of us.”

“So?”

“You mentioned before, about the correct way to open a chest.”

Honestly, Siloque didn’t want to touch these Treasure Chests.

Chance of god-tier loot: 0.5%.

Junk: 50%.

Normal items: 40%.

Monster girls: 2%.

Mimic monsters: 5.5%.

Traps of unknown effect: 2%.

From the trauma of opening a wild Treasure Chest during his first cycle and causing the party to enter a half-HP debuff state—unless the party had , he would never touch an unknown wild chest.

He was scared, to say the least.

Wild chests could have good items, sometimes even end-game gear.

He understood Hill’s curiosity.

Just as the Undead are drawn to light, any explorer seeing a Treasure Chest would be curious about its contents.

It’s a matter of human nature.

Having is nice, but that only lets you see what’s inside—unless you have to spot traps.

Most importantly, his sister’s expectant gaze made Siloque’s heart ache. He began to miss that [Thief] Vis…

“Hill, I’ll open it this once. If you don’t have a trap-disarming skill, never touch chests again.”

Hill nodded eagerly, unable to wait.

Oh well.

The trap chance is only 2%.

The rest can be handled.

I can’t be that unlucky.

What if something really good comes out?

The gambler’s mentality reared up, but Siloque was determined—this was the only time.

He drew his Greatsword.

“Hoaaah!!”

He slashed wildly at the three Treasure Chests.

No screams from the boxes, so they weren’t monster girls or mimics.

Then, using a small knife from the Ring Chart, he carefully pried open a crack in the chest…

“Big brother, you look like a thief.”

“….”

Seeing Siloque silent, cautiously working as if defusing a bomb, Hill wisely kept her mouth shut.

“Whew. All clear.”

Peeking through the crack, he confirmed the contents—no hidden mechanisms or traps.

He opened the chest.

Inside was Rusty Armor and a moss-covered Knight’s Sword.

Decent for selling.

After checking, Siloque stored them in the Ring Chart, and told Hill:

“Alright, let’s leave.”

“Eh? Not opening the other two? Hill wanted to try…”

“…Fine, just one more.”

Hill, excited, tried to mimic Siloque’s cautious method, prying the box open slowly and seriously.

A Paper Scrap came out.

“Hill… what bad luck.”

She stood up, disappointed.

Nothing happened. Siloque breathed a sigh of relief.

Hill gazed longingly at the final chest.

This time, no matter what you say, I won’t let you open it.

Before he could speak, Hill responded—

“Let’s go, big brother. Hill won’t trouble you.”

“Oh, oh.”

“Hehe, more than opening chests, Hill actually wanted to see big brother in action. That was enough for me.”

She was surprisingly thoughtful.

Siloque gave a bitter smile, relieved he hadn’t fallen for his sister’s cunning and opened the last box.

Fwoosh—

“!?”

Brown-white smoke puffed from the chest he’d just opened.

Crap! This reaction—

“?”

Before Hill could see, Siloque, faster on his feet, scooped her up and started running.

But it was too late.

In a blink, their surroundings changed.

He smelled plant air rich in negative ions—the hills had turned into a forest.

“Eh? Eh? What happened? Big brother, why are you suddenly holding me?!”

Hill, flushed and confused, squirmed in his arms.

“A Transfer Trap… and a delayed one at that.”

Hill looked around, seeming to understand the situation.

When Siloque set her down, she looked guilty.

“I’m sorry, big brother. If I’d known about the trap, I wouldn’t have touched it.”

“It’s fine. Today was your first exploration—mistakes happen. Now that it’s done, don’t dwell on it. The important thing is finding a way out.”

Siloque patted her shoulder, not wanting to mess up her hair.

“Besides, I was also a little curious. Big brother shares the blame.”

“Big brother…”

Blame whoever designed that chest for having a hole in their brain.

Thankfully, it was only a Transfer Trap.

Not a long-lasting debuff. Otherwise, they’d be stuck in the hospital or need a [Priest].

“Curiosity killed the cat—Hill understands now.”

Hill teared up, cat face.jpg, mentally jotting this lesson in her notebook.

Having gone through this, she’d surely remember the developers’ malice—a valuable experience.

“Speaking of which…”

Hill stared ahead.

“Big brother, it’s so quiet here. Even quieter than my exam classroom… not a single monster in sight.”

Indeed.

It was so silent you could only hear your own breathing.

Even the ground lacked a single insect.

Siloque had assumed it was a normal Transfer Trap, sending them somewhere on the first floor at worst.

But when he checked the Ring Chart, the first message was a warning—

Detected Barrier.

Transfer unavailable—Signal: 0.

Siloque’s heart sank.

He looked up.

Through the gaps in the forest canopy, he could faintly see a castle-like structure.

“No way…”

His throat went dry.

The presence of that building confirmed his suspicion.

“Big brother? Your face is pale. Did you eat something bad?”

Siloque knew where they were.

Not a 2% trap.

A 5% refresh rate—a mid-to-late-game map.

Developer malice.

This place didn’t belong to any area of the first floor.

It was an Independent Map generated on the second floor.