Chapter 56: The Mask Comes Off

Now that everyone was strong enough, it was time for Raive to strengthen himself even further. And for that, he needed stat-up candies. Lots of them.

"I-I can use it inside the dungeon, I think..." Reinhardt nodded to Raive’s question, looking a bit scared. "Don’t tell me...?"

"Yes."

Raive nodded, a chilling grin spreading across his lips.

"It’d be faster to have you onsite than waiting for a time limit!"

Without saying much else, Raive dragged him into the dungeon and got moving. He only told Reinhardt one thing—not to fight, and not to bother protecting himself.

"Just try to keep up!"

At +100 stats, Reinhardt’s speed was no joke. He could race a sports car with nothing but his own two legs! And yet, even with that, he couldn’t come close to catching Raive’s back.

He ran desperately, chasing the path Raive carved ahead of him.

Even as Raive cut down the flower bed monsters along the way, Reinhardt still couldn’t match his pace.

About a minute later, they finally arrived at the eleventh tile, the boss area. Reinhardt wasn’t tired—even his stamina had gotten a +100—but he still felt the gap between himself and Raive.

’If someone were to win this game of the gods, I’d bet they’re monsters just like him!’ He thought to himself.

"You’re here." Raive said. "Then get ready to use your skill after I kill the boss."

He didn’t say much else. He just walked forward, sword in hand, watching as a figure emerged from the portal in the trunk of the cherry tree.

Reinhardt gasped at the sight.

A monster clad in armor from head to toe. One glance was enough to tell it was a powerful enemy. He’d already braced for a hard-fought battle between it and Raive, but...

SLASH!

In a single move, the Tree Knight’s head was already rolling on the ground.

Reinhardt wasn’t well-versed in swordplay, but even he could tell it hadn’t been as simple as it looked. Thanks to his high stats, he’d caught Raive swing his sword three times, and watched the enemy anticipate the attack twice.

But the third strike came too fast and too unpredictable, and it died without being able to do anything.

It was a feat that could only be pulled off after mastering the Tree Knight’s swordsmanship—a complete understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.

After the loot appeared on top of the boss’s body, Raive turned around and asked.

"Get ready to use your skill now."

That day, Reinhardt ended up using his skill over a hundred times in under five hours. Even the light outside faded, ushering in the dark of night.

Beyond the repeated loot, Raive also got a bit of a surprise.

His assumption that he wasn’t limited to the maximum stats others could reach turned out to be a mistake.

Upon reaching +1000, consuming more candy failed outright. His limit was apparently ten times that of everyone else. He wasn’t sure why, but he accepted it as fact for now.

Other than Raive, the rest performed well in that time too.

Given five hours, they all cleared various dungeons within the regions they were assigned.

Hazel cleared four of them alone—one yellow, two blue, and one green.

Shymine and Hershey cleared a total of seven—three yellow, four blue.

Finally, Therese, Sheila, Kenny, and Patricia managed only three, all yellow.

They were the slowest despite having the most members, but the reason was obvious—two children among them.

Thankfully, none of them suffered permanent injuries, so Raive didn’t need to burn a load going back five hours.

"Then, let’s rest up for today and continue the grind tomorrow!"

Thanks to their dungeon farming, Raive had collected over 4,000 extra stat-up candies, not to mention the hundreds of duplicate equipment pieces that came with the boss drops.

With all this excess, they could raise roughly 40 more members to full strength instantly. But for now, Raive had no plans to do that.

At least, not until after they cleared the second trial.

After dinner, everyone split up to their assigned rooms.

Therese stayed with Hershey in her room. Reinhardt and his family took one room. Hazel and Shymine another. And finally, Raive and Khamish shared the guest room.

It wasn’t cramped, but having a room to themselves was still better.

"Man, who knew you were this strong. Were you hiding your strength back at the green dungeon we first cleared?" Khamish asked, unable to hide his excitement.

After all, if this were an RPG, thanks to Raive’s help, all of them had hit counter-stop practically overnight. Not only were they no longer scared of monsters, they could stand tall against other people, too!

Though someone with a gun would still be a difficult matchup, it wasn’t impossible to handle given the gap in stats.

At their level, the time it took for a hammer to slam into the pin was long enough for them to kill the shooter five times over, depending on the initial distance.

Literally everyone in that room had gone past what a human body could do.

"Well, I wasn’t really hiding it." Raive answered, turning over on the bed. "More like, the more I use my precognition, the stronger I get." He said.

Of course, aside from the fake skill name, what he said wasn’t a lie.

Each time he auto-loaded, his stats and skills carried over, keeping his strength climbing steadily.

Unless he loaded an "old" save, which cut his stats in half instead.

"Anyway, enough about me." Raive changed the topic, turning to Khamish on the makeshift bedding below.

He didn’t want to share a single bed with a guy, after all—and he’d lost the rock-paper-scissors match that decided it.

"I’d rather talk about you." Raive continued. "Specifically, how long are you planning to keep that disguise up in front of everyone else?"

"...!"

The words came out of nowhere, making Khamish freeze in panic.

"W-What do you mean?" He asked, laughing nervously.

Raive sighed, shaking his head. "You know what I mean."

With his stats at +1000, his senses had grown sharp enough to notice things nobody else could. It explained the nagging sense of wrongness he’d felt every time he looked at Khamish, even before.

The fact that Khamish’s face wasn’t his real one.

Raive stared at his face—or rather, at the skin mask he was passing off as his face—and smiled. Khamish went cold all over, as if he’d fallen under the scrutiny of the grim reaper himself. And then.

"...Alright, you win."

Khamish sighed, slipping a finger to the edge of his mask and peeling it off in one go.

He revealed his real face, glared at Raive, and asked.

"There, happy now?"