Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

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.

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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."

"So this is where the difficulty increases," Justin noted.

"And where the experience and rewards will also be better," Cooper added.

Their conversation ended, and silence briefly followed. Should they head back or continue exploring?

It didn't take long to come to a decision.

"Let's head back. Maybe if we were all level 10 or higher, but it's still too risky now," Justin decided.

"I agree. This isn't a game anymore," Cooper said.

If this were a game, they would have gone to scout without a second thought. Even if the enemies were stronger than expected, it would have just meant losing about half their health. But this was real life. A severe injury could be a major problem.

'Even if we could heal it, the fear it would cause might linger. It's best to wait until we're at a level where we can defeat them without injury.'

With that decision made, they retreated from the field where the gnolls roamed. It was a bit disappointing, but knowing the boundary of the monsters' territory was already a significant gain. Once they leveled up, they would know where to hunt next.

Justin led his teammates back into the forest to look for more hobgoblins. For now, the priority wasn't future hunting grounds but completing the quest at hand.

"Phew, I'm exhausted," Derek said.

"Finally, we get a break," Cooper added.

About two hours later, Justin and his tired team members returned to the safe zone. Although not much time had passed, the frequency of battles had worn them out. Constant vigilance took its toll.

'But at least all the effort was worth it,' Justin thought.

During their hunting, Cooper had finally reached level 10. Unfortunately, he didn't receive any new skills, but something even better happened—his valuable healing skill, "Minor Healing," evolved into "Intermediate Healing."

Cooper was ecstatic when he saw the improved skill.

Now I can heal almost anything!

The skill description mentioned that it could even mend broken bones and severed muscles. With his firepower doubled by Dual Enhancement and his healing abilities much stronger, Justin felt more prepared than ever.

'Once Nathan reaches level 3, we can move on to hunting gnolls.'

Speaking of Nathan, he had also leveled up today, reaching level 2. At this rate, he'd reach level 3 tomorrow if they continued hunting with the same pace. Even in the worst case, he'd reach level 3 the day after tomorrow.

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!?"