A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 31: No Rest

Leo studied the clearing in silence, his eyes scanning everything, ’no matter how much I try to make sense of it, the damage was clearly not done by her, not in that short time span at least,’ he thought, turning his attention back to Raniel.

’Did she find the person but let them go? Could it be someone she knows?’ He clicked his tongue, very annoyed at the situation but there was nothing he could do right now.

"Whatever," he said, deactivating his aura and turning to walk back, "we have a dungeon to clear, stop standing around and do your job."

After he left, Raniel let out a long breath, leaning on her knees, "haha..." she laughed nervously, "the bastard may be annoying, but he is still a B-Rank," she said, rubbing the back of her neck, "felt like I was going to pass out."

She looked back in the direction Shu ran and started heading back to her team, "you owe me big time for this mystery man, I will make sure we go on that mission together," she looked back one last time, "if you survive that is."

We cut over to Shu sitting on a branch high above the ground with one arm wrapped around the trunk while he forced his breathing to settle. The leaves around him were dark red and dense enough to hide his body properly, which was probably the only reason he still had a little peace right now.

"Haaa..." he let out a long breath and dragged one hand over his face. "That could have gone very badly."

He leaned his head back against the bark and stared through a gap in the leaves, still feeling the last bit of tension clinging to his shoulders.

Getting spotted by Raniel had already been annoying enough, and if more guild hunters caught sight of him, then explaining why he was inside the dungeon ahead of the strike team would have turned into a whole different mess.

’Illegal entry into a guild operation,’ he thought, rubbing the side of his neck. ’Yeah, that sounds exactly like the kind of stupid problem I do not need right now.’

The guild would not care that he had his own reasons or that the system shoved the mission onto him first. As far as they were concerned, he was an F-Rank nobody who sneaked past a secured perimeter and jumped into a mid-rank corrupted dungeon alone. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

’Best case, they drag me out and ban me from the place,’ he thought, his mouth twisting a little. ’Worst case, they start asking where I came from, how I got in, and why I showed up where I should not be.’

That second part was what really bothered him.

Raniel seeing him was already annoying enough, and if more guild hunters caught sight of him, then future headaches were basically guaranteed.

’No thanks,’ he thought, folding one leg over the branch. ’I already have enough nonsense in my life without adding guild politics to the list.’

His eyes drifted to the system after that, mostly out of habit.

[Objective: Clear the Crimson Forest (43/150)]

He froze for a second, then blinked and read it again.

"Forty-three?" he muttered, leaning closer to the window. "Since when?"

The last time he checked, the count was still in the single digits. Even adding the Bloodwood Hounds from earlier and the things he had fought while running deeper into the forest, there was no way it should have climbed this high from his own actions alone.

His brows slowly lifted, ’hold on,’ he thought, glancing from the counter to the direction of the clearing. ’Don’t tell me...’

Another notification popped up almost right away.

[Objective: Clear the Crimson Forest (44/150)]

He stared at the number and then looked down through the branches again, his face going blank for a second before a grin started tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"No way," he whispered.

He stayed quiet after that and watched the counter for a little longer, long enough for it to tick up again.

[Objective: Clear the Crimson Forest (45/150)]

That confirmed it.

He did not need to land the final blow himself. As long as the monsters inside this dungeon died while he was in here, the mission counted them anyway.

For a few seconds, he just sat there in the tree with the same look on his face, because the realization was so stupidly good that his brain needed time to catch up.

’This scam system really has no shame,’ he thought, looking back at the objective. ’It throws me into a mid-rank dungeon I have no business entering, then quietly forgets to mention that other people can do the killing for me.’

The counter jumped again while he was still staring at it.

[Objective: Clear the Crimson Forest (46/150)]

He covered his mouth with one hand to stop himself from laughing too loudly.

’So that is how it works,’ he thought, shoulders loosening for the first time since entering the dungeon. ’As long as I stay inside, the mission keeps moving no matter who does the actual work.’

That changed things a lot.

He still needed to be careful, sitting around too long in a corrupted forest full of monsters was a good way to die stupidly, but suddenly this whole mission looked far less miserable than before.

He did not need to solo one hundred and fifty monsters in some heroic grind.

He just needed to avoid getting caught, avoid getting killed, and let the guild do part of the suffering for him.

’Now this,’ he thought, settling back against the trunk with a much more satisfied expression, ’this is the kind of loophole I can respect.’

He pulled up the mission window one more time and watched the number sitting there in the forties.

"Beautiful," he murmured.

The only question now was what he should do with the time that bought him. Part of him wanted to stay right where he was, hidden in the tree, and rest a little longer since his body was still carrying the fatigue from yesterday and the damage from earlier.

Sadly, wanting to rest and being allowed to rest were not the same thing in this world.

’If I really want to get stronger, then I still need to hunt,’ he thought, letting his head bump lightly against the trunk. ’Haaa, this is so annoying. I am tired, my body hurts, and now the smart choice is to go fight more monsters anyway.’

He looked down at the mission counter again and clicked his tongue softly.

’Fine,’ he thought, pushing himself up on the branch. ’I will rest once I stop being weak enough for everything to feel life-threatening.’