“Go cook yourself over there, kid. Stop blocking the way!”

  A large, stout middle-aged man shoved Shouren aside as he made his way to the dungeon’s portal. His armor rattled with every step he took.

  “Kid looks like he took a tour in the oven for his first run.”

  The large man’s party member chortled, noticing the burns on Shouren’s leg and shoulder. The rest of the man’s party trailed behind him and disappeared once he touched the portal, leaving Shouren standing to the side.

  I’m back!

  Shouren exclaimed inwardly. He was finally out of the dungeon and he came out alive. He was glad the dungeon was back in operation and not in the same state as when he first entered it.

  Shouren hoped no one would remember him as the boy who sneaked past the restrictions and jumped in the dungeon. He should find out why the dungeon was restricted on that day in the first place.

  But before that, there was something else he had to do.

  Now that he was out of everyone’s way, the young boy peeked inside his vault and grew giddy at seeing all the cards piled up there. With the extra 5 cards from the dungeon reward, Shouren had close to 30 [Common] cards and 8 [Uncommon] cards.

  It was an impressive haul for his first time in the dungeon. Would others even believe him if he told them how many cards he managed to get in his first run?

  It was all thanks to the Tier 0 - Dimensional Vault [Rare] spell card that he was able to procure these many cards. Shouren wanted to go through all his cards one by one, but there was something else that captivated his attention: the thin scroll in the center of his vault.

  The scroll was the Random Tier 0 Recipe.

  Shouren didn’t want to touch it. The scroll would reveal the random card’s recipe once it was activated, and then the knowledge would be transferred only to that person.

  “Grandma will finally be able to live her dream with this.”

  The young boy smiled warmly. He couldn’t wait till he showed his grandma the scroll and then he’d reveal that he was now a Cardsmith just like her.

  It’s been a week, grandma will be worried sick. I should run.

  Shouren tried to sprint, but soon winced in pain at the burns on his right leg. There was something wrong with the connected nerves there. Now that he was out of the dungeon, he carefully examined the degree of the injury on his leg and shoulder. The lightning had done deeper damage than expected.

  “Need a healing hand, gracious little Cardist? Must have been a dangerous hunt if your party left you here.”

  A sweet and kind voice interrupted Shouren. It was a young nun in her early twenties dressed in pure white robes. Her soft brown eyes looked at Shouren with sympathy as he held out her hand to him. There was a mellow pink glow emanating from her hand.

  “You gonna heal me for free?”

  Shouren narrowed his eyes at the nun. He knew those types of people from the church. They acted all benevolent in the public’s eyes, but didn’t heal a beggar unless they had chronas to afford their services.

  The young nun’s face scrunched up in distaste at the mention of the word ‘free’ and stated in an even tone. “120 chronas for a full heal or 70 chronas for a partial heal. Diseases will cost extra. What do you want?”

  Gone was the kindness in her voice.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  She thought the kid was rich, as only the wealthy would dare to send their Tier 0 child to the dungeon this young with an escort party. The nun speculated the party might have told the child to return for a heal. But from the way the brat talked, he was clearly a local hoodlum.

  “I have 20 chronas. What can you do with that?”

  Shouren balked at the cost of healing and tried to bargain with the nun. Unlike his previous minor cuts and bruises, the lightning had seared deep into his flesh and he desperately needed to take of this before it got worse.

  “I can take that 20 chronas and give you a fist bump. Do I look like I’m begging you for money?”

  The nun snorted and turned around to leave. The kid was messing with her if he thought she’d heal him for a measly 20 chronas. There were always new customers near the dungeon’s entrance that required healing, so she’d wait for them.

  “How about 40 chronas? My cat is dying. Please do this favor for it.”

  Shouren held on to the hem of the nun’s robes and put on a pitiful expression.

  “Am I the cat’s aunt? What does your cat have to do with me? Tell me the cat’s name quick.”

  The nun paused at the absurdity of the kid’s tactics. This kid was trying to scam her, but the young woman saw something else in those hazel irises. A playful glint flashed in her own eyes.

  “Pumpkin. It’s an orange kitty. You have the cat’s name, can I get the discount now?”

  Shouren grinned with an eager voice.

  “Stop trying to pull a fast one on me, brat. There’s no kitty, and you’re not buying a gallon of milk from me. What is with this haggling? Do you know how expensive healing cards are? Go kick some rocks over there with your barbecued foot.”

  The young nun huffed with her arms crossed over her chest.

  “Okay, fine, I have a [Common] card with me I can give you in exchange for a heal.”

  Seeing the nun unwilling to budge, Shouren sighed with lament and pretended to grab a card from the back of his trousers. In reality, he was pulling the card from his vault.

  Tier 0 - Suffuse Aroma [Common]

  Release a burst of honeyed scent into the air, attracting all pollinating insects to the targeted location.

  Cost: 4 lumen per burst.

  This was one of the cards a monster had dropped during his 6 day hunt. He had other more valuable [Common] cards, but he wanted to wait until he got home and checked through them again, along with the new 5 cards he got from the dungeon reward.

  The Suffuse Aroma [Common] spell card should be worth approximately a 100 chronas in the market.

  Shouren didn’t want to let the nun know he had cards worth exactly the same amount as her listed price.

  That would be too suspicious.

  “Hmm, this is a decent card. Should be useful for the Farmer’s Guild, but this won’t be enough for a full heal spell. I can do a partial heal and give you 20 more chronas.”

  The young nun stretched out her hand to grab the card.

  “A full heal. If you don’t want to, I’ll just find someone else from one of the Healers Guild.”

  Shouren smirked and quickly pulled his hand away with the card.

  “Everyone knows the church’s full heal spell is leagues above the guilds’ own spells.”

  The nun returned the boy’s smile, but Shouren saw her wavering.

  “I’m sure they’ll be able to heal these simple burns, though.”

  Shouren dragged his words. He didn’t want to draw the attention of any guilds, but the nun before him didn’t know that.

  “What an annoying kid. You’re lucky I’m feeling generous today. Hand over the card and I’ll use a full heal spell card on you.”

  The young nun said with annoyance, waving her hand before Shouren.

  “You cast a partial heal and I’ll come find you. Don’t try to trick me.”

  Shouren held out the card and his hazel eyes bore into the nun seriously.

  The nun tried to sputter in irritation, but stopped herself after bearing the intense look on the boy.

  Why is he looking at me like he’ll kill me? Is this brat really a kid?

  “You’ll get the full heal as promised. Now, stand still and don’t fight my lumen.”

  The young woman took the card from the boy’s hand and replied in the same serious tone. She was initially curious about the boy as he looked too young to even undergo the awakening, but this wasn’t a wealthy noble’s child. What was he doing alone in the dungeon?

  The nun’s palm glimmered with a mellow pink hue, and then she pressed her hand against Shouren’s chest.

  “Argh.”

  The boy groaned as the nun’s lumen washed over him and hammered into his flesh. This was his first experience with someone else’s lumen. He thought the nun’s lumen would be gentle and silky, but it was the opposite. The pink lumen bulldozed through his muscles, knitting any tears in the fibers and the cracks in the bone.

  There were numerous small injuries piled up within his body that the full heal spell was now scraping over. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t pleasant as well.

  “This will sting a bit. What was the monster that you fought, kid? This is no ordinary wound from a Tier 0 monster?”

  The nun’s eyes widened in astonishment once her lumen passed over the burned areas on the boy. Beads of sweat pooled on her forehead. It was going to cost lots of lumen to repair the flesh around the injury.

  I really got scammed in this deal.

  The young woman cried inside her mind as she sent another reinvigorating wave of lumen to force the dead flesh out and replace it with new flesh.

  Meanwhile, Shouren clenched his teeth hard. This pain was nothing compared to taking the actual lightning attack on his body.

  After several seconds, the nun drew her hand back and gasped out of breath.

  “If I was a bad person, I would have backed out of the deal and returned your card back to you. That had cost me more lumen than I thought. Now, I have to wait until the evening to recover that lumen.”

  The young nun took in a deep breath and stared at Shouren.

  “If you were a good person, you wouldn’t have taken a payment to heal someone in the first place. Have a good day, aunty! My cat is waiting is waiting for me.”

  Shouren bounced a few times on his right leg as his face relaxed at the full recovery. Without giving a chance for the nun to demand more chronas, the boy dashed away.

  “Whose an aunty, you idiot? I’m only 20 years old! 20! Geez, wasn’t his cat dying just a few minutes ago?”

  The young nun yelled at the retreating figure of the boy and chuckled to herself.

  What an interesting kid. I’ll be on the lookout for him when he comes to the dungeon again.

  On the other hand, Shouren was racing through the streets with lumen powering through his recovered legs.

  It was finally time to reunite with his grandma.

  follow, rate, and review the story if you enjoyed it so far :)

  Patreon for more chapters