This Is Called Disassembly, Not Eating

Linden had said he wanted to search this floor carefully for a suitable acceleration skill.

But what he wanted was a monster that could reliably provide a fixed skill. Sending Scout Puji out this time had also been meant to scout out the situation in Gnoll Forest.

He had not expected that before encountering any Gnolls, he would first find this—

A dead human.

More precisely, a human Mage who had only just died, whose blood had not even coagulated yet.

Although Linden could not see a dead person's Panel, the standard Mage attire was easy enough to recognize.

He had clearly fled from the forest while badly wounded, leaving a long trail of blood behind him.

Unfortunately, he had collapsed on the spot from excessive blood loss just as he escaped. By the time Linden found him, he was no longer breathing.

Human Adventurers generally traveled in groups. Looking at his condition, he had either been separated from his companions or his entire party had been wiped out inside.

Life was hard for low-level Adventurers. They risked their lives just to make a living.

According to Inanna, resurrection existed in this world.

But to Linden, this so-called resurrection was more like summoning a soul back from the dead.

First, the body had to be perfectly restored through various means. Then, one had to pay an enormous amount of rare resources that could make an entire nation ache, before finally performing a ritual to call a heroic figure's soul back into their body and complete the resurrection.

Under normal circumstances, no one would organize a resurrection ritual. In fact, no resurrection had occurred for more than a century.

Ordinary people might even consider it nothing more than a legend. Only someone like Inanna, with a Duke for a father, could know so much about it.

Even that simple explanation made it clear that this had nothing to do with ordinary Adventurers, or even nobles. Only truly legendary beings had a chance to experience it.

In short, unlike the games and anime from his previous life where death was treated like a joke, death in this world meant real death.

Linden casually searched through the unlucky Mage's shoulder bag.

A small metal plate bearing a Mage's portrait and other information. An identification card?

A small booklet filled with notes he could not understand, a half-full bottle of yellow potion, and some coins and gathered plants.

Together with the staff beside him, embedded with a C-Rank Magic Crystal, that was the Mage's entire inheritance.

The Mage robe he wore should have been valuable too, but nearly half of it had been burned away. The rest was tattered, barely any different from strips of cloth, and clearly worthless.

Rustling sounds came from the forest as several hunched Gnolls emerged, carrying wooden bows or swords and shields.

In particular, the sword and shield stained with blood yet obviously well maintained looked completely out of place with the Gnoll's trash-like clothing.

Had it just stripped that equipment off the Mage's companion's corpse?

So he had not successfully escaped after all. The Gnolls had deliberately allowed their badly wounded prey to exhaust the last of his strength resisting while he fled?

Their intelligence was certainly not low.

The Gnolls noticed Scout Puji beside the corpse as well. After exchanging glances, they actually began laughing in a very human-like manner.

The Gnoll carrying the sword and shield even put them away and walked over.

It seemed it did not want to finish Puji off quickly, but intended to play with it for a while.

The Gnoll grinned viciously and reached its bloodstained claw toward Puji, but it failed to touch it—its entire claw vanished without a trace.

"Graaaooo—"

The pained howl did not last long before another Mushroom Cannon blast blew the best-equipped Gnoll's head to pieces.

The remaining three Gnolls hurriedly tightened their grips on their weapons and looked toward where the attack had come from.

Seven strange Pujis they had never seen before!

As the Pujis launched another attack, the Gnolls scattered behind large trees and returned fire with their wooden bows.

Linden had summoned the Pujis over to carry things away as soon as he found the Mage's corpse. He just had not expected to fight these Gnolls as well.

Fine. It was a good chance to test the power of the new Pujis.

Two Pujis curled into balls and rolled swiftly toward the forest, quickly locating the Gnolls hiding within.

[Self-Destruct LV3]

With a thunderous boom, two Gnolls with missing arms and broken legs were blasted out.

The last Gnoll, which had hidden the farthest away, saw this and fled in terror, tossing away its weapon as it ran desperately into the forest. Linden could not be bothered to chase it.

Linden was quite satisfied with the new Self-Destruct Pujis' results.

As a suicidal skill that killed the user before the enemy, Self-Destruct was quite powerful even at only LV3.

More importantly, it could be used together with Rolling Charge. The old Self-Destruct required mana to overload a Magic Crystal, making it impossible to complete during a Charge.

Now that it had been replaced with the Self-Destruct skill, it was much easier to use.

The two blasted Gnolls were severely wounded but had not died on the spot. They lay on the ground now, letting out pitiful whimpers toward the Pujis.

What did that mean? Begging for mercy?

Even if they survived with those ruined bodies, what then?

Gnolls did not look like a race that would care for the old, weak, sick, or disabled. Returning like that would not end well for them either.

Linden was kindhearted and could not bear to see such a miserable sight, so he immediately put them out of their misery.

Afterward, the Pujis gathered up the items and corpses and carried them toward the Swamp Zone.

[Seven Sins: Greed activated]

[Plundered skill: Precision LV4→LV5]

[Plundered skill: Archery Mastery LV1]

[Plundered skill: Wind Magic LV1]

[Plundered skill: Common Human Tongue LV1]

The first two had come from the Gnolls, while the latter two had come from the Mage.

Although he had not found an acceleration skill, he had gained something at least.

Archery was useless to Linden, but Precision had much greater practical value and could be used with Mushroom Cannon.

Wind Magic looked promising, but he still lacked a skill called Mana Manipulation. Without it, he could not precisely control mana to form spells, so this skill could only be set aside for now.

What surprised Linden the most was that language could actually be obtained this way!?

That was quite an unexpected delight.

But he had clearly never seen the Common Human Tongue skill on other Adventurers' Panels. He had, however, seen Ancient Elvish LV2 on Inanna's.

Did native languages not display?

Come to think of it, Gnolls should be able to communicate too, so why had none of them provided a language skill?

Had he simply failed to draw one, or did their language system not count as a skill because it was incomplete?

Unable to figure it out, Linden decided that he should be able to read human writing now, at least.

Excitedly pulling out the little booklet, Linden immediately got a taste of what it felt like to be illiterate.

Out of a long string of words, he could only recognize two or three...

Damn it, I still can't read it!

Would he have to reach LV10 before he could fully understand all written words?

Even now, his highest-level skill was only LV7.

Forget it. It was an unexpected gain anyway. Maybe if he kept picking up corpses in the Dungeon, it would eventually max out. There was no rush.

He still had not accomplished his goal of finding an acceleration skill. He would check the other side tomorrow.