Chapter 11

Theo and Marco’s gazes instantly turned to Blaine. Blaine stared back at them with a calm expression. Marco seemed touched by Blaine’s willingness to help, his face full of gratitude, but Theo was different. A guy who’d been struggling in the Jain Forest just a month ago was now saying he’d help? It was hard to trust that.

Sensing the doubt in Theo’s expression, Blaine quickly added, “I might not be much help in terms of power since my tier is low, but I’m lucky!”

“Lucky?”

Theo turned fully toward Blaine. Anyone else would’ve scoffed and brushed it off, but to Theo, it was a little interesting. After all, he was the kind of guy cursed with terrible luck.

“Yes, usually.”

“How so?”

“Uh? Well… um… you see, I recently went to a sanctuary.”

“?”

Theo and Marco’s eyes widened.

“By chance, I got a Scale of Auteria, so I managed to explore Auteria’s Deep Sea…”

“No way, you got an Eternal?”

Theo cut in urgently, and Blaine slowly nodded. Marco stared back and forth between the two of them, eyes wide as saucers. Having two people with an Eternal standing before him seemed almost unreal.

“Since my tier is low and my gear isn’t that good, I couldn’t last very long. I barely managed to hold out for about two days…”

“Two days? You’re saying you got an Eternal in just two days?”

“Yes, and also this…”

Blaine, looking sheepish under Theo’s astonished glare, revealed the weapon he carried. But Theo couldn’t care less about Blaine’s weapon. An Eternal in two days—who cared about the weapon?

Marco, however, reacted differently. He practically lunged forward and grabbed Blaine’s hand.

“Wait, is this… Via Lactea?!”

Marco’s over-the-top exclamation drew Theo’s eyes to the weapon as well.

“Via Lactea?”

A staff as beautiful as if it contained the Milky Way itself. Via Lactea. A legendary weapon series shaped like a galaxy in miniature.

“You mean… you got this from a sanctuary?”

Marco asked in a daze. Blaine nodded, and Marco muttered in disbelief, “This… actually drops?”

The Via Lactea was part of the legendary weapon series, only craftable by smiths at Tier 3 or higher. No one had ever reported it as a drop, and no one had claimed to bring one back from a sanctuary.

Maybe it was patched recently to drop, or maybe it had always been there with an abysmal probability—either way, Theo began to understand what Blaine meant when he said he was “lucky.”

“And also…”

“Also?” The two of them looked at Blaine in shock. Still wearing his calm face, Blaine raised both hands and revealed two items floating above his palms. One was the pair of wolf ears that had been on his head until moments ago, and the other was just… a plain, ordinary orb.

What the hell, what kind of trash orb is that?

“Did you get those from the sanctuary too?”

Theo leaned in and asked. Blaine’s face flushed red, startled by the sudden closeness, and he quickly stepped back.

“Y-Yeah. The wolf ears have a magic power boost, and the orb has an Auto Spell option.”

“Auto Spell?!”

Marco practically shouted. Theo’s head spun. He’d just thought an Auto Spell Orb was trash?

He pressed a hand to his forehead and chest, taking deep breaths. Blaine, looking worried, asked if he was okay. Theo bit his lip and forced himself to nod. There was no way he could admit he’d mistaken that godlike Auto Spell Orb for garbage.

“Then… what Eternal did you bring back?”

“Oh, a Stone.”

“Stone? You mean an Eternal Stone?”

“Yes.”

For magic users, attribute stones were consumables slotted into staves or orbs. Normally, you could slot two into a weapon. Legendary gear allowed three, Mythical gear four. In Eternal Tale, the attributes were Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness, and Gravity—seven total.

Attribute stones had a set number of uses, and once used up, they had to be replaced. On top of that, their grade mattered; only higher-grade stones gave better damage and longer duration. But an Eternal Stone was different. It granted unlimited use of a single attribute with amplified damage, no limits, no replacements needed.

It was the item every magic user dreamed of.

Theo and Marco stared at Blaine. The Via Lactea staff, the Auto Spell Orb, and now the Eternal Stone. All of them magic-based items. If Blaine was a Hybrid who used magic, then this wasn’t “luck.” This was a miracle.

Both of them swallowed dryly. Marco jabbed Theo’s side, urging him to ask the question they were both dreading. Theo shut his eyes tight, opened them again, and forced himself to ask. He wasn’t the only one afraid of the answer.

“By any chance… are you weapon-based?”

“Ah… actually, I used to be a Hybrid, mixing staff and orb.”

This guy’s insane. A lunatic blessed by luck.

“And when I came out of the sanctuary, I saw this strange tree. I tried gathering from it, and it gave me the Rain-soaked Kallia Wood.”

He’s insane! Completely insane!

Whether or not he understood their inner screams, Blaine shyly tucked his items away like a bashful boy.

Normally, a man who’d drifted through that much insane fortune in just one month would’ve been unbearably envy-inducing, maybe even worthy of hate. But his luck was so absurd it felt untouchable—beyond jealousy, almost awe-inspiring. And with that kind of fortune, wouldn’t he be a massive help in farming items? That thought began to sprout in Theo’s mind.

“By the way, what’s your tier?”

“Ah… 6.”

Theo blinked in surprise. He’d assumed Blaine was Tier 7 or 8 at best, considering he said he wouldn’t be much help. But Tier 6? That wasn’t bad at all.

“It might take a long time… are you really sure you can help us?”

The wolf ears above Blaine’s head perked straight up. His face lit up like a flower blooming.

“Yes! I can help!”

Theo could almost see a big, fluffy tail wagging furiously behind him. Like looking at a giant, overexcited dog. What was with this one-sided goodwill? Could someone really show this much blind affection just because they’d been helped once?

For the little he had given, the return felt too excessive—but Theo decided to accept Blaine’s overwhelming goodwill for once. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to ride along with his so-called luck.

Once decided, action was best taken quickly. Theo, now with Blaine, arrived at the Spiderweb Labyrinth. They waited at the rest area in front of the dungeon for the remaining party members. The only ones who agreed to his sudden request to tackle the Hard Mode were Father and Aslan.

Sitting awkwardly on a tree stump, Theo waited. Blaine kept sneaking glances at him, hesitated, then finally asked, “Um… can I add you as a friend?”

“Huh? Oh.”

There was no reason to refuse. Theo sent Blaine a friend request first, and Blaine fumbled in a fluster to accept it. He might have tried to act calm, but his flushed cheeks and the way he couldn’t keep his hips from bouncing gave away just how thrilled he was.

Since they were now friends, Theo decided to peek at Blaine’s info window. And that was when he noticed something unexpected.

“You haven’t joined a guild since then?”

Blaine didn’t belong to any group.

“What? Ah… I tried, but… it didn’t really work out.”

“Didn’t work out?”

What did he mean it didn’t work out? How could joining a guild be something that “didn’t work out”?

“Yeah. I did join one, but… I got kicked out.”

“What? Kicked out? Why?”

Theo blurted out in genuine surprise, but Blaine only gave a troubled smile.

What flaw could a man with national-treasure-level luck possibly have that a guild would throw him out? Theo burned with curiosity, but it was obvious Blaine didn’t want to talk about it. And really, who wanted to expose their own shame? Better to let it go.

They were chatting idly when someone stepped into the rest area. A black see-through one-piece dress, topped with a red admiral’s hat—it was Father.

“You’re here?”

Theo greeted with familiarity, while Blaine scrambled to his feet and bent low in a polite bow. “Ah, hello.”

Father scanned Blaine up and down, eyes sharp like a scanner. Then he turned his gaze from the man showing only his crown and gave Theo a look that clearly asked, ‘This him?’

Theo gave a short nod. Father nodded back, his expression curious, and stepped closer to Blaine with a friendly smile.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Father.”

At that, Blaine finally lifted his head, wearing a baffled expression. He glanced at Theo, and that look screamed, ‘Wait… Father is your dad?’

Theo couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. He doubled over, shoulders shaking, nearly choking on his own laughter.

Blaine, bewildered, panicked even more, not knowing what to do with himself. Once Theo had laughed enough, tears glimmering in his eyes, he wiped them away and explained,

“She’s not my dad. That’s just her username. And she’s a woman, obviously.”¹

Blaine finally realized his mistake. Mortified and red-faced, he bowed repeatedly to apologize. Father waved it off with a light laugh, saying it happened all the time.

A little later, the last member, Aslan, arrived. He exchanged greetings with Blaine and small talk with Theo, but Theo cut him off before the chatter could drag on. Small talk was useless when the dungeon awaited.

The Spiderweb Labyrinth was a massive, damp cavern, its paths sprawling out like tangled tree branches, each one a spider’s burrow leading into the dark.