Past Life Returner

The boss monster of the Kcyphos dungeon had been a BeastMaster.

[You have completed the Quest ‘The Whip of Pain.’]

[You have gained 1500 points.]

[You have received a Gold Box as the first completion reward.]

[Your Earthquake Skill increased by 71 points.]

Yeonhee was walking among the bodies to check whether they were still alive. She stabbed those still breathing with her dagger, and I heard the pitiful whimpers of pain and snarling defiance all around.

[You have received 0.5 points.]

…

[You have received 0.5 points.]

Kcyphos were not poisonous, and their mass attacks had made things easy. Our conquest was significant, as it had taken only three days. Yeonhee had done the work of ten as we rushed through, and if we had not opened dungeon boxes and waited out the cooldowns for our skills, it would have been even shorter.

I still had the protective barrier cast by the Deva King’s gloves, even though it had turned from diamond to silver…

Yeonhee’s support had been amazing, as I had used up my barrier and the Man Who Overcame Adversity when I had gone in alone.

[You have completed all the quests.]

[You have gained 1500 points.]

[You have received a Gold Box as the first completion reward.]

[Your trait Keenness has increased by 71 points.] (EN: Chapter 101)

I was more satisfied with having nurtured Yeonhee to this level than the messages and boxes. We were not afraid of F class dungeons anymore.

“Here it is.”

I found the BeastMaster’s arm amidst the corpses, and I now could take the whip from its hand.

[Kcyphos Tamer’s Whip (Item)]

[Effect: Your physical attack increases by little. Class: F]

I would not see additional item skills except the first, until I became D class. Anyway, this was the first drop item I had gotten from an F class dungeon. I whipped it, and it seemed useful in an F class dungeon with Odin’s Wrath.

Yeonhee came to me covered in the monsters’ blood. We had already brought our backpacks from the boss room entrance where we had left them, and she now gave me a bottle of water. We wiped off the blood from our face with the remaining water.

“I got skill points from a Gold Box and a new skill from another one. It’s ‘Wrath’-“

“That’s a dud.”

“I thought it was. Should I erase it? The system tells me I have to erase one.”

“Yes.”

“It’s done.”

Yeonhee looked disappointed.

“Your skillset is good right now. While you may change if there’s a clearly better skill, don’t feel disappointed if that’s not the case.”

“Points are better than items or insignias, right?”

While that was true, it depended on our luck. However, we still had more than twenty dungeons we could use.

However, if I could fully use my Palace of Memories…

**

Since I had time on my hands, I was sitting on the BeastMaster’s corpse and looking into its unpleasant face. I had asked Yeonhee to not disturb me. The Palace of Memories, or the Method of loci was a mnemonic trick I learned to memorize important things and their details, and I had used it since my Wall Street days. This method was why I could remember certain things clearly in this life.

Its origins stemmed from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, when people committed the classical plays and epic poems to memory, for performances. It worked by imagining a specific place, bringing it into focus, and associating the place with the memory I wanted to remember. For example, I had been a university student when I first started using this trick, and the palace was originally built using my dorm room, over the years expanding to something like a palace filled with knowledge and memories.

However, this method has its limits, and I have to regularly review the memories to retain them and decide on what detail I should throw out if an entry got too long. I closed my eyes and brought my palace back up.

With appropriate training, one could roam freely in the palace, but the starting point was always the same. It may be a dorm room or an apartment building to others, as it was a palace gate for me. I opened the door to go in.

There were eleven floors and seven rooms until the tenth room. I did not need the eleventh, as I had made that space after Father died. I went up the sixth floor and opened one of the many room doors. While the building was shaped like a Persian palace, each room resembled my London dorm room. (EN: Huh? Eleven floors and seven rooms?  I guess the author was trying to convey the labyrinthian nature of Persian Palaces.)

I had used the sixth floor during my Guild Leader days, and I had used this room to place my memories regarding F class dungeons.

Therefore, the bookshelves should be filled with F class dungeon maps, unlike the university textbooks on the first floor.

[F class dungeons (Korea)]

[F class dungeons (Japan)]

[F class dungeons (China)]

…

The titles were the same, as the memories were too simple to forget at this level. However, the books were blank as I had not been back here after my guild broke down. I may be able to recreate the books again if Yeonhee could help me access my faded memories in full, but that day was far away.

I needed to recreate the memories in these blank books, and for some reason, my mind kept returning to the Kcyphos. My memories were vague, but they were there. I re-entered the palace and looked at the numerous books on the sixth floor. Then, I left the palace to stare at the BeastMaster’s face again. I repeated the process multiple times, and time passed by.

It was then I saw a sentence in the book about Japan’s dungeons.

[(Kcyphos Herd) Nagano ??? Prefecture ???]

A word here and there began to appear. The gate was now open, and I saw the monsters I had fought in this life. Then, I saw the maps I had placed here before. I went to the E class dungeon room and then the D class dungeon room. I began to remember things in the B class dungeon room. I did not need to check A and S class rooms. I had always remembered them. Now, I just needed to buy the places now visible in my head.

**

Yeonhee was sitting outside the boss room, and since I had taken my time, she had fallen asleep. However, she felt my presence and reflexively grabbed her dagger to fight if necessary.

“It’s me.”

I showed myself, which made Yeonhee relax.

“I didn’t want to bother you. How long have I slept?”

“Six hours.”

“That much?”

“How do you feel?”

“I just need sleep. We’re not injured.”

“Let’s go.”

As I have begun the re-construction, my palace will retain its glory before long. That meant I would remember more dungeons we could go to, which meant we could secure more points.

“Next time, let’s try one dungeon a day.”

It meant that we could monopolize the dungeons like never before.