Iris, who had enthusiastically captured the black crayfish with a few swings of her whip, decided to use the skill she had just obtained.
The phrase “If you practice it before you forget it, you can make the skill your own” lingered in her mind.
She was worried the skill might vanish if she left it unused.
The moment she thought about using the pincer, a message appeared before her eyes:
You may choose between <bracelet> and <chastity belt> to acquire the skill.
Which would you like to use?
‘Oh! If I can use the bracelet, then of course I’ll pick that!’
Iris’s gaze turned to the bracelet on her wrist.
She already had enough headaches from the grotesque skill demonstration of the chastity belt.
If she could use the bracelet instead, she wouldn’t need to use offensive skills with the chastity belt.
But her brightened face soon darkened again due to the next message that popped up:
Not compatible.
Skill cannot be acquired with <bracelet>. It will automatically be stored in <chastity belt>.
‘What the hell. If the skill could only ever be used with the chastity belt, why act like I have a choice? That got my hopes up for no reason.’
Iris stomped her foot.
She felt slightly annoyed, like the system was messing with her.
Still, irritation aside, she had a mission to complete.
As soon as she thought, “I’ll use the skill,” her skirt rustled and a chain slithered out.
Then two chains stretched forward, quickly widened, and solidified into pincer shapes.
Compared to the whip or tentacles, which she had already found disturbing, this was on another level.
‘This must be what they mean by “going from bad to worse.”’
The pincers looked like two ladles joined together, clanking beneath her.
Every time Iris blinked, the pincers opened and closed like a living creature.
She briefly wondered if she could just discard the skill since she hadn’t actually used it yet.
But Iris shook her head firmly.
She was the weakest of the weak right now.
She couldn’t afford to throw away a single skill.
Reinforcing her resolve, she scanned the black crayfish, which seemed to be slowly trying to flee ever since her pincers had appeared.
Once she picked her target, she stepped forward with determination.
The chains shot out with a metallic noise and chomped onto a crayfish.
As long as she could bear the shame, the skill was actually quite useful.
Unlike the whip, this didn’t even require her hands, making it far more efficient.
Iris simply had to stare at the crayfish, and the chastity belt would automatically form the pincers and catch them.
All she had to do was net them up afterward.
‘Feels like I caught way more than ten of them.’
Iris counted the crayfish she had piled into her net.
She had caught twenty before she realized it, far surpassing the goal.
When she showed the net to Theresa, the woman was quite surprised.
“I thought you’d do well, but catching twenty? Impressive. And it’s your first mission, too. Have you caught normal crayfish before? That might’ve made it easier.”
“No, this was my first time. It went smoothly thanks to the skill.”
Iris looked down between her legs with a half-proud, half-complicated expression.
Absent-mindedly, she slapped the chastity belt between her thighs with a loud “pang” as if to encourage it—then realized she was standing right in front of Theresa and awkwardly moved her hand behind her back.
‘It’s a new skill… She’s improving rapidly. Really, even if it’s just wishful thinking, I hope this girl will be the one to save Gyodam City.’
Theresa had witnessed the grotesque pincers shoot out from Iris’s skirt several times earlier, so she immediately understood what Iris meant by “thanks to the skill.”
At first, seeing Iris’s <thing> nearly made her slip off a rock and fall into the stream.
She had thought she was already used to the whip attacking straw dolls and the tentacle-like chains catching crayfish, but she was wrong.
The living, clanking pincers emerging from the skirt were on a different level.
Still, the pincers—though more grotesque than the whip—had excellent offensive power, so Theresa kept her comments to herself.
There was no need to discourage a fledgling hero.
“That chastity belt… right, you used another skill earlier, didn’t you?”
“Ah, you… saw that.”
“You’re improving quickly. That’s good.”
Theresa patted Iris on the shoulder.
Since she had not only completed the mission but exceeded expectations, today’s mission was over.
Both Theresa and Iris reverted to their normal forms.
As they walked back to the car with the net, Iris suddenly twisted her ankle.
Her head throbbed, and her whole body ached as if she had been beaten all over.
“But the chastity belt did all the work… Why am I sweating so much? And my head hurts, too…”
“Ah, I forgot to mention. Don’t overuse your skills. Even if you’re not moving your body, constantly using skills depletes your mental energy.”
“Oh… I didn’t know that.”
No wonder she had been feeling drained with every use—it wasn’t just her imagination.
Theresa set down the backpack from her shoulders and rummaged through it.
She pulled out two bottles filled with blue liquid.
“Drink one of these. It’s a mana potion. Mental energy is another way to refer to mana.”
“Ah, mana! Thank you for the potion.”
Iris bowed and gratefully drank the potion.
A memory from a manga flashed through her mind—heroes and villains occasionally drank things from bottles, and she realized now that those were mana potions.
There was even a plot where a potion factory was attacked by villains, but she had completely forgotten about their existence until now.
‘But it’s been 22 years since I read that manga… And I’ve been living like an average citizen, so I never needed to use that knowledge. I’m surprised I even remembered it.’
Indeed, it had been 22 years since Iris read that manga, and she’d lived a normal civilian life, unrelated to any of its plots.
Some of the more memorable moments stuck with her, but not the details.
Still, thanks to that manga, she had grown more cautious and was better at avoiding trouble than others.
And since she knew there were ways to gain powers, she managed to stay calm when she awakened through the chastity belt.
That’s probably what made all the difference.
Iris quickly finished the mana potion.
Her slumped shoulders perked up, and she felt energy returning to her body.
Theresa, unlike Iris, only took a sip and put her bottle back in her bag.
She took Iris’s empty bottle and packed it away as she offered a word of caution.
“Black crayfish are fine, but when you take on harder missions, you shouldn’t overuse your skills. These mana potions are pretty expensive for rookie heroes. Early on, it’s better to use your skills wisely than waste money on potions.”
“Ah… I’ll keep that in mind.”
“And you’ll notice that different skills consume different amounts of mana. The stronger the skill, the more mana it uses. Black crayfish are weak, so it’s best to use skills with minimal mana cost.”
“True, they weren’t very good at fighting back. Honestly, I think they could be caught with normal weapons.”
Iris shook the net filled with dead crayfish as she spoke.
But Theresa firmly shook her head.
“No. It’s difficult with regular weapons. If you get too close, the crayfish can bite. And if you get bitten, there’s a risk of being poisoned. It’s dangerous.”
“Gasp, they’re poisonous?”
“It’s not a lethal venom, but the bite swells up painfully. Plenty of people have underestimated them and suffered for it.”
Iris recalled the status window of the black crayfish.
Now that she thought about it, there was a line that said ‘Carries poison.’
She thought it just meant they were angry, but it was actually literal poison.
‘I’ll need to pay closer attention to the status window from now on. It’d be ridiculous to lose a fight because I didn’t recognize an opponent’s attack power.’
They loaded the net into the trunk, and Theresa’s car left the stream.
Thankfully, the delinquents they had worried about didn’t show up today.
More accurately, they were probably afraid of being beaten up by Theresa if they dared approach.
‘Whether they’re delinquents or not, I’m still scared of facing people. But eventually, I’ll have to confront them.’
Theresa’s car headed back to her house.
After parking in the garage, she and Iris carried the net into the backyard.
Upon reaching the well, Theresa opened the lid and tossed the net inside.
A notification appeared on her phone.
“It says the mission is complete. We’ll receive bonus rewards for exceeding expectations.”
“Oh, so putting the spoils in the well triggers the rewards system!”
“This may look like an ordinary well, but in fact…”