"Elena, Nova, Lola and Nia are even more interested in you! Isn't that enough?" Hayato grumbled.

"Huh? What are you talking about? This is the first time I've met her," Raff said.

"Tch. You broken NPC, just take all the pretty girls in this world for yourself!" grumbled Hayato.

"Huh? Are you out of your mind? Stop with the weird terms, there's no way a woman would want to approach a freak like you," Raff grumbled, annoyed by Hayato's remarks.

"It's not a weird term, you're the one who's stupid! You ancient human!" Hayato snapped.

"Then ask Sonia if I'm the stupid one or you!" Raff said while pointing at Sonia.

"Hahaha..." Sonia laughed at the sight of them arguing.

"Is there something funny here?" asked Raff as he frowned.

"No, there isn't. I thought you were cruel enough to slaughter them all without mercy. But my judgment seems to have been wrong, even though I was afraid I would be killed," Sonia replied as she wiped away her tears from laughing.

"He's the only one who's ruthless, I haven't entered my villain arc yet," Hayato said.

"Your words are so strange too, I don't even understand what they mean," Sonia said.

"Hahaha... look, she agrees that you're weird too," Raff mocked.

"Tch. All NPCs are the same," Hayato grumbled quietly. "Then why did you forbid me to approach you?" asked Hayato to change the subject.

"I'm a cursed girl, you'll die if you come too close to me for too long," Sonia said with a serious look on her face.

"What?" muttered Hayato with a shocked look on his face.

"That's why I'm sensing very dark mana from you, unbelievable," Raff said with a more relaxed look than before.

"He can still feel my mana? I've suppressed it as much as possible," Sonia thought as she looked at Raff.

"Does this have something to do with what you said earlier, that you were expelled from Elexia Academy?" asked Raff as he approached Hayato.

"Yes. I was in class A until the second year, but one day, one of the noble children in class A tried to rape me. I was already helpless, but suddenly this curse appeared. Those near me began to faint until they finally lost consciousness, and since then I was shunned until I was finally expelled from the Academy," Sonia explained, looking down.

"Can you tell us about it?" asked Hayato.

"No problem. From the beginning, I wanted to gain your sympathy by saying that I also studied at the Elexia Academy, I thought that way you wouldn't hurt me," Sonia replied while looking at Raff.

"I see, she seems to be very afraid of Raff who is able to eliminate those A-rank adventurers without mercy," Hayato thought while looking at Raff who started to approach Sonia.

"You don't have to back down, I just want to make sure," Raff said as he watched Sonia slowly back away.

"Does this curse also affect monsters?" asked Raff.

"Yes. All monsters will experience the same thing if they come near me, they can even disappear and disintegrate if they continue to insist on being near me," Sonia replied.

"I see, no wonder she dared to go into the dungeon alone," Hayato thought.

Slowly feeling his body begin to weaken after entering the area three meters away from Sonia, Raff began to stretch his arms forward before finally jumping backward.

"Can you see mana magic?" Sonia asked.

"No, I can't. I can only feel it," Raff replied. "It's not a magic curse or anything like that," Raff said as he clenched his fist again.

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"Eh?" muttered Hayato in surprise.

"How did you know?" asked Sonia, looking shocked.

"I can absorb any form of magic, but I can't absorb what's coming out of your body. I'm sure it's not magic, but a skill. Because I can't absorb attacks from other people's skills," Raff explained while sitting on the ground.

"Huh? That means the curse she's talking about is a passive skill?" asked Hayato.

"Yes. Since her skills are always active, the mana in her body is not reduced," Raff replied.

"What is a passive skill? Is there a skill that is always active without the will of the owner?" asked Sonia with a confused look on her face.

"I was also surprised at first, because so far everyone is known to have only one skill. But after meeting these ancient humans, I came to understand. Humans can have more than one skill, and one of them is a passive skill that is always active without being stopped," Hayato explained.

"You don't have to include a word of ridicule for me in your explanation!" grumbled Raff.

"I didn't think there were other people besides Raff who had passive abilities," Hayato thought.

Sonia immediately felt weak and sat down on the floor with a sad look on her face, even though she had hoped to find a cure for her curse one day. "No way. That means I have to live with this suffering?" she said quietly.

"Don't be sad, you can look on the bright side. No bad guys or monsters will dare to come near you. I'm sure you can start all over again, maybe I can help you as the main character for now..." Hayato said, but he couldn't go on.

"Huh?" Hayato thought as his body seemed to float down, his eyes instantly turning pitch black.

***

"Hey wake up you weakling!"

Hayato slowly started to hear Raff's voice close to his ear. Hayato slowly opened his eyes, now he could see Raff sitting nearby. Meanwhile Sonia seemed to be sitting some distance away with a worried look on her face.

"What happened?" asked Hayato as he sat up, his body feeling weak.

"Sonia accidentally released her mana overflow fully, her passive skill area increased until you were affected. Passive skills are greatly affected by mana, the stronger and larger the owner's mana overflow, the greater the effect of passive skills," Raff explained.

"I'm sorry, Hayato. For some time now, I've been deliberately suppressing my mana so that others won't be able to detect it, but I accidentally let it all go when I heard that this curse is incurable," Sonia said with a guilty look on her face.

"Never mind, Hayato won't be angry either. We should just rest here before we continue our journey," Raff said while looking at Sonia.

"Of course, Raff. Resting here is better because there are no monsters to disturb us," Sonia replied with a smile.

"Huh? What did I miss?" thought Hayato as he looked at Raff and Sonia in turn. "Don't tell me I had a time jump and missed something important," Hayato said while looking at Raff.

"Huh? What was that weird thing you said?" asked Raff.

"Hey Raff, what were you doing when I passed out earlier? Don't tell me you did something dirty while I was unconscious," Hayato asked.

"You idiot! Your mind is all messed up!" snapped Raff as he smashed Hayato's cheek with his fist.

"Ouch!" Hayato screamed in pain while holding his cheek.

"You think I'm an idiot? Even if I look like one, I won't cheat on my future wife!" said Raff angrily.

"I'm sorry. You two seemed to be getting along after I fainted," Hayato said.

"We just talked about a few things," Raff said as he got up to find a comfortable place to rest.

"Raff offered to go with you to the tenth floor to get the Electro Skullix Monster Crystal. Raff said I could take all the monster materials, since you only needed the crystals. I agreed because monster materials are much more expensive, especially since I've never gotten materials from good monsters, just leftover monster materials discarded by adventurers," Sonia explained.

"Hey, why does such an important conversation not involve a main character like me? A main character should be involved in every important dialogue," Hayato asked while looking at Raff.

"Go back to sleep, fatigue seems to be affecting your brain. Your speech is getting weird," Raff grumbled as he lay down on the floor.

"Tch. You ancient human, you're the one who's stupid," Hayato grumbled as he checked his big bag to take out some food.

"Sonia, would you like something to eat?" Hayato asked smiling as he handed her a bundle of leaves.

"Thanks, I'll just rest. Raff gave me some food earlier anyway," Sonia replied with a smile as a few leaves of food wrappers lay in front of her.

"Hey Raff!" called Hayato as he turned his eyes to Raff who was lying down. Where Raff had been sitting, there were also some leaves from the food wrappers.

"Don't pretend to be asleep, you idiot! I know you took my food without permission, you damned ancient man! You said you didn't need to bring food because you could eat the plants here! You asshole!" Hayato snapped as he hit Raff with the hilt of his sword.

"Ouch! I was having a dream, I just interrupted," Raff grumbled as he held Hayato's sword hilt.

"Don't make excuses! You took my food, didn't you?" Hayato snapped.

"Hehehe... I'm already too hungry, there are no edible plants here either. Besides, I'm sure you'll offer your food to Sonia as well, knowing that she didn't bring any," Raff replied.

"Tch, you idiot! If it wasn't for Sonia, I would have chopped you up right here," Hayato grumbled as he returned to his seat to continue eating.

"Yes, it's also for your sake. If there's a guardian like Sonia, then I can fight more calmly because someone is protecting you," Raff said quietly.

"Are you saying that?" asked Hayato in a high tone.

"No, I'm not. I was just talking to a mosquito," Raff replied as he continued to sleep.

"Tch. Everywhere there is also the main character who always protects the women around him," Hayato grumbled quietly. Sonia herself only seemed to smile from a distance.

Continued...