The Support Ate it All - Chapter 581: Challenge Austerity (1)

Dang Gyu-young furrowed their brow demonstrating displeasure.

“Hey, this isn’t just a little hard. I can barely clear Austerity as it is—what do you mean Challenge?”

Quests received through [Austerity] generally leaned brutal, because they presented goals that pushed you right up to your limit.

And the more stages you cleared, the higher the difficulty climbed.

Dang Gyu-young had recently cleared stage seventeen.

After switching classes to an Umbramancer at stage ten, they’d been steadily climbing the staircase—one stage every week or two.

Of course, the process had been nothing but hellish, and it was obvious it would only get worse from here.

But now we were going to pile Challenge on top of that?

Dang Gyu-young recoiled, shaking their head hard.

“I’m not trying to take the easy road, but I seriously don’t think I can handle it.”

“Couldn’t you at least try it once?”

“With this, it’s way too obvious what’s going to happen.”

They looked like they’d firmly decided not to do it.

At this point, I didn’t have a choice.

I had to use my trump card.

I stepped closer to Dang Gyu-young.

Then, still holding hands, I met their eyes.

“Let’s do it, Gyu.”

“…….”

“Once won’t kill you, Gyu.”

“……Pfft.”

The corner of Dang Gyu-young’s mouth danced wildly.

But they fought to keep a straight face as they stared back at me.

“This time, it really, really can’t happen. This is a not-okay Gyu.”

“I didn’t think even this wouldn’t work.”

“Honestly, it was cute. Anyway, you can just work hard at Austerity, okay? Yeah?”

Dang Gyu-young tried to soothe me instead.

But I wasn’t planning to give up yet.

Like it was nothing, I laid the bait out.

“No one else has done a Challenge Austerity quest yet.”

“Of course they haven’t. If you think about it like a normal person.”

“If you do it now, it means you’ll be the first. The original.”

“……!”

Dang Gyu-young’s body jerked.

And I kept going, like a devil whispering in their ear.

“Think about next year. You’re going to keep going into dungeons, right?”

“Yeah, but?”

“But usually, the party size is fixed. Two people, three people.”

“You’re obviously taking me.”

Their eyes screamed it—You’re not going to ditch me for someone else, are you? I’m re-enrolling because of you.

I accepted that look like it was nothing and answered calmly.

“We decide based on the dungeon type. If it’s water or ice, we take Hong Yeon-hwa. If it’s a place that needs a lot of luck, we take that sloth over there.”

“Honestly, that’s true.”

Dang Gyu-young nodded without hesitation.

They acknowledged that AquaFlame and Lucky Charm’s luck were both in a realm they couldn’t compete with.

“Other than that, it’s basically by skill….”

“Then I’m #1.”

“Right. But later on, who knows?”

“……!”

A sense of crisis surged across Dang Gyu-young’s face.

Everyone in our group had frightening potential, and their growth was ridiculous.

Seo Ye-in was a genius—no debate.

They were just extremely lazy, but once they made up their mind and trained, they always exceeded my expectations.

Hong Yeon-hwa was prospect-level in her own right, and even among mages, her casting speed was uniquely fast.

And on top of that, she had the creativity to develop spells that were truly her own.

Go Hyeon-woo looked like he lagged behind those two at a glance, but he still hadn’t inherited his divine weapon.

Just eyeballing it, it was already at least S-rank—so how much his power would jump later was unknown.

In short, any one of them could potentially pass Dang Gyu-young.

I continued.

“You can’t just let that happen.”

“Hey, hey. Stop. Quit trying to talk me into it.”

“If you surge ahead now and widen the gap… you stay #1.”

“Ah… this is seriously too much.”

Dang Gyu-young hesitated, but it was obvious they were almost sold.

So I pulled out my trump card again.

I leaned closer and whispered at their ear.

“Let’s do it, Gyu.”

“…….”

“Let’s do it, Gyu.”

“……Fine. Just this once. Starting next time, no Challenge, no nothing.”

In the end, Dang Gyu-young agreed grudgingly, then tilted their head with a face full of self-loathing.

“…Man. Am I really that easy? Why can’t I just say no, firmly?”

“Then I’ll apply it~”

[Using ‘Austerity’.]

[‘Stage 18 Austerity’ has been applied to the target.]

Next, I handed over the Challenge Book.

A message like this was probably popping up for them.

[Use ‘Challenge Book’?]

[Accept/Decline]

Dang Gyu-young glared at me like they wanted to kill me, but still chose Accept—and the Austerity quest updated.

The more they read, the more their face crumpled.

“…I already regret it.”

“What did you get?”

Instead of answering, Dang Gyu-young shared the quest.

[Sub-Quest: Stage 18 Austerity] (In Progress….)

▷Massively expand the range of ‘Umbral Garden’

▷Condition 1: Fight while maintaining ‘Umbral Garden’

▷Condition 2: Fight while maintaining at least 2 ‘Shadow Undead’

▷Objective: Achieve proficiency (0/100%)

Umbral Garden.

It was a skill that seized a fixed area with shadows, then constantly summoned shadow butterflies, limbs, weapons, and more—trading offense and defense without pause.

Back when Dang Gyu-young was a shadow caster, it had been more like a trump card, an ultimate.

But it had one fatal flaw.

‘It’s too defensive.’

It worked decently for countering opponents who pushed in, but against someone who refused to step into the domain and only harassed from range, there was almost nothing you could do.

After gaining Shadow Undead and evolving into full-on “Gyu the Brawler,” they’d shifted into a far more aggressive combat style—so Umbral Garden, its opposite, had basically been abandoned.

And now it had shown up in a Challenge Austerity quest.

If they cleared it successfully, maybe it would patch the weakness, or grant a linked skill or Trait.

If they cleared it, that is.

Dang Gyu-young read through the quest again, slowly.

“The first line is already insane. It’s hard enough to use in the first place.”

Umbral Garden was large-scale magic, tricky to cast and even trickier to maintain—and it guzzled mana.

If the range had been massively expanded, then the difficulty of maintaining it had obviously shot up too.

“At least you don’t have to worry about mana as much.”

“At least.”

Because ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) through our Bond, they were sharing the [Great Sage’s Ring].

They were getting its automatic mana recovery effect, and the less mana they had left, the more the effect multiplied.

At minimum, it meant they could keep fighting without stopping.

But the difficulty of Umbral Garden itself hadn’t changed.

Dang Gyu-young kept reading, brow tightening.

“It says I have to keep undead up too. Is this even possible?”

“They say humans are creatures that adapt. If you keep at it, you’ll manage.”

“It’s easy for you to say when it’s not you.”

Maybe they were sulking, because Dang Gyu-young grabbed my cheeks and yanked them outward.

Then, pouting hard, they asked,

“Anyway, the summary is this, right? Fight while keeping the skill up until it hits 100%.”

“Probably. But the process will matter too.”

If they barely maintained it and fought halfheartedly, the proficiency would obviously crawl.

If they fought fiercely—dragging everything they had out—it would rise faster.

And I expected the opponent’s strength would affect proficiency too.

The Twin Heroes of the Dang Family weren’t just strong—they were outright hard to deal with.

Dang Gyu-young let out a deep sigh.

“Why did I fall for that so cleanly… whatever. Let’s do it.”

Then they dragged me back to the others.

Seo Ye-in, who’d been watching us, asked,

“What were you talking about?”

“I applied Austerity. This time, with Challenge too.”

“…?”

Seo Ye-in tilted their head.

They didn’t seem to understand what a Challenge Austerity quest was, or how hard it got.

So I gave an example.

“Remember how you once got the nine-hours-of-sleep limit?”

“Hard…….”

“With Challenge, it drops to eight.”

“……!”

“And you have to split it into four naps—two hours each.”

“That can’t be….”

Those gray eyes widened.

The way they looked at Dang Gyu-young had a mix of respect and a little sympathy.

Then, to get help from the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family, I explained Austerity briefly.

Of course, I left out the part where I was the one applying it.

“Actually, they got a quest. We have to spar with conditions.”

Dang Ilbi and Dang Hanbi answered in turns.

“Like a sandbag, then.”

“If you had something like that, you should’ve said so sooner.”

“Of course we’ll help.”

“What do we need to do, and how?”

I smiled and said,

“We’ll be putting up large-scale magic. You just have to fight inside it.”

“That isn’t difficult. We can do that.”

The Dang twins nodded readily.

Soon, just like when we started our first spar, we stood in the center of the training grounds, facing each other.

After staring at the Twin Heroes for a moment, Dang Gyu-young drew up a massive surge of mana.

Then they gently swept one hand.

The shadow at their feet rippled violently and spread out in every direction—

so wide it felt uncontrollable.

It was because the Challenge condition, ‘massively expand the range,’ had been applied.

“What is this? Why is it so wide?”

Even Dang Gyu-young looked startled by the scale, despite being the one who cast it.

But they focused again and finished the spell, and the spreading shadow formed a square, garden-plot-like domain.

[Umbral Garden]

Watching with interest, the Twin Heroes asked,

“So we enter inside this?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then we will.”

From Dang Ilbi’s hand, steel pellets scattered. From Dang Hanbi’s hand, coins scattered.

Some circled around them like protection.

Some shot straight toward us.

— WHIIIIIIP!

Even though Dang Gyu-young had once dodged or batted these away easily, their movement now was stiff, grinding awkwardly.

They hadn’t even pulled out the shadow club.

Maintaining [Umbral Garden] alone was taking everything they had, leaving no room for anything else.

— PING!

I flicked away a coin that flew in like a storm cloud and said casually,

“You have to use Gyu-Shadow Undead too.”

“…I know.”

Proficiency would only start rising once Conditions 1 and 2 were both satisfied.

Dang Gyu-young flailed a hand with effort, and from one corner of the garden, Lab Director and Dark-Shadow Commander burst up.

But they’d only been summoned—there was no way they could actually fight.

You could tell just by how they moved, creaking like their master.

There was no chance the Dang twins would leave such perfect targets alone.

The next moment, steel pellets and coins turned them into a beehive.

— THUDUDUDUD!

“Ah….”

Reading a hint of irritation in Dang Gyu-young’s groan, the twins’ expressions turned cautious.

“We only did as we have been doing.”

“Was that not correct?”

“If so, we apologize.”

Dang Gyu-young shook their head quickly.

“No, that’s right. You guys didn’t do anything wrong.”

But then they looked at me like they were saying, The one who’s wrong is you, all of it.

It also looked like they were adding, Just you wait.

Tonight, I was probably getting bitten to death, or having my cheeks stretched until they hurt.

Dang Gyu-young gathered themself again and resummoned the Shadow Undead.

At the same time, enormous shadow arms burst up from all over the garden, each gripping a different shadow weapon.

Then they all surged at once toward the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family.

— KWAAAAAAH—!