The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 206: Out of Luck?

Everything in life, good or bad, comes to an end eventually.

And so did Lane’s luck. After surviving multiple raids against all odds, his ’good’ streak seemed to have ended, when a long, venomous spine of a dungeon monster pierced through his calf. He still managed to slash its throat, effectively killing it, but after that, he fell to the ground. In a last-ditch effort, he crawled away from the battlefield, hiding behind some rocks...

But that was about as far as he could go.

It wasn’t the first time his legs were injured, of course. He was no stranger to having to crawl his way out of dungeons. The Gates didn’t close, even when all the monsters inside were dead, so under any normal circumstances, he could just take his time, but...

The venom was the problem. Lane’s leg had already started turning black. And he was still deep inside, far away from the Gate. At this rate, he would be dead before he could even get close to the exit.

Moving around would only lead to the venom spreading faster, so instead of attempting such a pointless endeavor, he took out a bottle of disinfectant spray from his backpack, and used it to clean one of his daggers. Then, he slashed the wound on his calf, and lifted it to his mouth, trying to suck out the poison. That was the only thing he could think of, although he had no idea how effective it would be...

It turned out not very effective. The venom was spreading too fast for Lane’s efforts to make any difference. After a few minutes of sucking and spitting, he had no choice but to admit defeat. He put his leg down, and leaned against the rocks, their uneven surface feeling cold against his feverish body. He closed his eyes, enjoying the gentle breeze caressing his skin.

’So this is how I die, huh?’ he thought to himself. ’If I knew, I would have hooked up with that guy the other day...’

It was so sad that he had to die as a virgin. He actually wanted his first time to be special (even though he would never admit it out loud), so he was reluctant to do it with someone he didn’t like all that much... But now he realized how stupid he had been. What did ’likes’ or ’dislikes’ matter, when he could die at any time? If he were able to survive it somehow, he would call that guy as soon as he recovered...

And the universe answered his prayers. Just as Lane’s consciousness was slipping away, all of a sudden, he felt his body being lifted off the ground.

"Huh?" With difficulty, he forced his heavy eyelids to part. And as he did, he saw the face of a man, forty or so years old. Although his sight was a bit blurry, Lane was still able to recognize him as one of the new recruits. "What..."

"Don’t talk," the man interrupted him. "Just stay still, I’ll take you out of here now."

That only made Lane even more confused - weren’t all his ’team members’ always ignoring him? There was no benefit to helping him, quite the opposite - so he couldn’t help but ask, "Why?"

It wasn’t the smartest thing to do, he should just accept it and be glad he had a chance to survive, but his brain was too muddled up to even try to think rationally for a second.

Luckily for him, neither did the man, it seemed. "I told you not to talk," he furrowed his brows. Then, after a while, he added with a sigh, "I know I shouldn’t. I’ll probably be moved to a worse team after that. But... You’re around the same age as my son. I can’t just leave a kid like you to die..."

Huh. So there were parents like that.

Lane didn’t say anything more. Not like he had any energy to do so. He just let himself be carried, as the man ran through the dungeon, trying to avoid the monsters still wandering around...

And then he felt it. An instinct, a hunch, something quite difficult to describe. A tingling in his spine. The power within him stirring, after remaining quiet for the past few months. At first, he wasn’t even sure if it was already there, or if his worn-out mind was playing tricks on him at the brink of his death...

Still, he followed his instinct, and activated his ability.

It was... intoxicating. Exciting. Lane felt a sudden rush of power flowing into him, a power that seemed to push the venom away. Not completely, but his fever subsided a bit. His mind cleared up.

"A-ah?" the man carrying him stumbled. "What are you doing?!"

Lane didn’t answer, too drunk on his new power. Not that he even knew what to say - he just felt the power flowing, but he wasn’t fully aware of what he was doing or how. It was purely intuitive. Like when raising his hand. To do so, his brain must have been sending a lot of orders to his body through his nervous system, but he didn’t consciously think which muscles to relax or contract. And using the abilities was just the same.

His body crashed to the ground, as the man dropped him - willingly or accidentally, Lane didn’t know, and it no longer mattered. At that moment, he couldn’t think about anything, not even his survival. After all, he had just discovered he HAD an ability! While he still was a bit confused as to what exactly it was... Perhaps he wasn’t just a useless F-ranker?

It got him so excited, that he just went along with the flow, without any regard to anything else, allowing his instincts to fully take over. Which, surprisingly, led him to losing his consciousness...

Just for a moment though, because soon after, he opened ’his’ eyes again.

Except that when he did, he wasn’t himself anymore.