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Chapter 52 - Phantom Dragon, Ride the Wind (1)

After being dragged into the B+ irregular gate, he managed to break the enemy’s nest and raise his rank to the next level. Just in time for the gate’s rank to rise as well. No one would understand if he tried to explain it- even he didn’t understand.

“Ha.” Kang Shin-hyuk let out a sigh as he watched the gate’s inner walls narrow and became stickier.

-Anything can happen at an irregular gate. Perhaps because of your performance, one of the two forces became superior.

“It was something I had to do to survive, so I won’t regret it.” Still, he couldn’t help but think this was too much. The gap between B+ and A- was massive. It was like the gate itself had a will to kill Kang Shin-hyuk. He wasn’t afraid, however. Instead, he set his mind to grow inside this irregular gate. He ground his teeth as he glared at the changing walls.

“Is there something useful I can buy for HP?”

-There is. You can purchase a skill stone.

Kang Shin-hyuk’s eyes sparkled upon hearing skill stones could be purchased on the trading board.

-Among them, the most useful in the current situation is the ‘Resist Poison.’ Your status isn’t much lower than the spiders, but if you are poisoned, you cannot deal with it with only C-rank regeneration. However, with the addition of poison resistance, you could overcome it without needing medication each time.

“How much is it?”

-Rare B-rank Resist Poison is currently 2 million HP. Would you like to acquire it?

It was ridiculously expensive, of course, but he had no choice but to buy it. He spent the money and broke it straight away. The greenstone shattered and absorbed itself into his body, well worth the 1.6 million HP (thanks to the VIP discount).

-You learned the Resistance Skill (Poison Resist (B)]. The rarity has increased due to the effect of regeneration, becoming [Poison Resist (B+)].

Thanks to his regeneration ability, the grade of the skill increased. That was common when the match with a skill was particularly good.

-Next, I recommend some accessories. The cheapest that gives poison resistance is 1.3 million HP…

“No, I won’t be able to break through by investing HP only into poison resistance.”

-But, member, it is important first of all to survive.

“There is a way to grow my poison resistance without using HP.”

-Do you mean to train your immunity now?

Kang Shin-hyuk nodded and raised the forelimb blade above his hand. Only then did the administrator realize what he was trying to do.

-Are you going to harm yourself?!

“I’m trying to grow.” Kang Shin-hyuk refuted the concerned administrator.

-Member…

Skills grew by using them. Poison resistance would grow by resisting poison. It would be naturally advantageous to raise the skill rank even a little if possible, rather than go into battle with an F rank skill.

-…500HP bonus for brave members.

“Oh, that’s a lot of encouragement.” Nevertheless, it wasn’t possible for him to just cut into himself without hesitation. Letting out a groan, he cut into the back of his hand.

-…

“Khhh…”

-Member, are you alright?

“The poison…it works pretty fast.”

-Myu…

Kang Shin-hyuk tried to respond as calmly as possible, hugging onto Onyx as he searched for a safe place to wait. The wound recovered quickly, but he could feel the venom coursing through his veins. The venom of the mantises was on the same level as those spiders, so if he could resist it, he wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

‘My head’s spinning…I feel hot…’ When he was poisoned earlier, he took the detoxifying medicine as soon as he could, so he didn’t notice it. The poison made him feel as if his blood was burning, and the room was swimming around him.

-Member.

“It’s okay.” He struggled against the dizziness overtaking him for a while, but he suddenly felt the energy in his body begin to resist the poison. His regenerative power was working in tandem with his poison resistance to clear his body of the toxin.

“Whoo…” He breathed out, desperately focused on that power inside of him. He awakened his spiritual power to help with healing. In the end, he was victorious. Thanks to the harmony of the three forces that are his regeneration, resistance, and spiritual power, he was able to drive out the poison.

-Poison Resist has grown to F+ rank.

As soon as the message appeared, he felt refreshed. He let out a sigh with a faint smile. He felt an intense hunger from the vigorous activity of his powers and began to quickly eat the rations and Eiren Jelly he kept in his inventory.

“Can you let me know when an enemy arrives?”

-Originally, the administrator doesn’t play such a role…but if it’s a member’s request, I’d be happy too.

“Please.”

-…The administrator is always on your side.

Laughing at the message, he began to draw his blade across the back of his hand again. This time, the poison felt a little more manageable.

***

-Poison Resist has grown to D rank. Regeneration has grown to C rank.

His head no longer felt dizzy even when he was poisoned. Unexpectedly, he had also grown his regeneration ability once more, so he felt confident in facing the spider’s poison. Deciding he had finished training, Kang Shin-hyuk stood up. He still had two hours left in his mimicry scroll.

“Then, I’ll use my remaining HP. Are there any items that increase your spiritual power?”

-Few people deal with spiritual power in the Hero Universe. If it is an item or artifact to increase your spiritual power, no one will be able to create it except for you…although there are items that occur naturally.

Kang Shin-hyuk picked up the meaning of the message. There was that broken marble he picked up earlier that was emitting spiritual power. Perhaps the other half was inside this gate, although that didn’t help right now.

“If so…power. How about something to increase strength?”

-The Ogre Power Gauntlet, which will increase your strength to the next level, is going for 3 million HP. It’s a classic and great artifact that can boost your power even further with the backing of magic or spiritual power. Were it not for the poison; I would’ve recommended this to you…

“… I’ll give up on buying equipment, I’ll take some potions.” The lower level status potion, which lasted thirty minutes and could raise it up to rank A, could be purchased for 100,000 HP per bottle. Surprisingly, he now thought that price was quite low.

-You can only use one status potion per day.

“Then, I don’t need to buy an agility one. I’ll take one for strength and one for stamina.” He felt it was lacking but still acquired two at the price of 80,000 HP per bottle after his discount.

-Member, an explosive egg that boosts your strength by one level for thirty minutes, is being traded for 1 million HP for a set of three. It is a rare product with trading restrictions based on membership level, and there aren’t many opportunities to acquire it.

It was expensive, but he knew the administrator wouldn’t have recommended anything useless. It probably didn’t have a limit to it as the potions did.

“Is it possible to eat two in a row?”

-You can eat all three in a row. However, doing so reduces the duration to three minutes, and the after-effects are severe.

“I wish Claire could make me a potion…” Kang Shin-hyuk complained about the penalty but still bought it. The discount was great, so even after that, he had 1.14 million HP left. He had to save that, though, to buy another mimicry scroll once his current one ran out.

“Good…then let’s go.”

Onyx stood tall atop Shin-hyuk’s shoulder, his blade-like thorns standing on end. It seemed like he was saying that he would pay for his own meal, but no matter how Shin-hyuk looked at him, he still didn’t appear to have the ability to fight on the frontlines. However, no, there was no fight to be found. He only had two hours until his scroll ran out, but he realized something was off.

“I can’t find any spiders…”

-Myu…

Moreover, the internal structure of the gate had completely changed. The memories inside the forelimb blade were no longer helpful. He could buy some more scrolls, but he would probably need to wander inside the gate for a while.

“Would they show up if I ran around without hiding? I’d rather not do that…” According to the information from the forelimb, the enemy was known as a Toxic Web Thrower. It was a type of monster that called out for reinforcements immediately if things became difficult. Now that the gate had mutated, its structure was more suited for spiders. No matter how strong he became, it would be too much to expose himself. He first organized his thoughts and bought a scroll to apply to hide again.

“Are there any items to find enemies?”

-There are, but they are so popular they are out of stock. Moreover, the search artifacts and the skill stones for search are too expensive…

“Which means I have to figure it out on my own.”

-I apologize.

“No, I’ve been relying enough on the Hero Universe. I’ll figure this out somehow.” He cleared his breath and rolled his head around. It was obvious it wouldn’t work out if he just wandered around like this. ‘How can I find my enemies? What can I do with my abilities now?’ The answer came quickly. It was spiritual power. He learned about the mantises through his spiritual power, so theoretically, he could use it for the spiders. He didn’t have a spider corpse in front of him, but there was the gate itself.

‘If I fail, I’ll look stupid.’ But, if he succeeded…maybe he could experience that same growth once more. Kang Shin-hyuk breathed deeply and reached a hand out to the inner wall of the gate.

He raised his spiritual power with all his might and tried to communicate with it.

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