Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Poison Fog (3)
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First, my energy surged.
Color returned to my face, and strength flowed into my limp fist.
And not just that.
A familiar power filled my heart and lower abdomen.
It was the energy I governed with the Taecheon Heart Method.
But that wasn't all.
My melted flesh began to regrow.
“Grrr……!”
Nerves and bones that had lost function started to regenerate.
Damaged organs regained their roles, and my weakened immunity rose.
Torn muscles mended, and my blurry vision cleared.
This was resurrection.
A sight worthy of being called a miracle!
[Reverting physical condition to 24 hours prior.]
“Haaah!”
A vibrant voice burst from my vocal cords, which had only managed deflated wheezes.
My numbed sense of pain revived as well.
‘Good.’
Now it was time to start over.
The battle with Poison Fog wasn't over yet.
- Kieeeaaah!
Poison Fog's energy began whipping through my body again, greedily devouring it.
The familiar pain and the restarting process of offset and fusion.
‘Damn it.’
I muttered.
How had I endured that hellish moment?
And now this monster was trying to drag me back into the abyss of torment.
‘But.’
Still, it was more bearable than before.
Compared to the start, I'd built up some tolerance, at least?
“Mm.”
I closed my eyes and circulated my energy frantically.
I swiftly analyzed the incoming poison components and struggled to control them.
Sure enough.
The old man's words were spot on, not a single one wrong.
No need for special study.
Just by ingesting it, I acquired knowledge of poisons.
Not learned through books, but embodied through the flesh.
My brain fired on all cylinders.
- The second poison and the sixth one seem to have good synergy? That could be trouble if they mix. Separate them.
- Hmm, one and three might cancel each other? Feels similar to that ‘Hakryeongcho’ and ‘Hakjeonghong’ from before?
- Oh? Poison five's ultimate toxin—looks like nine acts as its antidote? Pair them! Pair them!
- Whoa! Eureka! Fourteen and eighteen, nineteen fused luckily. This is basically an elixir. It's replenishing my energy?
I, who didn't even know the proper names of these poisons.
Thought like a poisonology PhD.
Even without precise knowledge, I could judge and act on instinct.
Like knowing fire is hot without reading it in a book.
This was the experience of one who had tasted thousands of poisons.
- Kiaaaah?
Perhaps because I wasn't yielding to its will.
Poison Fog's movements grew even more violent.
The influx speed was faster than before, and the rushing winds fiercer.
‘Don't try to suppress it.’
I accepted it.
‘Poison Fog’ was a natural disaster itself.
Not something blockable by mere human strength.
Controlling that colossal thing?
It was like trying to hold an ocean inside a human body.
‘I have no intention of suppressing you. Just roam freely inside my body.’
A monster that seemed to embody every poison in existence.
What it wanted was to melt me using all its poisons.
So it kept injecting them into me.
But in truth.
That was what I wanted too, wasn't it?
‘Come in.’
I opened all the circuits and meridians in my body.
At the same time, I controlled the Taecheon Heart Method to finely protect those pathways.
Gush, gush, gush!
Into them.
The poison poured.
The poison contained not just rank-1 deadly toxins.
But rank-2, rank-3 deadly toxins, and even lower-grade ordinary poisons.
Ones that couldn't harm me in the slightest.
That's why this method was possible.
If I'd tried this before.
My body would've melted in an instant.
But now, my body was different.
My brain automatically absorbed the old man's poison arts, breaking down and synthesizing.
Above all, my body began accepting the poison.
“Hoo, heup! Hoo.”
Miraculously.
That immense poison no longer choked my breath.
My breathing stayed steady.
The rotten stench was gone.
Instead.
‘It smells nice.’
I sniffed.
A sweet aroma, like passing a village baking bread in the morning.
A smooth texture that made my mouth water.
‘Ahh…… Is this poison?’
Poison was like Korean kimchi.
Like Chinese cilantro.
Spicy and harsh at first, but the more you ate, the more familiar and addictive.
Ahh.
I felt ecstasy.
As if becoming one with water……
No, one with poison……
Poison and I as one.
That exact sensation.
How much time passed like that.
“Heh heh heh.”
A voice came from beside me.
‘Hm?’
I snapped my eyes open.
In my verdant-tinted vision, the old man grinned brightly.
‘Huh, how's the old man here?’
“Didn't you know? You instinctively summoned me every 24 hours. You called me but wandered like an idiot, so I lent a hand.”
‘……What?’
I was baffled.
I'd only closed and opened my eyes for a moment.
What did that mean?
Summoned every 24 hours?
“Heh heh, you fool. Looks like you were fully immersed. This makes the fifth time you've called me!”
“…….”
Five times?
That meant five days had already passed?
“Huh?”
Come to think of it.
My vision was clear when I opened my eyes.
Even floating in midair.
Even with poison still pouring into my body.
I felt nothing.
Rather, it felt refreshingly good.
- Kia? Kiaaaah?
The ferocious roar of Poison Fog now reeked of bewilderment.
“……What the hell is going on…….”
“What do you mean? Snap out of it, you fool! Though…… maybe you don't need to anymore? Tsk, even as my disciple, you're something else.”
The old man's voice sounded as sweet as poison.
“To enter this absurd space with mere Thousand Poisons Immunity, endure it, and absorb all those poisons. Yes, how does it feel? Don't you instinctively grasp what poisons are floating around you?”
He was right.
The old man's words rang true.
Every poison swirling around me.
Ones I'd tasted before.
Ones my body knew innately.
How to gather them, how to disperse them.
I felt like I knew without being taught.
Even.
How to combine them into what I desired.
“That is one of my myriad arts, poison arts. Tsk, life's mysteries are unfathomable. The art I drilled into you with beatings still makes you tremble, yet you've nearly mastered an art I've never encountered in life.”
“Nearly…… mastered?”
“Yes, fool! The realm you've reached is Myriad Poisons Immunity.”
“……!”
As I widened my eyes.
[Congratulations!]
[Skill 'Thousand Poisons Immunity' (A-rank) reaches its peak.]
[Acquiring skill 'Myriad Poisons Immunity' (S-rank).]
Ahh.
So this was the realm of Myriad Poisons Immunity……?
[Skill: Myriad Poisons Immunity]
[Grade: S]
[Effect 1: Resist all poisons in the world.]
[Effect 2: Discern all poisons in the world.]
[Effect 3: Manipulate all poisons in the world.]
“Yes, Myriad Poisons Immunity isn't just gaining poison resistance.”
The old man smiled as he spoke.
“It's literally becoming friends with poison. Not suppressing it, but becoming one with it. Thus, no need to resist. Forming an intimacy with poison closer than anyone! You grasped it instinctively and achieved it through grit!”
Shhh!
The winds of Poison Fog enveloping me weakened.
- Kirrruk! Kiruk!
Ahh.
Was that the voice full of grudge and resentment?
Poison Fog's roar had become as docile as a playful kitten.
“Heh.”
I nodded and opened my energy circuits.
Through them.
The energy of Poison Fog, like a natural disaster, began flowing in.
“You want to come in? Want to stay here? My body feels more comfortable and pleasant than outside?”
Its emotions flowed into me.
- Kiruk! Kiruk! Kruk!
Yes, you cute thing.
No, you who suddenly became cute.
“Come in. I'll feed you.”
I circulated the Taecheon Heart Method.
No matter how potent its poison.
It couldn't harm me now.
Just soft, comfortable energy.
The massive energy settled in the center of my body.
“Chuckle.”
The old man shook his head with a laugh at the sight.
“No matter how I think, you're blessed with insane luck. Taming that absurdity. If there were a 'Grand Fortune Art', you'd have mastered it long ago.”
“……Well, I can't deny this one.”
Poison Fog settled in one corner of my lower abdomen.
I couldn't control it.
Too powerful to control.
But since it was inside my body.
And the moment it found my body exceedingly comfortable.
If anything threatened its spot, would it leave them be?
Just that made me feel like I had a heavenly army at my command.
I was Myriad Poisons Immunity.
Friend of Poison Fog.
‘Definitely a fateful encounter.’
As my chest swelled with the thrill of another stroke of fortune, as the old man said.
[Ding!]
[With the disappearance of ‘Poison Fog’, clear conditions are met!]
[Trial 'Theme 1' ends.]
[In 30 minutes, moving to the location of 'Theme 2'.]
[Survivors: 41]
[Calculating rewards.]
The clear message appeared in my vision.
* * *
“…….”
“…….”
In Delaila's hall.
Two men and women stood with mouths agape.
Staring at one hologram, frozen.
The man's lips finally moved.
“W-What did I just see?”
“…….”
“Did it just…… capture Poison Fog? A mere regular participant, not even a ranker?”
Red-eyed Luca had lost his usual cool demeanor.
It was that shocking a fact.
“…….”
Even the ever-composed Delaila trembled in her eyes.
She was clearly shaken by the emergence of this unprecedented newcomer.
‘Poison Fog’.
The aggregate of poisons she'd gathered with all her might in every dungeon she could create.
In other words, a fog containing every poison in existence.
She hadn't released it to be defeated.
It was merely a trigger to ramp the dungeon's difficulty to hellish levels.
For participants to earn proportionally high rewards based on plausibility.
“Joo Dong-hoon. Truly beyond imagination.”
Delaila licked her lips.
In the hellish dungeon she'd crafted.
A participant who'd shattered the mission frame of surviving a week against ‘Poison Fog’—and simply eliminated Poison Fog itself.
“W-What happens now?”
Luca looked at Delaila with curious eyes.
She answered calmly.
“Simple. The dungeon will calculate and grant rewards matching his actions.”
“Then…….”
“Yes.”
Delaila swallowed hard.
“A reward I can't even imagine will surely emerge.”
At the same time, her eyes gleamed with curiosity.
Delaila was genuinely curious.
What absurdity would emerge from the dungeon she'd created.