It Doesn't Hurt to Have More Skills

The figure sprinting out of the hall looked as if he had been heavily poisoned. He barely managed a few steps past the entrance before he began to stagger. Bukjin immediately gave chase, utilizing the Cloud-Mist Rain Step to close the distance in an instant.

Thwack!

Bukjin reached the man and delivered a brutal kick square to his chest.

"P-Please... spare me..." the man gasped, rolling onto his back and looking up with eyes wide with terror. "I am a criminal wanted by the Temple. I'll go with you... I'll turn myself in and accept my punishment..."

Flash!

A cold blade light flickered through the air.

Punishment? Don't make me laugh! You can take the punishment I'm giving you right now!

Without a moment's hesitation, Bukjin swung his Virtuous Sword and took the man's head. Judging by the man's attire, he was undoubtedly a powerhouse on the level of an Alliance Leader. Had he not been weakened by the poison, he likely would have slipped through Bukjin's fingers with ease.

With the final straggler dealt with, Bukjin returned to the main hall to perform a thorough round of "confirmation kills." Only after ensuring that every single enemy was truly, undeniably dead did he finally let out a long, weary sigh.

Finally, it's over! I almost got played by that old fox, the Great Alliance Leader. I'm just glad everything worked out in the end. Luck was definitely on my side this time.

Bukjin realized it was a stroke of genius to kill the Fourth Alliance Leader—the poison specialist—first. Securing a massive supply of toxins and using them to clear out the rank-and-file had smoothed the path considerably. If he had run into the Fifth Alliance Leader, the snake charmer, first, things wouldn't have been nearly this easy.

Even with Reverse Heaven, the heaven-defying healing technique that allowed him to fight as if he had infinite stamina, there was no winning against overwhelming numbers. Without the poison, the Great Alliance Leader alone might have been enough to finish him. And if the other leaders had coordinated a pincer attack? Bukjin wouldn't have stood a chance, no matter what tricks he pulled.

"It's almost like some mysterious power is protecting me," he muttered, nodding to himself.

Now accustomed to the routine, he pulled on a pair of leather gloves and began to rummage through the Great Alliance Leader's corpse.

The Great Alliance Leader, the 'Boss Monster' of this quest... I wonder what kind of loot he's dropped?

Anticipation swelled in Bukjin's chest. However, that anticipation quickly turned to doubt. Doubt turned to disappointment, and disappointment rapidly curdled into rage. All he found on the Great Alliance Leader's person was a measly fifty gold taels.

"Is this guy a fake or something?" Bukjin's temper flared. He had lost both his Doran Sword and his Jeong-i Sword in this battle. Those were precious blades awakened by Beom Jo-ang using the Sword-Refining Decree. On the open market, they would have fetched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at least a thousand gold taels each. His losses were catastrophic.

"A man who calls himself the Great Alliance Leader only has this much pocket change?" Bukjin felt insulted. As a reward for all his life-and-death struggles, this was beyond pathetic.

"Wait! I get it! He's a stingy bastard, so he must have hidden his treasures somewhere else!" Bukjin's eyes gleamed. A bandit leader running an organization this large had to have a secret vault. It was probably filled with mountains of gold, jewels, and legendary weapons. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He was practically patting himself on the back for his own brilliance.

But then, a new problem arose.

"So... where's the vault?"

Bukjin looked around. The hall was filled with nothing but cold, silent corpses. There wasn't a single soul left to point him toward the treasure. In a fit of desperation, he picked up the Great Alliance Leader's severed head, pressed it back onto the neck, and channeled Reverse Heaven while speaking in a gloomy tone.

"Seriously... you can't even say one word? Come on, wake up for a second..."

The corpse remained motionless. A look of utter desolation washed over Bukjin's face. For a moment, he hoped someone else in the fortress might still be alive, but then he remembered his own thoroughness in checking every body. He had been so meticulous that if anyone were still breathing after having their head lopped off or their heart pierced, they wouldn't be human—they'd be a god. And if there were a god with that kind of power in this fortress, Bukjin would have died ten thousand times over by now.

"I was too thorough for my own good..." he lamented.

Feeling pitiful, he cursed his own efficiency while absentmindedly stroking the Great Alliance Leader's corpse. Suddenly, his hand brushed against something hard.

"Wait, this stone looks familiar..."

Inside a small pouch, he found a round, black stone about the size of a fist. It looked like a simple egg, but it was incredibly heavy—easily weighing a thousand pounds despite its small size. It was a Mysterious Stone.

A memory flashed through his mind. When Cho Heun had taken him to the Temple of the Sword Lord, he had offered a similar Mysterious Stone to awaken Bukjin's Mystic Energy attribute.

This... this looks like it's worth some serious money. I wonder how much I can get for it?

The thought of profit instantly brightened his mood. He went back to searching the pouch and pulled out two martial arts manuals: the Reverse Blood Circulation Berserk Technique and the Hundred-Step Wall-Breaking Palm.

As he skimmed the contents, a grin spread across his face.

"Aha! So the move that bastard used earlier was the Reverse Blood Circulation Berserk Technique! It uses Mystic Energy to stimulate the blood, forcibly drawing out the body's latent potential to grant combat power far beyond one's actual realm!"

It was an incredibly useful skill—a perfect trump card for life-or-death situations. Although Bukjin knew very little about martial theory, the Great Alliance Leader had left detailed annotations in the margins, explaining exactly how the technique functioned.

However, the technique had a massive flaw: it couldn't be sustained for long. A person's vitality was limited. If one overused the technique, they would be left as an empty husk. Warriors in this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠world had no medicine to instantly replenish consumed vitality, making it a gamble that could only be used once in a blue moon. It was a desperate measure, fueled by one's own life force.

But for Bukjin, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the situation was different.

I... I don't have to worry about running out of blood. Or vitality. Because I can just keep healing myself!

If he used Reverse Heaven simultaneously, he wouldn't have to worry about the drain. In fact, his recovery rate would likely outpace the consumption.

"Haha! I can burn my life force and recover it with Reverse Heaven at the same time! I'll be able to fight at full power indefinitely! Just thinking about it makes me feel great! Hahaha! I'll be able to hold out way longer than that Alliance Leader ever could!"

The more he thought about it, the more he realized this technique was practically tailor-made for him. Without a moment's delay, he used his AI assistant to scan the manual and convert it into an app.

"Fine, whatever. No rush. I'll just download it once I break through to the 2nd Grade Master Realm."

Calming his excitement, he turned his attention to the Hundred-Step Wall-Breaking Palm. After a quick review, he could tell it was a formidable technique. It was also a 3-Star skill, and the manual was perfectly intact with no missing pages.

"Shame it's not a sword technique," he muttered. After a moment of thought, he uploaded the manual to his Storage app.

Finding nothing else of value on the Great Alliance Leader, Bukjin began to loot the other corpses in the hall. He managed to scrounge up a decent haul. Combined with what he'd taken from the leader, he now had a total of 190 gold taels. There were various other trinkets, but nothing that caught his eye.

The last person he'd killed was the Captain of the Black Flame Mercenaries. He found some promissory notes and a bit of cash on him, along with a manual titled The 36 Styles of the Mysterious Cave's Chamber Arts. The illustrations inside were so vivid and scandalous that Bukjin actually felt a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bit embarrassed just looking at them.

"What a shameless bastard. Carrying something like this around! I guess it makes sense, considering he took a degenerate like Sim Bi as his disciple. I heard the Temple put a bounty on him... he really was just a total thug!"

Grimacing and cursing the man's name, Bukjin scanned the manual with his smartphone and created the app. He then spent about 1 GB of data to download it.

Well, it doesn't hurt to have more skills.

Having finished his business, Bukjin prepared to leave the hall and check on Cho Heun in the Cave of Ten Thousand Poisons. Just then, the sound of urgent footsteps echoed from outside.

"How is it possible? Every single bandit has been wiped out!"

Startled, Bukjin gripped his sword and ducked behind the stone throne. He decided it was best to observe the situation before acting. He felt a pang of regret for using up all his poison.

If I had some left, I could have taken out a few more...

As he was thinking this, a dozen figures blurred into the hall with the sound of rushing wind.

"Everyone, stay sharp! There might still be poison lingering in the air... Huh?!"

The voice cut off abruptly. The speaker had spotted the gruesome remains of the Great Alliance Leader slumped over the throne.

"They're all dead!"

"To slaughter everyone in the stone fortress so cleanly..."

"Did you find Bukjin?!"

Several voices called out in succession. Hearing them, Bukjin finally let out a sigh of relief. Among the voices, he recognized the familiar tone of Ak Hong-hyang, who was supposed to be heading toward Unmong City.

The reinforcements finally made it?

They were late, but the fact that they had arrived at all was what mattered.

"Who's there!"

The group sensed Bukjin's movement and immediately dropped into combat stances.

"Haha, everyone, there's no need to be so tense. It's just me. The world's most peerless handsome boy."

Bukjin stepped out with a wide, goofy grin and offered a formal greeting.

"Captain Jin, we meet again."

The man leading the group was indeed Jin Geom-nam, the Captain of the Unmong-wi whom Bukjin had met during the preliminary rounds of the competition. Behind him were six other high-level experts from the Unmong-wi, along with the Principal of the 3rd Academy, Im Tae-heo, several other teachers, and Ak Hong-hyang, her face still partially concealed by a black cloth.