28. Gambling
Fatigue clung to me like a second skin as I stripped off my battered clothes and chugged a recovery potion.
"Urgh."
It burned like hell where the wounds were—felt more like pouring lava than potion. But what choice did I have? If I just sat there, I'd bleed out and die.
At my feet lay the corpse of the elite lizardman warrior I'd just finished off. These bastards took forever to despawn. Maybe because they were elites or named monsters, or perhaps it varied by level—I had no clue.
Anyway, this time I'd really come that close to dying.
The thrill of my growth had gone to my head, made me too cocky. Charging four elite warrior lizardmen with junk gear? Yeah, I was out of my mind.
Lizardmen were tough mobs that normally required a full party to take down one-on-one. And elite warrior lizardmen were the cream of the crop—insanely strong not just in specs, but in skill too.
Two with spears, one with shield and axe, and one decked in heavy armor wielding dual swords. All of them handled weapons bigger than their bodies like extensions of themselves.
When they ganged up? Forget about it.
After a few exchanges, I got that sinking 'oh fuck, this is bad' feeling and had to switch back to my real gear mid-fight.
They didn't even give me breathing room to swap, hounding me relentlessly, so I could only change a few pieces.
"But I won, so whatever."
Sure, there were a few moments where I legit thought I was done for, but I pulled through and survived. And the rewards for overcoming that crisis? Sweet as hell.
Putting down that many lizardmen bumped my level decently. Honestly, I figured it'd go higher, but it stalled right at 50—probably hitting a big EXP wall.
Still, nailing those elite warriors unlocked the [Stalwart Warrior] achievement, pumping my stats nicely. Agility and Durability, which lagged behind Strength, each got a +5 boost, and HP jumped to 750.
Even naked, my base stats now rivaled a level 55.
"But why'd Agility get an extra point?"
The achievement gave identical +5s, yet Agility showed one more. Maybe like skills, stats tick up under certain conditions? Too many variables to pinpoint.
"Eh, it went up, so good enough..."
I closed the status window and opened my skills.
My list had gotten pretty long by now.
[Combat Awakening Lv.9]
[Combat Persistence Lv.9]
[Bleed Resistance Lv.5]
[Stun Resistance Lv.3]
[Combat Healing Lv.3]
[Paralysis Resistance Lv.3]
[Poison Resistance Lv.3]
[Basic Swordsmanship Lv.2]
[Basic Unarmed Combat Lv.1]
(Sword Mastery Lv.4, Earth Spirit's Blessing Lv.4, Indomitable Lv.4, Instinct Lv.4 unchanged)
The two skills from Floor 2 shot up to Lv.9 in no time—my highest levels.
The resistance lineup was impressive too. Paralysis and Poison Resistance were new from this fight but already Lv.3. Made me proud, but damn, what kind of insane poison did that NPC use? Good thing I had recovery potions galore; any normal challenger without antidotes would've been toast.
Then again, a normal challenger wouldn't have gotten backstabbed by those NPCs in the first place.
Other skills? Sword Mastery, Earth Spirit's Blessing unchanged. Indomitable and Instinct hit Lv.4. And two fresh passives outside resistances.
Basic classes like Warrior get these from specific quests. No descriptions, so effects unknown. But community consensus: higher levels = better skills.
Does that mean my swordplay hit "basic" proficiency? From zero experience?
"Pretty... impressive, right?"
Even "basic" was huge from scratch. These might be my biggest gains this time.
**
Once my wounds fully healed, I headed back to the village for resupply.
Most NPCs were expedition members, but none asked about their leader who'd left with me. Guess NPCs gonna NPC. Good thing—no hostility meant no hassle for me.
[Tower of Trials #2661 (1/1)]
I checked the Tower chat for the first time in ages. No lingering attachment, but still zero newbies.
Repaired my gear, then hit up the general goods NPC.
Cures low-level poison status upon use. Effect varies by poison type.
Having gotten wrecked by poison, I blew gold on a shitload of antidotes. Tower resources were mine alone—gold overflowed.
Finally, I grabbed something special from another overlooked NPC.
Inflicts status ailments on hit with chance based on hit location and target's resistances.
Archer trash with crap cost-performance—no one used these poison arrows. I stocked up on varieties anyway, burning excess gold.
Not like I was an archer with real use for them. Well, maybe stab monsters up close to poison 'em...
But I'd rather just shank 'em with my sword. Hell, punches would hit harder.
These weren't for monsters.
Fighting lizardmen while poisoned taught me tons. To survive a body slowly shutting down, I needed hyper-efficient movement. My survival instincts nailed it.
No wasted motion in that desperate fight—it sparked massive growth. Way more than dozens of half-assed spars.
Like how Mom's death snapped me awake: big changes need big shocks.
Not saying prior efforts were wasted. Just efficiency.
And those new resistance skills? Chugging potions to brute-force the poison jumped them straight to Lv.3.
Recreate that artificially... and I could grow them more?
◈ Chance to inflict status on hit
Jam these into myself, then spam recovery potions to force through? Only someone with my gold and potion stacks could pull this off.
Fight lizardmen poisoned for even harsher limits. Risky as fuck—could die—but success means explosive growth.
"Gambling, huh."
Fail: dead. Win: stronger. Clear risk-reward.
Funny coming from me, but I've been a dopamine-junkie shut-in since day one. Stepped outside, but the itch remains.
So yeah, of course I'd get hooked on this.
"Let's do it."
Grinning, I jammed a poison arrow into my thigh.
-Stab!
Didn't this guy ask about spirit affinity or something last time? But no posts since. He dead?
Anyone still in touch with Jinhyeok?
DM'd over a hundred times, zero response. Could be grinding off-community, but this long? Weird. Probably accident trying solo boss.
Stop sending DMs, fuck.