Chapter 110
Chapter 110
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: Thousand Poisons Immunity
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When Players level up, they fully recover as long as they don't actually die.
That was exactly why Manager Kim had waited for his level-up just moments ago.
Even if he was on the brink of death, as long as he leveled up, he could survive without dying.
Players also had a certain intuition for it.
They could instinctively sense how close they were to their next level-up.
And so, after the Man-Faced Tree Lord vanished, Manager Kim sprawled out flat on the spot where it had been, collapsing in a spread-eagle position.
Plop.
“Whew, I survived. Never gambling like that again. So-hye's gonna kill me.”
Thinking of his daughter So-hye, Manager Kim swore he'd never do it again.
Still, he'd gotten a pretty decent reward from this gamble.
[Achievement! 'Survived the Man-Faced Tree Lord's Poison' accomplished.]
[Title! 'Man-Faced Nemesis' acquired.]
[Skill! 'Thousand Poisons Immunity' acquired.]
“Hmm?”
Flat on his back, Manager Kim looked puzzled.
He had no choice but to be.
He got the achievement and title, but it was the new skill that baffled him.
‘Thousand Poisons Immunity... as a skill?’
Thousand Poisons Immunity.
Hae-jin had explained it once before.
While talking about the 'Thousand Poisons Immunity Pill,' one of the rewards from clearing a hidden trial in a previous Trials' Arena.
A resistance to a thousand different poisons—Thousand Poisons Immunity.
And now, he'd obtained it as a skill.
Still lying spread-eagled, Manager Kim checked the 'Man-Faced Nemesis' title from the achievement and the 'Thousand Poisons Immunity' skill.
‘Title first.’
Description: You become the natural predator of enemies with human faces.
Options: +30% Attack Power against monsters with human faces, +30% Defense against monsters with human faces, +10% to all stats when fighting monsters with human faces.
“Hmm, monsters with human faces...”
Manager Kim wondered what exactly that meant.
‘Does it apply to anything with a human face?’
Did that include actual humans?
In that moment, he checked the next one: Thousand Poisons Immunity.
Description: You are no longer affected by a thousand different poisons.
Options: Advanced Poison Immunity
Evolution Conditions: High-Grade Poison (In Progress), Cockatrice Poison (In Progress), Man-Faced Tree Lord's Poison (Complete), Flying Apsara's Poison (In Progress), Mythical Tiger's Poison (In Progress), Silver Serpent's Poison (In Progress), Blue Flower Rock Toad's Poison (In Progress), Millennia Stone Shell's Poison (In Progress), Golden Crown Snake King's Poison (In Progress), Blood Tiger Dream Web's Poison (In Progress).
“Evolution conditions?”
Staring at the evolution conditions for Thousand Poisons Immunity, Manager Kim was confused.
He counted the poisons listed.
“One, two... ten of them. And the Man-Faced Tree Lord's is complete...”
He had a rough idea of what those evolution conditions meant.
“The Leader said there's Myriad Poisons Immunity beyond Thousand Poisons Immunity. Even with Thousand Poisons Immunity, the Man-Faced Tree Lord's poison can still affect you. So, getting poisoned by all ten of these evolves the skill into Myriad Poisons Immunity?”
Exactly right.
The evolution condition for the Thousand Poisons Immunity skill.
It was the requirement to evolve into the 'Myriad Poisons Immunity' that Hae-jin had mentioned.
The answer was simple, really.
“Once this Trials' Arena ends, I'll ask the Leader.”
For Hae-jin's party members like Manager Kim, they didn't need to go far to learn things.
They had their Leader, Hae-jin, who knew everything.
With that thought, after a short rest, Manager Kim got moving again.
He had no choice.
“Ha, the poison mist is rising. Gotta move.”
Poison mist.
Hae-jin had warned them.
The setting for this twelfth Trials' Arena was the 'Poison Grove.'
Stay in one spot too long, and poison mist—an fog of toxins—would fill the air.
Once it rose high enough, the concentration would become too intense even for Thousand Poisons Immunity to handle.
So, Manager Kim had to keep moving.
Time passed slowly, and then Manager Kim saw it.
[Twelfth Trial completed.]
[Level up.]
The electronic billboard announced the end of the twelfth Trials' Arena.
It revealed the results to the Players.
[Twelfth Trial results being tallied.]
[Announcing Twelfth Trial results.]
[Zone Ranking TOP 3 for Twelfth Trial]
1st: Park Hae-jin - 51,400 points.
2nd: Speller - 42,100 points.
3rd: Earthly Supreme Sorceress - 39,400 points.
“Hmm, Leader and Sang took 1st and 2nd again. Earthly Supreme Sorceress must be Bo-young. Mages really have the edge this time...”
That was Manager Kim's take after seeing the top three once the Trials' Arena ended.
1st was almost always the Leader, Hae-jin, and 2nd was usually Lee Sang.
In the previous one, they'd watched Ji Soo-jung show off, letting her snag 3rd, but in this survival-of-the-fittest trial, the mage Park Bo-young claimed the spot.
No helping it.
Rankings in the Trials' Arena were mostly based on points from monster kills.
That meant mage classes, who could efficiently take down hordes of monsters, had a massive advantage.
Of course, it wasn't always mages who dominated.
Some stages left mages struggling.
But no denying that strong mage Players generally racked up points best.
Anyway, an assassin-class Player like Manager Kim couldn't do much about it.
He just waited for the rest of the system windows on the billboard.
[Number of survivors from this Trials' Arena: '2,500'.]
The previous Trials' Arena had 5,000 survivors, so halving that to 2,500 for this twelfth one.
Hae-jin had spelled it out.
『The survival condition for this Trials' Arena is until half the survivors die. So let's all grit our teeth and make it through.』
He'd added one more thing.
『Honestly, with all this prep I've given you, failing to survive would be ridiculous.』
Hae-jin and Raffaello had prepared everything needed for survival.
He'd even told them to acquire the Thousand Poisons Immunity Pill from the previous Trials' Arena to withstand the poison mist unscathed.
For his party members, failing to survive would be the real issue.
Anyway, after announcing survivor numbers, the billboard showed more.
[Twelfth Trial's hidden trial also completed.]
[Twelfth Trial's Hidden Trial.]
-Objective: Slay the Man-Faced Tree Lord!
-Achievers: Park Hae-jin, Speller, Earthly Supreme Sorceress, Raffaello, Anna, Me, Manager Kim, Crystal, Joker...
The hidden trial: Slay the Man-Faced Tree Lord.
Quite a few had pulled it off in this Trials' Arena.
As Players grew stronger, hidden trials targeting specific monsters became more achievable.
Then Manager Kim saw this.
[Hidden trial rewards being distributed.]
[Choose one of the following three rewards:]
1. Beggar's Clan Token
2. House of Hao Token
3. Southern Savage Beast Palace Token
Clearing the hidden trial yielded three identity tokens as rewards.
The Beggar's Clan Token: affiliation with the Beggar's Clan, the Orthodox Alliance's info gatherers from the Nine Great Sects.
The House of Hao Token: marking membership in the House of Hao, an info network akin to the Beggar's Clan but for the unorthodox—since the Alliance had the Beggar's Clan.
Finally, the Southern Savage Beast Palace Token: identity for one of the outer factions, the Five Outer Palaces.
Hae-jin said each had pros and cons.
If planning to operate mainly in orthodox territories in future Trials' Arenas, go Beggar's Clan Token.
For unorthodox areas, House of Hao Token.
The Southern Savage Beast Palace Token? Simple reason.
The next Trials' Arena's setting was Southern Savage Beast Palace territory.
The Poison Grove Players had just cleared was at the southern edge of the Yun'nan region, home to the Southern Savage Beast Palace—meaning the thirteenth would be there.
With Hae-jin explaining all this, his party naturally figured the hidden trial reward should be the Southern Savage Beast Palace Token.
But Hae-jin told them:
『Pick the House of Hao Token, no question.』
It baffled the party, who thought the Palace Token would fit the next stage perfectly.
Hae-jin explained:
『The Southern Savage Beast Palace doesn't care about tokens—if you prove your strength in a fight, you can operate freely. No real need for their token. Better to grab a Beggar's Clan or House of Hao Token for info gathering or Central Plains ops.』
They asked why House of Hao over Beggar's Clan.
Hae-jin replied:
『Want to live like a beggar? Then take the Beggar's Clan Token.』
No elaboration needed.
That summed it up.
No one wanted to live like a beggar, so they all agreed on the House of Hao Token.
Manager Kim picked the House of Hao Token as instructed.
Soon after claiming the hidden reward, he returned to reality.
The Poison Grove faded from view, replaced by Hae-jin's house where he'd been staying.
Hae-jin, the first thing he saw, greeted him.
“You've worked hard, Manager Kim.”
Manager Kim chuckled wryly at Hae-jin's words.
“Yes, thank you.”
After greetings with the rest of the party, Manager Kim called out to Hae-jin.
“Ah, Leader.”
“Yes?”
“Got a question for you.”
“What is it?”
“I acquired a skill called 'Thousand Poisons Immunity.'”
Hae-jin's expression hardened the instant Manager Kim mentioned the skill.
“...You got hit by the Man-Faced Tree Lord's poison?”
“Yeah, fighting it and all...”
“But you survived thanks to the level-up.”
“Yeah, figured as long as I took it down, the level-up would save me.”
“Well, you're alive, so that's good. Still, I specifically told you not to fight if you might get poisoned by it... and you went and did exactly that.”
A hint of anger flickered in Hae-jin's eyes at the disobedience.
Seeing it, Manager Kim apologized right away.
He remembered getting mad at squad members for ignoring orders back in his special forces days as squad leader.
“Sorry for disobeying your orders.”
“No, you're safe—that's what matters. You're wondering about that, right? How to evolve Thousand Poisons Immunity into Myriad Poisons Immunity.”
“Exactly.”
Manager Kim nodded as Hae-jin nailed his question.
Hae-jin spoke to him casually, like the skill wasn't a big deal.
“Just pop a Transformation Pill later that teaches Myriad Poisons Immunity directly.”