Dang Gyu-young was far from the authoritarian type, but if I teased them in front of the juniors, it would still sting their pride.
At minimum, it was only right to show a little consideration—so I’d bring that up later.
We found a decent spot and strolled along the water’s edge.
There wasn’t any difference in mana-cultivation efficiency, but since we’d be sitting or lying here for days on end, we might as well pick sowhere comfortable.
Seo Ye-in ca to a dead stop.
“......A perfect spot.”
She pulled out a portable mattress from her Inventory and lay down with only her feet in the pond.
Maybe sleep was crashing over her, because her eyelids drooped shut in a slow slide.
Dang Gyu-young laid down a cushion a short distance away, and I also marked a place that looked right.
And before we started mana cultivation, I warned Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa.
“It’s the early phase, so nothing should happen. Just watch the poison.”
At first, the monsters were low-level, and they showed up infrequently.
Then as ti passed, the difficulty climbed little by little.
Still, no matter how weak sothing was, approaching a pond that exhaled poison ant it had either that kind of immunity—or poison of its own.
Even a light brush could risk poisoning, so we couldn’t loosen our grip on vigilance.
Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa nodded with serious faces.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’ll hold it.”
Soon, I sat where I’d been watching, rolled up my pant legs, and put my feet into the pitch-black pond.
Then, as I slowly ran my Core, I felt an enormous force being sucked into .
*****
About six hours later, I opened my eyes as I finished my mana cultivation.
As if they’d sensed movent, Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa—who had been staring into the distance—turned their heads this way at the sa ti.
“You’re up.”
“Nothing happened?”
“Miss Hong handled it well.”
Where Go Hyeon-woo pointed, a heap of black ash was piled up.
Sothing had co, but it looked like they’d dealt with it just fine.
Dang Gyu-young got up as well, and Seo Ye-in—still lying on the portable mattress—only turned her head this way.
Under everyone’s eyes, I said,
“Let’s swap out. It’ll drain soon.”
Sure enough, the smoke that had been seeping up grew visibly thinner, and the poison energy that had filled the place seed to get pulled down into so depth.
Watching Poison Python Abyss regain its initial bluish clarity and transparency, Go Hyeon-woo smiled faintly.
“At last, the ti has co.”
“You’ve probably been waiting. Start right away.”
As if even a single second felt wasteful, Go Hyeon-woo imdiately sat in lotus posture.
Hong Yeon-hwa also scampered over to the spot where I’d been cultivating.
Then she dipped her feet into the water and flicked a glance at , but it didn’t look like she was just feeling awkward about using my spot.
I wondered what that was about—then tossed out the question.
“You too?”
“, too......?”
She asked back like she had no idea, but maybe she felt guilty, because her red eyes wandered around.
Dang Gyu-young spoke in a subtle tone.
“Be honest. You brought it, right?”
“Well...... you said we were going into sothing like a lake...... so, just in case......?”
“That happens. Of course it happens.”
And with that, they shot a smug little smile.
Roughly translated, it was probably: See? It’s not just .
anwhile, Seo Ye-in looked like she ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ didn’t want to get up at all, still rolling around on the portable mattress.
Right then our eyes t, so I said a word to her.
“Don’t get up. Focus on cultivation.”
“Is that okay?”
“Just and my older sister standing watch is enough.”
Monsters weren’t pouring in by the herd—just a few at a ti, now and then, and all we had to do was swat them down as they ca.
With two people, it wouldn’t be hard to hold.
And rather than add an extra body to guard duty, it was a better choice to squeeze out even a little more mana cultivation.
“You’ve gotta hit A-rank fast.”
“......A-rank.”
Seo Ye-in’s eyes sparkled as she nodded.
Then she lay back down on the portable mattress—and fell into a deep sleep in five seconds.
Dang Gyu-young stared at that with jealous eyes.
“Must be nice, getting to do it for all three days.”
“This is when you push it.”
Opportunities to enter [Poison Python Abyss] didn’t co very often, because the regeneration cycle after a clear was longer than most dungeons.
Opportunities to enter [Poison Python Abyss] didn’t co very often, because the regeneration cycle after a clear was longer than most dungeons.
And it’s a pretty popular dungeon, too.
Normally, nobody would be using the [Book of Chaos], and nobody would be poison-immune like us, so mana cultivation would top out at eight hours a day.
Even so, the efficiency was so good that bidding competition was fierce.
That was why a spot almost never opened up—until Dang Gyu-young forced it open using a priority bidding ticket.
There were mana-cultivation Hidden Pieces in other dungeons too, but there was no telling when we’d ever be back here again.
So as long as we secured safety, it was right to aim for maximum efficiency.
Dang Gyu-young nodded readily.
“Fair. They’re not far from A either, right?”
“If we do three days here, Seo Ye-in is basically guaranteed. The other two will get right up to the doorstep.”
“Then it’s before finals at the latest. Fast. Real fast. For it was around mid–second year.”
Then, like talking to themselves, they asked,
“......Am I about to get caught?”
“You won’t be caught that easily.”
“Right? Because I’m charging hard too?”
Dang Gyu-young smiled with a laugh full of competitive spirit.
After that, we passed the ti chatting about nothing in particular.
We circled the pond like we were taking a stroll, stopped briefly at a spot to scan the far side, then repeated the loop like we were strolling again.
In the middle of that, a sharp sound scraped past my ear.
KIIING—
Sothing had touched the alarm magic.
We exchanged a glance, then headed over.
Pushing quickly through the tropical rainforest, we spotted a huge spider a short distance away.
Each leg was as thick as a human thigh, and its body was even more bloated.
It was gaudy in yellow and black, and the pattern near its abdon looked like a crude human face.
“......”
The gaudy spider kept tripping the alarm magics as it moved toward Poison Python Abyss.
I couldn’t tell whether it was aiming for the dense energy—or for our party.
Of course, either way, we had to stop it.
Dang Gyu-young flicked a hand, and the thing’s shadow writhed, changing into the shape of a man in a martial robe.
Kkyurim Shadow Undead No.2, Kkyu-Young Corps Commander.
......!
As if it sensed an instinctive wrongness, the spider flinched and looked down.
But by then, Kkyu-Young Corps Commander had already manifested and brushed past it.
SHHK—
The gaudy spider split cleanly in half in an instant.
This was a fight between C-rank and A-rank. There was no way it could be a match.
As Dang Gyu-young retrieved Kkyu-Young Corps Commander, they asked,
“Don’t you think my control’s improved?”
“It’s definitely better than before.”
Back during the Fix Zone tournant, it really felt like they were getting dragged around by their own undead.
They hadn’t even been a new class for long, and both the Director and the Shadow Corps Commander had an A-rank base.
But now, the way the undead served them was very natural—looks like they’d raised proficiency by using them constantly.
Once we saw how they dealt with the hidden boss later, it would be even clearer.
“Keep practicing, and let’s get ready to bring in one more.”
“Nice. But don’t I have to increase my slots first?”
“That’s why we’re preparing starting now.”
“Got it. How do we get it?”
“The normal way is tough.”
Universal slot-expansion items had absurd demand precisely because anyone could use them.
Listings were rare, and even when sothing did appear, the seller nad the price.
It was the kind of level only a group like Hye-seong Group could afford, so for and Dang Gyu-young, it wasn’t even thinkable.
So the next-best option was—
“You can also aim for [Hardship] quest rewards.”
“I’ve been clearing them, but it’ll take a while. Of all things, I got a kill quest.”
A quest that literally required killing targets that t the condition.
For example: kill twenty “humanoid” monsters of “B-rank or higher,” and twenty “insect-type” monsters.
They’d made decent progress recently by actively participating in raids, but it still needed more ti to clear.
And there was no guarantee the reward would even be a slot.
“Or we can look into necromancer items.”
If you used certain magic-to Hidden Pieces well, you could raise slots for related job lines.
Since I had Hidden Pieces morized like a list, all we needed was to get the magic to.
But there was a problem there too.
“Isn’t that basically a prohibited item?”
“Basically.”
“I don’t want to go to the temporary storage facility.”
“ neither. Let’s leave that as the last option.”
The next infiltration of the temporary storage facility had too low a chance of success.
It was best to find another way.
Or we could trade with the Principal.
The final destination of every prohibited item confiscated by the academy was the Principal and Vice Principal.
A lot would get disposed of in their own ways, but so would be stored in a special place.
The question was whether they’d hand that over to us without hesitation.
It’s not totally impossible.
When Dang Gyu-young cleared their class-change quest, they’d been supported by Lee Soo-dok and Seo Cheong-yong, and we’d also already revealed the fact that they’d changed into a necromancer-line class.
If we asked honestly that we needed slots, and proved it wouldn’t be harmful, they wouldn’t reject it with a single slash.
Of course, if it was a trade, I’d have to put sothing on the table too.
“For now, go out and check if there’s a listing. If there isn’t, we drop to Plan B, C...... and so on.”
“Mm-hm. I’ll look.”
We paused the conversation and made a full circuit around the pond, checking for anything off.
Then Dang Gyu-young tossed out another question.
“Hey, but aren’t you curious?”
“About what?”
“This.”
Judging by how they were fingering their shirt collar, I had a pretty good idea what “this” was.
“I’m a guy too. How could I not be curious?”
“......Wanna see?”
“I didn’t think you’d show .”
“It’d be a waste to just leave. Co over here.”
Dang Gyu-young curled up their lips and beckoned with a slow, teasing wave.
*****
Six hours passed.
Poison energy filled the pond again, and Go Hyeon-woo began standing watch with Hong Yeon-hwa.
As he scanned the tropical rainforest, he thought,
Looks like nothing happened again.
Traces of battle were visible in a few places, but every one of them was clean—like they’d finished it in an instant.
aning no threatening monsters had shown up yet.
If there was anything different, it was that Dang Gyu-young’s face looked oddly flushed.
They spent ti with Brother Kim, so it’s not that strange.
So Go Hyeon-woo brushed aside the question that had briefly surfaced.
“.......”
anwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa had been staring up at the sky the whole ti without saying a single word.
Her face practically read, I’m complicated, Please ask , so Go Hyeon-woo let out a wry smile and asked,
“Miss Hong, do you have so kind of worry?”
“......It’s not a worry, but... you know what we talked about before.”
“[Bond], you an.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you change your mind?”
“......Yeah.”
Hong Yeon-hwa turned her head and looked him straight on.
“Next ti a slot opens up...... I’m going to ask you to put it on .”
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