With the tide suddenly turning, Undine looked more than a little flustered.
It retreated far back and regrouped.
Doesn’t matter. It has to co back in anyway.
[Advance and Retreat] is a powerful effect, but its weakness is just as clear.
It has to keep doing the sa thing.
The mont it breaks even once, every bonus it’s stacked up so far evaporates completely.
And at this point, even if it tries a different approach, there’s no guarantee it’ll win.
Better to just commit and decide it here.
Undine seed to agree, because it ford a whirlpool with its waves and pushed in.
KWAHAAAAA—!
anwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa had regained her breathing room.
She created several fireballs on her palm, each about the size of a ping-pong ball, and threw them into the whirlpool.
The instant those little spheres were sucked in and vanished from sight, she thrust her staff forward and triggered the next spell.
[Outburst]
PUP-PUP-PUP-PUNG!
Fire explosions erupted in rapid succession—shattering the whirlpool, and even damaging Undine itself.
It staggered hard, then pulled back like an ebbing tide.
Staring at it, Hong Yeon-hwa said one short line.
“I’ll finish it.”
“Let’s.”
If we got cute and let the [Advance and Retreat] stacks build even more, it might flip again.
And we also had to watch her remaining mana—so it was better to end it the mont the advantage swung our way.
A wide circle spread out around Hong Yeon-hwa.
Complex formulas filled it and blinked red.
Maybe it sensed she was about to throw her winning move, because Undine also began preparing its most powerful magic.
Waves rose up to the ceiling, and wild horses made of water and ice pawed the air.
Then Undine, the waves, and the wild horses surged together as one.
KWAHAAAAA—!
At the sa ti, Hong Yeon-hwa completed her spell and pointed straight ahead with her staff.
A pillar of fire blood—and unlike before, a tiny object like a quail egg appeared in midair.
The quail egg trembled, then cracked.
A baby bird broke through the shell.
It quickly grew to chick-size, then fluttered toward the oncoming wave.
At a glance, it looked like it would be swallowed whole—
But that wasn’t what happened.
The instant it got close, every bit of ice lted away, boiled, and evaporated.
In less ti than it took to drink a glass of water, the wave, the wild horses—even Undine—were gone without a trace.
After wiping them out in a single sweep, the flaming chick fluttered back and landed on Hong Yeon-hwa’s shoulder.
It even seed a little bigger now.
“This kid grows fast.”
“If I just have ti......”
“So this is what you said you’d been researching?”
“Mm. But I still need more.......”
Hydra’s biggest weakness is that it can’t move.
It’s strong enough even with that, but she must’ve wanted to handle more situations.
A flying type does have great versatility.
Almost no restrictions on movent.
And it’s easy to take advantage of enemies who can’t fight in the air.
And it looks like the destructive power is pretty serious, too.
A big part of it was B-rank AquaFla, sure—but she still deleted a C-rank dungeon boss in one hit.
That said, the drawbacks were pretty obvious.
It’s too heavy.
Even with Hong Yeon-hwa’s absurd casting speed, it took a long ti.
In most situations, it would be better to stack other spells during that ti.
And it looked like the growth itself ate ti, too.
A long cast ti, then a long ti for it to fully grow.
It was basically an overt long-fight Skill.
At this rate, the versatility was too low—so even if she had to give up so destructive power, making it lighter seed like the right call.
Still, no need to backseat her right now.
She clearly knew it too, and she said herself she needed more research.
We could just keep feeding her [Hardship] quests and watch how it develops.
KRRRUMBLE.......
The dungeon collapsed, and a teleport portal opened.
In front of it sat several small boxes.
[Walking Turtle Random Box (C)]*4
As we collected them, I turned my head and looked at the turtle inside the gigantic tank.
“.......”
It had regained its freedom and was slowly swimming through the tank, and sohow it almost looked like it was showing us gratitude.
I’ll take repaynt in Traits.
First, I made space in my Copy slot.
[Using ‘Fixed Pin’.]
[Fixing ‘Crown of the Hyun King’.]
The other Traits in my slots were useful too, but this ti I prioritized fixing Crown of the Hyun King.
If I wanted to use it in future combinations, it had to be truly mine.
I planned to use the next Fixed Pin on sothing similar.
[Using ‘Copy-Trait’.]
[Registering the target’s Trait ‘Self-Generation (S)’ to the slot.]
▷Copy-Trait[4/4]
Self-Generation (S)
Ti Resistance (S)
Pain Delay
Chain Explosion (S)
[Trait]
▷Crown of the Hyun King
The turtle had almost no combat power, but as the core of a mobile fortress, its key Traits were S-rank.
With that, we’d achieved everything we ca for—so we stepped through the portal one by one.
Warmth wrapped around my body imdiately.
The underground floors were chilly in their own way, but the dungeon had been so cold that this felt almost warm by comparison.
Seo Ye-in looked extrely satisfied.
“I have energy.”
“Ca out and instantly revived, huh.”
“This body resurrected.”
Then she looked up at with sparkling eyes and tugged my arm.
“Box opening. Now.”
“What’s gotten into you, asking to go first?”
“Good day.”
Well, she’d learned the space-type Skill she wanted so badly—and learned it as a finisher-class one, at that.
When she’s like this, you ride the wave.
If Lucky Charm is offering to open boxes, refusing is just taking a loss.
So the mont we reached the surface, we moved to a quiet spot.
“Dang and Go probably won’t join. Let’s do it ourselves.”
Dang Gyu-young was probably in a dungeon by now, and Go Hyeon-woo—whether training or circulating mana—almost never answered ssages.
Either way, both of them always left random boxes entirely to , so it wasn’t a problem.
I laid out everything we’d earned from recent clears across the table.
[Poison Python Abyss Random Box (C)]*1
[Poison Python Abyss Random Box (B)]*2
[Walking Turtle Random Box (C)]*4
Then I asked Lucky ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Charm in a respectful tone.
“What would you like to open first?”
“.......”
Without a word, Seo Ye-in pulled three Walking Turtle boxes toward herself and flipped them open one after another.
FLASH—!
[Sturdy Shell (B)]*3
Large hexagonal iron plates.
The sa material that made up the back of the mobile fortress.
Three C-rank boxes, and all three coughed up B-rank items in perfect harmony.
“Nice start.”
“Warm-up.”
“If it’s just warm-up, that ans we can raise our expectations, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“Excellent.”
Sturdy Shell is a Material Item, mostly used for crafting armor.
But for us, it wasn’t very useful—we could get better materials anyti.
Then we feed it.
[Greedy Material Selection Ticket (D)]
▷Growth-Type Item
▷You can increase Exp by consuming Material Items.
▷Exp:48.33%
The three shells vanished, and the ticket’s rank updated.
[Greedy Material Selection Ticket (C)]
▷Exp:88.65%
Next, Seo Ye-in chose the C-rank Poison Python Abyss box.
But instead of pulling it toward herself, she slowly pushed it across the table.
The tension flooded into Hong Yeon-hwa’s smiling face.
She asked, hesitating over every word.
“M-... I... open this......?”
“Challenge.”
Seo Ye-in said it while clenching her fist.
“.......”
Hong Yeon-hwa subtly rolled her eyes toward in a silent SOS.
After that ti she completely bricked it and only got resurrected by a miracle, she was probably scared to open anything.
So I said calmly.
“So what if it’s bad. Don’t worry too much—open it.”
“Mm.......”
Hong Yeon-hwa reluctantly nodded and stared down at the random box.
She hunched her shoulders, then carefully lifted the lid.
WHOOOSH!
A dark green aura burst out, then vanished cleanly.
Even without a flashbang-style burst of light, that was a decent effect.
Hong Yeon-hwa seed to sense it too, because her complexion brightened.
When we checked what ca out—
[White King Serpent Inner Core (C )]
An inner core of poison.
Back in the first sester, she’d eaten sothing like this while trying to raise [Hundred-Poison Immunity] into [Thousand-Poison Immunity].
I handed the inner core to Hong Yeon-hwa.
“Use this. You need to raise your [Core].”
“Yeah... thanks.......”
With Ten-Thousand-Poison Immunity shared through [Bond], she wouldn’t take poison damage at all.
To us, it was basically a C -grade elixir.
Glancing at Hong Yeon-hwa’s excited face, I asked Seo Ye-in,
“Is it my turn next?”
“No.”
Seo Ye-in shook her head.
Then she pushed another Poison Python Abyss box to Hong Yeon-hwa.
This ti, it was B-rank.
As the risk went up, Hong Yeon-hwa’s hesitation grew even bigger.
“B-rank is kinda......”
“Challenge.”
“What if we do a different one—”
“Challenge.”
Under those eyes—so bright it was almost oppressive—Hong Yeon-hwa couldn’t bring herself to refuse.
Like she’d accepted her fate, she put on a peaceful expression and opened the random box.
WHOOOOSH—!
A darker, thicker black aura poured out than before.
The stench was worse too—but instead of frowning, Hong Yeon-hwa was letting out a relieved breath.
Soon the black aura and the sll vanished like they’d been washed away.
And in the spot where the box had been, a black, clumped mass sat there.
[Poison Python Inner Core (B )]
The inner core of the giant serpent-dragon—Poison Python Abyss’s hidden boss.
Seo Ye-in and I praised her in turns.
“You’re lucky today. Bonus every ti.”
“Challenge success.”
“R-really......? Heh.”
Hong Yeon-hwa looked dazed, but she clearly liked being praised—her lips kept twitching upward.
And then I tossed out another line like it was nothing.
“Take that too.”
“Really... I can...?”
“Of course you can. Your share is huge.”
Even during [Poison Python Abyss], she’d done her part—and in [Walking Turtle], she’d handled most of the fighting.
The second part was for AquaFla rank grinding, sure, but her contribution still counted.
Now we had two boxes left: one B-rank Poison Python Abyss, and one C-rank Walking Turtle.
“.......”
Seo Ye-in looked between them, tilted her head, looked between them again, tilted her head again—
Then grabbed the C-rank box and snapped it open in one motion.
PAHHT!
A rainbow glow painted the air.
An effect I’d seen before.
As my blurry mory sharpened, the item revealed itself.
[Skillbook Fairy Summoning Scroll]
A fairy that will bring you the Skillbook you want—though you have to pay a steep price.
Before, I’d used [Seven Wind] and [Wind Armor] to get [Ice Shard Bomb].
“How do you pull this from a C-rank box?”
It didn’t have a rank listed, but it was basically A-rank.
And last ti, it had co out of an A-rank random box too.
Seo Ye-in tilted her head slightly to the side.
“......Luck is good?”
“Yeah, there’s no other answer. Well done.”
“Last.”
Seo Ye-in stared at the one remaining random box.
Then she slowly raised a hand and covered her eyes.
That ant she had confidence—so Hong Yeon-hwa and I followed suit and covered our eyes too.
“.......”
A mont later, the darkness behind my eyelids dyed itself in rainbow colors.
KWAHAAAAA—!
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