Chapter 95 Abyss (4)

‘Unlimited regression, what difficulty will it be..?’

The exploration trials could be faced in teams, so he didn’t think it was meant to be held alone. Considering that, it was clear that there would be tricky opponents, but none that were unbeatable. Perhaps the Tower had deliberately given room for him to win.

‘But if I catch several people, does it mean that there will be more than one reward?’

While he entertained those ideas..

「The end of the Abyss exploration is complete.」

「Portal to the Great Labyrinth will be created.」

A blue portal opened over the box.

Whoooooosh!

An arrow came from behind. It wasn’t a warning shot; the target point was Yoon-seok’s head. Maybe a skill was used as purple energy was infused around the tip of the arrow.

“..”

Yoon-seok turned his head slightly to avoid the attack. Then he turned around nonchalantly. Perhaps he had worked hard down the stairs, but before he knew it, the Lizardman was standing in front of him with a bow.

“I don’t know why a human challenger is here.. leave what you got here.”

He seemed to know what open portals and boxes meant without needing further explanation. Yoon-seok asked quietly.

“What if I don’t?”

“..”

The Lizardman didn’t answer. He just quietly tucked away his bow and pulled out his sword to get ready for a fight. It meant he was going to kill him and steal his rewards.

‘It seems like he’s quite used to this kind of thing.’

Yoon-seok checked the Lizardman’s head, but there was no judgment mark. He didn’t enjoy bullying nor hurting anyone, but it meant he wouldn’t hesitate to pull out his sword as long as there were benefits. Yoon-seok couldn’t hide his disappointment.

‘After all, everyone’s the same.’

Was it because he saw him fight the demons alone while moving toward his goal? He thought he would be different even though they’ve never talked before, but it wasn’t like that. This person was no different than a low-life. Snatching and stealing were also part of the competition.

“..”

A confrontation twenty meters away. The Lizardman’s eyes, that saw an opportunity through the opening, shone as keenly as a predator on a long hunt. Even if he went through the portal to the Great Labyrinth, he could sense that he would follow him.

‘Well, I don’t intend to just disappear now.’

Why did he risk his life to harness power? It was because he didn’t want to go through this kind of absurdity with the excuse that he was powerless. This was what he had to go through anyway, so he might as well make it work in his favor.

‘I want to cry, but he’s in for it.’

A duel application could only be made to challengers, and this Lizardman was the strongest exploration challenger he’d ever met. Yoon-seok used Enhanced Speed without hesitation.

「A duel has been established.」

「Get ready. The duel will begin soon.」

The stage was set to devour his opponent.

It felt like quite a while since he’d been to the arena. As always, Yoo-seok watched for his opponent’s reaction.

“..?”

He was disconcerted by the sudden change in the environment. Yet, perhaps he had been through a lot so far, as the Lizardman quickly found his composure.

「START!」

The duel began. Surprisingly, his opponent was the one who moved first. Was he going to get the upper hand in terms of space? The weapon he took out this time was not a sword but a spear. There was purple energy at the end of the blade, similar to the aura coating the arrow earlier.

Whoosh!

Neat and concise jabs. He had known to some extent after seeing him fight while descending the stairs, but clearly, his foundation was balanced. But that was all.

Using three different weapons? Armed with equipment that could respond to any situation? Maybe it worked for exploration trials, but it wasn’t a very smart choice in a duel.

‘Interesting.’

Was it a feature of the weapon itself? The long spear stretched out, but there wasn’t anything else special about it. Using the sticking principle, Yoon-seok grabbed the tip of the spear and pulled his foe closer.

“Gahhh!”

Was he trying to endure it with strength? The Lizardman shouted and infused more power into the spear handle. Of course, that wouldn’t work. There was a huge gap between their basic stats, not to mention their techniques.

Whooooooooosh!

While holding the spear, Yoon-seok created a Bloodseeker Sword and fired it off. A protective shield was formed from the necklace that the opponent was wearing to block it. But, even now, the Bloodseeker Energy emptied by the King of the Abyss was being filled up steadily. All he had to do was make more.

Whoooooosh!

Once again, a shield was formed from the necklace. As if there was a limit on the number of times, the third time, light burst out of the ring, and he moved away to avoid the sword. Three, four, five..

Was it because the equipment was easily obtainable in explorations? The opponent struggled to prevent Yoon-seok’s attack by relying on equipment rather than skills.

‘If he had arrived earlier, he would have just died.’

Soon after, Yoon-seok realized that he overestimated his opponent. He could hunt weak creatures well, but it didn’t apply to duels in the slightest. Still, he had been observing the way he fought. He no longer felt the need to do so.

‘Let’s end this.’

It was safe to say that it happened as soon he made up his mind. The Lizardman’s head was sent soaring.

Slash.

「Victory.」

「Unique Skill {Predation} has been activated.」

「Acquire one of your opponent’s skills at random.」

「Acquired Unlock (Rank D-).」historical

「Loot one of your opponent’s equipment at random.」

「Looted Ring of Darkness (Rank B-).」

「Absorb some of your opponent’s highest stats.」

「Absorbed magic stats.」

Yoon-seok, who was looking through the rewards without being impressed, smacked his lips. Unlike his splendid appearance, he was just an empty shell.

After the duel with Lizardman, Yoon-seok returned to Great Labyrinth through the portal. As before, he went through the labyrinth to break down the secret spaces. But was it because of the Purity bracelet he obtained from Heaven that increased luck? On the eighth day, Yoon-seok finally found what he wanted.

*Cross-Dimensional Bracelet (Rank A+) – Upon wearing, all items can be carried around when moving dimensions.

Although Yoon-seok achieved his first goal, he still traveled around the Great Labyrinth to find new secret spaces. However, did the Tower decide that such a trick could no longer be tolerated? On the ninth day, there was a change in the Great Labyrinth. Should he compare it to an emergency patch in an online game? At some point, the stone gates connecting to the secret space couldn’t be scratched with the Judgment of the Ruined Monarch.

‘But I’m glad I got what I was looking for.’

When he first learned about the change, instead of feeling disappointed, he was more relieved. If the sanctions had been imposed a day earlier, he wouldn’t have gotten this bracelet. Now they could no longer be cleared, Yoon-seok focused on collecting essence with his remaining time.

In a flash, the time for him to return arrived.

「Completed.」

「Calculating the total essences in possession.」

「982,000DP will be paid as a reward.」

「You can purchase items using DP at the store.」

The phrase appeared while he was hunting, and he was already in the waiting room when he came back to his senses. Was it because he had been in such a dark place? The musty waiting room felt like a breath of fresh air.

‘Let’s check it out first.’

Yoon-seok clicked on the tablet. Now next to the AP and MP items added to the store’s prices was DP. Again, the value was 1:1. In other words, it was safe to say that he gained almost one million AP from the exploration. However, he did feel slightly begrudged about the reward after killing countless monsters and gathering essences that a typical explorer could never have imagined.

‘Well, it’s not like there are only monsters in exploration.’

He also had several items obtained from the secret spaces. If that was the case, he gained much more at once than he would in a duel.

‘As expected, there are also things that can only be purchased by DP like last time.’

Before using the points, Yoon-seok selected items that could only be purchased by DP, but he wasn’t attracted to anything this time either. All of them were skills and equipment that would be helpful during exploration trials.

‘Let’s start organizing first.’

He had gained so much from this trial that it was necessary to organize and make up his mind. To be honest, it was hard to organize one by one. However, Yoon-seok smiled happily and started on the work.

‘Skills first.’

A total of three skills were obtained from the exploration. Among them, Yoon-seok checked what he was curious about the whole time.

{Non-verbal magic}

Rank B — Once every 600 seconds, skills can be used again within the cooldown.

Rank C — Increases the power of active techniques by 4x.

Rank D — Activation time for all skills is halved.

Rank E — Cooldown for reuse for all skills is halved.

Rank F — Command is omitted when skills are used.

He only knew its effects up until Rank D. Although he’d synthesized it into b Bloodseeker’s Ultimatum} as soon as he upgraded the skill, he still checked the contents. Yoon-seok’s mouth fell open.

‘Wow, this is crazy.’

If this were before he got the Judgment of the Ruined Monarch, he wouldn’t have such a big reaction. But a 4x increase in power and reset cooldown once every 10 minutes?

‘Will it overlap with Descent’s effects?’

He tested out Judgment of the Ruined Monarch consecutively. The maintaining time was elongated, but the effect of increasing the stats hadn’t doubled. Next, Yoon-seok checked his other skills.

*Unlock (Rank D-) – Locks below a certain rank are unlocked when used skills.

Characteristic 1, Grave Robber: Gets a +3 rank correction when a box or door is unlocked.

He obtained it from the duel with the Lizardman, so it was a given that the skill was one an exploration challenger would carry. Yoon-seok moved on to the next one, thinking that it wouldn’t be of good use. Well, the next one wasn’t any different.

*Return Agreement (Rank B+) – Returns below a certain rank can be tamed.

What was a return? He’d never seen anything like that, and if he only fought in duels, he imagined that would continue to be the case. Plus, there was no guarantee that taming would be of great help even if he did search for it.

“It’s almost a bust.”

The equipment obtained from the duel was similarly useless.

*Ring of Darkness (Rank B-) – Move 5 m randomly when magic is poured in. Wait 360 seconds for reuse. Magic below Rank A+ increases by +1.

His Enhanced Speed had better compatibility, and his magic already surpassed Rank A+. There were many places where he could wear the ring, but Yoon-seok immediately recycled it with Steel Stealth.

‘In the end, I don’t have much to get after all.’

Except for equipment looted through {Predation}, there was no need to check anything else. Since he checked it with Appraisal then, he immediately changed them for durability. The pocket watch and two bracelets. After all that, this was all the equipment that was kept. Thanks to this, his durability had risen dramatically to Rank B.

‘Well, if it was all converted to AP, it’s already a big deal, but..’

His physical strength rose to B+ due to the upgrade in stats, and he didn’t know what changed, but he also experienced an upgrade in his magic. And most of all, with this pocket watch, he could do something he could never have imagined before.

‘Let’s try it.’

First of all, Yoon-seok used 750,000 DP to upgrade {Predation} to Rank B.

{Predation}

Rank B — When winning a duel, skills to be acquired, equipment to be looted, and stats to be absorbed can be chosen.

He couldn’t believe there was no random acquirement anymore. Yoon-seok’s face twisted into a huge grin.

‘If I could turn back time, I would’ve upgraded b Predation} first.’

The return time with the pocket watch was five minutes, unfortunately. Pushing the thought aside, Yoon-seok quickly activated Skill Synthesis.

「Please select the skill to synthesize.」

「It is possible to synthesize up to 3 skills, and all ranks must be the same.」

Among the list of countless skills in front of him, Yoon-seok quickly chose three.

b Bloodseeker’s Ultimatum}, b Violet Mist of Divine Skill}, {Azure Dragon Energy}.

He didn’t even dare to try before because there was no way to go back. Yet, to be honest, he was very curious. What would appear if these three skills were combined?

「The technique has been synthesized.」

「Acquired Divine Ultimatum.」