Chapter 63

“What’s that?”

“It’s what I used when I made you guys last time. I set some aside since it was still usable.”

“I see.”

Answering like that, Jaeha used Alchemy to create a large vat.

“Put them in there.”

At that, the Corpse Puppets placed Chrise and Denny inside the vat as Jaeha instructed. Then Jaeha summoned Undine to fill the vat with water, and dissolved the poisons he’d hastily purchased from the Auction House into it.

Then he added a little of Darkin’s poison to the water. After adding the poison, Jaeha carefully dipped his hand into the water. Then he quietly began to channel his energy into it. He then steadily infused the poisonous water with mana.

“Huh?”

The moment he did, Jaeha yanked his hand back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Shit, I got poisoned again.”

Jaeha let out a sigh and immediately drew up his fire energy. In an instant, he burned away the poison’s influence. After incinerating all the toxicity, Jaeha exhaled.

“Let’s just finish this.”

“Yes.”

With that, Amy attended to Jaeha from his side, and before long, they completed the poisonous solution that would regenerate the jiangshi. After soaking Chrise and Denny in the solution, Jaeha stood up and spoke.

“From now on, be careful with acid-related skills. Rebuilding your bodies is a pain in the ass and costs a lot of money.”

“Yes.”

Hearing the jiangshi’s response, Jaeha nodded and left the sparring ground. Amy followed him out and asked.

“Master.”

“Hm?”

“You got poisoned, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Last time I dipped my hand in and shook it around like crazy without getting poisoned. This time it got me.”

“Huh.”

“I’m not exactly sure, but back when I was crafting, a window would pop up and all that. Looking at it now, I guess the system was protecting me back then. But this time, when I was fixing their bodies, no window appeared at all, so probably……”

“So you got poisoned because there was no system protection?”

“That seems to be the case.”

“If this happens again next time, you’ll get poisoned again……”

“That’s why I’m planning to look into something.”

“What?”

“Poison arts.”

“Poison…… arts?”

“Yeah. You’ve heard that the skills I use are martial arts, right?”

“Yes.”

“Among those martial arts, there are some that use poison. I’m going to get those skills and use them.”

“Huh.”

“Well, if I get poison arts and properly raise my Proficiency, I’ll probably become immune to other poisons too.”

“I’m curious. How do you acquire abilities, Master?”

“Want to see?”

“Yes.”

At that, Amy’s eyes sparkled, and Jaeha went into the room with her.

* * *

“That’s all of it?”

“Yep.”

“……”

“Heh.”

Smiling, Jaeha began sifting through the organized videos. Before long, he was able to obtain a poison art.

[Myriad Poison Art]

[Rank: Legendary]

[A poison art that achieves complete immunity to poison by consuming over ten thousand different kinds. Stores poison within the body as energy for later use.]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 3000]

[Proficiency: 100%]

As Jaeha read the description of the poison art, he thought, ‘That’s quite a lot.’ As he thought this and stood up, a window appeared before him.

[Skill acquisition is incomplete. Deactivating skill.]

[If you wish to lift the skill’s deactivation, gather poisons to unlock the skill’s seal.]

[Poisons of different properties: 0/10000]

[If the quality of consumed poison is high enough, the skill can be acquired regardless of quantity.]

At that, Jaeha pondered for a moment. Then he rummaged through his Inventory. Inside were the leftover poisonous herbs from fixing Chrise and the others earlier. After a moment of deliberation, Jaeha put them in his mouth and started chewing.

“Ugh. Tastes awful.”

After chewing poison for quite a while, Jaeha checked the remaining count.

[Poisons of different properties: 100/10000]

“……I ate quite a lot though.”

Letting out a sigh, Jaeha began organizing the poisons he had. His poisons were broadly divided into three types.

First, there were the ordinary poisonous herbs. Then there was the poisonous solution mixed with various poisons used when creating the jiangshi. And the rest was Darkin’s poison.

“Hmm, well, I’ve already eaten all the remaining poisonous herbs…… but no matter how I look at it, eating poison that’s been inside the jiangshi feels a bit off.”

It was true that the poison was clean enough to reuse since not much waste had accumulated, but that only meant it was relatively clean compared to other things.

It was practically impossible for waste not to build up at all in a living creature. Which meant the poison Jaeha had also contained a certain amount of waste.

“If I really had to eat it, I could think of it as sweat and choke it down.”

Still, Jaeha didn’t particularly want to eat it. Letting out a sigh, he decided to start with Darkin’s poison.

‘Besides, Darkin’s poison is highly toxic, so it should count for a lot.’

With that thought, Jaeha took out Darkin’s poison and brought it to his mouth. After drinking a few drops, his throat burned and he let out a groan of “Ugh,” then checked the poison count.

[Poisons of different properties: 3000/10000]

“Three thousand……? I didn’t drink enough.”

Jaeha pondered for a moment, then boldly took a big gulp of Darkin’s poison. Afterward, he checked the number.

[Poisons of different properties: 3010/10000]

“……That’s just cruel.”

[Poisons already consumed have negligible effect]

“Damn it. Then tell me that before I drink it.”

Muttering to himself, Jaeha opened the Auction House. Then he started buying every poison there was.

‘This is what they call throwing money away.’

Poisons that most people only bought for research purposes—he was buying them just to eat.

“Haah, maybe I should just go to the Poison Swamp and drink the water there.”

Most of the puddles there contained deadly poison. Jaeha figured that might actually be the better option.

‘It’s not like I’m short on money anyway, and going all the way there is a pain.’

Having reached that conclusion, Jaeha was able to buy a ton of poisonous herbs, poisonous liquids, and the corpses of various insects.

“There are a few deadly poisons in here too, so this should be enough, right?”

Jaeha felt some reluctance about eating bugs, but he closed his eyes and started eating for the sake of the skill. After spending over an hour eating the poisonous herbs and insects he had, Jaeha let out a sigh and checked the remaining count.

[Poisons of different properties: 6710/10000]

“Ha. Still over 3000 left.”

Of course, he had a large amount of poisonous material on hand. Still, he’d eaten the ones that were least likely to turn his stomach first.

‘It’s not like I’ll throw up and lose all the count I’ve built up so far, right?’

With that thought, Jaeha started chewing through the remaining poisonous materials.

“Is it tasty?”

“You wanna fight?”

Amy, who had been watching Jaeha procure poisonous herbs and chew them with a sour expression, asked.

Jaeha was already in a bad mood, and Amy picking a fight made it even worse—he briefly considered messing with her. But he soon turned his head away.

It was too much of a hassle, and besides, she was a jiangshi, so she wouldn’t even feel proper pain anyway. Then Jaeha swallowed the bug he’d been chewing and checked the remaining count.

[Poisons of different properties: 20120/10000]

It was nearly double the requirement. Jaeha was speechless for a moment.

“At least it’s not lacking.”

“Haah.”

At Amy’s words, Jaeha let out a sigh and started burning the remaining poisonous materials.

“Why burn them? They’re a waste—you bought them with money, and they’re usable. Since you already bought them, you should eat those too.”

“If you’re that upset about it, want me to feed them to you?”

“Hehe. No thanks.”

“Stop being a smartass. I’ll lock you in the room and feed you nothing but bugs for three days.”

Letting out a sigh, Jaeha began cleaning up the room. After burning all the insects and poisonous herbs, he looked at Amy and spoke.

“Go down to the sparring ground.”

With that, Jaeha kicked Amy out. After shooing her away, he let out a deep sigh and opened his mouth.

[Would you like to learn the Skill?]

“Yeah.”

A window appeared before Jaeha. As the skill window rose, Jaeha sat still and began examining the skill’s information from every angle.

Chapter 10

Jaeha, who had been looking into what he could do with the newly acquired Myriad Poison Art, was startled by a window that suddenly appeared—but he quickly composed himself and looked at it.

[Congratulations. Your Skill has received a synergy bonus and Proficiency has increased.]

“Oh.”

And right after, another window appeared.

[Your Skill is evolving.]

[We are in awe. You have obtained a Skill that will go down in history for the first time.]

“Hm?”

Jaeha immediately opened his status window.

[Na Jaeha]

[Traits: Ranged Dealer, Knight]

[LV: 69]

[Total Ability: 909]

[Skills: O MuTube, Grant Me Power, Half Recovery, Divine Physician Hua Tuo’s Secret Art, Bow Mastery, Mana Shot, Shooting, Breath Control, Shadow Walk, Stealth, Shadow Eye, Metallurgy, Rapid Fire, Triple Shot, High-Speed Rapid Fire, Clone Art, Indestructible Vajra Body, Five Elements Art, Throwing Art, Enchant, Mana Conduction, Magic (Circles 1–7), Spirit Arts, Alchemy, Taiji Divine Art, Dragon Blood, Taiji Sword, Skill Conduction, Jiangshi Art, Michael’s Blessing, Martial Arts, Taming, Bayonet Art, Myriad Poison Art]

“It’s definitely grown a lot. But the Blazing Sun Fusion Art and the Ice White Divine Art aren’t listed. I guess they got merged into the Taiji Divine Art.”

Nodding, Jaeha looked for the Skills that had received a synergy bonus and the ones that had evolved. The Skills that got the synergy bonus were Jiangshi Art and Myriad Poison Art, and the skill that evolved was Jiangshi Art.

[Jiangshi Art]

[Rank: Ancient]

[Divine Jiangshi Art]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 50000]

[Proficiency: 100%]

“Hm.”

Only the description, rank, and the number in the Mechanism had changed; the name and such remained the same. But since the rank had changed, Jaeha figured a lot must be different, so he immediately tried using Jiangshi Art.

[1. Normal Jiangshi]

[2. Blood Jiangshi]

[3. Life Jiangshi]

⋮

“What’s changed is…….”

As he used Jiangshi Art, a list of the jiangshi he could create began to scroll out. There was nothing different in the early part, so he didn’t notice at first, but as he scrolled down a bit, Jaeha realized there were new jiangshi.

Previously, the Reverse Heaven Jiangshi that Jaeha had created was the highest-tier jiangshi. But now that the rank had changed, several new jiangshi had appeared.