The Support Ate it All-Chapter 521: No.183 Poison Python Abyss (4)

Everyone crowded around Seo Ye-in.

Dang Gyu-young spoke with a faint smile.

“You’re already A-rank. Congrats.”

“Thank you.”

They were close, yet not—yet in this moment, the congratulations were sincere.

Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa were also showing their envy, but they still shared in her joy.

Meanwhile, I studied Seo Ye-in’s face at the sudden sense of something being off.

Maybe because I’d seen her every single day for nearly a year, I could feel a tiny change.

‘She looks a little less sleepy.’

Her gray eyes were a little clearer than usual.

Then another thought followed.

She slept for over forty-eight hours straight. Of course she’d look less sleepy, wouldn’t she?

But even factoring that in, it was still different from what I’d seen so far.

‘Is it because her Core went up?’

It was a pretty strong hypothesis.

Her total mana had increased to an incomparable degree, so it had to have affected the sloth-battery too.

Still, the part I couldn’t explain was—

‘For A-rank, it doesn’t feel like much changed.’

Considering the gap between a B-rank Core and an A-rank Core, at least right now, Seo Ye-in should have her eyes wide open and bright.

But her eyelids were already starting to droop, like the sleepiness was creeping back in.

At the same time, I couldn’t completely rule out the Core connection either.

While I was spinning up one hypothesis after another, Seo Ye-in walked up close and stared up at me.

“...You promised.”

“Promised what?”

“The crows.”

While I was keeping in touch with the Underworld Dragon King, I’d promised Seo Ye-in I’d take her with me when I went to meet the dimensional crows soon.

There was no guarantee they’d readily hand over a space-type skill, but there was always the off chance.

And she’d already met the condition I’d set—an A-rank Core—so I nodded easily.

“Yeah. A promise is a promise. Let’s go together.”

Dang Gyu-young jutted her lips out and cut in.

“Hey, what about me?”

“You’ve already got something good, ma’am.”

“The more you learn, the better.”

“There’s not really anything you can learn right now. And I keep telling you—there’s no guarantee they’ll teach you.”

Before that, it wasn’t even certain the dimensional crows would acknowledge her at all.

Seo Ye-in and I were the weird cases.

Meaning, if she tagged along, odds were high it would just be a waste of time.

So I added,

“Wouldn’t it be better to keep clearing your [Hardship] quest instead?”

“It’s not wrong, but it still feels kind of bad. Is it okay to neglect Number One like this?”

“Neglect? Are you saying the time we spent here meant nothing?”

We’d been sitting together doing mana circulation for over two days, and whenever we were awake, we’d been moving around together the whole time.

At that, Dang Gyu-young stuffed her pouting lips back in.

“...It meant something. I just want you to pay more attention.”

“So this isn’t enough?”

“It’s not enough.”

“You’re a total greedy guts.”

“Yeah, I’m greedy. Because I take after someone.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to someone—meaning me.

Seo Ye-in tossed in a short comment.

“...Womanizer.”

“Right. My sins run deep. Next time, we’ll go together—this time, let’s clear the [Hardship] quest.”

“Heh. Fine.”

Dang Gyu-young smiled, like she never planned to force it in the first place.

Then I turned my head and looked at Hong Yeon-hwa. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“Oh, and by the way—you’re coming too.”

“M-me too...?”

Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes went round.

An invisible tail started fluttering faster and faster.

Then, like a question occurred to her, she asked,

“But... I still haven’t...?”

“You mean you didn’t hit A-rank?”

“Mm....”

There was no way she could raise her Core grade in just a few days, so what would even be the point of meeting the crows?

Of course, that was a pointless worry.

“I’m not bringing you because of the crows.”

“Then...?”

“Because that place is an ice-theme dungeon.”

Gotta grind AquaFlame’s rank.

Hong Yeon-hwa’s invisible tail started fluttering even harder.

For Seo Ye-in, though, it wasn’t exactly welcome news.

Cold places weren’t suitable sloth habitats, after all.

Still, she asked, just in case.

“Cold?”

“Freezing. It’ll wake you right up.”

“...Change it.”

“Change what?”

“The dungeon.”

“I can’t accept that kind of nonsense.”

“Why.”

“Because I’m not the one who decides.”

The dimensional crows would be in an F-rank dungeon, then suddenly jump to A-rank, or disappear and only show up again weeks later.

Based on veteran-player big data—

the one I wanted would spend a few hours in an ice-theme dungeon, then vanish, and show up in the next dungeon two weeks later.

The problem was, two weeks later was dueling-week, and after that was finals.

If I missed this window, I wouldn’t see it again until next year.

“....”

I could feel Seo Ye-in’s motivation dripping away.

So I grinned and asked,

“Should we just go by ourselves?”

“...I’m going.”

“It’s cold—will you be okay?”

“...Overcome.”

Seo Ye-in clenched her fists.

But the next moment, like the cold thought hit her, she shivered weakly—then tugged on Hong Yeon-hwa’s sleeve.

“...Help.”

“Huh? O-okay. I’ll try to get warm stuff ready.”

“Thanks.”

‘She’s basically a portable heater.’

Honestly, that’s not even wrong.

*****

Even after Seo Ye-in raised her Core rank, we kept doing mana circulation the same as before, rotating every six hours.

Places this efficient weren’t common. If we could do it, we should push it as far as we could.

And as we spent time like that, the dungeon’s three days were already reaching their final stretch.

SHRIEEEK—!

A poison stinger as thick as my forearm tore through the air.

It was fired by a huge caterpillar writhing up ahead.

As I tilted slightly to dodge, a pitch-black shape lunged in from the left.

“GRRRAAAH—!”

A black panther with a heavy, massive body.

But the next moment my body blurred, and its claws—and the caterpillar’s poison stinger—cut nothing but air.

Then icy explosions erupted all across their bodies.

POW-POW-BOOM!

Ghostly No-Shadow, Mystic Sound Jade Demon Finger, Ice Shard Bomb, and a chained follow-up explosion.

In just a few breaths, they froze solid.

Fighting was still raging not far away.

SHUNK!

Kkyu-Young Corps Commander skewered the huge caterpillar like a kebab with a shadow longsword.

And Dang Gyu-young was doing her own thing—hammering a colorful frog with a shadow club, WHACK-WHACK-WHACK.

The difficulty kept ramping up—just a moment ago, six or seven monsters had spawned at once.

We’d split them about half-and-half between me and Dang Gyu-young.

Of course, even ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) this was about to end.

Dang Gyu-young finished off the frog, dusted her hands off with a couple pats, and walked over.

“We’re basically done, right? Six hours.”

“Yes. Just a few minutes left.”

The others were also finishing up their circulation and packing their spots away.

Go Hyeon-woo smiled faintly, looking at the pond.

“What a shame. If it were possible, I’d have stayed even longer.”

“There’ll be another chance.”

“Of course, I trust you, Brother Kim. So is this the end?”

“It’s the end. It’s about time for the boss.”

The base boss—the big serpent—had fled somewhere and hidden, and I had no intention of hunting it down.

What we wanted was the hidden boss.

The condition was spending seventy-two hours in Poison Python Abyss.

And in just a little bit, we’d meet that condition.

“....”

“....”

As everyone watched, the pond began to fill with black poison.

But this time, it was far more severe than before.

BUBBLE-BUBBLE-BUBBLE,

The surface boiled and churned violently, and the poison evaporated and spread outward.

Watching it, I asked like I was talking to myself.

“Why does the poison fill up, then drain out? And on a regular cycle, too.”

Even for a dungeon where all kinds of weird things happened, wasn’t that strange?

A moment later, we all got the answer.

The surface that had been bubbling with poison suddenly bulged upward—and a gigantic serpent-dragon burst out of it.

The big serpent we’d first seen now felt like an earthworm by comparison.

It was the hidden boss, and the true owner of this pond—

the Poison Python.

Interest lit up on Go Hyeon-woo’s face.

“So it was the source of the poison.”

“It keeps breathing in and spitting it out, so the pond gets filthy. The breath stinks like hell.”

Sure enough, from the moment it surfaced, poisonous mist spread everywhere, and every plant in the area started withering fast.

Even things that should’ve had poison resistance couldn’t endure it.

If we were even a little late, Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa would be affected too, so I cast immediately.

[Using ‘Octopus Arms’.]

[Using ‘Imbue’.]

[Imbuing the target with ‘Ten-Thousand-Poison Immunity’.]

[Duration 00:19:59]

[Cooldown 01:39:59]

“But? To us, it’s just a big snake.”

“Haha. It seems you make everything easy, Brother Kim.”

“More like I only choose the fights that are easy.”

If there was a fight you could definitely win, why buy trouble on purpose?

I didn’t see a reason.

We stared at the massive serpent-dragon and took our stances.

“Just be careful not to get crushed.”

“Understood.”

The instant its jaws split wide, Seo Ye-in’s magic rifle spat blue fire.

RATATATATAT!

After we cooked the massive serpent-dragon in our own ways—

the fight ended before Imbue’s duration ran out.

Wounded all over, it staggered and sank into the depths of the pond.

In a sense, it earned a lifetime free pass to the pond—but sadly, this was a dungeon.

RUUUMMBLE.......

The whole area shook like an earthquake, and the teleport portal out opened its mouth.

Nearby, a few small boxes had been placed.

[Poison Python Abyss Random Box (C)]*1

[Poison Python Abyss Random Box (B)]*2

[Poison Python Abyss Random Box (B+)]*1

Normally, a C-rank random box dropped in line with the dungeon’s base difficulty—but we’d used the [Book of Chaos] twice, and even killed the hidden boss, so it was strengthened.

Seo Ye-in trudged over first and picked up the B+ box.

“Can I open it?”

“Already? Let’s go out and open it leisurely.”

“Feels like it.”

“Won’t it bring bad luck?”

Seo Ye-in shook her head side to side.

“Superstition.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah.”

“Then isn’t Lucky Charm luck also superstition?”

Seo Ye-in shook her head again.

“Faith.”

“Look at that confidence.”

“Can I open it?”

Well, opening one now wouldn’t hurt.

And it wasn’t common for Lucky Charm to volunteer like this.

I gave a light nod.

“Sure. Open it.”

The instant I allowed it, Seo Ye-in flung the random box open with zero preparation.

Light exploded out immediately.

WHOOOOOSH—!

“Ah, my eyes.”

“Warn us first.”

It was so intense everyone had to cover their eyes and turn away.

After it held for a moment, the light died down—and we all looked at what was in Seo Ye-in’s hand.

A rolled-up magic scroll.

I checked the item description and couldn’t help letting out a dry laugh.

“Why is this dropping here?”

[Slot Plus]