Dang Gyu-young was far from having an authoritarian personality, but getting teased in front of juniors would definitely hurt her pride.
It was only right to show a bit of consideration. This wasn’t the time to bring it up.
We found a suitable spot and strolled along the water’s edge.
There was no difference in mana cultivation efficiency, but since we’d be sitting or lying there for days, we might as well choose a comfortable place.
Soon, Seo Ye-in came to a sudden stop.
“…Perfect spot.”
She pulled a portable mattress from her inventory, lay down with just her feet dipped in the pond, and let her eyelids slowly drift shut, clearly fighting off sleep.
Dang Gyu-young also laid down a cushion a short distance away, and I mentally noted a spot that looked good for myself.
Before starting mana cultivation, I gave a few words of caution to Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa.
“It’s still early, so nothing should happen. Just watch out for the poison.”
At first, the monsters are weak and appear infrequently.
But as time passes, the difficulty gradually ramps up.
That said, even the weakest creatures that approach a poison-filled pond like this must either have resistance or possess poison themselves.
Even the slightest brush could lead to poisoning, so there was no room to let down our guard.
Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa nodded with serious expressions.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’ll make sure nothing gets through.”
I then sat at the spot I’d picked, rolled up my pant legs, and dipped my feet into the pitch-black pond.
As I slowly activated my core, I could feel an immense energy being drawn into me.
***
After about six hours had passed, I finished my mana cultivation and opened my eyes.
Sensing movement, both Go Hyeon-woo and Hong Yeon-hwa turned their heads toward me at the same time.
“You’re awake.”
“Everything okay?”
“Miss Hong took care of things quite well.”
Where Go Hyeon-woo was pointing, a mound of black ash had piled up.
Something must’ve come by, but it looked like they handled it just fine.
Soon after, Dang Gyu-young also got up from her spot, and Seo Ye-in turned her head toward us while still lying on the portable mattress.
With everyone’s eyes on me, I spoke.
“Let’s switch out. The poison’s clearing up.”
Sure enough, the faint smoke that had been rising was visibly thinning, and the heavy miasma seemed to be getting sucked back into the depths of the pond.
Looking at the Poison Serpent Pond, now returned to its original blue glow and clarity, Go Hyeon-woo smiled.
“The time has finally come.”
“You’ve waited long enough. Go ahead and get started.”
As if every second counted, Go Hyeon-woo immediately sat down in a lotus position.
Hong Yeon-hwa also ran over to the spot where I had been cultivating mana.
She dipped her feet in the water, then kept glancing over at me. Not like she was just feeling guilty about taking my spot.
Wondering what was going on, I asked her a question.
“You too?”
“M-Me too… what?”
She responded like she didn’t know what I meant, but her red eyes darted nervously around, clearly hiding something.
At that, Dang Gyu-young chimed in with a knowing tone.
“Just be honest. You brought it, didn’t you?”
“Well, um… since we were going into a lake and all… just in case… y’know?”
“Totally understandable. Of course you did.”
As she said that, Dang Gyu-young shot me a triumphant smirk.
It probably meant something like, “See? I’m not the only one.”
Meanwhile, Seo Ye-in was still lazily rolling around on the mattress, clearly not eager to get up.
Just then, our eyes met, so I said,
“You don’t need to get up. Just focus on your cultivation.”
“You sure?”
“With just me and Gyu-young on watch, it’ll be more than enough.”
It wasn’t like monsters were swarming us. Just a few were showing up now and then, so we only needed to take care of them as they came.
Two people would be more than enough to hold the line.
Rather than adding another idle person to the defense, it was a better choice to have one more person focus on mana cultivation.
“Gotta reach A-rank soon.”
“…A-rank.”
Seo Ye-in nodded with sparkling eyes.
Then she lay back down on the portable mattress and, within five seconds, was fast asleep.
Dang Gyu-young looked at her with envy.
“Must be nice…. getting to do this nonstop for three whole days.”
“You’ve gotta go all-in while you can.”
Opportunities to enter [Poison Serpent Pond] weren’t exactly common, especially since it had a longer respawn cycle than most dungeons after being cleared.
It’s pretty popular, too.
Normally, people wouldn’t use something like the Book of Chaos here, and unlike us, they wouldn’t be immune to poison either. So the maximum mana cultivation time per day would be around eight hours.
Even so, the efficiency was so high that the bidding wars were intense.
It had been hard to reserve a spot, but Dang Gyu-young had used her priority bidding rights to secure one.
Sure, there were hidden mana cultivation spots in other dungeons too, but who knew when we’d get another chance to come here?
So, as long as we could maintain safety, it made sense to aim for maximum efficiency.
Dang Gyu-young nodded readily.
“That’s true. Those two are pretty close to A-rank, right?”
“After three days here, Seo Ye-in will almost certainly hit it, and the other two will probably get right up to the edge.”
“Then they’ll make it before finals at the latest. That’s fast. I didn’t hit A rank until midway through second year.”
Then, as if talking to herself, she muttered,
“…Think I might get overtaken at this rate?”
“You won’t be caught up that easily.”
“Right? I’m still leveling up pretty fast too, yeah?”
Dang Gyu-young smiled, a spark of competitive fire in her eyes.
After that, we passed the time chatting idly about this and that.
We strolled around the pond as if taking a walk, circling it slowly. From time to time, we paused at a spot to scan the distance, then resumed walking in the same leisurely manner.
In the midst of that, a sharp sound brushed past our ears.
Kiiiing—
It meant something had triggered the alarm spell. We exchanged glances and made our way toward the source.
As we quickly pushed through the rainforest, a large spider came into view a short distance away.
Each of its legs was as thick as a human thigh, and its body was even more bloated.
It was brightly colored in yellow and black, and the pattern near its abdomen resembled a clumsily drawn human face.
“……”
The colorful spider kept triggering the alarm spells as it moved toward the Poison Serpent Pond.
Whether it was drawn by the abundant energy or targeting our group, we couldn’t be sure.
Of course, either way, we had to stop it.
When Dang Gyu-young waved her hand, the spider’s shadow twitched and took the shape of a man in a martial uniform.
It was Shadow Undead No. 2, Qyu-Shadow Lord.
– …!
Sensing something was wrong, the spider flinched and looked down.
But by then, Qyu-Shadow Lord had already taken form and slashed past it.
Slash—
The colorful spider was cut cleanly in two.
A C-rank could never stand a chance against an A-rank opponent.
As she retrieved Qyu-Shadow Lord, Dang Gyu-young asked,
“Hey, hasn’t my control improved a bit?”
“It’s definitely better than before.”
Back during the Fixed Zone tournament, it really felt like she was being dragged around by her undead.
She had only recently changed to a new class, and both the lab director and Shadow Lord had A-rank foundations.
But now, her handling of the undead felt much smoother. She must have been steadily gaining proficiency through regular use.
We’d know for sure once we saw how she handled the hidden boss later.
“Let’s keep practicing and get ready to bring in one more.”
“Sounds good. But shouldn’t we expand the slots first?”
“That’s why we’re preparing now.”
“Got it. So how do we get them?”
“The usual methods won’t work.”
Since universal slot expansion items can be used by anyone, the demand for them is incredibly high.
They’re rarely on the market, and when they are, the price is whatever the seller asks.
Only groups on the level of the Hye-seong Group can afford them, so for people like me and Dang Gyu-young, it’s not even an option.
So the alternative is—
“There’s the option of aiming for the reward from the Trial Quest.”
“I’ve been working on it lately, but it’s taking a while. Of all things, I got a kill-type quest.”
As the name suggests, it’s a quest that requires eliminating specific targets.
For example, it might ask for 20 “human-type” monsters of B-rank or higher, or 20 “insect-type” monsters.
Lately, she’s been actively pushing through the quest and making decent progress, but it’ll still take more time to complete.
And even then, there’s no guarantee that the reward will be a slot.
“If not that, we’ll have to look into necromancer items.”
Some grimoires have hidden pieces that, when used properly, can increase slot capacity for certain job classes.
I already know most of those hidden pieces, so as long as we get the grimoires, we’re good to go.
But there’s a problem with that too—
“Aren’t those practically prohibited items?”
“Pretty much.”
“Heading to the temporary storage doesn’t feel like a great idea.”
“Same here. Let’s leave that as a last resort.”
The chances of successfully infiltrating the temporary storage again are way too low.
We’re better off looking into other options.
We could also try making a deal with the principal.
All confiscated prohibited items from the academy eventually end up with the principal or vice-principal.
They probably dispose of most of them in their own ways, but some are likely kept in special storage.
The question is, would they be willing to hand them over to us?
It’s not entirely out of the question.
When Dang Gyu-young cleared her class-change quest, she got support from both Lee Soo-dok and Seo Cheong-yong. On top of that, it’s already known that she switched to a necromancer-type class.
If we’re honest about needing the slots and can prove it won’t cause any trouble, they probably won’t reject us outright.
Of course, since it would be a trade, I’d have to offer something in return too.
“For now, go check if there are any listings available. If not, we’ll move on to Plan B, Plan C, and so on.”
“Mhmm, mhmm, I’ll look into it.”
We paused our conversation and took a walk around the pond to check for anything unusual.
Then Dang Gyu-young threw out another question.
“Hey, but aren’t you curious?”
“About what?”
“This.”
Judging by the way she was adjusting her shirt collar, I had a pretty good idea what “this” meant.
“I’m a guy too. Of course I’m curious.”
“…Wanna see?”
“I didn’t think you’d actually offer.”
“Would be a waste to just leave, right? Come here.”
Dang Gyu-young curled her lips into a sly smile and motioned me over with a playful wave.
***
Six hours later.
The toxic miasma had returned to the pond, and Go Hyeon-woo began standing guard again with Hong Yeon-hwa.
As he scanned the tropical forest, he thought to himself:
Looks like nothing happened this time either.
There were traces of battle in a few spots, but they were all cleanly resolved. Probably handled in an instant.
It meant no threatening monsters had appeared yet.
The only noticeable change was that Dang Gyu-young’s face looked oddly flushed.
Well, she did spend some time with Kim-hyung. Not exactly surprising.
With that, Go Hyeon-woo set the fleeting question aside.
“…….”
Meanwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa hadn’t said a word and just kept staring up at the sky.
Her face practically screamed, “I’m feeling conflicted”, “Please ask me what’s wrong”, so Go Hyeon-woo gave a wry smile and spoke up.
“Miss Hong, is something troubling you?”
“…Not exactly troubling, but you remember what we talked about before?”
“You mean the [Bond].”
“Mhmm.”
“Have you changed your mind?”
“…Mhmm.”
Hong Yeon-hwa turned her head and looked Go Hyeon-woo straight in the eyes.
“If a spot opens up next time… I was thinking I’d ask you to offer it to me.”
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