Yang Joo Hyuk and Jang Yool were chatting while watching the monitor.
“Wow, he finally finished the quest.”
“Time truly passes quickly. It’s already been a month.”
The subject of the conversation was Soo Hyuk.
“But what will he do now?”
“Do what?”
“He’s learnt that he can’t learn magic from Pavian. Won’t he try to open the Door of Poison now?”
“That’s definitely possible.”
Yang Joo Hyuk nodded. Jang Yool’s words had credibility as Soo Hyuk now couldn’t learn from Pavian so he could end up choosing the Door of Poison.
Of course, nothing was certain. There were 8 choices and at the end of the day, the choice of all up the Soo Hyuk.
“If he chooses the Door of Poison…”
As Jang Yool trailed off, Yang Joo Hyuk finished the sentence for him.
“It would be a piece of cake considering his new title.”
He might even feel that the Door of Poison was too easy. With the Poison Maestro title, the difficulty of the Door of Poison would drop to the point where it would feel like the Door of Wind was a scam.
“Oh?”
Jang Yool suddenly exclaimed.
“He went to the subspace.”
* * *
After the quest was completed, Soo Hyuk engaged in some small talk with Pavian before putting the books in the inventory and leaving.
‘All right. I’ll challenge the Door of Poison.’
Previously, he was thinking about the Door of Wind, but that had now changed. He had to open the Door of Poison.
‘But is it possible?’
There was still one thing nagging at his mind.
‘Although the boss would take more damage,’
Fire was strong against poison. He would be able to deal a lot more damage to the poison golem than the wind golem.
‘The problem is the amount of damage that I take.’
In the second awakening of the wind golem, he had taken more than 20,000 damage in one hit. Even if his health had doubled, would he be able to handle the poison golem?
‘Let’s try first.’
If he was being honest, he didn’t really need to unlock another door straight away. He had planned to level up more and acquire better gear.
But since the situation had changed like this, shouldn’t he at least try once? Wrapping up his thoughts, Soo Hyuk opened his character window.
Occupation: Archmage’s Descendant
Level: 102 Experience: 62%
Health: 56200 Mana: 41200 Satiation: 54%
Strength: 40 (+10)
Agility: 35 (+16)
Stamina: 1108 [554 (+10)]
Wisdom: 2060 (+10)
‘There’s no stat change.’
Soo Hyuk looked at his character status first before he challenged the Door of Poison. Is stats hadn’t changed at all. Next, Soo Hyuk clicked on his list of titles. Then he checked the information for ‘Poison Maestro’.
“…?”
Soo Hyuk burst into a bright smile while feeling admiration.
-Poison Maestro (1. You will not be poisoned by your own poison. 2. You will not be poisoned by ordinary poison.)
‘Isn’t this really good?’
It was almost a jackpot. The main reason why poison magic was unpopular was because the users had a chance to poison themselves when casting poison magic. But the new title completely removed that disadvantage. Plus, he wouldn’t be affected by ordinary poison.
‘Now it has to be poison no matter what.’
After pledging to choosing poison again, Soo Hyuk closed all his windows and warped to the subspace.
[Warping to the Archmage’s Subspace.]
The space around him was distorted with the message then he arrived safely at the subspace. As soon as the space around was stabilised, Soo Hyuk headed towards the Door of Poison.
After stopping in front of the door, Soo Hyuk reached out and touched the door with his hand. Then a system message appeared.
[Would you like to open the Door of Poison?]
Soo Hyuk pressed YES and more windows popped up.
[Opening the Door of Poison.]
[Number of attempts: 1]
[Summoning the Poison Toad.]
[Survive for 30 minutes or defeat the Poison Toad.]
“Hmm…?”
Soo Hyuk noticed unlike the Door of Wind, the boss for the Door of Poison was a toad, not a golem.
‘Poison Toad? Is it different for every door?’
It seemed like the clear conditions for every door was different.
‘Survive for 30 minutes.’
Instead of defeating the toad, he could choose to survive for 30 minutes. What did this mean? It meant that the Poison Toad would be harder. He would have to be more cautious.
Soo Hyuk turned around to see the toad being summoned. There was the same magic circle in the middle of the chamber, and the toad was gradually forming from its head.
“Magic Missile.”
Soo Hyuk fired a magic missile at the toad.
[The Poison Toad is being summoned.]
[Attacking is impossible until it is completed summoned.]
‘This is the same.’
Soo Hyuk couldn’t attack the toad while it was being summoned like the wind golem, so he waited for the summoning to finish.
-The test is starting.
The toad croaked after it was completed formed. It sounded noticeably different from the Wind Golem.
“Magic Missile.”
Soo Hyuk cast magic missile once again. It was to see if it would dispel like the wind golem or use another method.
Bang!
But the poison toad didn’t do anything. The magic missile managed to land a solid hit on the toad. At that moment.
Shuaa!
The moment the magic missile exploded on its skin, it started to emit green gas from its pores. The gas travelled at a tremendous speed and filled up the entire chamber in no time.
‘Poison?’
The gas was released from its body. This was probably the reason why there was another way to clear the trial. The poison gas filled up the entire chamber, so Soo Hyuk couldn’t dodge in any direction. Then something magical happened.
[You have resisted.]
[You have resisted.]
[You have resisted.]
[You have resisted.]
Endless messages appeared.
“…?”
Soo Hyuk was momentarily confused by the endless messages before realising.
‘…Ah!’
‘The Poison Maestro!’
This was the effect of the second function of the ‘Poison Maestro’ title.
‘Then is this ordinary poison?’
The green gas around him appeared to be composed of common poison.
‘Is this it?’
The first way to clear this trial was to survive for 30 minutes. This looked ridiculously easy as he kept resisting all the poison. That meant, all he had to do was stand there and he would win.
‘No, there’s got to be something else.’
There was no way that it would be this easy. Soo Hyuk could make out the toad’s shape as he looked through the fog.
‘Should I attack? Or not?’
The toad had started releasing poisonous gas when it was hit by the magic missile. What if the gas got stronger every time he attacked it?
‘It could also get stronger over time.’
Waiting was also dangerous. What if the poison got stronger as more time passed? Then was a possibility that his title’s ability wouldn’t be able to resist the poison anymore.
‘The poison is getting stronger even now.’
The green colour was getting darker. He would be poisoned at this rate.
‘Right, there are more chances anyway.’
He didn’t forget the fact that his aim today was to test the waters. Soo Hyuk made his decision as he considered this fact.
“Firestorm.”
Soo Hyuk cast Firestorm. The casting bar appeared and due to him taking no damage so far, he was able to safely cast the spell.
Huaa!
The flaming tornado appeared around the poison toad.
‘Oh, it’s disappearing?’
The green fog started getting lighter when the firestorm appeared.
‘The fire is burning away the poison.’
Soo Hyuk thought as he stared at the still motionless toad. The firestorm was burning the poison as it left the poison toad’s body. As a result, the surroundings were gradually getting clearer every second.
“Fireball, Inferno, Firebolt, Flame Dance.”
Soo Hyuk continuously fired spells at the toad.
‘Does it also have phases?’
The wind golem had the 1st and the 2nd awakenings. Would the poison toad have something similar? At that moment.
-Congratulations for passing.
He heard the toad’s croaky voice.
‘Pass?’
AS he was confused from the sudden situation,
[You have defeated the Poison Toad.]
[You have fulfilled the conditions.]
[The Door of Poison is opened.]
[Skill ‘Archmage’ has been strengthened.]
[Skill quest ‘Acid Blast’ has been generated.]
[Skill quest ‘Poison Fog’ has been generated.]
[Skill quest ‘Poison Sphere’ has been generated.]
[Skil quest ‘Poison Field’ has been generated.]
[…]
‘…The end?’
‘It’s this easy?’
It too was easy. Like a walk in the park. Soo Hyuk felt uncomfortable even as he looked through the messages.
‘The difficulties are too far apart.’
Soo Hyuk frowned heavily. He could feel his anger rising even though he had already decided to unlock poison. Even if fire was strong against poison, wasn’t this too much? Afer checking the messages, Soo Hyuk opened his quest window. He wanted see the conditions for the quests.
‘Good.’
Soo Hyuk’s gloomy frown reverted back to a bright smile as he read the completion requirements. The conditions were what he expected.
‘Now should I go to get the materials?’
Soo Hyuk closed his quest window and opened his skill window. The ‘Archmage’ passive was strengthened like when he unlocked the fire element. He was excited to see the new improvements.
“…”
Soo Hyuk’s smile stiffened when he read the information.
“These crazy…”
Curses automatically came out of his mouth.
“This dog fraud…”