The Support Ate it All

Chapter 229: 13th Week Strategy Battle (2)

Hundred Poisons Immunity.

It was a trait that granted resistance to various poisons.

Since it was a C-rank trait, it could be bypassed by rare or high-level poisons, but it could easily block basic plant poisons like those found in this F-rank dungeon.

“Still, be careful not to get scratched.”

“It only prevents poisoning, after all.”

Go Hyeon-woo nodded his head in agreement.

While we didn’t have to worry about poison, we could still take damage from other types of attacks, such as being pricked by thorns or physical attacks.

Plus, there was a fairly strict condition of maintaining an average health of 95%, so we couldn’t afford to be careless.

“Now then, shall we go find the crystal?”

To charge the crystal, we first had to secure one somewhere in the dungeon.

I spoke to Seo Ye-in in a polite tone.

“Lucky Charm-nim, please guide us.”

“……”

Seo Ye-in looked to the left, then to the right, before turning around and glancing behind her.

Then she slowly raised her hand and pointed in one direction.

“There.”

“Very good. Go Hyeon-woo, move out.”

“Hmm, I shall be off.”

Both Go Hyeon-woo and I knew well enough of Lucky Charm’s “abilities” so we didn’t have any doubts about her directions.

Whoosh—

As Go Hyeon-woo left at a brisk pace, a gust of wind gently swirled around him.

I cast Wind Barrier.

“So, where should we go next?”

At my question, Seo Ye-in tilted her head slightly before pointing in a different direction this time.

“There.”

“Let’s go, then.”

“Let’s go.”

There were two crystals in total that needed to be retrieved and charged.

Since Go Hyeon-woo had gone for one, the remaining one was for the two of us to collect.

So I took the lead, and Seo Ye-in followed at a similar pace.

As we walked along the botanical garden’s path, following Lucky Charm’s guidance, the crystal soon came into view.

When it came to instincts or luck, leaving it to Seo Ye-in usually worked out pretty well.

However, there was one problem. This was the location of the crystal.

A monstrously large Venus flytrap had its jaws wide open, and the crystal lay right in the middle of it.

Seo Ye-in looked at me and I demonstrated with hand gestures.

“Just like this—Shahh. Easy, right?”

All we had to do was quickly stick a hand in, grab the crystal, and pull it out just as fast.

Seo Ye-in stared at the Venus flytrap for a few seconds, then reached her hand in.

“Shahh.”

Chomp.

The Venus flytrap snapped shut at a terrifying speed and bit down on Seo Ye-in’s arm.

[Seo Ye-in: 100%]

[Seo Ye-in: 99%]

“…Help.”

“I told you, pull it out quickly.”

“It’s not coming out.”

“Of course, it’s not going to come out now.”

If it slid out easily while trapped, would it even be called a Venus flytrap?

[Seo Ye-in: 98%]

“…Help.”

I wanted to tease her a bit longer, but since her health had dropped a little more, I decided to help.

I pried the Venus flytrap open with all my strength, and Seo Ye-in pulled out her trapped arm along with the crystal.

“……”

Seo Ye-in stared at the Venus flytrap as if she was facing a worthy opponent.

She then slowly brought her hand closer again, as if she was ready for another attempt, but I grabbed her hand to stop her.

“Let’s go. We don’t have time.”

“Mhmm…”

Go Hyeon-woo was probably on his way back with the crystal by now, so we couldn’t waste any more time.

She would just fail again anyway.

If we tried again, it would only drain more of her precious health.

With a bit of reluctance lingering in Seo Ye-in’s eyes, I pulled her along and we started retracing our steps.

The way back had become more difficult, as the plant-type monsters which had only been swaying in the distance earlier were now starting to gather.

They looked like walking candy sticks or bean sprouts.

The only difference was that instead of candy heads, they had large flower buds, and thick plant stems supported their bodies instead of sticks.

Whoosh—

At that point, I cast Wind Barrier and picked up the pace.

Seo Ye-in also pulled out her magic gun, but I stopped her.

“Let’s just get back for now.”

“Okay.”

It was best to return to the greenhouse and set up near the sanctuary before engaging in any battle.

After all, our main objective was to charge the crystal.

So, we focused solely on running while ignoring the monsters.

Ting—

Occasionally, something would hit the barrier and bounce off. Judging by the long, thin projectiles, they seemed to be poison stingers.

Shhhhhh—

Thick, acrid smoke suddenly rose in front of us, but we didn’t avoid it and charged straight through.

It couldn’t penetrate the barrier, and even if it did, we were immune to poison.

Without stopping at all, we kept running, and soon the greenhouse came into view.

[Crystal: 8%]

The crystal was already recharging.

As we approached the center of the greenhouse, a beam of light extended from the sanctuary and connected with Go Hyeon-woo’s crystal.

“You two made it as well.”

“You got here quickly.”

“Thanks to you, I was able to find it quickly.”

Go Hyeon-woo credited Lucky Charm for his success.

However, he soon drew his golden magic sword and looked behind him.

It was because the bean sprout monsters were charging in.

Just as I intended, they were entering in single file through the narrow paths.

I gave Go Hyeon-woo an order.

“For now, focus on defense. Gather them so Seo Ye-in can take them all out.”

“Understood.”

Go Hyeon-woo readily agreed.

He might have been curious about the reason, but that could wait.

After wrapping a gust of wind around his magic sword, he swung it diagonally at the lead monster charging forward.

Thwack!

With the sound of a club striking, the giant bean sprout was flung backward before crashing into the others behind it.

And then, Seo Ye-in’s magic bullets rained down on them.

Ratatatatata!

The bullets exploded upon impact and completely wiped out the tangled group of monsters.

“……”

Without missing a beat, Seo Ye-in turned her gun toward another path.

She intercepted the monsters that were approaching from a different direction.

Ratatatatata!

As expected, hunting is best when done from the perfect spot.

The monsters were coming at us in single file on their own, so all we had to do was block off a few paths, and the defense was complete.

It couldn’t get any easier.

This was the ideal setup for Seo Ye-in to clear the quest.

[Side Quest – Marksmanship]

? Objective: Eliminate enemies (23/100)

Consecutive kills (23/30)

Headshots (9/15)

? Reward: Marksmanship

Killing enemies and landing headshots would naturally be completed by taking down enough foes, but “consecutive kills” was relatively more challenging.

The moment even a single bullet missed, the count would reset to zero. This would force her to start all over again.

With Seo Ye-in’s shooting skills, she could have easily achieved 30 consecutive kills in any other dungeon, but it was better to take a simple and certain approach here.

Ratatatatata!

? Objective: Eliminate enemies (34/100)

Consecutive kills (30/30) (Complete)

Headshots (15/15) (Complete)

With this, the tricky part is done.

[Crystal: 73%]

The crystal was charging steadily as well.

Since the approaching bean sprout monsters were blocked by Go Hyeon-woo and intercepted by Seo Ye-in, they seemed to be trying to change their attack strategy.

It’s about time for the next pattern to appear.

Whirr!

Like a cowboy twirling something in the air, one of the monsters flung a large palm-sized object that resembled a coconut.

The object exploded to spread a thick cloud of purple pollen.

It was clearly poisonous, but I calmly said,

“And what are we?”

“Immune to most poisons.”

There was no way such a weak poison would affect us.

Still, having our view blocked wasn’t ideal, so I used Wind Force to clear away the poisonous pollen.

[Crystal: 100%]

Flash!

Soon, Go Hyeon-woo’s crystal was fully charged, and the beam of light that had been pouring out of the sanctuary briefly flickered before connecting to Seo Ye-in’s crystal.

Her charge gauge began to fill up slowly.

[Crystal: 1%]

[Crystal: 2%]

Whirr!

The giant bean sprout monsters continued their steady long-range attacks.

It seemed they hadn’t realized that the poisonous pollen wasn’t working.

Of course, some of them also threw spiky cacti or fired thin poison darts, not just the poisonous powder fruits.

But regardless of what they tried, everything was blocked by the Wind Barrier.

The value of upgrading it to C+ rank was more than enough.

Ratatatatata!

Seo Ye-in counterattacked all those creatures without fail.

Go Hyeon-woo handled the luring, I took care of defense, and the occasional poisonous smoke was neutralized by our hundred poisons immunity, so we could focus solely on the offensive without worrying about anything else.

Ratatatatata!

Then, at some point, the magic bullets suddenly seemed to grow much stronger.

Even Go Hyeon-woo was startled enough to glance back in surprise.

I threw a quick word to Seo Ye-in as well.

“Is it done?”

“Done.”

She had completed the side quest and acquired [Marksmanship].

Each of Seo Ye-in’s ranged skills and traits now had an additional bonus, so her overall destructive power had significantly increased.

Her firepower had grown noticeably stronger.

Moreover, Go Hyeon-woo no longer needed to focus on luring the monsters and began actively joining the offensive.

Not long after that,

[Crystal: 100%]

Flash!

The second crystal finished charging as well.

The relentless assault of the bean sprout monsters stopped as if it had all been a lie, and the greenhouse trembled like an earthquake had hit before the exit opened up.

At that moment, the replay crystal ball that had been set aside began to score our performance.

[Kim Ho: 100%]

[Seo Ye-in: 98%]

[Go Hyeon-woo: 100%]

[Average Health: 99/100% = 792 points]

+ [Number of monsters defeated: 153 = 51 points]

——————

[Total score: 843 points]

* F-rank dungeon clear multiplier 1.0x = 843 pts

The three of us looked at the results with satisfaction.

During all this, Go Hyeon-woo seemed to have a question and asked Seo Ye-in,

“But Miss Seo, when did you lose any health?”

“Shahh, I failed.”

“……?”

If translated, it meant she had tried to swiftly pull out the crystal from a Venus flytrap but got caught.

Since Go Hyeon-woo was still a beginner in sloth language, it was no surprise he found it hard to understand.

It wasn’t important, so we just moved on.

[Herb Botanical Garden Random Box (F)] *2

Even though Lightning Valley was also an F-rank dungeon, its reward had only been one box.

In contrast, the Herb Botanical Garden, while also F-rank, was a three-person dungeon and had much tighter terrain compared to similar dungeons.

If we didn’t have the Hundred Poisons Immunity, we would have been poisoned every time the bean sprout monsters threw their poison fruit, and it would have been a real hassle.

Because of that, we ended up getting two random boxes as a reward.

“…….”

“…….”

Go Hyeon-woo and I glanced at Seo Ye-in at the same time, almost as if we had planned it. Seo Ye-in gave a slight nod and opened both random boxes at once.

Click,

[Random Rank Up] *2

For F-rank random boxes, this wasn’t a bad outcome at all.

I handed one of the Random Rank Ups to Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in.

“Here, give them a try.”

“But Kim-hyung, you didn’t get anything for yourself.”

“So what if I didn’t?”

After all, I managed all the rewards from other dungeons, so there was no need to claim my share from an F-rank dungeon as well.

And if you’re wondering whether I really didn’t get anything out of this, well, that wasn’t quite true either.

[Side Quest: 13th Week Strategy Battle] (Completed)

? Objective: Clear the strategy battle dungeon

? Average health (99/95%)

? Reward: Stamp Coupon (C)

A reward given when completing the side quest with the maximum achievement.

It was a coupon that allowed you to collect multiple stamps.

With a C-rank stamp coupon, you could collect up to ten stamps, and by gathering five and then ten stamps, you could receive an “even more special reward”.

So how do you collect the stamps?

By failing.

More precisely, whenever you or a party member received a “failure” result on any random item, a stamp would be added.

For example, like that future teahouse owner Shin, who had the special ability to draw a lower than E-rank reward from a D-rank random box.

Or by using the Random Rank Up and failing.

So go ahead; fail for me.