Chapter 76: The Fish Trap

Episode 76

Yang Junggeun, filled with relief, ran toward the direction of the voices he had heard. Before long, he saw Lee Deokgu and the rest of the group fighting a fierce battle against green slime monsters near the exit.

‘Yes! With this many forces, we can fight Kim Jin-sung again!’

Yang Junggeun cheered internally, but his outward behavior and words betrayed his inner thoughts. His habit of addressing subordinates harshly surfaced once more.

“What are you doing?! With so many of you, you can’t even handle these monsters?!”

Yang Junggeun shouted abruptly. At the same time, the heads of the Quagmire summons all turned toward him in unison. Then, they all leaped towards him.

“What, what?!”

Yang Junggeun was startled. Why were these summons, which had been fighting others, suddenly all coming after him?

‘Damn! There’s no choice!’

With one arm broken, Yang Junggeun knew he couldn’t win against these slimes. He quickly used his good arm to create a new magic circle on the ground. At the same time, he shouted to the others.

“Take care of these things for me!!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a gray curtain surrounded him. The subspace magic circle had been activated. The Quagmire summons, unable to enter the circle, desperately tried to break in. Watching this, the group began to hesitate greatly.

“What should we do…?”

“What do we do, Deokgu? Do we have to fight again?”

“Those slimes are too strong to fight…”

Everyone looked at Lee Deokgu, the temporary leader, for a decision. He also wore a troubled expression.

“Normally, we’d have to deal with all of them, but the losses might be too great…”

Lee Deokgu glanced at the bodies of their fallen comrades scattered around. Over ten of them were already dead. Fighting all these slimes could result in even more casualties. At that moment, a member of the group shouted in terror, pointing to one side.

“Kim Jin-sung is here!!”

Everyone’s heads turned sharply in that direction. Emerging slowly from the corner was Kim Jin-sung, now visible to all. The magic circle that had trapped him had disappeared when Yang Junggeun created the new one.

‘Gasp!’

‘It’s really him!’

‘Of all times, that monster appears now!’

The group looked terrified. The name Kim Jin-sung had a tremendous impact on them. As they all started to back away from him, trying to distance themselves, Lee Deokgu’s voice rang out.

“Let’s retreat!”

Hearing Lee Deokgu’s command, the group began to run up the stairs one by one.

Deokgu slightly nodded as he watched them.

‘I expected this.’

The group no longer followed Yang Junggeun’s lead. Instead, they looked to Deokgu for decisions.

‘They don’t want to die in vain, especially those who have already secured their places in the preliminaries.’

Indeed, many had already secured their places through the preliminary rounds, according to the announcements. About 40 people had passed, and they were now leading the retreat.

‘Now, let’s see the end of Yang Junggeun.’

Deokgu, now alone, exchanged glances with Kim Jin-sung from the exit. Kim Jin-sung, seeing Deokgu nod slightly, turned toward the subspace magic circle and stepped inside.

‘He’s going inside just like that?’

Deokgu watched in surprise as Kim Jin-sung disappeared into the subspace. It didn’t take three minutes before the gray curtain of the magic circle began to fade. When it fully disappeared, Kim Jin-sung stood there, unscathed. Another sight also came into view.

‘…How brutal.’

Yang Junggeun’s body lay there, twisted grotesquely, his limbs and joints mangled. Even Deokgu, who had seen many corpses, found it horrifying. It was clear what Kim Jin-sung had done to Yang Junggeun in those three minutes.

“Someone like you doesn’t even need a ‘space dominated by demonic energy.'”

Kim Jin-sung coldly remarked to the corpse, then turned his gaze to Deokgu.

Deokgu flinched as Kim Jin-sung spoke.

“Our alliance ends here.”

Deokgu was startled and stepped back.

“Go up. And don’t let me see you again.”

Kim Jin-sung’s words were an unilateral declaration. Deokgu quickly nodded and ran up the stairs.

‘Don’t let him see me? I wouldn’t show myself even if he didn’t say that. Absolutely not!’

Deokgu, determined, was filled with intense fear.

After Lee Deokgu disappeared from view, Kim Jin-sung, left alone among the Quagmire summons, began organizing the notifications that had appeared before him.

‘I gained a lot of good traits and skills from this battle.’

Kim Jin-sung started sorting out which skills and traits he had acquired and which existing skills he needed to discard.

‘First, I got Jang Hyung-tae’s frozen Mana trait.’

—

**Ice Age**: You can convert mana into frozen attribute.

—

As Kim Jin-sung had anticipated, Jang Hyung-tae was not merely in possession of a simple skill but was a trait holder who could freely utilize frozen mana. The way he created frozen arrows, walls, and whirlwinds was similar to how Kim Jin-sung used demonic energy for attacks, making it predictable. The only difference was that Kim Jin-sung was much more proficient in utilizing his abilities.

‘Now that I’ve obtained fire and ice abilities, I just need lightning to have all elemental traits.’

For a moment, Pung Bitgaram’s face flashed through Kim Jin-sung’s mind. He remembered vividly how Bitgaram had formed a magic circle with clouds and launched lightning attacks at the Quagmire.

‘I need to kill that guy with my own hands someday.’

Bitgaram had already betrayed them first, giving Kim Jin-sung more than enough reason to kill him.

‘And I also obtained Wang Mandu’s skills and traits.’

**Human Vacuum Cleaner**: Suck in and devour creatures in front of you through your mouth. Permanently gain 0.1% of the devoured creature’s stats and 1% of their weight.

– The area within the sucking range momentarily turns into a vacuum.

– Consumes 25 mana when used.

**Slime Skin**: Increases skin defense and elasticity by 100%.

—

In fact, he had considered discarding the “Human Vacuum Cleaner” skill, thinking it wouldn’t be very useful.

‘Gaining stats permanently is good, but gaining weight is a bit…’

However, since merging “Mana Hawk,” “Eye of Surveillance,” “Shadow Hide,” and “Warp Hole” left two empty skill slots, he decided to keep it for now.

‘Next is the laser skill…’

—

**Laser Beam**: Focuses mana to fire a powerful laser beam. Consumes mana continuously while firing the beam, and the firepower can be adjusted based on the amount of mana used.

—

‘…I don’t really need this one.’

This was a skill he could easily mimic using demonic energy. Nonetheless, since he had an empty skill slot, he decided to keep it for now.

‘It might be useful for skill fusion.’

Given that skill fusion was now possible, he couldn’t discard skills based solely on their usefulness. A fast-attacking laser beam skill could serve as a good fusion material with other offensive skills.

‘And the Unbreakable Vajra skill obtained from Im Sang-hoon.’

—

**Unbreakable Vajra**: Increases skin defense by 1500% for 5 minutes and grants immunity to all physical status effects. Consumes 1500 mana.

—

‘Finally, I got a higher version of the “Unstoppable Charge” skill.’

He had kept “Unstoppable Charge” until now because the buff granting immunity to all physical status effects was highly attractive. Now that he had obtained a skill providing the same buff and an incredible increase in defense, he no longer needed “Unstoppable Charge.”

‘It served me well for a long time.’

Without the “Unstoppable Charge” skill, he wouldn’t have dared to fight Forghinae, who constantly released sleep and blinding powders.

‘And lastly, the combined trait I obtained from Yang Junggeun?’

—

**Acquired the comprehensive trait of “Sihir Warrior” from the opponent.**

**Sihir Warrior**: Grants the following traits and permanently stored skills.

– **Taunt**: Shout loudly, infusing mana. All monsters except those protected from status effects will target the user.

– **Subspace Magic Circle Creation**: Infuse mana into the ground to create a large subspace magic circle.

– Inside the magic circle, allies’ stats double while enemies’ stats drop below half. Allies and enemies can be designated by the user.

– Consumes 1000 mana when used.

– Permanently increases strength by 30 and intelligence by 35.

—

The comprehensive trait acquired this time had only two skills. Considering he usually obtained at least three skills, it was relatively few.

‘But the Subspace Magic Circle skill alone is more useful than two regular skills combined.’

Through the fight within the subspace with Yang Junggeun and the others, he realized that the Subspace Magic Circle was an incredibly troublesome skill for enemies to deal with. If he hadn’t known how to create the “space dominated by demonic energy,” he might have lost the battle.

‘I’ll be using this frequently in future battles. Moreover, it seems excellent for skill fusion.’

For instance, what if he fused “Spider Web” with “Subspace Magic Circle Creation”? If the enemies entering the subspace were heavily restricted by spider webs all around, it would be much easier to eliminate them.

‘I should experiment with which skills can be fused.’

With that thought, Kim Jin-sung used his Shadow Hide skill to sink into the ground. At the same time, a large Warp Hole formed where he stood. After 15 seconds, Kim Jin-sung entered the Warp Hole. Emerging outside the exit, he appeared on the surface.

“Have you been well?”

Kim Jin-sung greeted cheerfully as dozens of Quagmires rushed towards him.

This was a wide room on the third underground floor, with the exit firmly shut by an iron door. Here, Kim Jin-sung was deliberately multiplying the real Quagmire. It was essentially a “Quagmire fish trap.”

The reason for multiplying the monsters was simple: to harvest Beast Karma Points.

‘I need to gather 5,000 points to test skill fusions.’

Kim Jin-sung prepared to generate and launch demonic energy orbs at the approaching Quagmire.

‘It’s also good to stock up on points for unexpected situations. After all, Seol Daun is still out there.’

Recalling Seol Daun’s cheerful chatter on the plane, Kim Jin-sung launched the demonic energy orbs at the Quagmire in front of him.