— Something bad is about to happen, to me~ I don't know why but I can…
'Why am I watching this right now? I think I was supposed to… ah, right. I was supposed to be reading that fanfic.'
I didn't know what was happening. But I felt drowsy. Not drowsy in the way of wanting to sleep, but the feeling that my brain just wants to rest.
Nevertheless, I get out of the app I was in and start to read a fanfic…
I don't know why, but I feel like this is something I know. It was a fanfic on ORV. The protagonist was fighting an arachne.
His legs were cut off and his body pierced and pinned down to the ground. I don't know why, but I feel like I have seen it before.
I continued reading it. It was clear that his mana was running out in a fast pace even though it was only a few seconds. He was using multiple skills that.
He somehow pushed through the pain and raised his arm even while it was pinned down by a limb of the monster as he pointed the gun at it. A dark aura suddenly covered the gun as he shot multiple bullets at the monster, emptying the magazine.
I think the bullets were infused with that dark aura, which increased its damage and mana consumption at the same time.
When he could not get his arm out of the limb of the monster, he literally sacrificed his flesh to take it out. Only after that did he take out the other limbs pinning him down.
After that, he crawled to his legs and loosely attached them back. His mana was running out, which is why he was forced to decide to deactivate the skills keeping him running.
And suddenly, I felt weird. I didn't know what was happening… this feeling. I think I have experienced it before. The bed I was in, the warm blanket… they were disappearing.
—***—
The moment Ken opened his eyes, an insane amount of pain flooded his body.
He could not endure it, but he had to. He slowly leaned against the body of the arachne as a base of support.
Both of his arms, his stomach and his legs are now healed. But his mana had run out, which is why it used his stamina in order to heal them. Even now, it was actively using his stamina to fight of the poison which his poison resistance was having a time to fend off.
[Multiple constellations are worried about you.]
[Constellation The masochist of Joseon tells you to push through the pain no matter what.]
[Constellation Merchant of Venice tells you to calm down.]
[Constellation The dead man who came back says that if you give up, you will die.]
'Ha… I… really didn't want to do this right now.'
[Mana (lvl 11) > Mana (lvl 60).]
[24,700 coins have been used.]
[You have reached the current limit for the scenario.]
As his mana increased because of leveling it up, it also recovered the amount of mana he had just acquired.
Because of it, his regeneration started to effectively fight off against the poison before another notification came.
[Poison resistance (lvl 4) > Poison resistance (lvl 5).]
Ken slowly got back up on his feet. But there was one thing he was confused about.
'Why hasn't regeneration leveled up?'
His skill was supposed to level up to four after extremely heavy injuries, but it didn't. Which is why the only thing he could think of was that he needed to take more damage in order to level it up. Which was already giving him shivers from just thinking.
Then Ken noticed one thing, and that is. The seventh end credit isn't here yet.
[Some constellations think that you have to get out of the cave to complete it.]
This was a hassle for him to navigate out of a cave. But he was interested in something else.
He looked at the dead body of the arachne and started to butcher it out in order to find something.
[Some constellations find the butchering disgusting.]
Even the mere blood of the arachne was poisonous, but it had now affected him less and his regeneration was there to fight it off anyway.
After a while, he finally found a white marble of sorts from the inside of the monster. It was the nucleus of the arachne.
Ken quickly put it inside his bag and opened the dokkaebi bag to find an option.
"... Here it is." What he was looking for was the option to auction the body of the arachne, since he was pretty sure that even with this bad state, it might be valuable to some.
'Let's set the price to… 20,000 coins.'
After that, the body magically vanished from sight. After that Ken quickly packed up his things and started to head out.
Even after putting it up for auction, Ken looked around the dokkaebi bag for a while before buying something.
[Growth package I, has been bought.]
[Growth package II, has been bought.]
[3,100 coins have been deducted for the purchase.]
The main reason Ken bought these is because he could feel his growth slowing down a lot. And he also felt like a dumbass to forget that these existed in the first place.
At first, it was extremely hard to get up to the tunnel he fell from. But after that, most of the tunnel was surprisingly not that hard to go through.
After a few hours, he got out of the cave and finally managed to teleport out of the movie.
Ken looked at the ripped up poster of the movie.
While heading out of the theatre dungeon, he found many people from different stations, who had come to this place.
Some were a bit hostile, and some a bit cautious. But all of them asked him one thing, which was that. If he got information about this place from the prophets.
In response, he affirmed to them that he also bought the information from the prophets.
Ken knew who they were, they were some random ass people where most of them read less than fifty chapters of TWSA and were acting like they knew it all.
Ken too didn't know much about this world either except events from the future. As ORV never got into much detail about the world except what was needed at the moment.
After a while, he got back to Jongno station. And just like every other day, everyone was still aimless. But today, they were looking at him like he was weird.
Which he knew why. Many part of his clothes were torn apart as well as the fact, today, the lower part of his pants were also gone.
He glared at the people looking at him, which made them look away. Many were afraid of him, as he was always selected for the bare fight and would kill his opponent without using any skill.
He knew that it must still be the middle of the day, which is why he finally decided to head out to the place he had gone beforehand.
The tunnel to the place the ground rats had taken him to. Walking along the railway, he finally reached the same tunnel.
It was dark, but still visible enough. After walking a bit, he sees a light coming out and reaches a place with a chest in the middle.
Multiple ground rats were surrounding it. But as tier nine monsters, and his gun. They were easy opponents.
As he reached out to the chest, it opened and an item came out of it.
[Mana recovery bracelet.]
[Grade: D.]
[Description: A bracelet that increases mana recovery speed.]
Ken wore the bracelet in his right hand. After that, he took out three things from his bag.
The heart of the immortal. Seong-bin, the sword he had been using for a while. And the rusty sword he never used.
After that, Ken started to find something in the chest and after finding it, he touched the black pattern on the chest and it opened up again.
[Multiple constellations are looking forward to what you are going to do.]
Ignoring them, he put the rusty sword first, then the heart of the immortal and then seong-bin. As he closed the chest, multiple notifications started coming in a row.
[The grade of the item Persistent warrior's rusty sword is being readjusted.]
[Using the items used to readjust the selected item.]
[The item seems to be connected to a constellation.]
[A certain constellation you are familiar with is drawn to what is happening right now.]
[The item's grade has been readjusted.]
Ken knew exactly what was happening and what would come out. But he was a bit surprised that the name changed from valiant to persistent. Which then again reminded him that many things keep changing.
As he opened the chest again. A sword with a black hilt and shining blade came out.
[Jeung.]
[Grade: Constellation.]
[Description: A sword used by the constellation The masochist of Joseon during his time as a general. Grants the user +5 to strength and constitution and the stigma Indomitable.]
Just then a message came to him.
[Constellation The masochist of Joseon feels incredibly nostalgic.]
[Constellation The masochist of Joseon thanks you for restoring the sword.]
[Constellation The masochist of Joseon rewards you 2,000 coins.]
Ken knew how he made this constellation. He was not even a real guy in actual Korean lore, just a made up one by him.
But what he didn't expect was the constellation giving him coins.
"... Wow… never expected someone as stingy as you to reward me for doing something I was going to do for myself anyway."
[Constellation The masochist of Joseon is hurt by your remark.]
Ken ignored the constellation as he looked up to the stigma. As he didn't want anything about this to change.
[Stigma: Indomitable.]
[Description: Indomitable doesn't mean never breaking. It doesn't mean that you won't ever fail. It means to stand up no matter how many times you are broken. It means to be able to win no matter how bad the situation is and how many times you fail.]
The entire description of this stigma is a sort of metaphor. But to put it simply, it means that no matter the situation, he will always have the will to get back up. And he was content about the fact that the description was not changing from what he intended.
"... Now then. Let's mess a bit with Asmodeus, shall we?"
[Some constellation of the absolute good is intrigued by what you just said.]
As Ken switches the sword he was holding to the celestial sword, he throws a rock at a membrane like place under a giant tree root and a giant humanoid monster comes out of it screaming.
[Tier 7 demon species, the Dark Keeper.]