The Support Ate it All - Chapter 610: But Right Now, It’s a Spirit Pill
The area, which had felt like a funeral, had shifted into an awkward, embarrassed mood—and was slowly starting to turn festive.
Most of the family members who’d nearly died or been badly injured were perfectly fine now.
Unfortunately, I had to become the tactless mood-breaker again.
I spoke to the Dang father and daughter who were still covering their faces.
“Sorry, but we’re not done yet.”
“Ahem! You should’ve said that earlier… anyway, what is it?”
“There’s still one Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi left.”
“……!”
When I said it while lifting the Immortal Pot, the Clan Head’s expression turned serious in an instant.
The Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi that had gotten bloated by absorbing poison.
It was clearly the Blood Cult’s final move, so the moment I joined the battlefield I’d locked it inside [Severed Space].
But we couldn’t keep doing this forever.
Even now, mana was draining in real time, so I didn’t think I could hold it much longer.
Once my mana ran out, [Severed Space] would be released.
And what that freed Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi would do after that was unknown.
It might attack indiscriminately, or it might just erupt in a massive explosion—either way, we needed a countermeasure before it happened.
The Clan Head let out a low, thoughtful hum.
“Hm…. The best plan would be to resolve it somewhere the aftermath won’t reach, but nothing suitable comes to mind.”
If the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi exploded, the compound toxin would spread across a considerable area.
We needed a space wide enough that the damage wouldn’t reach anyone—and places like that were rare, whether you looked at the Dang family grounds or all of Sichuan.
Even if we found one, my mana would be drained before we got there.
The Elder Council Head and the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family also looked like they didn’t have a sharp answer.
Of course, I’d had a solution in mind from the moment I used the pot.
I looked around the group and opened my mouth.
“From what I understand, among the Dang family’s formation arrays, there are types that gather and compress poison.”
“That’s only a stopgap. If you can’t resolve the compound toxin itself, it’s meaningless.”
“If you gather it for us, we can resolve it.”
“……How?”
With a glance, I indicated Dang Gyu-young—and Seo Ye-in, who was still on my back—and continued.
“A lot of you have probably been wondering. How we could eat that much poison and be fine, and how we could win so easily even in sparring matches against experts.”
“……?”
“The truth is… we have ★All-Poison Immunity★.”
“……!”
Shock rippled through the area.
Even though the situation was serious, everyone was busy whispering.
Did they achieve all-poison immunity? At that age?
And not even one—three of them.
I knew they were extraordinary, but….
There probably wasn’t a single person in the Dang family with ★All-Poison Immunity★.
Even reaching poison immunity usually required deep mastery of poison—or being an elderly elder.
And yet we, so young, had ★All-Poison Immunity★.
Some looked like they wanted to doubt it, to deny it, but the evidence was already too obvious.
The Dang twins laughed and tossed out a line each.
“Hahaha, I thought you were suspiciously confident.”
“Now that I see it, you had a reason.”
The Elder Council Head was also staring this way with an intense gaze, and the greatest victim, Dang Eunbi, looked like her world was collapsing.
If I had to guess what she was thinking—
Why does a bum like that get all-poison immunity…?
Then the Clan Head gave a quiet order.
“Silence. We can talk later.”
After calming the commotion, he asked me,
“I’ll ask again. Are you sure it’s ★All-Poison Immunity★?”
“Would I lie in a place like this?”
This was something that could easily cost lives.
The Clan Head seemed to think the same and nodded readily.
“Then I can guess how you plan to resolve the compound toxin.”
“Yes. We’re going to absorb it.”
If it was the combined poison that the Dang family martial artists had poured in all night, the energy it carried would be enormous.
From our standpoint, it was a massive lump of spirit pills.
If we could get cooperation to absorb it, then revealing ★All-Poison Immunity★ was more than worth it.
The Clan Head nodded and issued an order.
“For now, betting on that method is best. Prepare.”
The Dang family martial artists moved in perfect unison, beginning to form a massive formation array.
At the very center, the Hyeseong Group gunners installed traps—meant to limit the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi’s movement.
As preparations moved along smoothly, I said a word to Dang Gyu-young.
“Should we refresh your slots now?”
“Yeah. That would be best.”
▷[Shadow Extraction][4/4]
One slot was only filled temporarily.
And now we’d gotten a chance to overlay an elder-class Gyu-Shadow—so it was better to move before it was too late.
The problem was there was only one slot, and two candidates.
Dang Gyu-young hesitated, looking back and forth between the two Blood Cult elders lying sprawled out.
Then, glaring at Saber Demon, they opened their mouth.
“You did that to Father.”
If it hadn’t been Retrocovery, Gyu’s dad might really have died.
To Dang Gyu-young, Saber Demon was basically an enemy—turning her into undead and carrying her around would carry symbolic meaning.
“……But I’m trying to stay calm right now. The future matters more.”
Rather than letting emotions lead, they were choosing efficiency.
And in terms of efficiency, Ghost Demon was far better than Saber Demon.
Even the difference in combat power is huge.
Saber Demon had quickly been driven on the defensive by Dang Gyu-young and Zhuge Soso’s combined attack, then met her end, while Ghost Demon resisted—and even counterattacked—against a formation array deployed by the Dang family’s experts acting as one.
And it diversifies the composition, too.
Ghost Demon’s role was to buff jiangshi and exert ritual, spell-like power.
If we recruited him, the Gyu-Shadow Undead legion—previously crowded with only close-range types—would finally gain a supporter.
Dang Gyu-young seemed to reach the same conclusion. They extended a hand toward Ghost Demon’s remains.
A shadow slid in and merged beneath Dang Gyu-young’s feet.
- Ghost Demon (A)
After that, I picked up a piece of gear that had fallen nearby.
The little bells swayed, ringing with an eerie sound.
- CLINK……
[ soul-summoning bell (A+) ]
An item deeply tied to spiritual entities.
If we made good use of Hidden Piece, it would help Dang Gyu-young’s ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) power-up a lot, too.
And we could increase the slots by a couple, while we were at it.
In my head, I added a few more dungeons to hit after the semester started.
By then, the formation array was almost complete.
The top experts took the core axis, and more than a dozen martial artists spread out at fixed intervals.
As Dang Gyu-young and I approached, I also woke Seo Ye-in, who was sleeping soundly.
“Excuse me, my lady.”
“…….”
“My lady, wake up for a moment.”
“I wanna sleep….”
“Should we eat a late-night snack, then sleep?”
“……?”
At that, Seo Ye-in slowly lifted her head.
She seemed to look around carefully—then slowly buried her face back into my back.
“There isn’t any….”
“It’s almost done. Just wake up for a second.”
Seo Ye-in looked dissatisfied, but she climbed off my back anyway, and the three of us stood at the very center of the formation array.
Then the Clan Head asked,
“Are you ready?”
“Yes. You can begin anytime.”
“Understood.”
He let his gaze pass over the Dang family martial artists one by one, then gave a quiet order.
“Gaijin.”
As the formation array unfolded, the pressure grew stronger and stronger.
In the middle of that, I thrust the pot forward. [Severed Space] released, spitting out a heavy form.
A Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi, bloated from absorbing poison to the limit.
The instant its feet touched the ground, the pre-installed traps activated.
- WHOOM—!
- CLANG—!
Wooden vines wound around its entire body, and thick ice climbed up from under its feet to its waist.
The Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi struggled, but the bindings showed no sign of loosening in the slightest.
Then its grotesquely swollen body began to puff up even more.
It looked like Ghost Demon had left some kind of arrangement behind.
Urgent shouts erupted from all around.
“It’s going to explode!”
“Keep pressing it down!”
“Stay calm!”
The pressure intensified another level, as if forcibly crumpling the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi into a wad.
It stopped the explosion—but instead, black smoke began to pour from its seven openings.
- WHOOM—!
The poison aura was so vicious you could practically see it.
The Dang family martial artists began trading instructions again.
“This is the critical part!”
“Compress it as is!”
“Not a single bit can leak out!”
- WHOOM—!
The black smoke couldn’t spread any farther, lingering only near the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi.
As if it were trapped inside an invisible space.
Its form was swallowed by the thick smoke, and before long, its body looked like it was starting to collapse little by little.
Poison it had carried without issue—yet once it left its body, even it couldn’t endure it.
- WHOOM—!
A little later, all that remained there was a lump of pitch-black energy so intense it was disgusting.
With one glance at it, I told Dang Gyu-young and Seo Ye-in,
“Let’s begin.”
Then I extended my hand forward and started moving my mana.
- CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!
A massive surge of energy flooded in like a deluge.
I guided it calmly and stacked it into my Core.
No sooner had I done that than another enormous surge came rushing in—and I repeated the process, stacking it into my Core again and again.
How much time passed in that trance?
When I could no longer feel any energy at my fingertips, I opened my eyes.
Dang Gyu-young, also opening their eyes, asked,
“It’s over, right?”
“Yes.”
We’d absorbed every last speck of poison aura.
And even now, enormous energy was still roaring inside my body.
That’s worth a few S-rank spirit pills.
But since we’d absorbed it just now, I needed to run mana training a little longer to make it fully mine.
The Clan Head seemed to account for that as well, because he said to us,
“Once again, the main house has escaped crisis thanks to you. Go in first. Don’t worry about the cleanup.”
Then he looked warmly at Dang Gyu-young.
“You too—rest for now. We’ll finish talking tomorrow.”
“……Yes, Father.”
Dang Gyu-young answered with a gentle smile and left with us.
As we walked, I pulled up the notification message that had arrived a moment ago.
[Main Quest 4] (Completed)
▷Objective: Dispel the dark clouds hanging over Sichuan
[Settlement will begin.]
[You have greatly contributed to the disposal of the Asura Blood Sword Squad Leader.]
[Rewards will be greatly enhanced.]
Since the Blood Sword Squad Leader was close to S-rank in skill, if we’d fought him head-on our odds wouldn’t have been great.
At first, I’d even considered retreat.
But by breaking his Geas, we’d weakened him significantly—so we could take him down more easily than his strength suggested.
[You have rescued many wounded.]
[Rewards will be greatly enhanced.]
We’d run around nonstop, helping Dang family martial artists in danger and evacuating them to safety.
And on the last battlefield, we’d even treated the severely injured—including the Clan Head himself—using Retrocovery.
We’d prevented an entire large group from being shattered.
In some ways, you could say that mattered even more than killing a Blood Cult elder.
[You have contributed to the subjugation of Ghost Demon.]
[Rewards will be enhanced.]
[You have nullified Ghost Demon’s arrangement.]
[Rewards will be greatly enhanced.]
The “arrangement” seemed to mean the last Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi.
If it had gone as intended, the compound toxin damage would’ve been massive, but we’d blocked it at the source.
That was a huge benefit to the Dang family as well.
As rewards were enhanced, and enhanced again—
[Please select your reward.]
- Unique Skill Selection Ticket *1
- Unique Skill *1, sovereign Unique Skill *1
- Unique Skill *1, Fixed Pin, Slot Plus
▷Note: The acquired skill will be determined by the user’s tendencies.
Unique skills and traits weren’t something just anyone could learn—and their performance was as overwhelming as their rarity.
The crow tailor’s [Weaving], Kwak Seungjae’s [Wood Door], Hong Yeonhwa’s [Aqua Flame]—good examples.
That was exactly why seeing them as rewards was extremely rare.
Meaning I have to choose carefully.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to approach it by elimination.
First, option 3.
[Fixed Pin] and [Slot Plus] are both really useful.
My strength would climb fast, and if we used them to increase bond slots, we could all get stronger together.
The learning difficulty was also pretty high—unless you cleared with the highest completion level by stacking a sub-quest and even a challenge, you might not see them at all.
Still… this time, Unique Skill comes first.
Because who knew when I’d ever get it again.
So I crossed out option 3.
That left options 1 and 2.
Do I get one skill I want, or two random ones?
If I got a selection ticket, there was a unique skill I’d learn without hesitation.
Its performance was beyond broken.
But right now, increasing the variety might be better.
If I picked option 2, I’d learn skills at random—but they’d still be unique skills.
At the very least, the baseline performance should be guaranteed.
And I checked the note again.
It says it’s determined by the user’s tendencies.
My tendency was, of course, wind-type.
Next most common were freezing-type skills like Ice-White Pellet, Ice Wall, and so on.
Either way, I’d welcome whatever unique skill came out.
All right. This time, I’m going with 2.
As soon as I made the decision, another notification message appeared.
[‘Diamond Freeze (F)’ has been acquired.]
[‘Invitation’ has been acquired.]
And I raised my eyebrows in confusion.
Invitation?
Because a skill I’d never seen before had appeared.
