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chapter-53

Phantom Dragon, Ride the Wind (2)

He had experience reading the memories and experiences of objects, but this time his target was the entire irregular gate.

‘I’m asking you.’ He didn’t think deeply about it; he had nothing else he could do.

‘Please respond.’ He believed and focused. His only goal was to find out where the spiders were.

-…

Perhaps because the target’s will was so huge, at first, there was no change. However, as Kang Shin-hyuk’s spiritual power steadily flowed into the wall, a small sound flowed directly into his mind without passing through his ears.

-…Click…click…

It was a spider creeping somewhere on the ceiling. His eyes widened; it was close to him. He could faintly read the spider’s position and movement, which meant he succeeded in interacting with the gate. That was only the beginning, however, as information about the spiders flooded into him.

“Oh, huh?!” All sorts of information flowed in at once, too fast to organize. He tried to control the image somehow as it felt like his head would begin to split. He didn’t need all of this information, only where there were large groups and where they were going.

‘…!’ He clenched his teeth to prevent himself from screaming at the terrible pain radiating through his head. He mentalized himself, refining the information coming in as if he were forging a blade. Melting it down in the forge, beating it down on the anvil. Then calmly tapping away to do the finishing touches.

‘Done…!’ Finally, a beautiful blade of meticulously organized information was engraved into Kang Shin-hyuk’s mind. The gate’s structure, the safe paths, the goals of the spiders, and their routes were all condensed into a simple map in his mind. The irregular gate was starting to feel a lot more manageable now.

‘But.’ He took his hand away from the wall and cut off the connection with a serious expression. There was one part he wasn’t able to gather information on, and that was the spiders’ birthplace. It was the place that had changed the most during the gate’s transformation, but the mana concentrated there was so intense that it was impossible to scan using spiritual power.

‘I’m sure it’s too dangerous to leave alone.’ Kang Shin-hyuk was convinced he had to go there to clear this gate. There would be plenty of spiders gathered there, so why not drink his potions and take them all out at once? His potions would only last for thirty minutes, and he couldn’t use more than one per status each day, so it would be the ideal environment to take care of as many enemies as possible in that timeframe. Of course, it was another question whether he could face that many enemies at once.

-Did you read it?

“Yeah, somehow.” The administrator remained silent in astonishment at Kang Shin-hyuk’s honest reply for a long moment.

-You’re the only one who can handle your spiritual power so well.

“You told me that it is the power of communication.”

-Usually, it is limited to one’s specialty. Some can only communicate with their weapon or monsters. However, you can communicate with everything as if there were no limits. Perhaps it is because you’re going through your second life, or it’s because of your ability as a craftsman. All I can say is that it’s amazing.

It was the second time that such a long and passionate message had come from the administrator. Kang Shin-hyuk thought to accept the compliment and move on, unsure of how to respond.

“I’m going to check out if I was right.” He purchased some Velcro Tape using 100,000 HP from the remaining 700,000 HP. It was an item that you could attach to your shoes to stick to any surface. With it, it was possible to move around on the ceiling.

-Are you okay?

“It feels a bit weird, but it’s alright. It helps that I learned about the spiders from the wall.”

-Myu…

“Be patient.” He tucked Onyx in his shirt so he wouldn’t fall, then looking into the nearest hole in the ceiling. Evolving into a spider-friendly A-grade environment, the gate now had an internal passageway for spiders to move easily through. Now, he could use it himself.

‘My stealth is still up. Good.’ There were usually only a few spiders crawling throughout the inner passages, which shouldn’t be difficult to deal with. The real problem was in them sending periodic signals to each other. If there were a disturbance in the passage, he wouldn’t be able to cover it up.

-Click, click

Crawling through the passage, he could hear the clicking sounds of spiders coming from everywhere. Reaching an intersecting passage, a spider swung just past his nose.

‘I have to keep calm.’ His pulse was pounding in his ears, and he forced himself to calm down. The spiders didn’t have a good sense of sight or smell; they mainly relied on their sense of touch to search for enemies. Therefore, as long as he remained calm and moved slowly, he wouldn’t be caught. But was it really that easy? Another spider appeared from the crossing passage, shaking the antennae on its head up and down. Shin-hyuk held his breath to wait it out.

-Click click click

Little by little, the spider moved toward where Kang Shin-hyuk was hidden. It seemed convinced there was something nearby. He wondered if he should kill the spider and run away; however, there was the possibility he would be besieged in the passageways if he did that. The second he moved, he would definitely be caught.

‘…Please, with this!’ Kang Shin-hyuk acted quickly, making a gust of wind in his hand and shooting it away. Instead of hitting the spider, it caused a slight vibration on the other side of the vibration. Given that the skill was only still F-rank, that was all he was capable of doing.

‘But I can do that without consuming spiritual power.’ It was said that only those with magic could deal with those powers, but he could make that light breeze without it. If he used spiritual power, he could create stronger winds, but that was pointless at F-rank.

-Click click click click

On the other hand, he had achieved his goal. The spider reacted violently, turning to face the vibration. Kang Shin-hyuk crawled out of his spot as quickly as possible.

-Myu.

“Just a little longer.” He proceeded without hesitation through the tangled passageways. In the process of encountering several more spiders, he began to learn of new ways to use Wind Mastery. He could erase his presence by artificially generating and interrupting the flow of wind. The combination of Onyx’s stealth and his wind were synergizing to make them even sneakier.

-…Dear member, we will soon reach the core of this gate.

“I see. The information I gathered seems to be accurate.”

-You need to prepare for battle. You can’t avoid it anymore.

“Yeah…” He nodded, looking forward at the spiders, still moving busily in the center of the passage.

“Onyx, hide in the inventory.

-Myu!

Onyx steadfastly refused. His loyalty had risen after eating so much, so Shin-hyuk could feel that he wanted to help somehow. He gently patted Onyx’s forehead.

“Okay, then hold on tight.”

-Myu!

Kang Shin-hyuk carefully pulled out the forelimb blade he had stowed in his inventory, concentrating his spiritual power on it. His eyes began to turn golden.

“Here goes…!” His stealth skill dropped. The spiders began to approach him with a clicking sound as he with the blade into the ceiling, firing off the blade of wind with all his might. Thanks to Wind Master’s influence, the wind blade was twice as strong.

-Kwaaaaaah!

-Kiiiiiii!

-Kiii!

The ceiling collapsed with the roar of a bomb exploding. Cracks began to spider out throughout the elaborately constructed passageways, causing them to collapse as well. In the process of evading the debris, Kang Shin-hyuk turned to find a place to go. Naturally, the space before him was a huge cavern.

“Crazy…” The contents of the cavern were incomparable to the mantis nest. Countless eggs filled the deep, dark cavern that made up a significant chunk of the gate.

-Kiiiii!

-Kiii!

Additionally, unlike the mantis nest, there were countless spiders there as well. Monsters were wrapped up in spider webs all over, becoming food for the unborn spiders. Empty shells of the monsters that had already been sucked dry were piled up in one corner.

-Kiiiii!

The only positive thing was that Kang Shin-hyuk had blown up the passages effectively, killing some of the spiders and blocking the rest from accessing this cavern. However, even with the HP acquisition message filling his retina, he couldn’t laugh. Hundreds of spiders were all watching him.

-Click click click

-Kiiii

-Click

A dissonance like hitting a torn drum or playing a rusted violin hit him. Ominous red eyes, twinkling in the dark, were drawing closer to him. He had no one but himself to blame for his stupidity.

-You’ve consumed a lower strength potion. Your strength has risen by one level for 30 minutes.

-You’ve consumed a lower stamina potion. Your stamina has risen by one level for 30 minutes.

-You’ve consumed an intermediate agility potion. Your agility has risen by two levels for 30 minutes.

Kang Shin-hyuk drank all of the potions he had prepared, raising his strength, stamina, and agility to the A-rank. He was now minimally prepared to fight against the gate.

Only

-Kiiii!

-Click, click

“Okay, let’s do it now.” He had nowhere to retreat; he had to deal with them and clear the gate now. He showed a fearless smile as he brandished the forelimb blade. Beyond the spiders, he could see a huge magic circle emitting a low blue light. Inside it was one giant egg.

‘That’s it.’ That was what he couldn’t sense, perhaps the heart of this gate. But first, he would have to break through these hundreds of spiders.

-Click click click

-Click

“I won’t die here…!” Drinking the spiritual recovery potion to put all his power into the forelimb blade, he swung it with all his strength toward the poisonous spider webs that were aimed at him.

The battle began.