The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 50

LV.2 Dungeon.

For most players, it was an ominous space where death seemed to be gaping its mouth wide open.

Hwoooong-

But for Lee Shin, it was just a space that could be a good pastime.

Lee Shin's sharp senses detected the faint killing intent of the monsters rushing toward him like a ghost.

And Lee Shin's spear simply nullified the power of the recklessly rushing monsters and pierced the necks of the scattered monsters.

As if cutting down the leaves of a tropical tree with a machete, Lee Shin continued to repeat the process of eliminating the monsters and taking only the magic stones, going deeper into the dungeon.

"Oh, found it. Found it."

After wandering around the dungeon for a while, Lee Shin was able to find the dungeon's boss room.

Thump-

Lee Shin entered the boss room with light steps.

Shreureureuk-

Then, the owner of the boss room, a giant black snake with a pair of pure white horns, raised its body and looked down at Lee Shin.

'Come to think of it, they say if a snake's mouth is triangular, it's a venomous snake.'

Lee Shin raised his internal energy from his dantian to create [Lightning] and smiled playfully.

"Come to think of it, I've never fought a monster that uses poison as a weapon."

Shaaaaa-

As if answering Lee Shin's words, the White-Horned Black Snake flashed its eyes, opened its mouth, and spat out a purple poisonous mist.

At that, Lee Shin swung his spear with a smiling face and split the purple poisonous mist in half.

Shreureuk-

The White-Horned Black Snake immediately reacted to Lee Shin's appearance and, bouncing its giant body like a spring, rushed toward Lee Shin.

***

"Hmm, so this is how a guy who uses poison as a weapon fights. Interesting."

Lee Shin smiled broadly and looked at his wound.

Starting from the part scratched by the White-Horned Black Snake's scales and the part grazed by its fangs, his blood vessels were slowly turning purple.

Perhaps because of that, his mind was slightly dazed and blurry.

'Maybe sucking in the poisonous mist was a crazy thing to do.'

Even though the White-Horned Black Snake's poison was gradually entering his body, Lee Shin didn't take any particular measures and just smiled broadly.

The White-Horned Black Snake was strong, but not so strong that Lee Shin had to fight a life-or-death battle with all his might.

In other words, there was a sufficient amount of internal energy in Lee Shin's dantian right now.

If he used the internal energy in his dantian, he could easily discharge the poison in his body.

But Lee Shin only took the minimum measures to prevent the poison from spreading and did not take any other measures.

No, on the contrary, he was taking in more poison into his body by breathing deeply and quickly.

This was a place Lee Shin had chosen by chance while fiddling with his phone while eating.

He hadn't come in knowing that there was a venomous snake.

In other words, it was just a happening that occurred by chance, but after coming in here and thinking for a moment, Lee Shin thought that the environment here was perfect for achieving what he had been thinking about.

As Lee Shin was catching his breath and focusing on taking in the poisonous mist that had spread in the air.

Woooong-

The mass of light that had been floating in the air slowly changed its shape and approached Lee Shin.

The item Lee Shin had wanted was created using the White-Horned Black Snake, which had been the boss monster of this dungeon, as a material.

Lee Shin lightly swung his palm, snatched it, and checked it.

Purple Pill

-Rare

-An elixir made by grinding all of the White-Horned Black Snake. It can provide a lot of internal energy, but it has a strong toxicity.

Grin-

Lee Shin smiled in satisfaction as he read the explanation shown by the system and put it in his mouth without hesitation.

Hwoooong-

As soon as the pill passed his throat, it spat out the energy and poison it contained.

The poison of the snake that was so huge it could have swallowed Lee Shin in one bite, condensed to its absolute limit.

It exploded like a firecracker and spread throughout Lee Shin's body.

Gulp-

At that shock, Lee Shin spat out black, dead blood, but he still felt it was not enough.

At that, Lee Shin released the poison he had blocked in a corner of his body and began to circulate his ki.

By taking in ki through ki circulation and moving the ki he had taken in, a person's body gradually gains vitality.

But now, that was acting as a bad move.

Because the poison that was raging like a storm in his body spread to all parts of his body along the flow of the ki circulation.

At that, Lee Shin's body reacted violently.

Drip, drip-

Black, dead blood began to flow from his mouth and the wounds all over his body.

A sign that Lee Shin's body was heading toward death.

At the same time, it was the sign Lee Shin had wanted.

'As expected, when my life is in danger like this, my mind becomes the clearest and it's easiest to concentrate.'

He had originally planned to awaken through a life-or-death battle with a strong enemy... but thinking that being poisoned also had its own feeling, Lee Shin smiled faintly.

What appeared then was not the playful and provocative broad smile he usually wore.

It was a comfortable smile, like that of a baby lying in a cradle.

At that, Lee Shin smiled and colored his mind with a single color.

-Madness is encroaching on your body.

Then, [Madness] reacted, and an ominous feeling wrapped around Lee Shin's body.

But there was not the slightest physical load of the kind that felt like his body was being ground, as usual.

That was to be expected, as there was no room for physical factors to intervene in what Lee Shin was concentrating on.

"Hmm, can this also be called something similar to a revolving lantern?"

Lee Shin, who had slowly fallen into ki circulation, entered his own mental world.

Lee Shin moved his steps and looked around for a moment.

If Lee Shin's mental image were to be described as a painting, it could be described as a collaboration of 'Expressionism' and 'Surrealism'.

The sky, where black and red were mixed while maintaining their respective boundaries, was reminiscent of Munch's 'The Scream', and the tree of flames and lightning towering on the barren horizon was endlessly unrealistic.

"Is this the appearance that my mental image draws... well, it's not like I can't understand it at all."

Lee Shin muttered to himself and approached the image that his cultivation method drew, the Flame Lightning Tree.

A tree with the appearance of lightning extending from the ground to the sky and flames falling from the sky to the ground combined.

The tree had a charm that captivated a person's eyes.

Lee Shin thought for a very short time that it wouldn't be bad to just look at this.

Thump-

But Lee Shin hadn't come here for a leisurely picnic.

Although he didn't feel the pain from his physical body as his mind had entered the mental world, his body was currently dying in real time.

'Although I've made the flow of time faster, I don't know for sure when I'll finish, so it's not good to be lazy.'

Lee Shin walked a little further and approached the soccer ball-sized black egg that was leaning against the Flame Lightning Tree.

Flinch-

Not long after that, the still egg trembled slightly, and a system message pierced Lee Shin's ears.

-[Madness] gently opens its eyes and looks at you.

This egg leaning against the Flame Lightning Tree was the core of the skill [Atypical Madness], which was created as [Madness] grew.

***

The evening of the day Lee Shin sparred with Yeonhwa.

Lee Shin had focused on two things that day.

To give his martial arts a definite color.

He had achieved a somewhat satisfactory result in this.

But the other one.

There was no great result in handling [Atypical Madness] as he wanted.

But it wasn't that there was no result at all.

The moment Lee Shin faced the egg in the mental world, he was able to instinctively feel a few things.

First, this black egg would just stay in its place quietly if Lee Shin didn't activate [Madness].

And when he activated [Madness], it would read his mind and assist the movement of his internal energy.

It would be convenient to think of it as a sub-CPU that assisted the movement of his internal energy.

Lee Shin had tried various things to learn about this guy in the LV.2 Black Jaguar dungeon, and

-Curiosity. Curiosity. Curiosity.

"Ah, I came to find you for a reason."

By strengthening the mental connection, he was able to roughly feel the 'egg's' emotions and its thoughts.

From there, Lee Shin thought.

'Ah, to handle this guy properly, I need to strengthen the mental connection first.'

As a result of contemplating various ways to strengthen the mental connection with the 'egg'.

Lee Shin experimented with sending his own mind through the connection connected to the 'egg'.

As a result, as Lee Shin had thought, the 'egg' slowly began to establish its ego.

But there was a problem.

As he passed on what he felt to the egg as a standard, the egg grew into something similar to a replica of him.

It wouldn't be particularly bad if it became like that, but Lee Shin wanted [Madness] to become a new circle that shared a single intersection, not a subset within him.

In other words, he wanted the 'egg' to establish its own ego.

And Lee Shin knew very well how to establish one's own ego.

"I came to give you a name today."

It was to give it a name.

Because a name was a very good tool to define an individual in a group and establish an ego.

-Anticipation. Happiness. Impatience.

Perhaps because the 'egg' also felt Lee Shin's excitement, a sensation that he had never felt before was being transmitted through the connection.

At that, Lee Shin smiled and uttered the name he had been thinking of.

"Irhegue. That's your name."

It was a name that took its motif from Nidhogg, who was always attached to the World Tree, after seeing the appearance of the 'egg' attached to the Flame Lightning Tree.

As he said the name, Lee Shin sent various images to the 'egg' through the connection.

Hoping that Irhegue would establish its own ego and break the egg to be born.

-Nidhogg.

-Dragon and Yong.

-Flames and lightning.

In addition to that, Lee Shin sent various keywords into the egg where Irhegue was.

After sending a few keywords, Lee Shin sent information that supplemented those keywords to Irhegue.

In the midst of that, at some point.

Lee Shin smiled, feeling that the information he was sending was being selected by Irhegue's will.

Because it meant that Irhegue had gained enough ego to be able to select information based on its likes and dislikes.

This was what Lee Shin had expected, and

Woooong-

What came after this was something Lee Shin had not expected.

"Hmm?"

Lee Shin tilted his head, feeling a strange wave spreading from the black egg.

But the situation did not wait for him.

Kugwagwagwa-!!!

The black egg where Irhegue was began to resonate with the Flame Lightning Tree and began to absorb the internal energy in Lee Shin's dantian at a tremendous rate.

At that, Lee Shin instinctively realized that this was a turning point for something.

Lee Shin immediately came out of the mental world and operated the Flame Lightning Tree God Art.

He focused, even grinding down the single thread of consciousness he had always left behind to be able to react to any situation.

His senses, which had become sharper than ever before in the face of death, received the buff of [Madness] and continued to extend, spreading throughout the entire boss room.

In that state, Lee Shin took in the energy in the boss room using the Flame Lightning Tree God Art, which had also received the buff of [Madness], and turned it into internal energy.

But it was slow.

Naturally, internal energy was not something that could be accumulated so easily.

No matter how outstanding a divine art was, there was a stage required to refine the surrounding ki and make it one's own.

In other words, to grant what Irhegue wanted, a method that was beyond common sense, not a normal method, was needed.

The moment his thoughts reached that point, Lee Shin quickly moved his hands while still in the state of circulating his ki.

In a time close to a fleeting instant, his hand went into his bag, took out a pouch, and then poured its contents into his mouth.

The 30-odd magic stones that were in the pouch flowed into his stomach like water.

(End of Chapter)