I Never Run Out of Mana - Chapter 119

Chapter 119

119 . This Is the Reason Why

Due to how much poison was on him, it looked as if Jong Ho’s body was coated in spinach jam .

I was fine due to my Mana Shield, but that wasn’t the case with him .

On top of that, it was leaving holes in the duffel bag that the Awakened use, which could withstand most attacks .

It was a bag made by processing a bloodstone .

Since it was made from a S ranking stone I’ve received from Karin, it had a durability far surpassing any pathetic armor humans could make .

It was durable enough for me to wear it during combat in dungeons below level 30 .

However, since it fell apart like wet tissue paper, I was able to reconfirm just how much damage the poison from the Jewel Goats did .

Many bloodstones spilled out from the holes of the bag like rice, but I didn’t feel any regret .

What I was really worried about was if any essences were mixed in the stream of stones spilling out .

To check on the loot, I headed out the portal .

“Hyung-nim, it looks like you’ll have to get the poison on your body washed off with the Cleanse spell . For us, it’s fine, but it looks like it’ll be lethal for average person to even get near us . ”

I held up the duffel bag that had been torn apart as I spoke .

It seemed that Jong Ho had the same idea .

“Yep . Looks like I’ll have to . ”

“Yes . I’ll have to talk with Mr . Ho Yeong from the association . He’ll have to prepare a high ranking healer for us . ”

“Yeah . Call one for me, will you . ”

“Yes . It’ll be inconvenient for them, but I’ll need them to come over here . About the mimic . Seems we get a bag full of goodies whenever we meet one . ”

“It really doesn’t hold back when it gives . ”

“I’ve only seen a mimic 3 times so far, and out of those 3, 2 of them were from when I was hunting with you . It’s pretty amazing . ”

“I’ve seen it twice my whole life, and all of them was with you . ”

“I guess we have quite the synergy . ”

“I don’t want to admit it, but it seems so . ”

“You don’t need to say the first part… . Whatever, let’s go check on what our loot is . It seemed that even a Titan Boots dropped when I was packing up . ”

“Really? I didn’t see . ”

Flipping the duffel bag upside down, I poured out all of its contents .

The sound of bloodstones colliding with essences was like music to my ears .

The amount of loot that poured out was an enormous amount .

That was to be expected, since the duffel bag that was the size of a cow was filled to the brim .

The first item that stood out for me was the Titan Boots .

Looking at that, Jong Ho had a smile that seemed to claim he had the entire world in palm of his hand .

“Hey! Really? It’s a pair of Titan Boots!”

“You can thank the Jewel Goat King . ”

“It was a good goat… . . if you don’t consider this slimy poison… . . ”

“It was an artifact that you really needed . Good for you . ”

“Agreed . In Korea, there are less than ten people who use this item… . To think that I am going to be one of them . ”

“I think you are the strongest out of all of them . ”

“Pfft . I wonder how I got to here… .  Life works in the strangest of ways, don’t you think? To think that a manager for the Awakened would become an Awakened himself, then growing this far by meeting you . I’ll take off these boots and give them back to you then . ”

“Don’t do that! Do you want to get poisoned again while you take them off and put the other ones on?  I don’t have any plans to drag your dead body back . You know that my Status Denial has still over 23 hours left before the cooldown is finished . ”

“Ah… . That’s right . Then I’ll get the new pair after I get the spell Cleansed on me . ”

“Yes . There’s a sword, gauntlet, and even a skill book beyond ranking . It’s almost like a party . ”

“Things are working out so well that I’m feeling a little worried . To think that we’d get this much loot from the first day of hunting . ”

“I think so as well . ”

“Let’s not dwell on possible misfortune that may or may not come our way! For now, let’s enjoy this fortune instead . ”

“That’s right!”

For now, we decided to inspect the bigger artifacts first .

Equipment that drop from higher level dungeons have a tendency to bind to the first person who equipped them .

To simply put what binding means, it means that the moment a person picks up the loot, they become the sole owner of it .

That was why we had to take special precautions not to touch the equipment with our bare hands when shoving in the loot into the bag .

An item that someone desperately needs could be completely useless for someone else, after all .

There was a need to use Eye of Insight to thoroughly inspect the equipment .

After that, the owner would be chosen depending on the information on what the equipment did .

“Are you sure that you didn’t touch any of the equipment?”

“Of course . That’s why the duffel bag has many holes in it . I even ended up scooping the poison inside . ”

“Smiths are something else . To think that they’re able to process these bloodstones to make artifacts that don’t melt at this level of poison . All right . We’ll start by inspecting the sword . ”

-Black Moon-

*Strength +1000

*Dexterity +100

*10% of total strength increased .

*One-handed .

Checking the information, I grabbed onto the blade of the sword and tossed it to Jong Ho .

With a confused expression, Jong Ho asked .

“Why?”

“This doesn’t bind to the user . Also it isn’t as good as the sword I’m using . ”

“Is that so? What’s the stat on it?”

“……”

Black Moon was roughly 1/3rd the width of Banwol Jincheon that Jong Ho used and had a crescent shape .

It was simple without any decorations, almost plain enough to mistake it as a giant table knife .

I informed Jong Ho about the stats the sword had and recommended him to use it .

This one-handed sword was the equivalent of the two-handed sword Banwol Jincheon .

He looked at the Banwol Jincheon next to him as he spoke .

“There’s quite the difference in stats . ”

“Yes . The strength bonus is nearly twice old weapon . On top of that, there’s a dexterity stat bonus . ”

“Hm… . ”

“What’s up? There shouldn’t be any need to hesitate due to the difference in stats . ”

“I’m kind of attached to this weapon . ”

“I don’t think this is the time to get lost in old fond memories? In less than 3 months, we’ll be leaving to the demonic realm . Since we need to fight with our lives on the line, don’t you think that we’ll need to put our growth first?”

“That’s true . ”

“You can put it in storage at home and take care of it . I’ll buy a display case for you . You can think of your fond memories for a long time . ”

“Pfft . Alright . ”

“So now you get 1800 strength and 100 dexterity from your weapon, right?”

“Yep . Well if I have one for each hand that is . ”

“Why do you look so regretful . We can hope to get another . ”

“So you’ll be hunting in the level 39 dungeon only from now on?”

“I think that’ll be the case for while, don’t you think? I wouldn’t know if the level 40 dungeon has a hidden boss or not . ”

“Then what should I do?”

“You should stick with me until you are strong enough to clear the level 38 dungeon by yourself and gather stats . Until then, you should focus on upgrading your artifacts . It shouldn’t take that long with the rate we’re getting experience points and at the speed we’re clearing the dungeon . ”

“I even have a pair of Titan Boots now . Now this dungeon won’t be that dangerous, so we should go ahead do as you planned . ”

“Yes, that’s right . ”

“Okay . Let’s do it . ”

“Yep . First, we’ll finish checking the rest of the loot though . ”

The chest piece and helmet were far weaker than the current equipment .

For Jong Ho, you could say that the most important option out of all his artifacts would be on his chest piece .

And now that he found the level 38 dungeon with golems that’ll let him farm stats, the option would be more important than ever .

Lifting the chest piece and helmet, all the bloodstones and essences that were in there spilled out .

Just from that, I could tell there was a lot .

The only thing left was the gauntlet .

Currently, Jong Ho and I were wearing the highest grade Lizardman Gauntlets, which gave a 20% resistance to all magic .

Artifacts that bosses drop also have a tier to them .

Lizardman Gauntlet at its maximum has a 20% magic resistance, but the grade dropped was at random .

It was quite a decent defensive equipment, but there wasn’t any special effects attached to it sadly .

“I guess the only thing left are the gauntlet and the skill book?”

“Yes . ”

“I think I’m going to go crazy from just staring at it without being able to touch it . Hurry up and examine them . ”

“Ok . ”

-Minotaur’s Hoof-

*10% damage reduction from all sources

*Regular attacks excluding skills are 20% stronger .

*Binds on equip .

It seemed that I hit the jackpot .

It reduced damage taken from all sources and even increased the damage of my basic attacks .

This meant that the swings I made with my insanely high strength stat became even stronger .

Added on top of the 20% damage reduction from the Lich King’s Helmet and the 40% damage reduction from the armor I obtained from Joker, I would be taking 70% reduced damage from all sources .

Attacks from regular monsters could be blocked by my Mana Shield .

However, skills beyond ranking like the Lich King’s Black Hole attack would go through the shield .

I was certain that the leader of the monsters such as Berdan or the demon king would pour out attacks far beyond that level .

I had many shield spells, but I believed that focusing as much as I could on defense was a good priority to have .

With this much damage reduction, I wouldn’t be instantly killed from a single attack, no matter how powerful .

“Hyung-nim . I think I hit the jackpot . ”

“What is it that it’s got you all riled up?”

“Sorry to ask, but I’d like to ask if I could use this first before I tell you what it is . ”

“Hey now . Of course . You are the carry, and I’m the sidekick!”

“I’m glad that you think that way . Of course, you are going with the full stamina build . There’s a plethora of stats you can earn from the golems, and as for your lack of offensive power, you can cover it with the ring . Let’s focus on defense . I’ll do so as well . ”

“Right . First run of this portal and a hidden boss appears . We’re really lucky today . ”

“I know, right? Essences and Essences of Transcendence . Let’s finish up cleaning up the bloodstones and get moving . ”

“Okay . They say that blessings come in droves! But… aren’t you ignoring the skill book? It’s a skill beyond ranking skill book at that though?”

“Ah! Give me a moment . ”

“Limiter Release and Mana Drain?”

“It’s obvious that Mana Drain has something to do with recovering mana… . . ”

“Yes . Thus, it’s a skill that hyung-nim will learn . ”

“Then what do you think Limiter Release does?”

“There isn’t a requirement to learn, and there’s no other information I can get other than the name . ”

“Is that so?”

“Yes . ”

I quietly pushed both skill books towards Jong Ho .

Mana Drain was a skill that Jong Ho needed desperately .

Since I’ve never seen this skill before, I wasn’t sure if it would simply increase mana regen rate of the user .

It could inflict a certain amount of damage and recover mana based on that as well . As for me, who never ran out of mana, I had no need for it for sure .

“I’ll learn Mana Drain . ”

“Yes . You should also learn Limiter Release as well . ”

“Am I learning this because you know what they do?”

“Just believe in your bro’s gut feeling . ”

“We could be wasting the skill books . ”

“Hyung-nim, do you remember?”

“Hm?”

“Do you remember when I was speed leveling Meteor and Iceberg . ”

“Yep, I remember . ”

“Remember that I asked if there was way to reduce cooldowns of skills?”

“Oh! I remember . What about it though?”

“You said that there isn’t a way to, but I think this is it . ”

“Limiter Release?”

“Yes . Trust me . Since there isn’t a required stat in order to obtain it, it’s probably not an offensive or defensive skill . There isn’t even a level requirement . This probably means that any class can obtain it, right?”

“True . ”

“Something that all classes are burdened with . It must be cooldowns, right? It affects both low and high leveled alike . ”

“…… . ”

“Looking at your current skill levels, I think they’re far behind your current growth rate . Since I have infinite mana, I can use the skills constantly to level them up, but you have a limited mana pool . ”

“Is that so… . ”

“That’s right!”