Only My Skill Tooltip Is Strange

Chapter 80

The poison from the Blood Poisoning technique erupted.
The poison and venom mixed together and scattered.

“Did you learn poison arts?”

It seemed like King of Thieves was surprised that I knew how to use poison arts.

“Now it makes sense. You were getting on my nerves. So you're a martial artist!”

He mistook me for a martial artist.
He had misinterpreted the information he had to understand my actions.

I didn’t correct his misunderstanding.
I let him think whatever he wanted, just leaving it at that.

“Haha! A martial artist! So, you must have done that because you envied the fame of King of Thieves! All these bugs are the same, aren’t they?”

King of Thieves’ expression brightened.
He seemed to feel relieved now that his question had been answered.

“Your tone’s a bit off.”
“What?”
“It sounds like you’re sure you’ll win.”

King of Thieves didn’t consider the possibility of his defeat.
His expression showed that he hadn’t even thought about it.

He was sure that in this place, he would win and eliminate the Earthling Supreme who had been bothering him.

That attitude was ridiculous.
I thought I had shown enough of my skills, but he was still underestimating me.

“You’re a martial artist pretending to be Earthling. Your own fame is so insignificant that you try to deceive your opponent into lowering their guard and then ambush them with poison arts. Do you really think I should be nervous about facing you?”

King of Thieves sneered.
He had a deceivingly crafty look, and every time his lips curled, I hated looking at him.

I immediately performed a martial technique.
My poisoned hand struck with deadly force, aiming to pierce King of Thieves.

“Foolish move!”

King of Thieves swung his arm to deflect my strike.
His hand movements were certainly impressive.

“Peak martial artist?”
“Heh, I could kill dozens of weaklings like you with ease.”

But King of Thieves wasn’t the only strong one here.
There were some of his subordinates who seemed to be from the same faction.

They quietly surrounded me.
They widened their formation and started to encircle me.

“You can’t run. For the crime of obstructing me and stealing the artifact, you’ll pay with your life.”

“The problem is that you’re weak. How is that my fault...?”

“Go!”

King of Thieves shouted.
His voice felt like a thunderclap.

‘Did he infuse his inner power into that?’

I immediately activated my Blind Poison Needle.
The poison needle shot out in less than a second.

With my agility reaching 90, if I gave my full effort, I could easily outpace a peak martial artist.

Whoosh!

The poison needle struck King of Thieves' shoulder.
His eyes widened in shock.

“What, what...”

His surprise was clear.
I understood.
In the context of a martial artist, my agility was on a transcendent level.

“Peak martial artist, and yet... how dare you.”

Even after being struck by the Blind Poison Needle, King of Thieves didn’t die.
It seemed like he could endure this level of damage.

Well, we were on the 5th floor.

‘As a peak martial artist, his health must be over 50.’

If his health stat was 50, his life force would exceed 500.
Most skills wouldn’t kill him unless they exceeded that amount of damage.

“Attack this bastard!”

King of Thieves quickly assessed the situation.
He realized he couldn’t defeat me alone, so he ordered his subordinates to attack.

They were leaking poison, albeit weakly.

“Can’t... breathe!”
“Open the door! Damn it!”

The club was in chaos thanks to King of Thieves' men.
It was already difficult to ventilate, and now poison was filling the air, making the situation worse.
It was truly a scene of carnage.

I hid among the people to avoid King of Thieves' group.

“Cover him with poison! We’ll melt him in one go!”

King of Thieves didn’t care if other players died.
He recklessly scattered poison everywhere.

[Status Effect 'Paralysis' has been applied.]
[Status Effect 'Slow' has been applied.]

Some of the poison caused status effects.

[Status Effect 'Corrosion' has been applied.]
['Blood Poisoning' neutralizes 'Corrosion'.]
['Messenger's Step Lv.1' ignores 'Corrosion'.]

The players’ flesh was dissolving.
Blood was dripping everywhere.

“How does it feel, Earthling Supreme? How does it feel when your body is melting away!”

“Don’t even try to run. You won’t get far!”

It was beginning to resemble a massacre.

‘Is it okay for players to kill each other like this? Is the manager really just letting this happen?’

I could kill King of Thieves.
Killing him would be simple.
I just need to deal more damage than his life force.
To be honest, it wasn’t difficult.

The problem was what happened after his death.
I wasn’t sure about the aftermath, so I hesitated to kill him.

‘But King of Thieves is showing that there’s no penalty for PK, huh?’

A senior player leading the way.
I wouldn’t hesitate.

I scattered the poison and surged forward.
With my survival instincts activated, my stats were enhanced, and my attack power was more than sufficient.

Bam!

I hit King of Thieves' torso with my fist, laced with deadly force.

King of Thieves attempted to block my punch with a martial technique, but it was futile.
I evaded his move with overwhelming speed.

“What... What is this...!”

King of Thieves' eyes widened.
By now, he must have realized who he was up against.

Of course, there was no turning back now.

The vitality drained from King of Thieves’ eyes.
He was forcibly eliminated by the Soul System.

“Boss?!”
“Lord!”

As King of Thieves collapsed, his subordinates screamed in disbelief and hurriedly tried to support him.

But his eyes would never open again.
His soul had already left the Tower of Struggle.

[Absorbing the soul of Dangjeong (martial artist).]
[Health increases by 0.05.]

Since raising my luck, the rate of ability absorption had increased noticeably.
Killing weaker enemies gave me a 0.01 boost, but killing someone who was clearly a strong player boosted the rate several times over.

[Soul System successfully materializes part of Dangjeong’s soul.]
[You can acquire 'Soul Stealing Flying Knife (C)'.]

The benefits of high luck weren’t limited to ability absorption.
It also greatly increased the chance of acquiring skills.

‘This is the real deal.’

In the end, having many skills was key.
Other players might find it meaningless due to their limited slots, but the more skills I could acquire, the better for me.

Still, there was some regret.

‘Why did it have to be a flying knife technique?’

It was a C-rank skill.
It was a skill on par with a Dragon Hatchling.

Except for the fact that it was a flying knife technique, it was really good.

[Soul Stealing Flying Knife (C)]
A traditional technique passed down from the Tang Family Sect.
After concentrating energy for 3 seconds, releases a flying knife that deals [3,220%] physical damage + [3,220%] magic damage + [5,000] fixed damage.
Cooldown: 24 hours
Mana Cost: 300
?Skill Specialization?
Tang Family Saving Flying Knife.
Accuracy +100%

I was checking the details of the flying knife technique.

“Y-You bastard!”

One of King of Thieves' subordinates rushed at me.
I’ll give credit for his courage, charging at the person who killed his boss.

‘There’s no need to spare him.’

If they were dropouts, maybe I would’ve let them go, but King of Thieves’ subordinates were a different matter.
Since they had seen my face, they might cause trouble for me in the future.

I immediately activated the Frozen Prison.
I trapped those who were trying to collect King of Thieves' body and sent them away in one go.
The one who had come up close to me received a Ground Strike.

“Cough!”

He couldn’t even endure the Ground Strike.

‘How did this weakling make it this far?’

I checked the Ground Strike damage.
It was a massive 303.

‘I guess he couldn’t withstand it.’

‘Since he’s a martial artist, he must have low resistance to magic damage.’

Resistance to magic damage is influenced by wisdom.

‘No skill absorption this time.’

Just because I had high luck didn’t mean I got bonuses in every situation.

“King of Thieves is dead…”
“How did that happen?”
“That Earthling—no, that martial artist... he killed him!”

The dropouts started to look at me one by one.
Inadvertently, my face was now known.

‘I wonder if this was okay.’

My mind was racing.

I had two options.
One was to kill all the players here to keep the secret from getting out.

‘The other one is...’

I cleared my throat and steadied my voice.

“Shut up.”

King of Thieves’ infamy was stronger than I thought.

What is infamy?
It’s the proof that you’re strong.

‘King of Thieves is one of the stronger players on the 5th floor.’

There are only a handful of players stronger than him.

I killed someone like King of Thieves.
That’s proof that I’m stronger than him. No one will dare mess with me now.

The key thing is how I’ll manage the infamy I’ll gain from this incident.

“......”
“...Heh.”

The dropouts shut their mouths.
No one dared to make a move.
Everyone started trying not to provoke me.

“I am Dangjeong, the self-proclaimed King of Thieves. I had business with this bastard.”

The Five Great Families.
I had heard a bit about the martial world’s setup.
Kim Min-seong had informed me.

‘I should’ve paid more attention.’

I had half-listened before.
But I did remember some things.

A faction that uses poison.
The Tang Family Sect.

After confirming King of Thieves’ background, I finally realized.

“It was a grudge from the martial world.”

So you guys are unrelated.
Don’t get involved.

“However.”

I glared at the dropouts.
With a fierce gaze, I delivered a not-so-subtle threat.

“If anyone spreads the word about today…”

Then it wouldn’t just be my grudge with King of Thieves.
It would become a grudge throughout the Tower, not just the martial world.

“I trust you understand.”
“Uh…”

Someone raised their hand.
I nodded to give permission for the question.

“What about the yen King of Thieves promised?”
“Why are you asking me?”

I couldn’t open his inventory, after all.

“Do you want to die?”
“…N-No!”
“Choose. Either take the 100,000 yen and die, or shut up and leave quietly.”

Everyone chose the second option.
Not a single person chose the first.

No one was willing to risk their life for the money.

The players scattered, and I let them go.

In the quiet club, I began to think about which skill to discard.

‘Blind Poison Needle. Shell Launch. I think I should discard one of these.’

I was leaning towards discarding the Blind Poison Needle.

Then, I heard footsteps coming from the stairs.
Someone was coming down.

The door opened, and a woman with golden hair tied up entered.

“…So you killed Dangjeong. Earthling Supreme.”
“Alice.”

I could already picture what the Great Mage looked like.
Her voice sounded familiar too.

‘I didn’t think the Great Mage would be a woman.’

So I had ruled that out.

‘The nickname Alice sounds too feminine, after all.’

I discarded the Blind Poison Needle and looked at Alice's face.

“You...”

“Are you Earthling Supreme?”

Our eyes met.
It was a familiar face.

How could I ever forget?

‘That foolish female knight who insisted I give her a chance for a hit, after she landed the first blow.’