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Chapter 81: Poison Master

Sila took a deep breath. He tried moving his foot but found that the mud that covered his ankles was quite sticky, but it wasn’t to the point that he couldn’t move at all. He inspected the change in the arena. The area was wider. Except for the muddy swamp, there was nowhere for him to place his feet.

“Kikiki, you’re truly unlucky, kid,” A guy with a goatee laughed.

Although Sila had witnessed this man in the match with Ginny, once Sila was close to Venom like this, he felt strong dislike toward this man. There were not many people that could get Sila to feel this way just from a first impression, but Venom managed to do that.

Venom’s cobra-like eyes stared at Sila.

Sila examined his power and found that his qi could be used normally. It was just almost depleted. He had spent too much qi in the match with Fargo. If Sila could get the chance to rest for fifteen minutes, his qi would recover to a decent degree. However, complaining wouldn’t help him in any way. He just had to utilize his remaining qi.

If he was someone else, he would panic or fear being in a situation where he was disadvantaged both in location and physical condition. However, Sila wasn’t like an ordinary player. The more unfavorable his position, the calmer he became.

Not to mention that Sila had evaluated the situation and found that he wasn’t in that much of a crisis. The unfavorable arena? Compared to Dragon Domains, a muddy swamp wasn’t something Sila would whine about.

Sila was experienced in fighting on a disadvantageous battlefield. This was what set Sila apart from Ginny.

As Sila was taking his time leisurely, it was Venom instead that had become restless. Usually, once his enemies noticed that they were on a disadvantageous battlefield, they would feel pressured and impatient to attack him. On the contrary, Sila became calmer. This made Venom to feel curious.

‘Is he so foolish that he doesn’t notice that this battlefield is filled with poison?’ This was Venom’s first thought.

In fact, Sila could feel the poison since the start. Nevertheless, the arena’s poison wasn’t that potent. Sila could easily resist it by circulating Basic Qi coupled with Unblemished Aqua. Compared to when he first faced against Bomb Lurking Psychic, the poison from the arena had almost no effect on him.

Venom was troubled. He had a defensive play style that focused on counterattacking. Normally, his opponent would hurriedly want to win and rush at him, which he would block using his solid defense. He would just wait for his opponent to be weakened by the poison. A prolonged battle was his specialty. It brought him ecstasy when his opponent showed an agitated expression while screaming and dying resentfully.

Having said that, Sila wasn’t just calm, there was simply no sign of him wanting to make any move.

But, once Venom let his guard down for a moment, a small dagger was fired from Sila’s hand, stabbing precisely into Venom’s forehead.

All spectators exclaimed in surprise.

However, Venom’s body scattered into muddy water. Sila wasn’t surprised as he had witnessed this skill before.

Another Venom appeared on the left side, more than ten meters from Sila.

“Kikiki. Too bad for you, that one isn’t my real body.” Ridicule echoed through the air.

Sila wasn’t sure where the sound was originated from, but at the very least, it didn’t come from Venom’s body.

“It seems you possess some kind of qi that can resist against poison. However, the poison of the Poison Master isn’t as weak as the poison of the arena.” Venom’s voice echoed all over the arena.

“Use whatever you can, before you won’t be able to do so,” Sila taunted his opponent to make him reply back. It would help him pinpoint Venom’s location.

“You… Don’t you dare think that I’m as weak as that idiot Fargo.”

Hearing what Venom said, Sila furrowed his brows with anger. Previously, if someone told him he was weak, he would get angry. However, as he spent time playing Monster Soul, he realized that he was indeed very weak. Hence, he accepted that he was weak and no longer paid it any heed if someone mocked him.

However, from his battle with Fargo, although it was only a single battle, Fargo’s nature was shown in the fight. Fargo was a sincere person who didn’t like exploiting others. This much was certain. Both Sila and Fargo respected each other. So, Sila felt angry hearing Venom badmouthing Fargo in front of him.

Sila’s face was expressionless. It had been a while since the last time Sila felt angry. Anyone who faced Sila’s anger usually didn’t get a good ending.

“Mister Fargo isn’t weak.”

“Kikiki, what’s wrong? Are you saying you know him more than I do after just meeting him only once?”

“Yes, I believe I know Mister Fargo more than you do.”

“That idiot Fargo is a moron. No matter what reason he has for quitting the guild, be it an ideology or conviction, he still made a foolish choice. This world of ours doesn’t need something impractical like that. The important thing is our own benefit. Well, it’s a good thing for me that he has quit. At least my portion will be bigger.”

Sila was still trying to find where Venom’s sound was coming from. However, he really couldn’t find it. It seemed Venom’s concealment ability was very well-developed.

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“One more thing, I don’t care who you have a grudge with nor do I care about who is right or wrong. The only thing I care about is that I can get my money. Kikiki.”

Sila had heard enough. Although he didn’t know where Venom’s voice originated from, he still had another method to search for Venom’s location.

“I had changed my opinion toward the Royal Armament Guild after meeting Mister Fargo, but it does seem that this guild has more people like you than him. At first, my only objective when I entered Monster Soul was to have a match against Montra. However, I have changed my mind. Allow me to include taking down the Royal Armament Guild as another objective of mine.”

“Ha! Kid, don’t you get too cocky. Do you seriously think you have the ability to do that!? Don’t think too much of yourself just because you have won against Fargo. It seems I will have to show you the difference in our ability.”

“Black Widow Spider Poison.”

The brown muddy swamp was slowly turning black. Sila looked at his feet without moving a single step.

His qi power shot up. Sila quit trying to find Venom using his ears. Instead, he relied on Galaxy Eclipse. The invisible qi sphere covered the entire arena.

Venom’s real body could immediately be sensed in Sila’s mind. Sila quickly threw a dagger toward the empty space, causing the spectators to wonder what he was doing.

“Argh!” The dagger stabbed something in the empty air. Soon, Venom’s body slowly appeared.

“How did you know?” The cobra-like eyes stared intensely at Sila. The dagger had stabbed into Venom’s right shoulder. Black blood was bleeding from the wound.

“Do I need to tell you? Could you please hurry up and show me the difference in our ability?” Sila taunted his opponent.

“You bastard! Muddy Body!” The bodies made of mud appeared. Sila could sense that there were exactly twenty-five of them, excluding Venom’s real body.

“Bone Dissolving Poison.”

The muddy bodies had the exact same appearance as Venom. They were all as dark as black ink. It seemed Venom didn’t want to play around anymore. He wanted to quickly kill Sila.

Sila could sense the poisonous substance that was fusing with the muddy swamp. It would soon arrive and begin to cover his ankles. Nevertheless, ever since Venom had activated Black Widow Spider Poison which Sila didn’t know about, Sila had already activated Orbiting Cosmos to change himself into the earth element. As Venom’s poison originated from earth-type magic power, it didn’t have much of an effect on Sila.

The rule to ban the use of items became advantageous for Sila. Due to the ban, Venom wasn’t able to use his specially crafted poison.

The Royal Armament guild had underestimated Sila. They thought that just the poison from the arena and Venom’s magic would be enough to kill Sila. Actually, if Venom had been able to use his crafted poison, Sila would not be able to defend as easily as he currently was.

“Die!!” Venom waved his cane. All of the muddy bodies moved closer to Sila.

However, compared to Sila’s speed, the movement of these muddy bodies was so slow. Sila looked at their feet and found that all of them had a part that connected with the swamp.

The earth-elemental spells mostly required the power of earth. Muddy Body is one such skill so it is not strange for it to be this way.

The ice attribute of Tortured Soul spread from Sila’s feet. Shapeless Qi that consisted of Qi of Little Tiger also moved at Sila’s will, strengthening the ice.

The muddy swamp was slowly turned into an ice field. Sila had experienced changing a part of water into ice before, so changing the muddy swamp into one was a piece of cake for him. This was without mentioning that his power output was higher than the last time he did it.

Since all of the muddy bodies were connected to the swamp, every one of them froze and could no longer continue moving. Even the lower part of Venom’s body was frozen.

“Wha- Impossible… how can you do this?” This was the first time since the tournament started that Venom started to feel fear.

Sila melted the ice around his ankles and walked on the ice field, moving closer to Venom. Each step resonated in Venom’s eardrums.

There was no other sound. All spectators forgot to breathe. Sila’s bearing was fierce and brutal when he was facing Fargo. However, now he seemed cold and ruthless as if he was an evil spirit.

A grim reaper was coming. Every passing step increased Venom’s fear and tension.

“Don’t come any closer!” Venom screamed. There was no haughty expression on his face anymore. His face was deathly pale. He tried his best to break the ice freezing his lower body but he couldn’t. The most he could do was cause some crack on the ice.

The ice freezing Venom wasn’t a common ice. It was ice created by qi. For the record, elemental qi was very powerful. Lone Wolf possessed hot elemental qi so he was titled as Qi Emperor while Zero possessed cold elemental qi so he is titled as Shadow Emperor. In Monster Soul, players that possess elemental qi are very rare. That was why Fargo was surprised when he found out that Sila could use elemental qi.

Even Earth Dragon Python was unable to break free from this ice. Why bother mentioning Venom?

Venom wasn’t as strong as the Earth Dragon. He wasn’t even a direct combat-type player.

Venom always hid behind the scenes and controlled the battle. He was like a spider that likes to calmly watch the trapped inspects before eating them mercilessly later.

However, today, he himself had become prey.

Venom was relying on Sila’s exhaustion from the last match or a favorable battlefield. Meanwhile, Sila didn’t depend on such a thing. He paved a path to victory with his own strength.

Sila stopped in front of Venom. The distance between them was less than a meter.

“Mister Fargo tells me that, if someone says that slimes are weak, he would challenge him or her to take on his punch. So, in my case, if someone says that Mister Fargo is weak, I would challenge them to take on my punch too.”

Silence filled the Colosseum. No one dared to make any noise, thinking that it would be impolite to this exciting atmosphere.

Sila’s eyes were cold and expressionless. He was looking at Venom like he was a grim reaper that was about to take away someone’s soul.

“Mister Fargo can withstand four punches of mine. As for you, if you can take even one punch, I will immediately surrender this match.”

Sila’s fist turned black. This fist of his had double the power of what he had thrown at Fargo since he had time to accumulate the power.

“Nooooo!! I surren—”

Genesis Punch smashed into Venom’s chest before he could finish surrendering. There was no sound. Venom’s body was torn apart as it turned into dust and disappeared.

Soon, an unexpected development happened on Sila’s body. Shapeless Qi was circulating by itself to help its owner. Blood was dripping from his mouth.

There was a deadly poison coming from the disappearing Venom’s body. This was another trump card that the Royal Armament Guild prepared for Sila. Venom was placed as the second combatant for him so that even if Sila wins, he would still have to suffer from a deadly poison.

This poison of Venom didn’t originate from magic but from the special property of Venom’s physique. Hence, Sila’s Orbiting Cosmos couldn’t resist against it effectively.

Sila’s qi was diminishing at a fast rate. He could barely stay alive thanks to Shapeless Qi that was trying its best to resist the poison. His qi energy was lower than ever. However, if he didn’t take a break and concentrate his mind on qi circulation, he would surely die in another ten minutes. As for his magic and psychic energy, they had reached the bottom as soon as he had taken in the poison.

As everyone expected, the arena changed to a wide grass field. In front of Sila, there was a woman sitting on top of a gigantic golem.

“The third winner of the round-robin is Player Sila! As for the fourth match, Player Fargo had abandoned the match so the winner is Player Francine. Now, let the final begins.”

Sila’s face was deathly pale. His body was swaying. Since his qi was low, Bomb Lurking Psychic in his body created a disturbance again. Sila felt like he was stabbed by numerous needles. His health points decreased every second.

Sila could no longer stand. He sat cross-legged on the grass field. Nevertheless, before he entered the meditation state, Sila murmured to his left hand.

‘Just ten minutes is enough. Please give me your help.’

“Release Lookhin.”