CHAPTER 318: NEW SKILLS

[Ding! You have extracted + 1 poison affinity.]

[Ding! You have killed Corrupted Abomination Lv. 35]

[Ding! You have gained experience points.]

[Ding! You have extracted + 1 poison affinity.]

[Ding! You have extracted the skill ’Poison Pustules’]

Poison Pustules: Mutate your flesh to form volatile pustules filled with poisonous blood. These pustules rupture upon impact or manual trigger, releasing a burst of toxic mist in a 3-meter radius. Enemies caught in the mist suffer poison damage over time and have their defense reduced by 10% for 6 seconds. Pustules regenerate slowly over time (up to 3 charges). Damage taken while pustules are active has a 20% chance to trigger a spray burst, infecting nearby enemies with a contagious poison effect.

[Ding! You have killed Corrupted Abomination Lv. 55]

[Ding! You have gained experience points.]

Damon stared at the notification floating in front of him, a deep frown creasing his brow. "Poison Pustules?" he muttered aloud, tilting his head. "That’s... disgusting." He winced as he read the skill description.

Volatile pustules? Exploding poisonous blood? Spray burst? There was no way he was ever going to activate something like this! He mentally slapped a [Do not touch] tag on it and moved on to the next abomination.

It was not until he killed a bunch that he actually got an interesting skill that he did not expect.

[Ding! You have extracted the ability ’Minor Poison Boost’.]

[Ding! Minor Poison Boost - Your stats receive a small upgrade when you are present in a toxic environment.]

[Ding! You have killed Corrupted Abomination Lv. 56]

[Ding! You have gained experience points.]

Damon’s interest was immediately piqued. Just this skill alone was pretty much nothing. It was a simple boost skill, but in the current environment, it was pretty OP and could do wonders for him.

"Come on, you ugly bastards. Give me more of this skill."

Damon hurriedly started killing more and more abominations, even ones that he did not have to for obtaining the treasure chest. He had been thinking too narrowly before. He had only thought of this place for the gold, but now he was gaining a lot more from it, and the poison part of his body was getting an insane boost.

A while later, another common, simple, and yet interesting skill fell into his hands.

[Ding! You have extracted the ability ’Poison Burst’.]

Poison Burst: Generate a burst of poison energy. Deals area-of-effect poison damage in a 5-meter radius, with bonus damage scaling based on your poison affinity. Enemies hit by the burst have their healing reduced.

Damon’s eyes lit up. "Now that is what I’m talking about," he murmured, feeling the venomous mana simmer in his veins. He could already sense how beautifully this would synergize, not just with his growing poison affinity and his poison body, but also with his other newly acquired skills like Minor Poison Boost.

The corrupted air around him was pretty much a fuel right now. Not to mention, he could also receive passive healing benefits from the poisonous burst. Another OP build was quickly forming, and this one even synergized with his Nine Million Poison Body.

Damon continued grinding for more abominations and unlocking more treasure chests. His body was also constantly absorbing more poisonous, corrupted air from the surroundings. His rate of absorption had increased so much that many spots now had visibly lower corruption.

It was just like back in the poison lake from the dungeon. He was sucking everything around him and making his own. The abominations also kept on coming. At first, it was just beasts, but then all sorts of creatures also started popping up like goblins, kobolds, and dwarves.

Damon was pleasantly surprised to find dwarves in the game. If he was not wrong, then this was a completely undiscovered race. In his last life, no one had interacted with the dwarven race as far as the public knowledge went.

Now he was actually seeing these guys in such a place.

They were bloated and twisted, their beards matted with filth, their once-proud armor corroded and fused to their flesh. These weren’t your classic stout, beer-loving dwarves. These were plagueforged, mutated by the abyssal corruption of the land. Their eyes glowed a sickly green, and they swung jagged tools that hissed with venom.

The poor bastards still fell pretty easily. Damon had no problems dealing with them since, just like the other corrupted beings, these guys were also pretty much mindless monsters now. They did not have any of their racial skills and instead only had a bunch of corruption-based skills.

"Were these guys lured here because of the treasure chests?" Damon muttered, flicking a strand of poisonous spit off his cloak as another plagueforged dwarf exploded into a cloud of virulent mist.

He couldn’t exactly fault them. Even Damon couldn’t believe the number of treasure chests in this area. The person who gave the info about this place in his last life had clearly lied. The bastard took home a lot more than he had claimed to have. Damon noted as he sliced through another corrupted kobold that tried to ambush him from a dying tree’s canopy.

The loot was pouring in, skills were stacking like cards in a gambler’s hand, and his poison synergy was evolving with every breath he took. The Nine Million Poison Body Refining Technique was practically singing inside his bones.

Damon had first thought that this place was going to be a life and death experience, but now he had practically come for a vacation. His gaze then quickly flicked to a tall mountain in the distance. Well, it would be a vacation as long as he did not disturb the big boss, who was sleeping inside that mountain.

Damon continued his slaughter and pilfering, thoroughly enjoying his trip here. Which gamer would not like to open treasure chests?

Gold, weapons, armor, and odd trinkets filled his storage space to the brim. The abominations also kept coming, and the skill grinding was going at a great pace. There was no sign of Kaelthorn yet, which was to be expected.

Everything was going great. "At this rate, I am going to make bank in no time."