The Owner of the Healing Therapy Shop Is Ranked 0th in the World - Chapter 82

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Owner of the Healing Therapy Shop is World Rank 0

Chapter 82

Three in the morning.

In front of the Seokchon Lake Gate entrance, tightly wrapped in special tents, stood Gangjinseong, Nara, Ohyeongtaek, and Sohee.

“Is everyone ready?”

Ohyeongtaek, standing at the front, asked with a grin.

“Of course. My hands are itching just thinking about setting this thing off!”

Sohee carefully touched the purple orb in her arms, her nostrils flaring with excitement.

Jinseong gave a small nod as the departure signal.

Ohyeongtaek stretched his hand forward and walked ahead like a neighborhood leader from childhood.

“Then the Shining Guardians are entering the Seokchon Lake Gate!”

They threw themselves into the gate without hesitation.

What they felt immediately upon entry was unpleasant humidity.

The cave interior was filled with slimy water drops falling from the ceiling, and the floor was covered with moss and grime that stuck to their boots with each step.

“Wow, this really feels disgusting. It’s like my mana is being drained in real time?”

Ohyeongtaek frowned and grumbled.

It was the characteristic mana absorption phenomenon of Predator Gates. The air itself swept over their entire bodies like a straw greedily sucking up the hunters’ mana.

But despite that unpleasantness, the small fry monsters that popped out at every turn were pathetically weak.

-Kyaaak!

“That’s the only advantage of Predator Gates. The boss monopolizes all the nutrients, so the underlings are starving.”

Jinseong said as he lightly swung his dagger, cutting down the charging mermaids.

While Ohyeongtaek and Sohee cleared the path at the front, Jinseong carefully observed the surroundings from the rear with Nara.

This was to compensate for his weakness of being directionally challenged while not missing any anomalies inside the gate.

The damp and sticky terrain caused more stamina consumption than usual, but it wasn’t enough to drain the vast mana reserves of S-rank hunters.

Jinseong coolly analyzed their surroundings and spoke.

“Having your mana drained on the way to the boss room is standard, and with terrain like this, anyone C-rank or below would be unable to even enter. If you’re stuck and have your mana stolen, you’ll just dry up and die.”

“I agree. But if Yebichnna’s item really makes catching the boss easy, that’s a different story. With just one healer to continuously replenish mana, even a B-rank party should be able to clear this.”

It was the analysis of experienced S-rank hunters.

Ohyeongtaek, walking sluggishly in front, was inwardly surprised.

Is that what experience means?

Ohyeongtaek felt somewhat dejected but walked even more confidently to avoid showing it.

Jinseong also agreed with the opinion that B-rank parties could probably clear this.

If their hypothesis proved correct, the 55 hells across the nation would no longer be disasters but ‘harvest grounds.’

And once again, at the center of that miracle would be that child, Yebichnna.

Had they advanced for about thirty minutes?

Finally, at the end of the cave, a huge and bizarre chamber appeared.

In its center sat a house-sized ‘Poison Toad.’

As soon as the boss detected the intruders’ vast S-rank mana, it fell into ecstasy, flicking its sticky tongue and opening its predatory organs wide.

Just as the boss inhaled as if to suck in everything, Sohee threw Yebichnna’s purple mana orb into the air with a determined expression.

“Now! Master’s masterpiece, here we go!”

Clang—!

Jinseong and Ohyeongtaek’s sword energy precisely shattered the orb in midair.

From the broken orb, faint purple vapor-like mana burst forth. The boss toad, not knowing it was deadly poison, judged it to be ‘top-grade nutrients’ and frantically sucked in the vapor.

Not noticing the item’s strangeness and immediately absorbing it was exactly as Yebichnna had predicted.

“Please…”

Everyone held their breath and watched the boss.

At that moment when tension reached its peak.

-Guaaaak!

“…Huh?”

A bizarre scream erupted from inside the boss’s mouth.

The boss’s body, having swallowed Yebichnna’s mana, began to swell like a balloon.

“My goodness… look at Master’s item performance. The mana circuits are hyperproliferating and burning from the inside out!”

Sohee was right. The more the boss absorbed mana, the more it injected ‘poison’ that burned its own body.

“This. Is. Insane.”

No one used any skills, and not a single attack was made.

Thud-!

The poison toad, which had been so menacing it seemed ready to devour even S-rank hunters, suddenly collapsed sideways.

Dark purple blood flowed like waterfalls from the toad’s eyes and mouth, and its massive body began to shrivel.

As Yebichnna had said, the mana circuits had swollen and then corroded.

“…”

[Gate Clear! Would you like to receive clear rewards?]

It was a victory so anticlimactic it was deflating.

Ohyeongtaek slung his greatsword over his shoulder and burst into incredulous laughter.

“Ha… well I’ll be, to think we’d clear a Predator Gate this easily. This might be the easiest gate in Oh Hyeongtaek’s life.”

Nara also nodded blankly.

“I was so scared I even prepared mana barriers… but I didn’t need to use them at all?”

She let out a hollow laugh and quietly murmured Yebichnna’s name.

“Our Yebichnna is really a scary kid. To think she’d just end a disaster that three S-ranks were racking their brains over with a single orb. I can’t help but praise this.”

Sohee was actually sniffling with tears at that miraculous sight.

“To exploit the weakness of the Predator Gate system and collapse the circuits themselves… truly endless blessings. Master is really…”

Jinseong quietly approached the dead toad and examined the corpse.

It was perfect.

There were almost no external injuries, but the internal mana circuits were torn apart as if a bomb had exploded.

She had turned the Predator Gate’s most powerful weapon, ‘absorption,’ into an instrument of destruction.

Jinseong quietly looked down at his own hands.

Without Yebichnna, they would be engaged in a blood-draining battle in this sticky cave right now.

‘Yebichnna, you really…’

An unknown possessiveness and deep dependence swirled in a corner of his heart.

It was an emotion close to obsession – not wanting anyone to take this incredible girl away, no, wanting only himself to completely protect her.

Jinseong’s eyes sank more sharply than ever as he hurriedly moved toward the gate exit.

Right now, he wanted to tell her about these amazing results.

And while vowing to guard her side more firmly so as not to expose her to the dangerous world’s gaze.

“Let’s go back immediately.”

Hoping that nothing had happened while he was away, Jinseong moved with urgent steps toward the exit.

* * *

“…Oppa, don’t regret this. Really, truly, it’s a strange method!”

“If the contract signing method is strange, just how strange can it be?”

Since I kept hesitating, Seondonguk oppa looked even more curious as he glanced at the contract in my arms.

“You can’t laugh.”

“It does make me want to laugh, but I’ll try my best.”

“Ugh, really…”

Even though I said that, I resented Mimi for still not changing the contract method.

Even when I tried to blame her, Mimi was nowhere to be seen!

“Sigh… please give me your hand, oppa.”

I extended my hand despite the embarrassment.

“Hand? Is this a blood contract?”

Seondonguk Oppa extended his large hand toward me with a puzzled expression.

“Oppa, you know ‘promise, stamp, copy,’ right? That thing kids do when making promises.”

“…Promise, stamp, copy?”

Oppa’s eyes widened in circles, then he narrowed them completely as he burst into laughter.

“That’s your contract method? You’re just like Yebichnna, really cute.”

“Don’t tease me.”

The sight of an S-rank tanker who was six years older than me holding my hand, hooking pinkies, and following along with the palm-rubbing motions was truly a spectacle.

Seondonguk Oppa laughed until his face turned red.

“Jinseong did this too? Without any complaints? Oh, this is really funny.”

“…That’s why I said it was weird!”

My face burned with embarrassment, but as we sat facing each other and talked, the tension gradually disappeared and was replaced by reassurance.

^[Short-term Employment Contract Complete!]^

^[Successfully complete Store operations with your short-term part-timer!]^

^[Store Owner’s second part-timer registration complete]^

^[Remaining contract period: 168 hours]^

^[Adjusting abilities, calculating mana addiction progression]^

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————