This had all lasted barely fourteen seconds, yet for Uhyon, the moment before the goblin's bow of reverence had felt like an eternity.
Uhyon didn't know what to do.Should he give it an order? Or call out to his clan members?
If he tried to give an order, neither Uhyon nor the goblin would understand each other's language. But if he called the others, their minds would probably explode from the sight. Of course, it could also make him world-famous.
Slowly, Uhyon's fear began to subside. Realizing death wasn't immediately upon him, his condition stabilized. But just as he blinked, he heard the sharp crash of something being struck hard. When he opened his eyes, his state worsened again.
The goblin had been blown three or four meters back, and its body was glowing with a strange light. But it wasn't ordinary light. It spread across the goblin's form, consuming it bit by bit, and the parts it touched disintegrated into fine luminous dust.
The dust drifted away from the goblin, floated through the air, and vanished. Truly vanished — the glow dimmed and then ceased to exist.
Uhyon thought someone had come to protect him. But when he looked around, he realized no one had helped him at all.
He stepped forward toward the goblin's body — though it was pointless. The goblin had already turned to dust. Still, he kept walking.
He reached the spot where the goblin had lain just seconds ago, searching for anything it might have left behind. But there was nothing.
He turned to look at where the goblin's club had been — and froze. The club was gone. He couldn't tell if it had vanished when the goblin was thrown or after he had stepped away.
The truth was, his attention had been so locked on the goblin that even though he'd looked around, he hadn't registered the club's exact location.
Just then, he heard the crackle of wood being hurled and burning. That meant the clan members had finished with boss. Uhyon quickly hurried back to the sacks and began counting them all over again.
At that moment, Mr. Kim approached and asked:
— "How are you? Nothing happened, right?"
— "No, nothing could've happened," Uhyon lied with a faint smile.
— "Good. Soon-ho, can you help Uhyon collect the monster' remains in the boss's chamber?"
— "I'm dead tired. Next time, boss."
— "Hm. Lee, how about you?"
— "Maybe in a bit, once I've had a couple gulps of water."
— "Fine. Uhyon, just make sure every monster inside is dead…"
Just like during history class, that irrational laughter burst out of Uhyon again. Last time he had felt a bit awkward about it, but now, standing right in front of Mr. Kim, it was worse. Mr. Kim looked at him with a strange expression. If he grew suspicious of Uhyon again, the outcome could be troublesome.
— "S-sorry, Mr. Kim. A funny joke just popped into my head."
— "Hm. Very well. But try not to get distracted while we're working. Anyway, just make sure you collect all the mana stones. And be careful of the poisons, of course."
— "Hey Uhyon, I've got a work for you. If you want, I'll pay you extra," said Joon-ho.
— "Alright, what do you need, sir?"
Joon-ho handed him five 500ml chemical bottles, the kind used for acids.
— "Could you drain the venom from the boss, and if possible, from other monsters into these?"
It sounded odd to Uhyon. The official market didn't deal in venoms. But scientists, antidote makers, or assassins would certainly buy them.
In short, you couldn't buy them through normal channels. Only government-approved researchers had access. But that didn't mean the black market lacked them. In fact, venoms — especially from magical monsters — could go for $150–200 per 100ml, climbing up to $1000 depending on quality.
— "Hey, are you seriously asking a burn victim to work with fire?"
— "No. If he's afraid, forget it. I just need it for a 1 or 2 experiments. If he'd like, I can lend him armor resistant to venom."
— "Alright, I'll give it a try."
They left through the gate and fetched the armor from Joon-ho's vehicle.
The armor looked plain, like something out of the medieval ages — a knight's plate — but it was lightweight, easy to move in, and most importantly, resistant to venoms.
Not to waste the trip, they also handed some sacks to Manager Suho. The surroundings had grown quite dark; more than an hour and a half had already passed.
When they returned, Uhyon changed the armor. Its advantage was that it protected his whole body, including exposed arms and legs. Now, unlike before, the chances of him being poisoned due to carelessness were much lower.
Together, they entered the boss chamber. Uhyon began what seemed the hardest task — collecting venom.
— "There are two ways to extract spider venom. First, through the fangs. You find the small vein connected to them, cut it, and let the venom flow into the container. Second, through the venom glands. They're located where the body and head meet. You carefully cut them out and drain them. The second way yields more venom at once but is far riskier — if the gland slips, venom could spill on the ground or on you."
"Well, I've got armor on," Uhyon thought.
— "You're probably thinking about the armor. It's good, yes, but venom from the gland is more dangerous than from the fangs. Some venoms can even corrode iron. These spiders' venom isn't that extreme, though — it couldn't even harm your plastic bottle."
It made sense. Still, Uhyon preferred the safer fang method.
Slowly, he approached a spider about half a meter long. Nervously, he brought the pliers closer to its mouth. It was the first time he'd ever pried open a dead spider's jaws.
All the fangs were sharp, whitish-yellow. But among them, three near the center were tinged faintly pink. Uhyon had no desire to stick his hand into its mouth and pull those out.
Strangely enough, he hadn't been this afraid even when extracting goblin teeth. Perhaps he had a childhood arachnophobia. But he would've remembered that.
Uhyon knew plenty about the brain, and he understood well that unlike ordinary memories, fear and trauma left deep imprints.
But nothing bad happened. In fact, the spider fangs came out more easily than the goblin teeth. As soon as he pulled one, venom oozed out — thick, viscous, but not sluggish.
He carefully set the fang down, grabbed the bottle, and collected the venom.
— "Make sure it doesn't touch the tongue or saliva," added Joon-ho.
Uhyon followed his instructions exactly. Once the flow stopped, he repeated the process with three more fangs. Altogether, he gathered about 250ml of venom.
— "Good. Now do the same with the remaining eight." Joon-ho went off to check the corpses, making sure none were alive.
By the time Uhyon was extracting the third fang from the second spider, Joon-ho returned:
— "All of them are 100% dead — even the boss. So please, hurry up."
— "Got it. I'll speed up."
The task dragged on for nearly seven minutes. Uhyon had to balance speed with precision. At last, having drained all the ordinary spiders, he approached the boss.
The boss spider was much larger — roughly 1.8 to 2.3 meters tall. Its venom fangs were softer than the others', but prying them out demanded tremendous effort.
Finally, after much struggle, he managed to pull one free and drain its venom with care. The amount was much greater than an ordinary spider's, and it was a deep, inky purple. Uhyon guessed that meant higher quality.
He had planned to take all the venom, but after three fangs, the bottle overflowed. The excess venom from the third fang spilled onto the ground.
— "What? Just being two or three times bigger means this much more venom?"
Now he hesitated. Should I dump the venom from a smaller spider and use the bottle for this? Or should I mix them? Or just hand over the five bottles and say 'that's all'?
Then he remembered the half-liter plastic water bottle he'd carried earlier. He quickly drained it, made sure no water remained, then pulled another fang and filled the bottle.
From that fang alone, about 200ml of venom seeped out.
Satisfied with his safe extraction, Uhyon felt a surge of relief. Then he glanced at the time — and froze.
"Damn it, I'm running out of time! I still need to gather the mana stones."
He hurriedly finished collecting both the venoms and the mana stones, then stepped outside. Luckily, the clan members had already packed up their gear to save time.
"At least they've got experience," Uhyon thought.
— "Uhyon, if you're done, let's move. Our time's running short."
— "Right away, Mr. Kim."
Having walked this path several times, they had it almost memorized, so leaving didn't take long. Once outside, they began calculating their earnings.