Boiling Dragon Blood

"How is it?" Zhang Ruofeng asked. He had been tormented by tremendous pain; if he hadn't made any progress, then all that suffering would have been for nothing. Besides, something had happened to him that had left all three of them rather embarrassed. Even now, Zhang Ruofeng still didn't dare face the goddess and Xin Mu.

"Mm, it's updated. This..." Seeing the improvements to Zhang Ruofeng's abilities, even the goddess couldn't help letting out a gasp of surprise. Although his other stats had all risen by around 0, and his strength was even approaching G rank, his endurance had skyrocketed. It had reached B769. For an adventurer to reach B rank in endurance, they generally needed to spend three or four years honing themselves in the Dungeon. Endurance could hardly be improved through any means other than passively enduring pain. Although it increased the body's resistance to blows, most adventurers didn't pay much attention to improving it and had no good way to do so. Compared to the other three basic abilities, endurance was often less useful, and raising it was slow and painful; it could even be life-threatening. Even among first-level adventurers, few managed to raise their endurance to B or A, no matter how great their potential to become heroes.

"He's got another new skill!" The goddess was so excited that she could barely stop herself from reading further. Zhang Ruofeng had been an adventurer for less than half a month and already had two skills—something adventurers in this world could hardly imagine. The goddess guessed that this had happened because his first skill, Knowledge of the Otherworld Adventurer, had led him to discover how to improve his skills. Zhang Ruofeng's magic stat was still I0. Normally, while a person's other stats improved, their magic might rise very slowly, but no one's stayed completely unchanged. Yet Zhang Ruofeng's endurance had already climbed to B769, while his magic remained at 0. Xin Mu wasn't much different from him. Her agility and dexterity had both reached H150, but her magic was only 5.

"New skill: 'Boiling Dragon Blood,'" the goddess announced to the two of them. "It begins repairing the body as soon as you suffer a nonfatal injury." By the time the goddess read that much, Zhang Ruofeng was already astonished. The skill he had unlocked through Dragon Blood was unbelievably powerful.

"The really bad news is that it seems to have quite a few drawbacks," the goddess continued. "The first is that when the repair begins, you'll feel twice as much pain as you normally would from the wound." As soon as the goddess finished reading that part, Zhang Ruofeng's expression darkened. Feeling twice the pain might leave him completely unable to fight. What good was healing then?

"Second, repairing wounds consumes a lot of stamina. If you run out, your body will stop healing itself." When the goddess finished, even Xin Mu began to frown. The skill had far too many drawbacks. The first one was already bad enough; she hadn't expected wound repair to consume stamina too.

"Third, your blood will flow faster and your heart will beat faster, but your resistance to poison will decrease." The goddess paused, seeming to hesitate, then stammered, "Your resistance to the opposite sex will also decrease, and... your ability in that area will improve."

"???!!!!" Zhang Ruofeng was completely dumbfounded. What was that last part? Was it a joke? Or had the gods deliberately made his skill turn out this way to toy with him, knowing that women inexplicably made him uncomfortable and caused him heartache for no reason?

"This..." Xin Mu was at a loss for words too. Ever since Zhang Ruofeng had come to this world, most things hadn't gone according to plan. Their exploration of the Dungeon had been greatly delayed because of him, and now even the monk-like composure he usually maintained around women—never so much as glancing at them, no matter how cute or beautiful they were—was about to be shattered by his own skill. And it had all happened because of Zhang Ruofeng's own mistake and the Potion Master's intentional, or perhaps unintentional, trap. It was completely unlike his usual steady, level-headed manner, which rarely led him to make major mistakes. It was as if someone were trying to drag the Zhang Ruofeng he knew—the one who had worked so hard to bury himself—out from underground and hammer him into shape.

Zhang Ruofeng felt as if his emotions hadn't been so shaken in ages. First, Dragon Blood had tormented him so badly that he'd wanted to kill himself. Now, the awkward situation involving Fura and Xin Mu, along with his newly unlocked skill, left him feeling so mortified he could hardly stand it. All he could do was weakly ask Xin Mu, "C-could you give me a cigarette? I need to calm down." Xin Mu and the goddess Fura wanted to let Zhang Ruofeng calm down and ease the thick awkwardness in the bathroom, so they both went outside. After handing him a cigarette, Xin Mu quietly left.

"Sorry for the trouble." Zhang Ruofeng still had no idea whether his new skill was good or bad. Its positive effects were powerful, and the description was vague, so there might even be hidden benefits. But its drawbacks were even more frightening. He even wanted to get rid of the skill. It would affect his judgment in battle and might even destroy his peace of mind. For the first time in a long while, Zhang Ruofeng felt afraid.

"Pfft!" The sudden sound startled Zhang Ruofeng so badly that he nearly threw away his cigarette. Then he heard several girls laughing outside the bathroom. His gums felt like they were aching, so he could only bow his head and take a fierce drag. He moved too forcefully and pulled a muscle, making him grimace in pain all over again.

"Pfft, hahahaha! I can't believe you got a skill like that!" Perman shouted before even entering the bathroom. Then she rushed inside and pointed at Zhang Ruofeng, laughing. "Mm-hmm, I heard all about it from the lovely Xin Mu. What was it you called it? Giving up the monkhood, right? A monk returning to secular life? Hahahahahaha!" She burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"..." Zhang Ruofeng truly didn't know what to say. His skill was just too damn frustrating. For now, he was still keeping his eyes firmly averted from beautiful women, as usual. But he figured that once his wounds healed, he probably wouldn't be so indifferent to women anymore. Yet his body and mind wouldn't let him act on it. His painful life was probably about to begin.

"Hahahahaha..." Perman laughed for a good while before finally stopping. Zhang Ruofeng figured that if she were an ordinary human, she would have suffocated from lack of oxygen by now. As a high-level adventurer, her physical abilities were already beyond those of an ordinary person. For instance, she had snatched away his second cigarette the instant he was about to light it, and Zhang Ruofeng hadn't even been able to see how she'd done it. In the eyes of high-level adventurers, he was still far too weak.

"The fact that you discovered this skill has a lot to do with me," Perman said, clearing her throat. "I've heard a little about your personality. I never expected things to turn out like this. I did develop a way to draw out Dragon Blood's hidden effects to increase its price, but it seems the cost of those effects is too high. Your body and mind have to be incredibly strong. Mentally, you'd have to be almost insane to overcome the ordeal. Otherwise, you'd go mad and die."

After finishing, Perman scratched her head in frustration, but soon her expression relaxed. "Things will probably be difficult for you from now on. As it happens, my daughter has grown up, and I was planning to send her to Orario to become an adventurer. She isn't an adventurer yet, but she's already learned a great deal about pharmacology and medicine. She's definitely a promising talent! You can consider it compensation for you and your Familia."

"Mm..." Zhang Ruofeng didn't understand at first. "What!!! You have a child?!"