The More the Healer Gets Hit the Stronger He Become

23 – You Bastard-!!

“Seung-ahhh!”

Choi Seo-hee, unable to contain her bursting sobs, embraced Yu Seung-ah.

Yu Seung-ah’s ability was ‘Crisis Detection.’

It was the power to sense allies in crisis, yet ironically, it did not reveal the crisis of the caster herself.

Tragically so.

“Huhuhu… Unni…”

Trembling hands fumbled in Seo-hee’s embrace as she applied a low-grade healing potion to Seung-ah’s wounds.

“Kkuueeuuuk. Ho-how… how can I…”

Though her vision was blurred by tears, she could still see. A mere low-grade healing potion did not alleviate Seung-ah’s injuries.

“Heuk, heuk. Seung-ah…”

From the moment he heard the scream, Kang Woo, without concealing his strength, swiftly approached, panting heavily.

No response was needed.

The pale face of Seung-ah and Seo-hee’s expression, streaming with tears, without hiding their desperation, conveyed the gravity of the situation.

There was no healer in this team. Strictly speaking, Kang Woo was a healer, but he was in a state where he couldn’t heal others.

The only way to save Seung-ah, who was critically injured in the current state, was clear.

Collect and use the healing potions they had as quickly as possible, clear the trial, and head to the safe zone to purchase intermediate healing potions.

“Whose potion… ugh!”

Kang Woo, turning his head, groaned at the pain felt from behind.

‘What…!’

He confirmed that Lee Jeong-min, attached to Jang Gyu-min, was smoothly dealing with the remaining monsters. But an attack like this…!

The expression on Kang Woo’s face stiffened as he tried to confirm the enemy’s identity.

‘My body… is stiffening.’

It felt as though his body was freezing, as if succumbing to paralysis poison. Despite not using the paralysis poison, a monster from this level.

Kang Woo turned his stiffening head, and an unwelcome sight unfolded before his eyes.

“Don’t move.”

There stood Jang Kyu Min, with a sharp gaze, not stuttering a word or cowering, aiming a poisoned arrow in their direction.

“….”

Assessing the situation wasn’t difficult.

Because behind them, Lee Jung Min stood frozen with an arrow piercing through their body.

“W-what, what are you doing? Su-Ah. We need to treat Su-Ah…!”

Choi Seo Hee, who had been hit by the poison arrow, was now drenched in despair.

The Choi Seo Hee that Kang Woo knew wasn’t foolish enough not to grasp the situation. But perhaps the overlapping tragedies were too shocking.

Ignoring the whispers of reason, Choi Seo Hee attempted to evade this situation.

“A p-potion. Do you have a potion? Su-Ah, Su-Ah is…!”

“I told you not to move.”

“Kyu, Mr. Kyu Min? You’re not this kind of person… Please, please help Su-Ah…!”

Thud!

An arrow plunged into Choi Seo Hee’s shoulder as she crawled toward Jang Kyu Min on the ground.

Feeling the agony of pierced flesh, Choi Seo Hee unleashed her rage.

“You, you piece of crap-!!”

“I have no emotions towards you. What I aimed for is on this side.”

Jang Kyumin pointed at Kang Woo, whose eyes were reddened with anger.

“I never thought of doing this originally, even on the 11th floor…”

“…”

“But watching you fight, it made my hands itch.”

hahahaha. Jang Kyumin’s laughter echoed softly. With a smile on his face, he probed.

“You have a strength-boosting item, right? Your strength. That’s why you’re strong, isn’t it?”

The abnormal strength Kang Woo occasionally displayed in battles couldn’t be explained without an item.

“Is it a percentage item? Or a numerical one? Either way, the effect is no joke… Did you kill a sick orc in the 10th-floor trial and earn points?”

If not, it couldn’t be explained why he bought a strength-boosting item on such a lower level.

Convinced that Kang Woo already had incredible items, Jang Kyumin scrutinized Kang Woo’s body.

“This trash-!! Right now, a person is dying-!”

Although Choi Seohee poured curses towards Jang Kyumin, who was under the influence of paralysis, her threats didn’t pose any danger.

“Abilities, stats… Did you deceive everyone from the beginning?”

Feeling curious about Kang Woo’s calm demeanor, Jang Kyumin kindly replied.

“Of course. Who the hell exposes the foundation to someone they just met? So, maybe you’re hiding such an item too?”

“No wonder. It seemed so useless to the point of intentionally doing it.”

“hahahaha. I won’t deny it. It was a bit extreme even for me. But avoiding attention fits my loner concept.”

Even though intentionally provoked, there was no reaction. Whether the current conversation was interesting or not, the smile never left Jang Kyumin’s face.

“Try it someday, it’s quite fun. Oh! But do you even have a ‘someday’?”

“…”

“hahahahaha. Look at that expression.”

“If I give you an item… will you spare me?”

“What?”

Pfhahahahaha. Kang Woo burst into laughter as if he heard an unexpected remark from Jang Kyu-min in response to his question.

Having laughed heartily for a while, wiping the tears that had formed in his eyes, Jang Kyu-min spoke.

“I didn’t know you had such sentimentality. Weren’t you quite rational?”

From his laughter-filled face, Kang Woo elicited the answer to his question.

“It seems there’s no intention to spare you.”

“If I said I’d spare you, would you believe it?”

“Of course not. Everyone here probably intends to kill each other.”

“Everyone’s armed with the weapons they received at the Square of Beginnings. They’ll be quite adept. Ah, maybe not as much as the item you possess.”

Jang Kyu-min’s eyes gleamed with greed.

“So, where’s the item?”

“…”

“The shield… seems rather cheap. How about that belt?”

The sight of a human despairing in the face of death.

Enjoying that sight, conversing with the composed Cho Kang Woo even in this situation, was interesting. But Jang Kyu-min had another reason for stalling time to this extent.

It was because he needed time for the poison from the dart he shot to spread completely.

Relentlessly spewing profanities, Choi Seo-hee, who had been creeping like a bug, could no longer move.

This meant that the poison had completely spread throughout her body.

Jang Kyu-min, realizing that it was time to bring this farce to an end, drew a deep smile.

“Well… I guess I can kill her and take my time searching.”

“No, please…! Choi Kang-woo-!”

The moment his hand, holding the dagger, rose high.

“Did I mention? My ability, ‘self-healing.'”

From Noble mtl dot com

Paahh.

At the same time, a bright light spewed from Kang-woo’s body.

“It also heals abnormal conditions.”

Puaaack-!!

The rapidly extended fist struck Jang Kyu-min’s face.

“Kuheuk-!”

The swinging dagger left a cut on his arm, but that was all.

Perhaps anger surged to the tip of his head, as there was no sense of pain.

“Get up, you bastard.”

In an instant, the eyes of Choi Seo-hee and Lee Jung-min, who had been watching the situation, widened.

And more than anyone, unable to believe the current situation, Jang Kyu-min grabbed his sunken face with both hands and screamed.

“Ugh, ugh… Ughhhhh-!”

Desperately groping his face, both hands were stained with vivid fresh blood.

“Ah-ah-ah-ahhh!”

Jang Kyumin lost his reason and screamed in horrifying pain, an agony he had never experienced in his entire life.

“Didn’t I tell you to get up, punk? Can’t you hear me?”

The sight of him writhing on the ground was a spectacle. Kang Woo, approaching Jang Kyumin, mercilessly stomped on his back as if crushing a bug.

“When you try to kill someone, you should have known that you might die too.”

With a force beyond measure, Kang Woo’s foot descended, accompanied by a high-pitched scream from Jang Kyumin, as if the pain inflicted had no bounds.

“Ahhhhh!!”

Ribs shattered, and excruciating pain surged through his entire body. Blood flowed profusely from Jang Kyumin’s crushed mouth as he voiced his suffering.

“Enough with the theatrics.”

Though he felt an urge to keep squeezing until his frustration subsided, there were more pressing matters at hand.

Kang Woo flipped Jang Kyumin’s trembling body like a sack, with his eyes turned inside out.

‘Please, please…’

Kang Woo’s frantic hands searched through Jang Kyumin’s clothes. Despite rifling through every pocket, the desired item did not appear.

‘This guy wouldn’t go around without picking it up.’

Amidst growing impatience, not far away, Kang Woo spotted Jang Kyumin’s backpack lying on the ground.

Grabbing and tearing it open, Kang Woo’s face brightened.

‘Just as I thought!’

[Low-grade Healing Potion]

There were even two of them.

“Ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh! Ahh-ahh-ahh-ahhh!!”

Thud-!!

“Don’t just stand there.”

Kang Woo, who had slammed into Jang Kyu-min’s back, immediately approached Yoo Seung-ah.

In the midst of a pool of crimson blood, Yoo Seung-ah lay collapsed, powerless.

“…Dammit.”

His face was so pallid, almost fearful of confirming warmth. From the wounds on his thighs and back, blood endlessly flowed.

With an urgent gesture, Kang Woo poured a lower-grade healing potion onto the deeply sunken back, the most critical area.

“Huh, huuu.”

He emptied an entire bottle, but the bleeding didn’t stop. Contemplating, Kang Woo sprinkled half of the remaining bottle on the back and poured the rest into Yoo Seung-ah’s mouth.

“Haa-.”

Fortunately, the bleeding that had continued like a broken faucet stopped. But this was just emergency treatment.

Bleeding still persisted from the wounds on the thighs, and too much blood had already been shed.

They needed to clear the trial immediately and reach the safe zone.

If not, Yoo Seung-ah would…

“Is, Is Seung-ah…? Are you okay…? Are you okay?”

While uttering hope outside his mouth, Choi Seo-hee’s face was paler than anyone else’s.

She knew too. That these wounds wouldn’t be healed with three lower-grade potions.

Despite knowing that, facing the reality-avoiding Choi Seo-hee, Kang Woo spoke with a firm voice.

“If we don’t use at least an intermediate or higher healing potion as soon as possible, he will die.”

“Ah… aaa…!”

Choi Seo-hee’s face contorted painfully in the unwanted reality.

Kang Woo, tearing a piece of his worn-out clothes, stood up and bandaged Yoo Seung-ah’s thigh wound.

“Seung-ah hasn’t died yet.”

“If, if we don’t use a potion, she’ll, she’ll die… Ah…!”

Seo-hee, locked in sorrow, opened her eyes wide.

“Play…!”

– [Mission: Subjugate the Gnoll Tribe.]

– [The trial will end upon completing the mission.]

The mission of this trial was to subjugate the Gnoll Tribe.

Fortunately, they were in the midst of annihilating all the Gnolls in their dwelling.

Groan, ugh….

As they turned their gaze, the Gnolls that Im Jeong-min had been dealing with came into view.

The number was five in total.

Whether the poison had taken its toll, they were crawling on the ground, limbs twitching.

“Since we’ve killed all the Gnolls on our side.”

The only ones left were those five Gnolls.

Kang Woo, who had pounded the ground, rushed forward at a rapid pace.

Thud!

He didn’t even consider using a sword.

In his haste, his fist went first, and with the sensation of something breaking upon hitting the throat of a Gnoll, it collapsed.

Kaa…! Kaaah-!

Despite struggling to escape the remaining idols, fleeing with a body still partially paralyzed was a futile endeavor.

Thud! Thud-!

Kang Woo, who had swiftly dealt with three more idols, gasped for breath in front of the last one.

“Please…”

It was the moment after he had killed this idol that the announcement of the end of the ordeal rang out.

With a desperate wish, he raised his right hand.

Swish-!

The chilling sound of something sharp penetrating flesh echoed as he swung down.

“Cough, kuh-!”

“W-What…!”

Jang Kyumin’s scream, who had been shouting for the forest to disappear, abruptly ceased.

Perplexed, Kang Woo turned around.

There.

Trembling with a stiffened body, Lee Jungmin was there, having driven a blade into Jang Kyumin’s throat.