Chapter 5: A Precious Item

“That’s right. This much I can say for certain: There’s no need to drag this out or get into the weeds.”

Before I ran out of ways to hype up the thousand-won chocolate bar, I declared, “This is an extremely rare item. You won’t be able to find it anywhere, no matter which dimension you deal with users from.”

Medicine Joa: “Hmm…”

It felt like the seller’s groan leaked through the chat window.

Medicine Joa: “You’re right… I’ve never seen anything like it before. And it doesn’t seem like a crudely made forgery either… What’s most intriguing is the material of that shimmering seal.”

“So, what will it be?”

In deals like this, once you seize the initiative, you have to maintain the momentum and keep the pressure on. I typed with a serious expression, adopting an attitude of “Take it or leave it—I’m fine either way.”

“Do you want a smooth transaction?”

A smooth transaction.

This secondhand trading term, meaning a clean exchange of goods without haggling, was also used here.

This time, I hesitated for about ten seconds.

But it was only for a moment.

Medicine Joa: “Smooth trade it is hehe”

The scammer couldn’t resist the radiant glow of the chocolate bar wrapper.

“So, it’s not as direct-trade focused as Carrot Market.”

Parsley Market transactions were entirely non-face-to-face.

Immediately after both parties approved the trade,

Fzzzt!

Sparks flew beneath my Status Window, creating a small rift.

This rift doesn’t look like a gate or a dungeon dimension portal.

Its design was futuristic, resembling interlocking gears stacked upon one another.

Cautiously, I placed the chocolate bar inside. A moment later, a potion bottle popped out.

“Hmm.”

I didn’t need to be told what kind of accidents those were.

Just look at this scammer’s reviews.

One trader even said they would have hunted him down to kill him if the potion hadn’t worked.

So they even handle real estate transactions?

For now, I nodded and turned my attention to the chat window.

“Speaking of which, this guy bolted as soon as the transaction was over.”

The chat window displayed the message: [ The other party has left the chat. ]

The scammer had vanished immediately after the transaction.

The post was gone without a trace.

Even during the transaction, he’d seemed rushed the whole time.

It seems no matter the dimension, shady characters always act the same way.

Of course, we have nothing to be ashamed of.

We’ve never lied in the first place.

“But I need to verify this.”

I murmured, staring at the shimmering potion inside the vial.

The reviews suggest its performance is flawless.

As the seller claimed, there’s even a small seal that looks like an authentication sticker.

But this is completely different from any healing potion I’ve ever seen on Earth.

I had no idea how much to take or what the side effects might be.

Normally, I could analyze it with an appraisal tool, but that wasn’t even possible with this.

“Is there no way to confirm this?”

Just then, the small Status Window beside me began to bounce excitedly.

“Does the Status Window have an analysis function?”

A quick search confirmed its existence.

Returning to the home screen through the home button, amidst the sea of functions,

a magnifying glass icon caught my eye.

“Oh.”

“You should have told me about this earlier.”

Leaving the dejected Management Mi behind, I tapped the icon.

The Status Window immediately switched to front-facing camera mode,

displaying a square boundary in the center, resembling a QR code scanner.

Following the instructions, I held up the potion bottle. A new message appeared: [ Analyzing… ]

Approximately three minutes later,

the Status Window displayed the analysis results:

Most cuts and fractures can be healed.

A-grade or lower mental contamination debuffs can be cleansed.

Holy Water can be used against demons.

※ Currently, it is recommended to drink half (100ml) of this potion to heal Lee Taejun’s injuries.

(Linked to the “My Body Information” function)

“Unbelievable.”

The corner of my mouth involuntarily twitched upward.

If this was a mid-grade potion by Earth’s standards, a single bottle would cost at least ten million won at current market prices.

Even if considered Low-grade Essence Stones, it would be worth over ninety.

To exchange that for a thousand-won chocolate bar…

The term “miraculous exchange rate” feels like an understatement.

I stared at my bandaged thigh and nodded slowly.

“Alright, if I drink half of this and get a good night’s sleep, I should recover completely.”

I immediately uncorked the potion bottle and poured half into my mouth.

Soon, the healing potion began to take effect.

Exhaustion and drowsiness washed over me as its power kicked in.

With Management Mi’s playful message, I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up feeling as light as a feather.

In front of me, a notification popped up:

“Huh?”

An unexpected Status Window materialized.

Remarkable Growth.

This skill had been with me for seven years since my Awakening, a burdensome ability that had never once activated.

This skill triggered after I simply took a stamina recovery potion and went to sleep.

I immediately checked my Physical Information Window.

“Huh?”

My eyes widened involuntarily.

It wasn’t just the skill acquisition. In a single night, all my stats except Mana had grown to ridiculous levels.

Values that had originally been below the D-grade Hunter average had surged far past the C-grade Hunter average.

While I stood frozen, my face a mask of shock, Management Mi peeked her message window over.

Instead of replying, I pointed at my stat window and asked, “Management Mi, are you seeing this too?”

“But… is it really possible for stats to increase this much just from taking a potion?”

Hey, no way! ‘Remarkable Growth’ is definitely an out-of-the-box skill, but even a low-grade potion couldn’t possibly increase your stats this much!

Just as I suspected.

If a single potion could boost stats this dramatically,

people would be taking out loans to hoard them.

With just a hundred or so, you could become an SSS-rank Hunter and conquer the world.

So, if that’s not the explanation…

In other words, the stats I should have earned over the past seven years came flooding in all at once with the activation of ‘Remarkable Growth’.

The Status Window Synchronization Rate has increased by 10% due to stat growth. Current Synchronization Rate: 15%

Thanks to this, the Status Window’s Synchronization Rate surpassed 15% in just one day.

As I was reviewing the bar graph, my nose suddenly twitched.

“So it wasn’t all for nothing after all.”

Since awakening, I had been reduced to a porter’s life. Yet through all the contempt and discrimination, I had clung on, and now it all had meaning.

The past seven years had not been wasted.

Of course, there was no time to wallow in overwhelming emotion.

Soon.

Remaining time until next Status Window deactivation prevention: 30 days

Target Synchronization Rate: 20% (currently 15%)

A new objective for preventing deactivation had appeared.

5% in a month.

The conditions had been drastically eased compared to the initial target.

Though perhaps raising each additional percentage point would now be even harder.

After verifying the information, I asked Management Mi again,

“The stats I gained—they’re fully applied to my body right now, aren’t they?”

No wonder my body felt feather-light as soon as I woke up.

It wasn’t just because my wounds had healed and I’d gotten plenty of rest.

Now it was time to examine the newly acquired skill.

I tapped the flashing text at the very bottom of my physical status window.

A well-known skill.

But something felt off about it.

Immunity to All Poisons is a passive skill that grants significant resistance to the toxin-based attacks of most monsters.

As befitting its performance, it’s typically an S-rank skill.

It’s known to be a high-performance ability that only hunters of A-rank or higher can awaken.

However, the Immunity to All Poisons displayed on my Status Window was D-rank.

The reason for this was revealed in the detailed skill information.

“It’s a growth-type skill. And its performance is incomparable to a normal Immunity to All Poisons.”

The key word here was “immune.”

A typical Immunity to All Poisons merely enhances resistance, but this skill completely nullifies the harm.

Artificial toxins manufactured by humans and drug skills used by Hunters are useless against it.

But according to the description, Experience Immunity to All Poisons blocks all poison damage of that type, granting complete immunity.

As I detoxify more types of poison, the range of toxins I become immune to must increase.

The skill name itself suggests “Experience,” and I’ve already gained immunity to plant-type monster toxins by detoxifying the Venom Spore wound.

Of course, there’s still much to investigate.

But for now, this was enough.

[ Now that you’ve acquired this new skill, what do you plan to do today, Taejun-nim? ] Management Mi suddenly asked.

“Today?”

What else would I do?

I unwrapped the bandages, slapped my now-clean thigh, and replied, “I have to go to work.”