I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-382

**Chapter 382. The Savior**

—

The very bottom of the Abyss.

The place where the Heavenly Demon had covered the land and cast them down was far more horrific than imagined.

‘This place…’

A dreadful, choking poison.

Holding her breath, Arin scanned her surroundings.

She hadn’t simply been buried underground—she had been transferred to an entirely different location.

And among the living, only Arin remained.

Her party members were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, what filled the area was—

“…A morgue?”

…Corpses.

Countless corpses, rotted after being poisoned by the Abyss.

Monsters of unknown shapes, not even human.

The decayed bodies continuously exuded poisonous miasma.

Was this a place where those who died in the Abyss were gathered?

—Grrrk.

—Grrraaaah.

Arin’s expression hardened.

Because the things she thought were corpses began to emit strange groans.

They were so decayed and deformed that it was impossible to believe they were alive.

And yet, they were.

As if they were wailing, begging to be killed.

…At that moment—

《The party has been disbanded.》

《You currently possess ‘5 types’ of Hidden Traits.》

《The number of Hidden Trait types is insufficient to resist ‘Abyssal Poison.’》

《‘Abyssal Poison’ is spreading.》

《The consumption rate of ‘Fragments of the Golden Scale’ is accelerating.》

《If all fragments are consumed, you will become an ‘Abyssal Resident.’》

At least eight Hidden Traits were required to resist Abyssal Poison.

But with the party disbanded, the meaning of “shared possession” had vanished.

Arin herself possessed only five Hidden Traits.

More than anything, Abyssal Poison consumed the Fragments of the Golden Scale at a much faster rate.

At this pace, even Arin wouldn’t last ten hours.

“An Abyssal Resident…”

Were these neither-living-nor-dead things truly what they called Abyssal Residents?

If so, it was utterly vile.

She had to escape this place somehow.

At the very least, if she could reunite with the other party members—if she could increase the number of Hidden Traits she shared—she might be able to resist the poison.

But the real problem lay elsewhere.

‘My skills are sealed.’

She couldn’t activate any skills.

All-purpose skills—those versatile abilities meant to handle any situation—were completely sealed.

《You are currently within a ‘Descent Zone.’》

《Within the ‘Descent Zone,’ all skills of 5-star rank or lower are sealed.》

Wait.

‘Descent Zone?’

What exactly had descended?

And the line that followed was even more shocking.

All skills of 5-star rank or lower sealed?

‘Humanity doesn’t even have a single 5-star Transcendent yet.’

Maximum level, comparable skill—none of it mattered.

A 5-star rank literally meant someone who had transcended five times.

Humans typically transcended by consuming a Goddess’s Star, while monsters evolved through molting or devouring stronger beings.

Skills followed the same logic.

A 1-star Transcendent could use 1-star skills, and only a 5-star Transcendent could use 5-star skills.

Thus, one had to rise to the same rank.

But “below” included 5-star.

Meaning, to use any skill here, one would have to reach at least 6-star.

Six-star?

When even five-star didn’t exist?

It was no different from a death sentence.

‘What do I do…’

Arin rubbed her chin.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of existence had descended to cause effects of this magnitude.

To seal an entire zone with such absurd criteria meant that it was at least beyond comprehension.

Enemy or ally—she couldn’t even tell.

But if it was an enemy, the situation was utterly bleak.

Especially for humanity.

‘Human limits are clear.’

Unlike other races, humans alone had a clearly defined ceiling.

Because the Goddess’s Stars amounted to only thirty-two fragments.

Stars scattered by demons weren’t considered true transcendence, meaning proper transcendence was limited to a total of thirty-two times.

Only a tiny handful of humans managed to transcend even a few times.

That was why no human could be free from this kind of seal.

‘Climbing the Tower of Fractures to raise the level cap might be considered a form of transcendence, in a sense…’

But was that easy?

And besides, the Tower of Rifts was highly likely to turn into an interspecies war.

This was the era of survival of the fittest.

Considering that humanity’s initial level cap had been a mere ten, the road ahead was long.

This was a level humanity could neither reach yet—nor should reach.

The Abyss was too early for humankind.

“…There’s no hope.”

Her skills were sealed.

The poison was infiltrating her body moment by moment.

She tried walking, but each movement doubled the consumption of the Golden Scale.

Only because it was her could she maintain composure—she didn’t even need to imagine how others would fare.

What awaited them was becoming Abyssal Residents.

There was no other choice.

…No, there was one.

The option of taking one’s own life before becoming an Abyssal Lord.

Better to die than to end up like that.

‘If I become like that, I’ll be trapped here forever too.’

If she became an Abyssal Resident, she could never return to her true body as Basara.

It was that kind of curse.

A horrific curse that bound both body and soul to the Abyss for eternity.

Tap—

Even so, Arin kept moving.

She searched for a way.

‘I refuse to let it end like this.’

She had finally found it.

The being that could answer her questions. The thread.

And now she was supposed to give up?

“…I am the Seventh Lord, Basara.”

She was not one to know surrender.

Unlike the other Lords, she had not been born a demon.

A mutant Dragon God.

A monster welcomed nowhere.

She had started from the very bottom and eventually became one of the Seven Lords.

《All Fragments of the Golden Scale have been consumed.》

《Corrosion by ‘Abyssal Poison’ has begun.》

Her flesh began to swell, blotches spreading across her entire body.

“Mm…”

Poison filled her lungs, making it impossible to breathe.

She leaned against a wall and closed her eyes.

…It still wasn’t too late.

She could end her own life now and return to her true body.

A simple solution.

‘My life has been nothing but struggle.’

Suddenly, the past came to mind.

Days spent fighting just to live, to survive.

The Dragon Gods had ostracized mutants.

But the demon race had likewise rejected Dragon Gods.

How many struggles had it taken to become a Seventh Lord?

She had proven herself through strength and barely attained that position.

‘Yet everything became dull.’

She was invincible.

She had never known defeat—nor even how to be defeated.

She didn’t even know her own weakness as a Dragon God.

A Dragon God unaware of her own weakness.

A true aberration.

Perhaps because of that—

battle had grown boring.

She could understand everything just by looking, and attacks never even reached her.

Life itself lost its drive, its meaning.

‘Then I met you.’

Wilhelm.

No—Wilhelm’s controller.

She immediately noticed that someone was intervening in Wilhelm’s movements.

They complemented each other, pursuing perfection.

Watching those movements was… intoxicating.

They reignited her long-dead fighting spirit.

‘And I learned of a weakness I never knew I had.’

…Love.

To think she could possess such a feeling.

At first, she thought that emotion was directed toward Wilhelm.

But the one who truly stirred her emotions was the “someone unseen” behind him.

‘You were the first being I could not comprehend at all.’

Wilhelm himself was transparent.

But the “someone” beyond Wilhelm was not.

No matter how many times she looked, she could understand nothing, grasp nothing—something entirely new to her.

That curiosity had ignited into her weakness.

She still wasn’t certain whether this truly was love.

That was why she wanted to confirm it.

When she met Phantom, she hadn’t felt such emotional turbulence.

But—

‘Once more…’

When her heart had been pierced by Wilhelm’s sword, it was different.

“…I want to feel that emotion once again.”

She wanted to confirm it once more.

Whether she truly was capable of such feelings.

Whether a life that had been nothing but struggle could hold another meaning.

But it was impossible.

No more time remained.

《Corrosion by ‘Abyssal Poison’ is complete.》

《Transformation into an ‘Abyssal Resident’ has begun.》

《Transformation completion: 10%》

《Transformation completion: 50%》

《Transformation completion: 99%》

………

…

《1 new party member has joined.》

《‘Party’ formation complete.》

《The party now possesses 13 types of Hidden Traits.》

《Abyssal Poison has been completely purified and immunity granted.》

《A party member provides ‘Fragments of the Golden Scale (100h).’》

《A party member completes the achievement ‘Savior of the Abyss.’》

《Hidden Quest – ‘Subterranean Abyss Exploration’ has begun.》

《This is an extremely ominous and peculiar location even within the Abyss. Explore the subterranean caverns and discover the exact cause of the poison’s spread.》

《Upon quest completion, all party members will receive rewards.》

*

*

“…Who… who the hell are you?”

Now, he could no longer refrain from asking.

It wasn’t just the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step.

“How could you open the Fifth Gate… that was passed down only through the Eight Houses…!”

The First Immortal of the Eight Houses sealed the First Heavenly Demon.

Afterward, he split the First Heavenly Demon’s martial arts in two.

One half became the Five-Gate Opening passed down through the Eight Houses.

The other became the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, inherited only by the Heavenly Demon.

Only by combining the two could one truly wield the power of the First Heavenly Demon.

He himself could do so only because he had completely absorbed the Heavenly Demon Blade that sealed the First Heavenly Demon—

But for anyone else to have mastered both was absurd.

Impossible.

“So it looks the same to you, this ‘Five-Gate Opening.’”

…At that moment—

With the same golden tide surging around him,

the man spoke lightly, smiling.

But no matter how one looked at it, it was the same.

That was unmistakably the Five-Gate Opening.

He couldn’t tell what was different.

Then the man spoke again.

“It’s quite well-made. I’ll give you that.”

“…What nonsense are you babbling?”

“What you’re holding. I’m praising that thing.”

The only thing he held was the Heavenly Demon Blade.

The peerless divine weapon containing the soul of the First Heavenly Demon.

Yet he couldn’t comprehend the man’s words.

Was he implying that the First Heavenly Demon had copied someone else’s techniques to create it?

Zzzrrr—

Suddenly.

The Heavenly Demon Blade began trembling violently once more.

…Now he understood.

He understood clearly.

‘It’s afraid of him…?’

This was fear.

Instinctive—no, unmistakable fear of that being.

“You must have seen me, trapped within ‘Truth.’ And thought to imitate me. How audacious.”

He didn’t understand what madness the man was spouting.

But one thing became clear.

“You… you’re something else entirely.”

His aura had changed.

His demeanor—even his facial expression—was completely different.

Then—

He grinned.

And—

“Ah, how long it’s been since I’ve seen the outside world.”

He stretched leisurely.

Utterly carefree.

As if the Heavenly Demon didn’t even matter.

Then he slowly looked at him.

“Entertain me, counterfeit.”