Hide turned away from the edge of the hill and walked over to Elara.

He reached into his inventory and summoned three small, glowing glass vials. He knelt down and handed them to the injured girl.

"Drink these," Hide said plainly. "Two Recovery potions and one Mana potion."

Elara blinked, staring down at the vials in her one good hand. Her pale face still looked completely dumbfounded. She looked at Evelyn, then back at Hide, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

Hide misunderstood her silence.

"Don’t worry," Hide added, his tone entirely casual with a smile. "The recovery potions are 1,000 credits each, and the Mana potion is 3,000 credits. I expect to be fully reimbursed when we get out of here. Cash or direct transfer is fine."

Elara and Evelyn were left completely speechless.

Evelyn stared at him, her eye twitching. "Hide. We are literally trapped in a gate, she almost just died, and you are charging her for potions?"

Hide shrugged. "I’m on a tight budget. Money is money, everyone needs it."

Without waiting for a response, Hide stood up and walked back toward the edge of the rocky hill.

"Wait," Elara shook herself out of her stupor. She grabbed Evelyn’s sleeve frantically. "Hey! Stop him! He’s gone completely mad! That guy is going to die... he’s just an F-Rank!"

Evelyn didn’t move. She just watched Hide’s back. "Just drink the potions, Elara."

Hide walked far enough down the rocky incline that the girls were safely out of the immediate blast radius.

He stopped. The stifling heat of the molten lava pool below was still rising, but he didn’t care.

He calmly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, tossing it casually onto a nearby dead branch. He looked down at his pants, which were already half-shredded, and let out a sigh.

Clothes were getting too expensive to keep replacing, he needed a way to keep the scales from tearing them apart.

He pulled off his pants as well, leaving him completely naked.

Then, he activated the skill Abyssal scale carapace.

Thick, shifting black scales erupted from his skin, rapidly covering his chest, arms, and legs. The dark armor locked into place, with two layers of scales making him seem like a machine.

Down in the valley, the Brochio Fiend finally spotted him.

The D-Rank dinosaur beast let out a guttural, terrifying roar, turning its massive head toward the small figure standing on the hillside.

Hide grinned. He was more than happy to carve this bastard up.

[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]

Counter Skill Generated

[Abyssal Frost- B (Active)]

-Allows the Host to summon and manipulate Ice imbued with dark mana.

-A Chilling frost resides within host’s body, making it immune to burning

A golden system window flashed in front of his glowing blue eyes.

Hide read the notification.

He had gotten Fire resistance, which he had expected, but that wasn’t the only thing the system had given him. By analyzing the beasts attack, the Universal Adaptation System had developed the perfect countermeasure.

He did feel that there was a catch but he didn’t care much about that right now.

Hide stepped off the hill and jumped over a tree.

The Brochio Fiend didn’t hesitate. The massive dinosaur opened its jaws, and a blinding light gathered in its throat. It fired a concentrated pillar of dark orange flames directly at the falling boy.

Hide didn’t dodge, not that he could. He extended his right hand directly into the incoming inferno.

"Abyssal Frost."

A surge of frost exploded from his palm. The sheer drop in temperature was so violent that the air itself cracked.

A massive, jagged spike of pitch-black ice erupted from Hide’s hand, meeting the flame blast head-on.

The black ice didn’t melt. It completely devoured the heat.

The thermal shockwave shattered the flame pillar entirely, creating a massive cloud of hissing, super-heated steam.

Hide dropped through the steam cloud, landing heavily on the molten, bubbling pavement. The lava sizzled against his Carapace armor, but he felt absolutely nothing.

The dinosaur beast roared in confusion, taking a heavy step back.

Hide didn’t give it a second to think.

He pushed his feet to their absolute limit, becoming a literal blur of dark scales and blue eyes. He closed the gap in a fraction of a second, appearing directly underneath the beast’s massive, armored chest and jumped.

He slammed both of his hands onto the beast’s thick, green scales.

"Freeze bastard."

The dark mana violently poured out of him. Black ice exploded from his palms, rapidly spreading across the beast’s chest. The temperature dropped so fast that the dinosaur’s thick scales began to violently crack and splinter.

The Brochio Fiend shrieked in absolute agony. It thrashed its massive body, trying to shake him off, but the black ice had already anchored its heavy legs to the pavement.

The freezing dark mana crawled up the beast’s neck, locking its massive jaws shut and completely encasing its head in a block of solid, jagged black ice.

The four-story behemoth was completely frozen in place, a massive, terrifying statue of dark frost.

Hide stepped back, pulling his hands away and landed straight on the ice that had spread all around, creating a large stage. His breath plumed into white mist in the suddenly freezing air.

He raised both his hands, pointing directly at the center of the beast’s frozen chest.

’Mana Blast.’

The dark violet energy rapidly condensed in front of his palm, swirling with volatile, destructive power. He funneled a massive chunk of his remaining stamina directly into the attack, he would get it back after the beast died anyways.

"Die."

He fired.

BOOM!

The compressed mana ball slammed into the frozen dinosaur and the explosion was catastrophic.

Because the beast’s scales and flesh had been completely frozen to absolute zero by the Abyssal Frost, the concussive force of the Mana Blast didn’t just pierce the armor—it shattered the entire creature like glass.

The D-Rank beast exploded into millions of frozen, bloody shards. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

A grotesque rain of frozen meat, shattered bone, and black ice rained down across the ruined valley.

[Calamity Beast (Brochio Fiend) - Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 4000

[Level Up]

Level: 14 → 15

Exp: 1220 / 3300

Level Up reward has been added to inventory.

Hide stood amidst the raining ice, completely untouched.

From the top of the hill, Elara and Evelyn stood in absolute, stunned silence. Elara’s jaw was practically touching the floor.

Hide walked forward through the frozen crater. He scuffed his boot against the frozen chunks of meat, searching for anything valuable.

After a minute of searching, he finally found the beast’s core resting on the cracked pavement. He sent the D-Rank core in his inventory, but his frown deepened.

He kicked through the remaining ice.

There was nothing else!

Hide sighed, walking back up the rocky incline. He retrieved his shirt and pants from the tree branch, dismissing his Carapace and quickly dressing himself.

He walked over to where Evelyn and Elara were standing.

"There was nothing left behind," Hide said plainly, looking directly at Evelyn. "That thing you said would help up move the gate."

Evelyn stared at him, the shock of his combat display slowly fading into a look of deep, terrified worry.

"That means your theory was right," She said heavily, her voice trembling slightly. "Two gates have collapsed together. That dinosaur... it was no longer the Gatekeeper."