noct
patreon
189. Misunderstandings
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 14:00:12 +0000 UTCThe snakes, too, were sucked into the figure, and within the cave, Madame Quast frowned. If he was a weak damage sponge, faking his tier, he shouldnât have been able to do that. Or⊠was he some kind of doll or hollow figure, whose whole purpose was to absorb poison? Noâthat explained everything! How heâd so easily dispelled her aphrodisiac, how he could endlessly absorb her potion⊠he was a doll, like the Strawman, but one that sucked up poison instead of curse energy. She cackled. Aside from the Strawman, dolls were weak. They were easily destroyed, except by the one energy they were meant to absorb. All she had to do was attack him physically, and the true leaderâthat girl in blackâwould have no more defense against her poisons.
Sweeping up some of her vials, she strode out of her cave. Her eyes fell upon her opponents, and she couldnât help but scoff aloud. A boy in ragged clothes and a girl in some outlandish black-and-bones outfit? What a joke! None of them were serious about magehood, the way she was.
Slurping down the last of the poison and taking the last steps at reinforcing his body, Rhys stopped dead, struck dumb. Purple. So much purple. Purple and neon green. He was pretty sure the womanâs gown was meant to look sexy, but it just hurt his eyes to look at. And her skin was uncomfortably greenish pale, streaked with purple veins, and her hair was a shock of bright orange, blown out like some kind of Bride of Frankenstein costume from the 1930âs. It wasnât natural orange, either, but highlighter orange. Painfully orange. Cheap Halloween-store wig orange, have-some-self-respect-and-buy-your-wigs-online orange. It wasnât good. No part of it was good.
Madame Quast snapped her whip. âNo further. You fools! You think you have overcome my poisons?â
âNot yet⊠hold onâŠâ Rhys focused inwardly for a moment. He squinted, concentrating, then sighed in relief. âThere. Poison overcome.â
She laughed. âI wasnât speaking to you, doll.â
Rhys squinted at her. âWe donât know each other that well. Thatâs sexual harassment.â
âA mere object has no right to protest! Iâve seen through you. I know what you are. One strike from my whip, and youâll falter!â
Rhys blinked. He pointed at himself. âMe?â
âYou!â
He frowned. âEr, I think youâve misjudged me. Iâm more of a step-on-me kind of guy. Whips are a little too extreme, you know? I donât want to actually get hurt.â
âOf course you donât. Youâll shatter.â She turned to Sable. âIf you want to save your toy, retract it now, or else Iâll break it for you.â
Sable shook her head. âNo.â
Rhys looked at Sable. âWhatâs going on? Does she think Iâm your boy toy? OrâŠâ He trailed off, not wanting to give voice to the horrific thought that had just struck him: or is there a culture of enchanted sex dolls in this world, where the âobjectsâ otherwise appear completely human, but are nothing but really nice dildos? He shuddered. And she thinks Iâm one of them?
Wait, hold on. Why is she so worried about removing me from the equation if Iâm just a fancy sex doll? Huh? Iâm so lost. Wait⊠Rhys eyed Madame Quast in a new light. Sheâd tried to inflict them with an aphrodisiac. She managed a brothel that was more of a swingerâs hangout. She was dressed in some overly sexy outfit, even if he found the clashing colors incredibly un-sexy. Could it be? Was she one of those trashy female villainsâthe kind who mostly showed up in only the most cursed ficsâwho âfoughtâ by using sex? Whose entire battle tactics, were based on seduction? They were more of a stallion novel trope than a yuri trope, but if she wanted to engage in competitive scissoring with Sable, well, who was he to get in the way?
Rhys shook his head. No, no, no. I donât think Sable is consenting to the competitive scissoring match, given the way she flatly refused to âput me awayâ earlier. Consent is always number one! If Sable doesnât want this kind of battle, then Iâll stand up to this sexual harassment mage for her!
He looked over his shoulder and gave Sable a thumbs up. I understand. Iâm an ally. Iâll take care of her for you.
Sable blinked, completely lost.
Rhys stepped forward. âWe donât consent! Fight me, fiend!â
Madame Quast laughed. âYou think you can take on Madame Quast? Foolish doll! Come here, and let Madame teach you your place!â
âTempting, but no!â He drew his new less-combustible poison sword, though he didnât have much hope in defeating her with it. She was a poison master, if her all-poison traps and attacks and her Poison Intent were any indicator, not to mention her poisonous-to-the-eyes look. The flexible nature of the sword was worth more than the toxins imbued in it against another poison master. Even if she was more of an alchemical type, sheâd still have at least a low level invulnerability against poisons, which meant that his sword would be a debuff, but not the OP battle-deciding weapon it had been lately. No, his strongest weapon against this poison master would be his ability to absorb pretty much any poison she threw at him. Actually, he looked forward to it. Heâd already improved this much; how much could he continue to improve, when she was actively throwing her worst at him, versus when he was passively absorbing her traps and distance attacks?
He'd been foolish to fear her as the boss who was setting up in the background. He shouldâve been excited about her being the boss who set up in the background! That meant stronger poisons for him to face, or in other words, more fodder for him to use for his own personal growth!
She lashed her whip in place, meaning to intimidate him. Purple liquid oozed from within the braided steel coils, sizzling where it hit the ground. From where Rhys stood, he could taste the fumes, and his face stung from mere proximity to the whip. He licked his lips. Now this was going to be good training, indeed. And not like that, either.
Fast as a snake, she struck. Rhys leaped forward and took the blow on his chest. Purple liquid seared through his shirt and into his skin. He lashed out and grabbed the whip, then sucked in powerfully. All the poison whirled into him, leaving nothing but a steel whip behind.
Madame Quast gasped in shock. She stared at him. He might be the most powerful doll Iâve ever seen.
Rhys staggered back, overwhelmed. The poison was the most vicious heâd ever encountered. It burned, searing through his veins. Weak spots? What were weak spots? This poison didnât need weak spots. It simply bit into what it wanted to bite, chewed through what it wanted to chew. He chased after it, desperately enhancing his flesh and patching his body back up, but it raged on. He couldnât absorb it into his trash, either; the Poison Intent was too strong, and made it slippery, something he couldnât grasp.
Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Is this my final mistake?
Rhysâs will surged, and he beat back his own voice of doubt. No! He refused. He refused to buckle here, to some mere poison masterâs poison! Noâthat was his real mistake, wasnât it? He was still seeing it as poison. Still comprehending it as something beyond his power.
But it wasnât. It wasnât beyond his power. It was poison, and poisonâpoison was extracted from wounds. Neutralized. Removed. Thrown away. Poison⊠fundamentally, more truthfully than it was poison, poisonâwas trash!
The Poison Intent fought back. It was a Tier 4 Intent, nothing to shake a stick at, and he couldnât directly challenge it and win. It was more powerful than him. But right now, it was inside Rhysâs body. Inside his trashy body, within his trashy blood, where his intent was the strongest. And not only that, but this, the material the intent was clinging to, was trash. Now that he had fundamentally rendered it trash rather than poison, the Poison Intent didnât have anything to stick to. It faded away, and he scrubbed the powerful poison into equally powerful mana, then fixed up and reinforced his body with it. His eyes opened, and he breathed out, more powerful than heâd been moments ago.
Madame Quast gritted her teeth. âWhat have you done? Youâyouââ
âDo you have any more poison? I think Iâm on the verge of a breakthrough,â Rhys said with a smile.
She pointed at Sable. âRemove your doll from the battlefield this instant!â
Rhys squinted at her. âIâm not a doll. Iâm a human. Seriously.â
âYou are not. No human can survive Madame Quastâs poisons,â she insisted.
He approached her. She lashed her whip, trying to snap it out of his hand, but he yanked it toward him instead. âStop getting lost in your delusions and fight me. Doll or not, Iâm going to kill you.â
âI have nothing. Youâve already overcome my strongest poison.â
âReally?â Rhys asked.
She spread her hands. âI forced my way to Tier 4. I acknowledge that. I faced some drawbacks as a result. My physical might is lacking. If I cannot poison you, I cannot defeat you.â
âWell, thatâs boring,â Rhys said, crossing his arms. He sighed, then gestured. âCome at me, then.â
âWhy? So youâll feel better than if you defeat an unresisting woman?â she asked scathingly. âThe result is the same.â
Rhys thought for a second, then nodded. âYou know what? Youâre right.â
He dashed to her. In a split second, he broke her neck and absorbed her and her energy. He didnât need to be noble. He was trash. If his enemy wouldnât resist, then heâd go ahead and end them anyways.
Plus, sheâd done enough resistance already. It was just all poison, rather than aggressive attacks. If sheâd used those attacks on anyone but him, she was right: they wouldnât have survived. She was built to be an underhanded fighter, who never engaged in actual battle. Was he meant to not kill her, because she wasnât good at melee combat and wouldnât fight him? Ridiculous.
He nodded at Sable. âThatâs that, I guess. Iâm going to go grab the rest of the poisons and stuff in her cave, and then we can clear out the camp and head home?â
Sable nodded. She pointed at his chest. âThe voice-sending enchantment.â
âOh, right!â Rhys closed his eyes and groped around in his core for a bit before he plucked it back out. âMouse, Liraâweâre all good here. Are you all good back there?â
There was a pause, and then Mouse whispered: âWeâre good, but hurry!â
Rhys and Sable exchanged a look, then sprinted in opposite directionsâSable to the portal, and Rhys toward the cave.
Sable skidded to a halt. She looked back.
âIâll just be a second! This stuff is super valuable!â Rhys called, hurtling into the cave Madame Quast had been using. He couldnât let all that delicious poison go to waste!
Comments
Codered999
I think Mouse is just uncomfortable and wants to leave the brothel already rather than being in any kind of danger.
Bunny Waffles
Probably didn't help that considering what we, the readers, know, she apparently had gone somewhat cuckoo-bananas after using some sketchy power-up method. There is room for only a limited amount of crazy people in Rhys' camp, and he is already filling one of those slots!
James Schoon
Always love getting a new chapter, half expected him to have her work for him making fuck loads of her strongest poisons to help him train, she would also get stronger by making the poison and it would be a positive feedback loop. But I recognize that having an enemy poison master in your camp is probably a bad idea so im not upset at her dying. Also I've started reading skill hunter to pass the time between chapters. I'll let ya know when I finish it
