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Chapter 41: Can I sweat Poison? [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2020-02-22 21:19:59 +0000 UTCSong for this chapter comes from Adele "Hello." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHsXMglC9A
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<Experience has reached a breaking point. [Young Spark Inferno Dragon, Hestia Atsuko] has risen from [Level 24] to [Level 25]>
<Attributes have increased due to level up>
<Acquired 600 skill points>
<Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Woodworking Lv. 1] acquired>
<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Singing Lv. 6] [Terra Magic Lv. 2] [Concentration Lv. 2] [Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 3] gained>
<Magic gained: [Bedrock Blades]>
“Hello, oh neighbors ♫
I was wondering if you would like to come and watch me sing ♫
My songs are yours, if you want ♫
Singing to no one but myself makes me feel alone on this stage ♫
Hello, can you hear my voice? ♫
I’m standing on a stage in the middle of this forest ♫
I call to you all, Belzac forest citizens ♫
You would always swarm before me when I began singing my songs ♫
So why aren’t you here now…for my concert? ♫
I beg you to return to me…♫”
Today is another slow one, huh? Well, that’s show biz…
“I won’t let this discourage me! ♫
The show must go on even without you ♫
But I wish that you’ll all here, to support me when I sing ♫
Seeing you scream and cry, makes me feel I’m given my all, ohhhhh ♫
I won’t let this stop my voice! ♫
An Idol never stops until she’s done ♫
Although, I want to stop but I can’t do it now ♫
The night will only stop, when I’m truly done ♫
With my show…♫”
“Ok, Hestia. I think we should stop for today. There are barely any monsters in the vicinity anymore.” After finishing my song, Saori spoke up after killing the last monster close to my concert stage, looking slightly tired. Her hands were dripping blood as she walked over to me with the monster on hand.
[“This is incredible…”] I said sarcastically while shaking my head. [“This strategy has been working so well, until yesterday. Am I doing something wrong?”]
[“No, it is not your fault.”] I stored the corpse that Saori threw at me after she said that.
[“Are the results that unsatisfactory?”] Sitting on my shoulder, Tasianna commented on our disappointment. [“The number of monsters that were attracted was frightening.”]
I simply said, “We are used to more” and then began helping Saori clean up the area from bodies.
Two days have gone by since that little incident at the lake that I will never go back to again. Our strategy of attracting monsters with my singing and having Saori kill them has been losing its efficiency since yesterday. A crowd still came but not only the quality but also the quantity of monsters dropped. It was even worse today.
We thought we could replicate the power leveling Saori did to help Tasianna leech the experience. Her level and stats were far too low compared to ours and we needed her to catch up.
Tasianna, despite her age, had barely ever had a fight before. Her current combat prowess and intuition was similar to mine and Saori’s when we were just reborn into this world. A bunch of city kids who never talked with their fists before.
That was why we needed her to gain levels. Her transition from maid to a battle maid had to be quick, and the fastest way was through a power leveling strategy.
The experience sharing function from being in a party helped cover for Tasianna’s low firepower, as Saori or I could just kill stuff for her. She would gain levels, stats, and skill points. Once she had enough, we would then help her choose her skills. That was when we will shift from Saori killing monsters to Tasianna killing monsters, to allow her to train her mental fortitude and develop battle strategies on her own.
As a fairy, her magical potential was apparent, and it helped she was able to use water elemental spells. With Tasianna, our party had full coverage of all elemental magic, and I wanted her to keep on improving so we could be a perfect “rainbow” elemental party.
<Fairy Magic: The racial skill for fairies that supports their life as members of the faefolk. A combination of multiple skills which increase the offensive and defensive abilities of a being made from mana. The skills combined are: [Power of Mana] [Arcane Corruption Immunity]>
[“Maybe we have been using these concerts too often now,”] Saori pointed out a very valid point.
I nodded in confirmation. [“Yeah, that might be the case. The smarter monsters might have noticed that the belligerent ones were slowly disappearing.”]
Our presence was likely having the same effects as when the garms were still alive. We’ve been hunting monsters at an alarming rate and also mostly in the same area.
As Saori and I traveled to the eastern canyon part of the Belzac forest, we’ve been hunting and killing most monsters on the way. It got even more efficient when we started doing those monster concerts. Monsters were flocking in like crazy and Saori killed most of them.
If I were one of the many animals in this place, I would personally avoid the eastern part of the forest and migrate away. The north, west, and south parts would be safer without a giant dragon and cadejo walking around.
Still, it might be good for them, but it was seriously bad for us. Besides Tasianna’s leveling, we also needed to prepare for winter. We needed food.
Tasianna had recently taught us the calendar of the world. Just like on Earth, a year was divided into twelve months, a month into four weeks, and a week into seven days. We were currently in the year 2678 after the arrival of the Origin Gods to this world.
The twelve months were divided into four seasons, named Winter, Spring, Harvest, and Autumn. From the first to the twelfth month, the order was like this: WinterSun, WinterBloom, WinterMoon, SpringSun, SpringBloom, SpringMoon, HarvestSun, HarvestBloom, HarvestFest, HarvestMoon, AutumnSun, and AutumnMoon.
Tasianna told us the Peolyncians created a four season calendar due to the coloration of the moon, which transitioned to the next every time the season changed. For example, today was the first week of HarvestMoon, at least according to Tasianna. She might have been captured by the trolls, but she still made sure to count the days while she was imprisoned.
And once night came, the moon would shine a dull red-orange shine down, signaling the current season. I believed I had noticed the strange coloration of the moon once, but it hadn’t been really important to me. I also spent most of my nights hidden under a bush or tree trunk, and with the lush leaf foliage, it was hard to see what the night sky looked like.
The moon colors were easy to follow: winter had a white moon, spring a green one, harvest was red-orange, and harvest would be brown. At the end of each month, the moon would shine extremely bright before dulling down. At the transition from one season to the next, the moon would shine the brightest before it slowly turned over to the next color and would retain its vibrancy until dawn came, signaling the start of a new season.
Certainly more unique than a plain-old cheese moon.
Interestingly enough, on the day we met Tasianna, she actually arrived at that cave with the trolls. She managed to escape their clutches only ‘cause she meddled with her prison cage. Talk about a stroke of luck that she met us on that very day. Coincidence or fate, I wondered.
Anyways, using this information, I learned I was born on the 25th of WinterMoon and Saori’s birthday was on the 25th of HarvestSun. I also learned Tasianna was born on the 8th of WinterBloom. That meant I needed to think of a birthday present for her, although finding a present in this place would be hard. Still, I had four months to think so no need to panic.
The days of a week were named after each of the Origin Gods, besides for the seventh day. The order went like this: FireDay, EarthDay, WaterDay, WindDay, LightDay, DarkDay, and RestDay.
As there wasn’t a seventh Origin God, the seventh day was simply named Restday. It was used by most people like Sunday on Earth, so a church day and also a time to rest.
Now, as there were only two months left until the new year, winter was slowly creeping towards us. I didn’t know if it was ‘cause I was a growing girl, but I had been eating far too much lately. We were going through our food stocks like crazy each day, meaning winter was a very scary thought for us.
We still had time, though. We just needed to find a motherlode of fresh monsters ready to be butchered somewhere during this time.
In any case, after we finished cleaning up, we made camp. Dinner was a simple giant steak and some mashed toffels as the side dish. Sounded a bit too American, honestly. Although, we didn’t have the double-dose fat injection, just to make your heart blow up a bit earlier.
Once we were done with dinner, each of us went to do our own separate activity before sleeping time. Saori went to help Tasianna as she seemed to have enough SP to buy a few skills.
That meant I was left alone to my own devices… literally. I wanted to finally organize my toxic concoctions and I also needed to make more bombs, seeing as most of them were used up in Saori’s mountain destroying scheme.
Maybe I should make stronger bombs for those cases…?
I’ve decided to first finish making all the bombs, due to realizing I might have too many different vials of toxins. I sat down close to the campfire and produced a wooden bucket filled to the brim with water. I waited until the cold night cooled the water down and then proceeded to my bomb-making.
I first constructed a [Terra Wall] about the size of my hand and sliced off its edges to turn the square wall into a half-ball. I then carved out the inner parts of it until it had enough space to contain the explosion for a few seconds.
The trick to making these bombs work wasn’t to actually put fire into it but to use [Trap Creation] in conjunction with activating a spell. When I was making the first batches of this new bomb type, I learned I could delay a spell’s activation by using [Trap Creation] on it, turning the spell into a trap which will only activate with the influx of my mana.
I laid a magical circle for the spell [Flame Explosion] and used the trap making skill to turn the spell into a new trap. I also made sure to properly do the Invocation part of the spell and instructed the spell to not explode without a stimulus, saving a lot of mana.
With that done, I created another [Terra Wall] and made another half-ball as I did with the first one. I connected the ends of the half-balls together, forming a proper ball. Like a blowtorch, I blew out flames with [Spark Fire Breath] and only melted the point of contact between the ball cups.
As the heat of my fire breath increased over time, the stone slowly turned into molten rock — lava. The liquid rock was dripping onto the ground while I was turning the ball around its angle, making sure that the edges were liquefied.
Once the ball made a full revolution, I immediately stopped the blowtorch and plunged the ball into the cold water. The water instantly evaporated, and the steam assaulted my face, blinding me from what was happening in front of me.
Over time, condensation filled my face full of water droplets, slowly dripping back into the bucket. The humidity drenched my hair. Without my hands, I had to swing my heavy hair out of my face by tilting my head to the side.
Once the steam subsided, I had my fingers touch the ball, making sure it was the solid, rough texture I needed it to have. As it was now, it was ready to be used.
I took out the ball and glanced at the little dents and spikes that were now connecting the two parts of the ball. I threw it into the air to quality proof everything was fitted together properly, and then gave it a name.
System, name this one “Dragon Bomb.” Identify.
<Dragon Bomb: A creation made by Hestia. By letting the mana from individual Hestia Atsuko flow into this ball, it will activate the magic circle inside it>
Edgy and cool, nice. System, name everything that I will make now “Dragon Bomb” if it fits the description.
I learned from making stuff I could order the System to name my creation. This naming function was restricted to only objects I had made, which included food, poison, and utensils. If the creation wasn’t named, then the System would just create one itself.
I continued creating more bombs, only stopping after my motivation and enthusiasm was slowly fading. As fun as creating little exploding bombs was, the creation process was dull and there wasn’t any urgency to make too many.
After stretching my arms and legs, I took out my many cups filled with toxins and sat them down on the ground. The amount was numerous enough to fill out a normal dining table.
Identify.
<Mixed venom concoction: A concoction made by mixing multiple different toxic fluids together with the skill [Poison Creation]. Depending on the resistance of the target, this venom may cause [Poisoned (Major)] upon injection>
I’m pretty sure I only used minor and moderate level toxins for this one.
This was the one I gave Saori during the battle against the trolls. At the time of its creation, I didn’t use [Identify] for the simple reason I thought it wouldn’t create such an extreme effect Due to my immunity to most common toxins, I didn’t think it was necessary to check the effects of this venom as it posed no danger to me.
Well, I was taught a very valuable lesson to test everything I make, especially stuff that could cause some widespread disasters. In honor of that dead troll, I named the venom “Blood Fountain Venom (Major)” and set it inside my storage.
<Blood Fountain Venom (Major): A concoction made by mixing multiple different toxic fluids together with the skill [Poison Creation]. Upon injection, this venom causes the blood pressure of the victim to increase while also causing Thrombosis. Oxygen accumulation of the blood cells is also decreased. Depending on the resistance of the target, this venom may cause [Poisoned (Major)] upon injection>
There weren't any test dummies for my toxins. Should I just identify them and then simply rename afterwards?
Testing all my venoms on Saori and Tasianna wasn’t an option, but without testing them, I couldn’t learn what it would do to others. Once I gave that venom a name, the description quickly gave a proper explanation of its effect. I had a feeling the venom coagulated blood, but I didn’t think of the word Thrombosis. Maybe I remembered that word from biology classes or maybe in one of those nature documentaries?
Let’s rename this one “Poison that is moderate at best.” What happens when I don’t know its effect?
<Poison that is moderate at best: A concoction made by mixing multiple different toxic fluids together with the skill [Poison Creation]. Depending on the resistance of the target, this poison may cause [Poisoned (Moderate)] upon injection>
Shame, nothing changed.
From this test, it seemed like the System couldn’t give a toxin a proper description without me knowing more details about it. It would help me skip the testing phase, but now I had to test it on something.
However, on what though? I couldn’t test this stuff on my companions, naturally, and seeing how the wyvern and troll suffered from two of my strongest toxins, I couldn't possibly test it on monsters with a good conscience.
There was a fine line between killing a monster quickly and painlessly, and killing a monster while it was slowly dying and suffering the effects of my concoctions. Witnessing them first-hand was enough to make me squeamish.
Well, there was still the option of testing it on myself. I couldn’t turn the resistance skills like [Abnormal Status Nullification] off but I might be able to detect the effects if I really focused. I wasn't in danger of dying, after all.
The only problem was Saori might become angry. It was reckless to use my body as the testing dummy, even if I was immune to it. I knew that from her scolding.
With those thoughts, I peeked over at Saori and Tasianna and saw they had their backs turned to me. They probably wouldn’t notice any weird shenanigans in the meantime, right?
Parallel Minds, I leave the testing to you guys. Don’t fail me!
‘Got it original mind! Don’t drink too much at once.’ Manager Mind warned me before readying the other parallel minds.
‘Jeez, Saori will be so angry,’ #2 complained and darted her eyes over to Saori and my mental image.
On the other hand, #3 was ecstatic. ‘Ah, come on #2! What she doesn’t know won’t make her mad.’
With all my parallel mind’s consent, I picked up [Poison that is moderate at best] and drank it. Immediately on contact, my tongue could taste the bitter taste of the poison, causing my body to reflexively reject the foreign substance. My throat wouldn’t allow it to enter and was closed shut despite my own acceptance.
The intense taste formed a grimace on my face, with small twitching movements. My eyes were glued to the red-orange moon as I prayed this experience would end soon but quickly realized I had to go through a table full of toxins. My stomach rumbled heavily and reminded me what would come out later. Tomorrow would not be pleasant.
With gradual big gulps, the poison eventually passed through my throat and into my stomach. Like a reflex, my body retched once my mouth was freed from the noxious stink.
“Gurrghhh…ueck! Haaaaaa…” A shiver ran through my whole body.
System, name this one “Mana Path Poison (Moderate)”.
<Mana Path Poison (Moderate): A concoction that was made by mixing multiple different toxic fluids together with the skill [Poison Creation]. Instead of applying the abnormal status effect [Poisoned], it instead inflicts [Weakened Mana Paths (Moderate)] depending on the victim’s poison resistance>
My parallel minds managed to detect something happening to the mana inside my body after I swallowed most of the poison. It didn’t affect the amount, but it weakened the flow and my mana paths. Nothing happened in the end, but I deduced the poison had affected either the mana paths or weakened the mana itself.
My mind quickly filled with ideas on how I could use this new poison as a weapon, however, I stopped those thoughts as I needed to first find out the recipe to create more of it. My lips curved into a wry smile as I could imagine the practical applications like throwing it in a bomb.
…Well, I guess this will help me endure the rest of this crap.
With a, somewhat, newly formed motivation, I started chugging down numerous amounts of toxic fluids as if it was Ambrosia, the drink of gods. After I was done naming all the toxins after experiencing their effects, I fell onto the ground and started breathing heavily as I heard my stomach growl in agony.
“Ahh, it’s finally done…” I mumbled to myself. I looked over to the, now, empty ground and heaped a sigh in relief I was done with this chore.
I sat back up and began thinking of my next task. That was, to find and create the recipes needed to reproduce these toxic fluids. To increase my combat potential, I needed to make more of this stuff. It might seem a bit overkill to add this to my arsenal, but who cared? It sounded very not idol-like, but nobody needed to know this besides my companions.
Still, how should I go about with this? If I just mix random toxins, I’ll just make different ones, probably. Hmm, I wish I had written the recipe down.
‘Hey, we found something in the shop.’
‘Huh? What is it?’
<Would you like to buy [Toxin Secretion] for 600 SP? Your current SP is 600>
… Yes.
<You have bought [Toxin Secretion Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 0>
<Toxin Secretion: A skill that enables the user to secret out toxic fluids of a certain kind. Depending on the amount of mana spent, the user may custom develop their own toxins instead of their natural toxin generation>
I took out the cup filled with the [Mana Path Poison (Moderate)] and gulped everything in one take. My body shivered like crazy for five seconds but once it subsided, I ordered the System to do something for me.
System, use [Toxin Secretion] and copy the poison that I just drank. Mana cost is irrelevant. Make everything one to one.
Holding my right hand’s index finger over the empty cup of [Mana Path Poison (Moderate)], I activated [Toxin Secretion]. Little by little, blue-colored fluids dripped down my sickle-like claws and slowly filled the cup full. I used [Identify] and confirmed it was the exact same poison that I just drank.
“Hehe, that’s so disturbing. I can’t believe that worked, haha!” I slapped my ankles gleefully, biting my lips as I felt a mix of apprehension and excitement at my new skill.
I stored the cup back into my storage and stood up. I walked over to the spot where Saori and Tasianna were, as I needed to report to them about my new skill and also Saori’s new endless supply of toxic fluids.
It might make me seem even creepier but that was a small price to pay for more power! Besides, I could always deactivate the skill. I just had to make sure to clean my claws properly.
[“Hey guys, I just bought a cool new skill. I bet that you can’t guess what it is,”] I boasted, but nobody even turned their heads.
Huh, why is it getting colder?
I cleaned my hands from all the poison using some shampoo and water from my storage and went over to them to see what was going on.
[“Do you guys think it’s gotten colder, somehow? What are you looking at?”] I shivered a bit as I approached, feeling like the night was getting colder randomly.
[“Uhh, Hestia,”] Saori finally answered me. [“I think whatever you bought will not be able to beat this.”]
Confused with what she said, I hurried over to their side. Closing into them, the air was getting progressively colder and lethargy started to assault my body. The sudden decrease in my body’s temperature made me tremble.
While trying to warm myself up by blowing fire out, I suddenly noticed a white mist surrounding Tasianna. It looked similar to the cold air you would breathe out on a cold night in winter.
It made me feel a bit unsure if I should even move closer or not. I quickly activated [Body Temperature Control] to counter the cold.
[“So, what skill did you guys buy?”] I asked, challenging them to show the champion to defeat [Toxin Secretion].
[“Miss Tasianna, please show it to her…,”] Saori said with a frown, still looking at Tasianna.
[“Uhm, alright.”] With that said, Tasianna began chanting.
It seemed like Tasianna bought a magic skill, but could it beat [Toxin Secretion]? Maybe I was overvaluing my skill here.
“Il south nah kaaln wug mierl sol tha hol…,” the words that came out of Tasianna’s mouth were still not understandable for me. Saori and I were making ok-ish progress with learning the language but it wasn’t enough to remember everything.
Once Tasianna was done, a clear translucent spike materialized over the cyan magic circle that formed over Tasianna’s hands. The air around it started to form a white mist and reaching close to it, my fingers could clearly feel the bone-chilling cold it emanated.
[“Ice Spike.”] With that Release, the icicle dropped into Tasianna’s hands and she held it up to me.
[“… You can use ice spells? How?”] my eyes widened, staring at Tasianna with questions.
[“For some reason, I was able to buy the compound magic skill [Ice Magic] without needing to level up [Wind Magic] and [Water Magic],”] she replied. [“[Cryokinesis] was also available to me, so I bought that, also.”]
…
[“…Yeah, you win.”]
