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Monarch of Profound Toxin - Chapter 46
🕑 Added 2024-10-17 16:00:10 +0000 UTCDespite holding the highest rank in their team of four, Eik didn’t even manage to get close to Heath’s impressive score in the endurance test. At fourteen seconds he was on his knees and at seventeen seconds he was out. Without Noxious Invigoration he really was more fragile than Sonja.
“You’ll probably make the top 100 in the category with that score, Heath,” Mikla said as they made their way to the next arena. The test of speed.
“I thought we didn’t get on the score boards if we’re not the same rank as the test.”
“Not on the official list, no, but all floors have sub lists for participants of other ranks. You’ll be listed along other E-rankers who tested for F-rank endurance.”
“I doubt I’ll make the top 100 though,” he huffed.
“You have to think about the state of your world compared to ours. Most civilizations of the Nidafjeld Alliance aren’t experiencing quite as much existential instability and insecurity as you — not even those who are at war,” Mikla said as they descended the steps to another amphitheater almost identical to the previous one. “I know you take pride in your role as the bulwark that keep your loved ones safe, but most people don’t usually choose to specialize in getting hit without a severe necessity, such as being a first generation citizen of the Unified Mass.”
Heath nodded. “Makes sense, I guess.”
“Most young people from established worlds prefer to focus on destructive capabilities rather than “tanking”, as you refer to it as. There’s simply not that much worthy competition in the field in which you excel.”
That put a bounce in Heath’s step as he sipped his orange pear juice, his round cheeks flushing red.
The circular arena here had eight wooden poles installed equidistantly from each other along the edge. Each of them had a number from one to eight painted on them in a star-shaped sequence.
“All you really have to do on this one is move from one column to the next in order of the number written on them,” Mikla explained. “And it must of course be unassisted by anything that doesn’t fall under personal ability usage. That means no magical gear and armor, trinkets, potions, buffs you can’t apply yourself, and so forth. Pretty straightforward, really.”
“Actually, I’ve been wondering. How are we reading these numbers? I could also read the signs back there. It was all unintelligible scribbles when we went to help those kids in the jungle,” Sonja asked.
“Stronger, more skillfully applied translation effect this time,” Atla said simply. “This is the standard we usually aim for, but we’re also hoping to teach a sizable group of people from Earth to read and speak the most commonly used languages of the Alliance. It makes any relationship a little less prone to misunderstandings if we don’t have to rely on temporary effects.”
Michael volunteered to go first for this benign test and stepped up onto the arena. The number of spectators were about the same as for the defense test.
According to Mikla, the spectator area would really only fill up if a child from a prominent family or if someone who was considered particularly gifted was testing.
“Just run as fast as you can, Mikey,” Sonja said.
“That’s the plan.”
He was counted down and broke into a sprint that could have rivaled Olympic sprinters of the old world. He slid on the floor as he rounded the first pillar but managed to stay on his feet. The second, third, and fourth pillar he kept his balance almost perfectly, but on the fifth he lost his footing and added at least half a second to his run.
Hissing a curse, he kept running but his pace had become disordered. In the end he finished with a time below average for his F-rank.
Next was Sonja and she moved with clean, focused form, her wasted movements kept to a minimum. She practically glided to the first pillar and when she rounded it, instead of turning and running, she triggered her Disengage ability and rocketed backwards at incredible speed. She didn’t land again until she had almost gone outside the arena on the other side.
The following pillars she conquered like a dancer.
“How does she move so…?” Eik started.
“Gracefully?” Heath finished for him. “She did ballet for, what, thirteen years before the monsters first appeared. She was really good — good enough to get paid to dance in some music videos and stuff like that too.”
“Damn, I didn’t know,” Eik said as he stared.
Heath nodded knowingly. “Yeah, it’s not like she likes to brag but it sure translated well into what we do now.”
“Tell me about it.”
She finished in less than half of the time it had taken Michael. Even with only a single movement skill it was like her body was built for speed, precision, and dignity.
“I guess I’ll go next then,” the tank said and drained the last of his drink before stepping up onto the raised platform before his sister had made it back. They high-fived as they passed each other.
While his large and heavy frame didn’t allow for nearly the speed and agility Sonja had displayed, the way Heath moved belied his size. He made it acutely obvious that the difference between F-rank and E-rank was not just empty words.
The way he ran could neither be described as graceful nor measured, but the pure strength in his legs carried him forth swiftly nonetheless.
“Hey, you said we couldn’t use potions, right?” Eik asked and leaned in for a private word with Mikla.
“That’s right.”
“What about poison?”
“Poison? You want to consume poison before the test?”
Eik pursed his lips. “Yeah, it just struck me that it’s not technically an aid. If anything, it should be considered a disadvantage.”
Mikla’s brow knit together as he considered the argument for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something but paused and changed his mind, thinking for another few seconds. “You know what?” he said as he started walking. “I’m going to have to consult with one of the judges. Give me a second.”
Heath was coming back by the time Mikla returned. He had managed a very respectable above F-rank average score.
“I asked and in the end he decided that it was allowed to consume a poison since, as you said, it technically isn’t helpful in and of itself,” the fracture specialist reported. “Even if you have an ability that can process it into an advantage, it still doesn’t make the substance itself advantageous, only your body’s reception of it.”
“Seriously? I was actually expecting a rejection.”
“Honestly, so was I,” Mikla admitted. “But she claimed that to disallow your consumption of a decidedly impairing item would force her to also prohibit Awakened capable of manipulating stone, earth, wind, or water from taking the test here at all.”
“Sweet!” Eik popped two of the sour balls of mixed toxic plants into his mouth. A mild tingle was all he felt as their normally destructive effects took effect throughout his body. Relatively speaking, the poison balls were mild and thus the strength granted by the evolved Resistance: Toxin skill, Noxious Invigoration.
Acolyte of Toxin, the unique evolutionary path related to Profound Toxin he chose in place of a regular E-rank evolution, had not granted him as drastic a boost to his physical capability as E-rank would have. Presumably this meant that he had gotten or would get something else instead that he had yet to discover.
Noxious Invigoration made up for some of the discrepancy in strength so long as he could steadily consume poison. But as his friends and enemies became stronger, he would need to raise the level of his Resistance: Toxin ability in order to survive more potent poison for a more potent invigorating effect.
The new evolution of Profound Toxin, Accelerant also still had yet to be tested. The disappointing ripples it had caused in a sample of his toxin back at the cafe had been underwhelming, but there had to be more to it.
Hopefully he’d be able to try it in practice when they made it to the test that focused on raw damage output.
He stepped onto the arena, the poison pumping through his veins like doping. Unwilling to let the poison run its course, he exploded forward like a missile, triggering a full body Movement Boost on top of the Noxious Invigoration.
He flew at speeds no human body should have been capable of producing, and when he reached the first pillar with the number ‘2’ slathered on in red paint only a death grip on the rough, unpolished wood prevented him from going off the side of the arena.
The buff gained from Movement Boost persisted through the next pillar and then faded as he approached the fourth. It took a moment to align his movements to the normalized pace but he managed to maintain a rhythm and clear three more pillars.
On the last stretch he reached for Movement Boost again but the cooldown only allowed him a blink of extra speed. With a boot on the eighth pillar he finished the run. Faster than Sonja by a second plus change.
He flashed her a cocky grin as he rejoined his friends at the foot of the arena, a gesture she repaid with a punch to his arm. Mikla handed him his drink which he sipped, momentarily forgetting how foul the drink inside truly was.
“How did we do relative to other E-rankers on this one?” Sonja asked with anticipation while Eik spit the sour beverage into the dirt to the dismay of several onlookers.
Atla rocked her head from side to side, chewing on the question. “More or less average for E-rank,” she said and Sonja’s face fell slightly. “Lots of specializations have indirect movement abilities, such as what Eik just demonstrated, and speed is a common foundation for many fighting styles.”
“What about the damage test?” Eik asked.
“Probably the toughest competition of the three, I’d say,” Mikla said. “You shouldn’t get your hopes up for that one.”
Eik didn’t answer but he could barely keep the grin off his face. If what he had managed to do to the lake serpent, whose power rank had probably been low A-rank, was any indication, then the strength of his Profound Toxin lay in raw damage output.
Again they moved to a different venue. Unlike the previous two, the spectator rows for the damage test had about a third of the seats occupied. The atmosphere here was completely different from the other tests.
Where they had certainly been marked by enthusiasm to perform and impress, the hype here was on another level. Twice or thrice the number of waiting test takers were lined up by the side of the arena.
Waiting for them here were neither pillars of wood nor C-rankers ready to punch their lights out. No, up on the platform was a framework of metal resembling solid steel. Fettered to the framework by thick shackles glowing with a lazy green hue was an enormous, brutish ogre.
It was sitting down but still towering above most of the people present. It must have been at least three meters tall sitting and probably close to six standing. With arms and legs literally the size of tree trunks, the monster looked capable of crushing a car with the grip of a single hand.
It wasn’t clear what the exact cause was, but the creature didn’t appear to be reacting to any external stimuli. Despite the unceasing buzz of more than a hundred excited people gathered in one place as well as a person actually hacking at the giant with a pair of twin axes, there was nothing to indicate that it had any awareness whatsoever.
“That’s a B-rank monster,” Mikla said. “It’s an ogre.”
“And what do we do with it?” Michael asked, voice trembling, although the answer was apparent.
Atla grinned. “I recommend going all out!”
Comments
EsZeus
So, he can't just swallow his own poison to get a boost? O.o ^^
