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Monarch of Profound Toxin - Chapter 4
🕑 Added 2024-09-18 16:57:21 +0000 UTC[Inherent proficiency considered—Acquired Resistance: Toxin — Lv. 14]
Relief was immediate, the skill kicking in as soon as the letters appeared on his arm. The sting as they etched themselves into his skin was minor, relative to everything else. The feeling of resisting the toxic substance coursing through him was something else. It felt like magic. It was magic, through and through. It felt amazing. Addicting even. His body’s sudden dominance over the foreign assault was euphoric.
Not that he wished for another dose, but still, the newfound sense of control was incredible. The effects of the venom didn’t seem to be nullified, just magnitudes milder. He could move again, think again, and most importantly, now that the compounded effects of the healing spheres worked to his benefit, he could begin to consider fighting back.
In the realm of monsters, the Xaraxis were basically as physically weak as they came. Without their signature venom, they were the best opponents Eik could have hoped for,
The work knife slid free of its sheath with the dull swish of metal on leather. He’d worked with enough corpses to know that their joints lacked the thick carapace that otherwise served to protect the Xaraxis-series. True enough, when his knife struck just below its skull, foul, green ichor streamed out of the monster’s neck like a leak in a garden hose. In seconds, Eik was covered up to his wrists in the sticky stuff. The Xaraxis-3 convulsed and expired, dying with its fangs still buried in his leg.
Grasping the edge of the chitinous plate covering its head, Eik pulled it free of his calf, venom and green blood mixing in his wound. Hopefully there’d be a healer to help him if he ever got out of this hole alive.
He got a good ten seconds to rest before another two, a Xaraxis-3 and a Xaraxis-5, this variant slightly bulkier than its counterpart, came out of the fracture side by side, clicking and hissing at each other. The moment they fully emerged, they halted and scanned the hole, eyes quickly finding Eik and the corpse of their sibling. Almost simultaneously they advanced, high-pitched screeches cutting painfully into Eik’s ears.
It was by a hair’s breadth that Eik managed to pull the body of the dead Xaraxis-3 up in front of himself protectively, the impact of the newly arrived Xaraxis-3 driving the corpse forcefully into his face, the hard, rough carapace drawing numerous lines of blood across his skin. The Xaraxis-5, on the other hand, refused to be baited so easily, and readjusted to come at him at an angle. He kicked it once, but it recovered instantly, its slightly heavier build providing it with strength and poise that the Xaraxis-3 usually didn’t have. That made it slower as well, but not enough for it to matter in Eik’s current predicament.
It got his foot, injecting venom, followed closely by the Xaraxis-3 as it dove for him, impaling itself through the jaw on the knife he had ready to meet it. His intention had been to stab it when it bit him, doubtful of his own ability to fend it off without relying on the lull in its movements during envenomation. That it had let its guard down in its frenzy and killed itself was more than he had hoped for.
The Xaraxis were sometimes referred to as “suicide killers”, their tendency to get pumelled into a bloody mess by any Awakened they latched onto while pumping in their toxins earning them that charming nickname. The fact that such an encounter rarely ended well for the Awakened either made the Xaraxis feared opponents. Just a moment of negligence could spell doom for even strong Awakened.
He tried to pull the knife back out but it seemed to be stuck on something inside the monster’s head and no matter how he pulled, wiggled, and twisted the blade, he couldn’t get it to release.
Meanwhile, the Xaraxis-5 dug into his hip, a fresh dose of venom searing Eik’s insides. The moment of injection still hurt a lot, eliciting a frantic hiss from Eik as he made the decision to ignore the Xaraxis-5 for the moment while he turned and planted a foot under the head of his latest kill to provide some leverage. Without that knife, he truly was defenseless.
It took several desperate seconds, but the blade eventually came free, a crunch of bone hinting at what had kept it stuck in there so tightly. Immediately, he went for the monster’s neck, hoping to repeat his success, but the bastard deflected his blow by leaning back its head, protecting the exposed neck with the hard carapace on its skull. The knife was almost knocked from his hand at the unexpected impact.
The Xaraxis-5 managed another bite, seizing the opportunity created by Eik’s bungled attack, this time getting him shallowly between the ribs. The venom burned more viciously this time, and he felt his [Resistance: Toxin] skill fail to react as efficiently as it previously had. Was the venom too strong after all? Was the saturation of toxins in his body growing beyond what the skill could handle?
A now familiar sting jolted through his forearm.
[Acquired Resistance: Toxin — Lv. 15]
It helped, somewhat, but the venom still stung. But with the beast hanging on to his torso, he was able to force the carapace up and away from its neck to plunge the knife in deeply. Its jaw eased and it fell off him like a leech drenched in salt.
Eik reached for the bag of healing spheres, pushing the corpse off, just in time to see another Xaraxis-3 charging him with a ferocious, throaty howl that rang up through the hole and sent shivers down his spine. Again, he pulled a Xaraxis corpse up to act as a shield. With the corpse in hand, he dove towards the paper bag and managed to keep the new monster at bay while he stuffed another three spheres into his mouth.
The puncture wounds were beginning to take their toll on his body and he felt faint whenever he exerted himself, but without the effects of the healing spheres he doubted he would have made it as far as he had.
Behind the attacking Xaraxis-3 he saw two more emerge from the fracture, ripples dancing across the surface from the disturbance. Cursing under his breath, he pulled the dead Xaraxis-5 on top of himself to protect his vitals and prepared to be overwhelmed.
[Acquired Resistance: Toxin — Lv. 16]
[Acquired Resistance: Toxin — Lv. 17]
He was envenomated repeatedly, his F-rank strength nowhere near enough to fight off that many monsters, even if they were frail compared to most other monsters. Shivers and neausea struck almost simultaneously, sending him into a shaking fit. Another bite on the leg, and then one on the arm.
They kept injecting more venom, to the point where Eik, in humorous delirium, wondered if he had crossed the point of being made up of more than fifty percent Xaraxis toxin. If only those damned bastards would finish the job already.
Everything hurt. His chest hurt. His back hurt. His head hurt. His legs hurt. And to top it all off, that cursed glowiung script kept etching itself into his arm over and over and over and over again.
[Acquired Resistance: Toxin — Lv. 1…]
***
Someone was shining a flashlight in Eik’s eyes like a total douchebag. Barely able to lift his arm, he attempted to bat away whoever was bothering him so.
“Give it a freakin’ rest, would ya? I’m trying to sleep here,” he complained, throat dry as a desert. “And get me a glass of water while you’re at it.”
“Eik! Eik!” The voice was accompanied by hands shaking him roughly by the shoulders.
He groaned. “Just let me sleep a bit. It’s not even that early!”
“You’ve been completely out of commission for two days already, Eik. It’s astounding that you’re even alive, considering how you’d decided to cosplay as a pincushion at the bottom of a fracture hole.
“Two days?” he gasped, jerking up, only to fall back down when his muscles failed. Crusty eyes refused to open more than a few millimeters, but he recognized Harry’s voice now that he was conscious. “I’ve been asleep for two days?”
“More like comatose, mate. Definitely thought you were dead. I was already surprised to feel a pulse when we pulled you out of that hole, but I only began to believe that you might actually survive when you simply… didn’t die. Amber, the healer, already did her thing on you, but you still didn’t wake up.”
“What was—” A coughing fit interrupted him and Harry let him drink his fill off cool, refreshing water. It was the best thing he had ever tasted. “What was wrong with me?” he finished.
“I mean, it would be better to ask what wasn’t wrong with you. Being too energetic was the only thing I couldn’t accuse you of, I think. You had Xaraxis bite wounds, well, everywhere. Your veins were purple with toxicity and you looked like an extra on The Walking Dead.”
“I hate that show,” Eik mumbled, letting his hand flop over his eyes to block what he had now realized was the sun in the sky, not a flashlight.
“By the way,” Harry began, his tone impressed. “did you kill a couple of Xaraxis down there before we showed up?”
“For the record, I’m pretty sure I killed three. Two 3’s and a 5, although there was nothing cool about it.”
“There rarely is. But in any case, well done. Welcome to the ranks of the Awakened. What did you pick as your first skill?”
Eik glanced down at his addled body. “Resistance to toxins. It probably saved my life.”
“Huh. Yeah, that it most definitely did. Although I’m still surprised it could save you from the state we found you in.”
He scratched his arm. “It said something about taking my proficiency into consideration before giving me a higher level version,” Eik clarified.
“Ah, it does that sometimes if it thinks your past experiences should earn you more than a level 1 skill.”
“It?” Eik asked and took another swig of water.
“You know, whatever is responsible for this game-like stuff. People often get higher levels right off the bat if it matches something they were already good at before awakening. Like an award-winning archer starting off with a leveled archery skill when they awaken.”
Eik grumbled discontentedly. “So it thinks I’m good at getting pumped full of venom?”
Harry could only laugh. “Probably. By the way, my grandma got the Steady Hands skill at level 21 the moment she awoke. She was a tailor for like fifty years.”
“That’s crazy. When did she awaken?” Eik asked.
“Same time as you. But I don’t think it allows for a skill boost like that except for your first skill.”
“And I wasted mine on Resistance: Toxin…”
“Sounds like it saved you, and it’s a difficult skill to level. Doesn’t sound too bad to me.”
Eik sat up, assisted by Harry. They were inside a tepee with an open top, boxes and tightly wrapped packages stacked up along the edges. It was relatively quiet outside. The tent was hot, his back drenched in sweat. Eik took off the longsleeved shirt that somebody had dressed him in.
Glowing script ran down his forearm.
[Choose one:]
[Blades]
[Concentration]
[Unique condition met—offering Profound Toxin]
Unique condition? What condition? What had happened while he was unconscious? Despite the heat, he hurried to put the shirt back on before Harry noticed his arm. He didn’t know the man well enough to confide in him like that. He’d look at the choices again when he got home.
“Is this a storage tent?” Eik asked, looking around nonchalantly.
The D-ranker nodded. “You were as stable as you were going to get, so I moved you out of the infirmary,” Harry answered, eyeing Eik’s shirt with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.
“And the monsters?”
“Dead, for the most part, although I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of them. We really only fought the ones that came to the settlement. The fractures must have opened all over the world, not only near people. We’ll probably be encountering the remnants of this wave for months to come. Maybe years.”
Eik swallowed. Fighting the Xaraxis had been terrifying. He’d appreciate at least a short break before having to do that again. “Were the other monster stronger than the ones I fought?”
Harry pursed his lips as he considered the question. “Honestly, you were pretty damn lucky to get caught up in a congeneric gate with nothing but Xaraxis. Most of the stuff we fought on the surface was worse than them. The monsters have gotten stronger for sure.”
“They’ve gotten stronger?” Eik felt a slight tremble run through his body at that.
“All the Awakened got the same message at the same time, around the time the wave started,” Harry said and fished around his pockets to pull out a folded piece of paper with some scribbles. He began to read aloud.
“TX497—81414: Dimensional matter threshold reached. Expansion commenced. TX497—81414 entering phase 2 of induction into Unified Mass.”
