With the windfall of free time he had acquired, it was time to experiment a bit. He had specifically bought the acid and poisons to further bolster his body. He hoped that the mild toxins would break down his internal organ cells, allowing him to heal and recover stronger than before. Growing stronger through the breaking down and healing of his cells was a concept he had learned from prior knowledge. And what better way to break down cells than through poison and acid? Yes, it would be excruciating pain, but when was a mighty adventurer ever afraid of a bit of pain?
Arriving back home, he got straight to work. He had used one of the pockets of his new bag to store the vials of poison and acid. He had acquired four vials, one of which was an ether-infused acid. It had cost him a solid $150, but the store clerk had said it was a weaker S-grade acid made from the liver of some monster found up north. Even with the $150 price tag, it was an absolutely fantastic deal, considering it was S-rank. For instance, S-rank Ether Pool herbs would have cost him roughly $5000 per gram, a considerably higher price than the $150 per ounce he had acquired the acid for.
Before grabbing the vial, he first had to fill up his old inflatable pool with some water. At first, he was scared the acid would melt through the thin plastic of the pool. However, after a few searches on the regional net, he concluded that his inflatable pool would have some use after all these years.
Two years ago, the new North American Government had finally fixed up the internet after the ethereal awakening. It had taken roughly eight months for the government to recover after the collapse. There were no longer states or even towns or cities anymore, at least not in name. After the United States and Mexican governments had realized the situation they were in, they banded together, forming the DOEA (Department of Ether Affairs) to beat back the never-ending monster hordes from former Canada. With the new government calling itself the North American Coalition, they split up the two former countries into five regions. The Northeast Region was where the former state of Michigan landed, and the other four were the Southeast Region (from Virginia to Florida), the Southern Region (former Mexico as well as Texas), the Western Region (California and the surrounding states), and last but not least, the Central Region, containing the rest of the former United States. After the government had been established, with all of the regions collectively becoming the North American Coalition, they set up region-spanning internet servers. This was how he ended up concluding that his dinky little pool would be enough to contain the acid.
After filling up the pool about halfway, I grabbed the vial of acid and carefully put a drop of it into the pool. I wasn't exactly sure how potent the acid was, but it was S-grade, so better safe than sorry. Quickly stripping my clothes off, I dipped my finger into the water. Instantly, a searing pain rippled up through my fingers, making me instinctively pull back my hand. Damn, I thought to myself, a sliver of fear gripping my heart. I had told myself a little pain wouldn't keep me from the power I craved, but damn, that stuff hurt. It was like I had put my finger, well, in acid, I supposed.
After feeling the blazing pain coursing up through my finger, I decided to fill up the pool a bit more. Just a drop of acid had made the pain almost unbearable, so diluting it a bit more was only natural. Hyping myself up, I finally built up the courage to dip my left leg up to my knee into the acid. Brutal waves of pain assaulted my mind, almost making me black out. I flooded my body with healing energy, and as fast as my skin was sloughing off, new skin quickly grew back to replace the old. Feeling the strain on my ether pool, I estimated I had a good 30 seconds before I would need to refill my pool. However, I wasn't done quite yet. I pulled out one of the EP (ether pool) herbs I had bought, roughly a tenth of my stockpile. Shoving the herb in my mouth, I could feel my pool expanding while also feeding my pool the much-needed energy I was expending to heal my left leg.
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Summoning all my willpower, I forced myself to enter the pool. At first, only my right leg submerged, followed by my calf up to my knee. As my groin met the acidic liquid, my mind was on the verge of breaking. However, my healing ether intervened, miraculously mending my splintering psyche. Though the pain grew more intense, my skin became increasingly resilient, and so did my mind.
All of this happened in a mere few seconds, but the gains were immense. Not only was my body and mind being refined, but the new insights into my power had me staggering at the possibilities. Could I really upgrade my mind through mental anguish? And what did this mean for the future? With all of these thoughts running through my head, I completely submerged myself in the pool. The expenditure of ether had more than quadrupled from when it was just my left leg, even with my skin becoming more resilient by the second. The herb in my stomach would soon run out of energy, but I was not disappointed in the results of my experiment. Not only was my skin becoming stronger, but my mind and ether pool were also increasing in power.
Submerging myself in the acid water for 20 seconds had completely drained me of ether, but my experiment had been a massive success. I estimated that my durability, mind, and ether pool had all increased by about 20 points in each of their respective ranks, a significant increase for just a few minutes of work.
Cleaning myself off and putting my clothes back on, I moved on to my poison collection. Another round in the acid pool could wait while I tested out my other purchases. One of the poisons I had bought was a neurotoxin, another was a necrotoxin, and the last was some sort of bone-corroding toxin. All of the toxins were rank U, so I had high hopes that the poisons would allow me to train up all of my internal organs while the acid dealt with the external ones.
Pulling out the necrotoxin first, I put just a drop into a cup of water. Before I drank it, however, I pulled out another tenth of my stockpile of EP herbs and quickly downed it, using the poisoned water as a chaser. Burning pain radiated from the inside out as the necrotoxin worked its magic. It wasn't as intense or white-hot as the acid, but it was still extremely painful. My organs and flesh simply started to melt away, but my healing ether would not let me just fall apart. In fact, my healing ether was surprisingly effective against the insidious poison, which fully exhausted itself in a matter of 10 or so seconds, leaving about half of the herb's energy unused.
The way in which an EP herb worked was that the first intense boost of ether would expand your pool, while the main bulk of the power filled up the storage space the original boost had created. From my estimates, my absorption ability had increased that initial boost by about four times what a normal person would experience, based on my research, which was lower than expected. However, the bulk of the power not associated with the initial boost had increased more than 10 times, by my estimates compared to normal people. This, along with my healing ability, had let me exhaust the poison's power in record time. With half of the herb's energy still roiling in my guts, I quickly put more water in my glass, added a drop of the bone-corroding poison, and gulped it all down.
Over the next two days, I completely lost myself in training, only stopping when I needed to eat, drink, or sleep. I continuously consumed greater and greater quantities of the poisons, as well as slowly increasing the acid concentration in the pool based on how resilient my body and mind had become. After the first couple of hours, the EP herbs had been consumed, but my training did not stop. Instead, I consumed unholy amounts of calories, fueling my insatiable hunger for power. About halfway through the second day, I had completely run out of poison to temper my body, but by that point, they had little effect on me. Even with the full bottle of S-rank poison in the pool, I felt almost no pain by the same time.
Overall, it was a very productive couple of days off, and by my estimates, it had almost tripled my effective power, maybe putting me in the low S ranks. With my motivation at an all-time peak, it was time to get back into adventuring. All I had to do was one last thing.