The Monkeyhawks surrounded Steak, who convulsed on the ground. They passed around a piece of the toxic mushroom he ate and took a small bite each. It was just enough to get the toxins flowing through their small body, but not deadly enough where it would stop bodily functions like what Steak was going through.

They laughed and shrieked as the toxins went through their systems. Their intellect and their social capacity wasn’t the only human-like trait they have, they acted like junkies.

Steak couldn’t breathe anymore and the skill just popped up in his vision. He needed to calm himself down to figure out a way to save himself. Conserving the oxygen in his body, he closed his eyes and calmed down.

80% percent to go until he could use the skill. But with his body paralyzed and the limited amount of time he had before the toxin reached his head and brain, it seemed like an impossible task. That was when he remembered what happened back when he first woke up, the moment that he was born.

He recalled the time when he learned and leveled a skill without even killing anything. Ah, that must be the key. I need to understand first what it does. He thought.

Spending the rest of his strength on thinking, he tried to understand it, but failed. A lot of other things popped up in his mind, like how he couldn’t go back to Rook or meet Lilith again. Useless things that wouldn’t help him in his situation.

Then, he heard the Monkeyhawks erupt in another fit of laughter. If he wanted to get his revenge, he needed to figure this out.

“, the name suggests that it removes or cleanses toxins out of one’s body. The description of the skill itself would be along those lines. How would I secrete it? Maybe through my pores or I vomiting it out of my system?” Steak thought.

Hearing the faint chime in his head, he cracked open his eyes to look at the notification. He didn’t know whether or not the toxin had reached above the shoulders yet, but his vision did start to get blurry from the lack of oxygen.

“Okay, seems like it’s working. Come on, think some more,” pressure started to build up in his head. “Poisons, they’re substances that can kill or cause illness to a living being, like me right now,” he thought.

“The skill should work like my other skills, using the Mana that I have and transform my body to remove these substances from my system.”

“Okay, okay, so it won’t transform it physically. My mana would act like the substance itself and go through my bloodstream. It would then attack the toxins within my system by absorbing it and destroying it within itself so that none of my organs get damaged in the process.”

He was almost there, he just needed to understand one more thing about poisons and how the skill would potentially work. A Monkeyhawk crouched down to his face with the toxic mushroom in its hand. It made fun of Steak by flaunting it in his face then taking a nibble out of it.

“Most things are either safe or poisonous depending on how much you take in. Just like how I am with the Feelgood leaves, these monkeys do the same thing with the mushrooms.”

After using the skill, Steak took in a short breath and passed out from the lack of oxygen.

***

When Steak woke up, the sun had already been way past noon. He was out for nearly twelve hours. Looking around, the annoying Monkeyhawks were gone.

“Lucky that they didn’t do anything to my body,” Steak said.

Standing up for him was a pain. His head throbbed and all of his joints felt weak. He also felt weirdly cold even under the afternoon sun.

Before he could complain, his stomach grumbled. It was because of it that he got poisoned in the first place.

Steak glanced at the group of mushrooms under the tree. A few pieces of it were gone. It was clear that the Monkeyhawks treated it like a farm of sorts.

“Ugh, I don’t think I can eat mushrooms ever again after that,” Steak gagged.

A familiar animal cry came from the distance, past the trees in front of him. Steak quickly looked around and saw a weak stream of water coming from up the ravine.

“Looks like they aren’t extinct in this world. Turtleboar’s back on the menu,” he said.

After taking his anger out on the dumb creatures, he filled his stomach up and made another pack of supplies that would last him a few days.

“Now to do something about those Monkeyhawks,” Steak whispered to himself.

He looked around the small pond that he was currently at. Most of the Turtleboars ran away after he killed one of them. They trampled all of the vegetation nearby, but there was one that survived their hooves that caught his eye.

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It was stick-like, but far sturdier than one. It grew as tall as him, with the tops of it growing leaves. Steak tried to grab and pull one off the ground, it didn’t budge. Observing it some more, he flicked his finger at it to check how hollow it was.

“Ouch,” he yelped as he pulled his hand back.

He placed too much power in the flick and cracked his finger nail. If it weren’t for the leaves growing on it, he would’ve mistaken it for a stone structure.

He used , since his skill mentioned something about metals he thought that it would be able to get through to the plant. Swiping at it diagonally, he was met with a bit of resistance but he was able to go through it.

Surprisingly, the plant was hollow inside. The way he sliced it made it sharp at the end. Curious, he tapped his finger on it. He immediately drew blood.

Like a child, he placed the finger inside his mouth and sucked on his finger. Then, a thought came into his mind. Those damn Monkeybirds liked to perch up and rest on branches. Maybe I can make a trap using this stuff.

He got to work, gathering all of the rock-like plants and the vines he could find shoving them inside the last two spots in his inventory. Then, he proceeded to gather some of the fruits and nuts nearby.

***

Steak was back in the ravine, nearly 24 hours since he fell in it. It was dark, but he positioned himself in a tree that had a good vantage point of the trees below him. He stayed completely still waiting for his targets to arrive.

Chattering and laughter was picked up by the wind, making him tense up. The grip on the bundle of vines in his hand tightened. He needed to time this correctly or else he would fail.

The first Monkeyhawk came into his vision. It landed on one of the branches below him, oblivious that Steak was nearby. He didn’t know if they had a heightened sense of smell, but he made sure to choose the most aromatic fruits as bait. And it worked as he planned. The Monkeyhawk was entranced by the line of fruits and berries on the branch.

Another one came after it saw its friend snacking on something. They argued for a while until a larger Monkeyhawk swooped in and smacked the both of them in the head. It was time for Steak to cut the first vine that he held on to.

A large amount of fruit fell from the sack and scattered on the ground. The three Monkeyhawks didn’t waste any time and jumped off the branch. It didn’t take long until dozens of them came out of the shadows and jumped onto the pile of food.

Steak waited for a bit more. He wanted to get as many of them as he could in one strike because this trap wouldn’t work on them again. He acknowledged that they were smart creatures, frighteningly so. But he also thought that it would be a bad idea if he didn’t instill fear in them because of the chance of them following him around and tormenting him.

He let go of the last vine in his hand once he saw that there weren’t anymore Monkeyhawks coming. A spike trap made out of the hard plant he found near the Turtleboars fell from above. In the hollow crevices of the spikes were crushed up mushrooms. The same one that the Monkeyhawks gave him.

It landed on top of the Monkeyhawks piercing into their flesh, and the mushroom entered their systems. He knew that he couldn’t make a trap that would take them out, so he needed the mushroom to finish them off.

The other Monkeyhawks that weren’t caught in the trap scurried off and hid back in the trees. Steak hopped off the branch where he was staying and slowly made his way to his screeching victims.

“Not laughing anymore, huh?” He taunted them.

They just shrieked in response, not like they could actually communicate with him. It was then that he felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He just stared at them until they all died.

He learned two skills in one day and even raised his level up, but he couldn’t feel any joy from it. At that moment, Steak felt stupid. What the hell did I do all of this for? He thought.

Without another word, Steak walked away and went back to Rook’s shack.

Status

Credit

-399980g

Name

Steak

Strength

3

+1

Level

9

Vitality

2

+1

Race

Human

Agility

2

+1

Class

Druid - Metamorph

Dexterity

2

+1

Health

110

Magic

1

Health Regen /s

0.18

Spirit

12

+4

Mana

100

Points

0

Mana Regen /s

3

Next Level

12.24%

Skills

Rank

Cost

Desc

Metamorph

1 - 30%

n/a

Change your form

M.morph-Bearcat claws

1 - 52%

2.5/sec

Claws that can pierce common-grade metals

M.morph-Turtleboar Shell

1 - 20%

2.5/sec + Dmg

Damage that hits the shell will be reflected and blocked as long as the damage done is less than the user's Mana

Absorb Element (Passive)

1- 05%

n/a

Absorb elemental magic and use it as if it was your own. Low conversion rate at lower ranks

Ferocious Flesh (Passive)

1 - 0%

n/a

Increased physical traits

Detoxify

1 - 0%

100 (changes based on Vitality)

Cleanse your entire body from foregin subtances

Plant Manipulation

1 - 10%

25

Reshape plants to your will

In the darkness behind him, a particularly large Monkeyhawk watched his shameful back walk away from the atrocity he just committed. clutched his grieving brethren in his large wings, his large eyes unblinking. He memorized everything about Steak.