The rain fell from the foggy sky, splashing down onto Jack’s body. The rain did little to wash away all the blood and mud that covered the man. His body was shivering.
Ever since he lost his hair, he had noticed the cold affected him much more than usual. Even if he had his hair, it probably wouldn’t have helped him much when he was wet and laying on the muddy ground.
The paralysis poison had finally worn off, but Jack hadn’t gotten up yet. Something about the light rain hitting his face soothed him, and he wasn’t quite ready to move yet.
His hometown rained most of the year. It was one of the biggest complaints people had about the city. Jack, though, always liked the rain. The sound, the light impact when a raindrop hit you, even the earthy ozone smell that told you it was about to rain.
When he was little, on days where it rained like this, he would sneak into his backyard, find a spot, and lay there. He would sometimes be out there for hours. It was as if the rain washed away his problems. That was until his mother would inevitably catch him and scold him for doing something so meaningless before sending him off to work on one of her endless tasks.
A few years before the system, there was a day that his depression was really kicking him. He escaped his apartment and found a decent spot to lie down. Not even the rain was enough to help him. It wasn’t long before Emily came out to find him. When she saw him, her reaction was to instantly turn around and go inside. A few minutes later she came out in a big raincoat, laid down next to him, and took his hand. She didn’t say a word, instead she just simply squeezed his hand three times and waited with him until he was ready to go back inside.
After a little while longer, Jack sat up. He felt pain in his side and chest from where the bear had hit him. The wounds had stopped bleeding, but he was still sore and missing eight health. It was going to be an early day then. Jack then realized he had a notification waiting for him to check it, it must have happened sometime during the fight.
**Skill Up** Poison Resistance Level 5
He couldn’t help but laugh at himself. The entire time he was waiting for the poison to wear off, he could have evolved the skill and possibly helped his recovery.
**Alert** New Skill Evolution Available Choose one Tolerance Warning Isolation
Either he was getting better at deciphering what the names of the evolutions meant, or the last couple were a lot easier. Probably a bit of both, although he hadn’t yet gotten around to testing his new evolution of Impact Resistance.
Lots of fictional characters and some actual people had consumed poison in small doses to build up a tolerance. It didn’t always work out in reality.
He remembered reading about it when one of his players wanted to do something similar in a game he was running. His character bought a bunch of common poisons and was going to make himself immune to all of them.
What Jack found out was, while yes you could build up a tolerance to a specific poison, it would never be immunity and it only worked for certain poisons, mostly venom.
So Tolerance was probably something along those lines. Most likely it would be significantly more effective than pre-system attempts.
Warning seemed like it was just that, a warning. Some way to alert you that you are about to be poisoned, or that you were? He didn’t know how effective that would be since the system already told you when you were poisoned and what it did. Maybe he was completely off.
That left Isolation. It could isolate a point to a specific part of your body. He knew that the ichor of the blooming corpse titan stayed in a localized area, but he didn’t think normal poisons did that. Lucy’s venom for example would spread through the entire body. So the ability to keep poison from spreading could be useful for poisons that spread.
Poison Resistance wasn’t something he thought he would keep in the long run for his skills, he only had it because of the poison in this dungeon. So the only choice that made sense was Tolerance. If he could effectively cancel out the paralysis of the plant-zombies, their threat to him would drop immensely.
**Alert** Poison Resistance has gained the evolution Tolerance
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“Ow, just work already!” Jack rubbed the bruised spot on his arm where a large rock had just hit. The fact was, Jack had already lost count of how many times he’d throw the rock into the air just to have it fall back down into his outstretched arm. That fact didn’t stop him from picking the rock back up and trying again.
Since he wasn’t keen on exploring the dungeon without full health, he dedicated the rest of the day to getting the Rejection part of Impact Resistance to work. So far he hadn’t gotten it to work, but he felt like he was close.
After the first dozen impacts, he noticed something that made him feel like he was on the right track. Whenever he braced his arm to take the hit, there was a split second where he felt a weird sensation.
There was a feeling he’d get when walking upstairs and he reached the last step but thought there was one more. He’d put his foot down where the last step should be and for a moment he placed his weight on thin air, only to be confused as it sunk another few inches where the floor actually was. For just a second though, it felt like he was standing on a phantom step.
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The sensation was like that, pressing against something that wasn’t there, like a phantom impact. It only lasted a moment, though.
As the rock fell again, he had his arm out trying not to brace for the hit. He had to time it perfectly. When the rock was barely an inch away from his arm, he finally braced for impact. He felt the pressure of the ‘phantom impact’ just as the actual impact occurred.
Instead of the rock slamming into his arm and then falling off to the side, the rock bounced off his skin like he was made of rubber. It went back into the air, not quite as high as he originally threw it, but close.
He was so mesmerized by the physics-defying moment; he forgot to move his arm out of the way as the rock came back down on his arm.
“Come on!” He gave the rock a nasty stare, as if it wasn’t his own fault. When the pain in his arm receded, his face broke into a grin. He did it! He had no idea how it was physically possible, but he did it.
With a glance at his stamina, he noted that he wasn’t able to do it for free though. Just reflecting the rock cost him five stamina equivalent to him using Hydraulic Leap twice in a row.
With a sad look at his arm covered in bruises, Jack leaned over and picked up the rock. He was going to need a lot of practice to get that timing down.
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The next day, Jack stood at the edge of the murky green water. He was using his pole to test how deep it was. He was also trying to see what was at the bottom of the dirty water, but he could only see a few inches in before the murk obscured the view.
A twig floated by his pole as he poked at the bottom of the slow-moving river.
This was the furthest into the dungeon they had gone so far and it looked like if they wanted to go further they would have to get into the water.
The area he had been exploring the last few days was massive. Although it was difficult to judge how big it was exactly due to the fog. No matter what though, he knew it was a large area.
From the exit of the tunnel, it seemed to be one large rectangle, with the long side going deeper into the dungeon. The giant bush-walls blocked the tunnel side of the rectangle. This river bordered the other three sides.
Both of the other border rivers were shallow for a few feet but quickly dropped off to an unknown depth of at least thirty feet since that’s how far his pole could reach. He really did not feel like going into that deep of water if he could help it. He didn’t want to go into the water at all, but he was running out of reliable experience.
Unlike outside the dungeon, there were not very many bugs in the ground, there seemed to be only a couple of worms every few feet. He heard crickets all the time but hadn’t actually found a single one. The frogs and rabbits were getting harder to find, and he was pretty sure that bear was the last drone in the area. So going deeper was his only option besides going outside and fighting the Spell Seeker.
The pole was extended as far as it could, giving him some hopeful news. It looked like this part of the river was only around three feet deep. While he was happy that it wasn’t deep it also cemented the fact that he would be going in there soon. That he had already seen an alligator freaked him out enough, but what really got to him is the possibilities of what he couldn’t see.
Although that was a problem for another day. He needed to try to build up a tolerance to the ichor before he went somewhere he could be blindsided and poisoned at the beginning of a fight.
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When Jack spotted the frog sitting in a puddle, he naturally went to send Lucy to go attack it, but he caught himself before he did.
It was brown-green and about the size of a loaf of bread, but what made Jack pause was a yellow metallic looking object on its head. The frog was wearing a crown.
Crowned Prince Level: 3 Current mood: Bored
The Crowned Prince is a rare frog usually found resting in a pool of water devoid of predators.
They are known for their unique feature of a growth on their head resembling a metal crown.
A creature with naturally high luck making it prone to sit in one area and wait for food to come to it, which is usually what happens.
Legends say that if a person were to kiss a Crowned Prince, it will return to its true form and grant the one who freed them a wish.
Age: 1 year
Highest Attribute: Luck
Highest Skill: Swim
Jack’s curious expression turned to shock as he read the part about granting a wish. He could send himself back to before they entered the dungeon. He could save-
There was no way it was that easy. Jack had seen plenty of movies and played enough games to know wishes almost always backfired. It was one of his favorite things to do to players, give them a wish, and then turn it back on them. Although they got quite good at covering up any loopholes he could exploit, after he did it to them a few times.
Either way, it said ‘legends say’ there is no guarantee it is true. It just seemed like a spinoff of the princess and the frog story.
He tried to tamper down the hope that surged through him.
As awful as the thought of kissing a frog was, if there was even a thousandth of a percent chance of a wish, he had to go for it.
He had Lucy wait there while he made his move.
He snuck up on the frog from behind, trying not to spook it. When he was within a few feet, it suddenly turned its head and made eye contact with him. They both just stared at each other for a moment before the frog dismissively turned away.
As he made his way closer, it became apparent that the frog didn’t care if he approached. It didn’t even struggle when Jack picked it up. It was covered in a thin layer of slimy mucus that made it hard to hold.
Up close he could definitely tell that the growth wasn’t a real crown, just flesh that had a metallic-yellow sheen. He turned it so that they were face to face. The frog stared at him without a care in the world.
Before he went through with it, he mentally rehearsed the wish he wanted. He thought of every trick he could use to twist the wish against himself. He utilized every contingency that his friends would use to make sure their wish was safe.
When he finally had a perfect wish, he swiftly leaned forward and pecked the frog on the mouth. He quickly put the frog down and wiped the slime from his lips.
The wait for something to happen was excruciating. A storm of emotions swirled through his body, hope, embarrassment, loss, anger, and more complex ones he didn’t quite understand.
He was fully ready to give up when he received a notification.
**Alert** You have been poisoned
Jack threw his head back and shouted towards the sky “God! Damn it!”
The Prince's Surprise Hallucinations
-3 Wisdom
“Great, and now I’m going to be high.”
He grabbed the frog and marched his way over to Lucy. He told her to let him know if she sees anything. Hopefully, the empathic bond could also break through hallucinations.
Fortunately for him, they made it back to the tunnel before any hallucinations started. He spent the next few hours curled up into a ball, trying to ignore the world spinning around him.