The rough material of the spear added a bit of confidence to Stas. The weapon issued from the clan's armory was made of sturdy wood. The steel tip, despite the high cost of good iron, was also not bad.
Compared to the mess he had wielded during his first weeks in this world, it was night and day.
Naturally, such fine equipment would not have been issued to Ordyntsev for no reason.
The study of the art of poison, as a sufficiently dangerous discipline, was decided to be conducted outside the walls of the citadel and city.
And that meant venturing into the forest, which, according to Kizashi, was problematic enough that even warmasters could not roam freely.
No, there was no mortal danger in it for experienced fighters. But an attacking magical creature would inevitably force an intruder to defend themselves, thereby drawing the attention of the border guards.
However, over several generations of extermination, the Sumada had managed to teach all these creatures one simple and effective rule – if you approach roads, you die.
Thus, traders could travel freely through the forest, as monsters did not stray towards the trade routes.
Even though Kizashi was far from weak, Stas did not fancy venturing into a forest filled with creatures deadly to humans.
After all, where a warmaster might only find a problem, an ordinary person would meet a very certain death.
Ordyntsev would have preferred to take Uramasa Kensei with him, but the ronin had gone with Jishin, joining his entourage. Stas had once seen him out of the corner of his eye, and he looked quite content. After all, he was off to cut down the much-despised Sansa.
Fortunately, even without Uramasa, the earthling could stand up for himself. After all the training and events, Stas could no longer be called an ordinary person.
Another week passed before Healing Palm started to come out almost flawlessly. Though the earthling's reserves were enough for a little. For example, to close a not-so-deep cut in the skin.
Nevertheless, the man did not lose heart because he had much more success with controlling prana within his body.
A myriad of snakes obediently followed his will, nourishing his muscles or swiftly coursing through the creaking channels.
In such moments, the faster the prana moved through Stas's channels, the slower the world around him appeared. And his body felt as if it had been submerged in warm water.
If the muscles were successfully imbued, he could not only watch but also move with inhuman speed and strength, catching up with the accelerated perception.
That's why Stanislav's eyes looked ahead much more confidently than before. His strength was now always with him.
In addition, Ordyntsev couldn't help but notice that suspicious changes had touched not only his appearance.
Fortunately, this time, the news turned out to be pleasant.
The slight myopia he had since childhood disappeared without a trace. Now, he saw the world a little clearer.
As for the internal changes, they passed by the earthling.
He was never fond of self-reflection, so a slightly altered outlook on things, amidst all the surrounding concerns, passed surprisingly without notice. As did the following change…
The prana of the magical snake swirling in his body changed its host not only externally but also internally, and few could guess how it would all end.
"Attention," Kizashi seriously looked at Stas, who stood before him, trying to catch his breath.
Right now, they were frozen in the center of a broad forest clearing. Tall trees surrounded them from all sides. Judging by the almost perfect radius of the clearing, it was quite possible that it was artificially created by some technique a few years ago.
They hardly exchanged a couple of words along the way because Kizashi easily ran ahead, and Stas strained not to drop dead, maintaining the prana strengthening.
If not for the prana, Ordyntsev would have dropped out of the race an hour ago.
Interestingly, in the city, there were special streets where only warmasters ran, so no one cast surprised looks at them. Sometimes, these roads rose upwards, passing through the upper levels. The stone construction allowed for even more.
The most annoying thing was that Leviathan, who had stuck close behind, managed to easily keep up with the alchemist's pace by making quick bursts to close the distance.
And was it just Stas's impression, or did his pet seem to be showing off in front of Hideo's grandson?
But let's get back to what was happening on an otherwise unremarkable clearing.
"The poisons I'm using today are extremely dangerous mixtures. I require you to follow my instructions to the letter," the youth's words carried a serious warning. Kizashi clearly did not want to joke about safety techniques.
"It will be done, sensei," Stas straightened up, nodding to the alchemist. "What will we use for the tests?"
"Good," Kizashi removed the bag hanging behind him and pulled out a couple of tied-up mice. "The first rule of hunting magical creatures – no blood. Unless, of course, you want to attract unnecessary attention."
The warmaster made an almost imperceptible movement, breaking the creatures' necks, tearing the skin, and carefully sprinkling the ground with blood.
"Many of them can sense blood for hundreds of meters, if not further," explained the alchemist under the man's watchful eye. Stas said nothing, just gripped his spear tighter, taking an internal look at his prana reserves. Fortunately, they had somewhat recovered.
"While we wait for our future targets, I will tell you about poisons and why this art is so magnificent!" Kizashi's usual enthusiasm burst through for a second. "The first thing you need to remember is that warmasters, as sad as it is for us alchemists to admit, are one of the worst targets for poison."
"Passive or active resistance?" Stas clarified.
"Both," Kizashi nodded contentedly. "You correctly comprehended that even a small amount of prana changes the body enough for some poisons to start acting much weaker, if at all. And the stronger our target, the weaker the effect. Furthermore, by circulating prana through our body, we can further weaken the effect of ordinary poisons, completely neutralizing their power."
"And what solution have warmasters found to this situation?" Ordyntsev asked. He knew when to ask clarifying questions, helping the speaker unfold their thought while building rapport with the interlocutor.
Simple, not overly complicated, social tricks.
"Ah, this is very interesting," Kizashi suddenly turned to the right, compelling Stas to mirror his movements precisely. Leviathan coiled up as if to strike. "But we'll talk about that a bit later. We have guests."
A huge shadow emerged from behind the trees and, grunting angrily, stepped forward.
One look at the gnarly, gigantic tusks of the boar was enough to understand that this creature was deadly. And the thick fur, which had vines of some plant growing in it, hinted unmistakably at a magical origin.
The black eyes of the two-meter monster stared at the blood-covered grass and then shifted to the people.
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'Life did not prepare me for this.' Stas crouched slightly. Taking a hit from such a mass, even with the strengthening, was outright suicidal. The only chance of survival was to dodge in time.
"There are many different types of poisons," Kizashi's calm voice shattered the tense atmosphere. "Nevertheless, they can quite well be divided into several main categories." The alchemist hardly paid any attention to the beast scraping the earth with its front and back hooves, from whose nostrils escaped wisps of greenish smoke.
Only the fact that Stas had managed to accelerate the prana in his body allowed the earthling to see how Kizashi, pulling a vial of potion from his belt, casually tossed it straight into the beast's face without much of a swing.
A quiet crunch of glass, and the entire front part of the monster's head burst into furious flame, obscuring it in black, acrid fumes.
The space shuddered from the desperate scream of agony. Blinded, the monster began rubbing its face against the ground, trying to alleviate the pain.
"I wanted to start with the potion of eternal fire. An excellent offensive tool. A pity it's unjustifiably expensive and rare," Stas looked at the alchemist with involuntary respect. Despite all his kindness, the youth was a man of his time, so the beast's sufferings didn't concern him and had no effect on the lecture.
"In this case, I used it to deprive the monster of sight to make the demonstration much easier. And now the effect of the fire is coming to an end."
The sight that was revealed was frightful. The tusks had turned completely black and cracked slightly. The eyes burst from the temperature, and the skin was partly burnt and partly peeled off.
Yet, the monster was alive and, hearing the last words, pinpointed the location of its enemies.
The sightless mass charged forward in blind fury.
Stas dodged to the side with some cold detachment, letting the living projectile pass by. Leviathan didn't even bother to move as she was out of the way. Kizashi himself evaded with such speed it was as if he had teleported.
"Are such fiery potions often used?" Stas asked, watching the beast that had rammed into a tree trunk, splitting it in half. The impact was too strong, causing the creature to become slightly disoriented.
"Very rarely," Kizashi shook his head, smiling contentedly and tilting his chin up, revealing his thin neck. "The ingredients are too expensive and could be spent on something more useful. This is my own research with my own materials."
However, he immediately wiped the smile off his face.
"Unfortunately, against experienced warmasters, this mixture is lacking as it has weak adhesive properties. A skilled warmaster, even if hit by the potion, can easily brush it off their skin."
Stas nodded in agreement. He had seen how the burning liquid barely managed to stay on the beast's skin long enough. The fur had played a cruel joke on the monster.
"Now, I want to introduce you to the next potion. This time, it fits the topic of our lesson today precisely," Kizashi waited until the monster recovered and turned around again, then another vial shattered on its muzzle. This time, the liquid was golden.
"Never underestimate paralytic poisons. Their importance is hard to overstate. We are often assigned missions involving abductions, or we need to capture an enemy for interrogation. For a couple of hours, you don't have to worry that the enemy will unexpectedly break free."
Another leap to the side and a couple of clumps of dirt left dark stains on Ordyntsev's pants. Kizashi remained entirely clean.
"The composition is not very expensive, and the size of the monster is large, so we only see partial success."
Kizashi was right. The boar had slowed down significantly but had no intention of falling or sleeping.
Suddenly, the monster's body lit up green, with the glow seeming to come from within, after which the vines growing from its fur spread out and plunged into the ground.
The grass over the entire clearing stirred, and the monster's head unmistakably locked onto the people.
"The second rule in hunting monsters," Hideo's grandson lazily continued. "Never underestimate them or give them time to adapt. They are not just beasts but real demon spawns. Always remember that." The enraged monster focused straight on Leviathan, who portrayed offended innocence all over.
A third vial exploded with dark, oily moisture, causing the boar to howl in pain anew.
"This poison will make its muscles slowly but surely start to fail," Kizashi explained his actions. "A good tool, although this time I used the cheapest ingredients, so it's almost useless against warmasters. Perhaps now is the time to explain why." The youth nodded to himself.
Suddenly, a dark blot flew into the already much-suffered boar's face. The monster's screams rose to a new pitch and then abruptly stopped.
Kizashi and Stas simultaneously looked at Leviathan, who had spat venom.
'I didn't know she could do that.' Stas nodded to his pet, who puffed up even more with satisfaction.
The boar, swaying slightly, fell heavily, breathing its last.
Leviathan's poison once again proved its lethality, reaching the creature's brain in seconds.
Ordyntsev didn't notice, but Kizashi almost choked with indignation when he saw the condescending and understanding look from the snake.
Leviathan seemed to say with her whole demeanor, "Oh, don't worry, your poisons are alright for... a novice. A few hundred years of hard work, and you might be equal to one scale from my tail."
"So, where was I," Kizashi grated, watching Leviathan briskly crawl toward a whole pile of free meat. The snake carefully examined the monster's head with her tongue, then, having paused in thought, abruptly bit into the neck and began to tear off chunks of flesh with a terrible crunch and loudly swallow them.[1]
'Well, Leviathan's physiology never ceases to amaze me. I won't be surprised if, at this rate, she even learns to fly someday.'
Stanislav wanted to stop her, but Kizashi shook his head.
"Poisons hardly affect her. While you were training Healing Palm, I already checked that." The alchemist hissed the last part, earning a respectful look from the snake, who had been distracted from her feast.
"As I said, warmasters have very strong resistance to poison. And the more prana we have, the higher the resistance. Consequently, it was decided to divide poisons into two categories. Weapon poisons and long-acting poisons... Watch out!"
Sumada deftly swung the drawn sword and knocked down a couple of oddly shaped metal knives. An annoyed cackling came from above.
"Steel raven," the youth explained, but Stas had already noticed the monster circling in the heights. The bird's feathers gleamed like steel. The wingspan was about three and a half meters.
Even though the monster flew at a considerable height, it didn't save him from Kizashi's retaliation. Another vial shattered against the feathers, causing a panic screech. With each second, the bird's flapping became more desperate, but the raven continued to lose altitude.
In the end, the creature plummeted down like a stone.
"Acidic kiss," Stas watched with interest as the steel feathers of the fallen raven bubbled and turned into an unrecognizable brown mass. "A completely harmless potion against flesh, but very effective against some metals. Though it doesn't work on copper, gold, and silver."
"I don't understand why no one uses such potions?" Stas frowned and asked the question that troubled him. "I've hardly ever heard about alchemy and its role in battles. Why only you, Kizashi, have potions?"
"It's all about the cost and complexity of production," the alchemist sighed sadly. "All these vials I brewed and condensed for almost a year. Searched for materials, hunted, and conducted research. No one would simply spend so much money and effort. Alchemy is affordable only to the very top of our clan, but they can stand up for themselves without it. Your appearance here was lucky; I took it as an opportunity to conduct this demonstration with you. I myself planned to see the effects of these potions in battle."
"I see," Stas said thoughtfully.
'It turns out, potions reveal their full potential rather in the hands of weak fighters. Strong ones are able to manage without them. I wonder if it's possible to reduce the cost of these brews? In this direction of magic, I sense a potential woefully wasted by the locals.'
"What were you saying about the categories of poisons?" Ordyntsev recalled.
"Long-acting and weapon poisons," Kizashi agreed. "Warmasters fight at very high speeds. The slightest delay, one mistake, or hesitation can cost a life or result in a serious injury. Weapon poisons are designed to cause the enemy to make that very mistake. Upon entering the warmaster's body, they have an almost instantaneous effect. For example, causing the muscles to cramp. Of course, the body will deal with the poisoning almost immediately, but the poison will still provide a couple of much-needed moments. And in battle, that's almost an eternity."
A couple more magical creatures that emerged, albeit not as huge as the boar, received a vial each and began to roll on the ground.
Stas also had to participate. A mutated fox that grew to the size of a wolf had every chance to kill an ordinary person - it was so fast.
But the accelerated perception of the earthling did not let him down, and the spear literally pierced the red body through and through.
Ordyntsev struggled more with pulling the spear out of the corpse.
"The goal of long-acting poisons is to bind and weaken warmasters over a long period of time. Disrupt their connection with prana. But even the first symptoms are expected to appear only after several hours. Unfortunately, both the first and second require the most expensive and rare components, which are exclusively obtained from magical beasts and plants. And certainly not of weak ones."
"I understand," Stas nodded.
"Therefore, poison masters rarely have this art as their main and only vocation. Usually, they are already experienced and strong warmasters looking for an additional opportunity to gain strength."
'How inconvenient. It's easy to understand that ordinary cheap ingredients might suffice for weak warmasters, but with the advanced level, they will prove useless. Not to mention supreme.'
Kizashi sought signs of irritation on his student's face and was surprised not to find any. On the contrary, Shiro looked quite content.
Assured of this, Sumada breathed a sigh of relief.
The alchemist had no idea that the cold mind of the earthling was rapidly searching for and finding opportunities to improve the existing system.
Moreover, unlike the natives, Stas was not limited to natural poisons, even if they were magical.
After all, earthlings, in their drive to kill their own kind, had created a whole industry dedicated to the production of purely chemical poisons.
Yes, Stas knew very little about their production. Nevertheless, he did have some minimal knowledge of chemistry.
In the end, what's stopping him from trying to synthesize such dear-to-the-heart names like chlorine, mustard gas, carbon disulfide, strychnine, and cyanide?
Of course, it may take years before the first worthwhile result appears, but what are years to someone who plans to live forever?
[1] Author's note: The author knows that regular snakes can't do this, but here we have a snake mutated by natural energy, which crawls through stone and displays almost human intelligence.