Drinking has reached level 14!
“Lady Tess,” Verin choked out, only her Etiquette level keeping her from coughing up a lung. “With all that you’ve built here, one wonders if we might install a still of sorts. Surely we would all benefit from rectifying the lack of quality alcohol, no?” Even after all these months, Verin eyed her moonshine warily, as if it would lurch out of her cup and slap her.
“Just think of it as training!” Cal supplied. “We had to inhale toxic mud and that nasty jungle poison in the last few regions. By the time you get used to the moonshine, you won’t even flinch at stuff like that.” To prove her point, Cal knocked back the rest of her cup, managing to do so with barely a wince.
Needing something to wash down the potent booze, she snatched a strip of gryphon off the makeshift stone grill that sat between us, throwing it into her mouth. She barely bothered to chew it before swallowing, rubbing her oily fingers against her pants to clean them.
Uncertain as to what deserved her disgust more, Verin nearly went cross-eyed trying to direct her contempt to both her drink and her royal companion. Evidently needing to be more drunk to handle Cal’s lack of decorum, Verin did her best to down the rest of her cup as well.
Following suit, I finished mine as well before conjuring up another ball of moonshine. All three of us scooped our cups into the floating sphere, and on we drank.
If perhaps to be expected, the first thing we did after we returned home was to celebrate.
Or, not the very first thing. The first three days had been dedicated to waiting for me to wake up. Thankfully, I was able to pass off my long slumber as a side-effect of my overzealous mushroom harvesting and the spores I’d inhaled.
In reality, that was far from the truth. Poison Resistance, as it turned out, was not my only resistance to end up leveling after I fell asleep.
Soul Resistance has reached level 12!
Mental Resistance has reached level 19!
It had been over a month since we’d set off on our grand journey to clear the sky and darkness regions, and in that time, I’d been doing my best to power through without worrying the others. Finally having returned to the cabin on our “airplane,” however, I was able to fully relax in a way that my mind and soul had been begging me to. With both the long rest and the newfound levels, I found myself feeling clearer headed and more refreshed than I had in ages.
Which was good. I was quickly sensing that I would need that energy to make it through the night. We had quite a lot to celebrate, after all, and despite her distaste for our drink of choice, even Verin was in a mood to “go hard,” so to speak.
Part of that was just being back home. Now that we no longer needed to worry about rationing food or avoiding hangovers, there was no reason to hold back. More than that, though, we were coming off the high of clearing an entire two new regions.
Back when we’d first gotten here, even that much had felt like a pipe dream. Cal and Verin had essentially been confined to the cabin, and when we’d first started fighting scorpions, even one of the creatures was enough to make for a pitched battle. Even if they hadn’t been too useful in the darkness region, the two couldn’t help but look at our progress with pride.
It certainly didn’t hurt that all three of us had returned with a new level under our belts.
“Board games now, or is it too early?” Having already finished her next glass, Cal was keen on doing more than just eating and drinking. I, for one, was eager to agree. There wasn’t that much for three people stuck in a dungeon to do during a party, and board games were far preferable to the alternatives. The last time we’d all gotten too drunk, she’d tried to rope us into dueling, and the time before that, she’d attempted to make me perform some songs from Earth. Just about anything would be better than that.
“Very well. But I will be choosing the game.” Verin’s tone brooked no argument, which naturally meant that Cal immediately began to argue.
Their heated bickering took longer than any board game possibly could, though I felt no need to stop them. I still sometimes struggled to catch social cues these days, but their back-and-forth felt warmer than I recalled.
“Solitaire? You want to play solitaire? The game that Tess taught us specifically because it’s one-player?” Cal gripped her hair as Verin did her best to hide her wry amusement. Over the months, the noble had gotten far better at determining what she could say to set the princess off, and she delighted in doing so.
It was a welcome change from the stiff exasperation Cal used to engender in Verin. While a small part of it might have been Verin’s new class weakening the grip of her Etiquette skill, I liked to believe our recent journey had helped the two grow closer.
Eventually, the two managed to settle on some slow-paced card game, which we had long since created all manner of drinking rules for. Either my Luck and Gambling skill were failing me for once, or Cal was performing some sort of sleight of hand, as I lost brutally.
Whether it was the booze or my recent levels in soul and mental resistance, I wasn’t sure. Much to my eternal shame and horror, however, by the time the night was over, I did give in to peer pressure this time.
You have learned a new skill: Singing
My only consolation was that no one had a recording crystal to capture my tone-deaf shrieks, and for once, I was the one to push more drinks on the others, in hopes that they would forget what they’d heard.
There was, however, only so much celebrating a person could do. When at last the night drew to a close, I ended up groggily ambling off to bed. A full day later, when the worst of our hangovers abated, we slowly settled back in to our old routines.
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In the wake of our revelry, our trio was still collectively feeling positive about our progress. On the flip side, if there was one thing that put a damper on our spirits, it was the poison region. The more we thought about it, the more we realized that we’d hit a wall of sorts.
Verin was fine. With her glacier skill, she’d be able to traverse the jungle with no problem as long as I carried her. Cal and I were a different matter, though.
For Cal, she still wasn’t able to keep her Apex Shroud up 24/7. That was fine when it came to the toxic mud cloud, as it had been much smaller. If we were forced to endure the poison jungle for days on end, though, she’d be subjected to a good deal of poison by the end of it. In the worst case scenario, if she inhaled something like the mushroom spores I’d disturbed, she’d be in a very bad spot. Even if we managed to find some ways to cleanse poisons, she didn’t feel comfortable with the region until she had at least one more level under her belt.
I was much the same. The bulk of the region’s dangers would be fully negated once I got my hands on my Arcane Choker class skill, but having spent the bulk of my class points during my fight with the forsaken seer, I wasn’t grabbing it any time soon.
Ultimately, that left us with three real options. One, wait around and train up until we were ready to tackle the poison region. Two, try to go around the jungle, pushing through one of the regions to its sides. Three, abandon the entire area for now, tackling one of the other directions instead.
Logically, there was a clear answer. According to Sett, the further we moved from the center of the dungeon, the tougher the monsters we could expect to run into. The smart thing to do would be to slowly clear the dungeon in a spiral pattern, giving us the most possible experience before pushing into harder areas.
From a morale standpoint, it was trickier. It felt like we were so close to finally making it to one of the mana storage sites. Not only would that make us all feel a lot more confident about eventually getting out of here, but it would also let us wake Sett up again. At the very least, I was confident I could bug him for some new spells.
The only option that was fully off the table was skirting the jungle. It would make our journey longer, and if we entered a region that wasn’t adjacent to the sky biome, we wouldn’t be able to use Tal’Ket to get home. If the poison region truly turned out to be impossible to clear, we would consider it, but only as a last resort.
Anything related to the jungle, however, was something of a moot point for now. Tal’Ket’s summoning plate was still on cooldown, which meant we were effectively stuck here unless we left by foot.
Thankfully, that didn’t mean we were just sitting around twiddling our thumbs. If anything, I quickly found myself busier than ever, our recent journey offering me a host of new avenues to explore.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
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Alchemy has reached level 9!
I dipped a pinky into the cauldron of bubbling green liquid below me, bringing it up to my tongue to sample the smallest of drops.
You have been poisoned!
A host of secondary effects followed, though none of them were anything to write home about. The taste was nice, at least, with a pleasant smokiness that I could see going well on ribs. As for the potency, while I’d collected a host of valuable reagents, both my skill and equipment were lacking.
Skill-wise, that was something I was attempting to remedy presently.
Mostly, that meant brewing dozens of different poisons. Not always, of course. A handful of herbs had different effects, and if prepared just right, some of the poisonous plants could be used to make curatives and cleansing potions. It was these that I was most excited about, hopefully offering us some extra defense for when we returned to the jungle. With that being said, none of them were particularly strong. At least not yet.
With the bulk of my ingredients being too high-leveled for my Alchemy and Herbalism skills to fully identify, I was left doing things the old-fashioned way, through trial and error. Even a single plant could result in dozens of different effects and strengths depending on which part I used, how I prepared it, what I combined it with, and at what heat I brewed it. The class I’d taken back in Sylum had prepared me well for this, with multiple lessons having been dedicated to exactly this sort of experimentation. Still, it was still a slow-going process.
Bottling my latest batch in a stone container and storing it away, I repeated the process all over again.
It was a routine process by now, and one that was becoming increasingly mindless for me. As such, it was something of a shock when I received a new notification. Right after sampling my sixth attempt (highly poisonous, awful tasting), the system offered me something that was at once both fresh and familiar.
You have been offered a quest: Mithridatism II
Already, you have taken the first step on the path of the powerful and the paranoid, bolstering your resistance to a myriad of potent poisons. The road to true immunity, however, winds endlessly onwards. To forge ahead, half measures will not suffice. Only when poison flows through every vein in your body will you be able to advance.
Requirements:
Take 100,000 accumulated damage from self-inflicted poison.
Dose yourself with at least 50 different types of poison.
Of those 50, at least 20 must be Uncommon, 10 Rare, and 1 Epic.
Additionally, 10 must confer differing secondary effects.
Rewards:
5000xp
Dependent on your current level of Poison Resistance, up to 5 additional levels in Poison Resistance.
Greatly reduces the effects of all low-rarity or weak poisons used against you.
I’d finished the first quest in the quest line back in Sylum, and given that it was titled Mithridatism I, I wasn’t overly surprised to find that there was a second. With our eventual destination, I was glad to receive it, too. Even a few extra levels in Poison Resistance would make me feel far better about our odds, although it was questionable if I’d actually complete the quest in a short enough timeframe to make it matter. Ignoring the requirements to find an Epic poison, 100,000 damage was no laughing matter.
Still, that’s no reason not to start working on it now.
After bottling the newest cauldron’s worth of poison, I began on the next, mixing in some of the herbs I’d grabbed from the dark labyrinth. Unsurprisingly, the end concoction was a deep black color. With a quest to complete, I decided to up my dosage this time around, sampling a full spoonful of the finished product.
You have been poisoned!
You have been blinded!
You have been paralyzed!
As the world went dark and my muscles stiffened, I made sure to keep my mind focused on what really mattered.
Kind of tastes like licorice…
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For all that I was focusing on my alchemy, it was hardly the only one of my hobbies to receive my attention. In the aftermath of our long journey, three other professional skills all gained levels.
Enchanting has reached level 6!
Advanced Internal Mana Manipulation has reached level 16!
Intrinsic External Mana Manipulation has reached level 4!
While I hadn’t gained any valuable insights into the deeper workings of enchantments, I had grabbed a few more points of Wisdom, courtesy of my most recent level. The extra points yielded a small but noticeable bump to my mana skills, allowing me to work my mana with a bit more finesse. I wasn’t quite able to handle the mana-pulling addon that had stopped me previously, especially without the proper materials, but small progress was progress all the same.
Cooking has reached level 16!
The level was a long time coming, as cooking was one of the few things that I did almost every day. Even if I’d wanted to stop, I wasn’t cruel enough to leave Verin to fend for herself. I’d seen some of her cooking attempts, and even calling them edible would have been undue praise.
In this case, though, I owed the level to something more concrete than my standard dinner fare. As of late, I’d been experimenting with a host of new ingredients, courtesy of my other professional skill to finally level.
Gardening has reached level 6!
If nothing else, our trip had been kind to my humble garden. We hadn’t been gone long enough for it to grow too unruly, and in fact, it was quite the opposite. After a bit of careful pruning, everything I’d planted was looking better than ever, with crisp, healthy leaves reaching for the sky. How exactly that worked without a sun, I wasn’t sure, nor particularly did I care.
What had begun as two small patches of earth -- one for standard plants and one for less friendly ones -- had now grown to four. In both cases, the new additions corresponded to one of the regions we’d conquered.
The first was for the handful of plants and seeds included in Tal’Ket’s rewards. Unlike the fairly standard grasses and trees we’d seen on the sky islands, these seemed to be more magical in nature. In fact, planting them initially hadn’t done much until I’d had the idea to bury a few aerial gems alongside them.
The result was both bizarre and unexpected: Over the course of a few days, beads of water began to float near the earth, growing denser over time. By the end of the first week, my third garden patch was completely covered in fluffy white clouds. Nothing I’d planted had yet broken through the cloud cover, but I’d confirmed by touch that they’d all finally sprouted.
As for the darkness plants, I was forced to get equally creative to get them to grow. Here, I had a wider variety of cultivars to cultivate, half from the labyrinth caches I’d discovered, and half from the safe room. Various blindness-curing herbs like the Blind Man’s Bracken made an appearance here, along with the Soothing Dusk Fruit we’d eaten on Verin’s birthday. I’d even dug a pond to try growing the Dark Pondweed we’d used like seaweed.
Unfortunately, not a single one of them would grow in the light. Having slain the labyrinth’s boss, however, I was sporting just the right thing to address that. In the middle of my plot, I plopped the Lightless Heart I’d grabbed from the forsaken seer, activating it to blanket the area in darkness.
To take things one step further, I made sure to water the plants with dark water, some of which I’d gathered from the safe room’s pond, some of which I’d grabbed after killing the seer. Not wanting to run out, I conjured more with Create Liquid. With how much moonshine we had saved up, I didn’t need to be making more each day, and I could always switch the spell back if need be.
All that to say, even without counting the new poisons I’d harvested, I now had far more herbs and spices to play with. I would have to use what I had on hand sparingly until the garden could grow us more, but that didn’t stop me from experimenting.
The air plants were the only ones I hadn’t gotten a chance to taste before, although a good deal of them were incredibly delicate. They dissolved when stewed or outright evaporated when exposed to dry heat. The flavors they imparted were likewise subtle, adding gentle hints of their respective flavors in a way that reminded me of la croix, of all things.
If I ever got my hands on some flour, I thought they’d be good for pastries. As it stood, most of them were a bad match for our standard meat-heavy meals, although one had a sort of cranberry taste that was fine in sauces.
In light of everything we had going on, I would understand if someone thought my growing obsessions with gardening and cooking were a bit frivolous. They were! But they were also keeping me one step closer to sanity.
And besides, not everything I did during our break was fraught with frivolity. Having maxed out my rank in Overload Weapon and Overload Armor, I’d opened up two new class trials to try out.
Even from the outset, I could tell that they would both be easier than Arcane Vision’s, as was par for the course for weaponmaster and armorist trials. That was doubly true this time around, as the skills in question were fairly simple. Much like on my previous go-arounds, I was stuck fighting conjured enemies and running bothersome obstacle courses, this time with a much larger emphasis on mana conservation. At my current rate of progress, I hoped to be done with both trials in only a month or two.
And last but not least, there were my efforts to grab enough class points to buy Arcane Choker. With spell schools being the simplest path forward for me, I threw myself into training with as much gusto as I could muster up. While I worked on all of my remaining Initiate-tier magics, I gave special attention to Water Magic. It had hit 19 while I’d been fighting the mud elementals, making it the closest to the next rank.
Well before I could eke out that final level, however, our two weeks came to a close.
Frankly, I’d expected Verin to pull us into some sort of strategy meeting by now, but it seemed that she was more than content to defer any tough decisions for now. Especially in the wake of all the mud we’d endured, I often caught her either heading to or returning from the baths I’d built, and I imagined she was loath to leave them.
No, without Verin to herd us along, it was Cal who ended up cornering the two of us. Considerably more startling than the speaker were the words themselves, however.
“So, just a thought here.” Grabbing the two of us by opposite shoulders, she squeezed me and Verin together, eliciting an icy glare from the high noble. “But how would you two feel about clearing a region without me?”