«Are you sure you want to do this?" Sarah asked in an uncertain voice. She was looking down at the crouching Neil, who held a chunk of moss in one hand and a still glowing yellow flower in the other.
"You told me that this made you stronger, right?" He asked in a firm voice, his eyes fixated on the plants in his hands.
Sarah nodded with a frown on her face, and her tail twitched around nervously. When Neil started his profession as a food tester, Sarah volunteered to try the unknown substances like moss first. And to her shock, it even managed to knock her out for a moment.
The poison in this plant and its flower was so potent that it overwhelmed her resistance. She was actually looking forward to seeing if this new plant gave her an upgrade in her abilities if she ate enough of it. But first, she had to deal with this blockhead.
"You know that I nearly died, right? Why risk your life that had been saved just a little while ago?" Sarah asked in a harsh tone and crossed her arms. Melissa stepped beside her but didn’t say anything.
"That is the problem." Neil told her with a gentle smile and firm eyes. "I had to be saved. I am too weak. I don’t want to imagine what Denise might have done to me if I had been in her control much longer."
Before Sarah could interject, he held up his hand and spoke again. "Your concerns are valid, for sure. But we sit in a conflict dungeon and have to kill enemies. I don’t want to be pushed around by forces I can’t control anymore. I want to have power of my own. And this here," he said, lifting up the plants for Sarah and Melissa to see. "This is the fastest way to do it. Or rather, the only way that is known to us." With these last words, he gave them a crooked smile and gingerly bit into the moss.
Sarah wanted to spring forward and slap it out of his hand, but Melissa held her back. "It is his decision, Sarah. And I understand him well. Honestly? I’d do it myself if I had free body specialization slots."
Sarah didn’t leave Neil out of her eyes, but she nodded. She felt a little guilty about even telling him, which eventually resulted in him torturing and maybe even killing himself. But as Melissa had said before, it was Neil’s own decision.
Even though he had only eaten a small part of the plant, it didn’t take long for him to spasm. While already twitching heavily, he still bit into the flower and swallowed it.
The screams didn’t take long to come. He screamed and coughed until blood came out. His body bent in impossible shapes until loud cracking and snapping sounds could be heard.
Melissa turned around and ran away while gagging. Sarah could hear her throwing up in the distance, but she stayed next to Neil.
"Push through, Neil." She told him in a quiet but hard voice. "Melissa didn’t heal you for nothing. Survive and pay her back."
She had no way of knowing if he had even heard her. But after some more time, the spasms and screams subsided, and he lay on the ground, motionless.
Melissa returned to her side, and Sarah felt a shaking hand slip into her own.
"Is he dead?" Melissa asked her with a quiet and trembling voice.
"Nope." Sarah answered and looked down at Neil with a smile on her face. "He’s only getting started."
Magic power condensed and spread out inside his body in violent waves and seemed to change something within him. Sarah had never seen the awakening of a specialization before, but she was sure that this was how it looked.
His distorted body started twitching and cracking again. But this time, his limps seemed to snap back into place.
"Looks like he got something good." Sarah spoke with a glow in her eyes, while Melissa turned her gaze away again.
It took a long time, but this state also stopped eventually, and Neil lay still again.
"He made it through." Sarah told Melissa and pressed her hand gently. "But his brain activity is pretty low. He’ll probably be down for a while. I’ll get more of that mushroom for you and maybe even progress the quest. We need to get out of here as fast as possible."
Melissa looked at her again and also pressed her hand. "You are right. But there is no going out of here if you are dead. Don’t overdo it."
Sarah smiled a little and flicked Melissa's forehead. "Don’t worry too much. I know how to take care of myself."
Melissa looked at her with narrowed eyes and rubbed her aching forehead. She even started to get a blue bump.
Without losing any time, Sarah turned around and sprinted away, ignoring the angry shouting from Melissa to stay still.
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Sarah smiled and sighed contently as she thought back to Melissa’s grumpy face. "This is the best."
When she got out of their hideout, though, another feeling started to expand in her body. Excitement. A raging, boiling excitement.
With a light spring in her steps, she ran over to the hole in the ground, where she had descended the last time. This time, she took the descent a little more carefully, so she didn’t repeat the graceless fall from last time.
She let herself fall for the last part, and she landed with a heavy thump. This caused the surrounding snails to look over her for a moment before they resumed eating.
First, she sat down next to a snail, patted the shell, and started munching on the moss and flowers. The snail was seemingly irritated by the strange creature beside her but soon resumed eating alongside her.
"You know you are dessert, right?" Sarah asked the snail, which stopped for a moment to look at her. Their eyes met for a few seconds, and they both stood still.
And then they resumed eating.
After Sarah’s first experience with the poisonous and acidic moss, she passed out for a moment, but her poison resistance had started to adapt to it. But even though she was a little more resistant by now, it took a heavy toll on her.
"This stuff is swerrioulys…" She tried to say something, but it quickly became a jumbled mess. Her sight swam, and her body started to feel numb.
"Iss twhis the mowement two swop? Nwo iw iwn’t!" She shouted, still not able to talk properly, and stuffed her face with some more moss.
It didn’t take much more for her to pass out, and she dropped to the floor headfirst.
Not long after, she woke up because she felt something nibbling at her arm. She groggily turned her head, only to see that her dessert had decided to try and take a chunk out of her.
The snail froze when she looked it in the eyes and stayed still for a few moments. And then it started munching down on her again.
A smack and a poison injection later, Sarah walked down one of the tunnels while chewing on the blackened flesh of her dessert. The snail had somehow managed to have a betrayed look in its fist-like eyeballs.
But even the foul taste of this meal couldn’t dampen her mood. After a long time, her poison body skill received an upgrade.
"This is awesome!" She shouted, now fully capable of speaking again. The moss had seemingly not contained ordinary poison but something that affected the magic power in her body itself. She had no idea so far how magic power could be poisonous or what it exactly did to other beings. But thinking back to her experience with it, it probably affected her mind somehow.
"But there is only one way to find out." She mumbled with a fire in her eyes while tossing the empty shell away.
Cracking her hands and neck, she started sprinting forward in an excited manner before reminding herself to stay careful. There was no need to get herself killed.
When she reached the cave where she had fought the mutant, she felt five presences with her senses. They were all clustered together around the entrance, where she had left the corpse.
A wide grin split her face, and the mad fire in her eyes intensified. The rage, shame, and helplessness she had felt due to Denise flared up inside of her and snuffed out her last concerns. All these emotions had been suppressed so far, but they had smoldered and only became bigger over time. And now they had nearly erased all rational thinking.
Still grinning widely, she openly marched into the cave, her eyes locked on the five mutants without blinking. Somewhere in the back of her head, she registered that while they looked similar, they all seemed to have different specializations.
When the mutants noticed her, they started bellowing with crooked voices and fletching their teeth.
Not wanting to be left behind, Sarah roared back her defiance, accompanied by a disruptive mental wave. It made the mutants shudder in pain and fear.
Her roar switched seamlessly to laughter as she jumped forward. She grabbed the first mutant by the neck and simply twisted with all her might. The tough flesh and bones bent beneath her force, and the head nearly ripped off completely.
Afterwards, she jumped in the middle of the still-swaying mutants to inject everyone of them with a full dose of her beloved poison from her tail.
Snapped out of their daze by the sharp pain, they started lashing out at her. But being poisoned not only by physical but also magical poison, their movements were sluggish and unprecise.
Sarah’s battle-attuned brain lit up like a firework, and she surrendered to her instincts. Ripping out flesh here and breaking a leg there, she started butchering the mutants, who started to scream in fear and pain instead of anger.
Sarah still received injuries, though she barely noticed them. They were shallow and only further increased her fury and madness.
One of the smaller ones suddenly latched onto her back and bit into her right shoulder. With an angry roar, Sarah pulled the head away and bathed it in her acid breath. The mutant screamed in unimaginable pain as its eyes and lungs started to melt away.
Letting the dying one fall to the floor, Sarah looked at the last remaining mutant. It already wanted to run away, but Sarah sprang after it. She ripped it apart with gusto, its body an unidentifiable mess after only a short while.
When no enemy was left anymore, Sarah’s consciousness started to slowly come back. With a frown, she looked around at the mess she had created. Blood, gore, and limps were splattered across the floor and walls. And the corpses of the mutants didn’t reveal anymore what their bodies had looked like before.
Sarah looked down on her bloodied hands, chunks of flesh still stuck under her claws. Her hands were perfectly still. The scene and her actions made her somewhat nauseous. But at the same time, she felt free like never before. It had felt so incredibly good to just give in to the wild abandon that had overwhelmed her. She even felt a little refreshed.
She had always feared the part of the description about her slightly crazy skill. The thought of going nuts had always been a constant worry.
"But this is actually not that bad." She said while clenching her fists. The gore produced a slight quelching sound, and Sarah frantically started shaking her hands out.
"Ew, ew, ew!" She shouted while removing all the slimy flesh that stuck to her body.
Having finally removed everything, she shuddered. "I guess everything has its downsides." She mumbled while walking over to one of the mushrooms. First, she had to get Melissa and Neil some food to eat.
And afterwards, she could go wild.