Lilan nodded. “Of course, such a thing is basic knowledge.”

Kai held the bowl he had used earlier. “Well, this thing doesn’t have high heat resistance. So we would have to look for a type of nut, preferably a tersannut.”

Sariel had no idea what a tersannut was, but it seemed it could function as a bowl.

Kai got up with a spring. “They are extremely common anyway. I saw one on the ground when I was walking around. I’ll get it quickly!”

“Be safe,” Sariel said, looking at him.

“‘Be safe,’ yeah, yeah.” Kai mocked as he casually walked off.

Sariel was torn between being fond of Kai and feeling disdain for him. He wondered if he had been such an annoyance when he was younger. Perhaps he had an older sibling he’d irritated in the same way.

Lilan gathered dry leaves scattered around and piled them up. She then took two black stones from her bag and struck them together, creating sparks that ignited the leaves.

Sariel asked, curious. “Are you cold?”

Lilan shook her head. “No, not at all. This is to extract the poison from the plants.”

"Explain."

“Boil water, put the washed, peeled, and cut-up poison tubers in it. The poison dissolves into the water. Wait for it to cool down, then strain it out. Pretty simple.”

Lilan’s explanation made it sound easier than it probably was though.

Since Lilan and Kai were responsible for making the poison, Sariel had to formulate a plan to kill a silverback bear to obtain its saliva. He pondered whether using his dagger against such dangerous animals was suicidal. A weapon with more range, like a spear, would've been preferable. He had a strong feeling that Lilan knew how to make a spear, but it wasn’t complicated to figure out on his own.

He looked around for sturdy branches, broke them, and used his dagger to sharpen and straighten them as much as possible.

“I’m back! I brought stronger poisonous plants too.” Kai returned at a surprisingly fast pace.

Sariel had expected him to be gone longer, given he had mentioned seeing the tersannut around.

Kai carried a nut the size of Sariel’s head, with a rough, fibrous outer layer and a woody shell.

Kai gestured to Sariel’s dagger. Sariel picked it up and threw it to him. Kai caught it effortlessly, and bisecting the nut with ease.

The dagger was heavy, probably over thirty-five pounds, and using it had put some strain on Sariel’s muscles. Yet Kai wielded it with apparent ease. That didn't make much sense to Sariel.

Kai then revealed a black mass of vine-like material wrapped around the handle of the dagger, the dark appendages on his body.

Sariel asked, “You can lift stuff with your appendages?”

“Somewhat. The range is short though,” Kai explained. He handed the tersannut to his sister, its bottom half containing a juice-like liquid.

They placed the tersannut on top of the fire, steadying it in place. After that, they began cutting up the poison tubers and placing them in the tersannut.

They waited for hours for the poison to be extracted from the tubers. A dark brown liquid was gradually floating to the surface of the water. When they deemed it ready, they scooped it up with a leaf.

“Poison,” they said, presenting it to Sariel.

“Thanks,” he replied, taking the leaf.

It was time to go beast hunting.

As they wandered, Sariel spotted a patch of colorful flowers near a pond. They were the most beautiful flowers he had ever seen. He wondered if their mother would forgive him if he brought them back.

He moved to pick them, but as soon as the kids noticed they panicked.

Kai screamed in worry, “Don’t!”

Sariel stopped thinking the flowers must be poisonous—

Suddenly, the water beneath the flowers split apart, and a massive, aggressive fish, lunged at him.

He was shocked, but Kai fortunately pushed him away.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The fish realized it could no longer reach Sariel so it went back into the water. The flowers trembled slightly but glistened more brightly as if trying to lure him in again.

What just happened left Sariel utterly bewildered.

Kai got off Sariel after saving him from almost being bitten.

He pointed at the flowers. “Pretty, colorful flowers and animals mean danger!”

Sariel was still in disbelief. "Yeah, that was dumb of me. Your father must have taught you guys a lot,”

Lilan answered. “Yeah, but it’s kinda fun. Whenever we went with Dad, we learned a lot.”

"That's nice."

Sariel’s rotting arm throbbed with increasing pain. But it seemed a bit better than before.

They resumed their silverback hunting. One thing was clear: they were not easy to find.

Nearby, a giant frog with fur hopped near a huge flytrap plant.

Kai raised his hand to signal Sariel to stop. “Watch this.”

Sariel watched intently as the flytrap’s vines struck it with lightning speed, capturing the frog and forcing it into its 'mouth' in less than two seconds.

…Thankfully, Sariel hadn’t wandered close to one of those. This place was filled with deceptively dangerous threats.

The silverback hunting continued for a long time, but they finally found one. Or were alerted by one.

A thunderous roar shook the trees nearby. A silverback bear charged at Sariel at full speed, its nose twitching aggressively as it locked onto his scent.

“Run!” he ordered.

“We know!” Lilan and Kai responded, taking action.

They fled at full speed, but their pace was nothing compared to the bear’s.

Kai looked at Sariel, fear in his eyes

"Okay, run in a different direction from me! Quickly," Sariel shouted.

They nodded and followed his command, darting away in the opposite direction. The bear had eyes only for Sariel; it didn't even seem to notice the others fleeing.

He glanced back. The bear was just twelve meters away now, closing the distance by a meter with every passing second.

Run, run!

It was four meters away. Three meters.

Sariel deliberately steered himself toward the enormous flytraps. The plant shifted its attention to him, its vines shooting out in his direction. However, they quickly turned and ensnared the bear instead.

The bear roared and bit down on the vines, tearing them apart.

Keep fighting.

Sariel seized the opportunity and drove his spear into the bear's stomach.

"Groah!" the bear snarled.

Moments later, he stabbed the plant too. Sariel knew how creatures operated once they were capable of thinking. When faced with two prey, they would always choose the larger one if they believed they could overpower and consume it.

Why would it choose the 140-pound prey over an 800-pound one?

The bear struggled and died soon after Sariel's strike, and so did the plant.

Sariel stared at the tip of his spear. He had expect the poison to work well but not that good.

Sariel approached the bear and stabbed it a few more times to make sure it wasn't faking its death. It didn't move a muscle. Unless it was incredibly smart, it was probably dead.

He opened its mouth and collected its saliva in an empty potion vial that he thought Lilan had thrown away. Apparently, she had changed her mind and decided it might be useful.

If it had turned out to be a different breed of bear—maybe something ridiculous like a 'semi silverback'—he might to kill myself out of anger.

Before him, two large souls hovered near the ground, slowly rising.

That silverback I killed yesterday—I didn't take its damn soul!

He angrily grumbled.

Whatever. The pain he was in yesterday must have distracted him. He won't forget this time. Sariel consumed the bear's soul first. It was heavy! It felt like his upper stomach was stuffed to the brim.

Level 15

And with that, an incredible power surged within him. He felt much stronger—not twice as strong, but definitely stronger. He couldn't measure exactly how much, but if he could bench press 300 pounds before, he guessed he might handle 420-460 now. Of course, that was just a guess; he'd need to test it.

He grabbed the plant's soul next.

He felt like he couldn't absorb any more, but he forced it into his mouth, gagging in the process.

I need the power.

Of course, he could absorb it the normal way, but he felt like humiliating both animals by 'eating' their souls. It functioned the same as regular absorption so it was only a perception thing.

Something deep inside him twisted.

UGHHHHHH!

It hurt. It felt like something inside of him exploded.

Sariel tried to vomit, but the soul didn't go into his stomach, and whatever area it ended up in didn’t seem to have that function. The pain was unbearable, a living hell.

He fell to the ground, his face contorted in agony.

His head felt light... then everything went black.

When Sariel woke up, Lilan and Kai were looking at him, worried.

He sat up slowly. "Damn, you guys carried me, huh…" He realized he was back in the same area where they had made the poison.

He learned something: don't try eating an soul when you feel like you can't absorb any more.

Kai asked, "What the hell happened to you? You didn’t have a single scratch on you, yet you were on the ground having a seizure."

"I tried to absorb both of the souls from the flycatcher and the silverback," Sariel admitted.

They were shocked.

“This moron is supposed to protect us?” Kaoi muttered to his sister.

“Ki...” Sariel started, feeling a surge of irritation. Was he really about to tell a kid to kill himself? That was a bit too edgy, even for him. Maybe he had some anger issues he needed to resolve.

Lilan seemed concerned. “Uh… you can't absorb more souls than your body can handle. Just like you can die from drinking too much water or eating too much food in one sitting.” Her expression was almost pitying.

Well, great. It wasn't his fault he didn't know all the rules for absorbing souls.

"I learned my lesson." Sariel muttered.

They both smiled, finding it somewhat funny.

Lilan held up the vial of silverback saliva with her fingers.

“We need to introduce this into the body of a non-venomous animal. The animal's immune system will respond to the venom and create antibodies,” she explained, flipping through a small book. “Then the antibodies can be taken from the animal’s blood and used to create an antivenom that we can inject into your body.”

“How long would that take?” Sariel asked.

“About two days if we use a lavadzer, which has an incredibly fast immune response compared to other common animals.” She checked the book again. “It does.”

She continued flipping through the pages, making sure she was correct.

He was really putting his hope in a child.

But even if it had a 0.5% chance of working, it was better than nothing. Especially since his rotting arm would attract more predators.

It would be a shame to survive so much only to go out that way.

He looked Lilan in the eyes. "My life is in your hands, and I trust you."

Her eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously. "You can count on me."