Chapter 12: Talent Evolution Fruit, S-Level Poison Antidote

[+20 to all stats, +10 skill points]

He immediately put his stat points in spirit, then read the next panel.

[Additional reward: Talent Evolution Fruit (Artifact)]

[Description: consume the talent evolution fruit to gain a single perk for your talent, the perk is random and will depend of the rating of your talent, meaning it could either be strong or weak!]

"…!" Alex's jaw almost dropped, he hadn't expected something like that, at least not so soon.

He had heard of the evolution fruit, but he had never even been close to the one, as getting one was already hard enough.

Just to put it into retrospective, these things went into the market for roughly 2000 gold coins, that's 20 million dollars.

"Alex?" Alice tilted her head, looking as adorable as ever before with her stunning figure and fox ears.

"…" but Alex was too busy imagining all the cool things he should do with his new artifact, because yes, this fruit was at the top of the item rankings chain, even above [Mythical] and [Divine]!

If he kept it around until the [Item Rankings] came out, then he would surely get jealous glances from everyone.

Alex wanted to instantly use it, but before that, he glanced at the corpse of the goblin king.

[Use 'Extract' on the king!]

There was no item list this time, it was simply asking him to use his skill on it for some reason.

"Extraction," Alex put his palm against the monster while mumbling the word, and his hand suddenly glew with intense energy.

Ding!

[You have extracted 'Crown of the Goblin King (Rare)'!]

He hadn't been given a choice, but at least he got something, and so he put it inside his backpack, deciding to check it out later;

After all, he currently had something much more important at hand.

[Consume the fruit to get a new perk for 'Extraction'!]

As soon as he approached the fruit to his mouth, Alex smelled a fragrance that felt refreshing.

Then he took a bite, and it melted in his mouth, it was sweet and delicious.

It tasted good! And here he was thinking that he would have to endure for power!

In a few mouthfuls, he finished the whole fruit.

Soon enough, the talent evolution fruit entered his stomach and turned into a warm current of aura and energy that flowsed through his entire body, causing his whole body to heat up.

Ding!

[After eating the talent evolution fruit, you have gained a new perk for 'Extraction'!]

Ding! Ding! Ding!

"Alex?" Alice was actually quite surprised, seeing his body light up with energy all of a sudden, and the smile on his face growing wider.

[Talent Effect #3: Potential Extraction; once every in-game 24 hours (meaning 12 hours in real life and 24 hours in the game), you will be able to use extraction on an item to extract its full potential and enhance it; this only works on items for now, so trying it on anything else will fail the extraction and spend the talent effect for the day.]

"Holy…" wasn't this overpowered?

He didn't really understand THAT much, but if it could only be used once every 24 hours, then it meant it would be OP, right?!

To be honest, Alex immediately wanted to use it on his [Horned Staff] to test it out, but he stopped himself as he knew that what was coming will be way better.

And thus, he finally completed everything he needed.

Or so he thought, because the moment he took another step, the heat that had been burning him tripled in power.

"…!" Alex fell to his knees, his head and crotch burning for some reason.

[Talent Evolution Fruit side-effect: intense desires, not taking care of your urges may cause reduced attributes, and if prolonged may even lead to death.]

"What… the?" he was panting on the ground, and Alice immediately went to check on him.

"Alex?" she shouted as the boy looked at the ground, using every ounce of willpower he had to not do something reckless.

"Alice… I may have some bad news…"

Alice titled her head in confusion, but before Alex could even explain, the very same side-effect panel appeared in front of her.

"…" her face turned completely red as she read it several times, wanting to make sure, "I… huh…"

She didn't know what to say.

On one hand, Alex had saved her several times, and thanks to her the 'thrill' she felt when fighting had increased, and it wasn't that she hated the idea of giving him her first time.

But… is it even possible inside a game?

If even the panel says it, then it means it must be possible though.

"D-Don't worry… I'm fine…" Alex got up, his face flushed and his breath heavy as he brandished his staff, "I'll just… go back to the village, the alchemist must have a cure…"

"What if he doesn't?"

"Well… I guess I'll do what I need to do," he diverted his eyes, and she understood.

But for some reason, Alice didn't like that idea, and so she approached him.

Her face was flushed, and her eyes unfocused as all she could see was fog.

...

A few hours passed afterward and...

[Party member 'PillowStar' has been knocked out!]

'Damn,' Alex retrieved his senses, actually, he did since a while, 'Didn't mean to go this hard…'

He began carrying the girl in a piggy back position, then headed toward the very end of the goblin area.

On top of the goblin king's throne was now a potion, glowing with a beautiful aura.

[S-Level Poison Antidote!]

[Drink it to clear ANY sort of poison from your body!]

This was an extremely precious item, and Alex took it in one of his hands, impossible for him to put it inside any of his backpacks since they could only store up to 'Rare' items.

Yet again, Alex was massively tempted to use his third perk on his backpacks to see what 'extracting the full potential of an item' meant, but he stopped himself, deciding that carrying the potion was smarter since he wouldn't have it for a long time anyway.

[Do you wish to leave the secret goblin area?]

"Yes."

And so he was teleported away.