3 Plingy

Seeing the reminder again, Arden realised that panicking in this situation would lead him to nothing but death. He calmed down his mind and nerves, collected his jumbled thoughts and took a deep breath.

'Ok, I have this screen having an appearance from one of those retro-games that I used to play, in front of me, which most likely, is a doing of that monster Jay.' Arden started analysing the events that had taken place since last night. After a minute he had all of his thoughts sorted.

Now, once he was clear about his situation, he had to cure the poisoning. Arden is a so-called Adventurer. Adventurers are soldiers of fortune. They would undertake any task as long as they are adequately compensated. One could either submit a job requesting for a specific adventurer or could post their job on Job Board, situated in every city, for any random adventurer who deemed the job suitable for him or her, to accept and complete it. This was a system developed by the government, to allow the lower ranks of society to earn a livelihood, since all the major sources of income were monopolized by the major house factions.

Arden had been an Adventurer for more than four years. He had been on numerous missions and has survived numerous near-death situations. He has also survived situations in which he was poisoned, but generally he had antidotes for the poison with him. The necessities he had brought on this job, were nowhere to be found, which made it completely obvious, that Jay, Rudolf and the other members, have taken his supplies with them.

Now only option was left. The 'Universal Antidote'. The Universal Antidote or the Bezoar stone, was a liquid which could nullify almost any poisons' effect. But there was one problem, this stone was found in the neck of a creature called Plingy.

Plingy are duck like creatures with brown coloured feathers and a black beak. They feed on poison, and the Bezoar stone found in their neck, contains the Bezoar liquid which is formed from all the poison they ingest. But instead of damaging, they are used as antidotes for various types of poisons and hence is called the 'Universal Antidote'. They are found in swampy areas, making them even harder to spot, since they are already a very rare species to find.

'Hey, umm... screen, can you tell if their are any swamps nearby?' Arden asked hoping that he could find one Bezoar stone if lady luck was on his side.

Arden was delighted. The screen was actually very useful. It could search a wide area and would display the results. He might get through this alive.

*Ding*

Arden couldn't be more happier. There was a swamp area and it was only two miles away from where he currently was. If he dashed with his full speed, he could reach the swamp in estimatedly five minutes. Without a wasting a second more, Arden started dashing towards the swamp.

As Arden was moving towards the swamp, he was stepping and squashing some Dustcrawlers, without the intent of doing so.

By the time Arden reached the swamps, he had killed 11 Dustcrawlers, which resulted in leveling up.

<Congratulations! You have leveled up.>

All the fatigue and breathlessness that he was feeling from running, vanished, and he could feel energy surging through him. He was feeling stronger.

Arden had a lot of things to ask from the system, but those can be saved for later, since he only had two minutes left to find a Bezoar stone.

As Arden stepped into the muddy areas of the swamp, he sunk in the soil upto his knees. If he doesn't check his next step, he might get completely sinked into the mud.

"Quah!" A voice came, not far away from where Arden was. It was a Plingy!

Arden rushed towards the direction of sound, while grabbing a stone to kill the Plingy with. As he got closer to the sound, he could not help but spread a smile across his face, which, if seen by others, could creep them in their dreams.

"Quah! Quah! Quah!" Plingy cried as his leg was stuck under the sea of mud.

When Arden reached the scene and saw the trapped Plingy, he was ecstatic. He couldn't believe his luck. This situation was too convenient. Finding a Plingy was rare, but finding it trapped in mud was nearly impossible.

Without any hesitation, Arden attacked the helpless creature with a stone, knocking it dead in one hit.

Without reading the messages, Arden quickly ripped the Plingy's throat, and brought out the Bezoar stone. He easily snapped the stone and the liquid started gushing out. He drank the liquid rather hastily. He then waited for the screen to show a message.

<'Universal Antidote' ingested. Poison is neutralized.>

Upon reading the message, Arden heaved a huge breath of relief, as if he had won a war alone.

Few minutes passed and Arden had stepped out from the swamp, now heading towards the river to wash his mud-stained clothes.

'Now, it's time to know, what this screen is and what it can do, since it most likely can't be separated.' Arden thought with a serious looking face.

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