Essence Pool
Approaching the side of the pool opposite where Lance and Turt entered was a stair case that led up to a platform on the edge of the 5ft tall metal pool that sat in the middle of the room. A dark green bio-luminescent liquid filled the entirety of the pool, that constantly bubbled and popped on the surface, which made it give of an extremely toxic look.
"So I don't think I'm letting Turt anywhere near that" Lance thought to himself immediately.
The platform was luckily big enough to fit all 3 of them and their pets but after climbing the short steps and looking down at the vicious substance, even Rein was beginning to have second thoughts regarding the supposed help it could bring their pets.
"Levi are you sure about this man, I didn't mind helping bring you here cause of the payment and all, but this stuff looks pretty dangerous" said Rein obviously distraught about putting his Venomspike Toad in such a harmful looking substance.
"Rein if you're scared to go as well, then me and Tem will test the waters first, I trust the word of my father, and I don't believe he would send me all the way here on a fools errand" responded Levi confidently.
Taking a step forward, Levi caressed the head of his Darkfang Viper as it slowly coiled itself up and around his arm. Lance could see Levi whispering to the snake softly but couldn't make out exactly what he was saying but shortly after Levi shot his hand out and the snake slid across his arm launching itself headfirst into the essence pool.
As the snakes body hit the seemingly alive liquid it created a small splash and its entire body was quickly submerged until a few seconds later when its head slightly shot above the dark green glowing liquid, it seemed to be in agony as it floated in the pool, slightly trembling with its eyes shut tightly. Its previous black and dull scales took on a green sheen as its trembling continuously increased.
"How long is this gonna take, your Darkfang Viper doesn't seem to be in the best of conditions" Lance asked questioningly?
"My father said that depending on the beasts affinity it could take anywhere from a couple of minutes to even an hour, the beast will leave on its own when it can't refine anymore essence, and the amount it can refine all depends on the beasts affinity to the element" replied Levi.
After roughly 10 minutes the Viper finally opened its eyes and the green gleam that covered its entire body concentrated down to just its jet black fangs, they briefly flashed a bright dark green color and as the light faded it swiftly swam to the edge of the pool and pulled itself out.
"See I said y'all could trust me, I suggest letting both of your beasts have a go at it, Tem's skill Reinforce Fangs was upgraded to a rare skill Steel-Poison Fangs, and now it can coat them in poison along with reinforcing them" said Levi while caressing the Darkfang Vipers head.
"I guess I should give it a try then, if your Viper can refine the toxic essence then my Venomspike Toad should easily be able to, especially given its primary element of poison" responded Rein with a renewed vigor of confidence.
"I think I'll let Turt decide for himself, he can test the waters and if he wants to submerge fully then I'll allow him" replied Lance shortly after.
Immediately after, Lance saw Rein huddle up next to his Venomspike Toad and begin whispering into its ear what he could only assume were encouragements. Turning towards Turt, Lance bent down to pick the little guy up and walked closer to the essence pool's edge. As Lance gradually got closer, Turt didn't have any reaction to the pool whatsoever.
Realizing this Lance set Turt down in front of the edge of the pool and asked him "Turt would you like to go for a swim, it'll hurt but it'll also help you grow stronger", hearing the word "stronger" Turt began paying attention, it was still annoyed about getting beat up earlier and wanted to become stronger so it could fight back next time an impress it's master.
Through the covenant between Lance and Turt, Lance could feel Turts desire for strength, realizing this Lance spoke to him again, "If you want to become stronger, you have to go in the pool and resist the pain".
Turt seemed to understand as it focused its gaze on the pool in front of it and walked right up to the edge an gazed down at the viciously bubbling pool below, Lance could also sense some confusion through the covenant between them but he wasn't surprised given Turt's intelligence stat of 2.
"Turt's intelligence isn't that high so I'm scared if I say anymore I'll confuse him more than he might already be" thought Lance, but suddenly an epiphany hit him, "Maybe my intelligence is a little low too, I could've used my analysis ability on the essence pool to make sure Levi's telling the truth this whole time, and that way I can feel a little more confident in letting Turt venture forward" Lance suddenly realized.
Quickly looking down at the essence pool, Lance imagined a text box appearing that described the liquid in front of him, unsurprisingly it worked almost instantly.
--------------------------------
[Toxic Essence Pool, Grade: Tier 1]
[A pool of condensed toxic elemental essence of Tier 1 quality, can prove beneficial to beasts with an affinity to the toxic element]
[Purity: 82%]
--------------------------------
"How did I forget about my whole cheat, I need to remember to use it more often, especially for analyzing, I can only assume the tier stuff is in reference to beast tiers which lines up with what Levi said earlier about it only being beneficial to Tier 1 beasts" thought Lance.
"Hmmmm, My upgrade system says it can prove beneficial to those with an affinity to the toxic element so I guess there is no harm in Turt giving it a try, I don't really understand what the purity percent stands for but I don't want to pass up on this opportunity and Turt doesn't want to either it seems" thought Lance while glancing at Turt who was leaning over the edge trying to sniff the dark green liquid.
Looking back over at Rein, Lance could see that his Venomspike Toad was taking the jump into the pool to begin refining essence so Lance turned back to Turt to only realize he had already jumped into the pool as well but unlike Levi's Darkfang Viper, Turt didn't seem to be in any pain and was swimming carefree in the vile dark green liquid.
The same could not be said for Rein's Venomspike Toad, who seemed to be going through the same process that Levi's Viper had to go through. Confused Lance looked over at Levi and asked him "How come Turt doesn't seem to be in any pain, is it because he doesn't have any affinity with the element?" while this may have been the case Lance didn't believe so because he could see the same dark green gleam on Turts shell that was previously on Levi's Viper and currently on Rein's Toad.
"Its definitely absorbing the essence, so maybe it's immune to pain, its not that rare of a trait for undead beasts to have you know, maybe you overlooked it" Levi said in quick response.
"I've only bought him from the Global Pet Nexus yesterday, and we're still getting antiquated, I must just not have realized he didn't have a sense of pain" replied Lance while deep in thought, "That would explain how he took all those fearsome blows without flinching before and how he stayed so calm afterwards, I guess it does make sense for an undead beast to not have a sense of pain, I can't believe I didn't realize sooner" Lance thought.
"You're in luck then Lance, Turt can absorb the essence without undergoing the painful trial of the toxin, I wonder what he will gain from the essence" Levi replied while examining his Darkfang Vipers fangs which had not only seemed to grow but also now had a dark green tint to them.
"I wonder what he can gain as well" Lance replied while distracted by the analysis box of the essence pool from before, it hadn't disappeared but instead had changed. The main differences were the purity percentage that was constantly dropping and the addition of more text at the bottom of the analysis box.
--------------------------------
[Toxic Essence Pool, Grade: Tier 1]
[A pool of condensed toxic elemental essence of a Tier 1 quality, can prove beneficial to beasts with an affinity to the toxic element]
[Purity: 76%]
[Manual Absorption and Refinement: Use system points to forcefully absorb the entirety of the essence and transfer it to a covenant or self safely (May take longer to absorb and refine due to a large presence of low quality essence), Cost 5 System Point]
--------------------------------
"That last bit of text definitely wasn't there before, but I wonder if the guys will notice if I buy it. If it actually absorbs the whole pool I doubt Rein's Venomspike Toad will be able to receive a breakthrough like Levi's so I might want to wait till he's done refining and then let Turt give it a try" Lance thought to himself.