Chapter 31- Poison Resistance

Talon looked at Acrypha with a weird expression. For a second, his mind didn't register what she said and had to ask.

"The poison… Drink it all." Acrypha repeated as she made a drinking gesture with her hand.

"You want me to drink the poison?"

"Yes. All of it, don't leave a single drop behind." Acrypha nodded her head.

"... Miss Acrypha, I don't know if you realize this or not but I will explain to you." Talon's face turned into an odd smile. "You see, I'm now poisoned, correct?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to die if I don't get an antidote, correct?"

"Yeah."

"So why the fuck would I drink the rest of the poison?!" Talon's face changed at the end as he yelled angrily.

"Because that's how you're going to get the antidote," Acrypha replied with a calm look on her face. "If you consume all the poison, your body will react to it and hopefully so does your skill Dimension Harvester. If everything goes well, you might get some kind of poison resistance to stop the poison."

"... Oh." When Tlaon heard her explanation, his anger dissipated and was replaced with realization. Acrypha's words did make sense when he thought about them. After all, the body naturally tries to fight back the poison and if it overcomes it, it builds a resistance toward that particular poison.

But, there was still very little problem with that.

"What are the chances that this would work?" Talon asked with a pale look on his face. 

He could feel the effects of the poison slowly appearing. His body was starting to feel cold and weak and he was sweating profusely.

"I would say you have a good 20% chance of surviving."

"20%..." Talon looked down with a frown. 20% wasn't high by any means. However, Acrypha hasn't finished speaking yet.

"If we don't include your skill that is. Dimension Harvester is very unique. With it, I would say you have a good 50% chance give or take." She said as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"Ah, 50%... Why does that somehow sound more stressful than the initial 20%?"

"Maybe because at first, you didn't have any high hopes that it would work. Now that you got a 50% chance, it's a different story."

"Haha, true." Laughing dryly, Talon looked at the stingers with a complicated expression. Their edge was still coated with his own blood and a very faint hint of purple color which he assumed was the poison.

His decision was already clear since he had no other choice. Either drink the poison and try his luck or die.

"Ok, fuck it. Let's do this." Exhaling a long breath, Talon turned to Hyun-Jae. "I'm going to drink the rest of the poison on those stingers."

"What?! Are you insane?!" The girl yelled instinctively when she heard him.

"I think I can acquire poison resistance if I do that. It's not the highest chance but it could work." He said.

"No, no, no. You don't even know what that poison is or how your body would react to consuming it. You could die."

"Is there another choice?" Talon asked. "The metro will take at least 30 minutes to reach the university. I could end up dead by that time. This is my best bet." He added with a serious look.

"... You… I…" Hyun-Jae wanted to retort but couldn't find any words to say. He was totally right on point and as much as she hated it, that was really their only option at that moment.

"This is such a reckless idea…" Sighing, Hyun-Jae grabbed one of the stingers and gave it to Talon.

"Thank you." Talon looked at the giant stinger silently.

It was black in color with a very sharp edge and a slick surface.

"Break it in half, the poison is inside," Acrypha said.

"Ok." Nodding his head, Talon grabbed the stinger with both arms before twisting it. Using some of his strength, the stinger quickly snapped.

Immediately, Talon saw the small socket inside the stinger that still had purple liquid inside of it. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Hyun-Jae and said.

"Here goes nothing."

*Gulp*

Without hesitation, Talon spilled all the content of the stinger inside his mouth. A very bitter, burning feeling assaulted his tongue.

"Mmmgh!" Groaning slightly, Talon forced himself to swallow the liquid. It was by far the worst thing he had drunk in his life.

"Blurgh!" When he finished, Talon started coughing loudly as he fought the urge to throw up. "That was horrible!!" 

Holding his chest, he signaled for Hyun-Jae to give him the next stinger. After that, he snapped it, took a deep breath, and quickly chugged it down. With that, one stinger after the other, he drank all the poison inside of them.

Each one he drank, the pain he was feeling was increasing. Before, only his muscles were aching and he had a strong fever. Now, his stomach was in extreme pain along with his entire chest.

"F-Fuck… This is really bad…" Holding his chest, Talon's body started swaying. His consciousness was slowly fading.

"Don't lose consciousness, Talon! If you do, you're done for! Fight it!" Acrypha beside him kept speaking at him loudly to keep his brain awake.

"I… Know…" He murmured are barely coherent reply.

"Talon…" Hyun-Jae noticed how he was about to fall and quickly approached him. Talon didn't even notice her as his body plopped forward only to be stopped when he made contact with her. Talon's head rested on her shoulder.

'He's boiling hot… And his body is shivering…' The girl felt the horrible state Talon was in and she could only inhale a deep breath.

Hyun-Jae's face was dark with worry but she still remained very calm since she trusted that Talon could handle this. Instead, she simply put her hand on the back of his head and gently massaged it.

In his hellish torture, the caresses he was feeling from Hyun-Jae were so pleasant that Talon's mind regained some awareness.

"T-Thank… You…" He murmured weakly.

"... Don't talk in your condition," Hyun-Jae replied.

As time slowly passed inside the cockpit, neither of them spoke as Talon simply put his whole focus into staying awake and resisting the pain.

Inside his body, the poison had already penetrated every cell and was wrecking him relentlessly. Talon was just one step away from death and all it took was for him to simply close his exhausted eyes.

The internal fight he had to go through at that moment was the hardest thing he had to ever deal with. It wasn't simply painful, but it was also psychologically taxing. 

'Just take a small nap, Talon. What's the worst that could happen? Resting is essential for recovery, no?' A side of his thoughts said.

'No! Don't listen to that! Acrypha warned you not to sleep! You have to resist!' Another side retorted and the two sides kept fighting each other.

'Fuck… Shut up both of you!!' Clenching his teeth, Talon tried to ignore his intrusive thoughts.

Time ticked slowly and Talon's fight was getting harder and harder. His eyes were now as heavy as boulders as they wanted to simply close. 

'No… I'm… Losing… Consciousness…' Talon realized the disaster that was about to happen.

At that moment, out of nowhere, a notification appeared.

[Host's body is injected with poison.]

[Ding!]

[Dimension Harvester is activated.]

[Ding!]

[New Passive Skill has been acquired: Poison Resistance (Level 1)]

[Poison Resistance (Level 1): Your body gains the ability to resist all types of poison to some degree. Ability doesn't apply to soul poisoning or mental parasites. Levels up faster the more poison the host is exposed to.]

When that notification appeared, Talon's eyes parted slightly. He could feel it almost instantaneously. The hellish pain started decreasing out of nowhere in a slow manner.

[Ding!]

[Body is affected with poison.]

[Skill 'Poison Resistance' is improving.]

[Ding!]

[Body is affected with poison.]

[Skill 'Poison Resistance' is improving.]

[Ding!]

[Skill 'Poison Resistance' leveled up.]

[Ding!]

[Body is affected with poison.]

[Skill 'Poison Resistance' is improving.]

A series of new notifications started appearing one after the other in a quick manner and with each one, Talon's pain was easing up and the urge to fall unconscious was starting to weaken.

'Yes… I'm saved!! Yes!!!' He yelled in his head happily.

His body was starting to resist the poison more effectively and even pushing it out of his system through the sweat and blood coming out of his back.

Acrypha noticed that first and exhaled a long sigh of relief.

'This bastard really scared me for a second.' She thought to herself as she smiled slightly.

"Talon?" Noticing the weird purple color covering Talon's skin starting to vanish slowly, Hyun-Jae called for him.

"I'm… alive… I got the skill…" He said with a faint yet happy voice.

"Yes! Oh god… You scared me there." Feeling all the tension in her body releasing, Hyun-Jae smiled in relief. At that moment, she felt very happy, way more than she expected. 

"Haha… I told you I'm not going to die…" He replied.

"Where did you get that confidence from?" 

"I'm a very lucky guy, what can I say?" He asked back.

Meanwhile, his skill kept improving as the poison was getting destroyed. It went from level 2 to level 3 and then reached level 4 before it finally halted after a while.

At that level, the poison was being destroyed very fast. All the purple spots were starting to disappear and Talon's pale face regained a little bit of color.

(A//N: Thanks for everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )