Chapter 131: Only worse from now on

I was shaking and wobbling with the tension of holding even so little of myself together. Was it better or worse that my body was so liquid? If it wasn't, I would've been still lying like a log, but maybe my bones would've been a better support for my hand.

Another second, and another. My will was resolute, but my body was at its limits. I felt the lack of oxygen in it like a burning pain. There was nothing else left in the world but myself, the effort of holding myself up, and the mantichora.

Then, like under a fresh breeze, I felt sensation returning to my extremities. Immediately, I gathered the puddle that I was back into a solid body and drew a deep breath.

The startled mantichora chose that moment to shoot another venomous barb at me. This time, I was ready, and so were my claws. I batted it aside with a volley of wind blades and jumped up. The second volley hit the mantichora in the head. Wounded, it was too slow to avoid it, even if it saw it coming.

The beast dropped into the snow, dead. I kept doing slow breaths until the rest of the numbness and the burning left my body. Then, I reached inside of me with a thought.

'Pest, did you finish the spell?'

'Yep, I did.'

'How long will it work, and how well?'

'It will hold for an hour or so, and then I will have to recast it…' When I frowned to myself, Pest hurriedly added, 'I can't just hold it up, it needs to drop the overcharge. You aren't supposed to keep that spell up for so long in the first place! It's just a temporary measure so people could find an antidote. But while it works, the venom won't be a problem for you. That venom, not any new ones.'

'Then, is there an antidote for a mantichora's venom?'

'Uh… Not that I know of, though, there's another spell that neutralises poisons, but it's much more complicated one and even if I could physically cast it, I wouldn't know how to use it on you, Master. You aren't like any monster, or a human.'

Pest sounded genuinely distraught, though whether it was because I could die from poison taking Pest with me, or because I could punish him for being not as useful as I'd like, was a question.

'This neutralising poisons spell—do adventurers have an analogue to it?'

'Yes, but it only works on humans. Adventurer's spells are just rigid fast templates! They have a spell that neutralises poisons, too, and it also only works on humans!'

'Then… is there a chance that the venom would metabolise on its own with time?'

'No. I'm suppressing it, so the venom is in a stasis of a sort. I can release it all at once or suppress it all at once. Hmm… but if this keeps on for long, it might get weaker with all the recasting of the spell I will have to do.'

I walked up to the mantichora's carcass and summarised my options. Pest could only suppress poisons, spells that adventurers have were designed for humans alone, and I was in deep trouble again.

I had to evolve resistance to poisons. If I was lucky, the mantichora had it. If I wasn't, I had to find something that was. My experience taught me that in nature, everything had their counter. If there was a monster that hunted with venom, there would be a monster that hunted that monster and was impervious to toxins.

Just like in the caves under the mountain, where for every spider with a steel carapace, there was a monster who would crush that carapace like a tin can. Too bad that these spiders didn't even use venom as their main attack, and there were no poison resistant monsters where I hunted below…

A monster worse than a mantichora. Well, if not for its lucky shot in the beginning, I wouldn't have ended up poisoned at all!

There was also a possibility that the venom will dissolve in my organism on its own with time, but it wasn't something I was going to plan for. If it would active in my body for two minutes every hour, it will be a long, long time before it dissolved.

'Then keep suppressing the poison for as long as you can, then recast the spell, and keep doing that. Warn me a few minutes before you will have to drop the spell, though.'

'Got it.'

After ordering this, I ate the mantichora. It gave me less EXP than I hoped for, but still two solid millions. What was much worse was that it didn't have poison resistances. I checked my long and winded and full of useless abilities evolution list, just to be sure, and found no poison resistances there.

Hell, if there were, I probably would've bought the ability long ago.

Feeling pretty down, I flapped my wings and began to scout the surroundings. It wasn't long before Pest warned me he would have to recast the spell soon, and I landed to hide for the time my body won't listen to me.

I hoped that when the spell falls, the poison will start its work from the start, but I was very wrong. When it began to work again, it was just as bad as when it ended. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't even look around. I was absolutely helpless, just a puddle of slime under a rock, and each second brought me close to my death.

Then, my body was my own again, and the symptoms of the venom were gone as if they were never there. Now I knew that it could be only worse next time, and I would have to go through it every hour.

I could forget about lengthy evolutions, then. My body won't withstand evolving and poison at the same time. When—if—I find the poison resistance ability, I would have to evolve it level by level.

So much fun waited for me…