321 Astonishing drink

So far, the difference between the taste of the alcohol wasn't that great, as far as someone who only tasted it a few times in my previous life could say. While the flavour was on an absolutely different scale in favour of this world, the overall feeling induced by it was more or less the same.

As I thought about it back when I first tasted wine all the way back in my family mansion through the times when we enjoyed ourselves with Eve, I made an educated guess that I could only attribute it to the fact that with all-present energy that nourished everything, all the products that contributed to the final taste of the drink were simply healthier and tastier than their earthly counterparts.

On the other hand, tasting this new, tea-like drink didn't induce any familiar feeling in me.

At first, as I flushed the liquid around my mouth, I felt a slight numbness seeping into the pores of my face, with my muscles relaxing slightly almost in an instant. Contrary to that, my tongue which was exposed to the drug inside the drink in the most direct way, went from being numb, through all the phases of coldness forming from the slight paralysis all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum, making it feel like it was roasting over the fire!

To bring the scale of the things even further, when I slowly lost the feeling of my tongue, it suddenly all returned, far more receptive than it used to, to the point where I could feel the gusts of wind soothing its surface as it moved around inside my jaw!

Enjoying this ride of different experiences, I closed my eyes and turned my face as if I wanted to gaze at the stars despite the upper part of the tent blocking my view just as much as closed eyelids.

Allowing the liquid to flow down my straightened throat induced a funny feeling of both coldness and warmth fighting over for the dominance on my entire neck, before it was my mind's turn to enjoy the effects of the intoxication!

"Blop!"

"Detected Poison!"

"High resistance attribute allows the host to cancel its effects at any time."

With its emotionless and informative tone, the automatic part of the system explained the situation to me, as my head started to turn lighter and lighter.

Just the fact that it only took a single sip of the liquid to get me going like that proved the worth of this drug, whatever it was!

But little did I know, that the fun was only beginning!

Just a mere moment after I thought I was starting to get accustomed to the feeling, with the idea of cleaning my organism from the drug in order to keep my appearances as a worldly traveller, a wave of unease swept through me.

At first, I was unable to locate the source of this feeling, with my body alarms going off like a bunch of crazy dogs finally seeing the chance to catch the postman up. But no matter how hard my instincts were urging me to prepare myself for the battle, I was actually unable to muster any strength!

Contrary to that, no matter how hard I tried to pull on the energy to drive it through my body in order to collect the bits of entropy constantly poisoning my mana, I realised that instead of entering the flow, not only was my own energy only seeping deeper into my body, nourishing it, but the world's energy was following the example as well!

Realising that the source of my unease came from the unnatural behaviour of the energy and a strange way it reacted with my body, instead of cleansing my body right away, I observed the changes with curious smile inadvertently surfacing on my lips.

There was strangely addictive with how the energy was accommodating inside my cells, slowly reinforcing my body to some unbelievable degree. While I still maintained my head clear enough to watch over the entire process as to obtain enough information to potentially revert the process if it turned out to be harmful, I would lie if I were to claim I didn't enjoy it!

"This drink… Is really great. Fancy telling me how do you obtain it?"

After taking a long moment to savour the feeling for as long as it lasted, I returned to reality, with the calmness of my consciousness suddenly shattered by the returning avalanche of feelings and thoughts.

Looking back, I think I was wrong with how I classified this drink in the first place.

Instead of being a drug, it was more like a herbal and calming tea brought to the absolute pinnacle, with the liquor-like part serving only as the initial entertainment easing the entry into the proper state of calmness and tranquillity!

"Ah, while the idea is common, we are making it from the heart-piercing berry. From what I heard from the Overlord, various tribes used to farm different fruits for the sake of making the tonic, but it turned out that this berry had the best effects. If not for the fact that its price turned out to be rather steep, our strength might even rival yours!"

Oho? So it was in fact a cultivation resource for them as well instead of being just a fun drink?

This not only allowed me to peer deeper into the reality of their approach of garnering the energy inside their bodies, but also gave me some clues for how this Overlord even came to power!

There was no way someone would just appear out of nowhere, with ridiculous talent and an incredible plant capable of inducing growth of the entire tribes! While I already had an idea in mind that could allow me to unveil the reason in which he came to power, I had to confirm it first, before his attention would be attracted to me.

It was obvious that if this Overlord had more knowledge about the world than your usual tribesmen when he will find out that I'm trying to peer into the secrets that might be the source of his power, he would most certainly find the way to either get rid of me or at least, silence all the sources I could use to unveil the truth!

"Do you think you could show me how do you make this tonic?"