Chapter 757: Venomous Snake (1)
'Grrk.......'
The intense poison energy tried to melt my entire body.
Inside that powerful poison, which would already have turned anyone other than me into a handful of blood, I instinctively realized it.
'I cannot endure this.......'
It was on a different level from the poisons I had faced until now.
This was not a poison I could overcome by simply thinking I would endure.
Only then could I clearly feel it.
Every martial artist of Cheonsan Martial Hall I had met until now had been in a weakened state compared to their prime.
But the one who had created this poison was different.
Among all the martial artists of the martial hall.
The only person who had maintained most of her prime strength.
Since even her reduced physical abilities would have been supplemented by the Legion’s equipment.
'The power this enemy is showing right now.'
Was the closest thing to the original power the martial hall’s disciples possessed.
'In that case!'
Enduring this poison was impossible.
I humbly acknowledged that fact and used another method.
[Elemental Cooking]
[Course Meal - Air]
FWAAAAASH!!!
I changed the surrounding air into cooking, turning the state of the atmosphere into a vacuum.
The air, which had instantly changed into a vacuum state, exploded, and a tremendous wind raged through the area.
'Done!'
The poison energy that had filled the inside of the building.
That poison energy was instantly pushed back by the explosion brought about by [Elemental Cooking].
And.
“There you were.”
“.......”
Beyond the mist that had been pushed away like that.
I saw the snake-eyed woman standing deep inside the mansion.
FWIP!
I rushed toward that woman at tremendous speed.
From what I had felt during our previous fight, that woman was not skilled in close combat.
As long as I got close, it was my victory.
Ssssss.......
The scattered mist gathered again and hid her body.
But.
Seeing that, I once again gathered mana in my hand.
In the end, that mist was poison in a vaporized state, thinly spread through the air.
FWAAAAASH!
If I used [Air] cooking.
Pushing it away would be easy.......
{How foolish.}
That was what I thought.
But it seemed I was not the only one who knew that was easy.
{Did you think escaping the serpent’s domain would be so simple?}
The moment I detonated [Elemental Cooking].
A voice rang out at the same time.
And.
FSSSSSHK!
From every direction.
A tremendous number of thin needles rushed toward me.
'.......'
An attack rushing in from all directions at once.
As someone who was not a combat class, I had no skill capable of blocking attacks pouring in from every direction simultaneously.
The only thing close was [Elemental Cooking].
If it was an air explosion created by combining several elemental dishes, it might have been possible to blow away those flying needles.
'......Was this what she was aiming for!?'
Right now, I had already used [Elemental Cooking].
I could not use two elemental dishes at the same time.
[Assistant Chef]
Then.
Cooking tools urgently sprang out from my shadow.
RATATATATANG!!!
Iron plates appeared at tremendous speed and protected my body.
The thin needles poured in from every direction in overwhelming numbers, but each individual needle was not that powerful.
Most of the needles were blocked by the cooking tools and bounced off.
Pshk, pshk.
Even so.
I could not block the few flying needles that slipped through the gaps between those tools.
'Still, it is fine.'
I was not an idiot either.
I knew I could not perfectly block every direction with [Assistant Chef] alone.
That was why.
'Every place pierced is my military uniform.'
The places I blocked with [Assistant Chef] were the places where bare skin was exposed.
The places I failed to block were all areas protected by my military uniform.
It was a military uniform specially crafted to handle all kinds of situations.
Even if it was liquid poison.
There was no way it could pierce this military uniform and reach my skin.......
“Cough.......”
Or so it should have been.
{If it were merely a matter of making powerful poison, there would be no need for the words “excellent poison master.”}
Groaning from the surging pain.
I spat out rotten blood that surged backward through my stomach.
{The true charm of poison arts does not lie in simply creating powerful poison.}
As I staggered in pain.
A voice came from the other side.
***
{If it is merely powerful poison, then for those wary of poison, avoiding it is all they need to do. For an expert of your level, benefactor, whether poison is mixed into food or poison needles are launched at you, you would avoid that poison in some way or another.}
“Yeah.”
{That is why the true skill of poison arts is determined not by poison-making, the creation of poison, but by how that created poison is injected...... by poisoning technique.}
“Ho, w.......”
I had blocked all the poison needles.
And yet.
How had she made poison infiltrate me?
{Corpse-Touch Vaporizing Powder. It exists as a liquid in a vacuum, but the moment it is exposed to air, it vaporizes.}
“.......”
{When carried on flying needles or weapons and swung, opponents think they have blocked it simply by deflecting them...... but at that point, the poison has already vaporized and begun infiltrating the target. Is that not truly amusing?}
It was not amusing at all.
The needle itself had been blocked by my military uniform.
But the poison coating it had vaporized in an instant and infiltrated me.
'Still, the amount of poison that infiltrated me is not large.'
Once I realized that fact.
I closed my eyes and focused on the mana throughout my entire body.
FWAAAAASH!!!
A massive amount of mana moved.
And instantly pushed out the poison energy that had infiltrated my body.
{As expected of you, benefactor. The amount of internal energy you possess is tremendous as well.}
“Thanks for the compliment!”
FWIP!
I launched myself once more toward the direction the voice had come from.
The inside of the building was not that wide.
That meant there were not many places for her to run.
After driving out the poison energy with mana, I immediately threw myself toward her.
{......However, benefactor.}
At that moment.
I felt a strange sense of wrongness.
{Do you know why I am deliberately speaking to you like this?}
Right.
She was deliberately speaking to me.
This building was narrow, with nowhere to run, so if she were truly a poison master, she should have been hiding here instead.
Yet she was making her own voice heard and revealing her location herself.
'A trap?'
Maybe.
Maybe running toward that location itself was dangerous.......
That was what I thought.
{The pleasure of poison-making does not lie in simply creating one powerful poison.}
But at the voice that followed.
I realized the reason was not as simple as I had thought.
{Combining several poisons and turning them into a poison with an entirely different effect...... that joy of creation is the true flavor of poison-making.}
Combining several poisons.
And turning them into a poison with an entirely different effect.
{The purple mist is Seven-Step Poison Soul Sand. It is known as a poison that kills within seven steps. The green mist is Soul-Destruction Powder. A poison said to drive anyone who touches even a little of it into madness and death. What was coating the flying needles is Corpse-Touch Vaporizing Powder. Just as it itself changes from liquid to gas in an instant, it melts those it touches in an instant. Each one is a supreme extreme poison...... but as expected, they do not work on you, benefactor. However.}
At that moment.
The mana that had been trying to drive out the poison inside my body.
{What do you suppose happens if those extreme poisons are combined?}
“Keugh.......”
Twisted in an instant.
The mana circuits throughout my entire body tangled, knotted, and pain surged as if they were about to snap.
{It seems you possess special blood vessels and a mana core. Not those of a human, but of some other, more powerful race.}
“What...... is this.”
{Thanks to that, I have finally succeeded in combining the poisons.}
“Com, bining.......”
The three types of poison she had mentioned.
Those poisons had already entered my body.
My physical abilities could somehow overcome poison of that level.
But.
{It is sound arts. The vibrations of air transmitted through the voice...... through those vibrations, I mix the poisons that have infiltrated the opponent’s body from within.}
“What kind of insane.......”
By speaking to me.
She transmitted those minute vibrations of air to me.
And through those vibrations, she combined the poisons that had seeped into my body.
{In truth, I had intended to manufacture a stronger poison...... but your body is a little special, benefactor. Because of that, there was a limit to the poison I could manufacture.}
The powerful body Luca had made for me.
The blood vessels and mana holes extracted from powerful monsters that could not even be compared to humans.
Because those two things interfered with the poison manufacturing through sound, I was able to avoid the poison suddenly manufactured inside my body melting me in an instant.
But.
That did not mean the poison created now was not hideous.
{Lost-Soul Ghost Valley Mana-Scattering Poison.}
Seven-Step Poison Soul Sand, Soul-Destruction Powder, Corpse-Touch Vaporizing Powder.
A poison created by combining those three through the proper method.
As for what its effect was...... I could understand it painfully even without her explaining it.
{You must have thought your own internal energy would always be on your side.}
The mana flowing inside my body.
That mana was escaping my control.
{Poison disrupts the nerves and ruins the functions of the body. Even internal energy is not exempt from those bodily functions.}
“Ghk.......”
{If it were an ordinary mana-scattering poison that simply dispersed internal energy, it would not work on you, benefactor. But Lost-Soul Ghost Valley Powder is different.}
A valley where ghosts dwell.
Ghosts turn a person’s soul inside out.
{Your body judges your internal energy to be hostile energy.}
Crack, crack.
My bodily functions moved to attack the hostile energy inside my body.
{And your internal energy will judge that body as an enemy.}
The mighty mana that flowed throughout my body.
Began to rampage as if it would tear apart the flesh suppressing it.
A poison that contacted the circuits of the nervous system, which governed various bodily activities.
And twisted the direction of those circuits ever so slightly.
It was a poison that made bodily functions, which should originally operate as one, judge one another as enemies.
'This is a poison that becomes more effective the stronger the target’s physical abilities are.'
The problem was only that I lacked skills.
My physical abilities were something I had been confident no one could compare to, even among all the other Legion members.
But.
Once those physical abilities began treating one another as enemies and fighting.
Even I, their owner, found it difficult to stop that rampage.
'......Damn it.'
I had no choice but to admit it.
With my current physical abilities, I could not respond to that woman’s poison.
In that case.
“I wanted to save this if possible.......”
I clenched my teeth.
And took one dish out from my shadow.
[Combat Ration of Mighty Mana Infused with the Demigod-Class Chef’s Care]
[You have consumed cooking!]
What I consumed was cooking.
The effect of that cooking was strengthening mana.
[Due to the effect of the cooking, your control over mana is strengthened!]
[The mana interference of Lost-Soul Ghost Valley Mana-Scattering Poison is removed!]
Being affected by poison ultimately meant I had not been strong enough to overcome that poison.
In that case.
It was a problem that could be solved by possessing sufficiently strong mana and control.
{It should be a poison that cannot be removed by one’s own will, so how!?}
My class was chef.
No matter how outstanding a poison master that woman, Sarin, might be.
My level as a chef surpassed her poison arts.
If I used the power of cooking, most problems could be solved.
The problem was.
'......To think I would consume a second dish here.'
Not the limits of my cooking.
But the limits of my physical abilities.
[Active cooking effects - 2]
There was a limit to the amount of cooking I could consume at once.
A dish to raise my resistance to poison, and a dish to strengthen my control over mana.
I had already eaten two.
The amount of cooking I could consume without putting a heavy burden on my body was up to three dishes.
If I had plenty of time, I could have waited for the cooking effects to end and then consumed the next dish.
But.
I had a feeling that Mirinae’s situation did not allow that much leeway.
'One left.'
In the end, there was only one more problem I could solve with cooking.
Within that one dish.
I had to deal with this poison master.
FWIP!
As the mana inside my body moved with powerful force and scattered the poison energy.
I immediately threw myself toward her.
Saaaaa.......
At that moment.
I felt the gaze of the “serpent” again.
At the illusion of poisonous fangs aiming for the nape of my neck, I swung my knife in shock.
Slice—
What was cut was a thread.
A thread so thin it had been hidden inside the mist and could not be seen.
'If it touched me, it would have been over.'
That thread, too, was surely coated with another kind of extreme poison.
And.
{Did you think this would end with just that?}
As if it were only natural.
The thread being cut was not the end.
FSSSHK!
The thread itself was a weapon that contained poison, and at the same time, a device that activated another mechanism.
The moment the thread was cut, daggers flew in from every direction.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!!
I swung my knife and [Assistant Chef] to strike down those daggers.
Fwoosh.......
But the poison bottles tied to those daggers broke, creating a cloud of poison.
I pushed that cloud away with [Elemental Cooking].
But targeting the opening that created, sharp flying needles shot up from the floor.
When I had heard Sarin’s warning, I had not understood it.
Now I felt like I understood.
'This place is already the serpent’s territory.'
A death ground where I had to be prepared for countless threats with every single step.
I was prey that had personally stepped into her hunting ground.
CLANG!
Fwaak.
The truly maddening part was.
I was clearly knocking away every one of her attacks without injury.
The poisonous mist that kept strangely surging up also clearly was not touching my body.
Despite that.
'The poison is accumulating......!'
With every step I took.
I could feel the amount of poison accumulated in my body gradually increasing.
It was not merely beyond my expectations.
It went beyond what I could understand.
Even though I was clearly being poisoned, even after it happened, the poisoning technique was so stealthy and perfect that I could not tell how I had been hit.
'Does blocking these attacks make the poison build up? Should I not block the attacks......? No. Maybe she is aiming for me to think that and stop blocking.......'
Even the attacks I was deflecting right now felt like groundwork for poisoning methods that exceeded my understanding.
And the thought that all of this was groundwork also made me wonder if she had intended for me to think that in order to inject an even more important poison.
Suspicion and doubt continued biting each other’s tails inside my head.
'The strongest poison she has injected into me is not that mana-scattering poison that dispersed my mana.'
Suddenly, I noticed one fact.
'This suspicion!'
Suspicion that slowed my judgment and caused misjudgment.
This thing planted not in my body, but in my psychology.
Was the deadliest poison she had injected into me.
{You must be starting to feel your limit by now.}
“.......”
{Go back. If it is now, you can still recover with an antidote. I do not wish to harm you either, benefactor, so if you withdraw even now, you will be able to preserve your life.}
I closed my eyes for a moment and sank into thought.
No matter what I thought here, no matter what I suspected.
'Everything, including those words, is Sarin’s scheme.'
It was a scheme where actions born from that very suspicion would only draw out another poisoning method.
In that case...... there was.
Exactly one thing I could do.
'Throw away reason.'
In the end.
Because I was trying to make rational judgments, I was being led by Sarin.
With judgments at the level of common sense, I would only be made to dance on the board she had prepared.
'Leave it to my senses.'
With that thought.
I slightly stuck out my tongue.
[Taste Bud Enhancement]
The sensation felt on the tip of my tongue.
Feeling only that sensation.
FWIP!
I launched myself forward once again.