NOVEL NEXT Chapter 192: Venom of Absolution
Wulf stepped out into the arena to face his next opponent. She was a Mage with a staff that looked more like a shepherd's hook, and wore iridescent robes that shimmered in the evening light. It was some sort of family heirloom, and from the way it made the Field tingle, it was probably arcane of some kind.
He was tempted to test it, but he couldn't afford to distract himself.
As he walked across the arena, he drank his resistance potion. He only had one, but it'd be enough.
Resistance Potion (Low-Gold Quality)
Enhances the user's poison resistance by 100% for the next ten minutes.
Ten minutes was enough for the fight. The crowd went deathly silent when they saw him drink the potion, but he'd refreshed himself on the rules, and he'd looked through the large academy rulebook last evening to be sure. There was no stipulation that he couldn't use items crafted by him.
Drinking a potion made by someone else was against the rules, but at their level, most alchemists' potions weren't going to sway the battle anyway. He'd made the potion himself, however, and the rules allowed that.
He tucked the vial back into his haversack, then buttoned it up and tugged his scissors off his back. "Let's make this quick."
The contestants had already been announced, but he missed his opponent's introduction. Hopefully, this wouldn't take too long—he hadn't even taken his golem out of the storage construct for this. Maybe it was a little cocky, considering his opponent was also a Low-Gold, but he didn't want to waste the effort or the mana, and he was getting tired of fixing his golem wherever it got damaged in a fight.
The horn sounded, and the fight began. The Mage jumped back, using a skill to lift herself up in the air, then launched a pillar of flame at him. At the same time, fire surged along the ground, snapping at his feet.
He stepped back, but the flames scalded his boots, blackening them. They were thick enough to block the ground from view from the general audience—and if Wulf hadn't been paying attention, he wouldn't have noticed a panel opening up in the ground right in front of him. Sand fell away, and he briefly caught a glimpse of a student's uniform.
Two small darts shot up and struck him in the gut. They had long needles at their tips, designed to pierce through a golem's outer shell, and Wulf could sense the poison within as a warning in the Field.
He could've dodged. Maybe he should've. But he widened his stance, locked eyes with the mage, and cast her a smile.
Then he plucked the darts out, and, before anyone in the audience could tell what had happened, dropped them in his haversack. "Thanks for that," he whispered, barely loud enough for the Mage to pick up on. "I wouldn't have been able to afford that ingredient on my own."
She scowled, then raised her staff up. Columns of flame rose from the floor, trying to singe Wulf's chin, but he scrambled out of the attack's range.
Panting, he cast his attention inward for a fraction of a second, assessing the effect of the poison. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, and even despite doubling his resistance, there was still a small area of destruction around the impact point. Like his flesh had simply died. It felt more numb than anything.
But his resistance held the poison in place, isolating it, and eventually, destroying it. There was no way it wasn't Orichalcum tier.
Wulf stepped back, widening his stance, then reached into his haversack and withdrew a small vial with a slowness potion. Triggering [Arm of the Alchemist], he drew it out of the vial, pulling it into a thin stream, then launched it toward the hovering Mage. A strand wrapped around her wrist, and he pulled her down, throwing her to the ground and sending her skidding across the sand.
With the poison contained and nullified, Wulf was safe to use [Slither] next. He activated the Skill, converting his doubled resistance to speed and strength, then launched himself after her.
He closed the distance in a blink, then pressed his hand down on her bare shoulder, holding her in place. "Surrender," he said.
The Mage's eyes widened. Her gaze flicked over to his wrist, where gauntlets of neon green pine needles had erupted across his flesh. The Spiritmark had come back after using a few Skills and consuming mana, and…
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Her veins were turning green. A sickly, infectious green spread away from Wulf's hands. In seconds, the Mage's eyes rolled back in her head, and white foam bubbled in the corner of her mouth.
Wulf jumped back, then immediately triggered [Poison Binder], targeting the Mage with intent. Immediately, the poison stopped spreading, then slowly, the green faded away, and she returned to normal—as normal as she could. She was still unconscious, but breathing.
Wulf stepped back, then veiled himself and willed the Spiritmark to fade away. It hesitated, but eventually, the glowing gauntlets disappeared back into his flesh. He'd have to be careful about what his hands were doing after using a Skill, because it seemed to make him poisonous.
Not that she hadn't deserved a taste of her own medicine, but there was no sense in letting the poison kill her.
When the crowd finally realized what had happened, they began cheering and hollering. Wulf scratched the back of his neck nervously, then stepped out of the arena.
~ ~ ~
After the fight, Wulf analyzed the poison he'd acquired. Sitting in his dorm, he set the darts down on his desk, then carefully cut them open with the tip of his scissors and poured a vibrant, neon orange liquid onto a steelglass plate. The darts hadn't used up all their poison, and they'd been aiming for overkill.
They'd been trying to kill him.
It churned and bubbled, threatening to eat through the glass, and every sense that he had—including his arcane senses—screamed out in warning. He shouldn't be going near this at all.
But he analyzed it with the Field anyway.
Venom of Absolution (Orichalcum Quality)
Venom extracted from Isilda, the Great Necromancer Queen, in the Pre-Field Ages. Contains powerful death aspects, and kills any living flesh it comes in contact with. This venom cannot be entirely used, only cancelled with resistance. It contains a shred of death Embodiment.
Wulf stared at his bracer, trying to decipher the message. Obviously, it was strong, but he didn't know what an Embodiment was, other than something the Orichalcum-tier Ascendants had. They'd mentioned it once before.
He pulled up his shirt, and stared at the patch of flesh it had managed to kill. It was a surface-level wound, and his enhanced durability was already healing and replacing the dead flesh, but that was because his poison resistance had been at the level of an Orichalcum poison—or venom, but resistance worked against both. If he hadn't resisted it and neutralized it, it would've killed him.
He lowered his shirt and rested his head in his hands. Terrence, Leo, and whoever these guys were…they were a lot stronger than he thought. Or they had better backing, if they could afford whatever that was. A venom from before the Field even existed? It was thousands of years old, and probably one of the most rare items in the world.
One of the Orichalcums was openly trying to kill him. Not just sabotage him, but assassinate him.
"We're really running out of time…" he whispered to himself.
~ ~ ~
The next morning, he fulfilled nearly ten potion requests from the crafting board in the Hangar Lounge, then added a request of his own: help prepare storage pendants.
Wulf, Kalee, Irmond, and Seith had finished a pile of nearly a thousand rings now, which were resting at the back of Wraith's hangar bay, out of sight and shrouded behind the Oronith's cloak. Dr. Blyke probably knew about them, but he hadn't said anything.
It wouldn't be enough. By Wulf's estimations and calculations (which Dr. Tallari had helped him with) there wouldn't be nearly enough room to fit the Academy's codex inside a combined construct still, and aside from space, the device had one extra property which they needed extra pendants for.
So Wulf was going to enlist the help of everyone from the lounge. They could finish it by the evening if they had all hands on deck.
After putting in his request, he visited Dr. Arnau.
"Look at you," she said, walking with him down one of the winding hallways as he approached his next class. "You're…going to overtake me in tiers soon enough." With a soft smile, she added, "This didn't happen in your last life, did it?"
"No, it did not," Wulf replied. "I only made it to Silver." He paused. "Professor, I was wondering, actually. What are Embodiments?"
"Ah, you were going to ask soon enough, I figured."
"You were helpful enough checking Dr. Konstant's advice."
"Have you made progress toward Ruby?"
"I've been…a little sidetracked," he admitted. "But tonight, I'm going to try compressing my core at least once. But— wait, are you dodging the question?"
She sighed. "I apologize, Wulf, but I don't know much about Embodiments. The Orichalcums are very tight-lipped about them. It's got something to do with the final advancement from High-Ruby to Orichalcum. They're rare, and difficult to come by, but what I do know is that they're limited, and they're caused by public perception. Everyone has a soul, even a non-Ascendant, Wulf, and there's something about drawing on the power of those souls in order to become a greater symbol of strength."
Wulf nodded slowly. "I guess I'll have to talk to Azanthius."
"He's probably sworn a Field pact to keep it secret."
"What happens if you break a Field pact?"
"At low levels, the Field simply won't let you. Your tongue will get tied, your lungs stop working, you can't speak or find the words. But Azanthius could overpower a pact if he wanted. The consequences, however, would be disastrous. The Field would kill him, and it wouldn't be painless. His body would resist, but eventually, the Field would win, and Azanthius would cease to exist as punishment for his transgression."
"I'll have to find out on my own, then."