"Huh, and how exactly do I do that?"
Puzzled by the system's almost irrational remark, I think again to how many times I've been afflicted with poisons and venoms that withered my muscle and bone, immobilized my body, or otherwise disoriented me.
After all, since I've been fighting a plethora of enemies in the two weeks or so I've been in this labyrinth with the new system, I couldn't help but imagine just what I'd accomplished to get to the point I'm at now.
"You'd think if poison immunity were something I could just... gain, I would have it by now."
"You are correct in ascertaining that immunity to strong poisons cannot be gained through repeated exposure alone."
"Then what exactly is it you're proposing?"
As soon as the words finish flying out of my mouth, the world around me begins the twist and turn, the glass tapestry shifting to a swirling storm of imaginary shapes as my perception is thrown into disarray.
"Woah..."
[User has beenpoisoned]
Colors smear across the walls and floors as a reverberant chime rings in my ears, my sensations overstimulated to the brim.
It is then that one prevailing sensation makes its way to the forefront of my attention: A cavernous pain in the form of burning, the searing hot torment slithering its way across my limbs as the epicenter of the agony is found in my stomach.
"Grrghhhh..."
Clenching my gut with both hands, I crouch down to the ground, my already shaky sense of balance completely discarded in the face of such torment.
"System... what the hell have you done to me..." I grunt, biting through the pain as the chittering of teeth is heard.
Perhaps I was gritting my teeth too hard, however, as I accidentally bit down on gum tissue, a trail of blood following from my bottom lip to the lowest extremities of my face.
If not for the extensive torture that I was being inflicted, I would've surely recoiled from the injury, but I instead found myself feeling nothing but the sensation of poison spreading across my body.
[You have 2 minutes before total nervous failure]
Barely taking notice to the system prompt, I'm able to somehow sober up from the pain for a brief moment, reaching out to close the message and put my hand on the ground, easing myself to the floor.
Laying back in a supine position, I close my eyes, searching for the cause of such distress in my body.
"No need, I'll explain," the system suddenly calls out, disrupting my concentration as the torment overcomes my senses again.
"Hnhhhh... you better... explain yourself... quickly..."
Barely able to muster out the few words needed to convey my deep confoundment, I sit still for what feels like an eternity as the searing hot fire in my body begins to transform into an even worse, ablative wave of pain washes over me with such intensity that it feels as if even my skin is beginning to burn off.
"Grahhhhhhhh!"
Unable to bite through the pain, my body shakes violently, my nerves lit on fire and brain steeped in icy cold water to retard my senses and observations.
My whole body spasms again, each nerve ending screaming for relief. I press my palms to the floor, desperate for something to anchor me, but the ground itself feels like it's melting beneath me.
Them something cracks.
But it's not my bones this time. It's... deeper. Buried.
A sound. No, a voice; echoing in the hollows of my mind.
"Is it planted yet?"
"Keep your voice down. If the child hears, we're all dead men."
A surge of images bursts across my mind like shards of broken glass. I'm smaller. Weaker. Curled behind the twitching carcass of a deer, its body still warm with the last flutters of life. Blood masks my scent.
Three cloaked figures argue nearby, faces obscured.
"Don't you get it? The Convergence Seed doesn't belong in this timeline! It's mutating him."
Mutating me...?
[1 minute and 6 seconds remaining.]
My back arches violently. I'm flung into the present again as the poison courses stronger, the pain beginning to break the last threads of my awareness. But the memory... it lingers. My hand instinctively presses to my chest.
The Convergence Seed… that name is oddly familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
The mana within me stirs. Like it's responding to the poison. Mimicking its movement. I can feel it circulating.
[52 seconds remaining.]
My eyes widen.
This isn't just about surviving the toxin. The poison has a circuit. A pattern. And my mana... my mana is mirroring it.
But it's chaotic. Unrefined. It's like trying to write in a language I've only just remembered I used to know.
"You were born for this," the system says, its voice strangely closer now. "The seed remembers. Let it guide you."
For once, I don't argue.
I inhale sharply through clenched teeth and focus. Not on the pain. Not on the countdown.
But on the mana. The feeling of it pressing against my skin, pooling in my chest, swirling in my spine.
Then--
Push.
I expel.
A rush of energy bursts out from me in a violent pulse, carrying with it something thick and dark. My breath escapes in a shout as violet steam erupts from my mouth, nostrils, even my eyes.
Phssshhhh!
[Poison Expelled]
I collapse, half-conscious, drenched in sweat and blood and gods-know-what else. But I can breathe.
The storm has passed.
The fire in my veins is reduced to embers. My thoughts are cloudy, but clear enough to understand what just happened.
That poison... it didn't just try to kill me. It taught me.
I stare up at the trembling ceiling of the labyrinth, and for the first time since I woke up in this damned world.
I don't feel like I'm behind anymore.
I feel like I'm catching up.