*Ding* Spitting Viper has used “Mutually Assured Destruction”. Rank 2 – High Quality beast core has been detonated!

Meat chunks and shards of bone whizzed past Samantha with deadly speed, a few hitting home as sizzling wounds were opened across her body. She gasped reflexively at the pain and burst into a bloody coughing fit as the rapidly expanding cloud of green mist flowed over her and made its way into her mouth and throat. The poison gas eroded her from the inside and burned her from the outside, whatever the foul toxin touched beginning to dissolve. Her exposed skin began to burn and bubble as the particles brushed against her, the minor enchantments in the Eduin’s robes temporarily protecting the clothed areas from the onslaught before it too began to fall apart. Her eyes were blinded as her eyelids melted away and her corneas began disintegrating, and destroyed hair fell from her head like pouring rain.

*Ding* Attack from Spitting Viper has activated “As One”. Fatal wounds for Silas have been transformed into serious wounds for Silas and Samantha.

*Ding* Attack from Spitting Viper has activated “As One”. Serious Wounds for Samantha have been transformed into moderate wounds for Silas and Samantha.

*Ding* Attack from…

A gaping hole suddenly appeared on her torso above her liver that freely poured lifeblood, and skin that had been somewhat protected by the now-failing enchanted cultivator’s robes lit up with fresh torment. Simultaneously, the burning in her throat lessened enough for her to halt her coughing fit, and her vision came back briefly before fading again. Notifications about her skill activation rapidly rang out in her mind, and she barely had the presence of mind to shut them off. Her mind was going blank with animalistic panic, all pain becoming wholly secondary to the desperate need for escape.

She pumped 2 qi points a second into Swift and ran as if possessed towards the spot where she felt Silas’s qi signature. She scooped up his toppled form, and put 2 points into Flawless Regeneration, trying to center the energy on her eyes and the hole in her body. The effects were half as powerful now with the investment into “As One”, since Silas received equivalent healing automatically as well, but it was enough for her immediate needs. She needed to find a path out.

The constant regeneration and damage cycle gave the impression that she was blinking incredibly fast, the healing going to her eyes bringing back her sight only for it to be stolen away by the acid cloud again a split second later. Utilizing her minute spurts of vision to the best of her ability, she found her way to the nearest edge of the cloud and rushed out, making a beeline for their nearby sanctuary.

Another second passed using Swift and her qi bottomed out, causing her already weak body to lose what little strength it had. With pure adrenaline pumping through her poisoned veins, she clawed and scrambled her way into the cavern, and she needed to decide her next course of action. Remembering how the River Deer had rolled in the dirt to try and remove the venom when it was struck, she carried Silas over to their water source, stripping down and scrubbing them both with cool mud before washing it off. The strategy helped somewhat, the burning lessening but not stopping. The edges of her flickering vision began narrowing and she felt light-headed. She was going to pass out, and if that happened it was the end.

Rushing over to where her supplies were stashed, she collapsed as soon as she was close enough to reach them. She tore through her equipment before locating the small satchel of beast cores that Eduin had in his pack, not even checking the rank before she began funneling the energy stored within the pearl into her Flawless Regeneration skill.

Sweetest relief and unbearable torment overcame her in waves, and she cried out with each new surge. Judging by Silas’s whimpers it was the same for him.

*Ding* WARNING! Cultivation base in jeopardy. Continuing to directly utilize the wild qi of beast cores without cultivating it will cause permanent damage. You may lose access to qi manipulation.

Samantha instantly clamped down on the energy she was taking from the core, slowing it to the barest trickle she could manage and cycling it as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, now the rate of healing was not outpacing the poison damage she and Silas were both receiving, and the pain began to ramp up again as their injuries were exchanged and equalized. The Spitting Viper was one of the spirit beasts that she and her family didn’t have much information on, since materials from its corpse were rare and had never been brought to them by hunters before. Seeing as the wretched things apparently exploded if you managed to kill them, she could now understand why. She had no way to tell if the venom’s potency would lessen over time, or how long it would last for that matter, but at this rate she and Silas would both be dead in minutes. She needed something that could give them a fighting chance!

With that thought, the small beast core she’d been siphoning turned to dust, and she reached for the next. There were only three remaining, so she didn’t have a lot of wiggle room to find a solution. Her body was healing, but the venom wasn’t being processed out of her system quickly enough for there to be significant improvement in her condition. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If she destroyed her cultivation base trying to heal them, she’d no longer be able to keep up her Flawless Regeneration skill; and if she tried to use Flawless Regeneration at a safe rate, the poison would outpace the restoration. In either case, they were dead.

She looked over to Silas, a small lump of black shivering on the ground. His fur had melted off, much like her hair had, and she was able to see his wounds clearly in the moments she regained her sight, even beneath the smears of mud. She could tell that he was significantly less affected by the poison than she was, since she could feel a disparity forming in the “As One” skill activation. He was receiving more damage from her than she was from him now. Why was he not…? A lightbulb flicked on in her addled mind.

Looking through her status page, she saw a glimmer of hope: Poison Connoisseur, one of her bond abilities. She quickly read through the description.

Poison Connoisseur – Inherit the toxin processing abilities of your bond. You will more easily gain resistances to any poisons you encounter.

She put her remaining bond ability point into the skill and received a notification.

*Ding* Corrosive toxins found in the body have activated “Poison Connoisseur”. Current corrosive poison resistance at Rank 0 - 0%.

And so, the marathon began. Since “As One” equalized the damage and healing between her and Silas, she focused all her attention on managing her qi flow so as not to break her cultivation base. Using her own physical condition as a measuring stick, she was able to put aside excessive worry that Silas would unexpectedly die on her. She tried to only pull out a qi or two worth of energy from the core she held every couple of seconds to try and ease the burden on her system, but maintaining her focus was a herculean task. Now that she was coming down from her adrenaline high the agony was indescribable, and she was unable to hold back her screams even though she knew it could draw predators to their location. Her nerves were seared away as they were regrown by her regeneration, again and again. She continuously coughed up blood as sections of her throat kept dissolving. Her vision kept fading in an out as she lost her sight repeatedly.

Her suffering did not abate with time, even as she got the occasional notification that her corrosive poison resistance was increasing. Her body was making more headway now at neutralizing the poison and thus receiving less overall injury; however, this did not change the fact that her countless wounds burned as though she were laying atop a flaming pyre.

She lost track of the time that passed as she single-mindedly fought to survive. The unending agony was enough to make a person go mad, but she managed to stay grounded by practicing Sage’s Rumination’s techniques amidst the turmoil. The cultivation pill had yet to run its course, so its mind-focusing effects were still active, and this experience—tortuous as it was—gave her a unique insight into the ability. In experiencing previously unimaginable levels of pain for an extended period, her only alternatives were to make her own tranquility or give in to insanity. She meditated as she siphoned small bits of power from the beast cores, looking inwards and striving for her inner world to be as placid as a calm lake despite everything happening externally. It did not reduce her suffering in the slightest, but it made it more bearable. Less shocking and debilitating, in a way.

Soon, she received the notifications that she had been praying for:

*Ding* Corrosive poison resistance has increased to Rank 0 - 100%.

*Ding* You have reached Rank 1 of corrosive poison resistance! Future encounters with corrosive poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by half. Changes have been made to your status page.

She pulled the final beast core from the bag and continued cultivating, funneling every qi point she regained into Flawless Regeneration. The uphill battle slowly leveled out, and with time, the poison in her body and on her skin fully dissipated. At last, all her healing energies could serve to repair the damage instead of fighting it off. Alas, the final core she was using was depleted and crumbled to dust shortly after the poisoning cleared, so she laid on the ground, totally spent and still wounded but stable.

*Ding* You’ve become hardier after constantly destroying and rebuilding your body. You’ve gained mental fortitude after enduring great suffering. +1 Resilience!

“There’s always a silver lining somewhere…” she thought to herself. Before long, a small voice spoke into her mind.

“It hurts. It’s cold.” Silas sent to her, sounding tired and pitiful.

Without replying, she got up and gently lifted him, pressing his furless body to her naked skin to try and give him some of her heat. His 15-pound body had never felt so heavy to her before, and her arm shook with the effort of holding him aloft. She limped her way over to the Iron Boar pelt and flipped it over after checking that it was fully cured. The tanning paste had done its work quickly, and the skin would last for generations if it was well taken care of. She laid them both down in the fur and wrapped them inside of it finding the stiff bristles slightly rough but suitably warm. She curled herself around him protectively until he stopped shivering from the cold.

“Thank you.” He said, the thought coming across a bit muffled like he was trying not to fall asleep.

“You’re welcome. Rest now, I’ll stay up and keep us safe.” she promised him.

She turned up her Prey’s Perception to max in the dark, quiet cave, finding that it no longer caused her a headache to receive the heightened sensory information. If anything came their way, she would know long before it entered the cavern. She took a deep breath to calm her still-racing heart and settled in for a long watch.

Deciding to take some time to look over her profile changes, she opened her status page:

Name: Samantha Cray

Age: 17

Cultivation Level: Mid Copper

Qi pool: 0/12 (+0.5 qi points/hour)

Body Cultivation:

Heart Meridian (Endurance)

Combat Arts:

Flawless Regeneration (Variable cost)

Inspect (Base cost 1 qi)

Swift (Base cost 1 qi/second)

Passive Arts:

As One

Prey’s Perception

Poison Connoisseur

Corrosive Poison Resistance – Rank 1

Strength: 5

Agility: 8

Endurance: 7

Resilience: 6

Spirit Bonds: Lunar Hare (Rank 4 – Low)

Strength: 2

Agility: 12

Endurance: 5

Resilience: 4

Bond Ability Points: 0 remaining

Swift (Rank 2 – Cost 2 Points) - For every 1 qi point spent per second, you will gain +2 agility. After skill ends, effects will persist for 5 seconds, losing 1/5th of total value each second until original agility level reached. Herb Hunter – Like the Lunar Hare, you have an uncanny ability for finding the best quality herbs around. Translucence – For every 1 qi point spent, you will become partially transparent for 30 seconds. Remaining motionless while translucent will make you exceedingly difficult to spot. As One [Special] (Rank 2 – Cost 2 Points) – You and Silas will shore up each other’s weaknesses by inheriting some of the other’s strengths.

Samantha looked over the changes with bittersweet satisfaction. She had 2 more Passive Arts, gained a Rank 1 poison resistance, and she and Silas had both gained +1 Resilience from the ordeal. Thinking back, she was incredibly grateful for her high Agility and increased reaction speeds. If she had been a touch slower on investing into her As One ability, she was certain that her beloved companion would have perished once the snake’s skill activated. It was likely she would have died as well, since while she didn’t know what happened exactly to a cultivator when their Spirit Bond died, she figured that losing access to her bond abilities would be the minimum. Poison Connoisseur had saved her life, and she feared that with the cultivator’s path ahead of her it might not be the last time that it did so. Hopefully, by that point she’d be even more resilient.

Resilience was a rather ambiguous stat, but it was essential. Not only did a higher resilience mean that she would be more resistant to physical damage, but it also was reflective of tolerance for mental stressors. So, with this stat increase, she and Silas’s skin would be a little tougher, their muscles and ligaments a little sturdier, and their minds more stable in the face of adversity.

The last change to her status sheet she noted was the addition of the second rank of As One, and it puzzled her. The description could mean any number of things, and she had no idea what the effects would be. The most she could tell was that it would definitely be beneficial to both parties somehow, but she had no idea in what way that benefit would manifest. Closing the status window, she sat up, careful not to jostle the sleeping Lunar Hare, and continued her watch while she meditated.

Each hour she spent her qi on Flawless Regeneration as she regained it, not bothering to build up her pool with the poor condition that she and Silas were in. It annoyed her to have to shake herself from her meditative state each time to activate the ability, and she wondered if it was possible to automatically allocate her qi regeneration somehow. As soon as the thought crossed her mind…

*Ding* Spend future qi gained on Flawless Regeneration? This will be your new default until you change it again. Y/N

Samantha smiled and selected yes, resuming her previous activities.

Silas slept for nearly a full day, his near-death experience obviously taking a lot out of him. Samantha didn’t mind, taking full advantage of the time in order to restore their health as much as she was able. Every hour, when she felt her healing skill be primed for activation, she shifted her cycling to move the cleansing energy through her body. In practicing this art so frequently in a short period, she became more familiar with its effectiveness and function. She estimated that spending 1 point of qi on the skill restored 1 ounce of biological matter over 1 minute, easy enough numbers for her to remember. She did not receive the full amount of regeneration herself because of how As One split the healing of course, but she did guess that she received about 80-90% of it based on observing the changes in Silas.

As One was very mysterious in how it worked. The best that Samantha could tell, it divided damage and healing proportionally between them somehow. Trying to visualize the concepts of damage and lifeforce as numeric values, she gave herself 20 hit points and Silas 10. She knew if she took a full 20 points of damage—in other words, a fatal blow—that what she actually received would be halved. But she also knew that those 10 points wouldn’t all go to Silas because it would kill him outright. He would take something closer to 5 points of damage to match her halved health. Conversely, if Silas took 10 points of damage his health would be reduced to 5, but she would receive 10 points of damage. She could understand that the transfer was based off a sort of percentage of their total health, but she had no clue where those extra damage points either disappeared to or appeared from.

She let out a small huff of dissatisfaction. As much as she wanted to know all the ins and outs of the skill, it was probably just going to be one of those things she had to let go. Maybe some cosmic being out there was keeping track of those odd points and would ensure that it would all even out, in the end, she mused.

When Silas awoke, they were both far from completely healed, but in a lot better shape than before. Samantha had already checked their water supply to make sure her frantic mud bath earlier hadn’t tainted it with corrosive venom, and it appeared the poison had lost enough of its potency by now for the liquid to be consumable. She encouraged Silas to drink so he wouldn’t get further dehydrated, and finally mustered up the courage to check the state of Eduin’s robes.

In short, it looked like it’d been worn ragged at all the openings, left in a closet for 10 years, and moths had a grand time eating it. Countless miniscule holes were burned into the fabric, and any sign of enchantment was completely gone. It was now in as bad of shape, or worse, as her original robe. She couldn’t even tell if the blue and green dyes had survived in the darkness of the cave, since her prey’s perception altered the colors that she saw in low light conditions.

She tried not to lament the loss of the clothes that weren’t really hers, and instead got creative. Using the remnants of her old robes and the remnants of this one, she cut them apart with her skinning knife and sewed them together with a small sewing kit from her pack. She was no tailor, even with the use of both of her hands, but she had to learn how to at least make basic repairs when she couldn’t take many sets of clothes with her on her quest. When she finished the new set of robes, she looked upon her handiwork and grimaced. It was an ugly patchwork of uneven stitching, mismatched fabric types, and colors that she knew were not complementary, even without seeing them in the light. Beggars can’t be choosers though, and her important bits would stay covered.

She took stock of her situation. On the positive side she had meat, a decent sized trunk for firewood, a tanned pelt she could use for warmth to preserve the firewood supply, a water source, and cultivation manuals with matched elixirs to learn. On the negative side, she and Silas were injured, she didn’t have a weapon, there were no good protections for their cave other than being well hidden, and Silas needed to eat plants which she had none of.

The negatives were significant, but not insurmountable. Healing would come with time, so she put it from her mind. The weapon was trickier. She would get one eventually once she was able to travel back to the site where she fought the Boar and made a spearhead from its tusks, but that didn’t solve her immediate needs. Maybe she could just make a wooden spear for now? Speaking of wooden spears, she could close off the entrance with well-placed wooden spears, making sure that Silas had enough space to get in and out while nothing larger than him could come inside. It was crude, but the best she could manage with her current resources. As for Silas’s food supply, maybe he could handle it himself.

Her head was swimming with planning and worries, and she pinched the bridge of her nose to ease the throbbing she could feel coming on. She took a breath and looked down at the stump that had noticeably lengthened with the healing effects from 4 beast cores and a day of cultivation. Once her arm grew back, she wouldn’t need to stress about logistics anymore and could just leave the Eastern Reaches and head home. All she needed to do was survive until then… but what to focus on first?

Consulting Silas for his opinion, he assured her that he was well enough to forage for food on his own for the next few weeks if he was just hunting for himself. Though he was discovered by a Spitting Viper towards the end of his last outing, he had found several patches of the edible vegetables that Samantha was looking for, as well as some others only he could consume, nearby. Samantha questioned how he was discovered at all when his stealth was normally so good, and Silas abashedly admitted that he had found a rare herb and was distracted while eating it. He looked completely ashamed, his ears drooping to the floor as he hung his head, and she patted it tenderly.

“New rule. I know that it’s really tempting to eat everything immediately, but obviously its really dangerous around here. Anything you find that you want to eat, you need to bring back here first. It will mean a lot more trips back and forth, but you won’t be caught unaware at least.” she instructed.

“Yes, I agree.” he replied, his voice apologetic.

“Are you going to be okay without your fur? You were cold the other day, and it’s only going to continue to get colder.” Samantha inquired.

“It’s okay. My Resilience increased. Cold not as bad now.” He informed, his mood picking up a bit at the mention of his progression. “You’re okay without head fur?”

Samantha’s hand automatically went up and touched her completely bald scalp and the place where her eyebrows should have been. She guffawed. She had been so caught up in everything that she’d totally forgotten all her hair was gone too. The past Samantha would have been devastated, but the current one couldn’t help but keep laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, the relief that they really pulled through finally hitting her. She imagined the look on her family’s faces when they saw her and laughed even harder. Man, it felt good.

“I’ll be fine,” she said between breaths, the pent-up tension leaving her little by little. “At least I don’t look like a freshly plucked chicken.”

Silas’s mouth dropped open in outrage at her comparison before a merry twinkle sparkled in his eyes.

“You’re right. Look closer to naked Forest Howler!” he retorted.

They joked and jested for a while longer before Silas left to get his first batch of food and Samantha dove wholeheartedly into the cultivation tomes, knowing that by the end she would have higher qi regeneration and qi pool to support her healing and traveling endeavors. In relative peace, the days flew by.