Nate instantly lifted up his arm to see a small thorn stuck in his flesh. His first thought had been that some sort of poisonous beast had attacked him. The burning itch from his arm caused a considerable amount of pain. His eyes darted around and found a bush with purple berries and thorns right to his side. Similar bushes littered the entrance to the cave.

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 11]

The poisonous plant once again proved his lack of knowledge concerning the dangers of the wild. He had seen these bushes but had never thought that they could possibly be a danger.

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 12]

Nate’s vision was already starting to blur, but he moved forward into the cave anyway. He had already moved past most of these bushes. He could either wander blindly through the woods or he could hide inside the cave. The cave was the better option to ride out the effects of the poison or die, whichever happens first. Despite the pain and blurred vision, Nate moved as quickly as he could to get inside the cave.

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 13]

[‘Survivor’s Awareness’ has increased to Level 5]

[‘Survivor’s Resistance’ has increased to Level 6]

“No wonder there was no beast sign near the cave entrance,” Nate said as his vision began to distort to the point where he could only see different shades of light. The effects of the poison were intense.

Even with the dire situation, he managed to maintain his calm and find a secure spot to stand with his back against the cave wall. The decision wasn’t necessary to guard against an attack. If his back was against something, then nothing could sneak up behind him. After making it a few steps inside, Nate’s eyes started to adjust to the dim light. It didn’t really do him any good. He couldn’t really see much anymore.

[Perception Stat has increased by 2]

[‘Dark Vision’ has increased to Level 12]

Nate’s eyes gave must have been trying to adapt to the situation but his ability only gave him a boost in the observable bright blobs of light. There was nothing present that he could identify. He needed to give his skills the opportunity to sort out this poison. His vision was getting too blurry to really do anything at this point. Nate felt like shit. He was even starting to feel sick to his stomach.

[Health: 90/110]

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 14]

“Fuck,” Nate cursed, “I might really die this time.” His heart continued to beat rapidly as his nerves reached their limit.

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 15]

[You have been affected by ‘Poisoned’ status]

[All physical and mental stats have been reduced by half. Vision impaired.]

[Your health will decline at a rate of 4 for every minute until ‘Poisoned’ status removed]

As the system status alert rang, a little bit of hope surfaced in Nate’s mind. Maybe if I get my levels up high enough, then the poison won’t be as bad. He was starting to mentally settle down regardless of the life-threatening poison in his system.

[‘Calm Survivor’ has increased Level 7]

[Level has increased by 1]

As usual, the system alert was like a confirmation of his thoughts. His mind calmed. There is nothing I can do but ride this out. I need to take advantage of the Class bonus. If I live through the poison, I should see a boost in stats. Even though the burning pain still coursed through his body, Nate pulled himself together and sat down against the wall of the cave. There was no point worrying about beasts anymore. He knew he wouldn’t survive without being able to see anyway. He needed to focus on gaining as many levels as possible while under his [Calm Survivor] class effects. Levels equaled survival in his mind.

He began to try to use utilize skills as best as he could, but the poison effects hindered most of his physical abilities. His body hurt so much that trying to boost his physical stats was practically impossible. Nate waited as system alerts continued to sound out in his mind.

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 16]

[‘Dark Vision’ has increased to Level 13]

Nate was gaining levels so quickly that he couldn’t believe it.

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 17]

[‘Archer’s Sight’ has increased to Level 8]

[Health: 86/110]

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 18]

[‘Survivor’s Resistance’ has increased to Level 7]

[Stamina Stat has increased by 2]

[Health: 82/110]

[‘Calm Survivor’ has increased Level 8]

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 19]

[Health: 78/110]

[‘Dark Vision’ has increased to Level 14]

[‘Poison Resistance’ has increased to Level 20]

[You have been affected by ‘Poisoned’ status]

[All physical and mental stats have been reduced by one quarter. Vision impaired.]

[Your health will decline at a rate of 3 for every minute until ‘Poisoned’ status removed]

“Those class bonuses sure are wonderful,” Nate said as he continued to worry about the poison effects dissipating. Some quick estimating gave him some hope that the poison would eventually lose its effect. If he lived, his resistances and skills would greatly benefit from this experience.

***************

“This is insane,” Nate said to himself as he looked at his user interface. The system had just alerted him that the negative health effects of the poison were almost negligible. He was only losing one health every hour now. Even though he had already gained a considerable amount of [Poison Resistance], Nate was still gaining poison resistance levels on a pretty consistent basis. By his estimate, the poison effects should completely dissipate soon.

—————————————————-

Name: Nathaniel Redsun

Level: 9 (Exp. 438/900)

Health: 36/110

Energy: 13/0

Primary Class: Calm Survivor (Level 9)

Class Skills:

Survivor’s Need (Passive) (Level 10)

Survivor’s Awareness (Passive) (Level 6)

Survivor’s Resistance (Passive) (Level 12)

Secondary Class: None

Stats:

Speed: 12 Agility: 12

Stamina: 18 Strength: 16

Intelligence: 13 Perception: 18

Wisdom: 13 Will: 22

Stat Points Available: 10

General Skills:

Silent Presence (Passive) (Level 6)

Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 16)

Pain Resistance (Passive)(Level 15)

Physical Damage Resistance (Passive)(Level 2)

Infection Resistance (Passive)(Level 6)

Poison Resistance (Passive)(Level 40)

Burn Resistance (Passive)(Level 1)

Fear Resistance (Passive)(Level 11)

Archer’s Sight (Passive)(Level 11)

————————————————-

“Wonderful,” Nate exclaimed. Some of his skills had seen a significant boost. His vision still slightly blurry Nate took some food out of his pack and started eating. He felt weak and was hoping that a meal would help him replenish some strength.

*********

Nate stood up and stretched his body. He had waited several hours to rebuild as much strength as possible before moving. The effects of the poison had completely worn off. The whole process had taken almost an entire day. But Nate wasn’t really concerned, he had seen a nice boost in stats during the experience, but as soon as he was able to see he faced a major issue. If he wanted to move, he either had to go deeper into the cave or go through the poisonous bushes again. Neither option was too appealing with his minimal health.

Nate didn’t quite know how the poison status effect would work if he was stuck with another poisonous thorn. Honestly, he was actually afraid to test it out. With his health in the 20’s, any poison could cause a significant threat to his life. Actually, everything was a significant threat to his life.

After reviewing the situation, Nate realized he had a third option. Stay put at the cave entrance to recover himself. The location wasn’t the best in terms of security but it actually wasn’t worse than some of the places that Nate had slept in during the past weeks. He had a dark unknown cave at one end and poisonous plants at the other. Thinking things over, Nate realized something.

“That’s why there were no beast signs, you idiot,” Nate reprimanded himself. When he was thinking of how to position his body to defend from possible beast attacks, he had realized that the beasts must avoid this cave too. Any wild beast probably knew of the dangers of the plant and wouldn’t attempt walking through the stuff.

Nate stayed seated on the ground and readied himself as best he could. He positioned a few weapons at the ready just in case something came through the thorny bushes. He also did the same to the dark cave interior. He was tired of almost dying.

*********

After two days of rest, Nate had recouped most of his health. He had also consumed a fair portion of his food reserves. The one thing he had missed was water, but that was resolved by utilizing the damp walls of the cave. The process of gathering some water wasn’t quick, but it allowed Nate to make it through the situation.

Nate stood up from his usual seat against the wall of the cave.

He had made the decision to investigate the dark cave during his first day sitting at its entrance. After weighing the options, the dark cave seemed to be less worrisome than the poisoned plants. Nate still had some lingering fear over the poison.

Nate readied his spear and started to move into the depths of the cave. Nate had chosen to proceed forward using his own skill to see in the dark. He could have lit a torch with his firestone but wasn’t sure if it would alert something inside the cave. Regardless, Nate had prepped a torch to have ready in case he needed one.

His Dark Vision definitely helped him see in the dark cave but it would only be helpful while there was some light present. In complete darkness, Nate doubted that the skill would be any benefit at its current level.

With his spear facing forward, Nate moved into the depths of the cave. He walked forward glancing at the undisturbed ground and the walls of the cave as he moved along. The opening was just tall enough for him to walk comfortably and the width was about the same as the height. After entering about fifty feet, the cave took a sudden turn and went downward at a steep slope.

Nate tried to look ahead into the cave. His dark vision wasn’t going to do well after he made this turn. He hadn’t moved forward for more than a few minutes and he already had to change his plans and light the torch. At least I was prepared.

His knife scraped across a piece of firestone flinging flames onto a torch made of wood and cloth scraps. The torch caught instantly and illuminated the cave.

“You got to be fucking kidding me,” Nate said to himself as the torchlight flickered through the dark depths of the cave.

The cave wasn’t near as big as Nate had expected. The torch had lit up almost the entirety of the rocky alcove. The initial sight of beast bones had caused his heart to race, but another second of observing had caused him to relax again.

The cave had turned and opened up into a small cavern of sorts. The cavern wasn’t super large at only about 5 times the size of Nate’s previous tree hollow. But the floor of the cave was littered with shiny white beast bones.

At first, Nate had gone on alert while thinking that the cave was some sort of beast feeding spot, but then he realized what had actually happened.

The beasts must have died due to the poisonous plants at the entrance.

After looking around for possible dangers, Nate slid down the slope and into the cavern. He had no idea how long these beast bones had been here but from a quick count of the skulls sitting around, he could guess. Nate figured that there were at least ten beasts that had perished from the poison.

Nate didn’t recognize what type of beasts these were but he didn’t really care. Dead beasts should have beast cores and Nate quickly lost himself at the thought. He scrambled over to one of the nearest skulls and cracked it open. A sparkly yellow beast core showed itself in the pieces of the skull.

“Hell ya,” Nate said as he moved over to the next beast.

He repeated the action of cracking skulls and removing cores for the remaining beasts. He now had a pile of ten beast cores of varying colors in his hands.

“This cave is awesome,” Nate said looking around the inside of the cavern. It was a bit spacious compared to what he wanted in a home but it would probably work. At least he knew that any beast trying to get to him would be poisoned first.

But the thought of the poison, caused him to snap back to reality. “Am I going to get poisoned every time I go into the cave?.” Nate said as he nervously considered his options, “Or maybe the poison doesn’t pose a risk anymore.”

Nate looked at the beast cores in his hands with a solemn expression.

“Guess I better use these first. Then, I’ll have to give those thorny bushes a test.”