What happened next was blurry for Alex, all he could remember were a few flashes and a constant mind-numbing pain. A knight in shining armor standing over him, the ceiling of a room, the sky, another ceiling…

He woke up a few times in a room that he didn’t recognize, but he only managed to stay awake for short periods of times, slipping into and from unconsciousness constantly.

When he managed to stay awake for any length of time, he was in such an awful state that he couldn’t properly communicate with the people around him.

It took him a long time to truly feel like he was conscious again, and when he did it, he immediately regret bothering to do so.

He felt…weak. Worse than any other time in his life, he also felt incredibly sick, with a constant feeling of wanting to vomit, but being unable to do so. Slowly, he opened his eyes, a blue screen covering his vision, while he was annoyed by the bright lights, he was far too curious about the information in front of him, so, he waited a few minutes until he didn’t feel blinded by the screen in front of him.

You have gained 8 levels. Due to circumstances, leveling has slowed down. Current rate: (1 per day.)

Due to circumstances, a perk point was rushed to increase survival odds (X2)

You have gained the perks: Poison resistance, Death’s door.

A skill has been generated: Defy Odds.

Poison resistance has leveled up X30

Death’s door has leveled up X10

Defy odds has leveled up X10

Willpower has increased by 5

Poison resistance:

You have natural protection against all forms of poison, decreasing their effects and allowing for quicker recovery.

Synergizes with willpower.

Death’s door.

You have a bigger like hood of barely surviving wounds that would otherwise have killed you, also decreases the effects wounds have on you in general, the effect increasing the bigger the wound.

Synergizes with willpower.

Synergizes with defy odds.

Defy odds:

Increase the like hood of things going your way, with it’s power increasing the more the odds are stacked against you.

Synergizes with death’s door.

Alex stared in disbelief at the screen in front of him. He…almost died. Hell, apparently the odds were stacked for him to die.

“What the fuck happened?”

His voice felt raspy and weak, he idly noted that his throat felt very dry.

“Are you awake?” Alex heard a voice coming from his side.

With a thought, the screen vanished from his face, he finally being able to see where he was. It looked, and felt like an old cottage. Everything in it was made out of some type of ancient wood.

“Alex?” The voice asked again.

Alex blinked, then stared at the voice. He was more out of it that he thought at first.

“Yes. Can…you give me water, please?”

He stared a very tired looking Sky in the eyes, whom nodded in answer. They got up from a wooden chair, opened the door to the room, then vanished into the cottage.

How had gotten into this situation?

His memory was a tad foggy, he remembered meeting Sky, Alice, Wind, a tentacle monster, a village, then…something.

It took him a minute to remember the last detal. man with a crossbow. He’d been shot.

He was distracted by Sky returning and giving him a water skin, Alex greedily drinking it.

“I asked Wind to bring food.”

“T-thank you.” Alex said, his voice cracking a bit. He really was in a shitty shape.

“it’s no problem.” Sky said.

Sky once again sat in the chair, while Alex returned to his thoughts, putting his mind into order. It took a few minutes before he could find his voice again.

“Reiterating a bit…what the fuck happened?”

“I’m…not sure myself.” Sky said, slowly. “I discussed quite a bit with the others, but the only conclusion that I could get to was that this was an assassination attempt.”

Alex stared at Sky, his mind slowly coming to grips with the situation.

“That…makes no sense.”

“I agree. I know for a fact that you weren’t lying about the part about coming from some other dimension.” Sky said. “It would be impossible for you to attract unwanted attention when we had our eyes on you the entire time.”

“Couldn’t...couldn’t they be targeting me because of being from another dimension, or something?”

“Maybe. The problem with that theory is that according to Alice and Wind both, you seem like a perfectly normal human, and no one could have known that you were the one that was summoned.”

Alex stared at Sky, feeling like he was forgetting something very important.

“So why would they target me? They mistook me for the wrong guy?”

“Unlikely. They knew beforehand that I was there, to the point that the assassin had me distracted with something specifically catered to me.”

“So…somehow someone knew where I was going to be and knew with whom I was going to be.”

The door to the room once again opened, Alice and Wind entering, Wind having a wooden bowl in her hands, quickly handling it to Alex.

“Good day sleeping prince.” Alice said

“Good to see that you survived.”

Alex didn’t even look at what was in the bowl, just putting it in his mouth and gulping as fast as he could, ignoring how hot it was.

“The food…is really damn good.”

On top of that, he felt full as soon as he was done gulping.

“He eats just like you.” Alice said, shooting Wind a grin.

The elf completely ignored her comment. “It’s an elven delicacy, forest soup.”

“And now we have another glutton in the team.” Alice said.

“I haven’t eaten in…” Alex paused. “How long was I out of it? A week?”

Eight days, actually. And we have been sure to feed you properly.” Sky said.

“More like Sky has been sure to do that properly.”

Alex stared at Sky, that served to explain why they seemed to be so tired.

“Thanks.”

“It’s no problem, especially after what happened…”

He heard a deep sigh coming from the two woman of the team.

“It’s not your fault, as we told you countless times. You really couldn’t have predicted an assassination attempt at someone that was in this world for literally a day.” Alice said.

“You…are blaming yourself for this?” Alex asked in disbelief as he stared at Sky.

“It was…my responsibility to protect you.”

“No offense, but…I’m not really your responsibility. And this crap was outside of your control, it’s really not your fault.”

Sky nodded, but Alex felt like their heart really was not into it. He just hoped that it wouldn’t cause too much trouble in the future.

“So…can someone explain at length what happened? And can I maybe have more of that?”

“That soup is supposed to give a normal man enough nutrition for a day, I think you have had enough for now.” Wind said.

“You are only saying that so that you can eat more of it.”

Wind continued to ignore the witch’s comment’s about her eating habits.

“Can we please focus on what’s important?” Sky said, sounding a tad exasperated.

“Your sexuality?” Alice asked

“Alice’s fragile ego?” Wind said.

Sky put their hands in their face. “You two sometimes are impossible.”

“You know why we are doing this.” The witch said.

“Why are you two doing a comedy routine?” Alex asked, feeling a tad confused.

He couldn’t help but feel like their relationship was weird. Neither of the two answered anything, instead shooting him a grin.

“That’s a good question, isn’t it, Sky?”

Sky stared at them, an exasperated look on their face. “Is this really the time.”

“After how you spent this week? Very much so.” Alice said.

Sky took a deep breath, closed their eyes, and then stared at Alex. “…They want me to lighten up a little.”

Alex stared at Sky. He really didn’t know them nearly well enough to truly get the situation.

“I don’t get it.” Alex said. “But could you three please explain to me the situation? I am very confused right now.”

“At this point, even I feel confused.” Sky grumbled.

“One thing at a time, Sky, could you please begin to explain what happened?” Wind said.

Sky glared at Wind, then at Alice, before sighing and looking at Alex. “Fine. You two are sometimes impossible to deal with.”

“To begin with, before you got shot, someone whom claimed to be from the Kraigor confederacy asked to speak to me in private.” Sky said. “It was about some Valkyr raiders, but that’s besides the point. Next thing I knew, I heard a scream, and then I rushed over to you, finding you on the ground with an arrow sticking out of your chest.”

Alex nodded, he remembered as much, he was a bit curious about the kingdoms and raiders, but decided to focus on the fact that he had been freaking shot.

“Did you see who it was?” Alex asked.

Sky shook their head. “By the time I got to your side the assassin was long gone, I’m fast, but it doesn’t take much to hide in the middle of a town.”

“Sky nearly broke my room’s door when she came over for my help.” Alice said, grinning.

“Priorities. I immediately carried you over to Alice’s room, and she gave you a potion.”

“Yep. I’m fairly good with alchemy, but nothing that I gave you was effective, it was fairly apparent that you were poisoned by something quite potent.”

“I…figured as much. Hell, I gained an poison resistance perk.”

“That explains how you are alive.” Wind said.

“What was the poison, anyway?”

“A stygian vestige.” A voice said from outside the room.

An elven man entered the room, he was short, covered in furs, and had bindings covering his eyes, but somehow stared straight into Alex’s own as he entered the room.

“It would seem my guest has awoken. How are you feeling?”

“Like shit, err…who are you?”

“Poison. I would ask that you go more in depth about how you are feeling.”

“Err…Alex. Well, I feel…weak, sick and I have a constant urge to vomit.”

“It seems that you are recuperating well, then.” The elf said. “The stygian poison is something that affects both your body and soul, rapidly corroding both. At this point, the poison is outside of your body, but it will take longer for your soul to recover fully.”

“So…I’m in no risk of dying right now, right?”

He felt like it was unlikely, especially with how the others were acting, but he wanted to be sure.

“Besides from assassination, no.” Wind said.

Sky shot the elf a glare as she said that.

“I’m being sincere. Alex isn’t in any danger from dying in the sort them, but that is something that he needs to keep in mind in the future.”

“I am in a goddamn emotional Rolle coaster right now.” Alex said.

“What?” The saint asked with an raised eyebrow.

“My emotions are a clusterfuck.”

Sky seemed only more confused as he said that, but Alice nodded sagely.

“That kind of thing is good for the soul.” Alice said.

Poison walked towards Alex, ignoring everyone else’s comments, then handed him a potion.

“Drink this. It will help with your recuperation.”

Alex took it, then swiftly drank It, it was…surprisingly sweet, which helped to offset the burning sensation that it left as it went down his throat.

“What was that?”

“A distilled apotheosis’s nectar. A type of poison which turns your body into mana.”

Alex stared at Poison in disbelief.

“Some types of poison can be beneficial in some situations.”

“He isn’t going to kill you” Sky said.

“It might hurt quite a bitch, though.” Wind said.

“Sometimes a bit of pain is necessary for a good recovery.” Poison said, then walked towards the room’s door.

“You should be completely fine in a week; probably much sooner depending on how well your soul heals.”

Alex stared at the man as he left the room, then stared at the potion flask in his hands, seemingly made out of crystal.

“So…you guys are going to explain why you guy’s first instinct when I was poisoned was to give me more poison?”

“That makes the situation seem worse than it actually is.” Wind said.

The burning that he felt was only getting worse, but it was a tolerable pain.

“I currently feel like someone set my stomach ablaze, so I feel like it’s justified.” Alex said. “

“I understand that you don’t really want pain, I think no one does, but it’s a necessary evil.” Sky said. “Do you wish for us to continue, or do you want to rest?”

“Continue. I don’t think I can rest when someone throws fire in my stomach.”

Sky gave him a sympathetic look, then continued the story.

“Continuing where I left off, nothing we did was able to help you. Wind healed you; Alice brewed a few potions and tried some other things. While the wound was healed, nothing we did managed to actually help you.”

“I figured that you had been poisoned, so, I recommended going to a specialist in the subject, which is how we got here. I’m not entirely sure about what he did, but Poison managed to nurse you back to health.” Aliec said

“That…makes sense. But I can’t help but feel he is shady as hell.” Alex whispered the last part, deciding that offending the guy in charge of giving you poison was a terrible idea. “I mean…his name is poison.”

“It’s an elven thing.”

“Because elves aren’t weird, right?” Alice said, shooting Wind a grin.

Wind opened her mouth, raised a finger, and then closed her mouth.