It takes Jason a good half hour to get the taste out of his mouth. The worst part about it though was it wasn’t just one flavor. As time passed new and uniquely disgusting aftertastes would assault his tongue. In the end it took a good number of drinks of dubious origins. So much so that his poison resistance skill ticked over to level nine at some point without his notice. Next morning as he nurses a hangover he pulls up the skill just to check on its progress.

{Energetic Poison and Venom Resistance

One of the rare active skill based resistances. While still able to passively provide benefits, this skill really shines when directly used. As there are many types of poison and venom the System has decided it is best like this rather than a stat as this allows more variety without littering the stat line with entries like ‘elven paralysis poison resistance’. Uses the best percentage.

Initiate Level 9 - 1.53% [ +4lv 1.53% ]

Rarity: Exquisite Beginner

Type: Passive/Active, Energy, Adaptive

Effects:

Willful Purge - Able to send charges of Energy through the body to break down poison and venom in the body Poison Resistances - Immunity to Trash rank pain and paralysis poisons Trash rank non-damaging poison resistance - 72% [ +20% ] Trash rank poison resistance - 36% [ +2% ] Low Normal rank poison resistance - 15% [ +5% ] [Normal rank paralysis poison resistance - 33%] Normal rank poison resistance - 11% [ +10% ] Venom Resistances - Trash rank paralysis venom resistance - 72% Trash rank non-damaging venom resistance - 22% Trash rank venom resistance - 10% Low Normal rank venom resistance - 1% [Alcohol Resistance - Normal rank monster alcohol resistance - 5% Normal rank alcohol resistance - 5%]}

Jason whistles, “Well, it has been a while since I looked at this. I really should try to keep better track of my status. Though it is a little strange, that alcohol has its own section instead of just being under poison.”

Peter rolls his eyes, “Of course you would get alcohol resistance. Anyway, that one is simple enough. Most poison resistance skills at this point have been made to differentiate between booze and run-of-the-mill poison.” He shrugs, “After a certain point a body processes the stuff fast enough anyway so those ancient fellows at the top of the world have done everything they can to make sure they can still enjoy getting buzzed.”

Jason shakes his head, “Fair enough. Though that reminds me of another question I had about the skill. It only separates the various types of resistance by rank. I’m sure a low rank poison made from high level ingredients would be able to lay me out just as easy as not. How does that work?”

Peter nods, “A good question and it has two parts to the answer. The first is that a godly poison with a normal rank would be doing hundreds of points of damage if unresisted. Even if you are resisting most of that you’re still going to be taking a ton of damage. The other side is that better ingredients, recipes, and techniques will imbue the poison with the ability to pierce resistances. That is why it is very hard to get true immunity to any poison. Instead, the percentage you can resist will just keep going up. Though it is quite hard at that point because you only get experience when affected by a poison. A little hard for that to happen when most poisons of the specific type just don’t affect you.”

Jason has a slightly cramped smile at this point. ‘Peter doesn’t need to know about me already having immunity to some types of poison.’

Then as he is about to close the window, he glances a short distance up and face palms. “Dammit! I could have gotten rid of the hangover already. I completely spaced that I could use the skill to speed up the purging of poison.”

Off to the side Peter releases a strained sigh, but Jason is too distracted to notice this. He focuses on his body to purge the hangover when another thing comes to his attention. Last night he had basically just checked out after the drinks so hadn’t checked his body. Now though that he is looking, the state of his cultivation shocks him. There are half again as many threads cycling out of his core.

Jason is about to go off and discover what this means when a particularly sharp stab of pain hits him as a reminder of what the original goal was. He shakes his head and refocuses. Through all of his bodies’ lines, Jason searches until finally he pins down the hangover. Adjacent to his body’s threads and barely visible is a shadow of the alcohol from last night. He might have even missed it if not for the concentration of this shadow in the area his liver would have been.

With a target and his improved control over his threads, Jason is able to purge the last remnants of the alcohol. Of course this doesn’t remove the headache completely, but it lets his body start to recover at a faster pace.

As Jason is recovering from trying to drown out the stamina cookies flavor Courtney turns to Peter. “So are we going to have to fight our way through a siege this morning? I don’t expect that build up we saw last night to be a one time thing.”

Peter closes his eyes for a second to gather his thoughts and then sighs. “There might be a few, but overall swarm cats don’t move around at night. Only the ones that were close last night will be able to make it to the outpost this early and there won’t be that many. The kingdom makes sure to remove any suitable resting places nearby so they either make it to the walls or will retreat. Just enough to give any caravans a chance to set out. Though we are leaving later on than a caravan would, so there should be a swarm or two at the gate.”

Courtney nods and goes back to her planning for the day. Though she isn’t free of distractions either. Rosha playing with Lily is just too cute not to pay attention to.