Chapter 88: Apparently I Have a Talent for Suffering
Aman, come on, be a man.
I motivated myself, as I started to falter while looking at the vial. My fingers trembled slightly—just enough to make the liquid inside shimmer.
"Wait—!" Zephyr’s voice cut through my thoughts, sharp and urgent.
But it was too late.
Squinting my eyes shut, I tipped the vial back and gulped its contents down in one go, teeth gritted in anticipation of the burn, the convulsions, the—
...
Huh?
I blinked, waiting.
Nothing. No pain. No fire in my veins. Just a faint, herbal aftertaste lingering on my tongue.
"I’m... fine?" I turned to Zephyr, brow furrowed. "Hey, what kind of poison was this?"
Zephyr stared at me. Really stared. His ice-blue eyes narrowed slowly, as if he were witnessing the single dumbest creature to ever walk the world.
"..."
"...That was the antidote for the poison, fool," he said flatly.
...Oh.
"..."
My face heated up instantly. I scratched the back of my head, awkwardness flooding me.
That’s why he tried to stop me. I thought he was just worried about me—
"Alright, I’ll take the actual poison this time," I announced, reaching for the pill bottle with renewed determination.
Zephyr’s hand shot out, catching my wrist in a vice-like grip before I could pop the lid.
"No, fool," he hissed. "It won’t work that way. You already have the antidote in your system. The poison won’t take effect until it clears, which will take hours."
"...Oh." I deflated, nodding like a chastised student. "S-sorry."
Zephyr released me with a sigh, rubbing his temples as if I’d single-handedly shortened his lifespan. "Don’t worry. Thankfully, I prepared another type of poison as a backup." He took out a small amber vial. "We can start your training with that."
I perked up, giving him a thumbs-up. "Cool."
Zephyr looked like he wanted to strangle me.
Instead, he pinched the bridge of his nose and began explaining in clipped tones. Turns out, poison training wasn’t as simple as "swallow and suffer." There were steps—precise, controlled steps—to avoid, you know, death.
"This one," Zephyr said, holding up the amber vial, "is ordinary. Harmless, relatively speaking. It’ll cause mild nausea, maybe a headache. Perfect for beginners." He paused. "Like you ."
I nodded along, trying to look serious despite the lingering embarrassment.
"First, you’ll take a quarter dose. Then we monitor your reaction. If you don’t collapse, we proceed. If you do—"
"I get an antidote and a lecture?"
Zephyr’s eye twitched. "Yes."
Under Zephyr’s watchful gaze, I carefully picked out a tiny reddish pill from the bottle—the kind you’d see in those cultivation stories where protagonists swallowed poison like candy. I placed it on my tongue and waited.
Nothing.
I swallowed slowly. Still nothing.
Zephyr observed me intently, scribbling notes on his notepad with clinical precision.
"Take another," he ordered.
I obeyed. Then another.
Still nothing.
Then another two.
"..."
"Hmm?"
Finally, after the fourth pill, a faint discomfort settled in my stomach—that subtle, creeping unease that whispers nausea is coming.
Zephyr’s pen paused. "Two more."
I took two additional pills, the discomfort intensifying slightly but remaining manageable.
"...Interesting," Zephyr muttered, scribbling faster. He glanced up, assessing me like a specimen under glass. "Your immune system is already exceptional for an ordinary human. Might be even better than some low-rank Resonators."
I nodded. "It’s probably because of that bath—I mean, the pill Virion gave me."
Zephyr’s head snapped up. "The Clearflow Pill?"
"No, it wasn’t that. Virion gave me something else, but my eyes were closed because I was in the water, so I couldn’t see what it looked like. "
Zephyr’s grip on his pen tightened. "Describe it. What happened after you took it?"
I recounted the experience—the searing heat, the feeling of my body being reforged from the inside out, the way my senses sharpened afterward.
Zephyr’s eyes widened fractionally. This might have been the biggest reaction I saw from him since our first meeting. Because for a man who rarely showed emotion, it might as well have been a gasp.
"That..."
He stared at me, his gaze sweeping from head to toe as if seeing me for the first time.
"What is it?" I asked, uneasy. "Was it that valuable?"
I knew it wasn’t ordinary.
"...Something like that," Zephyr replied, his tone deliberately neutral. But the way his pen dug into the paper betrayed his surprise. He finished writing with a final, decisive stroke. "Alright. This is enough for today. You passed."
"Oh, thank you."
He snapped the notepad shut. "I’ll prepare a new training plan. The current one is... insufficient. But we’ll still use it as a foundation. Because we can’t exactly jump right into higher-level poisons."
"Alright," I nodded in understanding.
"And remember, never underestimate even ’ordinary’ poisons—complacency kills faster than toxins." Zephyr pointed his pen at me, his voice serious.
"Yes, I’ll keep that in mind," I nodded firmly.
And I meant it.
In countless stories I knew, there were cases where overconfident characters would often meet their downfall through seemingly harmless poisons. There were even clichés where assassins disguised lethal toxins as common ones—a deadly dose hidden beneath an ordinary exterior.
Never let your guard down , I reminded myself. Even the most mundane things can kill you here.
Zephyr studied me for a moment longer, then gave a slight nod of approval. "Good. Then we’re done for today."
He turned to pack up his vials, his movements precise. I watched as he carefully labeled each one before storing them away—no room for mistakes when dealing with substances like these.
"...So," I ventured after a moment, "when do we continue?"
Zephyr didn’t look up. "Tomorrow. Same time." A pause. "And don’t eat beforehand."
Oh. That doesn’t sound ominous at all.
"Right. No afternoon snacks. Got it."
With that, Zephyr flicked his wrist, opening a portal back to the library. The swirling energy cast eerie shadows across his face as he finally met my gaze.
"Rest well. Tomorrow won’t be as... gentle."
And with those comforting words, he let me get back to the library, while he was left alone in the sterile training room as the portal closed.
I exhaled, rolling my shoulders. The faint nausea had already faded, but the weight of what lay ahead lingered.
Poison immunity.
It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t flashy. But in a world where a single meal could be your last, it might just be the difference between life and death.
And if Zephyr’s reaction to Virion’s pill was any indication, I was already further along than I’d realized.
And now, I have to survive another deadly training.