Chapter 36: Drinking poison
Nero sipped on the recovery serum in the nurse's office. It was an ordinary serum filled with electrolytes and a few other medicinal ingredients to help students recover from the physical toll of aether depletion.
The feeling of using up all his aether, and leaving his body devoid of any, was surprisingly horrendous considering he'd spent his whole life without it. Nero had never had alcohol, but he assumed that this is what a hangover would be like.
At least the serum tasted nice.
"Alright, all your tests have come out with positive results," said a nurse walking up to Nero and Footer. "You're cleared to drink a 0 star recovery potion under supervision."
Both Nero and Footer felt relieved, for this was exactly the result he was hoping for. The tests were to make sure that he would not have any allergic reaction to the potion, which happened sometimes.
Potions were, essentially, fast acting serums or medicine which were made using ingredients which contained aether. While the allergies tended to go away as a card masters level rose, it was not uncommon for Neophytes to react poorly to potions, which had a high concentration of aether.
Nero's test indicated that he had no allergies, but even so, he could only drink the most basic and diluted potions, which were ranked 0 stars.
"Excellent," Footer said, though his expression remained stern. "We can not continue testing. Follow me."
After Nero had depleted all his aether, and reached his limit for controlling his innate ability, Footer had not ended the class. Instead, he took the opportunity to continue different kinds of tests.
The first was to see how long after depletion did it take him to naturally recover enough to once again use his innate ability. It had already been a half hour since then, and Nero was finally beginning to feel some aether return to his body. Unless he sat down and actively restored his aether, he would have to rely on passive restoration which was a much slower process.
While Footer led Nero to a new room where they would continue his tests, he was distracted by the fact that he had somehow developed such a glaring weakness. Just twenty minutes of using his innate ability physically exhausted him more than an hour of training with his spear. He supposed if being a card master was so draining then it made sense that the level after Neophyte offered physical enhancements.
He would have to use his ability sparingly in real combat, as he had no doubt that actual physical exertion would only speed up his exhaustion process.
He should treat it like a trump card rather than using it freely, at least for now.
"It's been nearly 40 minutes," Footer said. "How much aether do you think you've recovered?"
"Maybe 10%," Nero answered, feeling drained.
"Alright, well now you have a baseline for the kind of recovery you can expect. I'm going to give you a 0 star aether replenishing potion, so we can see how much that affects you. It's important to know these things. Newbies often assume that potions will fix them right up and allow them to continue fighting, but that's never the case, especially for 0 star potions.
"The recovery is gradual, and especially cannot sustain the usage of a combat situation. So their next step is to drink multiple potions. Not only will that not work, it is extremely dangerous and could, instead, lead to aether poisoning. You also, absolutely cannot drink different kinds of potions close together.
"Each potion is made from different chemicals and aether rich ingredients. Having potions of different kinds may result in a reaction occurring within your digestive tract. The result could be anything from severe poisoning, to aether combustion or even straight up death."
Having said that, Footer handed Nero a small vial the size of one of his fingers containing a transparent liquid.
"If potions are so dangerous, why are they used so frequently?" Nero asked as he unscrewed the vial and took a sniff. There was no discernible smell either. Perfect. A potentially lethal liquid with no identifiable traits, which he would have to use but be sure never to mix with any other potion.
If all potions were like this, or even just a few, then they were essentially the most easily accessible poisons to exist. They were sold openly to card masters. If he mixed them in a couple of drinks and gave them to someone an hour apart, wouldn't that successfully poison them?
"Before you drink it, I want to give you a disclaimer. We will continue testing your innate ability after this. I know you've said that you are immune to the effects of the fire, but the first thing we will test is if the potion is affected by your flame if you're using it on your body externally. It's better to find out sooner than later. The potion that I've given you is a relatively stable one. Under a rapid drop in temperature it does not turn into anything more dangerous, it will only lose its ability to restore your aether. But that's not the case with all potions, which is why we need to test this."
Nero did not concern himself with the fact that Footer took out a number of first aid cards and drank the potion. Its taste was extremely bitter, to the point that Nero could not help but scowl.
He sat down cross legged on the floor and focused on his body. There was no magical flood of aether as soon as he drank the potion, but after a couple of minutes he could feel a steady stream of aether being absorbed by his body. It seemed the potion released the stream of aether as it began to digest. Perhaps it was some kind of chemical reaction that released aether.
Nero made a mental note to look into Basic Potion Pharmacology when he had the time. For now, he focused only on how quickly the aether was being absorbed. Compared to his passive state it was much faster, but not quite as fast as if he sat down and actively absorbed aether from the air into his body.
"How is it?" Footer asked.
"It's started. I already feel much better. This is much faster than just doing nothing at least."
"Good. To answer your earlier question, the reason potions are used is because out in the field there isn't always time to rest and recover normally. Despite how dangerous potions may be, the benefits they provide are also substantial. Initiates have a higher tolerance, so the chances of something going wrong with them is reduced. It's just Neophytes who have to be extra careful. Now pay attention. Once you feel like you've recovered about 30% of your aether, or as close as possible, I want you to summon your flame around your abdomen and keep it going for as long as possible. Don't worry, if something goes wrong, I'll take care of it."
Summoning his flame around his stomach wasn't something Nero had tried before. As odd as this was, he guessed this counted as training. He closed his eyes and focused on the stream of aether in his body. He wondered if he could use that to aid in his absorption of his innate card.