Daniel stood in the middle of the platform in complete silence. Around him, his companions were standing as well, while floating on the surface of the dark body of water, was the ancient red carp which had just spectated to Daniel's method of producing this so called 'antidote'.
Floating all around the platform, were exactly thirty-six pills of the size of a nail. Their color was dull and they appeared extremely unimpressive to most, but not to Daniel. He knew what effect these pills could bring to a human, and it was something that was worth more than his friends could imagine.
While the rest were waiting for Daniel's next move, he was quietly observing the solitary window that had appeared the moment the pills had been successfully produced.
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*No Time For Poisons*
Fourth objective complete.
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*Primary Quest started UPDATE: No Time For Poisons*
-Description: Find a cure of the Poison of the Night Blue Thorn.
Fifth objective set: Ingest one of the pills.
Optional: Name the pill.
Reward: Unnamed cure for the Poison of the Night Blue Thorn / Partial Poison Immunity / The Poisonous Rose Reputation +75% / (Optional) Universal Government Reputation +2%
Time limit: 28 days
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What had caused Daniel to be shocked, was the updated entries of the current quest. He had imagined that the creation of these pills would create a storm in the territory in which the poisonous rose operated, but for them to cause his reputation in the entire universal government to rise, it was way above what he had ever thought possible.
Just as one of these pills happened to float in front of him, he moved his hand forward, and grabbed it in mid air.
"Here goes nothing.." He muttered before popping the pill into his mouth, and swallowing it whole.
Before the pill could even reach the back of his throat, the contact with his saliva made it rapidly break down from its original solid state, and turn back into a pasty bitter substance, which slowly slid over his tongue. The taste was tremendous, and to Daniel, it seemed like the exact mixture of all of the ingredients he had used. He could taste the fishy taste of the scales and thorns of the two fish, the warm water-like substance which Daniel was struggling not to picture inside the snakes' mouths, and finally, the taste of what Daniel knew to be blood, but whose flavour was much more similar to tree sap.
All of these flavors were already terrible when tried individually, but when mixed together, they were much worse. Daniel was struggling to avoid vomiting the precious paste right out, and to date, he had never felt so much difficulty in keeping something in his stomach as he felt now.
Once this horrendous paste reached his stomach, it quickly started to disintegrate further, and rapidly attached to the internal walls of Daniel's stomach.
A powerful warmth started to emanate from Daniel's abdominal area, which rapidly started to flush through his veins, then seeped into his muscles and buried into his bones. Daniel could resist the pain perfectly well, but then, the warmness started to move up his throat and to encase his head.
It then dug deeper into his skin, through his bones, and finally, when it reached Daniel's brain, he fell on his knees before dropping limp on the ground.
His friends immediately dashed by his side in worry, and Alesia immediately put one of her palms on his forehead to check his temperature. He was burning, but unfortunately, they could do nothing to help.
"He overestimated his own body.." Said the ancient red carp from underneath the dark waters, which not knowing anything about human's medicine, was certain that Daniel had ended up killing himself due to playing with fire. Naturally, the red carp was not rooting for Daniel's failure.. It was simply a matter of ignorance.
A few minutes passed slowly, while Daniel lied on the cold rocky platform, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
It was only after ten full minutes that his breathing started to stabilize, and the temperature of his body started to lower to a normal level. He then opened his eyes slowly, and noticed the group that had crowded around him.
Daniel slowly rose to a sitting position, and touched his body only to feel his now moist clothes tightly wrapped over his sweaty body.
He was rapidly recovering his stamina, and after only a few seconds he was able to spring up on his feet, and approach the spot where he had created the unnamed pills. Once there, he lowered himself and reached for the glass container which contained the scales of the Ancient Red Carp.
He quietly observed the remains of the boiled saliva of the green-skinned snake for a few moments, action which made his friends curious and the ancient red carp alerted. Then, he slowly reached into the glass container for the large scale.
"STOP HIM!" The red carp suddenly shouted from underwater.. But it was too late.
Daniel had already grabbed its scale, which he then observed quietly.
"Dan.. put that down." Said Roley with worry. He knew that the carp's scales were extremely poisonous even if previously treated. If their poisonous power could be removed by simply boiling them, the red carp wouldn't have been so unwilling to part from them.
Daniel heard Roley's words, but his intentions were different. He pinched the scale with two fingers, and with a rapid motion of his shand, he used it to slash towards his right arm, causing a cut to open on his skin.
"NOOO!" Shouted Alesia before dashing towards Daniel with all her speed. Her motion was interrupted by Daniel's hand, that calmed her, as well as prevented her from approaching him any further.
"Don't worry, I'm okay." Responded Daniel with a reassuring tone, as a faint smile appeared on his face. He then turned towards the now quiet red carp, and said "What do you feel?"
The red carp was shocked beyond words. It took no less than a minute before it managed to gather his thoughts, and say "The poison is still present.. But it's not threatening your life anymore.. What did you do?"
Daniel's eyes moved towards his group of friends, who were looking at him with high expectations, then turned back towards the red carp, and said "Poison immunity.. This is a partial poison immunity pill."
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Primary Quest Completed.
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*Primary Quest started (Part 2): Taking Away One's Worth*
-Description: Destroy the reputation of the Navi family.
First objective set: Make the news that a cure to the Poison of the Night Blue Thorn poison has been found known.
Reward: Unnamed cure for the Poison of the Night Blue Thorn / (Optional) Partial Poison Immunity / The Poisonous Rose Reputation +75%
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"So that's what 'chain' meant.." muttered Daniel to himself before turning around, and noticing shocked expressions of his companions. Heimart's eyes were wide opened and his jaw was locked so tightly, that one could hear the snapping sounds from meters away. Roley's mouth was slightly opened due to shock, and he didn't seem to be able to close it back up. Alesia and Der were no exception, and looked at each other for a moment before turning back to look at Daniel in search of some sort of confirmation. Even Jerigh, who was usually stoic, now had his fists tightened, and was breathing in slowly.
But the most shocked person of all was, without a doubt, Serf. He looked at Daniel with an expression that was a combination of all the previous, which paired with his chubbiness, made him look quite hilarious to watch.
"You r-really did it.." He muttered with a faint stutter. "Y-you've really made a cure for my family's poison.."
"Well, this isn't just a cure for the poison.. It's more of a new alchemical product that grants a partial poison immunity. Whoever ingests this will likely be immune to every toxin less powerful than the poison of our new friend's scales." Said Daniel with evident pride while pointing his finger towards the red carp. He had managed to make something incredible, and now, he was enjoying taking the credit for it. There was no need to say that the shock in the faces of his friends brought him great satisfaction.
Of all the people around, only Serf was able to comprehend the magnitude of Daniel's discovery.
Heimart, who had finally managed to come out of his shock, asked "What do we do now?"
"First of all.." He said Daniel before pulling the other two scales out of their containers, and after making them land on his palm, he then moved towards the edge of the platform, and said "I think these belong to you." before placing the three scales in the water, and adding while looking at Roley "Hand me the sphere."
Roley shook the surprise out of his head, and approached Daniel in a matter of seconds. He once again made the high level water sphere appear in his palm, and passed it to Daniel, who turned to look at the red carp and said "Can you take us back on the surface?"
As Daniel finished speaking, the level of the water started to slowly increase, until it reached the height of the group's knees. Then, a gentle motion of the water forced the numerous members of Daniel's group to slide off of the rocky platform, and dive back into the larger body of water.
Once into the water, they were quickly pulled by the red carp's control over water essence, and through the tunnels from which they had come from.
After a couple of minutes, the seven of them found themselves floating on the surface of the large pond.
Over one of the large trees, the hawk-like beast was still waiting, and after it saw them emerge from underwater, it said "It's seven humans now! Did you have some stashed away?" *KWAH KWAH KWAH*
Just like before, the powerful and shrill sound of the beast's laugh sent shivers down the spine of everyone who heard it, with the exception of Daniel, Der, and the red carp.
"Will you kill us if we get out of the water?" Asked Daniel casually, as if he was simply asking how the weather outside of the immense desert storm was.
"Most definitely." Responded the hawk-like beast, now slightly more serious. It had met many humans in the past, but of those who possessed a power lower than his own, Daniel was clearly special.
Daniel shook his head in feigned disappointment, then said "It is better for you to.. I understand. Otherwise I will definitely steal the sphere that is creating these powerful winds, and you wouldn't want that, do you?"
After a moment of silence, the hawk-like beast said with a dead serious tone "Now I am definitely going to kill you.."
"So there really is one.. Good." Said Daniel, as a smile appeared on his face.
After hearing Daniel's words, the hawk-like beast realized his mistake, and shouted in anger "HUMAN! I've killed people bigger, stronger, and smarter than you.. Come out of the water and we will see if it was worth it for you to anger me."
"I'd rather not." Said Daniel before diving into the pond, and swimming all the way down to the bottom, which was at a profundity of about a hundred meters. He then found a space in between two rocks, and placed the high level water sphere in between them, locking it. Finally, with a wave of his hand, he let the immortal essence which he was using to block the sphere's power to dissipate.
The power of the water sphere exploded outwards, causing the sheer power that it emanated to transform into additional water which added to the pod's water.
The level of the water started to slowly rise, centimeter by centimeter. This process kept going for ten full minutes, in which the water of the pond rose to a point where it spilled into the close by moats which hundreds of years ago were part of the seabed, and merged with the pond into creating a medium sized lake.