When I opened my eyes again, I was in a bed. I had liquid-filled bag connected to my arm, Rose was on a chair next to me taking my hand with her head resting on my bed, beside the white glow coming from our hands everything else was dark.
I looked at the notifications. The notification from the snake that bitted me wasn't there, probably because it was Cai-Cai who ended throwing it onto the fire. Besides the F-Ranked beasts I killed, there were three more notifications.
[Skill Obtained Poison Resistance Lv. 1]
[Skill Obtained Soul Resistance Lv. 1]
[Mission Complete: Help Cai-Cai
Reward: Choose (Poison Resistance / Detoxification / 3 Skill points), Evolution ticket]
The poison resistance option was greyed out and couldn't be chosen anymore, the ticket would have called my attention a lot more if it wasn't because of the Soul Resistance skill.
I recalled what happened after I got bitten, I was able to fight for a while before fainting, and after I passed out I had a weird dream… a forest was burning down, I was being followed fire-snakes, Rose appeared there and saved me. I looked back at the girl sleeping on the chair and the white glow, Lucy was nowhere to be seen, so I suppose she is still inside of me.
I understood that different to what I thought at the beginning the poison didn't attack just my body, it was an evolved type of poison that attacked my soul too. A cold feeling went through my back giving me goosebumps at the thought of a poison corroding my soul.
The antidote was just helpful to treat the physical part of the poison, so Rose and Lucy had to fight the other part by themselves. Probably it didn't happen as I saw in my nightmare, but it was perhaps a way for my mind to show me what was happening.
I didn't see Dante or anyone else around, probably the doctors kicked them out, but as Rose was a part of my treatment they have to leave her here, I don't think they would manage to make her leave my side anyway.
I tried to move to move a little, but my body felt heavy. I moved my hand and managed to take Rose's finger and caress her hand with my thumb.
Is the difficulty to move related to the soul damage or I'm just tired?
Since I had already got poison resistance I looked at the options I had now.
'System how does detox work?'
[Detoxification separates the poison from the person and physically extract it from the body]
'I extract poison from the people, but any damage caused by it remains?'
[Yes, the extent of the damage depends on the time and the exposure, with a higher level in detox, the complexity of the poisons that can be extracted is higher, in none of the levels the damage is repaired]
'Can I use the poison I extract from the body?'
[No, the poisons became useless once they are extracted from the body, certain control and knowledge in poison might help to create a new one from the liquid extracted]
'Does it work on the soul-damaging part or another kind of toxic?
[In higher levels it work on any type of poison, including soul and mind, about other toxic it will depend on the capacity to separate it, but at higher levels, it should work on most foreign substances]
Well after this experience I definitely want it, it's not like it would have helped in my particular case, but I don't think that a soul poison is a common occurrence anyway.
'Choose Detox'
[E-Rank support ability Obtained Detoxification]
And esper ability? The fact that Detoxification was an esper ability took me by surprise, but I understood that it had a supernatural component on it. I immediately used detox on myself. I felt something coming out of my chest through my throat and coughed, a black liquid came out of my mouth.
My sudden movement awaken Rose who worried came to my side and was about to call a nurse.
"I'm ok, I tried a new skill to take the poison out of my body." I quickly explained.
She looks and the black liquid at my side, and carefully cleaned It with a piece of cloth and covered with a clean one for the moment.
"That was inside you?" I gave a slight nod with a wry smile.
"Yeah… can you bring me water? I still have some on my mouth."
She took a bottle from a table that was near and gave it to me. I washed my mouth and spit on a bucket that was at my side.
She was looking at me worried. I gave her a reassuring smile and softly squeezed her hand.
"How is my soul?"
"Your remember your nightmare?"
"Yes, and I got a soul resistance skill, so I suppose that the poison hurt my soul too."
She nodded looking at my hand.
"Think this way, when the poison went into your body, your body and the antidote fight against it. The Spiritual component on the poison is not strong, but your soul didn't have any defenses to that attack, so it did whatever it wants until we stopped it. We already took care of it, but with Lucy, we are trying to heal the damage now, actually what happened to you on the nightmare is pretty accurate, if you think about your soul as the forest."
In that case, it was really a close call, my difficulty to move probably was related to the damage on my soul then.
"It's going to be difficult to go in the scouting mission then…"
Rose looked at me with a wry smile.
"Spence the scout group leave this morning you have been sleeping for more than a day."
Without believing it, I looked at the timer in the missions I had, and indeed there was one day less.
Well, there was nothing I could do about it, I hope that they discover something. Rose was distant and silent.
"is everyone else ok?"
"Yes, you were the only that got hurt on the battle…"
She fell silent and looked at the light on our hands.
"Rose is something wrong?"
"You are not mad at me?"
"Why would I be mad at you?"
She told me the whole story, how she wanted to try using Dante as an anchor, the moment they both noticed that there was something weird in the forest. When they met Cai-Cai and discovered the threat of the swamp beasts when she decided to go further in the forest to prevent it. And how they tried to leave when they noticed that there was not a chance for it to work.
"You got bitten because of me." She said when she finished the story.
I understood why she felt guilty, but I was actually glad that she discovered this now and it wasn't a surprise in a few more days.
"Rose is not your fault, I could have been bitten, stunned, mind manipulated or any other kind of crazy stuff that you can think off in any moment if I was bitten was because I was careless not because of you. And I'm glad that it happened now and not in the middle of a war against the swamp beasts in a surprise attack in the future."
My talk didn't help in anything. I knew that she still felt guilty.
"I know something that can help… Lie down next to me, I want to try something."
I made some space at the opposite side of the bed. She looked at me like if I was joking and seemed a little reluctant.
"I think that having my girlfriend on my arms will heal my soul."
She rolled her eyes but complied with my request. To be honest, I was just trying to cheer her up a little and have some skinship, but it actually worked, with more skin contact the white glow coming from us grew larger. If it wasn't because a little while ago I had poison on my mouth, I would be kissing her.
She snuggled into my chest and closed her eyes.
As I focused on the light coming from her hand, I noticed that the feeling it gave was similar to something coming from inside me that I didn't notice before. Lucy is also working hard.
I patted her back while hearing her soft breathing, I'm not sure how much my recovery speed went up with this, but since the physical part of the poison left my body already, and the soul healing was speeding up I might be able to move soon, time is not a luxury I have.
Even after sleeping for a whole day I was still tired, and the warmth coming from Rose made me drowsy, and I fell asleep soon after her.