Volume 1 - CH 8

Act 1-8: First Meal

It turned out that this place also had a circle of night and day. As per my calculations, seven days had passed since I got trapped in this place. These seven days had smashed my expectations to pieces.

Hunger did exist, and elixir alone was far from enough to fill my stomach. I had already consumed the brown bread in my bag long ago.

I was starving right now. It felt like the skin of my abdomen was sticking to my stomach.

Even after searching the area many times over, I couldn’t even find a blade of grass to eat. The only thing I saw was those caterpillars.

However, it was still too early to give up. Those caterpillars were poisonous. Since I couldn’t find anything on the surface, I decided to try underground. There, I might be able to find bug larvae. I could still move; I just needed to persevere for a bit more.

—Another fifteen days have passed. Digging all this time with an 【Unbreakable Stick】 has been fruitless. I’ve run out of stamina to dig anymore. I think I’ve finally reached my limit. I know that if I don’t eat anything, I will die in a few days.

I couldn’t think properly because of the starvation haunting me every hour. When I recalled this situation later on, I realized that this might have been the main reason I did such a silly thing.

「KUHAHAHA! If I don’t eat, I will die! I would rather have a quick death than suffering such hell!!」

Currently, in my right hand, I was holding the caterpillar that seemed to be enough for one mouthful. This caterpillar was an extremely poisonous bug—a bug that contains an extremely strong poison capable of killing a dragon in just a moment. Moreover, the bug had extreme nutritional value.

A poisonous bug capable of instantly killing a dragon. If I ate this, I knew I’d die. Therefore, I drank elixir over and over again till my stomach was full of it. And then, I swallowed that extremely poisonous bug at once.

THROB! THROB!　

Suddenly, an unimaginable heat assailed my stomach. It felt as if magma had been poured into my stomach. My vision turned red.

『You have met the requirement to get weak poison resistance. You gained a skill―【Weak Poison Resistance】.』

On the verge of passing out, I heard the voice of an inorganic woman.

「I’m still… alive?」

My head and my body hurt like hell, yet I was still alive.

The headache and nausea disappeared as soon as I drank elixir. The main point was that I didn’t feel hungry anymore.

The voice of the woman when I was about to pass out did say 【Weak Poison Resistance】.

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・Skill―【Weak Poison Resistance】: Resistance against weak poison.

・Condition for skill acquisition: Survive even after eating a living creature that contains poison over a thousand times more lethal than usual.

・Rank: Elementary rank

・Rank up condition: Survive even after eating a hundred living creatures that contain poison over a thousand times more lethal than usual.

―――――――――――――――――――――

Weak poison resistance, huh! I had gained that skill by surviving after eating that bug with the help of elixir.

I had never even heard of a poison resistance skill, but then, no one could survive poison a thousand times more lethal than usual without a miracle drug called elixir. That must’ve been the main reason.

Anyhow, just one of those caterpillars was enough to fill my belly. With this, I wouldn’t have to worry about food for the time being. However, once I ate all of those caterpillars, things would change.

—A hundred days have passed. Maybe because I acquired weak poison resistance, I don’t faint anymore as long as I drink elixir. Well, the headache and the nausea are truly unbearable though.

In these hundred days, I had fulfilled the upgrade condition of 【Weak Poison Resistance】 and acquired 【Poison Resistance】.

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・Skill―【Poison Resistance】: Resistance against poison.

・Condition for skill acquisition: Survive even after eating a hundred living creatures that contain poison over thousand times more lethal than usual.

・Rank: Intermediate rank

・Rank up condition: Survive even after eating a thousand living creatures that contain poison over a thousand times more lethal than usual.

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Now when I ate the caterpillar after drinking the elixir, I didn’t feel headache or nausea anymore.

Moreover, I understood something in these hundred days. The number of those extremely poisonous bugs didn’t decrease at all. Maybe they had extreme fertility or it was the work of this bizarre space. Whatever the reason was, their number remained constant in this place. Since the caterpillars didn’t seem to breed or transform into butterflies, I think the latter reason was the cause of their constant number.

In this way, the 【Extremely Poisonous Bug】 became my indispensable staple food.