Chapter 59: Rank Up
As Medusa promised, she had mobilized her people and turned her house into a small factory, where snake people shredded and rolled Nith’s resources into cigarettes.
None of them could tell the purpose of this manufacture, but their Queen seemed too passionate about it and even bet everything on it. Besides their sense of duty, there was a strange feeling within the snake people, as if they had touched upon something lost, something that belonged to them.
All those feelings spurred them into a perfect workforce that produced many cigarettes in a short amount of time.
“Another batch is ready!”
“On it!”
Meanwhile, Nith worked in a room beside others, hidden within four walls with a long workbench and a vast cauldron at his side.
Various leaves, some of which appeared too similar to one another, and other resources sprawled across the workbench. On his left side, the cauldron bubbled with liquefied Asphyxiation Toxin.
The same resources one could see on the workbench clung to the cauldron’s bottom.
It was a process that would change their properties to match Nith’s needs, as well as make their natural poison effective on others.
Without Nith’s tempering, those leaves were as poisonous as deadly mushrooms from Nith’s first world, but the sanctuary’s blessing rendered them useless.
This meant that Nith was doing something relatively simple—creating an addictive tobacco that, once shredded and meshed together, would conjure Asphyxiation Poison over everyone’s heads and also make others addicted to it.
Though it sounded simple, it was anything but.
If alchemists saw Nith doing this without any title and mana, they would have dropped to their knees and questioned their talent. All of this turned Nith into a quite miraculous alchemist.
Despite all those hurdles, Nith produced enough ingredients that he wasn’t worried about his limited time.
If anything, he didn’t like how he had to keep an eye on every detail.
In the back of his mind, he also thought he could have produced many more ingredients if he had a title.
That was when he sensed something unusual. It confused him for only a second before drawing a wide smile on his face—a smile that would have made people believe he had killed thousands.
‘Fucking finally,’ Nith thought.
[You have obtained a new title—Venom Virtuoso’s Noxious Design(F)]
[Venom Virtuoso’s Noxious Design(F)—a title granted to the Venom Virtuoso, highly compatible with his poisons and Venom Virtuoso’s Instrument(F), in his pursuit of spreading his noxious passion across the world. This title facilitates Venom Virtuoso’s influence outside his comfort zone, enabling him to spread his venom through niche means. Venom Virtuoso has acquired a single passive skill from it—Venom Virtuoso’s Refinement(F)]
[Venom Virtuoso’s Refinement(F)—a passive skill that allows one to sense the minuscule changes their poison causes in anything, as well as extract poison and inject more of it with precise control.]
[You have acquired seven titles!]
[You have ranked up to The Second Grade!]
As Nith’s stats upgraded, he felt a jolt of electricity course through him. Not hiding his delight, he moaned, indulging in the new boons sinking into him.
‘From the start,’ Nith thought as he closed his eyes, standing still with his head arched back as if he was presenting himself to the world. ‘The Instrument Title is compatible with Noxious Design, meaning I need to find a high-quality alchemist utensil. A cauldron seems the best option, but I’ll see.’
Now that he had ranked up, he could turn a cauldron into his instrument and orchestrate more chaos in the world! Not only that, but the rank up also meant that his newly gained skills progressed from F to E, further strengthening them.
Nith’s newest passive skill was the best example of this process.
Despite Venom Virtuoso’s Refinement stating that he could sense minuscule changes, extract, or inject more poison into anything, there would be limits depending on the ingredients.
Climbing grades brought skills closer to their perfect forms. As for those already at SSS and their titles, Nith now had much more leeway, depending on his efforts to unleash their full power and acquire more skills.
With this rank up, it was now much easier for Nith to exploit his SSS titles and gain additional benefits from them.
‘I can feel the ingredients and their poison as well as my poison replacing them. This can work not only for alchemy but also against people. This passive skill is more than I could have asked for. It enables me so fucking well. And we’re one step closer to our advanced healing potions. I might as well try going beyond my limits, too,’ Nith smirked as he thought.
Staring at the ingredients drowning in the poison, Nith licked his lips and controlled their process with his new passive skill, injecting his poison into them at a much faster rate.
He moaned at having this level of control. What thrilled him even more was that he had only ranked up once, meaning there was still so much more potential for growth. This single thought stirred him so much that he realized he couldn’t confine himself to a single store.
Given recent events and Kyouka’s development, it all came together nicely, although Nith… well, he didn’t want to dwell on it.
To ensure he wouldn’t think of anything inappropriate or say anything aloud—lest someone overhear him and tell Kyouka—Nith fished out one of his cigarettes and stuffed it between his lips.
He lit it up and drew a lot of toxin into himself. ‘For fuck’s sake, did I just smoke because I wanted to look edgy? Nah, people smoke for other reasons, too. I don’t want to spout nonsense right now, so I gotta keep my lips busy. Not like Kyouka’s here so I can make my venomous tongue busy with her mouth. Shit, this is getting edgier.’
Aware he was heading down a path that other legendary players would sneer at, Nith sucked on the cigarette… until an unexpected status effect appeared before him.
[You have obtained a new skill from Venom Virtuoso’s Noxious Design—Edgy Cigarettes(E)]
“…I’m taking this to the grave.”
