Bitter Root Herb
Bitter Root Herb
I stepped on the empty air and endlessly surged upward.
The soft yet firm sensation against the soles of my feet pushed me high into the sky.
Before I knew it, clouds like white cotton puffs were brushing past around me.
When I reached the altitude where clouds floated, my vision cleared wide open.
I looked down below, dizzyingly far.
Through the dense forest, I saw a small clearing.
There, a wounded lion beastman and guard members were confronting a group shrouded in a foul dark purple smoke.
「Is that it?」
Having confirmed the target, I turned my gaze to the system window that had been constantly popping up in the corner of my vision.
-Ting!
[Maximum height for Stoop casting reached.]
[Deals damage equal to 600% of movement speed to the enemy at the center, and 85% splash damage to surrounding enemies.]
Damage proportional to movement speed, huh.
The movement speed increase from the Boots of the Free Sky I'm wearing alone is 55%.
Combined with my agility stat, that 600% figure was certain to produce destructive power beyond imagination.
Without hesitation, I put power into the feet that were stepping on the empty air.
'Stoop.'
The moment I cast the skill, my body began hurtling downward at a ferocious speed.
-Shiiik!
A ripping sound that tore at my ears rang out.
The wind brushed past my cheek like a blade.
My appearance as I plummeted toward the ground was reminiscent of a falcon diving swiftly toward its prey.
'Whoa, crazy. Why is the speed like this?'
Honestly, even I didn't know it would be this fast, so I was inwardly breaking out in a cold sweat and got surprised.
An instinctive fear washed over me: would my bones and flesh be safe if I slammed into the ground with this tremendous acceleration?
But I could neither stop nor reduce speed.
It was the moment my two feet touched the exact center of the intruders wreathed in dark purple smoke.
-Kwaaaaaang!!
From the tips of my feet, a blindingly white burst of light erupted like an explosion.
With a tremendous roar that seemed to tear my eardrums, the ground screamed and heaved.
Gigantic waves of dust rose in all directions.
I shut my eyes tight and braced for the enormous impact that would spread through my entire body.
But.
「Huh?」
No impact whatsoever was delivered to my body.
It was just the feeling of lightly hopping in place and then landing.
「This is really a cheat item.」
I loosened up my body and looked around in the thick dust.
Everything was hazy white; I couldn't see an inch ahead.
Then, beyond the dust, I could faintly see the figure of a lion beastman crouching behind a large shield.
It was the face I had seen with Romanike in the village last time.
I brushed the dust off my clothes and walked toward him.
And asked in a very calm, everyday voice,
「This is the north, right? But where are the intruders?」
At my indifferent question, the lion beastman stared at me with his eyes wide as if they would pop out.
His mouth dropped open, and he raised a trembling finger to point in front of me.
Following where his fingertip pointed, my gaze naturally turned downward.
Only then did the thick dust gradually settle, revealing the carnage around in stark detail.
In the middle of the massive crater I had created upon landing.
Around it, the intruders who had been threatening the lion beastman just moments ago were sprawled with their limbs grotesquely twisted.
All of them were unconscious or perhaps dead, not even twitching.
As I quietly looked down at their miserable state, I finally grasped the situation.
「Ah....」
I clicked my tongue awkwardly and scratched the back of my head.
-Ting!
[1. Remnant Cleanup (2/4)]
I confirmed the sight of the enemies who had been fighting fiercely for life and death just moments ago, now cruelly smashed to pieces with a single drop.
Then I let out a deep sigh and moved my steps toward the guard members who were still cowering behind their shields in terror.
As I got closer, the condition of the beastmen was far more serious than I had thought.
Perhaps because they had just been in fierce combat, some were deeply cut with bone clearly visible, and most of all, the majority were suffering, their skin rotting away from exposure to that damn dark purple smoke.
A foul miasma mixed with the blood flowing from the wounds was spreading into the air, eating away at their vitality.
「Ugh... it hurts....」
「Please... somebody....」
Painful groans and desperate voices sank heavily into the forest.
Without delay, I opened my inventory and took out [Sweet Healing Potion].
「For now, at least drink this.」
Starting with the beastmen with deep wounds, I poured the potion into their mouths one by one.
As soon as the potion went down, the torn skin seemed to close faintly and the bleeding stopped.
But that was the extent of the effect.
The healing speed was noticeably slow, and it was woefully insufficient to perfectly save those with fatal wounds.
Especially the ones poisoned by the dark purple miasma were in an even worse state.
As if mocking the potion's healing effect, the miasma spread fiercely across their skin, constantly chipping away at their health.
Without any sign of the potion having any effect, their faces were turning ashen and they were dying.
「The potion isn't working.」
I gritted my teeth.
It was the moment the potion's limitations were clearly revealed.
If things continued like this, all the beastmen consumed by the poison would lose their lives.
As I racked my brain for what to do, a spark of memory flashed through my mind.
'Ah! Orichalcum Dagger!'
The memory of cutting through that terrible dark smoke that had consumed Prodi's wife and children.
Without hesitation, I drew the [Orichalcum Dagger of Purification and Crushing] from my waist.
A faint purple sheen flowed along the blade.
I lightly swung the Orichalcum Dagger toward the body of a beastman rolling on the ground from the poison.
-Ting!
[Salvation activates.]
*Salvation: When striking an ally, instantly removes any harmful effects (debuffs/status ailments) on the target.
Along with the clear notification sound, a cool purifying light emanated from the tip of the dagger's blade.
As soon as that pure energy touched the hideous dark purple spots covering the beastman's skin, a miracle unfolded.
Like ice melting under a hot sun, the terrible miasma that had been eating away at the beastman's life turned into smoke and dissipated into the air.
「......!」
A sense of peace gradually returned to the face of the beastman who had been writhing in pain, and life began to flow back into his ashen skin.
His ragged breathing also steadied.
「Th-the poison is gone!」
「Oh my god, that human saved us!」
The other guard members, who had been frozen in confusion, witnessed the scene and shouted in disbelief, cheering.
At the ray of light that bloomed in the desperate situation, even the lion beastman's eyes reddened and he bowed his head to me.
But.
Just because the miasma was removed didn't mean their deep wounds had healed.
The cut that showed bone and the critical condition from excessive blood loss remained the same.
Seeing them groaning on the ground, I clicked my tongue.
'Now it's really time to make higher-tier potion items too.'
I couldn't keep holding on with normal-grade potions made on the 1st floor forever.
To face higher floors and stronger enemies, I desperately needed recovery methods that matched them.
Come to think of it, how do these beastmen heal when they're injured?
Do they have separate jobs like recovery mages or healers?
I turned my head to the lion beastman still gripping his shield tightly and asked.
「Hey. When you get injured, how do you usually heal?」
At my question, the lion beastman rummaged inside his clothes and took out something covered in dirt to show me.
At a glance, it was a thick root plant that looked like ginseng or bellflower root from Earth.
But on its surface, there were patches of an unpleasant blue sheen scattered about.
「When we sustain major injuries, we chew and eat this.」
At his answer, I received the root plant.
The moment it touched my fingertips, a system window quietly appeared.
[Bitter Root Grass]
Grade: Epic
[Has excellent wound healing effects, but contains a deadly poison inside, so special caution is required when ingesting.]
「Huh...?」
I read the item description and doubted my own eyes.
A deadly poison in a healing herb?
Panicked, I stared at the lion beastman.
「It says it has poison?!」
Despite my urgent cry, several beastmen lying beside me, finding the Sweet Healing Potion I gave them ineffective, took out that bitter root grass from their own clothes.
And without even brushing off the dirt, they started chewing it whole with crunchy bites.
-Crunch crunch.
「Hey! Wait!」
I had no time to stop them.
The faces of the beastmen who chewed and swallowed the bitter root grass rapidly started turning a fiery red.
Thick veins bulged as if about to burst on their necks and foreheads, and they writhed in agony far more terrible than when they were wounded, rolling on the ground.
「Kyaaaak!」
Watching them suffer as if they had swallowed a fireball, I looked at the lion beastman in horror.
「Wait, you eat this knowing it's poison?!」
At my shocked question, the lion beastman nodded calmly, as if it was nothing.
「We know.」
「You know and still eat it?!」
At the common sense of this crazy race that chews it raw with no way to detoxify the poison, my thought process was on the verge of shutting down.
The lion beastman looked down at his comrades rolling on the ground with calm eyes and answered very simply and clearly.
「If you're strong, you survive. If you're weak, you die.」
「.......」
I was at a loss for words.
This was no different from playing Russian roulette, not taking a healing potion.
At the beastmen's wild, survival-of-the-fittest ways, I let out a hollow laugh while dry-washing my face.
But while it was undoubtedly a bizarre method, the effect seemed certain.
Because the deep cuts of the beastmen who had endured the poison's pain were healing at a remarkably rapid rate.
The sight of new flesh growing in and filling the spot where bone was visible was wondrous.
I looked down intently at the bitter root grass in my hand.
Its healing effect is tremendous, befitting its Epic grade.
The problem is the deadly poison mixed within.
So then.
'If I can perfectly refine and extract only that poison...?'
My instinct as a crafter was intensely stimulated.
I stroked my chin and rolled the bitter root grass around in my hand.
「Will this work, I wonder...?」
My muttered words scattered over the heavy air of the forest.