Zero glanced back at the pond and saw that the creature did not follow them. He also noticed the huge dent Caelum left on the ground.
'Aww, he cares about me so much… wait why'd I think that? Ah, my leg, my leg.'
Zero let Caelum pull him forward for a bit longer before he motioned for him to stop. Currently, it felt like his leg was burning. So he pointed down at his leg, which was covered in small seration marks. It was also turning an unnatural shade of light purple.
'Is it less purple than before?'
Zero watched for a moment more and saw the purple fade.
"I thought it poisoned me. I mean, my leg was turning purple, but now it's going back to normal, and my leg stopped burning as much. I mean the cuts kinda burn, but that's it."
Caelum kneeled and placed his hands around Zero's leg. When he did, the seration marks disappeared. But there was no need for any purple to disappear since it was already gone.
For good measure, Caelum moved his hands up and covered Zero's whole leg, but except for the blissful feeling that healing gave, he felt no concerning difference than with a healthy body.
"I got your whole leg, so hopefully the poison does not spread. Are you hurt anywhere else?"
"No, it just got my leg. Should we go back and kill it? We won't be able to eat it, though."
"Then let us not. Does your boon cover poison resistance?"
"Oh, I guess recovery speed would do that, but there's nothing specific on poison."
'Then why did the poison fail? Was there not enough? Oh, I got it.'
Zero opened his glyphs and looked at his blessing.
{
[Origin of Blood](Seeker)
(You inherit the blood of the Forsaken Deity of Life and are a creature of its creation. Thus, your blood is Abyssal, and your being is Forsaken. Your instinct is a weak remnant from that Forsaken Deity. The instinct of your body is therefore Forsaken. A sense of adventure exists within you until you are whole. Seek out the remaining blood to become complete once again.)
}
His blood was Abyssal? He did not know what Abyssal meant, but it was capitalized, so he hoped it was on par with a Deity. But his special blood probably explained his resistance to the pond creature's poison.
"Ah, actually I think it has to do with my blessing. Sorry, I didn't notice it at first since it's kinda vague. Otherwise, I would have brought it up yesterday."
"No need to apologize. It is good that you had that. I do not know if my healing abilities cover poison."
"Yeah, should we go then. I want to get far away from that pond."
That was actually a lie. Zero wanted to go back and try to kill the creature for cutting up his leg. But it was too big a risk. Plus, if Valiant Blade did not have the Works of a Hero enchantment, Zero would probably not want to go back.
So they continued their journey to the west. Since Zero's leg was poisoned, Caelum insisted that he would carry the Harvest Knat and meat. After a bit, Zero let in, so he was not carrying anything at the moment.
Eventually, around noon, they met an incline and started taking turns carrying the woody backpack. It was heavy after all. They briefly stopped to cook some meat, and Caelum talked about the creatures in the area. Though whatever was in the water, he had no clue what it was.
He mostly just said to watch out for smaller poisonous snakes and grown drakes. There were also some four-legged animals with sharp horns, but with both of them, it should be manageable.
Once they finished, they continued to attack the inclined slope.
'Wow…'
Zero stood a cautious bit away from the ledge, but it did not diminish the view. Spread out before him was a vast expanse, with another cliffside opposite to him. The trees were spaced enough not to block the rippling grass below, and Zero could even see smaller dots moving around. Though he could not ascertain what they were.
In the center of all of it sat a large lake that glimmered in the sun. Next to it was a gruesome corpse.
The corpse of a large drake peeked out from behind a tree. This one was grown and would have had wings attached to it if it had not been ripped off entirely. A quite remarkable distance away, the large wing of the drake was lying on the grass, which had been turned red from dried blood.
It seemed like when drakes grew, the front legs would eventually turn into wings. It was very reminiscent of what a Wyvern would be considered to be.
Zero tapped Caelum's shoulder and pointed to the corpse. Caelum slightly tilted his head.
"I can not tell if it adds to the beauty or not."
"Uh, yeah. Who's to say? Should we hurry to the next island?"
"I think that is a good idea, Zero."
Not admiring the beauty anymore, they set off down the slope. Somewhere along the way, Zero decided to manifest his dragon head again.
Things had been rather calm, but unfortunately, that came to an end. Thankfully, it was just a Harvest Gnat, so it was disposed of quite easily.
This time, the creature died immediately from Zero's hit. The question was, what do do with the spirit crystal? Both of them were already max level, so for now, Zero just held onto it.
After switching out the backpack with the fresh one, they continued on their way down the slope. From the hilltop, they had spotted another island some distance away, but there was the concern of not being able to cross the void separating the two islands.
Despite that, they still continued with high hopes.
At some point, the slope evened out, and Zero had a feeling they were close to the edge. When they finally reached it, they were met with a rather fortunate sight.
While the distance between the islands was much too far to cross, it seemed a tree had fallen towards the void, but got caught on the other island. Additionally, its roots were still mostly intact, so the tree would not roll off if they chose to cross it.
Zero was checking the tree's stability on the other side when he noticed an anomaly of sorts. Tufting into the air in small clouds was a grey film. The same kind of film produced when they had created a fire earlier.
Was it a forest fire, or another human?