Elvis could feel his concentration slipping as time passed.
He focused on the spherical mass of tangled threads, his mind working furiously as he pondered how to transform the essence of [Shadow Mist] into a throwable grenade.
His consciousness remained fixed on the tangled threads as he studied them with rapt attention, though the task proved more difficult than he had anticipated.
Then, he caught sight of a tiny, twinkling dark green dot embedded in one of the threads.
Putting two and two together, he realized it must be the location of [Shadow Mist] as the dark green should represent the poisonous property.
With a mental command, the gray thread disentangled itself from the mass and slithered toward his left palm.
Information threatened to flood his mind, but Elvis tried to block it out, narrowing his consciousness onto the twinkling dark green dot instead.
Suddenly, vague scenes flashed through his consciousness, revealing different paths along which [Shadow Mist] could be developed.
They flickered past like clips in a rapidly scrolling slideshow, each disappearing before he could examine it properly.
He managed to capture the meaning of a few.
Some paths enhanced the potency of the stinging venom, intensifying the irritation it inflicted on the eyes, while others compressed the mist into liquid form. A few offered little to no practical benefit.
The scenes flashed by so rapidly that Elvis even missed several of them entirely.
He frowned—or rather, inwardly frowned, since his frozen body wouldn’t move—as he forced himself to concentrate.
He wasn’t interested in increasing the poison’s potency or changing its form. What he needed was a way to make [Shadow Mist] throwable.
He wanted to create a smoke grenade.
Time trickled by as he sifted through multiple scenes, but he still couldn’t find the throwable path.
Suddenly, darkness began tunneling into his consciousness. His perception blurred, and his concentration wavered as the darkness steadily narrowed his field of vision.
Realizing he was about to lose consciousness, Elvis hastily retrieved one of the paths before the darkness swallowed him completely.
His eyes snapped open, and he found himself facing the pitch-black, reflective screen of the television opposite him. He was back in his living room.
[Shadow Essence Path Extracted!]
[Shadow Mist range increased by five meters]
[Poison Artificer Mastery Increased!]
[Mastery: Basic → Intermediate]
[1 Empty Slot unlocked]
———— This story is hosted at g.com.
Abruptly, a pounding headache struck him, and his vision spun, making him feel as though the entire world were spinning around him.
Elvis collapsed onto the couch and passed out.
Elvis’s eyes fluttered open, and the light from the bulb appeared too glaring.
He could hear the low background noise from the television.
He slowly sat up to see Caelithia eating popcorn while watching her favorite TV programs—monster hunting and wildlife documentaries.
"Awake now?" Caelithia asked.
Elvis nodded slowly, still feeling the heavy grogginess clinging to his limbs.
"I thought you were dead until I checked your system and saw you’d done something with [Poison Artificer] and [Shadow Mist]," Caelithia said.
Upon hearing her words, Elvis opened his system to view the skills.
[Skill: Poison Artificer]
[Rank: Acolyte]
[Mastery: Intermediate]
[Description: Grants the host a mental world where poisons can be created, transmuted, and manipulated. From essence, all poisons are born.]
[Artificed Poisons]
1. Shadow Mist
2. <Empty Slot>
———’Mastery has increased. And I got an <Empty Slot> to artifice another poison? I should go for fire essence. Does an <Empty Slot> come with every increase in Mastery? Does this mean I have three more <Empty Slots>?’ Elvis was lost in his thoughts, forgetting about Caelithia.
But that was merely his supposed deduction.
He then checked for any changes in [Shadow Mist].
→Shadow Mist: A dense fog of poisonous black mist that obscures vision and inflicts a mild toxin, causing intense stinging and irritation to the eyes of those caught within.
<ERASE ARTIFICED POISON?!>
’I think nothing changed in the description... The change should be in the distance. But did the duration change?’
Feeling curious, he stretched out his palm and activated the skill.
A few seconds later, the black orb materialized in his palm.
"Hey, don’t—" Caelithia tried to stop him, but it was too late.
Elvis had already crushed the orb, and the black mist erupted, plunging the room into darkness.
"Elvis!" Caelithia barked.
"Sorry. I forgot you were here," Elvis quickly apologized.
Through the darkness, he could make out the light from the television.
’I think I’d have a greater advantage in this darkness if my target were glowing, since I couldn’t create a smoke grenade,’ Elvis thought.
Fifteen seconds later, the darkness faded, revealing the untouched room and Caelithia calmly staring at him—which almost scared the soul out of his body.
"What?" Elvis asked carefully after noticing that her gaze hadn’t left him for several seconds.
"My monster cores," Caelithia replied.
"Just that?"
"Yes."
"Then you should have spoken up," he mumbled and retrieved the sealed bag of cores from his storage bag.
He passed it to her.
Caelithia opened the bag and tried absorbing the monster cores, from Level 4 to Level 5, but they showed no reaction, just like the Level 1 monster cores.
Caelithia stared at Elvis and said with an apathetic expression, "I think I can only absorb monster cores gotten from dungeons. My leveling is going to be super difficult. Just as always, my misfortune strikes again."
Elvis quickly rushed to console her before suicidal thoughts crossed her mind. "Girl, why are you getting all negative? Maybe if you carry monster cores from outside into dungeons, you can absorb them."
"What makes you think so?" she asked calmly.
"Um..." His thoughts churned, his con-man instincts searching frantically for logical-sounding, nonsensical words of wisdom. "Right! Remember when you entered the dungeon? You got your first skill. That was undeniable proof of your connection with dungeons."
Caelithia thought for a few seconds.
Elvis thought she wasn’t buying it and added, "We can still find black nexite shards, so fear not. We just have to register for a dungeon tomorrow."
Caelithia pondered for a few seconds before nodding.
But she stated, "We have to level tomorrow for the Greenhouse Fortress in the morning. A partial level eight is too low; we need to fatten you up."
Elvis’s cheeks spasmed.
’Girl, why are you always in a hurry? Besides, who told you that if you add my levels together, they’d sum up to a partial level? I’m an authentic level eight boss. And fatten me up?! Who taught you that?!’
Despite his inward protest, he wasn’t against the idea.