As Michael stared at the noseless head of the Rampaging Koala, he froze for a few moments, clearly in shock due to what happened. Only after Astrid and I arrived did he regain some semblance of control over his own body. We helped him get out from underneath the creature and step to the side as Rex waddled in our direction with a big smile. He stared at the Archer, "Come back alive?"
"Way too close for comfort, that one, but we all kept our promises, right?" Michael smiled and looked around, trying to see if there was anyone who was injured.
The reality was that we were all in bad shape. Astrid was still reeling from that initial charge. Riley still had some bruises due to the sudden push that the Huskcarver made. And I could feel a lot of my body complaining due to the tumbling and the scraping against the plants. Not to mention that I was pretty positive one of the thorns that got me had some sort of poison, since most of my left leg was completely numb right now. Even moving was starting to be a struggle.
At the very least, I made sure to keep one extra point of Energy in reserve for this exact reason. Before we even started moving around again, I activated {Body Regeneration}. I could feel my wounds closing up, but at the same time, it didn't feel like it was doing anything with the poison. Or at least, it wasn't reducing the effect of the poison. Maybe the skill was capable of at least holding it back so the effects wouldn't increase anymore.
"Astrid, help me out quick!" Riley suddenly spoke up.
I turned towards them only to realize what was happening. The burning fur of the Rampaging Koala was still burning. Just because it had died didn't mean that the fire subsided, and now it was starting to get to the plants on the ground. The vegetation in the cave was still too wet to instantly burst into flames, but if we left it alone, it would be a problem. And to make matters worse, we were a bit too close to the flower we came to pick up than I would like for comfort.
Astrid stepped forward and started looking around, trying to see what she could do. In the end, she decided to use a swing of her axe with {Frost Chop}, and while that did manage to snuff out the flames in one specific area, it did nothing for the fire that was spreading. Having dealt with that kind of thing before in the past, fighting fires in weird locations, I just unraveled the Belt of Frost from my back and started to toss it over the flames, hoping to suffocate it. Seeing what I was doing, Astrid nodded and did the same, smothering the flames with her own cloak.
There was some damage to our clothes, but we managed to put out the flames before they became too much of a problem. Some pieces of some plants that were nearby where the koala died ended up burning, or at least were singed by the flames. Yet, they didn't seem to be beyond recovery. Even Riley confirmed that it was possible, if not likely, to save those plants as long as there was an experienced botanist around.
And they were not talking about themselves but about Trix, who was clearly much more knowledgeable on the subject than any of us. After all, without extensive knowledge, she wouldn't be able to create a place like this. Even Riley knew that they couldn't make a cave similar to the one we were in with their current skill set, and that wasn't only talking about skills but also about general knowledge.
Only after taking care of the flames did we actually stop to rest for a moment. The battle was brief, but it was anything but relaxing. There was something that I had noticed before. Even with the System, if I did a lot in a very short span of time, I would still be absolutely exhausted by the end of it. We all found a place to rest and just lay down on the ground, basking in the success of our victory.
After a few moments of silence, Michael spoke up. "What kind of skills do you think this thing has?"
"I don't think it has any," I replied. "Everything that the koala did could be attributed to physical strength. The only thing that might not be the case was the sturdiness of its skin. But even then, that's not really a guarantee. After all, bears and animals in general have more tough skin than us."
"You don't suppose it has some skill related to syphilis, do you?" Riley asked.
"What?" we all replied at the same time.
Rex was the only one who didn't question it.
"I mean, I remember hearing my master talk about it. She had found a magazine from the old world, and syphilis was rampant in the koala population."
I did my best to try to remember anything about the topic, but I wasn't really sure if Pops ever mentioned anything about koalas having syphilis to me. But, to my surprise, Astrid replied to the question.
"Only in Australia."
"Why just there?" Michael tilted his head as he was sitting down with his back against the rock that Rex created to allow him to be propped up.
"Their home," Astrid replied.
"But if Australia is their home, why is this one here?" Michael frowned.
"Maybe its parents were from a zoo. There were a lot of those things in the old world. Places where humans would keep animals in cages or small enclosures, and those animals could come from pretty much anywhere," I explained, since it was something that Pops had told me before. He loved going to one him with my grandmother.
"Why would they do that? Did the animals migrate there and didn't have any place to stay?"
"No, it was just honestly for the people. We used to keep those animals nearby so we could study them, watch them, sell tickets for children to go see a giant bear or an elephant, animals that they wouldn't be able to see nearby. As a matter of fact, it was kind of hard to see large animals in the Old World. Most of them kept to the jungles, and people just stayed in cities, so that was just a place to connect to our roots, I guess," I continued.
"That sounds very weird," Michael frowned. "But still, what does that mean? Does the koala still have syphilis?"
"If it came from that place, it came from Australia," Riley suggested. "Maybe, but maybe not. Zoos usually had people to look after the animals, so if there was a koala with syphilis, I assume they would have treated it. But I also don't think that they would survive for this long if they had a disease."
"That one is kind of brutal," I added.
"But what if the System helped them survive?" Michael frowned.
And with that suggestion, I did have to agree. It was possible that somehow the System allowed the koala's sickness to linger for longer.
"And if that's the case, would it be safe for us to eat it?" Michael asked.
"I really don't know. Maybe we should take it back to Trix and see if she has any idea, because there's a chance that eating this would be kind of like killing ourselves, at least in the long run."
With that agreement, we decided not to try to eat the creature right now, which was even better since I didn't have any cooking utensils to try to make a decent dish. But Astrid was already looking at the fur of the creature, wondering if she could create another version of the pelt that she made in order to equip the rest of our group.
After about an hour of rest, in which the numbness that I was feeling in my leg finally ceased, we started to move in order to get back to the main village and bring the body of the Rampaging Koala together with the flower that was needed to make the poison. The one problem was that the koala was very big and very heavy. Even Astrid struggled to push it forward, despite it being just a bit taller than she was.
And having Rex create another rock to fly on didn't seem to work very well. Not because he couldn't keep the weight of the creature on top of the rock, but because since the monster was dead, it was hard to balance it on top of the stone he was trying to make float. If Rex created something that was too big, then the weight combined with the Rampaging Koala's corpse would be far too great for his skill to work and allow him to control it while it floated.
So he used something different. Which, in essence, was the same skill, but this time he needed to be walking. He couldn't be on top of it. He needed to be either walking or standing still. Our solution for that was to have Astrid carry him while we slowly moved back to the village.
Getting back took almost two hours as we struggled with the body of the Rampaging Koala, including more than a few moments when the corpse fell from the rock and we had to stop to put it back up again and restart the entire process. Either way, we were able to get back to the main village while carrying the corpse of the koala and the flower that we set out to acquire.
As we arrived, we saw a few other Rodenti, some who were even licking their lips when looking at the koala, likely thinking about the skills that they could get once they ate that thing. But since we were the ones who killed it, Rex confirmed that we could do whatever we wanted with the body. This included sharing or keeping it all to ourselves. And while sharing was something that people would appreciate, if we decided that we were the only ones who were going to eat, no one was going to think we were being rude or something, unless Ash himself asked to partake. In that case, we were expected to give him at least a slice so he could potentially get some skills.
But it all boiled down to Trix being able to confirm that it was safe to eat this creature. Riley's mention of syphilis made me very worried, since I remembered that was one of the worst diseases you could get. After all, it wouldn't simply make you sick but also ruin your mind after some time.
And our fears were confirmed as we arrived back at Trix's house. She took one look at the corpse and asked, "Did you eat it?"
We all shook our heads. "No, we were not entirely sure if it was safe to eat."
"Good, good. I can tell you right now that's bad meat. It's going to make you sick."
"Do you have a skill for that, or is this just a type of creature you've seen before?" Michael asked for some confirmation.
"I have a skill. It tells me when something is safe to eat, and right now it's telling me that trying to eat that would end up very badly."
We all nodded in understanding. Even if it wasn't because of syphilis, it could be something else in the Rampaging Koala's body that would make us sick. As a matter of fact, I half remembered that eucalyptus, which was supposed to be one of its main food sources, was supposed to be poisonous.
Still, I glanced at Astrid before turning back to Trix. "What about the fur? Would it be okay for us to wear or make some clothes with it?"
Trix looked around the body once more before nodding. "Yeah, should be fine. The claws and teeth as well. Even if there's not that much left. Thanks to Rex's stone spike, most of the koala's mouth was destroyed with the impact."
"So what do we do with this thing?" I turned to my group.
"It's a bit of a long shot, but do you think this could be a problem for the Eaters?" Riley suggested.
"Are you saying we should try to give the Eaters syphilis?" Michael raised an eyebrow, which I couldn't help but do the same.
That was a disease transmitted through sex, and while I understood that Riley wasn't saying we should fuck an Eater, the concept was strange, to say the least.
"Yeah, I mean, it is a bad disease, so maybe that's enough to mess with the Eaters," Riley continued.
I stopped to think for a moment before shaking my head. "No, I don't think that's going to work. If I remember this correctly, syphilis is bad, but it takes a while to get really bad. It needs to travel through your body until it reaches your brain, and then you start to really lose grasp on reality. I think Pops said it would take a few years for someone to be completely crazy because of it, which was why he taught me how to make some antibiotics that could work against the disease. But it takes a while to make them. So as long as you realize what's happening soon, you may have enough time to fix that."
"One way or another, it's better to get rid of this body. You can do whatever you want with the fur, but make sure not to eat the meat," Trix said. "Now go back and do what you need to do because I need to work on this poison, and I don't want to have to worry about anyone getting affected by it just because I forgot you were around. Shoo, shoo."
Trix almost kicked us out of her house, and we agreed that it was time to go talk to Rex's father and hopefully have him agree that we could join the attack against the Eaters. If not, well, we needed to see what other task he was going to ask us to do.