Cairen thought, and then the translucent panel disappeared completely. Now he understood a little of what was happening, at least.
He didn't know exactly where he was or how the system had brought him there. But he didn't really care either. He saw this as a new opportunity for life.
"Yeah. There's no reason for me to overthink it. That life is over. Now I have to live however I want. Yes, that's what I should do." Cairen stood up and looked around.
He could see everything clearly. He was in a damp, circular, narrow cave, with many tunnels leading in all directions and the remains of bones from various animals scattered about. And he could see the spot where it was dripping, but he was wrong. That wasn't water.
What was dripping, in fact, was…
"This is poison? There's a small pool… that smell." Cairen approached the stalactite, where a green liquid was constantly falling. He knew it was poison.
The smell was attracting him for some reason. Instinctively, he felt the urge to drink it. And, without realizing it, he opened his mouth underneath, and soon drop after drop slid down his throat.
The taste was strange. It was acidic, but it made him feel good. It was like drinking water after being thirsty for days. Cairen stayed under the stalactite for five minutes drinking the poison. He felt like he was getting stronger, even if just a little.
After quenching his thirst to the point where he no longer felt like drinking, Cairen came to his senses.
"What the hell? I really think I'm not human anymore… but this is actually interesting, it's amazing. I'd never have imagined poison could taste so good." Cairen said happily as he looked toward the tunnels and chose one to follow.
He observed everything in the cave; there were countless bone remains along the tunnels. And after a few minutes in the narrow passage, he arrived at another open space.
But as soon as he got there, he stopped.
"This? Did I come back to the same place?" Cairen said in confusion as he looked around.
In front of him, the cave opened into a circular space, several tunnels leading in all directions, and in the middle, a stalactite dripping poison.
"No, it's similar, but it's not the same place."
As soon as he finished speaking, Cairen suddenly felt a sinister feeling. He leapt forward, his body jumping much farther than he expected, unable to control it, and fell to the ground several meters away.
But he didn't feel the pain he thought he would; in fact, he was completely fine. He quickly turned, seeing what had attacked him.
"Damn, how the hell did you get so big, Mrs. Spider? Stay there, I didn't come to bother you." Cairen said, looking into the eight gleaming eyes of a spider over a meter tall. From its fangs, he saw a blue poison dripping onto the ground.
"Shit, where the hell am I?"
The spider suddenly charged at Cairen, opening its fangs, but he ducked and slid beneath it, punching its rear.
He figured that wouldn't do much, but to his surprise, his punch sent it flying into the cave wall, and with a loud thud, the spider's head slammed into the wall and went still.
"That… was that easy? Wait, am I really this strong?"
At that moment, Cairen understood.
'Limit of physical strength. So that's what the system meant? Isn't this too strong? I must have more strength than any warrior I've ever seen…' Cairen thought in surprise as he looked at his hand and clenched it.
He then approached the dead spider and saw that something from its corpse seemed to call to him. He shoved his arms into the spider's large mouth. His nails dug into a specific spot, his nose catching the scent of something delicious, and for some reason, the blood and the spider didn't disgust him.
Without much thought, he pulled out the spider's venom gland and swallowed all of its venom. His stomach filled with that dark blue liquid. But the feeling of fullness lasted only a few seconds before disappearing. He felt the venom had become part of him though he had no idea how.
"System. Do you know what's happening?"
[…]
"Figured. But this is really strange. I didn't hesitate at all to eat this disgusting thing… I know it's because of the lineage, but it's really weird." Cairen said with some disgust. But that was just his thought, his body was totally fine and would probably swallow more venom soon.
Then, Cairen decided to enter another tunnel, only to once again end up in a circular cave with some extremely poisonous animal and green venom dripping from the ceiling. He passed through three more of these places before sitting down on the ground.
"But what the hell, how do I get out of here? Every tunnel leads to this kind of place." Cairen said, frustrated, as he ate the venom gland of a scorpion he had just killed.
In the last hour, he had walked and killed these huge animals, feeding on their venom. He could feel the differences between the venoms; he could see them trying to affect specific parts of his body, but nothing ever happened. In fact, it felt as if something inside him was changing, though he didn't know what.
The venom from these monsters, as he decided to call them due to their size, was many times stronger than the green venom that dripped from the stalactite.
"So. How do I get out of here? This is like a damn maze. I can't believe I'll be stuck in a place like this in my 'second life.'"
Cairen stood, but at that moment, he heard a sound coming from one of the tunnels.
"That's… footsteps? Humans? There are humans here, they might help me." Cairen said excitedly as he looked toward the tunnel and thought of going to speak with whoever was coming. But as soon as he took a step, he stopped.
"As if they'd help. They're all the same. They'd probably kill me before I could even speak…" Cairen said, remembering how people had always treated him no matter where he went, until finally he was killed for something he hadn't done.
'Alright, I'll hide and see who's coming. If it's fine, I'll come out.' Deciding this and hearing the footsteps getting closer, Cairen looked for a hiding spot and found one. He lay under the huge scorpion corpse and waited.
Soon, two people wearing strange green clothes appeared.
"Look, brother. Another poison beast was killed. There really is an intruder. I told you this is the third one we've found. We have to call the elder. If more of them die, the elder might kill us, or worse, cripple our cultivation." A short girl with brown hair said to the boy beside her. Cairen saw that both had swords hanging from their waists, as well as flasks containing various liquids of different colors.
On their green robes was a three-colored emblem with a white skull in the middle, located on the left side of their chests.
"Tsk. Looks like we have no choice. Who the hell invaded the poison farm? If I find out, I swear I'll rip their skin off piece by piece." The boy, with an average appearance and also brown hair, said. In his hand was a lantern that lit up the cave walls.
"Looks like we'll just have to call Elder Xu… We'll be punished for letting someone in, but at least we'll have a chance of being spared. Let's go!" the boy said as he left with the girl.
Cairen waited a moment before crawling out from under the corpse and, carefully, followed the light. He had finally found a way out of that place, even if it was dangerous. He stayed far enough to only follow the lantern's glow but far from their senses.
"What shitty luck. Looks like I'm on someone's property. These monsters are being raised—that's why the places they're in are all the same. This cave… was built by someone." Cairen muttered quietly, cursing his luck in his mind.
From the way they spoke, that elder was probably bad news. He wasn't afraid of those two, as for some reason, he felt he was stronger than them. Besides, he had something that truly gave him confidence.
The Fallen Ability, The Serpent's Plague. He had never used it, but he was sure that with just a drop of his blood, those two's bodies would be completely destroyed.
Still, he followed them cautiously; if possible, he would like to leave this place without being noticed.
Cairen walked through several tunnels but found no other place with monsters. It seemed they knew the area and the way out easily, which showed they were used to it. This made Cairen happy, as it was like a maze and would probably take days to find the exit alone.
And then, after half an hour, he finally saw it getting brighter. Until he stopped. He saw the two he was following stop in front of a wooden door. They opened it and left. Cairen heard the door lock from the outside, but he wasn't worried.
"My blood should corrode the lock completely, so it'll be easy to get out, but… I should get a sense of what's on the other side first." Cairen said, approaching the door.
He pressed his head against it.
He then heard many voices not too far away.
"Shit, those two left, but… there's no way I can get out without being seen…"
Cairen stepped back a bit from the door, afraid someone might suddenly come in again. But he didn't go too far into the cave so he wouldn't lose his way.
"Think, think. What can I do? I'll probably be accused again, won't I? The chances of me being arrested or killed are high. I killed the monsters they raised…"
"Wait. They raised these poisonous monsters… Those two's flasks contained venom from the monsters, so they probably came to collect it. If they need venom, maybe… my blood."
Cairen had a thought that might or might not save his neck for now.