Chapitre 9: Chapter 9
Ben made his way deeper into the vast forest. He was once again a ghost among the vegetation. A being without form stalking soundlessly for prey. With [Silent Walk] and [Chameleon] activated he could become one with the forest. Only his human scent moving along on the light breeze winding through the trees made the creatures aware of his presence.
He went ahead and activated [Enhanced Hearing] while asking the system to mark all people and animals around him with colored dots based on their strength. This provided him some advantage of knowing where everything was before they knew he was there.
At first, Ben only came across average forest critters of this world that would be on the level with Earth's squirrels and rabbits. It wasn't until traveling over to a mile into the forest that he came across a creature that he had difficulty spotting even though he knew it's exact location.
The forest floor in this area was covered with thick patches of plants and his prey was not giving away it's position easily. Even if he knew where it was on his map, he still couldn't shoot it if it were to remain hidden from sight.
Changing tactics he put his bow into his inventory and pulled his steel sword from its scabbard. Ben slowly approached the area where he could hear faint movements of the hidden target.
When, he was roughly 10 yards away from where he figured the critter was hiding a blur appeared like a red streak that shot out of the underbrush toward his arm.
Bam!
A sudden impact slammed into his left arm before he could react to what had happened. Looking at his bicep he found a red-winged snake approximately three feet in length attached to him as if he were some delicious side dish this snake had been craving for weeks.
'What the hell is going on! How did this thing see me when I was completely camouflaged!'
Ben couldn't understand how he was spotted by this profund snake. A piece of information suddenly came back to him that he had once read. Snakes have a pit organs, which contain a membrane that can detect infrared radiation from warm bodies. This snake must had picked up on his heat signature and pounced when he was in range!
Quickly snapping out of the shock of being bit, Ben brought his sword around and cut the snakes head off. Even though he had cut off the head the snake fangs that had fit between his chain-mail links were still embedded in his arm so he had to drop his sword to pull the fangs free.
[Auto_Notice!] [WARNING!] [The host has been poisoned! It is advised to take immediate action to expel the poison!]
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! Poison Resistance Level 1!]
[Notice] [Skill: Pain Tolerance has increased. Pain Tolerance Level 3!]
Ignoring the notices after reading the poison warning auto prompt he unequipped his shirt and armor. Now bare-chested he reached down for his sword had pulled the razor sharp edge across the snake bite wound. After, cutting into his arm he began to squeeze the wound allowing blood mixed with a thick green substance that he assumed was the snake poison to ooze down the side of his arm.
The poison began to burn like someone had just put a red-hot branding iron on his arm and he began to heavily perspire.
[Notice] [Skill: Poison Resistance has increased. Poison Resistance Level 2!]
[Notice] [Skill: Pain Tolerance has increased. Pain Tolerance Level 4!]
Ben opened the System Store and navigated toward the consumables and began to look for something to fight the poison in his system.
[Notice] [Skill: Poison Resistance has increased. Poison Resistance Level 3!]
[Notice] [Skill: Pain Tolerance has increased. Pain Tolerance Level 5!]
Rapidly scanning through the consumables while trying to block out the searing pain and keep himself from panicking, Ben soon came across a bottle of high-grade anti-venom pills that could neutralize any snake poison. The bottle with only four pills sold for 50 gold coins, Ben didn't even think about the price and quickly purchased them.
Swallowing a couple of these anti-venom pills as soon as they were in his hands, Ben could immediately begin to feel a slight decrease in the burning pain coursing through his circulatory system.
Ben ground his teeth together from the painful throbbing feeling of liquid fire coursing through his veins.
[Notice] [Skill: Poison Resistance has increased. Poison Resistance Level 4!]
[Notice] [Skill: Pain Tolerance has increased. Pain Tolerance Level 6!]
Reaching down with his good arm Ben sheathed his steel sword and collected the dead snake and its head into his inventory. Looking around the area he found a leaning partially uprooted tree that looked like it had almost been knocked over from a storm.
Ben walked up the huge leaning trunk into the trees upper branches and brought out a few wood planks to make a flat platform.
He brought out his bedroll and placed it on the wood platform and laid down to try and recuperate while fighting through the pain.
Even though he would not die from the poison thanks to the anti-venom pills, Ben was in no shape to continue hunting.
Now wanting to distract himself from this pain he took the time to look over the new skills and increases he had been gaining since the snake had bitten him.
After going over his new gains, Ben brought out the tank top that he wore when he arrived from Earth and used his knife to slice it into strips of cloth. He took his time to carefully wrap the deep cut he made with his sword to stop the blood which was now clear of poison.
Once the wound was snugly wrapped and tied off, the notification icon began to flash.
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! First Aid Level 1!]
[Notice] [Skill: Poison Resistance has increased. Poison Resistance Level 5!]
[First Aid]: A generalized skill used to heal minor wounds with bandages. Increased levels will allow the wound to heal quicker. This can be used on the host as well as other people and creatures.
Over the next 12 hours, Ben continued to activate [First Aid] while removing his bandage and replacing it with a clean one. This helped him to make quick gains in his new First Aid skill and had the benefit of healing his arm at an accelerated rate.
[Notice] [Skill: First Aid has increased. First Aid Level 5!]
The next morning came after a night of constantly nursing his wound. He now felt 100% better since the cut on his arm wasn't major issue any longer and the poison in his bloodstream had all been neutralized by the antivenom pills.
Ben was not in a hurry to rush off and hunt again so he climbed down from the leaning tree platform and gathered some rocks, dirt, and dry wood into his inventory.
Back up on his platform, he spread out a thick layer of dirt on the wood planks and then made a stone circle on top of the dirt. He placed the small dry wood pieces in the stone circle and made a small fire.
After, placing a thick beef steak with cooking oil in a skillet over the fire. Ben took out a couple odd looking Victus vegetables that had grown on his farm. Because he was unfamiliar with the vegetables that grew on this planet he picked a few at random to grow and experimentally eat.
He had the option to exclusively grow vegetables from Earth if he wanted, but he was sort of curious and wanted to see if he could find a few from this world that he would enjoy.
As Ben held the vegetables in his hand he began to ever so slightly feel something was off. The vegetables looked excellent and shined with a fresh, ripe, robustness.
He was now curious to what had caught his attention and began to thoroughly investigate each vegetable. Ben thought about asking the system about what it could have been he felt, but quickly decided against it.
'It may be just because they are so foreign to me that I felt there was an odd energy to them? Wait, energy...energy.'
Ben closed his eyes and began to circulate his Qi and directly felt a slight increase in his cultivation speed. It felt like he was pulling a small thread of concentrated Qi from the vegetable, he was holding in his hands!
Opening his eyes with a stunned look, Ben discovered there had to be Qi in these vegetables. Just like the cultivation pills, he was using these vegetables could also help increase his cultivation rate.
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! Analyze Level 1!]
'Another new skill nice! This one sounds like the classic RPG skill that provides the player with detailed information on anything it is used on.'
"Analyze!"
[Spirit Korlan] A vegetable native to the planet of Victus. The Korlan plant has a branched stem and alternately arranged leaves consisting of leaflets which are both of unequal size and shape. This Korlan is a hybrid of the original. The system has renamed this Korlan to Spirit Korlan due to it being imbued with concentrated Qi and Mana.
"These vegetables have Qi and Mana in them?" Ben asked out loud in surprise.
*Ding!* [All of the farm crops and ranch animals will be imbued with both Qi and Mana during their creation. This is due to how the system uses the energies of this world to create them seemingly out of thin air. Even the wood, stone, and any other products made with the assistance of the system will have these energies present within them.]
"Holy crap, this is amazing! Are there any other spirit vegetables in this world or do I have the only ones?" Ben was starting to see another money making opportunity here and was praying that he had the exclusive on this new hybrid vegetable.
*Ding!* [There appears to be no other vegetables in this world like these. There are hard to find herbs and spirit plants that have similar effects to these hybrid vegetables, but they are rare and highly sought after making them unaffordable for almost everyone.]
A big grin spread across Ben's face when the system told him that he had the only food in the world on scale with some of the top-tier spirit plants and herbs.
Now excited to try them, he began to dice them up and toss them in the oil along with the sizzling steak. When the steak was cooked to his liking he brought out a plate and began eating his dinner.
Just like the pills he had bought before he felt a growing heat in his dantain that signaled an increase in his Qi. He set his fork down momentarily and began to cultivate and found the food was even better than the cheap Qi strengthening pills, he had bought!
Ben continued to cultivate after his meal until he began to get hungry again near the end of the day. He made another batch of fried steak and veggies over his small campfire.
After his meal, he put out the tiny fire and stored his cookware in his inventory. It was time to lay down and fully recuperate before he continued his forest hunt. This first experience of running into a profound creature showed him why no one ever returned from this forest. He would need to be much more cautious on how he hunted these woods.
Ben climbed into his bedroll and covered himself with his blanket and soon was sleeping peacefully in the canopy of the tree on his makeshift platform.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Termax
Termax Thanks to all those who have begun to read my novel!
I hope you all are enjoying it so far! (>‿◠)✌
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
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