"Welcome back to land of the living kid," Keith said whilst looking at his status screen. He was deciding were allocate his free stat points but decided not to use them right now.
"Good morning and don't call me kid ever again," she said in an annoyed tone.
"Why?"
She glared at Keith with a look that said, "Isn't obvious?" but Keith simply ignored waiting for her answer. "Because being called a kid by someone the same age as me is annoying and disrespectful.
"What makes you think that you and I are of the same age," he asked again. Natasha was fuming with rage but she decided to answer.
"Every awakener awakens their abilities and their soul essence when they turn sixteen. And if you are going to ask, how do you that I am sixteen, it's because you are in the trial grounds. A place where newly awakened individuals go to after two weeks," she said, her voice filled confidence.
Keith chuckled a bit, before he said, "You do know that there are some rare cases of individuals awakening when they're seventeen or twenty-one years old. So, tell me what make you think I am not like those rare individuals that experience late awakenings."
"You look like a 16-year-old," she said.
"That way is stupid considering that I am hybrid. As you know hybrids age slowly so I might look like a sixteen-year-old but I could be twenty." she tried to think of way to retort but she couldn't think of anything since there were no flaws in his reasoning. Keith saw the pondering look on her and couldn't hold back his laughter.
"I am just messing with you. I am sixteen years old"
"Why? What was your reason for asking me all those questions?"
"It's payback for that time you asked me so many questions whilst I was tired," Keith answered.
"You did all of that just to get back at me for what I did to you a few days ago," she asked.
"It's actually been a few weeks but yeah," he replied whilst taking a piece of meat which wrapped around with a leaf and tossed it to her and she caught.
"What is this?" she asked.
"Unwrap it and you'll find out"
She looked at it suspiciously before she removed the wrap and saw some delicious succulent meat. Her stomach grumbled hinting that she was hungry. She greedily ate the succulent tender meat. The meat was both sweet and savory and the taste was enhanced by the spices and herbs. She glanced at Keith and saw a crooked and evil smile that sent chills running up and down her spine.
She suddenly felt that eating the meat would be one of her biggest regrets "What did you do?" she asked, her voice a bit shaky from fear.
Keith just continued to smile which gave her the creeps. "Answer Me!!!!" she shouted.
"Hey keep your voice down. We don't want to attract any nearby soul beasts," he said whilst keeping the eerie smile on his face.
Natasha started to feel dizzy all of a sudden and her became a bit blurry. Her body started heating up and internal organs started bleeding. Her eyes were bloodshot. She coughed up a mouthful of blood which surprisingly had a purple color. She glared at Keith with a blazing fury in her azure eyes.
"What did you do me?" she asked, her voice weak and strained.
"Your first training was going up against those soul beasts. The first training was for me to determine your adaptability in tough situations and also to see how good your sword technique. Your second training is to increase your body's poison resistance. I am kind of surprised that your body is reacting this way since you are a noble. I figured you must have poisoned in the past but I guess I was wrong. Does that mean you have food tasters or no one is stupid or brave enough to try assassinate a noble" Natasha couldn't hear his words properly since her ears started ringing.
"And don't worry. This poison won't kill you but it will be painful," he said as he was about to get off the tree branch, he remembered something very important. "And don't fall asleep until the effects of the poison ware off"
He jumped down from the tree and went to hunt down a few soul beasts. Natasha was furious at Keith and wanted to tear him to shreds but she knew that she couldn't harm him even if she tried.
She tried to keep herself conscious whilst trying to endure the searing pain in her body. She felt her bones crack and her muscles tear. Her head started aching. The pain she felt was unbearable. Her blood vessels would tear apart and rejoin back to their original state. Her whole body started convulsing uncontrollably like she was being electrocuted.
She felt tired and wanted to sleep but remembering Keith's words, she forced her body to stay awake through the entire painful process. Her whole body was screaming at her to go to sleep but she didn't listen to its commands.
This painful process of her muscle tearing and reattaching, her bone breaking into small pieces and putting themselves back to together like a jigsaw puzzle and her internal organs bleeding lasted for another twenty minutes but to her it felt like hours of endless torture. Her body started heal, all of her internal organs stopped bleeding. after feeling that she was fully healed she fell asleep due to exhaustion.
…
Keith returned to the tree branch after hours of hunting and saw Natasha's entire body covered in a black sticky fluid that gave off a putrid smell. Keith used his soul essence to remove the black sticky substance. Natasha woke up a few moments after Keith removed the substance. She stood up and felt that her body had a gained more strength and power.
"What poison is capable of making your body grow stronger after ingesting it? Tell me Keith what poison did you use?" she asked whilst she punched the air to see how much strength she had.
"I didn't put any poison," he said in a cryptic tone
"But how?" she asked in confusion because it didn't make sense that he didn't use any poison in the meat.
"You do know that soul beast is poisonous, right?" he said whilst wiping off the blood of his sword.
"I have eaten soul beast meat before and I have even licked the blood of a soul beast? So, tell me how I was not poisoned in those instances?" she asked with a confused expression on her face trying to figure out how it was poisonous.
"When you licked the blood of a soul beast, the potency of the poison was too weak. And for the times when you ate soul beast meat, the poison is removed by the chefs so that their costumers don't get affected"
Now that Natasha understood how she didn't get poisoned in those instances but she still had one more pending question. "How did it increase my strength?"
"Soul beast poison is different from other poisons. The poison actually reconstructs your body and removes the impurities out of your body but it could kill you if you aren't conscious throughout the entire process," he said as he ate a piece of meat.
"Huh. Who knew that poison could be so helpful?" she thought to herself as she sat down and took a piece of meat from Keith and ate it. She noticed that the poison no longer affected her anymore.