Six hours ago.
"Damn it! Just where in the living fuck am I?!"
A man with black hair and a messy brush up screamed out.
"What in the world even was that?!"
He clutched at his wounded charred arm, blood trickled in a steady and slow stream. Causing the burns on his body to pain him even more so than before.
'Shit, it burns so much!'
His heart beat so much it threatened to leave his rib cage, he clenched on his jaw tightly, not allowing a scream to so much as leave him.
'Where did it all go wrong? After encountering one of those humanoid creatures, I tried fighting it in an attempt to kill it, but then it pulled a 180 on me and almost killed me!'
The young man now sought shelter, barely escaping even with the use of insight.
"I knew I shouldn't have gotten that permit! But no, I just had to be greedy because I heard there was treasure here that would help increase my survival chances in here"
Trudging forward, he stumbled across blood markings on strange trees with weird overarching shapes that seemed too dramatic for a place like this.
'It doesn't seem to be as hard as people made it out to be at least, with the way they were talking about it, I thought I would die in the first hour coming here'
A small smile tugged on his lips.
'I might really be able to find that treasure in the end'
And the best part, using his insight would shorten the search time by days.
"What was it again? 'Poisonous Omni-Boost'?"
'Apparently, the insight or whatever it was called passively boosts everything the more diseases or poisons I am subjected to'
A penalty based insight, but technically speaking, there was no weakness.
'If it boosts everything, then that must mean it also boosts my life span, immune system and even the durability of my skin along with of course my senses and strength'
And the only price for it was just to be heavily poisoned your entire life?
This was essentially a cheat code.
'I'm gonna be abusing this till the end of time~'
There is no reason not to after all.
"Ouch!"
A thorn pricked his leg, causing a startle.
The effects were almost instant.
"D-Damn, this thing is no joke"
He felt dizzy, his legs buckled and wobbled under his weight. It felt as if he were going to sleep, only that it would be for eternity if he did.
"St-ill...The buff is really great"
His body after a few seconds felt light all around, his senses sharpened and inhuman strength flowed with no stop.
Feet squelched, the torn flesh growing more prominent and repeated with each step.
Thump
A soft thump echoed softly, so softly yet so lonely, only that step could be heard in the silent forest.
Tiju turned his head towards the sound, however his expression remained light.
The beast hidden within the shadows revealed itself. It resembled a wolf mixed with a tiger, its body as giant as an elephant. Claws bigger than arms, and tusks like an elephant's, but the tusks were wider and slightly smaller in length than an elephant's. And most notably, there was no curve to the tusks, they pointed in a straight line to the sides.
"Oooh, so scary~"
Tiju's voice trailed off, mocking the creature in front.
"Come on, don't you wanna bite my head off? What are you waiting for?"
It didn't listen to Tiju's cheap provocation, only waiting for the perfect moment, which didn't take long to come.
Purring, it inched closer and closer to Tiju.
Tiju let it approach.
"So unnecessary"
He said, peeling off the charred skin and exposing the newly healed arm.
Then, very subtly, he pricked his arm into many thorns from the plants below him, maximizing the full effect of his insight, whilst backing off slowly.
Its claw trembled, pupils in the platy's eye sockets dilated.
Almost immediately after, it rushed forth, claw moving in like a spearhead.
"Hup!"
Tiju hopped on a branch with a jagged zig-zag form, then jumped even higher than before.
Letting his body fall down with force, his buffed up hand slammed into the skull of the platys, crushing it partially.
Bam!
The platys staggered on its four legs, but Tiju didn't give it time to rest again and struck it again, this time from a higher vantage point.
Crash!
The impact was immense, the head of the platys was driven straight to the ground, cracks formed on the ground just as cracks in the skull appeared. Blood spurted like a fountain from the head of the platys. Its large predatory eyes remained unfocused.
Movement became difficult with each slam it received, Tiju was grinning at the sight.
"See? There is no way anything here can beat me"
Not only was the forest filled with poison waiting to buff him, he also regenerated quickly due to how deadly the poison in here was. Virtually speaking, he was essentially impossible to beat if in the Sabe Serotifio.
'Just in case'
He plucked a highly venomous plant that held many diseases just from breathing the air around it. And most diseases that the plant stored inside were extremely dangerous to humans. Ranging from the black plague and venom snakes usually have, to multiple skin diseases and if left for too long, it can cause 'petrification' a disease specifically created by Natura. It was essentially an alternate version of deep frostbite.
Of course, Tiju did not know this when directly consuming such a plant.
"O-Ugh!"
The petals of the plant scratched against his throat, he was barely able to consume it without vomiting.
Staggering a few times, his vision cleared. Bloodshot eyes looked at the world from a different perspective, hands itched to be slammed against something hard, wanting to penetrate through skin and wall alike.
His legs trembled slightly, but soon enough he shook off even the tremors spreading through his convulsing body.
However, it didn't take long to know that he was not okay, as the veins in his body started to bulge out, popping and regenerating just as quickly as they exploded.
'It hurts!'
Hands scraped against his nape.
'It hurts!'
Nails dug in deep, skin infinitely restoring itself back to its original state.
'It hurts!'
Broken shards of bone scattered everywhere.
'It hurts!'
His tongue, bitten down so hard, fell to the floor, regenerating almost immediately.
'It hurts!'
Teeth shattered, gums bled, healing with no stop, yet the pain remained a vivid nightmare and never stopping.
'It hurts!'
Eye sockets bled, the pupils in his eyes were searing red, he felt on fire, he felt something faint snapping in the distance.
IT FUCKING HURTS!!!!
Everything hurt, the more time stretched endlessly forward, the more in pain he felt.
On the ground, a grim sight followed, head squashed completely in, unrecognizable to anyone was the platys. It still wiggled and struggled from the inside.
Gu! Wa! Wa! Wa!
From its stomach, something muffled wailed, strangely.. like a human baby, it fiercely and viciously slammed and scratched against its mother's womb.
Wailing nonstop, Tiju.... was already unconscious, not able to handle the pain.
Which also meant, he didn't know what was happening outside to run away.
Eventually, after a few back and forth attempts of trying to leave its womb.
Tearrrr
Something tore through the stomach, eating its way out of its mother's womb.
It was a baby platys, it kept growing with no sign of stopping, by eating the flesh of its dead mother, it grew stronger. Its side-curved tusks grew longer and longer, its predator-like eyes flared with a certain intensity the more it ate.
Then, eventually, after almost half an hour passed, it gazed at the wide-awake Tiju.
Scanning Tiju's face, he saw an emotion swirling wildly inside of it. Fear, he felt so much of it, salty water formed at the edge of his eyes.
The platys, seeing this fear.
Smiled with a grin so wide, it threatened to tear through its jaws.