24-24 I'm parrying frogs




 I thought to myself as I popped the huge claws of the black frog in front of me.

 This frog is not that responsive...

 No, every time I hit it, I feel a violent impact on my black sword handle, and each blow is strong in its own way, but ...... it's not that difficult.

 Compared to the goblin of yesterday, it is about the same or a little weaker.
 If that's the case, this frog is probably one of the weaker demons.
 No, it is even weaker than the goblin, which is called ...... "the weakest demon," so it may not even be a demon.

 If that's the case, I might be able to handle it.

 It's difficult for me to defeat it by myself without any means of attack, but if I wait for Lean and Ines to catch up, I'm sure I can defeat it.

 All right, then, let's buy some time...
 I'm also a little confident in my physical strength.

 As I readied my sword, the body of the frog in front of me suddenly expanded greatly.

 Just as I thought something was wrong, the frog's mouth opened wide and I saw something black swirling in the back of its throat.

 Before I could question it, the frog spat out a mass of black mist with great force.
 I could have avoided it if I had wanted to.
 But if I did, it would surely hit the boy behind me.
 I couldn't move from the spot, and I was hit head-on by the black mist and got it all over my body.

 Some of it went into my mouth.
 Immediately after, I spurted out a lot of blood from my mouth.

"Is this poison?

 My whole body hurt like hell and I felt dizzy.
 I knew it when I ate it.
 This is poison.
 It's a very strong poison.

 And that's when I finally realized.

 When I ran out, Inez was about to say something. She must have been warning me that this frog was a poisonous frog.

 It's no wonder that each of its attacks had been so little - the creature's greatest weapon was not its fangs or claws, which looked so powerful.

 It has a powerful toxin stored in its stomach.
 This is the creature's greatest offense...

 At the same time...
 I thought, as blood spurted out of my body.



 Well, maybe this is something I can handle.



 Once, when I was living alone in the mountains.
 I accidentally ate a mushroom that my mother told me not to eat.

 The name of the mushroom was "dragon destroying mushroom".

 It's a mushroom with a poison so strong that it's said to kill even dragons.
 I don't know why I came home with such a thing.
 Maybe I was so excited by the huge harvest that day that I didn't notice that something dangerous was mixed in.

 Anyway, I put it in a pot, boiled it, and ate it for dinner.
 Some time later, my stomach hurt so badly that I coughed up a lot of blood.
 I finally realized that I had eaten something I shouldn't have, but it was too late.


 It had been a long time since I had eaten, so I couldn't throw up.
 The poison seemed to have spread all over my body, and I couldn't even move.

 I just kept applying the [low heel] that I had just put on my stomach.
 It was the only way I could think of.
 Then I felt my stomach slowly heal... but if I let up, I immediately coughed up blood again.

 I couldn't let my guard down for even a second.
 If I wasn't careful, blood would gush out from every part of my body, and I kept putting [low heels] on myself, ready to die.
 After that, I continued to suffer day and night, occasionally drinking water, and rolling around on the ground, bleeding again.
 I thought I was going to die many times, but I persevered.

 Somehow, if I kept wearing [low heels], my body was able to move a little.
 So, even though it was very painful, I did not miss my daily routine.
 I decided to do it every day, so I did it.
 I was determined to do it.
 I couldn't put much strength into my arms.
 Even so, I only wielded the wooden sword while coughing up blood.

 I might die like this.
 That's what I thought.

 But then one morning, about seven days later, I noticed something strange.

 My stomach didn't hurt at all.
 The hematemesis had stopped.

 And my body felt surprisingly light.
 Well, I suppose that's true.
 I haven't eaten right in a week.

 I went hunting for a nutritious meal.
 I could kill a wild boar in my current condition, I was hungry, and I wanted to eat meat.
 With this in mind, I went into the forest, but I made a mistake here too.
 I was bitten by a big viper.
 I thought I was going to die there.
 I managed to get rid of the viper, but I thought I was just going to die, so I lay down in the forest with my eyes closed.

 But the funny thing is...
 But the funny thing is... I don't feel the poison kicking in.
 I didn't feel any pain anywhere in my body.

 I got up, wondering why, and took the snake home, cooked it and ate it.
 I had heard that I couldn't eat the snake because it was poisonous - but I was really hungry.
 The snake's venom didn't seem to have any effect on me, so I guessed the snake wasn't very poisonous.
 Maybe it's not really poisonous.
 Then it's safe to eat.
 I was just a kid, so I guess I thought it was easy.

 But when I tried the snake, I was shocked.

 ...... It was incredibly delicious.
 It was much juicier than the meat of a mountain chicken.


 It had more flavor than any mushroom I've ever eaten.
 It had a sweetness that permeated my entire body.
 More than anything else, it was nourishing, and my body recovered remarkably quickly.

 After eating the snake, I started looking for it again.
 Once you eat it, the taste becomes addictive.
 That's how good it is.
 Somehow I managed to find the snake again...

 But when I saw it again, I wondered.

 It was, after all, the poison spike that my mother had taught me not to eat, no matter how hungry I was.

 I wondered.
 Up until now, I had mostly followed what my mother had taught me.
 That knowledge had been correct.
 But when I ate the poison spike in front of me, I didn't feel a thing.

 Why?
 While I was wondering, I let my guard down, and the snake bit me again, and I realized.
 It's not that the snake is not poisonous - it's just that it doesn't work on me now.
 I don't know the logic behind it, but it seems that I have developed a certain level of resistance to the poison from the "dragon annihilation mushroom" I ate before. For that, the [Low Heel], which I thought would be useless, came in handy.
 It may have some effect of nullifying the poison, though only a little.

 When I realized this, I was delighted.
 I wondered if this could be used to gain a new [Skill].

 So I tried every animal and plant in the mountains that were said to be poisonous.

 Sometimes some of them were more toxic than I expected, and I ended up vomiting blood violently - but mostly I was able to get by with [Low Heel], and none of them were much worse than the Dragon Annihilation Mushroom.

 In the end, though, I didn't get any of the [skills] I was hoping for.

 Instead, I discovered.
 Poisonous plants and animals are usually tasty.

 There are exceptions, but they all seem to be nourishing.
 They are probably hoarding nourishment, thinking that the poison will keep them from being eaten.

 That's why I started to prefer eating plants and animals that are said to be poisonous.
 If you can get rid of the poison, it is a very good food.
 Even if I can't do anything about it, it's no problem because I have [low heels] that slowly nullify the poison. Eventually, if you are patient enough, you will develop a tolerance to the poison.

 Because of this, I am used to being poisoned.
 I'm not proud of it, but I'm pretty strong against poison now.
 It's one of the few things I'm good at.

 The lump of black mist spewed out by the frog in front of me right now - this was a very strong poison.
 It's as potent as the dragon's death mushroom.
 You'll know it when you feel it on your body.

 But...
 I'm sure I can withstand that much.

 The dragon's death mushroom was actually quite tasty.


 I've tasted it in the pot many times since then.
 I've coughed up a little blood each time, but that's all.
 It's hard to resist the allure of good food when you know it's going to be okay.

 That's why this frog's poison won't work on me.

 I antidote the poisonous mist with [Low Heel] and nullify it.
 At first, the antidote won't work in time, and some blood will spurt out, but this level is no problem in my experience.
 The wound will soon close up and you will be as good as unharmed.

 The black mist has scattered all around, but it seems that my low heels have detoxified in time, and the boy right behind me seems to be safe.

 I'm glad.

 It's a good thing that the boy behind me is okay.
 I guess my black sword is harder than his.
 The frog's claws shatter more and more with each flick.

 It's really a great sword.
 It's heavy, but it's sturdy.
 I underestimated its value because it looked so beat up, but I think I got a really good one.
 I thanked Lean's father and smashed the frog's sharp claws one by one.

 Before I knew it, the frog had lost its claws, opened its big mouth, and tried to bite me with its sharp fangs.

 But that's the same thing.
 Repeatedly attacked and repelled, it crushes my fangs to bits.
 A truly ferocious frog.
 All its claws and fangs have been crushed, but it still tries to attack.

 But it's clearly too weak.
 It must've used up a lot of energy spitting out the poison.

 If it keeps going like this, it might just collapse on its own.

 Just when I thought that...
 The frog's body swelled up again.
 The frog's body swelled up again, and it opened its big mouth to spit out that lump of poison.
 And it's much bigger than the first time it swelled up.
 Next, this frog's life-or-death blow...
 I think it's going to be a much more powerful poison.

 But I won't be dealt the same blow twice.
 I raise my sword.

 The poisonous toad swells even larger and opens its mouth to spit out a mist of poison.

"Parry!

 I launched the frog's lower jaw as hard as I could.

 The frog's large mouth slammed shut with such force that the mass of poison and compressed air that was about to be spat out had nowhere to go and flowed back into his body at once.

 And then, explosively, his body swelled...
 The frog exploded from the back and splattered all over the place.

"This is... this is terrible.

 Even for a frog that had tried to attack a man, it was a horrible way to die.

 But as I looked at the pieces of frog flesh scattered around with the poison, I realized something.



 And once I thought about it, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

 Maybe this frog...

 This frog... might be quite tasty.