The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 70

“No hard feelings kid, I really enjoyed our times here. Sadly, you are that bastard’s son so I have to get rid of you as well. No matter how you feel about him and the tribe, you are still related to him.”

Zus smiled like the sly bastard he was before he threw Zok over the wall and ran out of the dungeon, “You should trust no one kid. No one.”

However, in his haste to escape, Zus had committed three severe mistakes. Firstly, he left Zok with his weapon in his hands. Secondly, he did not know about the things Zok had been storing inside his inventory. Lastly, Zus didn’t wait for long enough to make sure the effect of whatever he had injected Zok with had taken place properly.

Zok might be a bit dazed initially, but he soon regained some control over his body. As he was thrown over the wall that Cero had created using his ability, he dug the spear deep into the wall, saving him from certain death.

Zok could feel the left side of his body getting numb with every passing moment. Whatever that bastard had injected into his body was slowly, but definitely taking effect. Not to mention that his vision and mind were both getting hazy.

All in all, things were not looking good for him at all. He had to cure himself before the effects got worse. Thankfully, the knowledge he had gained after defeating Adrion had more than enough ways for him to get rid of the effects he was experiencing.

‘I… have to be… quick…’

He hastily opened his inventory as he needed to take some herbs out of there. According to his knowledge, these herbs had to be consumed after making a paste out of them, but he did not have the time to leisurely mash the herbs together and extract the juice.

Also, there was yet another problem. He could no longer feel his left arm. Which meant he could not use it to get the herbs out of the inventory.

He was already grabbing onto the spear with his remaining good arm. Thus even though he had the things he needed inside his inventory, he couldn’t do much about his situation. Except if he…

‘I have to… let go…’

Letting go of the spear was the only chance at survival he had. But then again, there was another problem. According to the system, the herbs he needed were poisonous as well and consuming them without proper preparation could kill him.

But there was no other way. He could already feel the numbness spreading through his body as his grip around the spear slowly weakened.  It was only a matter of time before he fell into the abyss filled with beasts who were thirsty for his blood.

He willingly let go of the spear and began his descent. He did not waste any time. His right hand quickly went into action and stuffed his mouth with the required herbs.

As their bitter tastes spread throughout his mouth, multiple notifications blocked his vision. The poison from the herbs was being released into his body, but Zok kept chewing and churning the herbs inside his mouth no matter what the system advised him to do.

He fell on the icy surface with a loud thud. His vision was rapidly getting poor, it was so bad that he could barely make out the silhouette of the creatures surrounding him. He could also feel the bones he had ended up breaking as a result of falling down.

But even through all that, he kept churning and chewing the herbs inside his mouth. The effect of individual herbs slowly started to affect him. The poison had spread throughout his body… however, at that moment, something unexpected happened to him.

[Only a few souls are sadistic enough to torture themselves.]

[The Depraved One is impressed with your self-torturing techniques.]

[Depravity increased by 10%]

[Blessing: Backlash is ready to be activated.]

As things stood, Zok was barely able to read what was written in the notification hovering over him. But he could still feel the similar sensation of the Backlash activating on its own.

The poison from the herb that he had consumed soon turned into a blessing of its own. As soon as [Backlash] activated, it didn’t matter what kind of damage he was suffering, Zok would be immune to it all, for three seconds. Even from poison.

Within those three seconds, all damage he received would be accumulated, and his next attack would deal ten times of that damage to his target. [Backlash] was triggered as a result of the poison coursing through Zok’s veins and accumulated the damage he would have suffered otherwise.

This allowed Zok to turn the individual herbs into somewhat of a paste within his mouth and consume them. As soon as that was done, he realised that the creatures around him had already started bashing him as well. Not knowing that no matter what they did to him, nothing will happen.

The moment those three seconds were passed, Zok woke up like a new man. A dangerous aura surrounded him. So much so that even the creatures stopped attacking him and backed away. Zok leisurely got up and without giving it a second thought started climbing the wall. Completely ignoring the beasts that were below.

Unlike the three seconds of immunity, there was no time limit for him to execute his attacks. Which meant… someone was going to die a horrible death, but it wasn’t going to be one of the creatures who just tried to kill him.

On his way up, he took his spear out and made his way to where Cero was laying. That bastard Zus had plunged a dozen darts into Cero’s already injured underbelly. No wonder the poor creature wasn’t able to help his master in his time of need.

Zok hastily made a paste out of the herbs and once again hand fed them to Cero. Since the paste was already made before consumption, the effect of it was quickly visible on Cero as mere moments later Cero was standing back on his feet.

All this while, Zok had not said a word. He was seething with rage about being betrayed for the second time and this time, he was going all-out to make Zus’ life hell.

“Let’s go Cero….” Zok mumbled in a low, ominous voice.