Chapter 710 Arad: The Insane Dragon
Aella stood in the kitchen when a crow landed in the window, "KWAAA! Is it ready? KWAAA!"
She turned toward him, "It's ready. Send someone to pick it up."
"Got it. KWAAA!" The crow replied.
Since Arad arrived, he's been in contact with Aella with his animals. He couldn't stop at home due to the problems in the village, and he sensed the guests waiting.
"Arad," Mira walked into the kitchen, "Who's coming to pick the tea?"
"KWAAA!" The crow flapped his wings, "They've already arrived, KWAAA!"
Several owlapes landed in the garden, over ten of them stared at the window, cackling like hyaenas.
"Monsters? Yeah, the ones living at the peak," Aella recognized them from her trip with Arad to the mountain top.
As monsters, owlapes only rank up to C-rank individually at best, and most of them are E-rank. But the fact they hunt in large groups makes them as dangerous as A-rank monsters.
"You sure we can trust them? Those things are wild," Mira looked at the crow.
"KWAAA! Don't worry. They won't risk getting eaten by me." Arad replied, "And Aella isn't someone they want to mess with either,"
As an elf attuned to forests, Aella has spent days patrolling the forest, killing rogue monsters that caused trouble and hunting for the goblins and kobolds inside the dungeon, as she didn't want them crossing roads with adventurers.
The silent killer of the forest, all monsters have learned to watch for the cold breeze, the gently whistling winds that always came before a spree of murder.
The current monsters of the forest have already started teaching their offspring about Arad and his wives. Avoid angering the black dragon, don't mess with the green-eyed elf, if you see a shade of purple, run away without looking back, don't tickle the ants, and don't follow the sweet whistles of flutes.
"They should all be giant monsters," Aella picked up a large pot filled with green tea and put it beside the window. "I hope this is enough,"
"I'm sure it isn't, but a sip is a sip. We can't send them barrels," Mira pulled several large mugs, tucked them into a bag, and tied it to the barrel.
The owlapes grabbed the barrel and flew with it, racing to the mountain's peak.
****
FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! The flock of owlapes flew through the Keep's windows and landed in the middle of the meeting table, one of them flying back to Arad and landing on his arm.
"You were quite fast this time. Did you exhaust yourselves?" He stared at the monster's eyes.
"HooT CAAA!"
"I see, Aella is a bit scary." Arad smiled, "Probably since I haven't dropped by her yet," He lifted his arm, and the owlape flew away, followed by the rest of the flock.
Arad lifted his hand, moving the barrel and mugs with his gravity magic to each of the guests, pouring tea for them.
"Elvish tea," Lucifer smelled the tea, "A good quality and made with care,"
"It's amazing how this smells," Zeus smiled, "It's been a while since I tasted elvish tea,"
"I drink it a lot, but this one is quite good." Chris took a sip.
"I'm glad you liked it," Arad waved his hand, and a doll appeared on his shoulder. "Aisha, you got it?"
"Yeah, it's ready," She pulled a small wrapped paper and poured the white powder inside into Arad's tea.
"That doesn't smell nice," Chris stared at Arad's cup.
"No," Lucifer growled, "I'm sure that's a toxin,"
"It looks worse than most poisons that I know," Gabriel stared at Arad's cup, "You aren't drinking that, are you?"
"I'm just guessing, but that pure white crystallized powder reminds me of dracotoxin." Jason pointed at the doll on Arad's shoulder.
"You're right," Arad stirred the tea with his finger, "This is dracotoxin, grade A."
"I made it," Aisha said on Arad's shoulder, puffing her chest with pride.
Arad lifted the mug, drinking half of it.
"Do you want to die? That specifically kills dragons!" Lucifer stood, pointing his hand at Arad and getting ready to cast detoxification magic.
"No need to worry," Arad finished the rest of the mug, "I've been drinking it for the past week to build tolerance. Now at worst, it gives me a headache,"
"No, drinking that would kill even a wyrm," Lucifer growled.
"Don't worry," Aisha replied with a creepy simile, "Even if he were to stand at death's door, I can fix him with an antidote. Dracotoxins are made specifically to kill dragons. Thus no dragon is immune or resistant to them. In fact, they are weak."
"Humans are amazing, aren't they?" Arad smiled, pouring a second mug of tea, "To fight us, the monsters that far surpass them in power and magic, they developed such deadly weapons from mere herbs and roots."
Aisha pulled another dose of toxin, pouring it into Arad's second mug. She then quickly pulled another does and added it.
"Wait! You're not making it stronger," Chris gasped.
"I'm indeed making it stronger." Aisha stared at him, "This would kill Arad in several minutes if he doesn't take an antidote,"
Arad downed the mug in one gulp. Black veins spread from his lips to his neck, and strands of his hair started turning white as they fell off.
From his stomach, he pulled a small stove and several pots of herbs and glassware. He ignited the flame, poured some water into one of the glasses, and started mixing the herbs as blood traped from his eyes and ears.
"This one is easy. It attacks small blood vessels and causes them to wither and burst. The worst case is a brain aneurysm," Arad lifted the boiling glass and drank it on the spot.
Arad's bleeding stopped, and his hair started growing back as the black veins on his face reclined. "Now this feels much better," He smiled.
"Good job, I want to give you a full mark, but you wasted some ingredients and took a bit longer than you should have." Aisha giggled, "8/10, you're only repeating what you memorized from me. Your knowledge about alchemy is just as shallow as a cook following recipes without understanding how the ingredients work together and why they do work together."
"If I got that knowledge then I would be able to subsidize ingredients, modify antidots, and create new ones or powerful toxins, and on top of everything, I might be able to shorten the brewing time," Arad said, looking at everyone.
"You can even create secondary costume ingredients and store them for use later. Like sauces and broth in cooking, that would be a way to shorten the brewing time," Aisha tapped Arad's shoulder.
As everyone stared at Arad, they could only think of one thing. ^He's insane. Who uses themself as a test subject?!^
Arad pulled a large jar of blue powder and poured from it into his mug until he filled it halfway, then started pouring tea over it.
"Hoi!" Tempo screamed, "How much poison do you intend to put in that tea?!"
Arad turned toward him with glowing purple eyes as he stirred the tea with his finger, releasing a blue smoke. "You got it wrong," Arad said.
"What?" Tempo gasped.
"I'm not putting poison in my tea. I'm putting tea in my poison to make it easier to drink," Arad's eyes flashed with a purple light as he stared down at the mug, "That's not as much smoke as it should," He lifted the jar and poured more poison in.
"Halt! You madman!" Zeus shouted.
"This is an anti-magic toxin. It attacks the magic circuit in the body, as the mages call it. Monks call them meridians." Arad lifted the mug and gave a sniff. It smells horrid and is as thick as honey.
"Want to try it?" He showed them the mug.
Everyone shook their head, "Throw that shit away,"
"Your loss," Arad gulped the mug down, blue veins spread through his body as his magic spiked and dropped rapidly. He started releasing massive waves of uncontrolled magic as the toxin ripped his meridians apart.
"The idiot might explode!" Lucifer stood with his arms extended forward, ready to form a shield.
Arad started brewing the antidote based on Aisha's instruction as his body rapidly reached a critical stage. After half a minute of everyone hiding behind Lucifer's shield awaiting for Arad to explode and blast the whole mountain to ash, he finally finished the antidote and drank it.
Arad's chaotic magic quickly stabilized as the blue veins faded from his body, "Now I'm good at this." He smiled.
"You're indeed good, I give this 9.5/10." Aisha smiled.
"Since it doesn't mess with my nerves, I can really focus when measuring ingredients." Arad lifted one of the ingredient jars and stared at the guests through it, "I almost got it perfect."
ZON! Behind Arad, Zia wearing a nun outfit appeared out of a splash of blood. "I clean this, master," She reached over the table and started collecting Arad's brewing equipment.
From Arad's back, several vampire nuns and maids walked out to clean the ground from blood and store everything that Zia collected from the table.
"I get maids, but why nuns?" Chris sighed, staring at Arad.
"They already had a maid outfit from Vlad, but I know nothing about the nun outfit, besides that I borrowed one for Zia from the capital nuns." He replied.
"Is that a reason? And where did they get the rest?"
Zia turned toward Chris, "It's because Arad told me it suits me," Zia replied with a smile, "So I thought my best chance of seducing him is using a nun's outfit,"
"That's the worst reason I've heard in my life," Chris stared at her, "And it doesn't explain them," He pointed at the other nuns.
"They are cut into two groups," She replied, "Half is like me, and the other half are people that were pulled out of Vlad's blood and didn't want to pass on,"
"They are some of the human sacrifices that Vlad had. They either didn't want to pass on and die, or couldn't due to lingering regret and ended up being born anew as vampires." Arad was the one to explain.
One of the nuns approached, "I was a nun for Amaterasu before, but my prayers don't reach her now." She said looking at Arad, "Abandoned by life and the gods, I've only got one person to pray to,"
"You aren't running for demi-god status, are you?" Zeus gasped.
"What's that even? I'm not, they are just fooling around," Arad replied, "And Eris acts as a mediator between them and Amaterasu, I don't know how they mixed me in the middle,"
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