Cordyceps Thirty-Four
Cordyceps Thirty-Four
I spent the rest of the week thinking through my predicament and trying to do some research to find a way around it.
The research was surprisingly difficult. For one, the library didn’t have an easy way to just look up the downsides and problems with poison resistance equipment. I did eventually find a mention of them in a book about common household magics, but it was just a short passage informing the reader that they should be aware that some poison resistance items only worked on a limited kind of poisons.
Useful to know, but I somehow doubted I’d be able to succeed with my assassination by dosing my victims with dozens of different poisons from different sources in the hopes that one of them wasn’t countered.
I did have one solution, but it was a massive gamble.
My own poison resistance skill had proven very useful to me so far, but I did notice that when I dosed myself with a poison, I was still affected.
It wasn’t a poison immunity, it was a poison resistance .
Mechanically, I think it meant that for the most part, the skill assisted the body in fighting against the poison and made its effects less palpable. Maybe it weakened them, maybe it used some sort of magical ability to lessen their impact, but when I poisoned myself, I still felt it.
I’d gotten the shakes, diarrhea, headaches, fevers, I’d even fainted a few times, and my poison resistance skill, [Basic Poison Resistance] was at level forty-five. That felt like it was pretty strong, especially since I had a second skill reinforcing it.
If the toxins I worked with could still make me feel ill despite my resistances, then there was no way that a mere enchanted ring would stop my poisons from working.
At least, that was my theory.
Fortunately, it was a theory I could test!
That coming weekend, I begged off heading to town with the others and instead spent a good portion of the day in the basement. It gave Sir Nibbles some time to run around and stretch his legs, and it gave me time to grow some mushrooms.
I started with [Dead Man’s Finger] and [Bug Agaric]. Both of them were the base mushrooms for several of my combination mushrooms. They were basic, simple, found in this region, and their poisonous effects were relatively weak.
[Dead Man’s Finger] was potent enough to kill a man, but only when the dosage was very high. Someone would need to eat a basketful to croak. I even nibbled on one myself and found that it did no worse than give my stomach some rumbles a few hours later.
The next day, at breakfast, while chatting with the boys and jostling each other around at the breakfast table, I dropped a few small pieces onto George’s plate, amongst his breakfast scramble of eggs.
He ate them without even noticing or commenting.
George spent the evening visiting the washroom and coming back. His mood was hardly diminished and he didn’t look sick, but he did keep leaving and returning.
So, his ring countered the worst of it, but didn’t stop the poison outright. It wasn’t quite as much proof that my hypothesis was correct as I’d want, but it was a fantastic start.
My next test was with the [Bug Agaric]. It was a very close match to fly agaric, which I was familiar with in my previous life. I didn’t know if this one’s active ingredient was psilocybin or if it was another hallucinogen, but I did know that when I dosed myself with a large quantity of it, it made me dizzy and I’d have small, short hallucinations. Mostly flashes of light and moving shadows. Nothing too impressive.
I had spent the time I wasn’t plotting with Montgomery and Milo. Montgomery had become a somewhat close friend, and Milo was just a nice kid most of the time. Completely out of touch with the reality beyond the privileged space he lived in, but nice all the same.
That’s why I only gave him a miniscule amount of [Bug Agaric], dropping a small morsel into his soup at supper time, then hanging out with him for the rest of the evening as he slowly lost his mind.
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Fortunately, the dose was small enough that it didn’t last all that long, and for the most part, he only looked clumsy and maybe a bit lightheaded, laughing at jokes that weren’t really that funny with loud exuberance and jumping at shadows.
“I think I’m not feeling so good,” Milo said as the evening progressed.
I rubbed circles into his back. “Don’t worry, Milo, everything will be alright,” I said.
And it would be, because he’d just helped me prove that his family’s blessing didn’t counteract poisons outright.
I decided to try and make it up to him, and deepen our relationship, by spending as much time around Milo as possible over the next few days. Fortunately, we had several classes together, and Milo was just kind of a nice kid.
“So, your birthday’s coming up soon, right?” I asked. We were in Friday afternoon Language class, and things were going pretty slowly. The teacher had given us all sheets to fill out, basically lines that needed to be changed from one tense to another, and it was all rather... too easy. There was a near constant murmur of conversation throughout the class.
“Yeah,” Milo said. “I hope it’ll be good. Last one was a little boring.”
“Oh?” Montgomery asked.
Milo nodded. “Didn’t I tell you? Last year it was nothing but lords and ladies and really mostly my parent’s friends and family. I have a few cousins that came over, but that was it. I was paraded around like a prized hound for most of the evening. The toys were nice though. One of my second uncles gave me a hunting rifle that shoots pellets! For hunting quail out in the countryside.”
“Do you think we could come?” I asked outright. I’d been buttering him up on the idea for a little bit, but I wasn’t sure if this was a good time to spring the trap. “I’m not sure my gift would be more appreciated than a hunting rifle, but at least you won’t be alone.”
“That’s a good idea,” Montgomery said, instantly enthusiastic. “It could be fun! A whole day away from school and you can show us that hunting rifle you got!”
Milo seemed a little hesitant for a moment, then he smiled and nodded along. “That does sound nice,” he said. “Alright. I’ll ask my parents, but I’m sure they know yours. We can have invitations sent out.”
“That sounds perfect,” I said.
I might have to sneak in, then. Or steal another kid’s invitation.
Fortunately, from what I remembered of being an adult, one kid at a party was much like any other. The moment I’d be in, I doubted any of the adults would care to notice that I wasn’t meant to be there.
Once classes ended, I headed out back to the dorm along with the rest of the class. The current gossip was about one of the equestrian riding classes. The horses they’d brought in for polo were being cared for by a young lady, and the boys had an expected amount of respect for a young woman that they all seemed to find attractive. Or at least, that they were all pretending to.
Typical boy shit.
On arriving at my room I tugged the door shut, then rooted around my things for a blank sheet of paper. I had to write a letter to my ‘uncle’ informing them of the birthday event that was coming up. It was possible that I’d need help sneaking in, and that I might need some additional equipment.
I jumped when my door opened a crack, then Montgomery slipped in and closed the door behind him with a click. “Why are you so obsessed with Milo?” he asked.
I blinked at him. “What?”
“Milo. You’ve been obsessed with him lately. Why?”
“I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said as I backpedalled mentally. Had I been too obvious about trying to befriend Milo?
“If you don’t want to be my friend anymore, that’s okay,” Montgomery said.
It hit me then, and I couldn’t catch the laugh before it slipped out of me.
Montgomery’s cheeks reddened, and he turned to leave, but I was just fast enough to catch his sleeve and keep him in the room. “Wait, wait,” I said.
“Why should I?” he asked.
“Sorry, it’s just... no, I think of all the boys here, you’re the one I’ve spent the most time with, but I didn’t think there was a competition for friendship going on.” I decided to add a bit of honesty to the mix. “Besides, between you and me? I’m mostly talking to Milo to get to attend his birthday. I bet his family does good food.”
Montgomery cracked a smile. “Yeah, I bet they do.”
I had to postpone my letter writing to do some friend upkeep, which wasn’t something I expected to have to do when taking this job.
***