The wind at the edge of the floating platform was cold, but the Snake's gaze was oddly warm.
She stood in her human form, her sapphire eyes reflecting the endless sea of clouds below.
"There are many assassination techniques, and even more ways to kill," she said, her voice a sharp hiss that cut through the whistling wind.
She smiled at Dreleon—a predatory, knowing smile.
"Among them, the path I followed was simple: The way to kill without the opponent ever knowing they have died."
Dreleon watched her, his mind sharp despite his skeletal frame.
Of course, he thought bitterly.
You're a snake, what else would you use but coward's method?
"To achieve this," she continued, ignoring his silent judgment, "the only viable path was poison."
She turned to him suddenly, her head tilting with clinical curiosity.
"Tell me, Lion pup. What do you think poison is?"
Dreleon went silent.
He thought back to the swamp—the burning in his veins, the way his memories were clawed away by a single insect, and the oily black water of the river.
"It is a deadly debuff," Dreleon answered finally. "A corruption of the body that kills if left unchecked."
The Snake let out a soft, genuine laugh.
She seemed pleased, not out of kindness, but like a professor finding a student with potential.
"Close," she said, stepping toward him until the scent of cold ozone and the shine of ancient scales filled his senses.
"But not right. Poison, in its essence, is nothing more than a biological reaction."
"It is the body performing a specific function under certain conditions."
She raised a finger, and a drop of clear black liquid formed at the tip.
"Depending on the situation, it can be called a deadly debuff," she said.
Suddenly the colour of water charged to clear blue on her finger-tip.
"Or it can be called a miracle medicine." she said, then continued
"The substance does not change—only the use of the environment changes."
Dreleon felt a spark in his mind.
If poison was just a reaction caused by the environment, then he didn't need to find rare herbs or venomous snakes.
"If I change the environment..." Dreleon whispered, his golden eyes widening, forgetting the terror of the snake.
"Hiss... exactly," the Snake whispered back, not minding him talking in the middle.
"If you can control the space and the elements around a heart, you can make that heart decide to stop beating.
You aren't poisoning them.
You are simply convincing their body that it is time to die.
How to change that environment, however, is something you must figure out on your own. I cannot babysit you, Lion pup."
The Snake's expression shifted, becoming that of a serious, demanding teacher.
"To help you find this logic faster, I have arranged an opponent. There is a Honey Badger who destroyed one of my experiments nearby.
I am giving you a simple task: kill it. But do not forget the condition—it must die without ever knowing how it happened."
She raised her hand, and a glowing formation etched itself into the stone floor of the platform. The runes pulsed with a deep blue light.
"This formation will transport you directly to the area where that scourge lives," she said.
Dreleon stared at the swirling energy.
In his stunned state, his curiosity and the drive to prove himself took over.
He felt himself unknowingly attracted to the light, his skeletal feet moving forward until he stepped into the center. The world blurred, and he vanished from the high heavens.
Dreleon reappeared in a world of wreckage.
He was in a section of the Savannah Jungle that looked like it had been through a war.
Trees were uprooted, the ground was gouged by deep claw marks, and the air smelled of dust and crushed vegetation.
He moved through the ruins like a hunter, as he had received basic training for tracking in his trainee days, as for what he missed with human senses, his predatory instincts started guiding him.
He followed the traces—the snapped branches and the lingering scent of a dominant beast—until he found his target.
He stopped, crouching low in the tall, dry grass.
His eyes narrowed in confusion.
The target was a Honey Badger, but it was nothing like the common animals of the wild.
This was a High-Grade beast.
In his training days, Dreleon had learned that High-Level animals without a pact were rare; they had to survive at least a hundred years of constant battle to reach this stage.
And the badger wasn't alone. It was flanked by two Mid-Grade Porcupines, acting as a small, lethal squad.
And those porcupines were equipped with Mid-Grade's Unique weapon: a round earth shield.
Dreleon performed a quick mental scan, analyzing the Badger's unique properties.
This creature had evolved a Mid-Grade's Unique Weapon: a natural, biological armor that looked like hardened obsidian.
Even more dangerous was its High-Grade's Unique Power—the element of Wind.
The so- called mental scan was nothing but analysis of behaviour patterns and small uses of power to deduce a predicted result with 80% truth.
Mental scan was a name Dreleon gave this ability after living in the swamp, before losing his memory.
The Badger sat in a clearing, the wind swirling gently around its body as if the air itself was its servant.
Any physical approach would be detected instantly by the change in air pressure.
Any strike would have to penetrate that thick, black armor.
"Impossible," Dreleon thought, his brow furrowing.
"How can I kill a beast with Wind senses and obsidian armor without it ever finding out? If I use my sword, it will hear the strike.
If I use my space power to crush it, it will feel the pressure change."
He sat in the shadows, his mind racing. He remembered the Snake's words:
Poison is just a biological reaction.