SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 20: Venom

Toma did as said, he stood up and without creating much ruckus he followed behind Hide.

The undergrowth to the left shook once, hard, like something had launched off the ground.

Hide stepped forward and to the right simultaneously — giving himself a clear angle, putting the large root cluster between Toma and whatever was coming.

It burst from the gap between two tree trunks at ground level.

He had less than a second to read it.

A calamity beast, roughly the size of a large cooking pot. Frog-shaped but not a frog exactly. Too flat and too wide, like something had pressed it from above and the body had spread outward to compensate.

Its hide was the color and texture of wet bark, mottled and dark, blending against the root floor well enough that he almost lost it mid-lunge. Four limbs with splayed fingers, each one ending in a small curved hook. It had no visible eyes — or rather, the eyes were there but flush with the skull like two pale discs.

It covered the distance in one leap.

Hide caught it with both forearms crossed in front of his chest, the scales grew just in time to cover his skin... absorbing the impact and directing it sideways rather than into him.

The hooks hit the scale coverage on his forearms and bit, not through the scales, but into them.

The grip locked with a mechanical certainty that said these things had evolved specifically to hold on and not let go.

The beast’s mouth opened.

It was pointed inward like a projecting one, the lower half extending forward like a nozzle, and from the back of it something yellow-green gathered and sprayed.

The venom hit Hide’s crossed forearms at close range.

The scales rose automatically where the liquid made contact — Abyssal Scale Carapace thickening at the surface, the dark texture deepening in response to the threat.

The venom struck the scales and the sound it made was not that of a splash, but A sizzle. As if a chemical, had been dropped on his arms.

Hide, didn’t waste time and slammed the beast, who was still gripping onto him in a tree and squished it.

The frog like beast was turned into a paste of gore within seconds.

[Calamity Beast(Quig) - Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 20

Hide ignored the notification and looked down.

The scales were coming apart. They were dissolving, the venom spreading outward from each contact point in slow branching lines, the scale material losing cohesion at the edges and pulling away like wet paper being separated at the seam.

Three seconds of contact and a palm-sized patch on his left forearm was gone.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Organic Venom with unknown subtype detected

Location - Forearm

Source: G Rank Calamity Beast

Severity: High

System query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this damage type?

[Awaiting command.]

"Evolve" Hide said it without wait.

[Adapting - 0%]

[Adapting - 10%]

He looked at the counter and fair enough, it was moving faster than usual.

"What?" Toma asked hesitantly.

"Its nothing of your concern." Hide replied flatly.

"That—" Toma’s voice came steady now, not a whisper. "—was a Quig. G-Rank Beast. They hunt in groups and the venom is their primary weapon. The hooks are just how they deliver it at contact range."

Hide turned around.

Toma was standing straight, and not pressed behind the root cluster, or crouching. His posture was entirely different from the person who had fallen face-first into the gate a few minutes minutes ago.

He reached into the front pocket of his Helper uniform and pulled something out.

An Exterminator ring.

It was plain black, dull metal. Identical in weight and shape to Hide’s own. He slid it onto his right hand and the faint blue of an active registration flickered once at the surface before settling.

"You’re not just a Helper," Hide asked, caught off guard.

"No," Toma shrugged. "I am an Exterminator as well, Tamer class with a Two-star talent." He looked at the ring for a moment, then back at the undergrowth. "Well, my class only has B Rank potential so, I spent four years as an accounting staff member at Ferro Extermination Agency. Paperwork, resource allocation, logistics. I was never much of a fighter." A small pause. "Helper pay turned out to be better than agency accounting. So."

He glanced at Hide’s forearm. "There are two more around us. They heard that kill."

"How do you know?"

Toma raised his hand and with a glow of white light a purple bat surfaced out of nowhere. "This is my tamed Shikigami. She is connected to me, so I also have better hearing."

As if on cue the undergrowth behind them moved from two directions simultaneously, one to the left and one circling wide to the right, spreading in the deliberate arc of things that had done this exact approach before.

"Your Shikigami," Hide asked. "Can she do anything in here?"

"She hates enclosed spaces." Toma took a stance. "But I’ll have her on standby."

"left..." He yelled and Hide turned to face the beast, mentally summoning the Beginners Sword from his inventory.