SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 21: Experiment

Hide turned left.

The second Quig came out of the undergrowth low and fast, belly almost touching the roots, its trajectory aimed at his legs rather than his chest.

Hide stepped into it instead of back, dropping his weight, driving his knee into the underside of the beast as it rose into its lunge.

The impact redirected it upward. Off-angle.

He grabbed it mid-air by one of its rear limbs.

It twisted immediately, all three remaining limbs cycling for purchase, the projecting mouth already working, as yellow-green liquid gathered at the tip. He kept it at arm’s length, rotated his grip to keep the spray pointed away from his body, and swung the sword.

The sword was made up of dull metal with a wooden handle, but it did its work against such a weak beast. It pierced through the frog like beast’s belly.

Hide let go of it, and it fell on the ground. But the beast was not yet dead.

The Quig lay stunned, legs moving slow and wrong, the mouth still working reflexively, venom dripping from the nozzle into the soil where it ate a small puckered hole in the dirt.

He stamped on it twice, turning it into a mess.

[Calamity Beast (Quig) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 20

He checked his arms.

The dissolved patch on his left forearm had spread slightly at the edges — the residue from the first kill still working even with the beast dead. A second patch near his right wrist had thinned to almost nothing.

"Where is the third one?" Hide asked.

"Right side," Toma said quietly. "It hasn’t moved since the second kill. It’s waiting."

Hide turned right and looked into the undergrowth... then he moved towards the thick bushes. If the bastard was not gonna show itself then he was going to catch it and tear it apart.

"What are you doing?" Toma asked, awestruck. "And actually, where did you summon that sword from? Do yo have some kind of spatial storage device? If so, then please tell me, I will have to write it in the report latter."

Hide didn’t pay much attention to his rambling and kept moving on, the sword held tight in his hands.

The sourceless light fell flat between the bushes and lower trunks, giving everything the same even pale illumination that made distance unreliable.

’The beast has very predictable movements, the two earlier didn’t shot from far away. They first try to latch onto the skin to make sure the attack lands. Very typical and easy to handle.’

He knew what to do, baiting the beast!

His left forearm. The dissolved patch. The thinnest point of attack.

He understood what was about to happen and he let it.

He stood completely still and turned his left side slightly forward — an offering, almost. The dissolved patch on his inner forearm facing the direction the third Quig was waiting.

And as expected, the undergrowth exploded.

The third Quig came faster than either of the first two, locked on the left forearm like it had already decided.

Hide turned into it but deliberately half a beat slow, letting the approach land where it wanted to land.

The hooks caught the bare patch on his inner forearm, and the beast worked its mouth within a second.

The venom hit his forearm at point-blank range and the burning was immediate and total. It was not the surface heat from the prior contacts but something that went through skin and into tissue and kept going, each pulse of his heartbeat carrying it upward toward the elbow in slow rhythmic waves that arrived worse than the last one.

His left hand started feeling heavy. The signals going to his fingers arriving slightly late.

He swung the sword and slashed the beast in two parts.

[Calamity Beast (Quig) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 20

He stood up straight.

The yellow was already visible at the skin as a faint discoloration spreading outward from the entry point, patient and steady, following the line of his veins up his forearm. The nausea arrived behind it.

There was a reason he had done this. Earlier the system had only registered the impact on the scales, and not his whole body.

[Severity - Extreme]

Just as he had expected a system window appeared, followed by another one.

[Damage Type Changed]

[Two Damage Type detected]

[Changing Adaptation Sequence] 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

[Adapting - 0%]

[Adapting - 20%]

’Hmm, so the type of skill that I will get now will be much better. And its much faster now.’ Hide nodded in satisfaction, despite feeling like throwing up. He didn’t let it show on his face.

Toma reached hide and looked at the injury with a worried face. Slightly trembling.

"That... that reached your skin," He said, stammering. "Your skin is burned from the outside, the venom would reach your bloodstream. We need to do something about it, even if it was just a G rank beast, it might lead to paralyses or even death."

"Hey... hey, calm down." Hide placed a hand on his shoulder. "I will be alright, it will even heal soon."

"What? So your class is related to healing?" Toma asked confused.

"Yes think so for the time being."

GROWLLL!!!!!!

A vicious growl startled them both, followed by a noise of various footsteps. Like a stampede.

Toma closed his eyes and sent his Shikigami above. The bat flew up and soon Toma’s face turned ashen.

He opened his eyes and blurted out. "We need to run away from here now."

Hide was a little confused, but followed. because the noise didn’t mean anything good. Just as he turned the system screen appeared in front of him.

The Adaptation was complete.