Chapter 403: New Class Exclusive Skill

Belladonna’s eyes fluttered open before she sat up in her chair, stretching her body out as much as she could whilst sitting all whilst letting out a long, satisfied groan. From behind her, she heard a subtle sigh of relief, that she couldn’t help but chuckle at.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw another individual sitting at a desk similar to the one she had just been sleeping on. It was a scrawny young human boy, who immediately blushed in embarrassment and quickly focused back on the book in front of him, only stealing a few bashful glances at Belladonna.

How cute of him, and really, she couldn’t blame the boy for worrying about her. Even if it came with a side dish of a new crush, but she really couldn’t blame him for that either.

After logging back into Dawd, she was already inside of the Tower of Mystica’s library, and had been calling it her home for the past week. Since she was on the second floor, where no other players could as of yet access, it was much safer to rest in the library.

None of the native mages were stupid enough to cause trouble the same way players were.

It had been a week of nothing but studying, stuffing her mind with as much magical reading material as possible, in order to further sure up her knowledge foundation.

It was also a chance to improve her body in less direct ways, which was undoubtedly what led to the boys concern. Aside from the stacks of books on her reading desk, there were multiple vials of various poisons, all of which she had purchased from the Towers alchemy department.

A few of the poisons were still corked and full, but a few were half empty and some were completely empty, with just a few droplets remaining in the glass vials.

After a particularly nasty fight with a scorpion-like beast, that resulted in Belladonna dying from its poison an hour after she had killed it, she realised that it was still a glaring hole in her defence.

Her healing factor was increased, and she could regenerate from most wounds in a decent amount of time, leading her further down her intended ’Immortal Glass Cannon’ path, but aside from one shot kills, poison and venom’s seemed to be something that her healing factor was unable to account for.

Perhaps it was a side effect of her undead-like race, or perhaps it was just that the Vitality score was directed entirely to wounds rather than poisons, such as how it could not fully cure her disease and only undo the damage it caused.

Regardless of the why, Belladonna had a brilliant idea. Microdosing.

Of course she could have upgraded her resistance stat, which was the one that still lagged behind the rest of the pack, but that was a temporary bandage on the issue. Plus, it felt like a strange betrayal of her ’Immortal Glass Cannon’ path and led her to the path of the boring all-rounder.

Microdosing, on the other hand, created a permanent defence against the poisons that would work regardless of the differences in stats.

She had started with the poisons that were common amongst the assassin and rogue types, especially the cheap ones that players would buy in droves.

Of course she couldn’t get them all, there was just too many for that. Different ingredients from around the world made different poisons, some spells could make them too and some players might opt for more expensive ones.

But it was a good start. The mana poison, known as Magi’s Bane, was an especially good one to get early.

That one felt awful. It was not unlike how the magic sealing handcuffs felt, causing her mana to go wild within her body and even attack her from the inside, meaning that even when the effects wore off she had nearly no mana to fight back with.

No doubt some assassin out there had that prepared to deal with mage players. It was especially good for those who relied on Detox spells.

"You gave that poor boy a scare. Even when I told you that you were alright, he still kept asking about you. I was considering making a little sign to place on you."

The Librarian said as she drifted past, a few piles of books stacked on a cart behind her.

This was just one of a couple Librarians, but this one seemed to enjoy wandering around the most instead of being stuck behind a desk. Belladonna had seen her a lot lately, sorting books.

She was pretty, with auburn hair and the classic square glasses that gave her a strange new level of allure. But her most eye-catching feature was the pair of black feathered wings that sprouted from her lower back, and that she kept wrapped around her waist as a makeshift skirt.

Belladonna wasn’t entirely sure what race she was, her money was on some kind of Wild-Blood. But she was pretty and nice, so it didn’t really matter. Plus it was rude to ask.

"Ha, Yeah... Sorry about that. I guess I need to sleep more, but it’s just more convenient to rest my head here than go back and forth to an inn." Belladonna laughed, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"Don’t worry dear," The Librarian cooed, "You’re not the only one that gets lost in her studies and falls asleep, I’m just thankful that you are not the type that drools onto our books. Gods know how many we had to replace because of the droolers, or even worse, the midnight snackers.

Had you been a Goat Wild-Blood, you would have been escorted out long before you could fall asleep." She sighed wistfully, her eyes gazing off into the distance like she was a soldier remembering the horrors of the war.

"I can only imagine all of the innocent books lost to such heinous acts, I thank you for your service madam." Belladonna chuckled, before giving her a joking salute.

The Librarian laughed softly, waving Belladonna off with her hand before she moved on, still chuckling to herself as she continued with her work. The cart filled with books following after her, all on its own, like an eager puppy.

After the woman left, Belladonna started to pack up her things. Placing her poisons and the empty vials into her shadow for later, and so that she didn’t scare anyone else the next time that she ’fell asleep’, before sorting out her books into two piles. Read and Unread. The former was significantly taller than the latter.

She stood up and left her desk, forcing her protector to let out a depressed sigh and chastise himself for not making a move, as Belladonna returned her books to the front counter, where they would be later sorted.

However she didn’t leave the Library, and instead delved back into the rows of shelves to find the literature for her next study session.

It was when she was passing through the section dedicated to advanced nature magic that she heard a chime in her head, and the crystal embedded in the back of her hand glowed faintly.

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[You have levelled up! You are now Level 100!]

[Milestone Reached! New Class Exclusive Skill Acquired!]

[Class Skill:- Akashic Scribe]

[Imparting Knowledge for Class Exclusive Skill, Please Stand By...]

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Belladonna barely had a chance to celebrate the genius of her levelling up plan before a white hot needle was stabbed into her brain and started to swirl around inside her skull like it was trying to knit a sweater from her grey matter.

She stumbled, grabbing helplessly to the side causing a few books to scatter across the ground before she finally found purchase on the shelf.

The pain was unbearable, yet Belladonna make sure to keep all of her screams inside. The Amodites wouldn’t care why she screamed, only that she did and disrupted the tranquil atmosphere of the Library, and she didn’t need the charcoal treatment.

Thankfully, although it was torturous, it was brief, and after a few seconds of teeth clenching and tongue biting to hold in the screams, the white hot needle was removed and her brains were left unknitted.

Letting out a few heavy breathes, Belladonna stood up straight and removed her hand from the shelf - which she had ever so slightly shattered and ruined from gripping it so tight. She coughed nervously, quickly scooped up the books that fell and haphazardly stuffed them onto what remained of the shelf before teleporting to a different part of the stacks.

Once she was sure nothing was coming after her, she let out a sigh of relief and focused on the new skill that she acquired.

Surprisingly, using it was completely instinctual. It was no different from breathing or walking, although that last one was a little complicated in her case. She just knew how to use it, most likely from the searing needle injection, and so... She did.