"Hm?"
Harriet watched Ethan take a sip of the soup.
She also watched him swallow it, but what puzzled her was why he still looked completely fine.
He was even smacking his lips as if savoring the taste of the soup.
"Could it be that he didn't drink enough?'
"Lord Ethan, what do you think of the soup?"
Harriet quickly asked. Then she added some more meat to his bowl and said, "If it tastes good, then drink some more! No need to save it for me. There's plenty anyway."
"Sure!"
Ethan smiled and nodded, then took another big gulp.
The system notification earlier had been interrupted by Harriet, so he hadn't made a choice right away.
As soon as the poisoned soup entered his mouth...
The poison warning immediately appeared again.
[Poison Release Skill Level 1 → Poison Release Skill Level 2: Venom]
[Venom Skill Options: Store venom in the mouth, store venom in the blood, or upgrade the tear glands into Poison Eyes capable of continuously shooting venom?]
'What kind of venom skill is this?'
'The one that stores venom in the tear glands is a bit ridiculous.'
'Is a grown man supposed to cry all the time?'
'And shooting venom from my eyes...'
'Emmm...'
The more Ethan thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
If the venom were colorless, it would be one thing.
'But what if it has a color, like red?'
'Then I would be shooting red venom from my eyes. Wouldn't that look like tears of blood?'
'Ugh~'
'No thanks!'
'As for the second option, storing it in the blood?'
'Does that mean I will have to cut my wrist every time I wanted to use poison? It looks like something a masochist would do,' so Ethan ruled that out too.
That left only the final evolution path.
'Store venom in the mouth?'
'One spit and the target dies from poison?'
'Now that was a good skill.'
'Not only is it highly insulting, but it also deals serious damage.'
'Perfect!'
'This is the one!'
[Choose: Store Venom in Mouth!]
[Selection Successful!]
[Poison Release Skill Level 2 — Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 1/100]
'One sip of soup gives one point of experience?'
'And it only needs one hundred points to level up?'
Ethan stared at the bowl in his hand as if he had found treasure.
Then...
Gulp~ Gulp~ Gulp~
[Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 1/100]
[Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 2/100]
[...]
[Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 37/100]
One bowl of soup directly gave him 37 experience points.
Ethan was delighted.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then held out the empty bowl to Harriet and said boldly, "Another bowl!"
"Huh?"
Now it was Harriet's turn to be confused.
If Ethan hadn't been poisoned by the Deadly Fragrance Mushroom Soup the first time, it could perhaps be explained by the small amount he drank.
But now he had downed an entire bowl in one go.
If that still wasn't enough, wasn't that a bit ridiculous?
Still...
With that bit of doubt in mind, Harriet filled another large bowl for him.
Gulp~ Gulp~ Gulp~
The moment Ethan took the bowl, he drank it dry again.
[Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 38/100]
[Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 39/100]
[...]
[Store Venom in Mouth: Experience 72/100]
This soup was really effective.
Just two bowls had already raised the level-two skill's experience by more than two-thirds.
'Wouldn't one more bowl be enough?'
Ethan's eyes lit up.
"Another bowl!"
"Uh!"
Harriet's mouth fell open in shock.
This time... she genuinely suspected that the soup pot had been too large, resulting in too little poison.
After all, talking about poison without considering dosage was meaningless.
So...
Harriet decided to add more.
"What's wrong?", Seeing that Harriet wasn't moving, Ethan asked curiously, "Reluctant to part with it? If that's the case, forget it. You should leave some for everyone else."
"That's not what I mean. I just wanted to ask how it tastes," Harriet smiled and said, "I was thinking about adding some white pepper powder. It might get rid of the meaty smell and make it taste even better."
"Really?", Ethan's eyes brightened, "Then add it!"
'White pepper powder? Heh!'
Even an idiot could tell she thought he hadn't consumed enough poison and wanted to add more.
But Ethan couldn't have been happier.
'The more, the better!'
'That way...'
'His Poison Release Skill will level up faster.'
Ethan was actually looking forward to spitting at an enemy and watching them fall flat on their back with foam coming out of their mouth.
Just imagining it felt great.
"Of course! Of course!"
When Harriet saw Ethan agree, her eyes brightened as well. She immediately took out a small packet of Death Fragrance that she had spent a long time collecting.
Then she carefully poured a little into the soup.
When Ethan saw how stingy she was being... he immediately became annoyed.
This was a leveling treasure. Why was she being so miserly?
"Smells great! Why does this white pepper powder smell so... ah!"
Ethan reached out as if to grab the "white pepper powder" from Harriet. Then, by accident, he knocked the entire packet into the soup and deliberately put on an apologetic expression.
"Oh no! It fell in! What do we do now? I'm so sorry!"
"How about I compensate you later with a jar of some other seasoning?"
"Please don't be angry!"
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