The next day.
“Still heavy…”
Evan had expected to feel refreshed, but even after the poison was neutralized, his body still felt sluggish.
He sat at the edge of the bed, sensing a strange foreign discomfort, and began assessing the current situation.
‘By now, news of my condition must have spread throughout the entire mansion.’
Last night, a priest had rushed out of the temple and examined Evan’s body.
After confirming there were no health issues, a report had been sent to Count Clyd.
As a result, security around him had been tightened since yesterday, and the number of guards stationed at his door had increased.
Thanks to that, he was now relatively safe.
But that didn’t mean he could relax.
He still needed to prepare countermeasures against future assassination attempts.
‘Heres and Hilton.’
Those two were still trying to kill him.
Unless they were removed, this wouldn’t end.
‘Once they hear that I’m still alive, they’ll definitely try again.’
Right now, poisoning was the only viable method of assassination.
Hiring an assassin to infiltrate the kingdom’s greatest knight family would be insane.
Not only were the knights guarding Evan personally of high caliber, but so were all the others stationed throughout the mansion.
And most importantly, it was nearly impossible to hire an assassin capable of evading Clyd’s watchful eyes.
To bypass them, they’d need someone on the level of a Sword Master.
In short, it was practically impossible.
Poisoning remained the only stable and feasible method.
‘Then they’ll keep trying to poison me.’
In that case, Evan just needed to level up his Poison Resistance skill.
In fact, if they kept trying to poison him, it would actually be helpful.
‘I can just build up my proficiency with it. For now, I’ll focus on training my Poison Resistance skill.’
Evan brought up his status window to recheck his condition.
Since the Arkas poison had been detoxified, he assumed that at least his reduced stats would have returned to normal.
But when he looked at the screen, he was left speechless.
Although the poison status had been removed, all of his stats were still in the negative.
‘Why are they still the same? Wasn’t this because of the Arkas poison?’
While the Arkas poison was indeed a lethal toxin that threatened his life, now that he thought about it, it was different in nature from something that would gradually reduce his stats.
‘I thought it was because of my Absorption Constitution… but maybe that wasn’t it.’
***
As Evan was mulling over the situation, someone knocked on the door.
“Y-Young Master, it’s time for your medicine.”
‘Medicine?’
Tilting his head in confusion, Evan dug through his memories.
Tracing back anything related to this medicine, he soon uncovered an old memory from his childhood.
Back then, when Evan was in despair over his lack of mana, Heres had approached him and whispered something in secret.
—”Young Master. If you regularly brew and drink the Parnah herb, you might be able to gain mana. This is something I’m only telling you. Hilton, who also didn’t have mana at first, only obtained it thanks to the Parnah herb. This is a secret. I’ll send my personal maid to bring you the medicine.”
Back then, in utter despair, Evan had naturally followed her suggestion and drank the herbal brew made from the Parnah herb once a week without fail.
‘Now I know why my body ended up in such a wreck.’
Evan gave a dry chuckle.
“Come in.”
Clack!
A green-haired girl in a maid outfit entered, carrying a bowl of herbal medicine on a tray.
Facing the infamous troublemaker of the household, she spoke in a trembling voice.
“T-The priest said your body has fully recovered, so… I-I prepared this right away.”
Evan casually waved his hand in response.
“Just leave it and get out.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The maid quickly placed the medicine on the bedside table and rushed out, still shaking.
Evan stared at the bowl thoughtfully.
‘No wonder my body ended up like this.’
The Parnah herb definitely contained a lot of mana.
At one point, the Hunter Association had even studied it as a potential ingredient for mana recovery potions or mana elixirs.
It had shaken the entire world when it was first discovered.
But it had quickly faded from the public eye.
‘Because they concluded it was too toxic to use.’
While it was true the herb held a great deal of mana, it also contained a lethal amount of toxins that severely damaged the body.
It wasn’t as violently dangerous as the Arkas poison, but it was the kind of toxin that slowly killed the body over time.
People would grow weak, deteriorate gradually, and in the worst cases, die as broken shells of themselves.
But that didn’t concern Evan.
He picked up the bowl without hesitation and downed the medicine in one gulp.
Gulp!
At that moment, system messages popped up before his eyes.
[You have been poisoned by the Parnah herb.]
[Poison Resistance skill has been activated.]
[Poison immunity increased by 30%.]
[Poison Resistance skill proficiency has increased!]
[Poison Resistance skill proficiency has increased!]
The sharp rise in his skill proficiency showed just how potent the toxin was.
‘Nothing I can do about the ones I already drank. But from now on, this stuff will actually be good for me.’
It was a quick way to boost his Poison Resistance skill.
And since the Parnah herb was brimming with mana, he could absorb that too—two birds with one stone.
Soon, the energy of the Parnah herb began circulating through his body.
But then, a problem occurred.
[Absorption Constitution has been activated.]
Due to his special constitution, the absorption process was forcibly sped up.
And even though his poison resistance had improved, it still wasn’t enough to fully withstand the toxicity.
At this rate, the combined effects of the toxins and mana would simply build up in his body.
‘The Poison Resistance skill alone isn’t strong enough yet…’
Without hesitation, Evan brought up the shop window.
What he needed was a Low-Grade Detoxification Potion.
‘With the detox potion, I can purify the toxins and fully absorb everything else.’
Evan bought the potion without hesitation and drank it down.
As the poison intertwined with mana was purified, a new message window appeared in front of Evan.
[You have absorbed the rich mana of the Parnah Herb.]
The mana that had been tangled with the poison began to flow fully into Evan’s body.
But the process was far from smooth.
It was like trying to force an elephant through the eye of a needle.
An excruciating pain wrapped around Evan’s body, as if he might die at any moment.
“Urgh!”
Evan gritted his teeth and focused as much as he could.
He had to control the mana entering his body and absorb it properly.
However, with his Absorption Constitution already active, the absorption speed only accelerated.
Evan clenched his jaw and endured it, but he was only able to absorb about 10% completely.
The remaining 90%…
[Warning! Unable to absorb mana.]
[Forcing conversion into a form that can be absorbed.]
[You have been poisoned with mana toxin.]
[Poison Resistance skill proficiency has increased.]
Because of the Absorption Constitution, the unabsorbable mana was forcibly converted into a poison and absorbed that way.
And all of that poison remained inside his body.
His body grew heavier, and waves of pain surged due to the toxic mana.
Then—
[Due to mana poisoning, Strength has temporarily decreased by 3.]
He was now witnessing in real-time the reason his stats had gone into the negative.
‘Don’t tell me… this fleshy mass isn’t fat, but all…?’
Clumps of mana that had transformed into poison.
Evan had been living with poison sealed inside his body all along.
To gain mana, the past Evan must have consumed all sorts of things.
And because his body was incapable of naturally accepting mana, it had forcibly absorbed those substances by turning them into poison.
‘Absorbing mana isn’t something that can be done easily.’
Especially for someone born without mana to begin with.
Even for him, it had only been possible after countless attempts and hard-earned experience.
‘As the poison built up inside, his life must have gradually slipped away and what ultimately accelerated that process… was the Parnah Herb.’
A new challenge now lay before Evan.
‘It’s a miracle this body is even alive. I need to deal with the poison inside me before anything worse happens.’
Now realizing how critical his condition was, his mind raced.
Still, it wasn’t all bad news.
If he could manage to purify and absorb the toxic mana again, then all that vast mana would become his.
‘A body filled with mana… in a different sense. Interesting.’
***
[Parnah Herb mana absorption complete.]
[Intelligence has increased by 1.]
[You have gained 10 mana.]
A familiar energy settled into Evan’s body.
It wasn’t much, but he had successfully absorbed some mana.
For Evan, that was a huge achievement.
‘But I can’t just sit here and celebrate.’
Evan immediately called for the knight standing guard outside.
***
The old butler who had checked on Evan’s condition went to see Count Clyd.
“Master, the young lord is healthy enough to move around again.”
Clyd, who had been reviewing the knights’ schedule, paused for a moment.
He set the papers down and looked up at the butler.
“The boy who was on the verge of death…?”
Clyd stroked his beard and replied dryly.
“Just make sure he doesn’t cause trouble. That’s your job, as always. I don’t want to have to deal with him myself.”
“Understood.”
Count Clyd didn’t spare Evan a shred of attention.
Ever since learning Evan had no mana, Clyd had made up his mind.
Half-hearted affection or misplaced kindness would only become a poison to that boy.
He had already predicted what Evan’s future would look like, so he had chosen to leave him alone—to let Evan enjoy his current days while he could.
It was the kindest thing he could offer.
When the time came, Clyd would give Evan a title and exile him to a remote estate, where he would live in permanent isolation.
Once that happened, no matter how much Evan wanted to return, he wouldn’t be able to.
Due to family tradition, Evan would inherit the title of count.
But the one who would truly lead the estate and command the knights would be Delian.
In other words, the domain would have a count in name only.
“By the way, Alburton, what’s the status of the culprit?”
“I’m sorry. We still haven’t caught them. We interrogated the maid who served the tea at the time, but… it led nowhere.”
“…Handle it quickly.”
With that brief response, Clyd turned his gaze back to the documents.
Just as he picked up his pen to resume work, Alburton continued to stand there, hesitating.
“I understand. But Master…”
After a moment of hesitation, Alburton finally spoke.
“Ever since the young lord woke up… he’s been acting a little strangely.”
“Strangely?”
“Yes. The young lord asked to use the training grounds right away…”
Clyd’s hand froze.
He looked up again, this time with a hint of disbelief.
“He said that?”
He could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Evan had given up on swordsmanship eight years ago, after realizing the wall he faced because of his lack of mana.
And now he wanted to train again?
“I see. Alburton, keep a close eye on what he’s doing and report to me quietly.”
“Understood.”