26 Obtaining the Monster Core, Poisoner Class Change Complete
John, who was on his way, felt puzzled. The Sharkman had swallowed the potion by now, and it should have taken effect.
However, it seemed to have no effect. John was certain it wasn't an issue with his poison.
The Sharkman stopped, opened its mouth, and spat out the intact healing potion, looking at John with a puzzled gaze.
Why would a potion master feed it medicine?
But being cautious, it didn't crush the bottle.
" I should have opened the bottle first." John sighed in resignation. In his haste, he had thought the creature would crush the bottle, not anticipating its vigilance.
Its skin was too thick for normal attacks to penetrate, and he estimated that a potion in vapor form wouldn't be much effective either.
However, being a fish creature, the Sharkman had gills exposed on its neck. If the poison could adhere to the gills, it could rapidly spread the toxin.
John decided to give it another try and charged at the Sharkman again.
Reaching near the Sharkman, he bit open a healing potion mixed with lava viper venom and quickly triggered the potion to vaporize.
The green healing potion spread rapidly, adhering to the Sharkman's skin.
The Sharkman, sensing danger early on, immediately closed the gills on its neck.
The venom didn't enter its bloodstream and had no effect.
[S-Rank Toxin Penetration] started to take effect, and the Sharkman began to shed its skin. The keratin layer penetrated by the toxin rapidly peeled off, and a new layer of keratin armor covered its body again.
John was intrigued. This was the first time since his rebirth that he had encountered an opponent he couldn't easily defeat.
However, he had already thought of a solution.
Dodging the Sharkman's attacks again, John asked Victoria, "How long until your Parry skill is off cooldown?"
"4 minutes and 42 seconds." Victoria responded.
John handed her the potion mixed with lava viper venom, "Apply this potion to your blade, and use your Parry skill on the Sharkman!"
Victoria immediately understood John's intention. He wanted to use the guaranteed defense-breaking and precise hit after a successful [Parry] to introduce the venom into the Sharkman's bloodstream.
"You fall back and apply the potion. I'll keep it distracted." John said, dodging an incoming boulder and charging at the Sharkman again.
Victoria poured the potion on her dueling sword, waiting for the skill's remaining cooldown.
John tangled with the Sharkman once more. Facing John, who moved unpredictably like a flea, the Sharkman grew increasingly frustrated.
Its attacks sped up, but John always managed to dodge at critical moments with the most tricky angles.
This was a skill honed through countless battles before John's rebirth.
As a potion master, he needed to have agile movements to face assassins targeting him, since teammates couldn't guard him at all times.
Soon, Victoria's [Parry] cooldown ended.
She seized the opportunity and swiftly joined the fight.
The moment the Sharkman swung its fist at John, she activated [Parry] and blocked the hit.
[Parry] was successful, and she launched a guaranteed defense-breaking, precise strike!
The keratin layer on the Sharkman's fist was instantly pierced, and the blade's venom successfully entered its bloodstream.
Victoria withdrew her sword and dodged. Seeing the blood on her dueling sword, John knew the fight was over.
The Sharkman stopped its attack, lifting the injured back of its hand in confusion.
It clearly felt a brutal toxin rapidly spreading through its body, causing a burning agony.
The Sharkman let out a low growl, clenched its teeth, grabbed its injured right forearm with its left hand, and forcefully tore off the right arm invaded by the venom.
Blood gushed out. The severed right arm began to burn, with tiny sparks appearing and quickly reducing it to ashes.
The Sharkman clenched its teeth. Its eyes filled with ferocity. But another wave of poisonous mist was coming towards it.
Its severed right arm was immediately covered in a large amount of the toxin.
The Sharkman let out an angry howl, knowing its death was inevitable.
John sneered at the sight, "You damned fool! why don't you try ripping off your shoulder too? Hurry up, or the venom will reach your brain, and by then, it'll be too late to tear anything off."
It charged at John like a mad bull, wishing to take him down with it before dying.
However, before the Sharkman could reach John, thick smoke began to emanate from its body, the venom already spreading throughout.
The lava viper's toxin was rapidly devouring its body.
Its movements became slower and slower. Until it finally fell in front of John, its angry eyes gradually losing life and starting to carbonize.
[Ding, monster toxin detected, extract?]
John looked at the burning Sharkman and immediately activated his talent skill [Toxin Extractio].
[Toxin Collected: Sharkman Blood]
[Killed Sharkman, earned 1300 experience points]
[Current experience: 1000/1000]
[Note: Experience overflow, please complete the class change quest as soon as possible]
Looking at the Sharkman's corpse, Victoria couldn't help but marvel, "The venom in your potion is incredibly powerful..."
"It's supposed to be a healing potion. But it can kill monsters." Despite having seen it several times, Victoria still found it hard to believe.
Who wouldn't be surprised by such a thing?
Victoria knew that without John, an ordinary team of Awakened would hardly be able to kill this Sharkman.
"Don't spout nonsense. If this gets out, how will I sell healing potions in the future?" John said with a laugh, walking forward and kicking the carbonized remains of the Sharkman.
Seeing a purple crystal among the black residue, John immediately became excited.
"Wow, what luck!" John bent down and picked it up.
[Item Acquired: Monster Core Crystal]
The system panel automatically unfolded, and the item information appeared before his eyes.
[Item Name: Monster Core Crystal]
[Grade: Fine]
[Origin: Level 13 Sharkman]
[Attribute: Constitution +20]
[Special Effect: Skin Hardening]
[Description: Essential material for Awakened's class change and equipment crafting.]
John hadn't expected that killing just one monster above level 10 would net him the Monster Core Crystal needed for his current class change.
Apart from guaranteed drops from bosses over level 10, only elite monsters have a chance to drop the core, with the probability around 8-10%.
Getting one from a single kill was quite lucky indeed.
Victoria leaned in to take a look and asked softly, "Is this the Monster Core Crystal?"
"Yeah, and it's of fine quality too." John nodded and said, "By the way, have you reached level 10 yet?"
Victoria hurriedly waved her hands in refusal, "Don't worry about me. I wouldn't have leveled up this fast without you. I don't even know how to repay you..."
John joked, "How about being my girlfriend?"
"In your dreams." Victoria pouted. She did have some feelings for John but decided it was best to get to know him better first.
John immediately began to absorb the core crystal, planning to complete the potion master's class change quest first.
The crystal in his hand instantly shattered, transforming into a mass of purple light that entered his body.
The system panel automatically popped up, displaying the class change quest.
[Potion Master Class Change Quest: Monster Core Crystal (✓), Ingest a type of toxin not present in the body (×)]
John took out the Sharkman blood he had collected earlier from the system inventory. He wasn't quite sure about the toxicity of Sharkman blood.
But since it could be used to complete the class change quest, he decided to ingest it first.
Opening the small glass bottle containing the Sharkman blood, John tilted his head back and swallowed it.
The next second, John felt dizzy, as if he were intoxicated, starting to feel light-headed.
However, his [S-rank Toxic Resistance] quickly took effect. The dizziness from the Sharkman blood soon dissipated.
[Potion Master Class Change Quest: Monster Core Crystal (✓), Ingest a type of toxin not present in the body (✓)]
The system panel closed, and a force began to emerge within his body.
He could clearly feel the accumulated toxins in his body converging towards the same spot, rapidly merging together.
[Congratulations on the successful class change!]
[Talent Skill Acquired: Original Poison Body]
