The mossy cave was silent. The only sounds permeating its walls were Synth's broken coughs as she recovered from her recent near-death experience.
It had been five minutes since Damien's outburst, but no words had been spoken yet. After all, the three geniuses needed time to gather themselves before facing him again.
In their eyes, the amiable youth they'd met in the starship had been replaced by a monster. There was no way they could calmly converse with him anymore,
Damien sighed as he watched them. Though, couldn't blame them for their current attitude. If Zara hadn't stopped him, he really would've killed Synth.
'Was I being too dramatic?' He asked himself.
The second they dropped into Calypto, his mindset experienced an extreme change. It wasn't just due to his survival instinct or the importance of their mission, it was a reaction akin to PTSD.
And perhaps it was, to some extent. He'd lived 10 years of war already, whether it was in his own body or not. His experience didn't translate completely into the real world, but the feelings stayed ingrained in his subconscious.
The stench of Nox mana in the air, the killing intent that surrounded them on all sides, the many factors present on Calypto combined and invoked a primal reaction that he could barely control.
Still, he didn't think he was wrong.
After all…
"If the three of you don't put your guards up and start listening to me, you'll die the second we leave this cave."
The trio's eyes collectively widened in shock
"W-what?!" Tyler exclaimed, speaking for them.
Damien shrugged in response. "The atmosphere is filled with deadly poison. It must be a trait of this forest. Aside from that, every tree and leaf out there is carnivorous. If you even step wrong, you might find yourself with one less leg."
"T-then…" Tyler stammered.
"Mm, the quick teleportation was to isolate you from those effects. I'll be fine because I have a powerful natural regeneration and Zara will be fine because of her beast physique, but the three of you are regular people. None of you have special traits to help you survive the atmosphere."
Tyler and Ash were humans while Synth was an elf. While the first two had average bodies, Synth would be especially affected by the atmosphere due to the elves' closeness with nature.
If they stayed in an open-air environment for more than a few seconds, she would've been instantly poisoned.
From the looks of it, Tyler didn't doubt Damien's words at all. Once he heard them, his brain whirred to life and put the pieces together. The poisonous grapevines in the cave, the foul odor in the air, the ominous hissing of the plants as they stood, it all added up to support what Damien said.
"B-but…how did you know?" Tyler asked cautiously.
"Hm? Because I was poisoned when we first landed. I spawned inside a tree, you see. That bastard didn't hesitate to strike even without understanding who or what I am."
Damien thought back to the leaves that grazed his face when he first materialized. In fact, he didn't even realize he was poisoned until midway through Tyler's words about finding a cave. Only when the poison was expelled by Transcendent Regeneration did he perceive its existence.
He had no desire to stay in an environment filled with poison that could deceive even his senses, and he acted on that notion without another thought.
"If you could survive, why couldn't we?" Synth growled immediately. Her rebellious gaze was now mixed with fear and caution as she spoke, but she didn't hesitate regardless.
Damien sighed. This was why he hated working in teams. It was just too annoying to build trust with people he didn't care about.
'Let's just do it the easy way.'
The Dimensional Cage around them dispersed. Without speaking another word, Damien walked up to the cave wall and released a nearby poison vine from its entrapment.
That terrifying purple acid dripped down without delay…right onto Damien's body.
"What are you doing?!" Tyler yelled in a panic.
"Relax," Damien responded immediately. He sealed the vine once more and turned around, "can't you see I'm fine?"
He was, in fact, not fine.
His flesh and muscles evaporated completely in the areas where he was struck. His right arm rapidly melted into a pile of bloody goo, and even a portion of his face melted down to where his skull was clearly showing.
"Eek!" Ash yelped in terror as she turned away.
Tyler and Synth cringed when they saw his appearance, fighting back the urge to vomit.
"Tch, don't turn away and watch."
Just as Damien spoke, his flesh began to wriggle and reconnect. Sizzling purple fluid was excreted from his pores as he grew a new arm and healed his face.
"Can any of you do that? If you think you can, you're welcome to try." He spoke after completely healing back to peak condition.
"T-this…"
Tyler couldn't rebut. It was truly an insane healing factor, far surpassing anything they had access to. While they had separate antidotes and healing pills that could mimic the same effect, they took far longer to act.
The amount of pain they'd have to suffer before they could finally cure themselves…
"Does it not…hurt?" Synth asked quietly. She couldn't bring herself to raise her voice after that showing.
"Of course, it hurts, dumbass," Damien replied. "But in the end, it's just a matter of endurance. Isn't it simple when you think about it?"
No. It definitely wasn't simple. Synth shuddered at the thought of enduring the pain of her arms and face melting off even if it was only for a few seconds.
Only an insane person could do that with a straight face.
With every moment they spent in this cave, Damien only became more and more terrifying to them. Age didn't matter, level didn't matter. He was someone who defied common sense.
And they'd only known him for a few hours.
They couldn't imagine what kind of insanity they'd experience going forward.
"Anyway," Damien said, somewhat breaking the tense atmosphere, "do you understand why I acted the way I did? Or should I explain more?"
After looking at each other briefly, the three shook their heads in denial.
In reality, they did want a deeper explanation. Even if he wanted control over the group, and even if his intent was to protect them from the toxic atmosphere, he only needed to show them as he'd done just now.
What effect did the first showing have? Why did he feel the need to go so far?
But even if they asked, Damien couldn't tell them.
He couldn't tell them about his inherited PTSD, he couldn't tell them about the strange instinct that guided his actions…
And he couldn't tell them about the mission the Director gave him.
"Alright we're on a bit of a time crunch to exit this forest, so let's ignore this for now and get the important stuff out of the way."
"Now, should we move on to our mission objectives or do you want to continue wasting time refusing my leadership?" Damien segued as he double-tapped his school emblem.
He didn't even give the trio a chance to answer as he continued on.
Ignoring them completely, he began to browse the list of tasks they'd been provided. He'd already memorized the world map when the Director gave it to him previously, so he didn't need to look at it again.
'Oho…' he thought to himself. 'Now this might be interesting.'
