Rebirth of the Weakest

6: Poison, Fire, and a Panther Born from Ash

Every legend starts with a single choice. Tonight, whether Ken liked it or not, fate had already made his for him.

The serpent came at him again, scales grinding against bark as it tore through the underbrush. Ken threw a punch straight into its side and immediately regretted it, pain shooting up his arm from wrist to shoulder. The thing was built like armor plating, not flesh.

"Might be a good time to bring out the heavenly beast, do you not think, Goddess?" he called out between dodges.

"No," Mirinda said flatly, her voice steady in his mind despite the chaos. "You need to reach Grandmaster level before your body can withstand the White Tiger's power, young Ken. Right now it would tear you apart faster than the serpent could."

The serpent lunged again, mouth opening wide enough to release a beam of raw energy straight at him. Ken threw himself sideways, rolling through wet leaves, heart hammering somewhere up near his throat.

"Fine," he muttered, scrambling back to his feet. "If I cannot punch it to death, I will poison it instead." He raised his voice toward the space in his own skull where Mirinda apparently liked to sit cross legged like she owned the place. "Goddess, is there some plant snakes actually fear?"

He could practically hear her smiling. "There is. Cobranoid, a herb violently toxic even by alchemy standards. Fighting poison with poison tends to be the smartest strategy against something this durable." A pause, sharper this time. "Though the plant itself is dangerous enough that you may never get close enough to use it. That serpent is nearly untouchable."

Ken grinned despite the blood trickling down his temple. "I have a plan."

*A terrible plan, but a plan.*

He led the serpent on a chase through the trees, weaving branch to branch, using speed instead of strength since strength clearly was not an option today. Somewhere in the middle of it, an idea clicked into place.

"If we need to find poison," he muttered to himself, "who better than a cat." He focused, calling on his spirit. "Cat Scent."

The serpent's tail caught him mid-thought, throwing him clean through two trees before he slammed into a third. Blood filled his mouth. Ribs screamed in protest.

The serpent came for him again, faster this time, sensing the kill.

*Now or never.*

Ken grabbed the nearest elastic branch, bent it back with everything he had left, and launched himself directly at the incoming serpent as its jaws split wide open to swallow him whole.

"Have you completely lost your mind," Mirinda shrieked inside his head. "Do not fly into the belly of the beast, you absolute lunatic!"

The serpent fired its poison beam point blank. Ken threw up whatever thin energy shield he could manage, and it cracked almost instantly under the pressure, but it held just long enough. In that single second, Ken shoved a cobranoid seed straight down the creature's open throat.

The seed dissolved on contact with the serpent's own venom, turning to gas and flooding straight into its lungs.

The serpent thrashed wildly, smashing through trees, screeching loud enough to rattle Ken's teeth, before finally collapsing in a heap.

Dead. Poisoned by its own venom turned against it.

Mirinda appeared beside the body a moment later, sweeping her dragon flame across it until nothing remained but drifting ash.

"Good work, young Ken," she said, something like pride creeping into her tone. "Fighting poison with poison really was—"

She never finished the sentence, because Ken hit the ground beside her, his own cat spirit poisoned right along with the serpent.

"Cobranoid," he wheezed, vision swimming. "Never doing that again."

Mirinda sighed and pulled a small cooking furnace from her storage ring, lighting it with her flame until the heat rolled off it in visible waves. She pressed it close, letting the fire burn deep enough into Ken to force the poison out through sheer heat.

"Strong fire. Nice furnace," Ken managed weakly, coughing between words. "Could I get one like that."

"You are demanding gifts while nearly dying," Mirinda said, amusement slipping through despite herself. "Impressive, in a foolish sort of way. I could give you one, though. Assuming you manage to meet all of my requirements first."

*Greedy for a goddess,* Ken thought, too tired to say it out loud. *Then again, who exactly is out there who could actually rival her?*

She laughed softly, turning the furnace's heat up another notch. "Do not get ahead of yourself, young Ken. Plenty of beings stand above Grandmaster level in this world. Very few reach Saint level. I am not even close to the top of that list."

"Is this alchemy," Ken asked, squinting at the furnace. "Because it looks a lot like regular cooking to me."

"Watch closely," Mirinda said, ignoring the jab entirely. "This might save your life someday. Alchemy on this continent follows three rules. First, the strength of the furnace, which depends entirely on the stone used to build it. Second, matching the fire source to the pill's intended effect, healing pills require healing flame, not something aggressive or poisonous. Third, understanding exactly what each herb contributes to the final result."

She fed all five herbs into the furnace at once, the divine lotus stem, the web plant, the thunder seed, the din stem, and the willow, holding the temperature steady with her flame.

"How would I even practice this," Ken asked. "I am a thunder attribute cultivator, not a fire type."

"Modern alchemists rarely understand the older methods," she said. "A pill's quality shows in its scent, its color, its texture, the number of luminous lines running through it. Combine thunder attribute with the right flame, and you elevate the entire pill beyond its base tier." She glanced at him. "A tier four pill infused with thunder can manifest with tier five properties. One line per tier. Simple, once you see it work."

The furnace erupted in a burst of flame, and Mirinda pulled a single pill free from the smoke.

The Body Washing Spirit Pill.

Ken leaned in and caught the scent, something warm and floral, nothing like the sterile medicine he vaguely remembered from his old life.

"Smells incredible," he murmured, mostly to himself. "Kind of like you, actually."

"Less thinking," Mirinda said dryly, "more swallowing. We do not have time for you to flirt with alchemy byproducts."

Ken swallowed the pill without further protest.

The reaction hit almost instantly, Beast Qi tearing through his organs and meridians like fire through paper. He doubled over, blood spilling from his mouth, every nerve in his body screaming at once.

"Endure it," Mirinda said, kneeling beside him, her voice tight. "You are rebuilding your meridians by destroying the old ones first. This part is always the worst."

Watching him convulse in the dirt, something shifted behind her expression, softer than she probably meant to show.

*You chose this path to wash away every ounce of shame this world has piled on you,* she thought. *Survive this, Le Ken. There are people waiting on the other side of it.*

His cat spirit shattered inside him without warning, spinning wild and formless. Ken screamed, his entire cultivation base unraveling along with it, and then he went completely still. No breath. No pulse she could sense.

Mirinda moved fast, channeling her Recreation Flame directly into him, forcing the pill's final effect to ignite.

Ken's fingers twitched.

Lightning Qi surged through him as red flame spread new meridian points across his body. Deep in his soul space, threads of web energy gathered up every scattered fragment of his old cat spirit, binding them back together into something new entirely.

A Black Panther, sleek and dangerous, rose where the trash cat spirit used to be.

Lightning exploded outward one final time, and Ken's cultivation surged past its old ceiling entirely.

He opened his eyes at level twelve, Beast Geek stage.

Mirinda sagged with relief, her own strength drained from the effort, and started to fall.

"You survived, young Ken," she whispered, catching herself against exhaustion, smiling despite it. "Your cat spirit is a panther now. New skills. New strength."

Ken caught her before she hit the ground, steadying her against his shoulder.

"You have carried enough for both of us today," he said. "Let me return the favor. What do you need to get back to full strength? I will find it."

Her eyes widened at that, though she quickly straightened herself, pulling back to her feet.

"Beast Flames," she said. "More of them, like the Recreation Flame I carry. I only obtained mine by chance, from a newborn heavenly dragon."

"Where would I even find one," Ken asked, already turning the problem over in his mind.

"They are exceedingly rare across this continent," she said. "Only appearing when a heavenly beast is born, or during calamities severe enough to reshape the land. A Beast Flame could also strengthen your lightning attribute significantly, potentially mutating your spirit into something closer to a heavenly beast itself." She hesitated, then reached into her storage ring. "I can give you something that will let your body actually withstand one, when the time comes."

"Then I owe you thanks again, Dragon Goddess," Ken said, bowing slightly.

She pressed the sea serpent's beast core into his palm instead.

"Every beast carries a core," she explained. "Valuable for cultivation, same as their bodies. Use this to strengthen your panther spirit and build a proper foundation before you push any further."

Ken swallowed the core without hesitation, and felt his skin harden, thick scales rippling faintly beneath the surface.

"My Recreation Flame repairs and rebuilds rather than simply burning," Mirinda added quietly. "That is why it carries a red color instead of the usual orange or gold. Combined with my Dragon Flame, I can access something called the Dragon Mantra, the closest thing the Kron Dragon Clan has to a sacred secret. The single most coveted treasure on this entire continent." Her gaze sharpened, serious now. "You must keep this between us, Le Ken. No exceptions."

Ken nodded, something steady settling into his chest for the first time since waking up in this world.

"Do not worry," he said. "I will track down every flame this continent is hiding, help you reclaim everything you lost, and along the way, scrub a little of the filth off my own clan's name too."