My Refrigerator Turned Into A Dungeon

Chapter 427

Chapter 427

My Refrigerator Turned Into A Dungeon

Poison

Today, I summoned the Cockatrice I had been concerned about from its card and was observing its condition with Oji-san.

“Hmm… As I thought, it’s weak.”

“I see, so that's your assessment too, Oji-san.”

Cockatrice. It's more like a large chicken, or perhaps closer to a turkey.

It's like a wilder version of a turkey, with the lower part of its body having a reptilian flavor, you could say. Something between a turkey and a cassowary, and its tail is like a snake's.

But, just as I had sensed, these two Cockatrices didn't seem to be in top form.

“They might have eaten something strange in the mountains.”

“Hmm, the mountains are full of dangerous poisons, after all.”

Even now, under our watch, the two Cockatrices were crouching without making a single sound. They had been like that since I first saw them, and I found it suspicious that they were too docile for monsters.

And the mountains, a bountiful nature full of blessings. But, on the other hand, they also contain many dangers.

Aconite, famous enough to be a synonym for poison, a staple in murder cases. You can find it blooming with its blue flowers normally in the mountains, and even the bright red Podostroma cornu-damae, which causes terrible inflammation, grew naturally in the mountains Oji-san managed.

The Cockatrices must have unknowingly eaten such poisonous things.

Hmm, poisons are extremely dangerous things. It seems that holds true even for monsters. Particularly mushroom toxins are powerful, and even we were strictly warned by Oji-san, "Never touch them if you go into the mountains."

Now, why are mushroom toxins so dangerous? It's because the human body absolutely cannot detoxify them.

First, the liver works hard to try and break down the toxins that enter the body. But even though it recognizes the substance as poison, it simply cannot break it down. Yes, no matter how hard it tries, it's the same as multiplying zero by ten or a hundred—it still results in zero.

So what happens then?

The toxins gathered in the liver, the body's chemical plant, damage the liver cells, and furthermore, due to the excessive strain, necrosis of the liver cells occurs.

This is a terrible double punch from the poison and the overwork.

This leads to multiple organ failure, and the patient dies after days of agony, with no means of salvation.

In the newspapers, however, this is simply written as 'Death from mushroom poisoning.'

But their death can only be described as gruesome. After all, while there are antivenoms for snake or scorpion venom, for poisonous mushrooms, there is mostly no method of detoxification.

Therefore, the details cannot be written in the newspaper.

'So-and-so from such-and-such place died after days of agonizing pain with no means of salvation from mushroom poisoning'—if you think about the bereaved family, you just can't write that, right?

Well, I think it would serve as more of a warning.

And that is obvious just from looking at Oji-san's attitude. He must have seen someone in the past who couldn't be saved that way.

So, even for dungeon users enhanced by life energy, mushroom poison is hard to resist and likely scores a critical hit. It's truly what you'd call a grievous blow.

Therefore, I properly followed Oji-san's instructions and never touched those kinds of mushrooms, even when entering the mountains.

Even if I spotted what were clearly edible mushrooms, like shimeji or wood ear. There was no need to take such risks when delicious vegetables were growing vigorously in the field.

But the Cockatrices, unaware of this, seem to have ingested such poisons. Right, then in that case.

“Well, I have a universal antidote that works even for poison, so let's try giving them that.”

What I took out then was a universal antidote made by boiling down the bodily fluids of the super-giant aphid that was the mountain dungeon's last boss into a syrup. As usual, I wrapped this in my skill-generated mucus to form pills and tried giving them to the two Cockatrices.

Then, a radiance overflowed from within them, and they swiftly stood up from their crouching positions.

Then, the Cockatrices looked around, noticed the chickens in a distant spot, and slowly approached the flock while swaying their heads back and forth. Of course, not to attack, but to join the flock. After blending into the flock, they began pecking at the ground, as if relieved.

“Hmm, it seems they've recovered.”

“That's good. It seems the medicine worked.”

They weren't that far away, but watching them, they were no different from the other chickens. The gap between them and the terrifying Cockatrice of legend made me break into a smile.

(That's right. Among poisonous creatures, there are surprisingly many with docile temperaments…)

Many creatures possess poison for hunting prey.

But, there are also many creatures that possess poison to avoid being attacked by predators. Just off the top of my head, pufferfish and poison dart frogs are prime examples.

But I never would have thought that the Cockatrice's poison wasn't petrification, but a strong alkali that causes saponification.

However, it seems the Cockatrice can spit that strong alkali from its mouth, and we still don't understand much about its ecology. If they remain this gentle, it would be reassuring.