Pneuma 4: Scoville Nightmare
Many methods and tricks were used to make Inna leave but they were unsuccessful. I had accepted that this wouldn’t change until I found someone for her. This is not my expertise...
I was grounded for an indefinite amount of time so I needed to find a way to get out of this. Inna was playing with Nilah while I was looking at the anatomical map of the spirit vessel. The scholars had returned but as expected… they were useless. We have been living in this village for a bit over a month now and I have 0 progress.
I also have to make my secret weapon #3, crack Cygnus’ ultimate skill [X-1], work on my foxfire and frost skills, and possibly investigate spirits. Cracking Cygnus’ skill is easy. My tails are almost done, I will just have to improve it to suit me better and then scramble the circle so nobody can steal it.
Working on my foxfire and frost skills so I can combat gods was something I needed to do but I wasn't feeling it at the moment. I want to work on my secret weapon #3 but there is one problem. And that problem is playing with Nilah.
Using blue Scoville Nightmares might be categorized as reckless behavior and she might stop me. As I thought of a way to get her to leave even if temporarily, something struck me.
Maybe Raishin isn’t a complete idiot. To know how to get rid of Inna, I will have to learn more about her to know what would work best.
Hey Inna, what would it take for you to leave and forget about being friends?
“Can I have Nilah?”
Absolutely not!
“Then you can’t!”
Well, it seems plan A failed. I thought asking nicely would work. Then it’s time for plan B.
Do you like mu?
“Oh! I do!”
I smiled and made the setup for [Bossmusic]. She was eagerly anticipating what I would play so I played [Bossmusic: Liam’s Lament] and put her to sleep.
Thank you, Liam and rest in peace.
I carried the sleeping Inna to her room and placed some illusions on the room.
Windows on the main floor got opened and I made small [Counter swirls] feed off the ambient leyline energy to make sure the kitchen was well-ventilated. I put on my gas mask and covered my hands and arms with frost as I didn't have long rubber gloves. I took the container out of my dimensional pocket and lifted the blue box out of it, carefully opened it and took a blue pepper out.
I made sure to seal up everything and I froze the box temporarily. The pepper looked mysterious. It was as if it was urging me to bite into it. I know that’s stupid but… I do need to know as much of this pepper as possible.
I inspected it with my eyes. Nothing special about it besides its color and otherworldly spiciness.
I covered myself in layers of illusions. I currently have 40 lives. Do I sacrifice a life for science? I have tasted my mustard secret weapon before.
The doors are locked. Nobody is watching so I took off my gas mask. This might be extremely stupid but here it goes. I ate the whole pepper. I didn’t feel much in the first second but then the heat set in. I began to sweat profusely, and I got an extreme burning sensation in my mouth and throat.
My nose started to run and my eyes started to tear. I started to get headaches too. My mouth and head felt like they were ablaze and I fell to the ground in pain. The heat suddenly turned into a chill. I saw a white flash and 3 illusion layers broke.
I was still sweating but the illusions took care of the pepper. That pepper would have killed me 3 times if I didn’t use illusion layers. That is scary. My heat resistance gives me some spice tolerance but this is insane. I was still feeling hot from the pepper but I shouldn’t be feeling that.
Is this a psychological effect? I cooled myself off with frost magic. Analysis from my tails came in. There was some useful info but the most important one was that this is lethal. Well, I already knew that!
I sat down to recover from that experience. I looked at the blue box. It is a good thing these are 50 silver per pepper. It would otherwise be made into a weapon of mass destruction.
It could be turned into a gas but… that might be a bad idea. I need to be able to use this with my buddies around. I should make an oil out of these. An oil with different strengths. One that can be used in food, one for a spicy kick in the food. One for advanced spice connoisseurs, one for assassination, and the sure kill oil. Would this classify as a poison? I believe it is possible to gain resistance to this over time.
The question is how would I do this without spreading the odor of these peppers through the whole house, as I have to grind them. What if I made a water clone and the clone makes the weapon in a bubble?
I decided to make 5 bubbles, 5 water clones, and 5 shadow clones and have them work on each extract. The recommendation was to dilute these 10 million times for a consumable spiciness so I will start there. I would just have the next extract type drop the dilution factor by 10 and have the very last one be 100 times diluted.
A 100-times diluted extract would probably still kill. I had to find the right oil to dilute it with though. I didn’t have many oils stored. Only sunflower seed oil and olive oil.
I went with sunflower seed oil because I had more of that. The water clones started and the shadow clones instantly reacted. A lot of coughing and sneezing, runny eyes and nose. Some showed signs as if they were suffocating.
This isn’t good. The water clones were fine because they were made out of water, the shadow clones were closer to that of my real body. That was also the reason I had them there. The shadow clones had enough of it and dispelled themselves.
It took 2 hours for the first water clone to be finished. It was the 100 times diluted version. I put more illusion layers on myself and accepted the vial of dark blue oil. I handed it to another shadow clone I had made and had it open the vial in a bubble.
He only started to sneeze but that was all there was to it. I decided to join him and also started to sneeze. I froze my right hand and took one drop and tasted it. A second of nothing and the spice attacked me again. Similar symptoms as before but these were milder. Still strong. I got the chills again but no white flash. I tried to keep the screams of pain down by rolling over the floor and muffling myself with my tails.
My stomach started to protest and I tried to soothe it with nature energy. It felt as if my stomach was burning and my tongue went numb. I did survive the 100 times diluted extract but that’s probably due to my already high spice tolerance. I was having a bad time. I spent 2 hours in a curled position until the pain became bearable.
My insides still felt like they were on fire. I got up but was a bit dizzy. I didn’t see double so this was normal dizziness. The other extracts were ready. My clones were working on other batches.
I was wondering if continuing was a good idea. I had a massive headache and my insides were burning. It should only get better from here. I took the next extract but someone barged into the kitchen.
“What in Bellia’s name are you doing!”
I had completely forgotten about Inna.
“Is… are those blue Scoville nightmares?”
Uhh no these are blue paprikas!
“I started to become extremely worried when I woke up and didn’t remember when I fell asleep!” She made vines grow around the room, which abducted me.
Hey, wait I’m not done!
“At this point, I'm thinking you want to die! Have your clones put all that away. I won’t release you until you do!”
You can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs; this is for science!
“Too bad! Put that away!”
I protested but Inna seemed serious. I had the clones clean up; I guess I will have to continue another time.
Inna sighed. “Why are you so reckless?”
Genetics?
“I guess. I have another theory but I will keep that myself for now.”
I’m curious.
“Nope! Not telling you! Go reflect or do something that isn’t life-threatening!”
I got released and Inna started to read a book on the couch. I couldn’t help to think that she was still keeping an eye on me. I did say that I wanted someone to babysit me but I didn’t mean it like this. More like me not having to do anything in dangerous situations.
Hey, why aren’t you a spirit mage actually?
“I don’t have the aptitude for it.”
Ah, but you can interact with them, right?
“I can’t “
Hmm so to these elves, the spirit mages look like they’re crazy by talking to nothing.
Have you ever thought about going outside of the village?
I have but I don’t have the courage to do so. Stories like that of Jyno, make me want to stay in my village.”
Hmm, yeah, I can imagine, that left a very bad taste in my mouth. Hey what if…
“We, and you, specifically, aren’t going outside, you are targeted by something worse than humans.”
Ugh, at least I tried.
I was messing with the magic circle of [X-1]. I was close to cracking it. I had already figured out how it works I just need to crack it so I can alter it. I managed to crack it after 10 minutes and started to alter it.
Hey, would you do anything to keep your race safe?
“I would”
Then why not spend the time you're here with some elf guy? Relying on other races doesn’t go well in the long run.
“I know, but you’ve seen how the men react right? No interest as If they don’t care for the state our race is in!”
Hmm this might not be in your nature but you might want to be a bit more forceful. Give them a good push and they will come by. Just observe Jyno and their group for a bit.
Inna leaned forward. “What did you do?”
Uhh I better not say that else I might get banned from this village. Oh wait! That’s a great idea! So what I did was use illusions to bring up their dormant horniness and have them fuck each other based on carnal desire.
“What? That’s terrible!”
Yup so now be disgusted, tell the elders and get me banned!
“Wait is this what you did to Eslana village?”
I nodded.
“It seems that their problem has been fixed after that incident… They are not sure how the newer generation will turn out but so far, their problem seems gone…”
Uh shouldn’t you be running to get me banned now?
Inna took a pensive pose.
“I’m sorry, I know I’m supposed to keep an eye on you but I need to think. Can you not do anything reckless for just one day? I will be back tomorrow!” Inna got up and got some of her stuff.
You forgot a lot of your stuff!
“I am coming back!”
Wait so you're not getting me banned?
“No!” She gave Nilah some pets and left.
Did my plan work? Not sure. I don’t think she took that the way I had hoped. I’m starting to wonder what a 9t needs to do to get banned from an elven village. But Eslana village is happy, eh? I wish that was planned but I had no idea.
Jyno and friends’ interactions seem to suggest this though. I decided to test my modified [X-1]. I went into the backyard and made a baseball bat out of frost and used [X-1]. It was working as intended and sucked up all the ambient mana. It also ripped mana out of my house.
Uh oh. I guess I have to send this off before it destroys everything.
I hit the baseball-sized frost orb and a powerful frost laser shot out. It tore through the fence while I tried to remember what was behind my house but I couldn’t remember. I looked through the hole and saw a frozen lake.
Oh right… the park… Maybe I didn’t want to leave my house after all. Staying home is good, yup!