Chapter 52 - Consequences

As my projection bed cracked open I stretched out. I was stiff, but ultimately satisfied with my win. I quickly rolled to my feet and shuffled over to the pen to release George. As soon as he saw me the giant spider huffed, and pushed past me into the room.

“I’m sorry I didn’t use you during the fight, but it was practice. If you really want, I could put you back into the dungeon, and let Charlotte set up a match for you.” The big spider eyed me up, then huffed again and took off down the corridor. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d like that either,” I mumbled as I followed George down the corridor.

I’d just about made it to the atrium when Kass swept into the hallway and grabbed me in one of the most bone-crushing hugs I’d ever experienced. “How could you do that to yourself? You should have just forfeited once you got bit. From what I’ve heard being injected with chimera venom is extremely painful, how could you keep fighting?”

“It wasn’t so bad,” I said with a shrug, or at least I tried to, Kass was holding me too tight. “I went through worse in my mother’s poison ‘training regimen.’ Abyssal stinger venom is much worse.”

“Your mother injected you with poisons? Why?” Kass asked, grabbing me and holding me at arms-length. “That sounds like torture.”

“Arachne are naturally resistant to poisons, but if we’re exposed to toxins our natural resistance improves further,” I told her.

“So she just injected you with a variety of poisons while you were a kid to improve that resistance?”

“Me and my sisters. Pretty much every noble arachne family does it, it’s tradition,” I said.

“Sounds like the arachne need to stop living in the past, and realize that sort of thing isn’t necessary any more. There hasn’t been a war between the races for decades,” Kass grumbled. “Well, even if you’ve been exposed to poisons before, it’s not healthy to take a full dose of neurotoxin and try to resist it for long periods. It may not affect your main body, but it can cause strain on your brain. You’re coming to the clinic with me!” she declared.

“We have a clinic?” I asked as she dragged me over to the center of the atrium, and down the stairs to the lower level.

“Of course we have a clinic,” Kass replied, “Not only is this a modern dungeon, but Lanivia invests heavily in employee wellbeing, you should know that by now.”

She half carried me to a set of clear crystal doors, which sat right across from the lift on this lower level. As she pushed me through, the first thing I noticed was how clean everything was. The stone floors and walls shined, even more than the rest of the complex, and there were a series of beds arrayed around the walls. At the back I could see a short hallway, leading to a series of other rooms. Offices? Private rooms? I wasn’t sure.

As I stood there marveling at the place an elderly human man walked up to us. “Excuse me, can I help you today?”

Kass smiled. “Sorry for dropping in unannounced, Doctor Watson, but my partner here took the full brunt of a neurotoxin attack and decided to use her innate resistance to try and shrug it off.”

“And you’re worried about the mental strain? Understandable,” Doctor Watson replied with a nod. “Please wait on that bed over there, I’ll get Doctor Concetta.”

“There are more than one doctor here?” I asked.

“Of course. There are so many races here that it would be nearly impossible for one person to keep track of all the differences in physiology. I work with the surface races, while Doctor Concetta works with the subterranean races and Doctor Steve works with the aquatic ones.”

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I paused for just a moment. “Doctor Steve?”

“It’s a nickname,” Kass said, leaning in close. “He’s a cephalopod and unless you’re a native aquatic it’s next to impossible to pronounce his real name. It was his idea.”

“Ah, alright then,” I replied. Since Doctor Watson was already headed into the back, I sat on the bed he indicated and started fidgeting. A minute or so later, a fairly petite woman stepped out of the back, and the very sight of her made me tense up.

“What’s wrong?” Kass asked, slowly rubbing my back.

“Don’t worry, it’s a perfectly normal reaction for an arachne to tense up at the sight of a Scorpios,” the doctor, who I could only assume was Concetta, said as she approached.

The woman looked fairly human, long black hair and glasses, but peeking out the back of her lab coat I could see two large pincer arms, and a scorpion tail. Signs of the half-scorpion’s true form.

“Please try to relax, I know our races haven’t gotten along for centuries, but I take my job seriously. I will not intentionally injure a patient,” the doctor assured me. “Doctor Watson informed me of the issue, so please look this way and try to relax.” She took a tiny spyglass out of her pocket and looked into both my eyes, then took my pulse.

“How long were you injected with chimera venom before you disconnected?” She asked, as she entered some values on the tablet she was carrying.

“I don’t know… a couple of minutes?” I replied. “Is that bad?”

“The dungeon projectors protect your physical body, but do not prevent excessive psychological strain, or damage. That’s why most dungeons restrict psychic damage. By fighting with neurotoxin in your system for so long, it strained your psyche.” She put down the tablet and looked at me disappointedly. “You’re a noble, aren’t you? Most arachne would have succumbed to a toxin like that almost instantly.” I nodded shyly, which just caused her to sigh. “You’ve strained your nervous system. It’s not serious, but I’m going to prescribe you some sedatives, and I’m barring you from entering the dungeon for a few days.”

“You can do that?” I asked as she started walking back towards the other end of the room.

“Of course, I’m one of the on-site physicians. You’ll be locked out of your booth until I say otherwise. It’s for your own good. No more trying to will your way through neurotoxin damage. If your natural resistance doesn’t allow you to shrug it off, then don’t fight it. The effects could be much worse next time.” She walked over to what appeared to be an empty, but roped-off section of the clinic, took a vial and some herbs off the shelf then held them across the rope. “Sedative number three, Bubbles.”

After a moment the equipment and materials started to float. Slowly the materials dissolved, and diffused into the creature, finally outlining what I was looking at.

“You have a geometric slime here?” Kass said in awe, staring at the large, translucent cube. “I’ve been here multiple times and I’ve never noticed.”

“Bubbles here is… well not one of a kind, but fairly unique. It can synthesize any number of medicines, given the raw materials, and consumes bacteria and contaminants. When we don’t have patients it wanders the room and cleans the floors and walls,” Doctor Concetta said. Bubbles seemed to agitate and percolate, slowly mixing all the materials until it concentrated all the medicine into a single point, before being deposited into the vial. When that was done it was all but invisible again. “Thank you Bubbles.”

“Isn’t having a geometric slime in here dangerous? Even if it’s roped off, someone could accidentally touch it, and they’re highly acidic,” I said.

“Not Bubbles. It was raised ingesting medicinal materials, making submersion similar to a balm. We actually recommend submerging burns within Bubbles for a few minutes, to soothe the area,” the doctor replied as she walked back. She held a small vial of liquid out to me, “Take half with dinner, and the other half before bed. If you experience headaches, come back immediately, otherwise check in after two days.”

I reached out hesitantly and took the vial. The medicine glowed a faint blue, it was almost pretty.

“Don’t forget to take that medicine,” the doctor called after me as I got up to leave.

“I’ll make sure, Doc. Count on me!” Kass called back as we left the room, causing me to blush slightly. “Well, then, no more strenuous, or dungeon activities, for the next few days, which means no research for you.”

“She didn’t say that,” I said, turning on Kass.

“That’s only because she doesn’t know how you can get. Come on, a couple of days off won’t be that bad. How about we have a picnic out in the park this afternoon? It’ll be good for you to relax.”

“Fine,” I replied with a pout. A couple of days off really didn’t sound that bad. How hard could it be to keep myself occupied outside the dungeon?