Just like Mina had prophesied, their stomach only began roiling after they had returned to their room in the early morning. All of them cramped at the same time. In that moment, the prepared cat brought out three vital items that were about to save their dignity.
"I brought these because I was not sure whether our inn rooms would have toilets," she explained her very justified worry and brought out three camping toilets from Urth. Strong cultivators rarely ate, so they had little need for toilets.
Although this was a high-tier inn for the region, Konan was in the sticks. The toilet provided for their room was a fancy chamber pot. Seth was ready to concede that in favor of the modern camping toilets, even if some may say it is just a fancy chamber pot, too.
Neither of them wanted to do it in front of the others, so when their bowels rioted, they each sprinted to a different room, toilet in tow. It was probably the most uncomfortable night they had ever spent together, letting out noises and growls neither of them had ever wanted the others to hear.
Accompanied by a wave of heat that made a cold sweat break out across his body, he doubled over. His muscles tensed in an involuntary reaction to the mounting pressure and the dizzying sensation of nausea that followed. His intestines twisted like an angry, writhing snake.
"Not worth it, not worth it..." Seth kept chanting as he turned into a boiling cauldron erupting with liquid fire. His backend throbbed with a relentless, blinding burn. His chanting was only interrupted by the occasional system notification.
Every subsequent wave brought a fresh spasm of cramping that wrung his gut like a wet towel. He sat shaking, drenched in cold sweat. Tears welled up in his eyes as his rear end was shredded as a consequence of eating four bowls of Konan Two-Step.
In this moment, Seth lost hope. He didn't know for how long it had gone on, but he saw no end any time soon. Over and over, the pain grew worse, and every time his bowel contents were evicted, his agility rose.
Just what was this? Was he a deer on the run? Why did his agility rise with every shit? Did that old coot mistake hypermotility for hypermobility? As another wave of pain shook him in a violent, sputtering explosion of molten, acidic fluid, the system finally showed some mercy.
The agony slightly subsided, but even this small relief meant a lot in his current situation. Still, it felt like he was trapped in a never-ending cycle of cramping, blasting, and wishing for the sweet release of death. He didn't even notice when he got close to the 400, but then it was there.
A different notification informed him that he had reached the threshold and gained a new trait. 'Vector Ghost', how fitting, as he felt like dying and becoming a ghost to haunt that old man. The Konan Two-Step was fiendish, worse than some demons he had encountered...
Gaining a trait at 400 points was expected, but what distracted him from his suffering for just a moment was another notification that chased right behind the first.
"Ubermensch Physique?" he thought to himself, his surprise and curiosity immediately thrashed by another bowel movement and a gush of suffering. When the bout subsided, he turned to his status window, panting heavily.
Stuck on the shitter, there was nothing else he could do but suffer and check the effects of the new traits. 'Vector Ghost': "You can vaguely feel the direction of incoming attacks before physically perceiving them." was what the description said.
At first, Seth's mind was too hazy to make sense of that, but he quickly added one and one together. Mina specialized in Agility; she had mentioned this trait at some point, and the blacksmith had seen it once or twice during training.
It was not a kind of foresight, but more like an intuition that predicted the direction of enemy attacks and allowed last-second dodges. As the description said, it even worked when the attacker was out of sight, although the time to dodge was way shorter in that case.
This was one of the traits that allowed high agility builds to pull off crazy feats like fighting a whole group of attackers, while weaving and dodging through a crowd of enemies. Obviously, it took more than this kind of danger sense, but it was one of the key factors.
After checking the agility trait, he looked at the achievement trait. 'Ubermensch Physique': "All attribute multipliers are raised by 1. The power of all Milestone Traits and Skills is doubled." The description was straightforward, but still hard to believe.
All multipliers increasing by one was good, but doubling the power of all rewards he got for attribute milestones was phenomenal, in some cases. It was vague what the double of 'Vector Ghost' meant, but it was quite clear for others.
For example, 'Mumble Caster' now almost halved his chants, and 'Adamant Will" gave 50% Resistance to Mind Effects. It even counted for 'Tempered Flesh', raising resistances to physical ailments by 20% now.
And despite that, Seth kept chanting "Not worth it."
By the time his bowels finally calmed down and the wave of pain waned, Seth's agility had risen by 14 points to 404. Suffering like this for 14 points of agility was definitely not worth it, at least not for Seth.
When the blacksmith ultimately left the meditation room, his butt hole still sore, he found the girls already lying around the living area. It was already early morning. They were not asleep, but their expressions were just vacant stares as they were still processing the trauma.
Wordlessly, Seth simply lay on the ground among them and vacantly stared at the ceiling, too.
"Never again..." he mumbled.
""Never Again."" the girls agreed in quiet, emotionless whispers.
...
They had slept and recovered by afternoon. Even Mina had underestimated the aftermath so they had changed their plans a little. Their second tour to the bazaar was rescheduled. Despite not being too keen on food at the moment, this evening they were finally going to visit The Five-Savoring Flavors.
Once they had washed up in the spacious bathroom of the suite, they got dressed and left. They already felt a lot better and were looking forward to experiencing Lao Ban's rumored skills in the kitchen.
When they arrived at the Five-Savoring Flavors, there was already a long line of people waiting to get in. They were still staring at the line when a server approached them.
"Please, this way. Chef Lao Ban already told me that you are today's guests of honor," he said after greeting them with a bow. This way they circumvented waiting in line and were directed and ushered inside.
The Five-Savoring Flavors was made up like most inns, restaurants, and pavilions they had seen so far. Several floors; the higher the floor, the better the service, and a central open space that allowed people above to look down.
Of course, the server led them directly to the fourth floor, the only one without the view of the peasants below. Instead, it was a similar setup to the Fried Peacock, giving them a panoramic view of the surrounding city.
Since they were a little higher here, it was that much better.
"Please wait a moment; food will be served soon," the server asked for their patience with a bow.
"But we haven't even ordered anything yet," Fin blurted out, confused.
"Chef Lao Ban has put extra care into preparing a special meal for you," the server answered with a big smile and excused himself.
"Well, I guess we have something to look forward to?"