Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 135: The Hell Am I Looking At?

Pumping a constant 60 MP/s into my Ice Reinforcement, I reached down and grabbed the paralyzed Tier 4 by his leather belt before effortlessly hoisting his massive, boulder-like frame over my shoulders into a fireman’s carry.

Garek’s head lazily lolled against my back with thick lines of dark green, toxic drool slipping past his slack jaw, accompanied by a horrifying, wet gargle as his muscles continuously seized and twitched.

[What the actual hell just happened?!] I panicked internally, my heart hammering in a frenzy as I practically half-jogged toward the western tree line. [He’s a Tier 4 powerhouse! He was literally throwing car-sized rocks at me! He basically ate those 10 MP Frag Pebbles!]

I stared at the massive, twitching veteran draped over my shoulder in absolute bewilderment.

[I just shoved a root down his throat!] I mentally screamed, genuinely horrified by the biological meltdown happening right over my shoulders. [Yeah, I pumped 60 MP/s into the toxin, but I just wanted to paralyze the meathead!]

The whole thing felt like I playfully flicked a guy on the forehead, and his entire skull exploded.

As my steps aggressively crunched against the dirt, my mind couldn’t help but flash back to that blood-soaked clearing.

Arlath, the Entropy assassin, had also been a Tier 4 expert, and fighting him had pushed me to the absolute physical and psychological brink.

It had taken every ounce of my everything to kill him.

Yet, Garek was currently foaming at the mouth after a single, concentrated dose of my Dominium Radicis.

[I don’t even have a safe baseline for my own spells anymore...] I realized the sheer, bewildering dread mounting with every gargle Garek let out. [If this guy actually dies, I am definitely catching a murder charge on my very first day!]

Reaching the pristine steps of the modest wooden Shrine of Amaterasu, I didn’t even bother knocking.

Balancing Garek’s massive weight across my shoulders, I simply caught the edge of the wooden frame with the toe of my boot and aggressively shoved the sliding paper door open along its track with a loud clatter.

The interior of the shrine was impeccably clean, smelling of burning incense and medicinal herbs.

And standing near the central altar was a beautiful young woman dressed in the traditional, flowing white and red garbs of an Amaterasu’s priestess.

Hearing the violent intrusion, she spun around sharp enough that her long brown hair whipped through the air.

Her warm brown eyes instantly widened into saucers of pure, unadulterated horror as they locked onto the massive, green-veined man violently gargling on my shoulder.

"What happened?!" she gasped before sprinting across the woven tatami mats toward us.

"Hey there! I’m the new F-Rank replacement!" I blurted out, my attempt at a casual greeting completely betrayed by the pitch of my voice as I hauled him into the room.

The priestess froze halfway across the floorboards. Her eyes darted wildly between my completely unbruised face and the dying juggernaut actively bleeding toxic saliva onto her pristine floor.

"Lay him down there!" she ordered, her voice completely stripped of its previous warmth as she pointed toward a sterile medical cot in the corner. "And step aside! Give me space!"

I quickly hauled Garek across the room before practically dumping his massive weight onto the medical cot, before taking a wide step backward.

"He wanted to spar with me as a bit of a test!" I quickly explained, watching her rush to his side. "My affinity is Nature, and he is currently suffering from my custom neurotoxin!"

The sheer panic in the priestess’s eyes vanished before sharpening into a fierce, absolutely terrifying glare directed straight at my face.

Seeing the holy woman mentally preparing to smite me for damn near killing their head of security, I threw my hands up in a desperate defensive gesture.

"It’s been in his system for less than two minutes!" I pleaded with genuine, unfiltered bewilderment in my voice. "I swear to god, I didn’t think the effect on him would be this bad! He’s a Tier 4! I barely even touched him! Who knew martial guys were such massive lightweights?!"

The priestess didn’t waste a single breath arguing with me.

She immediately turned her back and rushed to a nearby shelf, as she grabbed a small bundle of long, unlit incense sticks.

Striking a match, she lit the ends before hurrying back to the head of the cot.

She gripped the smoking sticks tightly between both of her palms and took a deep, steadying breath before closing her eyes and bringing her hands together in prayer.

The moment her palms touched, she completely stopped moving. Her breathing slowed to a near-imperceptible rhythm, and her posture locked into a state of absolute, unwavering surrender.

To my eyes, it looked like she had just unplugged her own controller.

Her lips barely moved as she began to whisper her prayer. The words were too quiet to make out, but the sheer, desperate conviction behind them physically vibrated the air inside the shrine.

The entire prayer took ten long seconds that felt like hours.

But the moment the final whispered syllable left her lips, the atmosphere inside the room shifted.

My active Domain didn’t register anything. Not even a flicker of measurable mana output.

All I felt was a strange, overwhelming presence that instantly flooded the sterile room.

Like a weight that directly descended onto my psyche, feeling less like a spell cast and more like a literal sun igniting inside the shrine.

A brilliant, glowing golden light bloomed from the burning incense. And the next moment, the radiant energy drifted downward like liquid gold, washing directly over Garek’s violently twitching, toxin-filled body.

The moment the light touched his skin, Garek’s wet, horrifying gargles eased into a strained wheeze.

The sickly green fluid bubbling from his lips visibly sizzled, beginning to steadily evaporate into thin white steam under the continuous, purifying warmth.

The dark, toxic veins bulging across his neck halted their rapid expansion before starting a sluggish retreat back beneath his skin.

But it wasn’t a quick fix.

The priestess didn’t drop her hands or break her posture. She remained perfectly frozen in her silent prayer, acting as a conduit for the relentless golden light continuously pouring over Garek’s body.

I stood in the corner of the sterile room with my arms crossed over my chest as I watched the slow, agonizing purge with wide, utterly baffled eyes.

My active Domain still couldn’t register a single drop of mana.

There were no elemental conversions, nor any measurable energy output. It just felt like an external weight pressing down on the room.

The same thing happened back in the Dungeon when I rescued that dude and took him to the Shrine outside.

Back then, I was too focused on my own thoughts to pay much attention or ask questions.

But now?

[Hey... Tech Support...] I mentally called out, completely unable to wrap my brain around the logic-breaking phenomenon happening right in front of me. [The hell am I looking at?]