Chapter 4: A Potion to Change Fate

It was Sunday morning, and William was free from his studies again. He had already decided that he would try to find the ingredients for the potion. He had asked his employer if he knew where one could find an Aspidistra plant under the lie that he wanted to plant it at home.

Darkwill had told him that he had some himself and that, if he paid enough, he could quickly sell it to him. In the end, it cost him five soli, which was a bit expensive as it was a quarter of his weekly salary for a plant, but then he found out that only upper-middle-class people used to have plants in their homes.

Then William only needed to get a Dynastinae beetle. It was not very difficult to find this type of insect because bug fights were a fairly popular entertainment among lower-class people who did not have enough money to go to the theater or join a club. They sold these beetles at the Sunday market. He knew thanks to the memories of the previous owner of his body.

So, he put on his newly-bought half-top hat and headed towards the market. His destination was a bit far, but not far enough that he needed to take a cart. He arrived after walking for twenty minutes at a brisk pace. Luckily William regularly took long walks and was in good shape.

The market was bustling, with many people taking advantage of this day to do their weekly shopping. Wealthy people were rarely seen in this place, however.

"Excuse me, do you know where I could find bugs?" William asked several passersby before finally finding the stall. There were a large number of insects enclosed in glass pots with holes so they could breathe. William went over to talk to the vendor.

"Good morning, sir. Do you happen to have any Dynastinae beetles?"

The vendor had been shouting at the top of his lungs to attract buyers, and when he heard his question, he looked at him with a big smile.

"Of course we do, youngster." She pulled out a jar with a rather impressive black beetle inside. "These are quite popular nowadays. It will only cost fifteen soli."

The 'only' was just a way to talk since it was a good amount of money for him. Luckily, though, William had taken some of the money he had left from his grandmother.

He paid for the beetle and thanked the vendor before heading home again. He was quite glad that the process had not been very long. If he got powers from these ingredients, he would laugh at the fact that it had cost less than a pound to get them.

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He arrived in less time than it had taken to leave, perhaps because he was excited, who knows. He took the old cauldron his grandmother used to make soups and stews and filled it with water before he started heating it. With the thermometer, he measured the temperature of the water until it reached fifty degrees Celsius, and then everything was ready.

"Darling, follow my instructions from now on." Debris spoke in a serious tone, and William guessed that he didn't want to know what would happen if this potion went wrong. "Weigh the fifty grams of the Aspidistra first. You can cut it if it helps."

William did as indicated. He cut the plant into strips and weighed the exact amount of it.

"Now add it to the cauldron." As soon as Liam did that, the water turned a greenish hue. "Great, that means we have followed the steps correctly. Well done, Darling. Now the only thing left is to put the beetle in the cauldron."

This time, the water finally transformed into something that looked like a magic potion. It had a yellow color, and it let out small spurts of light. Carefully, William poured the liquid into a glass and held it for half a full minute in front of him.

"Okay, here I go."

With these words of encouragement to himself, he raised the glass and drank the entire potion. Then the world changed for him.

He felt as if his whole body was trembling and countless ants were running inside him. His head hurt like hell and he thought he was going to pass out until a strange feeling of oppression came from the invisible sword strapped to his waist. This feeling made him come to his senses and all the pain subsided instantly.

Knowledge appeared in his head that he hadn't known a moment before. He knew that his body had been strengthened to a superhuman point, even slightly beyond the elite athletes in his previous world. Also, he learned ways to use any type of sword and understood that this would have put him at the top when it came to fencing sports.

He even instinctively knew a few more things. He was now what was known as a Beyonder. He understood that these Beyonders had Sequences that equaled a 'level' in their powers and that he was a Sequence 9. Specifically, the name of his Beyonder power was Sequence 9: Knight.

As soon as he snapped out of his daze, he grabbed Debris and pulled her up.

"You helped me, right? Thank you, for a moment I thought I was going to lose my mind there." He breathed a sigh of relief.

The sword made a proud noise and William thought it seemed to be puffing out its chest.

"That's right, flatter me more. I'm amazing, after all." The sword spoke in a lofty tone, though inside it was thinking something quite different. "I don't even know how I did it, for a moment I panicked too."

William laughed at his antics and then looked down at his hands, clenching and unclenching his fist.

"Wow I feel this strange power in me, it's amazing." He said.

In response, Debris spoke again.

"Ah, somehow I just remembered something." This caught the attention of the new Beyonder. "It's about something important, the method of digesting the potion…"

"Digesting… the potion?" William looked at the sword confused.