Chapter 3: What Is Beyond

"There's someone special in there."

As Will was about to enter the herb store, Debris warned him. He was startled and quickly looked both ways to make sure no one had heard the voice. Luckily the street was pretty empty at the time.

"You mean there's someone with magical powers in the store?" William felt strange speaking to what seemed like the air. He received a confirmation from the sword a second later, leaving him at a loss as to what to do.

"Well, there shouldn't be any problem, right? If this person is a friend of Professor, he probably isn't a bad person."

The sword hummed for a second before answering.

"Well, I don't feel like this person is too strong. I think you should be able to run away if something bad happens. But be careful, darling."

William nodded with conviction, bracing himself for a possible escape if needed. Then, he opened the door. A bell rang, announcing his entrance. A man appeared from the back carrying some herbs. He was in his thirties, with black short hair and brown eyes. His face was round and his body chubby.

"Welcome to Lawson's Folk Herb Store. Do you have a specific request, or are you looking around?" The man spoke quite directly and without hesitation. It was clear that he was not an experienced shop assistant.

William walked up to the counter and gave a bow in greeting, though it was more of a nod. "Good morning, I come from Professor Isiah Staff. He told me you were looking for an assistant for your shop, and I would like to take the job."

"Oh, that guy works fast. However, you don't seem to have any experience with plants?" The man looked him up and down with a sarcastic look on his face. "Are you sure you'll be able to do it?"

William adopted a dignified pose and answered with certainty.

"To be honest, I don't know much about plants other than a few well-known ones. Still, I think I can pick up the basics very quickly."

The man studied him for a moment before sighing and shrugging his shoulders helplessly. "I guess you can try." He shook Will's hand and introduced himself. "My name is Lawson Darkwill."

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"William Hastur, sir."

"So, Mr. Hastur, I assume Isiah has already told you about the contract, right?" Darkwill asked without looking at Will, starting to order some herbs. "Every day except weekends, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The salary will be one pound a week."

"That's right, I perfectly agree with these conditions." William knew that the man must have had enough money or be very confident about his new business to hire an assistant with such a high salary and with no prior experience.

"Good." The apothecary nodded in agreement. "Then, as a first task, you will have to start learning the recipes we make. I don't think we have too many clients, for now, so you can come and see how I mix them."

William spent the entire morning watching Darkwill create lots of medicinal mixtures that looked like something out of a fantasy book. Even if Debris hadn't warned him about the man having supernatural powers, Will would still have suspected it on his own.

Darkwill was not a normal man, he would gather strange herbs that William had never seen before and, suddenly, they would turn liquid or change color. He asked him about it, to see if he could tell him more about this strange magic, but Darkwill would only say that he had lived in the countryside for many years and learned these things.

In the afternoon, a customer finally arrived. William still couldn't do anything, so he just described the problems to his employer and received the proper herbs to deliver to the client.

"Darling, I haven't had a chance to tell you the formula for the potion before, but I can now." Walking home, William heard Debris's voice. Luckily, again, there weren't too many people on the street and no one seemed to hear her. "It doesn't have any extraordinary items and I think you can find them if you look hard enough."

William was skeptical that the items to earn superpowers would be easy to find, but he listened anyway.

"Listen to me. You need 20 grams of Aspidistra and a Dynastinae beetle. Put these two ingredients together in a cauldron of water at 50 degrees Celsius and you will have the potion. Simple, right?" Debris sang in a cheerful voice and William was puzzled.

"Do you mean that only two such common things are needed? Are you sure about that, Debris?" It was hard for him to believe that it was so.

The sword made a confirming noise, and this time the boy fully believed it. He was glad that he wouldn't have to look too suspicious gathering abnormal items. Who knew if some entity would want to control those who became superhumans.

"That's good to hear. The weekend is in three days, I'll start looking for them then." William was a bit concerned about his entry into the supernatural world. He suspected that not everything was like in the fantasy stories he had read or watched. The real world probably hid a lot of dark secrets and getting this "magic" would most likely put him right in the middle of it all

Still, being able to fulfill the dream of every fan of fantasy novels blinded him a bit. He went to sleep early because, the next day, he had to resume his studies. That night his dreams were filled with swords and magic.