The next few minutes were going to be absolute chaos. Not a single future showed there being any stealth option to robbing Valerius’s shop. I watched all of them from the clouds, bracing myself. Cleopatra held my hand, worry painted on her face as we drifted above the sea of cotton clouds.
On the bright side, I know that we could succeed and that this should work since I could see Cleopatra making the potions later on Medusa’s Island. That would be after the Crab King paid us a visit though.
I took a deep breath. This was going to be a full day. I was already feeling fatigued. We were going to need those coffee potions if we wanted to endure our quick civil war.
This would be so much easier had there been any Roman shrines in Rome. I even looked at the futures where we made a quick visit to the Pantheon with Umbra dropping me off as I ran for dear life to accept a blessing from Jupiter to make the robbing of Valerius easier. But at the Pantheon and every temple in Rome, I found a disturbing sight instead.
Every single statue and shrine of the gods was destroyed. Not a single one remained. There could only be one explanation for this. Caesar, to ensure none could resist him before inevitably falling asleep, wiped out all divine abilities. Those who still had them could use them, but if one had temporarily switched to less battle-focused divinites (or lost them like me), there was no luck.
There was a sliver of hope to all of this. On Medusa’s island, who was very notorious for creating statues of people, there were divine statues of the other gods. I was a little bit surprised to find she had created statues other than Neptune, whom she had a whole shrine room built for and a weird obsession with. When I saw how she defaced the other gods’ statues, it made perfect sense. She was quite the weirdo.
Back to the malleable present, I relayed all that I had seen to Cleopatra and Umbra.
A Crab King? Umbra said. As in, a large crab, enough to feed a dragon?
“Er, yes, I guess so. The island is crab infested because of him. But it’ll give us much needed privacy and divine blessings.”
And a snack!
“That too.” I totally forgot about his dietary needs. My stomach rumbled with hunger at the thought of it. I hadn’t eaten since I died colonizing America, however long ago that was.
“Do you know what ingredients and tools we need?” Cleopatra asked.
I nodded. “Trust me, I have seen millions of futures of the potion not working out, and when it does. Umbra, I’ll summon you with the Friendship Key when I’m ready. I’ll have to tie everything together.”
Won’t that destroy the building?
“Yes, but it’ll be much needed. I’m about to get swarmed.”
As long as you don’t take forever. I could eat a giant right about now.
“Max, would you also collect some honey, chamomile, and olive oil? It will help ease my discomfort and I will need a fair amount for after I give birth.”
A lump formed in my throat, preventing me from a quick response. “Of course,” I said, giving her a quick kiss to hide the sudden pain in my voice and face.
I struggled with the knowledge of her death and that it was because I returned that she would die, though our children would live. She had such hope in her eyes, it was beautiful beyond comparison. Those eyes that would only be with me a little while longer.
Focus, I thought, heat rising in my chest from the budding depression. I’ll deal with that later.
“Make sure to go back to the clouds,” I said as Umbra descended upon Rome. “Otherwise you’ll be shot with hundreds of arrows.”
Got it, Umbra said.
Indeed, arrows started to fly past us as we tore through the air at a blinding speed. I had to squeeze my legs against Umbra’s scaled back to keep from falling off. Behind me, Cleopatra squeezed her eyes shut, her Roman-Egyptian face paling from the rollercoaster ride. Approaching radically fast and nestled between other middle class shops was the apothecary, Valerius' Elixirs. I recognized it a mile away from the hanging sign which showed a golden mortar and pestle. It brought back the memory of when Camilla and I first visited to get a paralysis poison for Medusa. It felt like forever ago. Leaving her in the Underworld was painful, but knowing her, I had no doubt that she had made it safely to Elysium with the rest of my friends who had died.
“Pull up!” I shouted before we could crash, throwing one arm behind me to keep Cleopatra from impaling herself on Umbra’s spiked spine. The sudden shift of gravity almost bashed my face against his neck. Civilians and slaves below us—surprisingly not enslaved by Caesar yet, perhaps because he didn’t need to—scrambled out of the way, screaming.
Go! he shouted internally, swooping sideways in the narrow street to let me slip off of his back. To reduce the impact, I rolled as soon as my feet hit the ground. Spear on my back, gladius in hand, I kicked down the door to the apothecary.
“Stay back!” I said, igniting the gladius briefly to stave off the two shocked apprentices standing behind the cauldron and table at the center of the cramped shop. A portly old woman, a customer, screamed as I came in, dropping the brown potion she was examining. It immediately filled the air with a sweet, almost cardamom smell. I nodded towards the open door for her to leave, which she willingly obeyed.
“Lord Maximus?” Lucius said, the more gangly of the two apprentices, and the most senior. His skin was very pale from being indoors, and his curly hair unkempt. His fingers began fidgeting, dropping the herbs in his hand as if he’d seen a ghost. In a way, he was right.
“You must forgive me, Lucius and Rufus, but I’m here to permanently borrow from you,” I said, extinguishing my blade and sheathing the weapon on my hip. I immediately set to work, snatching a leather bag draped over a nearby shelf, most likely the woman’s who fled, and started stuffing the ingredients I would need.
Honey: 12 oz (Common)
Ground Cacao: 22 oz (Common)
Ginseng Root: 6 oz (Rare)
Guarana Seeds: 4 oz (Epic)
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Lion’s Mane Mushrooms: 11 oz (Rare)
Gleamleaf: 2 oz (Epic)
Dragon’s Breath Powder: 1.1 oz (Legendary)
Fulgurite Shards: 0.5 oz (Epic)
Nightshade Berries: 22 berries (Rare)
Dawnlight Flower Petals: 33 petals (Legendary)
Phoenix Ash: 0.5 oz (Legendary)
Basil Leaves: 44 leaves (Common)
Olive Oil: 11 tablespoons (Common)
Chamomile: 6 oz (Common)
“You’re stealing from us?” Rufus said, the beefier alchemist with tussled, dark red hair. Unlike Lucius, he was not afraid, and would throw a poison potion at me in exactly five seconds.
“I will have to kill you if you throw that Pestis Fungorum,” I said, not bothering to turn around and look as I snatched five stamina and health potions.
Item: Draught of Vitality (Rare) (5x)
Item: Draught of Stamina (Rare) (5x)
Rufus refused, which was good for him and me. We would have both experienced a horrible trip from that toxic mushroom potion, leaving us loopy for Caesar’s assassins who would slaughter all three of us.
Honor (-100): 210
My leather bag was completely stuffed as I slung it across my back next to the spear. Lucius had already fled when I turned around, but Rufus was still there, arms folded across his chest, as if preventing me from stealing anything more.
“That’s enough,” he growled.
I sighed. His life could have ended right here, for arrows would pepper the glass windows in two seconds. They would miss me, but he would be collateral.
“Please run!” I pleaded, hoisting a nearby copper pan to catch the arrow intended for his throat. Glass shattered around me as I caught the two arrows. I tossed aside the pan. His eyes were wide open, fear finally kicking in. Though he did not trust me, he could take a cue that it was high time he left, especially with arrows flying into the shop that would very soon cause lots of fun explosions.
Amidst the oncoming fire, I leaped over the counter and started throwing in all of the tools I would need in an empty cauldron.
Mortar and Pestle (Common)
Alembic (Rare)
Flask Set (Common)
Brass Ladle (Common)
Glass Stirring Rods (Rare)
Filtration Cloth (Common)
Copper Funnel (Common)
Scales (Rare)
The first of the toxic potions exploded just as I finished shoving everything into the giant cauldron. The plague doctor mask was already in hand and quickly found its way over my nose as potions began exploding all around me. Toxic fumes, most of them green with some black and brown, filled the store like gas bombs had been set off. Even with my beak-like mask secured, it wasn’t powerful enough to keep the toxins at bay.
Health: 120/130
Health: 110/130
Had I not retrieved the mask, my lungs would have swelled with liquid, choking me, my skin would have boiled, and I would have felt very enamored with the invisible assassins around me. Some of it leaked into my mask, particularly the love potion one, throwing my emotions into a chaotic mess.
The Pluto-blessed assassins were smart. They refused to enter the deadly environment and face off against me. They simply planned to smoke me out. Too bad they didn’t account for a dragon.
I activated the golden Friendship Key on my waist. A split second later, the roof exploded. Limestone bricks and terracotta tiles rained down as Umbra teleported through the store’s roof at my summoning.
“Grab the cauldron, and both of you hold your breath!” I shouted, my voice muffled by the beak mask. I leaped onto Umbra’s red back, grasping onto one of his spikes next to Cleopatra to pull me up.
Umbra wasted no time leaping to the skies with me and our loot in tow. I breathed in relief. I had chosen the right future.
Time reset, bringing me back to the moment when Umbra tore through the roof.
Of course.
This moment replayed endlessly. I tried just about every illogical thing I could think of, like taking off my mask and taking a deep breath, to running outside to the open embrace of a hundred invisible assassins. Only, both of these options would kill me. But what could I do that wouldn’t necessarily destroy me?
Screw it, I thought, ripping off the mask and chugging the closest potion that wasn’t destroyed from Umbra’s violent entrance. It was illogical, considering it could be another love potion, a poison, or something far worse.
Item: Potion of Reversed Reflexes (Uncommon)
* Description: A perplexing brew created by a mischievous alchemist, this potion appears to shimmer with an unnatural, almost hypnotic glow. When consumed, the potion scrambles the drinker's reflexes, making every action feel disjointed and backward.
* Effect: Causes the drinker’s movements and reflexes to reverse for 5 minutes, making dodges, attacks, and basic motions completely misaligned.
* Weight: 0.12 kg
* Worth: 1,000 Denarii
By the time I finished reading it, I had already fallen on my face. My now unexposed to the toxins around my face.
Health: 100/130
Health: 80/130
Oh god, I thought, willing my body to stand but only pushing myself down into the debris even more.
“Come on Maximus!” Cleopatra called before coughing.”
I tried to yell but nothing came out.
Think, think, think! Reverse everything. My Historical Insight was back online, but everything was too confusing to make sense of. I would have to wing it.
Instead of reaching for the gas mask, I reached backwards. Hand in front of the mask, I opened my hand, which closed around it. Now, I willed it forward, which brought it backward. I exhaled, breathing in instead. I only took one last breath, choosing to not lose more time and health trying to get on the mask. Instead, I pushed myself down, rising to my feet.
What are you doing, human? Umbra said, shoving apart the rest of the apothecary that was in the way of his wingspan. I didn’t even bother trying to speak.
I would probably die trying to figure out how to climb onto his back. To avoid a quick death, I walked backwards to the cauldron and leaped away from it, landing on top of the ingredient and tool filled cauldron.
Thankfully, Cleopatra was wiser than both of us. “Pick him up on the cauldron and go!” she said, coughing as she spoke.
It was all I could do to fight the mental battle that raged inside me as Umbra plucked the cauldron with me on top and shot up to the sky, his claw curled over me to not crush me. My mind wanted to grab onto the cauldron as Rome became small from Umbra’s incredible speed. But if I did that, I would plummet to my death. I mentally made the choice to let go, which allowed me to grab the black rim. It was truly one of the strangest and most terrifying experiences ever.
Intelligence (+10): lvl 8 (70/90)
Glory (+30): 5,610
Level: 55 (190/570)
As we flew to Medusa’s Island to confront the Crab King, I counted the minutes I had left in this Reversed Reflexes. If I won this war with Julius Caesar, I was going to force that System to remove this Chrono Loop Curse.