And brew he did. Ryan wasn't even sure how he was supposed to start, so he picked up the journal and glossed through the recipe that was available.

The instructions were pretty straightforward, except for one part... the catalyst. There was no catalyst listed, or one that was identified, if he was reading the book correctly.

Ryan stared at the book in disbelief.

"Which one's the catalyst?" Ryan asked, hoping the blob overhead would be sentient enough to actually know the answer.

"An observant fellow, interesting. Most of your kind would've thrown in ingredients without coming to that observation. Well done," the blob. "The catalyst is right there amongst the other ingredients. A good alchemist should have a great sense of intuition when it comes to making potions. Figure it out."

Ryan almost scratched his eyes out. How was he, a passable alchemist, going to guess the proper ingredient that was the catalyst out of the one, two... SEVENTEEN ingredients that have been laid out in front of him?

The problem with getting the catalyst wrong was obvious: the brew wouldn't be perfect, and then he'd lose his soul to this... this blob.

Ryan mulled over the ingredients on the table. Some had time for inclusion indicated beside their names in the journal, and a few didn't.

Instantly, he axed out all those that had time allocated to them, which left him with three out of the seventeen ingredients that didn't have time allocated to them.

One of those should be the catalyst, as the catalyst was always going to be the last ingredient that would be added in the mix.

He stared at the names of the three ingredients.

Tyclin

Feras

Erkos

Those were the three ingredients that could be the ingredient that he was looking for.

Ryan almost groaned at the conundrum that he'd found himself in, but this was most certainly not the time.

The three ingredients had been scattered amongst the other fourteen in the journal, so he didn't know if that was the order that they were supposed to be added.

Going by the journal he had facing him, Tyclin was the first of the three in the list and first overall on the list, Feras followed, and Erkos was the last ingredient on the recipe.

For Ryan, the positioning of Erkos on the list had already knocked it out of his options. It was the most obvious trap if he'd ever seen one in his life.

Tyclin also wasn't looking too good in Ryan's eyes. There's no doubt in his mind that he should pick what was Feras.

It was, for the most part, the one that he was more naturally inclined to pick. The middle ground had always been his strong suit, and so, with that part set aside, he began brewing, chopping and pouring in ingredients. The lack of bubbling, even under the intense heat the cauldron was on, was enough proof that he hadn't added the catalyst.

And so, he was down to the big three.

With most of the white substance in the hourglass already on the bottom side, Ryan calculated that he had about a handful of minutes, somewhere between twenty to thirty minutes left... just enough time to finish brewing.

Without hesitation, he threw in the Erkos, closing one eye in fear. When nothing happened, he let out a sigh of relief, glad that nothing had happened... yet.

He picked up the Tyclin to pour in. Now he was down to fifty-fifty odds. It was either the catalyst was the Tyclin or it was the Feras. Making this decision vastly harder than before.

Well, it was now or never. Ryan raised the Tyclin, a greenish powder that looked as though it could pass as a coloring for the potion, which Ryan found a little weird, as green wasn't the usual color for potions. The Feras, on the other hand, was a small vial of dark black liquid, so from what he was thinking, one of the two would have to be the actual colorant, and the other would be the catalyst.

Ryan stopped himself mid-pour. There was something he found to be constant in all the recipe books that he'd had to practice from.

The catalyst was usually the first ingredient listed, always. Although he'd only seen three potion recipe books, two at the orphanage and the other one was the one he'd purchased from the gnome.

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Of course, that wasn't enough to judge, but Ryan could vividly remember adding the kleklin first in his first try at making potions back at the orphanage, which had led to a chemical fire after he'd continued on pouring on other ingredients, oblivious to his error.

Could it be a law that the catalyst had to be the first item on the list, and if so, was it one that applied in Sarinth's time? At least, he didn't think Sarinth would come back from the grave to update his journal on new guidelines.

Ryan honestly didn't know what he was to do. On one hand, this was the only reasonable choice he'd been able to come up with, seeing as he had previously been going on a hunch... A hunch that he would've probably cost him his life if he didn't remember this little detail.

Going by the revelation, he dropped the Tyclin and picked up the vial of Feras, the black-looking liquid looking ominous in its vial. It swished back and forth, and Ryan felt his nerves shiver as he raised the vial over the still liquid in the cauldron.

If it bubbled, he would be doomed. If it didn't, then... Hurray.

Ryan chuckled at the thought. Not only was it a dumb one, it might just be his last, not that Ryan believed it would matter if he was wrong.

Ryan steeled himself as he poured the liquid into the cauldron, praying to every single god that he knew to help him keep his soul.

Closing his eyes in case he didn't like what he saw, he just opened up, peeking with his left eye after what felt like a minute of having emptied the vial.

The liquid was... Still. Ryan couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the entire situation. He'd just survived what he'd deem to be the greatest test of his life, and it was just him hoping that nothing happened to a liquid.

But now was not the time to celebrate. He still had a single ingredient left, with time limits fast elapsing. He picked up the Tyclin and took his time to spread it around while he stirred, carefully to do it slowly as he wanted to avoid it clumping up when he was done.

As soon as the first round of Tyclin hit the liquid, it had started to bubble up, and it didn't even stop. It kept pouring and stirring, trying to calm himself down as he threw himself to the last process.

The white substance left in the hourglass was down to what probably measured to about five to twelve minutes. At this point, Ryan's potion was in a race against time to stop bubbling before his time elapsed.

Somehow, he knew that he would've failed if the liquid was still bubbling when the time elapsed. Unfortunately for him, this last part was out of his control, and there would be nothing that Ryan could do to hasten the process.

Ryan pulled back the stirring rod and took a step back, and just... Watched. It was the most intense minutes of his life, but he persevered, not even bothering to look back at the hourglass. The cauldron was where his sole focus lay.

The moment that the liquid stopped bubbling, Ryan dropped to the floor and cried, tears of joy flowing down his cheeks. He couldn't believe that he'd just done it.

Looking back, the last of the white substance tumbled down the hourglass. He'd succeeded, and now it left the final part of the test.

"Give me a taste of your potion," the blob said. Ryan looked around awkwardly. He spotted a spoon and picked it up.

The awkward part was scooping the hot liquid and bringing it to the blob. He aimed it at the part that he assumed was the lips, wondering how it was going to drink it.

Turns out that it was quite simple, as the dark blob just passed through the spoon and pulled itself back, leaving an empty spoon. Ryan was tense - had he made a mistake? Was his soul now forfeit?

The blob remained quiet for what felt like hours, but it was probably just a couple of heartbeats.

"Congratulations, you've inherited access to this lab. All the information you will need are included in the second journal," the blob said. Ryan saw a second journal appear beside the original one. "All you have to do to leave the pocket dimension is walk through that door."

The dark blob turned to the door, locked with chains, and moved to it with alarming speed. Ryan almost called out but held himself to see what was going to happen, and he was not disappointed.

As soon as the blob clashed with the door, there was a burst of white, bright light. Ryan had to shut his eyes because of how bright it was.

Ryan opened his eyes when the glow had died down through his closed eyelids. The blob was gone, and so were the chains. Ryan stared at the journal and then at the door... He'd done it.

He'd fucking done it!

The gloom of the room had been displaced as the room was now well-lit with bright lights.

He rushed for the second journal, as that was what piqued his interest. He skimmed through the first page, as it was just a congratulatory note.

The second page, on the other hand, was the most important part.

It was titled, "Secrets to using the pocket dimension."

From what he saw as he skimmed through the page, it was just a text detailing how to leave and exit the pocket space, something that made Ryan pause and eagerly read carefully.

The exiting part was simple - all he had to do was walk through the door.

The entering part, on the other hand, had a lot of guidelines that stood out.

The most notable ones were:

- He couldn't bring any other live person, animal, or plant into the pocket dimension.

- The pocket dimension space was finite, so he was limited to the amount of inanimate objects he could import. The ring would sense when such a thing would exceed its capacity and stop such a transfer.

To enter the pocket dimension, all he had to do was think about it, and he'd be transported there. Fully, body, mind, and soul.

Ryan could hardly hide the grin on his face.

Finally, it was time to get out of here. He'd come back when he was less busy, as he already had a brew-out to attend.

Ryan tore his eyes from the book as he closed it reluctantly. He could take the book with him as he'd exit the pocket dimension, but he'd learned a lot from dealing with people to know that he should keep the book where it currently was.

He had to keep all his cards to his chest. The town of Denair had told him that. Ryan dropped the journal and looked around. The cauldron still held the potion, and a couple of empty vials were on the table. He considered taking some out with him but refrained from doing that for the same reason as before.

"Well, time to get out of here," Ryan said as he closed the short distance between himself and the door.

He couldn't wait to be in the arms of Freya. The mental image of the fairy brought a smile to his face. She'd kissed him... Him. Ryan still couldn't believe it, but he knew what he was going to do when he saw her.

Ryan took one final glance around the room before he opened and walked through the door, a white light enveloping him.