Eik steeled himself against the pain that was to come and smashed the two opposing forces into a collision course.

Actually, not quite. He inched them closer with ultimate caution, clenching his teeth in butthole-tightening dread. Inside his body, he saw them fuse, the combined matter flowing languidly and sluggishly around the barycenter like cosmic dust.

And more surprising than anything, there was no agony to be felt. His pain receptors were quiet and calm. In fact, it felt kind of good. Like cool mist on the skin on a hot summer’s day.

The two energies kept rotating at high velocity, supplying tiny trickles of their substances, little by little, to the center for fusion. It was beautiful.

It worked. It actually worked! There had been an idea. Then there had been trial and error. And now… success. Sweet success!

Now all that was left was to somehow extract that fused substance so it could actually be used for someth—

A spike of pure torture tore through his chest, his concentration knocked off to the point where Profound Toxin and the Ak’ki spun out of control. Through the pain he could barely collect his wits enough to put a stop to their rampant riot.

This hurt more than any attempt before and Eik was certain that the throat-ripping scream he let loose would lure in every single specimen of all three tiers of Profound Toxic beasts. Tears ran freely down his cheeks, his chest feeling like it had been caved in by a sledgehammer.

Behind clenched eyelids, however, all he saw was the vision of that fused substance. It gave him something to focus on while his body put him through the wringer.

After what felt like hours, but in reality likely closer to minutes, the pain had receded to the point where he could sit up and take a proper breath. Shivers and convulsion ran through him constantly, refusing to let him calm down.

Instinctively he reached for his belt where he always kept a small supply of medicine chunks but found nothing but bare ass. Right. No clothes. Pushing himself onto his knees, he stumbled to his feet.

Fingers feeling for the rough bark, he leaned against the tree for a couple of minutes while the last bouts of dizziness ran their course. For the first time since he’d arrived, he took in the gargantuan mountain in the distance. The familiar sense of longing settled quietly in the back of his mind.

He looked further up, eyes skyward, and drew in a deep breath, raising his hands up high.

With a reverberating bellow of triumph, he let himself fall back into the grass. Surely, the fauna, if they could even be called that, that roamed this strange forest had heard this as well. But that hardly mattered right now.

It worked. Holy shit, it worked. Sure, it had hurt like hell at the end — like being stabbed continuously by a million knives, probably — but it had definitely worked! And if it had worked, that meant he could recreate the success and learn to make use of it, somehow.

Surely there was a use for it, right? Otherwise… Shivers ran down his spine at the thought.

It had seemed like problems of pain only began to arise once the concentration of fused matter reached a limit where his body couldn’t handle it anymore. It was clearly fine below a certain point so if he could control and stop the fusion process well enough to not exceed that limit, then maybe he could find a way to actually put it to use.

Eik lifted his head to see one of the larger specimen of Profound Toxic snake approaching at a leisurely slither. Judging by how it was scanning the surroundings, it must have been lured in by his triumphant roar.

He didn’t deign to get up even when it spotted him and sped up. And when it shot forth like a spring on a trampoline, Eik simply raised a leg up into the air. The moment it came into range he brought down the leg like an axe at a chopping block, shattering it into the ground with enough force to turn its body into a puddle that could do nothing more than run into the cracks of the crater left by Eik’s kick.

“Damn,” he muttered, looking at the goo oozing into the ground by his feet. He let his head fall back into the grass with a sigh. “So, how the hell am I supposed get out of here then?”

***

“Mr. Magnasen.”

A hesitant knock rung through the small workshop, soon to be alchemy store. When no answer came, there was a long pause as if the person outside was struggling to decide whether to go for another knock. Finally, a decision was made. Three short knocks.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Mr. Magnasen. Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk, Mr. Magnasen? It’s Robert Barnes. We’ve spoken a couple of times before. Excuse me, can I come in?”

A rustle came from inside the building followed by a string of extremely colorful curses and then a crash. Seemingly materializing out of thin air, a frantic cat with fur in three colors suddenly descended onto Robert Barnes’ face, landing claws first and latching onto the back of his head like an alien parasite.

Frightened out of his good skin, Robert yelped and flailed his neck in a panicked attempt to rid his face of the furry passenger. After a couple of seconds of struggle the feline finally let go and jumped out toward the garden. He tried to follow the cat’s flight but the moment he whirled around, it had vanished as suddenly and tracelessly as it had appeared.

Mumbling to himself in total confusion, bright red scratches marring his face and scalp, Robert knocked again, this time a little more forcefully. “Mr. Magnasen. Are you in there? Are you okay?”

No answer.

“Alright… I apologize, Mr. Magnasen, but I’m breaking down this door!” Robert yelled and took a few steps back. “Step away from the door, please, Mr. Magnasen. I- I’m— I’m coming in!” he stammered and stomped the door with all the power he could muster.

The impact rattled his entire body through and through, a needle of pain spiking through his heel. He hopped around in front of the door on one foot, hissing. The door still stood intact. “B-But… I’m an Awakened. A mere door should be nothing but a—”

With a creak, the door swung open, revealing Eik Magnasen’s face covered almost completely in green goo. “Dude, what the hell. You totally made me blow up my experiment. Do you have any idea how dangerous some of these things I work with can be?”

Robert gawked, uncomprehending. “Uuh, no… But what in the world is your door made of, Mr. Magnasen?” he asked.

“What, this?” Eik asked, slapping the half open door a few times. “Looks like wood to me,” he said and pushed it open all the way. “The inside’s metal, though. I got it reinforced recently. Had some trouble a little while back, you see. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you? Considering your employment and all that.”

“Honestly, I don’t really know much of anything these days, Mr. Magnasen. I was nothing but a cog in the machine. I just did what I was told.”

“Fair enough,” Eik said with a nod. “Wait, did you say ‘was nothing but a cog in the machine’? What do you mean by that?”

For the first time, Robert broke into a smile. “That’s what I came to talk to you about. I quit my job today. I’m no longer employed by Darius Kerman.”

“Hm… Not bad. Congratulations on your freedom” Eik said and stepped aside, gesturing for the young man to come inside. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

Robert blinked at the change in brightness from the outside to the inside. There wasn’t much more furniture than there had been when last Robert came to Eik’s Excellent Elixirs to relay the messages from the the Forest leadership.

A couple of broken chairs, a table, and countless fragments of shattered glass lay scattered throughout the front room. Smashed boxes and shards of broken ceramic were visible in the dark back room as well. In the middle of the front room was placed a new table flooded with vials, strange plants, bottles of colored liquids, a heavy cauldron taking up most of the space on one side.

The table appeared to have been placed unconcernedly in the middle of the room with not a thought for the mess around it.

The ceiling had something that looked like a light bulb. But that couldn’t be. People hadn’t been able to harness electricity traditionally since that fateful day almost ten years ago, “What’s that? Mr. Magnasen… don’t tell me you discovered a way to get electricity again!”

“Nope, I sure didn’t,” Eik admitted readily. “That right there is called a glow stone.”

“What does it do?”

“Mate, it glows…”

“R-Right… How did you obtain it? On an expedition?”

“Bought it in Gimleh. Yanlan’s Interior and Decoration down at the corner by the park. Didn’t come cheap, though. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I splurged a bit. Sue me.”

“I don’t really know what most of that means.”

“Yeah…” Eik muttered, gaze far away. Then he focused back in. “Anyway! You said you came to have a talk. What can I help you with?”

“W-Well, as I told you, I’ve parted ways with Mr. Kerman. A-Although he was a wonderful employer, I’ve decided it’s time to look for other op—”

“Was he?” Eik asked.

“Pardon?”

“Was he? A good employer, I mean.”

Robert swallowed. “I— well, no, not exactly.”

“Alright, cool. Thank you for being honest with me. If you’re going to be working for me, honesty is one of the qualities I appreciate the most, just so you know. I have a tendency to not think things all the way through, so it’s important that you tell me honestly when you think I’m making a mistake or doing something dumb.”

“Ah, yes, I will certainly keep that in mind, Mr. Magn— I-I’m sorry, did you just—? But I never said…”

Eik held up his hands. “Sorry, sorry. I might have gotten a little ahead of myself there. Go on. What did you come to talk about?”

Robert Barnes cleared his throat and squared his stance with as much projected confidence as he could dig out. “Mr. Magnasen. It has come to my attention that you are in the process of launching a business here in Forest dealing in groundbreaking potion creations of which you are the sole creator,” he said, eyes intense and unblinking as he took a breath to continue.”

“Given the novelty and extreme potential of your venture, I believe you will soon come to require assistance in managing your business. Assistance which I am capable of providing. In short, I have come here today to offer you an opportunity that you will surely not regret. Through my work for Mr. Kerman I have acquired extensive knowledge and experience in business, planning, organization, and management. If you would just allow me the opportunity to prove my worth, I will ensure that I live up to any and all expectation you m—”

“You’re hired.”

“P-Pardon?”

“I said you’re hired,” Eik repeated and clapped a stunned Robert on the shoulder. “Good to have you on board, Bob.”

“Th-Thank you so much, Mr. Magnasen! You won’t regret this, I promise you!”

“I don’t intend to. And speaking of work, are you ready to get started with your first task?”

“Yes! I’m ready for anything!” the young man said excitedly.

“See that?” Eik asked and pointed to the ceiling and floor covered in the remnants of the most recent failed experiment.

“I do, yes.”

“Clean that while I get another batch ready. Then sit in that corner and be quiet and let me concentrate.”