As if it had been waiting for his call, like a little horse waiting to be let out to gallop on a field of flowers, Profound Toxin rushed through his system with anger. It tore through the purple miasma like a chainsaw annihilating a stick of warm butter. The discoloration running down his arm dissipated into the air in seconds.

Profound Toxin detached itself from him and was about to assault the mixture itself when Eik got a mental hold of its spiked collar. “Wait, wait,” he said, the sound of a voice, even his own, always calming him in tense situations. Was that why he could never shut his mouth whenever he felt threatened or insecure? Damn.

“Thanks, but I might still be able to finish that. That stuff doesn’t grow on trees,” he said but then raised an eyebrow. “Or actually, some of it definitely does, but not all of it. And it costs money, which doesn’t.”

Having gotten the situation under control, he rolled onto his back and dry heaved a couple of times, trying to keep his food from soiling the nice carpet. His body still ached, and the back of his head was pounding, but it was nothing compared to the pain from the spiritual attack. He sighed.

He could only blame his own tunnel vision for keeping him from considering anything but his newfound aura to defend himself against the invasion of the corruption. However, not pulling Profound Toxin into the mix from the beginning, knowing what it could do to his own aura had been the peak of stupidity. If his body hadn’t already been plenty ravaged, he might have kicked himself.

The mixture for Potion of Mighty Strength class 1 still lay there in the cauldron, all comfortable and evil like. One of the ingredients for the potion was the bone marrow of a D-rank monster called a horned bulkbeast, named so for the ridiculous density and strength of its muscles and bones. This monster was notoriously aggressive to even its own kind. Or at least the merchant who had sold him the bone marrow had told him as much.

Maybe the shitty behavior originated from the remnants of that beast. Eik shot the cauldron the harshest stink eye he could as he got back into the chair to resume his attempt. Purple miasma still swirled ominously.

Like an agitated nest of hornets, the foreign aura flew up through Eik’s tendril of energy the moment he made contact. It advanced up through his arm at double the speed compared to the first time but before it could get to his wrist he decimated any trace of it with Profound Toxin.

Shit. This wasn’t going to work. With the energy already this agitated he couldn’t get his own close enough to even attempt to influence it. What could he do?

He abandoned the multiversal matter for now and extended a tendril of Profound Toxin toward the mixture, his control with the unruly ability clearly also improved after his practice with the aura. Carefully, the tapered tendril of poison penetrated the surface of the miasma.

It roiled aggressively, flooding in like water through an unobstructed drain. Although Eik tended to think of his own energy and Profound Toxin more like unruly pets rather than forces of nature, the incessant onrush of the dark power despite the instant extermination proved that it was nothing but a mindless manifestation.

For a few seconds, the inherent vitality of the ingredients remained capable of supplying the incorporeal grinder that was Profound Toxin. But soon it ran out of juice and calmed down to the point where a faint, colorless haze of inertia was all it could muster.

Keeping the tendril of Profound Toxin in place as a deterrent, he reached down with his aura in parallel. It shied away at his touch but didn’t do anything to resist him otherwise. Even when he began to pump in his own energy there was no hostile response.

After about a minute of cautious feeding, the mixture seemed to reach some kind of equilibrium and while it remained stable and contained, Eik hurried to bottle it — enough for three vials with a bit left over. The remainder he scooped into a glass. Presumably such a small dose would not grant the optimal effect, but lately he had been missing the daily ritual of drinking poison…

Well, bottoms up then.

The taste was… not great. Immediately a sourness as strong as a lemon assaulted his whole tongue at once, leaving a bitter, lingering aftertaste. But that was easy to tolerate once he felt the effects.

Eik had been expecting the Potion of Mighty Strength class 1 to take some time to show its effects but within a second he felt a sensation not unlike Noxious Invigoration pump through his veins. It wasn’t very strong. The effect of most of Noxious Invigoration combined with most poisons was stronger, but this had not even been half the recommended dose. This was going to do wonders for the fighting power and survivability of his team.

If he could get skilled enough to produce larger batches of both the Potion of Mighty Strength class 1 as well as other drugs, he could also make a crucial difference on Earth. His novel knowledge and willingness to give others a chance to use his products might even sway the population further in his favor. It could convince people that they have something to gain from the Nidafjeld Alliance.

A buzz in his shirt alerted him to a message on his wooden plaque. He fished it out and checked. His eyebrows flew up in surprise.

[Reached threshold: Evolution to ??? possible]

[Estimating…]

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What the hell? The evolution was possible but it wouldn’t let him initiate it? If anything, that convinced him that his little alchemy experiment would have killed him. To think that would push him over the threshold.

He tried to launch it multiple times but nothing happened. Maybe it just needed a bit of time. He couldn’t exactly discuss the strange behavior of his power with his friends without revealing more, and he didn’t feel comfortable enough with Atla right now to go to her either.

Since it told him that it was estimating it seemed safe to assume that it would finish estimating at some point at least, hopefully soon. Nothing he tried made the status change whatsoever. It seemed that all he could do was wait, acting as if he hadn’t reached a significant milestone in his progress.

Trying and failing to push down the excitement of the new rank — something that would surely make Profound Toxin soar once more — Eik turned one of the filled potion vials over in his hand as the butterflies in his stomach settled down.

He needed someone besides himself to test the efficacy of his latest creation. “Heath!” he yelled as he ran into the hallway with the vials in hand.

The tank’s room was empty. As were both Sonja’s and Michael’s rooms so he made his way to the only place he thought they might have gone without coming to get him first.

It was a five minute jog to get to the nearest training grounds. The training grounds consisted of a collection of raised platforms identical to the one where Eik had fought the blonde boy the first time he had been kidnappe— had visited the headquarters. In one corner there were training dummies made of various materials of differing durability.

His three friends occupied one of the platforms. There were eight platforms in total with three platforms, besides his friends’, in use.

Earsplitting clangs of metal against metal echoed across the grounds as Sonja delivered a relentless assault of sword strikes to his shield. She leapt about like a dancer, coming at him from all sides but his defense was clean and efficient as he received the flurry like a minimum of wasteful movement. Movements smooth, he hardly did more than adjust his leading foot to pivot the shield in to block any attempt she tried to get at his body.

It was almost only when he stuck out his own weapon for an attack that he got burned. Sonja’s reactions were quick as lightning and she punished him for any opportunity he accidentally offered her to. With the pure physicality of both of their skill sets against each other it seemed like they could essentially sustain a standstill until one of them grew tired, and Heath wasn’t expending much energy while Sonja possessed manifestly vast reserves of stamina.

Michael wasn’t participating directly in the melee but he would cast Bind at key moments to trip or hinder their movements. Although it wasn’t his main focus, Eik knew that the healer also often practiced with his mace and shield.

While Eik had spent recent days in his room with his nose buried in the alchemy cauldron the three of them had been out here almost every day to practice. This really was the training arc in most senses of the word. All they really needed now was someone to cut together a short montage for their viewing pleasure.

“Guys, hey!” he called and waved as he climbed onto the platform. “Guys!”

Heath looked away from the fight for a moment as he was adjusting his position and Michael, seeing his chance, got both of the tank’s feet with Bind, sending him to the ground with a clatter of plate.

“Gergh!” Heath squawked as he hit the flagstones hard. “What the hell! It was time out, you jerk!”

“Nuh uh,” Michael argued as he stepped over Heath. “You didn’t call it. No call means no time out. We already talked about that last week.”

Heath just grumbled and climbed to his feet.

“What’s up?” Sonja asked, her sword back in its sheath.

Eik didn’t say anything and simply held up the vials of murky purple liquid for them to admire, dangling them as he failed to contain a satisfied grin.

“Did you make those?” Michael asked.

“You can bet your ass I did! Just finished ‘em!”

“Are they the insect repellents then?” Sonja asked. “The pain killers were pills, right?”

Eik hesitated when he remembered that he had kept the fact that he had hid his intentions to attempt the Potion of Mighty Strength class 1 recipe until now. To say it had been reckless was an understatement. Without Profound Toxin to save his ass when it went wrong, he would most likely have been lying dead on the floor of his apartment right now.

“I— No, not exactly.”

She paused and regarded him. “Then what is it?”

“I, uuh… Well, I stumbled across some interesting ingredients and they happened to be enough for this particular recipe.”

“You said some of those recipes could be dangerous to attempt to make. Was that one one of those?”

“… No?”

An arched brow was all she offered in response.

“So if it’s not an insect repellent then what does it do?” Heath asked, grabbing one of the vials from Eik’s hand.

Eik brandished his bicep, slapping the muscle as he flexed. Michael instantly had a guess. “It enlarges your muscles like a body buil—”

“Super strength,” Eik said.

“Holy crap, that’s even better!” Heath exclaimed, practically drooling at the thought. “Can I have a sip?”

“It worked on me so yes, please give it a taste.”

Heath unstoppered the vial and upended it with zero hesitation only to pucker up like a raisin. “Geh! Oh, that is the worst thing I have ever drunk in my life! But god damn!”

He hurled his heavy shield into the air where it spun around its own axis a couple of times before falling back into his hand. “This is… insane.”

“Here.” — He handed a vial to Sonja as well and gestured — “Take a swig and check what it’s like to fight under the effect of the Potion of Mighty Strength class 1.”

She obliged and took a sip but stopped halfway through, sticking out her tongue as she pulled a face.

“Dose matters, Sonja,” Eik mumbled apologetically. “You should drink all of it for optimal effect.”

She scowled but drank the rest nonetheless. Her eyebrows shot up as she too felt the power pouring into her veins from the potion. With a glance at her brother who hefted his shield, The Captain’s Tower, with an expectant smirk, she drew her Bow of the Squall, nocked an arrow, and pulled the string back to its absolute limit in one smooth motion that hardly seemed to strain her at all. She took aim.

The strength granted by the potion combined with the ability of her bow to accelerate the arrow further sent the projectile forward like a bullet. It tinked off Heath’s shield with enormous force. At least twice the power of what she had been capable of inside the Crucible practical.

Surprised by the impact, Heath almost let the shield be flung out of his grip, but he recovered instantly and rushed in for a counter attack. She unleashed another arrow as she activated Disengage to create some distance but Heath simply lifted his shield and deflected the projectile into the stone behind him where it cracked.

Unable to step off the platform during a practice match, Sonja leapt around the ring for a while before eventually giving up and unsheathing her thin blade to meet her brother in close quarters. They exchanged blows in much the same way they had been when Eik arrived minutes earlier, but the clear difference in intensity was astounding.

To Eik it looked like they were at the cusp of D-rank. All because of his potion. His fingers tingled with the desire to make more — to learn more.