Eik wiped the sticky, green mass off his face with a handkerchief. This was the seventh time he’d failed already, but there was definitely a sense of progress.

Before, the mixture had self destructed almost the moment his aura even touched it. Now that he’d gotten a feel for the behavior of this specific ingredient aura, he had at least managed contact without failing.

However, the green, mucus-like substance that he now futilely tried to wipe off onto the edge of the table proved that his grasp of this particular recipe was still nowhere near sufficient to actually complete the potion.

Potion of Mighty Strength class 2 sure wasn’t a walk in the park.

Most of the ingredients that made up the foundation of the potion were unchanged from class 1 to class 2 but one of the main components had been changed. In the class 2 potion a crucial ingredient had been the bone marrow from a bulkbeast. For class 2 that was switched out with blood from a garaskorika — a serpentine horror that could squeeze the life out of even high C-ranked Awakened.

Eik wiped the cauldron clean and prepared for another attempt. There was no time to waste. If he didn’t succeed in brewing the recipe before the preliminary he’d miss the opportunity use the event for free advertising.

After all, establishing an image of reliability and skill is especially important for a budding business. At that venue, where all the most enthusiastic Awakened would be gathering to fight for a spot as the recognized strongest in their respective power ranks, showing off the effects of his product would be one of the best spontaneous publicity stunt he could wish for.

Once more he took hold of the Ak’ki and sent it carefully toward the mixture, keeping Profound Toxin at the ready just in case a hostile aura leapt out to assault him like the class 1 recipe. It stirred the moment his aura made contact but didn’t explode.

For a moment he paused and observed. It whirled with agitation but calmed back down after a few seconds. He got his aura a little further in before he had to stop again. It struck him that the mixture seemed to react aggressively to the foreign substance but that if he moved slowly and carefully enough, there wasn’t quite enough stimuli for it to recognize it properly.

That gave him an idea.

Taking his own example from back when he ambushed the wounded manticore on the expedition to harvest venom for the antiserum for Sonja and the other comatose victims, he suppressed the presence of the aura.

It had worked successfully back then. Or at least, he was pretty sure that that was what had made the difference. If not, a green mass of mushy plants and blood would soon deliver the information stickily.

Immediately, there appeared to be a change in the demeanor of the opposing Ak’ki. On all other attempts there had been clear turmoil, even after giving it time to calm down.

Now, however, it returned to the same inert state as if it had just been mixed, seemingly unaware of his aura halfway meshing its own.

Again, Eik was well aware of the fact that he was anthropomorphizing the behavior of many of these magical and mystical phenomena, such as Profound Toxin and his own Ak’ki, but in his head, with how he personally experienced them, it was what made the most sense to him.

He delved in further, without much reaction from the mixture. Widening the shape of his aura to envelop the foreign energy, Eik felt a surge of confidence and increased his speed. As the edges of his aura approached the point where it would be able to completely suppress the ingredients, green Ak’ki suddenly rushed up.

In a second it had completely annihilated all of Eik’s aura and attached itself to his hand. Instantly his flesh was ablaze in excruciating pain as the green corruption flooded his body at several times the speed of the class 1 substance.

Eik didn’t even have to order Profound Toxin into action as it sprung forth like an attack dog defending its owner. For a moment Eik had felt a tinge of fear of the possibility that this stronger corruption would manage to overwhelm the Profound Toxin but that was quickly alleviated when the luminescent blue liquid shredded through it like a tsunami through a candle flame.

The mixture was destroyed but now Eik knew how to go about this particular recipe. And he’d figured it out in less than ten attempts!

Fueled into excitement by the knowledge that he was on the cusp of succeeding, Eik hurried to wipe down the cauldron and remix the recipe. He failed only once more before the potion settled into harmony and he could start the harvesting process.

Eik held up one of the vials, the murky, green fluid swirling like dirty tea. He pulled a face. This crap was going to taste like shit too, wasn’t it? One of the main components in this devilish bland was freaking monster blood, for crying out loud.

With reluctance, he tipped a bit of the elixir into his mouth. Surprisingly, it was easier to get down than the class 1 potion had been. There was a nauseating bitterness but an underlying sweetness made it sightly more bearable. He sipped a bit more and really let it flow about his tongue.

Actually, no. That fusion of bitter and sweet absolutely did not work. Before he could regret it, he drank the whole dose and swallowed.

Within a second, his body was filled with an absolutely ridiculous amount of strength. If he had had this when fighting Bart, the battle might have had a different ending. This was definitely yet another thing that would be invaluable to Forest in their pursuit of what amounted to peace in this new world.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

***

“You’re not trying out for the tournament selection?” Eik asked, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. “but I thought you were!”

Michael rolled his eyes as he placed rolls of bandage on a small table next to the makeshift arena. “Dude, you’re kidding, right? Have you seen me fight? I can kind of keep you guys alive but when it comes to the actual pummeling and killing, I’m next to useless.”

“You killed those striders like a rhino smashing wine glasses in an interior design store though. That was pretty awesome.”

“Yeah, because they just so happened to have a weakness that was perfectly countered by my only even semi offensive ability. Eik, I would have no place in that tournament, even if I did make it through these preliminaries, which, by the way, I wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of managing.”

“Alright, alright, you’re right. And thanks for helping with the injured.”

“Don’t mention it. That’s my literal job now.”

“True,” Eik chuckled. “How’s work been at the clinic?”

A smile crossed the young healer’s lips. “Great. Really great, actually. Like a dream come true for me. It just feels so meaningful, you know. Seeing that look of relief on a patient’s face is just… the best thing ever.”

“That’s nice, man,” Eik said, paused, and then spoke again with some hesitation. “Is it better than what you’ve been doing with the team?”

“Come on. That’s not a fair thing to ask. I can't answer that”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Michael started speaking anyway, proving that he could in fact answer. “It’s difficult to say. It’s so different. Yes, it’s nice to see the patients get better, but we’re doing a lot of good as a team as well. I get to keep you guys safe and when we went on that rescue mission I was directly responsible for saving some kids who would certainly have died otherwise,” he said and began to place a variety of pouches and packs on the table, some of which contained medicine Eik had made for the clinic and given for free. “And the reality is that, even as an Awakened specializing in medicine and healing, I need to get out there in order to advance properly through the ranks.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Eik said. “We’ll figure it out, I’m sure. Let’s just focus on this for now.”

People were beginning to show up for the test, Travis’ assistant Jennifer directing every new arrival with her usual expert ease. From the beginning they had the test takers split up into groups according to power rank.

Naturally, F-rankers were the most numerous, the prospect of an opportunity to test oneself in a competition which, in theory at least, should not come with the risk of death or permanent crippling.

Knowing the Nidafjeld Alliance and the mindset of a sample of its members, however, Eik wasn’t sure if that was actually a valid expectation. It wouldn’t surprise him if they got there and were told that ‘dying and losing one’s limbs is the best way to get ready in the morning for a true and proper Awakened.’

Lunatics, the lot of them.

Among the early arrivals Eik spotted several people with whom he was already familiar.

In the F-rank group were a handful of his former clients who had frequented Eik’s Excellent Elixirs in their roles as errand boys and assistants for stronger Awakened. To his surprise, Darius Kerman’s subordinate Robert Barnes, whom Eik had met a couple of times when he delivered messages from the old badger troop that was Forest leadership, was present among the crowd, his darting eyes a testament to his nervousness.

Later, Heath and Sonja would join the E-rank group, but they had arrived early and were still hanging out in the bar inside the Mission Central building. Heath had been a little sour when he hadn’t been allowed to skip the test but he too was aware of how important this event could be for Earth’s value in the eyes of the alliance and its affiliated members.

Among the D-rankers was Harry, the twin blade fighter who had burst into Eik’s shop on the day of the second phase of their world’s induction into the Unified Mass and who had tried to save Eik when he fell into the sink hole. They hadn’t talked much since then, but the man had felt guilty for failing to protect a new F-ranker despite Eik’s ardent insistence that it wasn’t something that he could be blamed for.

Another face in the D-rank group had almost made Eik jump with glee like a turtle judging a competition for the world’s biggest head of lettuce. Seeing Mushroom Head’s face among the waiting participants, the role of tester had immediately become ten times more appealing.

He hadn’t seen the guy since he had made him eat dirt on the way back from the Great Raid and the blonde piece of garbage had spoken ill of Heath. Eik knew that what he had done back then had been overboard, but considering the situation, he couldn’t rightly say that he regretted it.

Rock Fist Bart had only just tried to kill Eik and almost succeeded in killing Heath, and with Mushroom Head having been one of his subordinates, Eik had lost his temper just a little bit.

And since they were now both in D-rank and Eik would test the D-rankers, that meant they would have another go at each other. He almost couldn’t wait.