Max got distracted checking out a couple of bookstores and had to remind himself that his friends were waiting on him. Then he began searching in earnest for the last item he'd come to the Quartet for. The first two stores had magical gear but not what Max was looking for. He began to wonder if he'd imagined seeing what he'd thought he'd seen in the Quartet before. At his third store, he found what he’d seen before. He hadn't imagined it. However, the device was different than he had assumed.

Now he just had to wander around and hope that he could find what he was actually looking for. There was no way to know for sure they even existed in the Quartet, but the furnace he’d just seen, although not what he needed, was encouraging.

Feeling frustrated, especially carrying around multiple swords in his arms, he rounded a corner and spotted a shop he'd never seen before, “The Forbidden Kingdom.” It was small and ramshackle, especially compared to the other shops in the central area that were all clean and well-kept. He walked in, and a small bell rang above the doorway. The shop was dark and cluttered, but the moment Max entered, he could sense the power of some of the merchandise. His eyes grew wide as he glanced around, trying to determine which items were creating the aura of power, then poking around the crowded shelves.

“Can I help you, valued customer?” came a voice. Max looked up and an old man was standing behind the counter where nobody had been a half second before. He was wearing flowing robes and a long mustache that he was currently twisting on one side.

"Do you have any pill furnaces?" Max asked.

"Hmm. As a matter of fact, we do," said the man. "There isn't much demand for them, so I think at least two have been here for a long time."

Max blinked. "You have more than one?"

"Of course. We have a total of three, of different sizes."

"Can I see them?" asked Max, skeptical.

"That depends entirely on how serious you are about purchasing one."

"Oh, I'm serious indeed," said Max. He took out his voucher for one free piece of gear in the Quartet that would be reimbursed by the Quartet itself. The old man's sudden smile was as disarming as it was swift.

"I will be right back." He disappeared into the back through a beaded curtain, and only a few minutes later returned with a stack of boxes. Then he opened each box and set a total of three pill furnaces on the counter. Max noticed that the man did not attempt to sell any of them to Max or even explain what they were or what they did.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

This shop definitely felt like it was for experts with a lot of money to throw around. Maybe that's how it could survive being out of the way, located in such a strange place compared to the other supply shops in the Quartet. None of the students could probably afford anything in this shop unless they were six or seven years…or maybe more if the other Paths had longer training programs.

Max's mind wandered as he inspected the pill furnaces. Did the other academies in the Quartet have a seven-year time limit as well? He couldn't remember.

He hummed to himself. The first pill furnace was interesting, but Max would never be able to use it. He knew that warriors who used Qi often had artifacts that could still be activated with mana if the mana user had the right amount of control. There hadn't been many Qi users on Albion, but enough of them had fallen through interdimensional portals over thousands of years that the mana scholars had a fairly detailed understanding of Qi systems. And because Max had been the hero of Albion, he'd gotten access to records that were normally only available to rulers and the most elite scholars in the world. Because of that, Max knew an impressive amount of information concerning artifacts used by a few completely dissimilar Paths.

Back then he’d just thought of them as different power systems, not Paths. His understanding had deepened.

He continued to inspect the pill furnaces and focused most of his remaining attention on the last two. He was fairly certain he could get them to work with his mana, but the choice between the two was not easy. One would be easier to use but perhaps give lower quality results. The other pill furnace was much trickier, not only to operate but to fire up to begin with. As Max fed a tiny thread of mana into it, he could feel its tumultuous nature. He could also definitely sense that its output would be greater than the other one.

If he were anyone other than who he was, he would have taken the easier to use pill furnace. After all, using a pill furnace at all could be inherently dangerous. But if there was one thing Max had an exceptional advantage in, it was mana control.

"I think I'll take this one," he said.

"Ah, interesting," said the old man. "Should I tell you how much it costs?"

"No, that's fine," said Max. "I'm probably better off not knowing." He laid his equipment voucher on the table.

The old man laughed. "My name is Thomas."

"I'm Max.”

“Excellent, Max. Nice to meet you. I'll wrap this up for you and take your payment."

"Sounds like a plan to me.”

He waited for the old shopkeeper to prepare the pill furnace for its trip out the store. As Max thought about the ways he could use it, he realized this new acquisition would be the icing on the cake for his plan to get some of his friends into the Quartet competition with him.

I'll be damned if I have to do all this myself, he thought.

He left carrying the pill furnace out of the shop with a grin on his face. With his large sack and all the packages he was carrying, he probably looked like he'd just done the Quartet equivalent of Christmas shopping. Even with the three golems following him from a discreet distance, he knew the items he was carrying were likely two of the most expensive items that had been for sale in the entire Quartet.