Tora found herself in a very… very comfortable position. From her neck all the way to her feet, she was covered in a thick and fluffy woolen blanket. It was nice and warm, making her lazy enough not to even raise her head to check her surroundings. As to why she needed to check her surroundings… it was simply because the last thing she remembered from the previous night was staring at that boring dictionary.

However, looking at the ceiling, she knew she was still in the basement where the ‘workshop’ was at. Or, more accurately, she was lying down on the couch that Veles insisted on placing. No wonder he was so adamant about it; the couch seemed to have served its purpose relatively fast.

Wiggling her right hand out of the woolen roll, she rubbed her eyes and looked to the side. The basement was empty… well, empty of people. There were tables and various shelves filled with hers and Veles’s gadgets and contraptions. Taking a better look, she finally noticed how messy this place actually was.

It had been three days since she and Veles started basically living in this basement. She would mess around with her potions and experiment with a couple of things with the black substance that Veles had given her, but she would mainly spend her time studying that ridiculous dictionary.

Veles, on the other hand, would always be nearby, spending his time either reading some books she found ridiculous or drawing mystic runes and runic combinations that were overly complicated for her. In a brief instance where she had some free time, she observed what he did only to give up a couple of seconds later. Whatever he was doing, her brain couldn’t grasp.

For example, even while lying down like this, she saw a huge magic circle drawn in one of the corners of the basement. Each line, or rune it was drawn with was unknown to her. She couldn’t connect any part of it to anything she’d already seen before, it was an entirely unique runecraft.

What was more intriguing was how much mana Veles wielded, making a permanent magic circle that big would take her days while managing her rest accordingly. Yet, Veles did it in less than an hour and even had gals to say he felt refreshed. The more she spent her time with both him and Davis, the more she felt that her family which was very well known for their weirdness, was in fact, normal.

But never mind that. If her memory served her right, Veles was the one responsible for moving her from the chair to this comfy couch. He even went out of his way to place a pillow and roll her into the blankets… a nice gesture, she had to admit.

Well, when she thought about it. This was the first time a stranger had treated her nicely. Ever since she left her home to advance her alchemist skills and gain world experience, she’d been exploited for her skills. That was the fate of an unaffiliated alchemist, a well-known fact. On the field, she was nothing more than an alchemist who provided support, she was rarely treated like a normal person, especially so considering most of her time was spent in the Bistaiya Kingdom, where humans weren’t welcomed much.

So, this current situation was a nice change, truthfully both Veles and Davis treated her like a true comrade and she appreciated it deeply. Both of them were there to give her a helping hand, Veles in his own weird ways of explaining certain things, and Davis was there to provide mana or help in general—mostly by acting as her assistant or reminding her that she needed to eat and rest.

Scanning yet again the basement she was in, her gaze landed on the dictionary Veles had given her. It stood on the edge of her table, just waiting to be picked.

However, no matter how passionate she was about learning new things and finding a cure for her particular case, she didn’t want to spend any more time inside this dark basement. She started unrolling herself from the blanket, which appeared to be harder than anticipated; after pushing and pulling a couple of times, she was on her feet, leaving this underground place and heading to the nearest bathroom on the lower floor.

Once she refreshed herself, she went straight to the kitchen. She somehow had a feeling this would become a daily routine for her… and probably her new roommates would share the same experience as herself.

Indeed, once she stepped inside the kitchen, she was met with Davis joyfully stuffing his face with food.

“Good morning,” Tora greeted.

“Morning,” Davis gave her a weak nod. His hands never stopped cutting a potato neatly stuffed with the boiled egg, a strange combination on the first look.

“So, it’s still morning, good,” said Tora after sitting across from Davis. She, too, grabbed the nearest dish and started digging in.

“Mhm,” Davis mumbled between bites, then pointed at the clock on the wall.

Tora quickly followed, saw that it was nine in the morning, and went back to savoring food. “Okay, I didn’t know there was a clock there.”

“Well, now you do,” replied Davis.

Tora only rolled her eyes. If Veles was a gentleman, Davis was the total opposite—he treated her like her brothers would. It wasn’t like that from the beginning though. He held an obvious dislike for her ever since their encounter with the bandits—not that she could blame him. She was self-aware enough to know that some of her behavior could be hard to accept. This certainly lessened over time, but she still felt he was partially on guard against her.

Nonetheless, if she ignored these traces of ‘dislike’, he also appeared to be a decent guy. She never sensed any ill intent coming from him, nor did he appear to be someone capable of wickedness or cruelty…

“Where is Veles?” She asked after taking a few bites.

“He went to sleep like an hour ago.”

“So… all this food was prepared by him?” She asked.

“Yup.” Davis then added, “Strange guy, right?”

“I mean… Yeah,” Tora agreed. Veles always prepared them breakfast before going to sleep, yet another nice gesture from him. “At the same time, he appears like he doesn’t care about anyone around him,” she pointed at the food, “then he does something like this.”

Davis swallowed a big bite and said, “He was always like that, I can’t remember if there was a time when we skipped meals during our travels. I mean, he clearly is a glutton, but he always makes sure those around him aren’t left without their portion. I don’t know, sometimes I feel like he treats the very act of eating as sacred.”

“Interesting…” Tora said, “He must’ve had a nice upbringing. I know some poep-”

She suddenly stopped talking, because Davis started acting strange. His face formed a grimace like he’d remembered something unpleasant.

“I advise you don’t mention his past very much,” Davis warned. “Especially family or lineage matters. He is very sensitive about that topic…”

Tora blinked, he sounded overly serious, and she couldn’t understand why, so she asked, “Something happened?”

“Let’s just say that there was a librarian who insulted him in that specific way,” Davis said. “And trust me, just thinking about how he breathed his last sends chills down my spine.”

Tora nodded because believed every single word he said. He truly looked disturbed about this particular memory, hell, she saw his hand shake for a moment there.

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“The vial Veles gave you,” Davis continued. “It was responsible for that librarian's death, so be careful with it.”

That was all Davis said before pushing the plate in front of him, it would seem his appetite was ruined.

“I will keep that in mind,” She truthfully replied, if that black substance inside the vial had managed to hurt her sister who was many times stronger than her, who knows what it would do to her. Furthermore, she saw what it did to her lab rats…

“When we touched on this topic. How is your research going?” Davis asked genuinely. Tora appreciated that very much, for the past three days, he helped her plenty and showed real interest in what she was doing, contrary to Veles who only gave her brief and unclear pointers, Davis provided actual help.

“Honestly I don’t know,” She said. “This is all new to me, so I can’t tell if I’m making some progress or not.”

She truly had no idea what she was doing. Her main focus wasn’t only on the vial or dictionary Veles gave her, she had to split her time on things she’d gathered during her travels. Materials and books currently stored inside her storage ring were handpicked for similar diseases to the one she wanted to cure. Her hands were full these days…

“Are you in a rush?” Davis asked.

Tora gently nodded, “Well, yes. But I’m not the only one who is striving for the same goal, a greater part of my family is involved too. So, what I’m doing right now might be just a waste of time.”

There was a slight pause before Davis decided to reply.

“I don’t think is a waste of time. Anything can happen, and the only thing you can do is push yourself harder and be the one who will solve the problem your family has, right?”

His words made Tora wide-eyed, was this guy trying to encourage her?

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Davis asked.

“No… I just didn’t expect something like that from you…”

Davis rolled his eyes, then said “I was in a similar situation as you are, though not in a way that someone’s life depended on it.”

Oho, Tora’s interest piqued. This was the first time she’d heard something personal from Davis, both he and Veles have proved to be extremely secretive in how they reached this far. This could be a good chance to learn something new from these two strange guys.

So, Tora wanted to smartly extract some information about the two, “Similar, huh?” She asked, then leaned forward, suggesting for him to continue.

“Right,” Davis nodded, “You can say that I spent years seeking the way to-”

He suddenly stopped and looked uncomfortably to the side. Unsure of what was going on, Tora followed his gaze only to meet the eyes of the glaring owl, the bird looked fierce and threatening, it honestly rang many danger bells inside Tora’s head.

How the small bird caused that reaction, Tora had no idea, but the only thing she was sure about was that her attempt to fish some information was out of the question…

“Anyway,” Tora wanted to change the topic, the strange bird named Vera had instilled some kind of fear inside her, she didn’t know why or how, but she knew better than not to antagonize this mythical creature. “What are your plans for today.”

Davis appeared to share the same opinion as her, so he wisely followed her example and answered, “The usual, physical training in the morning then mana practice after that. What about you? Diving into the basement directly?”

Tora took a bite of the breakfast and replied after some thought, “Hmm, I think I will first visit my sister, I need some materials and utensils to try a couple of things. Then, after I come back, experimenting in the basement it is.”

“Did you forget?” Davis asked suddenly.

“What?”

“When your sister came and gave us the identification stones, she and Veles made a deal that we aren’t going to travel alone, you agreed to it,” Davis said.

“You are kidding, right?” Tora asked in sheer bafflement, “I don’t remember agreeing to put myself on house arrest like that.”

“Are you serious?” Davis looked at her like she was an idiot, “It was two days ago, your sister came here with my and Veles’ identification stone, and then she talked about how not only Basar’s underlings are looking around this part of the neighborhood, but the new group started taking tabs on our mansion and those around us.”

Seeing how she was still in denial, Davis continued, “Then she said that your family has replied to her letter and that they are sending someone to help with this mess. So, we all decided to stay inside for a week or two because it’s honestly dangerous to loiter around.”

But Tora’s expression became paler, in fact, she felt blood draining from her face…

Davis noticing something was wrong asked, “Are you okay?”

“I can’t remember anything,” Tora mumbled, still heavily in shock. She couldn’t believe it. She had no memory of what Davis was talking about. What made this much more terrifying was that if she tried to recall the past three days, barely anything made sense, it was as if a third of her days were blank, pure darkness without any image.

The crisis of the unknown pushed her anxiousness through the roof, various possibilities formed inside her head, and only one stuck out of many.

“What was I doing during those talks?” Tora asked. She had to make sure…

“Reading that dictionary Veles gave you,” Davis replied, slightly worried. “You were really immersed in it. It’s no wonder you forgot about our discussion.”

“No, no. This is wrong… really wrong.” She rubbed her temples as she tried to peer deeper into her memories.

Just as she was falling deeper in concern, a hoot of an arrogant owl reached her.

Both she and Davis followed from where the sound came, only to see Vera holding a piece of paper in her claw. The paper showcased elegantly written mysterious signs, those signs were very specific, each and every single one was made of sharp-edged lines that crossed each other. Some of the lines would end with a dot, while others merged with the next set of chaotically mixed lines, forming what could be barely described as a word.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Davis asked, not knowing what was going on.

“How?” That was all Tora said because she knew those signs very well, she studied them rigorously for the past days, and yet never did she grasp anything of significance. Those lines, dots, and sharp edges each sign was made of were overly complicated, from what she understood, a person had to understand a complex set of geometrical formulas and comprehend a set of hard mathematical principles just to read a single word…

Nonetheless, what Vera wrote on that piece of paper simply said:

“Took you long enough.”

Somehow, by whatever miracle, Tora was able to read it.

Without wasting a second of time, she stood up and rushed toward the basement, her steps were fast, making her almost trip when going downstairs. But she made it, her hand grabbed the dictionary placed on the edge of the table. In all her hurry, she opened it on a random page, only to be greeted with another shock…

The page was empty, no trace of previous instructions that pointed at overly complicated signs was left. Still in shock, Tora flipped the next page, only to be met with the same result…

She understood the underlying meaning of what was going on, and in an attempt to confirm it, she took the other book Veles gave her, it stood just at the other end of the table. She grabbed it, and indeed, everything now made sense.

She was able to read the title, it was clearly written: “The Human Nervous System.”

Every sharp curve or dot these mysterious signs were made of, she understood. She further proved it as she flipped the page, saw rows of texts, and confirmed that everything was perfectly readable.

“What the hell is going on…” Tora told herself. Whatever this sorcery was, it was both fascinating and terrifying. She needed answers, right here, right now.

However, just as she was about to rush to Veles’s room and seek answers, the ground violently shook, bringing all the grime stuck on the basement’s ceiling down.

Instinctively, she swatted away all the debris on top of her head. This tremor, the sound it produced was all too familiar…

“Unlucky.”

She heard from behind, the familiar voice it was, and it came from the person whom she wanted to question just a second ago.

Just as she was about to pour her mind out, Veles raised his hand and said, “Later. We got trouble to deal with now.”

He didn’t give her a chance for anything. He just pointed at her table and added, “Pack all important things inside your storage ring, and prepare your little potions for a serious fight.”

There was no chance to rebuke any of his words, his voice was overly serious and the second tremor that came from the outside suggested that trouble was on its way. So, Tora listened and started packing some of her stuff, simultaneously, she decided to at least ask what was going on.

“Another attack on one of the sister’s estates?”

“No, not this time,” Veles replied as he poured a good chunk of mana inside the magic circle he’d previously drawn on the basement’s floor. “Your stalker finally had enough. It seems that the little pea-brain couldn’t hold it any longer and decided to take matters into his hands.”

“Wait… Basar is attacking? Are you serious?” Tora asked. She could never imagine that idiot ever doing something like that. Yes, he did follow her around and generally annoyed her. But he never gave the vibes of somebody who would resort to violence.

“Yeah,” Veles' reply came a little strange. “I might have pushed him to the edge. Should’ve told Vera to tone it down a little, this is still too early.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” This guy, Tora truly had no idea what was he playing here.

“You will see,” Veles said after finally finishing with the circle on the ground. “Anyway, go outside and join the others, I will be there in a moment.”

Then he disappeared in a flash of silver. Tora had no idea how to react, in a minute she’d experienced just too much. But at the next moment, another tremor came, the strength of it slightly disturbed her balance. The situation outside was likely dire, she couldn’t afford to think about useless stuff now, it was time for action.

Listening to what Veles said, she went for the stairs, intending to join Davis and most likely her sister Dalia. If whoever attacked them had the galls to do it this close to Dalia’s main mansion, it would mean that this was likely a dangerous matter…