Lucifer noticed Ahri leave while he was constructing his floors then she returned once he had run out of mana, with nothing better to do he decided to attempt to talk to her again.

Ahri entered her room and released the invisibility spell, she was about to use the stone she was given to contact her master but before she could Lucifer's voice interrupted her "is there anything interesting above ground?" causing her to jump.

She tried to talk but the words only came out as unintelligible stutters, Lucifer became frustrated "just write what you want to say like I showed you" he said in the most casual tone he could muster because he remembers hearing about some random study where two groups of children with stutters were having their stutterers treated differently, long story short the people who were scolded for stuttering kept their speech impediments for the rest of their lives.

Ahri felt slightly warm in her heart as she thought "most people become frustrated and start yelling at me when I can't speak", she hesitated for a moment before writing in the air what happened with the old alchemist, Lucifer asked "how powerful do you think this reclusive old man is"

she thought for a moment then replied by writing "I think he is a very powerful alchemist, a master at the least and perhaps a grandmaster considering how old he is"

"how old is he?" Lucifer asked.

Ahri replied, "I don't know because he only vaguely referenced his age but I feel he is similar similar to my master, so he is probably several hundred years old at a minimum."

"I thought Merlin was a human, how can he give the same impression as someone several hundred years old at a minimum," Lucifer asked.

Ahri answered "well, I'm not too sure how old he is exactly, but I do know that master is at least 700 years old, because I've heard him tell stories and show me memories of times that were at least that far back.

and as for the human part, I think you have an incorrect presumption about humans, while most of them live for only 45 or so years on average the more powerful ones can live just as long as the elven races, there are even rumors with some evidence that suggests there are "old monsters" walking the world, who have long since surpassed mortality."

Lucifer thought for a moment then asked "what is the difference between the two levels of alchemy"

"the former is only able to make potions and elixirs, the latter is able to create artifacts through material means rather than enchanting" she replied.

"does that mean an artifact created by a grandmaster alchemist can then be enchanted to create a stronger effect"

"yes and that is why they are very valuable to any power who has access to one, even the king would have to be polite towards one if he ever met one" she answered.

"is that where the University gets the power to be free from the Kingdoms grasp and be an independent existence," asked Lucifer.

"no, sadly we do not have a grandmaster alchemist at the University, elder sun is our alchemy master, but with the time he took out of his studying to teach me and the limited resources of the University along with the fact that he did not have a teacher above the master level himself he has been unable to pass the hurdle to become a grandmaster alchemist" she explained.

"then I take it you were about to inform your master of such a valuable resource, don't bother, go and inform the alchemist to come here" Lucifer replied.

Ahri's expression darkened as she secretly berated herself for telling the dungeon about the alchemist first, now there is no chance that the university can get any benefits from the transaction if the dungeon dealt directly with the alchemist, she wrote "you should keep yourself a secret to as many people as possible because it's safer, so why don--" Ahri's writing was halted when she suddenly felt soul-searing pain, she sweated profusely and convolced on the ground for several seconds before it stopped.

After the pain stopped she gasped for breath to fill her empty lungs which were emptied by incoherent screams, she noticed that her hands were bleeding and her throat was sore so she started to cast a healing spell, however, the words would not form and she only made croaking sounds rendering her incapable of casting spells.

When Lucifer judged that she was lucid enough he harshly spoke "DO NOT try to manipulate me, foolish woman, do you think I would allow the University to become the middleman in all of my dealings with humans, you can tell your master that I can be your University's greatest asset if we work together, or we could continue to play these political games with each other and we both know who has the upper hand in that.

and as for you personally, you forget that Merlin is not your master anymore, you are merely an ambassador and technically you are my pet, so if I were you I would quickly decide where my allegiance lies because I am not a lenient person when it comes to things like this... Now go get that alchemist."

Once she left Lucifer sighed, it was only a matter of time before she attempted something like this, although it took longer than expected mainly because she doesn't talk, he hoped that she will quickly fall into line and understand what is expected of her and if she doesn't, he is going to have to force her to understand which he would prefer not to do.

Later the alchemist was sitting at the counter trying to imagine a way to mix several ingredients without them blowing up when the woman came back into the shop, he was initially surprised by her quick return, he expected her to go back to her master and then take several days setting up various means, he was slightly disappointed that he did not get to use the things he made in preparation for such an event, maybe she would say something stupid and he would get to test a few things to show he is not someone to be messed with.

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The woman started writing in the air again with her magic but he noticed that her hands were noticeably shaking and she looked to be in more of a mess than the first time she came here, he raised his eyebrows when he read the message "come to the dungeon please, there is someone who wants to meet you".

He was excited for a moment when he thought that it may be a trap but then realized that his theory was correct and that he was going to get what he wanted directly instead of having to fart about with nobles first which he thought was excellent, he thanked the University good judgement and made a mental note to help them out a little bit in the future if the opportunity presented itself then followed the woman to the dungeon.

The guards outside the dungeon entrance looked at the odd pair entering the dungeon and exchanged glances with each other then shrugged and continued keeping watch, completely oblivious to the stares of those around them the two walked leisurely into the dungeon.

His heart rate rose in excitement when he notices the dungeon creatures simply avoiding them on their way without him using any repellants, they continued deeper into the first floor until they found the demonic door in the middle, then they turned towards a seemingly random tree and walked towards it.

His confusion grew with every tree they approached, she simply touched the trees that she randomly chose and even he could not find anything unique about the trees themselves, after half an hour they made it to the wall of the dungeon, the stone walls rose at a sharp angle directly to the ceiling and were completely smooth.

Once they arrived at the wall she pressed her hand against the wall and fed mana into the bare stone, just before he wanted to ask whether she had taken something that had expired a part of the wall suddenly fell away into the floor.

Behind the wall, there was a dark hallway which he could not see the end of and he just shrugged and walked behind the woman as she entered.

After several minutes of walking in the dark, they finally found themselves inside a small circular room with a round table and several chairs, a light attributed mana stone sat in the middle of the table giving off a soft glow illuminating the room.

She said to sit down and the one meeting him would be here shortly, then she walked out of the room and back down the hallway.

The alchemist sat there with his heart beating wildly like it hadn't done in decades while he waited, suddenly a disembodied voice cut through the silence "Greetings alchemist, I am Lucifer Morningstar" then he watches the mans expression intently for any signs that he knew the name beforehand, but he only found an exited old man fidgeting in his seat like he was a child before Christmas and the presents were about to be opened.

He said, "are you the dungeon?"

Lucifer answered "you could say that, I am sure an alchemist like yourself is inter--", Lucifer was interrupted when the man got onto the ground and kneeled then yelled "please take me as your servant and in exchange make materials for me so I can delve deeper into the dao of alchemy"

The sudden turn of events stunned Lucifer for a moment while he thought "Well I suppose that would make things simpler than trying to cooperate", then he answered "ok, I will bind you to my will and you will be my servant and in exchange, I will create materials for you to further your studies".

Lucifer started the binding before the old man decided to change his mind and tried to resist the binding, several moments later the was binding competed and Lucifer asked "now that the binding is complete is there something you want"

The alchemist answer was immediate "I want access to the dungeon to find all the new species of plants"

Lucifer replied "you have access to all the floors and no beast will bother you and you can access the forth fifth and sixth floors that no one has accessed yet, however, stay away from the door on the first floor, there are no plants behind there, only deadly traps. Oh and what was your name"

"it's Rick" he replied.

Lucifer asked "just rick?"

Rick nodded his head then walked outside the room with a grin on his face and a spring in his step causing Ahri who was waiting outside to look at the man in confusion, then she felt the familiar pull when he walked past and she gasped, Ahri never would have guessed that only after several minutes the alchemist would come out bound to the dungeon, she thought to herself "I wonder what the dungeon offered him to accept being a servant so readily, it was probably something better than what the University obtained".

Lucifer found Ahri and said "you can tell your master about this if you want, just remember he is my servant now then flew away before she could reply, he thought "I wonder what she will choose to do".

He decided to go and see what Rick would do with his new unrestrained access to the dungeon and did an imaginary facepalm when he found the old man practically prancing around with a massive basket strapped to his back filled to the brim with ingredients and he was still picking plants into a spacial pouch at his waist, Lucifer said "you know if you take every plant in the dungeon they won't grow back"

Rick looked around in confusion then replied: "don't you create these plants with mana from the earth, why would they not grow back?"

Lucifer replied "because I am not making them individually like most dungeons do, I simply created an ecosystem that they thrive in and let them spread themselves using the natural mana in the dungeon"

Rick looked surprised and exclaimed "that's amazing, that means that you have more mana to make my materials right" causing Lucifer to do another imaginary facepalm.

He replied "just plant the seeds as you go or I will spend the whole time being a farmer sowing seeds, the high mana content in the dungeon causes the plants to grow quickly here so you don't have to worry about not having anything to experiment with"

Rick thought for a moment then looked at his current haul of ingredients "I guess this will have to do for a couple days" stunning Lucifer.

"how many plants do you need exactly?" Lucifer asked

Rick smiled then replied "ha do you think the job of grandmaster alchemists are easy, they spend decades collecting magical plants to create their works" before Lucifer could ask why Rick continued explaining "before you ask this material is not enough to create an artifact, why do you think there are so few grand alchemists, it's because you have to take a mountain of magical plants then grind them down to their pure essence, only then can you attempt to combine it into something useful.

Even the Kings don't have enough resources to train a grand alchemist, especially in these times of war--"

Lucifer interrupted the lecture "ok I will look into creating a farm for you to cultivate ingredients in, probably in the lower floor where the mana takes physical form th--"

Rick excitedly interrupted "YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A DRAGON VAIN... AND THE PLACE HAS NOT COLLAPSED", then he started to lick his lips with a disgusting look on his face,

Lucifer took some distance and replied "if you bring me good results I will make a farm for you near there, but for now behave yourself because I still have work to do on the other floors, plant some seeds on the first floor that you somehow managed to clear out in the two seconds I was not watching you and go collect some ingredients on the other floors, I'm sure the fourth floor will interest you." then flew away to make preparations for completing the sixth floor.

Rick with renewed vigor ran around the floors of the dungeon collecting anything and everything in sight that gave even a faint impression of being magical in nature, this caused a rumor to go around the taverns and adventurers guild above of a pest entering the dungeon that devours magical plants which was not too far off.