Sighing, staring down at my hands, bloodied and bruised, I waited for the inevitable. How long are you going to last?

I sat perched upon Mayhem's corpse. Typically, defeated monsters would become fragmented light and join the system to be summoned again after a set-upon timer, but I had been perched upon Mayhem for minutes now.

Then, it clicked.

I had been on the Island for so long that I had forgotten the subtle rules of the realm. Hopping of Mayhem with a small leap sent jolts of pain all around me.

(Stamina Depletion)

(Limit Breaker)

Notifications appeared above my head in a neon green, reminding me I had pushed myself in the battle with Mayhem. Going bare knuckles against a monster like him pushed the envelope, even for me.

I went over to his battered corpse and proceeded to loot his body,

Huh, that's alright. Not bad at all.

As I began to loot, the other part of being an adventurer returned to the front of my brain, the part that reminds you that it's all luck, it's all one giant spin of the roulette wheel of loot, and your chances are always piss poor. Whatever you wanted to drop would never drop on the first go. Getting good gear was a war of attrition, and the grinders always came out on top.

Well, not actually. The lucky bastards who got the drops on the first go came out on top, followed by the grinders. Everyone else picked up the scraps, the commons, and terrible blues that weren't worth the inventory space.

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The Loot was:

Mayhem's Elixir or Rage

Mysterious Key

Mayhem Knuckles.

The elixir was a standard Rage potion, bonus damage for a short period at the cost of a health debuff and a stamina one after the allotted time frame. The only difference between this specific rage elixir and the standard ones was that this was several times more potent than the ones you could buy from an apothecary, as it was a unique drop from a legendary mob. With this information, this ghetto would be overrun with adventures once again, creating parties, scattering the small zone on the chance to fight Mayhem, to farm him for his drops. An elixir that amplifies you past the achievable limits meant that one could solo areas or achieve feats once unthought of. Someone missing only a tiny fraction of strength needed to clear a dungeon or a particular farming spot would now clear it with no problem.

I thought about the ramifications of this information as I stared at the elixir between my index and ring finger, mindlessly spinning the thing, tossing it up and down, liking how it felt as it landed in my palm.

You're a small thing, yet you could shake up the realm. I whispered to myself.

A riot, I could cause a damn riot if I let this information out.

Before, when part of the path, we would do just that. Maybe we would inform the people of the ghetto beforehand, having them set up their wares and vendors ready for the incoming wave of income. Prices would shoot up, and inns would charge double, no triple, at the very least. This place would become a hub of traffic once again.

That's the power of a good drop and of a farmable item. Just one drop could break whole economies.

Equipping Mayhem's knuckles, I took a few practice wings in the air. They were pretty good. The item had great stacks and some good rolls on it. Grayed-out text revealed that I did not have the prerequisite stats needed to unlock their full potential, but they also appeared to be part of a set.

If the elixir isn't enough, this new gear piece would likely bring the hordes spamming the nearest wayward crystal. Teleporting like the plague, they would hunt down the set pieces like starved animals.

Hmmm, what to do?

Pocketing the items, I decided to do what I wouldn't have done then. We would farm the area, fill up on the damn supply, then sell them in a market far from the eastern port. Monopolizing the market but selling it in an area away from the actual farming spot so that no one would be the wiser.

Then, after we had sold all our inventory, we would sell the information to some middling guild for a hefty price.

I caught a reflection in the pool of blood that still ran through the gutters. I saw myself for the first time. I saw the man I could be. The man I strayed from. He was vicious, conniving, and relentless.

With a smile that forked at the corners, I whispered,

I will be who the realm needs me to be. Even if that means I must be the demon and the beast.