The day after I came back from my trip, I resumed my classes. Miss Misa seemed to have taken care of my classes properly so I didn’t have any problems.

Though something unexpected happened when I came.

“Mr. Ray Laxon. Are you here?” A member of the HR department came to find me in the staff room. He called me out so that we can have a private conversation.

“Sir, have you not been responding to any of your family emails?”

“I haven’t really checked my mail, why?”

“Sir, your father’s secretary asked me to inform you of an invitation that you must have received. You should check it out as soon as possible.”

“Thank you for the message. I will do so after my class.”

Once the classes were over, I went back to my apartment and started to check my mail. There really was a message from Heron Laxon's private account in my mail. I quickly clicked on it and read the contents.

Looks like it was an invitation to the family banquet that was taking place at the end of next month. Executives of the Aurum Guild would be joining along with their families. It seems my presence was required since Heron wanted to keep the façade that he gets along with his legitimate son.

“Fucking politics.” I swore.

‘Well, this was a good opportunity for me. In this meeting, I would have to break ties with the Laxon Family and the Aurum Guild.’

I felt bad since I knew how much the original Ray wanted to prove to his father that he was a worthy son.

The now very familiar face reflected at me from the glass on my office desk.

I couldn’t say I understood what Ray felt for his father, even though I had inherited his memories. Ray may have wanted to gain his recognition as a form of love or as a way to prove himself worthy. But all I felt for him was sympathy. He was unfairly thrown out of his body, had it possessed by a total stranger, who was now going to waste all his efforts.

‘I am sorry, Ray. But I don’t want to die when the Laxon family is executed for conspiring with the Chaos Alliance. If ever the chance comes my way, I will make sure to repay you.'

The next day, since it was the weekend, I decided to go visit Ray’s house. It was also the one where Ray’s lab was.

Ray’s house was located at the Cobalt Road, one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Capital City, southwest of the Star Academy. There were many mansions lining up the street, each one more beautiful and lavish than the last. They all looked as if none of them costed below a few hundred million R. Almost all of these mansions belonged to the families of Guild Leaders or their top executives since the Hero League Headquarters and the Top Guilds of the Human Realm were not far from this area.

I soon reached Ray’s mansion. The mansion was a large two-storey white manor. Its front lawn consisted of a large swimming pool. At the centre of the pool lay a small pavilion with white sofas and a coffee table on it. The pavilion was bordered by exotic flowers. I could sense slight amounts of mana emitting from them.

‘They don’t seem like ordinary flowers.’

The mansion didn’t seem ordinary either. The main door had a biometric lock on it instead of a doorknob and keyhole. I placed my right palm on it and the light blinked green.

‘Whoosh’.

The ten-foot tall doors swung open and the entrance hall lightened on its own. The hall was equipped with multiple couches around a glass table. To the right, it led to a kitchen and a dining room, and on the other side was a bedroom. In front of me was a staircase that led up to the guest bedrooms, and another pair of stairs led a floor down to Ray’s lab which was connected to a mini greenhouse outside.

Standing in such a grand hall gave a sense of estrangement to me, who had lived in a middle-class family all his life. This experience brought me to reality, just how rich the Laxon family actually was. I couldn’t even imagine how many similarly extravagant houses they owned.

The greed made me doubt my plan to cut off my connection to the Laxon Family. But only for a small moment. Wealth was only useful if I stayed alive to use it.

The inside of the lab seemed like a normal high school chemistry lab. They were beakers with suspicious liquids placed on cupboards by the walls with a big white marble table placed in the centre, with many different instruments on it. I checked the greenhouse. The herbs inside were organised and properly labelled. Different temperatures were regulated in different parts of the greenhouse, giving life to a variety of herbs.

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

I recognised many of the herbs’ names. Many of them were used to make the potions in Ray’s potion book.

‘Should I try brewing some of them? My stock for the Speed Potion and Monster Repelling Potion is almost gone.’

If I can brew them like Ray was able to, I could create a small business of my own. Then, I wouldn’t have to rely on the Laxon Family for money.

I took the potion book out of my ring and checked the recipe for the Speed Potion.

‘This looks easy enough.’

I first went to the closet in the corner and changed into a lab coat. I used Appraisal on it and found out the coat was made from the skin of something called a Mountain Tortoise. I found a case inside the coat containing a black pair of reading glasses.

I put them on.

‘Haa, with these, I am the textbook example of a Professor.’

Though, these glasses didn’t seem to do anything special. I went into the greenhouse to get the herbs to make the potion. As soon as I went in, various screens popped up, telling me information about the various herbs and their effects.

‘Huh? Did the Appraisal turn on by itself?’

“Appraisal close!”

But there was no effect. I took off my glasses to wipe my eyes, but as soon as I took them off, the screens disappeared. I checked it again, and the screens again popped up in front of the glasses.

‘Appraisal’

Reading Glasses: This item can provide the wearer with information about the items whose details have been provided into the server.

Looks like these virtual glasses worked similarly to my Appraisal, except the information has to be provided on its server beforehand. There was a laptop on the lab table. The glasses must be connected to that. I liked these glasses even more now. It could act as the perfect camouflage for my Appraisal Skill now.

I decided to leave the matter of the glasses for later and focused on the potion-making. I gently uprooted the appropriate herbs from the greenhouse and brought them back to the lab to wash off the soil from it. I switched on the bunsen burner and started to heat one of the herbs in distilled water to get its essence out.

My hands were instinctively following every instruction flawlessly. It seems that Ray's body still remembered all the practice he had gotten in the lab for years. There was smoke coming out of multiple beakers around me as I mixed two strangely coloured liquids. It made me seem as if I was in a scene straight out of Harry Potter.

After an hour of intense concentration, there were 20 vials in front of me, containing the Speed Potion. Appraisal authenticated their quality. I wanted to share this achievement with someone, but I was all alone in that lab. Deus still hadn’t communicated with me.

That damn reptile!

I took another hour to restock my supply of Monster Repellent Potion. Now, on the table in front of me, there were 20 vials of the colourless Speed Potion and another 20 vials that had the purplish hue of the Monster Repellent. I was almost moved to tears, seeing the display of my very first batch of potions. I even took a selfie on my smartwatch to commemorate the occasion.

After that much concentration work, I went to the kitchen to find something to snack on. The refrigerator was fully stocked with many vegetables, beers, and soft drinks. I hadn’t visited this house ever since I came to this world, so it seems like there was a caretaker of this place.

I fixed myself a quick snack of chips and took it to the bedroom along with the laptop that was in the lab. I opened it to find various encyclopaedias on various plants and monsters, along with a softcopy of the potion book. I opened the document and started to read it to pass the time.

As I scrolled page after page, my eyes finally landed on a potion that gave me goose bumps. The packet of chips dropped from my hand.

‘Oh God, Ray. I know you were a genius at potion making, but why do you have this?’

The recipe that was in front of me was the ‘Curse Breaking Potion’.

In this world, there were a few demons that were feared far more than the other ones. They were high-ranking demons and were feared even by the highest ranking Heroes. That was because they had a very horrifying ability. The higher the demon, the more hearts they possessed, with the strongest of them having as many as ten hearts. By sacrificing a few of their hearts, demons could put curses on people. The details of the curse can be anything, like experiencing a death where your blood turns to acid or being forever trapped in your worst nightmare, with the only requirement being that the demon should be in possession of a drop of fresh blood from the curse recipient.

Since curses required a heavy sacrifice, demons didn’t use them often, but whenever they used them, they left a trail of horror in their wake.

And the worst part was that there was no way to break the curse. Once someone was inflicted with the curse they will never be able to escape its grasp.

If the Fallen or the Chaos League, who were contracted to the demons, found out about this potion, I will forever be hunted by all the demons in the demon realm.

But, the question that nagged me the most was how something so revolutionising was in the hands of an extra like Ray? And how does something that never existed in the novel find its way into this world?

This recipe that was in my hands was proof that not everything in this world was similar to the novel. And if that was truly the case, I needed to check what else could be wrong with the novel’s execution. The diary where I had written this world’s events was in my dorm back at the Academy, so I quickly put the laptop in my dimensional ring along with my newly created potions.

As I was rushing out of the house and back onto the road, I met an unexpected face. A pair of platinum-blond siblings were walking in my direction.

“Oh Professor Ray, what a surprise to see you here.” Rachel greeted me. Standing next to her was a handsome boy who looked quite like the girl beside him. He was pretty tall, much taller than my 6’2” height. His arms were bulging with biceps, indicating that he was someone who worked out in the gym a lot.

“Good to see you too, Rachel. You live around here?”

“Ah, yes. I live a couple of houses down that way.” She pointed toward the direction I was coming from.

“Hmm, looks like you and I are next-door neighbours.” I replied, eyeing the boy beside her. I knew him from the novel. He played a major role in Rachel reaching her true potential.

Ryder Briar. The youngest grandchild of Rufus Briar, the #1 Hero, and the boy that was Cursed to die.