John, Niera and now Addy found themselves approaching the Icarus in her private docking bay.

A new hostess was now in the hanger, replacing the previous who had left for Captain Rak. She was no less inferior in any way to the one before her.

"Welcome back," stated the new hostess with a charming smile towards John.

"Thank you, if would please get me paperwork for sales I'd like to fill them out."

"Certainly. What would you be selling?"

"Medicinal."

"One moment then."

The hostess pulled down one of her long silk gloves revealing an intricate pattern of markings.

Pressing her other hand's finger, still covered in a glove, she pressed down on various areas across her arm. As a result, part of the markings on her arm began to glow a dirty yellow.

Placing her palm flat, light began drifting above it before a roll of paper held in place by a metal clasp appeared with a blue flash of light. It was a summon and as soon as it was executed, all the light on her arm stopped glowing.

The hostess rolled her glove back up and brought the sheet to John.

"As requested."

"Thank you," John replied, not at all surprised by her methods and already heading to enter the ship with Niera and Addy following.

Getting on the ship he made his way to the alchemy lab, most of what he would be selling was there.

John opened a cabinet acting as a storage unit beside the desk. It was taller than him though not as wide and full of alchemy products.

Pulling out the boxes stacked inside, he brought them to the ship's edge and fetched more.

Some of the items he brought forth came from the ship's bellow though as he opened boxes to inventory them, did not seem as impressive.

It was strange however that everything was glowing and Niera, getting curious looked over John's shoulder to read the list he was making on the sheet.

On it was every high end potion, stimulant, and antidote she had ever heard of then some more. What made her nearly faint though was the reason for the glows.

The items were all concentrated versions of themselves. For an example, a bottle of God's blood, a healing potion, was intended to be diluted in a ratio of 1:500 to make 500 God's blood potions. The effect wouldn't lessen, there would just be more. One bottle could be placed in liquid carriers for individuals traveling behind or deep within enemy lines where healing supplies were near impossible to come by. At that point the advantages were self-explanatory.

John continued to move more boxes and Niera did offer to help but as she didn't know what was where or what, he could only politely refuse. Addy on the other hand just squatted and watched, making no moves to help in the slightest. She was content with only watching John move back and forth, back and forth, her cat eyes gluing themselves to wherever he went.

When he was done bringing them out, there was at least 30 boxes stacked at the side of the ship. Then he started opening them, going through each one, double checking the boxes so that they actually had what they were supposed to. It also gave him the opportunity to tally the sale amount to which Niera got another shock.

3.8 million gold... She checked again to see if she was mistaken about a zero and saw it change to 4.2 then 4.6 as more items were added in.

Niera as a shadowmaiden did have a salary but she knew her own life savings amounted to no more than 2.5 million. She was in a prestigious position after all with considerable responsibilities. The princess trusted no one more then her and the kingdom saw value in that while also realizing that Niera having her own income could fund necessary resources like spies, workers, or diplomats for the sake of the kingdom on her own accord, not that any of that did her good here and now.

But it was becoming chump change in comparison to John's sales order that was now 5.1 and holding. His final numbers in a single sale order more than doubled her life savings.

She had a word for how she was feeling, unfair.

John placed his thumb on the sheet and channeled in his mana, preventing any forgeries in the future.

Jumping down he waved the hostess over who gracefully attended him soon after.

"Have you filled out the paper?"

"Yes, I've filled out the required areas. The end result was 51001109. Take the 1109 for as a tip for the service and round it to 5.1 million."

That was too much for a tip so it was more of a required bribe. Had John not offered the gold there may have been trouble with the hostess. She was more than capable of causing unneeded trouble and usually would if not considered. John could get Rak involved for the sake of justice but that was more likely to backfire with his personality.

"Yes, understood. For such a large order, we can't immediately give you this much gold. Would you be seeking other arrangements?"

"Yes, please invest 5 million in the dark wing alchemy association via the order, if it's done through the contract, the organization's leader will recognize the mana signature."

"That leaves 100000, this is still too much to withdraw. I can offer you 50000 and something equivalent perhaps?"

"Please do, if you could provide an archer's bow imprint intended for alchemy. It would suffice for the other half."

"Yes, I can do this though something like that wouldn't cost nearly that much."

"Please, take the request to Avalon's bow maker. I believe it will take that much for him to make his best immediately, we would like to depart soon."

"I understand"

The hostess waved a hand and the items were taken away by nearby porters.

In moments she was gone completely, stepping into a teleport array that took her somewhere unknown. It would presumably be the logistics center of the ship but as John wasn't going himself, he didn't know.

Niera joined John in sitting over Icarus' edge, watching people carefully move the crates somewhere else.

"What's the dark wing alchemy association?" Niera asked while Addy curled up on the deck and leaned against their backs to rest.

"Nothing much. A back up of sorts and a resource. They aren't very big but will assist me in any endeavor should I supply them with my mana signature."

"Why invest so much though?"

"A few reasons I suppose. Mostly it's because I can and if I'm to invest in anything, I would want it to be related to alchemy. There’s also that there is little benefit to gold for me at this point. A small amount may acquire me trinkets in my journey but overall, items of note that interest me are not bought with gold. For those you must barter with other priceless items."

"I don't think I could even imagine what those might be."

"The adamantine metal would be one. It's not something you can buy with gold and the world seed even more so. Let alone the top grade world tree material and Leafy inside you. Those are simply too dangerous to trade and would only be found through chance.

"Is that so. Were you serious about making me a bow with that material? Hearing you talk about it makes me think it's too much."

"I'll stand by my words Niera so don't give it too much thought. You were a part of that expedition and should share a part of the spoils. I would of faced the choice of abandoning an innocent spirit to a fate of fear or despair had you not given her a way out."

Niera went silent.

"Leafy says it was fear and despair, that there was never an 'or'... Sorry. She's usually sleeping now but got loud over your comment."

John looked at Niera straight in the eye, "either way it turned out didn't it Leafy?"

"Sorry, she isn't responding and is pretending to be asleep."

John chuckled, "it's fine."

The hostess returned, with a jingling bag in one hand and a roll of blue paper distorting the space around it. When one looked at it there seemed to be more the one, the hostess' hand and paper had multiplied to form identical, slight transparent, overlapping images. It was if time was trying to split into separate routes around the paper.

"As requested sir, 50000 gold and a mana print. Fortunately the bow maker had a 'masterpiece,' in his words, already prepared but did not have any buyers for it. He stated it was worth the 50000 and 'if it was too much to visit him like a normal person,' which were his exact words again."

John took the coin and slipped it into his soul realm then took the print for examination.

His mouth nearly dropped looking at the design. Who in their right mind would make this? But because of that feeling John really wanted to see it made. It might kill him but since it didn't kill the designer making the print, there was a chance he could see it through.

The Avalon bow maker had classified it as a space-time rift forming oblivion bow but John could think of another, simpler name. He would call it Heaven's bow.

Niera looked at the print and was perplexed, her bow experience should of given her some understanding as to the nature of the bow but could only see it simply as a strange bow. Niera couldn't read the description while the print was over lapping itself like that, something John could.

John returned his attention to the hostess once more and properly thanked her with words and a slight bow. She returned it with a graceful curtsy of her own that could melt ice at the sight of it.

"Would there be anything else?"

"That is all thank you."

"Then I wish you farewell, may your journey take you where you want to go without harm or injury."

"Thank you and goodbye."

John followed Niera onto the ship.

"Icarus, take us out."