"I'm not doing this to make profit anymore, anyway. My main goal is to advance my alchemical skills. Actually, I haven't given it any thought until Luo Yun brought up an empty shop. But the more I think about it, the more this makes sense. However, I won't only sell healing potions and the such. Even though its not to make a profit, I still need the money to pay back Luo Yun and Kyoko when I inevitably borrow gold from them."

"Oh, and how is it making more sense to you? And this isn't me disagreeing. I do I agree that there is a large market available for you."

"Well, for starters, sure, there are many priests and priestess that offer their services for free, but they aren't convenient in a city as large as Osetia. There are only like what—six temples in total? Maybe seven or eight? I don't know the exact number, but there are what, almost a million people living here? And let's say on the high end, each temple had twenty priests and priestess that were willing to spend all day and night to heal people if they had infinite divine anima, which they obviously don't, its still not even a significant fraction of the population. Thus, selling affordable health potions helps everyone. I hire Phisvaelte to lead the store, or if she prefers continue collecting herbs."

"Solid reasoning, but did you even think about what if she refuses your offer?"

"Uh...well, that thought had not crossed my mind. But, her refusal wouldn't affect my plans. I'll just have to hire someone else. In fact, no matter if she agrees or disagrees, I'll still need to hire several people. And boom, would you look at that? All of a sudden, I'm now helping both the injured and future injured people, but also giving people jobs."

"I don't know how you twisted this so you have the moral superiority in this position, but at the end of it all, I'm just glad you aren't giving up alchemy."

"Justifying my position so I have the moral high ground makes me feel better, but the truth is that I don't really care too much if I do or not. After all, just like Kuzax said—there is no right or wrong. Just what you know and what you don't."

"I have no idea who Kuzax is, and I don't know why, but I have a feeling you'll be repeating that phrase a lot."

"No way. It makes me sound so pretentious. And Kuzax is the author of this." Aleister pulled out the spellbook from his bag and waved it around. "And speaking of pretentious, he created a spell and named it after himself. Imagine the gall. Although, I can't even begin thinking about how much time and effort went into such a thing, so once I do, I probably wouldn't be surprised why he named it after himself."

"I imagine the difficulty would be similar to creating your own alchemical recipes," Syn said. "So much of what I even think of has already been done, even if its not the most effective or resourceful way, that most of the time, you wouldn't even bother to create your own. But, the more you think about it, the recipes didn't come from nowhere. Some alchemist out there, whether they're dead or alive, had to spend countless days, weeks, years of their life researching, observing, testing various ingredients, and understanding alkemical anima before that potion of ever came into existence. Just like the restoration and healing potions you want to create. I bet it didn't even cross your mind if I knew how to create them in general, let alone ones you could craft right now."

Once again, Aleister was at a loss for words. "You're right, I honestly just assumed since you're an alchemical genius, that you had the recipe for most things I could think of."

"You're right, I do, but one day, I won't. And then what will you do?"

"Enter Kuthbay's Atheneum obviously*."*

"Obviously? You don't even know how to enter it."

"In my defense, it's only obvious because you do have that information and can tell me at any time."

"I could, but will I?"

"Well, I can't force you, but are you going to refuse?"

"No."

"Problem solved. Although..." Aleister sighed and scratched his neck. "This actually does bring up another problem."

"The person who gave you that bag and hide away the Athenaeum energy on you."

"Oh, he did that? That makes sense. It didn't even cross my mind until now, but that's right. I should have felt its presence when I became a Weaver, according to the two of you. Can I still access it?"

"Yes, its just hidden. However, I'm not even going to bother teaching you the process of how to unhid it because you don't have any use for it."

"That would be summoning the black bookmark, yes? What does it do for me?"

"It keeps a record of your progress through the levels of the Atheneum. It's entirely useless for you outside until you reach the one-hundredth floor."

"And I haven't even made any progress through it."

"I won't even tell you how to access it until you reach Rank Three."

"Rank Three? Is it really that dangerous?"

"Obviously. I shouldn't tell you about it until Rank Five. But, its too useful of a place to access, so I'm making this exception. If I'm being entirely honest, I might not even have mentioned it until you reached that rank, but since you already accessed it, I can't hide its existence from you."

"That has me thinking, though. First, I'll ask this—I know you've entered Kuthbay's Atheneum on numerous occasions before we formed our contract, so, how far have you gotten?"

"There are multiple reasons for this question, yes? The biggest being how strong I was or am. Which is a fair question."

"I don't know why you made it sound so nefarious, but essentially yes. I'm trying to gain a better understanding of its difficulty."

"Before we formed the contract, I was at around Rank Three in power. And—" Syn raised her voice, cutting off Aleister before he even got the chance to open his mouth. "Before you start asking even more questions, let me finish. The black bookmark tracks the progress I have made and gives you limited access to all the floors previous to it. Through some divine magic, the bookmark tracked even tracked my progress before whatever happened that forced me to become a contractor. Which is floor seventy-five. With my previous strength of being about rank three, that would only have let me clear up to floor twenty-five."

Aleister nodded. "Alright, that about answers that. Although, how strong do you think you were before, or would need to have been to reach floor seventy-five? I want to think about as ten ranks per floor, but I have a feeling that won't be the case."

"When it comes to the quartered floors, it's less about strength. In fact, it's not really about strength at all in the library. It's about your knowledge and how you can apply it. You'll learn that some classes are weaker than others at combat, but excel in other places. After all, how strong you are isn't all there is to the world."

"I think I understand what you're saying, but it would be great if you tell me more."

"I can't tell you too much, because, I don't remember all the details and you'll probably forget when this information become relevant, but—when you numerically go up a floor number, you aren't fighting the phantoms directly most of the time. Instead, the Atheneum will tailor its own challenges based on your personal strengths, but usually they are irrelevant until those quarterly floors. Once at them you can't just brute force your way through."

"So, how much strength would need to brute force your way that high?"

"Depending on the class, Rank Seven is a safe bet, with it being possible at Rank Six if your class is very orientated towards combat, such as the dwarven lady you fought against."

"Not as high as I thought."

"Says the Rank One Initial Step Weaver."

"Yes, but I meant that I know of a few people at that level of strength, like Aunt Lavinia and Aunt Emi. And probably my father and mother too, but I'm not entirely sure of how much power they have recovered. I thought you were going to say like Rank One Hundred."

"Stop dreaming about being that strong and start working towards it. Right now, all of this was basically a waste. We've hung around here for almost twenty minutes talking about stuff that's completely irrelevant. "

"Uh, that's because I got distracted from the actual annoyance at hand. I'm a Weaver now, so I need to talk to that gangly man."

"Ignore him until you understand you get a better grip on your powers. Preferably, just ignore him until you reach Rank Two. Going out and searching for a treasure sounds like shifty business at best."

"And at worst."

"A death sentence."

"That's what I figured."

"Now that we've finished that talk..." Syn folded her fingers in and out. "Bring over your alchemy book. I need to see if you need to go out and purchase any additional ingredients."