‘You think your kidney stones made of iron can beat my genderless arch-bishop?’ A green dolphin wearing a hat in the shape of a boat asked, the entire sky being purple with yellow clouds, the moon sporting sunglasses with an ever-screaming face of pain.

‘Think so? I know so!” A man with a wooden wheelchair for an arm yelled, cannons coming out of his mouth while his beard was a mass of tentacles.

A knight was between them, dancing with a spear in his chest, an arrow in his knee and blue fire coming out of the gaps in his helmet.

“FIGHT!” He yelled, dancing even faster.

An arch-bishop suddenly appeared, possessing no facial features in front of the dolphin while literal stones of multi-coloured iron appeared in front of the man with the wheelchair for an arm.

The two charged, the stones and the arch-bishop were about to meet and-

A falling sensation woke Ark from his sleep and interrupted his dream, lurching his stomach into his chest.

“Wait w-“

He hit the floor and groaned, the falling sensation definitely disrupted something and sent it into an area it shouldn’t be in.

“Wakey wakey, it’s 8 AM…” A familiar voice made his ears perk, making him look up to the person who had interrupted his sleep.

He saw his sister in her day clothes and met her narrowed eyes, her facial features were also in a scowl... He was in trouble…

“Oh, hey Armi, the usual?” He smirked innocently, the girl remaining silent and bringing out a small vial.

“Hm, let’s see, Acid Extract, how does that sound?” She replied with a murderous smile, closing her eyes and giving him a timeframe to fix his mistake.

He immediately got up and ripped his clothes off, running to the wardrobe to get his day clothes on.

His sister watched him struggle to get his clothes on and rush to the counter in a huff before he remembered he needed to open the sign which said closed…

Then he stopped, turned to her with a murderous glare.

“You adrenaline-inducing bitch…” She gave him an innocent smile at his name-calling.

“Oh me? I just got time a little mixed up...”

He stormed towards her, lifting her by her collar and staring into her soul.

“Had it not been for the laws of this land, I would’ve slaughtered you,”

Suddenly his status screen came up with a small ringing, displaying a tiny alarm clock.

[{Time to wake up}]

He dropped her and then went back to the wardrobe, stripping his clothes off and getting a towel, noticing she had already disappeared.

She had played a prank on him and then she left? Women were just as worse as him! And to trick someone then leave was his thing!

Ark shook his head with a huff and went to the hot springs, they had managed to build it into the small shop a while back when they finally got enough money to afford a luxury they both could agree on.

He was the older sibling by two years but Armi was the more sensible one, yet they both had black hair and were afflicted by Heterochromia Iridium, a condition that made the eyes two separate colours.

Armi had a green left eye with a red right while Ark had the opposite, red left and green right.

Armi had long black hair that flowed down her back, her brother did the same during his teenage years but tied it up into a bun during the ending of those, then he just made sure his hair was short after that, cutting off the bun and just letting it curl at a few ends.

The kingdom Unitos, where they lived, was a capital of the entire continent, a leading figure out of all the 7 continents and their respective kingdoms.

The world had magic, dungeons and lots of RPG elements to it, including summoned heroes that would defeat the demon lord who to speak, was literally shredding through a neighbouring kingdom’s cities, that didn’t concern the two though….

6:05 AM

Armi was standing at the edge, about to dip her toes in until Ark rocketed past her and discarded his towel, cannonballing in.

The female alchemist facepalmed and shook her head.

“I guess this is my karma for playing that prank on him... It was worth it though...”

Her brother was floating face-up in the water with a smug grin of accomplishment, full view while she simply sank in, enjoying the feel of the water against her skin, at least she had this benefit.

“Hey Armi, what’s your opinion on the heroes?” He asked, floating around aimlessly.

This perked her interest; Ark was usually a type of guy who had no opinion on politics or regional matters, instead preferring to make fun of said politicians… Yeah... She was thankful mother taught her how to handle immature brats like him.

Making bubbles with her mouth as she thought, her mind concluded on an answer she thought was reasonable.

“I’d say they’re a group working quite hard to fulfil their duties,” She replied, moving up slightly to allow her voice to reach her sibling’s ears.

Ark hummed as well, closing his eyes until Armi’s movements of getting out of the hot springs a few minutes later disturbed his train of thought.

“Why do we call this place the hot spring? Shouldn’t it be the giant bath?” He was met with no answer.

6:30 AM

Ark was sitting at the table, eating strips of bacon and a large amount of egg while Armi had a scrambled egg with a few vegetables and a side of bacon.

“Hmm, I wonder how dad’s doing…” Ark said out of nowhere, finishing his bacon with grease on his plate.

Armi wasn’t surprised, they would argue most mornings, chill out in the springs before taking an hour to set everything up and make sure it was all ready before the store was opened.

Arguments were resolved with a game of rock, paper, scissors while the victor would be allowed to do what they argued about, so long as it didn’t disturb the other.

She was about to finish her plate until Ark randomly snapped his fingers and looked like he had the greatest breakthrough in the entirety of human history.

“THAT’S IT! MY NEW POTION SHOULD BE A GENDER SWAP POTION!”

Never before did her hand move so fast towards his face and send him flying across the room.

“How did you even manage to convince Mother and Father that you were ready to leave home…?” She sighed, finishing her plate and walking past a dazed Ark who was crawling back to the table with a huge red hand mark on his face.

7:00 AM

Ark was busy stacking shelves and accounting the items, he was serious when it came to alchemy and his shop. Other things were when he could let loose and be an ass, but alchemy was where he drew his line. His very thin line.

Despite this behaviour, he was surprisingly good at accounting items and how many new ingredients they would need to order.

“Hey Armi, we need seven more pairs of Troll Spleen, the plant and not the organ!” He notified, a few seconds later he received a “Got it!” and moved onto the next potion set.

The shop they ran was small and was barely able to exist in the capital city due to the various other alchemy shops, but it worked, unlike many of Ark’s prototype potions he made in the back rooms.

They had to make that room fortified and magic resistant, though it was less of the explosions and more of the fact of lethally high mana concentration from so many effects being brewed inside the room, forcing the alchemist to build a magic resisting forcefield potion to continue concocting.

If you want to know what the lethality level of the mana would be equivalent to in our world, take radiation and remix it to give you a temporary power boost before inflicting you with a random set of debuffs before killing you, that’s what the magic in the room was like.

“Let’s see… Oh…” Ark quickly saw which potion had been sold out, a potion he secretly put up for sale which earned him a spot in each male adventurer’s books.

“Hey, sis… Put down Succubus Leaf, Oculus Eye and Fantasy Fruit as the bulk ingredients we need to order...”

He could hear the haunting sound of the clipboard being put onto the counter and the dreaded sound of footsteps coming towards him.

“Ark, Ark, Ark…” The tone in his sister’s voice was evidence he was going to get a beating if he couldn’t think up a good explanation.

Suddenly she appeared from behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, making him scream higher than the church’s choir.

She seemed to smell the fear coming off his body as her body appeared to morph out of the shadows behind him.

“Why ever would you need the exact ingredients for a Desire Potion?” Her voice held danger and death if he provided an answer that wasn’t reasonable.

Suddenly he calmed down, turned around and looked his sibling in the eye.

“Why do you know the ingredients to a Desire Potion? You’ve never memorized the ingredients of potions like that before so why know it now?”

“Because it’s to make sure my big brother doesn’t sneak potions under my nose when I’m not looking…” Her tone became even more murderous.

‘Hmm, let’s see what option we should take next, should we admit our fault or try and salvage something before our inevitable death?’ An Ark with red eyes asked another Ark with green eyes within a blank space in the alchemist’s mind.

‘I say we don’t do either and try to escape,’ The green-eyed Ark suggested while an Ark with blue eyes curled up in a corner.

‘We’re fucked...’

As his conscious argued between itself, the alchemist in question struggled to reply, trying to find a word to start the sentence and explanation.

“H-How a-about we g-go and check o-out the o-other shops… I’ll e-even p-pay for a-anything you w-want…” His voice was torn within itself and his conscious stopped entirely as he felt it inhale with bated breath.

Meanwhile with Armi, her conscious was starting to talk to itself about Ark’s offer.

‘Hmm, seems our brother has offered to bribe us with gifts the next time we go shopping in exchange for not getting what he deserves,’ An Armi with all green eyes hummed while another with all red eyes seemed to agree.

‘I say we should agree, his karma should take care of him anyway so it's just a benefit,’ A blue-eyed Armi voted, the rest of her conscious agreeing as well.

“Okay, I accept your bribe,” Her demeanour went from lethal to peaceful within an instant and her aura of murder vanished.

‘OH, THANK FUCK!’ Ark’s entire conscious screamed at once.

“Praise the divines...” Ark said under his breath, luckily his sister didn’t hear, and they could resume their task of making sure all potions were accounted for.

7:30 AM

Ark was randomly brewing a few potions before the shop opened, messing with spare ingredients and seeing what worked with what.

“Let’s see, five milligrams of Giant Essence with some Berserker Frost flower combined with a few Dryad’s Leaf should make a Power Augmentation potion of sorts… Oh well, let’s see how it goes!” The alchemist laughed, tossing a few multi-coloured leaves into the cauldron.

Said container instantly started to make a fizzing sound as the liquid inside it changed to a sparkly teal from its previous red, then the teal went back to a darker and more violent looking red.

“Here we go, let’s see what your buffs are!” Ark took a vial and scooped it through the cauldron with a gloved hand.

Immediately it’s status came up and he smile-frowned.

[{Item: Potion of Power Augmentation

Desc: A potion that is dark red, it suggests violence and power within it

Effect: The consumer’s strength and defence are increased by 2 for every 3 attribute points they have in Strength, during this time they buff up and gain aggro of every monster within a kilometre around them.

Duration: 5 Minutes}]

“Well, let’s try again, maybe with more berserker Frost flower and Giant Essence...”

He took a few notes on the mixture, some samples in the form of filled vials and looked at the goal he was trying to reach within his journal of alchemy.

[{Goal 37: To create a potion which heavily buffs the user with strength, agility and defence while possessing no repercussions or shortened time-span}]

Dryad’s leaf was common for extending the duration of potions but it also weakened the effects of said potion. Berserker Frost flower was a plant which grew in areas of powerful monsters and it amplified the effects of a potion’s strength but shortened the time-span, Giant Essence was the proteins taken from a giant’s body and it held the backbone of Ark’s potion.

Sprinkling a few more leaves into the cauldron with a little pour of a liquid, the potion went from red to pitch black, a few more seconds passed, and nothing happened. Eventually, he took another vial then scooped it through the container, checking its status.

[{Item: Berserker Giant’s Rage

Desc: A pitch-black potion which holds the power of a berserker giant at the full rage.

Effect: The consumer becomes enveloped in a rush of raw power and gains a 3x bonus to Strength, Agility and Defence while buffing up and gaining aggro of all monsters within 5 kilometres, the user also takes 30 points of HP every second.

Duration: 40 seconds}]

He sighed in defeat, this potion was extremely powerful but the problem lied within its extremely short time-span and self-harm effect, it didn’t help that if he tried to sell this potion it wouldn’t be touched due to the royal alchemist’s talents of producing the same potion but more advanced with no visible flaws.

Where does the aggro effect even come from?!

“Dammit, oh well… At least we have a potion which is close what I’m aiming for…” He then took a few samples from it before turning to his vials containing his previous concoction.

“Hmm, what if I…” He then poured the two potions together, carefully measuring how much was put in then he toned up the heat beneath the container and started to stir until it changed to a very, very dark crimson, it looked evil and wicked yet also radiated an aura of power.

The stick he was using the stir the potion was taken out and he noticed it had melted, the part that was in the liquid had deformed greatly but fortunately, it hadn’t contaminated the brew at all.

Taking a glass, the alchemist attempted to scoop out a sample but it quite literally shattered the glass within five seconds on being inside of it, forcing Ark to grab a stronger and more magic-resistant potion bottle, taking a scoop with no shattered glass or spilt potion on the floor.

[{Item: Vampire’s Menacing

Desc: A sinister potion that can temporarily allow one to reject their humanity and become vampiric.

Effect: The user throws away mortal coils and becomes a vampire gain 2x to all health effects including regeneration and HP capacity while also taking 1.5x less from all physical damage, during this time the user takes 3.5x more damage from holy attacks and will burn in the sun.

Duration: 10 minutes}]

“Ex-fucking-scuse me? HOW THE FUCK DID I CREATE A POTION THAT TURNS SOMEONE INTO A VAMPIRE?!” Ark screamed, still taking a few samples in his rage before he poured more of the augmentation potion in, every potion had a use after all.

The liquid went back to a lighter crimson as he scooped some out and stared at it.

[{Item: Stockpile Augmentation

Desc: A potion that allows one to buff up and stockpile power the more damage they take.

Effect: The consumer is enlarged with muscles and gains 1.5x to Strength and Defence, the more damage and pain the user takes, the more power they can stockpile before unleashing it all in a single devastating attack when the stockpiled power is released, the user loses the potion’s effect.

Duration: 3 minutes}]

“This… This is... Pretty decent for tanks and front-line fighters…” His tone suddenly went calm while looking at its possible uses for grinding and adventuring.

Ark gave a satisfied shrug, pat himself on the back and took many scoops from the cauldron’s liquid to put up on sale.

8:00 AM

The sign at the front of the small shop turned from a closed to an open as Armi swept a few dust piles to the wooden dustpan and then incinerated them along with the dustpan.

Then she used magic to restore and clean the dustpan, a way of honing her magic in the small shop.

“Ah, let there be customers!” Ark yelled, spreading his arms until a customer walked in and stared at him.

“Ah, welcome, browse the goods as much as you want,” Armi smiled, making the customer forget his encounter with her brother.

Needless to say, it was a usual day and people came it relatively slowly, many adventurers interested in buying the Stockpile Augmentation potion for their tanks inside the dungeons.

“Hmm, five silvers huh… Yeah, that seems reasonable for a potion which has this kind of effect,” An adventurer who looked like he picked the Scout class said, “Okay, I’d like two of these!”

Soon he purchased the potions and went on his way, exiting the shop while Armi ran the counter and Ark kept experimenting.

A few explosions would be occasionally heard with him walking out covered in sparkles and such, though he wouldn’t do that very often due to the customers not possessing magic-resistance on them.

Sometimes she and a handful of others in the shop would hear his string of cusses despite her best efforts, some mothers who brought their children with them covered their ears and gave her either venomous or pitying looks.

Eventually, around 12:00 AM he came out smiling and holding a potion which held red and green liquids inside of it, but the thing was that they didn’t mix, it was like oil and water but with the green on the right and the red on the left.

“Check it out Armi! I made the gender swap potion!” Her hand went straight to her face in an instant facepalm and she felt the entirety of her family history immediately disown her brother, save for their father.

Then the idiot drank the potion and well… Swapped gender.

Needless to say, Ark looked exactly like her but with a swapped eye colour and shorter hair.

Immediately he went and looked to the nearest mirror in their bathroom, admiring his body while his sister had an urge to outright kill him for what he had created.

Soon he came back and thankfully the effects were short as his shocking resemblance to her went up in a poof and his old self was back.

“That was interesting, you think if you drank it, you’d turn into me?” His question was answered with a small cry of agony from his sibling.

“Ark, you’re not a god, you’re not some immortal being or some overpowered entity, you’re a human so, please… For the sake of my sanity, please do something that at least resembles something normal in alchemy...” Her begs made him think for a bit.

“Let’s see… Oh, I know… I’ll create a potion which relaxes people!” This surprised her.

“That’s… Actually, really convenient...” Maybe she had a lot to learn about her brother, maybe he was human and sane.

“After I create a potion which can turn monsters in monster girls…” Her head slammed against the counter and she cried muffled tears of despair.

3:00 PM

Ark came through the door with a green slime under his arm, the monster wiggling and attacking him with no effect, she could see that he had a faint blue hue of a defence type potion on him.

“Time to see if I can make the dreams a reality,” His grin was one of determination, his sister’s expression was one of desperation at this point.

“Ark, please don’t…” Her tone pleaded in mercy.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine!” He smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up.

“I’m worrying for the slime, not you…” The slime suddenly stopped wiggling, as if registering the woman's words, then it tried to escape until the door closed behind it and she heard the maniac laughing of her brother.

3:30 PM

Ark came out with a grin of achievement, accomplishment and success.

“I did it!” He yelled, raising his arms to the sky, “I created a monster girl potion that works!”

All the male adventurers in the store immediately turned their heads towards him with interest, one even peeped around the shelves and a woman who was shopping dropped her coin in shock as Armi slammed her head against the counter and let out a muffled scream of pain.

Then, following Ark, was a small girl with bright long slime green hair and green eyes, the bangs of her hair hung low and fused with a slimy look to it, she seemed confused and scared.

“You… You did it…” An adventurer stared at her with awe.

“Of course, the potion does only last for about ten seconds though…”

Not even two seconds later the girl transformed back into the slime which took advantage of the moment and sped towards the door, escaping with a few adventurers chasing it.

“What ingredients do you use?” Another adventurer asked, he looked like a Brawler.

“That’s a secret,” Ark put his finger over his mouth and walked to the door, equipping his satchel full of potions and herbs, ‘I’m gonna go catch some more slimes okay? Okay!”

Then he closed the door and went into the world, his sister still screaming into the counter.

He ran through the city and straight to the monster area until a figure seemed to block his path ten meters in front of him, the figure wore a black overcoat with his collar up, black gloves with metal around the knuckles, black boots and a black undershirt.

One of his blue eyes were covered with white hair and he wore a large ripped red bandana around his neck and black one around his mouth, he had three girls around him.

On his back was a large berserker sword that had a red outline with a black body and bandages wrapped around its hilt with a black scythe that just held an aura of darkness and power.

The figure was one of the heroes their kingdom had summoned, a Berserker, and he was staring right at the alchemist.

“God the amount of edge in your outfit and weapons, the amount of edge in you in general… I can’t even speak about how much edge I’m feeling radiate from you over here, it’s like your name is edge itself,” Ark said, feeling his gut tighten at the edge he saw in front of him, “And a harem as well? Geez, you really are fitting well into this role of yours... Just from looking at you I might get cut from how goddamn edgy you are,"

The hero suddenly appeared in front of the alchemist who screamed in response, and the sound of a fist meeting face could be heard with the potion maker flying backwards into the ground. Kicking up some dust on the floor.

His cheek was bruised, it hurt to talk, and the hero turned around, simply walking away like nothing happened while the alchemist made sure none of the potions he brought were broken or smashed. He wasn’t like the hero or any of those overpowered dudes, he had a limited amount of bag space and didn’t possess any sort of inter-dimensional magic to protect his alchemical stuff.

This whole experience deterred him from making any more monster girls and he got up, walking away while holding a hand over his injury, scolding himself for not bringing any healing potions with him. At least with those, he could hopefully have recovered his wound.

He’d have to sneak past his sister and drink a potion while she wasn’t looking, he was no thief of the thieves’ guild so his sneaking past would have to be casual while also maintaining a good cover of the bruise on his cheek.

Though the battle was instantaneous, and albeit very short, he felt like his entire life flashed before his eyes, most of it was for some reason, him screaming at random entities and a dude who reflected attacks with a vortex…. Maybe he took more than just cheek damage…

[{HP (189/200)}]

[Status: Mute]

His menu screen was very useful, though everyone in this world could access their menus with status cards, he had a trait that allowed him to view his status at any time he wanted to.

[Trait: Analyzer]

[Desc: Allows one to appraise and get specified details on any item as long as they have a high enough level, allows for the viewing of a menu without a status card]

Traits were like a bonus or a talent, everyone got one when they were born, and they could give serious or minor buffs like being ten times stronger than someone your age to simply being able to discern any flower species.

They were usually random, but they could be combined with a right mix should two traits be compatible, though most traits were minor boosts.

His Analyzer trait did have limits. It said any item, so he couldn’t appraise a person or their level (except for that time where could literally ignore this limit), and he had to be a high enough level to appraise an item (except for that time where he could literally ignore this limit).

Most items were ‘open’, meaning anyone could view their description, his trait picked apart these details, showed how they were made and essentially what made them, it was powerful but to him, it was only good for stealing potion recipes… Not like he would even do that since he wanted his potions to be crafted by his mind alone, none of that copycat nonsense.

3:40 PM

Armi nursed her brother’s wound, she instantly knew something was up when he didn’t come back with a slime and acted too calm about it while also covering up his cheek by going around. Honestly, she was like a second mother to him.

Dabbing some ointment on his cheek to soothe the swelling, she placed a bandage on it and sat back to admire her work.

“Can’t I just drink a potion?” She shook her head at his words, closing her eyes.

“The best way to recover is slowly and steadily, let your body do the work while you sell and make potions,” She reasoned, “As mother would say, let nature handle what it creates,”

“Eh… Sounds too sweet, and you know that I don’t like things that are too sweet,” Ark mused, his right eye closing to show his red left.

“Why did you close your eye?” Her question made him frown, his left-hand itching to grab a healing potion.

“Why are you ambidextrous?” His question made her raise a brow, was he going to argue to her on why she should be left-handed like him?

“Ark I-“

“What in our gene pool caused you to be ambidextrous? Actually, I could make a potion for that! A potion which makes you able to use both arms! Oh, Ark, you’ve done it again!” Said alchemist made a smug pose.

“Oh, that reminds me, while you were out, I looked through your notes,” His body froze in horror as her tone went to a level of serious, he hadn’t seen in ages.

‘No, she couldn’t have…’

“And I noticed a particular potion,” Her eyes seemed to glow in warning, “That allows someone to temporarily become vampiric…”

‘SHIT! I FORGOT TO HIDE THOSE SAMPLES!’

Ark’s eyes were trembling with the rest of his body, his pupils were small, and he was slightly sweaty.

“You know what happens if the inspector discovers this?” She was now in complete control of the situation, her brother started to nod.

“W-we get shut down….” He was extremely nervous; his sister mainly took after mother, but she also gained the combined wrath of both sides as well as instincts that worked every time. Her intuition was flawless.

“We get more than shut down, we’ll be tied and burned at the stake and our corpses disposed of, you know how strict the church is with us already, if they find this then we’ll really be in deep shit,”

She crossed her arms and stared at him.

“I’m not angry, I’m disappointed,”

Ark felt the gods pity him for a brief moment as he met her eyes and saw nothing but the ocean of disappointment.

“You want me to dispose of it?” She nodded.

“Don’t chuck it out either, dispose of it properly, then we’ll talk,”

He sighed and went to the back room; he could hear the sound of her steps as she went back to the counter to serve another customer, but he could also hear silent tears.

He went to his cauldron room, full of potions and notes, he opened one of the crates in the corner named Samples #6 and took out the vials containing the vampiric potion.

[{Item: Vampire’s Menacing

Desc: A sinister potion that can temporarily allow one to reject their humanity and become vampiric.

Effect: The user throws away mortal coils and becomes a vampire gain 2x to all health effects including regeneration and HP capacity while also taking 1.5x less from all physical damage, during this time the user takes 3.5x more damage from holy attacks and will burn in the sun.

Duration: 10 minutes}]

He frowned at it, it had gone so wrong with just a few adjustments, and yet he had created what could possibly be the most heretical potion any alchemist could make.

“I hope you burn in hell,” He hissed to the potion, taking all the vials.

Potion disposal was extremely dangerous if an amateur tried it, you’d think one could just simply dump it on the floor but no, many learned their lesson when a mutated fusion of a peasant and a man attacked several years ago due to the mass dumping of potions that lost their prime effect.

He wreaked havoc until he was captured by the royal guard, he was then sent to the death sentence until they realised that weapons couldn’t actually kill him, so then he was simply banished to the depths of the dungeon located in the east side of the kingdom, away from the castle.

Maximum security in a dungeon was very depriving, only meals every few days to keep the prisoners weak, mana restriction arrays and only the occasional candlelight. Those who went there were only the most powerful enemies of the kingdom or the most horrific people to exist... It’d be his new home if the potion was discovered.

Taking the vials, Ark made his way to the outer edges of the kingdom, looking at a vial with some sense of determination.

He was walking by a channel filled with rushing water as kids played around, seeing them smile happily while playing and jumping over each other.

Suddenly a child kicked him in the shins, and he dropped a vial, the item bouncing onto the ground and into the channel, being washed away by the current.

The child laughed and ran off, the alchemist resisting the urge to grab the little shit and throw him into the channel as well.

“Son of a bitch...” He hissed, though in his mind he knew it could have gone worse, the vial could’ve broken, and affected the water…

He silently prayed before resuming his walk to the disposal, not seeing an eerie crimson spot appearing in the rushing water…

4:15 PM

The waste disposal wasn’t a huge factory or anything advanced in machinery like the ancient steampunks who were said to have created a machine that could make immortality had built.

It was a simple yet large building located into the city walls that had a large hole in the floor that everyone simply poured their potions into, the liquid inside the hole destroyed any magical substance that came into contact with it, that being said, the containers would be chucked back up by the liquid as long as they weren't too magical.

He entered the building and held the remaining vials to his chest, a few others were there as well.

Some were casually dumping loads of expired potions into it, he saw one of the elite alchemists simply not caring at all the glass he was wasting, glass was reasonably priced after all…

He sighed and without a second glance, chucked all of the vials into the hole, waiting a bit before the vials came back up and he caught them all, walking back to his home, hopefully, his sister wasn’t going to beat his ass.

A few minutes in, he began to notice problems and concerned faces of those who walked by, then when he reached a scene, he saw the problem.

The body of a child, the very same child that had kicked him in the shins was laying in the dirt, but parts of his body were skeletons with the flesh and muscle gone, the bones appeared cracked and deathly pale.

The entire left half of his face was fleshless with dust beside his skull, his eyes were bloodshot and red while his right arm, from the elbow down, was raised and fleshless, dust beside that one as well.

His face was one of fear, horror and despair, only his pants remained as his entire shirt seemed ripped and torn, though his ribs on both sides were visible, dust near them too.

The boy’s mouth had no lips and only cracked teeth, looking old and battered as a single feature caught Ark’s eye, one that confirmed the worst of his fears.

The boy’s mouth had two, flesh piercing teeth, the dust was the flesh that used to be on his body but crumbled against the sun… He was a vampire….

The alchemist remembered how the boy had kicked him and made him drop the potion into the channel, that very same boy had probably drunk the contaminated water and had his karma had been given to him… It made Ark feel uncomfortable…

The boy’s mother was crying as the guards stopped her from hugging the corpse, many different people appeared to be analysing the corpse, one, in particular, was a young woman in a dark blue overcoat with a leather strap across her chest diagonally, holding several potions in it. Her overcoat split at her waist and above her heart was an emblem showing a fizzing potion with a diamond in it…. The royal alchemist Atra Regimont.

She had blue eyes, black sleek hair and a beautiful yet calm face, she scanned the body with a spell. It’s magic array slowly turning as she looked over the body, calm as ever as she kneeled.

“So… Someone contaminated the water…”

She stood up and looked at the crowd.

[{Trait: Alchemy}]

Atra trait of alchemy was famous, she could transmute iron into gold and stone into diamonds, she could also form how the minerals appeared, enabling her to always create unbreakable shields on the spot or the sharpest swords from a wall, hell, she could transmute her tools into other things.

She was the main reason the kingdom had as much power as it did, infinite amounts of metal that should be rare in other kingdoms were common in this one because of her, the alchemist, however, didn’t transmute ore very often.

Despite her ability and many people wanting to abuse it, she was very skilled in fighting and could easily turn flesh into iron to cause an anatomy breakdown or could freeze your leg in place by making it pure steel.

She glanced at Ark who rose a brow, the royal alchemist confronting the store alchemist.

“So… If it isn’t Armageddon Andrason,” Atra mused, crossing her arms, “I expect that you here for the same reason as me?”

“Can it and then crush it, Reggie Monta, I’m just coming back after disposing of some failing potion…” The store alchemist replied, “How're the kids? I’ve still got a chance for custody you know,”

The royal alchemist’s expression faltered for a second then she sighed.

“I know you’re behind this somehow, you always make trouble for everyone in some way,” Atra eyed him, “You’re a troublemaker and will always be a troublemaker,”

The lesser rank alchemist smirked; it was a fact that around ten years ago he had a crush on her, and she denied him, ever since then, however, he made jokes about them being together.

“I’m especially a good troublemaker in bed,” He replied with an even bigger smile.

He was met with a slap from her hand, her unamused face said it all as he was sent to the left side of her vision with the second slap mark of the day… And on his cheek as well.

Ark resisted the urge to let a single tear fall as he kneeled on the ground, both hands keeping him up as he clenched his jaw.

“Three months ago you caused a massive mana influx that almost broke apart the city’s defence array, before that, five months ago, you made a potion which allowed one to clones oneself for a short period, that recipe was luckily found before you could sell it,” Atra listed off mentally, “Another month earlier, you spilled a potion that mutated cells to an unmeasurable degree, claiming that you were making a ‘Superhuman Potion’,”

She eyed him with hate as he slowly got up, still clutching his cheek with a whimper.

“I wouldn’t put it past you to have done something to this child,” Her words made him inhale through his teeth.

“How would I manage to even make a potion which turns people into vampires?”

She immediately moved her sleeve forwards while flicking her wrist and a long, thin yet sharp length of Adamantium came out, the end narrowly at his neck as his brain suddenly processed what he just said.

“Who said it was a potion?” His now blank face was secretly holding in an urge to scream as the question was put onto him, then he gained an idea, an idea that would either clear him entirely or put him in jail…

“Well, my dear…” He disregarded the blade and dusted his clothes, “I naturally said it was a potion due to how every single one of my mistakes are caused by potions, it could be something else entirely though, another vampire for ex-“

The blade was at his throat again and he could feel her killing instinct on his back, but he remained calm once he realized this was his previous crush, actually he tried to stop a silent laugh from escaping his lips.

“A vampire hasn’t been seen here for centuries, why would one pop up now?” Her gaze was trying to see his sins or worse, his entire history.

“I dunno, I’m not a vampire,” He shrugged, momentarily forgetting he was in a deep hole of death.

Atra seemed to give him one final check before she restored the blade to her sleeve, Ark could see it wrap around her wrist, it was enchanted…

She then grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the corpse.

“Atra? What are you-“

He was chucked out in front of the crowd with the body, arms forward and an expression of confusion, he looked at the royal alchemist who answered.

“You’re our equivalent of a walking disaster with all of your unique potions, surely you can tell what happened here right? Or are you admitting to not wanting to help solve the murder of a poor child?” He immediately saw Atra’s plan and inwardly smirked.

She was putting him on the case because she believed he could solve it, as one alchemist to another, he would find a plausible explanation and prove her right…

Meanwhile, in the royal alchemist’s mind, she was internally smiling.

‘Thank the gods he’s going to be occupied with this, I’d have to destroy an entire mountain if I were to put up with another second of his stupidity, though its this very same stupidity that’s kept him alive which will now keep him to this task for a good month or two… I should get that swimsuit and go on a vacation; Opal Beach is quite good around this time of year...’

She watched Ark kneel and examine the corpse, she saw him speak a few words but couldn’t interpret what he said.

“Find something?” She mused, she saw the lesser rank alchemist’s expression go from reasonable to silent with a near-scared face, and that’s what made her drop her casual demeanour, out of all the people she knew, Ark was the most fearless and the most stupid. If he found something that made him shut up and pull on a scared face, it was extremely important.

“You said a vampire hasn’t been seen in centuries?” She saw him stand up, pointing to two small holes in the boy’s neck, “Then why are there two, small teeth holes in his neck?”

She followed his finger and saw, in the corpse’s neck, two holes.

Two holes that were the exact shape as a vampire's teeth…

She suddenly felt cold. Very, very cold….

4:45 PM

Ark was casually writing in his potion journal; he did a good job on secretly making two holes in the corpse’s neck without anyone noticing, hopefully, he could get out of this predicament alive.

His sister was still running the counter, she could swap places with him and his experiments, but the main reason they got customers was because of their oddities and unique potions, especially the new hair dye potion… That wasn’t even a potion…. Just dye….

His current potion was stored in a bottle, it was orange and fizzy and glowed like jelly, but the main kicker was the arrow wrapping around from the bottom to the top, he was very proud of this mix.

[{Item: Scene Rewind Potion

Desc: Replay events in an area up to a month to watch a crime scene or just relive a happy memory

Effect: Once told the date and time of the scene, the liquids inside the bottle with replay all events from that date onwards until the bottle was smashed, stop events by saying stop and resume them by saying resume, you cannot rewind more than twice with a single potion.

Duration: N/A}]

This was a good concoction to help the royal guard, plus it might even get him hired into a spot where he could talk to Atra more, maybe he’d be a royal alchemist right beside her, there was a male and female position, after all, it’s just that nobody qualified high enough to be in the male position.

Each generation class had a royal male and female position, usually intended to make them work together, bond over time and eventually create a child that held the talent they did. Though some male and female positions in Blacksmithing, Enchanting and Scribing had blood relatives working together.

The male position, either by sexism or just because it was made that way, had a higher bar of qualification for those hoping to get the position, but there was a catch with being a royal generation class.

You had to show progress after each month or else you’d be placed under a warning, failure to show anything after that would get you kicked out with a new position opening.

The last male alchemist was kicked out after failing to show any sort of progress, apparently, he was so used to living the lush life that he forgot he needed to work for it, then when the time rolled around, he was overweight and forgot how to even do basic mana boiling.

Atra, however, held her position even before the two came to the city, making him a laughingstock as he flirted with her and she rejected him, but he knew she enjoyed his company…. Maybe…

The orange potion’s bottle case took a few tens of minutes of work, his glass sculpting skills were also handy in making vials and bottles.

“Now, let’s test you out, twentieth of Meyfall, four-forty five in the afternoon,” He chucked the potion where he was standing previously and the bottle smashed open, but the glass was swept into the orange liquid as it formed another Ark who examined the potion a few minutes ago.

He stared at the potion while he wrote in his potion generated journal with a potion generated pen, it was exactly two minutes ago….

“Rewind,” The duplicate suddenly started to replay its actions.

“Slow down,” The speed of the rewind was halved.

“Speed up,” Its speed was doubled.

“Pause,” The rewind was paused.

“Fast forwards,” The duplicate resumed its actions of writing in a journal.

“Speed up,” Its speed doubled again.

The alchemist smirked, this potion was a massive success and could solve any crime they came across, but the potion he would use on the corpse would instead play a shadowy figure that bit into the boy’s neck.

His plan was so genius and dark that it felt like he was an antagonist of some sort, the bad guy of a book or a play. This gave him another idea, an idea that made him internally cringe but if utilized correctly, could hopefully burn up lots of time that he didn’t feel like spending on his potions.

“Let’s see, that Berserker was quite the edge lord, kinda reminds me of home, but if I can harness that edge…”

Ark had a lot of oddities about him, even more on why he would create potions that could simply alter one’s favourite flavour of ice cream to entirely shifting the strength of their immune system.

“So, a bit of that!” He poured some of his Power Augmentation potion into the cauldron as he carefully kept it at a certain temperature.

“And some of this!” He gently put in a diced stalk from a Mississippi Flower, carefully cut pieces poured into the cauldron and it fizzed into a dark blue ocean colour.

He followed it up with a potion of courage, pouring the entire potion in.

“So, the flower removes feelings of empathy while the potion of courage gives courage, now, let’s see here…” He took a piece of his hair out and dropped it into the cauldron, it rapidly broke apart and he smirked as it turned into a yellow colour.

[{Item: Potion of Arrogance

Desc: The user will gain extreme arrogance combined with a drastic strength boost and a lack of empathy for those weaker than them

Effect: You will have your arrogance increased tenfold while your strength is increased threefold, does not work for LVL 50 and above, you will also gain a slight amount of knowledge of alchemy and will lose the emotion of empathy

Duration: 10 minutes}]

“Huh, nerf that I guess,” Ark casually said, taking a chug of the potion while looking away. He needed to write this down as he tested it, multitasking was a must.

He didn’t feel any different. Except for the fact he no longer cared about the kid who died, in fact, it was kinda hilarious.

“Damn this potion is quite the stuff!” He looked at the bottle while chucking to himself.

He was holding water…...

5:00 PM

Armi was smiling as she skipped along the path, it was well carved as Unitos had the best builders of in all the land plus Atra, her brother begrudgingly followed with a scowl on his face.

‘Well, it’s better than dying,’ The Ark with red eyes sighed.

‘Is it? Last I checked those who died were resting peacefully!’ The Ark with green eyes screamed at his red-eyed counterpart.

‘I’m hungry…’ The blue-eyed Ark said in the corner, still hunched over and hiding from the other two.

“I bet our sister’s conscious is probably partying…’ The green-eyed Ark hissed.

He was right.

‘Hell yeah! Twenty years of threatening our brother into buying us stuff!’ The Armi with red eyes gave her green- and blue-eyed counterparts a high five.

They all celebrated and danced.

‘I bet Ark’s conscious is screaming right now!’ The Armi with green eyes laughed.

The female alchemist indeed had a hop in her step while her brother followed, a potion of Power Augmentation in his pocket just in case.

“I’m just so happy!” Yeah… She was rubbing it in.

“God… If you exist here then please, give me some enjoyment at this moment…” Her brother said, holding a straight face while a tear slid down his left eye.

“No way! Atra!” His sister suddenly rushed forwards, not out of enjoyment but as if she was determined to greet her.

You see, Armi and Atra were very good friends, but with Ark in the picture, that friendship was tedious, thus they talked when he wasn’t around… And his sister knew that he was in a very bad mood and that it would affect her in a way, so when she saw her friend, she immediately ran towards her.

Atra, however, did not share the same thought.

One look at Ark and she was ready to leave the area or simply level it with her magic, she didn’t care if her friend wanted her, she didn’t want to be around Ark and that was final.

Quickly pulling up a dome with earth magic and refining it into Adamantium, she sighed before laughing to herself.

‘Heh, that was clo-‘

A sound of punching was heard echoing in the dome, lighting up the darkness with a light spell, she saw that dents were being made with each punch… Adamantium was supposed to be indestructible right?

One the tenth punch, a fist came through the dome and she screamed before it retracted, and two hands started to hold the side of a hole.

“Atra~” Armi sang as the royal alchemist was flooded with fear, the hole being torn open as the bane of existence’s sister stepped in, half the dome was now open.

Adamantium was a grey-ish teal with small sparkles in it, it added some sort of messed up psychological image to her as she stood in the light with a smile of death on her face.

“Ark and I are going to buy some things and go for a walk, would you like to join us~?”

For once, for once and only once, Atra held close to Ark’s side as they walked to the shopping quarter, shivering in pure fear as her friend hummed and skipped in front of them.

She swore she heard Ark ‘thanking God’ for her generosity’, weren’t there multiple gods? And wasn’t the highest god a guy?

She was confused but nonetheless knew that Ark was the safest place right now, especially considering that Adamantium was now officially breakable, the strongest ore known to man was broken by a woman with the will of a fucking divine entity.

“So Atra… how're our kids? Still missing their father?” She felt like she aged twenty years because of that.

“Ark, I’m not married to you and we never had kids,”

“Hi, not married to you and we never had kids, I’m Ark!”

That fateful day her will broke.

5: 10 PM

They were in the shopping or market quarter: Armi looking at everything with a calculating glance, Ark consuming unholy amounts of free sample foods and Atra simply browsing the goods they had on offer, though as a royal member she got a hefty discount of 45% on all items.

It was useful and she did enjoy it but eventually, you get to a point where it's just annoying, especially when one of the stalls seemed poor.

“As a royal member, I command you take this,” She was very close to exploding as the seller refused to take the money.

“I’m sorry, but as a lower-class merchant, I am not allowed to accept your generosity,” The merchant refused to budge.

Suddenly a commotion was caused at another stall and people left their own to see what was happening, peering over counters and such.

“Ark! What did Armi and I say about causing trouble!” Atra yelled while turning around to face the scene.

“Oh, screw off!” Ark yelled from her left, holding about ten samples, 70% of them were savoury, “I didn’t do shit!”

The royal alchemist raised a finger to respond but couldn’t find the words until the seller talking to her seemed to disappear, giving her an open window.

He kept the money in a strongbox in his counter, so she simply used a spell to open an arm-sized hole to the strongbox, transmute a rock into a diamond and open anotehr hole in the strongbox before placing the diamond inside, hopefully nobody saw her.

Satisfied as it repaired itself and showed no signs of alteration, Atra looked up to see Ark giving her a raised brow look.

“I see that you like to help poor people, something that I have yet to discover,” He smirked, holding out a small parfait, “Want one?”

She shrugged and took it, it's chocolate and vanilla flavour melting and spreading around in her mouth, it was delicious, and she saw that he had more, but she would lay off, her self-training gave very few excuses for sweets despite her status.

“So...? How was it?” She knew his game to try and win her over, so she’d best him at it.

“Eh, it was average,”

Ark, however, didn’t play any game, in exchange for a box of parfait, a very expensive treat for his sister, he had to advertise them to the royal alchemist and a few other royal members.

“Ah…. I see...” She could see a small amount of pity, not for himself or her, but for the person who gave it to him before he shrugged, “Eh, I did my thing, not my problem anymore,”

Armi was walking through, calculating and browsing until something caught her eye, a book, a massive book that was ten inches thick, and the title made her mouth water.

[{The Enchanting and Magical Arts by R. Desnum}]

“ARK!” She screamed, making several people jump, “I found my item!”

The alchemist in question came literal gliding down the road with a blank look on his face, holding the free samples in a wrap bag with a small block of ice under his stomach.

He soon stopped at Armi’s feet.

“They had a free sample of large non-melting ice cubes,” He explained, looking up.

“Okay,” She didn’t question it as her brother got up and looked at the book’s price.

“Ten? This seems a bit…. Actually nah, its fine,” He changed his mind as he paid for the book and his sister hefted it out of its display.

“She must be a good reader with a high intelligence stat then?” The seller asked, his hood obscuring his face.

“I dunno, she never let me check her stats, and when I do, she slaps me before I can register it,” Ark replied, “I wonder why?”

The walk back was eventful, Atra left as the guards found a poor merchant with a diamond in his strongbox, having to explain and clarify things.

The ice cube store was shut down and anyone caught with an ice cube would either have to destroy it or return it to them as they were a safety hazard.

It was quite a day for Ark and he was happy to get home, all he needed was a good night’s rest.

8:00 PM

The two sat in silence as Armi read her book and her brother sipped some tea, scanning on how it was made.

“Huh, it’s a lot like the one I used to drink,” He said to himself, his sister paid no attention.

Ark was a strange child from birth, possessing knowledge he shouldn’t have even known at his age. When he was two, he successfully made a potion that caused one to regenerate their mana faster, adding that he also sometimes referenced things like he was comparing it to another counterpart, but they had never gone anywhere and they most certainly didn’t have different brews of tea and such.

It was mysterious he also seemed to make strange remarks and… Unique habits…

She remembered how he just pulled up a middle finger at those who annoyed him, confusing everyone, sure they could technically call him mentally challenged but that wasn’t it.

But she had a theory, that her brother may be like the heroes, though not summoned here as an adult or a teenager but rather reincarnated, there were many through history like this. The man who wrote her book was one for goodness sake!

His tactics were strange but sometimes they were extremely useful. For example, many years back in school when she was a teen and would get bullied by a kid who was obsessed with her, he was brash and didn’t seem to like her with other people so one day when she was studying, he cornered her and threatened her.

She obviously screamed for help and somehow her brother found her, but instead of talking it out or using his fists like he usually would do, he did a T-pose and went silent, he then walked forwards and stopped right in his face, an aggressive one looking at a blank one.

A few mocks and swears were given to Ark but he didn’t stop T-posing, soon her prosecutor was holed up in a corner as her brother stood over him, saying three little words before her bully passed out.

“Get. Fucked. Nerd.”

She never forgot it.

Eyeing him, she could see the way he looked at the teacup nostalgically, a small smile forming at the edges of his mouth.

“Aight, imma head out,” He finished the tea in one swift gulp and got up, “Thanks for the tea sis,”

She nodded and he walked out to wash the dishes and take a bath.

9:00 PM

The alchemist was tucked into his bed after closing up shop and taking a nice refreshing bath, he was going to resume his dream and maybe even achieve his life dream, Atra would be proud with her smile, waving as the wind flowed and made his ice cube… Ah, shit the ice cube…

He got up and looked at his pants across the room, sighing in disappointment as he got to work.

In the next room, in complete darkness, Armi had to listen to the sound of wet slapping being muffled by the wall.

She missed the second to last month of every year where he wouldn’t do this… Actually, he would force himself not to do it and instead do other things.

She knew he had made a few songs, some paintings and loved to play the piano, it was one love of his loves she agreed with. He was very good with the piano and made a song on it called 3:45, she didn’t know what it meant but from his expression, it was something he valued deeply. Looking back, he had an appreciation that most people had for music and she was thankful for it.

Sighing, she rolled over and closed her eyes, though the sound put some weird images into her mind, eventually after many attempts to tune it out, she got up and went to his room, pulling open the door to reveal…... Ark in tracks… Slapping a pair of very damp pants.

“Oh, hey Armi, the non-melting ice frosted my pants and that frost melted creating wet pants, you know how I can’t use any spells right? Can you help me get the frost out?”

His build was a bit muscular but not very toned and she saw the desperation in his eyes, this was why she told him to always get spare pants and stop being an idiot.

“Fine Ark,” He smiled as she raised a finger and a small flame came out, “But you owe me again,”