"A-anyways…" Jared speaks up after Cain's revelation silences the table. "Did you complete everything you needed to?"

Cain rests his elbow on the table, laying his forehead on his palm, using his thumb and middle finger to massage his temples. "...heck." I really need to fix this dumb short term memory.

Veronica leans forward in an attempt to see Cain's eyes. "Everything ok?" She asks in a concerned tone.

"Yeah…" Cain leans back while sighing. "Just forgot to ask the blacksmith something. The sun set not too long ago so I doubt he's still there." In fact, Cain just pinged the blacksmith's tag to find his location and discovered, based on the distance travelled, he left about 10 minutes ago.

—Dms: Dresil and Cain— (25ms)

Dresil: Master, couldn't you just contact Orirdrumlin using the magic circle?

Cain: Yep, and negatively affect our business relationship doing so. He clocked out not too long ago, so he would probably be frustrated if I contacted him regarding business.

Dresil: Oh… I thought this wasn't a business matter though?

Cain: It's not, but it is related to his profession and also requires brain power. What kind of crazy person would agree to work on such things during their time off?

Dresil: You would Master.

Cain: ...but I'm crazy, so it's ok. Anyways, can you remind me of stuff I forget to do bc of my dumb short term memory?

Dresil: Of course Master!

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—Cain's Speedy Thoughts— (3ms)

Cain: Oh? Looks like our drinks are coming, but with a twist.

Cain: Anyways, I can experiment with the beer to see if I can transmute matter into a different set of matter. Hopefully I can get some results, and mtn dew. I ordered beer since it should have the same color as mtn dew.

Cain: Looks like they're making their move now…

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Meanwhile, across the tavern of the guild…

"Boss?! You're finally awake!" the subordinate who carried Sig-gwon chirps. They are currently sitting 3 tables away from Cain and his party. Their position is ideal for intercepting the waitress and spiking the food or drinks.

"Urrghh… What the hell happened?" Sig-gwon asks while enduring a splitting headache. He lifts his head up to see his table full of goons, ready to receive their next order. "Did I lose the bet?" The group nods solemnly. Not daring to speak up in case they incur their boss' wrath.

"Fuck… Did you at least get the aphrodisiac prepared? We can't afford to mess up." Sig-gwon directs the question to the subordinate he sent back to the table early. The subordinate nods while pulling out a vial.

"Good, be sure to slip it in their drinks when we get the chance." Sig-gwon says while downing the beer in front of him. "Pwah… Order me some beer while you're at it." The subordinate immediately leaves for the waitress who is heading to Cain's table with drinks.

—Cain's Speedy Thoughts— (12ms)

Cain: Interesting… Another opportunity for some experiments.

Cain: I'll have to prevent the aphrodisiac from entering our glasses while also making the drop disappear from people's sight to not raise anyone's suspicion…

Cain: Hmm… A magic circle that absorbs all light in the back, with the front being a mirrored screen of the other side.

Cain: The former prevents anything from being seen inside and the mirrored projections from overlapping. The latter should disguise everything and make it seem like nothing is there…

Cain: Since the operation is being done in my mana zone, I can also experiment to what extent I can control and create magic circles in here.

Cain: When I was creating the spatial portal to deliver the fangs earlier today, my control decreased by factors of 100… thankfully when I focus it's at fractions of a millimeter, so with the decrease, my control had a tolerance of ±1 -2 centimeters…

Cain: Let's practice the method first, I can't afford to mess up... There's three layers to be added.

Cain: The first is the obstruction. Second is monitoring the views for changes. Third is projecting these views to the opposite side. A cube with six sets of these circles should be enough to disguise it

Cain: I wonder what would happen if I slipped it into a male's drink…

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Cain takes out the piece of grass he teleported from the hill near the forest from his "leather" pockets. This was probably the comfiest leather armor set in this world. After all, it's just Cain's pajamas disguised as leather armor.

Cain drops the piece of grass, which then hovers roughly 30 cm off the ground with the help of Cain's mana within the Mana Zone. He moves the grass up to his knee, and begins his work of concealment.

The grass is first forced to take the shape of a water drop, then 18 magic circles are deployed; 3 circles per side of the cube that surround the grass drop. As of this moment, the subordinate has just left the table and is headed to the waitress. So far, less than a minute has passed since Dresil dm'd Cain.

Cain moves the concealed grass drop out from under the table, and forces it to fly around his party's head. He observes their reactions intently. Veronica's eyes seem to be following something, only to lose it a second later.

"Do you guys see some weird black dots flying around?" She asks, puzzled by this phenomenon.

"Probably just some flies. Are you sure you aren't going blind due to old age?" Jared responded, glad he isn't next to Veronica. He believed he would be safe as long as he didn't sit next to her; only to be whacked in the face by stale bread.

The flabbergasted Jared looks at Veronica, whose face is slightly red. She occasionally glances at Cain, then immediately looks away when their eyes meet. "Where did this rock-er, bread come from?" He questions her sternly, wiping his face with a handkerchief.

He tosses the bread over his shoulder almost instantly. It seemed like a habitual movement based on smooth it was. Who know how much bread was wasted...

It hits a drunk adventurer on the head, causing some chaos. "Who the hell threw this, you wanna go?" the adventurer bellows. "Yeah sure, let's go! I'll throw food at you any day!" Another joins in. In seconds, a chaotic food fight has begun 7 tables away from the party. ...I need some popcorn. Cain thinks, admiring the beautiful sight.

"It was from last week's storage. I forgot to throw it away until now." She replies. *pffft* Cain attempts to hold in a small laugh. That was an unexpected, but smooth pun. A small smile creeps on Veronica's face. It is apparent that she is pleased her joke made Cain laugh.

At this moment, he checks his Mana Zone to find that the subordinate is a few steps away from the waitress, taking advantage of the sudden food fight to make his move.

—Cain's Speedy Thoughts— (35ms)

Cain: Looks like I need to hide the areas the magic circles can't cover from within the cube… Ah, right. I'll just convert this piece of grass to mana and disperse the magic circles.

Cain: Hm… using raw mana to conceal the gaps would do job, but it won't be efficient. It's worth the cost though if they aren't tipped off.

Cain: As for containing the drop of water… I can use what I did with the grass. A hexagonal net made from mana, with a thin film of mana filling in the hexagons.

Cain: Using the net without the film sustained the compressed grass and movement at around 1m/s. I think the max speed of a fly is… 2m/s? 2.2m/s?

Cain: I can't remember exactly… either way as long as I don't cross 1.5m/s it should be mistaken as a fly, if discovered.

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The subordinate walks up to the waitress and initiates a conversation. It appears he is hitting on her. While she is distracted, the subordinate takes out the vial and swiftly deposits the liquid into the drink. Once he is done, the waitress denies his advances, giving him an excuse to leave. It was timed so perfectly, it was obvious that he had experience doing this.

Unfortunately for the subordinate, right as the drops left the vial, they were caught by Cain's net made from mana. Within 10 milliseconds, the concealment magic circles were deployed as a few more magic circles were simultaneously developed. These extra magic circles displayed an illusion of the aphrodisiac falling into the beer and the ripples stemming from the drop point.

—Cain's Speedy Thoughts— (125ms)

Cain: Phew… that took much more concentration than I thought it would. It was more arduous than creating matter…

Cain: Perhaps it's because I tried doing all of that within such a short amount of time? I even noticed some mana being consumed in my brain.

Cain: Whenever I worked on my projects in the past, I would always require an immense amount of food to keep myself from starving, more so than a usual day's worth. Perhaps instead of the energy from food, mana was used?

Cain: But that would mean that the mana in my body has already been accepted as part of my body. Not to mention the subconscious and instinctive tasks involving mana that take time to develop…

Cain: Now that I think about it… When I adjusted my eyes and made fire in my palm, my mana behaved instinctively to protect me. I know my instincts are higher than an average person's… but isn't that too fast?

Cain: Is it similar to whenever I got sick, I would crave specific food, and after eating said food, I would no longer be sick or the symptoms would lessen?

Cain: Or when my neck is stiff and I need to pop it; I'll let my body move on its own and after performing a series of stretches and tapping some muscles to relieve tension, my neck pops and becomes less stiff.

Cain: Those two examples are a situational protective mechanism of sorts… If I remember right, it only took a few days until I was able to do it by habit or with the aid of my gut feeling.

Cain: But, no matter how I think about it, the time difference from when I was summoned to the first moment I used mana instinctively was too fast… even by my standards…

Cain: I need to investigate this later…

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After completing his task, the subordinate goes to the bar and orders some beer. He carries back three jugs and sets one down in front of his boss. Cain stealthily deposits the aphrodisiac while initiating a conversation with the party to prevent suspicion that he was doing something else from arising.

He knew that if the party found out someone attempted to drug one of them, they wouldn't let it go with just some compensation. One of their own was targeted and they would have been determined to fight to calm their rage, this was the impression Cain had of them: a protective group of friends who are more like family.

Thus, everything was done stealthily, and by doing so, a nice show would be performed. Cain had experimented on his Meal Ticket once again… With this, he shouldn't put up much of a fight anymore. He thought while clearing his throat to ask a question.

"How do you guys know what magic circle someone is at?" he asks, eyeing the waitress who is bringing some food and drinks over.

"We just perceive the mana fluctuations that leak from someone. Usually the wilder and less dense they are, the lower the circle. On the contrary, the more refined and denser they are, the higher the circle. Oh, can you just set those there and there." Victoria responds swiftly while directing the waitress at the end. The waitress informs her it'll be about 10 minutes until the rest of the food is prepared.

...Huh. The leakage seemed so inefficient I got annoyed and made all of it cycle through my mana circuit; along with the rest of my mana. Did I just accidentally conceal what magic circle I'm at? Nice…. Cain thinks to himself while gesturing to the party he won't be eating anything that's on the table right now. Those dishes wouldn't even last a minute against Cain.

As such, the party began digging in. Although Veronica was slightly hesitant, she eventually caved in. Victoria ate calmly while the boys ate like their life depended on it. After just witnessing how fast Cain eats, they thought that if they didn't eat everything right now, there would be nothing left for them later.

A few seconds before this batch of food arrived, Sig-gwon took a sip of the drugged beer…

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (96ms)

Cain: Rex, a good show is about to start.

Dresil:

Bob: Oh? What did you do this time?

Rex: Wait let me get to the camera…

Cain: You mean my eyes? :emoji sigh: Maybe I should create some cameras for you guys to see everything through.

Cain: @Bob in addition to the aphrodisiac, I changed all of the males Sig-gwon saw into females, and females to males. Then, I implanted a few indecent thoughts. They're probably incomplete though, it was my first time manipulating thoughts.

Bob: Sounds interesting.

Rex: Oooh, can we really get some cameras to hang around in your Mana Zone? We can't really perceive everything from your Mana Zone without looking through your memories of the moment.

Cain: I'll think about it… If you want it though, you'll have to come up with a way to notify me in real time who's observing and who isn't. I'll consider your ideas when we have our in depth talk at the inn.

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