Chapter 10: To forge a body as strong as a rock

Ssyba killed the two gnomes and immediately pounced on their corpses, grabbing and heaving them away from the road like two woolen dolls with her enormous strength. She quickly searched their bodies and found the green tokens that she was looking for. Thin and long of about an index finger, roughly rectangle shaped with a pretty metallic luster on the face. They were carried unpretentiously on a token ring and covered with a blue sash decorated with golden stars.

Humans often employed and used beasts and non-humans for menial and arduous tasks, it was nothing unusual. Was a horse not carrying the rider? Was an aurochs not used for burden? In the same sphere did vraja potion brewers use gnomes as familiars and laboratory assistants because it was a gnome's nature to be studious and diligent. They were sincere creatures and had nimble thoughts, one could quickly see their worth.

Once she learned about tokens and that whole other dimension of commerce opened to her, Ssyba promptly reviewed her position and reconsidered her actions. She would honor Fagan's deal because he was her brother but beyond that, betraying him wouldn't benefit her in the slightest. Her main source of income would be the simple targets filling the streets of Yasha'Lafiq: gnomes, gremlins, who carried tokens and ingredients or even potions.

Naturally tokens were useless for the lower castes and non-humans so those who had them on their person weren't in any danger walking the streets. However, to Ssyba, they represented steps towards power!

In one of the gnome's satchels, there were potions arranged with inscriptions and symbols attached to them. One was a prism-like vial with a blue and orange liquid in it. The orange was misting like clouds against the blue sky-like background. It was a grade one homing firebird vraja potion, quite weak in direct firepower but strong as an alternative unpredictable form of long range attack. The user could breathe out and summon a small firebird who locked onto their target. These birds were agile and fast and once they reached the end of their flight path, they detonated in a blast of flames. Long range attacks like these have always been useful throughout history, and breath attacks even more so because a combatant could use it if he was incapacitated or had their limbs bound. It was for this reason the fire or frost breath vraja potions were so high in demand. The simplicity of use simply filtered them and allowed them to float near the top of the list.

Ssyba was however not interested and quickly pocketed the homing firebird vraja potion. There was another squished cylinder vial with a darker, silvery liquid in it. This was the grade one metal belly vraja potion. Its reaction reinforced the user's belly and lower abdomen area with a thin metal plate, increasing their defense and resistance to attacks. It was quite useful and tough to crack or penetrate by conventional means. If someone used this potion and would be punched in the gut, to the attacker it would feel like hitting a metal plate armor piece. The only downside to this grade one potion was that the user became quite rigid.

In the satchel there was another vraja potion, in a small round bottle the size of an egg. This one was a grade two right eye polearm gaze vraja potion. Once activated, the right eye of the user would gain a formless attacking power. It could direct an invisible crash into the direction of their eye contact, having an effective range of a few meters. If clear spring mana quality was used, the attack would feel like a hefty punch at around three meters. With Ssyba's white cloud mana quality, it would feel more like a war sledgehammer swing effective at over fifteen meters. The only downside was, once used, the right eye would suffer consequences and could even go temporarily blind, depending on the strain put on it.

The fourth vraja potion was carried in a pocket by the other gnome and he even had some green tokens on the side, proving that it was a recent acquisition. The liquid was dark purple and thin like water, there was no inscription and no symbology attached to the vial yet, awaiting identification. Ssyba took this potion and surmised that she will have to have it identified sometime tomorrow, after she had sold her gains.

Other than these four vraja potions, both gnomes had materials and ingredients in their satchels, meticulously arranged and inscribed by use. Among all these ingredients, Ssyba even recognized the saint's tongue leaves used for healing potions. A while ago, her former master Tisila brewed these species of leaves to create a grade four healing vraja potion, which reminded Ssyba that she also needed to learn how to brew potions by herself. It was the sensible course of action because she couldn't rely on chance and plundering forever. Someone might look into the deaths of her victims and though she might clean up the scene of the attack, the rush was bound to leave behind areas of neglect. Although the hunts weren't as consequential due to the nature of her victims, their human masters might lament the senseless loss and investigate them as victims of murder or crimes against non-humans. If that was the case, the chance of getting caught was sure to increase with each victim.

The risk that Ssyba took tonight was born out of need and curiosity and she would have to take further safety measures from now on. If others would do this, they would feel guilt and not think their actions through, but not nanza-cats. They battled and killed for the slightest things, they were fine with death for gains and weren't kind beasts at all.

"Going beyond the animal kingdom and pulling myself out of the mud of the world, how could there be no price in blood to pay? Next I'll have to hunt down for profits but isn't that the true essence of being a nanza? I may have a soul, but my flesh is apex predator flesh."

Ssyba raised her paws and unsheathed her claws for her to ponder upon.

"My claws are nanza claws and I use them, my bones are nanza bones, even now, with the additional strength added into my being, I feel the tension pulling at my bones and tendons. I am still a nanza through and through. Ran thought I hated killing and I do, except when it's necessary. I hate senseless killing but does a lion hate his prey? For me, all of Yasha'Lafiq are now my prey."

Ssyba started laughing heartily with a brilliant blaze burning in her eyes and heart. There was complete confidence and control over her situation as she became more familiar with her needs and expectations.

***

A battle ended, between a gremlin commando group and a band of corsairs who loaded cargo on their black-sailed catboat, with the intention of sailing down Na-jid to east, to Ya'Sira. Out of over thirty-five gremlins and more than a dozen armed and armored corsairs, only eight gremlins remained, all wild-eyed with braided hair and tattoos or piercings. Right by the boat, the haul was basically untouched, the corsairs had the idea of smuggling those goods out of Yasha'Lafiq by night.

"This was too easy," said the largest gremlin, obviously their leader, feeling extremely pleased with the results of this battle.

He was a candidate for the position of sayadao, he had amazing leading and fighting capabilities even among other commando leaders and he had criss-crossed many outstanding victories on his belt. Losing more than half of his commando group was not a big price to pay for those materials and jewels that the corsairs nearly escaped with. The Mother will see that he'll get more troops soon, if he continues to deliver.

His luck was also great. If he recruited capable and disciplined brothers and would lead them to victories, the advantages would snowball and they would result in more advantages, better gear and stronger brothers from more eminent strains, an easier time to pick battles and maybe even the aid of a sayadao.

"This time I was lucky, but I can not get complacent and let my heart and mind be clouded due to victory. I must set my jaw and look straight ahead, Mother willing."

The leader thought about it for some time, before collecting his concerns. He ordered his seven remaining brothers to gather the loot, stack it all together and even their booty out at the base. Hearing that death won't be casting dice with them today, they scrambled to plunder the corpses, the catboat and crack open the haul. There were many interesting items inside the chest, including elemental crystals, vraja potions, empty vials for brewing, banakir ink and the corresponding yori paper used to inscribe potions, various brewing materials and money, obviously. Hard cash, no tokens.

Intent on their scavenging, the gremlins didn't see the unfamiliar nanza-cat approaching menacingly. With claws unsheathed and propelled forward by her enhanced musculature, she dashed towards the biggest, largest gremlin first, the leader. She swung out with her claws and before anyone could react, they passed straight through his face like a set of razor knives through cheese, sending the gremlin flying into a limp sprawl of blood and slobber, his face crested open like a sliced watermelon.

The others rallied instantly, but Ssyba was mad and unstoppable. Her strength shattered the gremlins like pottery, she cut through them with ease until her claws cracked and broke, her kicks twisted and crushed bone, she slammed them on the pavement and ripped her way to stillness, going beyond even her own body until the tendons attaching her left pectoral muscle to the arm tore apart and her right tibia snapped like a twig. When none of the gremlins were left, Ssyba dropped on all fours, wincing in pain and exhausted of all but a primal need to live.

Far back in her thundering mind there was a mad constantly narrowing whisper, tormenting her with a persistent cadence:

"I thought you hated killing."

***

Ssyba was in a brutal state, dazed and aching all over her body due to the intensity of strains upon her anatomy. The nanza-cat physique was simply not constructed to be naturally brawny and robust. They were quick, light on their paws and bursty.

She limped and crawled on all fours like an abused animal on the dusty streets, her mind blank and baffled at the absurdity she felt welling up within herself. She tried to remember where she was going and pushed on with perseverance through the smoky sunrise glow.

Down at the far end of the street, the early vendors and traders rumbled towards the port and the warehouses. Ssyba limped into the familiar large, elevated warehouse with three entrances and glanced about for Murza.

"You again?"

The man's eyes widened with surprise and shock at her broken and ragged form.

"The River-god, who'd you run into?"

Ssyba shook her head and opened her bright eyes to look into Murza's. She readied a green token and said:

"I have some merchandise and I want some help to move it."

Murza's displeased figure immediately mellowed and faded into agreement, nodding as he studied her for a bit. Ssyba's clarity of mind and demeanor was more terrifying to him than actually seeing a howling beast instead. It is said that the eyes are mirrors of the soul, and as Murza stared at her with a narrow gaze, he couldn’t help but think that he glanced into something vast and deep and disturbing.

Murza was not a complicated man but the circumstances of his life had been so arranged as to drown him in trouble. Those troubles would never allow him to deny tokens. He appeared to be in his late forties, with brown hair streaked with gray, a hard face used to frowns and hardships.

"Your badau is not here today. But what has happened to you?"

Ssyba snorted. She could barely handle her stuff with all the broken claws, bruises and swellings on her body, her left paw was all but immobile due to the severe injury and her limp was critical. But after the last night's raiding, she had gained four saleable potions in need of appraising, various materials valued at around forty-five to fifty-five green tokens, eight elemental crystals, forty-nine green tokens in addition to the other fifteen that she already had (out of which one she converted into cash for food, right after she paid Murza what was previously owned), one additional yellow token, as well as some hard cash.

"Just help me move my stuff," said Ssyba, taking out another green token.

"Alright, deal. See that woman there? Talk to her and if she asks, say that Murza sent you. She should be able to look over your stuff if she isn't busy."

Ssyba was already clear in her heart about how this business is conducted and after waiting for a good enough moment to arrive, she took a deep breath in, ignoring the sharp stab under her ribs, and limped with confidence and determination at the woman.

"The first token is to secure their attention, the second is for obtaining information, the third…" repeated Ssyba under her pained breath.

The woman was slender and tall, a white colored belt hanging loosely around her waist. Against her tanned skin and black clothes, it was a fashionable contrast and she looked beautiful and rich.

"What is it?" she lashed with hardened eyes.

Ssyba nearly flinched but she recovered her composure. She took out three green tokens right from the start and stacked them at the woman's feet.

"I want to do some business in my master's place."

The woman's demeanor remained hard as granite. Those that came to the port looking for trade were all vraja potion users or those serving masters and experts, with tokens to spare. An animal or non-human, they did not simply come to take a look, and those poorer individuals and common menial workers would get an eye-opening experience into the true value of vraja potions, satisfying their curiosity. Most humans who did real business were well off or had families or patrons secretly backing them.

Thus, this woman had some expectations towards Ssyba's trading power, otherwise she would have kicked the stray away.

"Let me look around first," said the woman, not expecting Ssyba to own any potions anyway. Who in their right mind trusted animals to carry such expensive items?

Ssyba obliged and showed her the first velum, a smaller one full of materials. She had looted all of these from the gnomes, discarded their satchels and corpses straight into Na-jid before going after the gremlins. The velum was black and soft, with owl eye motifs embroidered on it.

"Hmph, beggarly stray," the woman immediately thought. People worth talking to carried their materials in satchels or had others carry them, so who was this poor nanza-cat wrapping all these materials into a velum? Only the destitute did this.

"I have assessed the contents of this velum and I'm only willing to pay about fifteen green tokens for them all. The only saving grace was the elemental crystal."

"You mean this? I have others like this one," said Ssyba and pointed towards the light-red prismatic object.

The woman felt slightly perplexed, but shook her head not having any higher expectations of Ssyba’s merchandise. After all, a velum worth fifteen to twenty green tokens was meager pocket change.

"Let's see then," she said, sighing.

Ssyba revealed a small sack with seven other elemental crystals, three of which were the same light-red variety meaning they belonged to fire element

. One other crystal was round and golden in color, and the other two were icy-azure and star-shaped.

"Where do you have all of them?"

"My master gathered all of these items during one of his missions, though I know not from where. He had only sent me to sell them so I can purchase the right for a medical examination and treatment," said Ssyba with the same tone she had used when Tisila's mood darkened and she reached for the bamboo stick.

"About time someone hunted down those elemental spectral hounds even if they do it for profits, don't you agree?" laughed the woman.

Ssyba could only feign a smile, but an idea was already taking roots into her mind.

"These here are thirty-one green tokens in total, is that alright with you?" appraised the woman, her tone becoming sweeter and softer towards Ssyba.

But next Ssyba grabbed onto her other velum and opened it wide at the woman's feet. This next batch of merchandise stunned the woman and forced her to reconsider Ssyba's status on this market, as well as her trading power. Seeing this tattered nanza-cat, an undisguised look of revulsion crossed the woman's soft and round features, but now she was forced to readjust her attitude and bend to the new circumstances. This second velum was larger and had materials and ingredients totaling twenty-four green tokens, mostly due to the healing potion ingredients increasing the value of contents. Adding to the other two transactions, Ssyba earned a total of seventy green tokens!

The woman, feeling extremely surprised, could not help but mentally analyze Ssyba again.

"Who is your master, if I'm allowed to ask?"

"His name is lord Talamar. I work directly under him, but last night's mission rendered me incapacitated and he is not willing to invest in my recovery unless I manage to sell all of these. Healing costs."

Hearing this explanation, the woman's face softened in a lenient manner, but her eyes remained flinty and surprised. Ssyba smiled inside at the woman's conflicting emotions, which she couldn't even bother to hide. Ssyba had used Fagan's employer as the name of her lord, because it was the closest answer to the truth and she had learned a long ago that it was better to tell the truth in every reasonable situation, as to not forget yourself and get tangled in an ever growing mess of lies and invented narratives.

"This damn cat has a really good background for the Siege to personally get interested in her well-being. Otherwise, why would he give her this chance to redeem herself? How would she even get all these ingredients by herself, if not with someone backing her actions?"

Thinking of this, the woman's red lips curled into a friendly smile.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Ssyba."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Riyara. There are some high quality ingredients, as expected of the left-arm general of the first prince, lord Talamar himself," said the woman in a single breath while taking all the ingredients under her shadow and nonchalantly counting the green tokens for Ssyba.

"Halt," responded Ssyba, raising her right paw in Riyara's face. "This is exactly seventy green tokens. I'd rather you pay me ten yellow tokens instead."

"Sure," said Riyara through gritted teeth.

Could this cat be any more frustrating than this?

"Tsk, this ignorant cat got swindled out of tens of green tokens by me. I could read the despair and scamper for some profits ten steps ahead of even herself, but is trading so easy? If she tries to be cute with me, I'll make sure to burn her gains."

Riyara was a spiteful person and Ssyba could see the small-minded malice on this woman's face like a bright painting. Which is why she took the mysterious vraja potion out and asked:

"Can you review and estimate this vraja potion for me, lady Riyara?"

The woman's eyes shone brightly recognizing the potion to be a grade two spirit anchor vraja potion. It was virtually useless for anybody but those who took the engraving arts seriously. The spirit anchor potion was only one of many ingredients and steps required to create engraved objects, maimarandirs, sorcerous weapons, talismans and so on.

This time, she did not show any difference in her expression, but continued to smile beautifully like a flower, saying to Ssyba:

"Of course, this is a grade two spirit anchor vraja potion. Nobody except those who craft engraved weaponry would find any use for this potion. I'll relieve you of it for one hundred green tokens."

Ssyba's eyes widened. One hundred green tokens for a useless potion was an unexpected joy. However, Ssyba was also extremely careful and contemplative by nature, and instantly she had considered the possibility of fraud. This potion could really be as useless as Riyara claims, but those who engraved objects could be willing to pay much more for it.

"One hundred fifty," said Ssyba without even blinking, choosing to play a more conservative game and try not to gamble too much with her loot.

"Fool that you are, do you expect me to throw tokens into the water, waiting to see the ripples? One hundred twenty!"

Ssyba snorted internally. Since Riyara was willing to even increase her offer at all, it meant that the potion was in fact much more expensive than what was priced in the beginning.

"Lady, I can't go back to master lord Talamar empty handed. I won't ask for one hundred fifty green tokens, but one hundred forty-five sounds fairer."

Hearing this, Riyara's eyes shone with a new light. This Ssyba wasn't a complete idiot, she could comprehend the value of vraja potions, even if only intuitively, and was using the renown of her master to gain a better offer. In truth, the spirit anchor vraja potion could be sold for around two hundred and ten green tokens.

"Fair? You only relented by five tokens. Fine," grunted Riyara under her breath and crossed her arms in mock frustration. "Fine, fine, alright. One hundred forty, and this is the last price, my mood is already ruined. I can make do without it, but you can't!"

"You are magnanimous!" said Ssyba with renewed energy. "I'd like, if possible, for you to pay me in yellow tokens."

Riyara rolled her eyes and pretended to be properly annoyed as was expected of someone of her rank, but paid Ssyba twenty yellow tokens. However she already made a profit of almost one hundred green tokens in total, out of these few transactions alone. Ssyba was proving herself to be quite the gold mine. Riyara had to remind herself not to be too greedy because at the end of the day, it was not the nanza-cat who was haggling. Ssyba was just a branch of the tree, she simply represented her master lord Talamar in these transactions and if the lord felt that what was paid was unfair, he might investigate and trace the transaction back to her, and just as Riyara bullied Ssyba, Talamar might seek trouble and bully Riyara himself.

Next on the list was a dark silvery potion Ssyba presented as the grade one metal belly vraja potion. Riyara narrowed her sensual eyes in a questioning glint and stared long at Ssyba not because she doubted the merchandise, but because she saw a ripe opportunity. Her mind was a trader's mind and she saw things in opportunities, costs and investments.

"This is obviously the Siege's own potion, it's as clear as day to me. Metal belly vraja potion is only mildly useful for a regular person in very specific ways, but since he has the metal physique unbound power and is an expert, the metal belly potion increases his defense significantly while adding none of the drawbacks."

Through overthinking, Riyara conjectured that the Siege had sent his nanza-cat to sell his own potions because, unlikely as it were, either he lacked tokens or he decided to clean up his reserves and replace many of the old items with newer ones. Regardless of the truth, Ssyba would become a regular here in the warehouse and if Riyara was to get a business relationship going and establish herself as the main provider (of either tokens or materials), she would gain a fortune. This nanza-cat's status was rather unique, Riyara would have to tread cautiously from now on and not directly offend her.

"How much is this potion worth?" asked Ssyba.

"Have no fear, I will offer you a fair price for it. How about seventy-five green tokens?"

Ssyba raised her eyebrows slightly and looked at Riyara. The woman's expression changed drastically and her tone was friendlier, quickly waving her hands like an old sister.

Seeing Ssyba's reluctance to answer or agree to anything, or even forward her own demands, Riyara quickly added:

"This metal belly vraja potion is normally not as useful as it sounds. It adds a layer of metal over the user's abdomen but it feels like a suit of armor. You can't move in it except with difficulty and offers no further protection. It will be really hard to resell it to somebody who isn't researching the metal field of study."

"Ah, I see…" said Ssyba, comprehension dawning in her mind.

"I have a reputation to uphold, don't worry about not receiving what is asked of me," added Riyara with complicated emotions in her mind. She did not want to flatter and be all over Ssyba, but at the same time she did not want to lose the potential customer through some slight offense. She wanted to make gains out of their transactions but she did not want to exploit and swindle the nanza-cat out of too many tokens, and risk the Siege's wrath.

Some beads of sweat trickled softly down Riyara's beautiful, smooth face. Ssyba plainly looked at the metal belly potion. She had already decided to quickly sell all these gains and put her paws on a grade three healing potion at the minimum, but her exterior was extremely calm while Riyara grew more and more agitated.

"You have been too generous with me, lady Riyara," said Ssyba with a smile.

The transaction was swiftly completed and Ssyba once more asked to be paid in seven yellow tokens and five green tokens.

"Anything else, Ssyba?" asked Riyara, even mentioning Ssyba's name as a form of respect.

After the metal belly acquisition, Riyara gained at least twenty other green tokens in direct profits.

"It's this orange and blue potion, the inscription says homing firebird vraja potion, is that correct?"

"This one is interesting, long range attack types are always in high demand," said Riyara but her eyes glistened with life.

If it truly was the homing firebird vraja potion, then it was much more expensive as well as powerful than other regular attacks of the same category. Its creator was none other than lord Amehalas, an ancient great grandmaster of house Lightning Phoenix, way in the north. He was a legendary figure of the past. Speculation has it that he created an entirely new field of combat and it involved overwhelming the enemy with a multidisciplinary selection of elemental attacks in the form of homing birds. Because each bird was a compact elemental projectile crafted in such a way that it did not require intimate knowledge of said element before deploying it, an expert in this combat style could face just about any sort of situation and number of enemies and come out on top. And as the law of equilibrium demanded, such complexity, variety and sheer spectrum of attacks was exceptionally expensive to sustain. Nobody in the whole of Yasha'Lafiq had a comprehensive understanding and ownership of this discipline and its methods, but a select few went all out to attain it.

Riyara observed Ssyba and immediately knew that Ssyba had no idea what treasure she held in her paws.

"I will buy this potion because I am in a good mood today, little colleague Ssyba, but know that it is nothing special. Its firepower is less intense and sustainable than a fire breath potion of the same grade, and has less penetration power than something like an ice spear."

"So it's useless?" asked Ssyba.

"No vraja potion is ever useless, but some are obviously less impressive than others, especially in the lower grades. The equation between benefits and disadvantages is striking when we talk about grade one, two and three potions."

"How much can I expect to gain out of this one, then?"

"I can offer you ninety green tokens because I want to establish a good relationship between us," cooed Riyara with fake honesty in order to lure Ssyba in.

But right at that time, before Ssyba could agree to anything and fulfill the transaction, someone barged in front of Riyara and pointed at her contemptuously.

"Hold it, I am the one who shall be buying the homing firebird potion!"

It was Murza. Ssyba's intent came to a halt at once, and everyone's attention redirected on the three of them.

"Are you trying to swindle my protégé? I'll have you know that she has influential connections in the free warehouses of Yasha'Lafiq, including the badawin!"

Riyara's eyes widened and could barely contain her upset.

"Nanza, this woman is untrustworthy, she has tried to swindle you out of profits."

"Shut it! How dare you slander me?" interrupted Riyara quickly walking up to Murza. "Ninety green tokens is already a lot for this simple attack potion."

"Don't listen because she has no data on this type of potions aside from hearsay. This is a grade one homing firebird vraja potion, true, but my master's master is a true erudite in this field of combat. Her name is lord Taozaira of the lafiqi branch of house Lightning Phoenix!"

All the other people's animosity towards Riyara grew as they heard this detail, and those who already had lingering doubts about her turned unfriendly. Riyara had thought that an ignorant nanza-cat like Ssyba would be easy to deal with, easily persuaded with meagre pay and sweetened words, and would gain a fortune off her back. But to think that someone like Murza would pay close attention to their business and would rudely disturb them, such a predicament was unexpected and angering.

"Listen to me, nanza. I offer one hundred green tokens," announced Murza after some consideration.

Seeing as the onlookers were getting close to the boiling point, Riyara said:

"It's irrelevant to us how much you offer. If somebody is willing to pay a golden goblet for a single fig, does that make a single fig as valuable as a golden goblet? This is a free market and the prices are settled in between traders. Walk away before I call somebody to kick you out of the warehouse for seeking trouble!"

You live in the society, you follow the society's rules. Murza's futile exasperation was plain as day and visible on his face and he could no longer utter a word. Riyara paid him no more attention. With a single sentence, she had managed to silence Murza and soothe the crowd, so she turned back to Ssyba.

"My offer of ninety green tokens stands, but I am sorry for what has happened to you, so I will round up the sum and add another ten, totaling at one hundred green tokens! Now it matches that bastard's offer."

"It seems right and fair," said Ssyba nonchalantly.

A cold, murderous light flashed across Murza's eyes as he watched the transaction with hatred and regret in his eyes. The thing he hated the most was his utter bad luck and seeing these undeserved gains in the hands of slanted individuals.

"Maybe I should have offered the cat ten yellow tokens! That's all I have on myself but I could have further sold the potion for over five hundred green tokens! That's right, this cat is poor, there's no way she wouldn't have been moved by my offer when originally, the woman offered her ninety and was just about to complete the transaction. I am an incompetent, greedy fool, holding onto scraps!"

While Murza's heart was bleeding from losing such a golden opportunity, Riyara's heart was rushing madly. The homing firebird vraja potion was worth a hundred yellow tokens with the right customer and it was obvious to her that the man knew it. If he dared to offer significantly more and Ssyba felt moved, Riyara would then be forced to counter the offer herself. This could theoretically go on to reach unreasonable prices in the hundreds. Riyara took a risk and won greatly, and she had reinforced her win by adding another ten green tokens and paying the round sum of a hundred. But she could have so easily lost on this gamble and that had made her sweat profusely.

Life in this world was an unending battle, there was no such thing as a free meal and the strongest and most resolute wins over the meek and the indecisive. Today, Murza had learned that lesson.

***

Three hours later Ssyba limped out of the warehouse with a brand new token ring and sash, a new leather satchel for carrying materials and a fashionable potions belt with three potions on it. On the token ring, she had barely eighteen green tokens left, all hanging loosely and wrapped in her new beautiful azure sash embroidered with pink moon motifs.

"To think that my audacity has been rewarded so bountifully," said Ssyba snickering as she limped back to a secluded zone where she could cement her gains safely.

Even though Ssyba has calculated an initial estimation based entirely on Izzmahil’s info and her limited past experiences, after seeing so many tokens in her paws, everything was way out of her expectations. If it weren't for her injuries and the hasty need to buy a healing potion, Ssyba would have been many times richer.

"But the grade three healing potion nearly cost me everything I had left," said Ssyba.

She was enlightened. No wonder Tisila was so insistent in delivering her healing potion and did everything in her power and ability to brew the highest possible grade of vraja potion that she could. If a grade three nearly depleted all of Ssyba’s hard earned tokens through blood, pain and broken bones, how expensive was a grade four vraja potion? Even in this world, one could settle for life!

At this point, the grade three healing potion awaited glistening in Ssyba's paw. It was a red liquid in an emerald vial and Ssyba was painfully aware of its value. Health and one's life was the most important thing. Without a healthy mind and body, what could a person do? Thus, everyone who could afford always kept medicine and prepared healing methods for themselves, and healing vraja potions were the best for it. Instantaneous healing was a heavenly aid in times of crisis, without exception.

Ssyba's eyes glimmered with brilliant determination as she opened the vial and drank the grade three healing vraja potion.

Her body was in terrible condition. Not only was the tendon attaching her left pectoral muscle to the arm pulled clean off the bone, even her right tibia was cracked due to the powerful kicks. Because of the terrible strain put upon her body during the battle, many of her joints and muscles were bruised and inflamed. Her heart shuddered.

Ssyba opened her mystical gate and her white cloud mana uncontrollably rushed towards the reaction symbol like a magical mist being drained into a void hole. She felt a heart-piercing pain but did not make a sound although she wanted to scream. As the mana empowered the potion's reaction, her injuries received divine nourishment: the bones started to mend and the flesh and tendons grew rapidly and healed. This was only a grade three healing potion, it could not perform an unspoken miracle even with Ssyba's white cloud mana quality, but the most critical areas have been taken care of and healed. Some pain was still there and some surface-level flesh and skin wounds remained untouched, but within a few days they would close and heal on their own.

Such an injury would have taken out a regular nanza-cat indefinitely, leaving some serious side effects which could never be satisfactorily addressed. They would be abandoned as a weak link and left to the mercy of the streets. Such severely injured nanza-cats, even if they survived the initial injury, they'd be dead within a year or two.

"The living conditions of this world are ruthless and difficult," pondered Ssyba as she flexed her limbs with renewed vitality. "Many of us are forced to fend off against the demons stalking the night, and no place is considered truly safe."

Having said so, Ssyba grabbed the second potion out of her belt and heaved a deep sigh. This was the grade one rock density vraja potion, with the ability to increase the density and mass of one's body, including bones and tendons. It was a popular vraja potion among martial fighters, law enforcers and policemen and of course, menial workers due to its relatively cheap price of twelve yellow tokens and five green tokens. Even a menial worker could afford such a vraja potion after about a year and a half of working and saving.

Ssyba sat cross-legged on the pavement and opened the white glass vial. The liquid inside was also white and resembled milk, though it smelled like wet stones baking in the sun. It tasted salty and not very good, but she drank it all in a single mouthful. She then opened the mystical gate and allowed all of her remaining white cloud mana to rush towards and engulf the reaction.

Pain! An absurd and pulling pain probed at every extremity, every fleshy and bony part and every hole and opening of her body. It felt like her bones turned into hot iron and her musculature and soft organs were scalded in boiling oil. Ssyba's face distorted with pain and she could hold it in no longer. She screamed and soon, her whole body was trembling furiously though she felt paralyzed, unable to even move her jaw or open her eyes. Once it was over, she finally relaxed and a burst of itchy tiredness assaulted her mind, however she forcefully persevered and took a few deep breaths before standing up.

"It's over," said Ssyba.

Her voice was hoarse after screaming in pain, and she took a few moments to listen to her surroundings. The pain momentarily forced her into a weakened state despite being healed by the previous healing potion, so she had to assure herself that no cutthroats and curious onlookers were on their way following all the noise that she had made.

All of her investments had one clear purpose in mind, that was to improve upon and enhance her physicality. With the grade one strength potion and the grade one rock density potion, empowered by her white cloud mana, Ssyba was now as strong as a large human in peak athletic condition.

But why did she need the rock density potion though, losing all of her earned tokens?

One disadvantage of enhancing bodily strength was the durability of the body itself. Someone could gain the strength to carry a house on their back, but their bones and flesh would simply break and crumble under the pressure. General Talamar, known as the Siege, gained the durability of metal by drinking an unbound vraja potion and thus he could withstand tremendous pressure upon his body.

Ssyba had now solved that disadvantage, at least temporarily.

It cost her an impressive amount of tokens however. When added together, the healing potion, strength potion and density potion totaled a worker's wage over a period of four to five years. That was simply because the world was too dangerous and it was considered suicide to venture and cultivate power alone like Ssyba did, and the groups and societies intentionally kept their pawns restricted through the use of laws, rules and procedures. The systems in place did not allow any single individual to climb rapidly upwards, so as to not disturb the fragile stability of agreed-upon peace achieved through the toil of numbers. Anybody who tried to be a lone force would get rapidly pulled down by the numbers and the systems who forged the chains. Iriazel was proof that even the first princes, often thought to be the peak of ascension, did not exist above the chains of societal restrictions. Old prince Espadon was another one made to be an example: take a seat within the confines of the system and you'll live.

"Unless an individual's strength has reached the point where they can oppose an entire organization with all their systems and pawns at once, dreaming of true freedom is pointless."

Ssyba affirmed the truth that she needed to become even stronger yet, take even bigger risks and topple all challenges set against her.

She pondered long into the night as her paw mindlessly caressed her unsold grade two right eye polearm gaze vraja potion, firmly secured in the potions belt.

End of part 1