I left Danio with some jewelry to pawn and figured he'd either run away with it and never come back or he'd see the good deal he had and stay. I wasn't sure when I'd be back, and the kid had to feed himself somehow.

After that, I stopped by the library in the central district. I hadn't realized it before, but it wasn't far from Caemor, and it shared the same almost gothic architecture as the Royal Palace and the academy, which made them stand out in stark contrast against the sun-bleached white buildings that made up the rest of Brugge.

Although it was close to closing, I took my time looking through the shelves, ignoring the librarian's nagging, until I found what I was looking for. It was an old book, bound in leather and covered in dust. I flipped through the pages while the librarian hounded me all the way to the door. I found a section titled 'Making Love Potion' just as the librarian locked the doors behind me with a scowl and a string of curses.

I didn't have any ingredients, but I could find some easily enough. I read over the recipe until I'd memorized it, left the book in the return slot, and headed to the market district for fresh ingredients on my way back to the hotel.

The night was muggy. Disgustingly. Like being in a sauna but fully clothed and not by choice. I'd never been to Florida or anywhere near the Mediterranean, but I imagined that living in those places was probably better than this. A real hellhole that was somehow worse at night.

The market district was rather lively for being around dinner time. I was walking down the street when a man bumped into me. While he stumbled, I maintained my balance and stared him down.

He was a dwarf, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was flushed. Maybe if I'd killed that healer earlier or if the librarian hadn't been so annoying or I wasn't so uncomfortably hot, I wouldn't have cared about him.

"Sorry," he said, and then he went to walk off.

Except I grabbed him by the shoulders. "It's not a good idea to steal from me. Not today."

The man turned around. "What?"

While my eyes roamed the crowd, taking stock in who was actually paying attention to me, I said, "I'd prefer not to take you out in the open like this, so it'd be best to give me back the cufflink you took." I pointed to his left hand, satisfied that I could kill him without anyone noticing.

He looked at me blankly. "You're a guard?"

"No, which means I can kill you and probably get away with it. So what's it going to be?" I released a bit of my bloodlust, a pressure I'd learned to control on the battlefield and then perfected by the time I was an assassin.

I wasn't surprised that the system gave a notice.

[Notice] New Skill acquired: 7-Lives-Bloodlust

Activate this skill to trigger your seven years' worth of bloodlust, giving your target visions of all the ways you might kill or maim them and putting them in a state of extreme terror. [Mastery 5%]

That was not the name of the Skill I'd had before, though.

"Oh. Sorry. Here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cufflink. His hand trembled violently, and I caught a whiff of what could only be his urine.

I did like the results of this Skill though. Much stronger than when I'd been a soldier or a guard, but a little ways off from being as good as I'd been before. I took the cufflink and put it on, deactivating my Bloodlust.

"Thank you." I put a heavy hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "But if you ever need a job, you should find Danio Teigen in the red light district. He might be able to find something for you."

He nodded, though he could've just been shaking that much, then he turned to flee. He might seem uninterested in my very generous offer now, but if he needed to steal from someone like me, then he probably could use the job. I watched him leave down an alley, then headed deeper into the market until I found a shop that seemed like it'd sell what I needed.

There was one ingredient they didn't have, but I was told to return for the night market. I also bought some vials, glass bottles, and other necessary tools--a ritual knife called an athame, some leather string, and some enchanted bowls. I didn't have room in my bag for a cauldron or a mortar and pestle, but I'd pick them up eventually.

I went back to my hotel, wrote down the recipe from memory, and then started preparing some of the ingredients while I waited for nightfall. One part of the recipe that stood out to me was that it wanted each ingredient infused with some Energy. I wasn't particularly good at that, so perhaps it'd be good practice.

The recipe called for a combination of a classic attraction oil, a lover's tea, some herbs of love, and a lover's knot for the bottle.

The attraction oil was simple: four drops of rose oil, jasmine oil, and gardenia oil, followed by two drops of lemon oil. While I measured out the drops into a small vial, I tried to concentrate on channeling Energy into my fingers like how it works while casting spells.

When I'd learned some potion making in the Kingdom of Sørgentsen, Energy had never been really part of the process. People in Sørgentsen didn't care much for Energy or magic, relying on their Stats and potion making alone. That didn't mean they weren't subconsciously using it, though, as something they picked up naturally while learning. There were some recipes that did call for Energy, after all, and a good Sørgeni potion maker wouldn't blink an eye at it.

The tea was a quick five minute brew of dried hibiscus flowers, peppermint, dried lemon balm, and some dried rosehips that I chopped carefully rather than pulverize as the recipe called for. I made sure to keep my attention split between the vague warmth of Energy in my core and what my hands were actually doing. I threw the attraction oil in at the end, then filtered it into a glass bottle.

[Notice]

Energy has increased by 1.

Well, that was something. I'd never raised that Stat before, but I'd also never consciously used Energy quite like this before. Part of me wondered if that was the System just doing what it wanted again, but why care if it ultimately benefited me? The System had been the bane of my existence for the last six lives, and it seemed it finally got the message that if it wanted me to use it, it had to be worth it.

The potion was far from finished though. I needed to buy Balsamon, some hard to find balm from a turpentine tree. Hopefully I'd find it at the night market so I could finish off the whole thing.

After I finished preparing the herbs of love, I tossed them in a satchel like the potpourri that it was. Then I put it in my bag along with the bottle of attraction oil and lover's tea. Time to buy some balm so I could finish this thing and start making some money.