“Are you sure about this?” Lucas asked for the fourth time, throwing worried glances in his direction as they walked through the long corridor.

Seth, instead, was more worried about how much all this lunatic idea of his was going to cost him. He was relatively wealthy, but not enough to spend half of his small fortune in an elixir and not feel as though he had been scammed.

Anyway, after the long stroll, they finally reached the end of the corridor. A dark, wooden door stood before them.

Lucas didn't waste time as he took a long, cerise red key from his pocket and inserted it inside the keyhole. A loud, tinkle sound reverberated as the nearly three metres tall door opened out itself.

“This is a bit disappointing,” Seth said, his gaze sweeping across the room, curiously.

He had spent much of his last five cycles in the orphanage working in the repository section of the building. So, he was confident he knew what a repository was supposed to look like or what one could expect to find inside. To his surprise, this room, located on the second storey of Robert’s store, was just a five metres by five metres square box with a single wooden cabinet in the middle. Nothing else.

Lucas threw him a glance, “Try not to say that in front of dad, this had been the main repository of the family for generations… You know how he got when someone criticised the family.”

They shuddered.

The place clearly lacked the rows of shelves brimming with pills, elixirs and raw materials that one could find in the main storeroom of the building. However, if what Lucas had told him was correct, then every single one of the items here was more than a few times more expensive than the entire store combined. Lucas included.

Seth focused on the three metres long and two metres tall cabinet, a certain gleam flashed through his eyes as his gaze fell on the flasks displayed on the crystal drawers. He could feel his hands tremble ever so slightly from the bubbling excitement within.

Lucas poked him with his finger, hand extended. “A silver piece,”

Seth’s eyes shifted in his direction and then, reluctantly, took a single silver piece from his pocket and placed it on his palm. The coin was entirely grey-white and round shaped, with a square hole in the centre. It was surprisingly heavy for its diminutive size.

Pocketing the coin, Lucas opened one of the many drawer boxes and took a small, crystalline flask filled with an acid green liquid.

Seth was just about to place his hand on it when Lucas pulled his hand back, eyes narrowed into slits. “Do you even know how to use it?”

Seth opened his mouth to answer but stopped halfway, giving it more thought as he didn't want to sound like a newbie...

It didn’t work.

“It’s an elixir so…” he scratched the back of his head, “Just drink it and then sort out the energy flow and the other stuff. I suppose,” honestly, he didn’t know much about the detailed features of potions, elixirs and pills—only the basic stuff. But it shouldn't be that difficult to go through with a tip or two from his apprentice-alchemist friend…

Lucas’ stare grew harder.

“Okay, okay, erudite. Tell me what I should know so that I don’t blow myself up midway.” Seth half-joked, raising both arms.

Blinking, Lucas closed the drawer behind him before handing him the flask. “First of all, don't chug it down without emptying your core beforehand. The Four Vessels Glaucous Elixir is rich in both negative and positive elements of rather wild nature, meaning you wouldn’t need a catalyzer this time. Some mana compressing pills could be a great supplement during the integration phase, though. Not too many, two or three would do the work. The ambient mana density is relatively important as well, but not much in your case, instead, we can directly…”

The monologue seemed to have gone for hours, but it didn't bother him much. He’d already grown used to his rather extended speeches after an entire cycle of working together, both as a friend and as a customer. Lucas wasn't the most talented apprentice of the store, but one couldn’t deny his passion for the profession. He was born for the job. It flowed through his veins.

In the end, they decided to write everything down on paper before heading out of the room, getting inside a small room beside the dormitory's quarters that were set in the opposite wing of the building.

Looking around, the place was reasonably roomy for one person; a bed, a chair, a small window and a cushioned pillow with a mana gathering script below. Lucas’ place was much better honestly, larger and with a better mana gathering script. But he would never allow it knowing what he was planning to do inside.

It would get gruesome.

“Okay,” Lucas said, giving him the key to the room. “I still need to do some chores for dad and give a hand to the guys below. Probably won't see you until the night,”

“Don't worry,” Seth took a long, yellowish paper from his pocket. “Shouldn’t have a problem with this,”

Nodding, Lucas gave him a pouch and rapidly headed out to the storey below, leaving Seth behind as his rounded figure disappeared through the stairs leading down.

The business had been kind of a frenzy recently with the ranking competition closing up to them. The prices had skyrocketed and even some of the most important stores were showing signs of a shortage of pills, elixirs, gear, and raw materials in general. It didn't come as a surprise to Seth that even here, they were having problems in meeting the demand.

Anyway, it wasn't his problem.

Having an alchemist’s son as a friend had finally shown its perk, he thought, placing the elixir, pouch and paper before him as he sat cross-legged on the pillow. He took the paper and his gaze was instinctively drawn to the stamp in the form of a copper hammer on the upper corner: the Ronderner’s crest.

Managed by the Ronderner House, the Copperpath was one of the oldest and most famous alchemist households in the outer districts of Darkhold City. Vastly renowned for the excellent price-quality ratios of their goods and the ample variety of raw materials they offered, few establishments could meet the standards of this place.

Obviously, they weren't on the same level as the Guild’s trading hall, the Sacred Church’s auction house or stores settled in the Central District. But with almost two thousand cycles of experience and their impeccable reputation, one couldn't ask for a better place to trade when it comes to alchemical products. Especially elixirs, the speciality of the house.

Grasping the Four Vessels Glaucous Elixir, Seth took his time inspecting the acid green liquid inside.

Elixirs and pills weren’t excessively different at an elemental level. They were the ending products of the blending, refinement and synthesis of diverse raw materials into a product whose effects were greater than the sum of its parts. However, they weren't suitable for the same purposes. As their properties differ greatly.

For instance, elixirs work predominantly better in giving short-term effects due to the facility and high speed at which practitioners could assimilate its properties. Something that, unfortunately, shortened its lifespan. Pills, instead, endure better the passage of time and were able to hold much more energy and flavour of the ingredients. That made them difficult to absorb in short periods of time, something he had already experienced with the mana gathering pills.

Lucas had also explained to him how different the methods employed in the filtering and synthesis process were, particularly for pills—for obvious reasons.

Either way, the people who specialise in either of these disciplines are typically referred as alchemists or refiners, depending on their field of expertise.

The distinction between both professions was a bit more profound and complex than that, but they hadn't had enough time to go any deeper into the topic.

Seth didn't want to bother himself with more technical issues than necessary either—the basics were enough.

He shook his head as he drew his attention to the flask in his hand, time to see what you have for me.

Getting rid of the cork, his brows immediately wrinkled as a strange aroma entered his nostrils. “Lucas didn't joke about this thing,”

The ingredients used in the concoction of the Four Vessels Glaucous Elixir were, in their majority, of negative and positive attributes. Which gave the elixir this particular oily scent. However, what caught much of his attention was the density of energy condensed in the elixir that was completely insane in comparison to its diminutive volume. It made him have second thoughts if this was really a good idea…

For an instant at least.

Before chugging down the flask with the not so appealing liquid, Seth drew his attention to the sphere resting in his heart. An instant later, mana spread through his channels. The sensation was painless, but it still left a scalding, disturbing tingle behind. His reserves began to plump abruptly.

Seth could feel almost half of his mana being wasted in the process and a tiny part seeping through his pores and shrouding him in a haze of black-red fire. It wasn't strong enough to burn his clothes, but he would have to be careful in the future so that he doesn't end up half-naked at some point.

A minute later and the last thread of mana in his core vanished into nothing. A wave of tiredness hit nearly at the same time, but Seth didn’t let it hinder him and immediately swallowed the elixir in a single, swift motion.

“It’s like I’ve swallowed a thunderbolt,” Seth whispered, the numb tingle on his mouth started to climb until he was deprived of any sensation on his upper body. A minute later, he couldn't feel his toes at all. He could still track the elixir’s journey through his channels, but at some point, even that turned hazy and vague.

The Four Vessels Glaucous Elixir was famous for two reasons: its ability to increase a practitioner's core advancement on a whole level and that due to the wild and unpredictable nature of the elixir, there was a slim chance of cracking the practitioner’s core during the process.

Again, the chances were small, but there weren't a lot of practitioners willing to take a gamble of this magnitude. The price to pay for a slight mishap could be immense.

Seth was lost in his thoughts when a shiver of searing plain blasted out from deep inside his chest. Looking inward, Seth found a stream of unfamiliar energy welcoming him with open arms. It swirled around, squeezing, twisting, and wrenching it unceasingly.

As the pressure grew. Seth began to recover some of his body’s sensitivity. But honestly, he wasn’t sure how to feel about this.

The pain was excruciating.