"I'm assuming there wasn't any opportunity for leveling up?"

[Nope.]

"Shit."

My beasts are all at a healthy level of 65. Lower than my teammates. I can take up Nelson's offer and hit up the hazard branch to level up my beasts, but now that wouldn't be a good idea. If my track record with fractures is anything to indicate, I'll be there longer than I intend.

It's nighttime, and although I am not sleepy, I won't say no to the first real bed I've had in a while... It's still overrated. Unfortunately, now that I'm relaxed and in the real world, the whispers in the dark start to creep back up again. I didn't miss this part of my life.

Duchess is in my manor since she wanted to read the books in the library, so I might as well sleep there. I didn't want to initially in case my team needed me for something. The door opens, and Rob sneaks back into my room. I had him stash away the duplicating arrow I found in the fracture into Val's quiver with a note.

But as soon as he enters, I notice something is wrong. Rob immediately springs inside, wielding a shovel and waving it at the corner of my room. I hear a *tsk* from the shadows, and Rob calms down. Seemingly whatever was there is no longer in the room.

Rob was with me when I let Duchess into the manor, so whatever was creeping around entered while Rob was briefly away. What particular timing.

"Rob. Was it Rai?"

Rob shakes his head no and goes poking around in that area. Now I really shouldn't sleep. Damn.

~

I leave before the sun rises to meet Rain at a cafe. I see her sitting at a table with a buff man in a suit standing next to her. He has sunglasses on and an earpiece. Not suspicious at all.

[Scientific Insight+] reveals nothing about him, not even an unhelpful popup that tells me nothing. Skill or item, curious. Still not suspicious. I sit down across the table from her and glance around the shop. It's closed, but the fact that she has a mug of coffee in front of her tells me that she has some pull here, or she had her henchman make her a cup with the unattended equipment.

"Who's your friend?" I'm curious about this individual. Even someone like Master Wang shows up as question marks.

"Oh, just one of my mom's goons. Don't mind him. He's just here to protect me. The capital is a dangerous place, after all." The slab of a man doesn't flinch when Rain smacks his arm like an old friend. She pulls a cup of coffee from under the table and slides it across from me. Drinking anything she gives me is foolish, but I think we are friendly enough with each other that this isn't a half-baked assassination attempt.

I sip from the cup. Which, surprisingly or not surprisingly, tastes like herbs and not hot bean water. My tongue feels numb, but I don't feel any other effects.

"What was that?"

"Coffee mixed with an industrial strength cleaner. I created it to be safe for human consumption."

"Why?"

"I need to tweak the recipe slightly since it causes vomiting, diarrhea, psychosis, and a bunch of unhealthy side effects to normal people. I just wanted to see what would happen to your constitution."

"My tongue is slightly numb. Did you flavor it? Why would you do that? Even if it's created to be safe to consume, people shouldn't be tempted to drink it."

"Ah, shut up. You don't understand the process. But explaining how potioncraft and alchemy works isn't why I'm here." The henchman walks away. He grabs a large briefcase from behind the counter and puts it on the table.

Rain unclasps the latches and reveals dozens of potions with various labels with no sense of pattern or consistency. The vials are all uniform, however. All glass vials with the same volume and clarity.

"The funny-looking ones are expired. If you experience any weird side effects, note them down and tell me. A few words of warning. Taking too many potions over an extended period may lead to potion sickness. It's nasty stuff. Also, drinking too many at once makes your stomach a makeshift cauldron, so have fun." She stands up and leaves before I can assess what she just gave me.

"I got an unrelated question, how did you get to the capital so quickly?"

"Oh, thanks to my mom's job, but I'm not supposed to talk about it. All I'll say is thanks to my parents, I'll never need to open a shop for the sake of funding."

She leaves with her henchman in tow before entering a parked car and driving off. The potions are randomly strewed in the case like Rain haphazardly selected the various alchemical liquids. It's just a briefcase of a few dozen loose vials labeled numerically.

There is an exception. The non 'expired' ones are bundled neatly with a hint of professionalism.

I scan them with my [Scientific Insight+] but get lackluster results.

[Expired Potion of Healing?

This potion has expired, and the effects may be compromised.]

I dab a little on my finger and taste it. [Scientific Insight+] gets me more information when I actually investigate. The information updates.

[This potion has expired. It doesn't heal as much and may grant the consumer nausea.]

I taste test a few.

[This potion has expired. It doesn't heal as much and may grant the consumer muscle fatigue]

[This potion has expired.]

[This potion has expired, it will poison the user for as much as it heals.]

[This potion has expired. It has a chance to grant a permanent stat increase.]

What.

I contemplate drinking it right now, but I examine one of my skills first.

[Broken Liver

Filteration, metabolism, detoxification, digestion. The user's body will metabolize medicines better and detoxify toxins worse. This skill is togglable.]

I wonder if activating this first will allow me to have a better chance of getting a stat boost or if I'll get a better stat boost. I quickly test the other options first. I'm not worried about 'mixing potions.'

The rest of the potions range from deliberating, extra diarrhea, to nothing, to beneficial, additional healing. No other potions that increase stats, so I wonder what makes that one special. I break my liver and down the vial. My body feels tingly and stays that way for a few minutes as it makes its way around my body.

Since it's a potion that 'used' to be a healing potion, I assumed that my vigor would increase, but instead, I got a heap of disappointment.

[Charisma: 20 > 50]

Charisma is a stat I never invested in and is only that 'high' because of titles. I don't even know what it does. Just by referring to the definition of charisma, it should make me a more likable person, or at least one with a 'presence.'

But how does that work? Is it mind control, or does the system subtly change how I act to reflect the numbers on the screen? Does it make me release pheromones that help me attract mates, or is it more of a buff against merchants that shouldn't work in a world with common sense?

I might be deliberating into this too hard, but a thirty increase stat total to any other stat would make me exceedingly happy. Maybe I should see if any [Golden] creatures are being sold so I can farm some luck points to fix this dogshit. They'd be expensive, huh? Luck doesn't make much sense either, but at least it's vague enough that I can use the benefit of the dought, but charisma is literally used to interact with others unless my entire point of view is wrong from the get-go.

I know politicians and merchants power level this stat when they can, so my thoughts on its dubious usage on others are only strengthened.

Maybe it's just the stat is used in orator-based skills, like strength for pugilists or spirit for casters.

Shit, that makes me think of why spirit is used for elemental casting, but mental magic uses mind. I got to stop thinking and get back to grinding levels.

~

Back at the institute, I message Rain about vial number five increasing one of my stats, asking her if she knows the process that leads to doing that. I instantly get bombarded with messages about meeting up with her and her mother at some building, but now I need to earn points.

She was not happy, but I defused the situation by saying that I wanted to test all the potions before reporting to see if any other effects of the caliber were present. She agreed, thankfully. If push comes to shove, I would try and save my relationship with the supremely talented alchemical artificer who happens to be the daughter of one of the martial artists that defended humanity during its darkest hour, then a school project.

Maybe my new charisma stat is helping me out. How would that actually translate via text? I stopped my train of thought before it was too late and entered another event I knew I could ace.

It's called [Protect the Diplomat], and the test consists of an open field with many blindspots like a miniature forest, plains with chest-high grass, and a replica urban setting. Multiple automatons are in this test, but the one that matters most is the "diplomat."

It has sensors that calculate damage done to them, and the higher the number, the lower your spot in the event. I'm sure anyone without my skills would find it hard or frustrating to keep the damage at zero. And by skills, I only mean [Martyr].

I take a lovely stroll through the forest, 'dodging' poisoned arrows and traps. The gunfire and explosions in the urban area were a little extreme, so students cant use firearms, but the institute is allowed? A mixture of dagger-wielding assassins and fire mages in the plains leaves nothing on the diplomat's paint.

I left the event site and decided to check on my team members since they should be awake and grinding for points. There are also some events I can scam my way into.

There is a whole category for 'archery,' maybe because of some elvish influence or because it's easy to make specific events. I'm interested in the accuracy event and the sustained fire event first.

Skills that either passively increase or actively increases an archer's skill are common. But I bet that using telekinesis must be better.

There are some rules with the archery events. The important ones are no mana potions, you must wield a non-enchanted bow that would be provided if you don't have one, and you must be firing projectiles. This is supposed to stop mages from sneaking over here instead of staying in their events.

There is some flexibility since some archers are known for their "spell-like" shots, which is fair.

First up is Duchess, and for once, I'm not expecting to get first place. She levitates a bow in front of her, makes a hard-light arrow, and fires it. It hits the bullseye. A different target pops up farther from Duchess, and another arrow hits it. I lend her my mind stat to increase the range of [Telekinesis], but she only manages to get to a little under 800 feet before the shots become inaccurate.

The consecutive firing test, it's about how many shots you can shoot within one minute. I have Rob go out with a plain bow and activate his glove's ability [Bone Shot]. The way he uses the skill makes it looks like he is casting it from the bow, and there is little they can do to disprove it.

I even have him use a touch of his actual bone magic to make the projectiles have a more similar shape to arrowheads. Save to say, ten repeatedly consecutive finger breaks per instant make a metric fuckton of attacks. If someone topped Rob in this event, I'd like to see how.