Molanda and Robert were waiting for them in the fracture hall when they made it back.

  Molanda rushed into Andihar’s arms when he stepped through the portal, caring little for the blood and grime on his armor. She must have seen him go away on missions many times before and, being an A-ranker, said goodbye to him when going out herself, but that would never make the worry easy to handle.

  Robert didn’t quite go as far as Molanda but he did give Eik a hearty slap on the shoulder and offered a bright smile. “Good job not dying, boss.”

  “You, shut it,” Eik chuckled and pushed past him. “Let’s go!”

  “Why the hurry?”

  Eik looked back with an expression of incredulity. “You said it yourself, didn’t you? Grade 6 potions, baby!”

  ***

  As soon as they made it inside the main building of Eik’s Excellent Elixir Emporium, Eik marched through the offices with intent, only briefly responding when greeted by his employees. He had places to be.

  He resisted kicking down the door to his own laboratory as he entered, finding Meri buried in a mountain of materials. “Meri?” he called.

  She didn’t seem to hear him.

  “Meri hir Gawak!” he shouted, eager to get his hands on the prize.

  With a shocked yelp, she jumped in place, fumbling and dropping some manner of metal implement. “M-Mr. Magnasen! You’re back! Listen, we managed to figure out a reci—”

  “A recipe for the grade 6 Potion of Mighty Strength, I know. Robert already told me. Excellent, excellent work, all of you,” he said, addressing both Meri and the two other alchemists working at their own workstations. Along with the guild master’s granddaughter, they had come with shining recommendations—the legitimacy of which had certainly been proven with this accomplishment.

  “You told him?” she asked Robert with a frown of disappointment. “I told you last night that I wanted to be the one to tell him!”

  “Last night?” Eik noted curiously, a grin spreading on his lips.

  Ignoring Eik’s sneaky question, Robert threw his hands up and spluttered. “I-I didn’t have a choice at the time! It was an emergency! I couldn’t just pretend in a situation like that!”

  “What happened last night?”

  “Yes, you could! You know how much that meant to me! Unlike you, my relationship with Mr. Magnasen is still in its infancy so the least you could do is let me be the bearer of good news!” Meri was not happy right now. And for good reason, as far as Eik could tell, but he couldn’t focus on that right now.

  “Hey, what happened last night?” What was going on between these two?

  “I’m sorry, okay? It just flew out of me! You know how I am with that kind of thing! I become flustered and lose my filter! I really am sorry but I can’t do anything to make up for it!” She knows how he is? She hadn’t been working for Eik for that long and they already knew each other like that? Their roles wouldn’t have allowed them to organically meet enough for that kind of interpersonal relationship. Unless…

  “Come on, tell me. What’s going on between you two?” Eik poked.

  “We went on a date, all right?” Robert exploded, agitation pushing up his voice. “I asked her on a date and she said yes and it was nice so we went on another one and then one more! Get it? Totally normal thing between two people who are interested in one another! Totally normal!”

  “Nice, dude!” Eik congratulated his friend with a smirk.

  Robert’s brows were knit together in frustration. “Yeah, well, thanks but I’m pretty sure I just ruined the whole thing by failing to keep my stupid mouth shut.” The guy looked genuinely down.

  “Nah, don’t get so ahead of yourself and take a look at her instead, mate,” Eik said with a head throw in Meri’s direction, who was standing with her arms crossed over her chest. “Good relationships don’t just end over one little squabble like that. The most important thing is your sincerity and how you make it right.”

  Robert glanced at his new maybe-girlfriend with nervous hesitation. “Really?”

  “Of course!” she scoffed. “You think I agreed to meet with you with so little conviction?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I— N-No, nothing like that. It’s just that I made you so mad, so I thought…”

  “I’m mad because you did a shitty thing. But being mad at you and liking you are not mutually exclusive, Robert.”

  “You… You l-like me?” the administrator stammered, cheeks flushing intensely. Eik giggled inwardly.

  For the first time, Meri appeared to feel some embarrassment as well. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have gone out with you, would I?”

  “I suppose not,” Robert muttered. He took a deep breath, determination filling him. “I… like you too, Meri.”

  She didn’t say anything to that but the blush reddening her cheeks was answer enough. Robert, you fast worker, you. “Get a room, will ya?” Eik snickered.

  “Boss…” Robert hissed.

  “Ey, I am offering to pay.” Eik held up his hands placatingly.

  “Please, boss, for the love of—”

  “We’ll take it,” Meri broke in.

  “Sorry, what?” Robert asked dumbfoundedly.

  “I said we’ll take a room if he’s offering.”

  Eik’s eyebrows shot up through his forehead in sheer, unadulterated mirth. Meri, you fast worker, you. Two fast workers working fast together.

  Robert’s brain was too fried to do anything but random words unintelligibly but one thing he did not try to speak was a refusal. “Excellent, you two. Consider it done. Just tell me where you want to go and for how long and I’ll foot the bill. Think of it as a bonus for great work. Oh, and,” he said, turning to the two other alchemists who had been watching the entire exchange with disbelief. “the two of you get the same, of course. If you already have someone you can take them, or if you prefer to go with friends or alone, that’s fine too, of course.”

  “Th-Thank you, sir,” they said with reverence.

  “Great!” Eik exclaimed, clapping his hands. “Now, with all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at the goods, shall we?”

  Excitement flashed across Meri’s features as she hopped between boxes, materials, and piles of paper strewn across the floor until she reached a small cupboard in the far corner of the room. Rummaging through one of the drawers, she found and triumphantly brought back a document for Eik’s viewing. “This is a summary of our research findings,” she said with pride. “and in the back you’ll find the completed recipe which will allow you to create a grade 6 Potion of Mighty Strength.”

  Full of anticipation, there was nothing Eik could do but skip all of the boring stuff and get straight to the good stuff in the back. His flitted across the few pages that described the process of creating the grade 6 potion. “This…” he said with a finger on a particular word. “What does this mean?”

  Meri stepped forward to take a look. “You mean the AARR?”

  “Yeah, what is it short for?”

  “Approximate Auralic Resistance Ratio.”

  “Which refers to…?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “The approximate ratio of materials with reactive Ak’ki to auralically inert materials. Or in other words, how much of it will try to resist your influence and possible kill you. But, uuh… shouldn’t you already know this kind of stuff?” she asked bluntly. She really was so different from Robert. They would make a good couple.

  “You should just be grateful that I don’t. That’s why you have a job.”

  “No, but, like, it’s just so basic, you know.”

  Eik glowered. “Careful there, miss. You could end up finding yourself demoted to just Bobby’s girlfriend.”

  With a sharp gasp, she snapped upright. “Your grace is immeasurable!”

  “Uh huh, so then what’s AARP?”

  “That one stands for Approximate Auralic Resistance Potency. It describes how powerful that resistance is.”

  “I see. Is it just me, or does the AARR seem kind of low?”

  “No, you’re right. We were surprised to find that ourselves.”

  He looked at the page again. “But the AARP is… is this number considered high?”

  “Very high. S-rank materials and all.”

  “All right, perfect! This should be easy.”

  She chuckled. “Hah, yeah, right,” she snickered but when he didn’t, her grin dropped. “Wait, you’re serious? This is not going to be easy, like, at all! I don’t think you quite understand these numbers. This is the most aggressive recipe I’ve ever seen! It could kill you in a literal moment!”

  “Well, I might be kind of an idiot but the stuff I’m good at, I’m very good at. And I’m very good at doing alchemy. I just don’t understand any of the theory.”

  “I see. Well, I hope that’s true,” she said and took a step back. “Good luck.” She then folded her hand behind her back and watched him silently. The two others did something similar, excited anticipation on their faces.

  Eik pursed his lips as he stared back with apparent confusion. “Well… Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye? What do you mean goodbye? I want to watch!”

  “Maybe, but you’re not going to. Look, Bobby gets it,” he said, gesturing at the man who was already holding the door open.

  The man shrugged. “There’s honestly no fighting this one, guys. He’s very secretive about his methods. Even I haven’t seen it.” That wasn’t really true, but it was the easiest excuse.

  “Ugh,” she ugh’ed and rolled her eyes before heading for the door, the two other alchemists following with drooping shoulders.

  Eik cracked his knuckles and pulled out the biggest cauldron he had. He had paid a serious amount of money for the enchantment on its base that weakened the potency of any influence resistant material used in it as well as improved general stability throughout the creation process.

  The stability assistance was a godsend but the potency reduction made no difference to him. Whatever a material threw at him would be ground into dust by Profound Toxin.

  “Ignition gland of a… colossal volcano roc? Yikes,” he mumbled as he read over the ingredient list, following the instructions carefully. Since Meri and company weren’t strong enough to actually test the creation process themselves, he would have to determine the direction of influence himself. Luckily, that was a lot easier to subject to trial and error than testing all materials in the Unified Mass.

  The alchemists had already lined up the necessary ingredients and labelled them for his convenience. Note to self: upgrade their bonus.

  The various materials had to be separated into three piles inside the cauldron and then united with the correct timing—another thing he had to figure out himself. This would be the most difficult and sensitive creation he had made thus far.

  With a deep breath, he reached out to the ingredients with his aura. The control he had over it at this point was probably better than any other S-ranker in the Unified Mass. He had already been good at it because it felt similar to controlling Profound Toxin but with Monarch’s Will leveled as high as his was, he could manipulate the hazy substance more precisely that his own fingers.

  His jaw tightened as determination flooded his mind. There was no time to spare. No matter what, he would get this done quickly. No, he would succeed on his first try.

  And just as he thought that thought, the mixture exploded in his face.

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