Johan sat under the golden pear tree in Phantasia. The gentle wind rustled through the leaves above. A sound easy on the ears. With soft grass under him and the cool trunk to his back. Normally, he would feel sleepy around here.

  But today, he sat in a fetal position, blowing into a crinkled brown paper bag. It was his way to calm down. To say the least, it wasn’t working this time.

  Johan had expected the media would find him eventually, just not this fast. Curse that damned Shadowman. If he found that bastard, he’d drown the creep in sewage water. If he found him.

  Shadowman had a sonar-like scouting skill and even stealth to boot. Johan had a higher chance of catching Misty off guard than that mosquito. The worst part was that Shadowman himself had released info on his skills. Taunting his victims and future targets, saying Catch me if you can.

  Johan had no real way of catching the person, and even if he did, the damage had already been done.

  Yes, since it already happened. There's no point anguishing over it. He shot to his feet, scaring Nunally and Eunally, poor things had stayed near him, trying to figure out what happened.

  “It’s nothing, don’t worry.” Johan fed them a few carrots, and they seemed assured.

  But he wasn’t so calm on the inside. He had stayed in Phantasia for 15 hours now, after messaging Eugene to skip work for a few days.

  It felt like those lawless reporters would break down his door if they saw a little movement. Well, not really, since laws were strict on these actions. Police had already arrived last night because of the complaints from nearby residents.

  First Hunters and now the reporters, somehow Johan had seen the worst side of them since he awakened his class. However, there was a silver lining even in this.

  He wasn’t sitting around having a mental breakdown for the full 15 hours. In fact, he had continued his skill grind to take his mind off the problems. And that worked in his favour.

  [Your skill Basic Brewing has reached max level.]

  [Conditions for skill upgrade: Brew a D+ Rank potion, Basic Brewing Lv.10]

  [Conditions met.]

  [Would you like to upgrade the skill Basic Brewing to Intermediate Brewing?]

  “Upgrade!” Johan proclaimed, hoping the dopamine hit would wash the nervousness away.

  But there wasn’t anything grand to skill upgrade as he had expected. There was a stir in the magik power that gathered in his body, but aside from that, only the skill section showed a change.

  Intermediate Brewing Lv. 1

  That’s all she wrote. Deflated, Johan scratched his head. Forced to think about the problem in the outside world, he decided to do the only logical thing.

  “Let’s just stay here, in Phantasia.” Johan beamed, tying a hammock for himself.

  Why bother with the nasty reporters outside when he could enjoy the ever-sunny days and fresh air here?

  He could spend his days farming vegetables and playing with his cute rabbit friends. The real start of his healing life.

  Or so it was meant to be.

  Today, Johan learned another fact about Phantasia. The time limit. The time he could stay in there was 16 hours a day. After that, he’d get transferred back by force, just like right now. Like a game shutting you out for playing too long, asking you to rest.

  “Eight hours?! What am I supposed to do with eight hours?” Johan banged his fist against the marble floor of the basement workshop, hearing a blue tank engine laughing in the back of his head.

  Already resigned to his fate, Johan climbed the stairs like a goblin. Peeking over the mart counter. The orange from the evening came through the windows. He had covered them with wet newspaper last night. The outside seemed calm on the surface, but he couldn’t find the courage to check himself.

  “The reporters are hiding around the alleys.” Someone said.

  “Aahhhh!” Johan screamed, a very high-pitched scream, and almost tumbled down the stairs.

  Almost. Because the one who spoke grabbed him in a hurry.

  “Teacher, are you ok?” Eugene spoke in genuine horror.

  “I am, but I think my dignity is dead.” Johan slumped, his eyes blank.

  After a moment, Johan and Eugene both sat under the counter’s shade. The boy got worried about the message and the article online. In the end, he sneaked himself in with the spare key, dodging all the reporters in the way, at least he tried. Indeed, a capable and caring kid.

  “I am truly sorry.” Eugene apologized for the nth time.

  “It’s ok,” Johan assured him, but his dead eyes didn’t help much. Thankfully, his rumbling stomach came to the rescue.

  “I’ll bring you some beef bone soup.” Eugene jumped to his feet, ready to head out, but he stopped.

  And Johan couldn’t ask him why either. He gulped, like sitting on pins and needles. That familiar stinging sensation returned, this time covering his entire body.

  With a trembling hand, Johan clutched the counter’s ledge and peeked over it. He hadn’t heard the door open, but two people had entered as the lights illuminated the mart.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “What are you doing over there, bro? Playing hide and seek?” First was Lucas, casual as usual.

  The problem wasn’t him, but the woman next to him. With striking violet hair and equally striking red cloth over her eyes, she smiled, as if she could feel his fear.

  She stepped forward, heels clacking on the floor, the black trenchcoat on her draped over her shoulder, flowing back. Showing the long purple dress. This woman was the epitome of maturity. And Johan had a weak point for these types.

  She rested her elbows on the counter and leaned forward, hovering over Johan. So close that he could smell the classy perfume and count each pearl on her necklace.

  “Johan, right? Name’s Merilyn. But I suppose you already know that.” The Hunter Association President smiled, her earrings clinking softly.

  ***

  Johan had always pegged himself as somewhat of a rational individual. No matter how much he delayed a problem, he’d inevitably come around to deal with it.

  But, as he observed Merilyn sitting on his bed, one long leg over the other, drinking tea from a China cup he didn’t even know he had, Johan wanted to run away as far as he could. He would’ve tried if the woman in front of him wasn’t the very face of the Hunter Circle in the country.

  With the glass skin and fair beauty, she looked as young as him, no, even younger. Even if he knew that she had been the Hunter Association President for forty years, if she said she was just a few years his elder, he would’ve nodded along.

  “Hmm,” She faced him, the red lips forming a measured smile, “I’ll allow it.”

  “Allow what?” Johan almost backed into the corner of the room, not that it would help much to be honest.

  “Most of the people who first meet this hag think the same thing; she’s used to it,” Lucas answered him, after inspecting Johan’s meager game collection.

  “What I ought to get used to is disciplining you more often,” Merilyn said, resting the empty teacup on the bedside table.

  “Cut me some slack, I am still mourning.” Lucas formed a not-so-pitiful expression.

  Landed in between them, Johan could feel the tension, the clash of energies. It wasn’t too dramatic. Just alien. Like a strict aunt facing her taciturn nephew. He wondered if his brain was alright, trivializing the situation like this.

  Lucas was an S-Rank, and Merilyn, although there had been no reports on her abilities and rank, gave Johan the same sense of danger he felt from Lucas, if not more.

  “Excuse me, a question.” Johan raised his hand, feeling like a guest in his own home.

  “Go on.” She turned to him.

  “Why are you here, Hunter Association president?” He gathered his courage to ask.

  “Merilyn is fine,” she said.

  “I don’t think I ca-”

  “Merilyn.” Her tone dropped a little.

  “Ok, Merilyn.” Authoritative women were truly his bane.

  As if pleased by his compliance, she nodded.

  “The reason I am here, there are many,” Merilyn added. “I am here to meet an Awakened that didn’t register his class, I am here to meet a potion maker selling potions without a license, I can go on, but you see the point, right dear?”

  Hearing her call him dear while listing those things sent a chill down Johan’s spine. But it seemed like she wasn’t done.

  “Don’t misunderstand, I am not here to punish you for such trivial matters. I am here to seek your expertise.” She placed her elbow on her thigh and rested her chin on the back of her hand. “So, do I have your attention, Alchemist?”

  Johan wouldn’t call himself an expert in potion making by a long shot. If anything, he knew the theory and planned to put it all into practice. But hearing the Hunter Association President address him as Alchemist, he couldn't hide his rising mood.

  “What can I do for you?” Would it be Healing potions? Ice resistance potions? Or others? Johan had the confidence he could supply them with ease now that his brewing skill had levelled up.

  “A Detoxifying potion, can you make one?” Merilyn asked.

  A Detoxifying potion, a potion to remove poison and some status effects stemming from it. Johan had read about them. He knew the process. But he could never try making them.

  “The Mage Tower has a monopoly on Night bloom flowers.” They didn’t allow the trading of that flower, and people hadn’t found them in rifts. Only the Mage Tower grew it in secrecy, so were the rumours on Hunter Net.

  “Hmm, what if I can get you the Night bloom flowers?” she mused.

  “Before that, can you tell me what you'll use it for? Because I feel like I am getting involved in a big conspiracy here.” Johan doubted the Mage Tower would hand over the flowers they had kept secret for so long. And Merilyn’s method would be less than savoury, he could already tell that.

  As the shrimp that could get caught between whales, Johan wanted out of the eventual fallout.

  “That makes my job easier.” She sounded a bit pleased, but maybe that was his imagination. “Have you heard of Master Adelan?”

  Of course, he had; that was the Master blacksmith of the Round Table in the UK. There was no photo or interview of him, but he was one of the few in the world who could produce magik weapons and imbue skills in them. Hunters paid enormous sums and waited for years just to get a single piece. He was a legend, just like Merilyn in front of him.

  “What about him?” Although Johan asked the question, he felt uneasiness building up inside his chest.

  “Two weeks ago, someone poisoned Master Adelan. It’s a poison from the S-Rank four-eyed basilisk, a slow-acting agent that paralyzes and petrifies the affected over time.” Merilyn said calmly. “They had tried the Mage Tower’s potion, and they had employed the best healer, but it didn’t help. That potion cannot deal with both the poison and petrification at once, same with the healer. And both effects cannot work at the same time through different mediums.”

  “That brings me to you.” She stood up and straightened her dress. “I’ve confirmed that your healing potion and ice resistance potions surpass the Mage Tower’s best. And I came here hoping it is the same with the Detoxifying potion.”

  She stood before him, as tall as him in her heels, her hand reached for his face. The cold fingers brushed against his cheek as a smile formed on her lips.

  “I’ll reward you generously if you make that potion for me.” She whispered.

  “Back off, you hag!” Lucas jumped the two, his mouth twisted with disdain. “What do you think you are doing?”

  “Negotiating, of course.” Merilyn showed a peppy smile.

  “What negotiation? You are making him uncomfortable! Right?” Lucas turned to face Johan, but blinked in confusion.

  “It wasn’t that bad.” Johan scratched his heated face, much to Lucas’s shock. “Sorry, Merilyn, I couldn’t focus well.” He tried to laugh it off.

  “No offense taken.” She chuckled. “In fact, I am pleased.”

  “Now I feel like the weird one,” Lucas grumbled.

  “Anyway, about the potion, I think I can give it a try if I have the flowers.” Johan coughed, eyeing the crossed-armed Merilyn. “But about the reward, is it ok if I ask for something aside from money?”

  “Sure.” She agreed a bit too fast; maybe she could already guess what he wanted.

  But that didn’t matter. Johan looked at the boarded-up window in his room. The reporters were definitely hiding outside, but he didn’t fear them anymore.

  To deal with a force, you needed an excessive force! Johan could get that right now.

  “No worries then.” Johan stepped forward this time, extending his hand. “I agree to the deal.”

  “A wise decision.” Merilyn met his hand with her own, her slender fingers wrapping around his palm.

  Just you wait, reporters, I’ll show you what Law and Order means in this country! Johan smirked, ready to enjoy his peace again.

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