[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution — (Unique) Profound Toxin]

[Choose one]

[Profound Toxin — Eager Dispersal]

[Profound Toxin — Infected Trail]

[Profound Toxin — Perfect Consumption]

"Do you know what these do? I'm guessing the records in the library don't have a lot of what you're being offered recently," she said.

"Not exactly, no," he chuckled. "I'm pretty sure Infected Trail lets me track anybody infected with Profound Toxin. Eager Dispersal I'm not as certain about. I'm thinking something like a dispersion ability that allows me to spread the toxin more easily somehow."

"And Perfect Consumption?"

He tilted his head from side to side. "That one's new."

"Maybe you can drink your own toxin?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Or maybe it has something to do with potions and medicines. You have been creating a ton of them lately and whatever it is that offers us skills seems to at least consider our habits and expertise when creating the options."

"That's actually a good point," he said with a nod. "You might be right. Like stronger effects or something like that."

"So what are you thinking?"

"Well, I can already kind of track syst— I mean victims, with Living Manifestations," he said and let a toxic beast crawl onto the back of his hand. "These little guys. When they sit inside someone, I can feel their presence."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it's not great at distance. I think it would probably be a completely different thing if I actually had Infected Trail. But even now, I can tell that one I sent into a Gohkamorian on the street before the Championships even began is still in place."

"Wait, seriously? And it doesn't kill the Gohkamorian?"

"Nah, I told it to take it easy and just wait for further orders. Although, to be honest, at this point I'm not sure how to get any new orders to it. Maybe it'll just have to sit in limbo forever. I actually feel a little bad for the bugger."

"Eager Dispersal sounds pretty good for handling multiple enemies if it does what you think."

"But I also use potions all the time. If I can make them stronger, then it could take me to a whole new level."

She pursed her lips. "But haven't your potions of strength become kind of obsolete now that you've hit C-rank?"

"Yeah, but it probably works on healing potions. And I have both the recipe and the ingredients for Potion of Mighty Strength class 3, it's just…"

"Just what?"

"It's just that I haven't ever tried making it before." He swept his arm in an arc around the beach. "And this…"

"Isn't the best place to be when you have to concentrate," she finished for him.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Just leave the choice for now and if you manage to create a class 3 potion the next time we stop to rest, you can reevaluate your options. How about that?"

He nodded. "That might be the best thing to do right now, yeah."

"Let's get going then."

They left the dead octopus monster to rot on the beach and continued along the shore toward the bridge that connected the two countries. Several more monsters fell at their hands before they finally stood at approach of the bridge.

Or rather, they stood at the approach of what should have been a bridge. Where there had once stood one of the longest bridges in Europe at almost eight kilometers in length was now nothing more than a ruins, most of the massive chunks of rubble swallowed up by the ocean at this point.

And the hope of a land bridge was also crushed by the sight of the roiling waves, smashing against the debris.

"How… are we going to get across now?" Eik wondered out loud, deflating a bit at the obstacle.

She sighed. "If there are more B-rankers in the water, then swimming is definitely not a great option for us. I use fire, so it's basically the worst possible environment for me to fight in. How would your Profound Toxin fare in there?"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He considered it for a moment. "I think it would probably be alright. It has the sense to not mix with that kind of stuff."

"Well," she said and slapped her knees, sitting down in the grass, a large oak against her back. "since we've hit a bit of a hurdle with this, how about we take that rest we talked about. I'm pretty hungry anyway. Maybe you can get to work on that new potion of yours?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"The faster you get done with the Potion of Mighty Strength class 3, the faster you can move on to class 4 and finally get me my damn boost."

Eik ate some dried meat as he pulled out a variety of ingredients and lined them up on a cloth for easy access. With a dull thud, the stubby little legs of the heavy cauldron dug into the earth. Finally, the book of recipes was placed against a small rock with another rock in the center to keep it open on the page with the instructions for the Potion of Mighty Strength class 3.

Aura flared into existence around his body as mosquitos began to circle and creep now that they were sitting still. The little insects were immediately repelled by the shimmering energy surrounding him and instead sought out the only other target with warm, delicious blood flowing through their veins. Olivia.

The mosquitos stood no chance against her B-ranked lighting slaps that easily annihilated them. And that those slaps were literally on fire didn't make them any less deadly. "Seriously!" she huffed with annoyance. "Don't you have anything in there for mosquitos? Like an inter dimensional spray or something." Normal bugs couldn't penetrate her skin, but they could still buzz around her face incessantly.

"Actually," he said and pulled out another couple of handfuls of ingredients, dumping them into the cauldron haphazardly. "I had a lot of trouble with this one back when I first tried my hand at alchemy. But with how far I've come since then, I reckon I can churn out some of it with no issue."

"Some of what?"

"Kiq's Temper, is what it's called. You drink it."

"And what is it?"

"Insect repellent," he said with a smile.

***

Olivia was napping with her head resting on Eik's rucksack of holding, blissfully free of mosquitos. As it turns out, Kiq's Temper was a ridiculously potent concoction. The insects had left the vicinity all together.

Eik was deep into his newest alchemy project. Twice already the potion had failed but even then, he could tell that he was close to succeeding. Unlike other times he had worked on new potions, he felt confident of the way forward.

Whenever his Ak'ki got close to the mixture, the energy would recoil and shrink into something that he had a hard time getting a grasp on. Worse control than what he currently possessed would have made it extremely difficult to do anything about that.

He mixed another batch and got started.

While even the slowest of aura movements would trigger a response from the mixture, the speed of the response was actually not that fast. Or maybe it just felt slow to him. The mental sensation of controlling the Ak'ki and controlling Profound Toxin was basically identical and that fact might well have pushed his standards well ahead of what could be expected of other alchemists around his rank.

The recipe had said that this recipe was not particularly dangerous but nonetheless tricky to get the hang of because of the tendency for the mixture to be slippery.

Eik took a deep breath and prepared his aura for a decisive strike. Before the mixture could react at all, he struck with unparalleled speed, the aura twisting itself thing and robust and wrapping tightly around the energy of the ingredients.

With pure force of will, he pushed the unruly mixture flat and forced it to play nice. As soon as there was nowhere to run, figuratively speaking, it quickly acquiesced and let itself be infused by his Ak'ki, completing the potion.

Without waking Olivia, he carefully pulled out eight vials from the rucksack of holding and poured in the finished drug. He held it up toward the sun, inspecting the swirling around liquid inside.

Like the monster blood that had gone into it, the sky blue hue of the potion glinted in the light.

With this and the boost from Backflow, he could probably have handled that mutated octopus with barely an issue. A B-ranked monster. With barely an issue. He could hardly believe that this was his life. His meteoric rise to power was almost frightening, like he couldn't follow along with his own speed.

Just to make sure it worked, he swallowed the contents of one of the vials and stood up. Strength coursed through him like a river through a sink drain. Just for the heck of it, he jumped.

Exactly how high he went was impossible to tell but he could have cleared old trees with his vertical.

He left Olivia to sleep as he put some distance between them. With a single punch, he completely shattered the trunk of an enormous oak. It was easy. Almost like punching something made of cardboard.

A boulder larger than himself didn't fare much better, sharp fragments of rock jetting through the air like bullets as the force of the destruction sent them in all direction.

Well, it most certainly worked. While he could barely get his own head around it, with the boost of Backflow to supply this potion, he might well be able to take on Olivia and come out victorious.

No way, right?

He couldn't be stronger than her. She was… She was the strongest. That was just how the world was. Or maybe it was time to realize that the world was changing, and that he was leading the charge.

When he pulled out the wooden plaque, the ability evolution options were already etching themselves back into the surface.

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution — (Unique) Profound Toxin]

[Choose one]

[Profound Toxin — Eager Dispersal]

[Profound Toxin — Infected Trail]

[Profound Toxin — Perfect Consumption]

If the Perfect Consumption trait did what he was hoping, then it would be an insane buff. Since the effects of the potion were still there, albeit fading, he might be able to find out without having to waste another one.

With a finger, he quickly drew lines through two of the three options.

[Evolved skill (Unique) Profound Toxin. Skill acquired trait Perfect Consumption]

Immediately, the remaining power surged noticeably. It felt like an increase of at least thirty percent.

Feeling high on progression, he went back to wake up Olivia. She was where he had left her. For someone with senses as sharp as those of a B-rank Awakened, she was awfully difficult to rouse. Well, they had all been through a bunch of crap recently.

As he knelt by her side, an unexpected smell trickled into his nostrils. Smoke.

"Oli," he said quietly as he shook her shoulder. "Oli, wake up. I think we should take a look around for a bit. I can smell smoke all of a sudden."

"Eik?" she asked groggily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Did you manage to do it?"

He grinned. "You can bet your ass I did! And I evolved Profound Toxin as well."

"What did you choose?"

"In the end I picked Perfect Consumption," he said, eyes scanning their surroundings as he spoke. Suddenly his gaze halted and he froze.

"Does it increase the effects of potions?"

"Yep, it does…" he drawled, attention on something behind her. "But I think there are more important things to deal with right now."

"What?" she asked and pushed herself onto her elbows, turning to look. She drew in a sharp breath.

In the bushes was a face. Covered in dirt and grime, eyes wide and frightened, Eik had almost mistaken it for a monster initially. But on second glance there was no doubt about it.

They'd found another human.

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