They led Mikla to the coast where he took a moment to assess the arrival location. Eik could only stare in awe as the fracture specialist performed a sequence of complicated calculations in his head that Eik could only ever dream of being capable of.

A minute later they had a swirling fracture hanging in the air in front of them. Mikla followed them through and handed over a new beacon stone to Eik. With a brief farewell and expression of good luck, Mikla went back to wherever he was going. As an expert in inter-dimensional travel, it was almost like the man was in two places at once sometimes.

Wasting no time, they set off, their superhuman pace carrying them quickly inland and away from coastal land. Even more so than eastern Denmark had been, this environment was absolutely overrun with vegetation, the plants having reclaimed everything with a vengeance.

Despite having been through the coastal city that connected to Denmark at least a handful of times in his life, Eik wouldn't have been able to recognize it at all if he hadn't known where they were already.

Some larger buildings had become so overgrown with vines, leaves, and constricting trunks that they resembled gigantic, branchless and crownless trees more than anything else. Mostly, however, the man-made structures had crumbled under the unforgiving assault of nature.

Further inland, the terrain became even more overrun, with plant growth so dense that the best method of travel was to leap from huge branch to huge branch. Many of the trees here were around fifty meters tall and offered them a great view of the ground below. Or a view of the top of the ridiculously compact undergrowth, rather.

Any time they encountered larger groups of weaker monster, Eik would release Profound Toxic mist at maximum output as he ran through them at top speed. Unable to keep up with him, the monsters would be left helplessly behind to breathe in those deadly particles.

Thousands of monster he killed as they traveled, barely slowing down at all.

One thing they noticed was how much more frequently lower ranked monsters would appear in larger groups. Since monster did seem to act aggressively toward one another, it made sense that those that had no chance to survive on their own would travel in sizable packs to increase the likelihood of survival.

And even though they still might not be able to defeat an opponent stronger than them, the sheer number of them might allow at least some of them to escape by the sacrifice of their kin.

"What did you speak with Mikla about when we went back to Forest? He looked like he had seen a ghost or something."

"Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine. I pitched him the idea of putting them on the market to hear how they are usually sold."

"And? How are they usually sold?"

"They're not."

"What do you mean they're not? They're expensive? Too cheap to be worth it?"

"They don't exist."

"Anyone capable of creating them keeps them for themselves?"

"No, like, they don't exist. At all. Anywhere."

She gave him a lifted eyebrow. "They don't exist? So you're the first to ever make something like this?"

He nodded, not quite able to suppress the grin that could split his face every time he thought about it. "According to Mikla, gaining permanent boosts to one's strength through alchemical creations alone is supposed to be a physical impossibility. Or, as he put it, 'it goes against the system',"

"Well, now I want some of my own even more. When are you making the B-rank version?"

Eik rolled his eyes. "Could we maybe just tackle one problem at a time here, please? Mikla said to sell them at auction anonymously, but they don't just let any dumb idiot walk in at put products up for sale there, apparently."

"Why even sell them in the first place? Just take them all yourself and enjoy getting stronger forever."

"I'll do that too, but us Earthlings need as good a start in the Unified Mass as we can possibly get, and the cult raid hasn't exactly done us any favors. A fat wallet could really help us."

She chuckled. "You know, sometimes you're too selfless for your own good."

"I just don't like seeing people suffer. That seems pretty standard to me."

"Yeah, if only," she said with a scoff. "So what did Mikla suggest?"

"That I talk to Andihar Dayarunar. His influence would be more than enough to get me and my wares into the auction without having to reveal my identity."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Then why don't you?"

Eik pulled a face. "But can I trust him? I haven't even known him for a week."

"Sure, but with something as sensitive as a never before seen miracle pill that can permanently make a person more powerful, when could you even know for sure. All we know is that he dropped everything at the Nidafjeld Alliance in a time of severe crisis to come and save us, all because you saved his daughter. We're fresh and weak and poor, and he had absolutely nothing to gain from helping us," she said.

He nodded along as she spoke. "Yeah, good point."

"If he wanted to establish a friendly relationship with us, he could have gone about it by conventional and official means. Instead, he came here to help us fight a losing battle, all because of his goodwill toward you. Just give him a cut and some pills."

"You're taking this a bit more lightly than I would like, but it makes sense. I'll have to give it a bit of thought."

She gazed out over the tree tops which stretched out seemingly infinitely into the distance. "I think you will have plenty of time to think, Eik."

***

They had been running aimlessly for a little over thirty minutes when a thick wall of fog suddenly appeared ahead of them. For the past fifteen minutes it had already been hazy enough to make it difficult to see much in the distance, but this dense curtain was a completely different story.

As they approached, it barely became easier to see through the veil and the ominous air emanating from the twisting gray was unmistakable.

"Are we going in?" Eik asked.

Olivia shot him a look of incredulity. "Hell no. Why the hell would you want to do that? We go around."

Altering their course, they began to circle whatever it was. It wasn't just a straight wall after all, but rather an enormous, curved barrier that seemed to stretch far up into the sky. Something huge had to be in there.

As they made their way around, they gradually neared the swirling curtain of fog. Suddenly, the almost fluid layer wobbled and roiled like a rock hitting a quiet lake.

"Get away!" Olivia shouted, even as a gigantic form burst from the shroud. Whatever it was collided directly and bodily with Eik, sending him hurtling through the air where he tore through a meter thick tree trunk, sap and wood splinters going everywhere. Hitting the ground, his body ripped into the soft soil like a meteorite and dug a long, deep groove.

By the time he was back on his feet, Olivia had already activated her most powerful ability called Corporeal Flame, shifting into a living blaze. A molten fist slammed into the snout of what looked like a supersized stag, the force of the blow tearing it out of the thick layer of fog inside which it had remained until then.

As its body came free of the veil, it was as if the fog followed like clothing. Four more explosive impacts followed as Olivia punched it thrice and followed up with a brutal axe kick that sent the beast plunging to the ground.

With no time to regain his breath, Eik swallowed the contents of a Potion of Mighty Strength class 3 before leaping in to intercept the monster's fall, Backflow bringing his body into toxic overdrive.

Now finding himself capable of taking the example of his own body when it had been controlled by Profound Toxin back in the Championship forest against the invading cultists, Eik utilized his C-rank control and sent a surge of Profound Toxin forth ahead of him. Even as it separated itself from him physically, his mental grasp on the substance never faltered.

With an exertion of pure will, he forced it to crystallize into several thick, solid stalagmites of poison. It was a miracle that he made it, but the creations flowed into existence just in time to pierce deeply into the overgrown deer's ribs and belly.

Like debris thrown out of a volcano during a eruption, Olivia descended like a god of fire, exploding violently upon impact and practically melting through the layers of skin, fat, and flesh.

At a mental order from Eik, all of the luminescent blue structures buried in the body of the deer detonated in a paroxysmal blast that ripped the monster apart from the inside, ending its life in an instant.

With the exception of its initial lunge at Eik, the beast hadn't managed to cause any real damage to them before dying.

It had an… exceptionally strange body. From collar to the base of its tail it was completely enveloped in churning fog. What the exact purpose of this odd physical phenomenon was was difficult to put a finger on.

It seemed to neither camouflage nor protect the deer particularly well. Seeing as the gigantic fog barrier was now thinning, it was likely that it was nothing more than a complication of its evolved ability to control fog. It might well have had offensive capabilities related to fog that it simply never had the chance to show off. It's strength had definitely been around B-rank.

"The fog barrier is thinning but it still looks pretty powerful," Olivia noted, craning her neck to get a complete view. When Eik didn't respond she looked back only to see him up to his elbows in bloody, foggy gore. "What are you doing?" she said with a sigh.

"Look! It's not just on the outside! The fog seems to permeate the entire inside of its torso for some reason. Wanna see?"

"… I'm good," she stated with a grimace.

"Alright, your loss, I suppose."

"Can we go now?"

"Yeah, hold on, let me just…" he mumbled as he dug around the deer's intestines with the wakizashi, squelching and splashing echoing among the titanic trees. "see if I can't find an organ responsible for the production of this smoke. I wonder if it's some kind of vapor. Hey, Oli, how do you think it was able to mak—"

Convulsing dry heaves interrupted him before he could finish. "Wait, are you—? Isn't it literally your job to slaughter monsters by the scores? How in the world are you this squeamish at a little thing like this?"

"It's not the same!" she insisted through deep, careful breaths.

"It totally is! You see guts and gore on a daily basis."

The fire manipulator shook her head vehemently, still hunched over in case she had to throw up. "What I see on a daily basis is basically nice, well done steaks. Not this raw, wet stuff."

Eik chewed on that argument for a second. "Okay, I actually get that. Good point. I can't find anything anyway," he concluded as he stood back up and Profound Toxin surged out to lap up the remaining blood and gore that drenched his skin and clothes. In two seconds he was clean again.

"Neat trick."

"Isn't it just? My ability is basically a glorified vacuum cleaner sometimes," he said, immediately followed by a blue tendril snaking out to slap him across the face. "Ow, what the hell!"

Olivia laughed. "I wonder what's inside that barrier."

"I think I know," Eik muttered, staring up at the fog that had now begin to twist like a tornado.

Olivia followed his gaze as three more gigantic deer appeared from within the haze.

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