With his cauldron lit up with fire, Chrysos began brewing a healing potion in order for these people to let him live. But he had another plan in mind.
Chrysos' hands moved efficiently and accurately as he took one ingredient after another and either mixed, cooked, boiled or extracted it. He then placed different mixtures on different containers and set them aside when he didn't need them, and he only used them when he naturally needed those mixtures.
Everyone was watching him intently. His hands moved like snakes while brewing the potion. Even the usually uninterested martial artist couldn't help but watch.
Chrysos felt a bit daring. These people don't know a thing about alchemy. So almost anything that he placed in the cauldron would be treated as a very important procedure.
Chrysos' eyes gleamed.
He then took out a jar and uncapped it. He took out a numbing frog and grabbed a spoon. It was the same blue frog with black spots that he had to use to numb his nerves from before. He scooped out a decent amount of the frog's gel and put it on the pot.
"Hey, hey, hey, isn't that a numbing frog? Why are you putting that in?" Vaila looked at him with skepticism.
The shine in his eyes faded when he heard what Vaila asked him. He felt that he might have been too careless this time around.
"It's to prevent the forceful healing from being too painful since it's going to fix the flesh instantly." Chrysos quickly thought of an explanation.
"Are you sure? I don't remember seeing that ingredient in other healing potions that I saw." Vaila was suspicious. "Are you sure you aren't trying to poison our boss?"
Feroi unsheathed his sword. "Well well well, it looks like you don't know your place.."
The others prepared their weapons and pointed it at Chrysos. He was encircled.
Knowing that he might actually die if he didn't say anything, he immediately rebutted. "I promise it's not poison, I'll even drink it first to prove it to you guys!" Chrysos looked panicked and flustered.
"Vaila, are you sure he's being honest?" The hunter looked at the mage.
"When it's finished, make sure he drinks it first." Vaila said after some thought. She didn't see anything wrong with Chrysos' proposition, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.
"If you say so." Feroi sneered and sat back down. This time, he's watching Chrysos even more attentively.
Chrysos didn't mind it and continued brewing the potion. No matter how intently they watched him, if they didn't know what he was doing to begin with, he was sure that they wouldn't see anything wrong with it. Well, except for the keen eyed magic caster.
Chrysos inwardly sighed in relief. This time, he brewed the healing potion much more discreetly.
It took him a few minutes until it was done.
"There, it's finished." Chrysos took a vial and filled it with the potion in the pot. He pressed a switch in his mask that allows liquids and gasses to enter in order to drink it.
Everyone saw Chrysos gulping it down, but it was evident that nothing really happened to him.
"See? I said it's safe." Chrysos assured them. He took the same vial and filled it with the potion.
"Great, now give it to me.." Feroi walked over to Chrysos and reached his hand out.
Chrysos gave it to him and Feroi was about to give it to Shalra when Vaila took it from him. Still holding some doubts towards the potion.
"Vaila, what's wrong?" Feroi was shocked that Vaila would take it from him.
"I'm still not convinced it's safe." Vaila drank the potion without warning.
Chrysos' throat tightened. "Oh no… it seems that I got caught this time."
When the potion entered her body, Vaila felt her body become stiff, her muscles stopped responding which prevented her from moving at all. She then fell down to the ground with a shocked expression still on her face.
This shocked everyone.
"You dare trick us?!" The archer pulled her bow and shot an arrow at Chrysos.
Chrysos moved fast and used his Divinium to activate skin hardening. The arrow pierced his clothes and did minimal damage to him as the arrow got only a third of an inch through his arm.
"Get him!" Feroi shouted fiercely. Feroi brandished his sword and executed a Divinious sword technique exclusive to his Divine Path.
All of them were ready to kill Chrysos.
Chrysos stood in his place and smiled. He reached for his pocket and grabbed a handful of firesmoke leaves. He then dropped the leaves into the cauldron.
Poof!
A huge cloud of smoke filled the entire house.
Everyone's eyes widened in fear and stopped in their tracks.
"Run! You'll get paralyzed if you inhale that gas!" Feroi covered his mouth and nose.
Chrysos laughed with an arrogant grin. "Too late.."
Everyone inhaled the gas before Feroi even got the chance to warn them. Except for Chrysos who was wearing a gas mask.
Everything was working in his favor. Chrysos couldn't describe it properly, but the joy of winning in a disadvantageous position made him smile uncontrollably.
All of them fell down, paralyzed. They couldn't even turn their heads but they could still see and think. They were angry at Chrysos, but they couldn't do anything.
This added to their frustration.
Chrysos looked around and his eyes turned from happy to shocked.
Shalra was gone. He couldn't see her anywhere.
Chrysos thought fast.
Chrysos took his knife and dipped it in the cauldron. He waited patiently for her to attack.
He was afraid that a miscalculation could end his life. He already died once without any power to prevent it from happening. He wasn't going to let it happen again.
"Shalra! Show yourself! I know you're injured!" Chrysos taunted. He kept looking around for any signs of movements.
He looked around with his knife ready to attack once Shalra showed herself. Sweat slowly appeared on his forehead.
Suddenly, Chrysos heard a faint creak in the middle of the room.
"What?" He turned towards the sound.
Swooosh...
When he turned around, Shalra suddenly appeared and stabbed his throat!
Chrysos immediately grabbed her arm and stabbed the knife in her forearm. Shalra kicked him and pushed Chrysos down the floor with his throat exposed as it leaked out blood everywhere.
With this injury, he was really dying.
Shalra laughed. "You thought you could outsmart me? Too bad, you haven't seen anything yet!" The reason why she managed to avoid the gas was because her resistance far surpassed Chrysos by a mile. If she weren't injured at all, she would've beheaded Chrysos right then and there.
She tried standing up to finish him, but she was getting dizzy. The paralyzing potion was slowly seeping into her bloodstream.
She gritted her teeth, and managed to stabilize herself into a half kneeling position. Even though she was poisoned, she smiled at Chrysos' dying body.
"Once I fully heal, I'm going to make sure that this never happens to me again.." Shalra looked at the claw marks in her stomach that still wasn't healing.
On the floor, Chrysos scrambled for his belt and took out a healing potion. He popped it open with his thumb and poured it all over himself. After that, his wound finally closed.
"*cough* *cough* That was a nasty experience." Chrysos cleared his throat.
"…" everyone looked at him with their eyes wide.
The martial artist looked at him with even more anger. "You told me you only had one healing potion! You liar!" However, he couldn't speak, so he could only shout in his head.
Shalra's face was drained of color. She thought that Chrysos was dead for sure, but she didn't know that Chrysos would manage to actually survive!
"I almost died dammit! Hahahaha! Is this what the mighty Shalra Avesin amounts to?!" Chrysos laughed. However, they couldn't see it under his mask, making Chrysos look like a deranged lunatic.
Shalra tried standing up, but her legs and arms were already paralyzed. She couldn't do anything even if she wanted to. "Screw you! If I wasn't poisoned, you wouldn't be standing there right now!"
"Oh please, just accept your defeat and stop crying over it." Chrysos waved his hand at her showing how he could care less and poured the paralysis potion into another container.
He was going to brew another potion to thoroughly incapacitate these guys until he saw that he didn't have enough ingredients.
"Oh crap, I don't have the right ingredients." Chrysos scratched his head awkwardly. He looked at the paralyzed people around him and took their coin pouches.
"Hey that's mine!" The hunter was seeing his savings getting plundered from him but he couldn't do anything about it. This made him even more furious than he already was.
Vaila realized that couldn't close her other eye that had been leaking with tears in order to prevent them from drying up.
The martial artist could only watch as his belongings were getting stolen right before his eyes.
Everyone's hatred towards Chrysos grew tenfold.
Chrysos snatched all of their money from them and said, "I'll be back, watch them for me will you?" And patted Shalra's head. He then looked at Vaila who was currently suffering from her eyes drying up. He decided to be kind and closed it for her.
He stood up and went towards the market. "I'll be back in a bit." Chrysos whistled as he left.
"..."
Ten minutes later…
Chrysos returned and dropped the sack of ingredients next to Shalra. "Oh, are you trying to crawl away?" Chrysos chuckled at Shalra who was trying to use her remaining strength to try and escape.
"Damn you! I'll skin you alive and feed it to you if I ever escape!" Shalra shouted at Chrysos with rage.
"Is that so?" Chrysos' eyes gleamed.
He grabbed the container filled with the paralysis potion and made them inhale more of it to increase the duration of the paralysis effect just in case it weakened while he was shopping.
After that, he began brewing with the ingredients that he used their money to buy with.
It was a lengthy process, but after finishing the potion, he carried their bodies and made them sit against a wall. He took a spoon and fed the potion to their mouths one by one. Of course, they couldn't do anything about it and could only glare at him angrily.
Shalra was the only one who could still speak because of the level of her strength.
"Hey! What are you feeding them!?" Shalra shouted at him. "If you're a real man, fight me face to face!" She then started shouting profanities.
"This is called a Divinium Plundering Poison. I made the improved recipe myself." Chrysos patted his chest with pride. "By the way, I bought rare ingredients so the price isn't low. But on the bright side, you guys won't be able to hurt anyone with your weapons, since you don't have any." Chrysos then fed the hunter next.
Everyone's hearts ached. Their weapons were sold and the potion they were drinking right now came from their own pockets. They felt extremely miserable and hopeless.
"You mother#$@!&#!! I'll skin your #$;&# and feed it to your @$#!# if I ever get the chance to!" Shalra didn't hesitate to shout at Chrysos once more.
"What's up with you and skinning people alive? Just calm down.." Chrysos shook his head as he scooped another spoonful and went to feed Shalra, but she wouldn't open her mouth whatsoever.
Chrysos clicked his tongue.
"Not interested? Okay let's do it your way then." Chrysos took out his knife and held it against Feroi's nose. "I'll skin him alive if you don't drink it. Now let's see if you're still going to spout nonsense."
Feroi's eyes widened in rage. It's no doubt that once he gets free, he won't hesitate killing Chrysos.
Shalra felt helpless seeing this. But at the same time, she really, really wanted to punch Chrysos' smug face if she ever gets the chance to.
She hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth.
Shalra could only follow Chrysos' commands, so she drank the potion 'obediently' and stayed silent. She felt very useless at this point and she didn't see any reason to fight back anymore. However, the hatred in her eyes couldn't be concealed.
After spoon-feeding a grown woman, Chrysos stood up and said, "Great, now let's go." Chrysos cleaned after himself and took out a rope he bought earlier. He carried them one by one and tried tying them all together so that they wouldn't fall off as he brought them back to the adventurer's guild.
"Damn… you're heavy.. but I'll probably still earn money after turning you over to the guild." Chrysos grunted as he lifted the martial artist.
"F#ck you!" Said the martial artist in his mind. He was still unable to speak.
The others were confused for a while since they didn't know how they were going to be transported. They were thinking that Chrysos was going to call for help or use a wagon to bring them to the Adventurer's Guild.
But to their expectations, Chrysos pushed and rolled them like a log and slowly brought them to the adventurer's guild. This was both humiliating and painful since the road had many turns before they got to the guild.
"Ow!" The hunter was being rolled in the cold stone street and his face hit a small rock in the way.
It took them a while and everyone's body was hurting all over the moment they reached the guild.
Everyone except Chrysos.
The guards of the building saw Chrysos rolling people into the guild, so one of the guards stopped him by raising his hand at Chrysos. "Halt! What are you doing?"
Chrysos looked at the guard and said, "I'm here to claim a bounty."
The guard wasn't expecting Chrysos to say that he was here to turn in a bounty. "Hey are you sure? There's a punishment if you get a bounty wrong you know... and it's also dangerous to turn in a bounty in person because you'll get targeted by some people if you're not careful. Are you sure about what you're doing?"
"Yep!" Chrysos raised a thumbs up and continued his way into the building.
"If you say so.." The guard opened the door for Chrysos.
"Also, what does that hand signal mean?" The guard imitated the thumbs up gesture and tried to decipher its meaning.
...
Inside...
The other adventurers looked at Chrysos and the people he tied up with strange expressions. They had bags over their heads and they were being rolled like a log.
Chrysos had to carry them to the front desk of the bounty section. Even though he was stronger than a normal human, the combined weight of these people still gave him a hard time.
...
When he reached the front desk, he dropped them all together. Painful grunts could be heard.
"Phew, you guys are heavier than I expected." Chrysos fanned himself with his hand.
The receptionist asked him in shock. "Who are those?"
"I'm Gerald Greenwood and I'm here for a little something." Chrysos showed him his token. The receptionist scanned it and saw that it was legitimate.
He gave it back and asked Chrysos. "So it's sir Gerald, how could I help you?" The receptionist couldn't help but look at the people Chrysos tied up.
"I'm here to turn over a bounty." Chrysos smiled.
The moment Chrysos said he was going to turn over a bounty, another adventurer scoffed behind him. "A bounty? You managed to catch someone from the bounty list? I'm not trying to say it's impossible, but you're saying that you caught someone from the bounty list and caught them unscathed?"
"Yep. I caught Shalra Avesin." Chrysos nodded and took off the bags from their heads.
The moment Shalra's face was revealed, everyone gasped.
"Seriously!?"
"How did he manage to catch her?"
"Maybe he had some help?"
"Who are those other people tied up with her?"
Murmurs filled the room.
Shalra hated the feeling of being stared at by many people. She felt humiliated. And what she hated more is the disgusted looks of the people around her.
Everyone only saw that she was a criminal but they never thought about what happened to her that led her to this path.
The only reason she killed a noble was because they took her village's land and killed her parents. Of course, with all the connections to the world, they made it look like an accident.
She just wanted justice, but they never gave it to her just because of their titles. She was tired of it all.
The receptionist looked at Chrysos with trembling hands. "I'll be right back!" She then scurried inside the door behind her.
After a short while, a knight with a golden emblem on his chest came out with the receptionist. He had blonde hair and silver armor with magic gemstones beautifully decorating his armor. His sword had eye-catching runes that told everyone that it was a powerful weapon.
"Is that Arenon Silius?" An adventurer recognized the knight almost instantly.
"You mean the famous knight that killed the Five Hundred Year Old Steel Lion that wasn't killed for centuries?" Another adventurer remembered this dashing knight from his heroic deeds.
"Yes! The same knight who risked his life saving Ironmountain and many neighboring cities multiple times from the corrupted forces! He was almost killed that time and he was given a noble title from the Insillior after hearing of his selfless sacrifice!"
Everyone was in a commotion after seeing a huge figure appear in Ironmountain.
"Are you the one who caught Shalra Avesin?" The knight named Arenon carefully eyed Chrysos.
"Yep, that's me.." Chrysos nodded. "So, when do I get my reward?"
Arenon took out a bag filled with gold coins and gave it to Chrysos. "Well done, the adventurer's guild appreciates your contribution." Arenon nodded to the five armored men behind him. "Take them away."
Chrysos saw that Shalra was looking at him without blinking. Her blood red eyes were something he couldn't forget.
Spooked as he was, he didn't ponder over it for long.
"But to be fair, you tried killing me first." Chrysos thought to himself with a shrug.
Chrysos left the adventurer's guild with the bag of gold coins. He counted his gains happily.
Arenon stared at Chrysos as he left. Arenon narrowed his eyes and thought, "He made my job of locating her easier... Shalra's injuries must've been severe for her to be defeated by a mere alchemist." Arenon also left not too long after.
"…"
After going outside, Chrysos booked a hotel to sleep in. Of course, he had some dinner first to satisfy his growling stomach.
Seeing a nearby restaurant, Chrysos already knew what to do.
"I wonder if they have rice…" Chrysos walked towards the restaurant.
And unbeknownst to him, a masked figure holding a large axe shrouded in black mist was observing him from the rooftops.