Eclipse rubbed his temples, letting out a long sigh as he looked down at the curious scene before him.
Standing beside him, Silva and Valeria crouched with grim determination, their heads pressed close to the floor, watching the small, blue slime happily consuming the hidden stash of weaponry Eclipse kept under his bed.
After finally regaining his footing just an hour ago, Eclipse wasn't sure what to make of this mess.
He glanced from Silva's poised expression to Valeria's slightly guilty one.
"So… let me get this straight," he muttered, half-amused, half-exasperated. "The herb I went through all that trouble for—the Bloodfern—is gone, and only the Silver Root survived?"
Silva and Valeria exchanged glances, their brows furrowing.
Valeria was the first to speak. "Well… we thought you were the one who brought this thing here?"
"Oh, so you thought I was the one to break Academy law?" he asked dryly.
The Academy had strict rules against "pets" or "summoned creatures," a category into which this slimy little intruder certainly fell.
If someone were to discover Eclipse harboring it, he could easily face accusations of traitor—a crime punishable by death. The thought made his stomach churn.
It seemed that, Eclipse thought while looking at the slime, the teleportion magic mistook this slime as one of my belonging... so instead of the herb, it brought back this.
With a composed, almost chilly expression, Silva spoke up. "Master, would you like me to eradicate this… creature? I could handle it quickly."
Eclipse nodded absentmindedly, gesturing for her to go ahead. "Yes, please—just take care of it before we end up in more trouble."
Silva and Valeria didn't waste a moment.
They both ducked under the bed, attempting to seize the slimy intruder that jiggled teasingly.
Watching them struggle, Eclipse sighed, covering his face with one hand. I know one of them is it, but it felt like two of them are fraud, he thought.
The two of them reached and stretched, elbows bumping and expressions increasingly irritated as the small blue slime wobbled around just out of reach.
But the sight faded as he drifted back to the reality of his situation.
He had barely made it through one battle, and the price had been five days in bed, helpless.
He knew the truth all too well: I'm weak. And sooner or later, I'll face the Hero again. Weak means dead.
His gaze lingered on the Silverroot herb, a powerful catalyst in alchemy.
If I had more of that potion… maybe there's a chance. And Valeria might know something about that...
"Silva, your elbow is in my way!"
But maybe he'd ask her later, she can't run anyway.
The elixir he'd used to take down the corrupted slime was a game-changer.
Though dangerous, it had given him a surge of power that bordered on supernatural.
And power—no matter the cost—was what he needed to survive.
In this world, power stemmed from one source above all: inner-mana.
Those like Seraphine, the Hero's ally and a top-tier mage, didn't need any external aid.
Her magic came naturally, like a river drawn from within.
Inner-mana was self-renewing, flexible, practically infinite for someone like her, and it's what made her S-tier.
But Eclipse? He possessed nothing of the sort.
Lacking inner-mana, he was left with outer-mana sources—rare, costly, and dangerously unstable.
For the average person, harnessing outer-mana was like trying to catch a wildfire in a jar.
It was unpredictable, frequently disastrous, and often led to violent, fiery failures.
The only reason he'd managed to channel it with the Draught potion was because it had been masterfully crafted, tempered with arcane knowledge beyond his reach.
And that gave him an idea.
Though he couldn't recreate the exact potion that had fueled his fight with the slime, maybe—just maybe—he could craft something close enough to even the odds.
He wasn't new to the world of Alchemy of this world, he had once gone through it in the game.
The Silverroot, he knew a formula that could make it useful.
Of course, it would be a gamble, he mused, glancing at the herb and recalling the in-game formulas he had once memorized.
Not only, he would have given up passing the trial.
But with every potion, there was the risk that instead of empowering its user, it might have a catastrophic reaction—or worse.
But he couldn't experiment on himself.
Not when the stakes were so high.
Unless… he could find a test subject.
"Come out from under there," he said with a glint in his eye, now very interested in the possibilities that were unfolding.
Both women looked up, their heads half-hidden beneath the bed, staring at him in confusion.
"Let it be. Don't kill it just yet."
They stared back, frozen in place with their backsides sticking up from beneath the bed.
"Are you not hearing me?" he repeated, tilting his head. "Let it go. I might actually have a use for it."
But neither girl moved, looking slightly sheepish.
"Well?" he pressed.
Valeria cleared her throat, her voice slightly muffled. "Uh… I think we're kind of stuck here."
Silva's voice followed, calm but tinged with embarrassment. "I… apologize, Master. It appears my sleeve is caught."
Eclipse pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. "Is this actually happening right now?"