'The shop appeared to be special, but why is it located in a random no-name city,' Nero asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
'It is a special shop, the second best in the Empire, and the shop itself is located in a pocket space, with hundreds of entrances scattered across the Empire, one in every big or small city,' Draven answered and continued.
'As for why we were the only customer in the shop when it is the second best, because at one point only a single individual could enter, and also because prices of her products are hard to meet,'
'However, if one could meet the price, then she is the best alchemist one could find on the entire continent,' Draven said, his tone matter-of-fact as he spoke from experience.
Nero was left speechless, as the realization that the stunning beauty they had just encountered was not just another shopkeeper but one of the most important individuals on the continent.
'She was very friendly and nice for someone so influential and powerful,' Nero murmured, and Draven just smiled at his younger self's naivety.
'So what next?' Nero asked, eager to learn if they were finally going to get the system, and Draven did not disappoint.
'Once I deal with the blood clots filling your veins, we are going to go and hunt the Crysindora Arachna,' Draven answered, and Nero was quick to raise his concern, 'What? Why choose that big spider,'
'She might be the newest ruler, but she killed the Galewing Roc and took nearly one-third of the territory of both the Shadowwood Centipede and the Amberclaw Monkey,' Nero said, feeling horrified that Draven had selected the worst ruler of the Deerwood to hunt.
'She has the Lunar Dominion System, an Apex grade system that is on the higher end, and devouring it would help you quickly gain strength and not stand out too much,' Draven said, but that was not entirely the reason he picked the spider.
'That motherless vermin is going to grow into a First Assendent Rank creature, starting a war with the Locusts King, forcing his entire race of countless billions to evolve into the voracious swarm-wings who had an insatiable appetite,'
'I will kill her and the Locusts King to save the world from the tragedy that killed millions,' Draven thought, keeping his desire to set things right to himself.
But even in all his wisdom, he forgot that few things could never be set right, and he would only realize this harsh truth with time.
Draven left the slums and made his way back to his hotel room, laying down two clean sheets on the floor before stripping completely naked and sitting in a meditation position.
He took out a vial from the space ring with deep crimson liquid inside. Inside was the body-cleansing potion of epic quality, which alone cost two hundred thousand gold coins, enough for one to buy a mega mention in a large city.
After taking deep breaths to calm each and every muscle in his body, Draven picked up the potion and drank it in a single gulp.
He threw the bottle aside and placed his hands on his knees, his open palms facing the ceiling while he closed his eyes as he waited for the potion to take effect.
It took mere moments for the liquid to dissolve into his bloodstream, reaching all his major organs. His heart began to beat louder and louder as it pushed blood to double its normal speed.
The veins on his arms, legs, back, and front began to bulge like worms crawling beneath his skin. His heart rate grew faster and faster until an entire circulation that normally took 60 seconds took less than 10.
There was no change in his expression, but if it were anyone other than Draven, they would be rolling on the floor screaming until their voice ran dry. For someone with his experience, it was as easy as breathing to shut off his sense of pain.
The countless blockages in his veins were obliterated, with a few veins rupturing under the immense pressure. Yet, as quickly as the damage occurred, his body healed just as fast. The crimson energy surged through him, flooding every part of his being and revitalizing every cell with raw, overwhelming power.
But this was just the beginning. Seconds into the cleansing process, his skin began to turn red under the pressure and heat from his boiling blood, and razor-thin cracks started to tear open, only to grow wider under the high pressure, forcing jets of blood to gush out from every opening.
It had been less than a few minutes, and Draven was drenched in his blood, a literal pool forming around him as his body went through the process of destruction and rejuvenation.
All his muscles were torn and recovered, again and again in a vicious cycle. His bones creaked and groaned under the strain, tiny fractures appearing along their surfaces before being mended instantly by the regenerative force coursing through him.
The crimson energy that flooded his system was relentless, saturating not just his blood but his very marrow and weaving through his organs and muscles.
It tore through impurities, residual toxins, and defects accumulated from the lifetime of minor injuries, and minutes later, when his body could no longer hold the broken-down impurities, his stomach violently churned, pushing every last impurity, every toxin out.
He vomited a stream of black sludge mixed with blood that sizzled as it hit the floor. The same dark ooze seeped from his nose and ears, even a thin stream leaking from the corners of his eyes, his body rejecting it all, leaving nothing but the raw, burning vitality that remained.
Nero, who was completely in the dark, asked for updates every few minutes, but he was ignored, leaving him with no choice but to speculate about what his body was going through.
It took a few more minutes before his wounds began to heal, his skin re-knitting without a scar, his inside recovering to a perfect halt as the last of potion energy burned away in this recovery effort.
At last, his heart began to slow, its once-thunderous pounding easing into a calm, steady rhythm, and his veins began to recede back under the surface, no longer bulging out as they had before.
The cleansing process came to an end, leaving Nero as good as new. His years of defects finally healed, and the best part was that he did not even have to go through the gruesome process of having his body torn piece by piece as he was pushed to the brink of insanity.
The body cleansing process was one of the best methods for anyone third Rank and below to recover from crippling injuries, as it hijacked one's own nervous system and pumped the body with extremely high regenerative energy.
It tore the body down, all while healing it, pushing the body to heal all unnatural damage, and it could even regenerate missing body parts, but it also came with unbearable pain.
The method was known but few were willing to go through it unless their life was at risk even though it gave one major benefit including strength enhancement, better mana sensitivity, and absorption.
However, few were willing to go through the process because of the pain, as more than half the time, individuals who went through it either ended up dead or were left mentally challenged, and no one wanted such a fate, even if there were half-decent benefits of it.
If Draven had not been worried about wasting a month in recovery, he would have made Nero drink the potion and go through the pain, but since the time was not worth the end result, he decided to do it himself.
Draven sat in his position with eyes closed for the next two hours, only moving when he felt somewhat energized, and after dealing with the bloodied sheets he lay down in the beginning by simply putting them in the space ring, he went to take a shower.
Nero was horrified by the gruesome sight of blood and the unknown liquid whose mere smell was revolting, making him wonder how the hell he was even awake, let alone calmly cleaning the mess.
It took a few minutes for him to come to his senses before he began to celebrate, knowing he was cured but also that he did not have to go through the agony of the healing process.
He felt very grateful to his older self and thanked him wholeheartedly because he knew how depressing and soul-crushing it felt to be a cripple, to not have the ability to walk the path of ascension, to see all his dreams be distant to be realized, to know that he would spend his life as a nobody.
Nero thanked Draven but also asked many questions, yet he was ignored completely, making him want to take control of the body to see the changes for himself.
However, since he did not wish to be ungrateful, he decided to wait and did not take control of his body. It was lucky for him because if he had taken control, he would have experienced a world of pain even though the worst had already passed.