The golden light of the afternoon sun was streaming through the windows of the room. The décor was dark, and a desk sat in the centre of the room. On one side was a luxurious leather armchair, and on the other side, a swivel chair. The armchair was occupied by a man appearing in his early thirties with dirty-blonde hair, relatively good-looking and dressed up in an expensive suit. On the desk sat a small vial of golden liquid.
“-and as you hold the status of the only heir of Medallion, the largest corporation in the world, I doubt it will be beyond your capabilities to… ah, entertain further talk of negotiations regarding the X-ranked elixir I’m offering you?” The man gave the figure sitting on the opposite side of the desk a meaningful smile after he finished his sentence, gesturing to the vial on the desk between them.
Sitting on the other side of the desk with her chin propped up on her arm and her other hand tapping a slow rhythmic pattern on the desk, was a young girl in her late teens. Her long, straight black hair fell on either side of her face and she had a fringe that reached her eyebrows. She was dressed from the neck down in black, from her black turtleneck to her black trench coat, black pants, and black boots, making her appear like she didn’t have the word ‘colour’ in her dictionary.
Currently, the girl was watching the man with a slight smile on her lips as she continued to tap her fingers on the desk. She didn’t reply.
The man coughed and continued to present his proposal. “The X-ranked elixir being this vial, right here,” he said, gesturing to the crystal tube. “I believe you have the potential to become one of- no, the most popular celebrity among your generation, and I wish to ensure you have every chance of doing so.” He gave her another winning smile. “Miss Goldcroft, I want to become your personal agent regarding all things related to your awakening and future career.”
The man pushed the vial closer to her. “And I’m willing to give you the X-ranked elixir to make it happen.”
‘Miss Goldcroft’ stayed silent, still studying him with her chin propped up. The only change was that maybe her smile had grown slightly wider.
After a minute or two of silence, the blonde-haired man spoke up. “Ahem. Um, Miss Goldcroft? May I know some of your thoughts about this matter?”
“Hmm…”
The man blinked when the girl finally made a sound of acknowledgement for the first time during their meeting and then reclined back in her chair. Her smile disappeared for a second as she stared at him, making him nervous, before suddenly returning with full force. She picked up the vial and held it up to the light for her to inspect. “So, X-ranked elixir?”
The man’s expression brightened at her interest and he nodded. “Yes, this is the X-ranked elixir. I’m sure you’re familiar with its value.” He clasped his hands together with a smirk. “Manufactured only once every year by the Fabricators, then auctioned to the highest bidder yearly. For the lucky few who have become Elixir Agents, such as me, we get given this precious substance to protect ourselves if there comes a time we are held hostage or at a disadvantage.”
He spread his hands. “And I want to invest in you, Miss Lucille Goldcroft, by giving you my X-ranked elixir.”
Lucille tilted her head at him, studying him curiously before she smiled wider. “I see. Then I’m pleased you’ve seen such potential in me. I’m flattered…”
The man smiled but Lucy continued speaking.
“…is what I’d usually say in this situation, however…” She stood up from her chair, surprising the man in the armchair, and then grabbed the vial. Leaning against the side of the desk, she tossed it into the air before catching it again and returning her attention to the man.
“Stephen Lawrence…” She paused and tilted her head at him again. “It is Stephen Lawrence, right?”
“Yes, it is,” he replied with slight confusion.
Lucille nodded. “Right. You called this liquid the X-ranked elixir.” She uncapped the vial. “But this liquid… is not the X-ranked elixir.” And then she poured the vial’s contents straight onto the man’s head.
For a moment, the man froze up in his chair, completely stunned by what had just happened. Then he abruptly stood up and began hastily patting his drenched suit, as if looking for something to dry himself with. The sticky golden liquid stuck to his hair. Agent Lawrence raised his head to stare at her. “I- what- Lucille Goldcroft, why did you just do that?!”
“What a fascinating question.” Lucy tapped on her chin, pretending to think. “Why did I just do that? Perhaps we should begin from the top.”
She smirked and grabbed a pen off the desk to twirl in her fingers. “Today at two in the afternoon, I allowed you access to my floor of the skyscraper so I could listen to your offer. That is when you placed the vial of so-called ‘X-ranked elixir’ on my desk.”
Her smirk widened. “After that, you proposed that we form a… collaborative relationship where you become my private Agent for the rest of my future career as an ability user, while I provide you with financial support.”
She gave Agent Lawrence a light shrug. “In ordinary circumstances, this would be quite profitable for the two of us. But… you never intended on giving me the X-ranked elixir.”
Lucille dropped the pen to pick up the empty vial and tossed it into the air. Then she grabbed it and held it up for him to see. “This is an S-ranked elixir. Still valuable, and the highest quality of S-ranked elixirs can be sold for up to billions of dollars, but…” Her smile faded slightly and she tilted her head at him. “This is not the priceless X-ranked elixir you’re promising me.”
Agent Lawrence gave her a strained smile. “Miss Goldcroft, as an individual still quite young, you may not be familiar with elixirs and their properties. An X-ranked elixir is always nearly indistinguishable from its lower-tier counterparts, so-”
“Agent Lawrence, I am not the fool you seem to think I am,” Lucille Goldcroft interrupted. She narrowed her eyes at him and smirked. “Anyone familiar with your Union and the distribution of elixirs knows that the X-ranked elixir is black.”
The man stared at her, obviously stunned that she knew that. The specific colour of the X-ranked elixir was a detail only known to the upper echelons of the business and political worlds. But Agent Lawrence recovered quickly. He rubbed his chin in thought, looking at the ground, then raised his eyes to her. Then he gained a confident smile.
“Well, Miss Goldcroft, you caught me,” he said calmly. He spread his hands. “You’re right. That wasn’t the X-ranked elixir.” Then he chuckled. “But what do you think this will change? That I’ll hand the real X-ranked elixir over to you?” He turned around to leave. “This deal is off. Goodbye, Miss Goldcroft.”
“…I see.” Lucy eyed him with a strange smile on her face. Then she walked around her desk to unplug a small device from the computer residing on it. She held it up as she called out to the agent. “Agent Lawrence, I believe you’re forgetting something.”
He glanced back to give her a sceptical look. Lucille grinned as she held the device up. “Agent Lawrence, you do realise I have security cameras in my room, right? And this storage device contains all the video evidence of your lies.”
He stared at the device, then at her. Lucille threw the device into the air like she had done with the glass vial, taunting him. He dashed forward to grab the device, stumbling over the carpet, barely managed to snatch it from her, and then stomped on it with his foot, crushing it.
Lucy tilted her head and smiled. “That was, of course, a copy. All security footage is uploaded elsewhere for safety reasons.”
He paled. Lucille smirked and sat back down on her swivel chair. She kicked her legs up on the desk and spread her hands wide. “So, what will it be, Agent Lawrence? A public revelation that a government employee has been presenting S-ranked elixirs as X-ranked ones to future awakened, and to the heir of the largest corporation in the world herself, or…”
She leaned forward. “You give me the real X-ranked elixir.” There was silence in the room before she added, almost as an afterthought, “Also, I’m aware that the protection clauses of Agents state that the X-ranked elixir should be used in the event of blackmail. Let me clarify something. This is blackmail. I am blackmailing you right now.”
…
Agent Lawrence ended up agreeing to give her the elixir. Their new ‘agreement’ was finalised through a contract, where she would keep the event that had just occurred secret, in return for the X-ranked elixir – which would arrive tomorrow, on her birthday, the 2nd of July.
Almost as soon as the deal was struck, Agent Lawrence stood up. “Then I’ll take my leave now,” he said quietly.
Lucy smiled and followed him to the door. “Take care, Agent Lawrence. I believe there will be a wonderful cooperation between us.”
He gave her a weary nod, prepared to leave until Lucy held out her open palm to him. “And Agent Lawrence…” Her smile became cold. “Get rid of the trash while you’re here.”
He glanced between her and the empty glass vial in her hand. He gulped and grabbed it, ignoring the strange chill he received when he touched her strangely cool hands. Then he opened the door of her room and stepped through.
“I hope your future business ventures go as well as this one!” she called out cheerily.
The door shut and Lucille was left alone in her room. Her smile, which had been nearly ever-present throughout the entire meeting, disappeared and she went expressionless. Then she walked over to a window of the room with her hands behind her back.
The agent might have noticed the marker I placed on him, but he won’t know enough to detect anything besides a strange sense of someone watching him.
Stephen Lawrence… I thought the name was familiar. I never realised he was the same man who had given me my ‘X-ranked elixir’. This might have consequences that will end up being very unfortunate for a certain someone…
A cruel smirk briefly appeared on her lips before disappearing once more. She walked back over to her desk, looking somewhat solemn until she sat back down and lackadaisically lounged sideways in the slowly rotating desk chair. Lucille’s eyes fell to the traces of liquid gold still drying on the armchair opposite her.
Exactly 231 years ago, she had drunk that elixir. It hadn’t activated until her birthday, however, as someone could only awaken when they were eighteen.
Agent Lawrence probably thought she was eighteen so he arrived to give her the offer then, and that was what she was in the public eye, but technically she wasn’t yet. That was because some random journalist ‘managed’ to find a leak on what her birthdate was, which was wrong, yet sent it out to all the news platforms so the public knew her as being born the day before.
Understandably, the whims of the natural world didn’t answer to the opinions of mediocre mortals of human existence, nor documents of paper, so she was 17 years, 11 months, 30 days, and 18 hours old. Not exactly 18. But, all of this was irrelevant, because the X-ranked elixir would be arriving tomorrow, and not now.
And when she drank the elixir, her calm stay at her old home would end. Lucy placed her hands behind her head as she looked up at the roof.
The employees of the building had been eyeing her with suspicion these last few months. They probably thought she was either plotting her next evil plan to mess with her great-uncle that would incur an incredible amount of collateral damage… or that she was possessed.
And maybe she was in a way, but that was going into semantics. She had entirely absorbed the remnants of the 17-and-11-months-old girl so that she had reacquainted herself with the ways of the Goldcroft family and would not seem strange to them. It was, after all, still her own soul.
It was a surprisingly easy process, considering it was her immature self. She had heard others say that assimilating the souls of clones based on their teenage selves was a particularly strenuous activity, as some may say they were a little rebellious. Another party said it was even harder than assimilating the souls of others. That party was promptly killed afterwards by her personally.
Maybe her ego had done a 360 and regressed into a teenager over time, so now she was once again the mental equivalent of personified teenage angst. She contemplated that for a while.
Eventually, she shook herself and turned to look out of the nearest window. Marvin was probably going to waste a few months looking for her and setting up preventative measures for her ‘plot’. Not that there was one. He’d be wasting all his effort for nothing.
As for his brother, her grandfather… Richard would likely just laugh when Marvin reveals Lucy’s disappearance and continue his retirement in his newest choice of resort. There was a reason why it was Marvin who ran the global financial powerhouse that was Medallion, and not his twin brother.
She’d rather relive her meeting with Agent Lawrence than think about her disappointing relatives. She had a lot. Her parents, for one, who left when she was 5 and were never seen again.
Now that the contract had been signed, It was practically set in stone that she would receive it. And from what she knew about Stephen Lawrence… there was a certain mutual acquaintance of theirs that this deal could heavily impact.
An individual that she detested from the very depths of her soul, and would do anything to see them receive justice. Someone whom she wished she could throw down a pit as deep as Tartarus so he would never see the light again. A person whose disgusting attention had haunted her for 231 years.
That person was going to have to suffer quite a bit because of this newest change. And Lucille was thrilled because of that. She had many plans to make him suffer more.
That man, with a heroic kind of nature, was named Conlan Griffin.
…
10 am on July the 2nd, a small dark box, the kind to carry jewellery, was sent to Lucy’s room. Opening it up, she picked up the glass vial and studied it in the light, holding it in the air.
The vial containing the X-ranked elixir was small. Barely longer or wider than her little finger, the tube bore no markings or other identifying features that would indicate manufacturing. The glass was so unusually, perfectly clear that it would almost seem non-existent if it were not for the sensation of crystal against her fingertips. The stopper was semi-translucent, appearing like a type of gem. It was a pale, sky-blue and the only feature on it was the seemingly carved symbol of a single cog.
That was not the symbol of the Union or its divisions.
Because of this, Lucy could confirm that the X-ranked elixir was not created by anybody on Earth. Or created by ‘anybody’ at all.
She drew her attention to the actual contents of the vial. Thick, with a consistency similar to a mixture of water and cornflour, the matte black substance slid frictionlessly off the walls of the vial. It didn’t look appetising in the slightest, but elixirs weren’t designed to be tasty. Besides, she had consumed her fair share of dubious liquids for research purposes.
But she was curious about what effects this elixir could have. She assumed it would mean she’d start stronger than she had in the past, of course, considering she had only drunk the S-ranked one before. Elixirs were supposed to have qualitative effects at each rank that differed from the lower ranks, so she wondered how powerful the elixir she held now was. Maybe it wouldn’t have much impact on her at all.
She glanced at the clock and took a deep breath. It was time for her to stop delaying. But there was one last thing for her to do.
She pressed a button on her desk and on her laptop at the same time, deleting any recorded footage of her meeting with Agent Lawrence as well as all her browsing data from the last three months, then stood up, tucking the vial into a pocket. She walked over to one of the windows and waited patiently. A couple of minutes later the room of her door opened.
A man in his late fifties walked in, wearing a clean grey suit. His hair was neatly styled and he walked forward to stand near Lucy. The expression on his face was a mixture of weary, nervous, and hesitant.
“It has been quite some time since you’ve called me for anything, Lucille,” the man said.
“I thought you were of the opinion that it’s better it remains that way,” she replied with mild amusement.
He didn’t say anything, as if responding would be a mistake. She thought that made him quite intelligent.
She turned around to face him with a smile. “I have something I want you to give my uncle for me.”
He hesitated as he saw her smile, but didn’t comment and just gazed wearily at her. “Lucille, where are you running off to now?”
She blinked. “You think I’m going somewhere?” He didn’t reply, so she hummed and turned to face the window again. “Well, Stallen, you’re incorrect. I won’t take a step outside this building.”
He narrowed his eyes with suspicion but sighed and seemed to give up on questioning her. “As you say, Lucille. What would you like me to bring him?”
She pulled a piece of folded paper out of her coat’s pocket and turned around to hand it to him. “Just a letter. And… a piece of advice.” She smiled brightly. “Tell Marvin to get someone to deal with Arthur Millan. I hear he has quite strong connections to some members of the American Division who were trying to force the military deal issue.”
He stared at her. “Lucille, how do you know about-”
“Stallen, the letter.” She smiled sweetly. “Take it.”
He took it from her and then opened his mouth to speak. “But Lucy, you shouldn’t know-” The words died in his mouth as he saw her take out a vial.
“And so it begins again.” She uncapped the vial, then tilted her head back. But just before she drank it, she glanced at Stallen. “By the way Stallen, please tell my uncle this…” She gained a broad grin. “Good luck finding me this time.” And she downed the elixir in one gulp.
Stallen’s eyes widened as he realised what those words meant. “Lucille!”
Then the sound of glass clinking against the ground was heard as Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft, the heir of Medallion, and a famously infamous individual in the eyes of the entire world’s society, disappeared into thin air.
A door with a plaque engraved with the words ‘Chief Executive Officer’ swung open, revealing a panicked brown-haired man in his fifties.
The dark-haired man in his early sixties wearing a beige suit and red tie, sitting behind the large desk in the room, glanced at the doorway. He took in Stallen’s expression and then sighed. He turned to the figure sitting in the chair opposite him. “I believe it’s best we leave this meeting for another time. It seems Mr. Stallen has something important he needs to tell me.”
The man nodded and Stallen stepped aside to let him past. Stallen quickly shut the door and came up to the desk.
“Sir! She’s gone!”
Marvin Goldcroft, one of the founders of Medallion and its current CEO, gazed wearily at his secretary. “I assume my great niece used an unusual method of exit if you’re reacting this way, Maximillian.”
Stallen spread his hands. “She disappeared! Right in front of my eyes! I swear sir, there was nothing I could do!” He opened his mouth to continue proving his innocence until Marvin held up a hand.
“Stop.” Marvin turned to his computer and pressed a few buttons. Stallen hesitated as his boss controlled the device. Medallion’s CEO crossed his arms as he watched a video play. “It seems what you said is true. She’s really putting in the effort this time.”
Stallen blinked. “I- what? How do you-”
“Security cameras, Maximillian,” Marvin stated dryly.
“… oh.” Stallen had forgotten about those in his panic.
“I see she handed you a letter for me,” Marvin said, looking at his secretary. “It may contain some level of detail to enlighten us of her plans. Tracking teleportation of such magnitude that it didn’t even trip our sensors or energy shielding is out of our skillset, so we must use alternative methods to locate her.” He held his chin as he pondered over the video. “However, it appears she was aware she would be transported after drinking that substance. And…” He narrowed his eyes. “That looks like an X-ranked elixir.”
Marvin turned to Stallen. “But the letter, Maximillian.”
Stallen handed it over for Marvin to read. The dark-haired man with greying sideburns flattened it out. He read it and then scowled.
To whomever this may concern, including my great uncle Marvin.
Catch me if you can. I’d suggest you don’t bother trying though. It’d be a waste of time and effort on your part. Also, you’ll find that I’m not the only one that went missing today. But we’ll be back. Watch out for new mana spikes and rift formation. I’ll see you again in a year.
From the amazing, wonderful, escapist extraordinaire, Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft the one and only.
P.S. Marvin, I transferred you your early birthday present. It’s the stocks I’ve been secretly buying from Medallion. You’re welcome.
“Buying the stocks of my own business to give me for my birthday,” Marvin muttered. “What kind of insane person would ever think that’s a good idea.”
Stallen hesitantly approached the desk and grimaced as he read the letter. “… I’ll contact the necessary people, sir.”
Marvin sighed. “You do that.” He checked his watch and stood up, straightening his tie. “I’m going to make several calls that may land some government employees in very big trouble, as I am not amused with the newest developments. Harold better have an explanation for this, otherwise, he’ll be permanently banned from all of our Richesse line stores.”
Marvin glanced at the letter again and scowled. “That nuisance is going to be handed over to the FSF for intensive correctional training if she doesn’t gain a sense of propriety soon.”
Stallen looked at the letter on the desk with confusion. “But sir, what did she mean by specifically writing ‘mana’? From what I know, that’s a colloquial term used by the younger generations to make fun of the terms the government uses to denote energy usage.”
“How would I know that?” Marvin marched towards the office door. “At the very least, I’ll bring it up with Harold after I inform him of his revoked tailor appointments.”
‘That nuisance’ was currently floating in an expansive limbo characterised by its utter lack of colour and depth of field. Lucy didn’t know how long she had been waiting, because her thoughts were bending and fraying then snapping back to place with the regularity of the weather. That is, irregularly. She tried counting but gave that up quickly when her numbers became letters of the Greek alphabet.
She knew time could get a bit squiggly in these metaphysical minor dimensions, with the absence of matter and all, so she just resigned herself to pulling back her stray thought strands, which had somehow started singing the macarena in her head by the time she finished counting backwards from 100 in Latin.
Eventually, she felt the pull of something more material and found herself tumbling through a psychedelic sky to find herself face-planted on the ground, a mouth full of grass. She got up to sit cross-legged as she knew what would come next. A semi-transparent white screen popped up, and familiar tones of the androgynous, apathetic voice of the System sounded out.
[Welcome to the Tower!To Join the System as an Ascendant, You must complete the Tutorial.
To accelerate this process, you have been allocated an identity:
You are a rogue bounty hunter with hopes to make it big by defeating a rumoured beast in the area. Unfortunately, you are only a beginner, and so do not have the reputation to gain aid from the local Lord, and must do it alone. Defeating the beast may reward you with riches that will set you for a lifetime, but be wary that you do not attract attention far beyond your abilities, as this town is not what it seems.
- The townspeople will not be very wary towards you.
- Your present athletic abilities have been considered.
- There will be no long-term consequences from the events of the Tutorial.
You have one month to complete one of these Objectives:
- Survive until the end of the month.
- Defeat the ‘Abyss Monster’ of the caves without dying by the end of the month.
- Become Lord of the town without dying by the end of the month.
- Find proof of the Lord’s corruption without dying by the end of the month.
- Find proof of the Lord’s corruption and send a message to a neighbouring town Lord without dying by the end of the month.
- Learn a skill without dying by the end of the month.
- Learn a spell without dying by the end of the month.
- Discover the sealed treasure under the town and escape without dying by the end of the month.
- Kill everyone from the town.
- Find the Demon.
Good Luck and May You See Future Horizons!]
Mentally she closed the window and started sorting out her plans. In the corner of her vision, she could see the little [Completion Rate: 0%] floating in her field of view wherever she looked. Once she saw that everything was as she expected, she started to seriously think about her plan of action.
Right, No. 9 is a trap. No. 1 is the bare minimum, and it means staying until the very end of the month, which is annoying, so no. No. 2 will give me what I need to do No. 6 and 7, which will let me do 4 and 5. So no matter what I choose, I need to do that first. The issue is with No. 10 and 8. I can’t do one without the other, but then I’m more likely to die.
I don’t know about No. 3. I’ve heard I need to trigger something first, but I might mess it up if I trigger one of the other objectives too.
Out of the 10 objectives, only 2 could be completed if someone died, but they were both traps. Someone could kill everyone in the town, but it would always lead them to die no matter what, so they couldn’t complete any of 1-8’s objectives. Completing No. 9 rewarded someone with only a 1% completion rate, which would be terrible. No. 1 rewarded someone with a 5% completion rate but was typically something a person who didn’t understand the situation would do, as they only wanted to survive. Lucille had no intentions of doing either of those objectives.
Luckily everything matched up with what she remembered, so she could consider her plan of attack. The System was very tricky, as it hid many details in its wording. No. 9 and 10, for example, didn’t mention that someone would need to survive after them, but that was not a good thing. It meant there was no chance of survival if they did those objectives.
The harder the objective, the higher the completion rate at the end of the Tutorial. The higher the completion rate, the better. Failing an objective did not mean that someone would fail the Tutorial, but any triggered objectives would make it harder to complete the other objectives due to the naturally occurring complications afterwards. Everything was interconnected.
Defeating the Abyss Monster granted someone a skill book and spell, giving them a reputation to meet the Lord. Meeting the Lord would then allow them to find his secret vault containing the ‘corruption’. It was all on the person if they could even find out what the ‘corruption’ was though. To survive the Lord’s anger, hiding in his basement was the only way. The basement used a passage that was in the vault. Every single time someone came across an objective, it would be linked to other events, and more events triggered more complications, which drastically increased the difficulty of the Tutorial unless they completed the objective.
Eventually, everything would cascade into an impossible situation, with death inevitable. Those who had reached that point were considered the most insane, mad, and suicidal people in the entire world.
Lucille planned on triggering every single one. She was anticipating the chaos.
…
5 hours and a very unforgiving hike through muddy woods later, Lucy, the intrepid, amazing, spectacular temporary bounty hunter made it to the outskirts of the town. Typically, when someone heard that a town had a ‘Lord’ they would think it would be medieval.
They would be right.
Well, half-right. If they would count a town that had magical streetlights and carriages pulled by fantastical beasts medieval. The town centre was made up of many 2-storied buildings and shops, the marble pathways being walked across by several hundred people going about their business.
It wasn’t some tiny village. It was an actual town, and quite a prosperous one too. It was unfortunate for the bounty hunter identity because anyone who went into the Tutorial didn’t get given much money. Maybe enough for a few nights in a decent tavern, but hardly enough to get the weapons and armour a sane person would use to hunt a monster.
Lucy sometimes wondered about whoever the bounty hunter’s identity was based on, and whether they ever ended up defeating the Abyss Monster. It was more likely they died to the first wolf they saw. Well, that was a problem for maybe real fake-bounty-hunter, and not her. She had work to do.
-A while later-
“Please, young lady, I beseech you, get revenge for the poor soul of my dearly beloved and departe-“
“I don’t see how this is related to me wanting to purchase a dagger,” Lucille said dryly.
“Well, perhaps I might persuade you with knowledge of a wondrous mighty weapon found deep in the caverns of the shire ruins north of h-“
“I believe I’ve heard that weapon is cursed,” she stated blandly. “In fact, I recall reading a book that details how the weapon’s curse is so powerful that without bathing in a substance called spirit dew, it would kill the weapon’s wielder in one day. Curiosity kills the cat, as the saying goes, so I’d rather not go near there. Let’s return to discussing the dagger.”
The old man in front of her stared at her, clearly incapable of comprehending the idea of a ‘young adventurer’ not being lured by his promises of treasure. His eyes had also widened when she had mentioned ‘spirit dew’, and he had put a hand up to a bag on his belt. They were in the man’s decaying shop, which contained mostly bare shelves decorated with the occasional magical item.
The awkward silence in the room made her annoyed, so she sighed and decided to approach from a different angle. “Maybe we can arrange something else. I know the Abyss Monster has made its den at the remains of an old camp, which had a spell tome and a mana-skill book you’ve been trying to obtain,” she explained, making his eyes widen. “I’ll give them to you in return for borrowing that life-drinking enchanted dagger to kill the beast. I only need it for a month.”
He still looked hesitant. “Young lady, that dagger was enchanted using very rare and expensive reagents! It’s not just something I can let you borrow…..” he complained.
“Sir, the reagents probably cost you 10 bronze crowns from the closest alchemy shop on the main street. The enchantment itself is of the lowest level of enchantments in the blood magic series, and the blade is made of plain iron.” Lucille crossed her arms to give the man a flat stare. “Could you please give me the dagger while I’m asking nicely?”
30 minutes and several underhanded threats of legal action later, Lucille had a new weapon to artfully fail at wielding. She would use it better than the conman would, even if still to a terrible extent.
She had signed a magical contract with him to return it in a month, but it was a non-issue. Nothing could be taken out of the Tutorial. And she would be gone before the month was over.
As for what she needed to do now… Lucy was going to pick some flowers. Ones that just so happened to be toxic to feline-type Abyss Monsters.
