Luke froze. He did not know what he was expecting but he definitely did not expect this. All of a sudden he could feel a small space filled with bottles. He could still see the bedroom, the rumpled sheets, and the bathroom door. Yet somehow, he also knew there were six red bottles and four blue ones resting inside the ring.
"Holy shit." He focused on one of the red bottles and immediately it appeared on his hand. It had worked. He quickly took out all the bottles one after the other. He then put them all back inside.
Luke was speechless. This confirmed it. He was not a total failure or a cripple!
He might have failed his awakening but he was still able to awaken a talent and more importantly, he was able to use other magic things like inspecting the details of a beast and even a spatial ring. So he did not succeed in awakening but he also did not fail. He was something in between. Did this mean he still had a chance to be an awakener?
Luke’s heart raced. If he could use a spatial ring, what else could he use? Weapons? Skill books? Those enchanted items he had dismissed because their descriptions required mana? Could he actually level up?
He looked down at the ring, then brought out a potion again. The bottle appeared in his palm as easily as before.
Luke laughed. It was such a small thing. Any awakened person could do it, including Emma, who had only awakened yesterday. But he had spent three days being told what he couldn’t do. So even a simple thing like this felt amazing.
He opened his status panel. There was still no class listed there. But clearly, an empty class field didn’t tell the whole story.
He tried to remember what he had felt when the ring opened. There had been no warmth moving down his arm, no obvious sensation of energy leaving his body. He had simply wanted the potion, and it had appeared.
Was that how everyone did it? How did one even sense mana?
Unfortunately the memories of the previous guy did not really help much with this. All the guy knew was that he needed to close his eyes and meditate and he would be able to sense mana, that is if one awakened successfully.
But how could it be so simple?
Luke clicked his tongue. "Maybe I will give it a try." He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and focussed. For a second his heart raced. Perhaps he might really be able to sense something?
He waited and waited with closed eyes but after even after a few minutes, nothing really happened. In the end he could only give up with a bitter smile.
"It’s fine. There are other things I can try." Luke hurriedly opened the market tab of the system interface and quickly browsed through things. "Come on. Come on. Come on. Where are you?"
Just like health and mana potions there were also other alchemy potions available. The one Luke was looking for right now was something called EXP potion. Upon consuming it, awakeners can gain experience and level up just like they would by killing monsters.
Of course, there were restrictions. Otherwise, every rich bastard in the world would be sitting at home drinking his way to level one hundred.
Luke found a listing and opened it.
[Lesser EXP Potion]
[Grants 100 EXP upon consumption.]
[Only effective below Level 10. Can be consumed once per level]
Cost: 100 credits
Wait period: 10 days
"What the fuck..." Luke closed the system screen, biting his nail. The potion probably had a heavy demand. He should have expected something like this.
He opened the market again and filtered the listings by what was available inside the stronghold. Three results appeared. The first was sold out. The second offered to buy EXP potions. The third had one bottle available for four hundred credits.
Luke stared at it. Of course. Even in a world full of monsters, there were scalpers.
He opened the listing. The seller ran an alchemy shop a few streets from the guild residence, and the potion was available for immediate collection. Four times the price just to avoid waiting ten days.
He wanted to close it out of principle. Unfortunately, his principles had considerably less to say when he remembered the boar coming toward his face.
Ten days was a long time to remain this weak. Still, he checked the other listings before returning to the shop’s page. Nothing cheaper was available today.
"Fine. You win, you greedy bastard." He reserved the bottle for collection and leaned back.
"Young master? Did something happen?" Emma stood in the bathroom doorway, looking at him with concern.
Luke sighed. "No its nothing. How are you doing?"
"I am fine, young master. I have the bath ready for you. The breakfast is also prepared. Which would you like first?"
Luke looked past her toward the sitting room. Two covered dishes sat on the table. The smell was too good to ignore. "Breakfast first," he said. "I’m starving."
Emma hurried to pull out his chair. Luke caught the back of it before she could. "Your first assignment as my bodyguard is to sit down and eat."
She paused. "Young master, I can serve you first."
"The food’s already on the table. I think I can handle it from here. And you are no longer my maid, have you forgotten? Thank you for taking care of breakfast. I appreciate it, my D rank body guard." Luke winked.
Emma’s cheeks reddened. She pulled out the other chair and sat down. Soon the two of them finished eating. Luke then cleaned himself up quickly. His body demanded a longer soak in the hot water but that would have to wait. He had too much to do today.
By the time he stepped out, Emma was waiting near the door. Her hair was neatly tied back, and she had changed into clean clothes.
Luke checked the reservation once more. The potion was still waiting for him. "Ready?"
"Yes, young master." She reached for the door, then hesitated.
"What?"
"Where are we going?"
Right. In his excitement, he had forgotten to tell her. "An alchemy shop. I reserved something."
Emma slightly sighed. Luke immediately understood. "Did you think that we were going on another hunting trip?"
"Young master... its just that... I... I am not..."
"I know. I know, you idiot. You just awakened and only last night got your rank update. I don’t expect you to do anything today. Don’t stress. For the whole day today, we are only going to be inside the stronghold. This time there shouldn’t be any unexpected surprises."
Emma nodded. "Thank you, young master. I swear on my life I will be ready to serve you properly as soon as possible."
"Please stop swearing on your life before breakfast has even settled. Just learn at your own pace," Luke said. He then opened the door. "Come on. There’s a shopkeeper waiting to rob me."
They made their way downstairs and out onto the street. The stronghold was already busy. Carts rattled over the paving stones, merchants called from their doorways, and groups of awakeners headed toward the gates with weapons strapped to their backs.
Luke happily walked in the opposite direction.
A few streets later, they reached the alchemy shop. Bundles of dried herbs hung in the window above neatly arranged bottles. A handwritten sign beside the entrance read: Failed experiments are nonrefundable.
Luke paused. That was an interesting thing to tell your customers before they even entered.
Inside, a woman sat behind the counter, peeling the skin from something that looked disturbingly like a finger. Luke wondered what it was. He focussed on the object but this time no system screen popped up.
"Collection," he said. "I reserved an EXP potion."
"Name?"
"Luke Ashford."
She wiped her hands on a cloth and checked his reservation. Then she took a small box from a drawer and placed it on the counter.
"Four hundred credits." The woman opened the box without responding. A bottle of pale violet liquid lay inside.
Luke focused on it.
[Lesser EXP Potion]
[Grants 100 EXP upon consumption.]
[Only effective below Level 10. Can be consumed once per level.]
At least it was genuine. "Anything I should know before drinking it?"
"Have you consumed one at your current level?"
"No."
"Then drink the whole bottle. You may feel warm for a few minutes."
"Pain?"
She glanced up. "There shouldn’t be any."
After watching Emma absorb the fire lily, Luke appreciated that answer more than she could possibly know.
Emma watched him take the potion bottle from the box.
"Young master, who is that for?" She quickly asked. "If its for me, then please-"
Luke stopped her with a finger on his lips signaling for her to quiet down. "Can you please keep this potion bottle in your space ring?"
"Ah.. okay." Emma nodded and quickly took care of it for him.
"Alright, our work here is done. Let’s go." Just as they were about to leave the shop, another guy came running towards them.
"One second, young master Ashford. Wait. Wait. Please take a moment to browse the wares in our shop. We have the best rates for potions and all essentials."
Luke paused. The guy seemed to be the owner of the shop, maybe an alchemist or maybe just a reseller. He watched the guy reprimand the woman and ask her to be more polite to the customers. However, the woman seemed completely unbothered by it.
Luke also did not care. He finally had the potion and now his hands itched for him to try it out. There was no reason to delay things any more. He once again turned to step out when he saw something very interesting.
A shelf full of beast eggs.