It was barely the size of an acorn. It clearly didn’t belong, so she picked it out of the goop and held it up against the sun. Just as she’d hoped, she saw mercurial silver glimmering inside.

Into Fog Storage it went. With the body high of Fog-breathing gone from her system, she became keenly aware of just how disgusting the maneater’s carcass smelled. Never before today did she think she would wish for the sickly-sweet stench of pure Nigredo. Even still, she took the time to gather the creature’s severed arms and split-open head next to its body, her eyes watering from the rancid fumes of its digestive juices.

“Rest in pieces,” Zel uttered before she made her way out of this disgusting corn field. Once she got far enough to no longer sense the stench, she took the time to step off the road and pick some of the nicer poppy flowers, placing them as well into Fog Storage. The bottles of Liquid Vigor still within her possession caught her eye in the list of stored items.

The pain that came with every breath and every step was bearable, but it was irritating, just intense enough that she couldn’t ignore it, and much the same could be said for how much her wounds bled. It helped that the blood just slid off the fabric of her trousers, but her chest wrappings had already become crusty by the time the wounds stopped bleeding.

Surely, Makhus wouldn’t be upset if she drank just half a small bottle to soothe her wounds. If he was, she’d just pay however much he asked.

Out of storage the seal-bottle came, and back onto the road she stepped, downing a third of its contents all at once before she even resumed walking. Soon enough, the effects of Viriditas had dampened her sense of pain to a point where she could walk at full speed without issue, and by the time she was within sight of the town gate, she had emptied the bottle halfway.

During her walk back, she mulled over what the beast said to her in that field. Assuming what it said about Quincy was true, she’d have words with the barkeep, and if nothing else, would strongarm as much money out of him as she could.

The guards didn’t even think to question the bloodied beast-slayer when she approached, and merely hurried to open the door for her before she could get restless. After all, they didn’t see what she had done or why she had done it, they only saw an annoyed-looking mountain of a woman, covered in blood and with a bottle of healing elixir in hand.

Even if they had known every detail of the contract, they wouldn’t have dared consider stopping her.

Zel made her way straight to Quincy’s inn, the townsfolk giving her a wide berth as she walked. Some looked upon her with fear, some with amazement, some with disgust, for she stunk to the high heavens of blood - both her own and the beast’s.