A dishevelled man appeared out of the thinning morning fog.

“Pip! Pip, we are almost there,” Rick said, excited as he finally saw the car barricade. After limping for what felt like ages, the edges of the library settlement finally appeared in the distance.

Men and women bustled about in the cold morning. Some busy setting up their shop for the day, others sipped coffee and smoked the last cigarette. Rick passed them by, keeping away from the crowd, trying not to draw any attention to himself.

An iron fence separated the road to the garden leading up to the library doors. He walked past the fence, and through the stone-paved walk to reach the mahogany doors.

He glanced around pensively, before tugging the Lemegeton out of his pocket.

Certain that no one was paying attention, he disappeared behind the double doors.

A pair of storm-blue eyes furrowed from across the street. Confirming that no one returned, she disappeared, receding into the shadows.

---

A step into the Library and Rick found himself teleport to the now familiar, upper floor of the library. His eyes peered from the top of the open Lemegeton, as he walked in.

“Peep?”

“Ya, I don’t see anyone either,” Rick replied. Unlike the previous times, the throne room was glaringly vacant, not even one of the Kings in sight.

His suspicious cells immediately lit up. Anything unusual with the Kings was a read indicator, threatening his life. Calmly, he stepped back, ready to escape.

“Young Master, you are here,” hurried footsteps echoed. Moments later a familiar face appeared, rushing in from down the hall.

“Gaap?” Rick exclaimed as, the goat limb King of the Hell’s western frontier appeared.

Gaap was not in his usual attire that Rick had come to expect. Instead of the ornate blue-armour, he was instead wearing a brown robe, his wings poking out from the back.

“Forgive me, I did not expect you to arrive this early, Young Master,” Gaap said, as he genuflected to a knee before him. .

“No need for that, stand up,” Rick said. He shook his head, pretending to read the Lemegeton, too busy to care for mundane formalities. “Where are the rest? Are they not back yet?” he inquired.

“Young Master, it would take them a while more to return,” Gaap replied. He paused, “ But I can arrange something else for the Divine Firebird' to eat in the meantime?”

“Yes, do that,” Rick replied, in a nonchalant tone.

“Yes!” Gaap bowed.

“And have you prepared the rune books?”

“Yes, of course, I have them right here,” Gaap replied with pride in his voice, pointed to a stack of paper on the floor.

“Hmm, good work,” he nod with his eyes, “You can go back to sleep now.”

Hearing the Young Master order him to leave, Gaap did not dawdle around for even a moment. With a bow, he walked out of the throne room immediately.

He waited for a second.

Assured that Gaap was not coming back, he grabbed the stack of paper and hurried his way up to the secret door.

Grrr, the stone door creaked at it swung back, revealing the private study behind.

Rick walked in and the door shut close behind immediately. Alone, he could, at last, relax and hunkered down on the ground.

He was finally safe and did not have to fear his throat being slit open in his sleep.

He rolled onto his back to stared at the sky above, and after a moment, closed his eyes.

“Peep!” Rick opened his eyes from his blissful slumber.

“Huh,” Rick responded, turning his head sideways to look at her. Seeing her, his headache return.

“No,” he addressed Pip standing with a stalk in her mouth, “Please, no! You cant finish them all off!”

But Pip trotted her way up to Rick’s chest and dropped the stalk, in Rick’s view. “Peep!”

Eat, Rick heard Pip’s voice

Rick picked Pip off his chest and sat upright and inspected the stalk with a closer look.

It was a green stalk with a white two clover leaves. “What is this?” he asked.

“Peep! Peep!” It should help with your pain, she replied.

“How do you know that?” Rick asked surprised.

“Peep, peep” I know, she replied unable to explain herself in words.

Rick still sceptical of the information opened the Lemegeton.

A sketch of the stalk, and another of the plant appeared,

Stringwood Angiras

A healing plant, identified by bi-coloured cloves of red and white. It is an key ingredient in the concoction of numerous potions, pills and pastes.

It has a mild nature and soothing taste on consumption.

Recipes:

Broken-Stone Pill

(Grade III Pill.)

Ingredients: Jangida, Fugatisho and feather of the Earth Broxa…

The more Rick read, the wider his eyes grew. The stalk Pip had dropped on his lap was miraculous beyond belief. There were a variety of complete recipes. From increasing Mana to underwater breathing, there were recipes for everything.

“Even if I can’t make these pills, just this stalk alone is priceless,” Rick thought aloud, looking at the stalk in his hand.

“Pip, are there more of this plant there?” Rick asked.

“Peep! Peep!” she replied, nodding her head yes.

“Okay, then it’s fine,” Rick immediately chewed on the stalk and swallowed it, ignoring the sour taste.

A cool feeling spread through his throat, down to his heart.

After becoming a Mage, Rick’s consciousness of his body had grown manifold. It was to the point that he could even feel the blood coursing through his veins. But, now his skin numbed under the effects of the plant stalk, dulling his senses.

Rick sat cross-legged, his eyes closed.

He focused his mind on the miraculous changes happening in his body. As the blood flowed, carrying the essence of the herb with it, the wounds in his body healed and scabs formed. Soon after even the scabs dried out, healing the wounds completely.

After a time, the cold essence of the herb in his blood ebbed, and then finally disappeared.

Rick immediately spread his consciousness throughout his body. The Stringwood stalk was more shocking in action.

All his wounds disappear, but his entire body had undergone a discernible improvement.

As he examined his body, he realized that the smoky mass of Mana gathered near his heart, had grown much larger.

Rick jumped up, grinning. He felt energetic like never before.

“It took so long?” Rick wondered as he looked at the dark sky above. The healing process had taken him the entire morning.

He touched his temple and checked his stats.

[RICK HANIQUE]

[Strength: 17

Stamina: 13

Concentration: 25

Perception: 12

Vitality: 2.3

Agility: 19

Mana: 24]

“Hahaha!” he chuckled. The rate of improvement was beyond what he had ever experienced. It was even greater than when he had cleared dungeons.

‘I have to grow more of this plants,’ he realised. It was tempting to eat all the plants as well, but he had bigger plans.

“If I can farm this, I won’t have to go around to dungeon to become strong,” Rick spoke aloud. The grin on his face, threatening to tear his lips.

The seed of an idea formed, "I can barter this in the bazaar outside for anything I need".

Without missing another beat, Rick rushed with the Lemegeton in hand to take an account of all the plants.

“Spirit Sumac”

“Monkey-Tongue Vine”

“False Goat’s Beard-root”…

Rick ran around, without stop as he accounted all the plants one by one, until twilight.

The best part of it all was that the Lemegeton even contained a record of how to cultivate and harvest them. For a change, the Lemegeton did not withhold any information.

But the more he read, he understood how arduous of a task it would be to farm these plants. Every herb required specific meticulous care. They needed specific nutrients and catalysts to grow provided at a specific duration.

For instance, the False Goat’s Beard-root. The root of the plant had to be planted early in the morning, a minute before dawn. Next, the root had to be watered different quantities of water, thirty two times a day, in specific directions. Besides all this, if Rick wanted to grow a new stalk of the plant, he had to first prepare a paste of a sheep fur, to be planted along with the seed itself.

“I can’t do all this on my own,” Rick realized after accounting the more than a hundred different plants.

But he was not dismayed at the least. He looked at Pip and said, “I should get Gaap to find me a few demons to work.”

Pip tiled her head, confused at Rick’s sudden burst of enthusiasm.