As the girl toppled on the table facefirst, the alchemist was shocked. Who in the world dared to test random potions with such a low amount of health? Briefly, he considered whether he should try his standby revival potion on her quickly to minimise the chance of her soul dissipating or to jot down notes.

He wrote down his notes on the rage potion, pleased by the fact that it did in fact work as intended, minus the unexpected death. He hastily shoved his chair aside and took out a bubbling golden potion and stared at the "corpse". Reluctance filled his heart. He had spent so much effort to gather rare herbs and materials to make it. But in the end, it would be worse if he found out later on that the potion did not in fact work. It was best to gather results.

His hands trembling, he removed the cork from the bottle and gently poured it all over her head.

 ~~~~~

Mei stared at the ads on the walls of the "Sponsor Room", bored and slightly grumpy. Now that the alchemist took the compass away, how was she going to find him again? Even if she knew the right direction, she really didn't want to walk all the way back in the creepy darkness...

Naarlos is attempting to revive you.

Accept?

Yes No

Naarlos? That was a somewhat odd name. 

Excited, she reached out her index finger to tap the table. It was then when she realised her mistake. Because of the angle that she was moving her hand towards and her overly fast speed, her other fingers accidentally hit "No"! Why did she have to use her finger to tap? She could have just accepted it mentally as the system was designed to register that too!

She grumbled and laid on the surprisingly comfy and cooling floor of the the room, ignoring the ads by closing her eyes. She decided to just claim the reward for the box and just log off and go back to sleep once the respawn timer was over with.

~~~~~

Naarlos smirked trimphantly under his mask as he watched the corpse start to glow with a vague golden hue. From his alchemy books, that was the clear sign of a revival potion working. His heart still ached but he was filled with pride at the same time. As expected of him, a (self-proclaimed) alchemy genius! Which other alchemist could brag that they managed to make a revival potion on their first try, a potion notorious for its difficulty? 

He laughed heartily to himself, preparing to say an appology to the girl once she revived.

"Okay, I'm-"

The girl crumbled into light particles and faded away.

Poor Naarlos's confidence was shattered. What type of alchemist accidentally makes a body disolving potion while trying to make a revival potion? He slumped down on his chair, feeling slightly guilty. 

~~~~~

Gently humming a tune to cheer herself up, Mei headed towards the QuestStone. She was still a little upset that she wasn't going to get the potion testing money, but at least she would get the sum for delivering the box. She waited shortly for her turn before activating the stone.

2 Quests completed!

Potion Testing

Delivery

Rewards: 20,000 gold

Instantly, she was filled with delight. She didn't expect the QuestStone to be generous enough to give her the reward for the testing despite dying halfway. Her impression of the stone greatly improved. She navigated the menu and selected the option to log out.

As she went back to reality in a good mood, she felt an itch on her face. Realisation set in as she reached out her hands to touch the swollen bumps on her cheeks and nose. That mosquito took advantage of her vulnurable state!

That was the last straw. Whether it was the same mosquito that woke her up or not, she didn't care. She would find it and smack it to death! The angry girl turned on the lights, wincing as the sudden light assaulted her eyes. 

The mosquito was nowhere in sight. She searched all over her room. Under her bed, behind her curtains, in her closet, under her table and chairs, behind the textbooks and other random objects on her table. It was nowhere to be found. Defeated, Mei went to bed with the blanket covering her whole body.

It felt like mere moments before the sun decided to shine through her uncurtained windows. Mei woke up, still half asleep. She forgot to close the curtains again after searching for the pest, so now she had to pay the price. 

She reached for her cabinet, grabbing her phone and checking the time. It was 7:48 AM. She headed out of her room, into the bathroom to do her business, then headed for the kitchen to grab something for breakfast. Hopefully before her dad decided to attack her with a mountain of vegetables again. 

Her parents weren't in the kitchen, a good sign that they were still sleeping. So she took out four slices of bread and applied peanut butter and jam to all of them, then added cold ham and cheese from the fridge between all the layers. Afterwards, she took out a glass mug and poured out a big cup of fruit juice for herself.

While she ate and drank, she was vaguely amused by the thought that people would probably be internally screaming at the culinary abomination she had just made. Satisfied from the sandwich, she went back to her room and donned her VR gear again.

The moment she logged into the game, she checked if her friends were online. Alzeth and Mark were already online. She decided to send a message into the party chat.

Zera: Hi

Alzeth: sup

Markkkk: Hello

Mei: Where are you guys? I'm near the QuestStone.

Alzeth: grinding crawlers ez xp

Mei didn't really feel like dealing with the crawlers again after a full night of fighting them. She wasn't the type of person who was patient enough to grind constantly.

MeI: Are we gonna spend the day grinding away again? I'm a bit tired of that tbh.

Alzeth: maybe

Mark: Haha, I guess it can get boring.

Alzeth: maybe

Mark: Oh yeah, you still don't have a proper sword and storage bag, do you? Why don't we go back to the Sealand Port to take a look?

Mei liked the sound of that.

Mei: Okay, sounds good.

Alzeth: there better be stuff to fight there too lol

Mark: There are a lot of monsters near the beach worth a lot of EXP so we can still grind there for a change of pace

Alzeth: yay

Mei wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that.