Flashback

“Aaah!” A woman yelled strapped on the steel table from an immense pain caused by an ethereal spell. She was being observed by a white devil with three horns. She felt as if his glowing-red eyes could penetrate her mind and soul and read everything. The devil observed her with a cold, unemotional expression, showing only an occasional interest.

“Hehe, you are so very abnormal. Such an evil and corrupt soul from such a low origin,” Ssirze’s expression broke with a tiny smirk.

“Go… To… Hell!” She shouted while gritting her teeth. The pain slowly retreated and her body relaxed.

“Already been there. Quite a nice place I must say,” he paused as he was remembering his home. “Maybe I should just go visit…“ He muttered to himself.

The woman on the table was just glowering at him with eyes full of pure hatred and defiance.

Ssirze completely ignored her and called for a few loyal goblins. Six green, scrawny beings quickly entered the room, shaking from the fear of the mighty devil before them.

“Now, little foreign girl, you talk, or I will leave you in the… care… of these runts. They are very lively today, so even I don’t know what they would do to you. I only know they are hungry and horny,” his face returned to a cold expression.

She glanced at the six, long hard members pointing at her from a distance. She would be hurt. For a moment she thought she died and went to hell when she was teleported near this city, but in the end, she was just in another world… Should she talk? Yes. Maybe, she would not suffer that much anymore.

So, she started to answer all of his questions. Of course, the simple truth serum worked like a charm, and she spluttered everything she had done from a young age without omitting anything.

“Nothing much,” he responded to the information with disappointment. The world she came from was just a barren wasteland. Weak people, who would not be even worthy to be slaves, low-grade technology, no interesting artefacts. But this woman was… tasty. He could use some toy, for now. “Want to be a devil?” He flatly asked.

She blinked, deadpanned and after a moment when she realized he meant it seriously, she convulsed with half-insane laughter. “What would I have to do?” She hoarsely asked; there was no reason to refuse.

“You need to die in a way that leaves sadness and corruption behind in this world,” he replied, satisfied. He loved when his victims submitted. “Slaves, take her into the cell with that idiotic fallen inquisitor and the… opportunity,” he ordered.

She briefly wondered what she had just done, but the conditioning from the Rotshield family kicked in and she no longer cared.

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“What!?” Vlad yelled, his face paled and his joints on his hand whitened as his nails stabbed into his palms.

“Ssirze was torturing her for days. Of course, he knew who you were and who she was. He was bragging about it for days when you were trained by the lanista. And how… From what I know, she was an awful, corrupt being; Ssirze was so impressed by her, he even offered her a submission” she cursed.

“Why didn’t they use her to turn me on their side?” He inquired.

“Because devils cannot understand what loyalty, compassion or love even are. For them, these emotions are something completely alien. For them, there is only magic and power,” she spat on the ground, so un-priestly.

“And why are you telling me all of this? Would it be better for me not to know?”

“Orders and you paid for it. You still do not understand the significance of the adjusted orcen breathing technique,” she looked into his wide eyes, “there are 2 million goblins around this city, and only around 100 thousands divided orcs. Imagine if every goblin could raise their attributes to the possible maximum. It would be an immense army,” she explained. “And don’t think I forget you had adjusted it for human physiology too. Sou’Rek was talking too. He had too when he wanted to escape that freakish Coliseum,” she grinned. She was enjoying too much drowning him in the heavy information.

“So my mother can be saved?” He heavily sighed. He knew she killed his father without remorse. That she was Rotshield. Trained agent. Still, his memories of childhood were real. She was still his mom and still, she said she loved him at the end. He was torn up between guilt, wrath, love and desire for revenge. However, he knew that he had to do it. Otherwise, he would not be able to live with himself.

“Hah! Unless you become a master magician, don’t even try… There are only five devils, but powerful enough to raze this city and its surroundings to the ground. The only thing that stops them right now is our patron,” she said, ignoring his question about the payment. Vlad was slowly cooling down. He had to set his priorities right. Right now, he needed to heal Goulash and make Bread happy. Then, leave the city. Gain strength. Bread… He already missed her. He had to constantly remind himself that they know each other for not even a week.

[Potion of Superfluous Healing successfully perfected.]

His thoughts were interrupted by the flashing screen. He beckoned with his mind and a screen opened before his face. His eyes widened at the description.

[Potion of Light Healing

Beginner-grade. Able to heal non-magical light wounds, stop not too serious bleeding and cure non-threatening non-magical disease.

Resources: 5 grams of yellow Tri-Blade Grass, 7 grams of oak bark, 10 grams of fresh strawberries, 36 ml of water.

Process: Heat the water to 29.1 °C, then add ground Tri-Blade grass and cook it for 1:34 minutes. Add ground pine bark, boil for 7:08 minutes. In the end, add 10 grams of mashed fresh strawberries for flavour. Let it cool down on fresh air for 4 hours.]

“I knew it!” The priestess suddenly blurted out with a victory in her voice. “You have access to the system! Even though you still have the choker!”

“Shit!” Vladimir completely forgot about it. He stopped to register the choker a long time ago, it already felt like part of his skin. “How did you…?” He asked with a sigh. Stupid mistakes like this could cost him his life.

“Wouldn’t you want to know, would you?” She grinned. Oh, she was going to milk that information.

“Yes… How much?” He knew… Fortunately, she was greedy.

“15 percent of all the future money you make,” she grinned, showing more of her tusks.

“5 percent,” Vladimir tried to haggle.

“7.5 percent,” she dropped her initial offer. In the end, she wanted money, not a slave.

“Fine… Can you get rid of that choker for me?” Vladimir sighed again. He really should have been more attentive.

“No. You need the key. If you try to take it down, it will explode. These chokers are made only by the royal family alongside with coins,” she grimaced. “So… What did you get?” She inquired, full of curiosity.

“First, you will keep this as a secret,” Vlad was prepared to reveal some of his abilities.

“Before church, sure. Before god Staumaz? Hardly,” she answered. “Don’t worry, there are plenty of strange innate abilities. Even Sou’Rek has one,” she added as Vlad tensed.

“So he won’t care?”

“I think not. He is a god. He could destroy the devils if he could, but…”

“But what?”

“Nobody knows. The church asked this question many times. However, the reply never came. Some said he no longer cared, some that there are some treaties… There are many theories,” she explained, shrugging.

“I can perfect or adjust beginner-grade and lower recipes. The breathing technique is, in essence, a recipe too, only for the body,” Vlad said the half-truth. He did not want to be kidnapped. Again.

“You need only the knowledge and skill?” She asked, already thinking about how to make gold out of it.

“Time and resources too, for higher grades,” he bullshitted. If they could take advantage of him, he could take advantage of them.

“Are you willing to share? If it’s something good, the church will be willing to trade,” her eyes showed immense greed. To be able to perfect recipes, even if only low-grade ones. That was an amazing ability, which could save a lot of lives and make tons of gold.

“How does one make a deal here?”

“You swear on the true god of commerce, Waikan. The system takes care of the rest,” she explained.

“Let me think about it, alright?” Vlad needed more time to think about it. Right now, he was in no state to make such a large deal.

“Three days,” she agreed. No need to pressure him. “Oh, and I knew because you had a very peculiar expression on your face, your eyes were distant and you suddenly lost focus.”

On the first day, Vladimir was making one potion after another. Sular decided to supply him resources as there were plenty for novice-grades potions. His success rate was not perfect too. Even with the Encyclopaedia and the analyser, he made mistakes, lowering his effectiveness to around 80%. Still, it was higher rate than for most of the alchemists around. The Potion of Limb Regrow was still in distance, but he felt he could make it… He just needed to find a good combination. Beginner-grade Potion of Regeneration with his own Potion of Light Healing as a base. However, he needed something potent as a catalysator.

Bread still did not return from her journey to the kids. Sular assured him she was fine and he decided to trust her. He had little choice in the matter.

On the second day, when he upgraded the beginner-grade defence potion, he got leftovers of some potent herbs. Asafoe, a herb with two pink flowers on top and the grey Rock Flower, which had three rock-like formations on the bottom and a hard stem. The Rock Flower was not usable for him, but Asafoe was. He tried to make the Potion of Limb Regrow, but it failed. He sighed at it and asked how much for a few sets.

Sular was adamant at the price of 75 gold coins per set. When he asked for just Asafoe, she cackled like a mad witch and called for her assistant. The Asafoe was just a weed, growing almost everywhere. It could be used as a sanitiser if you ground it with clean birch ash and a weak supportive catalysator.

Then, a trial and error experiment began. It took him another 20 hours to just make sure that the base was stable enough. However, in the end, he was successful and created a base for the beginner-grade Potion of Limb Regrow. He was so enthralled by his work, he did not notice that Sou’Rek was gone and Bread had returned, silently sitting with still-unconscious Goulash on a simple, bronze bed that was brought there for him.

On the third day, he finally made the potion. It was unstable and untested, but the analysis did not discover any side effects. Of course, the potion was extremely inefficient. It required three-times as many resources as a similar-grade potion, a very close watch and a few hours to brew it. Also, a few doses of it had to be taken. He had yet to confirm exactly how many doses.

[Congratulations! You have discovered a new potion; beginner-grade Potion of Limb Regrow. Do you wish to rename?]

“No...” Vladimir was not good with naming things. His former business was a great example.

[You have discovered a beginner-grade potion and successfully brewed it; Alchemy - Novice advanced to Alchemy - Beginner.]

He danced in victory, happy that finally, something went well. A chuckle from the other side of the lab interrupted him and he rapidly turned to the source.

Bread was sitting there, wearing a simple white toga and sandals. Her large, cute eyes were watching him with poorly subdued laughter. Her nose slightly creased as she smelled the completed potion.

“Hello, Vlad,” she greeted him with slight embarrassment.

“Hello? How long are you here?”

“From yesterday…”

“Uhm,” now it was time for Vlad to be embarrassed. He was completely out of it. The scientist took better of him again. “Sorry I did not notice you,” he apologized while scratching his sweaty head. Now he realized that he must smell too... And that someone always delivered resources for him... And that he hadn’t eaten for three days.

“It’s fine… Is that it?” She asked with great hope and longing in her eyes.

“Yes, it should be. We can try it, but I will need to make more of it. Hopefully, in a few days, Goulash should be fine,” he announced with glee. It sounded more like boasting.

She rapidly nodded and stood up. Vlad took the potion and poured it into the goblin’s mouth. It took another hour but he noticed that one of his hands was starting to slowly regrow. It was a small change, but noticeable even by the naked eye.

Then he called for a temple guard to bring him Sular. He could not wait to smear her face in it.