Luke immediately cut off his appraisal upon receiving that notification, but the damage had already been done. He’d just received enough information to know to limit interactions with her, but he’d also gained her attention in the process. She turned to face him with a flat look of her own, which quickly turned to curious upon brief inspection.

WARNING: [Appraisal] effects detected. Designated target, [Self]. [D.A.O] has successfully blocked unauthorized access to your personal information. [D.A.O] has successfully blocked a second attempt. [D.A.O] has successfully blocked a third attempt.

…

Variations of his last 2 notifications kept on popping up, but Luke ignored these and turned his full attention to the mercenary instead, whose curious look remained visible in her eyes. It extended to her lips, which rose slightly at the corners of her mouth. Her curiosity quickly turned into excitement as her cheeks flushed in response, provoking something in Luke that had no place in this moment.

Luke admonished himself as his body responded in turn, becoming excitable at the picture of the woman’s own excitement, as if oblivious to the danger she posed, should she choose to apply herself thus.

As if on cue to his change in focus, the woman lifted her gaze to a level with his own, holding his stare for the briefest moment before breaking it with a rhetorical question.

“Luke, I take it?” she said, before plowing on, “I’ve wanted to meet you for a while now, but you’ve been… indisposed for quite the minute. It’s good to see you up and hobbling again.”

Luke flushed, having caught her emphasis on the word ‘up’. He shook his head to clear all manner of unnecessary, or rather, distractive thoughts, before facing the woman again. That too hadn’t escaped the woman’s notice, and it earned him a chuckle. Her interest hadn’t surprised him, seeing as he’d already assumed her presence here being linked to his own, but even expecting it, the confirmation was enough to send shivers down his spine.

“Don’t be too alarmed,” she began, “how this will end is all up to you.” Her first line did nothing to assure Luke, since she’d implied a hint of alarm would be warranted. “I’ve accepted a fee from the locals, but I’m not averse to double-dipping, if you catch my drift,” she said with a wink, leaning in to continue in a conspiratorial fashion. “My fee is information, yeah; and if you can provide some that’s valuable enough, I’ll be sure to buy you enough time for you to make your escape.”

What alarmed him was the woman’s knowledge of his planned escape. He opened his mouth to ask how she knew, but quickly thought better of it, wary of confirming the woman’s probable assumption. That too didn’t escape her notice and she beamed him an infuriating smile that seemed to say, ‘You know, I know…’

With nothing to lose in hearing her out, he accepted, opening the floor to her to state what type of information she’d find worthy. This soon proved to be a mistake, as in a somewhat rhetorical sequence of questions, she’d gained more than he was willing to share.

Her questions were all centered on the Hatchery Incident, as would be expected. Where she deviated from expectation was the focus of her questions. Luke had expected her to ask about what had really occurred there, and what the Adherents had been after, but she’d totally sidestepped those, settling on Zuck instead.

“Zuck’s weapon wasn’t reported as loot, right?”

“Did you personally, receive confirmation of his demise?”

“You weren’t in a party with him, were you?”

“And you are yet to access the stuff you got from him, right?”

There was no need for any verbal answers from him as whatever action Luke had taken after each of the question seemed to answer for him. He’d remained quiet at the first but seeing as his silence had elicited a satisfied look on the woman’s expression, he’d resolved to answer the second.

Poised to answer, he hadn’t recognized the trap in the second question until it was too late. He’d opened his mouth to blurt out his answer, before swallowing it in haste. Confirming that would’ve alluded to a connection between him and Zuck, since she’d stressed the ‘personally’ part, but his reluctance to finish his response did that for him.

Her next question confirmed as much, seeing as she’d latched onto the peculiarity of that notification. Such notifications were normally limited to members of the same party, and any secret parties would’ve been nigh-impossible for a novice to hide in front of seasoned Adherents. Claiming a party would’ve been an obvious lie and doing the opposite would be providing a damning truth. Staying quiet was also an option, but seeing as the truth was a bit obvious, he went with that, hoping to use his truthfulness to gain him even an extra minute for his escape.

He managed to fake confusion at her last question, quickly turning the question on her by asking what ‘stuff’ the items might be. It looked like she’d call his bluff on not having anything, but after a tense moment, she acknowledged her mistaken assumption. Though pushing for what the stuff was might have given him a clue with regards to their use, doing so might’ve tipped his hand, drawing her suspicions again. He went with caution, dropping the matter entirely.

“That was informative,” she said, once the tension had died down. “I will be seeing you soon, tonight by my reckoning, and that before I see the mayor,” she whispered, before turning to leave. He watched her as she sauntered out of the common area, tracking her till she was beyond his regular view, then releasing a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

◆◆◆

Luke got back on track as soon as the woman was out of sight, starting with metallic objects and pieces of string from the tinker table. He picked an item of interest at a time, gathering it together with other like items in a pile, all the while disappearing a few into his inventory.

6 x added to inventory. 3 x added to inventory. 1 x added to inventory. 1 x added to inventory. 3 x added to inventory. 4 x added to inventory. 1 x added to inventory. 1 x 1 x

Of the 20 items he’d swiped, only 2 were likely to invite scrutiny, the butter knife, and the jumbo jar. He would’ve been wary taking so many crochet needles were it not for the fact that they disappeared with a surprising frequency. The ladies in the crochet club were used to taking their pair and an extra to their rooms and occasionally, they’d forget where they’d placed them. This led to a lot of replacing before the originals were found so the clinic had relaxed security on their accounting.

Butter knives generally weren’t allowed in the tinker room in the first place, so whoever had brought one in wouldn’t report its sudden disappearance. The only danger it posed was if someone had actually seen him disappear it or connected its sudden absence somehow to him.

Done with all he could get in the open, he said a few farewells to the old folk congregated at the tinker table, before offering to help one of the nurses return boxes of the stuff lying idle on the table. When she accepted his help, he took 3 boxes, one at a time, and on each trip he spent but a minute picking out a few items to appropriate. As he did, the notifications piled on and he left them on as a running count, only dismissing the list after ensuring he had everything he needed.

3 x added to inventory. 16 x 2 x 3 x 1 x 12 x 1 x 1 x

Luke had never thought he’d see the day he was so happy to see an old folk’s storage fully stocked, but there was always a first time for everything. His haul wasn’t quite the comprehensive collection he would’ve preferred for tonight’s activities, but he’d make do with this, and any other items he could use from his inventory.

◆◆◆

Once his supply run was complete, Luke retreated to his room, ready to begin the crafting portion of the preparations in earnest. With reduced physical and magical capabilities, his best bet would be a combination of evasion and smart combat, with some props to smoothen the challenges he would face. Since lethal force was out of the question, he would have to come up with something effective enough to take down multiple targets with reparable damages. This is what had necessitated the supply run, and now he’d see if he could alpha level-up his Scholar class fast enough to be useful in this endeavor.

Had he had enough time, he would’ve gone for the simple Chemist path for starters, but the need for expediency forced him to jump straight onto the path of the Alchemist. Starting with basic chemistry would’ve afforded him a stronger foundation for when he’d eventually advance to alchemy, but alchemy ensured he could resource his way past certain setups and knowledge thresholds.

In alchemy, they utilized advanced catalysts and buffers to bring forth the desired result as long as the reagents and process were close enough to natural reactions and environments. With that in mind, he retrieved the materials he would require for the next steps, making sure to divide those that were to be used in portions.

1 x retrieved. 1 x retrieved. 1 x retrieved. 1 x retrieved.

A thermic catalyst was a liquid that accepted all manner of reagents, exposing them to either high or low temperatures, depending on the desired reaction conditions. In his case, he would use it to melt the Magnesium Chloride flakes in order to extract the constituent elements. A current would then run through the molten solution, resulting in the required constituents migrating to the relevant poles. This would mimic the large-scale magnesium production oft seen in places like Salt Lake City.

A catalyst of separation was also a liquid, but it functioned in a different manner to the thermic catalyst. 2 sets of solutions were required for its use, the source set, and constituent sets. The source set would be a solution of the compound/mixture to be separated, while constituent sets were high concentrations of the desired end products, mixed into small volumes of the catalyst. These would act as poles for constituents in the source solution to migrate to, resulting in collections of constituents at each source, with the dregs of the process left in the middle. The nth-degree part referred to the number of constituent sets used for the separation, which would be one in his case.

He decided to start with the catalyst of separation, since that would require no additional adjustments on the equipment he had on hand. He mixed all the laxative powder, which was primarily magnesium citrate; with the catalyst of separation in the jumbo jar, creating his source set. Next, he mixed half a lemon’s-worth of juice into a portion tube containing a small volume of the catalyst to create his constituent set. Once both sets were ready, he lowered the constituent tube into the jumbo jar, before adding his own twist to the process.

1 x has been added to inventory. WARNING: was not empty at the time of action. Contents forcibly emptied in . You have obtained a new secondary class, . Alchemic process complete, Products: 6 x . 6 x .

One benefit of alchemic catalysts was their ability to limit the area of their effects to within the solutions, i.e., their effects wouldn’t extend to the containers and outside environment, thereby lowering the chance of catastrophic mishaps. Their biggest downside was their high cost, which mostly limited alchemy to the rich and the sponsored. Luke had managed to circumvent that restriction by having a high enough Scholar class, and the right type of catalysts on hand to trigger the Alchemist class.

Having finished with his first alchemic process, he added his products to two separate inventory slots before adding the dregs from the experiment to a third. He rinsed out the jumbo jar using some of the water from the tank and added the wastewater to the same slot he’d used for the dregs.

His next experiment would be more involved, seeing as he’d have to make modifications to his equipment. He marked the bottom of the jumbo jar with the charcoal, designating the insertion points for the graphite before making to remove the glass in the marked positions. For this purpose, he ran current through 3 coils of spring, 1 after the next, straightening them once they were hot enough to respond, and twisting them around each other to create the cutting tool he required.

{Amplify} modifier has been applied to the skill, . Modified has been applied to to produce effect. Continuous has produced on . has been modified to .

Repeating the process 2 more times, he produced 2 more pliable coils before moving to make the target object.

3 x have been combined. 1 x produced.

With his new tool in hand, he kept the current running to create a hot blade before tracing circles around the target points on the bottom side of the jumbo jar. The jar offered a bit of resistance but ultimately, the sections were cut out to admit the graphite rods, which were fastened to the bottom using a combination of clay and cut outs from the stress ball. The same process applied to the rusty coils was used to allow lengths of the money clips to be wound around the graphite ends sticking out the bottom of the jumbo jar, making for connection points for the positive and negative ends of his charge force. Once this was done, he added a short length of the insulated wire to each connection point before flipping the jar right-side-up.

With an empty portion tube over each rod, he pre-mixed the magnesium oil and the flakes before adding the thermic catalyst to the jumbo jar. The flakes immediately dissolved in the catalyst, producing the molten solution he’d require for extraction. Next, he channeled more mana than before by stacking the {Amplify} Mods on his Static skill, and as current ran through the molten solution, the constituents collected on the respective ends.

You have leveled the secondary class, , to level I. Alchemic process complete, Products: 11 x . 18 x . WARNING: Acidic solution has been produced as a consequence.

He added the magnesium to his existing stack and added the vial of chlorine to a new one, and as for the acidic biproduct and dregs, he added those to his mixture of wastes. He chose to take a short breather, having completed the extraction part of his preparations. Next would be the actual crafting and inventory diving, and he couldn’t wait to see how creative he could get with that.