He had known for a while that hedge mages sold drugs. Red Spice was different. It was addictive after a single use and practically compelled the user to seek out another hit. It was probably the result of an alchemist’s work. Hugo took out his last vial of the stuff and looked at it with his mana sight. As expected, there was magic swirling within. It still managed to surprise him though.

Comparing it to a health potion from his belt helped Hugo be sure. The magic in Red Spice wasn’t Acomarian. It looked and behaved differently. He was fairly certain it was made with riese magic. No wonder the hedge mages had been so intent on working with Ettel royalty. The riese provided the drugs. It was probably why that human assassin had tried to kill him. The hedge mages wanted a king and queen on the throne friendly to their cause.

Well, they obviously had gotten what they wanted. When Hugo lost his challenge, a king and queen friendly to the hedge mages rose to power. They provided them with just what they wanted. A highly addictive product.

He wondered if they would make a lot of money with this scheme, or if they would get themselves killed. Addicts would do anything to get their fix. That would attract a lot of attention. The shimmer corps might ignore the hedge mages most of the time, but they couldn’t ignore this. If the addiction spread to the relative of someone politically powerful, they would bring the hammer down on the hedge mages.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized this drug was too addictive. It was unsustainable in so many ways. Hugo couldn’t make it through the day without two or three doses. Anyone can see it’s a horrible drug. Once word got out about how addictive it was, they would have no more new customers. The first batch of customers might give the hedge mages all their money, but that would be it. This whole business model was ridiculous.

Something weird was going on.

Hugo decided he would track down the hedge mage and see if he could get some answers out of her. If he couldn’t find her before his drugs ran out, he would just jump into the past. Hopefully his addiction wouldn’t follow him.

As he wandered the streets, he realized he was going about this all wrong. He stopped near a group of kids and held out a handful of silver, “I am looking for someone. A hedge mage that sells around these parts. Who wants to help me find her?”

Unsurprisingly, he had several volunteers. They quickly spread out around the city, looking for the hedge mage. He could only give them a vague description, but he hoped that local kids would be effective. An hour later his hope bore fruit.

He tossed a gold coin to the little girl that brought him to the alleyway in the merchant district. Turning back, he saw a customer dashing away from his drug dealer. Hugo walked up to her with a smile on his face. He wanted to frown and be menacing, but he was in far too good a mood for that.

“My lady, thank you so much for bringing me more customers,” the hedge mage said. “I am assuming you are here for the Red Spice?”

Hugo stepped forward and she hastily said, “And don’t bother threatening me. I don’t have any on me. You can only buy directions to my source.”

With a frown, Hugo flipped her one of his last silvers. He only had six gold left after this. She gave him a careful set of instructions on how to get more happy juice. The source was somewhere he never would have guessed. He decided to walk over there now.

Eventually, he ended up at the sanatorium. It was next to the eastern wall, one of the poorest sections of town. Housing those that couldn’t be healed with magic, the sanatorium was unpopular at best. Magical healing rarely helped those with mental illnesses. Some people thought it was a character flaw to be mentally ill. It was ridiculous, but it meant that Hugo was alone as he walked up to the gates.

“I am here about cooking lessons,” Hugo said, feeling ridiculous about the passphrase. He could just say he was here for the drugs. It wasn’t like any law enforcement was in this section of town. He didn’t bother saying any of that, he was still riding the Red Spice high.

Hugo was led inside without comment. The guard seemed almost fed up with his job. He must have greeted several addicts today. Once inside, Hugo noticed that the building wasn’t even half full of patients. They all stood there listlessly, not even interested in the new addition. The guard gestured and said the meeting was on the third floor.

Climbing the stairs of the drab building, Hugo eventually came to a large meeting room. The doors were flung wide and more than a dozen people happily chatted as they sat around the table. He was handed a vial as soon as he got there. Hugo thanked the woman and pretended to take a drink.

“Alright, everyone take a seat, we are going to give you the introduction and send you on your way with another dose,” an older human said.

Hugo tried to sit, but the chair creaked ominously. It wasn’t made for a riese physique. He decided to sit on the floor instead.

“Everyone here is high on Red Spice, a fantastically magic drug. Congratulations! You are among rare company. From Shimmer Knights to Hierophants, the best of the best in the city. Everyone loves this drug. It’s something special, a magical formula no one can recreate. No one. Wizards are the only source of this wonderful gift of joy. The only source,” he paused to let that sink in.

“Feel free to test that claim, the best alchemists money can buy won’t be able to replicate this,” he said and held up a vial of Red Spice. “The wonderful news is that we are going to give you a vial a day. One vial a day, completely free.”

Hugo smiled. That was nice of them. There had to be some catch, but that would come later. Today he was in a great mood.

“That’s very nice of you, thank you,” a human sitting next to Hugo said.

“Of course. We are nice people. We might ask for some favors next week. But that’s just what friends do for each other, right?”

Hugo found himself nodding along with everyone else in the room. After a moment, he stopped. Note to self, the drug also made him suggestable. The older hedge mage went on about how to avoid people noticing the extra traffic to the sanatorium and instructions on not to talk with others using the drug.

A realization blossomed in Hugo’s mind. This is how the hedge mages got enough people together to attack the sentinels. Addicts would do anything for a fix. This was it. This was how they did it and also how he could stop them. A raid on the sanatorium would probably shut down their operations and save this whole city. He just needed to figure out if the other cities worked the same.

After everyone was dismissed, he walked up to the man and said, “I have to travel for work next week, can I still get Red Spice in Reval? Do you have wizards at the sanatorium there?”

“Why do you need to travel? Don’t leave the city. Just quit your job, ok?” the kindly old man said.

“Alright, sure,” Hugo said without thinking about it. He had the feeling that if he actually had a job, he would be happy to go in and quit today. It was an interesting sort of compulsion the drug gave him. He didn’t mind lying to the hedge mage, but Hugo also was totally willing to do whatever he said since he was the source of Red Spice.

As he walked out of the sanatorium, Hugo realized that he would probably get worse the longer he took Red Spice. In fact, the people he had seen listlessly standing in the halls might have been early test subjects. He needed to act now or he wouldn’t be able to act later. Thankfully, no one had said anything about not blowing up shimmer processing plants and traveling back in time.

The Red Spice wore off while he walked towards the shimmer vein. Thankfully, he had another dose and immediately took it. It was clear that Hugo was hopelessly addicted at this point. He could only hope that the addiction was tied to this body and wouldn’t follow him back in time. It probably wouldn’t, but the fact that it was magical gave him some niggling doubts.

To distract himself, he decided to blow the shimmer processing plant in the most fun way possible. There was a single bored guard standing in front of the shimmer plant. He was wearing protective gear that limited his field of view. Hugo carefully walked up closer to him. When he was about fifteen feet away, Hugo solidified a large blue claw. He anchored it to his arm and scooped the man up. Then he pivoted and tossed the man high into the air. The leverage allowed him to get the man flying over a nearby building. He screamed as he flew.

Huh. Why did he think that was going to be funny? The poor guy had just been scared. Hugo stood there for a moment, then shrugged. Apparently he couldn’t feel regret or sadness while he was high on Red Spice.

He flung the doors wide and strolled into the processing plant. A few workers looked his way. They yelled at him about proper protection. Hugo ignored them. He walked down the stairs and through the sets of doors to the extractor. Thankfully, this design was the same as the ones in the other cities. He waited for the piston to go down and dropped three of his mithril/titanium bombs inside. He waited until the piston was going back up, then he turned around.

He slowly walked away, not looking back. Cool people don’t look at explosions.

Moments later a fountain of shimmer rushed out, enveloping Hugo. The cloud of shimmer pulled the soul out of his body and sent it flying.

His soul raced along the shimmer veins, up towards shimmer mountain. With blazing speed, Hugo flew at the mountain, then inside it. Now that he knew this was an enormous ritual, Hugo tried to pay attention to the enormous machinery. He recognized the Acomarian style of circuits and runes, but he was gone before he got a good look. As he neared his destination, his perceptions shut down and he knew nothing.

...

The pain that always accompanied his time travel quickly faded. Hugo sat up and looked around the mountain top. It was dark, the colors seemed dull and drab. Dead bodies surrounded him. There were a few sets of crying parents. Hugo sighed in relief.

It seemed like the addiction hadn’t followed him. He quickly pulled up his Acomarian screen to see who he was.

Florin Baden [Domainless]

Strength 22

Dexterity 19

Resistance 9

Regeneration 7

Intelligence 24

Wisdom 20

Charisma 12

Perception 10

Rank 0

0/100 Points

Health 9/9

Mana 2/2

Skills:

Florin. He was in the body of that jerk boy. The same one that had made fun of Hugo and Marion for days. Hugo glanced down. There were only two nodes still glowing now. The node underneath Marion’s body was dim. He was going to have to send that letter again. His friend would always have heartbroken parents.

This was going to be it. The nodes were losing power fast enough that he wasn’t going to be able to try again. This was his last life. He was going to grow old as Florin Baden. Well, as long as he survived the next year.

This was his last chance. He was going to have to do everything perfectly.