"Rain, I have something to ask of you, but if you need to check up on the rest of your family first, I understand."

"My mom's going to be fine."

"I recall Master Wang mentioning a grandchild around when I first met him. Don't you have a kid or something?"

"Ohhh. That. Yeah. I created a homunculus in a vat with one of my eggs, DNA from a lungfish, and a lily."

Rain doesn't seem to be joking.

"In my early twenties, my mom went crazy and pressured me any chance she got to settle down and give her a grandchild, so I made one from scratch."

"..."

"That shut her up. By the way, don't tell anyone I made a homunculus since it's illegal. It's technically a human rights violation."

"How old are you again, and where is this child?"

"Shut up, and he's with my mother. She's training him to successfully run a business so she can retire in peace. By the way, he looks more human than you do."

"I didn't ask. I found my father in critical condition, crushed under a rock. I managed to stabilize him and roughly repair his lower body. I need help keeping him stable and healing him back to normality while I search for my mother."

"...sure Ellis. I'll help you out. Give me a moment to clean myself up, and I'll be right out."

I take that as a hint to leave the room. Master Wang stays a little longer to converse with Rain before leaving the room. He turns to me.

"Disciple. I noticed the reopened crack in your life force when you entered the room. I permitted you to heal my daughter, knowing that it could exacerbate your condition. I apologize."

"It worked out. If it weren't for your words of wisdom, I wouldn't be able to save my father or his lower half."

"I'm serious. I'm not one to apologize, and I'm not one to take it lightly. Tell me if you need something - even if it falls out of the scope of our master-disciple relationship."

"I need help finding my mother, and the dean of the Auroran Institute should know something. The only issue is that he's hidden behind a massive barrier encapsulating the Institute."

"Hmm... I'm going to be honest, disciple. Unless you want that man dead, there isn't much I can do. Breaking into the barrier would take some time, and at that point, I don't think I can sufficiently hold back. Plus, it's not like the dean is a pushover in combat either."

"So if I need him dead, I can return to you?"

"Ask your other Master about talking to the dean. It would be a waste to have me be an assassin."

Oh shit. I met Master Giles because the dean had him referee that tournament. I should also check on him, but I can't believe that tidbit slipped my mind.

"Let's see... I have pills and elixirs stored away somewhere... My healing pills are meant for people with egregiously high vigor, so giving them to you for your father would kill him... I have battle supplements, but they might be expired since that fad faded out a while ago... Secret techniques? Well... he's already practicing that style, and disrupting the balance of skills would do more harm than good..."

"Master Wang?"

"Do you want a magic item or something?"

"Can you give me microdoses of those healing pills? That would work for my father, right?"

"My daughter is basically doing that already... What can I give you to show my sincerity? Damn, this is hard. Alright, I'll go kill some people for you. You don't like the Ken family, right?"

"I cannot express how tempted I am to give you a name and have you murder people for me."

"Wait, you gave my daughter dragon blood. Do you happen to have its heart? I can make a pill for you."

"Oh?"

"You have that crazy-ass double heart skill me and a buddy created when we were drunk, right?"

"What are the side effects of the pill?"

"Depends on the type of elixir I make with the heart. What kind of dragon is it?"

"A [Verdant Dragon]."

"Ah. If you aren't attuned to [Nature], giving you the 'draconic essence' will kill you. You don't use magic and aren't a magical beast..."

"..."

"Give me a few gallons of your blood, the dragon heart, and some time, and I can make something. Hell. If you give me one of your hearts, I can do something even greater."

"Last time I gave someone one of my hearts, I got engaged nonconsensually."

"Yeah, how do you think I met my wife? Don't be stingy. Hearts grow back."

"Can we do this when my life force gets better?"

Rain opens the door. She looks infinitely better now. Her entire face - presumably her whole body - was covered in chemical burns, but now 90% of her skin returned to how it was before. Her eye still looks fucked.

"Life force? Don't tell me you broke it again. I shouldn't have stopped researching a potion to mend life forces."

"I'll be fine." I am planning on healing myself once I get the mana too.

"Whatever. Where are we going?"

I look at Rain and Master Wang. I contemplate for a moment before reaching past them and touching the door to the infirmary. The door shimmers into a screen of light.

Rain looks back at my mansion's entrance and is confused but is trying to hide it. Master Wang, on the other hand, fails to hide any emotion.

"Damn, kid! What are you doing to my door?!"

"I have a mansion. That's the entrance."

"Sure, whatever. Get me the heart once your life isn't leaking out of your body, and I'll make you something."

"So, do I just walk in?"

"Yeah, but let's actually use a different door. I don't think your father would let me take the door with me."

~

Rain looks around curiously before asking me about my mansion.

"How much did this place cost?"

"Won it in a raffle. Err, more accurately, on a roulette spin."

"Let's go gambling together after everything is fixed."

"Sure, I don't have a bad relationship with that god."

"What are you talking about? Wait. Didn't you say something about that at the auction to that rude vampire pervert who... talks... like... this..."

I look at her with a blank expression. She doesn't skip a beat and changes the topic.

Does this place have a laboratory or workshop I can hijack?"

"Can you see the patient first?"

"My bad, lead the way. By the way, who's that?"

Dylan waves.

~

Inside the manor, Rain looks at my foster father's macerated legs. Val, my foster father, and I await her prognosis. She rubs her chin and nods to herself. She looks into her bag multiple times before saying to no one in particular, "Yeah, seems doable."

"Does that mean you can help my dad? I don't know how to repay you. By the way, I'm Val. I'm sure my brother mention me."

"Oh, so your his sister." Val doesn't elaborate on what she means by that. "He didn't."

"Miss, I'd appreciate it if you could help me, but I don't know if we can afford it. I know you are here because of my son, but that doesn't mean you should be doing this for free."

Damn, foster father! Where's your business sense? Best underwear business in Bluefield, my ass.

"So first would be using a foundation restorer like a simple [Bone Mender], then having something to keep your legs from exploding [Potion of Fortify Flesh] so I can in use one of my creations, a [Limb Renewal Draught]. Name is patent pending."

"Great, how much will it cost? I spent most of my money on Remembrance gifts."

"Seven."

"Seven? Seven what?

"Seven gallons of blood."

"Oh, from the dragon. Yeah, I can do that-"

"No. From you." She pokes my chest. "I noticed something when you were bleeding to death in that metal tub after eating those [Vigor Enhancer]s."

"What?!" My foster father and Val had the same reaction to that information.

"Can you not do this in front of my family?"

"After eating those enhancers, your blood was mixed with the unabsorbed healing potions. I was curious, so I tested them and found that those healing potions were more efficient than usual. I initially thought it was a side effect of the [Vigor Enhancers] effects seeping out of your bloodstream and into the bathwater."

"Alright. About not talking about this right now?"

"So after testing some old blood of yours I have lying around, I found some discrepancies in normal human blood. Then I recall that vampire and that entire interaction. I want more blood to run more tests and confirm something."

"Confirm what?" I do recall Rain taking some blood samples from here and there. Mainly to see reactions my blood has to her potions more than anything else.

"Something that might revolutionize the healing potion market. Something that would let us create a monopoly based on affordable prices due to dirt-cheap material components."

"So you are asking me to bleed so my foster father can walk again."

"Yup. Also, why aren't you healing your daddy? Your pretty good at that."

"I don't think I can in my state. I'd need a lot of mana, and straining myself when he isn't in a critical condition would be more of a suicide attempt than doing something out of love. If I weren't 'injured,' I wouldn't give it a second thought."

"Injured? Son, are you hurt because of me?"

"Yeah, kind of. I can walk it off." Speaking of, I start healing myself again. Although I never found the 'source' of the leak, patching the cracks my lifeforce is seeping through is good enough for me.

As long as my life force isn't leaking *outside* of my body, I'll be fine.

"I have the first two potions practically prepared, but the last one needs more work. Give me some more dragon blood. It's an active ingredient, don't give me that look!"

"Sure, whatever."

"Also, why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

"I don't have the mana for it."

"?"

I go downstairs and into the basement. It's still a dungeon, but roughly where the warehouse would be above ground, theirs some room for storage, including a wine cellar.

About thirteen and a half barrels of dragon blood are stored in my wine cellar. Each barrel holds 55 gallons of liquid, no matter its weight. I pick up the half-filled barrel and bring it upstairs. It's pretty heavy for its size.

I show Rain where the room 'laboratory' is.

"It was locked the first time I checked."

"From a prior tenant?"

"No, I don't think so."

Rain goes to open the door, and nothing happens. It's still locked.

"Damn, and I really wanted to see a bougie lab. Can't we break the door down?"

"I'm pretty sure this isn't a place previously owned by the bourgeois."

"Shut up. Now what?"

"I'll think of something. Can't you brew the potion somewhere else?"

"None of my workshops would be in any condition right now. Although finished products should be safely stored away, I don't have the same precautions with unfinished ones. My workshops not being clouded in caustic gas would surprise me."

The last time something on my property was unlocked was when I needed a place to store something. The warehouse opened up conveniently. Maybe I need something that requires me to have a proper laboratory. But I have Rain right here. Or do I?

"I have an idea. Become a thrall of mine."

"Eat shit."

"It's an experiment. Maybe the door will unlock."

"If it's an experiment, why not?"

[Thralldom B (1/?) > [Thralldom B (2/?)]

"Do you feel any different?"

"Nah. Not really." Rain checks the door, and by the grace of god, it opens. I guess "owning" someone who requires a space to "work" for the "master" allows my magnificent mansion to open a space for them.

Dylan has proven once again to be not as beneficial as initially thought. He didn't unlock any doors for me.

Actually... I don't want a room that would unlock after 'owning' him. One can only shudder at what lies within that room.