Preparation

Dori had to wait all day until nightfall to use her newly acquired potion. After a session with the 'Analysis', she was quite frightful of the potion's backlash. She had been warned about the pain it'd cause.

But the warning couldn't prepare her for the horrible experience that was the effect of a full-powered 'Body Nourishment' potion.

The sky was dark even before the dusk, and it only started getting worse. By the ninth bell at night, Dori could barely hear the bells over the constant crackles of thunder and the onslaught of roaring wind.

She took a 'Tranquility' potion first to lessen to incoming pain and then gulped a Body Nourishment potion.

It took a few minutes before the discomfort started settling in. A few more minutes, she suddenly smelled something and then realized all the tiny hairs on her hands started to crook. Immediately rushing to the bathing room, she filled up the tub and sunk inside.

Then the pain came, burning her from the inside out, slowly eating at her sanity. She tried to endure, gnashing her teeth and refusing to let out a gasp.

But that resolve was abruptly challenged after the effect of Tranquility ended and she felt the full brunt of it.

She was burning underwater and the water had started to boil. Her first cry of pain was overlapped with a thunder.

The booming echo of thunder passed, but her grunts and whimpers didn't. Her bathing room had a locked wooden door, and her living room was closed too, but she could care less about people hearing.

Once the 'Analysis' confirmed the restriction period was over, she immediately took another 'Tranquility' potion and earned a breathing period. But that too ended after a mere ten minutes. Two hours of torture and four Tranquil potions later, she finally fainted.

By then, the water had mostly boiled away and eventually a wet tub with a girl curled up inside remained. But the effects didn't stop. Her body glowed red-hot.

She woke up really early the next morning, even before the hints of sun-break showed on the horizon. The storm had passed.

She was naked, only the charred remains of her dress were left. The bathing room had a thick smell of burned hair. She immediately lit a stone and looked at her reflection on the polished surface of the mirror.

The thing that started back at her was a horrible looking creature that could easily be children's nightmare. Bald, even to her eyebrows. Skinny, like a skeleton wrapped in skin. Her eyes and cheeks had sunken.

But she felt good, really good. She felt lighter, agile, strong and sensitive; maybe she could shatter the tub with a kick, start floating if she jumped.

She cleaned up her mess.

When Dori walked out of the bathing room, there was someone standing close to the door.

The person screamed and ran away.

Her maid.

Dori felt like an idiot. She thought she had locked her room but apparently, the door was merely shut. She immediately bought a 'Persona' potion and recalled her previous appearance. Her monstrously naked stature changed into a clothed, healthy-looking Dori from the night before.

She was feeling kinda bad. The 'Persona' potion had day-long restriction and she couldn't use her other persona to sneak out to the arena for a rematch. It even worried her that she now had to hide behind a persona until her hair and body grows back to regular size and shape.

Uncle Teros came running through the door with a sword in his hand, vigilantly looking around. "Nyka said she'd seen a monster in your room."

Dori laughed. "She was probably sleepy. I came out of the bathing room and she ran away screaming."

Nyka peeked inside the room, ghostly pale and shaken. "I swear, I saw a horrible monster," she protested meekly.

Uncle Teros was enraged, "Five lashes for disturbing my sleep!"

Dori felt annoyed at her Uncle. She already hated how keeping slaves was a thing in this world, but beating them was way too much. "It's my fault uncle. I must have startled her. She was doing her duty, and reported to you what she thought she saw."

Uncle Teros looked at her with suspicion. "Five lashes, so she'd remember to think before act." Then the man stormed out as fast as he came.

"Sorry," Dori said to the timid girl on the verge of crying. The girl had been teaching her how to cook in the last few weeks and Dori had grown fond of her. "I'll compensate you for the unjust punishment."

"No need, young miss. But I really saw something running out of that room," Nyka said and then started crying. Dori sighed and let her stand there with teary eyes. Walking out to her balcony, she looked at the still dark city. The sun would be up soon, the sky had started lighting up. But the lights on the streets were fighting back, making it eerier. She looked at the new entry on potions' tab that she had missed the notification of, probably when she had blacked out.

🍾Pain Inhibitor🍾 (100%)

[Cost: 20 RP]

[Effect Duration: 1 hour]

[Overuse Restriction: 8 hours]

[Pain Tolerance: x5]

[Perception: x0.5]

It would be a great help coupled with her 'Tranquility' potion but that wasn't the thing that excited her the most.

She now had 5080 Respect Points and a new mini tab to the left was unlocked.

She saw the tab title. 'Assist'

There was a bar down the title that noted [Empty]. Unsure how it was supposed to work, she tried the 'Assist' command, nothing happened.

Dori sighed, The system had no clear guidelines, making her frustrated sometimes.

When she came back to her room, Nyka was still there, no longer as gloomy as before. "Should I prepare food for you, young miss? You look tired," the girl said.

Dori didn't feel tired but she was starving. "I'm hungry enough to eat a horse."

Nyka laughed. "I've never cooked a horse before. I'll see what I can manage."

Half an hour later, Dori emptied the plates that Nyka brought, making the girl stumped. "Don't eat so much so fast. You'll get a stomach ache."

But Dori still didn't feel full.

❀ ❀ ❀

A man came to visit Dori in the afternoon, scaring her shitless.

Dori knew selling potions to Alchemy Guild was a gamble, but she had confidence in her acting performance and on her persona. Confidence, that crumbled when uncle Teros came to find her with the company of the old man.

"Kurt Fossburn, guild leader of the Alchemy guild," the man had introduced himself to the family. Nori, Hila, and aunt Lyna bowed. Dori followed.

Was she in trouble again? Had the man found out her secret? Would her nightly adventure be spilled too? Throat parched, Dori remained silent.

The man didn't single her out immediately but she'd sometimes feel the tingle on her spine. The man was probing secretly.

He talked to all of them about this and that over lunch. Dori didn't let her guards down. So when the man started nudging the conversation more toward her, she was ready.

"Is it possible to talk to Youngest Miss Leafheart alone?" he asked eventually. Aunt and her cousins looked surprised but uncle Teros was the voice of the family and he was very respectful toward the guild leader. So, uncomfortable as it might be, Dori followed him for a stroll on the backyard.

"I must apologize for my unexpected visit, Miss Leafheart," the man said in a husky tone. He was just as tall as her father but less muscular. He had golden brown, neatly kept in a pony-tail, and a nicely trimmed beard.

"You can visit anytime, Sir Fossburn. I'm not sure why you want to talk to me though."

"I have a little apprentice from the Bassil family," he said, making Dori frown. She remembered the incident with Harbert.

The man continued, "The kid gave me an interesting potion to evaluate. He didn't want me to know where he got it at first, but then he changed his mind yesterday." Kurt searched for a reaction on her face but Dori kept her confused look. So he kept going,"He told me that you wanted to sell a few potions and I'm very much interested in a deal."

Dori wanted to yell in frustration.

"I only had a few, Sir Fossburn, and I've already sold them. If I come across more, I'll look for you." She hesitated for a while and then added a question,"Did you tell uncle Teros about the potion?"

Kurt laughed. "I knew the moment Bert spilled his secret that you must have refused to sell for some reason. I know his character. I'm not as crass as the kid. I have a healthy bit of curiosity but I know how to be discreet."

'Right, coming directly to my house was very discreet,' thought Dori. She suddenly had an epiphany. The guild leader might be really curious about peculiar, high-quality potions were turning up in Gurjua recently and Dori didn't want to be associated with it. "You are not going ask where I got the potions from?"

"I know that no one in Gurjua can brew that potion and I know it's not a property of your Leafheart family. Do you know how powerful that potion is?"

Dori did know, and so did the two guys she used it against. "I tried one once. It was a strange potion."

Kurt smiled. "'Strange' would be an understatement. I tested the remainder of the potion that Bert gave me. What amused me the most was how it worked on every single subject the same way, without any limitations. One tiny gulp, and even someone at the pinnacle of 'Body Refinement' had burst through the shackle of his limit. Do you know what that means?"

Dori felt like her heart had stopped. She hadn't thought much about the usability range of her potions before. If those potions worked regardless of personal strength, then they had really high values to people of higher grading. People who had attained the pinnacle of 'Body Refinement' were among the strongest people in Gurjua and if what the guy had said was true, she was sitting on a gold mine. A gold-mine rigged with Dynamite.

She knew if she wanted to keep it away from the interested party, it could blow up spectacularly. She could recognize a polite threat when she heard one. She sighed,"How many do you need, Sir Fossburn?"

"As many as you can provide. But I know it must be hard to procure those, so about ten would do for now. I can also provide a good brewing facility with proper assistance and all the necessary ingredients if you so require."

Dori felt like laughing, the man thought she had brewed those. "No need sir. The old man who brewed those won't like company. I'll send someone with the potions tomorrow."

Kurt nodded in satisfaction. "I assure you, you'll be happy with the price. And I'll keep our transaction a secret. Ramier is a friend, so don't worry about your family pestering you. They won't hog you for associating with me."

"You know great-great-grandfather?" Dori blurted out.

"I'm the leader of Gurjua's Alchemy Guild and half of your family's businesses rely on potion distribution." Kurt looked at her with humorous eyes.

"If you can help me reject my marriage offer, I will give you more powerful potions." Dori felt like there was a hope still.

Kurt went silent. Clearly tempted but calculating. "It'd be highly inappropriate to meddle in such a private family decision."

Dori gave up, it was a long shot anyway. But the guy wasn't finished. "If I'm promised the recipe of the potion though, I'm sure I can find a way."

Dori sighed. Way too greedy. "Sorry, Sir Fossburn. I'm just the seller. Besides, if I had the recipe, I'm sure I could exchange it with the Head for a pardon. Can't you poke around with the potion and find out the recipe?"

He laughed. "Please don't insult my intelligence, miss Leafheart. You know it doesn't work like that." The man didn't pursue the line of conversation. "What other kinds of potions can you provide? I assure you, you'd be most satisfied with the prices I can offer."

Dori suddenly regretted her lapse in judgment. "I'd have to ask the brewer. I'll send you the ten vials that you want first."

Kurt didn't directly threaten her but the threat he possessed gave her goosebumps. But the guy seemed cool-headed, and a strong backer was always welcomed.

The man left and her aunt's family didn't ask what it was all about, making Dori unsure of what to do next. She couldn't sneak out

❀ ❀ ❀

'Body Nourishment' potion was the most expensive potion she had, yet it was the cheapest, considering she could only use it once every five days.

She hesitated when using it the second time. Five days weren't enough to forget the pain.

But it wasn't as horrible as before. The pain subsided after a few hours and she endured most of the waves with the help of her potions. This time, she didn't use her potions prematurely and waited until she couldn't bear the immolation.

She felt like she had endless energy in her body. She looked at the mirror. Her hair had started poking out and this time they weren't burned. Her previous pale skin was giving off a healthy sheen of glow and went a shade darker. She cracked her knuckles and felt her muscles. She was still skinny but no longer skeletal as before. She examined closely to find that she had grown an inch.

She felt confident she could beat that Panrose kid without using any potions.

The spirit wielders were another matter. She had to learn more fighting disciplines and improve her magical aspects before tackling them without support. Good thing was, she had memorized a few useful moves from the boy she fought and she practiced every day. She figured out a basic function of the 'Assist' feature. It could record her doing something repeatedly and then be used to help her mimic it.

Bad thing was, even the uses of 'Body Nourishment' potions twice didn't help her much to increase her spirit sensitivity. Maybe because the potion was only at twenty-five percent purity? She deduced that higher purity versions might help and maybe she needed to break her limits more often to unlock a purer version.

Sneaking out became more hazardous. The 'Nyka incident' had alerted uncle Teros for some reason and a guy now guarded in front of the house while the other one that used to patrol the backyard was more cautious. Even if she could jump out of the balcony and sneak past them, it'd be troublesome to participate in the arena without using a male persona. The effect of 'Persona' seemed to wear off when she fell asleep and she had to use it every morning.

Her name day was approaching, only a few weeks were left. She was getting more and more jittery lately, unable to focus on her study, unable to focus on her training. Things would get exponentially complicated if she ran away after being officially betrothed.

Dori laughed. If her 'future husband' saw her now, the boy would probably start thinking about how to runway.

She had the money she needed but most of her plans were very flimsily thought out. She'd sneak out one night, wait for the restriction period of Persona run out, then use a new persona to hire a boat.

But to go where? How would she shake off any pursuers? Was she strong enough to survive in the wild? She had no answers.

She knew how dangerous the world was. Military guarded the borders of the cities but the monsters ruled everything else. Her eldest brother was in the army and she had read the books the guy had in his room. Pictures of abominations, the stories. Only if she had a year or two, she was confident she would have been strong enough, but now, she wasn't sure.

But a risky adventure didn't seem as bad as being forced to warm the bed of a guy that she didn't want to. That kept her motivated.

She needed providence. She needed a way to buy proper tools, weapons, and guides to increase her chance of a good adventure that didn't end in some monster's stomach.

At least she had the money.

❀ ❀ ❀

Two weeks, three nourishing tortures, and lots of plates of food later, her body was reformed to her previous shape, albeit two inches longer, a shade darker, and no longer chubby. She stopped using persona to hide that day and instead wore a scarf on her head.

That day was long.

Hila, Nori and aunt Lyna cried in shock and asked what had happened to her face. Her eyebrows weren't growing yet and her makeup wasn't enough to fool the veteran women. To them, it was way too sudden to not notice the differences.

When aunt Lyna snatched her scarf and saw her barely pinchable hair, the woman fainted.

Dori didn't regret her decision. She'd be gone soon and she wanted to test her strength once more before her big day. She didn't answer any of their questions.

The day was really long.

❀ ❀ ❀

The fourth time she challenged the crowd, none responded. Maybe a hundred Aures bet for a sure loss was too much, even for the young lords that gathered. She didn't see the pedo healer, nor the guy she fought in her first challenge.

She didn't take any potions but still won all three fights, consecutively. There, she finally found out how useful the 'Assist' function was. She could record opponents' fighting styles and use it against them with ruthless precision.

There was only one slot and the restriction period to start a new recording was an hour, but once she figured out she could record anything that she could discern and copy it flawlessly, she was ecstatic. Even though she couldn't yet see through the weird skills her opponents used, some of their physical routines were very eye-catching. Dori really wanted to save all of the techniques but she only had one slot.

She decided to keep the one that helped her evade and dodge all most all of her incoming attacks with minimal and optimized movements. The guy using it was very tricky to handle and only fell after fifteen minutes of her continuous assault, tired and empty but barely bruised.

She named the discipline 'Touch me if ye can', then changed it to 'Dodge' for convenience.

When Dori tipped the girl that massaged her with five Aures, the girl seemed way too eager to take her to a corner and let her do this or that. Feeling up the girl's sizes a few times, she let her go. Her own body seemed too young to respond to stimulation.

Her 'Zain' persona had gained too much recognition, which lowered the possibilities of her income. She wasn't sure if a new persona with the similar strength and fighting style would be a good idea. So instead she went to the gambling den to check out.

Which was a waste of her time? She didn't know any of the games they played and even if she knew, she wasn't sure she could outplay the pro gamblers. It wasn't just about quick reflex or quick thinking.

So, instead, she went to the Blacksmith's Guild. She needed proper apparels and equipment. Unlike the almost barren Alchemy Guild's Hub, Blacksmith Guild's hub was busy with all kinds of people, old and young. She asked one of the guys to point her in the right direction.

When she saw the price of the rings that could store stuff, her eyes threatened to pop out. Ten Thousand Aures. The planks that could hover and help float around for some time was priced at Seven Thousand.

Her personal wealth barely reached four thousand after the few transactions with the guild master.

She looked at the ring and the hover-plank with sad eyes. So close, yet so far away.

She moved to another stall to find some tools that wouldn't bleed her dry.

Few weapons, a sturdy bag, camping gears, proper clothes, and protectors. She packed them all neatly and then paid the seller a hundred Aures.

"Keep the stuff in your shop for a few days, I'll be back," she said, handing him an extra ten Aures worth debt note.

When she started walking toward her home, she stopped. Did she really need to go back?