" I'm back." Nathaniel turned haphazardly to the familiar voice behind him. A small ray of the moon shone in, his shadow cast on the wall as an orb of light sat on a table next to the bed.
A shadow manifested on the ground, from a dot increasing to about human height, Rose appeared as the shadows vanished, she walked over to the bed looking at the spells. A wide smile adorned her face, for moment Nathaniel was in a daze.
" So where is the loot?" Nathaniel coughed slightly looking at Rose.
" I have it with me of course." Rose said as she stared at Nathaniel, flicking her hand a sound barrier appeared and shadows mimicked Nathaniel's visage to the prying eyes.
Taking a silver ring off of her finger, mana surged into it as on the floor a mountain of artifacts and crests of gold slammed into the ground.
Mouth wide, Nathaniel stood up shocked. He found it hard to calm himself, " This is..." He walked over to the glistering mountain, the mana waves given off by the artifacts was no joke, if he jumped into the pile he would likely suffer a scar or two.
He stopped and remained silent, then after a brief moment of silence...
" What do you actually want from me?" Nathaniel dropped all pretenses. He stopped a few feet from the mountain of gold. Rose continuously stared at his back without a word, his back was tall, straight yet weary at the same time. The mood tensed, his sharp glare as he turned his head. His eye brows sharpened as he took a step backwards towards the door. 'This is dangerous!' His instincts flared.
A blade.
A blade dripping with blood, as it cut into the soft tissue carving on the neck a smile. He felt as if a blade was placed on his neck.
Rose looked unperturbed by the sudden turn of events, she welcomed it even. She sat leisurely on the bed.
Despite the agreement there was no free lunch in this world, something was up and Nathaniel definitely felt a sense of danger at how he was warped in machinations unknown to him.
" Aahh, don't do that. Don't concern yourself with that. Aren't you gonna get strong? Fighting back your enemies." Rose said playfully twirling her hair.
" I won't--" Nathaniel stopped talking the fierce glare Rose made him swallow his words.
" Look, its not as if there's no benefits for example." Rose said as five bottles of potions appeared on the table.
Nathaniel looked at the potions warily. " mmhn-Hahaha." Rose burst out laughing, "They are not poisons in fact these babies are worth more than 100 mithril coins!"
" Mithril coins?" Nathaniel mumbled.
" Above gold in value. Nobles use mithril coins." Rose answered.
" What are they then?" Nathaniel stepped closer to the potions, " Rank 6 potions." Rose said. Nathaniel thought that he had heard wrong, " What?! Rank 6 potions." The market was mostly saturated with rank 4 and below potions, even a rank 4 costs about 50 000-75 000 golds.
" I am gonna use them on you, don't fuss we have no lack of grandmaster alchemists. So rank 6 potions are not that rare. I would like to use some of them however I will not absolve my power. " Rose said as took a potion, the purple liquid inside flowed.
" Absolve your power?" "Yes, to use them effectively I would need to discard my rank of grandmaster and start again. There is no time for that. So they are perfect for you. At first I had planned on just giving them to you since they are not of much worth however you will sign a binding contract to officially join us. Refuse and you forfeit your life." Rose said without missing a beat.
Nathaniel glanced around mulling it over, "Alright, I will join you." Nathaniel said, a parchment appeared mid-air floating, Nathaniel read the contract, biting his thumb he made blood print on the magic contract.
Rose took the contract, " Alright, lets begin." The potions floated towards Rose as Nathaniel suddenly found himself lying down on the bed.
" This is called Yggdrasil's vitality, this will help you regenerate your arm and recover some lost life essence. It has little effect on grandmaster beings and above." Rose said as she poured the potion into his mouth.
Nothing happened for a moment until Nathaniel felt like he was submerged in an ice cold pool, the taste was warm but bland his body shivered for about 5 minutes until he began expelling heat, it as if he was being cooked alive.
His body began began itching, he squirmed unable to move his arms. What felt like an eternity soon passed in half an hour.
As he came to, he first thing felt was the awkward weight, moving his right arm his left fingers twitched with subtle feeling. Nathaniel could only feel that he had regained his arm and was full of vigor.
" Lets continue." Rose said as she pulled up, a brown potion. Opening the cork the smell of earth wafted into the room. " Might of Behemoth; a reinforcement potion. It increases endurance, stamina and agility. Most of all pushes the body to the limit. Remember this Nathaniel the stronger the body( vessel) the more purer mana you can contain."
If Nathaniel felt saturated with vitality before, now he felt as it the pool of vitality was being drained slowly but surely. " All reinforcement potions are dangerous in that they use your vitality to reinforce your body." Whispers was all Nathaniel could hear.
His cells grew more sturdy as his bones and muscles grew compact but with increased explosive power.
Rose held a cloudy white potion " This one is that bastard's personal craft, damned Arneth Mikael. Well its supposed to be an enhancing mana sensitivity potion. With this he will breakthrough his limited mana affinities even if he doesn't become the most powerful magician he should at least reach saint magician rank. Haa." Rose thought for a second and looked outside, the long journey ahead felt infinite.
Nathaniel drank the potion, small flicker's of black aura surged unnoticeably. The cocoon that had always enveloped him shattered as waves of transcendent magical lines surged into his body. His body shone, his nervous system was like a rainbow as mana pulses hit Rose's barrier.
" Time to condense his mana circuit." Another potion was poured into his mouth. On top his veins a mana circuit formed as his heartbeat became more rapid, a mana rings were being formed on his heart. The almost illusory Mana circles around the heart became more solid as a mana circuit was formed in his body. Mana was absorbed greedily as a starving beast.
" Though he has potential now, it will take a bit of a while before he can unleash such potential." Rose murmured. " Finally a cleansing potion, this will stabilize his mana circuit and purify it." Nathaniel chugged the last potion bottle. This was followed by 2 hour of rest.
Roughly 2 hours later...
Nathaniel's eyelids twitched as his breaths grew stronger no longer faint, his hair was now silver as his irises shone pale lapis blue.
" How are you feeling?"