“Come on! Please~ You can tell me!”

  “No,” Eri grunted, eyes squinting as he looked through the magnifying scope. He applied a few drops of acid to the lidded dish he was examining, watching dispassionately as the blood within wiggled as if it were alive.

  “This is unprofessional, Junior. You are deterring scientific progress!” Kalisa whined.

  “I don’t think telling you how I killed Gunther will count much towards scientific progress,” he sighed, pushing the magnifying scope away. “It failed; Griffon Bile didn’t work either.”

  “Drat. I thought for sure it would neutralise the Elder Blood this time. The Sympathy alone with ‘Wind’ and ‘Beast’ should have overcome the blood’s resistance!”

  Kalisa looked despondent. Eri half-heartedly patted the Foxkin. “Don’t lose hope. There are still a few chemicals we haven’t tried yet.”

  Eri doubted any of them would work. Gunther’s blood was proving surprisingly resilient to tame. The combined efforts of himself and House Elathion’s beastkin chirugeon over the past few days had only produced middling results.

  Unless they could find a way to mitigate the near-sentient toxicity of Gunther’s biology, the body itself would be useless for further processing into usable alchemical reagents.

  Eri did not mind the challenge. It helped distract him from recent disturbing events.

  Dulcina’s words still echoed in his mind.

  “All you have to do is ask, and I shall shape myself in the manner of your desire.”

  “If only we had stronger reagents,” Kalisa huffed, breaking him free of the memory. “Basilisk Venom should do the trick, but there’s no way I could get any.”

  “Basilisk Venom?” Eri asked, desperate to distract himself.

  “A nasty toxin — one of the most lethal in the world, in fact,” Kalisa happily explained. Her tail wagged. “The venom has a nasty property of turning any organic substances to stone upon contact. Flesh, skin, organs… Even blood. If I had a pure vial of it, I could probably make a diluted mixture to counteract the Elder Blood’s virality. Probably.”

  “I’m guessing that it’s rare, if House Elathion’s connection can’t even secure a vial,” Eri hummed.

  “Oh yes! Basilisk Venon can only be extracted from a living specimen, and those demons are unruly bastards,” Kalisa chuckled. “The venom also expires rapidly once extracted and requires costly methods to preserve its lethality.”

  “And given that Basilisks are only found in the far eastern deserts, transporting even a single vial to the North would be astronomical in cost,” Eri finished. “They are a Jewelled-Rank Demon as well, so it’s not like a merchant could just cage one and bring it with them.”

  “Oh? You are quite knowledgeable, aren’t you?” Kalisa teased.

  “I am familiar with the East,” Eri murmured. It was where his old kingdom resided, after all.

  “Care to share more?” Kalisa casually asked. Eri didn’t reply; His attention was elsewhere.

  A notification had just popped up.

  [New Sidequest: ‘Taming Ancient Blood’]

  [Help Kalisa successfully subdue the Elderkin Biology of Gunther’s blood]

  “Just a quick question,” Eri absentmindedly said. He was already scrolling through the System Shop. “You only need an ampoule of Basilisk Venom, right?”

  “One would be more than enough. Alas, even a single vial would cost more than a year's pay for me to obtain,” she sighed playfully, tail still wagging. “Lord Draevan would never allow me to purchase it under the House’s funds either, assuming the bazaar in Kaldreach even has—”

  [‘Basilisk Venom’ purchased! -1000 Heroism Points]

  “Here,” Eri said as he placed a sealed golden ampoule on the table. “One vial of Basilisk Venom.”

  Kalisa paused. She looked at the gleaming vial for a second, then burst out laughing. “Good one, junior assistant! You’re always so serious, I didn’t think you’d ever make a joke!”

  Eri huffed in annoyance. Rather than replying, he carefully extracted the tiniest drop of the venom with a syringe and gently applied it to the lidded dish, thinking little of his actions.

  The blood screamed.

  Not hiss, or boil, or even twitch. No, it was screaming — a high-pitch, eldritch wobble that could not be mistaken for anything but living, sentient agony.

  Eri recoiled in fascination and horror as that tiniest drop of venom, barely even a tenth of the blood’s volume, turned the entire dish of ancient sanguine liquid into stone.

  The process barely took a second. By the end of it, there was not a hint of crimson left on the dish, only a pale-looking slab of thin marble.

  Eri wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that.

  [Side quest ‘Taming Ancient Blood’ completed!]

  [Medicine Skill significantly increased!]

  [New General Skill Gained: Alchemy (Student)!]

  [+1000 XP, +250 Heroism Points, +100 Reputation with Kaldreach]

  [1x Extra Vial of Basilisk Venom Added to Inventory]

  [New Side Quest unlocked: ‘Time for Abominable Sciences’!]

  “That was… potent,” Eri exhaled shakily, heart racing. “Well, you’re right, it definitely works. We will need to dilute it to approximately one-hundredth of its original strength, but we should have enough to subdue the rest of the corpse into usable material. I can get another vial if we…”

  Eri trailed off when he realised Kalisa was not saying anything. Her tail had stopped wagging in his peripheral vision as well.

  He turned to her. The Foxkin was looking at him with a carefully blank expression.

  “Did you always have that on you?” she asked.

  Eri grimaced. He said nothing.

  A long stretch of silence followed. Eventually, Kalisa sighed.

  “I’ll need to prepare a deep freezer for it; Basilisk Venom doesn’t last long even under cold temperatures. Shouldn’t be too hard, but I’ll have to pester the old Lord for some funds…”

  “It’s alright. I can preserve it indefinitely,” Eri murmured.

  His spatial inventory froze his items in time. Eri had tested it with meals before.

  Even after weeks, the food was still fresh and piping hot.

  “Really? Even though the venom would require high pressure and below freezing temperatures to store?” Kalisa asked. Eri nodded. “That is… an incredibly useful ability. There are merchants who would kill for that kind of stasis storage, especially one so stable.”

  Eri stiffened. “I never said it was a stasis storage.”

  “You don’t have to,” Kalisa causally said. “The Foxkin are traders by blood, and I know my crafts well, even those I abandoned over the long centuries.”

  Centuries?

  “Beastkins don’t usually live that long,” he cautiously said.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “And little boys your age shouldn’t have access to Jewelled-Grade biohazards,” Kalisa smiled back, her tone now warmer. “But we all have secrets to keep. Maybe one day, if you trust me enough to tell me some of yours, I will tell you some of mine.”

  He had wondered for some time: how a Southern Beastkin as talented as Kalisa ended up in the North, under a noble House’s employ. Even with his nascent understanding of the medicinal arts, Eri could tell Kalisa’s skills as a chirugeon were first-rate.

  But it was not in his habit to pry. Perhaps it had not been wise of him to reveal some of his secrets to her — his ability to magically procure items or indefinitely store them was cause for avarice and attention — and yet…

  Each day, he found himself caring less and less about keeping secrets from those whose company he enjoyed.

  “Until then, we can delight ourselves with more fun little experiments!” Kalisa clapped her hands. “Now, why don’t we continue our sins against nature and see if we can’t turn that body into corpse starch? I was thinking we can start with the liver…”

  Well, if nothing else, he had that distraction he wanted.

  ~~~

  “You’re unfocused.”

  Eri and Elen were sparring again. The boy grunted wordlessly as he deflected the matron’s elbow strike and countered with a dagger thrust.

  Elen easily slapped aside the blade and punished him with a paralysing palm strike. Eri blocked the hit, cursing as his tiny body was still blown back. His fingers went numb, and his blades dropped from shaking hands.

  Left without daggers, the boy activated his other skillset instead.

  [Unarmed Arts, Ascetic Fire Monks’ First Form: Enduring Firefist]

  Fire bloomed around Eri’s bare hands, moulding over his flesh to form a pyroclastic cast. The boy delivered a flurry of hard punches against Elen’s raised greatshield, the sheer force pushing her back.

  The concussive blows of his fists upon steel were deafening. Before, when he was using his daggers, Eri could never have forced her on the defensive like this.

  Though his Unarmed Skill lacked the preferred combination of raw speed and lethality found in his Dagger Skill, there was a visceral pleasure to be taken in pummelling a sturdy object into submission.

  “Neat trick, but not enough,” Elen snorted.

  [Enemy Arte Detected]

  [Holy Maiden Artes, Third Form: Divine Force Reversal]

  At once, the damage applied to the greatshield rebounded on him. Eri’s fists cracked under the returning force, and he ceased his pummelling immediately. The boy leapt away before the matron could grapple him with her left arm.

  “Another new School of magic from your System Shop?” Elen asked.

  He nodded.

  “I needed something for my Unarmed Skill. And also… the fight with the brigands made me realise I needed more versatility,” Eri admitted.

  The Hollowfang Artes were useful for assassination and ambushes, but once the fight drew on, their weaknesses became apparent. Though undeniably excellent for first strikes and quick kills, the Artes drew massive amounts of stamina and mana to execute.

  “Ascetic Fire Monks is not a bad choice, unsavoury though their volcanic Sect may be,” Elen noted in approval. “Lasting endurance coupled with sustainable burst offensives. I'm guessing you also chose it for its similarities with your ‘other’ skillset.”

  Eri mutely nodded. The Bloodflame Arts used the primordial principles of ‘Fire’ and ‘Blood’. Eri was extensively familiar with both concepts, so the flagellant Arts of the Ascetic Fire Monks were easy to adapt to his fighting style.

  With his Unarmed Skill at Adept Proficiency, Eri already had access to the Third Form Artes of the ‘Ascetic Fire Monks’ school of magic. However, the second and third forms were too dangerous to use in a spar, so Eri opted to hold back.

  Perhaps he shouldn’t have bothered. Even with just one hand, Elen was still his superior in combat.

  And she knows about the volcanic Sect as well. The System said their monastery was built in the far East. Previously, she mentioned that she knew the Beastmen Tribes who created the Hollowfang Artes, but those should be to the South…

  Just how much did Elen travel in her youth?

  “Take a breather to clear your head,” Elen commanded. “You’re slipping up and attacking too recklessly.”

  “I was just getting used to the new Artes,” Eri protested. “I don’t need a rest. Let’s keep going.”

  Elen sighed. “This is about that Elathion girl, isn’t it?”

  Eri froze.

  “You know, I never thought I would have to give you the ‘talk’ one day,” Elen mused. “You are always so uninterested in anyone. I assumed it was your past life’s inclinations suppressing your raging hormones or something.”

  Eri’s ears burned. “We don’t have to talk about this!”

  “I mean, as your matron, I kind of have to.” She scratched her chin. “Don’t worry, I already gave the ‘talk’ countless times before. You’re hardly the first orphan under my care to get curious. You’ll be fine.”

  Elen’s tone was neutral, but Eri could see the teasing glint in her eyes.

  “I already know how it works,” Eri said quickly. “A-and before you ask, I didn’t have any past inclinations. The reason I’m uninterested isn’t because my hormones are suppressed; it's because I’m twelve.”

  “Well, no harm in me explaining then, right? You see, Eri, when a man and a woman love each other very much—”

  “You don’t have to explain it!” Eri hissed.

  “— they then have to choose a baby from a catalogue. But sometimes they have to pick it really hard, and it makes a lot of banging and weird noises. After that, the big white stork delivers the baby egg through the chimney—”

  “Wait, what?”

  “— and then the mother has to keep the baby warm with a blanket over her belly for the next nine months. Some time after that, and poof! A baby is born!”

  “… Did the mechanics of reproductive intercourse somehow change over the last millennium?”

  Elen rolled her eyes. “Penis goes into hole. There, now you know how sex works.”

  “I already knew that.” Eri rubbed his eyes. “I can only pray to the Goddess you weren’t this brusque with the other orphans.”

  Despite his words, a reluctant smile appears on his lips.

  Elen huffed affectionately, rubbing his head. “There. Finally made you laugh. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

  Eri hesitated. He eventually sighed. “Dulcina… She has expectations of me.”

  “Not romantic ones, I’m guessing,” Elen shrugged. “That’s the prerogative of young noble ladies for you.”

  “She wants me to stay,” Eri miserably muttered. “Not because she likes me or anything, but because she thinks I’m useful.”

  “And here I was thinking you were so smitten with her, you would be blind to the motives behind her advances,” Elen huffed. “So now you understand House Elathion’s true nature. We can leave anytime you want. The bounty and its gold are of no matter to us. Let them have it.”

  “I haven’t finished,” Eri sighed. “Dulcina wants me to stay, but… She was willing to sacrifice pieces of herself to bind me to her House. And I… I don’t like that.”

  Elen looked at him curiously. “It disgusted you,” she realised.

  Eri nodded in frustration. “I don’t understand. How could people value themselves so little? The act of sacrifice is… It’s insanity to me. She was ready to sell herself and her memories just so she could buy a fraction of my trust and convince me to ‘save’ her House, as if I’m even remotely capable of such a thing!”

  The matron hummed. “The act of self-sacrifice for a higher cause could be considered the core of heroism. This goes doubly so when the chance of success is slim, and few other alternative presents themselves. I thought you would approve of her actions, given your goals.”

  Eri grimaced. He did not know how to reply.

  Elen chuckled. “I keep forgetting how naive you really are sometimes, especially given your true age. Was the passing of those ten centuries in your previous life really that meaningless? That devoid of learning?”

  “Demons don’t change,” Eri muttered. “We are the immutable embodiment of the Damned. We are not designed to learn, adapt, or evolve our perspective — not like the Living. I spent a thousand years within a castle, at times devoid of company for years, decades, or even centuries. Not once did I go insane from boredom or even think to leave my fortress. I simply… existed.”

  “But it’s different now,” Elen said.

  “It’s different,” Eri agreed. “Not just because of the System, but because a human body — a human mind — changes so fast, so much. It’s overwhelming. Looking back at it now, if I didn’t have you to guide me these past six years… I shudder to think what I would be now.”

  “Probably dead,” Elen flatly stated. “Either that, or you would be known as that weird kid who could never string a proper sentence together. I still remember how hard it was to break you out of your ‘System’ manner of speech. All that talk of ‘min-maxing’ or ‘XP grinding’ nearly made me lose my mind.”

  The boy smiled sheepishly. Elen chuckled.

  “You’re overthinking things,” she told him. “The girl doesn’t just want you for your power. Our actions are rarely driven by singular motives, even those that appear self-sacrificial.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” Eri admitted. “I think staying with House Elathion is dangerous, but… I don’t want to leave them alone, either.”

  “Times like these, I find it therapeutic to go out and kill a few things,” Elen said, her words blunt but offered with sincerity. “This is Kaldreach. You will find no shortage of demons around. It might do you good to go out there and clear your head. Violence has a funny way of putting things into perspective.”

  Eri blinked. “Should you really be telling a child to do that?”

  “You aren’t a regular child. I don’t think a hug and some motherly advice are going to fix your twisted world views,” Elen shrugged. “Take it from someone who grew up with a messed-up perspective as well.”

  Elen rarely ever mentioned her past. Eri considered her words.

  “... I guess it couldn’t hurt to try,” he said. “I’ll ask Lord Draeven’s permission for a short expedition, then.”

  “You do that, then,” Elen nodded. “Oh, and one more thing.”

  She lifted a finger. “The Goddess may permit you to practice violence against demons and bandits. However… So long as you are under my watch, neither the moral leeway of Heaven nor Hell will ever compel me to let you get a girl pregnant before you are twenty, especially a conniving older noble lady.”

  Eri’s face exploded into a blush. Elen grinned devilishly. “Always use protection, got it?”

  “Damn it, Elen, for the last time, I’m twelve! I’m not going to do anything like that!”