Behind the counter of a tidy little potion and ingredient shop, a frail-looking boy cowers. Trying his hardest to fight back his tears.

  "What do you mean this costs 24 Credits?! You're lucky I even took the time out of my day to enter this empty old place!" A man yelled from the other side of the counter.

  "I-I-I am sorry, si-sir. The-th-that is a Grade 3 Health Po-potion, I-I can't afford to lower the pr-price."

  "This is outrageous! I can buy one at the street market for 6 Credits!"

  "Th-those ones are only Gr-grade 1 Potions si-sir."

  "What a scam!" The boy panicked and reached forward just in time to soften the blow from the man slamming the glass bottle onto the counter. The boy whimpered as the man stormed out of the store, slamming the door behind him. After inspecting the bottle for cracks, he walked to a shelf and gently returned it with the others. Walking back, the boy plucked some herbs from a small planter, wincing as he rubbed them on the injury. Once the pain subsided, he threw the herbs into his mouth and flopped onto the counter while chewing on the leaves.

  "Maybe Ma and Pa were right. Maybe I'm not fit for this. Should I just enlist to become a soldier like David?" The sound of a bell interrupted his spiralling thoughts. Wiping his tears away, he greeted the person with a bow, trying not to cringe as he swallowed the herbs in panic. "Hello! W-welcome to Triple E, Enchanting Elxiers of Every Kind!"

  "Ah, hello, do you have any Mana potions?"

  "Y-yes, I-i do! What grade are you looking for?" The boy stood straight and carefully observed the customer. They were a male teenager dressed in a hoodie and blue jeans, with a beige backpack.

  "Let's see one of your Grade 2 Mana potions." Nodding, the boy quickly grabbed one from a shelf and handed it to the teen. The boy waited anxiously as the teen inspected the bottle. "How much?"

  "13 C-credits." The teen nodded before getting the Credits from his pocket and handing them to the boy, who happily received them. "Th-thank you for your patronage!" The boy said with another bow. Before he could relish his first sale, the boy heard a loud pop and looked up to see the teen lean back and chug down the entire potion, his hood falling off, revealing black hair. The boy stood frozen in horror as he watched his first customer down the bottle of extremely bitter liquid as if it were water.

  "AH! That is great! Give me six Grade 3 Mana potions, three Grade 4 Mana, three Grade 3 Health, a bag of Moon Petals and an Energizer."

  "R-right away, sir!" Saluted the boy before rushing to gather the order. "Here you go! Five Grade 3 Mana for 125, two Grade 4 Mana for 100, two Grade 3 Health for 78, and a Grade 6 Sleeping Aid potion for 390 and a half." The teen looked over the gathered potions before nodding and handing Nick 391 Credits. "T-thank you for your patronage, and here is your change!" The teen shook his head.

  "Keep the change."

  "Oh, huh, ok?"

  "What's your name?" Caught off guard by the question, the boy yelled out his name.

  "N-nick!"

  "Well, I noticed you didn't have the Alchemist Guild certification at the front, and it seems you're not having much luck attracting customers," the teen said as he grabbed the potions and stashed them in his backpack. "I recommend going to the Alchemist Guild to have your potions officially graded. Then, you can sell them at one of their stores until your reputation grows. It would be a shame for someone with your talent to go unnoticed." He closed his backpack, waved Nick goodbye, and exited the shop.

  "Officially graded?" Nick murmured before his eyes widened. "Wait, am I breaking the law?! " Grabbing a few of his highest-grade potions, Nick closed his shop behind him before dashing straight to the Alchemist Guild. As he ran, Nick couldn't help but smile as the teen's compliment echoed in his mind. 'If a stranger can believe in me, then maybe I can too.'

  "Almost forgot how young he is at this point in time," Alex murmured as he watched Nick run down the street. "Those character descriptions don't do him justice. I thought I had the wrong person at first." Nick Auranum is a popular NPC in REALMS and later a prominent character in the novels. There were only ever illustrations of Nick as an adult, and only a brief description of how he looked as a kid. "I know he was described as feminine-looking, but this is taking it too far." When he first saw Nick, Alex initially thought he was a sister of his that was never mentioned in any of the source material. But on closer inspection, he realized that the feminine-looking person with shoulder-length hair and frail body was indeed the person he was looking for. "Well, even as an adult, it was said that it was hard to tell if he was a man or a woman." His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of his bus. Sitting down, Alex thought back to the last six months as he waited for his stop.

  It's been a busy six months since Alex sealed the deal with WrymWealth. With Alex juggling full-time employment and regular commissions, money has become less of a priority for him. The toughest aspect of his new role was improving the readability of his tapestry for his coworkers, a task that took him several months to resolve. However, once he figured out how to make his tapestry more readable, it freed a lot of his time to do other tasks. Tasks like improving his physical abilities.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  At first, he tried getting physically stronger, but quickly hit a snag. When trying to lift any meaningful weight, Alex would feel a sharp, painful ache throughout his back. After a few minutes of panicking about what could be wrong, it dawned on him that it wasn't a physical problem but a mental one. Alex's younger self had to deal with this pain for as long as he could remember, a pain that he had long since gotten used to. However, his older self never had to deal with anything like that. So with his new memories also came a new perspective, one that keeps telling him that what he is feeling isn't normal and that he should stop before he can injure himself.

  Alex thought about using drugs to cope with the pain, but decided to focus on other ways to improve his body. With that in mind, Alex joined the highest-rated gym in the city and started working on improving his speed and stamina. Another thing Alex worked on was his Spell Weaving. What he already knew from his younger self's memories was nothing compared to what he needed to survive the challenges he would eventually face. Initially, Alex only knew four basic spells: Glow, which creates a dim ball of light; Chill, which slightly cools whatever it is cast upon; Heat, which warms the targets instead; and Thread, the simplest of the four spells, which condenses Mana into strings for Weaving.

  Alex tried to cheat by watching fights with Spellcasters and using his Arcane Eyes to copy their spells. But he quickly learned that copying spells isn't as easy as it was in the TTRPG. Despite four months of gruelling work, he only managed to learn four new spells.

  First was Flame, an upgraded form of Heat that conjures a small flame using Mana. After mastering Flame, Alex learned Flame Whip, a more advanced form of Heat that lets the caster mould the conjured flame into a whip of fire. Not wanting to waste HP potions, Alex repeatedly injured himself to learn the Mend Wound spell at the local hospital. Lastly, Alex memorized the Energize Spell by spending several hours watching people cast it on themselves when exercising at the gym. Energize is a simple spell that converts some of the caster's Mana into stamina. Even though the conversation rate wasn't the best, it still greatly increased how long Alex could exercise without needing to stop, as well as preventing the early awakening of the parasite residing within him.

  Alex's reminiscing was interrupted as the bus announced his stop. Getting off the bus, Alex found himself in front of a large gym. Entering the building, he got in line in front of the front desk. Eventually making it to the front of the line, Alex approached the young man manning the desk. "Oh, hey, Alex! Planning to hit the track again today?" Asked the young man.

  "No, I want to rent a Mana room today. Let's say for three hours." A Mana room, like the name suggests, is a training area where people can train any Mana-related skills, like Mana control or absorption.

  "You'll need to sign a waiver if you want to use the Mana room for that long."

  "That's fine." The young man rummaged under the counter before sliding over a piece of paper along with a pen. Alex looked it over, then signed and returned the waiver.

  "Ok, that would be 100 Credits." Handing the Credits, Alex took the pass from the young man. Heading down the hall, Alex stopped in front of a steel door, used the pass to open it and entered the room. Looking around the Mana room, Alex found himself in a white room with a single screen and a card slider. Sliding his pass in the card slider started a three-hour timer on the screen. Looking at the timer, Alex took a deep breath of the Mana-enriched air quickly filling the room.

  Sitting on the floor against the wall, Alex grabbed his backpack and took out several potions and Moon Petals. "I hope this is enough." After months of putting it off, Alex finally decided it was time to handle the parasite. After considering all his options, Alex concluded there were more upsides to taming the parasite than killing or removing it. He figured he would need all the help he could get for what was coming.

  Awakening the parasite was straightforward; all Alex needed was enough Mana to awaken it. The hard part was making sure he had enough Mana for the roughly two hours it would take the parasite to awaken. If he ever ran too low in Mana during those two hours, the parasite would be hostile when it emerged; however, if he could maintain a certain level of Mana during that time, the parasite would imprint on him instead.

  Alex held a deep breath for a few seconds before exhaling. "Let's go." He grabbed a handful of petals and then shoved them in his mouth. Holding back the urge to vomit, Alex chewed the petals before washing them down with a Mana potion. "Ugh, one percent isn't worth this." While Moon petals are integral ingredients for concentrating Mana potions, they also have a lesser-known use of giving a minor boost in Mana regen and absorption for a few minutes when eaten. "I should have brought some sweets."

  In between eating Moon petals and drinking Mana potions, Alex concentrated on absorbing the Mana in the room. When his eyes started to grow heavy around the one-hour mark, Alex took out the Energizer and slowly drank it. "I hope there aren't any long-term side effects from drinking all these potions simultaneously." Alex couldn't help but wonder when he felt his heart momentarily stop before beating so fast he started to worry it would burst out of his chest. Deciding to play it safe, Alex drank Health potions in between eating Moon petals and downing more potions.

  Around the hour-and-a-half mark, Alex could feel something inside him start to wiggle and grow. After the two-hour mark, he felt it begin to crawl from deep inside him towards his back. After another agonizing few minutes, he could feel spider legs emerge from his back and crawl down his back. Turning around, Alex was greeted with a dark blue spider as big as his torso staring at him. Downing another potion, Alex reached his hand out towards it. The spider's six eyes stared at him, tilting their head before moving closer. Feeling the spider's fuzzy head against his hand, Alex gently rubbed alongside the spider's body.

  "Hungry?" Despite hearing no answer, Alex could feel something inside him respond. Pooling a chunk of his Mana into his hand, Alex quickly began weaving a long strand of Mana, which the spider immediately devoured. Glancing at the clock, he nodded before returning the empty bottles and leftover petals to his bag. "What should I name you? Hmm, how about Silk?" The spider simply tilted its head, but Alex didn't sense any response. "Maybe you're too young to understand that question. I'll just call you Silk for now; we could always change your name in the future."

  Alex groaned as he stood up and stretched his stiff limbs. "Let's go." Feeling his intent, Silk slowly crawled up his body. Shivering at the feeling of Silk entering his back, Alex drank one last Mana potion before exiting the room.