As they made their way through the city gates, a part of Aiden hated how empty his coin pouch felt at his side.
He rolled his shoulder and felt a little better.
His bag now rested inside the spatial cloak wrapped around his shoulders. It was strange to wear storage, but it was also undeniably convenient.
Aflmaril and Straun had insisted on waiting by the gate for Sena, so they said their goodbyes there before heading deeper into the city.
"Please tell me I'm not the only one who felt a bit weird traveling and chatting with the people who tried to kill us," Aiden said.
Everyone nodded.
Then Jax poked his head out from inside Aiden's cloak, making the left side suddenly grow heavy.
"Got to hand it to you, Hallowcreek. Best purchase yet. Though it needs a light. It's dark in here."
"Well, would you like to walk in the heat?"
Jax immediately shook his head and pulled his snout back inside.
The weight vanished once he was no longer hanging out of the cloak.
Aiden was already regretting this decision to let Jax ride inside.
He turned to Kaelen, who held the quest paper for the salamanders.
"From the looks of it, this quest was commissioned by the Stonewright Smithy," Kaelen said. "Plus, we need someone to find lunch, and someone else should head to the guild to report Ymer."
At that last comment, everyone froze.
They slowly looked at one another.
Aiden felt his mouth go dry as he anticipated movement.
"Nose goes!"
Everyone shouted at once.
Hands shot upward.
For a moment, there was silence.
Thalia turned around, confused, her hands still at her sides.
Liora stood silently, one hand caught halfway in her pocket as she stared at a nearby wall. Shame covered her face.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
Aiden walked over and placed a hand on Liora's shoulder as he passed.
A feeling of almost cruel excitement bubbled inside him as he, Jax, and Will all said in the same mocking tone,
"Enjoy the lines."
Thalia and Liora both dropped to their knees like they had been shot.
The rest of them continued on in victory.
As they walked, Selene looked around nervously.
Kaelen said, "I'll grab us a table. Meet back here in thirty minutes or so?"
Aiden nodded.
Selene was still looking around, clearly trying to avoid being part of the conversation with the employer.
Aiden glanced up at her.
Then he quickly wrote out a list and handed it over.
Selene looked down at it, confused.
"These are some herbs we need for your medicine, as well as general supplies, see if you can find a shop that sells herbs while Jax and I meet the employer."
Selene gave him a relieved smile and nodded, walking away while reading the list to herself.
Aiden turned back as Jax jumped out of the cloak and started walking beside him.
"Getting claustrophobic?"
"Nah, just figured the team lead should probably be there to talk when we take the quest."
It took a minute, but they spotted the sign for the Stonewright Smithy down the road.
As they walked, Aiden pulled out the training book he had bought and flipped it open.
At first, he had thought it would show him some kind of training method.
Instead, the book contained a blueprint for a device called a Revolution Core.
According to the writing, it was meant to circulate energy through the body like a second heart designed only for power. To make it, however, he needed materials.
Aiden looked over the recipe.
The book even showed ways to upgrade the item later, but for now, he focused on the starting build section and made a mental note of the required materials.
Revolution Core - Starting Build
Required Materials:
1 square foot of Titanhide
5 feet of Crystal Spider Silk
1 Heartstone
2 ingots of Glowsteel
5 pieces of Aetherbark
"Some of these parts seem a bit above our pay grade," Will said in Aiden's head.
Aiden glanced over the list again.
The Heartstone alone was a C-rank item. Titanhide was not the most sought-after material in the world, but getting it would still be expensive.
It was B-rank, after all.
"Everything starts with baby steps," Aiden mumbled. "For now, let's see what this quest is looking like."
They approached the Stonewright Smithy and stepped inside.
The room was decorated with a plethora of weapons of all kinds. Swords, axes, spears, shields, bows, and several things Aiden was not entirely sure were weapons but definitely did not want swung at his head.
Behind the counter, a human woman wore a leather apron and goggle-like glasses. She flipped the lenses up as they entered.
"Welcome to the smithy. What kind of gear are you looking for?"
"Actually were here for the quest," Jax said, looking around at the various pieces of equipment. "We heard you had a salamander problem?"
The woman nodded, then gestured for them to follow.
They made their way to the back of the shop, where a large metal doorway stood. Through the glass, Aiden could see three or four salamanders walking around on piles of charcoal.
They resembled regular lizards, though their bodies had red and orange tints that made their scales look like embers floating from a campfire. They were not very large, no bigger than Jax, and their footprints left small burning spots wherever they walked.
To Aiden's surprise, no fire spread.
"We sealed the room," the woman said. "So they burned through the oxygen inside. Unfortunately, they do not exactly need to breathe, which left us in a stalemate. They cannot burn my charcoal pile, and I cannot get them out. If you can handle it for me, the reward is still the same."
Aiden nodded and turned back to her.
"Happy to. Is it all right if we gather our other members before we head in? Our group split up because some of them had to make a report to the guild about an attack from another adventurer."
The woman raised an eyebrow.
A twinge of curiosity appeared on her face.
Aiden waited.
"If it is not too much trouble," she said, "do you mind telling me what happened?"
"Step one complete," Will said excitedly. "The bait is set. Now we reel her in."
Aiden felt a bit weird doing this, but he reached into his bag and pulled out the book.
"Sure," Aiden said. "But if it's not too much trouble, could you look this over in exchange? I'm no good with blueprints, and I figured a blacksmith would know what they are looking at better than I would."
The woman looked at him for a moment.
Then she nodded.
Aiden handed over the blueprint and explained their encounter with Ymer and his group.
It took a while.
Around halfway through, the woman seemed to finish looking through the booklet. She waited for him to finish the story before glancing down at the pages again.
"Yikes," she said. "Sounds like a bad day."
"That is one way to put it," Aiden replied.
"Anyway, I took a look at your Revolution Core blueprint." She tapped the page. "I can make it, but honestly, it might not be what you want."
Aiden looked at her, confused.
"This thing would basically serve as a second heart," she explained. "But instead of blood, it circulates Aether."
"That sounds like the point," Aiden said.
"Raw Aether," she clarified. "Some people have the constitution for that and can handle it just fine. Most cannot. Most start going into Aether Flux."
Aiden stiffened at the unfamiliar term.
Jax stepped forward.
"What's Aether Flux?"
"Well, basically, your body is adapted to a certain purity of energy for everything it does class-wise," the smith said. "Aether Flux happens when your body is not used to tainted or raw energy inside itself. It can cause excruciating pain. In severe cases, it can even kill you."
Aiden paled a bit.
He looked at Jax, who gave him an expression Aiden could only assume mirrored his own.
"Is there no way to build up a tolerance?" Aiden asked, taking the booklet back. "Like taking poison over and over again so your body gets better at handling it?"
"I mean, I guess," the woman said. "But you would need a way to ingest raw Aether. So unless you have an Aetheric Condenser, you're out of luck."
Aiden froze.
An idea sparked in his mind.
Jax noticed the look on his face.
"Aiden," Jax said slowly. "Why do you have that expression?"
Aiden and Will were already discussing the idea at length in his head as they started leaving the smithy.
Jax bumped his leg.
Aiden looked down, expecting him to ask about the book or worry about the plan.
Instead, Jax was lying on his side, panting rapidly as he wheezed,
"C-c-cloak, please."
Aiden rolled his eyes and opened the brown cloak.
Jax dove right in.
A contented sigh escaped from inside.
Aiden continued walking, making his way toward the place where they had agreed to meet the others. Once there, he sat down to wait.
The smith had said he would need something like an Aetheric Condenser to start building resistance.
For most people, that would be a term they had never heard.
For Aiden, it was familiar.
An Aetheric Condenser was a device alchemists without the class used to make Liquid Crystal.
Aiden pulled out an empty vial.
He held his finger over it and focused, draining mana as sparkling liquid slowly poured into the glass.
His grandfather had once said herbs were needed to direct the effect of a potion. Without them, drinking Liquid Crystal was basically like drinking salt water.
Unhelpful.
Unpleasant.
Likely to make a person gag.
However, Liquid Crystal Consolidation was not a skill that made Liquid Crystal from mana.
It was more like condensation.
The Aether in the air pooled and liquefied.
Which meant the vial in his hand was, technically, liquid Aether.
Before he could regret the decision, Aiden pinched his nose and downed the vial.
Pain tore through his body.
A System window appeared.
You have used skill Liquid Crystal Consolidation (E).
You have used item Liquid Crystal Vial (E).
You have ingested liquid Aether.
Your body is attempting to purify it.
Your body has failed.
The Aether runs rampant.
You are under the effect of Aether Flux.
You have developed a Flaw:
Arcane Allergy (D).