Chapter 66: Ch 66: Alchemy Association
The morning sun brought a massive crowd to Silver Fountain Plaza. The line outside Tomorrow’s Apothecary was already twice as long as the previous day.
Thankfully, the chaos was entirely under control. Six heavily armored knights bearing the crest of House Thorne stood at rigid attention outside the shop. They organized the desperate mercenaries and wealthy merchants into a perfectly straight queue. Nobody dared to cause a disturbance in front of the Patriarch’s personal elite guard.
Inside the shop, Naida and Raidan were preparing for the opening rush. The shelves were fully stocked with glowing crystal vials.
Suddenly, the peaceful morning was completely shattered.
The heavy clatter of iron hooves echoed across the cobblestones. The massive crowd outside parted reluctantly. Three large, pristine white carriages pulled right up to the front doors of the shop. The carriages bore the golden scales and mortar emblem of the official Royal Alchemy Guild.
The Thorne family guards stepped forward immediately. They crossed their polearms to block the entrance.
"Halt," the captain of the Thorne guard commanded loudly. "This establishment is under the direct protection of Patriarch Thorne. State your business."
The door of the lead carriage opened. A tall, incredibly thin man with silver hair stepped out. He wore the immaculate white robes of a Guild Grand Inspector. His eyes were cold, calculating, and completely devoid of any emotion.
Right behind him stepped Master Garrick. The crimson robed alchemist wore a massive, triumphant smirk on his face. He looked at the Thorne guards with absolute arrogance.
"My name is Grand Inspector Olerius," the silver haired man stated. "I am carrying a royal warrant to inspect this unlicensed premises. We have received formal complaints regarding the distribution of highly volatile, untested, and potentially lethal magical substances. Stand aside, Captain. Not even Patriarch Thorne can block a royal health mandate."
The captain of the guard frowned deeply. He looked back at the front window of the shop.
Raidan was standing there. He gave the captain a very subtle nod.
The captain sighed and lowered his polearm. "Proceed, Inspector. But if you damage a single vial in that shop, the Patriarch will hold you personally accountable."
Olerius adjusted his white gloves. He marched up the wooden steps and pushed the heavy front door open. The little silver bell chimed merrily. Garrick followed right on his heels, practically vibrating with eager anticipation. Four heavily armed Guild enforcers filed in behind them, completely filling the small retail space.
Naida stood behind her pristine wooden counter. She did not look intimidated. She looked mildly bored.
"Welcome to Tomorrow’s Apothecary," Naida said calmly. "We are currently closed for another ten minutes. Please wait outside."
"There will be no opening today, little girl." Garrick sneered. He slammed a heavy roll of parchment onto the wooden counter.
Bang!
"This is a formal Association injunction. Your little scam is completely finished. Inspector Olerius is here to confiscate your toxic sludge and arrest you for practicing grandmaster alchemy without a sanctioned license."
Raidan leaned casually against the doorframe of the back room. He crossed his arms over his chest.
"A sanctioned license?" Raidan asked smoothly. "I was unaware that raw talent required a permission slip from a guild that still boils its ingredients in brass pots."
Olerius ignored Raidan entirely. His cold eyes locked onto Naida.
"I do not care about local merchant rivalries," Olerius said in a monotone voice. "I am here strictly for quality control. Master Garrick claims you are using chaotic monster cores to simulate high tier healing potions. If this is true, you are risking a plague of mutations in the Central District. I will now test your products. If they fail the resonance scan, your shop will be burned to the ground."
"Test whatever you like," Naida replied as she gestured gracefully toward a ruby red Ascendant Flesh elixir resting on the counter.
"But I ask that you do not drop it. They are quite expensive."
Olerius reached into his deep white robes. He pulled out a fist sized crystal. It was a Guild Resonance Mirror. It was a legendary grade artifact designed specifically to detect impurities, chaotic mana, and toxic residue inside any brewed liquid. If a potion contained even a single drop of poison or unrefined monster mana, the crystal would turn a pitch black color.
"Let us see the truth," Olerius murmured.
He held the clear crystal directly over the ruby red elixir. He channeled a pulse of his own mana into the artifact to activate the scanning sequence.
The Resonance Mirror camw to life.
Garrick leaned forward with a massive, cruel smile. He was completely ready to watch the crystal turn black. He was ready to watch the guild enforcers drag this arrogant girl away in iron chains.
The crystal did not turn black.
Instead, the Resonance Mirror began to hum violently. A blinding, pure white light erupted from the center of the artifact. The light was so intensely bright that the Guild enforcers had to shield their eyes. The crystal vibrated wildly in Valerius’s hand, generating a high pitched whining noise that made everyone wince.
Raidan opened his system interface to observe the interaction. The blue screens popped up instantly.
[ System Alert: Artifact Overload Detected. ]
[ Target: Resonance Mirror (Legendary Grade). ]
[ Cause of Overload: The Resonance Mirror is attempting to scan a liquid with 100 percent flawless conceptual purity. The artifact’s internal runes cannot process a zero percent impurity rate. ]
[ Result: Imminent structural failure. ]
"Inspector!What is happening to the scanner?" Garrick shouted in sudden panic.
"I have no idea!" Olerius yelled over the deafening hum. He tried to pull the crystal away from the potion, but the artifact seemed magnetically locked to the divine aura of the elixir.
Then, a loud, sharp cracking sound echoed through the room.
Because a massive fissure appeared directly down the center of the priceless Guild artifact.
The blinding white light abruptly died. The Resonance Mirror shattered into a dozen dull, useless pieces of glass. The fragments scattered across the wooden counter.
The entire shop descended into complete, absolute silence.
Olerius stared at the broken glass in sheer horror. The Resonance Mirror had been passed down through the Guild for four hundred years. It had scanned potions brewed by the King’s personal alchemists. It had never once malfunctioned.
"You sabotaged it!" Garrick roared, pointing a trembling, accusatory finger at Naida. "You placed a localized gravity hex on the counter to shatter the mirror! Inspector, arrest her right now!"
Naida looked at Garrick with profound pity. "The mirror shattered because it was looking for impurities that simply do not exist. Your artifact was built to measure mortal mistakes. It could not comprehend absolute perfection."
"Perfection is a myth!" Valerius snapped, finally losing his cold composure. His face was flushed with anger and embarrassment. "No mortal brewer can achieve a one hundred percent purity rate! Even the Grand Guild Master caps at ninety two percent! You used a trick. A visual illusion."
"If you truly believe that, Inspector," Raidan interrupted smoothly, stepping forward to stand beside Naida. "Then give her a practical test. Right here. Right now. Give her the most corrupted, impossible ingredient you have in your confiscation carriage. Let her refine it in front of your own eyes."
Garrick laughed harshly. "A live refinement? She does not even have a cauldron set up! She has no coal, no bellows, no cooling tubes!"
Olerius held up a hand to silence Garrick. The Inspector looked closely at Naida. He saw absolutely no fear in her eyes. He only saw a quiet, terrifying confidence.
"Very well," Olerius agreed coldly. "Enforcers. Bring in the Abyssal Lotus from the containment vault."
Garrick gasped out loud. "Inspector! Are you completely insane? The Abyssal Lotus is a forbidden ingredient! It constantly leaks necrotic energy! If she makes a single mistake during the refinement process, the resulting explosion will level this entire city block!"
"Then she had better not make a mistake," Olerius replied ruthlessly. "She claims to possess flawless purification methods. Let her prove it or let her die trying. Clear the room of all non essential personnel."
The Thorne guards outside quickly pushed the crowds far away from the storefront. Raidan remained exactly where he was, completely unbothered.
Two Guild enforcers carefully carried a heavy lead box into the shop. They placed it on the floor with extreme caution and quickly backed away.
Valerius unlatched the heavy locks with a long metal rod. The lid popped open.
Instantly, a foul, freezing wave of dark purple miasma flooded the room. The wooden floorboards closest to the box began to rot and turn gray. Inside the lead container rested a massive, pulsating black flower. It leaked a terrifying aura of pure death and decay.
Raidan tapped his finger. A system screen appeared instantly.
[ Item Name: Abyssal Lotus ]
[ Status: 99 Percent Corrupted by Necrotic Mana ]
[ Standard Guild Refining Probability: 0.0001 Percent ]
[ Warning: Lethal toxic exposure imminent without divine intervention. ]
Olerius took a step back, covering his mouth with a magically treated cloth.
"This lotus was harvested from the center of a dungeon collapse. It is completely saturated with chaotic death mana. The Guild has deemed it entirely unrefinable. Purify it into a usable catalyst, little girl, or admit you are a fraud."
Naida did not put on gloves. She did not cover her face.
She walked smoothly around the counter and approached the rotting flower. Guided perfectly by the omniscient knowledge within her mind, she understood the exact elemental structure of the necrotic mana.
She reached her bare right hand directly into the thick purple miasma.
Garrick let out a gasp of shocked horror. "Her hand will rot straight off her wrist!"
Naida closed her eyes. She channeled the absolute authority of the Codex of the Emerald Flame.
A tiny spark of vibrant, beautiful green fire ignited right at the tip of her index finger.
The moment the green spark touched the dark purple miasma, a silent, spiritual shockwave ripped through the room.
Buzz!