- "I dealt with the devil, Valeria. Now it lives inside me." -
Volume One:
Eclipse rubbed his temples, letting out a long sigh as he looked down at the curious scene before him.
Standing beside him, Silva and Valeria crouched with grim determination, their heads pressed close to the floor, watching the small, blue slime happily consuming the hidden stash of weaponry Eclipse kept under his bed.
After finally regaining his footing just an hour ago, Eclipse wasn't sure what to make of this mess.
He glanced from Silva's poised expression to Valeria's slightly guilty one.
"So… let me get this straight," he muttered, half-amused, half-exasperated. "The herb I went through all that trouble for—the Shadowbloom—is gone, and only the Silver Root survived? And now we have this thing instead."
Silva and Valeria exchanged glances, their brows furrowing.
Valeria was the first to speak. "Well… we thought you were the one who brought this thing here?"
None of them wanted this.
If someone were to discover an Eclipse harboring a monster, he could easily face accusations of traitor—a crime punishable by death. The thought made his stomach churn.
It might have made its way close to me back then Eclipse thought while looking at the slime, then the teleportation magic mistook this slime as one of my belongings...so instead of the herb, it brought back this.
With a composed, almost chilly expression, Silva spoke up. "Master, if you want, I can handle this quickly."
Eclipse nodded absentmindedly, gesturing for her to go ahead.
Silva and Valeria didn't waste a moment.
They both ducked under the bed, attempting to seize the slimy intruder that jiggled teasingly.
Watching them struggle, Eclipse sighed, covering his face with one hand.
The two of them reached and stretched, elbows bumping and expressions increasingly irritated as the small blue slime wobbled around just out of reach.
But the sight faded as he drifted back to the reality of his situation.
He had barely made it through one battle, and the price had been five days in bed, helpless.
He knew the truth all too well: I'm weak. And sooner or later, I'll face something more dangerous again. If I keep this up, I might die.
Something has to change.
His gaze lingered on the Silverroot herb, a powerful catalyst in alchemy.
If I had more of that potion… maybe there's a chance. And Valeria might know something about that...
"Silva, your elbow is in my way!"
But maybe he'd ask her later, after he set up the mood.
After all, he knew Valeria wouldn't give out the answer that easily. This is an illegal alchemist that he was looking for.
The elixir he'd used to take down the corrupted slime was a game-changer.
Though dangerous, it had given him a surge of power that bordered on supernatural.
And power—no matter the cost—was what he needed to survive. Since he can't improve magic-wise.
In this world, power stemmed from one source above all: inner-mana.
Those like Seraphine, the Hero's ally and a top-tier mage, didn't need any external aid.
Her magic came naturally, like a river drawn from within.
Inner-mana was self-renewing, flexible, practically infinite for someone like her.
But Eclipse? He possessed nothing of the sort.
Lacking inner-mana, he was left with outer-mana sources—rare, costly, and dangerously unstable.
For the average person, harnessing outer-mana was like trying to catch a wildfire in a jar.
It was unpredictable, frequently disastrous, and often led to violent, fiery failures.
The only reason he'd managed to channel it with the Draught potion was because it had been masterfully crafted, tempered with arcane knowledge beyond his reach.
And that gave him an idea.
Though he couldn't recreate the exact potion that had fueled his fight with the slime, maybe—just maybe—he could craft something close enough to even the odds.
He wasn't new to the world of Alchemy, he had once gone through it in the game.
The Silverroot, he knew a formula that could make it useful.
Of course, it would be a gamble, he mused, glancing at the herb and recalling the in-game formulas he had once memorized.
Then there was that problem.
With every potion, there was the risk that instead of empowering its user, it might have a catastrophic reaction—or worse.
But he couldn't experiment on himself.
Not when the stakes were so high.
Unless… he could find a test subject.
"Come out from under there," he said with a glint in his eye, now very interested in the possibilities that were unfolding.
Both women didn't get out.
Maybe they didn't hear him.
"Let it be. Don't kill it just yet."
They were still there.
"Are you not hearing me?" he repeated, tilting his head. "Let it go. I might actually have a use for it."
Still no movement.
"Well?" he pressed.
Valeria cleared her throat, her voice slightly muffled. "Uh… I think we're kind of stuck here."
Silva's voice followed, calm but tinged with embarrassment. "I… apologize, Master. It appears my sleeve is caught."
Eclipse pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. "Is this actually happening right now?"