"Do you come here often?" Eik asked as they walked across the street to the gigantic, multistory auction house. He had already put on his mask.

Apparently it was imbued with some kind of concealment ability. Not to say that it hid him from sight or anything quite as radical as that. According to Andihar, it simply diminished his presence in general. Even before they stepped out of the restaurant, Eik had already given up on understanding exactly how the thing worked.

The muscular elf tilted his head from side to side, lips pursed. "Sometimes I do, yes, but to be honest, I usually just send one of my employees if there's something I'm particularly interested in."

"Then I should thank you again for coming with me. And sorry for bothering you with something crazy like this. I must seem a little paranoid."

The elf laughed. "It is no problem at all. In fact, it is the least I can do after what you did for us."

"I don't know about that," Eik chuckled.

"Furthermore, I do believe you're operating under a misconception," Andihar continued as they stepped through an enormous set of double doors held open for them by a member of staff. Eik nodded politely to the woman as he followed Andihar, who strode through without a glance at anybody. "I mentioned before that plenty of people want to hide their identities. Keeping secret exactly who is capable of creating or procuring something rare or sought after can be a very wise idea indeed."

"Makes sense," Eik drawled absentmindedly as he looked around the enormous entrance hall. By way of some manner of illusion, the ceiling seemed to stretch upward almost infinitely. A facsimile of the night sky filled with countless twinkling stars completed the magnificent view fantastically. And despite it all, the floor remained pleasantly well lit.

Andihar flashed some kind of identification upon which they were led upstairs and through a series of hallways.

Despite how luxurious and fancily decorated the lobby downstairs had been, the upstairs was barely more than bare wall and soft carpet flooring. It seemed much more focused on visibility and security, several small squads of armored guards passing them in the hall as they walked.

How their guard was able to find his way along the numerous naked, winding corridors was a mystery.

Finally the man stopped in front of a door and held up a nondescript badge against a simple metal plate above the door handle. A couple of seconds later a mechanism clicked audibly inside the door and the guide pushed it open, leading them into a room which had been decorated and designed according to the same lavish standards as the lobby albeit with an entirely different aesthetic.

Couches exploding with oversized throw pillows and vibrantly colors woven rugs had been pushed up against one of the walls, a tea table with an enormous wooden bowls of all sorts of fruits spilling over the edges at the exact height to stub your shins. It wasn't unlike the aesthetics of the parts of Andihar's own home that Eik had seen.

Three such couch corners made up the room with space for more than a dozen people to throw themselves lazily. Making up the center of the scene was a round table in the middle of which four displays were installed in such a way that it allowed whatever was shown on them to be visible no matter where you were in the room. Pens and stacks of paper were available as well. There was nothing like a microphone to let the occupants to place bids or whatever they did here.

"I sincerely hope that you will enjoy your time with us here today. If I understand correctly, you have also brought items which you would like to put up for auction."

"That's right," Andihar said.

"I will make sure that an appraiser is sent for consultation as soon as possible."

"Zil'lak is working today, right?"

The guide thought for a moment. "I believe he is, yes."

"I'd like to request him then."

"Very well, sir. I will inform him of your request right away."

"Good."

With a bow, the guide left and closed the door behind him, leaving the key badge for them on the round table. Andihar took a seat in one of the soft couches as Eik began to look through the fruits in the bowl and try any he didn't recognize. He had already tried a bunch of different foods in Gimleh but with the numerous different cultures and worlds each bringing their own styles, climates, and species to the table, he had barely cracked the surface of what was available.

"Who's Zil'lak?" he asked.

"An appraiser here. Although you can trust both the skills and integrity of every appraiser here, he's the one I trust the most. I've worked with him many times and my daughter Thalandi has trained with his daughter a few times."

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They waited about ten minutes before there was a knock on the door.

Zil'lak was very tall and very slender. He also happened to be an insect person. Eik almost let the surprise show on his face but just managed to hide it, because he was wearing a mask that hid it. His bright, green exoskeleton had many sharp protrusions so his clothes were tailored to fit around those spike without ripping.

He offered a polite bow to Andihar, who nodded back, and then regarded Eik silently, the Earthling unable to discern any expression whatsoever from the man's insectoid face. He had the same type of eyes as a fly from Earth with its multiple segments. His mandibles trembled slightly, the meaning once again escaping Eik—if there even was a meaning behind it. Then he offered another, similarly polite bow.

"Mr. Andihar Dayarunar," the gigantic insect uttered, the sound of his voice hollow and metallic, as if he was speaking through an empty can. "You came. It is my pleasure to welcome you once more. I trust you have been taken well care of thus far?"

"Indeed," the elf answered with a nod, a smile making its way onto his lips. "It's my first time seeing our greeter. New employee, perhaps?"

Zil'lak shrugged, finally offered a gesturing Eik could follow. "It happens. And you," he said, once more turning his large, popping eyes to Eik. "you must be the guest Mr. Andihar Dayarunar said he would bring along."

"It's good to meet you, Mr. Zil'lak." He refrained from giving him own name.

"The pleasure is mine. Well…"

Eik stared and waited. After a few seconds, Andihar nudged him gently. "Take out the item you want to put up for auction and show it to him."

Eik hurried to do so, plunging his hand into the rucksack of holding and pulling out a small package wrapped in cloth. If he wanted to see it, he could have just asked.

Eik unfolded the little bundle and handed it carefully over to Zil'lak, who held the chromatic pill between sharp, hooked fingers. He held it up to his massive eyes and went completely silent for a good thirty seconds as he studied the little pill intently

"This is…" the appraiser muttered with hesitation. "What in the world is this?"

Eik threw a glance at Andihar for help but the S-ranker simply raised his eyebrows and shrugged. The Earthling cleared his throat. "It's uuh… I call it my Legendary Mystery Medicine."

"Well, that's certainly… a creative name, isn't it? Might I ask what it does."

"It increases your physical stats."

"Like…" Zil'lak fished.

"Like a Potion of Mighty Strength."

"That's what it sound like to me, yes. So what makes you think anyone would be interested in buying this from you at auction when they can get a similar product anywhere in Gimleh?"

"Mine's permanent," Eik told him, unable to hold back a hint of satisfaction as the appraiser grew quiet. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw that Andihar was having similar troubles with suppressing his own grin.

When he had first told the S-ranker about his invention and asked him to sponsor his entry into the Gimleh Auction House, the elf had been skeptical to say the least. Given Eik's very infant knowledge of the Unified Mass, Andihar had been convinced that he must have misunderstood something. But he had been courteous enough to let the C-ranker demonstrate the effects of his medicine.

When Eik had taken a dose of Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine in front of him with no visible effects, he had brought his daughter Thalandi in to test it herself since the effects of a medicine of such a low rank would have been muddled into nothing by his S-rank physique.

She had immediately and angrily refused, which only served to intensify Eik's distaste for her personality. How two kind people like Andihar and Molanda had brought up a child so devoid of politeness and with her head so far up her own ass Eik couldn't begin to guess at.

Eventually, however, she had swallowed the pill and dismissed the minuscule power boost as nothing short of a complete failure on Eik's part. He had gone home that day knowing that Andihar would be in contact again within a few days.

He had been right and barely two days later when the effect had persisted, Andihar had come running again, swinging apologies. If nothing else, he believed that there was something special about Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine.

And now, almost two months later, there was no doubt in the elf's mind that this pill could do what had always been thought to be impossible.

Judging by Zil'lak's silence he too was firmly in the camp of disbelief. With an airy sigh he gently handed the pill back to Eik and took a step back, offering a slight bow. "Mr. Andihar Dayarunar, you know that I am always extremely appreciative of your patronage but I must ask that you refrain from wasting my time with practical jokes in the future. I take my work very seriously. I am very good at what I do, and frankly, this is an insult, Mr. Andihar Dayarunar. Have a good day and I hope to see you again soon—hopefully with something real for me to look at." Zil'lak started to turn back to the door when Andihar raised a hand to stop him.

"Zil'lak, my friend. Do you know me to be a trickster? That you would think I would do such a thing to you, I should be the one to feel insulted here," Andihar said firmly and then gestured to Eik. "And my hardworking friend here, who has endured pain and taken risks to bring this creation into reality. That you refuse to even entertain the possibility of this being real is unlike you."

With his skeletal hand on the door handle, Zil'lak considered Andihar's words for a moment before sighing again. "I apologize. To you, Mr. Andihar Dayarunar, and to you," he said to Eik, bowing deeply to both of them. "It seems I got carried away. If it's okay, I would like to see your creation again."

Eik handed it over as Andihar began to speak. "My daughter took that pill two months ago and the effects haven't faded at all. It is nowhere near as potent as the short-term effects of a Potion of Mighty Strength but my friend here has at least, what, twenty stacks of it with no signs of diminishing returns, right?" he said, looking to Eik who confirmed with a nod.

"If these claims are true, then what you have here is truly remarkable. Certainly one of the greatest discoveries in modern time."

"I'll give you one to try, if you'd like," Eik offered. "What rank are you?"

"I— Wha—… B-rank," Zil'lak spluttered.

"Great!" Eik had actually managed to get the B-rank version done just a week ago, although it had been almost three weeks of trying to get it to work. The Potion of Mighty Strength class 4 had been a completely different beast from the other classes and had required a level of control and precision that he was entirely capable of but that was difficult to get right in the context of alchemy.

Zil'lak accepted the pill and studied it closely before it disappeared between his mandibles. Now all they had to do was wait.

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