While Asher wanted nothing more than to jump straight into hunting down the other senior assassins with Miles' help now that the seeker had proven himself, he had a couple of errands he needed to take care of first.

Not to mention a few new holes going straight through his body that could use a few hours of rest and relaxation. He still wasn't sure how he felt about using a fight with such a deadly opponent as a training exercise, but the notifications he received afterward certainly didn't hurt.

Personal Rift - Lvl 22

Astral Dip - Lvl 26

Spatial Lock - Lvl 18

It was getting harder and harder to level his already evolved skills, so he couldn't complain after seeing Astral Dip finally advance once more. Not to mention toying with the man had resulted in him actually giving Asher all his shards for a change, rather than having to take them off his corpse. That meant none were lost to shard decay upon the man's death, netting him quite the nice payday and bringing his total back to a respectable, six-digit level.

Shards: 140,316

Damn, maybe I should try scaring assassins into giving me their shards before I kill them more often…

The first thing he did after escaping the dust cloud that was once a Guild cell was meet up with Miles in his shop and pay him the promised ten thousand shards. The seeker had in fact helped him find a senior assassin, as promised, and he had plenty more work he was planning to task him with. Asher was tempted to try and place one of his Eternal Marks on Miles, even if it would mean removing one of the ones he already had set, but the seeker was understandably even more cautious about people touching him than the average person. Instead, he simply informed Miles he'd meet back up with him at his office in the morning, before heading over to his next errand.

Keeping his cloak pulled tight across his frame to hide the two literal holes in his torso, Asher headed back up to the third level and hunted down an alchemist. He'd originally hoped to retrieve some new potions of Lesser Restoration from the Guild cell, but seeing as the entire thing had collapsed, even if there had been potions in there once, there was little chance of finding them now. He had no idea how much potions cost in this world, but it wasn't a matter of want at this point. He couldn't extend his own personal healing to other people, which meant he needed to find some more potions for emergencies. Samantha's Soothing Spring skill worked well, but it wasn't nearly as fast acting as a Lesser Restoration potion. And if the recent ambush by Limb, the tree-assassin, was anything to go by, sometimes she was the one in need of healing.

Stepping into an alchemy shop that had been recommended to him by one of the elevator guards, Asher noted the soft 'ding' of a bell above the door right before he was all but punched in the nose by a cacophony of powerful smells. Eyes watering, he looked around the room, confused by the lack of potions.

He'd been expecting to see an assortment of vials secured behind glass similar to the artifact shop he'd visited up in the second level, each one filled with different colorful liquids. Instead, the alchemist shop reminded him more so of a small doctor's office. There was a large counter with a door tucked away behind it leading to a back room, some comfortable chairs and a few scattered books on a small coffee table, as well as a handful of shelves holding what appeared to be framed, handwritten notes thanking the alchemist for their amazing potions and gushing about how effective they'd been.

While Asher read over one of the reviews that went into surprising detail about how the alchemist's potion had cured the man's impotence, a woman walked out of the backroom, peeling off two thick gloves and giving him a broad smile. She wore heavy-duty clothing that looked far too thick to be all that comfortable, and had wild, short hair as though she'd slept with her head in a blender.

"Welcome to Polly's Potions!" she grinned, tossing her gloves onto the counter and looking him up and down, clearly assessing him. "If you hadn't guessed by the name, I'm Polly. Need something specific, or just here to browse?"

"I'm mainly interested in potions of Lesser Restoration, but I guess I never really thought too hard about what potions someone might have available," he admitted, walking over to the counter. "Do you have any recommendations for someone who sees a lot of battle?"

"That's like asking a chef if they have any recommendations for someone that likes food," she snorted, her crazy hair shifting around as she shook her head. "I'd need a bit more detail than that to give you a recommendation. Like the type of enemies you're fighting, or your frequently used skills, stuff like that. With that knowledge, I can offer specific potions that synergize well with what you're already good at, or potions that can make up for the areas you're lacking."

Asher hesitated, unsure how truthful he should be. There was no chance in hell he was going to tell her about his strange skills, but he was definitely curious what an expert would recommend. Polly clearly picked up on his hesitation, as she gave him a wide smile before pulling a thick book out from under her desk and slamming it down in front of him.

"Don't worry, plenty of you meat-head types dislike telling others about your skills. How about while I go and brew up a batch of Lesser Restoration potions for you, you take a look at what I have to offer and let me know if anything catches your eye. Just note that the prices listed in that book aren't always exact, the shard cost changes depending on the availability of materials I have on hand."

"That sounds great, thank you." Nodding his thanks, Asher eyed up the thick tome with hunger. With Incorporate at level 18, such a book looked like exactly what he needed to push the skill a bit further. "Before any of that though, how much for a potion of Lesser Restoration?"

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"I charge four thousand shards for each one, but you sound like you're here to buy in bulk," Polly said, eyeing him knowingly. "How about we call it twenty-two thousand for a half dozen?"

"Done." Asher knew he should probably try and haggle her down even further, but haggling just wasn't something he was all that comfortable with. Hilariously, he could fight a man to the death without issue, but the thought of trying to argue over a price just felt wrong. After taking his twenty-two thousand shards, Polly nodded and tapped the book.

"Feel free to bring it over to one of the couches, no need to stand at the counter while you're reading," she said as she pulled her gloves back on. "You're also welcome to head out and come back if you want, I'll need about an hour to finish the batch."

Thanking her again, Asher waited until she'd headed back into what was presumably her workshop based on all the crazy smells coming out from it before laying a hand on the well-used tome. Activating Incorporate, he grimaced as his mind was slammed with what was essentially a catalog of hundreds of different potions.

Incorporate - Lvl 19

Just as Polly had promised, her book didn't just give the names and costs of her different potions, it included a description of the many unique effects, the rough duration that each potion would last for, and even the time frame one had to use the potion within before it expired. That last bit came as a shock to him, as he hadn't even considered the fact that magical potions would have something like an expiration date.

Taking a seat on one of the couches, Asher leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes as he began speed reading through the entire catalog. Even if he didn't end up buying anything other than the Lesser Restoration potions while he was here, just receiving this bank of knowledge as to what was available was a huge boon.

As a new host of curious smells drifted out from Polly's workshop, Asher began making notes of the most important things in the book.

For starters, potions tended to be divided into one of four categories. Instant, long-term, splash, and oil. Instant potions were those that had an effect that would happen, understandably, in a single instant after being consumed. Potions of Lesser Restoration were an example of this, as the magic would wash over the body all at once, before fading.

Long-term potions tended to have weaker effects than instant ones, but they could last for minutes, or even a few hours depending on the desired effect. Some of the more common ones appeared to be potions that would let the drinker endure harsh elements, or ones that gave minor buffs to things like vision or reflexes.

Splash potions could technically be both instant or long-term, but they had their own category as they were designed to be thrown at an enemy rather than drunk by the user. There were a surprising number of attack potions used in this manner, the most common of which being a simple one called alchemists-fire that, according to the description, sounded eerily similar to napalm from what Asher understood. The explosive potions he'd taken from Draken's storeroom and used against the former Eight's rat army fell under this category.

Lastly, were oils. Rather than being drunk or thrown, these were thicker substances designed to be used to coat weapons or tools to temporarily enhance them. There were a shocking number of warnings listed throughout the entire book that unknown potions should never be ingested, as accidentally drinking a potion that was listed as an oil was an excellent way to die.

Asher ignored what sounded like a handful of small explosions and cursing coming from the backroom as he finally finished going through the catalog in his head. Now that he had a better understanding of what the world had available, he picked out a couple that he was interested in possibly trying out for himself. Most of the strange effects either had too high a shard cost for him to justify picking up just to mess around with, but there were a few more reasonably priced ones that sounded shockingly useful from what he could see.

Not to mention with Permanence in his back pocket, he only needed one long-term potion to make the purchase more than worth it.

By the time Polly returned to the front desk with a small box, he'd managed to increase his Comprehend up to level 26, and he had a bright smile on his face as he walked back up to her.

"Half a dozen potions of Lesser Restoration," she nodded, placing the box on the counter in front of him. "Find anything else you were interested in during the wait?"

"Maybe one or two things," he said, moving the box to the side for the moment. A few too many people for his liking had witnessed his Personal Rift recently, and he saw no reason to needlessly make that count any higher. "I saw you sold potions of Gills that gave the drinker the ability to breathe underwater for a few hours. How much for one of those?"

Samantha had the ability to breathe underwater thanks to her Water element. If they ever came across a situation where he needed to follow her, he wanted to be prepared.

"Definitely not one I get requests for all that frequently, seeing as we live in a mountain and all," she snorted. "I could do five thousand and three hundred shards for just the one."

"Alright… What about your potion of Bright-Sight?" That one had been an interesting find in the back of the book. While there were potions that could allow the drinker to see in the dark, Polly's catalogue also included the exact opposite. Asher wasn't sure why she even had a potion that allowed one to see in blinding light, but he was more than a little interested after reading the description.

He could think of at least one use for such a potion.

"Bright-Sight?" she repeated, looking at him like he was crazy. "...You did see my note that said potion was more of a gimmick I created just to see if I could, right? It was a dumb bar bet I made with an alchemist friend of mine. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it. Total waste of shards."

"For my own curiosity," he said, not willing to admit what he had in mind for the potion.

"...Two thousand shards, and a promise that you don't tell anyone where you got it," she said, still looking at him like he was throwing away shards. "I don't want anyone thinking I goofed up a simple potion of Night Vision so badly I created the opposite. Anything else?"

"One last thing," he said, opening the book and turning to a specific page. "I saw you had an oil of Bleed, but you had it marked as 'potentially unavailable.' Why is that?"

From the description, the oil of Bleed was a potion intended to be rubbed onto a weapon rather than one to be drunk. It was similar to a poison, but its effect was that it somehow caused any wounds inflicted to bleed more freely. Asher didn't know how long the effect would last, but it sounded like it could potentially stack with his Sever the Thread skill to an extreme degree.

"Ah, that's not because of any material shortage or anything. The nobles keep flipping back and forth on whether we alchemists are allowed to make and sell poisons," she said, clicking her tongue in annoyance. "Sadly, that one falls under the category, and another ban was put in place a few months back. Good chance I'll be able to make you some in the future, along with some other poisons, but for now, no dice."

"That's alright. In that case, a potion of Gills, and a potion of Bright-Sight," he decided, wanting to keep enough shards to evolve the next skill that hit the level 20 cap. "...And while I'm here, any chance you have some spare protective equipment?"

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