Coldvale was barely waking up when Adrian crossed the gates.

  The dawn guards let him pass without a word. He no longer looked like the vagabond of the day before, nor the makeshift scout. He was covered in cave dust, his reconditioned boots were caked with dried mud, and he carried the unmistakable scent of ozone and monster musk.

  He headed straight for the Guild.

  Inside, the large common hall was quiet. At the administrative counter, Magda, the receptionist with tired eyes, was peeling a pear with a dull knife.

  She looked up when Adrian placed his heavy bag on the wood. She recognized him immediately. The "reader" who had paid two silver for the Almanac.

  "You're alive," she stated without much emotion, but with a hint of curiosity. "I expected to have to cross your name off the register."

  "Not today, Magda. I have the order for the chitin plates. 'Iron Skin' Quest."

  He pulled out the plates one by one, stacking them like black dishes.

  Magda picked one up. She inspected it, looking for the usual cracks. Usually, novices crushed the beetles with a hammer, making half the harvest unusable.

  This one was immaculate. The ventral incision was surgical.

  "Clean," she admitted. "You found the weak spot. The base bounty is 300 coppers. The blacksmith will be happy not to have to glue the pieces back together. I'll give you a quality bonus of 150."

  She opened her drawer.

  "Anything else?"

  Adrian took out the small canvas bag containing the "extras." He no longer had the mana core, burned in the explosion, but he still had the rest.

  "A Thicket Wolf hide and two intact fangs. Plus these brass teeth recovered from a careless Goblin."

  Magda weighed the teeth in her hand.

  "450 for the carapaces. 40 for the wolf. 45 for the teeth. Total: 535 Copper Pieces. That's 5 Silver Pieces and 35 coppers."

  She placed the heavy coins on the counter.

  It was a significant sum. Enough to live comfortably for a month. For Adrian, it was just enough to finance the next step.

  "Thank you, Magda."

  "If you keep bringing back quality like this, Adrian, we'll end up giving you a rank."

  He gave a vague nod and left. He did not care about their ranks. He wanted their resources.

  Second step: The lab.

  When the bell chimed, Klara was serving an adventurer in leather armor.

  "...and I'm telling you, it's the new formula," she explained with a commercial smile. "Purer. Acts in thirty seconds."

  The adventurer paid without further ado and left, crossing paths with Adrian.

  She turned to him. Her face lit up with a joyful greed she clumsily tried to hide.

  "Adrian! By the Goddess, you came at the right time. I've been robbed."

  "Robbed?"

  "Your 'Blue Potions.' All five were gone within an hour yesterday afternoon. The captain of the guard took two. A 'Black Iron' mercenary took the others. They came back this morning asking for more. They say it doesn't cause nausea and the mental clarity effect is... addictive."

  Adrian smiled internally. Of course. He had eliminated the toxins.

  "Do we have a deal, then?"

  "We have better than a deal, we have a gold mine," she whispered, locking the shop door.

  She went behind the counter and pulled out a bag of coins much heavier than the last time.

  "I raised the price. 80 coppers per vial. They paid without flinching. We should be able to raise the prices to 1 silver piece without any problem for the next ones. In the meantime, here's your share."

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  She slid 200 coppers (2 silver) toward him.

  "I need to restock, Adrian. Right now. I'll supply the alcohol, the roots, everything. You can use the back room."

  Adrian took the money. He was rich, by local standards. But he had other urgent priorities.

  "I'll prepare a batch of ten vials for you today. But I need something in return."

  "You want more money?"

  "No. I need help."

  He leaned against the counter.

  "I can't squat in your back room forever, and I have other... projects that require space. I'm looking to rent. An isolated house, or a workshop with a cellar. Not in the center."

  She looked at him, suspicious.

  "You want to set up your own business?"

  "I will never sell healing potions directly," he promised. "You keep the exclusive rights to the 'Blue.' But I am a researcher. I need quiet. Do you know anyone?"

  She seemed reassured by the promise of exclusivity.

  "There's the old Tanners' Quarter, near the river. It stinks, no one wants to live there, but the buildings have large basements for soaking hides. See Master Gorm, at the registry."

  "Thank you. And one last thing. Where can I buy glasswork? Not your standard vials. Custom equipment. Tubes, coils..."

  "The glassblowers are in the capital," she said, frowning. "Here, you'll only find the basics. Unless you go see the junk dealer, Garel. He sometimes recovers remains from dead mages' laboratories."

  Adrian made a mental note. Garel, him again.

  "Prepare the ingredients for the blue potions. I'll make them immediately. Then, I'll take an extra amount of alcohol and grease for my personal business. Deduct it from my share."

  "Deal, partner."

  An hour later, Adrian was back at the "Grumpy Dog" Inn.

  He had produced the ten potions for Klara in record time, perfecting his movements. He had left the old woman counting her future profits and slipped away with his own loot.

  He locked the door to his room and slid a chair under the handle.

  He unpacked his bag onto the small table.

  He had money. Now, he needed to upgrade his equipment.

  He lined up his treasures from the cave and the orchard: Whispering Moss, Acid Glands from the beetle, and the Chitin Plates he had kept for himself (he had killed 26, and handed in 20).

  "IRIS, let's start the tests. Priority 1: Stealth."

  He took out the makeshift filtration setup he had rigged with glass "scraps" Klara had given him.

  He placed the Whispering Moss in the flask, added pure alcohol, and lit the candle underneath.

  "Let's create a Silence Ointment," he muttered.

  While the slow distillation began, releasing a grayish oil that absorbed ambient noise (the bubbling of the liquid was strangely mute), he attacked his defense.

  He took the chitin plates. Hard as steel and so light...

  He poured the contents of the Acid Gland into a ceramic bowl and plunged the pre-crushed pieces of chitin into it.

  The reaction was violent. An aggressive hiss rose from the bowl, followed by a plume of yellowish vapor.

  Adrian held his breath and rushed to the small window to crack it open, letting in the icy wind.

  The smell was abominable—a mix of boiling vinegar and burnt hair. If he didn't ventilate, the innkeeper would think a corpse was decomposing up there.

  With watery eyes, he returned to observe the mixture.

  "Hydrolysis of the mineral matrix," he coughed.

  [NOTE: THE REACTION DISSOLVES THE MINERAL MATRIX. CHITIN REGAINS ITS NATIVE POLYMER STRUCTURE, FLEXIBLE AND RESILIENT]

  He watched the rigid material transform into a viscous substance.

  He did not want to dissolve the chitin itself; he wanted to rid it of its mineral sediments to soften and reshape it. His goal was not to create rigid, brittle plates, but a polymer paste capable of hardening in the open air while retaining a certain elasticity.

  A bio-resin.

  He began meticulously coating his wool tunic and leggings with this preparation. By impregnating the fibers of the fabric, he was creating a true composite armor. Once dry, the resin would make the whole thing as flexible as quality leather, but with a structural resistance comparable to chainmail, capable of instantly stopping an arrow point or saturating the crushing force of predator fangs.

  He stepped back to observe his work. The chitin plates, now fused to the leather by the resin, formed an irregular carapace, a matte black that absorbed light.

  He struck his flank with the handle of a tool. The sound was dull, compact.

  "It's ugly," he judged objectively. "But it will stop a dagger or a claw."

  He did not need to be elegant. He needed to stay alive.

  He cleaned his hands and seized the vial containing the venom of the Crystal Spider. The liquid was viscous, a pale, almost electric green.

  "Iris, analyze the toxicity," he commanded.

  [ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS...] [COMPOUND: NEUROTOXIN TYPE C.] [MAJOR PROPERTY: ETHERIC FLOW DISRUPTOR.]

  Adrian froze. He re-read the line.

  "Disruptor?"

  He suddenly understood the terrifying implication. This poison did not just attack the nerves. It attacked the link between the body and the ambient magic.

  In this world, everyone—monsters, warriors, mages—drew their superhuman strength from the ether. Cutting that link was like unplugging a machine mid-run. A high-level creature hit by this would not just be poisoned. It would become... mundane. Weak.

  Adrian felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the room's cold.

  He set down the vial as if it contained nitroglycerin. This was not just poison.

  It was liquid sacrilege. In a society based on magical hierarchy, possessing a substance capable of cutting the link with the ether was equivalent to possessing a weapon capable of turning a king into a peasant. If the Inquisition knew such a thing existed, they would burn the city to destroy it.

  A cold, almost nervous smile stretched his lips. He was a Gradeless, a biological "turtle"... but he had just invented the bullet capable of killing the gods of this world.

  "We're not selling this," he murmured, carefully putting away the vial.

  He worked all evening, turning his inn room into a clandestine chemical factory.

  When he finally went to bed, his boots were impregnated with the silent oil, and his tunic was drying, now sporting a matte black tint, ready to become his composite armor.

  He closed his eyes.

  Tomorrow, he would go see this "Master Gorm" for the house. He needed a base of operations.

  Because the next step was no longer surviving rabbits or goblins. It was synthesizing the Spider Venom. And for that, he needed a bunker.

  [SYSTEM NOTE: RESEARCH BREAKTHROUGH]

  Discovery: Crystal Spider Venom = Anti-Magic Agent.

  Implication:

  Author's Note:

  Question:

  Next Chapter: