Kei and Leroy arrive at Reiyo's shop not long after their encounter.

  "Ok. Just follow my lead inside, ok?

  "As long as I don't get in trouble..."

  The ring of a bell can be heard as they enter the shop. Looking inside, there were a few customers, and at the reception, they could see Leroy helping a customer.

  "While I agree that a normal rope would do the trick, I recommend one with more density so it doesn't break while trying to pull it out." Reiyo says to the customer as they contemplate.

  "Hmmm... I guess that if I think about it... you are probably right about it. Then, I will take the reinforced rope." The customer decided to accept Reiyo's advice.

  "Good choice, my friend. I will get it ready. It will be 1 silver and 10 copper coins."

  "That's actually not a bad price... considering it's reinforced..."

  "You know it, my friend. Here at Reiyo's shop we got the best at the cheapest price." Reiyo said with a friendly smile on his face.

  "And you are always right Reiyo, what would this community do without you ? Haha, " the customer laughed, being grateful for Reiyo's presence.

  After the customer left with his reinforced rope, the duo approach Reiyo.

  "Good morning, Reiyo!. What a beautiful morning, isn't it?" Kei says in an energetic voice.

  "Good morning to you too, kid. I guess you are ready for your little practice?" Reiyo answers calmly while eyeing Kei and Leroy.

  "Of course I am! I could barely get any sleep due to the excitement! I even brought a little assistant to help me out. " Kei points to Leroy.

  "An assistant, huh?... Didn't think you would follow someone else's orders, son." Reiyo replies while looking a little surprised at Leroy.

  "Ehh... yeah... I just wanted to see how Alchemy works. You know? Heard that Kei over here planned to try his hands on it so... I wanted to see..." Leroy responds a little nervous, but Reiyo either doesn't notice or cares.

  "...Really? You may be of my blood, but even then, you still are a box of surprises."

  'Of your blood... what a joke...' Kei thinks while watching the interaction and decides to interfere.

  "Yeah, I know. I also reacted the same, but hey! If he wants to try new things, who is anyone to tell him, no?"

  "Mhhh... I guess you are right... reminds me of my youth when I used to work all types of works to be able to bring food to my table. Ahhh, the old times..." Reiyo seems to reminisce of the past as he looks up to the ceiling.

  "Wellll... now that that is done, why don't you take us to the alchemy station that you prepared?"

  "Oh... yeah, sorry, kids. This old man was just remembering different times." Reiyo proceeds to stand up and guide us to the backrooms of the shop.

  'Now... this is where things get good..."

  __________

  Finally, they reach a room in a little corner of the shop where a basic alchemist set and multiple kinds of materials are present.

  "You didn't say exactly what you wanted to try, so I got a little of everything. Just check the book over there for some basic recipes to make. Try not to break anything, or you will pay for it."

  "Don't worry, Reiyo, I will be careful... and thanks for helping the stupid idea of this kid..." Kei says with a sentimental voice and lowering his head a little.

  Reiyo proceeds to lift one of his massive arms and ruffles Kei's hair.

  "It's no problem, kid... just... promise me you will take care and if you need help... good old Uncle Reiyo is here." He then gives Kei a big smile(he seems completely honest...)

  '...'

  The moment quickly finishes as Reiyo prepares to get back to the counter. But before going, he throws a look at Leroy.

  Leroy's only response is to look away.

  After Reiyo leaves, kei finally relaxes but not completely.

  "See? I told you everything would go well. Just follow my lead."

  "... Let's just do this..." Leroy's eyes looked sad...(inferiority?not expected)

  "... yeah, let's do this..."

  Kei prepares the different materials needed as well as the equipment.

  _______

  A little while later, he is almost ready to start with the elixir, but he realizes something.

  "Hmm... we are missing a material..." Kei puts on a contemplating look.

  "What? Then all of this was for nothing?!" Leroy hearing that all his efforts didn't matter started to get angry.

  "You should really wait for me to finish speaking... yes, we are missing one thing, but it can be remedied. We lack fairy blood, but that's something I expected. Luckily, in alchemy, one of the most important things you learn, asabrokealchemist," he says the last part a little too quickly. "Is the fact that you can substitute a huge array of materials.

  For example... in this case, we need fairy blood, don't we?" Kei prepares a pot with cold water.

  "But we don't have fairy blood. This would seem like a problem if you didn't know how fairy blood is composed." Kei took out the vial of blood Leroy gave him.

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  Leroy, while this is happening, stays in a corner of the room watching with interest.

  "The main benefit that Fairy Blood brings is its incredible mana conductivity. They are mostly magical beings, after all..." Kei now pours just a tiny bit of the blood contained in the vial. Next, he grabs a piece of slime and puts it in the pot as well.

  "Soooo... all you need to substitute Fairy blood is a good mana conductive substance. Which is what we are gonna do first. Come here a sec."

  Leroy snaps himself out of his fascination with the process and comes close.

  "Now... I need you to close your eyes and concentrate." Kei moves himself, so Leroy is in front of the strange substance combination.

  "... are you sure about this?" Leroy still found himself insecure. (This won't do...)

  "Yes. Trust me." Kei says with a determined voice.

  "..." Leroy proceeds to close his eyes and concentrate just like he asked.

  "Now hear my voice and do as I say ok?

  First, I want you to breath, breath as calmly as possible."

  Leroy starts breathing, deep and long breaths.

  "Now... feel the world around you. The air, the heat, the humidity, everything..."

  Leroy starts to feel... feel in a way he hadn't before... while before he didn't notice anything while breathing, now, he felt every little vibration that the action caused, he could feel the heat of his mouth and the humidity in the air in a way he couldn't before.

  "Good... good... now I want you to block all those things. Stop feeling the humidity in the air, the air that comes and goes through your mouth, the feeling of your skin attached to your flesh, everything."

  Leroy tries to do as he says, and little by little, he succeeds... he starts blocking every stimuli until eventually... only one remains...

  "You feel it, don't you?... that sensation in the air that it's like humidity but more oppressive? You see the tiny blue dots?..."

  Leroy slowly nods.

  "Well, Leroy... what you are feeling and seeing right now is mana in its purest state... without any outside imput. This... is the first step to become a proper mage."

  Leroy gets surprised by the reveal. All of this was mana? The thing he could never even properly see? Nor use?

  "Don't get too excited yet. Now... I need you to put your hand forward and concentrate. Imagine that you have 2 more arms. Those arms are part of you, and they will do whatever you desire them to do... now... move those arms around the mana and push it forward... towards the substance..."

  Leroy does as he says and starts imagining. He suddenly starts seeing a pair of blue hands in the darkness that he finds himself in, so he starts gathering the floating blue dots in the air and pushes them forward.

  "It's almost ready... now press it. Press all those dots together as strong as possible. "

  Leroy applies all the mental strength he has and presses as hard as he can. Eventually, all those dots become one, and that one dot suddenly gets absorbed into the substance, giving it a blue hue.

  "Perfect. Now you can open your eyes."

  Leroy opens his eyes and notices 2 things.

  1) that the substance that was once an ugly grey is now a deep blue.

  2) he was exhausted.

  He then sits down in one of the chairs in the room.

  "...*huff*...*huff*... I can't believe it... I manipulated mana...like a mage..." Leroy started to realize everything he has done in these few minutes.

  "Yep, you did. But don't get too excited yet. You still have a long way to go before you become even a decent one." Kei nonchalantly continued working with the substance by moving it to multiple vials.

  While Leroy rested from the mental exercise he just did. Kei started preparing the elixir.

  'This will be nowhere near as good as her elixirs and potions, but it will have to suffice for now.'

  First the boiling water then the fire stone, next the substitute substance and he continued like this until the elixir was ready.

  _______

  A while later, the elixir was ready. Instead of the silver color he remembered, what appeared was a grey-ish color that marked the medium quality of the elixir.

  'Pfff... if she saw this, she would give me a hearing about the proper way to do alchemy in general.(A nice experience)

  But...all things considered it is a good result(not enough experience with making elixirs).'

  Elixirs... one of the few method that someone can upgrade their capabilities after birth.

  There exist multiple types of elixirs, the most important ones being:

  Mana elixir. To upgrade the user's mana reserve and affinity.

  Aura elixir. To upgrade the aura of knights and physical fighters.

  There's another like the Life elixir that extends your natural life, but those aren't as common.

  There's also multiple ranks of elixirs from beginner, basic, medium, high, noble, royal, king, heaven and the wish of every alchemist... God.

  'If I perfect my alchemist abilities, I will be able to make the future heroes stronger. I will still try to recruit her, of course(who wouldn't want the best alchemist in the world)... but it would feel good to be able to do things myself.'

  His thoughts are interrupted as a voice speaks

  "...how do you know all of this?" Leroy, now a little rested, questions.

  "How can you know any of this? The elixir, the method, the magic thing, how to do it? How?"

  Leroy started throwing question after question, trying to comprehend all that was happening.

  "You really wanna know?...

  Then the answer is..." Kei started talking as if he was about to say the world's biggest secret.

  'I knew that this question would eventually appear... but I already planned for it.'

  "The truth is...

  I simply learned it from a book." Kei says with a straight face.

  "...? You are joking, right? You expect me to believe that? What you just did is an evident proof of experience. You know I am not stupid enough to eat that excuse." Leroy now put a face of annoyance.

  "Again with not letting me finish... it was not a normal book. It was a book taken from a very special place." Kei answered the argument with a sentence that was said as if he was merely stating a fact of the world.

  "...and?"

  "I would tell more, but sadly, I am not allowed... I made a Pact." Kei responds honestly.

  "A Pact? You have to be lying..." Leroy was prepared to shut down Kei's response until he started seeing Kei showing him his arm.

  Even if it was barely noticeable, the symbol of a Pact was present in his right forearm.

  "See? I told you I can't say a thing." Kei responded matter of factly.

  "You made a Pact?... I can't believe it..." Leroy was shocked at the reveal but quickly he got closer and started inspecting it. "It's my first time seeing a Pact in person. I heard that a Pact occurs when a powerful being makes a deal with a human... it's so incredible..."

  "Guess you know your sources eh? Sadly this bad boy here has already been taken." Kei replied with a grin on his face.

  "... you are the weirdest person I know Kei..."Leroy says after finishing inspecting Kei's forearm. He looked at him with a mix of suspicion and fascination.

  'I think this is the first time he called me by my name.'

  "I will take that as a compliment. Now I think you understand that you cannot reveal what you just saw don't you?"

  "Oh... yeah don't worry... Even I can see that knowing it would just bring trouble for everyone here..." Leroy looks at the floor with a nervous expression.

  'Probably heard of the "Purification" that happens with certain types of Pacts. It is said that if the church discovers a Pact and considers it "Evil" they will genocide the entire place that the person lived in to "purify" whatever the individual did.'

  "Hey hey hey why the long face? Are you forgetting something?" Kei says as he points to the elixir at the table.

  Leroy follows Kei's finger until his gaze falls on the elixir. Due to everything happening he forgot the main reason he was even here in the first place.

  "...can I truly have it?..." Leroy questioned, unsure if what he was about to drink was truly his.

  "Yes Leroy. We made a deal and here's your part. It's yours to enjoy." Leroy gave the last push necessary for Leroy to grab what was his.

  Leroy proceeds to walk to the table with the elixir standing. In front of the elixir he then grabs it and opens it, taking it to his mouth. He gives one last look to Kei who only nods.

  *Gulp*

  Quick and simple. In the blink of an eye Leroy drinks the entire vial.

  "*blag* this taste horrible-" burn, fire. It burns. He falls to the ground as his body starts burning with a heat so hot that it felt that he was next to a volcano in eruption. He tries to speak but nothing comes out of it. He starts crying as the heat becomes unbearable and then...

  He faints.

  Kei watched as everything happened.

  "I forgot to mention that due to it being the first time you drink one you will have a tough time.

  So... sorry"