Chapter 184: Taking a stroll on the Second Floor

“I’ll speak with you shortly,” Kaelen replied and swiftly switched to Elyndra’s inbox.

Me: Tell me what I missed.

She replied after a minute.

Elyndra: Remember I told you the Immortality Pill has been banned across several worlds? Well, so have its ingredients, which were never public in the first place and might only be found on the black market for a price that both our pockets combined won’t be able to afford, not even as a down payment. How’s that?

And no, I won’t be wasting the rest of my life trying to recreate it with nothing.

Kaelen paused for a moment to check his mind library for the Heavenly Gourmet Cauldron. As expected, the formula for the pill was right there in his head.

Me: What are you talking about? Do you think I’d come to you in the first place if even I didn’t have the formula?

The chat bubbles appeared and disappeared several times on her end, like she didn’t know how to reply.

Elyndra: You do?? Don’t play with me. How did you get your hands on it? And shouldn’t it be locked behind your old inventory?

Kaelen: What the hell do you think I’ve been doing to have so many Universal Announcements to my name? Of course I have the formula, and it isn’t on paper. I have it offhand, in my head. I can make a list for you if you need it. Anything else?

Elyndra: Whaaaaaaaaatttt? Wait, do you have a Gourmet Cauldron? What’s the rank?

Kaelen: Transcendant…?

Elyndra: Woah. You gotta give it to me. I promise I’ll recreate the Immortality Pill to save your entire bloodline and become your personal alchemist. My alchemy license was revoked at thirteen when my vitality potion made my stepfather turn into a woman. I’m wanted across several worlds. I’ll be arrested if I’m caught, and I won’t be able to fulfill my dream of becoming the greatest alchemist of all time.

Kaelen was stunned for a long moment as he stared at the absurdity of her message.

Why the hell was he entrusting his mother’s life into the hands of this quack?

Me: That’s it, I’m blocking you.

Elyndra: Noooo. C’mon, I was only pulling your leg (haha). Your mother is in good hands, so all you gotta do is leave everything to me.

Me: I thought you weren’t interested the last time we spoke?

Elyndra: Well, you’re the one who has the Transcendant Gourmet Cauldron. You don’t need me to create the potion myself, but since you already have the formula, I’m willing to work with you IF you’re willing to supply me with the formulas I need to perfect my alchemy skills and become the greatest of all time.

Kaelen paused to think about it for a moment. He had no problem with that, since he wasn’t into alchemy and had no business gatekeeping formulas.

If she could perfect the Immortality Pill, he was down.

Me: Deal.

Elyndra: Great. See you on the ninth floor then.

Me: Huh? For what? I don’t want to see you.

Elyndra: I don’t want to see you either! But if you’re as smart as you claim to be, you should know you can’t just send the damn formula over as a trade. It’ll definitely be flagged down because they’re watching the trade lines and might as well be watching this very conversation. So if you want me to fix the damn thing, we gotta meet in person and, if possible, be in the same lobby.

I’ll be deleting this chat from my end. You should too.

BYE! And don’t message me again.

“What the hell is she crashing out about?” Kaelen mused to himself as he quickly navigated through the chat settings to delete the conversation.

Elyndra was right. The dungeon masters might be watching the trade lines and conversations between candidates. It was best to keep interactions to a minimum.

Then again, meeting in person had its own downsides, as they were watched every minute. Elyndra had mentioned it was best if they were in the same lobby, and Lysandra had mentioned that her Herald wanted to pull a massive audience by leaving the lobby first.

That could only mean the lobby was the only place where candidates had their privacy, though Kaelen wasn’t so sure about that.

He decided to ask Elyndra about it, only to find the chatbox missing and a glaring red notification at the bottom of the chat.

[You have been blocked by this user]

He was stunned.

What the hell is her problem?

He understood deleting their conversation, but was blocking him really necessary so he wouldn’t be able to contact her through that means again?

“Guilty as charged,” he mumbled to himself. After all, he was about to do just that.

It was at that moment he remembered someone else.

Felix.

Kaelen hadn’t seen him during the introduction or even on the first floor. That was understandable because there were simply so many candidates that it was hard to see even half of the population present.

He decided to search the man’s name, which yielded a positive result, indicating that he was indeed among the candidates who had entered the first floor. But there was no way to know who was dead or alive unless they replied to your message, so he sent him a message request and closed his system panel.

He stood up to stretch his stiff muscles and looked out the window to see that it was getting dark outside.

Surprisingly, none of his party members had come to disturb him, which made him reconsider spending the night outside when he could simply seize the room for himself.

The only thing left for him now was to cultivate till daybreak, then do a burst of his usual training routine before settling in to watch Lysandra’s party enter the second floor.

On second thought, Kaelen didn’t just want to stay idle. He messaged Lysandra again.

Me: Did your Herald mention anything about what the second floor would be like, or if it’s safer during the day or night?

Her voice immediately came through. “Not at all. I don’t think she knows any better than us. Why do you ask?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, it’s nothing… I was just thinking of taking a stroll on the second floor tonight.”

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!