A week before magic class thoughout the week, using the mana crystal theory he creates the first working prototype of his strength-enhancing potion, Adam had already sold it like a broke on the streets to a dozen people under an alias HOUND, through a shadow merchant. Of the many who bought it, only one caught Adam's attention — a loudmouth thug named Ferric who always bragged about how he could beat mages with just his fists. A man with too much pride and too little sense. Perfect.
[In Adam's notebook.]
Observation 37: Potion Effectiveness – confirmed. Induces temporary strengthening of musculature, increased mana circulation through limbs. Side effect becomes apparent at 4th dose — excessive mana calcifies in the heart region, suspected core formation.
Risk: Lethality. If user lacks mana control or mana resistance, risk of cardiac rupture from crystallization is 78%.
Target: Ferric. Overdosing likely. Testing full course effect.
[At a street corner outside a tavern.]
Adam stood in the shade, hood covering his hair and eyes, his hands tucked into a loose brown coat. The tavern was rowdy as always. And Ferric? Predictable. The idiot had bought three more bottles yesterday. That would make it his fifth by now.
[Adam thinking.]
Five doses in two weeks. You're getting there, aren't you?
He leaned against a wall, watching with calm eyes as Ferric staggered out, chest heaving, sweat pouring down his skin even in the cold night. The veins on his neck pulsed unnaturally. His breath came out in puffs of white. White fog out his clothes— steam. Internal heat rising.
[Whispers.]
"You're cooking from the inside Ferric."
Adam followed him from a distance, using alleyways and rooftops when necessary. Ferric, oblivious to his observer, grunted as he walked through the narrow back lanes toward the poorer quarters of the city.
Adam stopped as Ferric stumbled near a wall and vomited bile. He bent over, groaning, fingers digging into his chest.
[Adam's inner thoughts.]
Now the crystallization begins. Too much mana, too little control. You could've lived longer if you just stopped at three. But now? I need to see what happens next.
He kept his distance until Ferric finally collapsed into a darker alley where no patrols walked, where beggars wouldn't even dare to sleep. Adam silently crept forward, watching from behind a stack of crates.
[He writes silently.]
Observation : Subject has entered critical phase. Heart stress is visible. Mana convergence confirmed at the core of the chest.
[He watches.]
Ferric screamed once — a gurgling, wet sound — and clawed at his chest. Then silence.
Adam approached, slowly.
Ferric lay on the ground, eyes wide open, his entire chest glowing faintly blue. The blood vessels along his arms and neck had turned dark, and inside his chest, where the skin had become almost translucent from heat and magic pressure, a faint crystalline shape pulsed softly.
"...There it is," Adam whispered.
[He kneels down.]
Carefully, he placed his fingers at Ferric's wrist. No pulse. He was dead.
[Pulling out a blade.]
"Now for the extraction."
[Thirty minutes later, back in the alchemist's lab.]
Rocky stared as Adam placed the blood-covered, crystal-like object on the reinforced alchemy table.
"You killed someone?"
Adam didn't look up. He was too focused.
"No. He killed himself. I just… prepared the circumstances."
[Rocky grumbled.]
"Still sounds like murder."
Adam scribbled more into his notebook.
Observation : Core formed. Mana crystallized completely. Heart fully replaced by raw mana concentration. Potential use: Add more mana for merlin. Study needed.
He turned to Rocky.
"I'm going to distill it."
"You're insane."
"No, I'm curious."
The extraction took hours. Adam ground parts of the core into a fine powder and added stabilizing agents. The residue reacted like raw mana—violent, unstable, but pure. It hissed even through reinforced glass.
[In his notes.]
Potential: If this is refined, it could act as a permanent mana source. Maybe even a proto-core transfer for non-mages or golem cores.
Rocky crossed his arms.
"So what, you're gonna mass produce a death potion now?"
"No," Adam replied, looking tired. "This was the prototype. The final version won't kill."
But I won't circulate the real thing, only give to my people later.
[Pause.]
"…Unless they're stupid."