Monarch of Profound Toxin

The guild master looked immediately interested. And, honestly, who wouldn't be?

"Hoh? Are you about to tell me that you have invented yet another mysterious yet miraculous alchemical creation? Young man, you simply never cease to surprise me," Ganyak hir Gawak praised.

"Nope, not even close."

"O-Oh… Is that so? What method are you suggesting then?"

Eik's naughty grin almost seemed to twinkle with glee. "Become my minion."

The guild master's aide spluttered and stepped in front of his master. "Mr. Magnasen, that is incredibly inappropriate, even if you are only joking. Just because you have attained X-rank, that doesn't give you the right to speak so rudely to a man as well-respected as Guild Master Ganyak hir Gawak!"

"I was just joking… Well, kind of."

For the second time since they had met that day, the guild master broke into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. For a good dozen seconds he was unable to stop but when he finally did and wiped away a tear from his cheek, his facial expression made it clear that it had caused him some pain as well.

On a whim, Eik released a thin trail of bright, green mist of Panacean Quintessence and directed it into the man's nostrils before he had a chance to react.

The aide's blade was unsheathed at a speed that looked like a blur to all in the room, except for Eik. He could have run all the way to his favorite cafe in a completely different district of Gimleh, robbed them of every baked good in their arsenal and been back in the same place that he was standing right now before that blade ever touched him.

And yet he still let it make contact with the skin of his neck. The aide was either high B-rank or low A-rank, so Eik could have let the man fully commit to a decapitation and it still wouldn't have hurt him.

He had always heard from his friends from the Alliance that S-rank was further above A-rank than all previous ranks combined and then some. That had certainly turned out to be true.

X-rank, however… If S-rank to A-rank was an elephant in front of a prairie dog, then X-rank to an S-ranker was the most powerful dragon in front of a single frog spawn. The difference was practically indefinable and the guild master's aide wouldn't have been able to hurt Eik even if he had been tied up and fast asleep.

"How are you feeling?" Eik asked the guild master, completely ignoring the sword's edge still laid against his throat.

For a moment, the guild master stood frozen. Then he stood up into a posture with a near straight back. Struck dumb, a deeper breath than any recent one inflated his lungs and came back out in a sigh of immense relief. His shoulders lifted as if a freed from the heaviest of burdens.

"Wow, this is…" he began, looking at his hands in wonder. "We just spoke of miracles. I suspect this might be one. What have you done to me?"

"Nothing crazy. What you're feeling there is nothing but an X-ranked painkiller."

"Well, I'll be… Can I bring some of that home? How long will it last?"

Eik tilted his head from side to side. "Mmh, I can probably stretch a single dose to a few weeks."

"Weeks?" the old man gasped. "This sensational feeling will last for weeks? And what about reapplication?"

"Anytime, yeah. That's no problem."

Ganyak hir Gawak slapped his aide's sword away with clear anger, the spryness of his movements surprising everyone. The man who had been caring for him every day and helping him go everywhere, however, seemed unable to believe his own eyes. "G-Guild master… Your pain? Is-Is your pain gone?" Tears welled up in the swordsman's eyes and he hurried to wipe them away with a metal bracer on his wrist.

Ganyak hir Gawak put a gaunt hand on the man's shoulder and pulled him into a gentle embrace. "Oh, Jarice, are you crying?" Ah, right. The aide's name was Jarice.

"No, guild master," the man insisted, his words broken up a by a single, heaving sob.

The old man laughed, this time seemingly with no pain at all. "It's okay to cry. You've been doing so much for me for so long. If Mr. Magnasen will allow it, perhaps he can do this for me once in a while and I can be less of a burden on you, hmm?"

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"Any time," Eik promised with a smile.

"No, guild master, you are not a burden!" the aide said firmly. "Serving you is an honor!"

"Uuh, but, guild master, if I can interrupt. I should remind you that, as I said, what you are feeling right now is really just a painkiller. It numbs the pain that your body should certainly still be feeling. Anything that would have been too much for you before would definitely still be now. The only difference is that you won't notice until after the effects wear off and it all comes surging back."

"I understand," Ganyak hir Gawak said with a nod, but couldn't help a little hop in place. "but I wonder if what I'm feeling right now isn't that joy that heals," he said, smiling brightly.

Eik chuckled. "Maybe. Or it could be the kind that does nothing. But, if you're up for it, I do have something that might be… slightly more than a simple painkiller. But it is also significantly more radical, and considerably more… binding."

Interest lit up the old man's face. "Please. Do tell."

"Become my minion."

"Please, Mr. Magnasen…" Jarice tried, his reaction much more subdued now that Eik had done such a great favor for his master.

"If it helps, Andihar Dayarunar and Gul Ougi are already my minions."

"Hoo?" the guild master hummed. "And how are they finding subordination?"

"Oh, dude, they're loving it!" Eik told him with a grin. "You should have seen them. I've never seen them so excited. Being the minion of an X-ranked Worldbreaker really, really pays off."

The old man contemplated it for a long moment before he spoke again. "And you say this will, what, reverse my aging?"

Eik held up his hands. "Ah, no, I very much doubt it will be anything that drastic. What I think will happen, and which, by the way, I'm not ready to promise, is that you will regain a good amount of strength, feel much better, and gain access to at least one new skill connected to me and my power."

"And you're willing to just… grant me this power? What do you seek in return? What does being the minion of Eik Magnasen, X-ranker and Worldbreaker, entail?"

Eik waved him off. "Nothing too terrible. Make a promise that the Alchemist Guild of Gimleh will provide direct aid to victims in this crisis we find ourselves in. Lend your granddaughter to me any time I need her to do work for me or my company. And finally, be the guy who shows me what someone who isn't specialized in combat gets when they become my minion."

"Those seem to be exceedingly favorable terms for me, Mr. Magnasen. Is that really all?" Ganyak hir Gawak looked slightly skeptical.

"Actually, no. One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Teach me alchemy. Like, properly. Your granddaughter made it very clear that I totally suck at it."

The old man massaged the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "Of course she did. All I did was tell her to do nothing of the sort, so what else would she do but exactly that? All right, that's still an incredible deal for me."

"You're sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. It's irreversible and will alter your title and put you under my boot for the rest of your, most likely, extended life."

"I can live with that," the old man said simply.

"And what about your wife? I'm not sure I can offer the same to her."

"Oh, don't worry about her for a second," he chuckled. "She is higher rank than me and thus considerably healthier than I am. If anything, whatever it is that you have in mind will only make us more equal in that sense."

"Well, that's good to hear, then."

"Master," Jarice muttered with clear concern, leaning in to speak to the old man. "Please reconsider. We don't even know what kind of consequences there might be if you do this."

"Don't worry about it, Jarice. I'm sure Mr. Magnasen knows what he's talking about here," the old man said with a nod of confidence in Eik's direction.

Resisting the urge to avert his gaze, Eik hurried to clarify. "That's actually not true at all. I've only done this twice before. They are both S-rankers and were perfectly healthy men even before I turned them. I highly doubt that you will experience any explicitly negative consequences, but as I said, I can't necessarily promise anything particularly positive either. It might turn out to be a dud, so to speak."

Ganyak hir Gawak patted Jarice on the shoulder. "That's good enough for me. I'm an old man who, under any other circumstances, does not have long left. The only reason I've lived this long is due to, in small part, my modest strength, but more so thanks to a stunning number of potions and medicines."

"Let's get this party started, then! Best to just get it over with," Eik said and thrust his hand into the guild master's chest without warning. Blue streaks jetted across his skin, glowing him up like a light bulb for a brief moment before fading.

With a weak grunt, all air was expelled from the old man's lungs as he toppled over, seemingly paralyzed.

"Guild master!" Jarice howled and leapt to catch the man, but a blobby, blue cushion was already waiting to welcome him into its gooey embrace.

"Just give him a few seconds," Eik said. He was monitoring the Toxic Initiation as it took hold inside Ganyak hir Gawak's body and there were no problematic signs.

After a few moments, the old man regained his breath and stood up straight. "Well, I'll be…"

"How do you feel?" Eik asked.

"I-I already felt like I was being hugged by a cloud but now I'm feeling a power as well that's difficult to define."

"That would be me, the Supreme Divinity of Toxin," Eik said with a grin. "Welcome to Court. Check your status."

The guild master hurried to pull out his tablet, a small metal plate the size of a large smartphone.

[Successfully initiated into the Court of the Supreme Divinity of Toxin. Altering B-rank title]

[Reached Alchemical Advisor to the Supreme Divinity of Toxin — II]

[Acquired Aggressive Countermeasure — Lv. 1]

"Great!" Eik said and clapped his hands with finality. "Now, what were you saying about me becoming the Elixir King?"