“You’re here.” Nikolai opened the door to see Sergio carrying his bags. “You trust people too easily.” He moved aside and allowed Sergio inside.

“I trust my guts.” Sergio placed his bags on the floor. “These are all the tools I will need to start working. What are we doing here?”

“To treat you, of course. Doc!” Nikolai called out to the doctor who came out from the kitchen carrying his herbs and equipment.

“They’ll heal on their own after a while.” Sergio shrugged. “I hate doctors, they simply rip you off.”

“You could’ve said that somewhere else.” Nikolai sighed. “No time for them to heal on their own, I need you for something.” He said nothing further and started wearing his clothes.

“Can you be any vaguer?” Sergio threw his hands up and then undid the bandages. The doctor began treating him immediately.

“I’ll try next time.” Nikolai nodded and picked up his bag. “It’s time we visit your new workplace.” He walked out after the doctor treated Sergio.

The place Nikolai have rented before he went to Rohan Ruins was an old one-room house in the slums. He had cleared away the furniture of the previous owner and replaced it with a bed and a table.

“You can work here for now.” Nikolai placed Sergio’s bags on the table. “It’s a humble place, but the area is deserted and the walls are made of strong bricks. You won’t be annoyed for blowing things up.”

“I think this is the best decision I made in my life.” Sergio started unpacking immediately. “What potion do you want me to start with, boss?”

“It’s a potion to lift off curses.” Nikolai rampaged through his notebook and tore away the paper. He handed it over for Sergio to read. “The ingredients are here; I only need you to practice without this.” Nikolai took out the skull and placed it on the table. “You have two more days before this turn into useless garbage.”

“This is…” Sergio examined the recipe. “insane. Where did you get such a recipe? I never read about this combination before.”

“It’s a family’s secret.” Nikolai lied. This was developed by the army to lift off the curses of the Elves six years from now. “There are some slight adjustments I need you to consider.”

“What are they?”

“First of all, this potion works on the brain. I need you to make it work on the circulatory system. Make sure nothing causes any side effects because of this difference. You’ll need to research every ingredient for this.”

“Who are you using this for?”

“Myself,” Nikolai revealed. “That means, if you don’t succeed in two days, you’ll be unemployed again.”

“…” Sergio tightened his hold of the paper and grinned. “If I fail, I’ll just quit being an alchemist.”

‘Yeah, no way that would happen under any circumstances.’ Nikolai smiled but didn’t say anything. ‘You’re my future guild’s alchemist, after all.’

Sergio got busy and Nikolai left him for his research. He knew the character of this friend of his quite well, so he trusted his thirst for knowledge to bound him to their deal.

It was already night when he returned to the academy. He found that there was a crowd in the middle of their dorm with many people holding bags of coins.

“What’s going on?” Nikolai asked nonchalantly, but the person next to him shut his mouth after he turned to answer.

“Nothing you can afford,” The student sneered at him. “You might earn a few pennies if you bet on your death. Wait, the odds are so high that you’ll probably earn nothing at all!”

‘Oh, it’s this exam’s betting rounds.’ Nikolai had a playful smile. ‘I didn’t think I would make some money this easily.’ He ignored the remark that the student made and went forward to the table.

The one who had set it up was a wealthy son of a casino’s owner. He even had a big screen behind the table and a machine to print out receipts. On the scream were different columns with each listing all students in their year.

1- Top Rankers,

2- Bottom Rankers,

3- Most Likely to Die,

Each column had the names of all students and their odds. He had the lowest one for Top Rankers, the highest for Bottom Ranker, and the highest for Most Likely to Die.

‘This is the reason why so many people lost their humanity. Normalizing the fact that people can bet on other’s lives even if they were students. The world will never cease being cruel.’

Nikolai walked toward one of the devices and placed ten silver coins. He then chose Number 1-70 and the receipt was printed for him.

“You wagered that you’ll rank first?!” The student from earlier followed after him. “Everyone, check this out! This guy thinks he can rank first!” His voice drew attention to Nikolai and everyone looked at him as if he was delusional.

“Stop dreaming, you think a glitch in the system would save you again?!”

“This is an insult. I bet you stole that money too, poor bastard!”

“You think you are better than the top rankers?!”

The words spoken were loud and menacing. They gathered around Nikolai and mocked him, laughing and insulting him in any way they wanted.

It just so happened that Julian returned to the academy at that moment, haggard and tired. He heard the words said by the crowd and glared at Nikolai like a wild beast.

“You think you’ll outrank me?” Julian strode forward and stood in front of Nikolai, looking down on him. “A weakling like you dares look down on me?”

He was breathing out fumes of anger and sparks of fire were appearing around his eyes. Nikolai stared back at him silently as Julian raged. He seemed to be exploding at him because he couldn’t do anything to Conan earlier.

Nikolai saw Julian’s fist tighten as his muscles bulged. Without any warning, Julian threw a punch that tore through the air toward Nikolai.