After what seemed like a long day, even though the sun had yet to set, Johan stumbled his way into the potion workshop. Closing the heavy door with extreme caution, he checked every corner of the green-tinted room before letting out a sigh of relief.

  A sense of urgency settled in his chest like he had walked on eggshells the entire time. The danger sense he had acquired seemed like a passive skill, and Johan felt a small gratitude but an immense hatred toward the constant pings going off in his head.

  Ignorance was truly bliss.

  When he entered Phantasia, nothing threatened him under the azure sky. The fresh, gentle air kissing his hair urged him to take a dive in the lush grass under the tree’s shade and sleep like no tomorrow.

  He would like that, he really would.

  But Eunally hopped up to him. With alert ears, he chewed on a carrot, his lunch. But beside him was another rabbit, pretty much a carbon copy of him, from the fur to the eyes and the horn. The only difference was that this rabbit had floppy ears that rested on his, err, her back?

  [Horned Rabbit (Female) wants to be your friend.]

  [Accept/Decline]

  Eunally had found himself and Johan a new friend. From the little crumbs around the new one’s mouth, he had no doubt shared his food. Johan felt a bit happy, no, he couldn’t stop the smile rising to his lips as he accepted. Since the rabbit didn’t have a name, he decided to come up with one.

  “Eunally… so, Nunally might be good?” He muttered to himself as another blue screen jumped into his vision.

  Name: Nunally

  Age: 4

  Class: —

  Skills: Burrow Lv.8, Organization Lv.7, Danger Sense Lv.6, Swiftness Lv.6.

  Magik: 29

  “So, I can name them, that’s neat,” Johan confirmed another effect of the tame skill.

  But his attention was more on the skills the two had. Maybe they knew each other from before?

  Eunally seemed like the gatherer, and Nunally should be on base duty. Were they actually a couple? Johan looked at the two rabbits cooing to each other, Eunally moving his arms around rapidly, trying to explain the farm space to Nunally, who nodded in a calm and collected manner.

  If there are two, there can be four; if there are four, an army isn’t a dream. A sharp glint appeared in Johan’s eyes. If he had an army of E-ranked beasts, he could have them chow through D-ranked beasts, Re: Zero style. Though he might need a blindfold and a strong stomach medicine before giving the order.

  “Time for work, the world is waiting on my potions!” He had wasted enough time for the day.

  Johan had entered Phantasia with a mission today. He looked at his skills, and a single one stood out among them.

  Basic Brewing Lv.9

  With a level-up formula, current skill level x 100, he had somehow reached level 9 for this skill. As it was the one most magik efficient and also the one he used the most.

  Now, he needed to use the skill 900 times to reach level 10 and meet the first upgrade requirement. The number alone made Johan dizzy; the time needed for this wasn’t small. But he had that luxury now.

  The mart had seen a slight decrease in customers as of late. Low Rank Hunters treated their potions as a last resort, mid rank hunters were a bit more generous, but they only went into rifts once or twice a week. Johan had expected the drop, but the damned Hunter Net extended the hype on his potions, and Hunters from all over the capital started to gather, turning it into a mess.

  Although in tears, he still liked and shared every thread about his potions. But the hard times were gone, for now at least. Johan could focus on maxing out the brewing skill. The only problem was that he might run out of containers to store the potions by the time he finished.

  “Future me will figure it out.” Johan tee-hee’d and jumped into the brewing tent.

  He started with Lucas’s order of 10 basic healing potions. The process wasn’t much different from before, but he could now do it blindfolded, not that he’d dare to. With the brewing time cut to 45 minutes, after reaching level 9, he could make the potions much faster. However, what surprised him was the discovery of another potion type.

  In the bottle, a shimmering golden potion housed a single star, the star turned silver, swaying in the viscous liquid but never sinking, just hovering.

  Name: Basic Healing Potion

  Rank: D+

  40% HP and Magik power recovery in an instant, 5% chance of doubling the next skill’s effects.

  Notes: Best used for severe injuries or loss of a limb. The effect is not stackable.

  “What in the RNG!” Johan got flashbacks, as an F2P, they weren’t pleasant in the least.

  The trauma lasted for a moment as Johan started to wonder if this was the effect of his skill level up too. Because if it was, it took too long to show up.

  “Luck-based things are the worst.” He shuddered like a leaf.

  But curiosity burned inside Johan, since there was a D+, there should be a D- rank for this potion too, right? He hadn’t seen it until now. Maybe he was such a genius that his potions wouldn’t show a minus? That might be it. Well, it was the ingredients, but guess where that came from?

  Pleased with himself, he pocketed the new potion and brewed another for Lucas’s order, setting them aside in a metallic suitcase for presentation.

  The rest of the brewing went naturally; one thing that surprised him was Nunally. She saw him put a finished potion in a crate once and started to do it on her own. The smart kid could even cork the potion and store it in a single motion, not wasting a drop.

  And as soon as the crate filled up, Eunally would appear out of nowhere and carry the 20-kilo crate, overhead, to the storage tent like it was a single carrot.

  And I tried to face that with a leather jerkin. God help me. Johan could only wipe his cold sweat away, and Nunally rubbed herself against his legs.

  Did I help? Her eyes seemed to ask.

  “You helped a lot.” Johan caressed her little head, feeling her long ears flap under his hand. He only had to brew and bottle the potions; the two rabbits helped him save hours of back-breaking lifting.

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  Considering how weak he was, maybe he should consider weight lifting a little?

  Watching Nunally close her eyes and stick her head into his palm, Johan felt like he could pet her all day. That was until he heard an empty crate landing on the dirt with a thump.

  Eunally stood frozen as the world had collapsed. He crawled closer, sat beside Nunally, and looked at Johan with questioning eyes.

  “You did well, too, Eunally.” Johan chuckled, both his hands occupied.

  Eunally grunted; he still seemed a little upset. So, Johan decided to give him some extra carrots.

  As he watched them carry the vegetables to their secret burrow, Johan smiled and sat down under the very first tree he had planted in this place.

  The small branch had turned into a trunk that would take four of him to circle. He had no idea how it grew so quick or why. Johan hadn’t done anything but water it in regular intervals.

  But that was ok, not everything had to make sense. If he looked for logic in every little incident, he’d stress himself to death. As long as things progressed, Johan didn’t mind the lack of clarity.

  Work kept him busy. Actions always had results. That type of life wasn’t bad, especially when he had two rabbits running around him like little children.

  Is this the start of my healing life? Johan wondered.

  But reality had a cruel way of waking people up.

  When Johan returned to the mart around midnight, it felt like he had misjudged the clock and arrived at daytime. Light blasted in through the window of his room. It wasn’t sunlight, but from the camera flashes.

  Reporters surrounded his mart like ants to a mound of sugar. Station cars moved busily as aunties with their curlers complained about the noise and lighting.

  Johan, however, had his eyes on his phone screen. A hot article had dropped when he was in Phantasia. An article from the acclaimed Hunter/Reporter, Shadowman.

  [Breaking News: The Alchemist that had shaken the capital city over the past month, with long lines of Hunters and the one Lucas White credits for his success in Mahapadma, his name is….]

  The title ended in a cheap attempt at a cliffhanger, the writer’s signature style, but the photo below the title filled in. It was a shot of that same afternoon, the time when he fed Misty. With the name written in capital bold letters, so no one could miss it.

  Johan Askr.

  “I am fucked, aren’t I?” Johan Askr said to himself.

  ***

  Yuna hadn’t had a happy day in a long while, but good days, she had her share of them. Every successful rift raid and a plate of katsu curry without a camera following her, she considered the day a good one.

  The past three days had been good ones, a new record. But today seemed different. She had her steaming espresso at the counter of the small café in front of her guild, and for the first time, she didn’t have to worry about the reporter shadowing her.

  The rich aroma tickled her nose as she stirred the shot from top to bottom. A glass of water later, she enjoyed the slight bitterness, followed by a sweet tone, and a subtle acidity.

  With the velvety texture and lingering aftertaste, she walked into her guild. A small two-story building, formerly a convenience store. Yuna was the first to arrive, as usual, feeding her Hunter ID into the system.

  Walking past the reception, she turned the building lights on, the ones she had installed herself with her guild members. Though called a guild, what she had was one single team. But that was enough for a start, she believed that much while going through their rift record from the past month.

  With salaries and utilities paid for, the guild still had funds left for other tasks. She considered the month a good one.

  In the cushiony chair, she enjoyed her afternoon coffee, feeling the warm sunlight on her skin through the big windows. The same windows she usually kept covered to hide from the scaling cameramen.

  Today truly was a good day. But Yuna couldn’t muster a smile despite that. Instead, her lips pressed into a hard line; she didn’t want a good day, but more. And to make that, she still missed an important factor.

  “Guild Master!” The burgundy doors to her office flew open, hinges screaming. “Have you seen this?”

  The extremely upbeat intruder, the one who shoved an iPad in her face, was her junior from S.K University days. The team’s youngest member, and the one in charge of info gathering.

  Was she hiding in her dark room again? Yuna squinted at the extremely low brightness screen, against the sun’s glare, and made out the title of the article. But more than that, a name echoed in her head.

  “Johan…” She murmured.

  “Yes, it's Johan Askr. He is the one Lucas White credited; he made those amazing golden potions I brought in the other day!” Sasha seemed beside herself at the reveal. And most of the internet was with her.

  According to Shadowman, Lucas had visited the Morgan Hunter Mart, the source of potions that had become the talk of the town, and at the time, Johan was the only one present in the building. It seemed the two had a secret meeting about another order of the special potions.

  Though a lot of people quoted the invasion of privacy, Yuna knew how slippery this reporter was. He had a skill similar to sonar, a skill that’d become very valuable for maze-type rifts; even normally, it would make Shadowman a great scout.

  But the person was more interested in being a reporter.

  “Do you think Lucas was in on this plan?” Sasha’s brown eyes glinted, like she had found a new puzzle.

  “Impossible.” Yuna had seen firsthand the hate Lucas had for reporters; there was no way he’d team up with the worst of the bunch. “Shadowman must’ve scanned the building after following Lucas, and run away before he noticed. This article is half shot in the dark, not that anyone cares.”

  “Isn’t Shadowman like really creepy?” Sasha hugged herself, shaking her head, and her short brown bob with it.

  “It is easy to catch him,” Yuna said, her eyes full of confidence. “When he uses Sonar, you can feel the vibration when it passes through solid matter, and when it lands on your skin, you just can’t miss it.”

  “Guild Leader, you know that normal hunters don’t have perception that strong, unless they have a perception-based class.” Sasha showed a wry smile.

  “I don’t have perception skills either,” Yuna added. “It is easy once you get the hang of it. Wanna learn?”

  “I’ll pass.” Sasha slipped away. “See you later, Guild Master!”

  Why would she run away? And what was that gaze? Was there something scary behind Yuna that she didn’t sense? That wasn’t possible.

  Scratching her cheek for a moment, she looked back at the pink iPad left behind by Sasha. Yuna increased the brightness and saw the face again.

  Squatting in an alley, he was feeding a white cat, but he had enough time to throw a peace sign for the camera. That was Johan.

  Has it been 6 years? Yuna closed her eyes; it took her back to the high school graduation every time she did.

  Admitted into the S.K University with a full scholarship, she felt happy that day. Excited, she ran out of the principal’s office to find Johan. Her feet were sore, and the shoes were a size smaller. But she had forgotten all about that,

  Johan had also tried to enter the S.K. University for a major in rift studies. She knew he was smart enough for it; she had seen him study for nights on end.

  “I was rejected, guess you need a class to even study rifts, ahaha!” Hearing that upbeat laughter, her stomach twisted. “But I haven’t given up yet, I’ll try next year again after I get my class, and the year after that if needed.”

  “Just go ahead, I’ll keep our promise.” She believed him; she always did. Because Johan never broke a promise. “When I get my class, I’ll tell you first. Then, we’ll be hunters together.”

  Yuna should’ve known at the time when he didn’t look back at her. She should’ve known. His swaying black hair and trembling shoulders were the last she remembered of him.

  Years passed, she graduated, and formed her own guild. But she didn’t hear from him. She waited for his call, but it never came. Until she found him by accident, his black hair had turned platinum. He seemed much paler, much thinner. He had changed a lot.

  But he still had the heart to risk his life to save a helpless girl.

  She smiled when she saw him in the hospital. The wisp of magic coursing through his body, she could feel it. Johan had awakened his class that day.

  She left satisfied, holding her phone in anticipation since that day. She still had it in her hands, still waiting.

  Opening her eyes, she looked at his stupid face, acting like he had all the time in the world.

  “…Liar.” She muttered.

  The door to her office opened again, gently this time. Yuna placed the iPad on the table, facing Victor, the auburn-haired young man. Since he came directly, it only meant one thing.

  “Emergency, Riverside Avenue. Rift Rank B.” He yawned, not bothering to hide his dark circles.

  “Tell them I am on my way.” Yuna already had her sword in hand.

  She rushed out of the guild building, jumping over skyscrapers and stubborn traffic.

  There was a lot she wanted to do, there was a lot she was meant to do, but she was never meant to do this on her own. With her phone still in hand, she rushed down to her destination faster than the wind.

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