"Cheers!" *Ding* Shouted Heimart as everybody clinked their glasses in toast. "I have to say it Dan.. There were moments in which I thought you had no idea what the hell you were doing.. Never been happier about being wrong." He then added after raising his glass of wine, and downing it.
Daniel smiled and nodded back at Heimart, before saying "I have to give credit to Ligart. He played his part splendidly, and helped me get some pocket change from his cousin.. But jokes aside.. You guys made a spectacular job tonight." He then raised his own glass before taking a small sip of his greenish alcoholic beverage.
Jerigh was standing right next to Daniel, looking at him as if he was about to grab him at any given moment, and drag him into a training room where they could finally spar. In his hand was a glass full with a liquor identical to Daniel's, Alesia's, and Ligart's, which he hadn't touched yet.
He had never drank alcohol, as in the culture where he had been raised into, alcohol was a spoil of war for great warriors, and therefore, was not fit to be drank by a slave, even if that slave was the Jer Krigh. Not to mention that it was extremely important for him to always keep a hundred percent of his focus at all times.
"Come on Jer.. just this once." Said Ligart, which was sitting right next to him with his cheeks already flushed red from the excessive drinking, and the happiness caused by basking in the glory of his performance.
Jerigh showed an irritated expression, then, looked down on the greenish semi-transparent liquid in his glass, before taking a sip of it.
The moment the bitter liquid touched his tongue, Jerigh's face contorted in deep unwillingness. He turned to look at the people that were sitting around him, which were now looking at him with curious eyes.
He was about to spit it right back into the cup, when Daniel said "Come on Jer, down it like a true warrior!!" he then took a second sip from his own drink.
Feeling challenged by Daniel's words, Jerigh poured the rest of the drink into his mouth, and swallowed the entire drink in a single gulp. *COUGH COUGH COUGH* The burning feeling of the alcoholic beverage flowing down his throat made his cheeks flush red instantly.
"NONONONO SLOW!" Tried to shout Daniel, but it was too late.
Jerigh's pupils dilated, his skin started to turn closer to purple red, than its usual color. He quickly put the glass back on the table, and touches his warmed up cheeks in confusion, before brushing his fingers through his hair, and feeling shocked about the odd feeling that his golden locks gave to him. "So.. soft.." he muttered through a mesmerized expression.
"Damn it.." Said Daniel while putting down his glass.
What Jerigh did not know, was that this beverage wasn't any common drink. It was a specially made drink that had to be drank in small sips in order to allow the immortal essence in one's body to filter the 'hallucinogenic' effects it possessed.
"HAHAHAHA!" Ligart suddenly burst laughing. The sight of Jerigh losing his mind was more than he could ever ask to end a day like this.
Daniel, Alesia and the rest couldn't help but smirk and giggle at how the sudden sound of Ligart's laugh had shocked an already intoxicated Jerigh, which tried to touch Ligart's moving lips as if trying to seal them shut with uncoordinated fingers.
The wide opened eyes of Jerigh, as well as Ligart's attempt to keep the former's hands off of his face, were too hilarious to withstand. So much so that Heimart had gotten close to choking himself on a piece of meat from too much laughing.
This was all happening while the teacher of the superior alchemy was informing the Navi family of what had happened that night, and right as the middle aged man spoke the last word, all the way into a different spatial dimension, and into Daniel's mind, two small windows had appeared. One of which left him dubious.
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Primary Quest Completed: No Time For Poisons*
-Description: Find a cure of the Poison of the Night Blue Thorn.
Reward: The Poisonous Rose Reputation +75% / (Optional) Universal Government Reputation +2%
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First evolution of the karmic system.
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While Daniel was still confused about the meaning of the words written in the second window, a set of semi-transparent golden-colored ingers had started to creep out of his chest. He had felt nothing, as these fingers seemed to be intangible. Eight fingers moved out of his skin, and after hooking on the surface of Daniel's stomach, they slowly started to pull the rest of the body out.
It was at this moment that Daniel noticed what was happening, and sprung up on his feet, shocked by what he was seeing. "Dan, what's wrong??" Asked Alesia with a confused tone to a now panicking Daniel, who was currently scratching his chest in horror.
"Dan?" asked Alis after noticing Daniel's sudden actions.
"Hey, everything alright?" added Heimart in slight worry.
Daniel could not touch these small arms which were apparently pulling a body out of his stomach no matter what he tried, so, after hearing his friend's words, he slowly started to calm down. Barely managing to avoid staring at the scary sight right under his nose, he looked at his worried friends, and said "I.. I must have drank too much.. I'm going to lay down for a bit.."
"Do you want me to accompany you?" Asked Alesia with a worryingly. She had never seen Daniel act in such a way, and that had scared her greatly.
"No.. no thanks, I'm fine.. Keep having fun. I'll come back later if I will feel better." He responded before directly teleporting into his office within the building.
He was now alone, and with two semi-invisible arms creeping out of his stomach all the way to the elbows. "What the fuck.. What is going on?.." He muttered with a terrified tone. Once again he tried to touch these arms, but again, he felt no resistance, and his hands moved through as if there was nothing to touch to begin with.
For the next two minutes, he kept trying different methods to interact with this ghost like presence that was coming out of his body. He tried to use his immortal essence, different types of mana, lightning, steel, silver, and anything else he could think of.. But nothing worked.
This entity's arms were now almost completely out, bending downwards, and placing the palms of its hands on Daniel's chest.. Then, the muscles on this being's arms started to tense, as if it was trying to lift the weight of its entire body with only these two arms, and in fact, that was the case, as after no longer than ten seconds, the entire entity shot out of Daniel's body like a thunder.
"FINALLY!" Shouted this entity with an oddly familiar voice. "I CAN FINALLY MOVE!"
"Wha.. S.. Sewah?" muttered Daniel in pure shock after recognizing the voice of his karmic system. With his eyes, he saw a poorly dressed young man in his early teens.
The physical appearance of this young man was astonishingly handsome, and if other people could see him, they would shower him with praise. "What is going on?" He asked in deep confusion.
"Now, before you say anything.. I have no idea of why this happened.. I only know that after you've completed the quest, this world suddenly started to feel different.. More appropriate for me to.. Visit? Does it make sense? I just needed to get out." Responded Sewah while looking at his own semi-transparent body.
"Think more.. This has to mean something. Has anything changed? Can you interact with anything?" Asked Daniel while observing Sewah's intangible body with curiosity. There is no need to mention that nobody else had ever come out of his body, and therefore, Daniel didn't have the slightest idea of how to interpret what was happening.
Sewah tried more than once to touch the objects within Daniel's office, but every attempt was pointless. No matter how many times he tried, he was not able to touch any of them. It seemed like he wasn't even there. Almost as if he was the pale shadow of a person from another plane of existence.
"There doesn't seem to be anything different.. I just.. I don't know.. I can feel something in the distance." Said Sewah with confusion after thinking carefully.
"What do you mean?" Asked Daniel with a dubious tone. "What are you talking about?"
Sewah closed his eyes, and started to focus on these odd feelings he was feeling, and suddenly, at a distance of an incalculable number of kilometers, he sensed a dozen of faint sources of drastically different power that came from different directions. Each of these powers was more powerful than what Sewah had ever witnessed when inside Daniel's body, and something told him that he needed to stay away from them.
"What is it?"
"I know what they are.." Responded Sewah with unveiled terror. "They are my brothers.."
This state of deep confusion had gone on for too long for Daniel's tastes, and with a hint of anger, he asked "Brothers? I'm lost. What are you feeling?"
Once again, Sewah focused on sensing the absurdly powerful entities that he had felt just a few moments ago, and the moment he found them again, he noticed that at least half of them were moving in his direction.
The original distance between him and these entities, was of billions of trillions of parsecs, and yet, the second time he had tried to feel them, they had gotten closer of about the zero point one percent of the total distance. That would not mean much, but if one considered how far that zero point one percent was, and that it had all happened in a matter of two or three seconds, one would imagine how absurdly fast these entities were.
More terrified than before, Sewah looked around in panic, and the moment he noticed that these beings were keeping on approaching, he looked at Daniel, and without thinking twice about it, he jumped right back into his body.
Shocked by Sewah's sudden actions, Daniel shouted "WAIT WAIT WAI-"unfortunately, his words were interrupted by Sewah's body which slowly creeped back inside him, leaving Daniel with a creepy feeling that caused a shiver to run down his spine. He was nowhere near used to seeing things enter his body, and he would likely never be. "Can you tell me what the hell did you see!?" Asked Daniel in his mind.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Shouted Sewah in panic. He appeared to have lost his mind. Now that he was back inside Daniel's body, he seemed to have once again lost the ability to sense the world outside of Daniel's body, and now, he was cowering in fear inside what considered to be his only safe place.
About to lose his mind from the exasperation he was feeling, Daniel prepared to burst in rage in his mind, when someone came knocking at his door.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
"Dan, there is a middle aged woman and an old man here to see you. The old man presented himself as the governor." Said Alesia from behind Daniel's door.
Daniel took a deep breath to calm himself down, and after recalling the panicked state Sewah was in, he decided to ignore him for the time being, and said "I'll be there in a minute." He then put himself back together, and walked out of his room.
He took the small walk from his office to the guest lounge to clear his mind, and when he arrived at the end of the the entrance of the lounge, he said distractingly "Governor Lien, I'm sor-" His tone immediately changed into one of alertness after noticing that the two individuals weren't the old lady and the governor, but two people that he had never met before. "...Who are you?"