Aisha blinked, staring at AradDoma. “Who’s you’re calling little?”

“Who else besides you, Aisha? It seems that you’ve grown stronger in the past years.” Doma giggled, “You did put Arad in a tough spot, didn’t you?”

CRACK! Eris pressed down on the doll’s head, pushing her into the ground, “Doma, do you know her?”

“You can let her go now. She isn’t a threat anymore,” Doma smiled as Eris lifted her foot.

“Now that I’m out, she can’t be of any harm.”

“You say that, but her poisons are dangerous,” Eris replied as Zia nodded behind her. “We can’t trust her,”

“It did take me a while, but I already created an antidote in Arad’s stomach. He’s recovering now,” Doma sat beside Aisha and stared at her with glowing pink eyes. “She can’t beat me,”

“Like I would fight you,” Aisha looked at her with an emotionless passive face, “If you’re in him, I find it hard to believe I won the fight.”

Doma giggled, “It might be partly my fault. I told Arad that he’d lose the fight beforehand, that only railed him to fight.”

“No wonder he didn’t blast his expansion,” Aisha sat up, “I doubt I would’ve won in an expansion tug of war,”

“It’s between me and him,” Doma smiled, “Arad had this habit of underestimating some skills. Albeit he’s quite willing to learn new skills and abilities, he’s also prone to belittling some of them. He isn’t a fan of the mundane disguise skill of some assassin around here. He can’t see a benefit for makeup and outfits with shapeshifting magic existence.” She waved her hand, creating a magic circle.

“He underestimated alchemy?” Aisha stared back as Eris and Zia sat down as well.

“With a high enough constitution, his body would naturally detoxify poisons. He can also buy and stockpile healing and recovery potions. Buying them seemed like an easier, simpler, and more effective approach.” Doma giggled, “I can’t fault him. His thinking is valid, but the problem isn’t in him. It’s in the people he’s facing. He couldn’t comprehend the idea that his enemies already account for those defenses and work around them all the time.”

“When a new wonder drug, a powerful antidote is created. The poison makers usually develop a stronger poison to bypass it within a few months, making it obsolete.” Aisha explained with a passive face.

“It’s usually the role of the cleric to use their holy magic mid-

combat to develop and change their spells to counter poisons for their party, but since Arad fights alone, he needs to find another way to do it.” Doma clenched her hand, shattering the magic circle she created before. “He needs to learn alchemy, study it, and become an expert capable of mixing and brewing concoctions in his stomach on the fly.”

Aisha sighed, even though she was lungless, “So he thought beating an alchemist would be easy since it’s not a fighting skill, and you gassed him up to face me intentionally, so he’ll lose.”

“I wanted him to understand that there is no such a thing as a weak or a trash skill. Dalla showed him that before with her slaps, but since he underestimated Alchemy, I had him feel it burn once.” Doma laughed.

“Dalla, that slapper?” Aisha gasped, “You’re evil. But, I guess you’re the queen of curses,”

“He doesn’t hate it that much. It was like a bet between us,” Doma smiled, “And since I won, he’ll be learning alchemy, even with how boring it may get.”

“If you want him to learn Alchemy, does that mean he’s going there?” Aisha stared at Doma with a worried face.

“The great university of the arts. He’ll be mainly learning Alchemy and the basics of magic and spell craft,”

“I guess. You sent me there as well. You know a lot about Alchemy, but how do I explain it? Your concoctions are quite exotic and require strange materials most of the time. You aren’t that good at teaching as well,” Aisha stared at her with a suspicious glare.

“Like Arad, I’m good at learning,” Doma replied with a prideful stance, “He’ll be better learning from actual teachers in the university. I’ll only batch whatever misunderstanding or loopholes they have in their spells,”

“There are a lot,” Aisha confirmed, “You’ll have a lot of work correcting their books and lessons,”

Eris finally spoke, “The arts they teach there are theoretical. They aren’t necessarily trying to teach people how to weaponize magic or the likes,”

“You went there?” Doma and Aisha stared at her.

“I went five years ago to take a look. I ended up getting expelled due to poor grades.” Eris looked at Doma with a smile, “I hope Arad is ready to put on fast reading glasses. They might look good on him,”

“It’s been a while since I heard of those things,” Aisha smiled, “What are they? A new magic item?” Doma asked.

“Yeah, didn’t you hear of them?”

“I was dead for a long time. I don’t know most of the items made in the past century or so,” Doma shook her head.

“They look like normal glasses, but they allow you to read books faster. Up to 1.4 times the speed if you bought the expensive ones,” Aisha replied.

“They made new ones in the past years. It’s up to two times the speed now. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to join. Sadly the new glasses are only rented, not sold,” Eris waved her hand.

“I didn’t know,” Aisha looked at her, “No books about that came to the library,”

“Of course. The new glasses work by linking to the university magic system. They don’t function outside its perimeter. They say the magic is too strong to contain in the glasses without risking them exploding,”

Doma stood, “Let’s head out. We need to report back to Baltos, and I do want to let Arad rest a bit,”

“He didn’t wake up yet?” Eris stared at her.

“The damage to his brain was a bit extreme, it’ll take him a few hours to wake up, and several days to fully heal.” Doma smiled. .𝒎

“Only that?” Aisha gasped, “My poison should’ve at least left him crippled for life, if not killed him outright,”

“Believe it or not. You’re the one who done him the most damage for a long time.” Doma sighed, “Mainly since your poison keeps regenerating and damages the brain to a deep level that’s hard to heal. And even after healing, reconstruction of the damaged information is what takes the longest time.”

Eris thought, “So when he wakes up, the physical damage to his brain would’ve healed. But the days or week off is what he needs to completely regain the lost information in his brain.”

Zia stood, “Then, could you take me back inside?”

“Of course,” Doma replied, sucking Zia back into Arad’s blood.” The remaining three then flew back to the church to speak to Baltos.

Thud! They landed in front of the church, and Doma walked toward one of the nuns, “Is Baltos awake?”

The nun jumped up in terror, “What?!” She turned around and stared at Arad, confused more than an elf in a barbeque party.

“Is Blatos awake?” Doma repeated.

The nun rubbed her eyes and the inside of her ears with her pinky, “Did I hear that right?” She couldn’t get over the strange voice coming out of Arad, let alone the tattoos covering his body and the flashing pink light in his eyes. “A woman’s voice?”

“It’s a long story,” Eris approached, “Is Baltos awake? I won’t ask again,”

“Sorry, Baltos is awake.” She bowed down, and then looked at Arad’s face, “Was this a freak accident?”

“You could say so,” Doma replied, looking back at Eris carrying Aisha.

After talking to the king and informing him that Arad had possession of the library, he told them that they should clear the treasury as well, which Doma quickly did in a few minutes and returned to the church.

“You done?” Eris asked as she saw Doma walk back into the church, “Yeah, is there a bed I can sleep on?” Doma asked, her eyes darting around.

“I expected that,” Eris stood, “Follow me,” She guided her deep into the church to an empty room with a bed inside and a small table. “I had the nuns prepare this room,”

Doma quickly went on the bed and took a deep breath, yawning, “I’ll leave Arad to rest here. He’ll wake in a few minutes, so wait for him,” She fell asleep.

Several minutes later, Arad opened his eyes with a horrible headache, “AH! That doll…” He growled.

“You’re awake?” Eris stared at him as she sat on a chair beside his bed.

“Doma was right. That poison is something,” He grunted, tapping his head.

“I did beat that doll. Her name was Aisha.” Eris stood, “Do you need something to eat?”

“No, I’m fine.” Arad stood and took a deep breath, “How long was I out for?”

“Three hours. Doma said you need to rest for a few days to fully heal,” She approached him with a smile, “How do you feel?”

Arad clenched his fist, sensing his void, “A lot weaker. I can’t control my void or body that well. Look,” He grabbed her wrist and clenched on it. 𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“Uneven,” Eris scratched her chin, “You can apply your full strength. But aren’t consistent with it. It’s a common side effect of nerve damage. You better rest, as she said,”

“We are moving, aren’t we?” Arad asked.

“Gin is taking care of that. You should rest. You’ll have recovered by the time we reach Alina,”

“You’re right,” Arad sighed as the two of them walked out of the room and went to see Baltos.

The next morning came, and Gin stood outside the city in her draconic form, ready to lead the caravan to Alina.

𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ