Kiara paused with her hand on the doorframe and looked back over her shoulder.
"Two hundred per cent?" she said, her face in disbelief.
"There's that terrible math again. Is that so? Can I see a sample of this supposed miracle product you have in stock?"
"Sure!"
Julien turned and sprinted toward the back room. He hadn't given all the potions to Milana; he specifically kept a few extras hidden in his inventory just in case an emergency popped up. He pulled out a glowing, coloured Iron Skin potion, ran back into the main shop, and practically shoved the glass bottle into Kiara's chest.
Kiara took the potion in hand. She held it up to the sunlight pouring through the window, her sharp eyes analysing its legitimacy and the faint magical glow.
"What does it do, exactly?" she asked, her curiosity overriding her annoyance.
"Hmm. Just drink it," Julien said, a confident smirk returning to his face.
Kiara popped the bottle's top. Being a teenager from the rough streets of District 5, she didn't hesitate, threw her head back, and took a solid sip.
She then smacked her lips together.
"Tastes like rubber," she noted.
She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck while standing there for a few seconds, waiting for a magical boost of power, a magical aura, or literally anything to happen.
But nothing happened.
"I feel completely normal," Kiara said, frowning. "Where is the effect? Am I supposed to breathe fire?"
"Wait for five minutes," Julien said, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter.
The shop went into an incredibly awkward silence. One minute passed, and Chris pulled a protein bar out of his pocket and started chewing loudly.
Two minutes passed, and Kiara tapped her combat boot against the floorboards.
Four minutes passed.
Kiara let out a tired sigh and rubbed her left forearm. "Okay, I can't feel anything except a slight itch in my arm. Are you guys really legit? Because I think you just fed me tap water mixed with glucose. This is such a disaster."
Julien's smug smile widened until it stretched from ear to ear, slowly turning creepy.
"Look to your side," Julien said simply.
Kiara could not understand what he was trying to do. She slowly turned her head and looked down at her left arm.
Alice was floating right next to her while holding a heavy, sharp kitchen knife. With a completely blank, bored expression on her pale face, Alice raised the knife and brought it down hard into Kiara's forearm.
Stab.
The blade bounced off Kiara's skin without causing any damage. Alice raised the knife and did it again.
Thwack.
"What the hell?!" Kiara screamed, jumping three feet back and knocking over a display stand. "How long have you been doing that?!"
"About four and a half minutes," Alice said softly, twirling the knife in her ghostly fingers. "You have a very nice posture, by the way. Easy to get stabbed."
Kiara quickly grabbed her left arm; her heart almost came out of her throat. She expected to see blood pouring out of her veins and her bones clearly visible.
But there was nothing. Not a single scratch or a bruise. The skin was completely intact without any wounds. The only thing she saw was a faint, blue-coloured shield pattern that flashed against her skin for a microsecond before fading away.
That was the 'itch' she had been feeling.
Kiara breathed heavily. She reached out and snatched the kitchen knife right out of Alice's hand.
She tested the edge with her thumb, wincing as the incredibly sharp steel nearly bit into her skin. Her hand grabbed a piece of scrap paper from the table and sliced it cleanly in half with zero effort.
The knife was razor-sharp. And a ghost had just been plunging it into her arm like a sewing machine for five minutes without leaving a mark.
Julien leaned over the counter, still smiling that highly punchable smile.
"Now do you believe us?" Julien asked.
Kiara's terrifying grin stretched wider, the gears of her 190 IQ brain clearly spinning at a dangerous speed as she stared at the half-empty potion bottle.
The incident that had just happened in front of her completely broke everything she had ever known about magical items, opening the door to an absolute, undeniable monopoly in a world where Hunters died every single day over weak armour.
She slammed both of her hands flat onto the old wooden table.
"I have a plan," Kiara said.
"You already have a plan?" Julien asked, exchanging a quick, nervous glance with Chris.
"So, what is it?"
"I'll tell you," Kiara replied, leaning back in the old chair and crossing her arms with a newfound authority.
"But before we start talking about market disruption and supply chains, I need to know our exact operating budget. How much liquid capital do you have right now in your hands?"
Julien swallowed hard, mentally opening his System interface to check his balance.
Between the initial potion sales, the chunk of cash he had dropped on Chris's Awakening Root, and the rental fee for that autonomous training dummy humming away in the basement, his funds were looking a bit thin.
"I have exactly 3,865 Credits left," Julien admitted, wincing slightly as he said the number out loud.
"It's not a lot, but we can make it work."
Kiara let out a low whistle, clearly unimpressed by their so-called wealth, before tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"It's barely pocket change for a serious guild, but it's enough to get the ball rolling. Grab your coats, boys. We're taking a field trip to the Hoven."
Julien's face instantly went pale, his smug merchant persona vanishing completely to be replaced by a look of sheer panic.
"No," Julien blurted out, taking a definitive step back from the table while shaking his head.
"Absolutely not. We cannot go there."
Kiara raised an eyebrow, clearly annoyed by the sudden pushback.
"Why not? The Hoven is the only black market district where we can buy the cheap, unverified raw materials we need without raising a massive red flag with the Association."