Nyx’Sol woke up late. Sunlight was already piercing through the canopy of evergreen leaves, and its accompanying warmth was slowly thawing the chill of night. Several hours past the safety of night, Nyx considered himself lucky not to have been discovered and attacked. Part of him—and his Focus skill in particular—was a bit frustrated not to have gotten that opportunity delivered to his very doorstep. Or rather, stomped dirt without a door, in this case.

  Shrugging, Nyx allowed himself a moment of respite and chewed on some cold, uncooked raw meat the shelter provided him. Oddly enough, he was getting used to it. The stringy meat’s taste was no longer accompanied by the steady presence of a stirring gag reflex, and with the right technique, Nyx only had to rip the meat into strips with his teeth that went down his throat in a smooth manner.

  Filled up on nutrition, he departed his hiding spot, head low, and with a quick stride, he brought himself out of the remote forest area and into the heart of the housing zone. Here, he hugged the sides of the buildings in order to disappear between them, escape inside, or climb on top of them. Technically, this was the safest spot in the Skin Tempering Garden, provided that no one would be foolish enough to start a large-scale assault when so many potential escape routes were available. Nyx would expect that to happen further away from both the library access spots as well as the houses.

  The area was quiet and empty, and he arrived at Nox'Rictus' home quite quickly. He was, however, greeted by a familiar blue-skinned healer, sitting comfortably on a wooden bench right next to the estate’s entrance.

  Nyx politely greeted him. “Greetings. Good morning.”

  But the healer immediately lost his calm face and composure, as if he had remembered a particularly bad dream, and started to drum his claws against the wooden bench, on which his hand was lazily resting. “Good morning. Why, yes. What a brilliant morning it is. Downright marvelous.” He clicked his tongue in displeasure before mustering Nyx’s befuddled expression. “Ah, you have not yet heard, I assume?”

  Nyx shook his head. “I am at a loss. Besides that, do you not care to introduce yourself to others?” He stepped closer and motioned at the bench. “Mind if I take a seat?”

  “Go for it. Might be a good spot to read,” he implied heavily, withdrawing a familiar white card from the depths of his robes and promptly starting to ignore Nyx’s existence, as well as his prior question for an introduction.

  Nyx could not help but think that the blue-skinned Azrx healer was a deeply ill-tempered individual. Abrasive to the point of a sharp blade, and cutting harsh words that dripped with sarcasm were a mix that was quite off-putting when paired with the tendency to seemingly not care about others and disregard their requests. Nyx, however, enjoyed him quite a bit. Where there was abrasive rudeness, all he could see was blunt honesty. He said what he was thinking, which could not be said about many demons.

  Picking up his news card, he finally committed to the continued subscription fee and read the current goings-on. And immediately realized why Azrx was cross. His employer had just been detained for seven days, which likely meant his payment would be delayed as well. Nyx briefly chuckled at the title, to the displeasure of his benchmate.

  Nyx chuckled again. They had no idea who had done it. Eyeing Azrx, who was still casually reading, he adjusted his estimation. He would not have cared either way, but he had assumed a healer who sold his services and seemingly cared about his sect points a lot would have a vested interest in selling that information to the disciple running the news organization, especially since it was anonymous and exclusive. Maybe they did not pay well for informants and had other means of extracting information?

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Lost in thought, he had read over a few sentences without actually taking them in and chided himself before starting again where he had left off.

  Nyx stopped himself from chuckling again, mindful of the frowning demon who was now observing him intently. “You are displeased because your employer took a seven-day vacation and now is unable to compensate you?”

  Azrx rolled his eyes. “No. You are an idiot if you think the Spear Saint Mountain Group matters at all. The young master was on the verge of advancing and leaving behind this petty power struggle of the weak. Now I will have to suffer the indignation of spending another seven days in this sequestered shitstain—” He stopped himself. “Why do I tell this to an outsider? You have poked the irrelevant hornet’s nest just as much as both of them have.”

  Glossing over the glare, Nyx translated the tirade in his head to a dialogue more befitting of the lovely fountain of honesty he had discovered in Azrx:

  "Not at all, there is no need to worry about the Spear Saint Mountain Group since we are set to advance past them soon anyway. Unfortunate that I will have to stay here for another seven days, but no point in dwelling on it. I probably do not need to explain this to you, since you have gotten yourself quite involved already."

  Yes, Nyx quite liked the healer. He was quite friendly, really. Striking up the opportunity, he posed a counter-question.

  “Do you dabble in poisons?”

  The question immediately brought the gears that seemed to move Azrx’s explanations forward to a halt. “What?”

  “Do you dabble in poisons? I assume most healers do, since anti-venom is usually fashioned out of poison?” Nyx elaborated.

  “Well, yes. But the field of detoxification arts is not taught to every healer—or did you just insinuate I would partake in the poisoning of others for sport? Certainly not. And most definitely not my own patients. What brought about this asinine remark?” Azrx said in an outraged cadence and eyed his benchmate suspiciously.

  Nyx translated in his head once more:

  "Yes, but I am a well-behaved person and have not poisoned anyone—lately."

  The healer continued. “Well? What is this all about?”

  Nyx raised his right hand and slowly shifted a needle-like bone forward. “I would appreciate your advice on whether this design could deliver a poison or poison-like substance into the opponent's bloodstream. The bone is hollow and is designed to break under a rapid sideways motion.”

  The healer inspected Sol’s handiwork with a whistle. “Quite creative thinking for an irrational hothead like yourself. But this is obviously just silly.” He made a discarding motion with his hand. “There is enough blood flow close to the skin, especially with a paralytic serum. Furthermore, you can adjust the additional mass to create more delivery needles that way. The way this breaks off is flawed, too. I will draw you an injection design that delivers even if you just briefly pierce your opponent.” He tapped his chin with his claws thoughtfully. “How many targets do you want to be able to take out with this? Likely a good idea to plan extra vials in case you miss or fumble, which is bound to happen. You could also do it with a weapon, but this might actually be less obvious since your shapeshifting control is not that terrible.”

  “24,” Sol shamelessly stated.

  Azrx blinked and continued after a longer pause. “I… see. So, 36 targets to be on the safe side. When do you want it?”

  “Today,” Nyx said with a shameless smile. “As soon as possible.”

  The healer sighed in exasperation. “As expected of someone incapable of thinking ahead. You are aware that time is a major logistical factor that scales costs? If you want it today… this is the price.”

  Azrx raised his stone plaque, which indicated a sect point counter.

  Nyx’s humorous smile faltered briefly. That was… steep, but if his plan worked—well, then it would likely be worth it. “Sounds reasonable,” he commented with a polite smile that immediately vanished when he heard the blue-skinned demon’s response.

  “Per vial.”