"This is surprising."
Looking at the two Mid-grade Basic Vitality Pills, Kai was genuinely shocked. For almost the past two weeks, he hadn't refined a single Mid-grade pill—but today, he managed to produce two in one batch.
After finishing the first batch of Basic Vitality Pills, Kai began working on the Strength Potion.
"After getting the [Ki Control] Gift, I should hire an assistant," Kai thought to himself as he washed the pot used for brewing the potion.
Cleaning the pot and setting it aside, he moved on to the final batch of Basic Vitality Pills.
"Finally, I can rest."
An hour and a half later, Kai turned off the Fire Stones and rested while letting the pill paste cool.
"Since [Ki Control] is a D-rank Gift, the materials needed for it shouldn't be too expensive... but they won't be cheap either. All the materials for [Heighten Senses] cost me 5 gold coins. Since [Ki Control] is a D-rank Gift, its materials shouldn't cost more than 50 gold coins."
While resting, Kai pondered the materials he would need to sacrifice in order to attract the Heavenly Trial.
"I can just exchange Honey Points for a D grade item and sell it to gather enough funds."
As Kai continued thinking about how to obtain money for the materials, he suddenly had a brilliant idea.
After finalizing his plans for the future, Kai molded the pill paste into Basic Vitality Pills and checked each one.
Unfortunately, this time not a single one was Mid-grade.
Putting away the 16 Basic Vitality Pills he had refined, Kai began cleaning the Alchemy room.
Although it was only 3:30 PM, and there was still time left before his working hours ended, Kai decided to head back early.
He was already tired from all the walking, the Slime hunting, and now the pill and potion making had pushed his fatigue even higher.
After cleaning up, Kai made a list of all the ingredients he had used and left the room.
At the front desk, Kai placed everything in front of Miya.
"Early today?" Miya asked, noticing that the human looked far more tired than usual. And he hadn't even spent that many hours making pills and potions today.
It seemed he wasn't planning on earning any Honey Points.
"Yeah, feeling a little tired."
Kai didn't explain much and simply handed over his employee card.
"Here."
Since Kai wasn't willing to talk, Miya didn't press further—neither about why he was late this morning nor why he hadn't worked for any Honey Points.
However, her suspicion toward Kai continued to grow.
After all, just this morning, another case of someone devouring monster souls had been reported.
As Kai left, Miya decided to report his schedule to Lyra.
---
After leaving the Honey Pill Shop, Kai headed back to the Candy Complex.
Once back, he went straight to his room and took a short nap.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Kai, are you there?"
The sudden knocking pulled Kai back to reality, and he recognized Oliver's voice.
"Coming."
Kai hurriedly got up and opened the door.
"Were you sleeping? Anyway, dinner's ready. Wanna join?"
Seeing Kai just woke up, Oliver invited him to dinner.
"Give me a second. I'll be there."
After sending Oliver off, Kai washed his face and headed toward the backyard.
---
"Kai, what happened? You left really early today."
As Kai grabbed a chair and joined everyone for dinner, Tony asked curiously.
Tony had now completely recovered from his injuries and was planning to go hunting again tomorrow.
"Oh, my friend took me Slime hunting."
Taking a bite of the delicious kebabs, Kai replied casually.
"Which friend?"
Tony and the others racked their brains but couldn't recall any of Kai's friends who were hunters.
"Alex," Kai answered while enjoying the Arabic food.
"That guy whose father runs a bakery. I have to say, Mathew has some real baking skills," Omar suddenly spoke as everyone was trying to recall who Alex was.
When they heard it was Alex, they all sighed in relief.
After all, hunting monsters was already a dangerous profession. If someone got mixed up with people of bad intentions, there was no telling when their life might end.
"Didn't he recently start hunting monsters? If you want, we can take you hunting with us," Eric added as soon as Omar mentioned Alex. He remembered clearly—they'd taken Alex along once when they were looking for a tank.
"It's a good idea, but the problem is I have to work and can only spare 2–3 hours early in the morning," Kai said after thinking for a while.
He didn't mind going hunting with them. In fact, he was looking forward to it. Even the weakest among them, Omar, had reached Level 4. That meant they were much stronger than Alex, who had just recently reached Level 3.
But the issue was, he couldn't spare more than 3 hours, or he might fall behind on the brewing list—which could cause a lot of trouble.
"Kai, if I remember correctly, you went hunting today because you urgently need to undergo your third Heavenly Trial and acquire a certain Gift?" Oliver asked.
He had pieced together the situation after overhearing bits and pieces about Kai's circumstances related to the Honey Pill Shop.
"Yeah. To perform the core skill of alchemy, I need Soul Power. But the Honey Pill Shop tricked me into signing a contract that offers no help with that.
So I found a Gift that can help me replace Soul Power and use Ki to perform [Herb Weaving]," Kai explained, putting down his spoon.
"Why can't you just quit?" Sophie asked.
"No, I can't. According to the contract, I have to work at the shop for one year and complete daily tasks.
They're only responsible for providing me with knowledge and some training.
The worst part is, if I miss work for ten consecutive days, I lose all my rights and have to serve the Pill for the next ten years—as a slave," Kai said.
Ever since his encounter with Lucas, Kai had borrowed a few books from the library. After going through them, he realized how impossible it was to perform [Herb Weaving] using Ki. That's when he understood how the Honey Pill Shop had trapped him.
"That's horrible!"
Everyone except Tony, Eric, and Oliver—who already knew a little about the Honey Pill Shop—exclaimed in shock.
"Wait… if you can't learn the skill without Soul Power, doesn't that mean you became their slave the moment you signed the contract?" Omar, for the first time quick on his feet, asked.
"It's one way to put it," Kai replied casually, finishing his food.
Ever since he learned about the D-rank Gift [Ki Control], he'd stopped worrying about such things.
"Yara! Stop running! Dinner's gonna get cold!" Orion called out. He was teaching Yara late tonight because he'd gone hunting earlier with the others, and Yara hadn't learned a single word from Tony.
"Sorry about that. We went out and completely forgot about the learning part."
Since only Tony and Yara had been at home during the day, he'd taken her to explore the town.