Dante left the instanced tavern. The chaotic noise of Outpost 404 immediately washed over him again.

He had 1.2 billion Veridian credits sitting in a secure real-world offshore account.

Back on Earth, he was currently wealthy enough to buy a private orbital station.

Inside the Zenith Protocol, however, real-world money was completely useless at the NPC vendor stalls.

He still needed in-game consumables.

The percentage-based healing of Aura was broken, but it had a ten-second cooldown.

Against a massive mob of players or an endgame boss, ten seconds was an eternity.

Dante needed specialized elixirs to buff his base stats. He needed raw and flat numerical advantages to stack on top of his Zenith-tier skills.

He navigated the winding dirt streets until he reached the eastern edge of the merchant district.

Tucked between a noisy blacksmith and a crowded inn was a small and unassuming shop.

The wooden sign above the door simply read: ’Botanical Remedies’.

Unlike the other stalls that were swarmed by hundreds of screaming Level 1 players, this shop was relatively quiet.

Only a dozen players were inside. They were grumbling about the prices.

Dante pushed the door open. A small bell chimed.

The air inside smelled aggressively like crushed pine needles and oxidized copper.

A stressed-looking NPC clerk was standing behind a glass counter. He was arguing with a player about the cost of a minor stamina potion.

"I am telling you, it is a rip-off!" the player complained. He slammed his fist on the glass.

"Two silver for twenty stamina? I can just sit in the dirt for five minutes and get that back for free!"

"Then I suggest you go find a comfortable patch of dirt, Outworlder," the clerk replied. His artificial voice dripped with scripted exhaustion.

Dante bypassed the complaining player and stepped directly up to the counter.

"Excuse me," the player snapped. "There is a line."

Dante didn’t even look at him.

He leaned over the glass counter and locked eyes with the NPC clerk.

He didn’t say a word. He just tapped his left index finger against the wood.

The [Band of the Void-Walker] gleamed in the dim light of the shop.

The eyes of the clerk dropped to the Titan-tier spatial ring.

The programming of the NPC instantly hitched.

The standard and dismissive script designed for low-level players completely wiped from its logic board. It was replaced by an entirely different protocol.

The clerk swallowed hard. He completely ignored the angry player standing next to Dante.

"My apologies, honored Outworlder," the clerk said. His posture straightened immediately.

"The items in the front are... clearly beneath your requirements. The proprietor is accepting private audiences today. Please, right this way."

The clerk reached under the counter and pulled a hidden lever.

A heavy oak bookshelf on the back wall silently swung open. It revealed a dimly lit stone corridor.

"Hey, what the hell?" the complaining player yelled. "How come he gets to go in the back?"

"Because he is not broke," Dante said over his shoulder.

He walked through the hidden doorway. The bookshelf slid shut behind him and completely cut off the noise of the main shop.

The stone corridor sloped downward. It led into a massive subterranean laboratory.

The walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling glass cabinets containing glowing liquids, floating monster organs, and rare pulsing flora.

Sitting behind a massive mahogany desk in the center of the room was a woman.

She was casually reading a heavy and leather-bound book.

She wore an elegant and dark purple dress that looked more suited for a royal masquerade than an outpost apothecary.

Her dark hair was pinned up intricately, and her eyes were a piercing and luminescent violet.

Dante stopped ten feet away from the desk.

His [Band of the Void-Walker] granted him an extra 100 points in Intuition. Right now, that stat was screaming at him like a blaring fire alarm.

The physical pressure radiating off this woman was suffocating.

It was heavier than the Phantom Chimera Emperor. It was denser than the Super-Divine corpse he had seen in the Uncharted Death Zone.

Dante focused on her and pulled up the system identification.

[NPC: Lady Vespera]

[Level: ??? (Suppressed)]

[Status: Dormant]

The text was completely red.

"You are making a lot of noise for someone who just logged in," Vespera said.

She didn’t look up from her book. Her voice was smooth and carried a strange resonant echo that made the glass vials in the room vibrate.

"It is a noisy server," Dante replied casually. He forced his muscles to relax. If she wanted to kill him, he would already be dead.

Vespera finally closed her book.

She looked up, and her violet eyes scanned him from head to toe.

She lingered on the [Sun-Forged Cuirass], then glanced at the Titan-tier ring on his finger.

"I do not usually entertain Outworlders," Vespera said and leaned back in her chair.

"You are all remarkably fragile and entirely too loud. But you do not smell like a beginner. You smell like dead Titan."

"I had a productive morning," Dante said. "I need high-tier consumables. The stuff your clerk is selling upstairs is watered-down garbage."

Vespera let out a short and genuine laugh.

"It is. But it keeps the rabble alive long enough to clear the boar population. If you want the real stock, you are welcome to browse."

She gestured toward a heavily reinforced glass display case standing alone in the corner of the room.

Dante walked over to it. The case was chilled and lined with glowing frost runes.

Sitting on a velvet cushion in the dead center was a single teardrop-shaped crystal vial.

The liquid inside shifted through a spectrum of prismatic colors. It cast a rainbow glow against the glass.

He leaned in and triggered the appraisal skill.

[Item Appraised: Aetherial Nectar]

[Tier: Mythic]

[Description: A liquid distilled from the roots of the World Tree. Consumption permanently rewrites the digital physiology of the user. Grants absolute and permanent immunity to all negative status effects (Poisons, Stuns, Silences, Instant-Death Curses).] 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

[Price: 50,000,000,000 Gold Coins.]

Dante stared at the price tag. Fifty billion gold.

He currently had about three hundred silver coins and some copper pocket change.

"Did the Zenith Protocol accidentally add about six zeroes to that price tag?" Dante asked and tapped the glass.

"The price is accurate," Vespera replied. There was a distinctly amused tone in her voice.

"Total immunity to the fundamental rules of combat is not cheap. Instant-death curses are the only reliable way the system handles anomalies."

"Drinking that vial effectively removes you from the execution parameters of the system."

Dante crossed his arms. "I have a pet that grants debuff immunity. It is an area-of-effect aura."

"Auras have a fixed radius," Vespera countered smoothly. She stood up from her desk.

She walked over, and her purple dress trailed along the stone floor.

"What happens if your pet is banished? What happens if you are trapped in a spatial lock and separated from it? Borrowed power is a crutch. Real power belongs to the body."

She wasn’t wrong.

Aura was a massive advantage. But if she was on cooldown or caught in a suppression field, the immunity of Dante vanished.

"I do not have fifty billion gold," Dante said bluntly.

"I am aware," Vespera said. She stopped next to him and looked at the glowing vial. "But I have a problem that requires a unique solution. And you are uniquely qualified."

"A quest," Dante noted.

"A barter," Vespera corrected. "I require a specific reagent for a localized alchemical project. Sunflare Orchids."

"They only grow in the deepest ridges of the Embercraig Canyon, fifty miles north of this outpost."

Dante pulled up his mental map of the beginner zones.

Embercraig Canyon was a mid-game zone. It was recommended for Level 25 players and above.

It was a hellscape of environmental fire damage and highly aggressive mobs.

"What do I get in return?" Dante asked.

"If you bring me ten intact Sunflare Orchids, I will provide you with a permanent stat-boosting elixir to significantly increase your base parameters," Vespera offered.

"I will also allow you to keep purchasing from my private stock."

Dante looked at the Aetherial Nectar. "And the vial?"

"We can discuss the Nectar when you prove you can survive a simple gathering task," Vespera smiled, her violet eyes glinting.

[Hidden Quest Triggered: Vespera’s Reagent]

[Objective: Retrieve 10 Sunflare Orchids from Embercraig Canyon.]

[Reward: Permanent Stat-Boosting Elixirs, access to Vespera’s private inventory.]

Dante hit accept. "Deal. But I need something to hold me over right now. The Canyon is heavily populated with fire mobs. I need base health if I am going to soak environmental damage."

Vespera walked back to her desk. She opened a drawer and pulled out three small and heavy iron flasks.

She tossed them to Dante. He caught them easily and instantly appraised them.

[Item Appraised: Ironbark Draught]

[Tier: Silver]

[Description: A dense and earthy liquid. Permanently increases Base HP by 1,000 per flask. Limit: 3 uses per player.]

"Three thousand extra health," Vespera said. "That will cost you exactly three hundred silver coins."

It was a blatant rip-off.

A permanent 3,000 HP boost was worth thousands of gold coins on the open market.

Dante didn’t argue.

He pulled the pouches of silver out of his infinite inventory and tossed them onto her mahogany desk.

"Keep the change," Dante said.

He popped the cork on the first iron flask and downed it. It tasted like swallowing liquid bark and mud.

It was horrific, but the system immediately registered the buff.

He chugged the other two in rapid succession and winced at the gritty texture.

[Ironbark Draught Consumed x3.]

[Base HP permanently increased by 3,000.]

Dante pulled up his character sheet.

[Name: Dan]

[Level: 19]

[Class: Warrior]

[HP: 9,100 / 9,100]

He was Level 19, and he was walking around with nearly ten thousand health points!

The average Level 20 tank, fully geared, barely broke three thousand. He was an absolute mathematical monster.

"I will be back with your orchids," Dante said. He wiped the grim taste from his mouth.

"I highly suggest you hurry, Outworlder," Vespera said. She opened her book again. She didn’t look up as she spoke.

"Your rather flashy display earlier today has consequences. I can feel the heavy march of hundreds of boots vibrating through the bedrock. They are heading north."

Dante paused at the hidden doorway.

Silas hadn’t just put a bounty out. He had mobilized an army. And they were sweeping the map.

"Let them march," Dante said. His voice was flat. "It just saves me the trouble of hunting them down."

He stepped through the bookshelf and exited the apothecary. He headed straight for the northern gates.

The Embercraig Canyon was waiting.