"Where did you get these Slime Cores?" Agatha picked one up, turning it over and over in her hands.

"Don’t ask where I got them. A deal’s a deal. Twenty Healing Potions. I’m taking them with me now." Shire braced his hands on the long table and vaulted into a chair.

"I’m going to need a few other potions, too." He tapped the tabletop.

Agatha shot Shire a look and went to prepare tea. "I’m not exactly wealthy, you know, old classmate."

"How many times have I told you? We’re on the clock, so use my title. It’s ’Chairman.’" Shire folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"What potions do you need, *Chairman*," the Ghost Witch Agatha said, glaring at the goblin before her through gritted teeth.

"Healing Potions, Strength Potions, Agility Potions, Endurance Potions, and Body Enlargement Potions." Shire rattled off the list of names as if he were ordering from a menu.

"I have all of those, but not many." Agatha resigned herself to the situation, brewing the tea and pouring herself a cup. "I don’t have enough ingredients."

Shire took the teapot and poured his cup to the brim. "Write down the ingredients. I’ll have my subordinates go get them."

"I’ll need to charge for labor." Agatha extended her index finger, twirling it in the air. A pen and paper flew to her. Just as she was about to start writing, she looked up and saw Shire staring at them. "Mage’s Hand. Just a little trick."

"Sometimes I really do envy Mages. You get to be so lazy." Shire took a small sip of tea. ’The chrysanthemum tea from the Archipelago is really something else.’

"Speaking of which," Shire raised his voice slightly, "how’s the research coming along for the potion to cure the Transformation Curse?"

Agatha stopped writing and looked up, staring blankly at the goblin before her. "Didn’t I tell you it’s nowhere near ready?"

"Uh, aren’t you a descendant of the Twelve Deviants or something?" Shire said.

"It’s the *Twelve Bloodlines*, and I’m just a Bloodline Warlock!" Agatha corrected him loudly. "Besides, I haven’t been studying Alchemy Medicine for that long."

"Alright, alright," Shire said, waving his hand dismissively. "You mean there’s been no progress at all?"

"I did make a prototype." Agatha put down her pen, walked over to the wall, and retrieved a bottle of yellowish-green liquid from a hidden compartment.

"This is it. It’s untested." She placed the potion carefully on the table.

Shire leaned in for a closer look. A small bubble occasionally floated up through the yellow liquid inside.

"Well, let’s test it then," Shire suggested.

"Fine." Agatha went into an inner room and returned a few minutes later, handing Shire a mouse she’d caught.

Next, she pulled two glass tanks from the corner, one large and one small. After a moment of comparison, she set the smaller one aside.

"Beginning experiment number one." Agatha jotted down the experiment number, materials, and test subject on a sheet of paper.

Then she took the mouse and set it on the table.

"Transform!" After a puff of smoke, the mouse turned into a fat, white, fleshy worm.

Shire grabbed the worm and shoved the potion’s spout to its mouth.

After making sure the unlucky mouse had drunk some of the potion, Shire set it back on the table and covered it with the glass tank.

"Is it going to work?" Agatha sounded a little uncertain.

"What’s there to be scared of? Let’s just watch and see." Shire beckoned her over as he leaned down in front of the glass tank.

The white worm crawled a few inches, then its entire body began to twitch.

"It’s having an effect!" Agatha cried out happily.

The twitching grew more violent until the white worm suddenly hopped into the air. With a soft POP, four short mouse legs sprouted from its front and back.

Then it started to rapidly scuttle around the inside of the glass tank.

Agatha and Shire stared, their eyes wide with shock. They had not expected this. A big, white, fleshy worm with four mouse limbs was now cheerfully scuttling around in front of them.

"I knew it wouldn’t work," Agatha said, her voice filled with disappointment.

"Don’t be so hasty. Look, it’s twitching again," Shire pointed out.

The fleshy worm had indeed stopped scuttling and began to twitch violently again inside the tank.

Then, with a wet SPLAT, it exploded into a pool of gore right before their hopeful eyes, splattering blood and flesh across the walls of the tank.

"Okay, *now* I believe it’s nowhere near ready," Shire said with a sigh.

"Yeah," Agatha said, crestfallen. "It really is impossible without a Beast Core."

"Beast Core?" Shire picked up his tea, glanced at the gore sliding down the wall of the tank, and took a sip.

"Mhm. I need one for the ingredients. But as you know, they’re a controlled substance." Agatha also picked up her cup and leaned back in her chair.

A Ghost Witch and a goblin, facing a glass tank splattered with flesh and blood, elegantly sipping tea and chatting.

"Do you absolutely have to have one?" Shire asked unhurriedly.

"You saw what happened." Agatha jutted her chin toward the results in the glass tank.

"Well, you could just... actually, never mind." Shire had been about to suggest she go apply at the Yangjiao Town Public Security Bureau, but then he remembered: she was a Ghost Witch.

’Imagine a Ghost Witch in a big black Cloak and hood, cackling maniacally as she hops off a flying broomstick and strides into the Public Security Bureau. Then she pulls back her hood and rasps, "I’d like to apply for one Low Level Beast Core."’

’The Public Security Bureau would probably approve an application for a Fire Stake for her.’

"Fine. I’ll get you a Beast Core," Shire said calmly.

"You can get one?" Agatha was astonished. "Those things are controlled substances. In the Kingdom, they’re reserved for the Knight Orders and the nobility. It’s almost impossible for a commoner to apply for one."

"How difficult can it be."

"They’re used to make the Secret Medicines that enhance the physical abilities of Knights and nobles. I’ve also heard the Kingdom is using them to create anti-aging elixirs," Agatha said.

"I’ve heard that before," Shire nodded. "But then again, I’m the Chairman."

"Why don’t you have that human you’re working with..." Agatha started to suggest.

"Don’t worry, I’ll get it." Shire’s tone was firm. ’I won’t let Little John get mixed up in this. I know that every single Beast Core is accounted for, which makes them incredibly hard to get. The Kingdom has a monopoly on them and only provides Beast Core-derived potions to Adventurers with a Bronze Badge or higher. There’s only one way to get a Beast Core: hunt it yourself.’

"Alright, I can see I can’t convince you." Agatha shrugged, her tone casual. "Good luck, Chairman."

"I’ll come find you again once I have the Beast Core."

With that, Shire picked up the list of ingredients Agatha had written. "This is a lot."

"You asked for five different kinds of potions," Agatha said, holding up her pale, slender fingers.

"Can’t you just throw them all in one pot and brew them together?" Shire asked, scanning the list.

"And what would you call that? Some kind of hodgepodge stew?" Agatha scoffed.

’That’s exactly how we goblins make our stews,’ Shire desperately wanted to retort. "You need to do some more research. We can’t exactly tell our men in the middle of a fight, ’Hold on, wait for us to finish drinking all these potions!’"

"Fine, I’ll check my books again."

"You only have eighteen Healing Potions here, and I brought twenty-one Slime Cores." Shire packed the potions into his bag, then walked over to a shelf on the wall and grabbed the tin of chrysanthemum tea as well.

"We’ll call this even for the other three cores." With that, he walked out the door without a second glance.

"Bandit! Robber!" came a curse through gritted teeth from inside the room.