9 New Potion Failure? Or Maybe A Success?

*Later The Same Night*

Lucian and Shin had two different views on equipment and had since they were much younger. This is why Lucian had decided not to learn enchantment magic, and instead opted to learn alchemy.

The reasoning behind this was that Lucian did not see the point in strong equipment if he could just make himself stronger instead with potions. He also had the ease of almost instantly maturing any ingredients he needed with his magic which was more specialised to life magic because of his elf blood.

This meant that as soon as Shin had free time, he started to rewrite the magic enchantments on his school uniform. He put the enchantments of Absolute Magical Protection, Total Physical Damage Absorption, Grime repel and Self Recovery on his school uniform. Once he finished his own uniform, he offered to do the same for Lucian's clothes, but he turned the offer down as it would have felt like a free handout to him.

Instead, Lucian went into his own room and started creating a potion that would have no use to anyone but him. He gathered ingredients which he knew had similar effects to his advantages as an Elf, and started to create the potion. Along the way, he continually channelled a stream of predominantly life magic, although he did also pour a bit of every other element, into the mixture. His hopes with this was to create a potion that would permanently increase all of his natural benefits as an Elf. Once it was finally done, the potion was a light green colour and had swirls of every other colour imaginable inside of it, albeit in smaller quantities.

Without any way to test it, Lucian did what he had always done since he had started doing alchemy, he put the potion into a bottle, and chugged the entire thing in one go. Once he drank the whole potion, all of Lucian's senses became much sharper than they had been before, and he felt power coursing through his veins so strongly that he felt as though he was at least three times as powerful as before physically, and he assumed this was the same magically.

However, Lucian also felt something else. While his ability to think and his sanity still remained, there was a desire for battle in the back of his mind that seemed to be growing slightly more dominant with every passing second. Lucian attempted to control this urge, but before long he knew he had to do something about it.

He opened his room's window and jumped out. Much to his surprise, his jump caused him to go incredibly far and he was out of the land surrounding Merlin's house without even realising. He sprinted as fast as he could, which at this point was fast enough to leave holes in the ground with every step he took despite him attempting to be light footed.

Lucian had previously memorised a map of the capital, and knew that there was a more slum-like part which contained all of the black market deals and illegal activities. It was an easy journey as Lucian moved faster than he had ever thought possible and arrived in the slums in only a few minutes.

Once he was there, he walked over to a group of people who looked relatively shady, "Do any of you know of any underground fighting places? I really need to let off some steam, so if you know any then let me know."

the men looked at Lucian with suspicion in their eyes, but one of them answered, "Maybe if you give us all some of the money you have on you then we'll tell you. How about it?"

Lucian looked annoyed, but he complied and he handed the man two silver which he had in his pocket. the man then spoke again, "Didn't think it would be that easy, but seeing as you listened to me I'll tell you. If you keep going down this street, you'll see a house with a sign that says Horse Races. If you go in there and ask for Gerald then you'll find your fights."

Lucian took in this information, and without caring about the two silver he had just lost, Lucian sprinted once again in the direction that he had been pointed in."

As soon as he saw the building with the 'Horse Races' outside, he stopped running and pushed the door open. Everyone in the building turned to look at the entrance, as it was rare for them to have new visitors. The building seemed to be a bar, as they were serving drinks and most of the people were at least a little bit drunk.

Lucian walked up to the bar counter and spoke to the man working there, "I'm looking for Gerald."

The man, who had previously just been doing his job, looked at Lucian with a look of surprise before saying, "Please follow me this way."

Lucian followed the man in silence, and after going through a door in the back, he was signalled down some stairs. He walked briskly down them and came into view of exactly what he had wanted.

There was a large area surrounded by people cheering on two fighters in the middle. There was also a man sat at a table with an abundance of coins stacked up. This man was obviously there to take bets on the fighters and give payouts to those who bet correctly.

As he could see nobody else working there apart from large bouncer-like men standing dotted around the room, Lucian walked over to the man at the table, "Hello, I want to sig-"

The man interrupted him, "If you want to sign your fighter up and bet on the fights this evening, then you have to pay a single gold coin. No injuries, including death, are the responsibility of our establishment. The only rule for the fights is that the use of any magic is prohibited. Would you like to sign your fighter up young man?"

Lucian looked at the man with a look of annoyance, "I don't have a fighter, I'm here to sign myself up for the fights."

The man looked unsure, "I don't know whether I would recommend someone of your age fighting in here, but if that's what you really want then put your gold coin on the table and get in line, if you pay an extra fifty silver then you can go straight to the front of the line. Are you interested in this offer?"

Lucian grinned and slammed down another fifty silver, "Absolutely!"

He walked to the line of fighters which was guarded by a bouncer, and after getting the nod from the man at the table, Lucian was let in at the front of the line. It did not take long for it to be his turn to fight, as the reigning champion of the night so far quickly took out his opponent.

The victor was a man of around six feet tall covered in bulging muscles with blood covered fist wraps on. Lucian walked into the ring with anticipation, but before the fight could happen, the spectators were given a minute to place their bets on either competitor is they wanted to. This meant that the odds were completely against Lucian and were heavily in favour for the other man.

Once the bets were closed, the fight immediately started. The man started his advance towards Lucian, but before he could even get halfway to him, there was a hand through his stomach. This was Lucian's first time killing someone, but he felt complete ecstasy instead of sadness or disgust with himself. This was due to his desire for battle that had devolved into a desire for blood.

After this happened, cheering started coming from the sidelines as the reigning champion had been defeated so easily. Despite most of the people cheering having lost their bets, they were more excited at the new challenger who was seemingly incredibly strong.

After the betting process had finished once more, Lucian was able to fight his second opponent. This time it was a man who must have been in his late twenties, to early thirties who seemed to have not trained a lot in his entire life. Lucian moved so quickly that he could not be seen with regular human eyes, and before anyone could notice it was happening, the opponent's head was sent flying off and embedded itself in the ceiling due to the force it was removed with.

The night continued on like this, with over seventy people getting slaughtered by Lucian with ease, while he was still sane, his desire for blood kept growing. However, at some point in the night, this desire was satiated and the urges disappeared. Despite the murders he had committed, Lucian did not feel any regret which he assumed was a result of his new characteristic of being completely bloodthirsty against his will. Although the desires had gone, he could feel that they were at the very back of his mind still, but they were not growing anywhere near as quickly as they had been earlier on. Although the desires were gone, his increase in strength still remained which he was pleased to see.

Once this happened, Lucian announced that he was retiring for the night, and the spectators shouted for him to stay, or to come back another time which he assumed would be happening once the urges returned. He made his way to the betting table, as he assumed that he won money due to putting himself down as the fighter.

As he had expected, Lucian had made quite a lot, he had increased his investment by 20x and ended up with 30 gold in winnings from one night.

He decided to leave the building entirely and return home as he needed to sleep before the entrance ceremony that was the day after. However, as he was attempting to leave the slums, the same group of men that had given him directions before approached him, "You win any money down there? How about you share a bit with us?"

Lucian looked at them and laughed, "if you're able to then feel free to try, but I don't know how far you'll get."

One of the men pulled a knife out from his back pocket and pointed it and Lucian, "So scary, I'm kidding obviously. You compensating for something with that little knife?"

The man got angry and swung his knife at Lucian, however, in this moment he felt the urges burst out of the depths of his mind once more. Blood started rushing to his head and the world seemed to be tinted slightly red. In the instant that Lucian once again felt the absolute ecstasy of his own bloodlust, he used his flattened hand to split all of them in two in one attack as if it were done with a sword.

After this, his urges went again and he came to some conclusions. The original immense urge for blood that he had felt was caused by the awakening of this characteristic. However, it also seemed as though this urge would come back while he was in a proper battle for his life, and potentially once the urge had not been satiated for a long time.

Once he had finished coming to these conclusions, he had already made his way home. He jumped back through his window, and proceeded to get in his bed without bothering to wipe the blood off of himself.