A purge, a deal and a creepy mo-

Zhen Liu kept spewing out that weird smelling black gas for a solid ten seconds before finally stopping, sputtering a bit and then coughing up a strange ball of solid black goop. It wasn't a pleasant experience.

"Whoa! What is that?!"

"Wait a minute... I've read about this before..."

'That...tasted awful...,' Zhen Liu thought as he wiped his mouth, 'But...I do feel a lot better.'

[Nepherage, you feeling better?]

[Significantly so, milord,] she replied with a much more chipper tone. Zhen Liu could feel a steady stream of energy flowing through the bond between him and Nepherage.

The change of tone was a bit abrupt to Zhen Liu, so he threw a look back at her to see if there was a physical change was well. Luckily, there weren't any...maybe.

'Ya know...I still have no idea how kaijin work.'

The remnants of that splitting headache from earlier was no more, replaced with a cool head and a refreshed mind....and bones. Zhen Liu wasn't sure why, but he felt like his bones were cold.

<Congratulations user. The sudden aether surge has removed some impurities from your bones and nervous system. Physical capabilities in regards to stamina, toughness and reaction time have increased by ten percent. As well, kaijin: [Nepherage] aether efficiency has increased by ten percent.>

'Not pure strength?'

<Nah. Get swole, son.>

'Ok I have not thought in slang this whole...soul yeeting, how are you learning this?'

<Hmmm. You mean to say...I'm acting sus?>

'...'

<Got em.>

While Zhen Liu was having this exchange, his friends and family were looking over the weird gunk he had just coughed up.

"You've seen this before?," Zhen Hai asked Alicia as he stared at the gunk ball. He kinda wanted to poke at it.

"Once. Actually, Harriet was there for it too," Alicia began to explain, "Back at the academy, one of my classmates got their hands on an aether pill, cleansing... something...."

"Oh! I remember this. It was called [Cleansing Bone Pill]. It was disgusting," Harriet added.

"Right. That gunk should be the impurities in Zhen Liu's bones.The classmate who ate the pill had a similar reaction, and ended up with an incredibly strong skeleton. Although...the gas was new to me, and the weird reaction to Harriet's art."

Jin Fang and Zhen Hai stared at the black gunk with disgusted looks. They couldn't help but wonder if their own bones were this...nasty.

'Huh...I should find an enhancement pill of my own...,' Zhen Hai thought to himself.

Jin Fang on the other hand had...semi-less selfish thoughts.

'So... Xiao Liu is affected by musical arts...I think we had some in the pavilion...'.

A shudder went down Zhen Liu's spine.

'Why do I get a feeling of... foreboding?'

_________________________________________________

The Gold Clover Auction House - Private Meeting Room: Ruby Deer

A pair of old friends and Aether Masters were currently in the middle of a rather important meeting in regards of their future finances.

On one side, Alexander Goldshire looked over the Steel-Fanged Salamander's core and arrays, mentally calculating the price of what an absurd combination could bring in. He made a lot of thinking noises as he palmed the core and studied it's qualities.

On the other, Zhen Yan was waiting for his friend's evaluation.

"So...what do you think?," Zhen Yan said to break the silence.

Alexander put the core down and let out a deep breath, a pensive look on his face.

"Well for starters, this thing is incredibly valuable. Well worth it's weight in gold and then some."

"That's good."

"Only problem is I definitely can't afford it buy it even if I sold most of my assets and it would be greatly undervalued if put up for auction."

"That's bad."

"However...you wanted a high tier Aquarii beast core for this, right?"

"Ideally, along with some additional goods, maybe a puppet art or two."

"Puppet art?"

"Zhen Liu."

"Ah. Well then," Alexander began to say as he pulled out a pocket book, "I know a guy who can provide both and is definitely interested in something like this."

"Oh?"

"Yes, he goes by...."

_________________________________________________

"Wow! These shells are so beautiful," the boy exclaimed as he admired the red and blue shedded crab shells. The shells shimmered in sunlight like jewels, ruby and sapphire, respectively.

"I'm more interested in these pearls," the girl stated as she admired the black and white pearls in the palm of her hand.

The two childhood friends had managed to pull the crabs out of their shells, only for the two to become an immortal prince and princess. Out of gratitude for their service, the two immortals graced the two children with their discarded shells and two pearls on top of that. With their gifts bestowed, the two immortals returned to the sea.

"Good luck with your quests, young musicians," the immortals called out as they disappeared under the cerulean waves of the deep.

"So what do we do now?," the boy asked "We still need a hide of a creature that lives between the land and sea, and the guts of three fierce beasts."

"Hmmm," the girl thought for a moment, "perhaps we should go see the tanner and butcher?"

"But we have no animals for them to use," the boy pointed out.

"Then let's go to the marshland and see what can be found."

And so the two children stowed away their treasures and made their way to the marshes, hoping to find a creature they could have butchered.

Once they had arrived however, they heard a strange croaking voice echoing through the marsh.

"Oh woe is me. Woe is me, my skin itches so badly!," it cried.

Confused by the sound, the two children made their way to the voice.

_________________________________________________

"By the gods this place still creeps me out," Draigo muttered to himself as he stood in front of pair of black iron gates.

Emerald Eye City was huge, so people owning private real estate wasn't that weird. However, what some people did with the estates were... questionable at times.

In the case of the person that Draigo came to see, their front lawn was basically a garden of statues.

Of people.

All with holes in their chests.

Basically a massive red flag.

As Draigo stood at the gate hyping himself up, a servant suddenly materialized out of nowhere on the other side of the gate.

"What do you want Draigo?"

"Bah! Oh, hey Corriandis." Draigo cleared his throat."I am here on business."

"Business?"

Draigo pulled out the locks of hair.

"Business."

Corriandis studied the hair for a moment before nodding and opening the gate.

"Step lightly now. The master is in a...mood."

"Oh great..."