For Miach and his familia it's was the satisfaction of working with ingredients no one else had access to. For them that was more than enough payment as they weren't exactly struggling anymore and weren't greedy. Plus since these ingredients were unique and not known quantities in alchemy the rate of successful potions with them was rare to say the least. The few that did get produced were given to my familia as the payment for the ingredients. Some of the potions were worth fortunes such as the ones made with the blood and organs of the Knuckelavee that had the amazing ability to improve the abnormal resistance DS by exactly one grade without any side effects.-
The catch was that the potion only worked the first time it was taken so it was better saved until the DS was at a higher grade. It was also a limited potion with only eighteen in existence as the ingredients were depleted. There were other potions that didn't exist anywhere else as well such as the unicorn blood potion that could seemingly cure any poison and even heal the drinker well enough to regrow fingers but that's it.-
This potion WAS sold in Miach's shop since all it needed in terms of rare ingredients was Unicorn blood. Finding the damned things was a pain in the ass but doable at least so restocking the blood and horns was manageable. Anyways once I dropped off the alchemical loot I finally arrived home.
"Welcome home!" Hestia said with a bright smile.
"Good to be home." I said with a grin.
"You want an update right?" she asked knowingly.
"Once I put away the loot yeah. Any more issues since I've been gone?" I asked.
"No, it's been pretty quiet other than the string of attempted thefts. We did get a letter from the guild about complaints about that door though." she said pointing at the finger eating door to my workshop.
"Let me guess something to do with it being dangerous and needing to be removed?" I said with a chuckle.
"Nailed it on the head. Seriously how shameless do you have to be to try and steal from someone and then complain to the authorities about the defenses when you fail?" she said with a frustrated look.
"Just ignore the little worms squealing. There's no chance the guild would actually try and tell us to get rid of the door. If anything that letter was merely a heads up from them, a friendly gesture." I said with a chuckle.
"You still should change the door out for something else." she said and I shrugged.
"Alright, should only take me a few minutes." I said casually.
I simply removed the door and used some giant bone material along with Balor horn material to make a new door that was a plain black color with a face protruding from it. I gave it [durandal] and then gave it the ability to recognize people based on their souls and speak.
"Boss." the door spoke deeply before swinging open.
"That's so much creepier!" Hestia complained.
"It doesn't eat fingers though." I said with a cackle.
"I know you did something else than just this so spill it!" she demanded and I grinned widely.
"If someone not authorized tries to open the door this thing will loudly start insulting them." I said snickering to myself.
"Why do I even bother with you!" she threw up her hands in exasperation.
"I have no idea but it's fucking hilarious." I said pleased with myself.
Name: Alexander Drake
Race: Fallen
Level:5(can level up)
Strength:923(S)
Endurance:971(S)
Agility:881(A)
Dexterity:903(S)
Magic:2,040(X)
Developmental Skills: Curse-smith(E), Cursebody(F), Mystery(G), Rex(E)
"Called it!" I said excitedly as I saw the fact that I could FINALLY level up again.
The other changes were more minor with the exception of three of my DS's ranking up. I still wasn't sure what Rex did but the fact it went up twice after killing two monster rexes was definitely not a coincidence.-
Mystery going up made sense given my use of a barrierless domain but Cursebody going up was a pleasant surprise. As for Curse-smith staying the same that was to be expected as it was tied directly to my crafting which I simply hadn't done anything too impressive with recently. Still the fact to took three level seven monsters, two of them with global infamy, and an Udeaus to qualify me to level up was a bitter pill to swallow but not one I didn't expect. Once I finally maxed out my stats and was ready to level up I would finally step into the ranks of the peak tier adventurers officially.-
Additionally I was fairly certain that I could now equal Ottar in physical combat in terms of stats finally surpassing him. Not in some grand manner but quietly and unknown to everyone else. I did tell him he should have gone to try and tackle Balor himself but now he'd have to wait nine months if he wanted to since that was how long it took to respawn normally. He failed to take my warning about surpassing him if he didn't seriously enough and the joke was on him now.-
He wanted proof when he came to visit and I told him and we met once again outside Orario. This time I didn't need to cheat at all to get there first. He noticed this and finally took what I said seriously. We sparred, no weapons and no wide range magic just like before and I edged out a win in pure force alone. From then on his title of "King" was removed from him and given to me while he just became the "ex-King" a bit of snub title in my opinion but accurate at least.