It says one won't work, but isn't it ok if i shoot ten times then?

Great examples of easy to buy herbs for alchemy were mint, chamomile, cinnamon, pepper, garlic and other such common cooking increments.

Aki only had so many hands though, and he didn't want to do another trip to the market, so he asked Melissa if he could borrow someone to help him carry his stuff from the market. This happened to make him end up with a short blonde woman in skimpy clothes carrying bags of herbs and him a pack with both tipes of coal plus a six pack.

The coals were both part of some recipes and also for him to more easily raise the temperature of the mixtures.

Two robberies later, Aki had everything he needed for practice Inside his apartment and without being seen by any cameras thanks to him burning a couple (several) fuses for the building.

"Can I use the bathroom?" Asked the girl.

"Yeah, sure, it's right there. I should be done with some simple skin care products in no time if I follow the recipes, you want to try?" He offered.

"How good is it and is it for free?" She imediatly asked.

"Depends on how long you use it for, but in a couple of years of use it should make your skin look a healthy pale while feeling soft like clouds. For a free sample? I don't know, but it is literally magic created specifically for this, so it can't hurt." He explained while directing his attention to the products laid on the ground after properly tying and gagging the two man.

In the time the woman was back, he'd already started a small fire with the coals in the stone table. There wasn't any gas on it, he was just stuffing the area with fire Qi.

"Hey, what are you going to do with these guys?" She asked while opening a warm beer.

"Kill them after I am done experimenting and burn their corpses the best I can. Why, you want me to feed an aphrodisiac to whoever has the bigger dick? They're both black, but I've also met some with small equipments." He pointed out about the same time the water started to boil.

"Gross. I'd prefer a girl. What's the Wi-Fi?" She asked.

"Catnipples, all together and small." He said, threw some things in the soon to be lotion.

"You are seriously weird."

"I blame my uncle for setting the password for our WiFi to 'this bitch cat laid an egg'."

*****

Several hours later.

[Hidden quest: Universe's student (X)

Requirement: Increase one compound affinity.

Rating: TRANSCENDENTAL (SSS)

Reward: Godking Elavriel's ashen notes. (X)

Description: Well fuck me, this just jumped you to be the 7th most likely to win.

*******: You doing great kid, but aren't you supposed to be a blood cultivator or something?]

"Blondie... Blondie..." He called in a raspy and strained voice.

"My name is... Oh my gods, what the fuck did you do?!" She screamed and covered her nose even before getting inside the bathroom. "I'm not going in there!"

"Help. Pay." He quickly told her.

"How?" She shily said.

"Pill. Here."

"If it is there already then why so you need help?" She wasn't liking where this was going.

"Fuck. You. Help."

"Ok, ok I will... This stinks!" She exclaimed as she slowly put her head past the door frame. That almost made her vomit.

"Help." The fact that the burnt corpse with broken and burned squeletons lying on it was what asked for help made the deal for her and vomit splattered on her shoes.

"This, but, a flesh, wound." He spoke, this time a little better as all his buffs and multipliers worked overtime on his body to keep it from dying and regenerating his throat as a focus. "Get, pill." He remembered her. The pill in question was out of his reach both because of the disability of his arms and because it had been left a distance away for the simple fact that it could still be burnt.

Minutes of agonizing pain later.

"Damn do these have a bad taste. Gotta work on that." He complained while reaching for the borders of the tub, which were blackened. His skin was still a bit raw, but otherwise there was nothing indicating he'd been a corpse of burnt flesh mere moments ago.

His assistant was highly disgusted though. Retching, but with a completely empty stomach.

"Want a salad, a soup, a sleeping pill?" He offered.

"I'll take it."

*****

A bit before lunch, on the brothel.

"And this is the instructions manual. You sure this lot is really worth a grand though?" Aki asked with some disbelief. He'd been spending a lot this last couple of days and needed to make some money, because while selling drugs paid well, it was not like he was specially rich either.

"Do you think alchemists go around selling their training products to random people? Only those asian bitches have something similar to this, but that's because people there make a lot of money. Even models would kill for this, a grand is just your part." She explained, already applying some to her own face.

"I guessed that last part, but damn. Also, you should probably get some people from that dojo you recommended me. I wasn't accepted because I scared their little miss, but there's a limit to how many people I can fight against too. These sales should bring our enemies way above that." He explained, getting a nod.

"It's a shame you weren't accepted, but you are most definitely right about the need for more security. By the way, how much can you do per day?"

"Can't really tell. The amount kept improving with my practice during the night, you know how my growth works" He said with a smile that got him a row of eyes. "But seriously, I think I know a way to get a super basic but proper alchemy kit, which would also help. It'd be best if I could set it up here too."

Everything settled, Aki called Ben to tell him he'd be going to the gym but would be a call away. This elicited only a grunt for confirmation, and Aki was free till night.

After consuming the satiety pill, he'd not felt hunger or the need to sleep in hours, so he decided to put such thing to test and work his ass off while using internal energy. Which is, by the way, the manner which everyone uses to strengthen their bodies, by bodybuilding with Qi in the mix. Literally that simple.

*****

Hours of breaking kick boxing training equipment later.

*Wisp of a ghost playing*

"Where do we meet?" Aki imediatly answered the phone, leaving the gym moments later and running all the way to the meeting place. "Ben, it's been so long, you look so much older!" He imediatly said while reaching to hug the lug standing standing outside with a cigarette on his mouth.

"Fuck off, this is just loss of blood and stress. You on the other hand could hardly be more beaming, did Melissa fuck your ass that good?" He quickly hugged the man, but let go since his side still hurt.

"Oh, I am anal about that my friend."

Although they were fucking around on the way, the moment they reached the meeting room, their faces became serious as stone.

"How many en fort and where should we expect reinforcement from?" He quickly asked while studying the tactical map, getting pointed towards the map markers corresponding to his questions. Storage areas, sniping spots, response time from the police, interuption from third parties, it was all prepared and acounted for. Aki himself was designated to take an area with three snipers, provide cover fire until the strike force reached a certain point and then to join then in invading the outfited builduing.

It wasn't all pretty and possed like a true military force, but they were organized and prepared. One of the main reasons Aki had joined said gang over others that might accept him more easily. After all, in a place where white man are despissed, he was quite the sore thumb, but the 'japs' were too heavy handed for his taste, and the 'italians' had recently been eliminated.

'If that's the highest caliber they have, then i should be fine as long as i dodge whoever has the actual assault rifle. Fuck were those european looking guys transporting lots of heavy shit.' There were some guys looking like they were going to try and get in trouble, so Aki quickly reached for his friend, who was discussing things with the other liutenants.

"Ben." He got the man out the sausage fest, but they were still in earshot of the rest. "I've been thinking, and maybe i should leave the gang." This got him plenty of stares considering where he was. "I'm shooting off the dick of whoever points a gun at me. What i mean, is that i intend to begin a bit of a enterprise of my own and would like to mantain contact with such a force as this one. Start a bussines deal here and maybe get a cosmetic shop on the legal side of things." He explained, though some people still looked strange at him.

Ben and the boss looked at each other and nodded though.

"That much is fine, but you still gotta pay the same rates as the other bussinesses." The mountain of a man confirmed and Aki smiled.

"Then one more job and you can finally introduce me to your sister." He smilingly said. "Didn't you say you'd never let a gang member date her? After this job i won't be one, so fell free to introduce her to this marvelous..." And so he was chased away while play fighting the giant bear running after him.

Even later.

"Nothing here, over." Said a guy with some mannerism in his voice, *crack* before Aki broke his neck.

Looking at the direction of the two other targets, he counted until fifteen and shot each one on the head with his blood armaments. Neither made a sound since he didn't actually have bullet's loaded, but simply ussed then as focuses for his arcane affinity. Quickly looting all three corpses in minutes, he found out all of then had sights in their weapons, which he decided to use as a binocular, and a granade each.

Whoever was buying and distributing these things must have amased and army worth of equipment before the sellers were caught. Lots of dead cops that day.

"Notto problemo mio." He joked and started looking out for possible cultivators. Not like any pawn stage would ever be hit by a bullet, and if they were it would not be as effective, but fuck if he wasn't getting a good haul out of this. Fuck the side mission too, no way he was getting the best reward out of it.

Luckily, it was possible to detect inner energy discrepansies with a scope.

Not a very nescessary characteristic though, since the group of five guys literraly danced around some bullets, laughed around cursing others and were asians. Aki imediatly shot one in the head, and he surprisingly stayed down with 'just' a bullet to the forehead. Ussing the surprise that caused, he fired at two more guys who seemed to not have reached the pawn stage if the amount of energy liberated by then was a proper indication. One got hit in the shoulder and another on the eye.

"Almost a triple." Aki muttered before running to the place they were fighting at. As a precaution, he threw a granade without it's pin before turning the last alley. It didn't hit anyone, but when he passed this alley and started shooting from the next closest one, he easily shot one of the pawn stage into a sieve and finished the guy with a wounded shoulder. This left only the one guy charging at him and cursing the lack of sense in someone with a lower cultivation base killing them.

He barely got to hear it while Aki cut his neck at a surprising speed, ussing a long blade that hadn't been there when he started to focus on his gun hand, but the only answer he got was: "That's just because your're too stupid to understand power."

"Area clear!" He shouted and showed the decapitated head he'd just produced before running in search for more prey. Cultivators were like cockroaches, if you found one then there are bound to be a lot more of then around.