ASS 10

~Part 1~

Grue and Retsen greeted William upon opening the store, and they brought with them a surprise. They each held a bag, filled to the brim with the ingredients they've gathered.

"Heard you placed a job request with our guild," Retsen said, raising the bag up.

"We gathered as many as we could find," Grue said with a nervous smile.

"Thanks," William took the bags from them. "Help yourself while I check the ingredients. I'm gonna be in the back, so call me over if any customers arrive."

William entered his alchemy room quickly and opened up the bags. Carefully, he started taking the ingredients before inspecting each and every one. They weren't in the best of conditions, but most of them were usable.

That wasn't surprising, and William should've expected it even. Twilight Ogre members weren't the most careful and precise people out there; they were a rough bunch, after all. He should honestly be astonished by how many of the ingredients were actually usable.

Teaching them or even giving them a few tips on how to properly harvest the herbs wasn't really an option since William didn't know how himself. The Herbology book seemed like it was the next on his purchase list. He did plan on growing the main ingredients for his Health and Magic potions, after all.

"Well, boys," William returned with the bags, the ingredients he couldn't make use of inside them.

"Most of what you gathered is usable, but a few of the plants were handled a bit too roughly," he took one from the bags. "This Red Dandelion is pretty much useless to me since half of the stern is missing."

One by one, he took out the rest of the plants that had been mistreated and briefly explained what parts were particularly important to him. William didn't know how else he could possibly advise them other than this. Hopefully, they would improvise and figure it out.

...

Then again, they weren't the brightest bunch out there. William could still hope for the best, though.

While the first customers walked into the store, Erza entered the guild, seeing it was practically empty, except for the people that worked there, like the barmaids and Mira.

Erza marched over towards the bar, where Mira was cleaning the dirty glasses from the night before. A grin dancing on her face as she glowed like a firefly in the night, her entire posture full of confidence. Erza sat down without a word, simply staring at Mira with a smug look.

"Someone seems happy early in the morning," Mira said with a playful smile. "I wonder what might be the cause of that, and I'd sure love to hear the details."

"Well..." Erza's smug look was replaced by one of embarrassment before she regained her confidence.

"I'm winning," she then suddenly declared. Old habits die hard. The two might act cordially with each other, but they've been rivals for years before that.

"Not everything has to be a competition, Erza," Mira replied calmly, though her voice had a bit of an edge. Her gentler personality had taken a small shift in the past few days with the realization that Lisanna was still alive.

Mira still blamed herself for what happened on that day, and she would continue blaming herself until she saw her sister once more. However, she now had a purpose to look forward to the future. She had a reason to become the Demoness of Fairy Tail once more, and her older self had started to creep out.

"Mhm," Erza nodded with a victorious look. "That sounds like what someone who isn't winning would say."

"Are you implying that I'm a loser?" Mira's palms hit the counter as she stared at Erza with a challenging look.

"I said no such thing," Erza calmly replied, and Mira nodded, returning back to her work. "But it does sound fitting."

Mira's head snapped back towards Erza in a second, a zig-zagging line going over her right eye, her magic bursting out from her agitated state.

Erza just smiled in response, feeling a tinge of happiness. As much as she liked the nicer Mirajane, she couldn't deny how much she enjoyed their previous rivalry. When they competed against one another, the two improved by leaps and bounds every day, to the point where they became two of the youngest S-class mages in all of Ishgar.

For the past year and a half, Erza hadn't stopped training, but she had noticed she was progressing slower than when Mira was active. The two just fed off each other, forcing the other to catch up or be left in the dust. A part of her really missed the competitive spirit of Mira for that reason.

"Don't..." Mira stopped herself, taking a deep breath, the black disappearing from her face. She was better than this, so she returned back to her work, ignoring the smug-looking tin can.

"Mhm," Erza hummed as she saw Mira basically admit defeat in her eyes. "My win."

The sound of glass breaking echoed throughout the guild house.

William had a profitable day, earning the most amount of Jewels since he opened the store. That was due to the number of wizards that came from out of town. His Strengthening and Resistance Potions - the two products usually only bought by Twilight Ogre - were selling like crazy. Not to mention how popular his Health and Magic Potions were among them.

Makarov spreading word about his store to the rest of the guilds had worked wonders. In fact, it was so effective, William had to close his store even earlier than usual since he was out of stock.

The only thing that saddened him was that he saw none of the notable members from other guilds. Which might've been for the better since if Ichiya visited his store... William wasn't sure how he would react; he probably would've tried drenching him in all of his poisons.

With a giddy smile, he marched onwards. Earning a bit over a million and a half Jewels definitely made his day even better after the morning shower with Erza.

After entering the guild, William walked over to Mira. He was about to ask her about Makarov's whereabouts before he shut his mouth close. The dangerous glint that appeared in Mira's eyes upon spotting him made him feel dread.

"I think I'm gonna come back later," William said as he very slowly walked back, making sure not to enrage the beast.

"You're not going anywhere," the old gremlin shouted as he jumped out of somewhere. "Do you have what I need?"

"I do," William quickly nodded, keeping an eye on the demon that was staring him down.

"Great!" Makarov's eyes shined in delight as he beckoned him over. "Come then."

William speed-walked after the old man, hoping he wouldn't be jumped from behind.

'What did I even do to deserve that!?' He was rightfully confused as he didn't remember angering Mira.

"Gimmie," Makarov urged as they entered the back room.

"Money first," William replied with an extended hand.

"Greedy money-grubber," Makarov grumbled, tears dripping from his eyes. "Can't you like, do an old man a favor?"

"Hell, no!" William exclaimed without any hesitation. He paid 250 credits for the Regrowth Elixir; there was no way he would give it away for free. Especially not when he was already doing Makarov a favor by selling it for the bare minimum.

"If you don't want it, I can just auction it off," William continued as greed flashed in his eyes. "I wonder how much I'd be able to get for it."

"No, no, no, I want it. Fine, have your stinky money!" Makarov summoned the 5 000 000 Jewels from his pocket space and threw them at him.

William looked down at the scattered bills before gazing at Makarov. "So you don't want it?"

"I'm sorryyy!" Makarov yelled in panic before gathering the Jewels with speed that frankly shouldn't be possible for someone as old as him. The gremlin was so fast, he could've given the Flash a run for his money.

"Here!" Makarov presented him with the Jewels. "Exactly 5 000 000 as discussed."

William took them with a nod and stored them in his pocket space before taking out the promised medicine from within it. His usual potions were sold in glass bottles marked with his WWW brand, but unlike them, this one was stored in a Florence flask made out of jade.

"Looks fancy," Makarov gingerly took it, careful not to break it by mistake. "You sure it will work?"

"Ah, yep," William answered after a moment before nodding to himself.

"So, when can I expect to have my building reinforced?" He then asked after confirming that he gained back his store credits.

"The Thunder God Tribe should be returning today, so tomorrow at the latest," Makarov replied as he stored the Elixir away.

"Good to know. Well, I have more tasks to take care of, soo, see ya," William waved at Makarov and left the guild as quickly as possible, not even daring to look back, lest the demon decides to jump him.

Purchasing whatever ingredients he could find at the market was the first thing on his to-do list, but he had something else he really looked forward to. That was checking out the various magical stores in Magnolia.

Since William didn't know what some of the magical items in his system store did, he planned to study the ones sold in town in the hopes of getting more knowledgeable about magical artifacts.

The first place he visited was The Trick Sleeve, the store Cana told him about. They had various items on display, but their main products were the magical cards they sold.

William inquired about the cards and even subtly threw one of the names of the decks from his system store, but the clerk there couldn't help him. Not only had they never heard of those decks, but they also explained they were just staff working there.

This was, after all, just a branch of The Trick Sleeve and not their main base of operations. Products were just shipped there, and their only job was to sell them. That was unfortunate, but there was nothing he could do about it.

William continued exploring the magic stores until he found something he was happy to purchase. For just 500 000 Jewels, he bought a ring that could form a barrier around him.

That was something he was ecstatic to get his hands on. After all, he was a glass cannon that lacked the cannon part. William needed ways to protect himself in this dangerous world, and this would do for now. Even when he learned Archive, the ring would still be helpful since it would cost him less magical power to use.

As he wandered around, William spotted one store called the Eagle's Eye that made his eyes go wide. The items on display made him giddy with happiness as he rushed inside.

'It's time to follow in the footsteps of my people!' William came out from the store with a fancy grey gun that resembled a Desert Eagle. It cost him twice as much as the Barrier Ring, but he was happy to pay.

As a magical gun, it didn't use regular bullets. Instead, it used the magic power of the user to generate bullets. William could use it even without knowing Gun Magic, but he wouldn't be able to cast fancy spells without that. He didn't care, however, since he was now the proud owner of a magical gun. This would surely make his people proud.

There was one more task left for the day, and that was to brew potions. Without hesitation, William bought the ingredients for his Health and Magic ones from the system, spending 100 credits on them.

Despite the large purchase, he still had over 1000. William even used 50 more since he finished all of the ingredients with his new alchemy lab. He also needed to start preparing for the promised Magical Potions for his contract with the Fortune company.

Even with that, William was done with brewing an hour before Erza was supposed to arrive. He decided to use that time on something productive and opened his system store.

Herbology cost him 100 credits, and William purchased it without even feeling the loss. He was sure the skill would pay for itself once he started growing his own ingredients, saving him even more credits.

The Herbology book was even bigger than the Alchemy one. That was mostly due to the number of pictures of the various plants. Nevertheless, he wasn't worried about the length that much since he did buy those Gale-Force Reading Glasses a while back. Finally, he could make use of them.

The lesson with Erza lasted exactly four hours as per usual. She was proving to be a formidable distraction since she was even handsier than normal, the shower from the morning giving her even more confidence in her actions.

"Do you want to stay over?" William asked her as they laid on the couch, embracing each other. Erza looked at him, her smile widening in delight.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, holding herself from squealing.

"Let's clean up then and head to the bedroom afterward," William said, raising himself with Erza in his hands.

Nothing special happened in the bathroom since they simply washed their faces and brushed their teeth.

"Can we..." Erza started, looking at her feet before continuing with a whisper, "do what we did in the morning?"

William just pulled her towards his bedroom, looking forward to a repeat of the morning.

~Part 2~

William's bed might not be queen-sized, but there was plenty of space on it. Erza, however, had found him to be the better place to rest on, not that he minded. Her naked body was wrapped around his, her legs and arms hugging him like a koala holding onto a tree, and her head rested on his chest.

Erza was a hugger and a grabber in her sleep, that much he learned during their night sleeping together. She was definitely a big spoon kind of girl, though he didn't think she would mind being the small spoon as well. As long as she was being held close, she seemed happy.

As much as William enjoyed the sensation of her naked body pressed against his, he did have to get up. Though her cute and satisfied smile did make it hard for him to do so. She just looked so peaceful and happy as she snuggled against him.

'I guess I could enjoy this for a bit longer,' William thought as he gently started to stroke her hair, something he found out she enjoyed a lot. Her smile grew even more in her sleep, and it almost sounded like she started to purr.

Erza woke up shortly after, her eyes slowly blinking open. She didn't think she had a problem getting up in the morning, but now she found it hard to leave William's embrace. Staying like this for at least another hour... or two was something she could see herself doing.

"Good morning," William said as he continued running his fingers through her hair.

"Morning," Erza replied, lightly trailing her nails down his chest. Her fingernails weren't long since she kept them trimmed, but he still liked it when she did it.

Reaching the shaft pressing against her thighs, Erza assuredly grabbed it as she slowly and sensually started to stroke it. Her cheeks started hurting from her smile after seeing him close his eyes in pleasure. She was making her man feel good, her man!

Erza almost reconsidered going on a mission, thinking she could instead spend more time with William and continue waking up like this. However, taking S-class jobs was part of her duty. There were menaces that few could deal with, and she was one of those few that could.

She had even chosen her job already, and Erza refused to return it. With that in mind, she decided to leave William with a good memory before she left.

Erza pecked his chest with kisses and slowly started to slide down before she was eye to eye with his rock-hard shaft. She gulped nervously and took a peek at his face, seeing the surprise in his eyes.

The smut she usually read had informed her what she was supposed to do, but putting that knowledge into action was a whole other thing. This would be a trial for sure, but Erza was never one to back down from a challenge.

William reached out and gathered her hair as Erza pumped herself up. Very slowly, she leaned in, giving his tip a teasing and gentle kiss. She then looked up as if to confirm whether she was doing something wrong or not.

"Go on." His words brought her confidence, and she engulfed his tip with her lips and slowly started going down his shaft. Erza pushed on until it hit the back of her throat, yet she hadn't taken it all in? That wouldn't do! Her eyes watered, and she started gagging, but she persisted, pushing and pushing until her nose reached his pubes.

"Take it slowly, don't rush," William gently told her as she pulled back, taking a moment to breathe in some air.

"And you don't have to take it all in. You can continue stroking me with your hand while engulfing as much as you can," William continued, and she nodded with resolve.

Erza's hand worked the bottom part of his shaft while her hot mouth took in the rest, his tip hitting the back of her throat each time.

Getting a blowjob from Erza was the perfect way to start the day. She was inexperienced, but she made that up with her enthusiasm and effort as she tried her best to please him. And he was sure she would learn with time.

"You can use your tongue more," William continued guiding her. Erza dutifully followed his words, using her tongue to lick his shaft as she took it in, her big brown eyes staring at him as if asking if she was doing okay.

"That's it, keep it going," William groaned, using the hand holding her hair to guide her tempo.

"God, this feels nice." If her hot mouth and soft tongue weren't enough, the fact that Erza was staring at him with affection the whole time while giving him a blowjob sure did the job. She was worshiping and slurping on his member with devotion, and he felt it coming.

Erza felt his shaft twitch, but she didn't stop even for a second. Her hand continued stroking him, her tongue licking it all over as she took it to the base of her throat each time. He started thrusting with his hips and pushed her head to guide her, and she didn't resist, allowing him to set the tempo.

And moments later, Erza felt it, the spurt of ropes gushing inside her mouth. She took it all in, slurping it all, to the last drop of cum, not letting any go to waste. The salty taste wasn't her favorite, but he would find a way to make it taste like strawberry, so she had to get some early practice before that.

"Gods, you are amazing!" And then he even praised and complimented her! She will have to do it more in the future if this is the response she received now. What would he say when she got more experienced, she wondered.

Erza left. She stuck close to William until he opened the store, but she went on her mission afterward. He tried handing her some of the potions he could spare, but she refused them all, saying she already had what she needed.

William knew she was strong; she was an S-class mage, after all. However, he couldn't help but worry about her since he truly cared for Erza. She was just so precious and deserved to be treasured. He wasn't sure if he loved her yet, but he had definitely fallen for her.

The early half of the day passed quickly. There were fewer customers that visited his store, and his sales had dropped slightly from the day before, but William still made about a million Jewels.

The latter half of the day was slower since it was him just brewing potions. Both Twilight Ogre and a few members he didn't recognize from Fairy Tail had come to deliver him a batch of ingredients, so he didn't even need to go through the market for them.

Around mid-afternoon, someone knocked on his door.

"Just a moment," William called out from inside his alchemy room as he finished with the latest batch of potions.

Once done, William quickly went to open the door, seeing a guy who could easily pass of as a noble. He was dressed in a fancy dark red knee-length double-breasted coat and had a sword strapped on his left hip. Waist-length light-green hair flowed down, covering the right side of his feminine face. Freed stared at William with his greenish-blue eye that had a beauty mark right underneath it.

"You must be William," Freed said, his voice calm and steady, almost sounding emotionless.

"That's me," he confirmed. "And I believe you are here to set up a protection around my store."

"You would be correct to assume so," Freed replied with a cool tone. If he wasn't the son of some noble, William was willing to eat his ass. The man's actions and voice were so refined there was just no way that wasn't the case.

William honestly wondered how Freed even ended up in Fairy Tail. He was calm and collected, nothing like the majority of the loud bunch that was Fairy Tail.

"I was informed that the job request for enchanting your building has already been paid for," Freed continued and looked at him judgingly.

"Yes, it has already been paid," William nodded, ignoring the hidden question of how it was paid for. Obviously, Freed hadn't seen any of the payment.

"Your request is to enhance the walls and windows from outside force?" Freed asked, deciding to get on with the job after seeing he won't get an answer for his unasked question.

"That's right, the outside walls are the most important, but I'd like those doors," William pointed at the ones leading to his alchemy and storage room as he led him inside, "to have the highest protection if possible."

Freed nodded. "Your building isn't very big, so I can layer the walls with standard barriers that would protect them for about two months before they wear off. Or I could place stronger barriers which would last one month. Which would you prefer?"

"The second option if you are willing to come back and redo the barriers," William easily replied. "Otherwise, the standard barriers would do fine, I guess."

"You do understand you will have to pay me if you wish for me to redo them a month later?" Freed pointedly said.

"I figured, but I'm fairly sure I would be able to afford your price. I could pay with potions as well, but I'd prefer hard cash over that," William replied with a shrug.

"Potions?" Freed questioned. He'd returned the day before from a long mission, so he still hadn't heard about William's store.

"Yeah, those are the products I sell," William replied before giving him a brief description of his stock.

"Interesting," Freed mused. "I would have to check those out, though I hope you understand my prices aren't low."

"That shouldn't be a problem. I might not be wealthy, but I can be considered rich," William told him with a grin.

"And what is the difference between rich and wealthy?" Freed asked, interest leaking from his usual monotone voice.

"I'm assuming your usual missions pay well?" William started with a question and continued when Freed nodded to confirm.

"Well, then you could also be considered rich. As for a wealthy? Well, that would be the person that could afford to pay for your jobs without even feeling a dent in his pocket. I'm not wealthy yet, but I will get there soon enough," William said with confidence. He already had over 20 million Jewels in his pocket, so he was sure of that.

"Ahh, I see," Freed smiled ever so slightly. William was a learned man in his eyes, a person he rarely got to meet nowadays.

"Well, I better get to work then," Freed continued as he scanned the building, deciding on where to start.

"You don't mind if I watch, do you?" William asked, interest flickering in his eyes.

"Not at all," Freed replied as he exited the building to start from the outside.

"Great," William followed after him. "If you need any refreshments, just let me know."

Freed nodded with a smile as he started the job. His fingers traced the air as black-purplish runes formed on the walls. He moved expertly and swiftly as he performed his signature magic and enhanced the building.

William watched in interest as the demonic-looking foreign runes got absorbed by the walls, and a faint light shimmered before it disappeared. As Freed had said earlier, he wasn't enhancing his building, but instead, he was layering protective barriers over the walls.

As much as William wanted to learn how to do it on his own, he knew that currently wasn't on the table. He just didn't have enough free time. It was better to just pay Freed, who was clearly an expert when it came to his magic.

"Before you go," William stopped him.

"I was wondering if you could set up a non-combat zone here?" He remembered Freed could set up zones with specific restrictions.

"A non-combat zone?" Freed thoughtfully asked with a hand on his chin.

"I think I can set up something similar, for a price, of course," Freed flashed him a grin.

"Just name it," William quickly said.

"Five million Jewels."

"Done." William summoned the money the moment Freed answered him. He took them with a raised eyebrow, the display of magic catching his interest.

"This would take some time, and I have to warn you that this type of barrier works on rules," Freed said as he crouched down, tracing runes on the ground.

"If I set a rule that no one can attack others inside the building, someone might figure out a way to bypass that. For example, using a form of mind magic to manipulate you in some way. You would also have no way to defend yourself in such a case since the rule would prevent you from attacking," Freed explained as he worked.

"Then what are you doing?" William asked.

"I'm setting the following rules. You cannot attack the owner of this building unless you've been attacked by them first. You cannot attack anyone working in the store unless you've been attacked by them first. I'm placing only those two restrictions since setting up only two rules would last for a month. Just like the barriers protecting your store from being damaged."

Freed and his team usually returned to the guild once a month, so he had decided to accept William's offer. Setting up barriers was time-consuming, but he wouldn't mind doing it if he got paid for his work.

"Happy doing business with you," Freed left after setting the barrier, leaving William on his lonesome.

This was when he usually had his daily tutoring session with Erza, but that would obviously not be happening for some time. As sad as that was, he could now focus on the second magic Makarov gave him.

Archive was a magic William believed to have more aptitude for compared to Requip. Its magic circle was much simpler since it resembled a programming code as opposed to the 4D one of the dimensional magic.

William could've probably learned Archive already if he hadn't focused so much on Requip. And if he hadn't tried to fix the code and make it look neater. It wasn't the brightest move, William could admit as much. But in his defense, the magic circle seemed jumbled up and messy.

The way William restructured it just seemed much better in his eyes. Though he had to be missing something as it hadn't worked so far. He wasn't too worried about that since he saw it as just a bug William had missed in the code, which he could fix with some brainstorming.

The night continued on, and William had decided to abuse his Stamina Potions since he got to rest the past two days. He would work on Archive until he exhausted his magic power and move on to brewing potions afterward.

"I got it!" Midway through the night, William exclaimed in happiness. He found a little sequence in the magical code that he had missed previously and quickly fixed it. Powering up the new magic circle, William felt it click as it took effect, converting a small portion of his memories into magical data.

William quickly brought up his status and was more than surprised by what he saw there.

[Super-Archive 1/100: A more powerful variation of Archive. It allows the user to convert information into magical data, which can be stored, enabling the user to gain access to previously stored information, such as other types of magic.]

"Since when does my system have descriptions?"

~Part 3~

Super Archive was a game-changer, quite literally at that. No longer was William able to see only the name of the items displayed on his system as they now had a description. Now, he could actually know what most of them did. One such example was:

[Regrowth Elixir: 250 credits: A powerful concoction that could regrow missing limbs when drunk. Will cause excruciating pain.]

"Huh? Regrowing limbs is a painful process; who would've known?" William muttered, remembering he hadn't warned Makarov for anything like that. "Eh, Gildarts can take it."

For the next hour, he just scrolled through his endless list of items in the system store, reading the description of every single one that caught his eye. It was fun and entertaining, and he was far from done, but he needed to start working on Super Archive. More specifically, on turning all of his memories into magical data.

He needed to remember everything he could about the story of Fairy Tail and use it to his advantage. William already knew quite a bit, but it had been some time since he had last seen it, and he'd forgotten parts of it. Now, he didn't need to worry about that anymore as long as he converted his memories.

Super Archive would also bring him other benefits besides his improved memory. It would enhance his learning and processing speed, helping him with any newer skills or magic. Herbology was the first that came to his mind since he had already purchased the book. Memorizing it would be but a simple process now that he had learned Super Archive.

With that in mind, William got to work. He even used the Magic and Magic Regeneration Potions, speeding up the rate at which he improved Super Archive. That was a loss he was willing to take due to the benefits he'd get in return, and they were plenty.

A person didn't understand how many memories they had until they started watching them like on a video. William had over 20 years of memories to convert to magical data, and he shortly understood that this would be a long process. It might very well take him weeks or even more to finish with all of them.

So, he focused on the most important ones for the time being. Memorizing the Herbology book was the first task he decided on doing since he wanted to see how it would work with his system. It turned out to be as incredible as he imagined it to be.

The moment he finished converting it to magical data, his system registered the skill on his status. It was that simple! Granted, Herbology wasn't as complicated as Alchemy since he only needed to memorize the various plants and their properties.

[Herbology 1/100: The ability to identify and grow both mundane and magical plants.]

With that, William was ready to start growing his own herbs. Though there were a few roadblocks awaiting him.

The first one was the growth speed of the four plants he needed. The herbs could grow simply by absorbing the Ethernano - magical particles - in the atmosphere. However, they would fully mature in about a month with that alone.

That was just too long for what he wanted to achieve. William solved that problem with his system store by purchasing Ethernano rich soil. For just 10 credits, he got a 110 lbs (50 kg) bag, which would speed up their growth by about four times. He couldn't find such soil on the market, so he was forced to buy it from the system store.

The second problem was the lack of space in his building. He had only two free rooms -one on the first floor and another on the second floor - and it seemed he would need to use both. Even then, that wasn't enough, so he had to be smart about it. He resolved that by ordering standing shelves to fill those rooms, giving him more space to place his pots.

The third issue, William needed to get the necessary equipment like cooling, heating, lighting, and, of course, the containers for the plants. All of that he handled by simply throwing money in the right places.

In the end, he filled both rooms with 12 standing shelves, and each could hold 12 pots, equating to a total of 288 plants. He could harvest them once a week, and he planned to use only about 270 of them. The rest, he would collect the seeds from and replant more without needing to repurchase them from the system store, making his farm self-sustaining.

The last roadblock was that 270 plants just weren't enough for him as that equaled to just 135 potions. However, he didn't have enough room to plant more herbs. In the near future, he planned to change that as buying another property was on his list. Hopefully, it would be one close to him, or even right next door if that was feasible.

The rest of his days continued on as usual, with the added routine of watering the plants. He worked in the store from morning till noon, brewed potions during the afternoon, and studied his magic in the evening. Every other day he would even stay up all night to get more practice in.

William visited Fairy Tail once, checking if Makarov had returned, but the old man was gone. He also wanted to speak with Cana since he now knew what the items in his system store did. Unfortunately, the brunette had left on a mission, which was a shame as he wanted to earn some easy credits from her.

Mira, he made sure to avoid. William still didn't know how he managed to anger her, so he kept his distance. In the end, he just went out with Loke for a few beers, finding the definitely regular human to be a fun conversationalist.

Though Loke did have a tendency of regaling about his various conquests. The man was the very definition of a player, going out with a different girl every other day. Nonetheless, he was fun to be around.

William also didn't forget to visit Twilight Ogre, handing them a hand-written book about how to properly harvest the ingredients for his job requests. That would save him both time and resources as he wouldn't need to check every herb to make sure they were usable, and fewer would have to be thrown out.

The day of the deal was nearing, and he was on edge the whole time, waiting for someone to try to sabotage him in some way. It almost seemed as if he was worrying for nothing. Just because they could ruin him and practically make him a legal slave didn't mean they would try to do it.

Everything was peaceful until the night before the deal was supposed to happen. William was in his living room, going through his memories and slowly converting them to magical data. Suddenly, he heard loud banging coming from the front door.

"And here I thought nothing wrong would happen," he sighed as he got up, walking over to the window overlooking the street.

Five thug-looking men were slamming against his door, trying to break in. With clubs in their hands, they hit the entry, walls, and windows, but they couldn't even chip either of them. The barriers set by Freed stood strong as they absorbed all the blows without any issues.

Freed's magic certainly did its job, which wasn't that surprising, considering what he was capable of. Given enough time, he could set up barriers that even someone like Makarov wouldn't be able to deal with. Of course, those wouldn't last for a long time, but Freed was still capable of trapping a Wizard Saint, and that was an achievement in itself. Not many could boast the same.

William watched them struggle and fail for a minute or so before deciding to deal with them. He could just ignore them until they figure out that no matter how hard they try, they won't be able to break into his store. As much as he wanted to test out his magical gun on them, he wasn't sure he was willing to take the risk of accidentally killing one of the thugs. So, his other option was to neutralize them in some way.

Requip's magic circle formed in a split second, an extraordinary feat considering his low mastery of the magic. For all intents and purposes, he shouldn't have been able to do it so fast, but Super Archive shined through. Since Requip's magic circle was already converted into magical data, all he needed to do was to think about it to instantly form it.

Bottles with white liquid inside them appeared in his hand as he opened the window. The sound and the light from the magic circle alerted the thugs below. They looked confused at first, but one of them seemed ready to run away.

"Nighty, nighty boys," William grinned from above as he threw the sleep poisons one by one.

It was too late to run away at that point. The moment one of the thugs tried booking it, a light screen popped from behind him and blocked his path. Since William's Super Archive was still at a relatively low level and his magic power wasn't something special, the thug could've broken through it if he had enough time. Unfortunately, a bottle hit him on the head, drowning him in sleep poison, receiving the same treatment as the rest of his friends.

"And that's dealt with," William dusted his hands off as he closed the window. The police department of Magnolia should grab those goons once they pass through his street. Those guys weren't very active, but he had seen them patrolling during the night a few times.

William should've thought it through because the next day, two police officers entered his store. One of them walked up to him, nervously gazing at Dird and Oxi, who sat behind him, both staring at the police officers.

"Are you the owner of this place?" The officer tensely asked as he gulped.

"That's me. How can I help you, sir?" William calmly replied. He knew why they had come, and he wasn't that worried about it.

"You are being charged with assault," the officer stated, throwing him a curveball.

"Me? I am being charged with assault? Are you sure about that?" William asked, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Yes, during the night, you attacked five men and gravely injured them," the officer explained.

"How did I gravely injure them?" William asked, clearly agitated by that. Sure, a piece of glass or two might've pierced their skins, but he was defending his property. "Oh, and what about them trying to break into my store?"

"There is no evidence of them trying to break into your building. However, the men were found knocked out and bleeding in front of your store. When questioned, they informed us you attacked them without any reason," the officer continued, straightening his back as an act of confidence.

"No evidence, you say?" William questioned, a smirk growing on his face.

"That's right," the officer confirmed, looking worryingly at the shopkeeper.

"Then what about this?" William pointed to the side where he created a light screen with Super Archive. His memories from the night started playing like a video, showing how the thugs were banging on his store and trying to break in.

"That... Umm," the officer was flustered, not expecting this to happen. "We cannot accept this as evidence since you might've fabricated it in some way with your magic," he then added, trying to justify his actions.

"Ah, but you will take their words to be the truth?" William shook his head before asking. "Who's paying you?"

"What?" The officer looked shocked at the question.

"I asked, who's paying you?" William repeated, his teeth clenched and hands balled into fists. There was no other reason for the officer to be so adamant. Someone had to be paying him, and he had a faint clue who that might be.

"No one's paying me anything. I'm just here to uphold the law, and your evidence might be fabricated," the officer said.

Dird had enough of that. He jumped from his chair, muscles tensing as his magical power started flaring. "I'm gonna show you some evidence!"

Oxi, however, stopped him, placing a hand on Dird's shoulder and pulling him back. Out of the two, he was the brains, and the big guy was the brawns. Dird looked back at him, and he stepped back once he saw Oxi's smirk.

"Hey, yo, what's your name?" Oxi asked the officer, the smirk never leaving his face.

"Officer Regan, why?" The man replied, sweat starting to drip from his forehead.

"You do know the head of the police is a good friend of our Guildmaster, Broerd? You try to arrest our friend here for no reason; you will lose your job in the next hour," Oxi said, rubbing his hands like a villain.

"But... there's evi-"

Oxi interrupted Regan's stammering. "And you just saw what happened. Now be a good boy and leave. I believe five men have a jail cell waiting for them. If you want to keep your job, you better leave quickly. And do make sure to remember that this store is under Twilight Ogre's protection, okay?"

Regan stood there speechlessly, his mouth hanging loose. The other officer grabbed his hand and ushered him out, making the wise choice of leaving as soon as possible.

Once they left the store, Oxi smirked at William. "Yeah, that guy is losing his job no matter what. The police should've known not to mess with this store since the bossman had warned them, yet they still tried."

William chuckled in response, glad that he had the mafia, err, Twilight Ogre on his side. He hadn't even known that the Guildmaster had warned the police not to mess with him.

"I'm thinking of going drinking tonight. You boys wanna join me? Drinks on me," William grinned at them, deciding to spend some quality time with the bros from Twilight Ogre.

"Boss is gonna treat us? I'm in!" Oxi flashed him a thumbs up.

"Finally! I've been askin' you for the past week,'' Dird happily grinned.

After closing the store for the day, William stayed inside, waiting for the people from the Fortune company. He wasn't entirely sure they would arrive today, and he was giving them the benefit of the doubt. The thugs from the night might've just been a coincidence since his store had become pretty famous during the past week. Those guys could've thought that they could get some easy money by robbing him and did it out of their own free will. Then again, the officer was acting way too suspiciously for that to be the case.

However, should the people from the Fortune company arrive today, then chances were they were behind the thugs and the police officers. If so, they would have to make it really worth his while if they wanted another contract with him.

William waited and waited, and a couple hours after he closed the store, someone knocked on his door. He went over to check who it was and found Rox Xander - he knew he shouldn't have trusted a man with two first names - alongside Mr. Fortune - the older gentleman from his opening day - and a couple guards.

"Umm, hello? I wasn't expecting you to come today," William said in a flustered manner as he exited his store.

Mr. Fortune slightly tilted his head, looking confused at his words. Ron, on the other hand, smirked. "And why would you not be expecting us today? This is the date specified on the contract!"

"What? But we agreed for me to provide you with the potions after 2 weeks, not 13 days," William replied, sounding panicked.

"Then you should've read the contract more carefully," Ron pushed his glasses menacingly while Mr. Fortune nodded, seemingly understanding what was going on. He did not say a word, however, allowing his assistant to do the talking.

"I do hope you can complete your end of the deal," a glint flashed in Ron's eyes, "because there are consequences if you can't provide us with the promised potions."

"I... umm, I will bring everything I have in stock," William replied, acting nervous and panicked. As he entered his store, Mr. Fortune leaned next to Ron as they quietly discussed what was going on.

William shortly came out of the building with a single crate that held 50 Magic Potions inside and placed it on the ground in front of his building.

"Is that all?" They asked, staring him down.

"No, no, I have more!" William quickly said. "I will bring them right up."

He came back with another, and another, before placing a total of 10 crates in front of them.

"There you go, 500 Magic Potions as promised," William said, grinning as the two looked confused. "Now, where's my money?"

Ron quickly steeled his expression before paying him the rest of the contract, 1 687 000 Jewels. This wasn't part of his expectations, but they still received their goods, so the situation wasn't that bad. However, Ron couldn't help but feel there was something wrong about this.

"Pleasure doing business with you," William said with a blank face after receiving his money and then waved. "Goodbye."

"What about the permanent contract we discussed?" Ron quickly stopped him before he entered his store.

"Oh? You think I want to sign another contract with you?" William asked, letting his anger show. "After you tried tricking me by making a date one day earlier than what we discussed?"

"You should've read the contract," Ron replied with narrowed eyes. "Which apparently you have."

"What about the clauses that would've turned me into your legal slave?" William continued.

"That's standard practice," Ron tried justifying those clauses.

"Ah, yeah, I'm sure of that," William rolled his eyes. "Then what about the thugs that came during the night right before the day of the contract?"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Ron replied with a neutral look, but William didn't miss the surprise in Mr. Fortune's eyes.

"Of course," William said with a shake of his head before grinning. "Fine, you want another contract? I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. I will sign another one-time contract to provide you with 2000 Magic Potions in a month."

Both Ron and Mr. Fortune looked pleased as they let out sighs of relief.

"However, you will pay me 50% more, and you will give me the money upfront, right now," William was smiling widely, revealing his white teeth as he stared at them.

"What?!" Both Ron and Mr. Fortune exclaimed. "That's unacceptable!"

"Unacceptable, you say? Fine," William said, both of them relaxing at his words. "100% more, then. How does that sound?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Mr. Fortune looked livid as he heard him jack up the price even more.

"I'm the only one that could provide you with what you want? You try to fuck me over, and you still want to do business with me? Then pay or leave!" William stood his ground, arms crossed, watching them with a grin.

"I don't think you understand your position, young man," Mr. Fortune said, tapping his cane on the ground angrily. "Lestor, please teach him a lesson."

One of the guards stepped forward, a magic circle forming in front of him. A spike of earth formed in the air and flew at William, who slowed the spell with a light screen before activating his ring to block the rest.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you don't understand your position. You will regret that," William replied, not moving from his spot.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Ron asked, seemingly preparing to attack as well, surprised by William's usage of magic.

"Me? I'm gonna do nothing," William answered, his shark grin growing wider.

"Then who?" Mr. Fortune asked with a laugh.

"We are," the answer came from behind them. Mr. Fortune and his group turned around, seeing they were surrounded by the entire Twilight Ogre guild.

Broerd stood in front of his men, a cigar in his mouth and his coat fluttering in the wind. Banaboster was right next to him, copying his father as he also had a cigar. The rest of the guild was behind them, cracking their knuckles and popping their necks. Seeing the mafia, err, Twilight Ogre all gathered together was a pretty intimidating sight, William had to admit.

Mr. Fortune and his men froze like deers caught in the headlights. This was definitely not what they expected to happen.

'Super Archive is the best!' William thought as he watched them start trembling. One of the functions of that magic was to establish a telepathic link with others. It was similar to a telephone since he could just activate it at will and call the other person. And William had contacted Broerd the moment Ron and Mr. Fortune appeared at his doorstep.

"Now you are gonna sign the fucking contract," Broerd stepped closer, his magic power flaring. "Or me and the boys are gonna teach you not to mess with ours!"

"You can't do this!" Mr. Fortune yelled. "You can't attack us for no reason!"

"Oh, but we do have a reason," Broerd grinned. "We just saw you try to attack a citizen of Magnolia. Tsk, tsk, it's only right that we deal with troublemakers like you, no?"

Mr. Fortune opened his mouth to give out another excuse, but he quickly shut it as he saw the rest of the Twilight Ogre flare their magical power.

"Tick-tock, your time is running out," Broerd popped his knuckles, ready to give the signal.

"Ron, do it. Make the contract quick!" Mr. Fortune told his assistant, scared out of his life.

"And no funny business, make two copies, and I want to see you sign both!" Broerd grinned, giving them no way out of this.

Shortly, Ron made both contracts, which Mr. Fortune and William signed.

"Now, the money," William demanded, greed flashing in his eyes. Mr. Fortune looked angry and reluctant, but with the threat of Twilight Ogre hanging over his head, he handed the 30 000 000 Jewels to him.

"Pleasure doing business with you," William quickly stored them in his pocket space, grinning as he saw his store credits jump up by 1500. He then watched Mr. Fortune and his group in amusement as they scurried away like rats with their tails between their legs.

"Monday morning, you can pick up your free potions," William said to Broerd, who nodded. Those guys won him a ton of money and credits, so he didn't mind giving them a gift. They definitely deserved it.

(Bonus Scene)

Natsu plopped on the ground, breathing hard, around him a scene of devastation as his fire had destroyed anything in sight. He'd been training hard ever since William told him about Lisanna's situation, however...

"I don't know if I'm making any progress or not," he muttered thoughtfully.

"What are you trying to do, anyway?" Happy asked from beside him.

"Remember what that guy Malil told us? I'm trying to make an attack strong enough to break the wall of the bubble around us," he answered.

"If you are trying to break a wall, shouldn't you be practicing on a wall? How else would you know if your attack would break one?" Happy asked, looking at Natsu as if he was an idiot.

"Why didn't I think of that?! You're a genius!" Natsu jumped up in excitement.

"Aye, sir!" The cat happily agreed. He was definitely a genius.

"Come one, let's get back home. I can't make any progress if I don't train on walls!" Natsu picked up Happy and started sprinting back towards Magnolia. It was time to make some progress with his training.