The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac didn't even enter his house. The first thing he did was visit a skip to find some damaged wooden planks, then take a trip to the market and use his remaining money to buy food and a substance known as fastener. Fastener was made using the stem of the Kolla Plant, a very common Rank 1 Qi herb with few uses. The stem could be burnt and mixed with some other basic ingredients to form fastener, a yellow powder which would become incredibly sticky when mixed with water.

It was commonly used as an adhesive and Isaac acquired a medium sized bag of it for 3 iron pieces. He returned to his house – or what was left of it – and got to work boarding up the entrance. He pulled the battered door back into place and spread fastener between the door and the frame. He'd already wet the fastener, so it quickly became sticky and held the door in place. In fact, the door was completely sealed around the edges. It couldn't be opened and you would struggle to break it down again.

However, Isaac wasn't done. He picked up a plank and placed it across the middle of the door. Then he used fastener to secure the plank to both sides of the door frame. He proceeded to do this with 4 more planks, until the door was as secure as a fortress gate and his bag of fastener was nearly empty. Isaac then used the rest of the fastener and some planks to seal all but one window shut. From now on, that window would function as his door.

When he'd finished securing his living space, Isaac began to clear up. All the while, he was thinking about who might've done this.

'The man I robbed earlier saw my face and the Anima I used, so he might've discovered who I was and did this as revenge. But... he couldn't have recovered from those injuries and came here so quickly. Also, it looks like a premeditated robbery rather than a spontaneous act of revenge. If not him, then who? Maybe one of the other people I robbed? No, I didn't show my face or Anima to any of them. And like what I thought before, this doesn't appear to be revenge.

'Then what's the motive? I'm a poor, newly-inducted disciple. What could I have that would make me a target? What could I have that somebody would want to steal?'

When he thought this, an answer suddenly came to Isaac. Just a couple of hours ago, he'd refused to sell his goods to the alchemy disciple. It was possible that she decided to steal then since she couldn't buy them cheap. Actually, Isaac took a moment to think about it more deeply.

'Why did she offer me such high prices initially when she could've just done this? I thought it was strange when it happened, but I didn't think too much about it... could she have been enticing Johan and me to steal large amounts of claws? Then, giving a bonus for a collection of bear, wolf and fox claws must have been to make us stockpile them! Normally I'd sell everything as soon as I got it, but I kept a lot of wolf and fox claws because I couldn't complete the collection! Then the disciple waited for me to amass a big stockpile and robbed me.'

The only thing Isaac couldn't figure out was why she kept lowering the prices. He didn't know that the alchemist's helper had recently died on a sect mission. She needed somebody to do jobs and acquire resources for her at a cheap price, so she kept decreasing what she was paying Isaac. If he kept completing her requests despite the low rewards, she wouldn't have robbed him. Instead, she would've continued to use his cheap services until she found a new assistant. If he did well, she might've even offered Isaac that position.

Obviously Isaac hadn't accepted her lowball offers, so that possibility had gone out the window. Now he was left with a messy house and a head full of new ideas. Of course he was angry and frustrated. Who wouldn't be after getting robbed? But he controlled that anger rather than letting it control him.

Instead of focusing on his losses, Isaac thought about how effective the alchemist's scheme was and how he could replicate it on a larger scale.

He could always earn resources the fair way, but this incident reinforced the idea that profiting from others' hard work was always quicker. He already had a few ideas about what he could do, and he continued to think about it while tidying the mess that was his house.

When he was nearly done, there was a series of loud knocks on his door. Obviously Isaac couldn't open the door, so he shouted out,

"Who is it?"

"It's Johan, fucking let me in!"

The voice from outside sounded extremely pissed off. His mood didn't get any better when Isaac told him,

"Here, come in through the window."

Johan came around the side window Isaac was holding open and glared at him. Then he made an undignified entrance through the small window. Thankfully, Johan was shorter and smaller than Isaac, so it wasn't much of a squeeze.

Johan quickly got to his feet and looked around, seeing the boarded-up door and bits of mess Isaac hadn't cleared yet. Isaac gestured for him to come and sit by the low, shin-height table in the middle of the room. As Isaac sat on the floor on the opposite side of the table, Johan began speaking,

"You got robbed too, huh. She's more of a witch than an alchemist."

Witch was considered a powerful insult on a continent where witch hunts had occurred less than 50 years ago and were still considered kill on sight, so Johan spat the word coldly.

Johan was nearly as smart as Isaac, so it wasn't a surprise that he figured out the culprit. However, he was an emotional person. While Isaac was now calmly thinking about his next move, Johan was still seething with anger. Isaac felt it was hypocritical since Johan had probably been stealing from others too, but what was hypocrisy to a person like Isaac? Johan's character didn't bother him, so didn't make any remark about it and continued to listen,

"The sect gives alchemists like her such a large quota of resources... and yet she's still greedy for more. And I bet it's not just us that she's robbed; she's probably targeted half the newcomers in the sect by now. I'm willing to bet she's amassed a fortune by now – think about how many resources she has!"

"Probably not many. I imagine she uses all her resources for pill concoction."

"And how much would those pills be worth?! Alchemists are so rich because their pills have a myriad of uses and applications. Who wouldn't pay their arm and leg for a 3rd ranked pill? And we know a whole shop filled to the brim with them! There's probably a mountain of Basic Qi Pills in there too!"

"Yes, a whole shop full of pills, all property of the wealthy and powerful shop owner. It's no use coveting treasure which lies beyond our means."

"But it's not just those pills; the disciple surely has her own stash! And the shop owner won't protect her. No, our sect believes in letting disciples learn to succeed by themselves, even in difficult situations! She's robbed us, but we can return the favour a thousand-fold! Her resources are practically waiting for us to take them!"

Johan was growing more and more passionate. He had stood up and was gesturing expressively like a politician giving their election speech. Spittle even flew from his mouth as he spoke the last sentence. However, Isaac wasn't buying it.

"Johan, do you want my help getting revenge?"

Isaac's tone was flat and emotionless, cutting through Johan's enthusiasm. There was a moment of silence between the two, and Johan neither confirmed nor denied Isaac's question.

"If you just want revenge, I suggest you wait and think it over for 2 days. If you still think it's a good idea after that, you are welcome to try and get your revenge, but I won't be joining you. We both know it's impossible to amass any wealth during the initial stages of alchemy. Any resources you do acquire will be spent creating pills at a low success rate and trying to improve. Therefore, we also know that trying to get revenge on this alchemy disciple – who is both older and stronger than us and has the shop keeper as backing – is high risk and low reward. As I said before, I recommend you think this over and don't let anger cloud your judgement."

If Johan's anger was like a fire, then Isaac's words were a bucket of water meant to douse it. However, Isaac failed to recognise the nature of that fire: it was wild, uncontrollable and electric. And just like all electric fires, pouring water on it would only make it worse.

Johan was fuming. He didn't say a word, but Isaac could see the spark of hatred in his eyes as he turned to leave... and that hatred only grew fiercer when he realised the door was boarded up and he had to squeeze through the window again, so he made his undignified exit while silently cursing Isaac and the alchemist.