( Meanwhile, Karna )


    At the same time as Rocky tried to assess just how bad Riva''s condition was, Karna paced around the hall of the True Elites''s Apothecary store, waiting for the guild''s best potion makers and alchemists to reach a verdict on the drug.


    "Pacing around the hall won''t make the time go by any faster. So just calm down and take a seat—" Amelia told Karna as she tried to calm her fiance down.


    On one hand, the entirety of Earth was celebrating Riva''s return and the True Elites''s victory of floor21, as there was no bigger matter of national pride for the than seeing the coalition of Earthly guilds lead by the True Elites, sessfully capturing a floor within the Tower Of Ascension.


    The tower only had a 101 floors in total, with floor between 20 and 80 being the only ones that could be farmed for resources, and hence being a Floor Master within the tower, no matter which floor was a matter of immense pride and joy, however, the atmosphere within the True Elites Guild was not joyous at all.


    Tension was visible on the faces of Karna, Neatwit and all the other major guild executives, who all seemed to be crowding the apothecary store, seemingly waiting on some verdict.


    The guilds leadership had all denied the offer to address a press-filled crowd, while Riva was also taken away by Rocky into istion.


    While themon guild members did not understand what the precise situation was, they did understand that the atmosphere inside the guild was tense and hence nobody seemed to be in a festive mood, despite the big win.


    "Stop it Karna…. Stop pacing around the room, my eyes feel tired just by looking at you–" Ameliained, as listening to her words, Karna decided to sit down beside her, seemingpletely dejected.


    "Thank you—" she said, rubbing her hands over Karna''s thighs as she tried to console his anxiety.


    "And you….. what happened to you? Why are you staring holes into the ceiling with your mouth wide open?


    Waiting for a fly to drop in?" Amelia said, reprimanding Neatwit, as the vice guildmaster''s zoned out face seemed to scare many onlooking guild members who had never seen him look so lost.


    "I had him, Amelia…. But I was too weak…" Neatwit said, his eyes still gazing at the ceiling, as he desperately tried to prevent the water forming over his pupils to overflow into a tear.


    "He had surrendered to me and was demanding that I let him go.


    But at that moment I could have ended his life if I wasn''t so weak.


    I instead encouraged him to pick up his weapons and continue fighting me like a man to the end, because I thought I would beat him fair and square, and I would have too but then those hooded men came and kidnapped him and there was nothing that I could do about it.


    I failed to kill him, Amelia .


    I had him!


    But I hesitated–" Neatwit said, as listening to his words Amelia could feel his pain.


    Amelia knew Neatwit and his personality very well and although he appeared very hard and strong on the surface, internally he was a very soft guy who had a main characterplex whichpelled him to take his failures extremely seriously.


    Whether it was actually his fault or not, if he felt like he had made a mistake, he took it to heart and did not let go of that emotion until he resolved it somehow.


    Regardless of whether or not it was actually his fault that Perseus was still alive, Amelia knew that Neatwit was going to keep ming himself for it, until he actually killed that guy with his own hands.


    "Ohe on! You could never have known that those hooded men were going toe in randomly and kidnap Perseus. You''re being too hard on yourself…. And even if you did kill him, it would change absolutely nothing.


    It isn''t like Cassius was going to give us the form to keep Riva sane in exchange for his son''s dead corpse.


    So chill out–" Amelia said, trying to ensure that Neatwit did not take this mistake to heart, but her words were for naught, as Neatwit continued to stare at the ceiling with tears not streaking down his cheeks.


    "Karna, that guy is your best friend…. Do you have absolutely nothing that you wanna say to him?" Amelia said, prompting Karna to try and console him, however, the guild master just shook his head and refused to utter a single word.


    "Amelia, just let him be…" Karna said, as he joined Neatwit in staring at the ceiling, much to Amelia''splete dismay.


    ***********


    For a good two hours, the trio sat outside the apothecary office in absolute silence, until the door to the mainb opened and the chief alchemist walked out alongside the chief potion maker.


    "Jake, Feynor, what''s the conclusion?" Karna said hopefully, as the two men shook their heads in dismay.


    "The blue serum is made of 26 ingredients minimum, but it could be more and we are not sure.


    Of the 26 ingredients, we could only identify 6, of which water and glucose are two, so let alone finding out what the serum is made of, we can''t even recognise 20 of the molecules made in its construction…." Jake said, as Karna felt his stomach sink when he heard these words.


    "Also replicating this serum seems impossible to do for someone at the mortal level as we have found traces of divine essence within it.


    So only gods can make this form even if we somehow obtain it.


    So with our current capabilities even if we had the form and the list of ingredients and how to brew this serum, we would still be unable to do it, because we are simply not skilled enough" Feynor added, as Karna drew all the conclusions that he needed to from this one interaction.


    They were fucked… and they were fucked big time.