It could be said that Eren had underestimated Levine.
She administered a radical potion to both of them after their sixth consecutive session. This potion was enough to mess with his senses.
The Master-ranked potioner told him it was derived from some ranked ingredients that were hard to get in the local herbs market. The potion's effects were very potent even for someone like Eren.
He started seeing the world in weird colors and the objects around him seemed to have lost their shapes. He started hearing smells, tasting sounds, and seeing things that were not really there.
Eren's soul sense was also not spared by the potion. His mental connections with Reen, Alephee, Argo, and those who he had branded were all affected by the potion's effects as well.
Argo called it a Shroomcid trip, which according to him, was something you get after consuming questionable acid and funky mushrooms together. Of course, Eren didn't pay any attention to anything Argo was saying to him at the time. He was too busy focusing on breathing consistently to care about anything else.
Eren cut off his mental connections with everyone to focus on the task at hand. Being the creator herself, Levine knew how to handle the potion's effects. But the butcher struggled for a few minutes to make peace with his altered perception.
It took a while for Grimdawn to get hold of himself while he was high on the so-called Shroomcid trip. He had to say that this was not his brand of mental high. He liked getting happy drunk or feeling at peace with Stellar Sativa's effects.
Eren would never try something like consuming these forms of potions on his own. However, his potion lab was a safe place. And Levine was there to accompany him. So he decided to embrace the new experience with her anyway.
Eren thought of using Levine's concoction as a debuff potion after making a few changes to its recipe. He was sure that he would be able to kill his enemies faster without making his hands dirty. Those affected by a debuff like this would most likely end up killing each other in panic, after all.
The couple ended up spending almost two days together, locked inside the same room. They had practically created their own world inside the potion lab. And with Levine's potion, they both felt as if they had spent months together.
When Eren got outside of the potion lab, he found that there were less than 12 hours for his Grad Ball. Levine told him that she would take a rest and join him at the venue itself. Unfortunately, Grimdawn couldn't follow Levine's steps. He had to wrap a few things up now that it was almost time for him to leave the capital city.
***
Alephee's chamber. Eren's villa. Morning 10 AM.
"You can still walk? Color me impressed."
Alephee chuckled as an exhausted-looking Eren appeared in front of her. He had gotten fresh and drunk a lot of supplementary potions to get rid of the potion's side effects. And he took care of most of them. But exhaustion at this level couldn't be fixed with potions and food alone. He needed a good amount of time and rest to recover from his potion-induced trip.
"Yeah. Barely. I would never underestimate witches from now on."
***
Eren had branded Levine in the end just to get access to her restricted memories. He found out more information about Demonmir from her that way. Levine was also okay with sharing information with him this way.
There were limiters placed on Levine when it came to providing Eren with information related to Demonmir. This was because it was marked as classified by Edinburgh's authorities. And she was bound by contract to adhere to the kingdom's policies regarding Demonmir. However, Eren's Ability became a loophole for him to extract the information from her without getting rid of the kingdom's restrictions.
Through Levine's memories, Eren found out that House Montmorency was in fact a clan of witches and warlocks. Her clan belonged to the world of Labh Salem originally. House Montmorency was one of the early settlers on the land of Anfang before the grand tragedy struck this world.
This was the reason why House Montmorency was considered one of the early pioneers of the potion industry in Edinburgh as well as other parts of Anfang. Its potion-manufacturing-related expertise was the result of its classified knowledge from Labh Salem.
House Montmorency had performed demonic rituals and secretly it was in cahoots with the kingdom's dark forces. Ottoman's possession and his turning into Demonmir was the result of that said demonic ritual as well.
From Levine's memories, Eren also found out other minute details about Demonmir which he might be able to use against him the next time meets him. He just had to make sure he gets his hands on Demonmir before he makes any outrageous ranking progress.
***
"How's Sara doing?"
Eren asked as he took a bit of a ranked fruit that looked like an apple except for the fact that it was azure in color. Alephee pointed behind her and responded.
"See for yourself. I'm sure you'd be surprised."
Alephee Chember was connected to the villa's garden. She prompted him to follow her as they made their way towards Sara who was sitting in a meditative pose in the garden under a tree.
Eren didn't use his mana sense or soul sense to not disturb Sara in any way while she was practicing her ranking technique. He slowly walked up to her with Alephee in tow.
The butcher was surprised to find out that Sara's ranking status had shot up tremendously from the last time he had seen her. He wondered what kind of life Reva Rain was living these days to have such a drastic effect on Sara.
"Unbelievable! Solid stage state of the Adept rank!"
Eren mumbled to himself as he looked at Sara's charming and peaceful face. There was a part of him that wanted to disturb her and break her ranking practice under the pretense that this much quick progress was not good for her. But he controlled his inner demon from taking over, if only barely. He turned towards Alephee before asking her in a grim voice.
"When will her ridiculous power-up come to an end?"
