Liberty wiped some sweat off her brow as she reached the floor to her apartment. Elevators don't exist here and while lifts have been designed, those had quickly been scrapped the moment people realized that their ropes burn out too quickly for them to be worth the expenses.

  And so, most buildings stay only as high as the 8th floor until merchants figure out how to make heat resistant rope using existing materials or through transmutation. Either way works for them as they would just optimize the costs in the long run anyway.

  For now, people like her have to walk several flights of stairs to reach their apartment, which is fine by her!

  'There's almost no one here too so it's basically perfect for me to hide in.' She was actually scared of being discovered by her pursuers but in a place like this? The chances of that happening is pretty low. 'My penicillin is safe right as long as I stay here as well, because no one in their right mind would climb this many stairs just for something they barely have any idea about.'

  But speaking of penicillin, it was about time she harvested the stuff. She made it two days ago and has been feeding and stirring it constantly, letting it cultivate until the contents of the pot is nothing but mold. The water has literally changed color because of it.

  Liberty unlocked the door to her apartment, went in, and then placed as many locks and blockades against it. Only when the chair was pressed against the handle did she let out a sigh of relief and felt safe.

  She went to work immediately, carrying the pot on the kitchen counter and opening it, Liberty leaned in to take a sniff of the pot. Earthy with a hint of rain, perfect. This was what she was looking for.

  Folding a handkerchief four times over, Liberty tightly presses it on the butt of the sieve. She then locks it in place by tying loose strands of it on the sieve's handle, afterwards, she grabs sand she burnt on top of a skillet yesterday and placed it inside the funnel.

  Most of the mold— which really are just tiny debris floating inside of the liquid. — will be filtered through the sand and whatever unnecessary particulates will be blocked by the folded fabric.

  Penicillin itself is fairly small so most of it should end up in the jar.

  Once the funnel was set up, Liberty went through the filtering process— which was done twice because she decided to squeeze the bits of mold. — and once the jar was filled, poured it all in a tray and left it outside her window to be exposed to the sun.

  Depending on the time of day, the season, and what month it is, Liberty usually changes how long it is exposed to the sun. Being in a city changes a lot of things, especially since a giant cloud is forming directly above it currently but daylight still strikes at the tray, allowing for evaporation to happen.

  And it will happen, eventually.

  Liberty sets up an hourglass and waits.

  As the tray dried, she went ahead and worked on finishing her crossbow, which she had started inside the rented storage unit a few days ago. She had made most of the body and all the mechanisms needed to pull and lock the arrow in place are already there so all she needs now is to assemble it.

  When she was done, the tray had already finished drying and powdered penicillin was sitting comfortably on top of it. Liberty takes out a jar of salt as well as a clay jar full of extracted river stalk and dumps them both into the powder, she mixes it until it turns into a dark-green cream that she then puts back under the sun.

  Liberty flipped her hourglass and sharpened her arrows while waiting to dry again. Once it does, she shakes off the blue powder from the tray and fills an empty jar halfway through.

  'I have everything I need.' Liberty put the jar inside her bag and zipped it tight. 'Now all that's left is to actually pick a retrieval request from the guild and everything should be fine.'

  Liberty cleaned herself again before leaving her apartment carrying her gear, she then quickly realized that carrying a crossbow, quiver, and a medical bag under a white cloak made her previous shower useless because she's going to start sweating regardless.

  She had a scowl on her face when she passed through the front doors of the hunter's guild, it was bad enough that her receptionist friend looked pretty concerned when Liberty came around.

  "Did something happen? You seem pretty mad." The woman looked at something behind Liberty, no, she was searching for something? "Did another one of our hunters insult you again? We actually punished that guy you know?"

  Really? That's some special treatment. This didn't mean Liberty wasn't suspicious of her still.

  "Thank you." She replied to avoid sounding like a prick. "You didn't have to do that, I can take care of myself just fine after all."

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  "No, I had to." The receptionist insisted, her smile still forced. This is gonna be an annoying back and forth isn't it? "As I said, the guild treats their sponsored Leeches with the respect they deserve."

  "... Right." She says, somewhat speechless. It's better to accept it than get the girl to go on another back and forth with her, "I actually came here with that in mind, do you have any patients for me as well as a retrieval? I'd love to finally go on the field."

  "Sadly, we don't have any patients for you to take care of—" that was unlikely, even if it's minor injuries, there should be people here who need medical care. "— but are you gonna be okay?" The receptionist asks, concerned. "You don't seem like the type to actually know what to do during the heat of combat."

  "No, I am." At times like these, Liberty was thankful that her main alibi is that she belongs to a group of people who lived in the mountains. "Like most Lampiy, I'm trained how to use the environment for survival, track animals and people, as well as find places to hide whenever I encounter something dangerous."

  Which isn't even inaccurate, she's learned all of that during her time with her master but traveling refined all of those skills. It wasn't a rare occurrence for her to leave a city without joining a merchant caravan in the past, and crossing the wilderness alone had taught her how to best use her resources and properly fight.

  'Well... "Fight" should probably be taken lightly, as I mainly ambushed monsters and they did the same.' A lot of surprise attacks happen out there, it's the most preferred way of attacking by almost everyone. 'Watching out for places where monsters can hide became a more important skill than actual combat.'

  Not that she didn't know how to actually fight, because she does. It's just not her preferred way of doing things.

  "Very well then, I'll believe you under the condition that you first let me check your health, fitness, wilderness skills, as well as accuracy on that crossbow of yours."

  Liberty didn't hesitate, she accepted the challenge without hesitation, nodding with a proud smile that made the receptionist's smug grin falter. "Do it."

  "Come."

  And so she was brought to the back of the guild, their first stop was a room with a bunch of random stuff in it. Amongst the myriad of items are crates of clothes, random supplies, jerky, vegetables, salt, and what Liberty is sure are definitely monster parts.

  "Take off your clothes."

  Liberty's cloak fell to the ground and then it was followed by her vest, top, as well as pants. She was about to take off her underwear as well when the woman stopped her.

  "That's more than enough, I simply wanted to check your fitness, not get you naked." The receptionist walked around her, eyes scanning every inch of muscle she has. "Your muscles are pretty defined for a Leech, are all Lampiys like this?"

  "I did travel for miles to reach this city." Liberty explained her situation rather than give an answer about Lampiys, because she's not sure what's the truth. "If that counts? Growing muscles was a necessity during that time, as I often walked alongside carriages and wagons."

  "Understood." The receptionist lightly tapped on Liberty's stomach. "Your core is strong enough to easily swing a sword." Then she squeezed Liberty's biceps, "and not to mention, you also have enough muscles here to reliably hold a melee weapon."

  And last but not least, she frowned when her eyes came to Liberty's chest. "You're probably gonna have to tie these with fabric as they're gonna hinder you during combat however, and that's the only change I'll make honestly."

  "Sure, I'll tie them up." Liberty agreed, her chest is a bit of a disadvantage whenever she fights. "Can you give me something?"

  "Here." The receptionist continued checking as Liberty tightened her chest. "Your legs are also good enough to run when encountering danger, so I'd say that your fitness is above standard, better than most of the hunters who first register with us even!"

  "Thank you." Liberty decided to take that as a compliment.

  "You're still going to need to do a few tests for me, so don't get your hopes up." The receptionist says like she had a choice in the matter, if Liberty really felt like it, asking the other receptionists for retrieval requests is something she can always do.

  "I'm Siohel by the way." Liberty hears this once she finished putting her clothes back on. "Nice to meet you."

  "Liberty Hazelwood, but you already knew that." She says without a hint of hesitation, why was this woman introducing herself now? "Nice to meet you as well."

  Then again, having such a close relationship with someone in the upper parts of the Hunter's Guild will only benefit her in the long run, even if Siohel has ulterior motives for this relationship.

  "You know, you haven't asked me what has happened with the director of the Practitioners Guild."

  Liberty froze, she had forgotten about it because no news related to her murder even crossed her line of sight, 'And I thought that since this city is full of corruption anyway, then they just swept it under the rug.'

  "If you're worried about getting imprisoned, don't. Some other Leech got framed, they were popular among the upper elite so they had a target painted on their back." Siohel was all smiles as she explained the situation. "They got framed for the murder of both the noble and the director, and then after that, the Practitioners Guild came to a brief halt in their operations."

  "I'm glad that I signed in here then." But then again, this is also a set of shackles around her ankle. If Siohel wanted, she could blackmail Liberty about what she did. "Can we continue with the rest of the tests now?"

  "Yes, of course!" Siohel was all smiles as she led Liberty out of the room— which was most likely used for storage. — and into the courtyard at the back of the guild. "First, you will show me your wilderness skills, and I am good at gauging someone's skill level."

  Liberty nods, she wasn't feeling pressured by something like this. She knew how to make traps, figure out animal tracks, climb trees with her bare hands, as well as doing makeshift first aid like making a stilt.

  "Let's start here." Siohel took Liberty to the side and there sat several footprints, all of them from various animals. "I want you to tell me what you think made these prints, guess five correctly and I'll let you pass."

  "Mhm." Liberty walked up to a foot print with a wide ankle and three big toes sandwiched by two smaller ones. "Oggy. That one belongs to a Hargrand."

  Her fingers were pointing at a particularly large footprint with a paw the size of her head and five toes that are bigger than her palm. The claw marks are their most obvious feature however, as they are two times longer than Liberty's finger.

  "Good, keep going."